| | Author: | Redgrove, Herbert Stanley, 1887-1943 | Add | | | Title: | Bygone Beliefs / Redgrove, Herbert Stanley.  | | | | Published: | 1999 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | IN the earliest days of his upward evolution man was
satisfied with a very crude explanation of natural
phenomena—that to which the name "animism"
has been given. In this stage of mental development
all the various forces of Nature are personified:
the rushing torrent, the devastating fire, the wind
rustling the forest leaves—in the mind of the animistic
savage all these are personalities, spirits, like himself,
but animated by motives more or less antagonistic
to him. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Riley, James Whitcomb | Add | | | Title: | The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley, Volume 10 | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | ALL who knew Mr. Clark intimately, casually,
or by sight alone, smiled always, meeting
him, and thought, "What an odd man he is!" Not
that there was anything extremely or ridiculously
obtrusive in Mr. Clark's peculiarities either of
feature, dress, or deportment, by which a graded
estimate of his really quaint character might aptly be
given; but rather, perhaps, it was the curious
combination of all these things that had gained
for Mr. Clark the transient celebrity of being a
very eccentric man. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Rinehart, Mary Roberts | Add | | | Title: | The Circular Staircase | | | | Published: | 1994 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THIS is the story of how a middle-aged spinster lost her mind,
deserted her domestic gods in the city, took a furnished house
for the summer out of town, and found herself involved in one of
those mysterious crimes that keep our newspapers and detective
agencies happy and prosperous. For twenty years I had been
perfectly comfortable; for twenty years I had had the window-boxes filled in the spring, the carpets lifted, the awnings put
up and the furniture covered with brown linen; for as many
summers I had said good-by to my friends, and, after watching
their perspiring hegira, had settled down to a delicious quiet in
town, where the mail comes three times a day, and the water
supply does not depend on a tank on the roof. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Rinehart, Mary Roberts | Add | | | Title: | Where there's a Will | | | | Published: | 1994 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | WHEN it was all over Mr. Sam came out to the spring-house to
say good-by to me before he and Mrs. Sam left. I hated to see
him go, after all we had been through together, and I suppose he
saw it in my face, for he came over close and stood looking down
at me, and smiling. "You saved us, Minnie," he said, "and I
needn't tell you we're grateful; but do you know what I think?"
he asked, pointing his long forefinger at me. "I think you've
enjoyed it even when you were suffering most. Red-haired women
are born to intrigue, as the sparks fly upward." | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Roberts, Charles G. D. | Add | | | Title: | Jean Michaud's Little Ship | | | | Published: | 2001 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Patiently, doggedly, yet with the light in his eyes that belongs to the
enthusiast and the dreamer, young Jean Michaud had worked at it. Throughout
the winter he had hewed the seasoned timbers and the diminutive hackmatack
"knees" from the swamp far back in the Equille Valley; and whenever the sledding
was good with his yoke of black oxen he had hauled his materials to the secret
place of his shipbuilding by the winding shore of a deep tidal tributary
of the Port Royal. In the spring he had laid the keel and riveted securely
to it the squared hackmatack knees. It was unusual to use such sturdy and
unmanageable timbers as these hackmatack knees for a craft so small as this
which the young Acadian was building; but Jean Michaud's thoughts were long
thoughts and went far ahead. He was putting all his hopes as well as all
his scant patrimony into this little ship; and he was resolved that it should
be strong to carry his fortunes. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Romeyn, Henry | Add | | | Title: | 'Little Africa': The Last Slave Cargo Landed in the United States | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Among the passengers of the "Roger B. Taney," Captain
Timothy Meaher, plying between Mobile and Montgomery, Ala. in
April, 1858, were a number of Northern gentlemen returning to their
homes after a winter spent in the South. The trip occupied several
days, and as might have been expected, the slavery question was a
fruitful theme of discussion. Captain Meaher, though born in
Gardiner, Maine, had removed, when a mere lad, to the Gulf States,
and accumulated quite a fortune for those days; a large portion of
which was in "chattels" employed on his half dozen steamboats, or
on cotton plantations in the interior of the state, and in lumbering
among the pines and cypress lands near the coast. Of course he was
a defender of "the institution," and, in reply to the expressed belief
of one of his passengers that "with the supply by importation from
Africa cut off and any further spread in the Territories denied, the
thing was doomed," he declared that, despite the stringent measures
taken by most of the civilized powers to crush out the over-sea
traffic, it could be still carried on successfully. In response to the
disbelief expressed by his opponent, he offered to wager any
amount of money that he would "import a cargo in less than two
years, and no one be hanged for it." | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Russell, Frank | Add | | | Title: | Myths of the Jicarilla Apache | | | | Published: | 2000 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | In the under-world, Un-gó-ya-yen-ni, there was no sun, moon, or light of
any kind, except that emanating from large eagle feathers which the people carried about with them. This method of lighting proved unsatisfactory, and the head men of the tribe gathered in council to devise some plan for
lighting the world more brightly, One of the chiefs suggested that they make a sun and a moon. A great disk of yellow
paint was made upon the ground, and then placed in the sky. Although this miniature creation was too small to give much
light, it was allowed to make one circuit of the heavens ere it was taken down and made larger. Four times the sun set and
rose, and four times it was enlarged, before it was "as large as the earth and gave plenty of light." In the under-world
dwelt a wizard and a witch, who were much incensed at man's presumption and made such attempts to destroy the new
luminaries that both the sun and the moon fled from the lower world, leaving it again in darkness, and made their escape
to this earth, where they have never been molested, so that, until the present time, they continue to shine by night and by
day. The loss of the sun and moon brought the people together, that they might take council concerning the means of
restoring the lost light. Long they danced and sang, and made medicine. At length it was decided that they should go in
search of the sun. The Indian medicine-men caused four mountains to spring up, which grew by night with great noise,
and rested by day. The mountains increased in size until the fourth night, when they nearly reached the sky. Four boys
were sent to seek the cause of the failure of the mountains to reach the opening in the sky, ha-ná-za-ä,
through which the sun and moon had disappeared. The boys followed the tracks of two girls who had caused the
mountains to stop growing, until they reached some burrows in the side of the mountain, where all trace of the two
females disappeared. When their story was told to the people, the medicine-men said, "You who have injured us shall be
transformed into rabbits, that you may be of some use to mankind ; your bodies shall be eaten," and the rabbit has been
used for food by the human race down to the present day. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Russell, Frank | Add | | | Title: | An Apache Medicine Dance | | | | Published: | 2001 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | There are at present no men or women among the Jicarillas who have power to
heal the sick and perform other miracles that entitle them to rank as medicine
men or women—at least none who are in active "practice and are at all popular.
This being the case, medicine feasts have not been held for several years on the
reservation; but in August and September, 1898, two such feasts were conducted
by Sotlin, an old Apache
woman who now resides at the Pueblo of San Ildefonso. Sotlin made the journey of nearly a hundred miles
to the Jicarillas on a burro. She was delayed for some time on the way by the
high waters of Chama creek, so that rumors of her arrival were repeatedly spread
for some weeks before she actually appeared. For festive dances the agent or his
representative, the clerk at Dulce, issues extra rations of beef and flour, and
the Indiana buy all the supplies their scanty means will permit from the
traders. Supplies, at least of things edible, do not keep well in an Indian
camp, and the successive postponements of date threatened to terminate in a
"feast" without provision, when at length Sotlin arrived. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Russell, Bertrand | Add | | | Title: | Political ideals | | | | Published: | 2001 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | In dark days, men need a clear faith and a well-grounded hope; and as
the outcome of these, the calm courage which takes no account of
hardships by the way. The times through which we are passing have
afforded to many of us a confirmation of our faith. We see that the
things we had thought evil are really evil, and we know more
definitely than we ever did before the directions in which men must
move if a better world is to arise on the ruins of the one which is
now hurling itself into destruction. We see that men's political
dealings with one
another are based on wholly wrong ideals, and can
only be saved by quite different ideals from continuing to be a source
of suffering, devastation, and sin. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Randolph, W.C.N. | Add | | | Title: | Letter from W. C. N. Randolph to A. Gordon, Jan. 13, 1896 [a machine-readable
transcription] | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Description: | I enclose you some papers
that will be rather a shock to you but that
will speak for themselves. It makes me
more and more convinced that we can't
safely undertake this task which is upon
us without having a thoroughly trained
inspector and not only that but a supervising
architect. Men who will be entirely in
our interests and who will be paid by
ourselves and who will be making us
frequent reports. Neither Thornton or Echols
are fit for this sort of thing; they haven't
the practical experience nor are either of
them very practical men. We ought to
take the whole affair out of the hands of
the buildings and grounds, except as
to the transference of money. As you are
probably aware I have been very much
dissatisfied with the character of the work
that has been done in the reconstruction
of the two terraces, but being very distrustful
of my own knowledge of such things I
could never shape it in such a way as to
prove to myself that I was not making a
mountain of a mole-hill. The whole thing
has made me right sick. If we are to
undertake this work with an architect who
makes all sorts of errors in his strain sheets;
with a superintendent like Echols, who has
not verified any calculations; and another
superintendent like Thornton who accepts
the architects loose ideas of weights and
strains and deems safe what, when brought
to the tables of experienced facts, proves to be
unsafe and another superintendent like
the venerable Rector who has neither the
time nor the tables nor probably the
capacity to make reliable calculations the
result will be that you and McCabe
will be damned and properly damned for
the balance of your lives and the
venerable Rector will probably be hung &
properly hung. As you may remember as
I said before may Heaven bless all
mixed Committees and save me the
trouble of having so far to force my
conscience as to bless them. Do pray
burn this letter; it is written in such
bad temper. I started in good humor
enough but as the thing has worked
upon me my gall has risen. I shall
expect you on Friday and you and I and
McCabe must talk these things over where
we can do it without any feeling that we
are treading upon other peoples toes and possibly
finding fault where fault is not due.
Send the papers back to me at once please.
Mr. McDonald has not turned up here
yet but we are expecting him every day. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Randolph, W.C.N. | Add | | | Title: | Letter from W.C.N. Randolph to Mr. Gordon, Jan. 24, 1896 [a machine-readable
transcription] | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Description: | I enclose you a letter
from McCabe to myself and a copy of my
reply thereto. I hope that you will give it
a good deal of thought. To my mind it
is exceedingly important. I received yours
this morning. I am glad to hear the good
account that Colonel Cutshaw and Colonel
Douglas give of Mr. Whitely; and still with
the impression that Thornton and Echols
have, it might be dangerous to appoint him.
This question of an Inspector is filled with
many difficulties. General Craighill advises
that we should leave the whole matter
to the architect; Green Peyton who you & I
trust very much thinks an Inspector would
be a mistake; and yet I am perfectly certain
that we ought to have somebody in charge of
this work on behalf of the University. In fact
in any building at the University there
should be someone, an officer of the Institution,
who would be responsible for it. Suppose
Green Peyton were Superintendent of Buildings
and Grounds, how much trouble would you
and I give ourselves about this matter? Not a
bit! So I come to the point. Our Superintendent of
Buildings and Grounds who is one of the
finest fellows in the world, and a man of
splendid intellect, is from habit, character of
mind, and training, unfit for his position.
He takes no interest in it; never can be
found and is not doing his duty. Now I am
not writing this with any harshness at all.
I am just stating to you what I know to be
facts. In addition, the Superintendent of
Buildings and Grounds is the proper
Inspector of the work that goes ont at the
University and if he was the best one in the world,
he ought not to hold the dual position of
member and servant of the Building Committee.
I think, if you all two agree with me, that the
solution of this matter is an easy one. I
am satisfied that Echols is more than
willing to give up the place as Superintendent;
that he intends to do so at the end of the
session and that he would be glad to do it
now. Then it seems to me, that the wisest thing
we can do is to select with great care an
Inspector and when the Board meets let us then
accept Mr. Echols' resignation and I think I can
arrange that it will be offered, and let us
select an appointee as Inspector Superintendent
of Buildings and Grounds. This seems to me to do
away with all the objections to the appointment of
a special Inspector. Now I myself, would be
perfectly willing to take blindly and I don't I
often say that, any man that H.D.
Whitcomb, Colonel Cutshaw and Colonel Douglas,
from a professional stand-point, knowing
these facts, would recommend to us. Think
this matter over; we cant take Thornton
into our confidence about it. In the first
place, no man can ever tell when he has an axe
to grind for himself and then every thing filters
through him to the Faculty and leads to lack
of harmony between us. Mr. Davis came to
me about the Ott matter today. I want to
have a talk to you and McCabe about it
when you come over. Please give this matter
of Inspector a great deal of thought. I am
perfectly satisfied that the master-wheel
of this reconstruction machinery is sound;
but there is a grating cog in a wheel
that will be always worrying us and may
bring us to a disgraceful break-down. Mary
tells me to say to you, that if you come
over on Saturday morning you must bring
Margaret with you and let her spend the
day with the baby. However, you must come
on Friday evening as we must have a long
talk. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Randolph, W.C.N. | Add | | | Title: | Letter from W.C.N. Randolph to Mr. McCabe, June 22, 1896
[a machine-readable transcription] | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Description: | A knowledge of your
intention to visit Great Britain
this summer has induced me to
request that you will undertake
a matter for the University of Va.
By the recent fire, as you are
aware, our library was almost a
total loss; to replace our buildings
lost at the same time has strained
our finances to the utmost. We
will have a sum left totally
inadequate to supply our need of
books — Our sister institutions
in this country aided us from
their own libraries to the extent
of their power. It has occurred
to me that Oxford and Cam-
bridge actuated by the same
motives of kinship and interest
might aid us in getting the
syndicates that control the Claren-
don and Pitt presses to turn over
to us some of their publications
as a donation. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Ragozin, Zenide A. | Add | | | Title: | Pushkin and His Work | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | IT may be a long time yet before Russian poetry is anything more
than a word to the great bulk of the English-reading public, and
the name of Kalidâsa or Firdûsi would convey to the
average mind a far more definite impression than the name of
Maïkof, Polonsky or Nekràssof—because every one who is
at all on familiar terms with books has met at least the names of
the Hindoo and the Persian poet, while it is absolutely certain
that not one in a thousand habitual readers, or even students of
literature, ever comes across those of the Russians. Yet one name
there is, which has pierced through the barrier raised by race
difference and an exceedingly difficult language, and is at least
as familiar to English and American ears as those of the two
Orientals: the name of Pushkin, the centennial anniversary of whose
birth was celebrated last year all over Russia. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Raine, William McLeod | Add | | | Title: | "At the Dropping-off Place" | | | | Published: | 2000 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | IN THE cabin situated on Lot 10, Block E, Water Street, Eagle City,
Alaska, four men were striving to wear away the torment-laden, sleepless
Yukon night. It was twelve o'clock by the Waterbury watch which hung on
the wall, but save for a slight murkiness there was no sign of darkness.
The mosquitoes hummed with a fiendish pertinacity that effectually
precluded sleep. The thermometer registered one hundred degrees of
torture. A thick smoke from four pipes and a smudge-fire hung cloudlike
over the room, but entirely failed to disturb the countless pests. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Remington, Frederic | Add | | | Title: | The Art of War and Newspaper Men | | | | Published: | 1994 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | LESS than two weeks ago I passed over the trail from
Rushville, Nebraska, to the Pine Ridge Agency behind Major-General
Nelson A. Miles. To-night the moon is shining as it did then, but
it will go down in the middle of the night, and I can see in my
mind's eye the Second Infantry and the Ninth Troopers, with their
trains of wagons, plodding along in the dark. The distance is
twenty-eight miles, and at four o'clock in the morning they will
arrive. When the Ogallalas view the pine-clad bluffs they will see
in the immediate foreground a large number of Sibley tents, and,
being warriors, they will know that each Sibley has eighteen men in
it. They will be much surprised. They will hold little impromptu
councils, and will probably seek for the motive of this
concentration of troops. And some man will say: "Well, the
soldiers are here, and if your people don't keep quiet— Well, you
know what soldiers are for." The Ogallalas will understand why the
soldiers are there without any further explanation. There may be
and probably will be some white friend of the Indians who can tell
them something they do not know. A little thing has happened since
the Ogallalas laid their arms down, and that is that the bluecoats
in the Second Infantry can put a bullet into the anatomy of an
Ogallala at one thousand yards' range with almost absolute
certainty if the light is fair and the wind not too strong. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Remizov, Aleksei | Add | | | Title: | A White Heart | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | I WAS waiting for a tram-car. There was no way of getting on;
people were hanging on, jostling one another. Well, simply
like wild beasts. Ten tram-cars I let go past. I saw an old woman
standing there, like myself, waiting. An ancient grandmother. To
look at her face you would have thought that it had always been
like that, that she had always been a grandmother; her wrinkles
were so minute; she was toothless, and goodness was in her face.
I looked more intently; she was standing patiently; did her tired
eyes see anything? Yes, they saw. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Richardson, James | Add | | | Title: | Our Patent-System, and What We Owe to It | | | | Published: | 1994 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | We are a nation of inventors, and every invention is patented;
yet, curiously, there is no subject quite so void of interest to the
average gentle reader," as patents and patent-rights. Why, it is
hard to say; for there is no factor of modern civilization that
comes home to every one more constantly or more closely. Indeed, in
their ubiquity and unresting action, patents have been aptly likened
to the taxes which Sydney Smith described as following the overtaxed
Englishmen of his day from the cradle to the grave. Does the
comparison hold as well, as some assert, in respect to
burdensomeness? | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Rogers, E. Mandevill | Add | | | Title: | Steadfast Falters | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Randolph Crosby's philosophy of life forbade his feeling or
expressing emotion, except for the slender, fair-haired girl who
stood beside him, and who had in a measure taken the place of the
wife whose memory she perpetuated. Nevertheless, the sight of
the thoroughbreds as they filed past the club enclosure, their
jockeys perching like monkeys on their glossy backs, made the
muscles of his throat contract a little. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778 | Add | | | Title: | A Discourse Upon The Origin And The Foundation Of The Inequality Among Mankind | | | | Published: | 2002 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | However important it may be, in order to form a proper judgment of the natural state of
man, to consider him from his origin, and to examine him, as it were, in the first embryo
of the species; I shall not attempt to trace his organization through its successive
approaches to perfection: I shall not stop to examine in the animal system what he might
have been in the beginning, to become at last what he actually is; I shall not inquire
whether, as Aristotle thinks, his neglected nails were no better at first than crooked
talons; whether his whole body was not, bear-like, thick covered with rough hair; and
whether, walking upon all-fours, his eyes, directed to the earth, and confined to a
horizon of a few paces extent, did not at once point out the nature and limits of his
ideas. I could only form vague, and almost imaginary, conjectures on this subject.
Comparative anatomy has not as yet been sufficiently improved; neither have the
observations of natural philosophy been sufficiently ascertained, to establish upon such
foundations the basis of a solid system. For this reason, without having recourse to the
supernatural informations with which we have been favoured on this head, or paying any
attention to the changes, that must have happened in the conformation of the interior and
exterior parts of man's body, in proportion as he applied his members to new purposes, and
took to new aliments, I shall suppose his conformation to have always been, what we now
behold it; that he always walked on two feet, made the same use of his hands that we do of
ours, extended his looks over the whole face of nature, and measured with his eyes the
vast extent of the heavens. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778 | Add | | | Title: | A Discourse on Political Economy | | | | Published: | 2002 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THE word Economy, or Œconomy, is derived from oikos, a house, and vomos, law, and meant originally only the wise
and legitimate government of the house for the common good of the whole
family. The meaning of the term was then extended to the government of
that great family, the State. To distinguish these two senses of the
word, the latter is called general or political
economy, and the former domestic or particular economy. The first only
is discussed in the present discourse. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778 | Add | | | Title: | Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar | | | | Published: | 2001 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Expect from me neither learned declamations nor profound arguments. I am no great philosopher, and give myself but little trouble in regard to becoming such.
Still I perceive sometimes the glimmering of good sense, and have always a regard for the
truth. I will not enter into any disputation, or endeavor to refute you; but only lay down
my own sentiments in simplicity of heart. Consult your own during this recital: this is all
I require of you. If I am mistaken, it is undesignedly, which is sufficient to absolve me of
all criminal error; and if I am right, reason, which is common to us both, shall decide. We
are equally interested in listening to it, and why should not our views agree? | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Runnion, James B. | Add | | | Title: | The Negro Exodus | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | A RECENT sojourn in the South for a few weeks, chiefly in Louisiana
and Mississippi, gave the writer an opportunity to inquire into
what has been so aptly called "the negro exodus." The emigration
of blacks to Kansas began early in the spring of this year. For a
time there was a stampede from two or three of the river parishes
in Louisiana and as many counties opposite in Mississippi.
Several thousand negroes (certainly not fewer than five thousand,
and variously estimated as high as ten thousand) had left their
cabins before the rush could be stayed or the excitement lulled.
Early in May most of the negroes who had quit work for the purpose
of emigrating, but had not succeeded in getting off, were persuaded
to return to the plantations, and from that time on there have been
only straggling families and groups that have watched for and
seized the first opportunity for transportation to the North.
There is no doubt, however, that there is still a consuming desire
among the negroes of the cotton districts in these two States to
seek new homes, and there are the best reasons for believing that
the exodus will take a new start next spring, after the gathering
and conversion of the growing crop. Hundreds of negroes who
returned from the river-banks for lack of transportation, and
thousands of others infected with the ruling discontent, are
working harder in the fields this summer, and practicing more
economy and self-denial than ever before, in order to have the
means next winter and spring to pay their way to the "promised
land." | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Rinehart, Mary Roberts | Add | | | Title: | The Circular Staircase | | | | Published: | 1994 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THIS is the story of how a middle-aged spinster lost her mind,
deserted her domestic gods in the city, took a furnished house
for the summer out of town, and found herself involved in one of
those mysterious crimes that keep our newspapers and detective
agencies happy and prosperous. For twenty years I had been
perfectly comfortable; for twenty years I had had the window-boxes filled in the spring, the carpets lifted, the awnings put
up and the furniture covered with brown linen; for as many
summers I had said good-by to my friends, and, after watching
their perspiring hegira, had settled down to a delicious quiet in
town, where the mail comes three times a day, and the water
supply does not depend on a tank on the roof. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| | Author: | Romeyn, Henry | Add | | | Title: | 'Little Africa': The Last Slave Cargo Landed in the United States | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Among the passengers of the "Roger B. Taney," Captain Timothy Meaher, plying
between Mobile and Montgomery, Ala. in April, 1858, were a number of Northern
gentlemen returning to their homes after a winter spent in the South. The trip
occupied several days, and as might have been expected, the slavery question was
a fruitful theme of discussion. Captain Meaher, though born in Gardiner, Maine,
had removed, when a mere lad, to the Gulf States, and accumulated quite a
fortune for those days; a large portion of which was in "chattels" employed on
his half dozen steamboats, or on cotton plantations in the interior of the
state, and in lumbering among the pines and cypress lands near the coast. Of
course he was a defender of "the institution," and, in reply to the expressed
belief of one of his passengers that "with the supply by importation from Africa
cut off and any further spread in the Territories denied, the thing was doomed,"
he declared that, despite the stringent measures taken by most of the civilized
powers to crush out the over-sea traffic, it could be still carried on
successfully. In response to the disbelief expressed by his opponent, he offered
to wager any amount of money that he would "import a cargo in less than two
years, and no one be hanged for it." | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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