"The Witches' Cove," Follower of Jan MandijnFor this week's Link Dump, we are proud to have as our host the lovely Dossie!Watch out for the Bonnacon!Some Brooklyn life-saving pets.An escape from Death Row.19th century love gone wrong.The link between fairies and prehistoric sites.An Indian doctor explains early 20th century English etiquette.That time when there was a Masonic Pug Society.The man
"Male Seminary and Normal School,"Independent BladeNewnan, GeorgiaNovember 2, 1860,(Click image to enlarge)
OAPY SMITH'S CHILDHOOD EDUCATION The Smith family passed down the history that young Jefferson Randolph Smith II had enrolled in "a Sabbath school, and was able to continue his education throughout the war, after the war’s end and on into Reconstruction." I believe the ad from the
Image above, Boston Globe. As the 130th anniversary of the Borden Trial in New Bedford begins, visit our Facebook for daily postings and articles about the Trial of the Century. https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts/
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: […]
The death-house of Sing Sing Prison, on the Hudson River in New York State, was a separate building attached to the south end of the main prison. It housed up to eight condemned men in 8’x10’ cells along the south wall in groups of four separated by a corridor. The cells were 8 feet high with iron bars on the front and brick partitions between the cells and on the top, with space between the top
Manhole mysteries usually involve the ironworks company that made the cover—who worked there, how long they operated. But this time, I’m curious about the abbreviation on a sewer cover found in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “Sewer B.R.” the cover reads. Okay, but what’s the B.R.—Brooklyn Railroad? Borough something? I’m unsure of how old this sewer cover … … Continue reading →
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 […]
James E. Hamilton of Lake Worth, Florida, is Devoured by Sharks. [more]
Terrific But Vain Fight of a Mail Carrier With Man-Eaters.
A special form Jacksonville, Fla. Oct 20, says: The dread of the mail carriers on the Florida southeast coast are the Hillsboro and New River inlets, which have to be crossed by small boats. Here the dark waters of the Everglades empty into the Atlantic with tremendous force at this season, and if the ocean is rough the meeting of the cross currents produces heavy and dangerous seas. Sharks of the fiercest kind fill the inlets.
James E. Hamilton, the mail carrier from Miami to Lake Worth, was an athletic young man and carried the light mail on his shoulders, waking the entire distance. Seventy-five miles, on the beach. He left Lake Worth on Tuesday, in the morning, and should have reached the Refuge Station, twenty-five miles distant, that afternoon.
Late at night a fisherman named Waring came to the station and told the story of Hamilton’s horrible death. Waring was about one-half mile from Hillsboro Inlet when he saw Hamilton get into his boat to cross. He noted that the sharks were about in unusual numbers, and just as Hamilton reached the center of the crossing a huge one drove at the boat and bit a piece off the gunwale.
Hamilton struck at the sharks, but nothing could drive them off. Soon both oars were bitten in two, and then the fierce tigers of the sea seemed perfectly ravenous. The tore at the boat, snapped at one another, and the water for yards around was dyed with their blood. The boat began to fill, and the sharks scenting their prey, redoubled their dashes.
Hamilton stood on the middle seat as if stupefied glaring at them. Looking up and seeing Waring, he cried out to him, but in vain. Even as he shouted a huge monster dashed up and hit the partially filled boat a tremendous blow, throwing Hamilton out into the midst of the monsters.
A cry of agony was heard as he went down, and the devourers had him piecemeal before the horror-stricken spectator could take in the full measure of the tragedy. As soon as Waring recovered his senses he went to the station and told of the affair. A searching party went out at once but nothing was found save the remnants of the boat cast on the shore.
Reprinted from National Police Gazette, November 19,1887.
"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