No. 657
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
October 18, 2022

Shocking Youthful Depravity.

The discovery that public school children frequent immoral places creates a startling sensation in C
October 18, 2022
...
...

If you’re curious about New York’s Gilded Age, then you’re familiar with certain recurring family names—like Astor, Vanderbilt, Morgan, Rockefeller, and Roosevelt. But what made these elite families so influential? How did they reshape and rule the city’s business and social worlds while leaving a lasting impact on the city of today? Starting July 29 […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 7/10/2026
"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, which is so action-packed, not one, but four hosts were required!Two ships from the "dawn of naval aviation."It turns out that wild chimpanzees are pretty good drummers.If you're planning to visit the Grand Canyon, maybe think twice about that.I was in a happier frame of mind before I learned that there is a spider that can outrun humans.A really confusing
More...
Strange Company - 7/10/2026
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
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
Arrest of Female Prowlers. | Spoiled the Chappies’ Fun.

Shocking Youthful Depravity.

Shocking Youthful Depravity

The discovery that public school children frequent immoral places creates a startling sensation in Columbus, O. 

From the startling developments which have been in process of unfolding for the last few days at Columbus, O., says the Journal of that town, and which reached a culmination yesterday, it would seem that the well disposed missionaries have found a fruitful field at home. Conscientious Christian ladies have been stricken with horror in the past few days when they were told that public school pupils—boys and girls—had been for several weeks previous engaged in the pastime of visiting a resort on Town street which sails under the front name of saloon and restaurant, but has rear establishments with stalls and booths and all the paraphernalia which go to make up and improvised place of assignation, where drinking and intoxication may be imagined as among the milder crimes indulged in.


Reprinted from National Police Gazette, December 22, 1888.