George R. Stetson writing about the belief in Vampirism amongst the population in rural Rhode Island during the nineteenth century: …[I]t is perhaps fortunate that the isolation of which this is probably the product, an isolation common in sparsely settled regions, where thought stagnates and insanity and superstition are prevalent, has produced nothing worse. (Via Smithsonian Magazine’s “The Great New England Vampire Panic,” October 2012)
There are three types of the genus vagrant: the hobo, the tramp, and the bum. The hobo works and wanders, the tramp dreams and wanders and the bum drinks and wanders. In Hoboes: Bindlestiffs, Fruit Tramps, and the Harvesting of the West by Mark Wyman.
We tossed the cakes to them and I fed them like chickens with small pieces of cake and like chickens they ate it. Mr. Stevens kept guard with a whip with which he pretended to whip a small boy. We made them open their mouths and tossed cake into it. For a ‘Coup de Grace’ we threw a lot of them in a place and a writhing heap of human beings. We drove on very soon in the moonlight, It was beautiful.…We made the crowds that we gave cake to give three cheers for the U.S.A. before we gave them cake…. ...
Even the entertainment could be traumatic in No Man’s Land. People would gather at makeshift rodeo stands near Boise City, OK on Saturday afternoons to watch the cow dip. Cattle were herded into a chute and down into a vat of water. Once they hit the water, they were drowned by two cowboys, on either side of the vat, who held their heads down while the beeves bucked. Some of the children didn’t like it–an amusement ride with a sudden death at the end. ...