Entries from November 2006 ↓

Debit and Credit, [Soll und Haben] by Gustav Freytag. Translated from the German of Gustav Freytag by L. C. C. with a preface by Christian Charles Josias Bunsen. 1858.

Thanks to Graeme Mackreth for post-processing this book.

Bookp(h)ile

Home Pastimes; or, Tableaux Vivants, by JH Head. Published 1859.

Thanks to Linda Cantoni for post-processing this book!

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Prof. Samuel A. King, the aeronaut, made his two hundred and eleventh ascension on Saturday from Scranton. The balloon used for the occasion was the mammoth “King Carnival,” which requires 25,000 feet of gas for inflation. The story of the voyage can best be told in the words of the aeronaut himself:

“When I escaped the steeple,” he narrated last night, “I turned to salute the crowd, but I was traveling so fast that I guess they failed to see me. It was blowing a perfect gale. Seven minutes after the start I was on a level with the lower cloud strata, or 4,000 feet above the earth. Down below I could see nothing but woods and mountains. I was then rushing through the air at a terrible rate. I had never experienced anything like it before since my Boston ascension several years ago, when I made thirty miles in twenty-five minutes. In nine minutes from the start I got into the second strata of clouds and passed from sight. I then endeavored to keep the balloon down by allowing the gas to escape, so as to keep it from getting into the sunshine. The heat of the clouds, however, caused the gas to expand, and I passed upward again. Looking up I saw a mist, or haze. In a moment more I was above this again, and by making calculations I found that I was two miles up. At the juncture the expansion caused the gas to overflow, and I began to descend; nearing the earth I found nothing under me but woods and forests. The wind was howling through them, and the swaying of the trees produced a sound like a mighty roar. The idea of making a landing there was frightful, and so, throwing out ballast, I went up again. This time I went up into clear air, with nothing above me but the clear, blue sky. All this time I was rushing along at a glorious rate. At an altitude of three miles the sun was very hot, a circumstance which helped me to get rid of the chills which the wind had given me. After traveling on at this altitude about an hour and a half, I determined to make a descent. When I reached the clouds, the sudden coolness caused accelerated speed downward, and I had to throw out all the ballast I had to check it. Through the rifts in the clouds I could see that the country I was passing over was richly cultivated. I got the drag-rope and anchor ready. Presently I heard the noise of a river, which I took to be the Delaware, but which afterward proved to be the Schuylkill. I continued to descend, and at last came to the ground in a field. I threw out the drag-rope, which trailed along the tops of the trees, serving to break my speed. Reaching about thirty feet from the ground, I threw out my anchor, and, taking my collapsing cord in one hand and the valve cord in the other, waited to see what would turn up. Presently the force of the wind sent the balloon over till it touched the ground, uprooting the anchor, and the car, suddenly released, was thrown forward with terrific force toward a pile of fences. These I managed to clear, and then realizing the danger, I decided to use the collapsing cord, which slit the balloon open on one side from top to bottom. The movement of the car was, however, so rapid that in a moment it dashed against a long fence, which it knocked down like a piece of paper, and went away across a field, coming like a broadside against a tree. I managed to jump out just in time to escape the crash. It still continued to rock to and fro and in a little while the branches of the tree had torn it to pieces. Shortly afterward a crowd of countrymen came up and I found that I was in the grounds of the Perkiomen Company, three-quarters of a mile from Oak Station, Montgomery County. When I first touched earth it was ten minutes to two o’clock, so that I had made 140 miles inside of two hours. The country men helped me to pack up the fragments, and here I am again, as safe and sound as ever. But I have never been through the air at that rate, I can tell you, and the landing was anything but a pleasant experience. It is one consolation that, gale or no gale, I shall have no terra firma to encounter in my ocean voyage.”–Philadelphia Record.

There are any number of indications that there is on foot a plan to force the nomination of Grant for the next Presidential vacancy. It scarcely needed the confirmatory information in another column from Boston, concerning the proposed series of grand receptions to be given Grant on his return from his Old World vagabondizing. This Boston revelation is simply an incident among many others, all tending in the same direction. It may be, and probably is, true, as stated in this scheme, that New York politicians will furnish the money for these public receptions, and that they expect to secure a return for the money invested. Both are probably true, the latter more especially. It has never been doubted by intelligent men, familiar with Grant’s administration, that he could be used by individuals to further private ends. The number of presents which he received, the vastness of the fortune he accumulated in a few years, and the rascally character of many of his appointments and personal friends, all go to show that Grant did not limit the employment of his powers as President to the Constitutionally and honestly belonging to his office. There was more corruption, malfeasance, rascality, swindling, speculation and deviltry generally under Grant’s Administration than during any other period in our history.

The men who grew wealthy from subsidy-schemes, the whisky rings, fluctuations in gold and Government securities, and in the scores of other dishonest practices connected with Grant’s official career, are the men who wish to see him once more in the White House. They are yearning for the return of the–to them–golden era of rascality, when honesty in office was the exception, and plunder the rule. To this class is added another large one whose members believe that Grant is the only man whom the party can elect. To them party is of more consequence than aught else, and they would welcome the nomination of Grant, were he thrice as culpable as he is, upon the assurance that he is the only man who could be elected. There are still others who, never having believed in Grant’s mercenary character, and his unfitness for office, still remember him as the man who received the sword of Lee, and who are willing as a matter of gratitude to keep him in the Presidential chair for life. All these classes make up a powerful element who may be able to overpower the good sense of others who fully understand this enigmatical humbug, but who are men in whom the sense of party allegiance is stronger than their convictions of right.

The tremendous onslaught which has been made on the South by so many of the party organs, and by certain officials, means the nomination of Grant. It is true that the President in his message only claimed that there had been any interference in the elections in two of the Southern States, and even then, only in certain parts of these. However, facts seem to be of no consequence to the party organs, and therefore they are teeming with denunciations of the entire South. Their purpose is to “fire the Northern heart;” to convey the idea that the entire South is in a state of rebellion, and that the country needs a strong arm to restrain these rebels. In due season Grant will be presented as the strong arm, and his nomination will be urged as that of the only man who can suppress the new rebellion. Stupid, malignant and insensate as are these indiscriminate attacks upon the entire South, they will have weight among that large class which feels much and reasons little, and takes for gospel whatever may be placed before it by its party press.

The proposed receptions have no connection whatever with a desire to do Grant personal honor. They are purely political. They are a part of the mortifying farce which has been in progress in the Old World ever since Grant landed on its shores. There Grant has never received a single personal compliment. Every reception given him, every honor of which he has been the recipient, have been paid to the country, of which, as ex-President, he was to some extent the representative. There is not a single city of any account which he has visited in which, in private, he has failed to be the subject of endless ridicule and caricature. Everywhere his boorish manners, his lack of knowledge of the ordinary forms of polite society, his sullen silence, and his intemperance have made him a more marked character than even his position as an ex-President and and ex-General. The reports about his having been offered the Bulgarian throne are simply silly lies, invented to give him consequence on this side [of] the water, and give him an impetus for the Presidential nomination. King of Bulgaria! Grant could not, to-day, secure the position of Constable on the London police force. He hasn’t the sobriety the patience, the dignity, that are essential to the position.–Chicago Times (Ind.)

The Judgment of Eve, by May Sinclair, illustrated by John Wolcott Adams.

This short novel has a message, but I’m not quite sure what it is. The main character marries a poor clerk because he recited poetry to her, and she was hoping for an “intellectual life.” However, she ends up bearing him 7 children (6 living) in 7 years, and then dies of exhaustion (no wonder!). Her sister, in contrast, married the rich farmer, had one child who died, and knew she was too frail to bear more, so didn’t even try.

Crappy story, but interesting illustrations by Adams. He shows very well the “clerkness” of the leading man and the exhaustion of the woman.

One Woman’s Life, by Robert Herrick. New York: The Macmillan Co. 1913.

Thanks to Mary Meehan for post-processing this book!

Bookp(h)ile

A wild woman has been seen in the woods near Liberty, Texas. A man on horseback got sight of the strange creature, pursued and overtook her; when she halted, found her to be a medium-sized, middle-aged, well-formed woman with long, dark hair, and clear blue eyes. She was in a state of nudity, save a girdle of moss around her loins. Her body and limbs were covered with a coat of hair about four inches in length. She was much frightened, and seemed unable to talk. The “solitary horseman” attempted to drive her towards the settlement, when she became enraged, seized a club, and turned upon him with the fury of a demon, and it was only the speed imparted to his steed by a liberal use of the spurs that he kept out of her way. Other parties had previously reported seeing this home-made gorilla, and an organized effort to capture her is to be made.