Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 25 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis This is a page of running prose from chapter 9 of *Oxheart*, a Victorian serial narrative. The text describes tension within a household regarding a small religious statue of the Virgin Mary ("La Vierge") that the character Mimi treasures but must hide from her grandmother, Mrs. Anderson, a Church of England woman who objects to Catholic imagery. The passage establishes Mrs. Anderson as a formidable matriarch managing a large estate while her son and grandson are away fighting (apparently in an American conflict), and portrays her as a woman of considerable authority, medical skill, and charitable works despite her religious prejudices.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
OxHEART 9 sacred emblem in Mimi’s eyes. But Mimi was a bit ab- sent-minded, and apt to forget just where she had set down La Vierge, with the result that long and troubled searches for her treasure were not infrequent. Sometimes there was need for tucking the tiny Queen of Heaven out of sight in a hurry. For Grandmother Anderson — of course a Church of England woman — could not be ex- pected to countenance “ Popish idols.” In her house? And she with countless English bishops behind her? However, she had no mind to wound one who loved and served her. As the outcome of these conditions Mrs. Anderson was often under the necessity of appearing not to see what was right under her nose. As for Mimi, she was painfully anxious not to offend the mistress of Oxheart. The state of feeling on both sides was well understood by the whole household. The children had always been at much pains to “keep the Virgin out of grandmother’s way.” Still, with all their care the little image confronted the family circle every now and then, to the confusion of all con- cerned. Diulsey, Mrs. Anderson’s own woman, kept an eye out for the Madonna, but she had been heard to mut- ter, “Cyarn’ keep dat ‘little Virgen Ma’y out’n Miss Sa’ah’s way ! — no, not wid er pitchfork!” And grandmother was not to be trifled with. A woman of extraordinary distinction and character, she. She had been a famous beauty in her youth, and it might have been said of her in old age, as Alexander Herring said of Agnes Grattan Page, “She has lost more beauty than any other woman ever had.” It was difficult, even now, to associate age with one so full of potentialities. Son and grandson having been sent to “trounce the British,” the management of a big estate was mainly hers, as the over- seer could neither read nor “cast accounts.” She had no small medical skill, and no little need for it, surrounded as she was by a host of ignorant dependents. She fed the poor, clothed the naked, heartened the feeble-spirited. While “Mrs. Putnam and her daughter in their parlor on Broadway were spinning flax for the American soldiers’ CORNICLOO eS (C(©) m