Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 226 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 226: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 208 of "Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil" This is a page of running prose from a Victorian penny dreadful serial. The text depicts dialogue between characters discussing a recent fight involving Captain Valentine Pair-ris in Charleston. One character boasts about the combat's outcome—that Pair-ris lost his velvet coat to "the niggers"—while another character (Rory) privately worries that his identity as the mysterious "auld fellow" who drew his sword has been discovered through town gossip. The narrative reveals tension between maintaining secrecy and the difficulty of controlling information in a gossiping community.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
208 Tom ANDERSON, Dare-DEVIL “Eh, sirs!’? — slapping his thigh, — “it’s the talk o’ the toun! Gang wheer ye wull, there’s naething but claver aboot Valentine Pair-r-ris, Beauty o’ Chairleston, an’ the half-breed Hielander. My ward, Daur-Deevil, I thocht ye’d break ilka bone 1 the coxcomb’s body.” “Humph! I thought he’d run me through. But for ou . Wak ‘“Aweel, it was gude as a cock-fight!”” chuckling with gratification. “Captain Pair-r-ris will lose his ’arnsome coat — it’s a’maist a pity sic a bonny blueberry velvet maun gang to the niggers. Colonel Blethsoe said as muckle —an’ The McIntosh went awa wi a flea in his ear — whilk will happen, whiles, even to ane o’ the titled fowk — an’ ye yoursel’, Tammie, walkit off wi the lassie on your airm! Weel dune, lad!’? — in open exultation over the termination of the row. Should he tell Rory that his identity had been discov- ered? That in some unsuspected, unguessable way, the Belle of Charleston had seized the secret. To tell him would be to burden Rory with anxiety. And the girl would never betray his secret. Rory’s very next words showed the need for redoubled caution respecting his own as well as his protégé’s movements; as a result of the fight in which om had been so unexpectedly mixed up. “Sune syne | cam awa. Dinna dout I used my twa legs. I wad na hae had Sir Atneas speerin’ aboot ae ‘black Hielander.’ Na, na! It’s ill wark to gang aboot. wi’ ye lugs open tae speerin’ fowk. There was stir enow! Muckle claver 1 the wine-shop by the mairket — wheer I tak my tass o’ auld speerits. Ane o’ the young gamecocks speakit up, ‘I hae na mair use for a Rebel 1’ petticoats than for ane 1 coonskin cap!’ Anither maggerful body speers, ‘Wha was the whaup gied Valentine Pair-r-ris sic a black eye?’ Anither whispers: “Be done! Here’s the auld fal- low whilk whipped oot Ais sword!’ —ilka ane makkin’ his neck as lang as a hinny’s! Sae I swallowed my brandy an’ cam awa. Sic a claver they keepit up. Ye’d hae thocht there had na been a fight in Chairleston since last Hog- | ?? Eomichbooks m (E(0)