The innocent victim of an Englishman.
An Englishman visits Brooklyn, gets drunk, claims to be a Lord, provokes a fight with a pig and is arrested. Just another day in the borough in the 19th-century. A report from an October 8, 1885 article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
“Tuesday afternoon, while Sergeant Brophy sat behind the desk in the east New York Police Headquarters, Roundsman Ringheiser conducted a fine specimen of a real, live, Englishman. He was awfully English, awfully drunk, and looked as if he had been trying to absorb all the rain that was falling. His high silk hat had been carefully brushed the wrong way, and his collar was on its way down to meet the yellow tops of his shoes, while his broadcloth coat and lavender trousers would have been very much improved by being passed through a clothes wringer. The roundsman found him on Alabama avenue, disputing with a pig as to which of them were entitled to a choice spot under a leaky hay shed. With all the dignity accessible under such distressing circumstances, the prisoner described himself as Lord Caufield.
‘But, my Lord,’ submitted Sergeant Brophy, ‘you are very drunk; you will have to go on the blotter as being drunk and disorderly.’
‘I know, your Honor,’ hiccoughed the distinguished prisoner, ‘but what could I do, you know, I was so wet outside that I had to even it up. I’ll pay my fine, you know.’
At this point his lordship produced a large roll of bills. He was taken downstairs.”
More Old Print Articles:
- Carrie Nation arrested on Coney Island.
- Pig “actors” escape from Brooklyn theater. (1902)
- Cobbler tormented by pranksters. (1885)
- British fishermen kill a merman. (1896)
- Hobos steal fine clothes from decent folk. (1895)
- General Robert E. Lee kisses pretty girls. (1891)
- Monkey trained to steal jewelry. (1895)
- Brooklyn tailor tears out rival’s whiskers. (1898)
- Public baths required for Brooklyn filthbags. (1897)
- Judge orders monkey arrested. (1882)
- Silent film legend John Bunny is remembered in Brooklyn. (1915)
- Artist John Frankenstein perishes in Brooklyn. (1881)
- Four-year-old artistic genius in San Francisco. (1896)
- Brooklyn woman paints her own house, everybody freaks. (1900)
- Profile of an old-time clown. (1896)
- Performing bears at Bay Shore. (1895)
- Circus Freak gets indigestion after swallowing metal objects. (1904)
- Hairy woman thrown through barbershop window, uninjured. (1897)
- Hunchback paramour has throat cut. (1877)
- Inflated a boy with air. (1900)
- Prisoner gives evil eye to jailer. (1900)
- Three-card monte man passes away. (1878)
- Monkey rides bicycle. (1897)
- Bears brawl in Central Park. (1902)
- Umbrella duels. (1895)
- Boiling eggs with electricity. (1890)
- Billy goat guards recluse. (1900)
- Kissing bandit captured. (1892)
- A maniac gymnast. (1877)
- Brooklyn judge encounters sea monsters in his bathroom. (1902)
- Man finds severed human head, throws head back into creek. (1897)
- Brooklyn geezer tries to shoot noisy dogs. (1896)
- Hoaxer pretends to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. (1889)
- Manhattan madman goes on rampage. (1890)
- Fisticuffs at a male beauty pageant. (1893)
- Tough girl breaks detective’s nose. (1898)
- George Francis Train loses his mind. (1888)
- Organ grinder has monkey kidnapped. (1899)
- Human vampire behaves poorly. (1892)