Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 107 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 107: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Description This is a page of running prose—specifically narrative fiction written in heavily stylized Irish-American dialect. The text appears to be from the middle of a story called "Where's Tom?" (page 91). The narrator recounts encountering Lieutenant Brevard of the North Carolina troops, who is searching for someone named Tarleton through the Dismal Swamp. The passage then describes the arrival of Mistress Morton's coach carrying Miss Dare (who is asleep), the Governor, and others. The narrator details how Miss Dare was cared for by characters named Sehoy and Bryan before being carried home, with Sehoy accompanying them in a carriage for the first time. The dialect and melodramatic tone are typical of Victorian penny dreadful serialized fiction.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WHERE’s Tom? QI the Governor’s— Gray Aigle! Yis, divvle a liss! “The poor little gurrul!” sez he; ‘she wuz disthracted wid anxiety. It ’s a God’s mercy she wuz n’t killed! Whin I saw her bolt off loike thot, I follows; av coorse, whip an’ spur,’ sez he, ‘loike the hind wheels av Disthtruction!’ sez he. Thin he tould me he wuz Lieutenant Brevard, av the North Carolina throops. He said Tarleton wuz the Divvle an’ all his angels. He said he’d ride through the Dismal Swamp wid hell at his crupper ter capture Tarleton. Thinks I ter mesilf, ‘Is there two Tarletons, intirely? Is Brevard lookin’ fer the broth av a boy we’s jist sint off ter Philadelphia — by the skunk-skin transpertation, so ter spake?’ The Colonel wuz a darlin’; bedout hisred coat! An’ he wuz born in thot! We calls him Tarleton fer two months, an’ thin he swears he’s not larleton the laste in life. If tver him an’ Brevard locks horns, they ’Il be blood on the moon. ‘Thim’s two bucks fer yez, Rebel an’ Royalist! Well, bime-by the weather houlds up, an’ here comes Misthress Morton’s foine coach — she’s aunt ter Major Audley Anderson, hersilf — wid Misthress Morton an’ Miss Mimi an’ the Governor himsilf, no liss—come fer Miss Dare; wid lashin’s av shawls, an’ blankets, an’ naygurs — whativer. “All safe!’ I tould ’em; an’ axthes thim in ter the kitchen. [The Chief Exexertive av the Commonwealth av Virginia in Pat Carr’s ould hin-coop av a kitchen! Iver hear the loikes av thot? Well, I’d made a rip-roarin’ fire, yez know, an’ there wuz Miss Dare (her head on Sehoy’s knees) fast asleep. An’ wuz n't it hersilf wuz a picture? Sehoy had putth her turkey-red caliker coat on the little lady, wrapped her up in a Injun blanket, an’ putth some little bead moccasins on aich little fut av her.. Bryan, he’d made a fut-stool av himsilf fer her. Yis, indade. He’d quiled up by her; sinsible av her disthress ez iny mother’s son av us all! An’ fer the two-futted thing: er the four- futted thing bedout a pitiful heart I would n't give a far- den! Well, they carries Miss Dare home. Mirover, they takes Sehoy along, — fer so the young lady would have i it, — an’ Sehoy, poor gal, niver havin’ rid in a kerridge sence GOmiGcsoo SS (E(©) mn