No. 43
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
December 06, 2011

She Played Kissy Kissy

December 6, 2011
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Soapy Smith STAR NotebookPage 24 - Original copy1884Courtesy of Geri Murphy(Click image to enlarge) oapy Smith's "STAR" notebook page 24, 1882 and 1884, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland. Steamer Ancon. This post is on page 24, the last of the "STAR" notebook pages I have been deciphering and publishing for the last two years, since July 24, 2023. The page is two separate notes dated 1882
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She Played Kissy Kissy

Opium Den

Butte, Montana, October 1889 - P. M. Mathews, A Minneapolis millionaire, visits an opium joint and is carried out feet first. 

P. W. Matthews, a millionaire contractor of Minneapolis. Minn., went to Butte. Mont., last June to direct the building of a railroad. Since he has lived there he has spent lots of money and lived a high life. One day recently he and his chief bookkeeper, L. C. Kreck, went to an opium joint kept by a Chinaman named Ah Chung, to "hit the pipe." It was their first venture of this kind, and twelve pipes were prepared for them, but at this point Kreck weakened, and concluded not to indulge his curiosity. Matthews, who had been drinking, swore he would smoke the twelve pipes himself. This he did, and then sank into a stupor, from which he never recovered, having died from opium poisoning. Ah Chung and his wife have been arrested for murder.


Reprinted from The Natoinal Police Gazette, October 12, 1889

Kissy Kissy

Chicago, Illinois, November 1889 - A Chicago dudine goes around town embracing fellows and making them feel like comitting suicide. [more]

Blanche Nelson, a Handsome, gorgeously dressed young woman, was brought before Justiete C. J, White, in Chicago, the other morning for trial. The charge against her was plain '"disorderly conduct."

"What's the case against this girl?" asked the Court.

"Kissing."

"1 don't kuow that this is any crime," said the Court, reflectively. 'Tell me the story."

It appeared from ihe evidence that the affectionate young creature, while slightly under the influence of wine, created a scene at the corner of Halstead and Madison street, by kissing all the good-looking young men she could catch. Very little outcry on the part of the victims was made, and everything went well until a solemn, middle-aged man, having the appearance and garb of a clergyman, came along. The girl seized him. He appeared anything but reconciled to her caresses. As the middle-aged geutleman struggled to free himself from Blanche's embraces, a crowd gathered, and a policeman hove in sight. The patrol wagon was summoned. Inside of ten minutes Miss Blanche was behind prison bars. The girl's defence was none of the best, and she was fined $5 and costs.


Reprinted from The National Police Gazette, November 2, 1889