No. 207
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 17, 2015

A Woman’s Flat-Irony.

Miss Sallie Utterback, of Shoals, Near Vincennes, Indiana, knocks out a man with a waggin' tongue.
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February 17, 2015
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Tag: Steamboat

Wrestling Match on a Canadian Steamer.

On the St. Lawrence River.

4/16/2024

Up the Hudson.

9/18/2018

Burning of Steamers at Cincinnati.

Burning of Steamers on the Ohio River at Cincinnati May 17, 1869.

9/17/2018

Another Steamboat Disaster.

New York City, -- The Steamboat Riverdale blown up, August 28th – Rescuing the passengers.

10/3/2016

Caroline Burned!

9/19/2011

The Old Shell Game

7/18/2011

Terrible Struggle with Flame and Flood

The burning of the steamer John H. Hanna near Plaquemine, Louisiana, by which thirty lives were lost

6/20/2011
JOHN CURTIN
alias: REYNOLDS
SNEAK, BURGLAR

Soapy Smith's "STAR" notebook, Page #24: 1882 and 1884, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland.

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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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 9/17/2025

It’s Almost August

Stop by this week as we explore what happened the week before the murders, Emma and Lizzie’s getaway to Fairhaven and New Bedford, and new imagery which will help to tell the story. The pears are almost ripe, August 4th is coming fast, and thoughts begin to turn to that house on Second Street once again. Follow us at https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts/ !
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 7/26/2025
Amen.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.comSome author--I can’t recall who he or she was--once wrote that it made no sense that ghosts were always seen fully clothed.  Shouldn’t they all be naked?  That writer would be pleased with the following news item from the “Springfield News Sun,” August 22, 1999:BAGHDAD, Iraq - Ghost stories are pretty common around the old Iraqi city of Haditha. Still, when the ghosts
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Strange Company - 9/17/2025

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

One Week Only!

One Week Only! The Bloody Century Half Price!
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Murder By Gaslight - 9/16/2025
On the Russians.

The enchanting stained glass luring drinkers into one of Midtown’s dwindling workingman’s taverns

Deep roots anchor P.J. Clarke’s, the restaurant and bar occupying a Civil War–era brick building with its top two floors sheered off at Third Avenue and 55th Street. Converted into a tavern in 1884 when Irish laborers held a large presence in the developing neighborhood, the building was bought by Irish immigrant Patrick “Paddy” J. […]
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Ephemeral New York - 9/15/2025

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
A Monkey and Dog Time. | Skating in Central Park.

A Woman’s Flat-Irony.

Flat-Irony

Miss Sallie Utterback, of Shoals, Near Vincennes, Indiana, knocks out a man with a waggin’ tongue.[more]

James Ritchey a traveling man, had been accused o making many adverse remarks concerning Miss Sallie Utterback, a domestic at the Commercial Hotel, in Shoals, Ind., besides writing her an insulting letter. Miss Utterback had always borne a good reputation. Few days ago Ritchey called on her to apologize for the injury he had done. He was met at the door by the young lady, who hurled a smoothing iron at him, striking him over the right eye and cracking his skull. Miss Utterback continued the attack in her fury, and would perhaps have killed him if it had not been for the hotel proprietor, who took her away. Ritchey is in a bad condition. 

Reprinted from National Police Gazette, November 30, 1889.

 

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