00000050 |
Previous | 50 of 684 | Next |
|
small (250x250 max)
medium (500x500 max)
Large
Extra Large
large ( > 500x500)
Full Resolution
All (PDF)
|
NEWSPAPER WRITERS. 25
But the "Letters to the Printer" were usually grave enough—there was
not much flippancy in those troublous times, and the gentlemen of the
period seldom inked their ruffles unless they fancied they had something to
say. Thus, in this year, 1770, the burden of many letters was the shipment
of prohibited British goods to the province, the exposures made by the active
local committees, and the shufflings, evasions, final surrenders and humble
apologies of the harassed merchants, who, not willing to offend their powerful correspondents in London and Bristol, were under a still sterner necessity
to keep in the good graces of their fierce and truculent customers at home.
Some of these letters are very curious, and often the merchants, smarting
under a sense of loss, gave an epigrammatic turn and pungency to their
flying shafts; but the colonists had always the best of the argument, because
they could always send the cargoes back to England—no light matter,
when the profits on such shipments were ordinarily cent per cent.
The "patriots," too, were active, while the circle about Governor Eden
would not always leave their letters unanswered, and often excelled, as it
is permitted to the losing party to do, in the pungency of their replies.
Liberty and unity and persistent opposition to vicarious taxation are the
burden of the one side; the other sings the song of loyalty and allegiance
to the constitution of the empire. "A Patowmack Planter" replies to a
"Friend of Liberty;" "a Forrester" to him, while "a Buckskin" often
pricks pins into the " silk-stockings " of the aristocracy. " Y. Z.," who makes
it "a matter of conscience to do justice to merit," inscribes a copy of
verses to Miss Hallam, of Hallam & Henry's Company of American Actors,
on her performance of Imogen—
" Around her, see the Graces play,
See Venus' wanton Doves;
And in her Eye's Pellucid Ray,
See little laughing Loves.
Ye Gods! 'tis Cytherea's Face"—
and so on for a matter of twelve stanzas. Thus it was that our ancestors
of a hundred years ago amused themselves, thus mingled in public affairs,
thus wrote and thus replied.
In that day, the struggle with nature, which left man no leisure to
cultivate the arts and amenities of life, no longer absorbed the people of
the earlier settlements. The seat of that struggle had been removed to
a region far west of the Monocacy, where hardy pioneers, like Captain
in this city is noted of "Ufga Bratzki Csher- Passage, actually travelled, from the regions
nikow Tzetzetlu, a Samoied by Birth, Lama of around the Arctic Poles, by Land, to this Me-
the District of Ajuka in Muscovite Tartary, tropolis; where, encouraged by the Success
Fellow and Professor of Natural Philosophy which, He learns, a Brother-Adventurer has
and the Occult Science, in the Universities of lately met with, he proposes to exhibit, for the
Tobolski and Nastznifkoi in Siberia; who, after Entertainment of the Curious, some Specimens
many long and laborious Peregrinations through of his Skill, which, He humbly begs Leave to
almost every Country and Kingdom of Europe, say, are not in common''''—and so on for three
Asia and Africa, has, now, last, to the utter columns of pretty good fooling.
Confusion of all the Advocates for a Northwest
| Title | History of Maryland - 2 |
| Creator | Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas) |
| Publisher | J. B. Piet |
| Place of Publication | Baltimore |
| Date | 1879 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000050 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | NEWSPAPER WRITERS. 25 But the "Letters to the Printer" were usually grave enough—there was not much flippancy in those troublous times, and the gentlemen of the period seldom inked their ruffles unless they fancied they had something to say. Thus, in this year, 1770, the burden of many letters was the shipment of prohibited British goods to the province, the exposures made by the active local committees, and the shufflings, evasions, final surrenders and humble apologies of the harassed merchants, who, not willing to offend their powerful correspondents in London and Bristol, were under a still sterner necessity to keep in the good graces of their fierce and truculent customers at home. Some of these letters are very curious, and often the merchants, smarting under a sense of loss, gave an epigrammatic turn and pungency to their flying shafts; but the colonists had always the best of the argument, because they could always send the cargoes back to England—no light matter, when the profits on such shipments were ordinarily cent per cent. The "patriots," too, were active, while the circle about Governor Eden would not always leave their letters unanswered, and often excelled, as it is permitted to the losing party to do, in the pungency of their replies. Liberty and unity and persistent opposition to vicarious taxation are the burden of the one side; the other sings the song of loyalty and allegiance to the constitution of the empire. "A Patowmack Planter" replies to a "Friend of Liberty;" "a Forrester" to him, while "a Buckskin" often pricks pins into the " silk-stockings " of the aristocracy. " Y. Z.," who makes it "a matter of conscience to do justice to merit," inscribes a copy of verses to Miss Hallam, of Hallam & Henry's Company of American Actors, on her performance of Imogen— " Around her, see the Graces play, See Venus' wanton Doves; And in her Eye's Pellucid Ray, See little laughing Loves. Ye Gods! 'tis Cytherea's Face"— and so on for a matter of twelve stanzas. Thus it was that our ancestors of a hundred years ago amused themselves, thus mingled in public affairs, thus wrote and thus replied. In that day, the struggle with nature, which left man no leisure to cultivate the arts and amenities of life, no longer absorbed the people of the earlier settlements. The seat of that struggle had been removed to a region far west of the Monocacy, where hardy pioneers, like Captain in this city is noted of "Ufga Bratzki Csher- Passage, actually travelled, from the regions nikow Tzetzetlu, a Samoied by Birth, Lama of around the Arctic Poles, by Land, to this Me- the District of Ajuka in Muscovite Tartary, tropolis; where, encouraged by the Success Fellow and Professor of Natural Philosophy which, He learns, a Brother-Adventurer has and the Occult Science, in the Universities of lately met with, he proposes to exhibit, for the Tobolski and Nastznifkoi in Siberia; who, after Entertainment of the Curious, some Specimens many long and laborious Peregrinations through of his Skill, which, He humbly begs Leave to almost every Country and Kingdom of Europe, say, are not in common''''—and so on for three Asia and Africa, has, now, last, to the utter columns of pretty good fooling. Confusion of all the Advocates for a Northwest |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| B |
|
| C |
|
| G |
|
| H |
|
| M |
|
| T |
|
| U |
|
