No. 191
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 18, 2014

Nature versus Art.

February 18, 2014
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Via Newspapers.comThis odd case of a man and his apparent doppelganger appeared in the “Vancouver World,” July 21, 1894:"There is a mystery now of five years standing in the lumber regions of Northern Pennsylvania," said George W. Culp of the Upper Susquehanna Valley, “the clearing up of which would give a great deal of satisfaction to the people in that region. Five years ago John Shehan came to
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Strange Company - 8/12/2026
  [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 […]
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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
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
Daniel Sickles, Teresa Bagioli, Phillip KeyIn 1859, Dan Sickles, a congressman from New York (and future Union General), was married to the most beautiful woman in Washington, but his other interests, including his mistresses, often kept him away from home. His lonely young wife, Teresa, found comfort in the arms of Philip Barton Key, D.C. District Attorney and son of poet Francis Scott
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Murder By Gaslight - 8/8/2026
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
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Executed Today - 11/13/2020
Illicit Distilleries. | The Southern Pacific Railway Disaster.

Nature versus Art.

nature vs art

How the deficiencies of one may be remedied by the other, as illustrated in many a boudoir in New York and elsewhere. 

There is a theory to the effect that beauty unadorned is adorned the most. But it won’t go down nowadays. Beauty has got to be adorned, you bet, or she’ll make things warm for the old man at home. We’ve been there, and we know whereof we speak. When she don’t pan out as well as she ought, art comes along and helps her out. If you don’t believe it—but no. It’s impossible. You must believe it, for from false teeth to a wooden leg, there isn’t a household on the continent that don’t know what man’s ingenuity can do to repair or make good for the deficiencies of nature.


 National Police Gazette, May 5, 1883.