Classics Books

INTRODUCTION These paragraphs, dignified by the revised edition of Gallantry and spuriously designated An Introduction, are nothing more than a series of notes and haphazard discoveries in preparation of a thesis. That thesis, if it is ever written, will bear a title something academically like The Psychogenesis of a Poet; or Cabell the Masquerader. For it is in this guise—sometimes self-declared,... more...

CHAPTER ONE A COMMONPLACE MAN WAS PETER Daffodils were selling at two bits a dozen in the flower stand beside the New Era Drug Store. Therefore Peter Stevenson knew that winter was over, and that the weather would probably "settle." There would be the spring fogs, of course—and fog did not agree with Helen May since that last spell of grippe. Peter decided that he would stop and see the... more...

L'Ombre is a Spanish Game at Cards, as much as to say, The Man: so he who undertakes to play the Game, sayes Jo so l'Ombre, or, I am the Man. And 'tis a common saying with the Spaniards, (alluding to the name) that the Spanish l'Ombre as far surpasses the French le Beste, as a Man do's a Beast, There are divers sorts of it, of which, this (which we shall only treat of, and... more...

DEDICATION. To my dear Friend Solomon Hertzel. Without your knowledge I dedicate this work to you, who have taken so kind an interest in it, whose excellent library has so often helped when other sources failed, and where, as industrious collectors, we have examined so many old flying sheets and manuscripts. To you also these records of the olden times, in which the private life and feelings of the... more...

DRAMATIS PERSONAE For the enlightenment of those readers who have not read the previous volumes of which the present is the continuation, it may be well to recapitulate briefly the material with which these dealt. In 1565 a branch of the Stanhopes came from Lancashire into Yorkshire, and eventually settled at Horsforth, Low Hall, near Calverley Bridge, in the latter county. During the period of the... more...

AT HALFMOON FLAT The road wound ever upward through pines and spruce and several varieties of oak. Some of the latter were straight, some sprawling, all massive. Now and then a break in the timber revealed wooded hills beyond green pasture lands, and other hills covered with dense growths of buckhorn and manzanita. Poison oak grew everywhere, and, at this time of year—early spring—was most... more...

IV.—THE CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION UNDER ROOF.THE BRIDGE ACROSS LANSDOWNE RAVINE, CONNECTING MEMORIAL AND HORTICULTURAL HALLS.None of the European exhibitions we have sketched partook of the nature of an anniversary or was designed to commemorate an historical event. Some idea of celebrating the close of the calendar half-century may have helped to determine the choice of 1851 as the year for holding the... more...

THE PICTURE ALPHABET ERIE, PA.OLIVER SPAFFORD. ALPHABETBCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ& a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z fi ff fl ffi ffl 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Antelope aBBull bCCat cDDog dEEagle eFFox fGGoat gHHawk hIIbex iJElk jKKite kLLynx lMMonkey mNNylghau nOOwl oPPig pQQuail qRRaccoon rSSnipe sTTortoise tUUrus VVulture vWWalrus wXThere is no word in the English language beginning... more...

THE DINGY HOUSE.   London is like a large company, where it is necessary for the master or mistress of the house to introduce a great many people to each other. Everybody in that overgrown metropolis has things within a few doors of his residence, which, if they were suddenly described to him, he would hear of with deep interest or extreme astonishment. There is a plain back street near the Haymarket,... more...

CHAPTER I FATHER AND DAUGHTER On a hill, reared back from a northern lake, stood a weather-beaten farmhouse, creaking in a heavy winter blizzard. It was an old-fashioned, many-pillared structure. The earmarks of hard winters and the fierce suns of summer were upon it. From the main road it was scarcely discernible, settled, as it was, behind a row of pine trees, which in the night wind beat and tossed... more...