No. 629
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
May 03, 2022

Demi-Monde Excursion.

Members of the New Orleans Demi-Monde Enjoying an Excursion to the Suburbs of the Southern Metropoli
May 3, 2022
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There are certain people who, for one reason or another, have a way of attracting people who are eager to murder them.  What makes the following case stand out is that exactly the opposite appears to have happened: A man was desperate to find someone willing to kill him, and he had a damned hard time achieving that goal.Samuel Resnick was a jeweler in Albany, New York, for nearly thirty
More...
Strange Company - 3/16/2026
Bond Street today is a pricey place to live. And so it was in the 1830s, when it became one of New York’s most exclusive enclaves. Wealthy residents fleeing the crowded and increasingly commercial neighborhoods below Houston Street sought refuge on this short little street, which only runs two blocks from Broadway to the Bowery. […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 3/16/2026
The good-looking thirty-seven year old gentleman handling the reins behind the glossy matched pair pulling the spanking-new carriage drew the attention of more than one feminine eye.  Pacing down French St. at a sharp clip, the lady next to him, dressed neatly in a tailor-made suit with the latest in millinery fashion, smiled up at her coachman. Behind the lace curtains on the Hill section of Fall River, tongues were wagging about the unseemly pair. Lizzie Borden, acquitted of double homici
More...
Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 10/16/2025
There are certain people who, for one reason or another, have a way of attracting people who are eager to murder them.  What makes the following case stand out is that exactly the opposite appears to have happened: A man was desperate to find someone willing to kill him, and he had a damned hard time achieving that goal.Samuel Resnick was a jeweler in Albany, New York, for nearly thirty
More...
Strange Company - 3/16/2026
The good-looking thirty-seven year old gentleman handling the reins behind the glossy matched pair pulling the spanking-new carriage drew the attention of more than one feminine eye.  Pacing down French St. at a sharp clip, the lady next to him, dressed neatly in a tailor-made suit with the latest in millinery fashion, smiled up at her coachman. Behind the lace curtains on the Hill section of Fall River, tongues were wagging about the unseemly pair. Lizzie Borden, acquitted of double homici
More...
Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 10/16/2025
"As his son I am proud of hisefforts to succeed in life"Jefferson Randolph Smith IIIArtifact #93-2Jeff Smith collection(Click image to enlarge) oapy's son hires a legal firm to stop the defamation of his father's name. At age 30, Jefferson Randolph Smith III, Soapy and Mary's oldest son, was protecting his father's legacy and his mother's reputation from "libel" and scandal. He was also
More...
Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
About half past three, the morning of July 2, 1863, a young man on his way to work in Medina, Ohio, saw the home of Shubal Coy in flames. He alerted the neighbors, who came out to douse the flames with water. When the fire was under control, they went inside to look for the Coy family. They found Shubal lying in bed with nine stab wounds in his throat and breast, any one of them capable of
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 3/14/2026
Bond Street today is a pricey place to live. And so it was in the 1830s, when it became one of New York’s most exclusive enclaves. Wealthy residents fleeing the crowded and increasingly commercial neighborhoods below Houston Street sought refuge on this short little street, which only runs two blocks from Broadway to the Bowery. […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 3/16/2026
"As his son I am proud of hisefforts to succeed in life"Jefferson Randolph Smith IIIArtifact #93-2Jeff Smith collection(Click image to enlarge) oapy's son hires a legal firm to stop the defamation of his father's name. At age 30, Jefferson Randolph Smith III, Soapy and Mary's oldest son, was protecting his father's legacy and his mother's reputation from "libel" and scandal. He was also
More...
Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
Wanted to Sit by the Widow. | Pandemonium in a Tumult.

Demi-Monde Excursion.

Soubriette

The three-night date which a snap extravaganza company played in Butte, Montana, a short time ago, will be remembered for a long time by some of the leading citizens of that very enterprising town. In the first place the bunch of girls who came with the show, and who, in fact, were the show, were the jolliest lot that ever smoked cigarettes or knocked the heads off champagne bottles.

They had seen something of the world, they had, and so when a swell sport of the town invaded the rooms behind the scenes and said there was a cold hundred in it for any girl who would go around to the Combination house and play out a deal of faro in tights, half a dozen of them jumped at him so quick that he almost lost his balance. He didn't want them all so he picked out the one that pleased him most, Nadage De Witt. He engaged a carriage for her after the show and after she had wrapped up well to keep those precious legs of hers warm, she was bundled in. She made the hit of her life when she stepped into, the brilliantly lighted faro room, and the created the biggest sensation Butte has known for some time. She took a seat at the layout and was staked to a $50 stack of chips. She played out three boxes, when she got up from the chair with $160 to the good, which with the $100 she earned by her appearance, made $260 clean. She tells the story herself now and is very anxious to get with any theatrical companies intending to play Butte. Do you blame her?


National Police Gazette, January 25, 1896.

New Orleans Demi-Monde

Members of the New Orleans Demi-Monde Enjoying an Excursion to the Suburbs of the Southern Metropolis.

Some fifteen or twenty of the demi-monde of New Orleans recently took and excursion to the suburbs of the city. They charted a pair of four-horse coaches and supplied with wines and cigars, started off to enjoy a real good time. On arriving at a certain well-known hotel (?), which is situated about four miles from the city they alighted and ordered dinner, which was served in a sumptuous style. Having “wined and dined,” they returned to the city, singing gaily and cracking jokes by the way.


Reprinted from Weekly Varieties, February 22, 1887.