No. 236
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
January 06, 2015

Cheating the Liquor Laws.

The ingenious patent which has been got up for use in prohibition states.
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January 6, 2015
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Tag: 1850s

Grand Panoramic View

Of The East Side of Washington Street, Boston.

4/4/2023

Dogographs.

By a Fast Young Puppy.

10/4/2022

June.

Allegorical Representation of the Month of June.

6/4/2018

Turkey Shooting.

About the beginning of October, turkeys, young and old, move from their breeding districts towards the rich bottom lands near the Ohio and the Mississippi.

11/20/2017

October.

Above we give a representation of a portion of the work which occupies the New England farmer at this season of the year.

10/2/2017

The Valentine.

The subjoined engraving, the design of which is from the graceful pencil of Rowse, is more eloquent than words.

2/12/2017

January.

Allegorical Representation of January

1/2/2017

September.

9/5/2016

May-Day.

May-Day

5/2/2016

Floating Circus.

Spaulding & Rogers’s Floating Circus Palace.

4/11/2016

Chang and Eng, The Siamese Twins.

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

2/29/2016

A Winter Scene.

Winter Pastime – A Skating Scene.

1/25/2016

Kate Warne.

Kate Warne, America’s first female detective.

5/30/2012

Allan Pinkerton.

The Eye that Never Sleeps.

3/27/2012
JOSEPH BOND
alias: PAPER COLLAR JOE
BANCO STEERER

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.comHere is yet another example of that popular supernatural staple, “a vision of murder.”  The “New Orleans States,” February 19, 1911:SYDNEY, Feb. 18. — A most mysterious story comes from Perth, West Australia. The mysterious disappearance of a girl named Ethel Harris led a representative of a Perth newspaper to make an investigation, which had sensational results.He
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Strange Company - 5/13/2026

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.

Why John Sloan painted this lush scene of a woman in Union Square battling the rain

John Sloan was a Village resident and something of a voyeur in the early 1900s, discreetly watching from his window or walking nearby streets in search of scenes to commit to canvas. He never lacked material, finding inspiration in the ordinary: a woman hanging laundry, men drinking in McSorley’s saloon, the elevated train snaking through […]
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Ephemeral New York - 5/11/2026

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

"Diamond Flossie" Murphy.

"Diamond Flossie" Murphy.(New York Journal, March 18, 1898.)Flossie Murphy was a flamboyant character, notorious in the demi-monde of New York City’s Tenderloin. She had a fondness for diamond jewelry, which she wore conspicuously, earning her the nickname, “Diamond Flossie.” But when she was found on the floor of her room on April 22, 1897, with a rope tied around her neck and all her jewelry
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Murder By Gaslight - 5/9/2026
On the Russians.

Remembering Sarah Morse Borden

Whatever you believe about the guilt or innocence of Lizzie Borden, I have always believed film makers do a great injustice to the story by not beginning at the beginning- the death on March 26, 1863 of the first Mrs. Borden. In the dying moments of Sarah Morse, Emma takes on the weight of the care of her little sister, not yet three years old. Emma herself was just 12 on March 1st. Emma has seen her mother suffer for a long time, seen her pain and loss of little Alice Esther. Emma is old enough
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 3/26/2026

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
Defying the Guards. | New Years in the Wings.

Cheating the Liquor Laws.

Cheating Liquor Laws

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

Some curious patents are taken out at the Patent Office. One last week—“cover for liquor flask”—would never be fully appreciated by its title. It is a design of a book, about two and a half inches thick. At the bottom end of the book is an opening for the insertion of the flask, the opening being afterwards neatly closet with a sprint, the surface of which is marbleized lie a book end of leaves. At the top all seems correct and regular, but the pressure of the thumb throws open a circular hole at the same time raise the neck of the hitherto hidden vessel about two inches within easy range of the mouth.

National Police Gazette, January 9, 1886.

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