No. 457
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
March 24, 2020

An Underground Stale-Beer Dive.

March 24, 2020
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 Welcome to this week's Link Dump, where it's up, up, and away!Try to sell a house that features art stolen by the Nazis, and watch the fun begin!A brief history of pomegranates.Some remote viewers took a gander at 31/Atlas, and I can't say they came up with cheery stuff.A serial poisoner in Ohio.The princess who chose painting over palaces.The horrors of 19th century merchant service.The (
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Strange Company - 9/5/2025
Stop by this week as we explore what happened the week before the murders, Emma and Lizzie’s getaway to Fairhaven and New Bedford, and new imagery which will help to tell the story. The pears are almost ripe, August 4th is coming fast, and thoughts begin to turn to that house on Second Street once again. Follow us at https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts/ !
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 7/26/2025
The East Midtown blocks in the shadow of Grand Central Terminal hold some fascinating relics of old New York City. Case in point is the phone number on this street-facing sign for an elevator emergency alarm at 7 East 43rd Street. “Call ST 6-4300” it reads. “ST” is another long-obsolete phone exchange, dating back to […]
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Ephemeral New York - 9/1/2025
The East Midtown blocks in the shadow of Grand Central Terminal hold some fascinating relics of old New York City. Case in point is the phone number on this street-facing sign for an elevator emergency alarm at 7 East 43rd Street. “Call ST 6-4300” it reads. “ST” is another long-obsolete phone exchange, dating back to […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 9/1/2025
Daniel Van Fossen and his wife hosted a dinner party for their extended family on January 8, 1885, at their home in East Liverpool, Ohio. Fourteen people were in attendance, including members of the Van Fossen, McBane, and Collins families. Coffee and Tea were served after the meal, and almost immediately, the coffee drinkers complained of a burning, bitter sensation in their throats. Soon, they
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Murder By Gaslight - 8/30/2025
Soapy Smith STAR NotebookPage 22 - Original copy 1884Courtesy of Geri Murphy(Click image to enlarge) oapy Smith's "STAR" notebook, 1883-84, St. Louis, San Francisco, Soapy arrested: Pages #22-23      This post is on page 22 and 23 of the "STAR" notebook. I am combining these two pages as they only account for a total of seven lines. They are not appearing to be a continuation of
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 8/27/2025
Daniel Van Fossen and his wife hosted a dinner party for their extended family on January 8, 1885, at their home in East Liverpool, Ohio. Fourteen people were in attendance, including members of the Van Fossen, McBane, and Collins families. Coffee and Tea were served after the meal, and almost immediately, the coffee drinkers complained of a burning, bitter sensation in their throats. Soon, they
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 8/30/2025
Soapy Smith STAR NotebookPage 22 - Original copy 1884Courtesy of Geri Murphy(Click image to enlarge) oapy Smith's "STAR" notebook, 1883-84, St. Louis, San Francisco, Soapy arrested: Pages #22-23      This post is on page 22 and 23 of the "STAR" notebook. I am combining these two pages as they only account for a total of seven lines. They are not appearing to be a continuation of
More...
Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 8/27/2025
 Welcome to this week's Link Dump, where it's up, up, and away!Try to sell a house that features art stolen by the Nazis, and watch the fun begin!A brief history of pomegranates.Some remote viewers took a gander at 31/Atlas, and I can't say they came up with cheery stuff.A serial poisoner in Ohio.The princess who chose painting over palaces.The horrors of 19th century merchant service.The (
More...
Strange Company - 9/5/2025
"Assisted Emigrant" | An Irishman and a Yankee Settle a Dispute.

An Underground Stale-Beer Dive.

Stale Beer Dive

An Underground Stale-Beer Dive Late at Night in Mulberry Bend.

The low concert halls and stale-beer dives offer the fullest field for night mission work. These vile places are most often in cellars. The rooms are small, the ceilings low, and the air is always full of the fumes of tobacco and stale beer. The men are thieves, loafers and “crooks” often of the most dangerous order. The women are of the most degraded type. Here beer and spirits are sold in buckets, pails and bottles, and the inmates spend what they have earned, begged, or stolen for these vile drinks. Children are often sent to these places for liquor.


Campbell, Helen, Thomas Wallace Knox, and Thomas Byrnes. Darkness and daylight, or, Lights and shadows of New York life: a woman's pictorial record of gospel, temperance, mission, and rescue work "in His Name" .... Hartford, Conn.: A.D. Worthington, 1897.