The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Posted on 01/01/2017 6:44:11 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
You have bears, too.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Oh, poor Mr. Ruggles! I hope it’s just indigestion, rather than imminent heart failure. (Don’t tell me, Homer!)
I would have liked to have met the rough-hewn and truculent General Coombs in his Mexican poncho. Such persons often have very interesting stories to tell, especially when having drink taken.
(Oddly, Leslie Coombs is the name of a character in H. Beam Piper’s “Fuzzy” series. He is an attorney, although slippery enough to be a politician. I liked him.)
Looking at the population of New York City, there is no figure for 1856. The 1850 census was 696,000 while in 1860 it was 1,175,000. I am surprised, but not surprised, that urban crowding is becoming an issue. After all, transportation, sanitation and other modern infrastructure we take for granted were primitive if not unknown. I was surprised to see development of Central Park; I was under the impression that Central Park was created out of crowded slums much later, like in the 1870s or 1880s.
As for the crowded urban conditions, I do remember seeing Jacob Riis’ “How the Other Half Lives” in my high school AP U.S. History class. The photos did make quite an impression. But what made more of an impression is that many of the people living in those crowded and horrible slums at the turn of the last century were immigrants, who were happy to be Americans. And their grandkids would win World War 2.
Kind of like an argument I had with a liberal colleague, where I was advocating doing away with as much of the government social net/hammock as possible. She said “You want us to return to the time of Dickens’ kids?” My response was “You forget those kids grew up and forged an Empire on which the sun never set.”
Well, except for the 35% or so who didn't reach adulthood ...
I think a better argument against government's comfortable sofas is Theodore Dalrymple's: that the beneficiaries' lives end up being as miserable and squalid as the worst Third World slum, at a huge cost, and with no more chance of escape.
Hmmm. The coppers might want to take a close look at the Widow Cunningham for that murder.
My money is on the noted politician Daniel Ullman. 15-odd stab wounds is a lot for a respectable widow to inflict, unless she used drugs or something.
Well, you know what they say, hell hath no fury . . .
It was Colonel Mustard in the Parlor with the Knife.
Did I win?
I always wanted it to be the knife. That’s the most obvious weapon ... except the revolver.
It was never the iron. Because that was on the Monopoly board.
“Are there no poorhouses?”
I guess so.
Cholera, Bleeding Kansas, and the Panic of 1857.
And the Civil War was just around the corner -- a big four year party.
This should be very entertaining as Homer lets the story unfold.
True, but I'm still not seeing it. She's got four children and a batch of boarders. She wants a good night's sleep.
LOL!
The author contends that Americans are not happy because they work all the time. Presumably this means up North, because the culture of the South was noted for its enjoyment of leisure time.
Which was clearly illustrated by the Stephen Foster in the second Iine of the original lyrics to "My Old Kentucky Home."
I looked it up :-).
That is very culturally relevant to our exploration of the 1850s.
Continued from November 4, 1856 (reply #24).
Nicole Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era
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