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Outlandish and Extravagant Facts from the Gilded Age

Khalid Elhassan May 31, 2022 37 min

18. A Seriously Deep Sleeper

Gilded Age Nicholasville. Jessamine County Historical Society

One of the odder Gilded Age criminal cases was described by the Court of Appeals of Kentucky in Fain v. The Commonwealth, 78 Ky. 183 (1879). It was a cold February evening in 1879 when a criminal defendant named Fain and a friend entered the lobby of the Veranda Hotel in Nicholasville, Kentucky. They shook the snow off their coats, and sat down. Both were tired, especially Fain, who had not slept much lately because of sick children at home who kept him awake at night.

It was warm inside the hotel lobby, the lights were dim, and it was not long before Fain and his friend fell asleep where they sat. Eventually, Fain’s friend woke up and tried to wake Fain but could not. He went to the reception desk and booked a room with two beds, then sent the receptionist to wake Fain. The receptionist tried, but could not, and told Fain’s friend that he thought the defendant was dead. The friend told him to not be silly, and to get on with it. As seen below, it did not turn out well for the receptionist when he got on with it.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.