1909: Would Drink Champagne From Baby’s Skull

“INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., May 13.-- Public opinion and the police caused a change in the detail of the doctors’ banquet given at the Rockwood tuberculosis sanitarium, the occasion being the initiation of the Greek letter fraternity of several well known physicians. Arrangements were made to serve the diners in plates made of human skulls and instead of knives and forks, to use surgical instruments.  This part of the program was carried out, but resentment at serving champagne with babies’ skulls for cups caused ordinary champagne glasses to be used. The place was also lighted with candles set in human skulls and human bones decorated the tables. Organs of the human body were reproduced in ice cream and gelatines. Skulls of guinea pigs that had been dissected were used for match safes.  Chief of Police Metzger prevented the decoration of an interurban outing car with emblems of death and hearses did not serve as carriages. Several physicians balked at the plan to drink wine out of babies’ skulls and it was abandoned.”

~The Spokane press. (Spokane, Wash.), 13 May 1909. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. 

“On Saturday night last the police of Albany were engaged in the investigation of an odd case. A woman named M’Garshan, was charged with imposing herself upon another woman as a man, and actually marrying her. Other enormities are also laid to her account.--The fact of the marriage was clearly proved, and the ‘female husband’ was committed for further examination.”  ~Carroll free press. (Carrollton, [Ohio]), 09 Dec. 1842. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. 

1859: A Very Extraordinary Revelation

“A very extraordinary revelation was made at an inquest recently, before the Coroner for Salford, England. The body of a man was found in the sluice at Mode Wheel, on the river Irwell, and in the evening an inquest was held. On inquiry, it was found that the deceased, who went by the name Henry Stokes, was in fact a woman; that she had worked as a bricksetter for about a quarter of a century; that she had been twice married during that period; had kept a beer shop in Manchester during the early part of her career, but in every way conducted herself as a man. The jury, after an examination, returned a verdict of ‘found drowned.’“  ~The Alleghanian. (Ebensburg, Pa.), 08 Dec. 1859. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

1923: Posed as a Woman for Fourteen Years

“CHICAGO, Oct. 19.--Fred C. Thompson, whose trial and acquittal on charges of killing Richard C. Tesmer disclosed he had posed as a woman for fourteen years, has filed a petition in superior court to restrain the police from interfering with his appearance on the vaudeville stage. Thompson resumed feminine clothing after his release several weeks ago.” ~From The Abilene Daily Reporter (Abilene, Tex.), October 19, 1923

1917: Girl Posing as a Boy Killed at Camp Stuart

“Newport News, Va., Oct. 18--Florence Kelly, a 20-year-old girl of Greenville, Tenn., who has been working at Camp Stuart here for three weeks as a water boy, was killed here today by a motor truck during a Liberty Loan parade. She was riding on the truck and fell beneath the wheels. The young woman had been doing a boy’s work and living in quarters at the camp with the workmen without arousing suspicion as to her sex.” ~From San Antonio Express. (San Antonio, Tex.), October 19, 1917

“New York.--John Valtz and Martin Hart each fined $5 for sticking out tongues at policemen.” 

~The day book. (Chicago, Ill.), 07 Aug. 1915. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. 

1905: Wild West Road Agent Allowed Victim to Take His Picture

Milwaukee, Wis., Sept 6.--A remarkable photograph is that which A.G. Veith, Austrian consul in Milwaukee, brings home from a western trip. Mr. Veith and a number of fellow passengers in a Yosemite valley coach were held up by a lone highwayman, and when the highwayman had finished the job he graciously consented to stand for a photograph of the scene, including himself. This was taken by Mr. Veith, and is probably the only photograph of the kind ever taken.  Mr. Veith said:  “We were all requested by the highwayman to stand in a row. As we did so I asked the German guide whether he would join me in tackling the man. He shook his head. 

“The robber searched the women, and became angry when he discovered one of them trying to hide some money in a camera. When we got back into the stage he seemed disappointed at the small amount of his haul and asked: ‘Now, is that all the money you have?’ I told him my watch was an heirloom, and worth little to him, and so he gave it back. He had ordered the driver to go ahead, and I, in a back seat, saw him wave his hand at us, and I waved back. Then it occurred to me that a photograph would be a good thing to have. I asked him whether he would do me the favor. 

“‘Well, I don’t suppose anybody’d know me, anyhow, in this disguise,’ he remarked. ‘Go ahead.’  “And that is how I got the picture.”  ~From The Spokane press. (Spokane, Wash.), 06 Sept. 1905. Chronicling America. Lib. of Congress. 

1913: An Old Pair of Shoestrings

“Milwaukee, Wis.--In a will eight and one-half feet long Miss Matilda Tommet bequeathed everything from money to chicken feed to friends, but an old pair of shoestrings went to an enemy.” 

~From The day book. (Chicago, Ill.), 06 Sept. 1913. Chronicling America. Lib. of Congress. 

1913: Powers of Imagination

“Rotterdam.--Wagering on his powers of imagination, Albert Dethyn won 200 cigars by eating pound of dry wheat flour while he watched another man drink 10 glasses of beer.” 

~From The day book. (Chicago, Ill.), 06 Sept. 1913. Chronicling America. Lib. of Congress.

1916: Four Inmates Escaped

“Four inmates of Dunning insane asylum escaped. One was woman said she was going to marry another of the four.” ~The day book. (Chicago, Ill.), 07 Aug. 1916. Chronicling America. Lib. of Congress. 

1905: One of the Things Which Happen Occasionally to the Motorists

~The Spokane press. (Spokane, Wash.), 07 Aug. 1905. Chronicling America. Lib. of Congress. 

1901: Made Insane by Reading Novels

“Frank Fleetwood, the 20-year-old son of Jacob Fleetwood of Tipton, Ind., has become mentally deranged from the effects of reading novels. A few days since, he became violent and drove his parents from the house. It is said he read over 1,000 novels.”  ~The Cook County herald. (Grand Marais, Minn.), 15 June 1901. Chronicling America. Lib. of Congress. 

1902: A Genuine Attachment

“George Green, aged 74, died at Petersburg, Va., last week. He had been married for 35 years. He was a woman. He married a widow, who was so humiliated when she made the discovery that she had married a woman she was ashamed to disclose the fact. However, after living with her female husband so many years, a genuine attachment sprung up between them, and she now mourns the departed with genuine grief.”

~From The Bellefontaine Republican. (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio), 25 March 1902. Chronicling America. Lib. of Congress.

1907: Feud Is Result of a Refusal to Kiss Baby

“FEUD IS RESULT OF A REFUSAL TO KISS BABY

Whole Section in Trouble Because of Unappreciative Man with Grouch COMMUNITY TAKES SIDES Bill Dunham Open in His Declaration That Ollie Kebler Shall Yet Beg for Privilege He Scornfully Refused--Kebler Had Loved Pretty Little One’s Mother, and There is the Root of the Whole Trouble--Fight So Far Has Been Interesting, with Further Developments Expected”

~The Rising son. (Kansas City, Mo.), 23 Feb. 1907. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. 

[The article is actually very long but I think this clipping sums it up sufficiently.]

1903: Prisoners Play Cards to Spank Each Other

“Prisoners confined in jail with nothing to occupy their efforts usually find some way of killing time. The ingenuity shown is often remarkable. To some these means may savor of the childhood, make-believe play, but that charge does not bother the adults who may be guilty of it.  In the county jail the other day a reporter saw an instance. The game was at cards, Seven-up. There were no chips to pass for forfeits--and here the inventive genius came in. Two men had sat vis-a-vis on their cell hammock for hours and until the tally list of games won reached several times across a slip of paper. At the close of one game the winner reached behind him and pulled out a paddle or spanker. ‘Here, take your medicine,’ he called to his opponent, whereupon the latter presented the seat of his trousers for a bastinado of the number of strokes equal to the margin of points by which he had lost the game.  ‘Nosy poker’ is similar. In this case the beaten man presents his nose for receiving strikes from the deck of cards. ‘Those two fellows sometimes have noses so red that they look like electric light bulbs,’ commented the jailer.” 

~The Spokane press. (Spokane, Wash.), 13 July 1903. Chronicling America. Lib. of Congress. 

1893: Kissing Epidemic

“In the city of New York a kind of crusade has been inaugurated against women kissing women on all occasions, especially on the streets and at railway stations. One writer prays for the speedy downfall of the ‘kissing epidemic.’ Another says that she is ashamed of the sex that ‘has kissed and sizzled over formal acquaintances,’ and predicts that in less than twenty-five years it will be as obsolete as now is the ‘custom of piercing the ears of pure young girlhood for jeweled decoration.’ No one, fortunately, has yet inaugurated a crusade against women kissing men.” 

~From The Worthington advance. (Worthington, Minn.), 02 Feb. 1893. Chronicling America. Lib. of Congress. 

1907: Here’s the Man Who Thinks He Can Shoot Your Soul With a Camera

“New York, July 13--Recently a stir was caused by the claim of Boston scientists that by weighing the bodies of persons before and after death they had been able to determine the weight of the soul. Now comes Henry Price, a retired professor, who not only tells what the soul looks like and where it is located, but offers to photograph it as it leaves the body. He has asked the Bellevue hospital authorities for permission to install cameras at a few deathbeds in order to make such pictures. A number of subjects would have to be exposed to the camera, because, you see, some people have no souls. 

‘You only have a soul,’ says Professor Price, ‘if you have merited 1 from the Deity. If you have transgressed His law, if you are steeped in sin, you have no soul. You die like a dumb animal and crumbling dust is the end of you. ‘What is a soul like? Why, it is small, shapeless and gelatinous, and is located beneath the first rib. At the moment of death the soul is removed by an angel or agent of Deity. It must be taken while warm and palpitating and transferred to a body the counterpart of the 1 it has left. There is no such thing as eternity. The soul expires after its second life. ‘A camera sees and records things not visible to the eye. That is why I am seeking an opportunity to take photographs and thus demonstrate this discovery that has come after almost a lifetime of study.’

The professor thinks a soul does not weigh more than a gram.” ~The Spokane press. (Spokane, Wash.), 13 July 1907. Chronicling America. Lib. of Congress.