Placing Bets

“A Dog Fight at Kit Burn’s,” in James McCabe. The Secrets of the Great City. Philadelphia: National Publishing Company, [1868].

This illustration shows the cruel yet popular sport of dog-fighting, carried out in the basement the famous Sportsman’s Hall owned by the notorious Christopher Keyburn (a.k.a. Kit Burns). A scourge of the prohibitionists, the tavern was finally done in by animal rights activists, who, led by ASPCA founder Henry Bergh, raided it in 1870.