No. 866
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
May 19, 2026

Dreams a Likeness of her Future Husband.

A Young Lady in Atchison, Kansas, Eats Four Pounds of Wedding-Cake, and in Her Dreams Sees a Likeness of her Future Husband
May 19, 2026
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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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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
Rip Roaring Fun. | Sights and Sounds of Spring.

Dreams a Likeness of her Future Husband.

cake-dream

A Young Lady in Atchison, Kansas, Eats Four Pounds of Wedding-Cake, and in Her Dreams Sees a Likeness of her Future Husband

The old saying that by partaking of wedding-cake overnight, a girl is sure to dream of her future husband, induced a young lady at Atchison, Kansas, to try whether there is any truth in it, and in order to make a sure thing, she ate four pounds of wedding-cake on going to bed. She did dream of some being, but she had no amount of money that could ever induce her to marry him. Served her fight; what businesses had she to eat so much wedding-cake? Those Kansas girls are always overdoing whatever they attempt.


Illustrated Police News, May 20, 1875.