Pirate Tuesday
You may not know about Sadie the Goat -- one of Manhattan's famous pirates of the 1860s -- but you should. Here's a passage from "Booty: Girl Pirates on the High Seas."

She spent much of her time with a street gang. Mugging people on the streets of the Fourth Ward, Sadie would headbutt her victims in the stomach (hence the nickname) and then let her gang fleece the unfortunates of cash and goods. It was small change, but it was something to do.

Sadie was a regular on Water Street, the Fourth Ward's main drag and a favorite of sailors and those looking for underworld fun. A travel guide of the day called it the most violent street on the continent; another warned readers absolutely to stay clear after dark. The Fourth Ward Hotel kept a trapdoor to dump corpses into the East River. The street had no shortage of saloons and their unlicensed cousins, called 'blind tigers,' which served the locals, slumming gentry, and the criminals who preyed on all alike.

- posted by Amy @ Tuesday, March 09, 2004

 
Hello Monday
Snow or no?
- posted by Amy @ Monday, March 08, 2004