Fashion and Famine

There was not about her birth-place, A thicket, or a flower, But childish game, or friendly face, Had given it a power To haunt her in her after life, And be to her again, A swe...

Alone in one of the most sumptuous chambers of the Astor House, sat the man who had made an impression so powerful upon little Julia Warren that morning. Though the chill of tha...

In the basement of a rear building in one of those cross streets that grow more and more squalid as they stretch down to the water's edge, sat an aged couple, at nightfall, on t...

Like wild flowers on the mountain side, Goodness may be of any soil; Yet intellect, in all its pride, And energy, with pain and toil, Hath never wrought a holier thing Than Char...

My soul is faint beneath its unshed tears; The earth seems desolate amid its flowers; Oh, better far wild hope and racking fears, Than all this leaden weight of weary hours.

It is strange--nay, it is horrible--that so much of barbarism still lingers in the laws and customs of a free land. Without crime or offence of any kind, a person may be taken,...

Pen, ink, and paper lay upon the table. The curtains were flung back, admitting the broad sunshine that revealed more clearly than the usual soft twilight with which Leicester w...

We think to conquer circumstance, and sometimes win A hold upon events that seemeth power. But nothing stable waiteth upon sin; God holds the cords of life, and in an hour The s...

He was a man of simple heart, Patient and meek, the Christian part Came to his soul as came the air That heaved his bosom; hope, despair, Were chastened by a holy faith!-- Meek...

It had been a brilliant season in the fashionable world that year. Saratoga and Newport were perfect hot-beds of gaiety, splendor and trivial ambition. A thorough bred nobleman...

Overlooking one of those small parks or squares that lie in the heart of our city like tufts of wild flowers in a desert, stands one of those miniature palaces, too small for th...

Oh, I love an old-fashioned thanksgiving, When the crops are all safe in the barn; When the chickens are plump with good living, And the wool is all spun into yarn.

It was over at last. The saloon, the banquet hall, the conservatory, sleeping in the moonlight shed from many a sculptured vase--all were deserted; wax candles flared and went o...

"How do you do, madam? Anything in my way? Capital beets these--the most delicious spinach. Celery, bright and crisp enough to suit an alderman--sold five bunches for the supper...

Look not so haughtily, imperious dame; Chance digs the gulf that lies between us two: Mine is the open, yours the hidden shame; The vulture soars with me, but skulks with you.

Julia slept little during the night. The state of nervous terror in which she had been thrown, the shrinking dread which made her quail and tremble at the approach of her fellow...

Woman, thy haughty pride shall fall-- Thy very soul shall quake and quail. Those words are weaving shroud and pall, And truth itself may not avail. To save the life thy sin has...

Julia Warren mounted the stairs in wild haste, as the caged bird springs from perch to perch when terrified by strange faces. Then she paused in her fright, doubtful where to tu...

Little Julia Warren had given a very correct description of the house to which she had been so strangely conveyed. Grand, imposing, and unsurpassed for magnificence by anything...

It was decided that Julia and her grandmother should accompany Mrs. Gray at once to her old homestead on Long Island. They were about to leave the room, when Julia remembered, w...

If those who think that happiness exists only in those external circumstances that surround a man, could have seen old Mr. Warren in his prison, they would have been astonished...

Jacob Strong was alone in Mr. Leicester's chamber. His master had gone out hurriedly, and left the room in considerable disarray. Papers were scattered about loose upon the tabl...

Jacob stood upon the steps of that tall mansion, till his mistress disappeared in the darkness that filled it. His eyes followed her with an intense gaze, as if the fire smoulde...

With the gloom of a prison, above and around, He lay down at night, like a child to its sleep;-- His soul was at rest and his faith was profound, His anchor was strong and God's...

The day of trial came at last. Such cases are frequent in New York, and, unless there is something in the position or history of the criminal to excite public attention, they pa...

Leicester went to his room humming a tune as he moved along the passages. Soft and low the murmurs fell from his lips, like the suppressed cooing of a bird. Now and then he paus...

He was a man of simple heart, Patient and meek; the Christian part Came to his soul as came the air That heaved his bosom; hope, despair, Were chastened by a holy faith! Meek in...

The next morning, a carriage, one of the few superb equipages that give an air of elegance to Broadway, equal to that of any public drive I have yet seen, stopped at the corner...

When her heart was all dreary and burdened with fears, Hope came like a seraph and touched it with light, Like sunshine or rain-drops it kindled her tears Till they trembled lik...

Leicester went to the Astor House after his marriage, for though he had accepted an invitation to Mrs. Gordon's fancy ball, which was turning the fashionable world half crazy, m...

Mrs. Gray found more difficulty in performing her benevolent intentions with regard to the Warrens, than she had ever before encountered. Ignorant as a child of all legal procee...

The servant who sat waiting in the vestibule was startled by the hard, tearless misery of Ada's face, as she entered her own dwelling that night. He looked at her earnestly, and...

There had been a severe change in the weather since morning. The pure frosty air, that invigorated everything it touched, hardened toward night, into one of those cold storms--h...

Wine, wine for the heart, in its struggle of pride, And music to drown all this with'ring pain! The arrow, the arrow is deep in her side! Bring music and wine with their madness...

It was two nights after Thanksgiving. Leicester had thrown himself upon a couch in his chamber. A little sofa-table was by his elbow, and upon it a small and richly chased salve...

We take the reader once more to the residence of Ada Leicester--not as formerly, when the tempest raged around its walls, and darkness slept in its sumptuous rooms--when the wai...

Mrs. Gordon never appeared again in the gay world. The reason was a mystery that no one could explain. The rich furniture, the statues and pictures that had made her home a pala...

My tortured soul is sick, and every nerve Answers its promptings with an aching strain, Yet from my task I may not pause or swerve-- Rest is a curse, and every thought a pain.

The sentence was pronounced; the time of execution fixed. Each morning, as the prisoner awoke, he said to himself, another is gone; so many, and so many days are left. I dare no...

discredit upon a profession that I honor more than any other upon the broad earth. If I have succeeded, no human being can be more grateful than I shall be for the public opinio...