Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 227 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 227: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis This is a page of running prose—dialogue and narrative from a penny dreadful set in Charleston during what appears to be the American Revolutionary War. The text recounts gossip about Miss Elinor Elliott, a local heiress and rebel sympathizer whose American lover escaped capture by swimming a river; she boldly turned away British troops searching her estate. The speaker reveals that the listener (apparently a character named Valentine) previously risked trouble for this woman's sake, and questions whether he understood her rebel sympathies at that time.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
CHARLESTON 209 manay! When ye strutted off wi’ the lassie, Tammie, ane o the young blades speakit up: ‘The bare-legged Hie- lander ’s as proud as Punch, by Jove!’ An’ I says mysel’: “The bare-legged Hielander’s far frae forfairn! Dinna fash yoursel’ aboot the fox wha has lippit off wi’ the crow’s cheese!’ Mon, ye suld hae heard the feckless fallows bellow!” Rory was not without information. “ The young leddy,” was Miss Elinor Elliott. Her home, “a braw, great estate, not abune five miles awa.’ Her mother was a widow. No member of the family having ever borne arms against the Crown, the estate was under British protection. “Eh, sirs! there’s mair acres, an’ niggers, at Marley than I can count. Ihe heiress is the Rose o’ Marley, an’ the Belle o’ ~Chairleston. She’s a red-hot she Rebel, ye ken, wi’ her jo 1 the American airmy. Some o' my Lord Rawdon’s troops gaed oot to Marley, sune syne, to capture him —”’ mV nor: “Wha wad it be but the lassie’s jo? — the American. He’d swum the river — whilk is richt behind the mansion, ye ken — an’ was! the hoose — or that was the news. Her American ’s daft aboot her, or sae the talk is at my Lord Rawdon’s table. Aweel, when the troopers cam tae tak the American, the bonnie heifer cam oot tae the door an’ gied em a piece of her mind. ‘He’s no here. Go look for him i Marion’s army. How daur ye molest this hoosehold! — whilk is under the protection o’ twa armies!’ Sae she tauld ’em. An’ they rode awa, wi out sairching the man- sion. Ou, aye; I hae heard the name o’ the American offi- cer; but I canna ca’ it. Sir A‘neas himsel’ wad gang coort- ing tae Marley, sae fowk say, forbye the wind did na sit 1’ the wrang quarter. Nae dout he’d ha’ gie’n his twa een to hae escorted the scornfu’ lassie. hame, 1’ his fine coach. But she wad flout my Lord Rawdon himsel’, or ony mon wha was na a Rebel!” “But she didn’t knowthat I was one’”’ (Ah, didn’t she?) “Hout, tout! Ye laid hands on Valentine Pair-r-ris for her sake. Gude sake, was na that enow?”’ CONNICLOOO SS) (CO) im