| | 241 | Author: | McNutt, William Slavens | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Tale of a Tightwad  | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | I like dollars same as I like race-horses," the saleslady behind
the hotel cigar-counter explained. "I like 'em when they're
movin', an' furnishin' some excitement to the onlookers. A race-horse packed in a can don't make anybody's heart beat faster,
does it? No! Well, a dollar buried for life in a bank is my
idea of nothing useful. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 242 | Author: | Muir, John | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | American Forests | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THE forests of America, however slighted by man, must have
been a great delight to God; for they were the best he ever
planted. The whole continent was a garden, and from the beginning
it seemed to be favored above all the other wild parks and gardens
of the globe. To prepare the ground, it was rolled and sifted in
seas with infinite loving deliberation and forethought, lifted into
the light, submerged and warmed over and over again, pressed and
crumpled into folds and ridges, mountains and hills, subsoiled with
heaving volcanic fires, ploughed and ground and sculptured into
scenery and soil with glaciers and rivers,—every feature growing
and changing from beauty to beauty, higher and higher. And in the
fullness of time it was planted in groves, and belts, and broad,
exuberant, mantling forests, with the largest, most varied, most
fruitful, and most beautiful trees in the world. Bright seas made
its border with wave embroidery and icebergs; gray deserts were
outspread in the middle of it, mossy tundras on the north, savannas
on the south, and blooming prairies and plains; while lakes and
rivers shone through all the vast forests and openings, and happy
birds and beasts gave delightful animation. Everywhere, everywhere
over all the blessed continent, there were beauty, and melody, and
kindly, wholesome, foodful abundance. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 243 | Author: | Norris, Frank | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Comida: An Experience in Famine. | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | BY grace of our guide, our phrase book, and our Salva-Webster
Dictionary, we managed to pick up a good deal of Spanish during the
Santiago campaign, but the one word our guide did not tell us, the
one expression we did not look up in the Diccionario, was the very
one we understood most quickly: its meaning was apparent the
instant we heard it uttered. We shall never forget comida and
all that it stands for. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 244 | Author: | Norris, Frank | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | McTeague | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | It was Sunday, and, according to his custom on that day,
McTeague took his dinner at two in the afternoon at the car
conductors' coffee-joint on Polk Street. He had a thick
gray soup; heavy, underdone meat, very hot, on a cold plate;
two kinds of vegetables; and a sort of suet pudding, full of
strong butter and sugar. On his way back to his office, one
block above, he stopped at Joe Frenna's saloon and bought a
pitcher of steam beer. It was his habit to leave the
pitcher there on his way to dinner. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 246 | Author: | Oskison, John M. | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Diverse Tongues: A Sketch | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Several months ago a new magazine made its appearance in New
York. Its title is "1910." Next year its title will be "1911."
It is a labor of love, being conducted by a little group of writers
and artists who contribute to its columns whatsoever each one is
pleased to contribute. So far the result has been good for the
readers as well as the contributors. The following sketch is taken
from its columns. It is written by John Oskison and it leaves one
a little teary around the eye-lashes. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 247 | Author: | Oskison, John M. | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | "Friends of the Indian." | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | At last year's "Lake Mohonk Conference of Friends of the
Indian and Other Dependent Peoples," Mr. Bonaparte quoted a naval
officer as once declaring that "the service would never be worth a
— until all the well-meaning people in it had been hanged." He
hinted that something of the same tenor might have been said with
equal justice of the activity of champions of the Indian who are
merely well-meaning. Knowledge and discretion in those who have
undertaken unofficially to influence the conduct of Indian affairs
would have tempered their zeal usefully in the years when service
was most needed; and, though little fault can now be found with the
methods and personnel of the Indian Rights Association and similar
bodies, there is still a too noticeable tendency to let good
intentions evaporate in earnest, purposeless talk. That "court of
final appeal, public opinion," has been appealed to so often that
the last advocate must needs be silver-tongued indeed to rouse more
than a momentary interest. The Indian service, bad as it has been
at times, has accomplished more for the disappearing natives than
it has been credited with in the popular mind. It would have done
still more if its critics had been inspired by accurate information
and good judgment. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 250 | Author: | Paine, Thomas | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Common Sense | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to
leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not
only different, but have different origins. Society is produced
by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former
promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the
latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages
intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a
patron, the last a punisher. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 253 | Author: | Peattie, Elia Wilkinson, 1862-1935 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Thorkild Viborg | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | AT the north of the Ringkjobing Fjord, not far from Nysogn, a
wild, ragged-looking castle has dug its talons into the rocks, and
stands with a haggard defiance fronting the fjord, which is as
immobile and as chill as death. Here for centuries have dwelt the
Viborgs, a melancholy race of men born with a prescience of doom.
Reckless with their lives, mad in their loves, cursed with disease,
they are born for sorrow. And now, in the new time, out of this
comfortless home,—for it is never warm enough or light enough or
gay enough in Viborg Hold,—all save the eldest born are crowded.
Only for him does the jaded ground yield sufficient substance; only
for his needs can the work-worn peasants pay sufficient tax. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 254 | Author: | Saint-Pierre, Bernadin de | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Studies of Nature | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | The wretchedness of the lower orders is, therefore, the
principal source of our physical and moral maladies. There
is another, no less fertile in mischief, I mean the education
of children. This branch of political economy engaged,
among the ancients, the attention of the greatest legislators;
with us education has no manner of reference to the constitution
of the state. In early life are formed the inclinations
and aversions which influence the whole of our existence.
Our first affections are likewise the last; they accompany us
through life, reappear in old age, and then revive the sensibilities
of childhood with still greater force than those of
mature age. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 256 | Author: | Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Black Cat | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about
to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be
to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own
evidence. Yet, mad am I not — and very surely do I not dream. But
to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburden my soul. My immediate
purpose is to place before the world, plainly, succinctly, and
without comment, a series of mere household events. In their
consequences, these events have terrified — have tortured — have
destroyed me. Yet I will not attempt to expound them. To me, they
have presented little but horror — to many they will seem less
terrible than baroques. Hereafter, perhaps, some intellect may
be found which will reduce my phantasm to the commonplace — some
intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than my
own, which will perceive, in the circumstances I detail with
awe, nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural
causes and effects. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 257 | Author: | Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Cask of Amontillado | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could;
but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. You, who
so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that
I gave utterance to a threat. AT LENGTH I would be avenged; this was a
point definitively settled — but the very definitiveness with which it
was resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish, but
punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution
overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger
fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 258 | Author: | Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | A Tale of the Ragged Mountains | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | During the fall of the year 1827, while residing near
Charlottesville, Virginia, I casually made the acquaintance of Mr
Augustus Bedloe. This young gentleman was remarkable in every
respect, and excited in me a profound interest and curiosity. I
found it impossible to comprehend him either in his moral or his
physical relations. Of his family I could obtain no satisfactory
account. Whence he came, I never ascertained. Even about his
age — although I call him a young gentleman — there was something
which perplexed me in no little degree. He certainly seemed
young — and he made a point of speaking about his youth — yet there
were moments when I should have had little trouble in imagining
him a hundred years of age. But in no regard was he more
peculiar than in his personal appearance. He was singularly tall
and thin. He stooped much. His limbs were exceedingly long and
emaciated. His forehead was broad and low. His complexion was
absolutely bloodless. His mouth was large and flexible, and his
teeth were more wildly uneven, although sound, than I had ever
before seen teeth in a human head. The expression of his smile,
however, was by no means unpleasing, as might be supposed: but it
had no variation whatever. It was one of profound melancholy — of
a phaseless and
unceasing gloom. His eyes were abnormally large,
and round like those of a cat. The pupils, too, upon any
accession or diminution of light, underwent contraction or
dilation, just such as is observed in the feline tribe. In
moments of excitement the orbs grew bright to a degree almost
inconceivable; seeming to emit luminous rays, not of a reflected
but of an intrinsic lustre, as does a candle or the sun; yet
their ordinary condition was to totally vapid, filmy, and dull,
as to convey the idea of the eyes of a long-interred corpse. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 259 | Author: | Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Pit and the Pendulum | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | I was sick — sick unto death with that long agony; and when
they at length unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that
my senses were leaving me. The sentence — the dread sentence of
death — was the last of distinct accentuation which reached my ears.
After that, the sound of the inquisitorial voices seemed merged in
one dreamy indeterminate hum. It conveyed to my soul the idea of
revolution — perhaps from its association in fancy with the burr
of a mill-wheel. This only for a brief period; for presently I
heard no more. Yet, for a while, I saw; but with how terrible an
exaggeration! I saw the lips of the black-robed judges. They
appeared to me white — whiter than the sheet upon which I trace
these words — and thin even to grotesqueness; thin with the
intensity of their expression
of firmness — of immoveable
resolution — of stern contempt of human torture. I saw that the
decrees of what to me was Fate, were still issuing from those lips.
I saw them writhe with a deadly locution. I saw them fashion the
syllables of my name; and I shuddered because no sound succeeded.
I saw, too, for a few moments of delirious horror, the soft and
nearly imperceptible waving of the sable draperies which enwrapped
the walls of the apartment. And then my vision fell upon the seven
tall candles upon the table. At first they wore the aspect of
charity, and seemed white slender angels who would save me; but
then, all at once, there came a most deadly nausea over my spirit,
and I felt every fibre in my frame thrill as if I had touched the
wire of a galvanic battery, while the angel forms became
meaningless spectres, with heads of flame, and I saw that from them
there would be no help. And there stole into my fancy, like a rich
musical note, the thought of what sweet rest there must be in the
grave. The thought came gently and stealthily, and it seemed long
before it attained full appreciation; but just as my spirit came at
length properly to feel and entertain it, the figures of the judges
vanished, as if magically, from before me; the tall candles sank
into nothingness; their flames went out utterly; the blackness of
darkness supervened; all sensation appeared swallowed up in that
mad rushing descent as of the soul into Hades. Then silence, and
stillness, and night were the universe. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 260 | Author: | Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Spectacles | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Many years ago, it was the fashion to ridicule the idea of
'love at first sight'; but those who think, not less than those
who feel deeply, have always advocated its existence. Modern
discoveries, indeed, in what may be termed ethical magnetism or
magneto-aesthetics, render it probable that the most natural,
and, consequently, the truest and most intense of the human
affections are those which arise in the heart as if by electric
sympathy — in a word, that the brightest and most enduring of the
psychal fetters are those which are riveted by a glance. The
confession I am about to make will add another to the already
almost innumerable instances of the truth of the position. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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