Fort McPherson, circa 1900Ghost lore is full of tales of spirits who are unhappy with the way their mortal remains were treated, so they make (generally unwelcome) appearances with the intention of setting things right. One of the more famous examples of such stories had an appropriate setting: the wild, desolate land of 19th century North-West Canada.Augustus Peers was a fur-trader who
Soapy STAR notebookPage 15 - Original copy1883Courtesy of Geri Murphy(Click image to enlarge)
OAPY SMITH IN DENVER, WISCONSIN AND MINNESOTA.This is page 15, dated July-September 1883, the continuation of deciphering Soapy Smith's "star" notebook from the Geri Murphy's collection. A complete introduction to this notebook can be seen on page 1. These notebook pages
Without La Delice Pastry Shop’s swinging 1960s store sign—a visual feast of blue and red, curlycue cursive, and capital letters—the southwest corner of Third Avenue and 27th Street would be just another stretch of Kips Bay. Though the sign looks very midcentury, La Delice (which translates from French as “the delight”) has actually been around […]
Robert Kever and William Lowman were walking together on Mississippi Street in Indianapolis around 10:00 the night of January 15, 1880. Without warning, a man jumped from behind a tree and plunged a butcher knife into Kever’s throat. The perpetrator was a butcher named Louis Antenat.“Aha, God damn you, I’ve got you now!” Shouted Antenat, and with one slash of the knife, he severed Kever’s carotid
Fort McPherson, circa 1900Ghost lore is full of tales of spirits who are unhappy with the way their mortal remains were treated, so they make (generally unwelcome) appearances with the intention of setting things right. One of the more famous examples of such stories had an appropriate setting: the wild, desolate land of 19th century North-West Canada.Augustus Peers was a fur-trader who
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: […]
Robert Kever and William Lowman were walking together on Mississippi Street in Indianapolis around 10:00 the night of January 15, 1880. Without warning, a man jumped from behind a tree and plunged a butcher knife into Kever’s throat. The perpetrator was a butcher named Louis Antenat.“Aha, God damn you, I’ve got you now!” Shouted Antenat, and with one slash of the knife, he severed Kever’s carotid
Without La Delice Pastry Shop’s swinging 1960s store sign—a visual feast of blue and red, curlycue cursive, and capital letters—the southwest corner of Third Avenue and 27th Street would be just another stretch of Kips Bay. Though the sign looks very midcentury, La Delice (which translates from French as “the delight”) has actually been around […]
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.
A party of New York girls enjoy a little after-dinner pistol practice at the trains that rush by windows of their hotel.
Popping at the Elevated.
How a Certain Reckless Party of Fast Young Men and Women Added to the Dangers of Travel.
The luxuries of metropolitan life are many and novel, but we think the rag has been taken off the bush completely by late developments of the methods of enjoyment that have become popular among a certain class of reckless young bloods and the equally reckless young women who are assisting them in running through their fortunes. The dear creatures have been in the habit, when full of wine after the little suppers given in a certain famous off color hostelry on the line of one of the elevated railroads, to get up shooting matches, the mark being the elevated trains as thy fly by the second-story windows of the hotel. This practice became so common a few weeks ago that the entire detective force was set to work to ferret out the marksmen. One of these companies of female sharpshooters was caught by the officers but the male friends of the women proved to be related to some high officials and they were let go with a reprimand, and the mystery of the shooting at the trains has never been revealed to the indignant public until now, when the Police Gazette takes the ditty on itself in its usually bold form of description and illustration.
"We follow vice and folly where a police officer dare not show his head, as the small, but intrepid weasel pursues vermin in paths which the licensed cat or dog cannot enter."
The Sunday Flash 1841