Infedora tes in Camp Ex-Rebel’s Winter Quarters Tales
A former Confederate soldier recalls life in winter quarters with the Seventeenth Virginia Regiment. He describes pranks to pass time, blockading escapades toward home, roughhouse fights, and discipline through oddities of camp life. He details siege duty, scarce rations, a sickbed at Poplar Lawn Hospital, and the toll of hospital life on morale.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Winter Quarters
Murray
Washington Republican
Dancer
Richmond
Twenty-Ninth
Virginia
London
Marqu's of
Queensberry
Petersburg
Ines
Itseunessee
Puck
Ani
Confederate Soldier recalls shelter and care in field hospital
The narrator describes a retreat to Hanover Junction, a relapse, and two weeks in a tent avoiding hospital care. He acknowledges ration and medical attention from a kind fellow, noting that the ranks and equipment were not well cared for, reflecting a Confederate soldier’s wartime experience.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Hanover Junction
Beating Conductors in Rail Fares Told by Honest Looking Man
A Cleveland Plain Dealer account quotes a traveling man describing schemes to ride free by tricking conductors. He details methods such as tearing checks, misplacing tickets, acting as if no fare was paid, and borrowing tickets to conceal extra baggage, praising the antics as a good game and noting occasional success in avoiding charges.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Berea
Toledo
Eny
Iam
Gisly
Engineer's Yarn About a Grasshopper Swarm on a Nebraska Line
An old engineer recalls a 1874 Nebraska passenger run overrun by grasshoppers. The swarm blocked the track, fire sparked from wires, water ran out, and the crew feared for safety. A wind shift turned the grasshoppers into a moving mass, pushing the train and enabling a timely finish. The tale highlights the insects' enterprising behavior when roused.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Nebraska
Emeralds Through Ancient and Modern Times
The article traces emerald history from ancient Greece and Rome to modern Europe, noting their perceived magical powers and rarity in Roman times, later abundance from the Americas, and renewed value. It mentions famous stones, imperial gifts, shipwreck losses, and major mines, with figures like Napoleon, Empress Hortense, and Court figures cited.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Pliny
Brittany
New Caleonia
Africa
Sery
Cortez
Barbary
New World
Europe
Russia
America
Rene
Charlemagne
ONE OF WOMAN'S WAYS. Crossing a Railway Track
A humorous Chicago Herald piece depicts a woman crossing a railway track with extreme caution. She surveys for trains, hesitates, and often retraces steps, finally assisted by a policeman after a dramatic and nerve wracking crossing.
Queen Bertha of Burgundy Saddle Described in Parish Church
An industrious Queen Bertha of Burgundy is profiled with a saddle described as a moated cumbersome machine kept in state inside Payerne church in Canton Vaud. The item reflects medieval riding fashions with cavalier posture and royal regalia including a redial and a distaff, illustrating historical display of royal gear.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Harper's Bazar
Bertha
Burgundy
Payerne
Canton
Vaud
Ies
The Society Detective at a Fashionable Wedding
A tale of two jewel thefts seen through a society detective’s eyes at a high society wedding. A stylish woman discreetly pockets a jewel box while a young clerk repeatedly slips in and out of the house, swapping coats and outfits to steal. The detective quietly uncovers each escape and recovers the loot with sharp observation and restraint.
Texas Rivers In Blazing Texas Style
A. E. Sweet in Texas Siftings praises Texas rivers as peculiar institutions that vanish to dry beds in summer. He cites the Nueces and Rio Grande diversions, a six foot tide within hours, creeks drying into pools, and rivers rising sixty feet in a day, forcing costly high bridges and wary railroad planning across the state.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
A. E. Sweet
Texas
el Paso
Rio Grande
Congressional Record
Nueces River
Austin
Antonio
San Antonio
Comal
San Marcos
Guadaloupe
Brazos
Sabine
Hard Life in the Arctic Triumphs of Cold and Courage
In the San Francisco Call a signal service officer Connell describes Arctic survival, mocking warm polar theories while recounting two years at Lady Franklin Bay. He recalls winter rations, snowshoe races, a decoy duck prank, music aboard, and a dangerous encounter with wolves, interwoven with maps of the retreat and reflections on misery and national longing. He disputes Esquimaux origin theories and muses on future polar exploration bases.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
San Francisco
Signal Service
Connell
Lady Franklinbay
Ellison
Ellis
Particuarly
Chinese Lunch Etiquette in a Nineteenth Century Household
The narration describes a luncheon in a Chinese household with old tai tai and young wives dining separately. Divans and quilts display rich silk patterns while women, including nerces and children, mingle, share melon seeds and sweets, and the guest is served multiple courses with artful dish decorations and ceremonial hot water basins for hand washing.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
China
Sydney Smith Anecdote On Servants And Soap Prices
The note recounts Sydney Smith noting servants dislike cheap items and a test with two soaps. He changes price tags and asks a servant which soap washes best, learning the dearer soap proves superior. Betty then uses the expensive soap, saving the master money over time.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Sydney Smith
Betty
A fetter Named Jack and the Socorro puppy
The Socorro Chieftain recounts anecdotes about a setter puppy named Jack. He accompanies his master to the market where a meat purchase is brought home for him. One morning a large package could not pass the hole in the fence his head first, so he moved the package through. In another tale he carries peaches, drops one, then retrieves it carefully.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
FE Tment
Alexandria
Fairfax
Prince William
Smith
Mosby
Longstreet
Batloik
Ashington’s
Allance
Petersburg
Poplar Lawn
Amond
Richond
Suffolk
Regi
John Brown
Kislingbury
Sweet Home
Aera
Cape Sabine
Connell
Congress
Grinnell Land
Esquimanax
Camp Sabine
Greeley
Jack
Socorro
Andromeda
Juan Sullivans
Boston
Henrico
Bill
Cedar Keys
Pomp
Florida
Aot
Hii
Levy County
Key West
Cen
Cap
Judas
Gosling
Senyrny
Hit
Kase
Fragmentary note on an arriving event and appetite
A laconic remark reads something to eat as a fragment tied to an arrival. The text notes a person named Connell was unconscious at the moment and the scribbled comment reflects a blunt, utilitarian appetite amid unclear context.
The Lime Kiln Club on Responsibility and Whitewashing
Detroit Free Press reports a Lime Kiln Club meeting where Brother Gardner leads a discussion on responsibility for fellow-men and the limits of conscience. Members debate the duty to warn against vice, obey laws, and avoid intrusive charity, with Pickles Smith proposing a resolution to separate whitewashing from landscape painting among members.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Detroit Free Press
T Webber
Brother Gardner
Triangle
Aroun
Alabama
Toots
Samuel Shin
Penstock
Givendam Jones
Jackson
Pickles Smith
The Legitimate Drama of Henrico and Andromeda
A lively mock-Elizabethan scene unfolds between Henrico and Andromeda. They tease a scar from a wall-tryst and recount a duel with Vingardo, mixing bravado with comic imagery as the tale climaxes in a crude, vivid risqué metaphor.
Remarkable Florida Turtles Inspire Tall Tales
In Live Oak and other Florida towns a teller of odd anecdotes shares humorous turtle lore from a June gathering. Quirky accounts recount giant braces, coconut-smuggling shells, and seaweed stitches as locals recount clever turtles and their surprising trades with humans.
Not a Newspaper Man
A discussion of a popular French writer notes his method of using different colored papers for various literary forms. White slips for news gossip, green larger sheets for fiction, yellow one foot square sheets for dramatic ideas, faint pink or Cory paper for poetry, and brown wrapping or old envelopes for theatre or book criticisms.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Harper's Weekly
Middlemen Irritated at Liverpool Hotel Boot Exchange
A Liverpool Courier item depicts a looping boot repair tale. A stranger asks a shoemaker to stitch a slit boot, an errand boy delivers a repaired boot for a penny, a porter pays three pence, a waiter notes six pence, and the boot is charged to the stranger yet the shoemaker says nothing. The sequence exposes petty middleman charges among hotel staff and tradespeople.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Liverpool
Shoemaker
Satisfaction She Had From Home Craft Work
A Philadelphia Call item portrays Mrs De Moutoncouer boasting of a handmade screen door costing 2 85 including materials and an old frame while her husband questions the total. The piece contrasts domestic pride with cost after a humorous exchange about value and effort. An Savannah News vignette describes Officer Morgan combing Crawford ward for taxed dogs, a pug seized and burned in a kitchen stove, then rescued and left scarred and useless.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
de M
Jones
Savannah
Morgan
Crawford Ward
Burglars' Jimmies in Chambers' Journal Tale
The article describes burglar’s jimmies with graded sizes named Lord Mayor Alderman Common Councilman and pocket jimmy James the Jess. It notes lengths from four feet three inches to about twelve inches, iron and steel construction, and mentions reform of London’s corporation as a jab at authorities.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Chambers
City of London
Jimmy
James
Curate’s pocket item described with two part steel construction
The text details a concealed device a curate might carry in his breast pocket without arousing suspicion. Larger versions come in two or three lengths screw-together for use, with solid or tubular steel builds offering lightness and strength. Ends terminate in a chiselled point, one straight and the other slightly bent.
Mirthful Fragments and Snippets From The Press
A collage of comic verse and tongue in cheek snippets including parodic lines about myths in salitudes, a toast to wine and love, a quiz about an article, a park scene with Maud, a girl’s misheard street wagon, and a modest maid poem yielding light humor from New York papers.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Bothos
New York Telegram
Disna
Miss Jones
A Dog Fit deacon and a wandering Newfie in Brooklyn
A Brooklyn deacon kept a large Newfoundland who terrorized gardens and porches, dragged home bones, caused widespread damage, and fought neighbors with relentless noise and chaos. The verse contrasts his mischief with a call for law and order. The piece blends humorous dog folklore with a stray theological aside about Moses’ age and a lyrical night scene full of nature imagery.
Also Mentioned on This Page
Fidents
Charger
Hicago Herald
St. Louis Globe-Democrat
Fitfest
Spain
New Mexico
Napoleon
Aix la Chapelle
Austerlitz
Wagram
Hortense
Turkey
Shrine of
Loretto
Don Pierre Diragon
Peru
Emerald Isle
Ireland
Adrian
Henry II
Carlo Costanzi
Marshal Junot
Cathedral
United States
Carolina
Georgia
Venice
Republic of Venice
Scythia
Arabia
Rossig
Sia
Chicago Herald
Society
New York Herald
Iornace
Bac
Queiece
Arctic
Sergeant Connell
North Pole
Brainard
Lockwood
Esquimaux
Cape Beechey
Mystic Point
Greenland
Lake Haven
Pole
Lady Franklin Bay
Smith's Sound
Corneil
Yer Cowell
the Lime-Kiln Club
Gary
Yonkers Gazette
Vingardo
Turtle Tales
Sunny South
Hamilton Jay
Philadelphia Times
Live Oak
Fla
Tiber
Biscayne Bay
General Jumbles
Philadelphia
Ilife
Pat
Bedad
Louise
R. Dibdin
Temple Bar
J. Burdette
Themistocles
Jack Delong
Maud
Tom Foster
Madison Street
Robert Grant
Lam
Tam
Aurora
New York Sun
Brooklyn
Arkansaw Traveller
Moses
F. D. Sherman
Atlantiag
Pan
Faun
This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!