July 18: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1914, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Houdini, the ‘Handcuff King,’ can break all sorts of confining apparatus — on the stage. But when it comes to breaking out of jail, once he is inside for some offense, he either cannot or would not do it. Yesterday, Houdini, known off the stage as Theodore Weiss, of 394 East Twenty-first Street, was speeding along Ocean Parkway, between Avenues J and M, when he was stopped and arrested by motorcycle Policeman Leonard Preston. In the Flatbush court this morning, Preston told Magistrate Dodd that Houdini was going thirty-two miles an hour. Houdini indignantly denied this and said that his rate of speed was twenty miles an hour. Magistrate Dodd, however, imposed the fine of $25 or three days imprisonment. It would be easy for the great Houdini to break out of jail within a day, but he chose to pay the $25 instead under severe protest.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1916, the Eagle reported, “RIVERHEAD, L.I. — If Captain George A. Vail of Riverhead and his faithful mate, Bill Nesbitt, keep the rugged constitution that is now theirs, bathers in Peconic Bay need have but little more fear of sharks, because Capt. Vail and his crew are rapidly sweeping these scavengers of the sea out of the Upper Peconic. When Captain Vail visited his fish traps yesterday, he discovered, greatly to his amazement, that he had five more big sharks in one net and one in another trap. The largest of the half dozen measured a little over six feet. These are not classed as man-eaters, ‘but they’ll bite just as quick, young feller,’ Captain Alonzo Vail, another old salt in the Vail family, declared as reporters were inspecting the catch after it had been brought back to this village. That makes nine sharks that Captain Vail has caught within a week.”