| | 21 | 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 |
| 25 | 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 |
| 26 | 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 |
| 27 | 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 |
| 28 | 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 |
| 29 | 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 |
| 30 | 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 |
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