Harper’s Weekly – February 13, 1858

Harper's Weekly archives ^ | February 13, 1858

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, Lincoln-Douglas, Harper’s Ferry, the election of 1860, secession – all the events leading up to the Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed. To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to previous thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The Honorable Edward Everett * – 1-3
Editorials – 3-4
The Lounger – 4-6
Bohemian Walks and Talks – 6
The Red Petticoat and Its Pedigree – 7-9
Travel Notes in Bible Lands – 9-11
St. Valentine and Valentines – 12-16
Lotty Lowe – 17
What a Bottle of Brandy Did – 17
The Pilot’s Wife – 18
Leaves from a Christmas Tree – 18
The Wrong Burglar – 18-19
Looking Into the Well – 19
The American Chapel in Paris – 20
The Yellow Fever at Lisbon – 21-22

* Edward Everett Wikipedia page

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Previous excerpt from this volume was January 9 (reply #3). The following doesn’t pick up quite where that left off.

William J. Cooper, Jr., Jefferson Davis, American

[Rebelbase]

Re: Left drawing on top of page 8:

Read a book about an 1860’s exploration of NW Siberia by some Americans. They had a newspaper with them and showed drawings similar to page 8 to the natives who laughed heartily thinking all American women were built that way.

[Rappini]

Good information thanks for posting HJS.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

On a previous thread I said the ladies’ fashions of 1855-58 made the wearers resemble giant badminton birdies, or shuttlecock’s, as Tax-chick reminded me was the proper term. It was a strange period for women’s attire. I’m glad we evolved away from it by the 20th century.

[Tax-chick]

I think the early 1800s and the early 1900s had pretty clothes.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Early 1800's dresses were certainly more reasonable looking than mid-century. Many of the examples I looked at have a seam just below the bosom (empire waist?) and then fall naturally over hips to the ankles. How that evolved into the hoop skirt-shuttlecock look I have no idea.

I agree early 20th century fashions are also nice. From around late teens through 1930's especially.

[Tax-chick]

Yes, that’s the (Napoleonic) Empire style. The cut is flattering for the slender and comfortable for the plump (or pregnant). Skirts stayed reasonable into the 1840’s, and then exploded into shuttlecocks.

Only for the well-off, of course. The poor still wore rags.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Previous excerpt from this volume was February 2 (reply #14) . The following doesn’t pick up quite where that left off.

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Nicole Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era

[henkster]

Interesting implications for the future; abolitionists were eventually going to foment slave insurrections. Confederate apologists assume that with Secession and independence the two nations would have simply gone their separate ways in peace and the south would remain as it always had been.

That wasn’t going to happen.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from February 9 (reply #4).

The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas

[Tax-chick]

Things are always the same ...

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The footnote refers to the fact that Henry Bellows was president of the United States Sanitary Commission during the Civil War. Strong was heavily involved with that organization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Whitney_Bellows

[Tax-chick]

Sanitation is extremely important!

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Hospitals were especially important during 1861-65. There is a photo of the standing committee that directed the commission on the Wikipedia page. Our George is among them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Sanitary_Commission

[Tax-chick]

Very important work. I expect we’ll learn that it was exhausting and terribly frustrating.

[henkster]

“The poor we shall always have with us.” Or something like that.

Dr. Bellows (who I assume is not the same Dr. Bellows from “I Dream of Jeannie”) has indeed shown that things are always the same. Everyone has and always has had great insight into why poor people are poor and tend to commit crime at a greater rate. But no one has an actual workable solution.

So we just throw money at them. Trillions of dollars. And the poor are still poor and still commit crime, and are victimized by it, at a much greater rate.

[Tax-chick]

It’s almost as if we live in a world racked by sin, where people are going to do wrong and stupid and destructive things, millennium after millennium.

On the other hand, we have flush toilets now.

[henkster]

And we don’t watch sweaty guys hack each other to pieces with swords as a form of entertainment. Now the sweaty guys just get concussions.