Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 195 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 195: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Victorian Penny Dreadful Page Analysis This is a page of running prose (page 177) from a serialized melodrama titled "Border Warfare." The text describes Tom's discovery of a dead woman in a tent—identified as Andrew Jackson's mother—who died of prison-fever after traveling 160 miles to Charleston to aid friends imprisoned during what appears to be the American Revolution. Tom receives a letter from his imprisoned father and subsequently encounters a frontiersman hunting soldiers. The passage references Clark's Rifles, Ferguson, and King's Mountain, suggesting a historical setting during Revolutionary-era conflicts in the American South.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
BoRDER WARFARE [77 Southern women made long and dangerous journeys to convey medicines, clothing, and food to their friends “ per- ishing with want and disease in the Capital.’’ A woman’s voice, at a little distance, called the pony, imploringly. Tom led the little beast up to a tent in the pines. A girl stood in the tent door. “Here he is. The rascal’s broken his bridle.” ‘Are you one of our men?” ‘““T am Sumter’s aide.” “Oh, she’s dead!” The girl burst into tears. Pointing into the tent, she fell on her knees in an agony of grief. Tom dismounted and approached. On a blanket spread upon the sand lay a stark figure. This was a woman! Hers the fair fame of a Roman matron: hers the fighting faith of the Scotch-Irish: hers the patriotism of an American: the mother of Andrew Jackson! She had journeyed a hundred and sixty miles to Charles- ton, to alleviate the sufferings of friends on the prisonship; had contracted prison-fever, and died on the homeward road — in the Wilderness! By the hands of the dead Tom received a letter from his father! It was dated, “On board the Prison-Ship, Charles- ton Harbor.” And now he felt as if Clark and his army were a millstone around his neck! He was overtaken by a grim, grizzled frontiersman, his rifle across his saddle. | “Seen any cattle? I’m a-hunt’n’ cattle en’ cattle- thieves.” Tom shook his head. “Seen any soldiers? I’m hunt’n’ _ soldiers.” “Whut kinder soldiers?” “T’m one of Tuck’s boys.” “Air ye, now? Tuck ferever!”’ The man had a son in Clark’s Rifles. Clark had eluded capture by recrossing the mountains. This was the move- ment which ushered Ferguson to destruction. Even now the shadow of doom lay on King’s Mountain. The dragon’s CORNICLMOO® eS (C©) im