No. 864
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
May 06, 2026

Pluck and Presence of Mind.

A Quick-witted and Strong-armed School Girl Saves her Young Lover from a Terrible Death at North Platte, Nebraska.
May 6, 2026
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  [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
"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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(Illustrated Police News, April 3, 1886.)Agnes Anastasia Long moved out of her parents’ home in East Attleboro, Massachusetts, in April 1882. With her many male suiters, she was considered the black sheep of the family. Her father had enough of her bad behavior and, according to the Boston Herald, “refused to permit her to darken the threshold of his humble home.”She took a job at Streeter
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Murder By Gaslight - 8/22/2026
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
Sights and Sounds of Spring. | A Woman Rescued from the Jaws of a Catamount.

Pluck and Presence of Mind.

Plucky

A Quick-witted and Strong-armed School Girl Saves her Young Lover from a Terrible Death at North Platte, Nebraska.

A few days ago, an exciting incident occurred at one of the public schools in Platte. Nebraska, the particulars of which, as we learn them, are as follows: At the school in question, among the other pupils are a youth of seventeen and his lover a miss of "sweet sixteen," who are dead in love with each other. On the day alluded to the pair were alone in the third story of the building talking soft nonsense generally and leaning out of one of the windows, with arms around each other, when suddenly the youth projected his body a trifle too far, the centre of gravity overcame the base and he started—very much against his will—on his downward career to the bosom of mother earth. As he began to slip out, and his horror stricken lady-love felt him receding from her fond clasp around his waist, her presence of mind came to her, and like a flash she grasped him by one leg as he slid from the window.

Luckily for her, and still more so for him, she is a young lady of rare muscular development, and on this occasion her strong of arm and lung stood the pair in good need, for with the former she held on like grim death, and the latter was quickly called in play to summon assistance, which came speedily, and the young man was rescued from his perilous position. After being safely landed in the room again the pension on her nerves relaxed, the reaction was too powerful, and the beautiful preserver fainted away. She was conveyed to her home and soon entirely recovered, since which time the young heroine has received the hearty and well-merited congratulations of the entire community. It is safe to wager that she will make an excellent wife, and we advise that youth to guard well the priceless treasure of the love she has bestowed upon him.


Illustrated Police News, May 20, 1874.