| | 141 | Author: | Paulding
James Kirke
1778-1860 | Add | | | Title: | John Bull in America, or, The new Munchausen  | | | | 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: | Previous to my departure for the Western
paradise of liberty, my impressions with regard
to the country were, upon the whole, rather of a
favourable character. It is true, I did not believe
a word of the inflated accounts given by certain
French revolutionary travellers, such as Brissot,
Chastellux, and others; much less in those of Birkbeck,
Miss Wright, Captain Hall, and the rest of
the radical fry. I was too conversant with the
Quarterly Review, to be led astray by these Utopian
romancers, and felt pretty well satisfied that
the institutions of the country were altogether
barbarous. I also fully believed that the people
were a bundling, gouging, drinking, spitting, impious
race, without either morals, literature, religion,
or refinement; and that the turbulent spirit
of democracy was altogether incompatible with any
state of society becoming a civilized nation. Being
thus convinced that their situation was, for the present,
deplorable, and in the future entirely hopeless,
unless they presently relieved themselves
from the cumbrous load of liberty, under which
they groaned, I fell into a sort of compassion for
them, such as we feel for condemned criminals,
having no hope of respite, and no claim to benefit
of clergy. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 142 | Author: | Paulding
James Kirke
1778-1860 | Add | | | Title: | The merry tales of the three wise men of Gotham | | | | 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: | I was born, began the first Wise Man of Gotham,
in a country that I consider unworthy of my nativity,
and for that reason I shall do all in my
power to deprive it of the honour, by not mentioning
its name. I am, moreover, descended from
a family, which must necessarily be of great antiquity,
since, like all old things, it has long since
fallen into decay. My father had little or no money,
but was blessed with the poor man's wealth,
a fruitful wife and great store of children. Of
these I am the eldest; but at the period I shall
commence my story, we were all too young to
take care of ourselves, until the fortunate discovery
was made by some great philanthropist, that
little children, of six or seven years old, could
labour a dozen or fourteen hours a day without
stinting their minds, ruining their health, or destroying
their morals. This improvement in the
great science of PRODUCTIVE LABOUR, delighted my
father—it was shifting the onus, as the lawyers
say, from his own shoulders to that of his children.
He forthwith bound us all over to a cotton
manufactory, where we stood upon our legs
three times as long as a member of congress, that
is to say, fourteen hours a day, and among eight
of us, managed to earn a guinea a week. The
old gentleman, for gentleman he became from the
moment he discovered his little flock could maintain
him—thought he had opened a mine. He
left off working, and took to drinking and studying
the mysteries of political economy and productive
labour. He soon became an adept in this
glorious science, and at length arrived at the happy
conclusion, that the whole moral, physical, political
and religious organization of society, resolved
itself into making the most of human labour,
just as we do of that of our horses, oxen, asses
and other beasts of burthen. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 143 | Author: | Paulding
James Kirke
1778-1860 | Add | | | Title: | The new mirror for travellers and guide to the springs | | | | 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 compiling and cogitating this work, we have considered
ourselves as having no manner of concern with
travellers until they arrive in the city of New York,
where we intend to take them under our especial protection.
Doubtless, in proceeding from the south,
there are various objects worth the attention of the traveller,
who may take the opportunity of stopping to
change horses, or to dine, to look round him a little,
and see what is to be seen. But, generally speaking,
all is lost time, until he arrives at New York, of which
it may justly be said, that as Paris is France, so New
York is—New York. It is here then that we take the
fashionable tourist by the hand and commence cicerone. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 147 | Author: | Paulding
James Kirke
1778-1860 | Add | | | Title: | Westward ho! | | | | 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: | “O rare Ben Jonson!” said some one, and
O rare Beaumont and Fletcher say we; for in
honest sincerity we prefer this gentle pair to all
the old English dramatic writers except Shakspeare.
For playful wit, richness of fancy, exuberance
of invention, and, above all, for the
sweet magic of their language, where shall we
find their superiors among the British bards?
It is not for us obscure wights to put on the
critical nightcap, and, being notorious criminals
ourselves, set up as judges of others; but we
should hold ourselves base and ungrateful if
we did not seize this chance opportunity to
raise our voices in these remote regions of
the West, where, peradventure, they never
dreamed of one day possessing millions of
readers, in humble acknowledgment of the
many hours they have whiled away by the creations
of their sprightly fancy, arrayed in the
matchless melody of their tuneful verse. But
mankind must have an idol, one who monopolizes
their admiration and devotion. The name
of Shakspeare has swallowed up that of his
predecessors, contemporaries, and successors;
thousands, tens of thousands echo his name that
never heard of Marlow,—Marlow, to whom
Shakspeare himself condescended to be indebted,
and whose conception of the character of
Faust is precisely that of Goëthe;—of Webster,
Marston, Randolph, Cartwright, May, and all
that singular knot of dramatists, who unite the
greatest beauties with the greatest deformities,
and whose genius has sunk under the licentiousness
of the age in which it was their misfortune
to live. The names of Massinger, Ben
Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher are, it is true,
more familiar; but it is only their names and
one or two of their pieces that are generally
known. These last have been preserved, not
on the score of their superior beauties, but because
they afforded an opportunity for Garrick
and other great performers to reap laurels which
belonged to the poet, by the exhibition of some
striking character. Far be it from us to attempt
to detract from the fame of Shakspeare. Superior
he is, beyond doubt, to all his countrymen
who went before or came after him, in the peculiar
walk of his genius; but he is not so immeasurably
superior as to cast all others into
oblivion; and to us it seems almost a disgrace
to England that a large portion of her own
readers, and a still larger of foreigners, seem
ignorant that she ever produced more than one
dramatist. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 148 | Author: | Paulding
James Kirke
1778-1860 | Add | | | Title: | The book of Saint Nicholas | | | | 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: | Everybody has heard of St. Nicholas, that
honest Dutch saint, whom I look upon as having
been one of the most liberal, good-natured little
fat fellows in the world. But, strange as it may
seem, though everybody has heard, nobody seems
to know anything about him. The place of his
birth, the history of his life, and the manner in
which he came to be the dispenser of Newyear
cakes, and the patron of good boys, are matters
that have hitherto not been investigated, as they
ought to have been long and long ago. I am about
to supply this deficiency, and pay a debt of honour
which is due to this illustrious and obscure tutelary
genius of the jolly Newyear. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 149 | Author: | Paulding
James Kirke
1778-1860 | Add | | | Title: | The old Continental, or, The price of liberty | | | | 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: | During the most gloomy and disastrous period of
our revolutionary war, there resided in the county of
Westchester a family of plain country people, who
had, in time long past, seen better days; but who
now had nothing to boast of, but a small farm, a good
name, and a good conscience. Though bred in the
city, they had lived so long in a retired part of the
country, that their habits, tastes, and manners, had become
altogether rural, and they had almost outlived
every vestige of former refinements, except in certain
modes of thinking, and acting, which had survived
in all changes of time and circumstances. Their residence
was an old stone-house, bearing the date of
1688, the figures of which were formed by Holland
bricks, incorporated with the walls. The roof
was green with mossy honours, and the entire edifice
bore testimony, not only to the lapse of time, but to
the downhill progress of its inmates. Though not in
ruins, it was much decayed; and, though with a good
rousing fire in the broad capacious chimney, it was
comfortable enough in winter, it afforded nothing
without to indicate anything but the possession of
those simple necessaries of life, which fall to the lot
of those who derive their means of happiness from
the labours of their hands, the bounties of the earth,
and the blessing of a quiet soul. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 150 | Author: | Paulding
James Kirke
1778-1860 | Add | | | Title: | The old Continental, or, The price of liberty | | | | 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: | The old sugar-house to which our hero and his companion
in misfortune were consigned, is still standing[1]
[1]It has since been pulled down.
to remind us of the sufferings of our fathers, and the
price they paid for liberty. To those who have never
seen the building, it may not be amiss to state that it
is a large, massive, gloomy pile of red-stone, with narrow
grated windows, which gives it the air of a prison;
standing at the northeast corner of the yard of the
Dutch church fronting on Liberty street, which, during
the occupation of the city by the British, was used as
a riding-school. The aspect of the structure is forbidding,
corresponding with the recollections which will
long accompany its contemplation, by the descendants
and countrymen of many nameless and humble patriots
that here became the martyrs to the oppression of
a haughty parent, and a petty tyrant whose infamous
name is forever associated with the recollection of
their fate. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 151 | Author: | Paulding
James Kirke
1778-1860 | Add | | | Title: | The Puritan and his daughter | | | | 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 the reign of King Charles—courteously styled
the Martyr—there resided in an obscure corner of the
renowned kingdom of England, a certain obscure
country gentleman, claiming descent from a family
that flourished in great splendor under a Saxon monarch
whose name is forgotten. This ancient family,
like most others of great pretensions to antiquity, had
gone by as many names as certain persons who live in
the fear of the law, but finally settled down on that of
Habingdon, or Habingden, by which they were now
known. They were somewhat poor, but very proud,
and looked down with contempt on the posterity of the
upstart Normans who usurped the domains of their
ancestors. They had resided on the same spot for
more than eight hundred years, during which time,
not one of them had ever performed an act worthy of
being transmitted to posterity, with the single exception
of one Thurkill Habingdonne who flourished in
the reign of King John—of unblessed memory—and
who is recorded to have given one-third of a caracut of
land, and a wind-mill, to the priory of Monks Kirby,
“to the end,” as he expresses it, “that his obit should
be perpetually there observed, and his name written
in the Martyrologe.” It hath been a mooted point with that class of philosophical
inquirers, which so usefully occupies itself
with discussions that can never be brought to a conclusion,
whether the age gives the tone to literature,
or literature to the age. It is a knotty question, and
not being of the least consequence to any practical
purpose, it will be passed over with the single remark,
that it is quite useless for an author to write in good
taste if the public won't read, and equally idle for the
public to cherish a keen relish for polite literature, if
there are no authors to administer food to its appetite. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 152 | Author: | Pike
Albert
1809-1891 | Add | | | Title: | Prose sketches and poems | | | | 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: | The world of prairie which lies at a distance of more
than three hundred miles west of the inhabited portions of
the United States, and south of the river Arkansas and its
branches, has been rarely, and parts of it never, trodden
by the foot or beheld by the eye of an Anglo-American.
Rivers rise there in the broad level waste, of which, mighty
though they become in their course, the source is unexplored.
Deserts are there, too barren of grass to support
even the hardy buffalo; and in which water, except in
here and there a hole, is never found. Ranged over by
the Comanches, the Pawnees, the Caiwas, and other
equally wandering, savage and hostile tribes, its very
name is a mystery and a terror. The Pawnees have their
villages entirely north of this part of the country; and
their war parties—always on foot—are seldom to be met
with to the south of the Canadian, except close in upon
the edges of the white and civilized Indian settlements.
Extending on the south to the Rio del Norte, on the north
to a distance unknown, eastwardly to within three or four
hundred miles of the edge of Arkansas Territory, and
westwardly to the Rocky Mountains, is the range of the
Comanches. Abundantly supplied with good horses from
the immense herds of the prairie, they range, at different
times of the year, over the whole of this vast country.
Their war and hunting parties follow the buffalo continually.
In the winter they may be found in the south,
encamped along the Rio del Norte, and under the mountains;
and in the summer on the Canadian, and to the
north of it, and on the Pecos. Sometimes they haunt the
Canadian in the winter, but not so commonly as in the
summer. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 153 | Author: | Poe
Edgar Allan
1809-1849 | Add | | | Title: | The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. Of Nantucket | | | | 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: | My name is Arthur Gordon Pym. My father was a respectable
trader in sea-stores at Nantucket, where I was
born. My maternal grandfather was an attorney in good
practice. He was fortunate in everything, and had speculated
very successfully in stocks of the Edgarton New-Bank,
as it was formerly called. By these and other
means he had managed to lay by a tolerable sum of money.
He was more attached to myself, I believe, than
to any other person in the world, and I expected to inherit
the most of his property at his death. He sent me,
at six years of age, to the school of old Mr. Ricketts, a
gentleman with only one arm, and of eccentric manners
—he is well known to almost every person who has
visited New Bedford. I stayed at his school until I was
sixteen, when I left him for Mr. E. Ronald's academy
on the hill. Here I became intimate with the son of
Mr. Barnard, a sea captain, who generally sailed in the
employ of Lloyd and Vredenburgh—Mr. Barnard is also
very well known in New Bedford, and has many relations,
I am certain, in Edgarton. His son was named
Augustus, and he was nearly two years older than myself.
He had been on a whaling voyage with his father
in the John Donaldson, and was always talking to me of
his adventures in the South Pacific Ocean. I used frequently
to go home with him, and remain all day, and
sometimes all night. We occupied the same bed, and
he would be sure to keep me awake until almost light,
telling me stories of the natives of the Island of Tinian,
and other places he had visited in his travels. At last I
could not help being interested in what he said, and by
degrees I felt the greatest desire to go to sea. I owned
a sail-boat called the Ariel, and worth about seventy-five
dollars. She had a half-deck or cuddy, and was rigged
sloop-fashion—I forget her tonnage, but she would hold
ten persons without much crowding. In this boat we
were in the habit of going on some of the maddest freaks
in the world; and, when I now think of them, it appears
to me a thousand wonders that I am alive to-day. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 155 | Author: | Fay
Theodore S.
(Theodore Sedgwick)
1807-1898 | Add | | | Title: | Hoboken | | | | 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: | “Where are Frank and Harry?” asked Mr. Lennox, as
the family assembled at breakfast. “I haven't done anything wrong that I know of; but while
I labour under the imputation I will not accept assistance,
except it is offered because they think me incapable of a
dishonourable action. I seize this occasion to apologize for
my rudeness to Mr. Lennox, once my noble friend and benefactor;
you and all your family have my thanks and best
wishes. I respectfully thank you for your interest in me;
but don't fear, I shall get along somehow, and don't intend
to knock under yet. “Glendenning,” said White, when they were alone,
“you are in an extremely awkward position, and so am
I. I bore your message last evening to Lieutenant
Breckenbridge. He declined receiving it on the plea
that you are not a gentleman.” “Your last, most gratifying favour reached us in due
course of mail. Need I say how the spirit which inspired it
delighted me, and how much we are all charmed with the
friendship which has risen from such a strange cause? We
have left Rose Hill at last. Harry has gone to Europe, and
Mr. Lennox's business requires his presence in New-York.
We all thought and talked of you yesterday, and drank
health and happiness to you, at Mr. Lennox's suggestion, in
Champagne. I added water to mine, but it did not diminish
the ardour of my wishes for your continued prosperity,
or of my prayers that you will receive strength from above
to follow to the end the noble path of reformation you have
adopted. You will have long since learned that all the reasonings
and inferences which seem to militate against the
truth of religion are erroneous, and, though they may tend
to excite doubts, are not sufficient to create unbelief. “Circumstances not necessary to be explained render me
apprehensive that the affair which took place between you
and myself has not been quite properly arranged. The
meeting must be renewed. When acquainted with my
opinion, I feel certain you will require no other inducement
to afford me the satisfaction I have not yet received, and to
name a friend who will immediately make the necessary arrangements. “Circumstances have obliged me to put off the dinner
to-day; I shall not, therefore, have the pleasure of seeing
you. “Come home and share our sorrows. Come home and
lessen our unhappiness—” “Your beloved mother will have informed you of the fine
doings we have had here, or, at least, of some of them. But
don't mind; we'll manage matters yet, only now I must depend
a little more on you. As I have no doubt these
agreeable epistles will bring you home double quick time, I
shall not enter into any particulars, especially as my doctor
pretends that I must yet be careful of my eyes. Keep up
your spirits, and let us see you here when you can conveniently
manage it. We are beginning to feel your absence,
really. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 156 | Author: | Flint
Timothy
1780-1840 | Add | | | Title: | The life and adventures of Arthur Clenning, in two volumes | | | | 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: | Here would be the place to transcribe some of
the incidents of that period, well known by the
cant but significant name, “honey-moon.” Theocritus
must lend his pastoral pencil, and St. Pierre
his unrivalled powers of singing the rural life of
love in the shades of such a retirement, to do ordinary
justice to the history of their enjoyments. In
days of enjoyment like theirs, the youthful imagination
peoples all that surrounds them, with beings
who sympathize with them in their felicity. It is
true, though they were in the midst of a nature no
less pleasant than formerly, they saw it not with
the same eyes; for they were more intently occupied
with each other. The want of the society of
others of their kind was hardly perceived by them,
who possessed in each other
Whatever fancy forms of good and fair,
Or lavish hearts could wish.
The poor birds fluttered, shook their wings, and
sung, and croaked with the joy of welcome, when
they came forth, as formerly. But their fair mistress,
though she saw them fed, as formerly, had
almost forgotten to caress them. The lessons of
Rescue came to a dead pause for a while, though
she showed great shrewdness and penetration, using
her eyes and senses to the utmost advantage. She
often surprised them with proofs of her native
sagacity, and self-taught proficiency. She saw
the two happy beings, with whom she lived, at first,
it may be, with some natural sensations of envy.
But she never failed to evince, that from the first,
she had felt all the ties and obligations of gratitude.
Daily conversant with two beings, as amiable as
they were happy, she soon added the ties of daily
intercourse and affection to her first obligations.
She appeared to love them with the earnest and
simple affection of a child. Their will was a law,
and their thoughts the measure of what was right.
She saw them obliging, kind, and affectionate, in
every word, look, and action; and this view will
more readily inspire homage in the bosom of a
person in a condition like hers, than to see the
parties possessing and exercising the power of life
and death. Each day brought to each of the
three a new succession of pleasures. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 157 | Author: | Foster
Hannah Webster
1759-1840 | Add | | | Title: | The boarding school, or, Lessons of a preceptress to her pupils ; consisting of information, instruction, and advice, calculated to improve the manners, and form the character of young ladies ; to which is added, a collection of letters, written by the pupils, to their instructor, their friends, and each other | | | | 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 | | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 158 | Author: | Hale
Sarah Josepha Buell
1788-1879 | Add | | | Title: | Sketches of American 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: | Travellers, who have made the tour of
Europe, always dwell with peculiar delight on
the sunny skies of Italy; and a host of domestic
writers, never, perhaps, in the whole course
of their existence, beyond that seeming boundary
where their eyes first beheld the horizon
apparently closing around them, join their
voices in the chorus of the sunny skies of
Italy! | | | Similar Items: | Find |
|
