 Tatlings, Epigrams, 1922, Sidney Tremaine, Me, Civil, Taylor, Cookson. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The looking glass reveals us as we are to ourselves. The wine glass reveals us as we are to others. If a man puts a woman on a pedestal, someone else will help her down. No man gets what he wants, though some may get what they have wanted. The reason that a love affair so seldom ends happily is that one of the lovers is generally unwilling for it to end at all. No one agrees with other people's opinions, they merely agree with their own opinions expressed by somebody else. It is a poor doctor who cannot prescribe an expensive cure for a rich patient. A woman alone is not necessarily a temptation. If she were a temptation, she would probably not be alone. Some people succeed in preserving a youthful appearance, but they show their age and their opinions. If you give a woman an opportunity, she will take everything else that she wants. You are much nearer success when you are deplored than when you are ignored. So many young women have glibly promised their lovers that they would never change and have been unrecognizable ten years later. To a woman, women are a sex and men an individual. A woman likes to know what the man she loves was like when he was a little boy, but a man would rather know what the woman he loves will be like when she is an old woman. It is probable that if a woman cannot see the point of her husband's jokes, she will see very little indeed of him. A woman may have a small mouth and yet be able to open it very wide. A girl who spends her youth learning philosophy will almost certainly need it when her youth is spent. One man's love is often only the bait with which another man is caught. Some people contrive to make their silent suffering simply deafening. One can forgive a person lying about one and to possibly disprove them, but it is unforgivable if they tell the truth. That is taking a mean advantage. Women have been the same through all the ages. The only difference between a girl and her mother is their feeling for her father. It is difficult for a man to understand that a woman who would go through hell for love of him is capable of leaving him because he clears his throat or uses a toothpick. Nothing unites people like a common sorrow except perhaps a vogue or joke. If a pretty back view won't let you catch it up, it has probably got a horrible face. As soon as a woman has put a man in her power, she puts him out of her heart. The only blows fate seems to deal some people are slaps on the back. A woman's clothes should be like an epigram, an adequate expression of an idea without a superfluous syllable. Some men borrow a fiver and behave forever after as if the only thing they owed you was a grudge. A woman is not really adequately clothed because she is draped in mystery. It is inexplicable, but undeniable, that a man often prefers the woman he has to make excuses for to the woman he has to make excuses to. What a woman costs and what she is worth are two entirely different things. Ambitions vary. Men may want to do well, women may want to look well, but the old only want to sleep well. A woman cares most for a man when their love affair is over. A man cares most for a woman before their love affair has begun. Everyone likes to be run after, but the difference between men and women is that men do not want to be caught and women do. A woman who can bear to hear her husband praise another woman is either different to other wives or indifferent to her husband. A man's forever is just about as long as a woman's five minutes. Some people drain the cup of life and others stick to a medicine glass. It takes a clever man to write a good love letter, but only a fool would do it. Oddly enough, the impression made by the possession of several different names is not nearly so favourable as the impression made by the possession of several different addresses. The means to an end may put an end to one's means. He who can does. He who cannot is shocked. A romance is wonderful while it lasts, but if it lasts it ceases to be a romance. To be successful in love one must know how to begin and when to stop. Many a man has ended by running away with a woman because he had not the sense to begin by running away from her. Many an impecunious stylist has found that a girl is more easily won by an ordinary bank note than an extraordinary love note. An infallible way of acquiring a host of friends is to be a host yourself. There are three stages in a man's infatuation for a woman, making his way, having his way, and going his way. It is the man who has no right who generally comforts the woman who has wrongs. Women who are the easiest to win are always the most difficult to lose. It is perfectly saintly to love some women, and that presumably is sacred love. It is perfectly natural to adore others, and that probably is profane love. Many a woman's undoing is due to her maid. When a man is lost to one woman it is generally because he has been found by another. A man may be legally attached to one woman and yet sincerely attached to another. To indulge in independent ways one really needs to have independent means. It is no use collecting notable acquaintances unless you can be sure that they will recollect you. By all means tell a woman you love her, but don't tell her anything else. That a man and woman are always together proves nothing, but it is probably true. If a woman goes too far with a man she comes back alone. A pretty woman in a becoming gown is a temptation. Men love temptations. If you cannot be funny without being shocking it is better to be shocking. Of course it is quite dreadful to lead another into mischief, but it is almost impossible to enjoy oneself alone. Nothing is more infuriating than to be accused of doing something which one has taken every precaution to keep secret. The women who have nothing to show are the ones who have nothing to hide. If one lives long enough one is bound to become respectable and virtuous, hallowed by time. Women are always asking questions and men are always inventing answers and women are none the wiser. Goodness is only a relative term and one that is always on the tongue of relatives. A woman's accounts of how she spent the house money are only equaled in inventive genius by a man's accounts of how he spent his time. There are two sorts of lovers, those who forget and those who are forgotten. One soon gets tired of saying a thing over and over again if nobody contradicts, just as one soon gets tired of doing a thing over again if no one says one mayant. Love is nice when it is new but it wears badly and is impossible to renovate. Even the most upright man may be tempted by a recumbent woman. A woman may have no reticence about her ankle or even her knee if it is pretty but she will never show her hand. Everyone must take chances and if they turn out right they are renamed opportunities. A man will forgive a woman doing everything at his expense except making a joke. Some men consider marriage an unnecessary expense and some men simply won't consider it at all. Many a woman has waited patiently for years until the man could afford to marry her and then he won't wait patiently for five minutes while she puts her hat on. Flirtation and office work are the oil and water which the devil sometimes tempts a man to attempt to mix. People who allow their character to be diluted by other people's opinions are naturally weak. It is only a very great man who in a higher position does not look small to the man down below. It's a mistake to take a man into your confidence. If you do you will probably never trust him again and he will certainly never trust you again. By all means express an opinion but not by post. If a woman's appearance is bad her reappearance is worse. If a woman has anything worth telling she tells it. If a woman has anything worth showing she shows it. It is no good laying down the law if you can't take up an argument. A woman's mirror reflects her whole world. It's a splendid plan to make a man run after you but remember that he won't go on running indefinitely merely out of curiosity or hope. The time will come when he will sit down to rest with someone else. A woman who knows just when and how to make a scene is clever but the woman who knows just when and how not to make a scene is wise. A woman always puts on silk stockings before she takes the final step. All beautiful things are created for and destroyed by women. If a husband leaves his wife alone, ten to one, someone else won't. You can't be even acquainted with love without becoming intimate. There never was a woman so fast that man could not keep pace with her. No matter how orderly she is by nature it is a mistake for a woman to be always putting her husband in his place. If a man is free to do what he likes he does it and if he is not free he does it just the same. The potentialities of a strong silent man are nothing to the potentialities of a weak talkative woman. You will probably be very nearly right if you judge men by their handshakes and women by their kisses. Alcohol is not a good preservative of grey matter. Society says if you have come into money you can come in anywhere. Because she is up to date you must not count on a woman being up to time. Platonic friendship is the story a woman puts up to a man before and to the world afterwards. Marriage is a woman's entry into and a man's exit from life, that is, officially. It is a funny thing that a man always has to tell a woman that he loves her while everyone else knows it without being told. So many more people are capable of being loved than are capable of loving. Love affairs are all alike. It is only the lovers who are different. Having what you want is not nearly so interesting as getting what you want. There are two sorts of men, those who are constant in love and those who are constantly in love and perhaps the first don't exist. If you don't want tummy ache, don't eat unripe fruit and if you don't want heartache, don't marry a young man. There is only one temptation in the world that is worthwhile resisting and that is spring onions. Money talks and the larger the means the clearer the meaning. Most women, if they had to choose would ask for a clear complexion in preference to a clear conscience. One may get what one deserves, but seldom what one is promised. The woman who has never deceived her husband must have an extraordinarily acute husband. The only time a thing is really worth doing is for the first time and for the last time. The education system must be all wrong. What sort of use is Latin to a young man on his first trip to Paris? You can't get much forwarder with a living woman by being familiar with a dead tongue. If a woman is young and pretty and fascinating the world of men will forgive her anything and see to it that there is everything to forgive. Every woman should be an addiction de luxe of herself. The one woman in the world who could make a man of a fool, a home of a house, and a romance of a marriage probably wears glasses and Jaeger and so never gets a chance. It is more or less true that an attractive woman has no friends. The men are more and the women less. What a lovely world it would be if one could recover the money and love and time one has miss spent. Men will pretend to understand things that they don't and women will pretend not to understand things that they do. If men could read women's thoughts publishers would die of starvation. A man keeps a woman's love by making promises he cannot keep. A woman keeps a man's love by refusing to make promises she can keep. They say that one way to continue to enjoy dinners for two after marriage is to have breakfast for one. Many women who look ripe are rotten at core. One is forgotten even sooner when one is alive than when one is dead. A man does not ask a woman if she loves him until he is almost sure that she does so. And a woman does not ask a man if he loves her until she is almost sure that he does so no longer. Women are generally supplied with the necessary food of life but they help themselves to salt. If only the women we love were as true as the things they teach us about women. A pretty woman alone is invariably considered a mystery. A plain woman alone is a perfectly natural phenomenon. Many a woman who looks light would be a terrible burden. The people who are quite unforgiving are those to whom there is never anything to forgive. The things one does because one wants to do them are generally wrong from somebody's point of view. It is therefore better to do them out of view of everybody. It is no good having strong desires if you have a weak will. Many a man makes a profession of being entertaining in order to be entertained. Oddly enough the woman who looks most self-possessed generally belongs to some man. If you don't tell a woman she will find out. If you do tell a woman you're a fool. The man who cannot make a mistake never tried. A woman likes the things her lover likes but loathe the things he loves. A woman may weigh thirteen stone and still love lightly. Everything depends upon position even in the matter of adipose tissue. It does not matter that a kiss is ill-timed if it is well-placed. Flirtation is the froth on top of the wine of love. Most women's ideas are better than their morals. Some women's love stories are not even founded on fact. I wonder who suggested an apron string as the one to which a woman ties a man. In reality she would probably use a pink ribbon. Life is a guessing competition and the men who guess right become millionaires or misogynists. Women are reputed to be able to do or undo anything with a hairpin. Some of them can do quite a lot without one. There is all the difference in the world between being left by oneself and being left by someone else. All women want real love but their passion for bargains leads them to accept cheap imitations. What a woman's eyes tell a man and what his own eyes tell him is all he can ever hope to know about her. A man sometimes wants to be alone to be alone but if a woman wants to be alone it is to be alone with someone. Everyone has his own particular way of making an ass of himself and if your method is peculiar enough you are snapshotted for the half-penny press and that is fame. It is the most difficult thing in the world to attract the attention of a crowd. It is always so absolutely intent on the man who is trying to escape its attention. If you can't get rid of a man any other way marry him. If you want people to take your hand put it in your pocket. Men all lie to women in order to win them in order to lose them or sometimes only in order to comfort them. One imagines that the reason some people are so keen on getting married is that you can't get divorced till you are married. Everyone goes everywhere nowadays it is very tiresome because it makes it almost impossible to see life without being seen. Husbands and wives often become fast simply in their efforts to escape one another. You can't have a really good time and a really good reputation but then a good reputation is of no value at all until it is lost. The man to marry is not the man you can be happy with but the man you can't be happy without. Nothing in this world is compromising until it is found out. The only way to close some people's mouths is to fill them. It is extraordinary how marriage changes a man towards the woman he has married. A great scandal is generally the public version of a great secret. Rich friends are a great expense one is so apt to live beyond their means. If a woman expresses admiration for another woman either she does not admire her or her husband does not. A man will forgive a woman for not being there when he wanted her and never for being there when he did not want her. Many a man known to the public as a man of letters is known to his own people as a man of casual notes and infrequent telegrams. Almost anyone can be noticeable but only a very few are distinguished. The French describe a woman of over 40 as of a certain age but as a matter of fact it is after she is 40 that a woman's age becomes most uncertain. Everyone likes to be loved if it is only to convince someone else that they are lovable. When a woman is past the love stage she is dead. Most people are only caricatures of their own possibilities. Men do not try to escape temptations their only fear is that some temptation shall escape them. The world is logical and ruthless in its conclusions. It says that if a man is not worth any money he is worthless and that if a man is worth a hundred thousand pounds he is worthy. Infidelity is very occasionally the greatest compliment a man can pay a woman. The woman who bears her shoulders usually has a larger following than the woman who bears her soul. It is impossible to study life and your husband as well. A man who begins by asking a woman to sell her soul usually ends by asking her to sell her diamonds. The benefit of credit is greater than the benefit of the doubt. A good reason may be a bad excuse. The cleverest woman is not the one who can make a man feel that he is a fool but the woman that can make a man feel that he is a man. Women may want to be slaves but they insist on choosing their own masters. Discretion is the talent some women have of knowing with whom they can be indiscreet. The most perfect form of flattery is to tell people what they think of themselves. It is not what you think of him but what other people think of your husband decides whether you have made a good match or not. It is not her sense but his senses that make a man love a woman. Leaders of men have been known to be followers of women. If you want to keep a man's love all means dress for him not before him. The less women care about clothes the more clothes they wear. Men are capable of the most marvelous self-sacrifice. A man will even give up the woman he loves because he cannot afford to keep both a wife and a motor. Be sure that you are outside when you lock the door of the house of memory and throw away the key. The lawyer's progress, getting on, getting on her, getting honest. In a crisis a woman will turn to a priest or a palmist. When a man ceases to be single he ipso facto begins to lead a double life. Life for a man is getting and forgetting for a woman giving and forgiving. A mutual sense of superiority is a good basis for friendship between two women. Deceptions are the oil of the wheels of life. It is well to be out of reach but you must also be within sight to hold a man's attention. Women love men for their faults when they can't find anything else to love them for. A mystery does not become a scandal until it is solved. Many a man gets on his feet by continuing to lie. Silk stockings are the last thing a woman discards when she is economizing. One of the most adorable rules of life is always to put off till tomorrow what you are obliged to do today. Good habits are generally affectations or obesity cures and bad habits are often one's sole plea to personality. Some people seem to think that a reputation for wit is to be gained by saying what they think. They forget that it is necessary first of all to think wittingly. A love affair that never ends is one that has been interrupted. A woman may have her price yet someone is always ready to give her away. The one that has not come out of a love affair well is the one that gets left in. Love is a thirst that one cannot quench without becoming intoxicated. If you start making a man give up things you are almost sure to end by being one of the things he gives up. If you can't talk about a person behind their back when can you talk about them? Some women are capable of doing anything for the man they love. Others make the man they love capable of doing anything. It is not as a rule until a woman should really be in the past tense that she becomes intense at all. It is hardly fair to say that women are inherently deceitful. No woman ever concealed anything that she dared reveal. It is not enough for a woman to wear her clothes well. She must also wear well herself. If a woman cares for a man she will never give him away. She will not even lend him to a friend. It is not the woman that the man she loves has kissed that should worry a jealous woman but the women he has not kissed yet. The only criterion for choosing presence is one's own taste. That is why old ladies give their nephews pin cushions, children give their parents toys, men give their wives cigars, and lovers give each other kisses. You would be astonished at the calculations the most unmathematical woman can do in her head. The man who may mayant the man who mayant will every time. One's friends are divided into two classes, those one knows because one must and those one knows because one must not. There are some men whose very insolence is flattery to a woman while even the flattery of others is insulting. Many a woman who seems to want coaxing may be driven if the car were luxurious enough to be subject to one's relations is worse than being subject to fits. In the game of life the woman who is lucky in hearts generally holds the biggest diamonds too. Some women seem to think that they have only to wear a smile to be chic. It is difficult enough to know the right people but a hundred times more difficult to love the right people. Narrow minds seem to be able to squeeze in anywhere. Love is like a bazaar. The admittance is free but it costs you something before you get out. You can never forget a sin you have confessed. Only the novice attempts to fascinate a man by convincing him how charming she is. The woman who knows simply convinces him how charming he is and the rest just happens. A woman has proved that she can take a man's place among men but she will never be able to take a man's place among women. Everyone has been young once. Most women are young about three times. Many a woman tries to cheer herself up with the thought that her husband would be sorry if she died. A woman has to choose between being an episode and being a nuisance. No one has anything but contempt for the world's opinion of them unless it is really a good one. It is hard to say which is the more to be pitied. A man with an ugly unattractive wife he does not care for or the man with a pretty fascinating wife whom he does care for. As long as you return his presence a man will continue to love you but return his love which he really does become discouraged. Speech may have been given a woman to conceal her thoughts but clothes were certainly not given her to conceal her form. People who have lost their reputation generally acquire such very bad ones in its place. The fact that he is boring other people luckily does not prevent a man from amusing himself. To have their private life in public is the way some people have got into and others out of society. Three is usually an unlucky number if one is the third. If a man loves his wife he thinks everyone does and if he does not love her he thinks no one does and in both cases he is probably wrong. Home comforts are things that are always sent to people away from home. Those at home have to put up with the discomforts. Good women are nearly always jealous of bad women and they have every reason to be. A man is really capable if he can successfully mix his wines and keep his women friends apart. A man does not love a woman because she is a good housekeeper but he is quite likely to unlove her because she is a bad one. A girl must sometimes find it awfully difficult to give her friends a good reason for having married the only man who ever asked her. You may feel for others but you must think for yourself. The very worst people often live at the very best addresses. Almost anyone can see the humor of the situation when it is someone else who is situated. From the way some people seem to avoid knowing themselves, we imagine them to be quite particular about their acquaintances. A man of honour does not help himself to another man's property until he can't help himself. Most women live for the present and the handsomer of the present the better they live. Love has so many components, multicoloured beads threaded on the string of trust. Break that and all the beads are scattered. That a man's his fat does not necessarily prove that he is generous except to himself. So many people would give anything to escape from home to some place where they could to be really at home. Goodness only knows half what wickedness knows. There are all sorts of women choose one you like but never try to change the one you choose. There are people who are always complaining that they don't know what to do while the only trouble other people have is that they can't remember what not to do. An innocent question may have anything but an innocent answer. Every woman acts one part in her life that of the sort of girl the man she wants to marry wants to marry. Men always say that they loathe being flattered but don't take any notice no man has ever known that he was flattered. Women are divided into two classes good wives who have no husband and bad wives who have several. A pretty girl can afford to wear inexpensive dresses. On the other hand she is more likely to be able to afford costly ones than if she were plain. When a flapper wants to she does. When she doesn't want to she says her mother won't let her. It is useless to be able to support a woman in luxury if you cannot support her on deschabil. Better a will in your favor than a will of your own. The only way to keep a man at home is to go out with him. Women love men for what they give them men love women for what they deny them. The trouble is that man is by nature a man not a husband. Letters that should never have been written and ought immediately to be destroyed are the only ones worth keeping. True friends are generally quite impossible and true lovers highly improbable. Never make a woman cry unless she insists. A man is like an amulet he cannot be successfully warmed up again once he has got cold. You need not consider a man but you must amuse him. To know and understand women requires brain. To know and understand men requires beauty. When a woman begins to boast of the insult she has been offered in the past her charms are waning. A clever woman can help her husband a pretty woman can help herself. Moonlight does not make things happen but it makes them visible. The husband who counts is the one who has something to count. There is a lot of difference between the man who admires fresh complexions and the man who likes fresh faces. A woman that never notices that there is nothing to do in a place unless there is no one to do it with. There are no middle aged people now they are young wonderful for their age and then dead. The act of putting your cards on the table does not necessarily reveal what your foot is doing under it. Very few women will go so far to prove that their price is above rubies as to refuse rubies. Men never grow up they begin and end in arms. The history of the world is the story of how different people made the same mistake. Progress is the occasional departure from this order when someone has sufficient genius to think of a new sort of mistake to make. Women will destroy a man's faith, his illusions, his love but they will not destroy his letters. A man goes to a woman when he is in trouble and gets into more trouble. If a woman wants a thing she gets it. If a man wants a thing he buys it. Opinions differ as to whether it is bad to be modern or merely modern to be bad. Firearms and freedom are two things that very few women ever handle properly. What a woman doesn't know she guesses she knows. No woman with real beauty ever had false modesty. When a man has money to burn the chronic borrower is a match for him. Some people who boast of not wearing their heart on their sleeve probably know that if they did it would give them a most awfully shabby appearance. Most women look better on a cushioned couch than on a pedestal and certainly feel more at home. When a woman wants a man to love her it does not necessarily mean that she loves him it probably means that some other woman loves him. There are people who read books, look at cathedrals and commit sins merely to provide themselves with topics of conversation. A man's sense of honour is a very delicate mechanism and apt to get out of order if brought to near a pretty woman. Woman is the eternal question and man is the answer to it. People will tell you that they never do what they are ashamed of when what they really mean is that they are never ashamed of what they do. Originally an animal, man has been improved by civilisation and may eventually develop a perfect beast. If a woman speaks without thinking she may perhaps say what she really thinks. A man who will come and go at a woman's word invariably has to go once oftener than he comes. To look well dressed is a matter of technique. To look well undressed requires natural gifts. A woman should exercise the greatest care in the choice of the man she allows to love her for by the quality of her lovers the quality of her attractions will be judged. Few men are quite so intolerable as the eulogies of the women who love them make them out to be. A woman loses her illusions at just about the same time as she loses her looks. The true test is not whether a man behaves like a gentleman, but whether he misbehaves like one. Conversation is listening to yourself in the presence of others. A lover's eyes are a flattering mirror. When you see an old man alone you are looking at something very sad. When you see an old man with a young woman you are looking at something that is more Jewish with which your imagination has endowed them. A man's idea of life is a series of improbable situations with impossible people. A woman's kisses prove almost as little as her words. A man kisses a woman because she attracts him while a woman kisses a man because she likes to attract him. A woman's life is a series of youth so that when they are old they can afford all the things they can no longer enjoy. A woman's chief asset lies in what is invested with mystery. A man's chief assets must need to be invested with knowledge. Nowadays it is almost impossible to keep outsiders outside. Most married people would get on so much better apart. A man will tell a woman that he loves her for herself alone but what he really means is that he loves her for himself alone. Most people's idea of starting a fresh is going on in the same way somewhere else. When a woman marries she displays her ability to do so. When a man marries he displays his inability to do so. It is the man with plenty of cash who gets plenty of change. You cannot make a young girl's interest grow by pouring lotion on a bald head. In marriage or any other adversity a nice man's best points come out which is very delightful as long as his teeth are not his best point. No man ever regrets a temptation because no man ever resists a temptation. Never ask a man, just make him tell you. A man kisses whom he may and loves whom he may not. What a woman wears reveals more than what she says. Red-haired women generally look as if they would like to be kissed while red-haired men look as if they would like to be bald. The book of life is illustrated in black and white. Dreams are the color supplement. The most tragic moment of a woman's life is the one in which she realizes that she can at last play with fire without getting burnt. When a woman believes in a man's fidelity it is not because she trusts him but because she has confidence in herself. Most people would like their own ways and other people's means. There are not enough men to go around but some heroes attempt to put things right by going around as much as ever they can. Successful men take advantage of opportunities. Successful women take advantage of successful men. Most women start a love affair by having a secret with a man and end by having secrets from him. It is a woman's lot to pretend to care less than she does while a man pretends to care more than he does. They both leave off pretending about the same time. Men have privileges but they have to pay the cab. The object of a woman with a past is probably a man with a present. End of Tatling's 1922 by Sidney Tremaine Ney Civil Taylor Cookson. A letter from Alexander Hamilton which includes his description of the Great West Indian Hurricane of 1772 Written of course by Alexander Hamilton. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Found in the Royal Library Copenhagen, Denmark. The Royal Danish American Gazette Volume 3, Number 234 Saturday, October 3rd, 1772. Edited by Thebo Christianidad St. Croix. The following letter was written the week after the hurricane by a youth of this island to his father. The copy of it fell by accident into the hands of a gentleman who being pleased with it himself showed it to others to whom it gave equal satisfaction and who all agreed that it might not prove uninteresting to the public. The author's modesty and long refusing to submit it to the public view is the reason of its making its appearance so late as it does now. St. Croix, September 6th, 1772. Honored Sir, I take up my pen just to give you an imperfect account of the most dreadful hurricane that memory or any records whatever can trace what happened here on the 31st Ultimo at night. It began about dusk at north and raged very violently till 10 o'clock. Then ensued a sudden and unexpected interval which lasted about an hour. Meanwhile the wind was shifting round to the southwest point from once it returned with redoubled fury and continued so till near three o'clock in the morning. Good God, what horror and destruction it's impossible for me to describe or you to form any idea of it. It seemed as if a total dissolution of nature was taking place. Roaring of the sea and wind firing meteors flying about in the air, the prodigious glare of almost perpetual lightning, the crash of the falling houses and the ear piercing shrieks of the distressed were sufficient to strike astonishment into angels. A great part of the buildings throughout the island are leveled to the ground. Almost all the rest very much shattered. Several persons killed and numbers utterly ruined. Whole families running about the streets unknowing where to find a place of shelter. The sick exposed to the keenness of water and air without a bed to lie upon or a dry covering to their bodies. Our harbor is entirely bare. In a word, misery in all its hideous shapes spread over the whole face of the country. The strong smell of gunpowder added somewhat to the terrors of the night and it was observed surprisingly salt. Indeed, the water is so brackish and full of sulfur that there is hardly any drinking in. My reflections and feelings on this frightful and melancholy occasion are set forth in following self-discourse. Where now, oh vile worm, is all thy boasted, fortitude and resolution, what has become of thy arrogance and self-sufficiency? Why dost thou tremble and stand up? How humble, how helpless, how contemptible you now appear. And for why, the jarring of the elements, the discord of clouds, oh impinent presumptuous fool, how darest thou offend that on nipidence whose not alone were sufficient to quell the destruction that hovers over thee, or crush thee into atoms? See thy wretched, helpless state and learn to know thyself, learn to know thy best support. Dispise thyself and adore thy God. How sweet, how unutterably sweet were now the voice of an approving conscience. Then dost thou say, hence ye, ight alarms? Why do I shrink? What have I to fear? A pleasing calm suspense, a short repose from calamity to end an eternal bliss. Let the earth rend, let the planets forsake thy course, let the sun be extinguished and the heavens burst asunder. Yet what have I to dread? My staff can never be broken. In on nipidence I trust. He who gave the winds to blow and the lightnings to rage, even him I have always loved and served. His precepts have I observed. His commandments have I obeyed. I adored. He will snatch me from ruin. He will exalt me to the fellowship of angels and seraphs and to the fullness of never-ending joys. But alas, how different, how deplorable, how gloomy the prospect, death comes rushing on and tri-veiled in a mantle of tenfold darkness. His unrelenting sigh, point it and ready for the stroke. On his right sits destruction, hurling the winds and belching forth flames, calamity on his left threatening famine, disease, distress of all kinds. And oh thou wretch, look still a little further. See the gulf of eternal mystery open. There must thou shortly plunge, the just reward of thy vileness. Alas, wither, canst thou fly? Where hide thyself? Thou canst not call upon thy God. Thy life has been a continual warfare with him. Hark, ruin and confusion on every side, tis thy turn next. But one short moment, even now, O Lord help, Jesus be merciful. Thus did I reflect, and thus at every gust of the wind did I conclude, till it pleased the Almighty to allay it. Nor did my emotions proceed from the suggestion of too much natural fear, or a conscience overburdened with crimes of an uncommon cast. I thank God this was not the case. The scenes of horror exhibited around us naturally awakened such ideas at every thinking breast and aggravated the deformity of every failing of our lives. It were a lamentable insensibility indeed, not to have such feelings, and I think inconsistent with human nature. Our distressed helpless condition taught us humility and a contempt of ourselves, the horrors of the night, the prospect of an immediate cool death, or as one may say of being crushed by the Almighty in his anger, filled us with terror. And everything that had tended to weaken our interest with him, uprated us, in the strongest colors baseness and folly, that which in a calm, unruffled temper we call a natural cause, seemed then like the correction of the deity. Our imagination represented him as an incensed master executing vengeance on the crimes of his servants. The father and benefactor were forgot and in that view of consciousness of our guilt filled us with despair. But see, the Lord relents, he hears our prayers, the lightning ceases, the winds are appeased, the warring elements are reconciled and all things promise peace. The darkness is dispelled and drooping nature revives at the approaching dawn. Look back, oh my soul, look back and tremble. Rejoice at thy deliverance and humble thyself in the presence of thy deliverer. Yet hold o' vain mortal, check thy ill-time joy, art thou so selfish as to exult because thy lot is happy in a season of universal woe. Hast thou no feelings for the miseries of thy fellow creatures and art thou incapable of the soft pangs of sympathetic sorrow? Look around thee and shut her at the view. See desolation and ruin wherever thou turnest thy. See thy fellow creatures pale and lifeless, their bodies mangled, their souls snatched into eternity, unexpected, alas, perhaps unprepared, hark the bitter groans of distress. See sickness and infirmities exposed to the inclementies of wind and water. See tender infancy pinched with hunger and hang to the mother's knee for food. See unhappy mother's anxiety, her poverty denies relief, her breast heaves with pangs of maternal pity, her heart is bursting, the tears gush down her cheeks. O sights of woe, O distress unspeakable, my heart bleeds, but I have no power to solace. O ye who revel in affluence, see the afflictions of humanity, and bestow your superfluity to ease them. Say not we have suffered also, and withhold your compassion. What are your sufferings compared to these? Ye have still more than enough left. Act wisely. Suck over the miserable and lay up a treasure in heaven. I'm afraid, sir, you will think this description more the effort of imagination than a true picture of realities, but I can affirm with the greatest truth that in real circumstance touched upon which I have not absolutely been and I witness to. Our general has several very salutary and human regulations in both in his public and private measures has shown himself the man. End of a letter written by Alexander Hamilton. What a colored man should do to vote. By anonymous. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Read by Mike Overby Midland, Washington. What a colored man should do to vote. By anonymous. To the colored men of voting age in the southern states. As citizens of the United States, you cannot value too highly your right to vote, which is an expression of your choice of the officers who shall be placed in control of your nearest and dearest interests. You should vote in every election. In national and congressional elections vote for the best interests of the country. In local elections vote for the best interests of the community in which you live. Never sell your vote. The things that qualify a colored man to vote in the southern states. In order that you may know what will be decided of you to vote under the constitutions and laws of the several southern states we give below the substantial requirements of each to wit. In Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee, you must pay your poll tax. You must register and hold your certificate of registration. If you can read and write you can register. In Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina if you cannot read and write you can register if you own $300 worth of property. In Arkansas and Georgia you must pay your poll tax. In Florida, Kentucky, Texas and West Virginia you must reside in the state. A man convicted of almost any crime may be barred from voting. Alabama must reside in the state for two years and one year in the county in three months in the election precinct. Poll tax is for 1901 and each year since then must be paid before the 1st of February prior to the election. Persons over 45 years of age are exempt from poll tax. Must be registered and hold a certificate of registration. In order to register must be able to read and write any article of the Constitution of the United States and must be regularly engaged for the greater part of the year before the election unless physically unable to work. A person who cannot read and write must own or his wife must own 40 acres of land upon which he must live. Or must own real and personal property assessed at $300 or his wife must own the same upon which the taxes for the year before the election must be paid. Any person convicted of felony adultery, larceny, wife beating miscegenation, vagrancy selling or offering to sell his vote is forever barred from voting. Arkansas must reside 1 year in the state 6 months in the county and 1 month in the election precinct. Must exhibit a poll tax receipt or other evidence that the poll tax has been paid at the regular time for collecting such tax. Florida must reside 1 year in the state and 6 months in the county. Georgia must reside 1 year in the state must have paid all taxes prior to election. The poll tax required shall not exceed $1 annually. Kentucky must reside 1 year in the state 6 months in the county and 60 days in the precinct. Must be registered in cities and towns of 5000 inhabitants. Louisiana must reside 2 years in the state 1 year in the parish and 6 months in the election precinct. Must be registered and in order to do so must be able to read and write and shall demonstrate such ability to the registrars. If unable to read and write must own property assessed at $300 on which, if personal, all taxes must have been paid. Persons under 60 years of age must also pay a poll tax of $1 annually on or before the 31st day of December for 2 years next before the time of voting and shall exhibit such poll tax receipt for 2 years to the election officer at the polls. Mississippi must reside in the state 2 years and 1 year in the election district or incorporated town or city. Must have paid all taxes on or before the 1st day of February of the year of the election and shall produce his tax receipts to the election officers. Persons under 60 years of age must pay an annual poll tax of $2 to the state which may be increased $1 by the county. Must be registered and in order to do so must be able to read any section of the constitution of the state or shall be able to understand the same when read or give a reasonable interpretation thereof. By a decision of the Supreme Court a person otherwise qualified has the right to be registered whether his taxes are paid or not. Any person convicted of felony, adultery, larceny, wife beating or miscegenation is forever barred from voting. North Carolina must reside in the state 2 years in the county 6 months and 4 months in the precinct or ward. Must be registered and in order to do so must be able to read and write any section of the constitution and shall have paid on or before the 1st day of May an annual poll tax of $2 for the previous year. Persons over 50 years of age are exempt from poll tax. South Carolina must reside in the state 2 years in the county 1 year and 4 months in the polling precinct. Must be registered and in order to do so must be able to read and write any section of the constitution submitted by the registrars and if unable to read and write must prove to the satisfaction of the registrars the ownership of $300 worth of property in the state upon which all taxes for the previous year must have been paid. All poll tax must be paid 6 months before the election and tax receipts showing the payment of all taxes including the poll tax shall be shown to the election officer at the polls. Any person convicted of adultery, larceny, wife beating or miscegenation is forever barred from voting. Tennessee must reside in the state 1 year in the county 6 months. A poll tax receipt for the previous year shall be shown to the judges of the election. Persons over 50 years of age are exempt from poll tax. Must be able to mark the ticket at election without assistance. In precincts or civil districts with a population of 50,000 towns and cities of 2,500 must be registered. Any person convicted of felony, bribery or larceny is forever barred from voting. Texas must reside in the state 1 year and in the county 6 months. An annual poll tax of $1.50 is required of persons under 60 years of age but this is not a prerequisite to the exercise of the right to vote. Virginia must reside in the state 2 years in the county 1 year and in the precinct 30 days. Must pay all state poll taxes for 3 preceding years at least 6 months before the election. Must be registered and in order to do so, shall be able to make application for the same in writing and must answer on oath any and all questions put by the registrars affecting qualifications. Any person convicted of felony, bribery or petty larceny or obtaining money or property under false pretenses is forever barred from voting. West Virginia must reside in the state 1 year and in the county 60 days. The right to vote shall never be denied because not registered. General Advice You are urged to pay all of your taxes at the required time and especially your poll tax which is by the constitution of every southern state made of special fund for the support of the free public schools. You are also admonished against the commission of any crime, great or small, as the conviction of almost any crime will deprive you of your right to vote and put upon you lasting shame and disgrace. It is especially urged that, as voters, you should seek to be on friendly terms with your white neighbors in the communities in which you live so that you may consult with them about your common interests with yourselves with the best people in your community for the general good. It is of the utmost importance to the race and it cannot be urged too strongly upon your attention that nothing should influence your vote except a desire to serve the best interests of the country and of your state and of what a colored man should do to vote by anonymous. Pioneer Women Writers by Donald A. Mackenzie from a book of great men and women. This is a LibriVox recording while LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Women writers were coming into prominence in the 18th century. At an earlier period they were not numerous less attention having been paid to the education of daughters than of sons. Queen Elizabeth was, as has been indicated a pioneer woman writer and other highly-cultured ladies of her time included Lady Jane Gray the Countess of Burleigh Mildred Cook and Margaret Moore daughter of Sir Thomas Moore Lady Fanchaugh wife of Sir Richard Fanchaugh the 17th century poet and translator of the Lusias of Camões the Portuguese poet wrote his memoirs in which she proved herself an excellent prose stylist the memoirs of Lucy Hutchinson another 17th century writer are similarly of market literary interest and value. She was an excellent linguist and translated part of Virgil's Aeneid and also Lucretius into English verse. Her husband was one of the judges of King Charles I but afterwards opposed Cromwell's usurpation. Margaret Duchess of Newcastle who died in 1674 was a poetess of no small merit her best poem being the pastime and recreation of the Queen of Ferries in Fairyland. She on a dewy leaf doth bathe and as she sits the leaf doth wave there like a new fallen flake of snow doth her white limbs in beauty show. Mrs. Catherine Phillips 1631 through 64 daughter of a London merchant who was praised by Dryden and other contemporary writers wrote musical verse under the poetic name of Eurinda on subjects like love friendship, the soul pleasure and death. During the Augustan age when the artificial style of writing was so fashionable and poet's themes were rarely rooted in the love of beauty the Countess of Winchelsea and Kingsmouth who died at 60 in 1720 was inspired by the attractions of external nature. Wordsworth regarded her as eminently meritorious in this respect. Her nocturnal reverie is of a special interest in the history of poetic art before James Thompson composed his seasons he wrote vividly and with charm of country scenes while sun burnt hills their swarthy looks conceal and swelling hay cocks thicken up the veil when the loosed horse now as his pasture leads comes slowly grazing through the adjoining meads when nibbling sheep at large pursue their food and unmolested kind re-chew the cud to her straggling brood the potrich calls Lady Mary Wortley Montague 1689 through 1762 a native of Thoris B. Knott's was a learned and cultured woman who wrote verse and prose her letters written from France Italy and Turkey reveal her wit and literary ability and are regarded as models of their kind they were edited by Lord Warncliffe her great-grandson in 1837 and later in 1861 in 1887 fuller editions were published Lady Grisel Balli 1665 through 1746 daughter of the Scottish Earl of Marchmont was a writer of Scottish vernacular verse her best known song being were now my heart light she was a forerunner of the school which reached its highest level in the works of Robert Burns another Scottish woman poet of merit was Lady Elizabeth Wardlaw 1677 through 1727 who was regarded by some as the author of the famous ballad Sir Patrick Spenz or at least as the one who revised it the king sits in Dunferline town drinking the blood red wine or where will I get a skilly skillful skipper to sail this new ship oh mine Shelley in his skylark declares that our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought there is certainly sadness and sweetness in the flowers the forest of which there are two versions Alicia Cockburn 1713 through 95 wife of an Edinburgh advocate wrote the version beginning I've seen the smiling of Fortune Big Island I felt all its favours and found its decay sweet was its blessing kind its caressing but now tis fled fled far away the other version by Jean 1727 through 1805 begins with the stanza I've heard the lilting at Yo milking glasses a lilting before the dawn of day but now they are moaning on Ilca green loaning the flowers of the forest are a weed away Jean Elliott song is a lament for the losses sustained by the Scots who were defeated by the English in the battle of Flotten it is less seldom sung than the other however although usually taken for a Flotten lament really referred to a financial disaster involving a number of cell culture gentlemen both are sung to the same air the pioneer woman novelist was Sarah Fielding 1710 through 68 author of David Simple the governess and the Countess of Delwyn she was the sister of Henry Fielding Mrs. Elizabeth Carter 1717 through 1806 a native of Kent wrote somewhat artificial poetry and was a famous Greek scholar in 1758 she had published her scholarly book all the works of Apiticus now extant translated from the Greek Charlotte Lennox 1720 through 1804 whose father had been Lieutenant Governor of New York wrote several novels including the Female Quixote which has considerable merit as a literary critic Elizabeth Montague 1720 through 1800 dealt chiefly with Shakespeare and was praised at home and on the continent her father was a Yorkshire squire Hester Chapone 1727 through 1801 daughter of a North Hamptonshire squire was an accomplished and attractive essayist she contributed to Dr. Johnson's Rambler a pioneer woman politician who wrote history with Republican Lennox was Catherine McCulley 1731 through 91 daughter of a Kentish proprietor another woman Republican Helen Maria Williams 1762 through 1827 a native of Burwick and daughter of an army officer she went to Paris to stay with her sister the life of a Huguenot pastor was imprisoned by ropes here and narrowly escaped execution she wrote hymns the best known being my god all nature owns thy sway and while thee I seek power Anne Plumtra 1760 through 1818 whose father was president of Queens College, Cambridge was a friend of Miss Williams and likewise a Republican she translated German literature and wrote novels and accounts of her visits to France, Germany and Ireland Clara Reeves 1729 through 1807 a native of Ipswich wrote some fiction which gives her a place in the history of romantic literature Mrs. Piossi previously Mrs. Thrail 1741 through 1821 who was greatly admired by Dr. Samuel Johnson was the author of several works including an adult of Dr. Johnson she was a vivacious and charming lady with market literary leanings her birth place was Bodeville in Canard, Vonshire Anna Seward 1747 through 1809 a literary critic who wrote verse in a poetical novel, Louisa corresponded with Sir Walter Scott and her letters were published she was born at E. M. Rectory in Darbyshire Hannah Moore 1745 through 1833 a native of Stapleton Village now part of Bristol wrote novels with a religious purpose and had some success as a playwright her tragedy Percy produced by Gerrick running at Drury Lane Theatre London for 21 nights she wrote poetry which made appeal in her time but is now forgotten her book sold well and enabled her to live well and happily characteristic of her style is the following extract from her Percy if there's a sin more deeply black than others distinguish from the list of common crimes a legion in itself and doubly dear to the dark prince of hell it is hypocrisy Anna Letitia Barbold 1743 through 1825 a native of Kilworth Harcourt, Lychester was an essayist and poet Wordsworth admired her poem entitled life in which occur the lines life we have been longed together through pleasant and through cloudy weather it is hard to part when friends are dear perhaps we'll cross the sigh a tear then steal away give little warning choose thine own time say not good night but in some brighter climb bid me good morning Isabel Pagan 1740 through 1821 an eccentric Scottish spinster wrote the song kathiyos beginning kathiyos to the nose kathem where the heather grows kathem where the burn he rose my bonny dearie Burns used this refrain when he composed a new version of the lyric kathiyos means the use nose our knolls little hills and rose is roles Susanna Blemard 1747 through 94 a Cumberland woman composed Scottish songs and also poems in the Cumbrian dialect including one entitled Old Robin Ford's of which the following is an extract I mined when I carried my award to Jan Stile but Willie was the time to be guile he would flim me a daisy to put him my breast and I hammered my knottle to meek out a jest another Old Robin song is Old Robin Gray which was written by Lady Ann Bernard 1750 through 1825 daughter of James Linsley fifth Earl of the Cars the secret of the authorship of this famous song was first revealed by Lady Ann in a letter to Sir Walter Scott dated 8th July 1823 Mrs. Elizabeth Grant 1745 through 1814 a Banffshire lady who died at Bath wrote the song Roy's Wife of Aldi Valic which used to be very popular she's often confused with Mrs. Ann Grant 1775 through 1838 the wife of a Highland clergyman who wrote first but is best known for her letters from the mountains 1806 and superstitions of the Highlanders 1811 Mrs. Amelia Opie 1709 through 1853 a native of Norwich and wife of John Opie R.A. 1761 through 1807 wrote pathetic stories including the father and daughter 1801 which went through a number of editions she was also a poet her best known poem being the Orphan Boy's Tale Stay ladies, stay for mercy's sake and hear a helpless Orphan's Tale I assure my looks must pity wait cause want the boy's father was killed in the battle of the Nile Mrs. Hunter 1772 through 1821 a surgeon's daughter who married Dr. John Hunter the famous physician wrote several poems including My Mother Bids Me Bind My Hair which was given a musical setting by Haydn Mrs. Ty 1772 through 1810 the daughter of a wood glue clergyman composed distinguished verse for her highest achievement being Psyche which influenced Keats it is in Spinsarian stanzas and reveals a fine sense of color and melody the amethyst was there a violet hue and there the topaz shed its golden ray the crystal barrel and the sapphire blue as the clear day or the mild eyes where amorous glances play the snow white jasper and the opals flame the blushing ruby and the agate gray and there the gym which bears his luckless name whose death by Phoebus mourned ensured him deathless fame end of pioneer women writers by Donald A. McKenzie by Anonymous from the New York Times of October 2nd 1910 this is a LibriVox recording a LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Wooed a Marjorie Daw for 14 long years Connecticut Man gave up his earnings freely to an imaginary girl the creation of a neighbor it is charged a long correspondence with his phantom fiancee for five years judge Thomas F. Walsh of the Connecticut town of Southington has been trying at the ordinary cases of village misdemeanors in the old fashioned courthouse on the main street fronting on a well shaded square with the inevitable monument to those who fought for the union in the center the petty sins of villagers have been heard and the guilt established and the punishment needed out with the town court has been established only for five years and judge Walsh has been on the bench all of that time prosecutor Franklin G. Brown also has held his office all of the existence of the court while Sheriff James McCabe a hardy type of county politician and county police officer has been the deputy in charge of this district for 18 years the court is hardly more than a family council for there is not a Scheister lawyer in the little community and if one appeared it is hardly probable that he would be tolerated Mr. Brown is prosecutor in title only he hears the cases with the magistrate and does not seek convictions he is as much counsel for the defense as he is counsel for the people the main idea of the little court being to get the truth at any cost of time and to punish with due and decent consideration for extenuating circumstances and ever with mercy tempering justice imagine into this tiny courtroom and into this family council looming suddenly a case that for tragedy insofar as the human heart goes has seldom been equaled in the courts of New York City picture a clean shaven bachelor of 48 years rather poorly clad wistful of eye and shy of demeanor the plaintiff and a man about five years his senior with the skin drawn tight on his face and his eyes small and bright the defendant the man of shy demeanor were a bit of black bound about his hat it was a sign of mourning for a sweetheart that never lived the man with the keen little eyes stood charged with having conjured before the mind of the old bachelor the picture of a beautiful and lovable woman that through this creature of the imagination he might swindle him of his earnings when it was no longer possible to keep loving hope in the breast of the village bachelor the creator of this sweetheart phantasm told the lady of shadows in a letter the dupe was heartbroken he had loved deeply had felt the pangs of love and he still suffers the torture of having had heaven spread before his mind's eye and then ruthlessly wiped away for 14 years prosecutor brown charges and claims to have ample evidence to prove the charge William A. Barnes held the mind of the bachelor George F. Osborne in thrall with imaginary loves from him in the meanwhile fully $6000 all the money he earned in that time as a watchmaker as the Connecticut law does not carry a charge of swindling for more than a year before the limitation for prosecution comes there is against Barnes the charge of swindling only $500 the amount given up by Osborne during 1910 on this charge Barnes is now under bail to appear for trial in the county court during the December term the grief in the eyes of the bachelor watchmaker the fact that he stood stripped of every sense his labor had brought him the fake letters that the fake sweetheart had written him all in the handwriting of Barnes the heart hopelessness of the man sent a thrill of compassion through the hearts of the judge and the prosecutor when the case was brought up for the preliminary hearing if ever a man had been cruelly built both by his fellow man a possible thing called fate George Osborne appeared to be that man when the late Thomas Bailey Aldrich wrote his first pro success a short story that swung him from the fame of a lyricist in verse to among the masters of the better paying form of composition he told this same story in prophecy few who know English literature can forget the suspended poignancy of the story of Marjorie Daw the tragedy of a man who fell the girl he had never seen and who was only conjured up in the imagination of a letter writing friend who sought to disperse the tedium of an invalid by getting him interested in something other than his own hurt in the fiction story by Aldrich John Fleming lay for weeks with a broken leg his irritability was such that his physician wrote to Edward Delaney asking him to try and write something that would ease his mind and smooth the way for his quick recovery Delaney wrote of a girl in a hammock across the street of a New England village the ill man was made easy of mind his friend wrote more of her she was gracious and sweet and all that was good his friend told him that he talked with her about him and she was interested the letters went on the ill man fell in love with a lady of shadows and the imaginative friend had the creature of his mind fall in love with the dreaming and happy Fleming Fleming became healed and sought his love with a beating heart it was his first love he was half crazed to see her Mr. Aldrich whose whole life was gentleness ended the story with the start of Fleming to the village where his love was supposed to live the anguish of the dissipated dream was left to the imagination of the reader Marjorie was the tragedy of a few weeks only that tremendous story by DuMaurier Peter Ibbitson gave the dream love an ideal ending there was no ghastly disappointment he carried Peter and his love clear into the spirit world and into the heaven of spirit cognizance and recognizance but here in saltington which almost nestles in the shadow of the Berkshire Hills and where there is a serenity and a beauty of nature and the calm and peace of people peacefully possessing or George Osborne wears a band of crepe on his weather beaten hat and in his heart a scar that was plowed deeper with each of the fourteen years of his illusionment he could have all the money this experience cost me said Osborne if he would only give me back the woman he created and made me love penniless I would be happy still what emptiness in life for a man in a village to face after a tragedy of this sort if after passing through the agony of this strange tragedy and saving once more enough money to make a home he should cast about for a mate what practical village mother would have as a son-in-law this man who so ardently loved a creature that never existed and what woman in his class in life could hope to understand the poignancy that the death of this creature which was never born had caused him George Osborne left his work among the little wheels and springs of watches in his home on the morning of August 19th last to go to the post office and seek a letter from his beloved Gladys Wilson he knew no one in the great outside world that would write to him or take notice of him save the woman he loved when Barnes who got money from him on any and every pretext went to Philadelphia where she lived he always got letters from him letters that brought joy into his life for they mentioned her name and told of her there were no other correspondence for the village watchtinker and there had been no mail for him before the fiction of Gladys Wilson was built for the years that the fiction lasted his had been the joy of going to the village post office every mail time along with other people and asking for Osborne's mail so in the flush of summer Osborne asked at the post office expecting another letter from the lady of shadows and he received one from Barnes this was the letter Philadelphia August 18th 1910 Dear friend I sent you word from Toronto that Osborne was dead she died on August 16th I had to come down here as they called me and they paid my expenses I will be at your place on the 20th and I want you to go down with me on the 21st have ready your fare of $4.92 they will let you have the checks when you get there I've got to go to New Haven on the next train we'll tell all when I get to you respectfully WAB if word had been sent Osborne from Toronto he had not received it the woman he loved was dead the checks referred to in the letter were a part of the fiction Gladys had written him that before their marriage she was going to give him her property property meant nothing to Osborne through the years he had given her what he had earned at one call after another and to Barnes who had first told him of her beauty and grace and had started the correspondence he had freely given in gratitude he wanted nothing save the love of woman he had nothing but this love in his breast and she was dead he was staggered by the blow Miss Wilson is dead she had never been born in the flesh and blood but she had lived in his mind and heart the village watchtinker had prepared for her coming as his bride through the years she had set dates and even named trains he had found to his utter dismay that she had even come to his humble home one day when he was away and he found a note from her telling that she was sorry that she had missed him that she wanted to see him so much and that she was compelled to take the next train to Boston he must have kissed the soul of his door where her feet might have trod and the nearness of paradise delayed must have wrenched his simple trusting heart mightily but there had been another little tragedy at the village post office before this great overwhelming one years ago he disregarded Barnes through whom he had sent and received his mail from his beloved and undertook to write to her himself he had a friend in the village type-write this letter for him his handwriting is the scroll of the man who is diligent with steel things other than the pen she had promised to come to him but at the last minute had hurt her thumb in a letter sent through Barnes and this injury to the woman he loved had deeply worried him here was the letter he wrote her sending it to an address he cornered Barnes into faking Ms. Gladys Wilson number 605 Wabash Avenue Philadelphia, Pennsylvania my dear Ms. Wilson I was quite disappointed that you did not come with Mr. Barnes Sunday night but it may be for the best that you stay until your thumb is better I should like to go to Philadelphia and come up here with you when you get ready to come that is if you would like to have me please write and tell me when and where to go there I hope your thumb will get well soon so that you may come Mr. Barnes gave me a letter he said Dr. Swift had written to me I have not received your picture and letter yet I must close with love George F. Osborne he haunted the post office after sending this letter and one day got it back with a red splotch on the face a finger pointing to his own address in the corner and informing him in red type that no such person lived at such address he hunted up Barnes there was an excuse Barnes had been making excuses for 14 years and had become an adept she had left this address but he promised that the picture would be forthcoming Hope came to George Osborne once more and he resumed the mending and making of watches Barnes promised faithfully that the picture would be sent to him time and again he had been fooled by the stories he laid down at night to dream of this woman Gladys the woman he loved and who had told him in many letters that she loved him in the fiction story of Marjorie Dahl Delaney found the same trouble with his victim Fleming insisted on a picture and it was promised time and again but never given but Barnes reached a point where his victim must be fed a crumb he sent him a picture the photograph of a pleasing looking woman it was just the sort of a prototype that a keen and discerning man would have chosen Osborne was passing beyond the roaring forties a girl love might not appeal to him a mature woman might Barnes sent him this photograph and poor Osborne bowed down and worshiped it kissed it night and morning and Hope grew strong within him because at last he knew that his love had features and eyes and hair like the women who were not only in dreams but in the flesh of everyday life it was but the cruel prolongation of the agony the picture was that of a woman who had never heard of Osborne and perhaps had never known that such a village as Salvington was on the map Barnes and Osborne have been friends since childhood the former has been initiative and character and the latter pass it Barnes is a skilled mechanic able in a shop but leaning towards idleness he was shy he was ever afraid of women but at the same time a dreamer he would not work in the machine shops that employ the majority of the population of Salvington he wanted the fresh air toil over his watches and clocks under his own roof and a pay envelope that he filled himself Barnes wanted the fun of evenings at the many tap rooms of the village summers at the not too distant shore of the sound and nights in Bridgeport and the people in the village had to have money prosecutor Brown says that Barnes took hold of Osborne as a leech in the early days of their youth and with the cunning of an unscrupulous man who can read the weaknesses of a friend devised a plan of preying upon his earning capacity one of the exhibits to be shown in the trial of Barnes is a letter that is alleged to have been written by the young daughter of Barnes a girl named Ruby Mr. Brown says that Barnes was a very respectful wife and that he was the means of sending to Osborne this letter from his own child Dear George I think of you all the time and what you have done I want to come up there but mama has all the time made trouble I will come up there as soon as I can then we shall be happy all the time with love Ruby this was before the immortal and dead and never born Gladys was concocted by Barnes the father of Ruby the only that Osborne could make on the promise that he should have Ruby as wife Osborne gave readily and allowed himself to be shown for did not Ruby love him the fiction of Gladys only came after Osborne was left in the pitiful plight of seeing Ruby marry another man and bear a daughter by the husband the man she loved but Osborne was young when this trickery was played him and when his natural yearning for a mate returned to him after the subsiding life Barnes evolved Gladys through the years Gladys lived in the mind of Osborne but not one of the many hundreds of letters the prosecuting attorney took from Osborne failed to mention a matter of money they showed that Gladys was a well to do woman they speak largely of the estate left her and go into details of ridding it of legal encumbrances and tangles and there is always the request for a few dollars to help her Osborne gave his fingers to the raw he lived in a little flat above the meat shop at Plannersville a part of Salvington he begrudged himself food and tobacco he has never been known to enter a saloon unless it was to fix a clock he has never been known to take a drink drink was a waste of money in the fourteen years according to the letters of Gladys in the handwriting of Barnes Osborne gave all that he earned when his business was dull to do and even ran chores solemnly doing the work of a child even after the death of the lady of the shadows he was preyed upon for letters from Barnes show that money was needed for probate in the meanwhile the idleness of Barnes became the laughing topic of the village gossips how could he do it when others worked six days a week in the mills turning out machinery day and night he drank and played he was a bar room songster he went to the shore in summer and he only worked a few days at a time no one suspected for George Osborne was a man of few words and with but a single friend Barnes Barnes was the man who had known Gladys Wilson but Barnes overstepped himself in a moment of weakness he met Osborne with a promise to repay him for all the years of giving and lending he handed Osborne a note payable to G.F. Osborne thirty days after date he went to the New Haven National Bank for five thousand dollars the note was signed to E.M. Whitmore Osborne tried to collect the money no such man as Whitmore was known at the New Haven National Bank the bank officials wanted to know something about the note George told them about it Deputy Sheriff McCabe soon had the case and arrested Barnes then came the prosecutor and his investigation which uncovered to Osborne and to the village Gladys Wilson which laid bare as cruel and as unusual a swindle as ever got into public print the United States authorities have not yet started an investigation of the use of the mails by Barnes said Mr. Brown to a Times reporter we will finish with him and if by any chance he should escape we have plenty of letters to turn over to Uncle Sam but to the final settling of matters with Barnes George Osborne does not seem to be strongly inclined he will appear and tell his story and he will end that story of 14 years of cruel illusion with his one single statement that if Barnes could give him back Gladys Wilson he would count his loss of 14 years toil as no loss the skeptical reader might say that he is weak-minded he is not that he is a shy and bashful old bachelor of a Connecticut village and he wanted someone to start his courting for him but he was not fortunate enough to have managed this with an honest friend he might today be the quiet and loving and peaceful father of a family as it is he is back in his little quarters tinkering at watches and clocks the little building half hangs over an arm of the Perling Quinnipiac river this little stream of water sings day and night over pebbles and through rank water growth through his open window he can hear its song down through the marketplace of night came peddler's sleep clad in a ragged dusk about who seems full many restless sighs in tatters hung while all his wares were dreams and dreams he had gay seemed with gold love threads wild dreams embossed with trembling and with fears and some were sadly patterned out in gray embroidered round with tears the rest of this poem recently printed in the academy granting forgetfulness to the spirit of unrest may apply to George Osborn bachelor and trusting friend but today it does not for he would again go through it all for the very phantom of love and that he might have his lady of shadows back with him not the perfidy of barns not the toil he gave in the work of his heart and hand drove the light of life from the wistful eye of Osborn it was the cruel letter that was not written in the marjorie doll letters of fiction that blessed at him the letter that told him she died on the 16th end of wood a marjorie doll for 14 long years by anonymous from the New York Times October 2nd 1910 recording by Colleen McMahon