No. 640
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
July 12, 2022

They Got Hilariously Full.

Alleged cancan dance indulged in by young male and female swells at Jamestown, New York.
July 12, 2022
...
...

Join us on our Facebook page as we begin counting down the days to August 4th and all of the events leading up to the day. https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts
More...
Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 7/7/2026
"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
"Norwich Evening News," February 3, 1970, via Newspapers.comIf you’re at all familiar with my Twitter/X or Facebook feeds, you know that I periodically share old newspaper reports about the seemingly endless varieties of mayhem carried out by goats.  (Why do I do this?  It’s just how I roll, I guess.)  So, you can imagine how delighted I was to learn of the following story, which
More...
Strange Company - 7/6/2026
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 … Continue reading
More...
Executed Today - 11/13/2020
(New Haven Independent) Taylor Ward sings "Found Drifting with the Tide" (excerpt), the tragic ballad of Jennie Cramer's murder.“Found Drifting with the Tide” was a song written by A. C. Willis, "Dedicated to the memory of Jennie Cramer," who was murdered in 1881.When the body of beautiful young Jennie Cramer was found on a sandbar
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 7/4/2026
Bare arms, visible ankles, a more relaxed waistline—the most fashionable “bathing dresses” of 1868 allowed a woman to strip off her day-to-day corsets, feather hats, and petticoats and luxuriate in the freedom of the seaside. This ad for what were also called “bathing costumes” came from Godey’s Lady’s Book, an influential periodical that helped shape […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 7/6/2026
  [Editor’s note: Guest writer, Peter Dickson, lives in West Sussex, England and has been working with microfilm copies of The Duncan Campbell Papers from the State Library of NSW, Sydney, Australia. The following are some of his analyses of what he has discovered from reading these papers. Dickson has contributed many transcriptions to the Jamaica […]
More...
Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
Caught a Cowboy. | The First of the Season.

They Got Hilariously Full.

Hilariously Full

Alleged cancan dance indulged in by young male and female swells at Jamestown, New York. 

A correspondent from Jamestown, N. Y., sends us an account of an alleged very loud performance indulged in by several young male and female members of swell society in that town in a summer hotel near Jamestown. The illustration sufficiently suggests the character of the affair without further mention in details. It is said the originator of the party is one of the most prominent politicians in Jamestown.

 


Reprinted from The National Police Gazette, January 5, 1889.