American Notes for General Circulation

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Bernh. Tauchnitz jun., 1842 - 310 páginas

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Página 119 - In its intention, I am well convinced that it is kind, humane, and meant for reformation; butl am persuaded that those who devised this system of Prison Discipline, and those benevolent gentlemen who carry it into execution , do not know what it is that they are doing. I believe that very few men are capable of estimating the immense amount of torture and agony which this dreadful punishment, prolonged for years, inflicts upon the sufferers...
Página 139 - He looked somewhat worn and anxious, and well he might : being at war with everybody — but the expression of his face was mild and pleasant, and his manner was remarkably unaffected, gentlemanly, and agreeable. I thought that in his whole carriage and demeanour, he became his station singularly well.
Página 107 - Single shuffle, double shuffle, cut and cross-cut : snapping his fingers, rolling his eyes, turning in his knees, presenting the backs of his legs in front, spinning about on his toes and heels like nothing but the man's fingers on the tambourine ; dancing with two left legs, two right legs, two wooden legs, two wire legs, two spring legs — all sorts of legs and no legs...
Página 106 - Mount up these other stairs with no less caution (there are traps and pitfalls here, for those who are not so well escorted as ourselves) into the housetop ; where the bare beams and rafters meet overhead, and calm night looks down through the crevices in the roof. Open the door of one of these cramped hutches full of sleeping negroes.
Página 216 - Fair, down to some inches below Stormy. At one time we were all flung together in a heap at the bottom of the coach, and at another we were crushing our heads against the roof. Now, one side was down deep in the mire, and we were holding on to the other. Now, the coach was lying on the tails of the two wheelers ; and now it was rearing up in the air, in a frantic state...
Página 243 - In the name of wonder, then, what is his merit ? " " Well, Sir, he is a smart man.
Página 76 - These girls, as I have said, were all well dressed ; and that phrase necessarily includes extreme cleanliness. They had serviceable bonnets, good warm cloaks and shawls, and were not above clogs and pattens. Moreover, there were places in the mill in which they could deposit these things without injury; and there were conveniences for washing. They were healthy in appearance, many of them remarkably so, and had the manners and deportment of young women ; not of degraded brutes of burden.
Página 122 - He stopped his work when we went in, took off his spectacles, and answered freely to everything that was said to him, but always with a strange kind of pause first, and in a low, thoughtful voice. He wore a paper hat of his own making, and was pleased to have it noticed and commended. He had very ingeniously manufactured a sort of Dutch clock from some disregarded odds and ends ; and his vinegar bottle served for the pendulum.
Página 182 - It was very pretty, travelling thus at a rapid pace along the heights of the mountain in a keen wind, to look down into a valley full of light and softness ; catching glimpses, through the tree-tops, of scattered cabins ; children running to the doors ; dogs bursting out to bark...
Página 256 - It would be impossible to experience a similar set of sensations, in any other circumstances, unless perhaps in attempting to go up to the top of St. Paul's in an omnibus. Never, never once, that day, was the coach in any position, attitude, or kind of motion to which we are accustomed in coaches. Never did it make the smallest approach to one's experience of the proceedings of any sort of vehicle that goes on wheels.

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