No. 745
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
April 16, 2024

Wrestling Match on a Canadian Steamer.

On the St. Lawrence River.
April 16, 2024
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The Rubin ciphertextEighteen-year-old Paul Emanuel Rubin was a sophomore at New York University, where he studied chemistry.  We have contradictory reports about his scholastic success:  His father Samuel said that Paul was an excellent student, while a police detective later told reporters that the teenager was doing so poorly at the University that he was in danger of flunking out.&
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Strange Company - 10/12/2026
  [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
 Laura D. Fair and Alexander P. CrittendenA prominent California legislator was sitting with his wife and son on board the Oakland-San Francisco ferryboat El Capitain the evening of November 3, 1870. They did not notice the woman approaching them, dressed entirely in black, wearing a broad-brimmed black hat with a black veil covering her face. From the folds of her dress, the woman
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Murder By Gaslight - 10/10/2026
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
A New Gag. | "He Loves Me; He Loves Me Not."

Wrestling Match on a Canadian Steamer.

Wrestling

On the steamboat trip from Montreal to Quebec the voyager meets with many French Canadians going to or returning from market as deck passengers. Being of a lively and social disposition, they while away the time in rude but innocent amusements, to the great entertainment of the other passengers. Sedate priests are often seen among the spectators, evidently thoroughly enjoying the sport. Wrestling matches frequently occur, and our artist furnished a sketch of one of the contests of strength witnessed by him in which a spunky little French Canadian contended against many more formidable opponents, and, although invariably thrown, returned smilingly to the encounter as long as his strength held out.


Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, January 23, 1875.