Althouse: "Alice Mullholland, 18, convicted of stealing some boots, sentenced to 3 months."

June 1, 2011

"Alice Mullholland, 18, convicted of stealing some boots, sentenced to 3 months."

From a collection of photographs of Newcastle criminals, 1871-1873.

50 comments:

Bayoneteer said...: Life must have been pretty hard then esp. so on the Flynn woman. She's listed as 34 but looks to be 54. A; 6/1/11, 3:26 PM
traditionalguy said...: Les miserables caught stealing something to wear in the winter.; 6/1/11, 3:26 PM
Revenant said...: Interesting.; 6/1/11, 3:31 PM
LilyBart said...: Trad Guy:

Most people had very little in those days. Stealing someone's boots might have very well meant that the victim was completely without adequate shoes in the winter.; 6/1/11, 3:33 PM
coketown said...: I'm sure Mary Docherty, 14, will think twice about stealing iron next time. After 7 days hard labor.; 6/1/11, 3:33 PM
ndspinelli said...: Winona Ryder's great great great grandmother.; 6/1/11, 3:34 PM
Phil 314 said...: Winona Ryder convicted of stealing over $5000 of clothing was sentenced to 480 hours of community service at the City of Hope, and unsupervised probation

Jail is for "the little people"; 6/1/11, 3:35 PM
Winding down said...: Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short -- Hobbs

Forget that -- FDR and LBJ reordered the universe.

BHO is nurturing their legacy -- or maybe curse.; 6/1/11, 3:36 PM
Fred4Pres said...: I am surprised no one way tickets to Australia for that bunch.; 6/1/11, 3:39 PM
Fred4Pres said...: Lindsay Lohan could use a few weeks of hard labor too.

She does not look much better than that bunch. She has a lot of milage.; 6/1/11, 3:41 PM
MayBee said...: I wonder if Miss Mulholland was of the same family that eventually came to LA. If so, well played, Mulholland family.; 6/1/11, 3:45 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Resembles Babe Ruth.; 6/1/11, 3:47 PM
Triangle Man said...: Unflattering lighting.; 6/1/11, 3:56 PM
Fred4Pres said...: Any of them convicted of bringing coal to Newcastle?; 6/1/11, 3:57 PM
coketown said...: That's several links to that site in the last few days. Take note: Ann aspires to be a retronaut.; 6/1/11, 4:01 PM
Ex-prosecutor said...: The criminals of 1871 were of a much higher class than we have today. Also, I note that, apparently, inappropriate dress, such as wearing pants so low as to expose the buttocks was not so much of a problem then.; 6/1/11, 4:06 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: We need Transportation to the Moon.; 6/1/11, 4:19 PM
windbag said...: I know several people who long for the holier, simpler days of the 19th century. I try to silence their ignorant nostalgia with the suggestion that they try out 19th century dentistry to see how glorious those days really were. Now I can point them to the pictures, where teenagers are middle-aged and 30-somethings have one foot in the grave. Hard times back then, eh?; 6/1/11, 4:31 PM
Bayoneteer said...: I see the old days weren't the small gov laissez-faire paradise some of us here seem to think it was. At least not in the UK.; 6/1/11, 4:37 PM
edutcher said...: They did not mess around in them thar days, no coddling of criminals.

In some ways, these people may have gotten off lucky.

KenK said...

Life must have been pretty hard then esp. so on the Flynn woman. She's listed as 34 but looks to be 54

The Industrial Revolution hadn't really impacted the average working stiff yet. No antibiotics, no central heating, no good water in many cases.

40 was old - you died about the time the body started to give out.

LilyBart said...

Trad Guy:

Most people had very little in those days. Stealing someone's boots might have very well meant that the victim was completely without adequate shoes in the winter.

Very true. Horse theft and rustling in the West were immediate death sentences if caught; both could mean the measure of survival for not only an individual, but a whole family.

Ex-prosecutor said...

The criminals of 1871 were of a much higher class than we have today.

There was no plea bargain and judges were praised for their harshness.; 6/1/11, 4:40 PM
Anonymous said...: Very true. Horse theft and rustling in the West were immediate death sentences if caught

Or, as the saying goes, nobody ever met a horse that needed stealing.

Murder, however, did merit a trial.; 6/1/11, 4:44 PM
rhhardin said...: Making boots is a month-long project without modern trade. That's quite a theft.; 6/1/11, 4:50 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: My doormat was stolen again. It was a really nice one too. I anticipated it would be stolen so I bought two to replace the first one that was stolen but now I believe it not possible to have a doormat with all these impish pranksters running around who cannot keep their grubby little mitts off my doormat. Bastards.; 6/1/11, 5:31 PM
Shanna said...: I actually wish we still made some effort to find/prosecute thieves. Maybe some middle ground between 6 months time for shoes and the police barely interested in taking a statement for insurance.; 6/1/11, 5:35 PM
J said...: scroll a few pages back in retro-land to seeAynhouse's real interests; 6/1/11, 5:40 PM
Chris Althouse Cohen said...: #5 (Charles Burns) looks like Justin TImberlake.; 6/1/11, 5:42 PM
edutcher said...: Note the many Irish surnames. Undoubtedly, the environment in England, without protection from an Establishment of Religion (even though its meaning has been prostituted out of all recognition by the Lefties), was unfriendly to sons and daughters of the Church.

PS J once again shows what really interests him.; 6/1/11, 5:45 PM
J said...: Edu. the sunday schooler once again shows how little he knows of English, Irish or American history. The Newcastle inmates were mostly victims of Anglo-capitalism anyway, Queen Vicky style. (don't trouble yr little John Bircher mind about it Edu-tard); 6/1/11, 5:50 PM
ricpic said...: Resembles Babe Ruth.

Yeah, but she couldn't hit the curve ball breaking low and away. Result? Penury.; 6/1/11, 6:00 PM
David said...: KenK said...
"I see the old days weren't the small gov laissez-faire paradise some of us here seem to think it was."

Nearly every thread has at least one comment that is ignorant and stupid in the extreme. You have supplied that comment for this thread. For your achievement, you are given the Flaming Straw Man award for this thread. Cherish it.; 6/1/11, 6:01 PM
edutcher said...: J said...

Edu. the sunday schooler once again shows how little he knows of English, Irish or American history. The Newcastle inmates were mostly victims of Anglo-capitalism anyway, Queen Vicky style. (don't trouble yr little John Bircher mind about it Edu-tard)

Clearly, J never heard of the Anglican Establishment and its effects on British society; he merely projects his neuroses on everyone else.; 6/1/11, 6:09 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Alice had a little resemblance with 24's Mary Lynn Rajskub.; 6/1/11, 6:12 PM
Fred4Pres said...: Chip, if you monitor them with some cheap outdoor wireless camera system tied to your computer--you can store the images and then identify the kid doing this.

Probably over kill for a doormat, but at least you would not feel like a doormat.; 6/1/11, 6:17 PM
David said...: There are several interesting things about these photos beyond the subject matter.

First, it's interesting that they took them at all. Photography was new, and expensive. The intent seems to go beyond having an identifier of the convict. There's an obvious attempt to inject some art and soul into the images.

Second, the subjects are cooperating in the process. They have been told how to pose, and they pose that way. There are as interested in the camera as the camera is in them. Probably many had never been photographed before. What were they thinking?

Third, while their clothes are tattered and grimy, all the subjects are dressed with a stab at respectability. They are upwardly aspiring, not nihilistic or rebellious. Contrast these photos with current web shots.

I wonder who the photographer was. It is a fine set of portraits.; 6/1/11, 6:27 PM
Ann Althouse said...: @David One thing I notice is the hands. The photographer seem to have a strong sense of the hands conveying personal identity, like the face.; 6/1/11, 6:30 PM
ricpic said...: KenK and J can't imagine how us poor weak reeds got along before caring gummint. Just fine, thank you. But here's the catch: was life perfect? No. GOTCHA says lefty and walks away with the cat that caught the canary grin plastered all over his smug mug.; 6/1/11, 6:34 PM
Anonymous said...: "KenK said...
"I see the old days weren't the small gov laissez-faire paradise some of us here seem to think it was."

You should see the pictures of the new dread-locked tattooed soulless predators in your local lock-up. All created by the 'War on Poverty', a kind caring social welfare system, and a compassionate government.; 6/1/11, 6:48 PM
Bayoneteer said...: @ David , et. al.
I will wear your censure as a badge of honor. A man is known by the enemies he makes and why. I consider your spittle a reputation enhancer. So rave on, please.; 6/1/11, 6:49 PM
ken in tx said...: I also noticed the number of Irish names. My ancestors came here to get away from British discrimination, in 1788.; 6/1/11, 6:53 PM
J said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/1/11, 7:36 PM
J said...: 6:09 Clearly, you don't know fock about the east end of London in the 19th century Edu-trash, and you don't know jack about the Anglican-calvinist racket either (and most of xtians working the London street were methodists, anyway, Edu-dreck). Stick to your Bruce Catton for Dyslexic rednecks, fool; 6/1/11, 7:38 PM
Luther said...: Most of the sentences, given time and place, seemed reasonable to me. Some thought given to the severity of the crime and the criminal; age of in particular. Some get caught up in using present day attitudes to judge the past, a shallow but easy view.; 6/1/11, 7:54 PM
Anonymous said...: It is a very safe assumption that Alice Mulholland, unlike almost all women today, had a thick, rich, luxuriant ... oh, to hell with it.

Peter; 6/1/11, 7:57 PM
edutcher said...: J said...

6:09 Clearly, you don't know fock about the east end of London in the 19th century Edu-trash, and you don't know jack about the Anglican-calvinist racket either (and most of xtians working the London street were methodists, anyway, Edu-dreck). Stick to your Bruce Catton for Dyslexic rednecks, fool

Apparently, we've moved on from the Jews and the Mormons to the Calvinists.

Can't wait till we get to the Zoroastrians.; 6/1/11, 8:20 PM
Known Unknown said...: It is a very safe assumption that Alice Mulholland, unlike almost all women today, had a thick, rich, luxuriant ... oh, to hell with it.

Alice might have been the merkin type.; 6/1/11, 9:03 PM
David said...: Ann Althouse said...
@David One thing I notice is the hands.

I saw that too--very similar hand poses. When being photographed, people have trouble knowing what to do with their hands.; 6/1/11, 9:12 PM
galdosiana said...: I like the caption under William Harrison, 51: convicted of obtaining oats by false pretence, sentenced to 12 months; 6/1/11, 9:54 PM
Alex said...: Jane Farrell, 12, convicted of stealing 2 boots, sentenced to do 10 hard days labour

That one really hit me hard. That girl didn't look like she was in any condition to do 10 days hard labor.; 6/2/11, 1:44 AM
Revenant said...: I see the old days weren't the small gov laissez-faire paradise some of us here seem to think it was.

I second David's observation that the above is the dumbest comment in the thread.

Ken's probably another one of those folks that confuses laissez-faire with anarchy.; 6/2/11, 2:48 AM
Strelnikov said...: McCauley Culkin's sister; or, possibly, brother.; 6/2/11, 7:52 PM