Life on the Mississippi eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 531 pages of information about Life on the Mississippi.

Life on the Mississippi eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 531 pages of information about Life on the Mississippi.

Every town and village along that vast stretch of double river-frontage had a best dwelling, finest dwelling, mansion,—­the home of its wealthiest and most conspicuous citizen.  It is easy to describe it:  large grassy yard, with paling fence painted white—­in fair repair; brick walk from gate to door; big, square, two-story ‘frame’ house, painted white and porticoed like a Grecian temple—­with this difference, that the imposing fluted columns and Corinthian capitals were a pathetic sham, being made of white pine, and painted; iron knocker; brass door knob—­discolored, for lack of polishing.  Within, an uncarpeted hall, of planed boards; opening out of it, a parlor, fifteen feet by fifteen—­in some instances five or ten feet larger; ingrain carpet; mahogany center-table; lamp on it, with green-paper shade—­standing on a gridiron, so to speak, made of high-colored yarns, by the young ladies of the house, and called a lamp-mat; several books, piled and disposed, with cast-iron exactness, according to an inherited and unchangeable plan; among them, Tupper, much penciled; also, ‘Friendship’s Offering,’ and ’Affection’s Wreath,’ with their sappy inanities illustrated in die-away mezzotints; also, Ossian; ‘Alonzo and Melissa:’  maybe ‘Ivanhoe:’  also ‘Album,’ full of original ‘poetry’ of the Thou-hast-wounded-the-spirit-that-loved-thee breed; two or three goody-goody works—­’Shepherd of Salisbury Plain,’ etc.; current number of the chaste and innocuous Godey’s ‘Lady’s Book,’ with painted fashion-plate of wax-figure women with mouths all alike—­ lips and eyelids the same size—­each five-foot woman with a two-inch wedge sticking from under her dress and letting-on to be half of her foot.  Polished air-tight stove (new and deadly invention), with pipe passing through a board which closes up the discarded good old fireplace.  On each end of the wooden mantel, over the fireplace, a large basket of peaches and other fruits, natural size, all done in plaster, rudely, or in wax, and painted to resemble the originals—­which they don’t.  Over middle of mantel, engraving—­Washington Crossing the Delaware; on the wall by the door, copy of it done in thunder-and-lightning crewels by one of the young ladies—­work of art which would have made Washington hesitate about crossing, if he could have foreseen what advantage was going to be taken of it.  Piano—­kettle in disguise—­ with music, bound and unbound, piled on it, and on a stand near by:  Battle of Prague; Bird Waltz; Arkansas Traveler; Rosin the Bow; Marseilles Hymn; On a Lone Barren Isle (St. Helena); The Last Link is Broken; She wore a Wreath of Roses the Night when last we met; Go, forget me, Why should Sorrow o’er that Brow a Shadow fling; Hours there were to Memory Dearer; Long, Long Ago; Days of Absence; A Life on the Ocean Wave, a Home on the Rolling Deep; Bird at Sea; and spread open on the rack, where the plaintive singer has left it, Ro-holl on, silver moo-hoon, guide the TRAV-el-lerr his way, etc

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Project Gutenberg
Life on the Mississippi from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.