Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 17 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This is a **text page** from the opening of a penny dreadful serial titled *Tom Anderson Dare-Devil*. The page shows Chapter I, headed "Oxheart," and contains prose narrative introducing the protagonist Tom Anderson singing a Tory song during what appears to be the American Revolutionary era. Two listeners are present: a bird (joree) and a boy named Peachy Lewis. The text then shifts to dialogue between the boys discussing someone named Ish who has returned with news, reporting in dialect about redcoats and trenches. The page contains no illustrations, only printed text in a standard Victorian serif typeface.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
TOM ANDERSON DARE-DEVIL CHAPTER I *“OXHEART”’ * Come, all ye rebels, and listen while I sing: . Cornwallis is a-comin’ — you must hide or you must swing!” ANyYBopy within a mile or so might have listened while he sang. It was a voice with the span of a rainbow. How- ever, only two listeners were in sight. One was a joree, alight on the rail fence beside the road. The other was Peachy Lewis. The bird cocked its head on one side in critical approval. The boy wore a lop-sided grin. “Shut up, Tom!” Tom Anderson’s Tory tune broke off in a laugh. “That’s what all of ‘em are singing round Savannah, Ish says. Know old Ish had come? Yes; turned up in an old Hes- sian cap that looks like they’d been using it for a camp- Keicie, “What does he say, Tom?” “Oh, he’s got lots to tell. First thing we knew there he was!— standing in the door bowing and scraping to madam. ‘How yer come on, Miss Sa’ah?’ Then he rolls his eyes at the fire-dogs, and says, ‘O’ Miss do hol’ her own, tooby-sho!’ Then madam speaks up: ‘ Well, Ishmael? Have you got back?’ ‘Yes, Miss Sa’ah. Yes’m. Done got back. De redcoats, dee hilt me dar. Look like I’s dee ‘pennunce ter git dem trenches dug. Some de niggers cyard it ‘bout dat I done tuk up wid dem low-down Brit- ish. No, ma’am! No, Miss Sa’ah. De Anderson niggers keeps better comp’ny!’”’ GOMIGDOOo cS (CO)