Long before the internet chat rooms and social networking was ever thought of, the Victorians had their own means of long-distance romances across the wire . . . the telegraph. Here is a glimpse into the courting conversations of one such couple.
Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes
by Ella Cheever Thayer (1880)
As a writer/researcher, genealogist, and history aficionado I just love researching news of yesteryear. Did you know that the New York Times has archived articles going back to 1851? The Times Machine will take you back in time to read yesterday’s news. They also have a blog called The Times Traveler that features yesterday’s news which highlights news from 100 years ago to the day (updated daily).
Here are some additional links:
International News Historical Archives, list of many links
Chronicling America – Library of Congress
O VOICE OF THE BELOVED
“My beloved spoke and said unto me, ‘Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For the winter is past; the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear upon the eath; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.’” Song of Solomon 2:10-12
O voice of the Belovèd!
Thy bride hath heard Thee say,
“Rise up, My love, My fair one,
Arise and come away.
For lo, ’tis past, the winter,
The winter of thy year;
The rain is past and over,
The flowers on earth appear.
“And now the time of singing
Is come for every bird;
And over all the country
The turtle dove is heard;
The fig her green fruit ripens,
The vines are in their bloom;
Arise and smell their fragrance;
My love, My fair one, come!”
Yea, Lord! Thy Passion over,
We know this life of ours
Hath passed from death and winter
To leaves and budding flowers;
No more Thy rain of weeping
In drear Gethsemane;
No more the clouds and darkness,
That veiled Thy bitter Tree.
Our Easter Sun is risen!
And yet we slumber long,
And need Thy Dove’s sweet pleading
To waken prayer and song.
Oh breathe upon our deadness,
Oh shine upon our gloom;
Lord, let us feel Thy presence
And rise and live and bloom.
Words: Jackson Mason, in Supplemental Hymns to Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1889.
Music: “O Voice,” Joseph Barnby (1838-1896)
Alternate tune: “Werde Munter,” Johann Schop, 1642
“No words can express how much the world owes to sorrow. Most of the Psalms were born in a wilderness. Most of the Epistles were written in a prison. The greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers have all passed through the fire. The greatest poets have “learned in suffering what they taught in song.” In bonds Bunyan lived the allegory that he afterwards wrote, and we may thank Bedford Jail for the Pilgrim’s Progress. Take comfort, afflicted Christian! When God is about to make pre-eminent use of a person, He puts them in the fire.”
~ George MacDonald
This is the story of a vessel that caught fire east of Fox Island in Penobscot Bay and later drifted off and sank. The ship carried 85 passengers and a menagerie of circus animals, 32 persons and all of the animals perished. The ship left St. John, New Brunswick and was headed toward Portland, ME in the year 1886.
THE LOSS OF THE ROYAL TAR.
The loss of the St. John steamer Royal Tar, in the year 1836, was in many ways one of the most remarkable
marine disasters in the annals of the Maritime Provinces. For many years it held a leading place in the stories of strange events handed down from father to son, and even at this day the older people can recall the intense interest with which, in their younger days, they listened to the recital of incidents of the notable casualty. A few years ago the writer published a partial account of the disaster in one of the St. John
newspapers, * and since then he has gathered further facts which now enable him to present the story in a
form worthy of preservation by the students of local history.
Sailor’s Story
According to the Stevens Point Journal
Wisconsin
July 10, 1896
Clever Canine Employed at Wood Island Lighthouse
There is a dog up on the Maine Coast, which is a valued and valuable assistant at the lighthouse. According to the Portland Daily Argus, the animal is the only dog regularly employed at any lighthouse in the district and he performs his duties in a manner that is perfectly satisfactory.
He is attached to the lighthouse at Wood Island off Biddeford Pool and has been there for a number of years. He is the constant companion of the keeper and has learned much of the duties of one of Uncle Sam’s lonely watchers.
It is customary for vessels passing Wood Island to give three blasts of the whistle as a salute. At such times, the dog runs to the bell rope, seizes it in his mouth and tugs rigorously. The dog never rings the bell except at the right time and never misses ringing it when it should be rung.
Captain Oliver of the excursion steamer Forest Queen, was the first seaman to hear of the four footed helper that the keeper of Wood Island Lighthouse had trained to ring the bell. Several hundred excursionists on the boat saw the dog tugging at the bell rope, and they afterwards made inquiries about the matter.
They learned that it was an old story with the dog and that during a fog, the patient animal rings the bell without complaining for hours at a time. He has never been known to desert his post, which is more than can be said of some men engaged to ring fog bells and tend lighthouses.
At nearly every lighthouse that guards the coast, there is one dog and sometimes the keepers have several. They help to while away the long lonesome hours and are almost as good as humane companions. But, so far as is known, the dog pictured herewith is the only one that has proven to be of any real service to his master.
It is perhaps needless to say that the dog is highly valued by his owner and money would not buy him. He is a mongrel dog being more of a shepherd that anything else. No particular effort was made to teach him his duty. He “picked it up” from observation and it took few lessons to make him perfect.
The animal is perfectly contented with his lot in life, and as he is well fed and well housed, he has no reason to complain that he has been forced to leave off the usual habits of doghood and tug at the end of a rope to ring a bell which will warn mariners who have lost their way in the fog.
The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde
HIGH above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword-hilt.
He was very much admired indeed. ‘He is as beautiful as a weathercock,’ remarked one of the Town Councillors who wished to gain a reputation for having artistic tastes; ‘only not quite so useful,’ he added, fearing lest people should think him unpractical, which he really was not.
‘Why can’t you be like the Happy Prince?’ asked a sensible mother of her little boy who was crying for the moon. ‘The Happy Prince never dreams of crying for anything.’
‘I am glad there is some one in the world who is quite happy,’ muttered a disappointed man as he gazed at the wonderful statue.
‘He looks just like an angel,’ said the Charity Children as they came out of the cathedral in their bright scarlet cloaks, and their clean white pinafores.
‘How do you know?’ said the Mathematical Master, ‘you have never seen one.’
‘Ah! but we have, in our dreams,’ answered the children; and the Mathematical Master frowned and looked very severe, for he did not approve of children dreaming.
Define: primer – (prim`er; Brit. now generally pri`mer), n. 1. A book, orig. a prayer book, used in teaching children to read or spell; hence, an elementary textbook. (Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Fifth Edition, G.&C. Merriam Co., Publishers Springfield, Mass., USA. 1939)
Did you ever wonder where did the verse
came from?
The answer is The New England Primer, was an early method to teach young children the English language. This was of utmost importance in the mind of the puritans who immigrated from England to the New England. It was America’s first school book and the #2 best seller preceeded only by The Holy Bible.
“New England Primer famous American school book, first published before 1690. Its compiler was Benjamin Harris, an English printer who emigrated to Boston. This was the book from which most of the children of colonial America learned to read. The letters of the alphabet were illustrated by rhymed couplets (e.g., “The idle Fool/Is whipt at School” ) and woodcuts; the lessons frequently contained moral texts based on the Old Testament. The book was reprinted many times, with various changes in text and even in title. Although it has been estimated that as many as 2 million were sold in the 18th cent., copies of the book are now rare.”
From The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
“Advertised as an easy and pleasant guide to the art of reading, this New England primer is a facsimile reprint circa 1905. Illustrated with black and white woodcuts, the rhyming lessons were intended to teach moral values as well as reading. Schoolbooks were not provided by the schools at this time and parents were obligated to purchase books for their children from a list approved by their local District School Committee.”
“The first settlers of New England brought primers with them from England where they had been in use for over a hundred years. Primers, also known as catechisms, began as devotional books containing simple instructions in Christian knowledge. Such books typically contained an illustrated alphabet along with informative pictures and stories with a heavy dose of moralism. This example includes both Biblical (e.g., Zacheus) and modern references (Washington). Even in this late edition, the Puritan preoccupation with death was impressed on young readers.”
From American Centuries . . . a view from New England website – digital collections
The New England Primer - wikipedia
The New England Primer: A History of its Orgin and Development
The Story of A: The Alphabetization of America from The New England Primer
"Everywhere, everywhere
A tale is told to me--
It is told in the sunny air,
It is told on the sparkling sea.
"It is told in the forest brakes,
It is told on the purple hills,
By the silent mountain lakes,
By the singing and leaping rills.
"In the meadows that stretch away
As a sea of golden green,
With hedges of sweet white may
And the reedy brooks between.
"Where I wander and run and rest,
The tale is told to me,
The sweetest tale and the best
Of all the tales that be.
"The tale is the tale of Jesus;
It is told in heaven above,
On the sea and the moors and the mountains,
In language of all the peoples,
The speech of love.
"The morning star and the dayspring,
The sun and the cloud and the shower,
The grass and the rose and the cedar,
His glory and love are telling
From hour to hour.
"The birds in the green wood singing,
The sea that is wide and deep,
The sheep in the folds of the mountains,
The corn in the golden valleys,
And all beside.
"All round me are glorious pictures
Of him who has made them fair;
Through the long bright day I can see Him,
And I fear not the silent darkness,
For He is there,"
-- FRANCES BEVAN
Translations from hymn of Heinrich Suso
Biography of Frances Bevan at Christian History
Hymns of Frances Bevan
“THE VAUDOIS TEACHER”
“‘Oh, lady fair, these silks of mine
Are beautiful and rare;
The richest web of the Indian loom,
Which beauty’s queen might wear.
And my pearls are pure as thine own fair neck,
With whose radiant light they vie;
I have brought them with me a weary way -
Will my gentle lady buy?’
“And the lady smiled on the worn old man
Through the dark and clustering curls
Which veiled her brow, as she bent to view
His silks and glittering pearls;
And she placed their price in the old man’s hand,
And lightly turned away;
But she paused at the wanderer’s earnest call -
‘My gentle lady, stay!’
“‘Oh, lady fair, I have yet a gem
Which a purer lustre flings
Than the diamond flash of the jewelled crown
On the lofty brow of kings:
A wonderful pearl of exceeding price,
Whose virtue shall not decay;
Whose light shall be as a spell to thee,
And a blessing on thy way!’
“The lady glanced at the mirroring steel,
Where her form of grace was seen,
Where her eye shone clear and her dark locks waved
Their clasping pearls between -
‘Bring forth thy pearl of exceeding worth,
Thou traveller grey and old;
Then name the price of thy precious gem,
And my page shall count the gold.’
“The cloud went off from the pilgrim’s brow,
As a small and meagre book,
Unchased with gold or gem of cost,
Prom his folding robe he took;
‘Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price:
May it prove as such to thee;
Nay, keep thy gold; I ask it not,
For the Word of God is free.’
“The hoary traveller went his way,
But the gift he left behind
Hath had its pure and perfect work
On that high-born maiden’s mind;
And she hath turned from the pride of sin
To the lowliness of truth,
And given her human heart to God
In its beautiful hour of youth.”
J. G. WHITTIER
Austen Blog http://www.thehistoryblog.com/