Historical Tales Vol I American I - Charles Morris
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What is the purpose of the preface and opening remarks?
PREFACE it has become a commonplace remark that fact is often stranger than fiction it may be said as a variant of this that history is often more romantic than romance the pages of the record of man's doings are frequently illustrated by entertaining and striking incidents relief points in the dull monotony of everyday events stories fitted to rouse the reader from languid weariness and stir anew in his veins the pulse of interest in human life there are many such dramas on the stage of history life scenes that are pictures in action tales pathetic stirring enlivening full of the element of the unusual of the stuff the novel and the romance are made of yet with the advantage of being actual fact
Incidents of this kind have proved as attractive to writers as to readers. They have dwelt upon them lovingly, embellished them with the charms of rhetoric, and occasionally with the inventions of fancy, until what began as fact has often entered far into the domains of legend and fiction. it may well be that some of the narratives in the present work have gone through this process if so it is simply indicative of the interest they have awakened in generations of readers and writers but the bulk of them are fact so far as history in general can be called fact it having been our design to cull from the annals of the nations some of their more stirring and romantic incidents and present them as a gallery of pictures that might serve to adorn the entrance to the temple of history of which this work is offered as in some sense an illuminated antechamber as such it is hoped that some pilgrims from the world of readers may find it a pleasant halting-place on their way into the far-extending aisles of the great temple beyond
CHAPTER I. The year 1000 A.D.
was one of strange history. Its advent threw the people of Europe into a state of mortal terror. Ten centuries had passed since the birth of Christ. The world was about to come to an end. Such was the general belief. How it was to reach its end, whether by fire, water, or some other agent of ruin, the prophets of disaster did not say, nor did people trouble themselves to learn. Destruction was coming upon them. That was enough to know. How to provide against it was the one thing to be considered. Some hastened to the churches, others to the taverns. Here prayers went up, there wine went down. The petitions of the pious were matched by the ribaldry of the profligate. Some made their wills, others wasted their wealth in revelry, eager to get all the pleasure out of life that remained for them.
many freely gave away their property hoping by ridding themselves of the goods of this earth to establish a claim to the goods of heaven with little regard to the fate of those whom they loaded with their discarded wealth it was an era of ignorance and superstition christendom went insane over an idea when the year ended and the world rolled on, none the worse for conflagration or deluge, green with the spring leafage and ripe with the works of man, dismay gave way to hope, mirth took the place of prayer, men regained their flown wits, and those who had so recklessly given away their wealth, bethought themselves of taking legal measures for its recovery. Such was one of the events that made that year memorable.
There was another of a highly different character. Instead of a world being lost, a world was found. The old world not only remained unharmed, but a new world was added to it, a world beyond the seas, for this was the year in which the foot of the European was first set upon the shores of the transatlantic continent. It is the story of this first discovery of America that we have now to tell. in the autumn of the year one thousand in a region far away from fear-haunted europe a scene was being enacted of a very different character from that just described over the waters of unknown seas a small strange craft boldly made its way manned by a crew of the hardiest and most vigorous men driven by a single square sail whose coarse woollen texture bellied deeply before the fierce ocean winds which seemed at times as if they would drive that deckless vessel bodily beneath the waves
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the purpose of the preface and opening remarks?
0:01–22:42
2
How does the narrative describe the Viking discovery of America?
22:42–3:16:14
3
How did Elizabeth Zane and the defenders of Fort Henry repel the Indian siege?
3:16:14–5:21:50
4
What events triggered Paul Revere’s midnight ride and how did he evade capture?
5:21:50–5:58:14
5
How did Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys capture Fort Ticonderoga?
5:58:14–6:22:24
6
How did Samuel Morse and Ezra Cornell develop the telegraph system?
6:22:24–7:15:27
7
What were the key events in the Civil War battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack?
7:15:27–8:16:37
8
How did prisoners escape from Libby Prison during the Civil War?
8:16:37–8:36:27
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