Grand Gulf Ironclads Duel Endures Five Hours Of Fury
The Grand Gulf fight between Porter's gunboats and Confederate forts on the Mississippi River unfolds as a grueling five hour duel. Ironclads press the fortifications with heavy shells while Confederates hold firm. Despite immense bombardment, no embrasures are cleared and no gun dismounted, yet crews display endurance and resolve amid a deadly river battle that tests every ship and defender.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Father of Waters
Grand Gulf
Farragut
Grant
Admiral Porter
Porter
Dahlgren
Fort Sumter
Louisville
Carondelet
Pittsburgh
Mound City
Sumter
Fisher
Wagner
Pittsburg
Benton
Tuscumbia
Lafayette
Benton. Porter
General Grant
The Melodious Milkmen Voice Coach Aims to Harmonize Street Vendors
Professor James Jaddle of East Twenty-seventh street boasts a novel project teaching street vendors such as milkmen to sing opera tunes. He trained four pupils including two tenors, a bass, and a baritone, turning morning noise into disciplined melody as crowds gather to listen. He envisions expanding to clam-pedlers and fish-hawkers with buffo and Venetian boat songs, shaping a new musical culture on city streets.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
James Jaddle
East Twenty-seventh Street
Avenue A
Houston Street
Faust
Greenwich Avenue
Millmer
The French Pioneers and Their Indian Policy
In Harper's Higginson portrays early French colonists in Canada as priests soldiers and traders who lived among Indigenous peoples buying furs and adopting their ways. Frontenac led war dances with braves and embraced indigenous customs reflecting a humane gentleness that impressed Native allies. Missionaries like Pere Brebeuf combined courage and patience, dying under torture as Indians revered his virtue.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
T. W. Higginson
Harper's
Rilliant
Comte de Frontenac
Turenne
la Grande Mademoiselle
Canada
America
Pere Brebeuf
Rome
Chicago’s Contribution to Flood Relief Noted
The Indianapolis Journal reports that Cincinnati received novel relief gifts including four gross of stove polish from Chicago. The article notes civic generosity and mentions other contributions aiding flood refugees amid ongoing relief efforts.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Chicago
Indianapolis
Cincinnati
Popping the Question Leap Year Privilege and Social Reform
A historic essay on marriage proposals, leap year privilege, and gender bias argues the ritual is a social relic preserving feminine disabilities. It cites Mlle de Praga and M. de Lesseps, critiques masculine exclusiveness, and envisions a future tribunal guiding high stakes courtship and engagement.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Agri
Asia
M. de Lesseps
la Chesnaye
Europe
de Lesseps
Mlle. de Praga
A Kiss Signs Treachery Through History's Dark Moments
An oblique survey links famous historical kisses to betrayals and doomed fates from Esther to Lucretia Borgia, Catherine de Medici, Brutus, and William the Conqueror. Each kiss marks a fatal turn, from murder plots to royal massacres and dynastic downfall.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Judas
Ahasuerus
Esther
Haman
Haless Essex
Elizabeth
Lucretia Borgia
The Kiss Across Battles and Myths Through History
A compact meditation on kissing as a symbol across legend and warfare. It notes kisses before battles, romantic infidelity, and heroic pauses as examples, from ancient Greece to Homeric memory, showing kiss as social sign and moment of truth in life’s passages.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
France
Ind
Achilles
Paris
Helen
The Phantom Engine Haunts a Nashville Engineer
A Nashville locomotive engineer recounts a night near Cowan tunnel when a phantom engine with his dead partner appeared in the sky. The vision spooked the crew and nearly caused a fatal collision with a special train, prompting the engineer to back into a safe switch before reaching Chattanooga.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Nashville
Cowan
Cowan Tunnel
Maybze
Pard
Chattanooga
Old Maids And Bachelors A Theme Of The Times
Old maids and bachelors are contrasted in a humorous sketch of character and habits. The essay extols old maids for usefulness kindness and domestic skill while lampooning old bachelors for ill temper vanity and dependence on others.
Kentucky Gentleman Speech From Chicago Tribune
A Kentucky colonel speaks with rural bravado about horses whiskey and Southern pride. He boasts of Confederate service, mocks Northern manners, then extols Southern women and manners while delivering a rambling, exaggerated oration filled with regional slang and humorous flourishes.
Virginia Bridal Costumes at Alexandria Wedding Flight
A Prince William county bridal couple, aged 50 and 60, arrived by local train from Washington and stayed at an uptown hotel. The bride wore a terra cotta dress with a blue tissue veil, a black sundown hat with purple ribbon and white pigeon feather, red rose buds, and a red polka dot scarf. The groom donned black broadcloth, white vest, white tie, yellow gloves, and carried a green umbrella. the couple carried a lunch in an oil-cloth satchel.
The American thief and the detective compared
A historical sketch compares French and American detective practices, noting detective personalities, secrecy in the French service, and American fame. It details bank burglars, society thieves, wedding and funeral thefts, the kinchin lay, and the varied methods criminals use, with detectives tracing cases by studying routines and familiar patterns.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Rogues
Scotland Yard
America
Rone
Brench Mouchard
Pew
England
Ying Theatre
H Otters
Poor Pussy A Harper's Bazar defense of cats against slander
A Harper's Bazaar writer defends the cat against cruel reports praising her beauty, affection, and virtue. The piece cites cats comforting the ill, protecting children, traveling with owners, guarding property, and aiding in rodent control, arguing humans are often harsher than felines.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Harper's Bazar
Staples
A Question of Glory at Niblo's Garden
An advertisement in New York papers sought 100 white men and 50 negroes to appear in the Black Venusy at Niblo's Garden, drawing over 1000 applicants. The piece notes Texas cotton rotting worth about a million dollars due to labor shortages, and contrasts tin helmet draft life at seventy-five cents a night with picking cotton at two dollars a day.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
New York
Niblo’s Garden
Texas
Winter Verse Fragments From Various Poets
A collage of seasonal quatrains and lines from George M. Vickery John G Whittier Marian Douglass Helen E Starrett and translations evoke snow spring and rebirth. Snippets touch on frost, birds, sunshine, and the promise of renewal with a lyric tone typical of verse miscellany.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Helen E. Starrett
At the Ball The Burden of Grief and a Cemetery Joke
A dialogue at a ball recalls a man Gaston who buried his wife two weeks earlier and questions his whereabouts. The exchange hints at deep mourning and social expectations. A lyric flourish follows about wine and reason fading, alluding to Hebe and Judgment Day.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Gaston
Aphrodite Rose In Immortal Gods Tale On Olympus
A poet muses that Aphrodite may have sprung from a charlotte rose at a divine feast while a companion jokes about using the flower for a lather brush and a shave until the bard faints.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Puck
Charlotte
Aphrodite
High Olympus
A Flower Do But Place Near Thy Window Glass
A poetic admonition to carry a nosegay near the window and wear roses for protection. It urges faith that an angel stands beside the sleeper and will rock them to sleep with roses. The verse blends caution with comforting imagery of angels and flowers.
How a Woman Falls on the Ice
A humorous contrast alleges men crash sprawling and stumble through snow, while women fall with courtesy into neat bundles, rise quickly, and stride away smiling, clothing unspoiled and spirits high.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Patsy
The Little Poke Bonnet Poem Parade
A playful verse extols a Little Poke Bonnet, framing it as charming and interchangeable with a childlike fairy tale. The speaker muses on whether it is a womanly fairy or a baby, then cheerfully celebrates the bonnet itself as the central delight.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Darling
Camping Out in a Texas Siftings vignette
A Texas Siftings fragment recalls roughing it while camping with a group. The narrative details saddle pillows, earth as bed, a makeshift car camp, a holey horse blanket, midnight rises to untangle ropes, gather wood, endure freezing air, ants in ears, smoke in eyes, and a creaking dawn around the campfire with bruised bodies and spilled coffee.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Texas
The Sky is a Drinking Cup poem by UR H Stoddard
A brief poem describes the sky as a drinking cup once ancient and large. It pours wine of airy gold into the eyes of men and keeps them awake with jewel like light until nightfall. The verse evokes dreamlike imagery of day and night through celestial drink.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
UR. H. Stoddard
Gola
A Rare Instance of a Liar Question from a Father and Son
A Michigan father reflects on honesty after his lad questions the truthfulness of Mr. T. who allegedly saw a spring roptp on February 15. The exchange centers on whether the man lied and ends with the father deeming it a moral lesson about truth, noting a robin’s unusual Tennessee origin and return.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Detroit Free Press
Mr. T
Michigan
Wells
Tennessee
Fragmentary verse note about a flirting soubrette
A distorted, partially readable poetic fragment laments a perfidious soubrette who coquets with the heart. The speaker expresses regret and disappointment toward a yellow clarinet referenced in the muddled lines.
The Woman Who Whistles Exchange Prose Sketch
A cheeky social column muses on a girl who whistles, challenging old gossip about propriety. It argues whistling can ease emotions, soothe a sick spouse, and calm courtship, praising private whistle use over public singing as a harmless valve.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Coventry
Quondam
Also Mentioned on This Page
Topsy
Demarest
Herbert Spencer
Landes
Aud
Kentucky
Chicago Tribune
Weus
Henry Clay
Carrah Harrison
Salacky
Ohio
Sal
Titioner
Puss
Dr. Good
Egypt
George M. Vickery
Longfellow
Pla
Zephyr
Spaneles
Jack Frost
Tseng
Anon
Esquimaur
Red Hunter
John G. Whittier
Marian Douglass
Hebe
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!