Tuesday Ten: Victorians & Vampires

I'm completing research on a new short vampire story set during the Civil War and bought a book on the origins of vampire lore.

Although I knew Dracula was published during the Victorian era, I hadn't realized how many novels and stories during the period revolved around vampires. Aside from Dracula, though, these vampires weren't your classic blood-suckers. There were a lot of variations as there is in vampire legends and folklore around the world.

1) Edgar Allen Poe's story "Ligeia" (1838) is the tale of a dead woman who brings back the corpse of her husband's second wife.

2) Smyth Upton's novel, The Last of the Vampires (1845) held that vampirism was a special form of magic.

3) G. M. W. Reynold's Faust (1847) reflected the same theme where vampires used sacrifice to obtain life, pleasure and power.

4)W. Harrison Ainworth's Auriol (1850) is a tale of immortality gained through human sacrifice.

5) In 1853, the first English language novel, Spiritual Vampirism was a story about energy draining vampires who could be men or women.

6) Two more novels in 1890 and two in 1897 also featured energy draining vampires.

7) Vampires by Julian Gordon (1891) used vampirism as a metaphor for the destructive relationship between the characters.

8) In 1892, in The Lost Stradavarius, a sorcerer drains energy from musicians who play a certain violin.

9) In a story by W. L. Alden in 1894, a teacher's talents are absorbed by one of her students.

10) And of course, the king of all vampire novels, Dracula, by Bram Stoker came out in 1897.

Source: The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters by Rosemary Ellen Guiley: Checkmark Books, 2005.

Tuesday Ten: Luck of the Draw

With The Model Man released and my work load gradually easing up, I’m finally able to get back to the historical research I’ve started—and abandoned—and started again—so many times.

My hero is a sometime-snake-oil salesman, not above taking money from innocent farmers who are convinced he can make it rain or selling the odd elixir guaranteed to cure all ills. But more often than not he makes his living as a gambler (just so long as he’s not making an honest living, this guy is happy. Some hero, huh?). And like most gamblers from the old west, he’s not above using gadgets and gizmos to eliminate chance and tilt the scales in his favor.

Here are some of the things I’ve come across in my research that he –and other cardsharps like him--might have used to ply his trade.

Blue tinted spectacles. This one threw me. I never dreamed they had anything this advanced in the Old West. These enable the wearer to detect the phosphorescent ink on marked cards—which is invisible to the naked eye.

Card Trimmer. This could be used to mend the frayed edges of an old deck—or to shave a tiny portion from certain cards to make them easy to find in the deck.

Corner rounder. The companion to the card trimmer. Used to cut new corners on an entire deck, or to mark particular cards by slightly altering the corners.

Card pricker. This little brass plunger would drive a needle into the face of the card and raise a tiny mark on the back—think Braille—the dealer could tell by the positions of the bumps which cards were sliding through his fingers.

Marked Cards. The most popular and the thing that first came to my mind. Special markings on the cards reveal their value to the dealer, usually by a symbol innocently hidden in the design on the back of the deck. This symbol would rotate clockwise depending on the face value of the card. (Suits were less important than number cards in many games, so they were often left unmarked.)

Holdouts were ingenious devices designed to let the gambler "hold out" certain cards and play them when the time was right and the pot was full:

Sleeve holdout. This device featured an extra wide cuff that buckled around the wearer’s upper arm and extended a playing card into his palm when he bent his elbow.

Breastplate hold out. This was sewn inside the gambler’s coat and attached by a long cord to his boot. He could conceal or produce an entire hand of cards simply by stretching or bending his leg.

Hold out vest. This vest had a single strip of elastic sewn into it to hold a card or two—and included an additional loop for a small pencil used to mark cards.

Fanny pack hold out? LOL. Not sure what this one was called. But a pouch that looks amazingly like a fanny pack was strapped about the waist under the gambler’s vest. It contained a spring-loaded frame that would hold several cards or an entire deck in reserve for just the right moment. Like the breastplate holdout, it was manipulated by the wearer’s leg.

The Kepplinger holdout. The finest of its class and undoubtedly the most famous of the holdout devices. This harness of pulleys, cords and telescoping silver-plated tubes reached from a man’s forearms down to his knees. The gambler would activate this device by simply spreading his knees ever so slightly and the claw like “sneak” hidden beneath two layers of a special double shirt sleeve moved the cards into his hand. For a description and a drawing http://cardshark.us/holdouts_frs.shtml

Source: The Old West Time Life Series: The Gamblers.

And http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holdout

Tuesday Ten: The Cowboy Code

The American cowboy’s code of ethics was pretty straightforward—but each “rule” was backed up by plain ol’ common sense. Here, for our Tuesday Ten, are ten “laws of the plains” that the cowboy strictly adhered to.

1. It is bad manners to ask a man his name. He may have a reason why he can’t afford to share his name or bring attention to himself.

2. Stealing a man’s horse is a crime punishable by death. To leave a man stranded on the plains, miles from food, water or shelter is as good as killing him.

3. Cheating at cards is an unpardonable offense. The victim or one of his friends is entitled to retaliate with a six-shooter.

4. Drawing on an unarmed man is strictly prohibited. Offenders may be gunned down on the spot by the victim, if he’s able, or his kin or friends.

5. Encountering a stranger on the trail, a man must approach him and speak a few words before moving off in another direction. Greeting him establishes good intentions.

6. When two men meet, speak, and pass on, neither must look back over his shoulder. To do so is an indication of distrust, implying that the man looking behind him expects a shot in the back.

7. When a stranger dismounts to cool his horse it is not polite to remain in the saddle while carrying on a conversation with him. The proper thing to do is dismount and speak to him face to face, so he can see what you’re up to.

8. To ride another man’s horse without asking permission is a grave insult. A horse is private property and borrowing one without permission is equivalent to a slap in the face.

9. Only in a dire emergency is it permissible to borrow a horse. Every man has his own style of riding and a horse can easily be spoiled by the wrong rider.

10. A smart rider always puts his horse’s comfort before his own. If the horse becomes lame or disabled, the rider may find himself stranded in the middle of the desert.


Courtesy of Cowboys Then & Now museum, Portland, OR.