"The Witches' Cove," Follower of Jan MandijnWelcome to this week's Link Dump!Enjoy some music from the Strange Company HQ orchestra while you read.Political connections and getting away with murder.The Tradeston Flour Mills explosion.Primitive submarine? Or cauldron for fish stew? You make the call!The dreaded Aztec Death Whistle. (Note: If you do play this video--and I'm not sure I recommend
Soapy Smith in Leadville, ColoradoJuly 21, 1880Soapy and partner, rear, between carriagesCourtesy Kyle Rosene collection(Click image to enlarge)
Soapy Smith's stereo-view photographLeadville, Colorado, July 21, 1880Where was it taken?WHERE IN LEADVILLE WAS THIS TAKEN?(Click image to enlarge) Those who have read Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel may recall seeing the
Shelley M. Dziedzic Many years ago Warps & Wefts published the story of Eliza Darling Borden who threw her young children down the cellar cistern at #96 Second Street. The two youngest, Holder and Eliza Ann drowned. Maria, the oldest child managed to survive a terrible fate while her mother used a straight razor to end her own life. Eliza was married to the brother of Abraham Borden, Andrew’s father, whose name was Lawdwick Borden. For years his name has seen any number of spellings but Lawdwick seems to be the correct one as it appears in numerous records, including the city directories. Lawdwick would have been Lizzie Borden’s great-uncle. Lawdwick worked for a good part of life in a planing mill, not surprising as his brother Cook Borden owned a lumber business. He was born March 14, 1812 to Richard and Martha “Patty” Borden. Lawdwick married Maria “Mary Jane” Briggs on September 8, 1833 in Dartmouth. The marriage ended tragically with Maria’s death on January 5, 1838 . After only five years of marriage and the deaths of their two infants, Maria (born and died in 1834) and Matthew (born and died in 1836) . Mrs. Maria Borden is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery. Lawdwick found himself a young widower. But not for long. His second wife, Eliza Darling (1811-1848) is the woman from whom all the interest stems. We know about her because of Lizzie Borden’s trial. The topic of her horrific suicide by straight razor after casting her children in the cistern on May 10, 1848 arose as the defense was looking at Lizzie’s possible mental competency, citing the sad tale of Eliza Borden, who may have suffered what today is termed postpartum depression. It was soon pointed out that Eliza, Lizzie’s great-aunt, was only a Borden by marriage – not a blood relation. Fall River Daily Evening News May 17, 1848 Son Holder S. Borden 1847-1848 Daughter Eliza Ann 1846-1848 Maria Borden (1844-1909) was spared and went on to marry twice and have children of her own in the city of Fall River, as was reported during the time of Lizzie’s trial. Maria first married Samuel Bond Hinckley (1832-1918). Sam was from Machias, Maine and the couple were wed on October 2, 1866. It appears the couple did not have children and that there was a divorce involved as Captain Samuel Bond Hinckley is buried in Riverside, California with his second wife, Julia and had attained the rank of Captain. Maria Borden Hinkley’s second husband was John B. Chace. They were married on November 27, 1873 in Somerset, MA. It was the first marriage for John B. Chase. The couple had two children, Lawdwick Chase who died on March 2, 1875 from severe lung congestion and Emma Lou Chase. The 1880 census shows Maria and John with daughter Emma Lou living in the Lawdwick Borden house at #96 Second Street. By that time, Andrew, Abby, Lizzie and Emma had been living next door at #92 for eight years. Maria Borden Hinckley Chase died at her home at 517 Middle Street on June 17, 1909. Here is her obituary from the Fall River Herald, June 18, 1909. Maria’s daughter Emma Lou would marry Harry F. Goulding at her father’s home in April of 1912. Her mother did not live to see her daughter and only surviving child’s wedding. Their son, Borden Chase Goulding born on September 27, 1914 became a design engineer for Rolling Mills and lived in Worcester MA. So what became of Lizzie’s great-uncle Lawdwick? Why he married twice more after the tragedy with wife #2. His third wife was another Eliza – Eliza Tripp! After her death, Lawdwick married yet again. Wife #4 was Ruhama Crocker who outlasted Lawdwick who died on October 6, 1874. Ruhama died in June of 1879. Fall River Daily Evening News, June 18, 1879. Lawdwick Borden left his nephew Jerome C. Borden as trustee of his estate- inherited by his daughter Maria Borden Hinckley Chase. So who is buried where? Lawdwick with wife Eliza wife 2 and Eliza wife 3 and the two children who drowned (Eliza Ann and Holder) as well as his two children by Maria Briggs, (Matthew and Maria) are in the Borden plot in Oak Grove Cemetery. First wife Maria Briggs “Mary Jane” Borden is buried in the Oak Grove plot , wife #4, is buried in South Attleboro, Maria Borden Chase and her husband John B. Chase are in Oak Grove Cemetery and Maria’s first husband Sam Hinckley is in Riverside, California. It’s an interesting family story, especially now that the Lawdwick Borden house is in the news over the controversy concerning the coffee shop. Alice Russell would live in that house as well as Dr. and Mrs. Michael Kelly- all connected to Lizzie Borden!
An article I recently wrote for the British online magazine, New Politic, is now available online. The article, “The Criminal Origins of the United States of America,†is about British convict transportation to America, which took place between the years 1718 and 1775, and is the subject of my book, Bound with an Iron Chain: […]
William Farrell, Patrick Muldoon, and “Tonce” Joy played cards in Muldoon’s Cincinnati saloon on November 30, 1896. They were secretly colluding to cheat a fourth man. After skinning their victim, Joy’s job was to steer him away, but when he returned for his share, his partners wouldn’t pay. A fight ensued, a pistol fired, and “Tonce” Joy stagged out of Muldoon’s saloon to die. Farrell and
How boring would the New York City subway system be if every station was built at the same time, resulting in a uniform look for the signs outside every subway entrance? Luckily, that didn’t happen. As stations opened across the boroughs in the decades after the 1904 debut of the first stretch of the IRT, […]
Youth With Executioner by Nuremberg native Albrecht Dürer … although it’s dated to 1493, which was during a period of several years when Dürer worked abroad. November 13 [1617]. Burnt alive here a miller of Manberna, who however was lately engaged as a carrier of wine, because he and his brother, with the help of […]
"Betwixt the saddle and the ground, Mercy I sought and mercy found,"
...was the favourite song of poor Andrew Lipscomb, Halifax Co., Va.; But returning half shaved, from a regimental muster, he gave his horse the lash, and staving through the woods like a huntsman run mad, was dashed with such violence against a tree, that his brains gushed out. - The Drunkard's Looking Glass, 1818[more]
Parson Weems
The temperance movement was a strong and growing force throughout the 19th century and though it never quite caught up to saloon movement, it left behind volumes of literature promoting the virtues of sobriety. Among the most prolific of the temperance writers was the Reverend Mason Locke Weems.
Parson Weems was a self-published author and itinerant book vendor who specialized in morality tales and romanticized American history. He is best remembered for writing The Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington which included the story, invented whole-cloth by Weems, of Washington and the cherry tree. His most famous temperance work was The Drunkard’s Looking Glass (with the long but accurate subtitle: reflecting a faithful likeness of the drunkard, in sundry very interesting attitude : with lively representations of the many strange capers which he cuts at different stages of his disease As First, When he has only "A Drop in His Eye;" Second, When He is "Half Shaved;" Third, When He is Getting "A Little on the Staggers or So," And Fourth And Fifth, And So On, Till He is "Quite Capsized;" Or "Snug Under the Table With the Dogs," And Can "Stick to the Floor Without Holding On.")
The Looking Glass begins with the following “Golden Receipts against drunkenness:”
1. Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s.sake. Also, cyder, ale, beer, etc. 2. Never fight duels. Nine times in ten the memory of the murdered drives the murderer to the bottle. 3. Never marry but for love. Hatred is repellent; and the husband saunters to the tavern. 4. Provide against Old Bachlorism. Age wants comfort, and a good wife is the second best in the universe. 5. Never stand surety for a sum that would embarrass you. And if you want, suffer a little rather than borrow, and starve rather than not pay; for debts and duns have filled the world with sots. 6. Hot coffee in the morning is a good cure of dram craving. And a civic crown to him who will set the fashion of coffee at dinner.
It then describes the three stages of drunkenness:
The Frisky or Foolish stage
The Frantic or Demonic stage
The Stupid or Torpid stage
The story of young John Dermot illustrates the Frisky or Foolish stage:
The Frisky or Foolish Stage
The kingdom of Ireland, famed for handsome and sprightly youth, has seldom sent forth a young gentleman of a finer mind, in a fairer form than Mr. Dermot. Nor was ever a young stranger more idolized than he was, by the youth of Petersburg, who followed him in crowds, to hear the magic of his wit, and the music of his tongue. But ah! what avail all the advantages of genius and education, if unguarded by the virtues of sobriety! For lack of these, what countless thousands, who, in the splendour of their morning talents, had promised long days of glorious singing to the world, have been suddenly snatched from their orbits by the ruthless hand of Drunkenness, and quenched in total darkness for ever!
This was awfully illustrated in the early fate of Mr. Dermot.
The prologue of his tragedy was laid at a public dinner, in Petersburg. Mr. Dermot sat at the head of the table; the fond partialities of the company had placed him, though a foreigner, in that seat of honour. Besides this particular call on Mr. Dermot for good humour, others of a more general nature were not wanting. The table was loaded with a profusion of animal and vegetable dainties, enlivened with wines and fruits. It was also surrounded with gentlemen of different countries, French, English, Irish, Scotch, and Americans, all ranged around in smiles of social glee. No proud stars were seen glittering on the breasts of some to over-awe the rest, nor in opening his mouth, did any of the company feel alarmed lest he should mistitle a lord, and so provoke his ire. But all "free and easy" they sat, as a band of equal brothers feasting together, at the table of a common parent's bounty. Surely, then, if ever, was the season for these favoured gentlemen to kindle high the social affections and spurning all national prejudices, to strive who most should honour his dear native country by exhibiting the fairest models of true politeness. And such, 1 am told, was their style of behaviour, all FRIENDSHIP AND HARMONY, at the commencement of the feast; and such, no doubt, would have been its continuance and conclusion-but ah! Drunkenness, the cruel spoiler, came.
The first course ended and a bumper round being called for, the decanters were all unstopped, and forth with melodious goggle, stepped the ruby coloured Madeira. Bumper followed bumper so fast that the fair stopping places of decorum were soon past by; meek-eyed Reason was dethroned, and all the rabble passions set up to tyranize. In this frolic and fury of the table, nothing would serve but they must introduce politics, a subject certainly as unfit for such a company as a lighted match for a powder magazine. And the explosion was pretty nearly as sudden and terrible. For no sooner was mention made of the French aggressions on the American commerce, than Mr. D. in principle a United Irishman, and therefore in heart a flaming American, seized the subject, and with the impetuous eloquence of a Curran denounced the French-denounced them as the greatest miscreants on earth; from Bonaparte to the shoe-black, Villains, all Villains! and concluded his speech with an oath by his God, that he did not believe there was an honest individual in the nation.
Unfortunately for Mr. Dermot, close on his left sat a French gentlemen, whose sallow cheeks were instantly turned to crimson, but curbing his passion, he turned to Mr. Dermot and with great politeness said, "Sir, I hope you do not include me among the rest of my dishonest countrymen."
"Who are you, sir," replied the wine-heated youth; "who are you? I don't know you, sir. I did not know there existed on earth such a creature as you."
"Very well sir," replied the Frenchman very coolly, "you shall know me perhaps before Iong;" then shoving back his chair, he got up from the table and went home. A challenge was sent the next day and accepted; and on the day following they met on the fatal field, At the first trial of the pistols, Mr. Dermot fired clear, but missed. The Frenchman snapped. On the second trial, both fired clear; when the former received a bullet in his heart, and died without a groan.
Thus perished the elegant John Dermot Esq. the early victim of wine, though taken but in a few glasses beyond the temperate point. But though dead he still lives; and his once eloquent tongue, though now but dust, yet utters an awful voice,
"Oh tender youth! turn here an eye! What vou are now, that once was I; What I am now, that you may be; Then shun the sin that murdered me."
Sources:
Weems, M. L.. The drunkard's looking glass reflecting a faithful likeness of the drunkard, in sundry very interesting attitudes : with lively representations of the many strange capers which he cuts at different stages of his disease .... 6th ed. Philadelphia?: Printed for the author, 1818.
"We follow vice and folly where a police officer dare not show his head, as the small, but intrepid weasel pursues vermin in paths which the licensed cat or dog cannot enter."
The Sunday Flash 1841