Siege and Smothered Hope at Yorktown Centreville
A recounting of the spring 1862 Potomac advance to Centreville and Johnston's retreat toward Richmond. The piece details the siege misery at the York James line, the dead man's tree sharpshooter, gunboat shelling, harsh trench conditions, night owl alarms, a Johnston ruse prompting a nighttime march, and the 12 month Virginia enlistment and conscription reshaping the Confederate command structure for a long war.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Murray
Washington
Richmond
Peninsula
Johnston
McClellan
J. B. Magruder
Yorktown
Magruder
York
James
The Dugout as Abomination of Desolation
Bill Nye argues against sleeping in dugouts comparing them unfavorably to log cabins and sod houses. He recalls roughing it in mountains yet rejects dugouts for their dirt roofs and danger from stray animals. He warns of the eerie, cheerless, and perilous life of a deserted dugout.
Oriental Magic and the Mango Tree Trick in India
I describe a Hindoo conjurer in Northern India who planted a mango nut in a box, built a frame, and produced a living mango tree in daylight. The trick involved fire and aromatic fumes, with bystanders awed as a five foot tree emerged. I could not uncover the mechanism despite offers of payment.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
India
Chuddy Lall
Andy
Delhi
Flinders
Optical delusion and conjuring shown to astonish witness
In describing a marvel witnessed near the Sultan of India, a ball of cord is tossed aloft revealing a sequence of body parts that assemble into a whole man. The witness fears devilry, recovers with a cordial, and a local authority deems the show hocus pocus while cautioning belief in eye witness testimony.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Ana
India
Kadi Afkharradin
Wahab
Nations That Do Not Eat Bread Highlighted by Gartenlaube
The Gartenlaube reviews civilized nations where peasants largely avoid bread. In South Austria and parts of Italy bread is rare. sterz or heiden porridge from beech nuts fuels Stelermark regions. In northern Italy polenta serves as daily bread, served as cold or hot pudding. Romanian mamaliga follows a maize porridge that remains loose rather than settling into a solid mass.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Gartenlaube
Austria
Italy
Roumania
Obersteiermark
Vienna
Stelermark
Carinthia
Tyrol
Toumania
Come In Fourth Floor Lawyer Boy Seeks Coal Job
A Detroit Free Press excerpt shows a red haired boy with boils pleading for coal work. He explains he may get a case and money, and offers to carry coal at night. He introduces himself and expresses sympathy for poor folks, leaving after a tense exchange.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
tDetrait Free Press
A Mule With Almost Human Intelligence
In Farajion California a lonely lighthouse is manned by four men and a mule. The mule works twice a year to operate a windlass or capstan for supplies brought by a government steamer. The beast learns the steam whistle and hides when heard, leading to two hours of hunts by the inspector before the animal is found.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Buffalo Express
Farajion
California
Mind in Sleep Dreams and Prophetic Visions in Sleep
A Saint Louis Globe-Democrat excerpt discusses prophetic dreams and notable cases. It recounts a patient paralyzed after a stone-like leg dream, a throat ache during a dream then real quinsy, and a woman whose epileptic attacks followed vivid dreams of an iron crown and her dead father. The dream sequence preceded two seizures over months, with lingering impressions.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
St. Louis Globe-Democrat
Galen
Macario
Forbes Winslow
Hammond
England
London
Thrilling night wildlife sighting at London Telegram Zoo
A moonlit nocturnal scene along a Canadian river is reimagined within a city zoo. Beavers, a deer, and a wolf set a suspenseful backdrop as a glistening beaver feeds and slips back to its lodge, all witnessed from a guided night stroll.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
London
Canadian
Onodlaska
Arizona
Riding a Trick Mule in a Detroit Circus Tale
The writer recalls riding a trick mule named Lump in an early three-ring circus. He clung tight as the mule bucked wildly, praised by spectators, and toppled into the next county after the clown declared the challenge won. The piece contrasts past circuses with modern splendor and notes the old days’ greater fun per square inch.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Detroit Free Press
Deaths by Laughter Across History
A collection of ancient anecdotes notes Chaicas the soothsayer dying of laughter after a foretold fate fails. It recalls Crassus, Plaut, Zeuxis, and Plautus dying from humorous or surprising events. The piece ends by remarking that many today might faint from surprise at such fates.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Troy Times
Chaicas
Kaleas
Crassus
Zeuxis
Placut
Po’ly Uncle Rube Finds Isolation On River
Texas Siftings reports a dialogue where Uncle Rube explains his hardship living isolated along the river. He jokes about malaria like illnesses and requests “isolation medicine” as a remedy for his loneliness and harsh conditions.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Texas Siftings
Uncle Rube
Clever Counterfeiters and the Great Bond Scheme
A Chicago Times Washington letter details a pen made twenty dollar counterfeit and other notes. The treasury secretary and agents describe raised bills and bonds, including the Ulrich and Doyle rings, with raids, trials and prison sentences.
Would-be Runaways Warned Away in Hilarious Advice
In a Detroit Free Press humor piece, a narrator mocks the romance of running away from home. It urges boys to save provisions, pack a note, and consider future paths like sea life, hunting, or banking, then jokes about the predictably brief adventure and eventual return home.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Mother
Father
The Women of Constantinople Foreign Letter
A foreign letter admires Abyssinian women for height and elegance yet critiques their limbs. The description praises black hair red lips and white dress and notes bare legs to the knees a distinctive mark viewed as a blemish by some readers.
Girls on a Melon Expedition in Tennessee
Nashville World reports two or three so called sweet girl graduates visiting Franklin Kentucky. They fish but catch nothing. While walking home they steal a large green watermelon from a neighbor’s field. They hide it to munch it later only to discover it is a green pumpkin inside.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Washington
Chicago Times
The
Treasury Secret Service
John Co. New
Treasury
Aon
Nashville World
Nashville
Franklin
Interior Department
Fragments from a Brightly Wired Page
A collage of quotations and snippets from multiple papers mocks commerce, poetry and wit. It references a merchant traveler, insects, oysters in September, a mosquito, and a colorful line up of authors and publications. It ends with a quip about Wilkie Collins and a joke about his last novel.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Washington Hatchet
Wilkie Collins
Wilkie
Ship Has Come In Yet Sinks Bottom Side Up
A Pittsburgh era verse fragment moves from hopeful harbor longing to satirical note on misfortune. The speaker recalls waiting for a fabled gold laden ship, only to learn the vessel is inverted and near-sighted misperception replaces optimism. The dialogue mocks perception and daylight logic.
Equivocation in a Century Verse
Poem fragment recounts a lovers tension as the speaker Frank asks to kiss the woman. Her blush and gentle rebuke mark the moment of restrained passion in a late 19th or early 20th century style verse. The speaker reflects on beauty, propriety, and the risk of unspoken words.
Subtle Subtraction The Judge and The Mistress
A stage vignette shows Mistress defending sugar as misrepresented weight and a colored helper retorting a partial consumption. A poem by James Buckham contrasts wind and corn with a farmer, ships with gold, and the miser who values treasure in the hold. The piece ends with reflections on the swift passage of life from day to night.
Skepticism in a five year old's bedtime doubt
A Macon Telegraph reader recalls a five year old who resists prayers at night saying I don't want to, mamma, I'm so tired, and then I don't more than half think there is a God. The remark reflects early doubt about faith in a child.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Albany
United States
Charles H. Smith
James K. Doyle
William Brockway
Smith
Leis
Brockway
Doyle
Brooklyn
N. Y
Chicago
Macon Telegraph
The Concord Philosophers Across the Moorlands
A poetic meditation on pursuit of abstract illities through symbolic landscapes. The speaker tracks inner states and consciousness using metaphysical imagery of nets, beasts, and trees. Multiple personified notions like ego, ergo, and over soul appear as targets of inquiry across shifting moorland scenes.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Concord Philosophers
Washington Hatchet
The Boy the Apples and the Lost Base Ball
A Puck brief describes a boy stealing apples while a baseball hides in his pocket. He eats until challenged by a farmer, then drops the ball and claims he searched the grass for it. The scene contrasts desire for fruit with a cheeky misdirection about the missing base ball.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Ella Wheeler
Puck
The Battle of Peach Orchard by Burdette
The narrator asks his mother not to weep as he and many others endure a grim battle in an orchard. He recalls wounded boys, the harvest of peaches in the grass, and grim scenes of doctors tending the injured amid a town’s sorrow. The poem lists old time remedies and tonics used on the ill and dying in a somber rural setting.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Johnson
India
China
Madras
Illinois
Doyle
Smith
Brockway
Chester
Morris & Essex Railroad
Treasury
Ohio National
Cincinnati
First National
Boston
Ohio Penitentiary
William Allen
Hamburg
Germany
Alriea
Winslow, Lanier & Co
New York
Third National Bank
Robert J. Burdette
The Goat and the Tiger Pitfall Fable Lesson
A Goat and a Tiger are prisoners in a pit and agree to pool issues against a common enemy. They gain freedom, but the Tiger breaks the solemn agreement upon reaching the surface. The tale ends with a mocked MORAL that virtues of trust fail and the Goat should have eaten the Tiger in the pit.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Detroit Free Press
Also Mentioned on This Page
Federate
Seventeenth Virginia Infantry
Sur
Johnnston
York River
Seasoas
Rich- BP
Longstreet
Seventeenth Virginia
Parson Granberry
Church Militant
Virginia
Perio
Seward
Confederate Congress
Confederacy
Halcyon
Lee
Bill Nye
New York Mercury
Tom Ballard
Treasury Department
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Secret Service
Ballard
Buffalo
Ile
Charles F. Ulrich
the Women of
Constantinople
Merchant Traveller
Philadelphia
Ship News
Cally
Scoysmith
Gohaness
James Buckham
Castor Oll
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!