SECESSIA'S STRUGGLE: War's Grim Ground Truth from Confederate Memory
A reflective piece argues that neutral ground between Federal and Confederate histories reveals harsher truths of Civil War hardship. It details shortages, torpor, and endurance from Bull Run through Petersburg, noting plunder, ragged regiments, and women farming as troops exhausted in defense of the Confederacy.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Bull Run
Manassas
Beaurecard
Portsmouth Navy Yard
Portsmouth
Oliver
Silence of the Flood in New Orleans Deep South Observer
In a floodbound New Orleans scene the Mississippi flood renders the landscape voiceless and shadowed. The piece contrasts nocturnal life elsewhere with a desolate water world where currents vanish and nature's sounds are silenced, leaving an eerie, worshipful stillness.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
New Orleans Times-Democrat
Mississippi
Sexton
Judge Robertson’s Joke On His Aftercareers
New York Mercury recounts collector and judge Robertson telling a joke about retirement from the State Senate. He meets an old friend and says he is “a candidate for the kingdom of heaven” at which point the friend quips about carrying a township. The anecdote ends with the friend’s blunt remark and the judge’s bemused reaction.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
New York Mercury
Robertson
State Senate
Heaven
Giant prisoner impresses visitors at Iowa jail
A 6 foot 11 inch, 275 pound twenty year old inmate is added to Council Bluffs jail. To attract visitors, guards place him on exhibit for ten cents a head. He retreats to his cell when a visitor nears and only reappears after a fee is paid to a jail collector. The collected money funds tobacco and other comforts for inmates.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Council Bluffs
Iowa
Rabbits facing hunt with cats in New Zealand colony
The need to curb rabbits devouring the New Zealand colony has sparked a demand for cats to aid rabbitting. Professional rabbiters are paid one to three shillings per dozen skins, varying by state, and have successfully used cats to increase captures.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
New Zealand
Revolutions in masculine hats from Kossuth to Derby styles
In a Norristown Herald piece a historian traces hat fashion from pre 1820 soft slouch hats to the Kossuth and Simon Bolivar eras, then the rise of the ten inch top and stove pipe crowns. He notes the Derby’s spread, silk hats’ decline, and the enduring appeal of the soft felt for middle age wearers. The article also links fashion shifts to broader social changes and anecdotes about beard trends tied to Louis Kossuth’s visit.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Norristown Herald
Russia
Louis Kossuth
Turkey
Austria
Independence Hall
Philadelphia
Freemont
United States
Westward, Ho Adventure To Find The Western Boundary
A Denver tale follows John Smith as he pursues the mythical West from Denver to St. Louis to Washington Territory. He discovers that real “West” abides where frontier myth fades and finally concludes no further West exists beyond the Pacific and East.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
West
Denver
John Smith
Joan
Larimer Street
John
Lawrence Street
North Denver
Erie Depot
Cincinnati
St. Louis
Jonan
Kansas City
Jesse James
Sweet Sixteen Exchange and Secret Yearnings
A narrative fragment portrays a girl in a palace car eating caramels and sharing mischievous glances with another girl. It reflects on youth, blooming innocence, and imagined futures amid social constraints, with vivid descriptions of attire, dimples, and memories of home life and promises of romance.
Michigan man seeks cure for habit of lying at springs
A Michigander visits White Sulphur Springs in Virgin a on a trip and, meeting an aged loiterer, asks if baths can cure lying. The old man jokes that hot water might help but warns sweating out lies could cook the body, noting he fares better with a well man who lies than a parboiled man who tells the truth.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
South
Ruffin
Virginia
Stonewall Jackson
Shenandoah Valley
Ordnance Department
Jackson
Richmond
Sheridan
Petersburg
Lee
Styte
Vienna
London
Italy
Mme. Cavalozzi
Kiralfys
Europe
Tagnioni
Her Majesty's
Caralozzi
Milan
Burlington
Alonzo
San Francisco Post
Ah Wong
Arthur
Congress
Horse and snail race in Paris for twenty thousand
In Paris a count backs a horse to ride from Point de la Concorde to Versailles and back, thirty-eight kilometers, in two hours. A Burgundian backs a snail to crawl two meters on a billiard table in the same period. The snail’s backer may not tempt it with cabbage. Snail races once occurred in England a century ago, but this horse versus snail event is new.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Paris
Point de la Concorde
Versailles
England
Corps de Ballet
Taglioni
Viscount de Voisin
London
Taglion
la Sylphiae
Disraeli’s sharp wit in government move anecdote
A Tinsley anecdote recounts Disraeli after moving from the Commons to the Lords. A jeer in the street prompts him to exclaim I feel as if it were dead or buried alive and then quickly adds in the land of the blessed with a courtly bow. The tale underscores his tact and humor in high office.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Tinsley’s Magazine
Disraeli
Earl of
Beaconsfield
House of Commons
House of Lords
The Ballet as a Moral School and its Decline
A historical essay traces ballet from ancient praise to modern decline, noting Socrates and Nero era references, Lavish 19th century London rivalries, and the can can’s perceived corrosive effect. It highlights strict training, gender roles, salaries, and the enduring talent line in families like Taglioni and Vestris amid a shifting cultural appetite for ballet.
Boss Wreck Contains Wild Chicago Love Scene
A Chicago tale unfolds as Lillian McGuire rejects lover George W. Simpson citing family pride. He laments his crushed hopes with grand imagery of ships wrecked and sails burned while she jokes about visiting him next Tuesday as usual, under her family’s watch.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Chicago Tribune
Lillian McGuire
Lillian
George W. Simpson
George
Hope
Ge&a
Lilet
May Heralds Love and Mischief in The Times Past
A collage of light verse and anecdotes notes spring as May births, humorous quips about a Pullman porter meeting Queen Victoria, wedding misadventures, and social satire. It parades poems, quips, and gossip from newspapers like Philadelphia News and Burlington Hawkeye with a wink at race, manners, and immigrant life.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Philadelphia
Queen Victoria
Signs Backfire On Smallpox Warning Farmer
A Wayne county farmer posted six smallpox warning signs on his home. A hungry rover failed to read them and asked for food. Each sign misread or misled, until the rover advised replacing them with a help wanted sign to deter further visits. The farmer followed the advice and saw no more visitors.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Wayne County
Detroit
Also Mentioned on This Page
Secessia
Bull
Hana
Kernestown
McClellan
Antietam
Hooker
Burnside
Fredericksburg
Grant
Meade
Pope
MacClellan
The
Con
Baltimore
Louisville
Harper's Ferry
Gettysburg
Potomac
Maryland
Serney
As & M
Johnny
Uncle Sam
Simon Bolivar
Bell-Crown
Steve-Pipe
New York
France
Germany
Cape Cod
Massachusetts
Billy the Kid
Buffalo
San
Great Lakes
Mississippi River
Colorado
Rocky Mountains
Aston
Greed & McLean
Buffalo Team
Bay of New York
Pacific
Chicago
Ture
Salt Lake
Wilderness
Washington Territory
Missouri
Orient
Laara
LE Corps DE Ballet
Lucian
Ponte
Demetrius
Hercules
Nero
Socrates
Aspasia
Jeunesse Doree
Patti
Grisi
la Scala
la Taglioni
Calais
Cerito
Taglioni Clique
Her Majesty’s
Lucille Graba
Lumley
Coralli
Mademoiselle
Holland
Donald
Mile
Grabn
Jess
Adelina Patti
Francesco
Applevoy
Pocchini
Naples
Offenbach
Her Majesty’s Theatre
Society For the Prevention of Cruelty
Fanny Eisler
Hoyland
America
Emma Livry
Arditi
Ellsler
Brig-A-Brac
Hie
Louisville Courier-Journal
Brooklyn Eagle
Fulton
Doubtingly
Indianapolis
New Haven Register
Izaak Waiton
Anon
Philadelphia News
Richard Realf
Darling
Mortality
Earth
Lavarce
Louis Republican
Peck
Washington Capitol
Jeunesse
Frank Leslie
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