"He broke my windows with a sling shot and threw tomato cans at me." (Image by Ralf Roletschek.)

The tomato can was the Molotov cocktail of nineteenth-century Brooklyn, as this trio of articles from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle illustrates.

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“Mrs. Klein’s Troubles–She Says They Lock Her Up and Throw Tomato Cans at Her” (November 23, 1886): “Mrs. Katrina Klein, an elderly German woman, lives at 461 Carroll Street. The boys in the neighborhood are more than usually mischievous and according to her statement, render her life miserable. On the night of November 10 a gang of youngsters fastened her door with a piece of rope and then threw stones through the window. When Mrs. Klein succeeded in getting out she seized upon Peter Sterling, a lad who lives next door, and gave him into custody. This morning he was arraigned before Judge Walsh.

‘Do you know this villain?’ asked the Court.

‘I do your Honor. He is the worst boy in the world. He broke my windows with a sling shot and threw tomato cans at me. Whenever I go out he calls ‘Klein, Klein’ after me.’

The judge gave Sterling a lecture and then allowed him to go, as he denied having broken the windows.”

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“Much Trouble in the Flat” (August 7, 1901): “Interdomestic troubles in the flat at 117 Carlton Avenue occupied the attention of Magistrate Naumer of the Myrtle Avenue police court this morning. Mrs. Mary Deegan, who occupies an apartment on the third floor of this flat, was in the court as complainant against Charles, Thomas and John Dunn, inhabitants of the first floor. She charged that these three young men forcibly entered her room Sunday afternoon and brutally assaulted her daughter Jennie, a school girl, and herself.

"They alleged also that Mrs. Deegan dropped a tomato can on the head of Thomas."

Mrs. Deegan swore that Charles and Thomas first burst into the room; that Charles seized her bodily and threw her on the floor, while Thomas struck Jennie in the eye and cried out, ‘I owe you that.’ Then, she says, Thomas threw Jennie on top of her. Just as she was regaining her feet, so she says, John entered the room and slapped her face.

The three Dunns denied the charge and swore they had never been in Mrs. Deegan’s rooms in their lives. They said they had a quarrel with Mrs. Deegan on Sunday afternoon, but it was conducted from their respective windows and was the result of Mrs. Deegan spitting on their sister’s head while she was leaning out the window. They alleged also that Mrs. Deegan dropped a tomato can on the head of Thomas. Magistrate Naumer held the boys under $200 bail each for the Court of Special Sessions.”

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“Who Threw the Tomato Can” (December 15, 1891): “Patrolman Horahue of the First Precinct had some trouble with a number of young men on Tillary Street, near Lawrence on the night of the 8th. Somebody threw a tomato can at him and it struck him on the bridge of the nose. Shortly afterward he appeared at the Adams Street Station with Peter Dolan of 163 Tillary Street and James Cleary of 33 Main Street as prisoners. He had thumped them both on the head with his club and both required the services of an ambulance surgeon. This morning Justice Walsh tried Dolan on a charge of assault preferred against him. The prisoner’s head was still bandaged and he looked weak. Horahue swore that Nolan threw the tomato can, but when he was cross examined his evidence on that point was somewhat hazy. Dolan, who is a plumber in business for himself, and a pretty good fellow, his neighbors say,denied the charge. Justice Walsh discharged him with the comment that the evidence against him was not satisfactory and that Dolan had been punished enough in his judgement.”