Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 108 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 108: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Victorian Penny Dreadful Page Analysis This is a **running prose page** (numbered 92) from the serialized story "Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil." The text consists of dialogue and narrative in heavily dialectalized Irish-American vernacular, depicting a conversation where Mr. Carr is questioned by "the Governor" about the whereabouts of Tom, who has apparently disappeared—possibly having gone to Philadelphia with a Colonel. Carr defends Tom's character as brave and loyal, refusing to betray confidences, while describing an earlier comedic scene involving a horse-drawn carriage and various passengers. The prose employs exaggerated phonetic spelling typical of penny dreadful sensationalism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Q2 Tom ANDERSON, DareE-DEVIL the day she was born, wuz as mizzerbul ez ef she’d been intrayted ter ride a rail; feelin’ hersilf ez much in the way €Z a mouse in a dinner-horn! “The Governor, he insisthed on young Brevard a-goin’ wid ’em in the kerridge. ‘I hev some business wid Mr. Carr,’ sez he; thim’s his very wurruds, divvle a liss! ‘An’ I can ride home by an’ by.’ Thrue fer yez, fer there wuz his craythur — the Aigle ez carried off the lamb, so ter speak, wid his head, long ez a flour-barrel, sthickin’ out av the blacksmith shop, an’ him a-whickerin’ ter the naygurs up on the kerridge (before an’ behind), “Come git me, yez blag-guards. Come git me!’ Well, off rolls the coach, loike the Lord Mayor av Dublin’s own, wid the ladies, and the Lieutenant, an’ Sehoy, — seasick on four wheels, ez I may say, an’ letthin’ go all holts loike, — an’ a naygur goes throttin’ behind on the Lieutenant’s brown cob. “An thin it come! ‘The Governor axthed me ter spake mer mind widout reserve, in this most dis-thressin’ mysth-thery. He said he knew av no wan whose opinion would be av more value; as [om wuz a frequent companion av Unakerr’s I might be able to offer a suggestion that would prove a clue to his whereabouts. ‘A suggestion av yours might be worth iverything to us, Mr. Carr,’ sez the Governor, sez he, ‘in this intolerable situation.’ ‘““Arrah! I could n’t spake widout reserve; fer who knowed but om had gone on wid the Colonel to Philadel- phiaf It looked drvilish loike it ter me. But I could n’t say nothin’ about the Britisher ter no soul at all. Sol tells him I wuz n’t out av heart yit. ‘It wuz mesilf wuz out wid the fust searchin’-parthy; an’ Unakerr’s niver turned back yit. I look fer news av him afore anither day breaks. Tom ’s venturesome an’ dare-divilish. It’s some b’y’s projick, I’m thinkin’. In all Virginia there ain’t a stouther heart ner a bigger wan than his’n. I won’t believe harm ’s come ter him. D—n the hand that ’s iver raised ag’inst him!’ sez I, ‘savin’ Yer Honor’s prisince.’ **Amen!’ sez he. An’ thin he looks me through an’ m ECONMMIECOOO KS nO)