The Voice of the Cityby O HenryTHE VOICE OF THE CITYTwenty-five years ago the school children usedto chant their lessons. The manner of their deliverywas a singsong recitative between the utterance of anEpiscopal minister and the drone of a tired sawmill.I mean no disrespect. We must have lumber andsawdust.I remember one beautiful and instructive littlelyric that emanated from the physiology class. Themost striking line of it was this:"The shin-bone is the long-est bone in the hu-manbod-y."What an inestimable boon it would have been ifall the corporeal and spiritual facts pertaining to...
The Old Bachelorby William CongreveQuem tulit ad scenam ventoso Gloria curru, Exanimat lentus spectator; sedulus inflat: Sic leve, sic parvum est, animum quod laudis avarum Subruit, and reficit.HORAT. Epist. I. lib. ii.To the Right Honourable Charles, Lord Clifford of Lanesborough, etc.My Lord,It is with a great deal of pleasure that I lay hold on this first occasion which the accidents of my life have given me of writing to your lordship: for since at the same time I write to all the world, it will be a means of publishing (what I would have everybody know) the respect and duty which I owe and pay to you. I have so much inclination to be yours that I need no other engagement. But the p
The Greatness of Citiesby Giovanni BoteroA Treatise Concerning The Causes of the Magnificency and Greatness of CitiesDivided into three books by Sig. Giovanni Botero in the Italian Tongue, now done into English by Robert Peterson 1606Book One1. What a city is, and what the greatness of a city is said to beA city is said to be an assembly of people, a congregation drawn together to the end they may thereby the better live at their ease in wealth and plenty. And the greatness of a city is said to be, not the largeness of the site or the circuit of the walls, but the multitude and number of the inhabitants and their power. Now men are drawn together upon sundry causes and occasions thereunto t
A MOONLIGHT FABLEThere was once a little man whose mother made him a beautiful suitof clothes. It was green and gold and woven so that I cannotdescribe how delicate and fine it was, and there was a tie oforange fluffiness that tied up under his chin. And the buttonsin their newness shone like stars. He was proud and pleased by hissuit beyond measure, and stood before the long looking-glass whenfirst he put it on, so astonished and delighted with it that hecould hardly turn himself away.He wanted to wear it everywhere and show it to all sorts ofpeople. He thought over all the places he had ever visited and allthe scenes he had ever heard described, and tried to imagine what...
Villainage in Englandby Paul VinogradoffSecond Essay: The Manor and the Village CommunityChapter 1The Open Field System and the HoldingsMy first essay has been devoted to the peasantry of feudal England in its social character. We have had to examine its classes or divisions in their relation to freedom, personal slavery, and praedial serfage. The land system was touched upon only so far as it influenced such classification, or was influenced by it. But no correct estimate of the social standing of the peasantry can stop here, or content itself with legal or administrative definitions. In no degree of society do men stand isolated, and a description of individual status alone would be t
THE COMPLEAT ANGLERTHE COMPLEATANGLERIZAAK WALTON1- Page 2-THE COMPLEAT ANGLERTo the Right worshipfulJohn Offleyof Madeley Manor, in the County of Stafford Esquire, My mosthonoured FriendSir, I have made so ill use of your former favours, as by them to beencouraged to entreat, that they may be enlarged to the patronage andprotection of this Book: and I have put on a modest confidence, that I shall...
Youthby Leo TolstoyTranslated by C. J. HogarthIWHAT I CONSIDER TO HAVE BEEN THE BEGINNING OF MY YOUTHI have said that my friendship with Dimitri opened up for me anew view of my life and of its aim and relations. The essence ofthat view lay in the conviction that the destiny of man is tostrive for moral improvement, and that such improvement is atonce easy, possible, and lasting. Hitherto, however, I had foundpleasure only in the new ideas which I discovered to arise fromthat conviction, and in the forming of brilliant plans for amoral, active future, while all the time my life had beencontinuing along its old petty, muddled, pleasure-seeking course,...
The Fifth Stringby John Philip SousaIThe coming of Diotti to Americahad awakened more than usualinterest in the man and his work. Hismarvelous success as violinist in theleading capitals of Europe, together withmany brilliant contributions to theliterature of his instrument, had long beenfavorably commented on by the criticsof the old world. Many stories of hisstruggles and his triumphs had foundtheir way across the ocean and had beenread and re-read with interest.Therefore, when Mr. Henry Perkins,the well-known impresario, announcedwith an air of conscious pride andpardonable enthusiasm that he had secured...
Even before the events in the supermarket, Jim Ironheart should have known trouble was ing. During the night he dreamed of being pursued across a field by a flock of large blackbirds that shrieked around him in a turbulent flapping of wings and tore at him with hooked beaks as precisely honed as surgical scalpels. When he woke and was unable to breathe, he shuffled onto the balcony in his pajama bottoms to get some fresh air. At nine-thirty in the morning, the temperature, already ninety degrees, only contributed to the sense of suffocation with which he had awakened. A long shower and a shave refreshed him. The refrigerator contained only part of a moldering Sara Lee cake....
"FREE SHIPS MAKE FREE GOODS"_To the U.S. Minister to France_(ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON)_Monticello, Sep. 9, 1801_DEAR SIR, You will receive, probably by this post, from theSecretary of State, his final instructions for your mission toFrance. We have not thought it necessary to say anything in them onthe great question of the maritime law of nations, which at presentagitates Europe; that is to say, whether free ships shall make freegoods; because we do not mean to take any side in it during the war.But, as I had before communicated to you some loose thoughts on thatsubject, and have since considered it with somewhat more attention, I...
MINNIKINTHERE was once upon a time a couple of needy folk who livedin a wretched hut, in which there was nothing but black want;so they had neither food to eat nor wood to burn. But if they hadnext to nothing of all else they had the blessing of God so far aschildren were concerned, and every year brought them one more.The man was not overpleased at this. He was always going aboutgrumbling and growling, and saying that it seemed to him thatthere might be such a thing as having too many of these goodgifts; so shortly before another baby was born he went away intothe wood for some firewood, saying that he did not want to see thenew child; he would hear him quite soon enough when he began to..
The Yellow Wallpaperby Charlotte Perkins GilmanIt is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John andmyself secure ancestral halls for the summer.A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say ahaunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicitybutthat would be asking too much of fate!Still I will proudly declare that there is something queerabout it.Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stoodso long untenanted?John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that inmarriage.John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience withfaith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly atany talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in...