At midmorning of a broiling summer day the life of Three Counties Hospital ebbed and flowed like tide currents around an offshore island. Outside the hospital the citizens of Burlington, Pennsylvania, perspired under a ninety-degree shade temperature with 78 per cent humidity. Down by the steel mills and the rail yards, where there was little shade and no thermometers, the reading-if anyone had bothered to take it-would have been a good deal higher. Within the hospital it was cooler than outside, but not much. Among patients and staff only the fortunate or influential escaped the worst of t
The Fifth StringThe Fifth StringBy John Philip Sousa1- Page 2-The Fifth StringIThe coming of Diotti to America had awakened more than usualinterest in the man and his work. His marvelous success as violinist in theleading capitals of Europe, together with many brilliant contributions tothe literature of his instrument, had long been favorably commented on by...
A Theologico-Political Treatise [Part I]by Benedict de SpinozaAlso known as Baruch SpinozaTranslated by R. H. M. ElwesPart 1 - Chapters I to VTABLE OF CONTENTS:PREFACE.Origin and consequences of superstition.Causes that have led the author to write.Course of his investigation.For what readers the treatise is designed. Submission of authorto the rulers of his country.CHAPTER I - Of Prophecy.Definition of prophecy....
Memoirs of the Comtesse du Barry With Minute Details of Her Entire Career as Favorite of Louis XV"Written by Herself"by Baron Etienne Leon Lamothe-LangonTABLE OF CONTENTSCHAPTER ILetter from LebelVisit from LebelNothing conclusiveAnother visit from LebelInvitation to sup with the kingInstructions of the comte Jean to the comtesseCHAPTER IIA slight prefaceArrival at VersaillesPortrait of the kingThe duc de RichelieuThe marquis de ChauvelinThe duc de la Vauguyon-Supper with the kingThe first nightThe following dayThe curiosity of comte JeanPresents from the kingHow disposed of...
LAHOMALAHOMAby John Breckenridge Ellis1- Page 2-LAHOMACHAPTER ITHE TOUCH OF A CHILD"I have given my word of honormy sacred oathnot to betray what Ihave discovered here."At these words from the prisoner, a shout arose in which oaths andmocking laughter mingled like the growling and snapping of hunger-...
The Life of Flavius Josephusby Flavius JosephusTranslated by William Whiston1. The family from which I am derived is not an ignoble one, buthath descended all along from the priests; and as nobility amongseveral people is of a different origin, so with us to be of thesacerdotal dignity, is an indication of the splendor of a family.Now, I am not only sprung from a sacerdotal family in general,but from the first of the twenty-four (1) courses; and as amongus there is not only a considerable difference between one familyof each course and another, I am of the chief family of that...
The Jacket (Star-Rover)by Jack LondonCHAPTER IAll my life I have had an awareness of other times and places. Ihave been aware of other persons in me.Oh, and trust me, so haveyou, my reader that is to be. Read back into your childhood, andthis sense of awareness I speak of will be remembered as anexperience of your childhood. You were then not fixed, notcrystallized. You were plastic, a soul in flux, a consciousness andan identity in the process of formingay, of forming andforgetting.You have forgotten much, my reader, and yet, as you read these...
AMENDED OBITUARIESTO THE EDITOR:Sir,I am approaching seventy; it is in sight; it is only threeyears away. Necessarily, I must go soon. It is but matter-of-coursewisdom, then, that I should begin to set my worldly house inorder now, so that it may be done calmly and with thoroughness,in place of waiting until the last day, when, as we have often seen,the attempt to set both houses in order at the same time has beenmarred by the necessity for haste and by the confusion and wasteof time arising from the inability of the notary and the ecclesiastic...
The Confessions of a Summer Colonistby William Dean HowellsThe season is ending in the little summer settlement on the Down Eastcoast where I have been passing the last three months, and with eachloath day the sense of its peculiar charm grows more poignant.A prescience of the homesickness I shall feel for it when I go alreadybegins to torment me, and I find myself wishing to imagine some form ofwords which shall keep a likeness of it at least through the winter; someshadowy semblance which I may turn to hereafter if any chance or changeshould destroy or transform it, or, what is more likely,
THE LIFE AND PERAMBULATIONS OF A MOUSE (1783-1784)THE LIFE ANDPERAMBULATIONS OFA MOUSE(1783-1784)by Dorothy Kilner1- Page 2-THE LIFE AND PERAMBULATIONS OF A MOUSE (1783-1784)INTRODUCTIONDuring a remarkably severe winter, when a prodigious fall of snowconfined everybody to their habitations, who were happy enough to have...
For the Term of His Natural Lifeby Marcus ClarkeDEDICATIONTOSIR CHARLES GAVAN DUFFYMy Dear Sir Charles, I take leave to dedicate this work to you, not merely because your nineteen years of political and literary life in Australia render it very fitting that any work written by a resident in the colonies, and having to do with the history of past colonial days, should bear your name upon its dedicatory page; but because the publication of my book is due to your advice and encouragement.The convict of fiction has been hitherto shown only at the beginning or at the end of his career. Either hi
FINALE.Every limit is a beginning as well as an ending. Who can quit younglives after being long in company with them, and not desire to knowwhat befell them in their after-years? For the fragment of a life,however typical, is not the sample of an even web: promises maynot be kept, and an ardent outset may be followed by declension;latent powers may find their long-waited opportunity; a past errormay urge a grand retrieval.Marriage, which has been the bourne of so many narratives,is still a great beginning, as it was to Adam and Eve, who kept...
American Literary Centersby William Dean HowellsOne of the facts which we Americans have a difficulty in making clear toa rather inattentive world outside is that, while we have apparently aliterature of our own, we have no literary centre. We have so muchliterature that from time to time it seems even to us we must have aliterary centre. We say to ourselves, with a good deal of logic, Wherethere is so much smoke there must be some fire, or at least a fireplace.But it is just here that, misled by tradition, and even by history, wedeceive ourselves. Really, we have no fireplace for such fir
Cambridge Piecesby Samuel ButlerContents:On English Composition and Other MattersOur TourTranslation from an Unpublished Work of HerodotusThe shield of Achilles, with variationsProspectus of the Great Split SocietyPowersA skit on examinationsAn Eminent PersonNapoleon at St. HelenaTHE TWO DEANSThe Battle of Alma MaterOn the Italian PriesthoodSamuel Butler and the SimeonitesON ENGLISH COMPOSITION AND OTHER MATTERSThis essay is believed to be the first composition by Samuel Butler...
Chants for Socialistsby William MorrisContents:Chants for SocialistsThe Day is ComingThe Voice of ToilNo MasterAll for the CauseThe March of the WorkersDown Among the Dead MenA Death SongMay Day [1892]May Day, 1894The Message of the March WindTHE DAY IS COMINGCome hither, lads, and hearken, for a tale there is to tell,Of the wonderful days a-coming, when all shall be better than well.And the tale shall be told of a country, a land in the midst of the sea,And folk shall call it England in the days that are going to be....
A YELLOW DOGI never knew why in the Western States of America a yellow dogshould be proverbially considered the acme of canine degradationand incompetency, nor why the possession of one should seriouslyaffect the social standing of its possessor. But the fact beingestablished, I think we accepted it at Rattlers Ridge withoutquestion. The matter of ownership was more difficult to settle;and although the dog I have in my mind at the present writingattached himself impartially and equally to everyone in camp, noone ventured to exclusively claim him; while, after the...