Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 26 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Content Analysis This is a running prose page (page 10) from the penny dreadful *Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil*. The text describes domestic wartime activities at Oxheart plantation, where Mrs. Anderson and her granddaughter make overcoats for Virginia troops while the household maintains production of textiles, preserved foods, and cordials. The passage includes dialogue between the children Tom and "Dare" about Mr. Carter, the Episcopal minister, and his drinking habits, followed by characterization of the grandmother Sarah Anderson as an educated woman proficient in classical languages, literature, and music—described as "absolute" in her authority.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
IO Tom ANDERSON, Dare-DEvIL wear,” Mrs. Anderson and her granddaughter, in the old hall at Oxheart, were making overcoats out of blankets for the ragged Virginia troops — to be donated before the bitter weather set in. Meantime the mistress of Oxheart saw to it that the piles of “spun truck” grew apace by the scores of spinning-wheels in the cabins, that the looms were turning out bolts of linen and woolen, that great scaffolds of sun-dried fruits were “saved,” that the store- room was lined with preserves, pickles, jams, and jellies, and that the cellars held, side by side with the good red wines of France, domestic wines and cordials of unquali- fied excellence. There was a lot of them. What a goodly array of tremendous pot-bellied demyohns and cruet- shaped straw-covered flasks stood there! These last little Dare had always thought “just like the crane’s flask in fsop’s Fables.” “ Yes,’’ assented Tom, “and Mr. Carter is the only bird that’ll ever get his bill into those bottles. You and | are the blackbirds, sis. All we can do is to watch the crane drink!” “Does Mr. Carter stand on one leg to drink?” mis- chievously. ‘Peep through the crack in the parlor door, and see.”’ Mr. Carter was the Episcopal minister. Sometimes the little girl used to wish she were “‘a divine” when Dilsey was filling the maraschino-glasses to “han’ roun’ in de parlor.”’ “Why is n’t cordial good for children, Dilsey?”’ i * Tell me it tek de curl out’n yer hair, merryskeener Ons Like Récamier, grandmother knew when a woman should give over the harp; so her harp stood in a distant corner of the drawing-room, shrouded in white like a humpbacked ghost. Still she “performed with spirit” on the harpsichord; knew Shakespeare, Milton, and the Bible, as we know few books; and, at a time when few women could spell, was proficient in Latin and Greek, having been educated by an English rector. Always was Sarah Anderson absolute. Who was he that dared set (E(0) m Gomicbooks