No. 335
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
November 21, 2016

Mrs. Snyder Pays Her Bet.

She backed Harrison, and had to wheel Henry Singer in a barrow, at Atlantic City, N. J.
November 21, 2016
...
...

When you think of Gilded Age millionaires, the name Darius Ogden Mills probably draws a blank. Born in 1825 in Westchester, Mills based himself in Buffalo and California and made a fortune in banking and railroads. He got his modest start in business as a teenage clerk in Manhattan. Perhaps he remembered throughout his adult […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 4/20/2026
"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
More...
Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
 It's time for this week's Link Dump!Let's dance!That time when an English village was terrorized by a giant rabbit.How the Declaration of Independence made the news.The socialite and the "Titanic orphans."The last victim of the Berlin Wall.Remembering the American Soapbox.Life on one of Lord Nelson's 32-pounders.The hidden communication of animals.British fairies, meet Indian changelings.3I
More...
Strange Company - 4/17/2026
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
More...
Executed Today - 11/13/2020
(New York Journal, May 31, 1896.)On the morning of Memorial Day, May 30, 1896, Mrs. Annie Cunningham had to go to work, while her 13-year-old daughter, Mary (known as Mamie), was home from school for the holiday. Mrs. Cunningham asked Mamie if she planned to go to the parade. Mamie said no, she wasn’t interested, and she planned to do housework and study. At 8:30, she said goodbye to her daughter
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 4/18/2026
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
More...
Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 3/26/2026
  [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 […]
More...
Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
The Pastor Kissed Her. | The Women Screamed.

Mrs. Snyder Pays Her Bet.

Pays her Bet

She backed Harrison, and had to wheel Henry Singer in a barrow, at Atlantic City, N. J. [more]

Mrs. Otto Snyder, the wife of the proprietor of the National Hotel, Atlantic City, N. J., a strong advocate of the re-election of President Harrison, wager upon her favorite’s election with Henry Singer that in the event of his defeat she would ride him in a wheelbarrow the distance of a block. She gave odds by his promising to pay for supper for six.

She paid the wager the other day. The oddity of the bet on her side drew a crowd of several hundred people about the hotel, who inspected the decorated vehicle with much curiosity.

Knowing that Mrs. Snyder was a woman who weighed considerably above 200 pounds, bets were made that shoe would not fulfil her contract. To the surprise of all she appeared at 8 o’clock, quickly caught the handles of the barrow and rushed the one-wheeled vehicle to the corner of New York avenue and returned amid the plaudits of the crowd. The horns and whistles screeched n accompaniment, and at the end of the ride a cheer was given for the pluck of the woman. Several other elections bets of a similar character were discharged, one being accompanied by a fife and drum corps.


Reprinted from National Police Gazette, November 26, 1892.