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Post by Craig Herbertson on Nov 30, 2010 21:14:38 GMT
I read this when it came out - Night's Black Angels: The Forms and Faces of Victorian Cruelty. That was one of the reasons I did anthropology. Titles like 'The Sexual Life of Savages and Taboo always did it for me. Sexual customs are utterly fascinating and are a great indication of how a society effects balance. Can well understand why Night's Black Angels should have inspired you so, craig. Have never owned a copy, haven't seen one in a long time, but it was a fixture of the local library when they still favoured reading matter over Mr. Bean DVD's and I well, absorbed the thing is about the best way I can put it, made a huge impression on me. It's likely one of the main reasons why, when I got into horror. Began with Hugh Lamb's anthologies of Victorian terror and Haining's The Penny Dreadful: Strange, Horrid And Sensational Tales! (another from the library; later managed to snag a copy in the Fantasy Centre). You can't know how long I've been meaning to post about both books but couldn't think of anything to say! I can really understand being silenced by these works. They speak so eloquently themselves. I mean, what can you say when confronted with a title like 'fatal case of elephant teasing.' And then you see the picture. It's like layers of icing on a nasty cake. Quite wonderful.
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Post by jamesdoig on Dec 1, 2010 3:36:38 GMT
Those woodcuts are fabulous. No doubt they had the same purpose as lurid paperback covers - to attract average Joe wandering past the news stand.
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Post by cw67q on Dec 1, 2010 10:01:43 GMT
that cat! Surely the Vulture pic should be cationed: Woman tries to santch vulture chick from outraged mother. My favourite it the one where the man had put the obvious cheap trick sword "through" the woman's head. I had one of those when I was a kid, If you look carefully you can see the connecting band accross the top of the "victim's" head. - chris
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Post by dem bones on Dec 1, 2010 10:17:35 GMT
I think we can safely add the cat-swinging beastly cad to Vault's ever-expanding Hall of Shame. Those woodcuts are fabulous. No doubt they had the same purpose as lurid paperback covers - to attract average Joe wandering past the news stand. This is a truism, James, or so it seems to me, and, as the most cursory flick through The Visual Guide To NEL demonstrates, one Peter Haining understood as well as anyone. What were the NEL's under his editorship but the working man's (and teenager with a paper round's) popular/ sensationalist fiction of the day? From my very limited understanding of the genre, lurid illustrations have always played their part in the allure of macabre fiction. I'd hazard that the increasingly prevalent tasteful, ashamed-to-be-horror cover art has as little appeal to the masses as the tasteful £50-and-rising price tag!
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Post by andydecker on Dec 1, 2010 11:57:25 GMT
i'd hazard that the increasingly prevalent tasteful, ashamed-to-be-horror cover art has as little appeal to the masses as the tasteful £50-and-rising price tag! Yeah, sadly true. They don´t know what they miss. And I am sure they will all become little repressed and hypocritical wannabee victorians
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elricc
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 100
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Post by elricc on Dec 1, 2010 19:52:12 GMT
On a different note they'd make cracking tattoos
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Post by dem bones on Mar 18, 2021 18:52:22 GMT
Linda Stratmann - The Illustrated Police News: The Shocks, Scandals and Sensations of the Week, 1864-1938 (British Library, 2019) Introduction
Murder Accidents and Disasters Cops and Robbers Social Comment Women Animals Celebrities, Scandals and public Events Achievement, Courage and Competition Supernatural and Strange Cruel and Unusual
Afterword and BibliographyBlurb: CHILD CARRIED OFF BY EAGLE! LION'S ADVENTURES IN A PLAYGROUND! MAN KILLED BY A COFFIN!
From the first issue published in February 1864, the Illustrated Police News promised an affordable pictorial round up of 'all the startling events of the week.' For the price of just one penny, readers were treated to tales of animals running amok, cruel murders, every kind of accident and disaster, celebrity news and special features such as 'BURGLARIES OF THE WEEK'
Crime author and historian Linda Stratmann is your guide through a lively selection of stories from this unique periodical, bringing to life the history and social significance behind a range of exuberant headlines - and their accompanying illustrations - from across the seventy-four bombastic years of the IPN's life in print.260+ glossy pages celebrating the excesses of a publication voted "the worst newspaper in England" in an 1886 poll of Pall Mall readers. A celebration of heinous crime, terrible cruelty and horrible discovery from the days when you could leave the family silver in the middle of the high street and it would still be there when you returned home a month later. Featured reports include the Poe-esque Startling Shock for Girl in a Bedroom, Fortean favourite The Deadly Embrace of a Devil Fish, Mother Shipton's Life and Prophesies, the timeless Death through Tight Lacing, a Mermaid at the Westminster Aquarium (possible forerunner of the Mermaid on the 52 Bus?) , Boys Murder their Mother - Shocking case at Plaistow and various improbably convoluted suicide attempts. Author's welcome history and commentary on sample items is informative as we would expect, though, if pushed would have to state a preference for De Fries' 'Orrible Murder wherein the stories are reproduced as originally published.
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Post by bluetomb on Mar 18, 2021 23:40:21 GMT
I think there may be certain physical impracticalities to a skeleton playing a brass instrument, but still that is quite a wonderful picture.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 6, 2021 10:32:36 GMT
"A couple of boys tarred and feathered a cat last April, and two nights later they were found stuck up in a barn side by side, stripped naked and tarred and feathered. Before that a farmer in the village left a fox in a trap all night and not long after he was found in the same trap" Not sure if this was a regular occurrence, but on occasion the IPN included short stories among the news items. David Fosbroke - The Unmasking of the Avenger: ( Illustrated Police News, 28 Jan 1937). A vigilante is loose in Lower Deeping, Sussex, visiting cruel and humiliating punishment on those who would dare abuse animals. Fearful of scandal, Dicky Pennington writes his old school chum, Guy Jerningham, solver of mysteries, requesting his help in identifying the culprit before Scotland Yard get wind of the story. So who are the suspects? That's the devil of the thing - there are none! "The village has three hundred inhabitants, and the effete and upper classes are represented by the vicar, uncle John, the two daughters of the late squire at the old Hall, and myself. There are three fellows at the Grange a mile away - brothers, and all a bit mad. One's been in Canada - remittance man, I believe, expelled from Harrow for something - and a second got hauled over the coals by the local magistrates for dressing up as a ghost and scaring a mother's outing! The third's cracked over chemistry and has blown himself up twice already. Whenever we hear a bang we think it's Bill Saunders going to heaven! They're all under thirty and not bad chaps in their way." True, Dicky's father, the Colonel, has a down on cruelty to all creatures great and small, but we can safely rule him from the running as he's blind in one eye and walks with a stick. What can it all mean? I'm not sure if this was unusual for the time, but the author - via his hero - leaves us in no doubt where his sympathies lie, and that is not with the "victims" who, everyone any good agrees, got off too lightly by far.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 28, 2024 12:55:27 GMT
Piccadilly by NightAT the Marlborough-street Police-court Annie Thompson, Albany-street, and Lizzie Kennedy, Waterford-road, Fulham, were charged with riotous conduct in Piccadilly at half-past one in the morning. A constable said that these young creatures fought each other furiously. They scratched and clawed, and tore down their back hair, and he had great difficulty in separating them. As soon as his back was turned they met again near to a cab rank, and went at it again. Kennedy said that as she was devouring a hot potato at a stand. Thompson came up to her and clawed her down the face. She demanded to know the reason why, when her "man" punched her on the head. Thompson said that Kennedy threw a hot potato at her first, and that led to the row. They were both sober. The defendants were fined 10s. each. — Illustrated Police News, 14 December 1889 A Parachutist Devoured by SharksADVICES just received at Queenstown from Honolulu, via San Francisco, contain an account of what is perhaps the most sensational death of an aeronaut on record, and which occurred at Honolulu on November 5th. Professor Von Tassel, of New York State, well known as a daring aeronaut, made a balloon ascent from the centre of the town of Honolulu on the king's birthday, and in the presence of an immense crowd. The balloon rose steadily until it attained a height of about two hundred feet, and then began to drift seaward. When about six hundred feet high Von Tassel was seen to plunge into the air, and soon he began to descend rapidly, the parachute seeming at first not working satisfactorily. After some time the descent appeared somewhat slower. When the balloon began to drift seaward a boat containing a brother of Von Tassel's followed it, as did also a small steamer, but although the steamer was not more than twenty yards distant from the unfortunate aeronaut when he fell into the water he was quickly drawn under the surface and devoured by sharks before those in the steamer could rescue him, although they heard his frightful screams. The steamer Zealandia from Australia, via Samos, was entering the harbour at the time that Von Tassel made his descent, and a boat was lowered to effect his rescue, but it also arrived on the scene too late. — Illustrated Police News, 14 December 1889 RUFFIANISM IN OXFORD STREET. At the Marlborough-street Police-court, on Monday afternoon, George Leonard, nineteen, a tailor, of Broad-street, Golden-square, was charged with assaulting Mr. Herbert Easton, a gentleman, of Shrewsbury-road, Bayswater. The complainant detailed acts of ruffianism on the part of a number of young fellows, which had not been heard for some time in this court. He said about half-past twelve on Sunday morning, as he was proceeding along Oxford-street, he passed several young men standing near to Harewood-place. Suddenly he was struck from behind, and turning, he asked who did it. As all the youths denied having touched him he continued his way. Before he had got a couple of paces, however, he found they were following him, and he received a kick in the back and four blows in the face. Then they seized him and struck and kicked him repeatedly. Some of the gang held down his umbrella, so that he had little means of defending himself. He managed, however, to strike the prisoner on the face and send him backwards. Then he sought to get away from them by running across the road. Some of the gang again followed, and they tripped him up and kicked and struck him on the head and shoulders while lying on the ground. He succeeded after a time in regaining his feet, and seeing a cab, he hailed it and jumped inside. Again they chased him "like a pack of wolves," and the prisoner got in after him, and struggled with him in the cab. He called "Police," and a constable appeared. Alfred Richards, the driver of the cab, said that when Mr. Easton took refuge in his cab, about twenty young fellows closed round it. Whilst some of them held the horses' head, others climbed up to him and threatened to "knife" him if he attempted to drive on or utter a word. Constable 259 D said that he heard the cry of "Police!" he ran to the spot, and found Mr. Euston and the prisoner struggling in a hansom, whilst a number of youths were pressing around it. He had literally to fight his way through them to get at the vehicle. He seized the prisoner, kept him in the cab, and told the driver to make all speed to the Marylebone Police-station. Several of the young fellows did their utmost to prevent the horse from moving, but on the arrival of other constables the gang scampered off. The prisoner at first resisted fiercely, but afterwards he fell back in the cab exhausted. Constable 172 D said that whilst on duty in Vere-street a man ran to him and told him that a gentleman had been killed by a man in a cab. He ran to the spot indicated, and found Constable 259 D struggling with the prisoner as described. In reply to the magistrate the police-constable said that Mr. Easton was perfectly sober. Sergeant Brewer gave the accused a bad character, saying that he belonged to a gang of young thieves who infested Oxford-street and the neighbourhood. Mr. Hannay said that this was one of the worst street outrages he had ever heard of, and he ordered the prisoner to be imprisoned with hard labour for two months. The prisoner observed in an impudent tone, "All right; that won't kill me." — Illustrated Police News, 14 December 1889 A CHILD named Jakeman, aged eighteen months, has died in the Birmingham General Hospital from the effects of burns. The parents keep a furniture shop in Great Hampton-row, and, the child being an invalid, there was a fire in the bedroom. By some means the room got on fire, and when the mother became aware of the fact the room was one mass of flames. The mother dashed into the room and rescued the child from its cot, being herself severely burned about the face and arms, the whole of her hair being also burned off. — Illustrated Police News, 14 December 1889 Terrible Fatality at Barnum's On Friday Dr. Diplock held an inquiry at the Ship Hotel, Bridge-road, Hammersmith, into the circumstances attending the death of George Stevens, aged thirty-two, a keeper in the employ of Mr. Barnum at his show at Olympia, who was killed by an elephant on Tuesday morning last. Mr. Campbell, solicitor, and Mr. Bailey were in attendance to watch the case on Mr. Barnum's behalf. Mr. James Anthony Bailey deposed that he was an American, at present staying at Bailey's Hotel, Gloucester-road. He was part proprietor of Barnum's Show, and the deceased was in his employ. He had been with the company four or five years as an elephant keeper. The elephant which caused the man's death had been with the "show" about eight years, and had never shown any viciousness or vindictiveness. It was considered a very docile animal. At the time of the accident there were a lot of workmen employed overhead, and that might have somewhat upset the elephant, and caused an alteration in its behaviour. Previous to this occurrence he had not heard that any change had taken place in the elephant's disposition. If such had been the case it would have been immediately reported to him. William Newman deposed that he was employed by Mr. Barnum as elephant trainer and performer. On Tuesday morning he saw all the elephants as usual, and noticed no excitement amongst them. The elephant referred to was always considered one of the quietest. Witness did not see anything of the occurrence. The deceased had to take care of and clean out the stable, and generally attend to the animals' wants. There were sixteen elephants to be cleaned and fed. By the Coroner: If the elephants were frisky or vicious the men had plenty of time to wait till they settled down. By the Jury: So far as he knew the animal had no grudge against Stevens. This was the first accident of the kind that had occurred since he had had charge of them, and that was from the fall of 1885. A Juror: Is the elephant safe for the public now? Witness: Oh, yes; perfectly. George Conklin, another employé at the show, stated that he had charge of all the wild animals except the elephants. About mid-day on Tuesday he was in the building, when he heard a shout of "Take him away !" and, looking over the partition, he saw the big elephant had the little one against the post. He seized a broom and went to separate them, calling on the larger one by name (Mandarin), and it walked away to its stall. When the little elephant moved he saw Stevens sitting up against the wall in a crouching position, and his head bent forward. He shouted for assistance, and some men came in and took Stevens out, but he was then dead. The witness did not notice any marks of injury on him, but blood was coming from his mouth. From the position in which the body was in it appeared to have been crushed by the smaller elephant. By the Coroner: He was standing close by at the time, and had no idea of danger. Each man looks after his own work, and pays no attention to anyone else. There was no one with the deceased, and it was probably the deceased who called out. The coroner said that was all the evidence he had before him. It appeared to be a case of accidental death. The jury, accepting the coroner's suggestion, returned a verdict that the deceased was accidentally killed by the elephant, and that ordinary precautions for safety had been taken. — Illustrated Police News, 14 December 1889
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