No. 556
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
December 29, 2020

New Years in the Wings.

The fairy of the enchanted realm entertains her subjects in an earthly way.
December 29, 2020
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 Welcome to this week's Link Dump!Our host for this Friday is the handsome mascot (name unknown) of the S.S. Custodian, a cargo ship that was active during the first half of the 20th century.New research into the Battle of Hastings.The wonders of Mayan astronomy.The importance of horses in the Mughal Empire.A famous film of Bigfoot is probably a hoax.  I know, shocker.What it was like
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Strange Company - 3/27/2026
"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
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
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
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
National Police Gazette, January 28, 1882Mrs. J.W. Gibbons was away from her home in Ashland, Kentucky, on December 23, 1881. She left behind her 18-year-old son Robert, her 14-year-old daughter Fannie, and 17-year-old Emma Thomas (aka Carico), who was staying with them. Mrs. Gibbons returned the following day to find her home burned to the ground and all three inhabitants dead.Read the full
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Murder By Gaslight - 3/28/2026
Stores come and go; office buildings gain and lose tenants. But the grief really hits when a shuttered movie theater remains empty, stripped of posters, concession signs, even the theater’s name. This is what remains of the Beekman Theater at 1271 Second Avenue, between 65th and 66th Streets. It showed its last film before abruptly […]
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Ephemeral New York - 3/23/2026
  [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 […]
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Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
The Merry Wives of Boston. | "Well?"

New Years in the Wings.

New Years in the Wings

The fairy of the enchanted realm entertains her subjects in an earthly way. 

While everybody is taking a holiday, the players must work. The public, when it is in a good humor, must be amused. Therefore the temples of mirth open their doors and invite all in search of fun to come and get it on their boards. The merry dispensers of that article, however hearty they may contribute to the public’s amusement, do not take part as heartily as they seem to. It is acting, nothing more. The merry party whom our artist has sketched believe evidently in joining in the general good cheer, not in mimicry, but in earnest. The flowing bowl finds its place in the midst of their labors and lightens their tasks. The queen of the fairy realm of the stage becomes the hostess in real life, and dispenses her hospitality as liberally as she does her fairy smiles and good wishes to her subjects in the mimic world. “New Years in the Wings” passes as pleasantly oftentimes as it would in some grand parlor filled with callers, whose only interest in the host and hostess is what they can get out of them.

 


The National Police Gazette, January 8, 1881