Confederates Clash With Queen City Gunboat on White River
A detailed account of General Shelby leading about 800 men to engage the Union gunboat Queen City at Clarendon. The Confederates deployed bold rifle work and artillery from the bank, the gunboat suffered heavy damage and eventually surrendered, with aftermath including paroled crew and plunder. Shelby’s action is debated as guerilla labeling versus regular combat.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Detroit Free Press
Mosby
Rosser
Imboden
Virginia
Lee
Confederate Congress
Quantrell
Joe Shelby
Southwest
Shelby
Welcome
Army of Virginia
Stuart
Hampton
Fitzhugh Lee
White River
General Shelby
Queen City
Clarendon
Duvall
Gshelby
Tevines
Robertson
Ghetty
Otter Bank
Missouri
McNeil
Scenes at Sea in Mid Ocean Impressions by Sailor
A reflective piece on sea travel and imagination by John Burroughs, contrasting vast open ocean with land horizons. It describes the sea as a cosmic outdoors, the void beyond the ship, and how voyaging fosters awe yet emptiness, provoking superstition among sailors. The text notes the diminished sense of size and the mind’s longing for form.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Barry Cornwall
John Burroughs
Moon
Mars
Atlantic
The Belief in Portents and Superstition
A condensed note on portents as a widespread superstition. It cites historical figures from Pliny to Napoleon and Kant to show how people link coincidental events to fate. The piece discusses post hoc reasoning, weather cycles, and gambling slippage as examples of inferential superstition.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Oswald
Popular Science Monthly
Pliny
Wallenstein
Napoleon the Great
Walid
d’Argens
Our Lady of Brest
Immanuel Kant
Bacon
Inside the Wings The Life and Work of Stage Props
A detailed look at the backstage world of variety theater, revealing how the prop man or props orchestrates quick-change routines, dressing rooms, and scene shifts. The piece highlights Props as a behind the scenes autocrat managing costumes, gear, and the timing of acts amid clashing bands and quick-change feats.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Stan
Orchestra Place
Kansas City
Val Love’s
Nibs
Cobble
Barney
Hades
Four Remarkable Escapes From Death
Samuel Stetzer, a young sailor from Steelmanville New Jersey, survived four near fatal ordeals across years. Wrecked off Cape Hatteras in 1880 he escaped in a yawl and reached a foreign port. Another voyage aboard the Edwards ended with twenty four hours adrift as the ship foundered near Nantucket Shoals with freezing injuries. He later survived elbow fever at Matanzas and a fall from a gang plank at Great Eye Harbor that left him briefly stunned and robbed of his purse as mates rescued him.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Philadelphia
Steelmanville
Atlantic County
N. J
Samuel Stetzer
Sidney C. Taylor
Cape Hatteras
Stetzer
Great Eye Harbor Inlet
Edwards
Nantucket Shoals
Riegin
E. H. Fisk
New York
West Indies
Matanzas
Dan Rice recollects Patti English and a New Orleans meeting
The famed clown Dan Rice recalls meeting Patti English as an eight year old in 1852 at the French Theatre in New Orleans. He describes being engaged with a Crescent City circus then and a high paying show using ten horses in one act. A girl marble singer delighted the audience and drew applause.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Dan Rice
Patti
New Orleans
Crescent City
Whoa Fool Became Patti’s First English Lesson At Circus
A veteran clown recalls guiding Patti during her early circus days in Cincinnati. He helped her learn English with the words whoa and fool, noting her rapid progress as the audience roared. Patti later wowed 7000 spectators, a contrast to her humble start.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Patti
Cincinnati
Doctors and the Public Image of Medicine
An essay tracing why doctors exist and how patients and druggists shape medical practice. It argues doctors err, rename illnesses, and humor patients to keep business, while noting societal causes of illness and limits of medical power.
Hotel Clerk Interview Reveals Life in Hospitality
Interview with a veteran hotel clerk reveals decades of experience across major cities. He reflects on memory, customer demands, and the grind of keeping front desks, baggage, and accounts in order while recounting quirky interruptions and the impact of long service on personal identity.
Cartomancy Exposition on Card Reading and Fortunes
An article introduces cartomancy from Chambers Book of Days, tracing origins to Francesco Marcolini and detailing English and continental methods. It includes card meanings for all suits, how to read combinations, and the nine card fortune method, ending with a note on the great wall of China observed by an American railway engineer.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Chambers
Francesco Marcolini
Venice
England
China
Great Wall
Eevee
The Pleasures of Forgetfulness Reflected in Reading
The passage muses on literature and conversation, noting how memory often dulls what is read and heard. It contrasts stale recall with the bright, liberating force of forgetfulness, framing forgetting as a source of pleasure and freedom.
Ancient Chinese Great Wall Description and Fortifications
The passage describes a massive granite foundation with solid masonry walls and 26 to 40 foot towers at 200 to 300 yard intervals. Parapets run atop and along sides to allow defenders to move between towers unseen. The wall crosses varied terrain, bridges rivers, and places strong flanking towers on riverbanks and large streams.
Discouraged Old Man Keeps Colt and Violin as Companions
A lone Lewiston area man about 50 lives with a 12–13 year old unbroken mare, a buckskin horse, hens, and cattle. He refuses offers on the mare, cooks and mends for himself, and plays his fiddle nightly. A dramatic 25–30 year past arc recounts a miller in New Hampshire, a flood, a death, and a move to Maine, ending in a recluse seeking oblivion with his violin as solace.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
New Hampshire
Granite Hills
Florida
Peninsula
Maine
Two Admirers and a Questions Man in Brooklyn Parlor
A Sunday school teacher seeks guidance on two suitors one virtuous and poor the other worldly who buys oysters and cream The Questions man oddly advises choosing the worldly man to marry the pious one to convert or both for advantage The law reporter suspects manipulation and the piece ends with the Questions man returning to work reflecting on satire.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Tam
Questons
Brooklyn
Law
Soney
Rural Reflections From Norwich on Spring Farm Life
Norwich correspondent sketches rural life in New England as spring arrives. He notes melting snows, crocuses, frogs, cowslips, and hens with profitable egg laying, alongside jokes about calves, dairy, and farm humor. The piece captures seasonal optimism, outdoor activities, and rustic charm with a playful tone.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Norwich
New Haven Register
Connecticut
New England
Labor for the Pains at Malvern Jail Window Breaker
A tramp in Malvern Ta on a cold day threw a brick through a church window to gain entry. He shivered outside the jail and, after capture, received fourteen days’ labor up the streets as punishment.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Malvern
Three Things That Trouble Man and A Byron Snippet
A fragment remarks on three common troubles for men waking in church snoring in public and being accused of talking in sleep. The tone reflects light humor about social embarrassment and personal foibles.
Verses and Vignettes From a bygone Texas Saloon Tale
A collage of light verse and anecdotes from a Texas pages section includes poems about spring and culture, a cautionary tale of a traveler with a ham sandwich, a wry diplomat joke, and a vignette about a legislator seeking a drink after promising not to. The tone echoes old newspaper miscellany with names and dated slang.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Texas
Austin
The Dollar Mark and Atlantis Beyond the Pillars
A poem and prose vignette mix recounts Heracles placing the pillars at Calpe and Atlantis dreaming beyond them, then shifts to a comical Irish domestic scene where a sleeping husband and a puzzled wife search for lucifers at dawn. The tone blends mythic imagery with rustic humor.
The Reporter and the Dapper Church Supper Crowd
A fragment from the New York Evening Post mocks reporters as a suited figure in clerical dress and languid air. It depicts a pompous, smiling observer by the wall, then shifts to a playful exchange about reporters at a church supper and the odd meals they endure.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
New York Evening Post
Apa
Armig Ginedi
Svenge
Fair Maidens
Viana
Also Mentioned on This Page
Selby
Tyler
Variety Theatre
Jersey
Freddy
Tennessee
Jess
Chelsea
Lynn
New York Graphic
Yellowstone Parks
Ting-A-Ling
Ding-Dong
Mr. Jones
North River
Inquirer
Beegum
John
Hunter
Dinquirer
Peat
Cushing
Wiliam
St. Louis
Chicago
Charleston
Atlanta
Lunter
James
Porter
Pagwane
Diamonds
Khiave
Deuce
Brooklyn Hagle
Emerson
Wit
Byron
Nike
Nature
J. D. Vanderpoel
Joan
Christ
Pauek
Heron
Robert Grant
Henry Clay Lukens
Walang
Chaucer
Edith M. Thomas
Heracles
Calpe
Atlantis
Nora Mahree
Patsey
Lucifers
Heorra
Dude
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!