Harper’s Weekly – May 22, 1858

Harper's Weekly archives ^ | 5/22/1858

[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]

Hon. William H. English, of Indiana – 2-4
Contents – 3
Editorials – 4-5
The Lounger – 5-7
Coming Through the Rye – 8
The Island of Perim – 9-10
The Central Railroad Accident – 11-12
Life in Boston – 13-16
Jerroldiana – 16-17
The Four-Fold Dream – 17-18
Cod-Fishing on the Newfoundland Shores – 19-21
Miscellany – 21-22

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from May 20 (reply #17) .

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

[Vermont Lt]

“Barrington beats Brattleboro.”

Truer words have never been written.

[colorado tanker]

What a different time. A New Yorker of means could vacate the city for the country for an entire summer. How civilized.

We took last week off and rented a house for the family in a semi-rural area. Very pleasant. But I was still connected by the smart phone and email.

[Tax-chick]

“Comin’ Through the Rye,” on page 8, has bright, bucolic charm.

[Tax-chick]

There’s no such thing as “time off work” anymore. George gets a break from his committee meetings, of course. I suppose Ellie enjoys a change of society in addition to mild weather.

I’ve forgotten: do they have children?

[Homer_J_Simpson]

John Ruggles Strong born autumn 1851

George Templeton Strong, Jr., born May 1856

Ellen Ruggles Strong suffered "a near fatal illness and loss of her first baby in the spring of 1849."

[colorado tanker]

I don’t recall George mentioning children. I peeked at the 1858 edition of Wiki and there is mention of at least one child, a son, who will become estranged from his father.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The last mention of 6-year-old Johnny I remember was on Christmas Eve. I will repost that entry below. George Jr. was born May 26, 1856.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

"One morning I was in the gallery of Mr. Alschuler, when Mr. Lincoln came into the room and said he had been informed that he (Alschuler) wished him to sit for a picture. Alschuler said he had sent such a message to Mr. Lincoln, but he could not take the picture in that coat (referring to a linen duster in which Mr. Lincoln was clad), and asked if he had not a dark coat in which he could sit. Mr. Lincoln said he had not; that this was the only coat he had brought with him from his home. Alschuler said he could wear his coat, and gave it to Mr. Lincoln, who pulled off the duster and put on the artist's coat. Alschuler was a very short man, with short arms, but with a body nearly as large as the body of Mr. Lincoln. The arms of the latter extended through the sleeves of the coat of Alschuler a quarter of a yard, making him quite ludicrous, at which he (Lincoln) laughed immoderately, and sat down for the picture to be taken with an effort at being sober enough for the occasion. The lips in the picture show this."

— Mr. J. O. Cunningham, present when the picture was taken[

Wikipedia: List of photographs of Abraham Lincoln

[Jim W N]

Is this the picture?

[Jim W N]

OK, it is, but initially post#11 didn’t show the picture at least on my computer.

Yup, looks like a little smirk there.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

photobucket.com was on the blink for a while.

[Tax-chick]

Mr. Lincoln looks like his teeth hurt. As P.J. O’Rourke said, apropos of the concept that there was every a better time or place to be alive than right here, right now, “I have just one word for you: dentistry.”

[Tax-chick]

Note, in the lower left quadrant of the “Boston Common” picture on page 13, the two young girls, each holding two sticks in her hands. They are playing the “Game of Graces,” in which two players use the sticks to toss a wooden hoop back and forth.

The equipment for this energetic game is for sale at many historic sites (or it can be made with some hardware-store and craft-store supplies). I believe I’ll try it with the Cub Scouts this summer. The question is whether I can keep them from clobbering one another with the sticks.

[Jim W N]

Looks like maybe dentistry back than was problematic - at least in Washington’s time it was.

[Tax-chick]

Dentistry was nightmarish in the 1850s, just as it had been through all of human history and prehistory to that point.

[Jim W N]

We are blessed in ways we sometimes don’t even realize. What happened to their teeth back then.

Even further, how did people like Abraham live to 175 years and Moses 125 years? God must have been their dentist - or else they ate stuff that didn’t decay their teeth - most likely both...

[Tax-chick]

They were early in the process of entropy. On the other hand, Ramses II the Great died from tooth decay in his 80s.