| 244 | Author: | Haldeman-Julius, Emanuel and Anna Marcet Haldeman-Julius | Requires cookie* | | Title: | Dust | | | Published: | 1997 | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | Description: | DUST was piled in thick, velvety folds on the weeds and grass of the open Kansas
prairie; it lay, a thin veil on the scrawny black horses and the sharp-boned cow
picketed near a covered wagon; it showered to the ground in little clouds as Mrs.
Wade, a tall, spare woman, moved about a camp-fire, preparing supper in a sizzling
skillet, huge iron kettle and blackened coffee-pot. | | Similar Items: | Find |
245 | Author: | Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 1823-1911 | Requires cookie* | | Title: | Malbone: an Oldport romance | | | Published: | 1997 | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | Description: | AS one wanders along this southwestern promontory of the Isle of Peace, and looks
down upon the green translucent water which forever bathes the marble slopes of the
Pirates' Cave, it is natural to think of the ten wrecks with which the past winter
has strewn this shore. Though almost all trace of their presence is already gone, yet
their mere memory lends to these cliffs a human interest. Where a stranded vessel
lies, thither all steps converge, so long as one plank remains upon another. There
centres the emotion. All else is but the setting, and the eye sweeps with
indifference the line of unpeopled rocks. They are barren, till the imagination has
tenanted them with possibilities of danger and dismay. The ocean provides the scenery
and properties of a perpetual tragedy, but the interest arrives with the performers.
Till then the shores remain vacant, like the
great conventional arm-chairs of the French drama, that wait for Rachel to come and
die. | | Similar Items: | Find |
249 | Author: | Page, Thomas Nelson | Requires cookie* | | Title: | Marse Chan; A Tale of Old Virginia | | | Published: | 1997 | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | Description: | ONE afternoon, in the autumn of 1872, I was riding leisurely down the sandy road that
winds along the top of the water-shed between two of the smaller rivers of eastern
Virginia. The road I was travelling, following "the ridge" for miles, had just struck
me as most significant of the character of the race whose only avenue of
communication with the outside world it had formerly been. Their once splendid
mansions, now fast falling to decay, appeared to view from time to time, set back far
from the road, in proud seclusion, among groves of oak and hickory, now scarlet and
gold with the early frost. Distance was nothing to this people; time was of no
consequence to them. They desired but a level path in life, and that they had, though
the way was longer, and the outer world strode by them as they dreamed. | | Similar Items: | Find |
250 | Author: | Prime, William C. | Requires cookie* | | Title: | Tent Life in the Holy Land | | | Published: | 1997 | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | Description: | To see the sun go down beyond the Sepulchre and rise over the mountain of the Ascension, to
bare my forehead to the cold dews of Gethsemane, and lave my dim eyes in the
waters of Siloam, to sleep in the company of the infinite host above the oaks of
Mamre, and to lie in the starlight of Bethlehem and catch, however faintly, some
notes of the voices of the angels, to wash off the dust of life in the Jordan,
to cool my hot lips at the well of Samaria, to hear the murmur of Gennesareth,
giving me blessed sleep — was not all this worth dreaming of
— worth living for — was it not worth dying for? | | Similar Items: | Find |
251 | Author: | Shillaber, Benjamin Penhallow | Requires cookie* | | Title: | Life and Sayings of Mrs. Partington and others of the family | | | Published: | 1997 | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | Description: | NOW, Isaac," said Mrs. Partington, as she came into the room with a
basket snugly covered over, "take our Tabby, and drop her somewhere, and see
that she don't come back again, for I am sick and tired of driving her out of
the butter. She is the thievinest creatur! But don't hurt her, Isaac; only take
care that she don't come back." | | Similar Items: | Find |
252 | Author: | Stewart, Calvin | Requires cookie* | | Title: | Uncle Josh Weathersby's "Punkin Centre Stories" | | | Published: | 1997 | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | Description: | THE author was born in Virginia, on a little patch of land, so poor we had to
fertilize it to make brick. Our family, while having cast their fortunes with
the South, was not a family ruined by the war; we did not have anything when the
war commenced, and so we held our own. I secured a common school education, and
at the age of twelve I left home, or rather home left me—things just
petered out. I was slush cook on an Ohio River Packet; check clerk in a stave
and heading camp in the knobs of Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia; I helped lay
the track of the M. K. & T. R. R., and was chambermaid in a livery
stable. Made my first appearance on the stage at the National Theatre in
Cincinnati, Ohio, and have since then chopped cord wood, worked in a coal mine,
made cross ties (and walked them), worked on a farm, taught a district school
(made love to the big girls), run a threshing machine, cut bands,
fed the machine and ran the engine. Have been a freight and passenger brakeman,
fired and ran a locomotive; also a freight train conductor and check clerk in a
freight house; worked on the section; have been a shot gun messenger for the
Wells, Fargo Company. Have been with a circus, minstrels, farce comedy,
burlesque and dramatic productions; have been with good shows, bad shows,
medicine shows, and worse, and some shows where we had landlords singing in the
chorus. Have played variety houses and vaudeville houses; have slept in a box
car one night, and a swell hotel the next; have been a traveling salesman (could
spin as many yarns as any of them). For the past four years have made the Uncle
Josh stories for the talking machine. The Lord only knows what next! | | Similar Items: | Find |
253 | Author: | Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 | Requires cookie* | | Title: | The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County | | | Published: | 1997 | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | Description: | I found Simon Wheeler dozing comfortably by the bar-room stove of
the old, dilapidated tavern in the ancient mining camp of Boomerang,
and I noticed that he was fat and bald-headed, and had an expression
of winning gentleness and simplicity upon his tranquil countenance.
He roused up and gave me good-day. I told him a friend of mine had
commissioned me to make some inquiries about a cherished companion
of his boyhood named Leonidas W. Smiley — Rev. Leonidas W. Smiley
— a young minister of the Gospel, who he had heard was at one time
a resident of this village of Boomerang. I added that if Mr. Wheeler
could tell me any thing about this Rev. Leonidas W. Smiley, I would
feel under many obligations to him. | | Similar Items: | Find |
254 | Author: | Washington, Booker T. | Requires cookie* | | Title: | Negro Progress in Virginia | | | Published: | 1997 | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | Description: | THE members of the colored race who live outside of Virginia are
beginning to grow somewhat jealous of the progress which our race is
making in this commonwealth. The Negro race in Virginia is going
forward, in my opinion, in all the fundamental and substantial things of
life, faster than the Negro himself realizes and faster than his white
neighbor realizes. I say this notwithstanding there are many existing
weaknesses and much still to be accomplished. This progress which
Virginia Negroes are now experiencing is owing to two causes. | | Similar Items: | Find |
255 | Author: | Bird
Robert Montgomery
1806-1854 | Requires cookie* | | Title: | The Hawks of Hawk-hollow | | | 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: | America is especially the land of change. From
the moment of discovery, its history has been a
record of convulsions, such as necessarily attend
a transition from barbarism to civilization; and to
the end of time, it will witness those revolutions in
society, which arise in a community unshackled
by the restraints of prerogative. As no law of
primogeniture can ever entail the distinctions meritoriously
won, or the wealth painfully amassed, by
a single individual, upon a line of descendants, the
mutations in the condition of families will be perpetual.
The Dives of to-day will be the Diogenes
of to-morrow; and the `man of the tub' will often
live to see his children change place with those of
the palace-builder. As it has been, so will it be,—
“Now up, now doun, as boket in a well;”
and the honoured and admired of one generation
will be forgotten among the moth-lived luminaries
of the next. | | Similar Items: | Find |
258 | Author: | Brainard
John G. C.
(John Gardiner Calkins)
1796-1828 | Requires cookie* | | Title: | Letters Found in the Ruins of Fort Braddock, Including an Interesting American Tale | | | 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: | IT is now spring—the buds are bursting
through all the wilderness about me; but the cold
rains which are constantly descending, make my
condition so cheerless, that I write to you merely
to pass the time. Why I was doomed to spend my
winter here so solitary, or when I shall have the
good luck to shift my quarters, for any other spot,
is past my skill to divine. Any other spot—the
Arkansas, the Rio Colorada, the Council Bluffs,
the Yellow Stone, any place but this. Was I dangerous
to government, that they should have contrived
for one poor subaltern, this Siberian banishment,
where I am ingeniously confined, not by
a guard placed over me, but by having the command
of about five and twenty men, that the spring
discovers in a uniform of rags. | | Similar Items: | Find |
259 | Author: | Briggs
Charles F.
(Charles Frederick)
1804-1877 | Requires cookie* | | Title: | The Adventures of Harry Franco | | | 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: | It is a generally received opinion in some parts
of the world, that a man must of necessity have
had ancestors; but, in our truly independent
country, we contrive to get along very well without
them. That strange race, called Aristocrats,
it is said, consider every body as nobody, unless
they can boast of at least a dozen ancestors. These
lofty people would have scorned an alliance with
a parvenu like Adam, of course. What a fortunate
circumstance for their high mightinesses, that
they were not born in the early ages. No antediluvian
family would have been entitled to the
slightest consideration from them. When the
world was only two thousand years old, it is
melancholy to reflect, its surface was covered with
nobodies; men of yesterday, without an ancestry
worth speaking of. It is not to be wondered at,
that such a set of upstarts should have caused the
flood; nothing less would have washed away their
vulgarity, to say nothing of their sins. Augustus de Satinett was a jobber; a choicer
spirit the region of Hanover square boasted not.
Pearl street and Maiden Lane may have known
his equal, his superior never. He had risen from
junior clerk to junior partner, in one of the oldest
firms. The best blood of the revolution flowed in
his veins; his mother was a Van Buster, his father
a de Satinett; a more remote ancestry, or a more
noble, it were vain to desire. Augustus had a noble
soul, it was a seven quarter full; his virtues
were all his own, and they were dyed in the wool;
his vices were those of his age—they were dyed
in the cloth. | | Similar Items: | Find |
260 | Author: | Briggs
Charles F.
(Charles Frederick)
1804-1877 | Requires cookie* | | Title: | The Adventures of Harry Franco | | | 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: | It was a broiling hot day, and as I toiled along
through the dusty streets of Brooklyn towards
the ferry, I almost wished myself back again upon
the blue sea. Dear Sir—This is to inform you as I
have entered in Uncle Sam's service, and have
took three month's advance. I have kept money
enough to have a good drunk, and the rest I send
to you. Keep it and spend it for my sake. I wanted
to of given you more, but that young woman,
blast her—but never say die. So no more at present
till death, and don't forget your old shipmate, Is it true that my dear boy is alive and
well! O, Harry, I have read your letter over and
over; and your poor sister has read it, and cried
over it, and prayed over it. I put it under my
pillow when I lay down at night, that I may be
able to press it to my lips when I wake in the
morning. Your father tells me it is weak in me
to do so, but it is a weakness caused by the
strength of my love for you. O, Harry, my dear
boy, I have had such dreams about you! but
they were only dreams, and I will not distress you
by relating them. Let us give thanks to our
heavenly Father for all his mercies. When we
received your letter, it was my wish to return
thanks publicly through Doctor Slospoken; but
your father would not give his consent. What
the neighbors all thought, I cannot say. But my
dear Harry, why did you not come home? to
your own home? Do not think, my dear child,
that you will be more welcome to your home and
your mother's heart, if you bring the wealth of
the Indies with you. If you be covered with
jewels your mother will not see them, and if you
be clothed in rags, she will only see her child. Your letter has made us all happy; how
happy I cannot express; for we had mourned for
you as one that was dead. I cannot, in a letter,
relate to you all that has been said and done since
we heard from you; but may be assured we
have been almost beside ourselves with joy, and
all our talk has been, Harry, Harry, Harry. “My conscience upbraids me with having
broken the golden rule, in my intercourse with
you, and I cannot allow you to leave me, under a
false impression of my feelings. I am afraid I
have not been sufficiently plain, when you have
spoken to me on the subject, in giving you to understand
that my mind is unalterably fixed, never
to unite myself to one, whose heart has not been
bowed under the conscious burden of his sins;
for my promise has been passed, mentally only,
I own, but I cannot break it. It is registered
above. Had I known you before the vow was
made, perhaps it never would have been; but it
is, and I am bound by it. Our hands, dear Harry,
may never be united, but our hearts may be.
I cannot dissimulate, I do love you; how well I
love you, let this confession witness. If it be sinful
in me, I trust that He, in whom is all my trust,
will pardon me, and deliver me from my bondage.
And my constant prayer to Him is, that he will
bring you to the foot of that Cross, where alone I
can meet you. “Immediately on the receipt of this, you
will destroy all the blank acceptances of Marisett
and Co., which may remain in your hands.
Make no farther contracts of any description,
for account of our house, but hold yourself in
readiness to return to New York. “Since our last, of the 28th ult., we have
come to the determination of stopping payment.
It may be necessary for us to make an assignment;
if so, we will advise you farther, and remain, “We are without any of your valued favors
since we acknowledged yours of the 14th.
You have already been informed of the stoppage
of our house; and I have now to inform you, that
in consequence of our Mr. Garvey having used
the name of the firm to a very great extent, in
his private land operations, our liabilities are
found greatly to exceed our assets. Our senior
partner, I am concerned to add, is completely
prostrated by this event, and unable to afford me
the aid which I require in adjusting the affairs of
the concern. All the circumstances considered, I
think it will be advisable for you to return to
New York as soon as you can bring matters to a
close at New Orleans. | | Similar Items: | Find |
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