| | 83 | Author: | Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Roughing It  | | | | Published: | 1998 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | MY brother had just been appointed Secretary of Nevada
Territory—an office of such majesty that it concentrated in itself
the duties and dignities of Treasurer, Comptroller, Secretary of
State, and Acting Governor in the Governor's absence. A salary of
eighteen hundred dollars a year and the title of "Mr. Secretary,"
gave to the great position an air of wild and imposing grandeur. I
was young and ignorant, and I envied my brother. I coveted his
distinction and his financial splendor, but particularly and
especially the long, strange journey he was going to make, and the
curious new world he was going to explore. He was going to
travel! I never had been away from home, and that word "travel"
had a seductive charm for me. Pretty soon he would be hundreds
and hundreds of miles away on the great plains and deserts, and
among the mountains of the Far West, and would see buffaloes and
Indians, and prairie dogs, and antelopes, and have all kinds of
adventures, and may be get hanged or scalped, and have ever such
a fine time, and write home and tell us all about it, and be a hero.
And he would see the gold mines and the silver mines, and maybe
go about of an afternoon when his work was done, and pick up two
or three pailfuls of shining slugs, and nuggets of gold and silver on
the hillside. And by and by he would become very rich, and return
home by sea, and be able to talk as calmly about San Francisco and
the ocean, and "the isthmus" as if it was nothing of any
consequence to have seen those marvels face to face. What I
suffered in contemplating his happiness, pen cannot describe. And
so, when he offered me, in cold blood, the sublime position of
private secretary under him, it appeared to me that
the heavens and the earth passed away, and the firmament was
rolled together as a scroll! I had nothing more to desire. My
contentment was complete.
ENVIOUS CONTEMPLATIONS.
At the end of an hour or two I was ready for the journey. Not
much packing up was necessary, because we were going in the
overland stage from the Missouri frontier to Nevada, and
passengers were only allowed a small quantity of baggage apiece.
There was no Pacific railroad in those fine times of ten or twelve
years ago—not a single rail of it. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 89 | Author: | Williams, Henry Smith, 1863-1943 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | A History of Science: in Five Volumes. Volume IV: Modern Development of the Chemical and Biological Sciences | | | | Published: | 1998 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THE development of the science of chemistry from the "science" of
alchemy is a striking example of the complete revolution in the attitude
of observers in the field of science. As has been pointed out in a
preceding chapter, the alchemist, having a preconceived idea of how
things should be, made all his experiments to prove his preconceived
theory; while the chemist reverses this attitude of mind and bases his
conceptions on the results of his laboratory experiments. In short,
chemistry is what alchemy never could be, an inductive science. But this
transition from one point of view to an exactly opposite one was
necessarily a very slow process. Ideas that have held undisputed sway
over the minds of succeeding generations for hundreds of years cannot be
overthrown in a moment, unless the agent of such an overthrow be so
obvious that it cannot be challenged. The rudimentary chemistry that
overthrew alchemy had nothing so obvious and palpable. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 91 | Author: | Woolf, Virginia | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Night and Day | | | | Published: | 1998 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | IT was a Sunday evening in October, and in common with
many other young ladies of her class, Katharine Hilbery
was pouring out tea. Perhaps a fifth part of her mind was
thus occupied, and the remaining parts leapt over the little
barrier of day which interposed between Monday morning
and this rather subdued moment, and played with the things
one does voluntarily and normally in the daylight. But
although she was silent, she was evidently mistress of a
situation which was familiar enough to her, and inclined to let it
take its way for the six hundredth time, perhaps, without
bringing into play any of her unoccupied faculties. A single
glance was enough to show that Mrs. Hilbery was so rich in
the gifts which make tea-parties of elderly distinguished
people successful, that she scarcely needed any help from her
daughter, provided that the tiresome business of teacups and
bread and butter was discharged for her. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 92 | Author: | Zerbe, J. S. | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Aeroplanes | | | | Published: | 1998 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THE "SCIENCE" OF AVIATION.—It may be
doubted whether there is such a thing as a "science
of aviation." Since Langley, on May 6,
1896, flew a motor-propelled tandem monoplane
for a minute and an half, without a pilot, and the
Wright Brothers in 1903 succeeded in flying a
bi-plane with a pilot aboard, the universal opinion
has been, that flying machines, to be successful,
must follow the structural form of birds, and
that shape has everything to do with flying. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 93 | Author: | White, James J. | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Letter to James Brooks | | | | Published: | 1998 | | | | Description: | I am compelled from want of pen and ink to write a line in
pencil—seizing a moment now I may not have it half hour hence. It is
my painful duty to inform you that your son William
died today after an illness of several days which appeared to me
something like conjestion
of the brain. Our brigade has been very much
exposed by forced marches through heat and dust, and by being compelled
to camp out at night without tents, not even the superior officers being
allowed to carry tents from the difficulty of transportation.[1]
I suppose
it would be most agreeable to the feelings of yourself and your boy's
mother that his remains should be taken at once to his home, but we have
been
drawn up
in line of battle this evening[2]
and on application to our colonel[3] he
assured me that it would be impossible to get permission from
Gen.
Johnston[4]
for any one to leave at this time, and I ascertained that
permission had been refused to remove the remains of Lieutenant Patton[5]
of the Rockbridge Grays who died this morning.
And although I had with
considerable difficulty made arrangements for
William's transportation
before speaking to Col.
Preston, I felt forced to abandon it, and have
provided for his decent interment in the Episcopal Cemetery here and
have directed a head board with his name to be provided
so that at
some subsequent time his remains may be removed to the bosom of his
friends. When I discovered that William was sick
I had
him taken to the
Hospital in Winchester which is in Charge of
M. H. Houston, formerly of
Rockbridge, late of Wheeling, where every attention possible under the
circumstances was provided. I have done the best I could my dear Sir
and in communicating with the stricken parents of the most admirable
young man, it is but the simplest justice to say that whether as student
or soldier, I had nothing to complain of him, but believe in my
conscience that he did his duty modestly and conscientiously on every
occasion. Your son Andrew has just mentioned
that the physician thought
the disease of his brother was spinal to the
brain.[6]
Excuse
the unavoidable haste of this letter, for I am hurried in every way
imaginable.
We are expecting the enemy here at any moment and I believe
that we are able to meet them. With assurances of kind regards and
sincere sympathy. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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