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
...
...

Via Newspapers.comSit back and enjoy what is probably the weirdest "letter to the editor" in history.  “The Guardian,” November 30, 1976:Recent reports of peculiar events have reminded me of a mysterious experience I had in East Anglia a few years ago. I was teaching in a small village school and the caretaker's husband declared that he had seen strange orange lights in the school field as
More...
Strange Company - 9/30/2026
  [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
"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
Mary Anderson was an acclaimed international stage actress in the late 1800s. Among her many fans was a young Brooklyn man named James M. Dougherty.  He worked as a telegraph lineman and studied science in his spare time. He dabbled in a little of everything until, after watching one of her plays, he became obsessed with Miss Anderson. His love for Mary Anderson became his sole
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 9/26/2026
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
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.