| | 301 | Author: | Neal
John
1793-1876 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Randolph  | | | | 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 have just arrived. My spirits are depressed; the
weather is gloomy, and I feel myself to be really and
truly alone, in a land of strangers. How will this adventure
end?—Would that I might rend away the dark
curtain, for a moment, and look into futurity. I might appalled--I
might; but, were it not better to have your senses
reel at once, and all your strength desert you; than to be
cheated, as I have been, year after year, with hope and disappointment?
What can I say to you? It is impossible that
I can have anything to write; yet, my heart is heavy with
thought and speculation. I promised to write, and,
therefore have I written. Let me hear from you directly.
I shall be impatient for your answer; for I feel as
a stranger here, even in my retirement. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 302 | Author: | Neal
John
1793-1876 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Seventy-six | | | | 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: | Yes, my children, I will no longer delay it. We are
passing, one by one, from the place of contention, one
after another, to the grave; and, in a little time, you
may say—Our Fathers!—the men of the Revolution—
where are they?..... Yes, I will go about it, in
earnest: I will leave the record behind me, and when
there is nothing else to remind you of your father, and
your children's children, of their ancestor—nothing
else, to call up his apparition before you, that you may
see his aged and worn forehead—his white hair in the
wind... you will have but to open the book, that I
shall leave to you—and lay your right hand, devoutly,
upon the page. It will have been written in blood
and sweat, with prayer and weeping. But do that—
no matter when it is, generations may have passed
away—no matter where I am—my flesh and blood
may have returned to their original element, or taken
innumerable shapes of loveliness—my very soul may
be standing in the presence of the Most High—Yet
do ye this, and I will appear to you, instantly, in the
deepest and dimmest solitude of your memory!—
—Yes!—I will go about it, this very day...
And I do pray you and them, as they shall be born
successively of you, and yours, when all the family are
about their sanctuary, their own fire side—the holy
and comfortable place, to open the volume, and read it
aloud. Let it be in the depth of winter, if it may be,
when the labour of the year is over, and the heart is
rejoicing in its home—and when you are alone:—not
that I would frown upon the traveller, or blight the
warm hospitality of your nature, by reproof—but there
are some things, and some places, where the thought of
the stranger is intrusion, the touch and hearing of the
unknown man, little better than profanation. If you
love each other, you will not go abroad for consolation:
and if you are wise, you will preserve some
hidden, fountains of your heart, unvisited but by one
or two—the dearest and the best. This should be one
of them—I will have it so. I would not have your
feeling of holy, and solemn, and high enthusiasm,
broken in upon, by the unprepared, just when you have
been brought, perhaps, to travel in imagination, with
your father, barefooted, over the frozen ground, leaving
his blood at every step, as he went, desolate, famished,
sick, naked, almost broken hearted, and almost
alone, to fight the battles of your country. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 304 | Author: | Neal
John
1793-1876 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Rachel Dyer | | | | 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 early history of New-England, or of Massachusetts
Bay, rather; now one of the six New-England
States of North America, and that on which the Plymouth
settlers, or “Fathers” went ashore—the shipwrecked
men of mighty age, abounds with proof that
witchcraft was a familiar study, and that witches and
wizards were believed in for a great while, among the
most enlightened part of a large and well-educated religious
population. The multitude of course had a like
faith; for such authority governs the multitude every
where, and at all times. “Reverend Gentlemen,—The innocency of our case, with the
enmity of our accusers and our judges and jury, whom nothing
but our innocent blood will serve, having condemned us
already before our trials, being so much incensed and enraged
against us by the devil, makes us bold to beg and implore your
favourable assistance of this our humble petition to his excellency,
that if it be possible our innocent blood may be spared,
which undoubtedly otherwise will be shed, if the Lord doth not
mercifully step in; the magistrates, ministers, juries, and all
the people in general, being so much enraged and incensed
against us by the delusion of the devil, which we can term no
other, by reason we know in our own consciences we are all
innocent persons. Here are five persons who have lately confessed
themselves to be witches, and do accuse some of us of
being along with them at a sacrament, since we were committed
into close prison, which we know to be lies. Two of the five
are (Carrier's sons) young men, who would not confess any
thing till they tied them neck and heels, till the blood was ready
to come out of their noses; and it is credibly believed and reported
this was the occasion of making them confess what they
never did, by reason they said one had been a witch a month,
and another five weeks, and that their mother had made them
so, who has been confined here this nine weeks. My son
William Proctor, when he was examined, because he would not
confess that he was guilty, when he was innocent, they tied him
neck and heels till the blood gushed out at his nose, and would
have kept him so twenty-four hours, if one, more merciful than
the rest, had not taken pity on him, and caused him to be unbound.
These actions are very like the popish cruelties. They
have already undone us in our estates, and that will not serve
their turns without our innocent blood. If it cannot be granted
that we have our trials at Boston, we humbly beg that you
would endeavor to have these magistrates changed, and others
in their rooms; begging also and beseeching you would be
pleased to be here, if not all, some of you, at our trials, hoping
thereby you may be the means of saving the shedding of innocent
blood. Desiring your prayers to the Lord in our behalf,
we rest your poor afflicted servants, “Being brought before the justices, her chief accusers were
two girls. My wife declared to the justices, that she never had
any knowledge of them before that day. She was forced to
stand with her arms stretched out. I requested that I might
old one of her hands, but it was denied me; then she desired
me to wipe the tears from her eyes, and the sweat from her
face, which I did; then she desired that she might lean herself
on me, saying she should faint. By the honourable the lieutenant governor, council and assembly
of his majesty's province of the Masachusetts-Bay, in
general court assembled. “Upon the day of the fast, in the full assembly at the south
meeting-house in Boston, one of the honorable judges, [the
chief justice Sewall] who had sat in judicature in Salem, delivered
in a paper, and while it was in reading stood up; but
the copy being not to be obtained at present, it can only be
reported by memory to this effect, viz. It was to desire the
prayers of God's people for him and his; and that God having
visited his family, &c, he was apprehensive that he might have
fallen into some errors in the matters at Salem, and pray that
the guilt of such miscarriages may not be imputed either to the
country in general, or to him or his family in particular. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 306 | Author: | Neal
Joseph C.
(Joseph Clay)
1807-1847 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Charcoal sketches, or, Scenes in a metropolis | | | | 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 is said that poetry is on the decline, and that as man
surrounds himself with artificial comforts, and devotes
his energies to purposes of practical utility, the sphere of
imagination becomes circumscribed, and the worship of
the Muses is neglected. We are somewhat disposed to
assent to this conclusion; the more from having remarked
the fact that the true poetic temperament is not so frequently
met with as it was a few years since, and that
the outward marks of genius daily become more rare.
Where the indications no longer exist, or where they
gradually disappear, it is but fair to conclude that the
thing itself is perishing. There are, it is true, many delightful
versifiers at the present moment, but we fear that
though they display partial evidences of inspiration upon
paper, the scintillations are deceptive. Their conduct
seldom exhibits sufficient proof that they are touched
with the celestial fire, to justify the public in regarding
them as the genuine article. Judging from the rules
formerly considered absolute upon this point, it is altogether
preposterous for your happy, well-behaved, well-dressed,
smoothly-shaved gentleman, who pays his debts,
and submits quietly to the laws framed for the government
of the uninspired part of society, to arrogate to
himself a place in the first rank of the sons of genius,
whatever may be his merits with the gray goose quill.
There is something defective about him. The divine
afflatus has been denied, and though he may flap his
wings, and soar as high as the house-tops, no one can
think him capable of cleaving the clouds, and of playing
hide and seek among the stars. Even if he were to do
so, the spectator would either believe that his eyes deceived
him, or that the successful flight was accidental,
and owing rather to a temporary density of the atmosphere
than to a strength of pinion. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 309 | Author: | Paulding
James Kirke
1778-1860 | Requires cookie* | | | 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 |
| 310 | Author: | Paulding
James Kirke
1778-1860 | Requires cookie* | | | 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 |
| 311 | Author: | Paulding
James Kirke
1778-1860 | Requires cookie* | | | 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 |
| 314 | Author: | McHenry
James
1753-1816 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The wilderness, or, Braddock's times | | | | 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: | Let melancholy spirits talk as they please concerning
the degeneracy and increasing miseries of
mankind, I will not believe them. They have
been speaking ill of themselves, and predicting
worse of their posterity, from time immemorial;
and yet, in the present year, 1823, when, if the
one hundreth part of their gloomy forebodings
had been realized, the earth must have become
a Pandemonium, and men something worse than
devils, (for devils they have been long ago,
in the opinion of these charitable denunciators,)
I am free to assert, that we have as many honest
men, pretty women, healthy children, cultivated
fields, convenient houses, elegant kinds of furniture,
and comfortable clothes, as any generation
of our ancestors ever possessed. “I am glad you are come back so soon.—
My sister—your wife—was cast down in your absence.
But I could not blame her—for I remember
when Shanalow, my husband, went first to
hunt, after our marriage, I was disconsolate, and
dreamed every night of evil till he returned. He
is now gone to his fathers, and shall never more
return. But he died of a breast-wound fighting
the Otawas, and our whole tribe has praised
him. The warning which Tonnaleuka had given
Charles to be circumspect in regard to the enemy,
was not lost upon him. He employed Paddy
Frazier as a scout to hover round the French station
at Le Bœuf in order to watch their motions
and give him the earliest intelligence of their
design. He also kept four or five of his men
constantly employed in ranging on horseback,
those quarters of the country from which he could
be suddenly attacked, while the whole of the remainder
were busily engaged in digging trenches,
and preparing long pointed stakes to fix in the
ground to form their stoccade fortification. From
the friendly Indians he at first rceived considerable
aid in forwarding his works; but in a few
days he began to perceive their ardour in his behalf
to diminish; and suspecting that they had
imbided some unfriendly feeling towards him, he
thought proper to visit king Shingiss, and expostulate
with him on the subject. “My persuading you to submit, at this time,
to a residence in a dark subterraneous cell, is a
proof how anxious I am for your safety. You
will, no doubt, feel your situation lonely and disagreeable;
but I hope the necessity for it will not
be of long continuance; and, in the meanwhile,
in order to relieve its tediousness as much as possible,
I shall send you a supply of such books as I
possess, best suited for your entertainment. You
may be also assured, that our family will let you
want for nothing in their power to afford you
comfort. “We, the officers of the Virginia regiment, are
highly sensible of the particular mark of distinction
with which you have honoured us in returning
your thanks for our behaviour in the late action;
and cannot help testifying our grateful acknowledgments
for your “high sense” of what we
shall always esteem a duty to our country and the
best of kings. “Dear Sir—The progress we have made in the
transaction, in which your son and my niece were
to be the parties disposed of, had induced me to
hope for a speedy and final settlement of the affair;
but I am sorry to say, that owing to some
misadventure on the part of your son, the bargain
is likely to fail on your side. My niece,
which was the part of the concern for which I
stood engaged, is still substantial and ready for delivery,
when the equivalent shall be forthcoming,
and the demand made. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 315 | Author: | unknown | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Tales of Glauber-Spa | | | | Published: | 2006 | | | | 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 am quite delighted with this place, now that I
have got over that bad habit of blushing and trembling,
which Mrs. Asheputtle assures me is highly indecent
and unbecoming. She says it is a sign of a bad conscience
and wicked thoughts, when the blood rushes
into the face. I wish you knew Mrs. Asheputtle. She
has been all over Europe, and seen several kings of the
old dynasties, who, she says, were much more difficult
to come at than the new ones, who are so much afraid of
the canaille, that they are civil to everybody. Only
think, how vulgar. Mrs. Asheputtle says, that she
knew several men with titles; and that she is sure, if
she had not been unfortunately married before, she
might have been the wife of the Marquis of Tête de
Veau. The marquis was terribly disappointed when
he found she had a husband already; but they made
amends by forming a Platonic attachment, which means
—I don't know really what it means—for Mrs. Asheputtle,
it seemed to me, could not tell herself. All I know
is, that it must be a delightful thing, and I long to try it,
when I am married—for Mrs. Asheputtle says it won't
do for a single lady. What can it be, I wonder? "One of the great disadvantages of foreign travel is,
that it unfits one for the enjoyment of any thing in one's
own country, particularly when that country is so every
way inferior to the old world. It is truly a great misfortune
for a man to have too much taste and refinement.
I feel this truth every day of my life; and could almost
find in my heart to regret the acquirement of habits
and accomplishments that almost disqualify me for a
citizen of this vulgar republic, which, I am sorry to
perceive, seems in a fair way of debauching the whole
world with her pernicious example of liberty and
equality. If it were not for Delmonico and Palmo, the
musical soirées, and a few other matters, I should be the
most miserable man in the world. Would you believe
it, my dear count, there is not a silver fork to be seen in
all the hotels between New-York and Saratoga? And
yet the people pretend to be civilized! | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 316 | Author: | unknown | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | A quarter race in Kentucky | | | | Published: | 2006 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Nothing would start against the Old Mare; and after
more formal preparation in making weight and posting
judges than is customary when there is a contest, "the
sateful old kritter" went off crippling as if she was not
fit to run for sour cider, and any thing could take the
shine out of her that had the audacity to try it. The
muster at the stand was slim, it having been understood
up town, that as to sport to-day the races would prove
a water-haul. I missed all that class of old and young
gentlemen who annoy owners, trainers, and riders,
particularly if they observe they are much engaged,
with questions that should not be asked, and either
can't or should not be answered. The business folks
and men of gumption were generally on the grit, and
much of the chaff certainly had been blown off. Dinner kin be had On the FoLLowin Tums at my
HousE to Day priv8s thirty seven cents non comeishund
ophisers 25 comeishund frEE i want you awl to ete
dancin to beGin at won erclock awl them what dont
wish to kevort will finD cards on the shelf in the
cubberd licker On the uzual Tums | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 319 | Author: | Bennett
Emerson
1822-1905 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Clara Moreland, or, Adventures in the far South-west | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | 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 first of October, of the year of our Lord 1845,
found me a guest of the Tremont House, in the goodly city
of Galveston, Texas. An invalid guest, I may add—for I
had been confined to my room for some days, suffering
much pain from a couple of flesh wounds received in a
recent skirmish with a party of Texan brigands, somewhere
between my present abode and the river Brazos,
while in the act of making my escape with some friends
from the head-quarters of a notorious villain, counterfeiter,
etcetera, known as Count D'Estang. The reader
who has been so fortunate, or unfortunate, (I leave him to
decide which,) as to peruse a portion of my narrative, under
the title of “Viola,” will readily understand to what I
allude; but in order to refresh his memory with the past
events of my career, and also give those before whom I
may now appear for the first time an inkling of what has
already been recorded of my adventures, I will here transcribe
a letter, which about this period I wrote home to
my worthy parent in Virginia: “In my last, dated at New Orleans, you will recollect I
made some mention of a very eccentric travelling companion,
by the name of Harley, who, having been introduced
to me one night at a ball in Swansdown, renewed acquaintance
on the boat at Louisville, and kept me company down
the river; and I think I also added, that we had in contemplation
a trip to Mexico, merely to gratify curiosity and
have some adventures. Well, we have not been to Mexico
as yet—but we have had some adventures notwithstanding.
If memory serves me right, I told you there was a certain
mystery about my friend—for even then I regarded him as
such—which I had not been able to fathom; but this has
since been explained away, and I now know his whole
history. “I have just received a letter from home, which requires
my presence there immediately. My poor father has been
taken suddenly ill, and is not expected to recover. I shall
leave to-day for Macon, via Savannah, taking Viola with
me, to whom I now expect my friends to be reconciled,
since the blood of the St. Auburns is not in her veins. As
I cannot fix on any time for my return, you had better not
wait for me; but write to Macon, and keep me advised of
your whereabouts. It grieves me to part with so dear a
friend—but necessity compels me. Can you not come to
Macon? Think of it seriously—I will assure you of a
cordial reception. Dear Viola, with tearful eyes, sends
her love to you. Do not fail to write, and keep me
advised of your doings; and believe me, my dear Harry, “Pardon my seeming uncourteousness of last night! I
was agitated, and troubled, but not without cause. After
what has already passed between us, I think it no more
than right that I should, to some extent, give you the explanation
you desired. This cannot be done in the presence
of a third party; and I must entreat you not to mention
aught of last night's interview to any one! Destroy this
as soon as read! | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 320 | Author: | Bennett
Emerson
1822-1905 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The phantom of the forest | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Probably no region of the globe ever presented
more attractions to the genuine hunter and lover of
the backwoods, than the territory known as Kentucky
previous to its settlement by the race that
now holds possession of its soil. Its location, happily
intermediate between the extremes of heat and cold,
afforded a most congenial climate; its surface was
diversified by steep hills and deep valleys, stupendous
cliffs and marshy levels, dense woods and flowery
glades, immense caverns and tangled brakes, large
streams and wonderful licks; and hither came all the
beasts of the forest, to roam in unrestrained freedom
through wilds seldom trod by human feet, and gay-plumed
songsters from every region swept along the
balmy air and made the sylvan retreats ring with
their silvery strains. When first discovered by the
white man, no human beings claimed ownership of
this enchanting land. The red man of the North,
and the red man of the South, came here to hunt and
fight; but the victor bore off his spoils, and the vanquished
went back in dismay, and neither put up
his wigwam on the neutral ground. For years after
its discovery by the white man, Kentucky could not
boast a hundred of the race within its borders; but
then the tide of emigration set in strongly toward
this western land of promise, and a few years more
beheld its broad surface dotted here and there with
the rude fortresses and dwellings of incipient civilization.
Every step forward, however, was marked
with blood. The red man was jealous of the white,
and there was for a long period an almost continuous,
fierce, and sanguinary struggle for the mastery;
while the midnight yells, the wailing shrieks and
the burning homes, too often proclaimed the horrid
work of death and desolation. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
|
