On July 16, in the aching torpid heat of the South Florida summer, Terry Whelper stood at the Avis counter at Miami International Airport and rented a bright red Chrysler LeBaron convertible. He had originally signed up for a Dodge Colt, a sensible low-mileage pact, but his wife had told him go on, be sporty for once in your life. So Terry Whelper got the red LeBaron plus the extra collision coverage, in anticipation of Miami drivers. Into the convertible he inserted the family-his wife Gerri, his son Jason, his daughter Jennifer-and bravely set out for the turnpike. The children, who liked
Revelation 21:9 1 NIGHT FELL CLEAN and cold in Dublin, and wind moaned beyond my room as if a million pipes played the air. Gusts shook old windowpanes and sounded like spirits rushing past as I rearranged pillows one more time, finally resting on my back in a snarl of Irish linen. But sleep would not touch me, and images from the day returned. I saw bodies without limbs or heads, and sat up, sweating. I switched on lamps, and the Shelbourne Hotel was suddenly around me in a warm glow of rich old woods and deep red plaids. I put on a robe, my eyes lingering on the phone by my fitfu
POST-MORTEM POETRY [1]In Philadelphia they have a custom which it would be pleasantto see adopted throughout the land. It is that of appending topublished death-notices a little verse or two of comforting poetry.Any one who is in the habit of reading the daily PhiladelphiaLEDGER must frequently be touched by these plaintive tributesto extinguished worth. In Philadelphia, the departure of a childis a circumstance which is not more surely followed by a burialthan by the accustomed solacing poesy in the PUBLIC LEDGER.In that city death loses half its terror because the knowledge...
Lecture VIIIThe Growth and Diffusion of Primitive IdeasMr Tylor has justly observed that the true lesson of the newscience of Comparative Mythology is the barrenness in primitivetimes of the faculty which we most associate with mentalfertility, the Imagination. Comparative Jurisprudence, as mightbe expected from the natural stability of law and custom, yetmore strongly suggests the same inference, and points to thefewness of ideas and the slowness of additions to the mentalstock as among the most general characteristics of mankind in its...
[Original Dedication of First Essay, Omitted in subsequent Editions,]To William Wilberforce, Esq., MPMY DEAR SIR In contemplating, the public characters of the day, no one among them appears to have more nearly adopted in practice the principles which this Essay develops than yourself. In all the most important questions which have come before the senate since you became a legislator, you have not allowed the mistaken considerations of sect or party to influence your decisions; so far as an unbiased judgement can be formed of them, they appear generally to have been dictated by compre
The Life of Thomas Telford by Smilesby Samuel Smiles"Let us travel, and wherever we find no facility fortravelling from a city to a town, from a village to ahamlet, we may pronounce the people to be barbarous"Abbe Raynal"The opening up of the internal communications of acountry is undoubtedly the first and most importantelement of its growth in commerce and civilization"Richard CobdenCONTENTSPrefaceEARLY ROADS AND MODES OF TRAVELLINGCHAPTER I. Old RoadsRoads as agents of civilization...
The Little Lame Princeby Miss Mulock [Pseudonym of Maria Dinah Craik]CONTENTSTHE LITTLE LAME PRINCE THE INVISIBLE PRINCE PRINCE CHERRY THE PRINCE WITH THE NOSE THE FROG-PRINCE CLEVER ALICETHE LITTLE LAME PRINCECHAPTER IYes, he was the most beautiful Prince that ever was born.Of course, being a prince, people said this; but it was true besides. When he looked at the candle, his eyes had an expression of earnest inquiry quite startling in a new born baby. His nosethere was not much of it certainly, but what there was seemed an aquiline shape; his complexion was a charming, healthy purple; he wa
Mark Twain, A Biography, 1907-1910By Albert Bigelow PaineVOLUME III, Part 2: 1907-1910CCLVIHONORS FROM OXFORDClemens made a brief trip to Bermuda during the winter, taking Twichellalong; their first return to the island since the trip when they hadpromised to come back so soon-nearly thirty years before. They had beencomparatively young men then. They were old now, but they found thegreen island as fresh and full of bloom as ever. They did not find theirold landlady; they could not even remember her name at first, and thenTwichell recalled that it was the same as an author of certain...
Thoughts on the Present Discontents, and Speechesby Edmund BurkeContentsIntroductionThoughts on the Present DiscontentsSpeech on the Middlesex Election.Speech on the Powers of Juries in Prosecutions for Libels.Speech on a Bill for Shortening the Duration of ParliamentsSpeech on Reform of Representation in the House of CommonsINTRODUCTIONEdmund Burke was born at Dublin on the first of January, 1730. Hisfather was an attorney, who had fifteen children, of whom all butfour died in their youth. Edmund, the second son, being of delicatehealth in his childhood, was taught at home and at his grand
The Story of an African Farmby Olive Schreiner (Ralph Iron)Preface.I have to thank cordially the public and my critics for the reception theyhave given this little book.Dealing with a subject that is far removed from the round of English dailylife, it of necessity lacks the charm that hangs about the idealrepresentation of familiar things, and its reception has therefore been themore kindly.A word of explanation is necessary. Two strangers appear on the scene, andsome have fancied that in the second they have again the first, who returns...
The Stolen White Elephantby Mark Twain[Left out of A Tramp Abroad, because it was feared that some of theparticulars had been exaggerated, and that others were not true. Beforethese suspicions had been proven groundless, the book had gone to press.M.T.]The following curious history was related to me by a chance railwayacquaintance. He was a gentleman more than seventy years of age, and histhoroughly good and gentle face and earnest and sincere manner imprintedthe unmistakable stamp of truth upon every statement which fell from hislips. He said:...
THE HISTORY OF DWARF LONG NOSEIt is a great mistake to think that fairies, witches, magicians,and such people lived only in Eastern countries and in such timesas those of the Caliph Haroun Al-Raschid. Fairies and theirlike belong to every country and every age, and no doubt weshould see plenty of them nowif we only knew how.In a large town in Germany there lived, some couple of hundredyears ago, a cobbler and his wife. They were poor andhard-working. The man sat all day in a little stall at thestreet corner and mended any shoes that were brought him. Hiswife sold the fruit and vegetables
The Ballad of the White Horseby G.K. ChestertonDEDICATIONOf great limbs gone to chaos,A great face turned to nightWhy bend above a shapeless shroudSeeking in such archaic cloudSight of strong lords and light?Where seven sunken EnglandsLie buried one by one,Why should one idle spade, I wonder,Shake up the dust of thanes like thunderTo smoke and choke the sun?In cloud of clay so cast to heavenWhat shape shall man discern?These lords may light the mysteryOf mastery or victory,And these ride high in history,But these shall not return....
First Across the Continentby Noah BrooksThe Story ofThe Exploring Expedition of Lewisand Clark in 1804-5-6Chapter IA Great Transaction in LandThe people of the young Republic of the United States were greatly astonished, in the summer of 1803, to learn that Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul of France, had sold to us the vast tract of land known as the country of Louisiana. The details of this purchase were arranged in Paris (on the part of the United States) by Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe. The French government was represented by Barbe-Marbois, Minister of the Public Treasury.
The Village Rectorby Honore de BalzacKatharine Prescott WormeleyDEDICATIONTo Helene.The tiniest boat is not launched upon the sea without theprotection of some living emblem or revered name, placed upon itby the mariners. In accordance with this time-honored custom,Madame, I pray you to be the protectress of this book now launchedupon our literary ocean; and may the Imperial name which theChurch has canonized and your devotion has doubly sanctified forme guard it from perils.De Balzac.THE VILLAGE RECTORITHE SAUVIATS...
Our Androcentric Culture, or The Man Made Worldby Charlotte Perkins GilmanCONTENTSI. AS TO HUMANNESS.II. THE MAN-MADE FAMILY.III. HEALTH AND BEAUTY.IV. MEN AND ART.V. MASCULINE LITERATURE.VI. GAMES AND SPORTSVII. ETHICS AND RELIGION.VIII. EDUCATION.IX. "SOCIETY" AND "FASHION"X. LAW AND GOVERNMENT.XI. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.XII. POLITICS AND WARFARE. (with WOMAN AND THE STATE.)XIII. INDUSTRY AND ECONOMICS.XIV. A HUMAN WORLD.OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE, or THE MAN-MADE WORLDI.AS TO HUMANNESS.Let us begin, inoffensively, with sheep. The sheep is a beast with...