American Notes for General Circulation

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A. and W. Galignani, 1842 - United States - 320 pages

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Page 254 - I think in every quiet season now, still do those waters roll and leap, and roar and tumble, all day long; still are the rainbows spanning them, a hundred feet below. Still, when the sun is on them, do they shine and glow like molten gold. Still, when the day is gloomy, do they fall like snow...
Page 297 - Ran away, a negro woman and two children. A few days before she went off, I burnt her with a hot iron, on the left side of her face. I tried to make the letter M.
Page 112 - Single shuffle, double shuffle, cut and cross-cut; snapping his fingers, rolling his eyes, turning in his knees, presenting the backs of his legs in front, spinning about on his toes and heels...
Page 49 - ... is beautiful to behold her continual gladness, her keen enjoyment of existence, her expansive love, her unhesitating confidence., her sympathy with suffering, her conscientiousness, truthfulness, and hopefulness." Such are a few fragments from the simple but most interesting and instructive history of Laura Bridgman. The name of her great benefactor and friend, who writes it, is Doctor Howe. There are not many persons, I hope and believe, who, after reading these passages, can ever hear that...
Page 315 - ... hand in every appointment in the state, from a president to a postman; while, with ribald slander for its only stock in trade, It is the standard literature of an enormous class, who must find their reading in a newspaper, or they will not read at all; so long must its odium be upon the country's head, and so long must the evil it works, be plainly visible in the Republic.
Page 42 - ... a way by which she could herself make up a sign of anything that was in her own mind, and show it to another mind ; and at once her countenance lighted up with a human expression. It was no longer a dog or parrot ; it was an immortal spirit eagerly seizing upon a new link of union with other spirits ! I could almost fix upon the moment when this truth dawned upon her mind, and spread its light to her countenance; I saw that the great obstacle was overcome, and that henceforward nothing but patient...
Page 42 - The poor child had sat in mute amazement, and patiently imitated everything her teacher did ; but now the truth began to flash upon her ; her intellect began to work. She perceived that here was a way by which she could herself make up a sign of anything that was in her own mind, and show it to another mind ; and at once her countenance lighted up with a human expression. It was no longer a dog or parrot ; it was an immortal spirit eagerly seizing upon a new link of union with other spirits...
Page 126 - The first man I saw, was seated at his loom, at work. He had been there, six years, and was to remain, I think, three more. He had been convicted as a receiver of stolen goods, but even after his long imprisonment, denied his guilt, and said he had been hardly dealt by.
Page 313 - The following dialogue I have held a hundred times : — ' Is it not a very disgraceful circumstance that such a man as So-and-So should be acquiring a large property by the most infamous and odious means, and, notwithstanding all the crimes of which he has been guilty, should be tolerated and abetted by your citizens ? He is a public nuisance, is he not?
Page 32 - When I got into the streets upon this Sunday morning, the air was so clear, the houses were so bright and gay ; the signboards were painted in such gaudy colors ; the gilded letters were so very golden ; the bricks were so very red, the stone was so very white, the blinds and area railings were so very green, the knobs and plates upon the...

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