No. 419
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
April 16, 2018

Mabel Punched the Swell.

How Miss Livingston, the well-known singer, resented an insult at Macon, Ga.
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April 16, 2018
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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 HOPE
alias: WATSON
MANHATTAN BANK BURGLAR

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com This account of an extremely weird cloud (?) appeared in the “Caledonian Mercury,” January 18, 1821:COSENZA. On the 29th Nov. last, about half-past six in the evening, there suddenly appeared, on the west of the horizon, a luminous body, more brilliant than the moon at its full. This body had the figure of a dragon. After passing with great velocity across the horizon, it
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Strange Company - 7/8/2026

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.

Countdown to the Crime

Join us on our Facebook page as we begin counting down the days to August 4th and all of the events leading up to the day. https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 7/7/2026

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

Jennie Cramer's Tragic Ballad.

(New Haven Independent) Taylor Ward sings "Found Drifting with the Tide" (excerpt), the tragic ballad of Jennie Cramer's murder.“Found Drifting with the Tide” was a song written by A. C. Willis, "Dedicated to the memory of Jennie Cramer," who was murdered in 1881.When the body of beautiful young Jennie Cramer was found on a sandbar
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Murder By Gaslight - 7/4/2026
On the Russians.

What you’d be wearing to Rockaway Beach or Coney Island if you were a woman in the 1860s

Bare arms, visible ankles, a more relaxed waistline—the most fashionable “bathing dresses” of 1868 allowed a woman to strip off her day-to-day corsets, feather hats, and petticoats and luxuriate in the freedom of the seaside. This ad for what were also called “bathing costumes” came from Godey’s Lady’s Book, an influential periodical that helped shape […]
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Ephemeral New York - 7/6/2026

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
Great Base Ball Match. | In Consequence of the New Liquor Law.

Mabel Punched the Swell.

Mabel Punches the Swell

How Miss Livingston, the well-known singer, resented an insult at Macon, Ga. 

Miss Mabel Livingston, the well-known female baritone singer, who is at present filling an engagement at Macon, Ga., had a little experience the other night with three heavy swells, which ended in her punching the face off one of them. The men bought front seats at the theatre. They smiled at the little beauty and applauded her freely. After she had finished her songs, they sent in their cards and asked if they could see her in the green room. She said yes. So they went in and ordered half a dozen bottles of wine, after which one of them told Miss Livingston he would like to kiss her. Then she left them. They sent for her again, and she, thinking they intended to apologize, returned. As soon as she entered the room, the offending man caught hold of her hands. She pulled away from him and landed a right-hand swing on his jaw, sending him over a table.

National Police Gazette, November 14, 1896.

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