| | 82 | Author: | Smith
Seba
1792-1868 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | May-day in New York, or, House-hunting and moving  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Dear Aunt:—I s'pose you begin to think by this
time it's a good while since I writ to you; but the
truth is, any body might as well try to write a letter
in a hornet's nest as to try to write one in New
York any time for a month before the first of May,
especially if they live in a hired house and expect
to have to move when May-day comes round; and
that I take it is the case with jest about one half
the New Yorkers about every year. It's an awful
custom, and where it come from I can't find out;
but it has used me up worse than building forty
rods of stone wall, or chopping down ten acres of
trees. I haint had my clothes off for a week, and
I haint had a quiet night's rest for a month; and
the way my bones have ached would be enough to
make a horse cry his eyes out. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 83 | Author: | Snelling
William Joseph
1804-1848 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Tales of the Northwest, or, Sketches of Indian life and
character | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | We read with admiration how Curtius rode into
the gulf in the Forum, to save his country, amidst
the shouts and applauses of surrounding thousands;
but when a poor, ignorant savage, rather than
do violence to his own rude notions of honor, awaits
a fate that he believes inevitable, in sadness and
silence, without the sympathy of an individual, or
any of the circumstances that spurred the Roman
to a glorious death, we think no more of it, and
the story is soon forgotten. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 85 | Author: | Thomas
Frederick William
1806-1866 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Clinton Bradshaw, or, The adventures of a lawyer | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Near the court house, in one of our principal cities,
(the especial whereabout and name, for certain
reasons, we must leave to the sagacity of our readers,)
in an autumnal evening, about eight o'clock, or
after, not many years since, a young gentleman might
have been seen walking in rather a quick step, like
one who felt himself in somewhat of a hurry. On
reaching the door of what appeared to be a lawyer's
office, he rapped quickly against it with a
leaden-headed rattan, such as were then, and are
now, much the fashion. “Come in,” said a voice,
from the upper story of the building, from the window
of which a light shone forth into the street. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 87 | Author: | Thomas
Frederick William
1806-1866 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | East and west | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | “Jerry! Jeremiah, I say!” exclaimed an old man,
standing at the head of his cellar door, and stooping
down so as to command the view of as much of his
subterranean premises as his situation would permit,
and his spectacles would allow him to take by peering
over them, for they qualified him to read better,
but not to see farther. “Jeremiah!” he continued at
the top of his voice, and then in a lower tone he
added to himself, impatiently, “The black dolt is as
deaf as—” when he was interrupted by Jerry, who
stuttered whenever he attempted to speak quickly. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 88 | Author: | Thomas
Frederick William
1806-1866 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | East and west | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | We must shift the scene of our story like those of
the drama, to the whereabout of our different characters.
Not long after the Lormans had settled in
their new home, Mr. Bennington, senior, left Perryville,
to attend the sitting of Congress. Mr. Taylor
Davidson, a south-western planter, who had land
claims that required his presence in Washington
city, and who was a friend of Mr. Bennington, had
been spending some weeks with him at Perryville,
on his way up the Ohio, awaiting Mr. Bennington's
departure, that they might proceed together. During
Mr. Davidson's stay in Perryville, he had made the
acquaintance of the Lormans, and had heard Ruth
talk a great deal about Helen Murray, from whom
she had received several letters, portions of which
she had read to him. Mr. Davidson was a single
man, and would be pronounced by a very young
lady, one for instance just “coming out,” as most
decidedly on the list of old bachelors; a lady of Miss
Judson's age might not think so. Mr. Davidson was
a high-minded, chivalrous southerner, who in his
youth had been in the army, and had served with
honour in our late war with Great Britain. On the
death of his brother, who had left him a handsome
fortune, he had travelled extensively in Europe, and
on his return, purchased a plantation and slaves on
the banks of the Mississippi, where he had resided
since, and accumulated an immense fortune. He
wore his age well, and was a fine-looking man, with
a gentlemanly and distinguished bearing. He was
forcibly impressed with the wit, vivacity, friendliness,
and worldly knowledge of those portions of Helen's
letters, which Ruth read to him, and he laughing
said to her: | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 90 | Author: | Thomas
Frederick William
1806-1866 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Howard Pinckney | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Punctual to her promise, Nurse Agnes, or as she
was commonly called, Aunt Agnes, visited Granny
Gammon on the ensuing day. Agnes thought the old
crone very ill; so much so that she determined to remain
with her. It was the first day of the fall races;
and Bobby, with the assistance of Pompey, who had
laid up the odd change which his master and others
had given him, had established a booth on the ground
for the double purpose of seeing the sport of which
he was passionately fond, notwithstanding the injury
he had received in indulging in it, and at the same
time of making a little money. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 92 | Author: | Thompson
Daniel P.
(Daniel Pierce)
1795-1868 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | May Martin, or, The money diggers | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | In one of those rough and secluded
towns, situated in the heart of the Green
Mountains, is a picturesque little valley,
containing, perhaps, something over two
thousand acres of improvable land, formerly
known in that section of the country
by the appallation of The Harwood Settlement,
so called from the name of the original
proprietor of the valley. As if formed
by some giant hand, literally scooping
out the solid mountain and moulding it
into shape and proportion, the whole valley
presents the exact resemblance of an
oval basin whose sides are composed of a
continuous ridge of lofty hills bordering it
around, and broken only by two narrow
outlets at its northerly and southerly extremities.
The eastern part of this valley
is covered by one of those transparent
ponds, which are so beautifully characteristic
of Vermontane scenery, laying in the
form of a crescent, and extending along
beneath the closely encircling mountains
on the east nearly the whole length of the
interior landscape, forever mirroring up
from its darkly bright surface, faintly or
vividly, as cloud or sunshine may prevail,
the motley groups of the sombre forest,
where the more slender and softer tinted
beech and maple seem struggling for a
place among the rough and shaggy forms
of the sturdy hemlock, peering head over
head, up the steeply ascending cliffs of
the woody precipice. While here and
there, at distant intervals, towering high
over all, stands the princely pine, waving
its majestic head in solitary grandeur, a
striking but melancholy type of the aboriginal
A*
Indian still occasionally found lingering
among us, the only remaining representative
of a once powerful race, which
have receded before the march of civilized
men, now destined no more to flourish
the lords of the plain and the mountain.
This pond discharges its surplus
waters at its southern extremity in a pure
stream of considerable size, which here,
as if in wild glee at its escape from the embrace
of its parent waters, leaps at once,
from a state of the most unruffled tranquility,
over a ledgy barrier, and, with noisy
reverberations, goes bounding along from
cliff to cliff, in a series of romantic cascades,
down a deep ravine, till the lessening
echoes are lost in the sinuosities of
the outlet of the valley. From the western
shore of this sheet of water the land
rises in gentle undulations, and with a
gradual ascent, back to the foot of the
mountains, which here, as on every other
side, rear their ever-green summits to
the clouds, standing around this vast fortress
of nature as huge centinels posted along
the lofty outworks to battle with the
careering hurricanes that burst in fury on
their immovable sides, and arrest and receive
on their own unscathed heads the
shafts of the lightning descending for its
victims to the valley below, while they
cheerily bandy from side to side the voicy
echoes of the thunderpeal with their
mighty brethren of the opposite rampart. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 93 | Author: | Thompson
Daniel P.
(Daniel Pierce)
1795-1868 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The adventures of Timothy Peacock, Esquire, or,
Freemasonry practically illustrated | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Our Hero, the present Thrice Illustrious TIMOTHY
PEACOCK, Esquire, was born in a small village in the
interior of Rhode Island. His father and mother were
deserters from a British fleet. They had, however, once
seen brighter days than this circumstance might seem to
imply; for Mr. Peacock, at one time, had the honor to
write himself Chief Butcher to His Majesty George III.,
London. Mrs. Peacock, before she united her destinies
to those of the honored father of our hero—that union which
was to bestow upon the New World the brightest masonic
star that ever illumined the wondering hemisphere of the
West—Mrs. Peacock, I say, was called the Billingsgate
Beauty. They very mackerels she sold might shrink from
a comparison with the plumpness of her person, and the
claws of her own lobsters were nothing in redness to the
vermillion of her cheeks. She made, as may well be supposed,
sad devastation among the hearts of the gallant
young fish-mongers.—Oystermen, clam-cryers, carpers,
shrimpers and all—all fell before the scorching blaze of
her optical artillery. But she would have mercy on none
of them; she aspired to a higher destiny; and her laudable
ambition was rewarded with the most flattering success;
for she soon saw herself the distinguished lady of
Peletiah Peacock, Chief Butcher to His Majesty. But
how she became the envy of many a dashing butcheress,
by the splendor of her appearance,—how her husband
flourished, and how he fell, and was driven from the stalls
of royalty,—how he took leave of the baffled bum-bailiffs
of his native city, enlisted on board a man of war, and
sailed for America, with permission for his loving rib to accompany
him,—how they both deserted at a New England
port, at which the vessel had touched, and were housed in
a friendly hay-stack in the neighborhood till the search
was over and vessel departed,—and, finally, how they travelled
over land till they reached the smiling village where
they found their abiding domicil, belongs, perhaps, to the
literati of Britain to relate. They have, and of right ought
to have, the first claim on the achievements of their countrymen
with which to fill the bright pages of their country's
biography; and to them then let us graciously yield the
honor of enshrining his memory with those of their Reverend
`Fiddlers' and truth-telling `Trollopes.' Far be it from
me to rob them of the glory of this theme.—Mine is a different
object; and I shall mention no more of the deeds of
the father than I conceive necessary to elucidate the history
of the son, whose brilliant career I have attempted, with
trembling diffidence, to sketch in the following unworthy
pages. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 95 | Author: | Thompson
Daniel P.
(Daniel Pierce)
1795-1868 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Green Mountain boys | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | It seems to be universally conceded that the first
settlers of Vermont were men of an iron mould, and
of an indomitable spirit. And it is no less true, we
apprehend, that with corporeal frames, unusually
large and muscular, and constitutions peculiarly robust
and enduring, they possessed, also, intelligence
and mental energies, which, considering what might
naturally be expected of men of their condition in
life, and in their situation in a wilderness affording
none of the ordinary means of intellectual culture,
were equally remarkable. The proof of these assertions
is to be abundantly found, we think, in the unequalled
stand taken by them for their rights, in their
memorable controversy with New York, and in the
multiplied documents that grew out of it, in the
shape of resolves and decrees of conventions, addresses
to the people, memorials and remonstrances
to the governor of that province, and to the British
throne itself, all drawn up with great clearness and
cogency of reasoning, and evincing a knowledge of
natural and constitutional rights in a people, among
whom law as a profession was then entirely unknown,
which are generally to be found only in the
courts and councils of old and highly civilized countries.
And even were these testimonials to their
character wholly wanting, ample evidence, that they
were a generation of no ordinary men, may still be
seen in the scattered remnant of this noble band of
heroes yet lingering among us, like the few and aged
pines on their evergreen mountains, and, though
now bowed down by the weight of nearly a century
of years, exhibiting frames, which would almost
seem to indicate them as men belonging to another
race, and which are still animated by the light of
wisdom and intelligence, and warmed by the unconquerable
spirit of freedom yet burning unwasted
within them. “From my heart I thank you for your kind note.
All as yet remains undiscovered,—painful, painful
exigency! which compels concealment of so important
a step from an only parent! And yet I regret
not my troth; and whatever of sorrow it may cost
me, I will not repine at the fruit of a tree of my
own planting. Heaven preserve you, my very dear
friend, in the hour of peril, and crown with success
your efforts in the cause of freedom. “Your few lines, my dear sir, have been received,
and read, I know not how many times over, and
with an interest which I dare not acknowledge.
Your propositions, too, have been all candidly, and
even anxiously weighed. And it is with many, very
many regrets, my more than friend, that I am
forced to the conclusion that, at present, it were better,
that they be not complied with. You first propose
to come here openly, explain to my father the
reasons which compelled you to that course, which
he pretends so much to censure, and claim the privilege
of addressing me:—all the explanations, which
it may be needful to make, would, I am satisfied,
with my father's present feelings and impressions,
be better listened to from me than yourself. And
most assuredly they shall be made to him as soon as
his mood shall be such as shall warrant the belief
that they will be received, without passion or prejudice.
And before you take the step you propose, I
could wish also to see to some change in his views
relative to the match he has marked out for me. And
changed, believe me, they sooner or later will be.
Reason will at length resume her sway; and, to say
nothing of your character, the character of one of
whom I would not willingly speak my opinion, must
soon be better known to him. And he will see, and
feel, for himself, that his present requirements are
neither wise nor generous. But do not, for my sake,
for your own sake, beloved friend, attempt to accomplish
all this now, under circumstances so inauspicious:
for I feel it would be useless; and not only
so, but lead, probably, to the defeat of the objects,
and consequently the happiness of us both. No,
Warrington, be patient, trust in Heaven to expose
guilt, and reward inocence, and rely on the constancy
of her, who is resolved to bring about a state of
things when her lover can be received in her father's
house with the kindness and respect to which
he is entitled. `Be astonished, O, ye heavens! and Alma Hendee,
be you thunder struck! as I know you will be,
when you learn, that we are—every man of us,—the
Major and all, prisoners of war! Yes, I am a second
time a prisoner to Mr. Selden! What means
it, Alma? There is some strange fatality about it,
that passes my poor comprehension. O, for some
one deeply skilled in scanning the future—some one
gifted with the second sight, which is claimed by our
Highland seers in Scotland, to divine to me the portent
of this singular happening! How very surprised
*7
we all were when they landed—a body of
armed men—and marched up, taking possession of
the yard, and disarming our soldiers. “Major Warrington,—Our intimacy is forever
ended. As no explanations need be given, so none
will be received. I trust, therefore, that no further
communications on your part will be attempted. “Miss Hendee, I guess, will remember, how, a
year or two ago, a man came to your house and
mended the things; and how he made some statements
about Charles Warrington, the Colonel that
now is. Now, what I said at that time has worried
my feelings a great deal most ever since. Though
I then really thought what I said was justifiable, even
if it was not quite true, as I was made to believe it
to be for your good. But I soon after found out
what I told you was not so, for I didn't know myself,
and only said what I was asked to say. This
was the story of it. As I was going from house to
house, working at my trade there in your part of the
settlement, I fell in with a plausible sort of a man,—
I don't think I had best call him by name,—and we
after a while got to talking about Warrington, whom
I had seen often enough, though I knew nothing
about his private affairs. Well, he, in a smooth kind
of way, said there was one thing that hurt his feelings;
and that was, that Warrington was doing the
wrong thing by a relative of his, a very likely girl,
that he pretended to be courting for the sake of getting
her family on his side in the York quarrel, when
to his certain knowledge, he had a young wife that
he had deserted down country. He said it was a
great pity to have the girl so deceived, and he would
give two gold guineas to any one who would break
up the courtship. But he said it would do no kinder
good for her relations to try; and they were very
anxious some one else should undertake to do it.
He then told me his plan was, that he and I, if I
would agree to do it, should first kinder secretly tell
folks this story about the deserted wife, so that it
should get to her, and make her begin to believe it;
and then I should go there and pretend to come
from where Warrington used to live, and let drop
some how, before the girl, that I was knowing myself
to that business about his being married. Well,
he kinder drew me into this plan, and I being poor,
consented for the money to do as I did. But I soon
mistrusted that this man had some wrong design,
which I found out to be the case, and I feel very
sorry, and ask pardon for what happened; and shall
feel very bad if I done any mischief by it, as I think
Colonel Warrington a very likely man. I think I
shall feel easier now in my mind, but I guess, considering,
I shant sign my name, though I am not
ashamed of it, or at least I never was in any other
affair since I was born. It is one of the felicities of soldiership, and of the
gratifications of a commander, to award the meed of
approbation to fidelity in a common cause, and fealty
to a common sovereign. This meed, Sir, I deem
it no flattery to say is yours, speaking, as I do,
from personal acquaintance, and on the voucher of
Colonel Beverly Robinson, a Loyal American officer,
of worth, and zeal, and activity. “This may certify that David Remington, the
bearer hereof, is thought to be a true friend to the
States of America. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 96 | Author: | Thompson
Daniel P.
(Daniel Pierce)
1795-1868 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Locke Amsden, The schoolmaster | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Our story, contrary perhaps to fashionable precedent,
opens at a common farm-house, situated on one of the principal
roads leading through the interior of the northerly
portion of the Union. It was near the middle of the day,
in that part of the spring season when the rough and chill
features of winter are becoming so equally blended with the
soft and mild ones of summer upon the face of nature, that
we feel at loss in deciding whether the characteristics of the
one or the other most prevail. The hills were mostly bare,
but their appearance was not that of summer; and the tempted
eye turned away unsatisfied from the cheerless prospect which
their dreary and frost-blackened sides presented. The levels,
on the other hand, were still covered with snow; and yet their
aspect was not that of winter. Clumps of willows, scattered
along the hedges, or around the waste-places of the meadows,
were white with the starting buds or blossoms of spring.
The old white mantle of the frost-king was also becoming
sadly dingy and tattered. Each stump and stone was enclosed
by a widening circle of bare ground; while the tops
of the furrows, peering through the dissolving snows, were
beginning to streak, with long, faint, dotted lines, the self-disclosing
plough-fields. The cattle were lazily ruminating
in the barn-yard, occasionally lowing and casting a wistful
glance at the bare hills around, but without offering to move
towards them, as if they thought that the prospects there
were hardly sufficient to induce them yet to leave their
winter quarters. The earth-loving sheep, however, had
broken from their fold, and, having reached the borders of
the hills by some partially trod path, were busily nibbling at
the roots of the shriveled herbage, unheedful of the bleating
cries of their feebler companions, that they had left stuck in
the treacherous snow-drifts, encountered in their migrations
from one bare patch to another. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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