No. 686
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
January 20, 2025

Evading the Liquor Laws in Denver.

Colorado. - Evading the liquor law in Colorado Springs, as witnessed by the Frank Leslie Transcontinental Excursion Party.
June 18, 2024
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Tag: Alcohol

His Wife Danced the Coochee-Coochee.

She and her friends had been drinking wine, and they gave the sedate hubby an unexpected treat when he arrived at his home in St. Louis Mo.

2/14/2023

A Way Out of the Sunday Difficulty.

Baffled Policeman, - Bedad, I can't arrest a machine!

10/22/2018

Another Big Thing.

The Married Mens' Lodge-Night Hook-and-Ladder Cab Co. - No More Latch-Keys Needed.

10/1/2018

Run on Max Greger's Hungarian Wines.

No. 232 Fifth Avenue, corner Twenty-Seventh Street, New York.

7/16/2018

A Wine-Inspired Wager.

A Female Who Was Not Allowed to Exhibit Her Terpsichorean Abilities.

5/28/2018

In Consequence of the New Liquor Law.

In consequence of the new liquor law, this is the ingenious manner in which a worthy teuton friend of ours takes his family out for their Sunday rambles.

4/9/2018

Her Wheel Was Her Ruin.

A father of Indianapolis, Ind., catches his daughter drinking wine with a jovial crowd at a notorious local roadhouse.

4/2/2018

The Lady Flashes Dance.

Dizzy cigarette girls have a most hilarious time in the Lyceum Opera House, this city.

8/21/2017

Booze Through a Key-Hole.

5/15/2017

She Liked Her Lager Beer.

A Murray Hill belle, with a fondness for the Teutonic beverage, sets up a keg in her boudoir.

8/24/2015

They Are a Bad Lot.

The frightful picture of crime and debauchery which has given notoriety to Mary Jane Cawley’s backwoods dive at Cookstown, N. J.

7/27/2015

Cheating the Liquor Laws.

The ingenious patent which has been got up for use in prohibition states.

1/6/2015

Killed and Eaten by Hogs.

9/15/2014

The Drama of Life,

9/1/2014

They Got Hilariously Full.

Alleged cancan dance indulged in by young male and female swells at Jamestown, New York.

8/12/2014

Mixed Drinks for Six.

Harry Johnson's Style of Straining Mixed Drinks to a Party of Six.

3/4/2014

Illicit Distilleries.

North Carolina - An Illicit Whiskey Still in the Mountains Surprised by Revenue Officers.

2/25/2014

Puck's Family Temperance Primer.

10/15/2013

She Had a High Old Time.

8/13/2013

Stabbed for not Buying Drinks.

Fresh Young Fellow Gets Six Inches of Cold Steel at a Sporting Resort, Seattle, Wash.

3/28/2013

An Underground Stale-Beer Dive.

12/18/2012

John L. Sullivan Saved by a Neck.

11/6/2012

The Advent of Spiritualism.

A simple schoolgirl prank spawned a new belief with millions of followers.

9/4/2012

Steam Powered Reformation.

8/14/2012

Steam Powered Reformation.

8/14/2012

A New Gag.

Her health drunk by a young lawyer in slipper-full of champagne.

2/7/2012

Another Voice for Cleveland.

12/13/2011

She Played Kissy Kissy

12/6/2011

He Hit the Pipe

A Minneapolis millionaire, visits an opium joint and is carried out feet first.

11/20/2011

Anxious For a Funeral

10/23/2011

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10/17/2011

Rum on Tap.

Kyana, Indiana, 1890 - The women of Kyana, Ind., go to the railroad depot and demolish a cargo of liquor.

8/29/2011

The Drunkard's Looking Glass

4/24/2011

Did the Naughty Midway Dance

Pretty Ida Lawrence gets arrested while entertaining some hackmen in Cincinnati, O.

3/28/2011
"Arizona Daily Star," January 19, 1932, via Newspapers.comEvery now and then, I find in the old newspapers some case that was little-noticed even at the time and soon forgotten, but which is so hauntingly weird, I feel it deserves a second look.  The following death mystery is one of those stories.60-year-old Nora Smithson was one of those people who seem fated to aimlessly drift through
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Strange Company - 1/20/2025
Included in yesterday’s trip to Fall River was a stop at Miss Lizzie’s Coffee shop and a visit to the cellar to see the scene of the tragic demise of the second Mrs. Lawdwick Borden and two of the three little children in 1848. I have been writing about this sad tale since 2010 and had made a previous trip to the cellar some years ago but was unable to get to the spot where the incident occured to get a clear photograph.  The tale of Eliza Borden is a very sad, but not uncommon story of post partum depression with a heartrending end. You feel this as you stand in the dark space behind the chimney where Eliza ended her life with a straight razor after dropping 6 month old Holder and his 3 year old sister Eliza Ann into the cellar cistern. Over the years I have found other similar cases, often involving wells and cisterns, and drownings of children followed by suicides of the mothers. These photos show the chimney, cistern pipe, back wall, dirt and brick floor, original floorboards forming the cellar ceiling and what appears to be an original door. To be in the place where this happened is a sobering experience. My thanks to Joe Pereira for allowing us to see and record the place where this sad occurrence unfolded in 1848. R.I.P. Holder, Eliza and Eliza Ann Borden. Visit our Articles section above for more on this story. The coffee shop has won its suit to retain its name and has plans to expand into the shop next door and extend its menu in the near future.
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 2/12/2024
There’s a lot of white in this depiction of a blustery winter day in the New York City of 1911: white snow on the street, stoops, and light poles; white-gray skies filling with factory smoke (or smoke from ship smokestacks?) across a grayish river. Then there’s the violent white brushstrokes of howling wind against the […]
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Ephemeral New York - 1/20/2025
An article I recently wrote for the British online magazine, New Politic, is now available online. The article, “The Criminal Origins of the United States of America,” is about British convict transportation to America, which took place between the years 1718 and 1775, and is the subject of my book, Bound with an Iron Chain: […]
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Early American Crime - 12/17/2021
Michael Gorman's Last Look at Sing Sing Prison.On October 9, 1888, convicted murderer Michael Gorman walked out of Sing Sing Prison a free man after serving 33 years of a life sentence. Gorman, who entered the prison as a young man, was 60 years old when he was pardoned by New York Governor David Hill. During his incarceration, Gorman lost both parents, two brothers died in the Civil War, and his
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Murder By Gaslight - 1/18/2025
A Busted HoneymoonSoapy Smith is arrested in Leadville, ColoradoCarbonate ChronicleMay 17, 1886Courtesy of Colorado Historic Newspapers (Click image to enlarge) ew information regarding Soapy Smith in Leadville, Colorado.  A friend, Don Hendershot, found the above newspaper article. Following is the text of that article.Carbonate ChronicleLeadville, ColoradoMay 17, 1886A Busted
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 1/12/2025
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
Maids and "Missuses." | The Recent Escape

Evading the Liquor Laws in Denver.

Colorado

Everyone who visits pleasant and well-built Denver takes a run down to Colorado Springs, on the Denver and Rio Grande narrow-gauge railroad, a distance of eighty-five miles. After inspecting the magnificent Garden of the Gods, the village of Maniton and the Falls at the head of the tile Pass, the traveler is apt to acquire a thirst, which water highly impregnated with alkali will not quench; but, alas for the thirsty traveler! Colorado Springs is a temperance town. However, nothing is impossible to those who are in earnest. Close to the depot is a hostelry, yclept the Pike's Peak House,where an announcement in English and German informs the wayfarer that meals can he had for the moderate stint of forty cents. Entering the house, one finds an empty room; a door in a wooden partition admits into an inner apartment, where four Hoosiers are playing the interesting game of the "devil amongst the tailors." Presently a German approaches and inquires what is wanted, and being informed that there exists a laudable desire for lager-beer, he replies: “Shust put a quarter in dot hole, and de beer gomes up quick!"

Accordingly the tourist approaches a wooden wall, and perceives a slit in the board, dirty from use. He drops in a twenty-five cent piece and says, addressing no one in particular and speaking in a very sepulchral tone, "A quart of beer." With magic celerity a sliding panel is revealed, which goes up. and on a bracket there appears a jug of the foaming beverage. Taking it out, imbibing the contents, and replacing the jog and glass, the panel slides back into its place, and the truly Arabian Nights' entertainment is at an end. Subsequently the traveler is informed that anything in any quantity in the drinking line can be obtained hi the same mysterious manner at this oasis for the thirsty traveler in the emperance Desert.

President Barnard, of Columbia College, the Rev. Dr. Armitage, and a number of other gentlemen, left New York City on the 18th for a trip to the Rocky Mountains, stopping at Denver and Colorado Springs. This information will be valuable to them in case they should require any stimulants, as it will enable them to satisfy their thirst promptly and without embarrassing inquiries; for even their distinction will not secure them exemption from the Territorial liquor laws.


Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, July 7, 1877.