No. 805
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
March 18, 2025

Birds with False Plumage.

Bogus "Christian Endeavor" Delegates at Washington.
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March 18, 2025
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Tag: Bicycle

Time Works Many Changes.

Men used to flock to the beach, now they seek sections were roads are good.

9/12/2023

A Velocipede Riding-School.

Scene in a velocipede riding-school, New York City.

9/10/2018

The Bicycle Tournament at Springfield, Mass.

Perhaps the most successful bicycle tournament ever held in this country was that which opened at Springfield, Mass., on Tuesday, September 18th, 1883, and continued for three days.

9/29/2015

Burglars on Bicycles.

Burglars in Massachusetts utilize the flying wheels in their midnight depredations.

12/31/2013
WILLIAM PERRY
alias: BILLY PERRY, GRAHAM, WILSON
SNEAK, PICKPOCKET, SHOPLIFTER

Weekend Link Dump

 Welcome to this week's Link Dump!ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?Why you wouldn't want to be punished by a pirate.Why you wouldn't want to see a supervolcano erupt.The mystery of the 115,000 year old human footprints.The mystery of the undersea "Bloop."  Related:  The ocean contains all sorts of creepy stuff.A chair that may have belonged to Anne Boleyn.How nuns helped create a fertility
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Strange Company - 5/1/2026

Artifact #93: Soapy's son, hires attorney to stop the slurring of his father's name.

"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
Amen.

Riverside Drive’s first four row houses were built in 1889—these two sister houses are the only survivors

There’s a curious pair of limestone row houses on the lower end of peaceful, park-facing Riverside Drive. Each looks similar from afar. They share the same color of stone, and both facades have bow fronts. But on closer look, you’ll notice that each sports different ornamental bells and whistles. One has a conical roof and […]
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Ephemeral New York - 4/27/2026

1617: A miller of Manberna, the hangman’s last

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

Annie Bock.

(New York Journal, August 5, 1896)Annie Bock and her husband, Jacob, were spending the summer at Rockaway Beach. On Sunday, August 1, 1896, Annie went back to their flat at 207 E. 21st Street in New York City’s Tenderloin district to pay their monthly rent. She had $300 in the Dry Dock Savings Bank, and on Monday morning, she withdrew $50 and paid $20 rent. The plan was to return to Rockaway that
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Murder By Gaslight - 4/25/2026
On the Russians.

Remembering Sarah Morse Borden

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
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 3/26/2026

Convicts to Maryland, 1773 by Peter Dickson

  [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
An Actress Used a Pistol. | An Irishman and a Yankee Settle a Dispute.

Birds with False Plumage.

False-Plumage

During the great Christian Endeavor convention in Washington, D. C., last week, some women of the place, women with painted faces and strident voices, women who plainly never dwelt in the odor of sanctity but preferred the scent of musk, flaunted in Christian Endeavor badges, and did skirt dances in bar rooms along the boulevards. They were loaded to the guards with liquor, and evidently had been making use of false plumage to ply their trade among the religious brethren and pious strangers.

Illustrated Police News, July 18, 1896.

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