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
...
...

A visitor to today’s recently restored Waldorf Astoria might be dazzled by the Art Deco design, the luxurious lobby, and the ghosts of all the actors, inventors, and heads of state who made it their temporary home. What that visitor might not realize is that “the hypen”—as the hotel was called before the hyphen was […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 7/20/2026
"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
 Welcome to this week's Link Dump!And greetings from the Strange Company mail room!A teenager who died in the American Revolution has finally been identified.An ancient Roman fossil collector.The strange case of the "Leavenworth Look-Alikes."The legend of what may have been the first underwater tunnel.Casual snapshots of the Romanovs.The strange case of the Beale Ciphers.A diplomat's widow
More...
Strange Company - 7/17/2026
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
(Philadelphia Inquirer, April 29, 1895.)Johanna Gahan married Jimmy Logue, a professional thief, in 1871, just as he was preparing to serve a seven-year prison sentence for burglary. She waited for him, and after his release, Jimmy bought a house for them in Philadelphia. Within a year, Jimmy was off on a “thieving expedition” to Boston. When he returned, Johanna was gone. Those who knew Jimmy
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 7/18/2026
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
  [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.