Peter Rugg, the Missing ManJ. W. Luce & Company, 1910 - 111 pages |
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ACCOUNT OF PETER auctioneer began black horse Boston massacre bridge chaise Charlestown Charlestown bridge child cloud Concord Connecticut River Croft Dame Rugg Dart and Lightning Delaware discern door ears earth enchantment escheated ferry-boat forefeet gate gave gentlemen George's cross Hanover Street Hardy Hartford Hawthorne head HEARD THE CRACK home to-night hoofs horse and carriage horse and chair horse approached Hudson inquired Jenny Rugg John Spring Jonathan Dunwell late left Boston Lightfoot living LUCE & CO Marlborough Hotel McDoubt Middle Street miles from Boston Missing Man 828 necticut never see home night penumbra perceive my mistake Pray present race-ground reach Boston reach home reins riders river RUGG THE MISSING seemed seen Peter Rugg soon spectators spot stop storm story of Peter strange stranger tell thing THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON thought toll-gate town of Boston trot turnpike turnpike-gate twenty Virginia wet and weary WILLIAM AUSTIN York
Popular passages
Page 52 - Rugg was missing, a horse and wheel-carriage, with a noise equal to a troop, would at midnight, in utter contempt of the rates of toll, pass over the bridge. This occurred so frequently that the toll-gatherer resolved to attempt a discovery. Soon after, at the usual time, apparently the same horse and carriage approached the bridge from Charlestown Square. The toll-gatherer, prepared, took his stand as near the middle of the bridge as he dared, with a large three-legged stool in his hand; as the...
Page 48 - Let the storm increase' said Rugg, with a fearful oath, 'I will see home to-night, in spite of the last tempest, or may I never see home!' At these words he gave his whip to his high-spirited horse and disappeared in a moment. But Peter Rugg did not reach home that night, nor the next; nor, when he became a missing man, could he ever be traced beyond Mr. Cutter's, in Menotomy. " For a long time after, on every dark and stormy night the wife of Peter Rugg would fancy she heard the crack of a whip,...
Page 43 - At these words his horse began to chafe, and strike the pavement with his forefeet; the stranger seemed a little bewildered, and' said, "No home to-night," and, giving the reins to his horse, passed up the street, and I saw no more of him. It was evident that the generation to which Peter Rugg belonged had passed away. This was all the account of Peter Rugg I could obtain from Mrs. Croft; but she directed me to an elderly man, Mr. James Felt, who lived near her, and who had kept a record of the principal...
Page 34 - ... stop; I must reach home to-night, if possible; though I think you must be mistaken in the distance to Boston.' "He then gave the reins to his horse, which he restrained with difficulty, and disappeared in a moment. A few days afterward I met the man a little this side of Claremont, winding around the hills in Unity, at the rate, I believe, of twelve miles an hour.
Page 51 - Rugg's neighbors never afterward watched; some of them treated it all as a delusion, and thought no more of it. Others, of a different opinion, shook their heads and said nothing. "Thus Rugg and his child, horse, and chair, were soon forgotten, and probably many in the neighborhood never heard a word on the subject. "There was, indeed, a rumor that Rugg afterward was seen in Connecticut, between Suffield and Hartford, passing through the country with head-long speed.
Page 29 - I stopped," said the gentleman, "supposing the lightning had struck him; but the horse only seemed to loom up and increase his speed; and as well as I could judge, he travelled just as fast as the thunder-cloud.
Page 36 - No, sir ; this is Hartford, and the river the Connecticut." He wrung his hands and looked incredulous. " Have the rivers, too, changed their courses, as the cities have changed places? But see! the clouds are gathering in the south, and we shall have a rainy night. Ah, that fatal oath ! " He would tarry no longer; his impatient horse leaped off, his hind flanks rising like wings; he seemed to devour all before him, and to scorn all behind. I had now, as I thought, discovered a clew to the history...
Page 53 - Charlestown Square. The tollgatherer, prepared, took his stand as near the middle of the bridge as he dared, with a large three-legged stool in his hand. As the appearance passed, he threw the stool at the horse, but heard nothing, except the noise of the stool skipping across the bridge. The toll-gatherer, on the next day, asserted that the stool went directly through the body of the horse ; and he persisted in that belief ever after. Whether Rugg, or whoever the person was, ever passed the bridge...
Page 52 - But that which chiefly gave a color of mystery to the story of Peter Rugg was the affair at Charlestown Bridge. The tollgatherer asserted that sometimes on the darkest and most stormy nights, when no object could be discerned, about the time Rugg was missing, a horse and...
Page 14 - ... somerset, and did what others have since learned to do for merriment and money. Once Rugg was seen to bite a tenpenny nail in halves. In those days everybody, both men and boys, wore wigs; and Peter, at these moments of violent passion, would become so profane that his wig would rise up from his head. Some said it was on account of his terrible language; others accounted for it in a more philosophical way, and said it was caused by the expansion of his scalp, as violent passion, we know, will...