No. 647
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
March 29, 2024

Won on the Midway.

A World’s Fair Tyrolese beauty captures the love and caresses of an alleged faithless husband and is
December 11, 2017
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Tag: Entertainment

She Whipped the Dude.

Young man who guyed performers in a New Orleans theatre was severely corrected.

10/29/2023

Why Wouldn't a "Wild East" Show be Popular, Too?

Here are a few features for it.

10/24/2023

Mabel Punched the Swell.

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

4/16/2018

Done Up by Dizzy Blondes.

A special from Canajoharie, Sept 26, says: Duncan Clark, manager of Clark’s Female Minstrels, will probably not visit the Mohawk valley again very soon.

6/20/2016

Chang and Eng, The Siamese Twins.

A characteristic group, representing Chang and Eng, the Siamese Twins, with their wives and Children.

2/29/2016

Mdlle. Carlotta de Berg.

Mdlle. Carlotta de Berg, at the New York Circus, Fourteenth Street.

5/5/2015

She Had a High Old Time.

8/13/2013

Shooting at the Elevated.

After-dinner pistol practice at the trains that rush by windows

5/7/2013

Serpent and Dove.

10/2/2012

Spectacular Scenes & Sights Down on the Jersey Coast

Poster for the 1898 Broadway show "Have You Seen Smith?"

7/17/2012

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Flxtxy Propecia Pve <a href=http://abuyplaquenilcv.com/>Plaquenil</a>

1/24/2012

McGinty Survives!

10/30/2011

Trixie Got the Best of It.

Two Little Gem Theatre, Buffalo, N. Y., Soubrettes have a scrap on account of a man.

10/8/2011

The Astor Place Riot

8/15/2011

Belles of the Bowling Alley.

The athletic diversions of an association of dashing damsels in their club rooms in Chicago. 

6/6/2011

Duel of the Divas.

The question of who was more beautiful, Lillian Russel or Lola Montez was settled by two cowpokes in the Nevada desert in the 1890s.

5/30/2011

A Newspaper Man’s Plight

Denver Col., October 1892 – Correspondent Jake Hirsh cowhided by indignant Lizzie Gonzales, an actress, in Denver.

5/22/2011

The Cardiff Giant

Cardiff, New York, October 16, 1869.

4/10/2011

Did the Naughty Midway Dance

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

3/28/2011

Chorus Girls in a Panic.

An unruly horse causes great excitement in the Metropolitan Opera House, this city.

3/14/2011

Crush Collision!

Crush, Texas, September 15, 1896

2/24/2011
Via Newspapers.comThis account of diabolical doings down on the farm appeared in the “Great Bend Tribune,” September 28, 1908:Groton, Conn. This town is excited indeed over the amazing happenings at the fine old farm of William Hempstead, a mile east of New London.Visitors have been going out in automobiles and carriages to study the mystery. Small articles, such as beans, spools of thread,
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Strange Company - 3/27/2024
HE DUEL IN ELLEN'S HONOR. Soapy Smith’s grandmotherOn Wednesday, August 9, 1820, an argument between 17-year-old, James Bowe Boisseau (1802-1820) and Robert C. Adams (unknown-1820) vying for the attention of 18-year-old Ellen Stimpson Peniston (1802-1860), took a terrible turn. The happy party in her honor took a tragic turn when the competition for Ellen’s affections ended in a deadly duel,
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 1/10/2024
Is that the crenellated crown of a faux Medieval castle looming five stories above Riverside Drive and 83rd Street—flanked by European-inspired row houses with dormer windows and tiled roofs? The separate dwellings that compose this delightful design mashup are quite a sight among the Drive’s mostly uniform prewar apartment houses. Who built these eclectic residences […]
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Ephemeral New York - 3/25/2024
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
Margaret Howard learned too late that the man she married was a violent, two-timing gambler. After they separated, he kidnapped their children to be raised by another woman posing as his wife. Margaret snapped and took her revenge on the false Mrs. Howard.  Read the full story here: Margaret Howard.
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Murder By Gaslight - 3/23/2024
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
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
Xbvjqz hopngz | The Wedding Postponed.

Won on the Midway.

Won on the Midway

 

A World’s Fair Tyrolese beauty captures the love and caresses of an alleged faithless husband and is discovered by his wife. 

The beauty show on the Midway at the World’s Fair, Chicago, now has another matrimonial scalp hanging on it bejeweled belt. Tied securely to the end of the aforesaid scalp is Arthur St. Clair Bailey. In her bill for separate maintenance filed in the Circuit Court, Arthur’s wife says she has often witnessed, in agonizing shame, the arm of her husband encircling the form of the fair Tyrolese beauty. “Alleged” Tyrolese beauty, the wife calls her, and she consumed the Midway beer under the name of Gisella Grossman. Bailey, it seems helps manage the beauty show and when he went there his wife, Alice, protested with scalding tears running down her cheeks. She knew that Albert could not withstand the shy glances of the “beauts.” For a time Alice stayed home and conducted their store at 533 West Madison Street.

But When Arthur didn’t come home nights any more she grew suspicious. By doing a little detective work herself, she discovered that Gisella’s room was next to her husband’s and the latter had so darkened the girl/s apartments that no eye could peep in.

Being persistent, however, she succeeded in obtaining a view of the defendant, when on his lap in loving embrace sat Gisella. And such kisses and caresses! It made the poor wife think of her honeymoon. Several times she had seen these awful things, and then like a sensible woman sought relief in the courts. Neither does Mrs. Baily propose to allow her spouse full freedom, for instead of suing for divorce she seeks one of those judgments where a man has to put up for his wife’s good times and can’t marry again. Further than this, the wife says her husband owns real estate and is about to sell it and go to California with Gisella. Accordingly, a writ of ne exeat is prayed to prevent him from leaving the State. The bill also states that the defendant has spent all the profit of the store in buying presents for his love and among them is an expensive diamond ring.


Reprinted from National Police Gazette, November 18, 1893.