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181Author:  Flint Timothy 1780-1840Requires cookie*
 Title:  George Mason, the young backwoodsman, or, 'Don't give up the ship"  
 Published:  1997 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 
 Description: Widow, who weepest sore in the night, and whose tears are on thy cheeks, because thy young children are fatherless, and the husband of thy bosom and thy youth in the dust, dry thy tears. Remember Him, who hath promised to be the husband of the widow, and take courage. Orphan, who hast seen thy venerated father taken from thee by the rude hand of death, and whose thought is, that in the wide world, there is none to love, pity, or protect thee, forget not the gracious Being, who has promised to be a father to the orphan, and remember, that thy business in life is, not to give up to weak and enervating despondence, and waste thy strength in sorrow and tears. Life is neither an anthem nor a funeral hymn, but an assigned task of discipline and struggle, and thou hast to gird thyself, and go to thy duty in the strength of God. I write for the young, the poor, and the desolate; and the moral and the maxim which I wish to inculcate is, that we ought never to despond, either in our religious or our temporal trials. To parents I would say, inculcate the spirit, the duties, and the hopes of religion upon your children in the morning and the evening, in the house and by the way. Instil decision and moral courage into their young bosoms. Teach them incessantly the grand maxim—self-respect. It will go farther to gain them respect, and render them deserving of it, than the bequeathed stores of hoarded coffers. A child, deeply imbued with self-respect, will never disgrace his parents. The inculcation of this single point includes, in my view, the best scope of education. If my powers corresponded to my wishes, I would impress these thoughts in the following brief and unpretending story. The reader will see, if he knows the country, where it is laid, as I do, that it is true to nature. He will comprehend my motive for not being more explicit on many points; and he will not turn away with indifference from the short and simple annals of the poor, for he will remember, that nine in ten of our brethren of the human race are of that class. He will not dare to despise the lowly tenants of the valley, where the Almighty, in his wisdom, has seen fit to place the great mass of our race. It has been for ages the wicked, and unfeeling, and stupid habit of writers, in selecting their scenery and their examples, to act as if they supposed that the rich, the titled, and the distinguished, who dwell in mansions, and fare sumptuously every day, were the only persons, who could display noble thinking and acting; that they were the only characters, whose loves, hopes, fortunes, sufferings, and deeds had any thing in them, worthy of interest, or sympathy. Who, in reading about these favorites of fortune, remembers that they constitute but one in ten thousand of the species? Even those of humble name and fortunes have finally caught the debasing and enslaving prejudice themselves, and exult in the actions, and shed tears of sympathy over the sorrows of the titled and the great, which, had they been recorded of 1* those in their own walk of life, would have been viewed either with indifference or disgust. I well know that the poor can act as nobly, and suffer as bitterly and keenly as the rich. There is as much strength and force and truth of affection in cottages as in palaces. I am a man, and as such, am affected with the noble actions, the joys and sorrows, the love and death of the obscure, as much as of the great. If there be any difference, the deeds, affections, fortunes, and sufferings of the former have more interest; for they are unprompted by vanity, unblazoned by fame, unobscured by affectation, unalloyed by pride and avarice. The actings of the heart are sincere, simple, single. God alone has touched the pendulum with his finger, and the vibrations are invariably true to the purpose of Him who made the movement. If, therefore, reader, you feel with me, you will not turn away with indifference from this, my tale, because you are forewarned, that none of the personages are rich or distinguished. You will believe, that a noble heart can swell in a bosom clad in the meanest habiliments. You will admit the truth as well as the beauty of the poet's declaration, respecting the gems of the sea, and the roses that “waste their sweetness on the desert air;” and you will believe, that incidents, full of tender and solemn interest, have occurred in a log cabin in the forests of the Mississippi.
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182Author:  Flint Timothy 1780-1840Requires cookie*
 Title:  The Shoshonee Valley  
 Published:  1997 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 
 Description: The Shoshonee are a numerous and powerful tribe of Indians, who dwell in a long and narrow vale of unparalleled wildness and beauty of scenery, between the two last western ridges of the Rocky Mountains, on the south side of the Oregon, or as the inhabitants of the United States choose to call it, the Columbia. They are a tall, finely formed, and comparatively fair haired race, more mild in manners, more polished and advanced in civilization, and more conversant with the arts of municipal life, than the contiguous northern tribes. Vague accounts of them by wandering savages, hunters, and coureurs du bois, have been the sources, most probably, whence have been formed the western fables, touching the existence of a nation in this region, descended from the Welsh. In fact many of the females, unexposed by their condition to the sun and inclemencies of the seasons, are almost as fair, as the whites. The contributions, which the nation has often levied from their neighbors the Spaniards, have introduced money and factitious wants, and a consequent impulse to build after the fashions, to dress in the clothes, and to live after the modes of civilized people, among them. From them they have obtained either by barter or war, cattle, horses, mules, and the other domestic animals, in abundance. Maize, squashes, melons and beans they supposed they had received as direct gifts from the Wah-condah, or Master of Life. The cultivation of these, and their various exotic exuberant vegetables, they had acquired from surveying the modes of Spanish industry and subsistence. Other approximations to civilization they had unconsciously adopted from numerous Spanish captives, residing among them, in a relation peculiar to the red people, and intermediate between citizenship and slavery. But the creole Spanish, from whom they had these incipient germs of civilized life, were themselves a simple and pastoral people, a century behind the Anglo Americans in modern advancement. The Shoshonee were, therefore, in a most interesting stage of existence, just emerging from their own comparative advancements to a new condition, modelled to the fashion of their Spanish neighbors.
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183Author:  Foster Hannah Webster 1759-1840Requires cookie*
 Title:  The coquette, or, The history of Eliza Wharton : a novel, founded on fact  
 Published:  1997 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 
 Description: An unusual sensation possesses my breast; a sensation, which I once thought could never pervade it on any occasion whatever. It is pleasure; pleasure, my dear Lucy, on leaving my paternal roof! Could you have believed that the darling child of an indulgent and dearly beloved mother would feel a gleam of joy at leaving her? but so it is. The melancholy, the gloom, the condolence, which surrounded me for a month after the death of Mr. Haly, had depressed my spirits, and palled every enjoyment of life. Mr. Haly was a man of worth; a man of real and substantial merit. He is therefore deeply, and justly regreted by his friends; he was chosen to be a future guardian, and companion for me, and was, therefore, beloved by mine. As their choice; as a good man, and a faithful friend, I esteemed him. But no one acquainted with the disparity of our tempers and dispositions, our views and designs, can suppose my heart much engaged in the alliance. Both nature and education had instilled into my mind an implicit obedience to the will and desires of my parents. To them, of course, I sacrificed my fancy in this affair; determined that my reason should coucur with theirs; and on that to risk my future happiness. I was the more encouraged, as I saw, from our first acquaintance, his declining health; and expected, that the event would prove as it has. Think not, however, that I rejoice in his death. No; far be it from me; for though I believe that I never felt the passion of love for Mr. Haly; yet a habit of conversing with him, of hearing daily the most virtuous, tender, and affectionate sentiments from his lips, inspired emotions of the sincerest friendship, and esteem.
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184Author:  Hale Sarah Josepha Buell 1788-1879Requires cookie*
 Title:  Keeping house and house keeping  
 Published:  1997 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 
 Description: “My dear,” said Mrs. Harley to her husband one morning, “I have been thinking we had better make a change in our domestic department. Nancy, I find, is getting quite impertinent; she wants to go out one afternoon every week, and that, in addition to her nightly meetings, is quite too much. Shall I settle with her to-day and dismiss her?” “My dear William—Your earthly treasures (that is, little John and myself) are running wild in these Elysian fields. Escaped from the din and tumult of the ctiy, it is so reviving to breathe the pure air of this healthful region, that the principal part of my conversation is to tell all the kind people whom I see here how delighted I am with the change, and how happy they must be who enjoy it all the time; to which Aunt Ruth generally replies, `Those who make the change are the people who are alive to its benefits; while those who always live amid such beauty become indifferent spectators.' “Dear Husband—When I last wrote, the full tide of happiness seemed flowing in upon me on every side; but alas! the change. Johnny, the day after I wrote you, was taken ill, and has continued so ever since. His disease the doctor pronounces to be the scarlet fever. To-day he is a little better; and while he is sleeping, I have taken my writing-desk to his bedside, that I may be ready to note any alteration. “Afternoon “Dear Aunt—You very good-naturedly ask me how I like the change from my former mode of living. I will frankly tell you, that it scarcely admits a comparison. I blush to recall my former imbecility, and often wonder at the long suffering of my friends, and of William in particular—that he should chide so little when he felt so much!
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185Author:  Hale Sarah Josepha Buell 1788-1879Requires cookie*
 Title:  "Boarding out"  
 Published:  1997 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 
 Description: “What ails you, my dear?” inquired Robert Barclay of his wife, as she sat thoughtfully, twirling her tea-cup. “You seem, of late, very uninterested in my conversation. Has any thing gone wrong with you to-day?” “Our plans are all arranged. Little did I think, when we conversed together upon the subject of my giving up housekeeping, I should so soon carry into effect your plan. I call it yours, for you first suggested to me the expedient of ridding myself of domestic trials. Mr. Barclay was at first wholly averse to hearing a word about it; but, dear Fanny, I talked hours, yes! days, until he yielded! Was he not a kind husband? I never suggested to him that you were prime mover, lest in future time, if things should not turn out well, you might be reproached. But, cousin, I am wholly unacquainted with the process of `breaking up housekeeping.' I thought we should never get furnished when we moved here; and now I feel as if we never should get things in order for the sale, unless you come immediately and help me. You will therefore stand by me for at least three or four weeks; help me look out a boarding-house, &c. Come in the four o'clock omnibus this afternoon. Truly, “I was just at my writing-desk, dictating a note to be sent to you, as your kind one arrived. Do not think me, Cousin Hepsy, a maniac, ranting in an untrue style, when I tell you I had accepted an invitation to stand as bridemaid to Madam Shortt the very day the announcement of her marriage was made to you! My partner (for I will tell the whole) is Rev. Mr. Milnor, our former clergyman, now of your city, who knew Colonel Bumblefoot many years in England, and many since in America; and, at his urgent request, has consented to stand nearest him during the ceremony! But your exclamations are not over yet. I suppose, at no very distant day, your cousin, Fanny Jones, may sign her name as `Fanny Milnor!' You will please communicate this to your good husband; and if I can be of any service to you again in a chase for a boarding-house, you are welcome to my services.
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186Author:  Hall James 1793-1868Requires cookie*
 Title:  The wilderness and the war path  
 Published:  1997 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | Wiley and Putnam's library of American books | wiley and putnams library of american books 
 Description: The life of the American Indian is not so destitute of the interest created by variety of incident, as might be supposed by a casual observation of the habits of this singular race. It is true that the simple structure of their communities, and the sameness of their occupations, limit the Savage within a narrow sphere of thought and action. Without commerce, agriculture, learning, or the arts, and confined to the employments of war and hunting, the general tenour of his life must be monotonous. His journies through the unpeopled wilderness, furnish him with no information as to the modes of existence of other nations, nor any subjects for reflection, but those which nature supplies, and with which he has been familiar from childhood. Beyond his own tribe, his intercourse extends only to savages as ignorant as himself, and to traders but little elevated above his own moral standard.
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187Author:  Herbert Henry William 1807-1858Requires cookie*
 Title:  Dermot O'brien; Or, the Taking of Tredagh  
 Published:  1997 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 
 Description: The bright, warm sunshine of a July morning was pouring its full stream of vivifying lustre over a wide expanse of wild, open country, in one of the south-eastern counties of Ireland. For miles and miles over which the eye extended, not a sign of a human habitation, or of man's handiwork, was visible; unless these were to be found in the existence of a long range of young oak woodland, which lay to the north-east, stretching for several miles continuously along the low horizon in that quarter, with something that might have been either a mist-wreath, or a column of blue smoke floating lazily in the pure atmosphere above it. The foreground of this desolate, but lovely landscape, was formed by a wide, brawling stream, which almost merited the name of a river, and which here issuing from an abrupt, rocky cleft or chasm, in the round-headed moorland hills, spread itself out over a broader bed, flowing rapidly in bright whirls and eddies upon a bottom of glittering pebbles, with here and there a great boulder heaving its dark, mossy head above the surface, and hundreds of silver-sided, yellow-finned trouts, flashing up like meteors from the depths, and breaking the smooth ripples in pursuit of their insect prey.
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188Author:  Melville Herman 1819-1891Requires cookie*
 Title:  Omoo  
 Published:  1997 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 
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189Author:  Smith Seba 1792-1868Requires cookie*
 Title:  John Smith's Letters, with 'picters' to Match  
 Published:  1997 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 
 Description: Dear Father—I take my pen in hand to let you know that I'm as hearty as a bear, and hope these few lines will find you, and mother, and grandfather, and cousin Debby, and all the children, enjoying the same blessing. We stood our march remarkable well, and are all alive, and safe, and sound as a whistle. And Sargent Johnson makes a most capital officer. He's jest sich a man as is wanted down here—there's no skeering him, I can tell you. He'd fight against bears, and wild-cats, and the British, and thunder and lightnin', and any thing else, that should set out to meddle with our disputed territory. And he's taken a master-liking to me, too, and says if he has any hard fighting to do, although I'm the youngest in the company, he shall always choose me first for his right-hand man. He says I had more pluck at the drafting than any one in the whole company, and he should rather have me by his side in battle, than any three of the rest of'em. But maybe you'd like to hear something about our march down here, and so on. Dear Father—Tell mother I ain't shot yet, though we've had one pretty considerable of a brush, and expect every day to have some more. Colonel Jarvis has took quite a liking to our little Smithville detachment. He says we are the smartest troops he's got, and as long as we stick by him, it isn't Sir John Harvey, nor all New-Brumzick, nor even Queen Victory herself can ever drive him off of Fitzherbert's farm. Perhaps you mayn't remember much about this Fitzherbert's farm, where we are. It is the very place where the British nabbed our Land Agent, Mr. McIntire, when he was abed, and asleep, and couldn't help himself, and carried him off to Frederiction jail. Let 'em come and try to nab us, if they dare; if they wouldn't wish their cake was dough again, I'm mistaken. We've got up pretty considerable of a little kind of a fort here, and we keep it manned day and night—we don't more than half of us sleep to once, and are determined the British shall never ketch us with both eyes shet. Dear Father—We stick by here yet, takin' care of our disputed territory and the logs; and while we stay here the British will have to walk as straight as a hair, you may depend. We ain't had much fighting to do since my last letter; and some how or other, things seem to be getting cooler down here a little, so that I'm afraid we ain't agoing to have the real scratch, after all, that I wanted to have. A day or two arter we took the logging camp and brought the men and oxen off here prisoners of war, we was setting in the fort after dinner and talking matters over, and Sargent Johnson was a wondering what a plague was the reason the British didn't come up to the scratch as they talked on. He said he guessed they wasn't sich mighty fairce fellers for war as they pretended to be, arter all.
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190Author:  Dana Richard Henry 1787-1879Requires cookie*
 Title:  Poems and prose writings  
 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 
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191Author:  Fay Theodore S. (Theodore Sedgwick) 1807-1898Requires cookie*
 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.
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192Author:  Flint Timothy 1780-1840Requires cookie*
 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.
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193Author:  Foster Hannah Webster 1759-1840Requires cookie*
 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 
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194Author:  Hale Sarah Josepha Buell 1788-1879Requires cookie*
 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!
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195Author:  Hale Sarah Josepha Buell 1788-1879Requires cookie*
 Title:  Traits of American life  
 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 Sketches and Stories here offered to the public, have not entirely the attraction of novelty to plead in their favour—but the Author trusts that the sentiments inculcated, and principles illustrated, are such as will bear a reiteration.
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196Author:  Hall Baynard Rush 1798-1863Requires cookie*
 Title:  The new purchase, or, Seven and a half years in the far 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: “Rev. Mr. Hilsbury asqr.,—you are pertiklurly invited to atend the house of mr. Abrim Ashford asq. to injine upon i the yoke of konjegal mattrimunny with his dater miss Susan Ashford as was—thersday mornin next 10 aklok before dinner a. m.
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197Author:  Hall Baynard Rush 1798-1863Requires cookie*
 Title:  The new purchase, or, Seven and a half years in the far 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: “A knowledge of your character, derived from mutual friends, from the opinion of all your acquaintances, and also from a somewhat intimate personal acquaintance, induces me to believe that such a lady would fill the vacancy in my domestic establishment most perfectly and delightfully:— although I am not vain enough to suppose Miss Smythe will necessarily feel herself flattered by such a preference on the part of the writer. As, however, Miss S. on better acquaintance, might become interested in him—more so at least than he fears she is at present—he very respectfully, yet most carnestly, craves permission to pay his addresses in person. “In a playful conversation on a subject so common when unmarried persons meet, your daughter, Miss Brown, in a jesting manner, remarked, that she always referred gentlemen to her father—as his choice would always be hers. What was jest with her, with me would have become very solemn earnest, had I had then to offer any thing beyond my hand and my heart, to induce such a girl to leave such a home. Happily, circumstances are now favourably altered; and willingly now would I ask that father for his daughter could I flatter myself the daughter could be induced to gladden and adorn a hearth, which, however warm in one sense, must be yet cold and cheerless without the love of a bosom friend. And such a friend would Miss Brown prove:—and, dear sir, if you think such a match suitable for your lovely daughter, I sincerely entreat the communication of your favourable opinion to her in my behalf—hoping that the daughter's choice then may be as the father's. “The other morning I went out a hunting with father's duck-gun what he brung out from Kentucky; but as I had no luck, I allowed I might as well put off for home; and so I turn about and goes towards home. As I come to the edge of our clearin, what should I see away off on the top of a dead walnut, but a black crow! And so I makes up my mind to try and hit him. The critter was more nor three hundred yards from me; but I insinuates myself along as near as two hundred yards to the feller; when he begins a showing signs of flittin: and so I trees where I was in a minute. Well, I determines to try him there, although 'twas near as good as desperut to try a black crow that distance with a shot-gun; although father's duck-gun's the most powerful shot-gun in the Purchis. Howsomdever, I wanted the load out; and I thought I might as well fire that a way as any other—and so up I draws the piece very careful, and begins a takin aim, thinking all the while I shouldn't hit him: still I tuk the most exactest aim, as if I should; when just then he hops about two foot nearer my way, as if to get a look round my tree, where he smelt powder—and then, thinking all the time, as I said, I shouldn't hit him, as the distance was so most powerful fur, I blazed away!—and sure enough, as I'm alive—I didn't hit him!” * * * * * * and the inclosed from my daughter, to whom was handed your late communication, contains, I presume, the most satisfactory answer, * * * * and * * * “I honour you for honesty, as I am satisfied you assign true reasons for not taking one to share your home; although the reasons themselves can never seem satisfactory where one was willing to share another's heart. For, like most girls in their days of romance, that one cared to find only a heart when she married. As my own home is sufficiently comfortable, there can be no inducement to wish another, however comfortable, in the New Purchase; and where its owner seems to think `altered circumstances' are important in winning a woman's love. But to show that kindness is estimated that would spare my delicacy, by leading my dear father to think all our conversation had been sportive, I do hereby most cordially—(here John looked! oh! I tell you what!)—invite you to our Christmas festivities, when the writer changes her name from Mary Brown to Mary Burleigh.”
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198Author:  Hall Baynard Rush 1798-1863Requires cookie*
 Title:  Something for every body  
 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 Charles,—You insist that I am an incorrigible skeptic, and seem inclined to deliver me over to the secular arm. “What!” say you, “shall we disbelieve the evidence of the senses, and the testimony of reputable citizens?” “What,” you triumphantly ask, “can be more satisfactory than experiments, such as the citizens of Somewhersburg have lately witnessed?—men, and even young women (!) rendered incapable of speaking! and a very mercurial dancing master arrested at the mere will of the mesmerist, and made to stand as if petrified, in the act of cutting a pigeon-wing!”
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199Author:  Hall James 1793-1868Requires cookie*
 Title:  The Harpe's head  
 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: At the close of a pleasant day, in the spring of the year 17—, a solitary horseman might have been seen slowly winding his way along a narrow road, in that part of Virginia which is now called the Valley. It was nearly forty years ago, and the district lying between the Blue Ridge and the Allegheny mountains was but thinly populated, while the country lying to the west, embracing an immense Alpine region, was a savage wilderness, which extended to the new and distant settlements of Kentucky. Our traveller's route led along the foot of the mountains, sometimes crossing the spurs, or lateral ridges, which push out their huge promontories from the great chain; and at others winding through deep ravines, or skirting along broad valleys. The Ancient Dominion was never celebrated for the goodness of its highways, and the one whose mazes he was now endeavoring to unravel, was among the worst, being a mere path, worn by the feet of horses, and marked by faint traces of wheels, which showed that the experiment of driving a carriage over its uneven surface had been successfully tried, but not generally practised. The country was fertile, though wild and broken. The season was that in which the foliage is most luxuriant and splendid to the eye, the leaves being fully expanded, while the rich blossoms decked the scene with a variety of brilliant hues; and our traveller, as he passed ridge after ridge, paused in delight on their elevated summits, to gaze at the beautiful glens that lay between them, and the gorgeous vegetation that climbed even to the tops of the steepest acclivities. The day, however, which had been unusually sultry for the season, was drawing to a close, and both horse and rider began to feel the effects of hunger and fatigue; the former, though strong and spirited, drooped his head, and the latter became wearied with these lonesome though picturesque scenes. During the whole day he had not seen the dwelling of a human being; the clattering of his horse's hoofs upon the rock, the singing of the birds, so numerous in this region, the roaring of the mountain stream, or the crash of timber occasioned by the fall of some great tree, were the only sounds that had met his ear. He was glad, therefore, to find his path descending, at last, into a broad valley, interspersed with farms. He seemed to have surmounted the last hill, and before him was a rich continuous forest, resembling, as he overlooked it from the high ground, a solid plane of verdure. The transition from rocky steeps and precipices, to the smooth soil and sloping surface of the valley, was refreshing; and not less so were the coolness and fragrance of the air, and the deep and varied hues of the forest, occasioned by the rank luxuriance of its vegetation. “My father was a native of England, who came to Virginia when he was quite a young man. He was of a good family, and well educated; if my mother be considered a competent witness in such a case, he was even more,—highly accomplished, and remarkably interesting in person and manners. He brought letters of introduction, and was well received; and as soon as it was understood that his extreme indigence was such as to render it necessary that he should embark in some employment, to earn a support, he was readily received as private tutor in the family of a gentleman, residing not far from Mr. Heyward, the father of the late Major Heyward, whose melancholy death I have described to you. Mr. Heyward also employed him to give lessons in drawing, and the French language, to his only daughter, then a girl of about sixteen. A mutual attachment ensued between my father and this young lady, which was carefully concealed, because the Heywards, though generous and hospitable, were proud and aspiring.
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200Author:  Hall James 1793-1868Requires cookie*
 Title:  The soldier's bride and other tales  
 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: A few years ago, that part of the state of New York which lies along the main route from the Hudson to the western lakes, presented an agreeable, but eccentric, diversity of scenic beauty, combining the wildest traits of nature with the cheerful indications of enlightened civility and rural comfort. The desert smiled—but it smiled in its native beauty. The foot of science had not yet wandered thither; nor had the ample coffers of a state been opened, to diffuse, with unexampled munificence, over a widely spread domain the blessings of industry and commerce. The beautiful villages scattered throughout this extensive region, exhibited a neatness, taste, and order, which would have been honourable to older communities. Between these little towns lay extensive tracts of wilderness, still tenanted by the deer, and enlivened by the notes of the feathered tribes. Farms, newly opened, were thinly dispersed at convenient distances. The traveller, as he held his solitary way among the shadows of the forest, acknowledged the sovereignty of the sylvan deities, whose sway seemed undisputed; but from these silent shades he emerged at once into the light and life of civilised society. Such were the effects produced by an industrious and somewhat refined population, thrown among the romantic lakes, the fertile vallies, and the boundless forests of the West. “That agreeable woman, Mrs. B. who has paid us so many kind attentions, has just sent for me. She is very ill, and fancies that no one can nurse her so well as myself. Of course, I can not refuse, and only regret, that I must part with my dear Charles for a few hours. Good night.
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