No. 853
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 24, 2026

$20 Bills on a Cane.

A Merrymaking Party That Carried Matters Too Far in the Theatre.
February 24, 2026
...
...

This brief, but delightfully offbeat “ghost story” (for lack of a better term) was related by author, paranormal researcher, and photographer J.P.J. Chapman:Many years ago my late father-in-law rented a large farm near Bampton in North Devon.  The farm buildings and the dwelling house were situated half way up a steep hill overlooking the River Exe.  During a warm summer it was quite
More...
Strange Company - 5/18/2026
"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
The Brooklyn Bridge is celebrating its 143rd birthday on May 24, the day Gilded Age New Yorkers could finally walk across this wondrous span and celebrate the uniting of Brooklyn and Manhattan. Over close to a century and a half, the Brooklyn Bridge has taken the honor of the city’s most painted and photographed structure. […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 5/18/2026
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
Maggie Crowley.(New York Journal, March 16, 1898.)On March 15, 1898, a woman was found strangled to death in the courtyard of a New York City tenement.  She was the seventh strangulation victim in the Tenderloin district over the previous four years. What made this case different was that even before the victim was identified, the police had a suspect in custody. Some believed he was
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 5/16/2026
Whatever you believe about the guilt or innocence of Lizzie Borden, I have always believed film makers do a great injustice to the story by not beginning at the beginning- the death on March 26, 1863 of the first Mrs. Borden. In the dying moments of Sarah Morse, Emma takes on the weight of the care of her little sister, not yet three years old. Emma herself was just 12 on March 1st. Emma has seen her mother suffer for a long time, seen her pain and loss of little Alice Esther. Emma is old enough
More...
Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 3/26/2026
  [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
Principles of Finance. | Their Sex's Worst Foes.

$20 Bills on a Cane.

Bills-on-Cane

A Merrymaking Party That Carried Matters Too Far in the Theatre.

About seventy-five members of the Ariel Bowling Club attended the performance at the Academy of Music at Baltimore, Dec. 8, who Pauline Hall and Richard Golden appeared In the "Honeymoon."

Some of the young men had imbibed rather freely in anticipation of the good time that was to follow the show, when the club banquet was to be attended by Miss Hall and the rest of the. company. The front seats of the orchestra circle had been reserved for the clubmen, and the performers and the Ariels prepared to have a jolly time with the various bon mots and jokes that were to pass between the actors and the audience.

The hilarious clubmen went a little too far, and then there was trouble. They started in by guying all hands, interrupting the performers, and then started to shying sandwiches, with which they were provided, on the stage. Another crowd would throw a rag baby attached to a string at the performers and then jerk it away.

Finally, Mr. Golden grew angry, and walking down to the footlights, said that the behavior was offensive, and that there were others in the theatre besides the clubmen. Miss Hall stepped from the wings to applaud this speech. This made the clubmen angrier.

They kept silence when either Miss Hall or Golden appeared, but applauded uproariously whenever others of the company were on the stage. One of the men insisted on pushing $20 bills on the head of his cane at the chorus girls. This, of course, broke up the arrangements for the evening. The Ariels held the banquet, but the "Honeymooners" did not join in the festivities.


Illustrated Police News, December 23, 1893.