History Books

Address to the Mummy. "And thou hast walked about, (how strange a story!)In Thebes' streets three thousand years ago,When the Memnonium was in all its glory,And time had not begun to overthrowThose temples, palaces and piles stupendous,Of which the very ruins are tremendous."Perhaps that very hand now pinioned flat,Has hob-a-nobbed with Pharaoh, glass to glass;Or dropped a half-penny in... more...

PROLOGUE Though a lover of peace, Mr. Punch from his earliest days has not been unfamiliar with war. He was born during the Afghan campaign; in his youth England fought side by side with the French in the Crimea; he saw the old Queen bestow the first Victoria Crosses in 1857; he was moved and stirred by the horrors and heroisms of the Indian Mutiny. A little later on, when our relations with France... more...

MOUND-BUILDERS By Rev. William J. Smyth, M.A., B.Sc., Ph.D. When the early settlers began to pioneer the unbroken forests of North America, they considered the various Indian tribes to be the true Aborigines of this continent. But long before the red man, even long before the growth of the present forests, there lived an ancient race, whose origin and fate are surrounded with impenetrable darkness. The... more...

CHAPTER ONE The Land and the Indian Among the motives for English colonization of America in the seventeenth century, the desire for free land occupied a prominent place. The availability of land in the New World appealed to all classes and ranks in Europe, particularly to the small landholder who sought to increase his landed estate and to the artisans and tenants who longed to enter the ranks of the... more...

  The nations in which women have influenced national aims face the nation that glorifies brute force. America opposes the exaltation of the glittering sword; opposes the determination of one nation to dominate the world; opposes the claim that the head of one ruling family is the direct and only representative of the Creator; and, above all, America opposes the idea that might makes right. Let us... more...

Agreeably to the recommendation of the Convention, held in this city last year, a number of Delegates, from the several Abolition Societies in the United States, assembled, this day, at the City Hall, when, by the credentials produced, it appeared, that the following persons had been chosen to represent their respective Societies in this Convention: Connecticut Society. Jonathan Edwards,Uriah... more...

INTRODUCTIONWRITTEN largely between the shipping crisis of 1917 and the surrender of German undersea arms at Harwich on November 20, 1918, this book is an effort to record a seaman's impressions of the trial through which the Merchants' Service has come in the war.It is necessarily halting and incomplete. The extent of the subject is perhaps beyond the safe traverse of a mariner's dead... more...

I.—Celtic London When we see the words "Celtic London" at the head of a chapter we naturally feel inclined to ask, "Was there such a place? Was there any Celtic London?" Although it is almost impossible to answer such a question by either "yes" or "no," it may be worth while to examine it briefly before passing on to the domains of authentic history. In the first... more...

I adopt a course different from that recently pursued by several of my contemporaries; I publish my memoirs while I am still here to answer for what I write. I am not prompted to this by the weariness of inaction, or by any desire to re-open a limited field for old contentions, in place of the grand arena at present closed. I have struggled much and ardently during my life; age and retirement, as far... more...

INTRODUCTION. A friend of M. de Marigny (the brother of Madame de Pompadour) called on him one day and found him burning papers. Taking up a large packet which he was going to throw into the fire "This," said he, "is the journal of a waiting-woman of my sister's. She was a very estimable person, but it is all gossip; to the fire with it!" He stopped, and added, "Don't you... more...