Steele Scrapbook – July 5, 1892
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A BOY’S HAND BLOWN TO PIECES.
SYRACUSE, July 5.—Frederick T. Morgan, age thirteen, had one of his hands blown to pieces at 1 o’clock this morning while firing a small cannon in celebration of the Fourth. The hand was amputated by Dr. Loomis. |
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Ruthlessly Stolen From From Alf |
The Latin Reader – March 28, 1895
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ROOSTER ATTACKS A BOY. Would Have Killed the Lad But For a Speedy Rescue. A large rooster to-day attacked little Sammel Illig, and the boy was only saved by his family. He is a son of S. W. Illig, and had gone into the yard to feed the chickens. The ferocious rooster flew upon his back and began to sink his beak in the lad’s neck. The angry fowl was also using his sharp spurs, and the boy was unable to dislodge his assailant. He screamed in pain and another member of the family rushed out, and with a club beat off the savage bird. |
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Extorted from Alf
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July 22, 1885
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A Baby’s Foot Bitten Off. PITTSBURG, Pa., July 22.—Two ferocious bulldogs attacked the nurse and three-year old child of John Haening, of Allentown (a city suburb), yesterday afternoon while out for an airing. The nurse was badly bruised and scratched. One of the dogs seized the baby by the foot, biting it off at the ankle. The child will probably die. |
From the Steele Scrapbook
Generously donated by Alf
Chico Weekly Record, Chico, California – Saturday, December 11, 1897
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UPHOLSTERER LEVENS HAS HALLUCINATIONS Told Officers That Arson and Murder Was Being Committed Yesterday. TAKEN IN FOR SAFE KEEPING. Will be Examined on a Charge of Insanity Jack Leven, an upholster [sic], who has been in Chico several months and has been in the employ of Jewell & Johnson at various times, has become mentally deranged and was locked up by Officers Henry and Walsh yesterday morning. Leven had previously called upon Marshal Mansfield and told queer tales, but as he appeared harmless, he was advised to take some medicine and try and sleep off his strange delusions. Yesterday morning about three o’clock he approached Officer Henry and gave a startling report. He said that a young woman in Yreka, named Annie Lawrence was to be murdered, and he urged the officer to save her life by telegraphing to the officials. He also said that two fires were being started in town which would destroy large business blocks. Then the officers told him to accompany them to a telegraph office, and it was only a short time until Levens was in a cell in the city prison. The fellow was very changeable in his immaginations [sic]. He thought he had been doomed to be killed or multilated [sic], but at times he would recover his reason and talk rationally. When his reason would come to him, he would talk of his being “rattled.” He is not a drinking man. He will be held in the city prison a day or two longer, and if the physicians believe him to be insane, he will be taken to Oroville. He formerly resided in Arbuckle, where he was well known, Claud Stanton of the hotel there being one of his friends. |
Hmmmm… Don’t you wonder whether he really did have inside information regarding imminent crimes?
From the collection of The Comtesse DeSpair.
Steele Scrapbook – January 24, 1885
A PRETTY GIRL BECOMES INSANE.Special Dispatch to The North American. NEW YORK, Jan. 24.—A handsome twenty-year-old Hungarian girl named Xenia Orli, well known among artists as a model, was admitted to Bellevue Hospital yesterday from the Working Girls’ Home, 140 east Fourteenth street, suffering from insanity. She had been ailing some time mentally, but only became violent Friday night, when she threatened to throw herself out of the window to escape imaginary enemies. The girl has always kept her private affairs to herself, and all that is known about her is that she came from Paris four years ago, where she had some trouble with her family and separated from them |
Wrapped Up In A Straitjacket And Stolen From Alf
Latin Reader – January 18, 188?
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ATTEMPTED TO CREMATE HIMSELF.
Made Insane by Excessive Cigarette Smoking and Applied a Match to Kerosene Oil He Rubbed on His Body.
Jersey City, Jan. 18.—Florentine Patterson, twenty-one years old of 77 Giles avenue, who was made insane by excessive cigarette smoking, attempted to burn himself to death yesterday at his home. He was released recently from the lunatic asylum at Snake Hill, and it was thought he was cured. Yesterday his mother heard him screaming in his room, and found him enveloped in flames. He had partly stripped himself, rubbed kerosene oil on his body, and touched it off with a match. His mother wrapped a blanket around him and extinguished the flames, but not before he had been severely burned. Afterward he threatened to kill his mother and stepfather, and they had him arrested. He will be returned to the asylum. |
Snatched From The Arms Of Alf
Steele Scrapbook – September 30, 1885
 THE IMPENDING MASSACRE. Shall the Chinese be Slaughtered in Washington Territory as in Wyoming? WASHINGTON, Sept. 30.—There is a growing feeling here that a Chinese massacre of great magnitude will surely result in Washington Territory at no late day, growing out of the recent labor meetings held in Seattle and other portions of the Territory. Your correspondent called on Gen. McKeever, who is acting Adjutant General in the absence of Gen. Drum, and asked him if the government had arranged to send troops to protect the Chinese in Seattle in case of a riot. Gen. McKeever said: “Neither the president, the secretary of war, nor the general of the army can order troops unless the Governor of Washington Territory request it.” “Are there available troops in the vicinity of Seattle?” “Yes, the Fourteenth Infanty; now at Vancouver Barracks, can reach that place by rail in a very few hours.” |
I was curious if anything had ever become of this, and Julie was kind enough to send the following link from Harper’s Weekly:
Anti-Chinese Riot At Seattle
Unceremoniously Stolen From Alf
Steele Scrapbook – September 16, 1885
 HORRIBLE STATE OF AFFAIRS. The Chinese in California Breeding Disease and Pestilence. SAN FRANCISCO, Cal., Sept. 16.–The discovery yesterday afternoon of the horrible practices of the Chinese in preparing the bones of their dead fellow countrymen for shipment to China, which have been carried on under the very nose of the city authorities, has created deep and intense excitement. The knowledge that such a mass of putrification was lying exposed in the very heart of the city while at the same time the drainage and sewers of the city are known to be in a filthy condition, has created a feeling of fear for the health of the city. After all the boxes containing the remains of the dead Chinamen had been removed to the Morgue, the carman was interviewed in regard to the matter. He stated that when he arrived at the cellar in which the bodies were stored, and in which putrified remains, which had still to be boiled, were lying, he set to work to break open the boxes. There was some sixty bodies in all. Each box contained a tin case, in which carefuly wrapped in oil cloths were a number of human bones. The smaller bones and long strips of skin were wrapped up in separate parcels and placed within the larger ones. On the outside of each box was a label bearing Chinese characters, giving the name of the dead persons within so that the remains could be identified by relatives in China. After having opened several of the boxes the Coroner concluded to seize the whole lot and remove them to the Morgue. Express wagons were called for the purpose. While the cases were being placed in the wagon, some of them rolled off and fell to the pavement, breaking open and exposing the contents. The crowd which had assembled upon hearing the cause of the excitement jumped on the bones, and in their indignation trod them under foot. The police quickly interposed, and the loading continued without further interruption. The remains were removed to the morgue. Most of the boxes containing remains were, on examination, found to have come from cities in the interior of the State. The remains were shipped from there to San Francisco in common tea boxes. Those that come from the interior are boiled and prepared before shipment, so that no odor is perceptible on the route. Only those removed from San Francisco cemeteries have flesh still on them when brought for preparation to the cellar. It was the intention to have shipped all these on the steamer City of Pekin, which sails Saturday next. It is rumored that the Chinese Six Companies will bring an action against the coroner for the removal of the boxes and remains. |
Unceremoniously Stolen From Alf
Chico Weekly Record, Chico, California – Saturday, December 25, 1897
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FIRE IN CHINATOWN Old Village on Flume Had a Close Call. A fire broke out in the Northeast end of old Chinatown on Flume street yesterday morning and the fire department put it out before any serious damage was done by the flames. A portion of the roof was burned off of one of the buildings, but quick work on the part of the firemen prevented a spread of the flames. The firemen gave the Mongolians a drenching and used nearly enough water to float the whole town to the creek, beyond which it rightfully belongs. |
From the collection of The Comtesse DeSpair.
Chico Weekly Record, Chico, California – Saturday, December 25, 1897
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COMPLAINT OUT FOR A THIEVING CHINESE Has for Weeks Been Stealing Wood From a Chopper on the Morehead Farm. M.P. Jones swore to a complaint yesterday charging a Chinaman, whose name was unknown to the complainant, with petit larceny. It appears from Jones’ statement that he has been engaged in chopping wood on the Morehead ranch for W.J. O’Connor, and during five or six weeks past he has been noticing that the woodpile was diminishing. He had driven a Chinaman from the woodpile on one occasion, and last Sunday three men saw the Mongolian leaving the woodpile with a sack of wood. They gave chase and made him drop the wood. The Chinaman is well known to the officers and Constable Chubbuck, who has the warrant, will probably place him under arrest this morning. The fellow lives in a a cabin near Chico creek west of the railroad. |
And here’s a follow up from a few days later…
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Petit Larcenist Arrested. Constable Chubbuck arrested the Chinaman yesterday against whom a complaint was sworn to before Justice March by M.P. Jones, charging him with stealing wood from the Morehead farm. The fellow will be arraigned before Justice March, and in the meantime will abide in the city prison, as he has no funds with which to secure his release. |
What I find racist about this one is not the story itself, but the details, like referring to the man as a “Thieving Chinese”.
From the collection of The Comtesse DeSpair.
