Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 310 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 310: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a page of running prose from the penny dreadful *Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil* (page 292). The text describes Tom performing songs at an evening concert attended by colonial gentry, including a mysterious invalid woman in a sedan chair whom Tom becomes curious about. The passage culminates in an interruption when an old enslaved man named Ishmael recognizes Tom and questions why he is "barefooted en' blacked up," apparently shocked to find what he believes is his former master's son in this condition. The narrative involves colonial settings, performance, and a moment of dramatic recognition.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
292 Tom ANDERSON, DareE-DEVIL — to “the dress circle,” the carriages. The gentry came in their coaches and chariots; one there was, an invalid, who came in a sedan chair borne by two gigantic Ebo bucks. How queer it looked in the shadow of the cocoanut trees! Afterward came the plantation songs. Jom noticed that each night the sedan chair was planted nearer the singer. He stole pitiful glances at the little withered old face of this listener. “Tf I only knew whether she’s French or English He tried some of Mim1’s old songs; and then bethought him of something he heard a young English cornet — with a voice like a glass flute — sing in Charleston, the day Rory tucked Tom under his arm and carried him round to my Lord Rawdon’s Headquarters. Ihe song had been vastly applauded by the thumping of tumblers on the wine-shop tables, and the cornet had said it was from Gay’s opera “Polly,’’ which the lord chamberlain had caused to be suppressed, because its production would not meet royal approbation. So Tom did his best. When he had finished, why, there was a little handkerchief fluttering in the door of that hideous old sedan. After that the chair was under the palm trees every evening; and one night, when the canoe was going back to the sandbar, Tom dis- covered the old sedan on an elevation of the island a hundred feet above the water. [he figures of the two Ebos were invisible. But the glass door shone out of the dark like a mirror, moving mysteriously along through the night. The sight made a curious impression on the boy. Who could she be? One evening the concert was interrupted. A shout; a sudden movement in the crowd; and there was an old negro stumbling toward the singer. ‘““Marse Tom! Marse Tom. It zs... 1 knowed his voice.” ) It was Ishmael! “It me, Marse Tom. It ole Ish. Lil’ Marse, whut de name er Gawd is yer doin’ barefooted en’ blacked up, lak dis? Marster’s son!” | ?? ECONMMICOOOKS.(© m