登陆注册
5391100000060

第60章 FROM THE MERRIMACK TO THE MISSISSIPPI(1)

THE years between 1835and 1845,which nearly cover the time Ilived at Lowell,seem to me,as I look back at them,singularly interesting years.People were guessing and experimenting and wondering and prophesying about a great many things,--about almost everything.We were only beginning to get accustomed to steamboats and railroads.To travel by either was scarcely less an adventure to us younger ones than going up in a balloon.

Phrenology was much talked about;and numerous "professors"of it came around lecturing,and examining heads,and making charts of cranial "bumps."This was profitable business to them for a while,as almost everybody who invested in a "character"received a good one;while many very commonplace people were flattered into the belief that they were geniuses,or might be if they chose.

Mesmerism followed close upon phrenology;and this too had its lecturers,who entertained the stronger portion of their audiences by showing them how easily the weaker ones could be brought under an uncanny influence.

The most widespread delusion of the time was Millerism.A great many persons--and yet not so many that I knew even one of them--believed that the end of the world was coming in the year 1842;though the date was postponed from year to year,as the prophesy failed of fulfillment.The idea in itself was almost too serious to be jested about;and yet its advocates made it so literal a matter that it did look very ridiculous to unbelievers.

An irreverent little workmate of mine in the spinning-room made a string of jingling couplets about it,like this:--"Oh dear!oh dear!what shall we do In eighteen hundred and forty-two?

"Oh dear!oh dear!where shall we be In eighteen hundred and forty-three?

"Oh dear!oh dear!we shall be no more In eighteen hundred and forty-four,"Oh dear!oh dear!we sha'n't be alive In eighteen hundred and forty-five."I thought it audacious in her,since surely she and all of us were aware that the world would come to an end some time,in some way,for every one of us.I said to myself that I could not have "made up"those rhymes.Nevertheless we all laughed at them together.

A comet appeared at about the time of the Miller excitement,and also a very unusual illumination of sky and earth by the Aurora Borealis.This latter occurred in midwinter.The whole heavens were of a deep rose-color--almost crimson--reddest at the zenith,and paling as it radiated towards the horizon.The snow was fresh on the ground,and that,too,was of a brilliant red.Cold as it was,windows were thrown up all around us for people to look out at the wonderful sight.I was gazing with the rest,and listening to exclamations of wonder from surrounding unseen beholders,when somebody shouted from far down the opposite block of buildings,with startling effect,--"You can't stand the fire In that great day!"It was the refrain of a Millerite hymn.The Millerites believed that these signs in the sky were omens of the approaching catastrophe.And it was said that some of them did go so far as to put on white "ascension robes,"and assemble somewhere,to wait for the expected hour.

When daguerreotypes were first made,when we heard that the sun was going to take everybody's portrait,it seemed almost too great a marvel to be believed.While it was yet only a rumor that such a thing had been done,somewhere across the sea,I saw some verses about it which impressed me much,but which I only partly remember.These were the opening lines:--"Oh,what if thus our evil deeds Are mirrored on the sky,And every line of our wild lives Daguerreotyped on high!"My sister and I considered it quite an event when we went to have our daguerreotypes taken just before we started for the West.

The photograph was still an undeveloped mystery.

Things that looked miraculous then are commonplace now.It almost seems as if the children of to-day could not have so good a time as we did,science has left them so little to wonder about.Our attitude--the attitude of the time--was that of children climbing their dooryard fence,to watch an approaching show,and to conjecture what more remarkable spectacle could be following behind.New England had kept to the quiet old-fashioned ways of living for the first fifty years of the Republic.Now all was expectancy.Changes were coming.Things were going to happen,nobody could guess what.

Things have happened,and changes have come.The New England that has grown up with the last fifty years is not at all the New England that our fathers knew.We speak of having been reared under Puritanic influences,but the traditionary sternness of these was much modified,even in the childhood of the generation to which I belong.We did not recognize the grim features of the Puritan,as we used sometimes to read about him,in our parents or relatives.And yet we were children of the Puritans.

Everything that was new or strange came to us at Lowell.And most of the remarkable people of the day came also.How strange it was to see Mar Yohannan,a Nestorian bishop,walking through the factory yard in his Oriental robes with more than a child's wonder on his face at the stir and rush of everything!He came from Boston by railroad,and was present at the wedding at the clergyman's house where he visited.The rapidity of the simple Congregational service astonished him.

"What?Marry on railroad,too?"he asked.

Dickens visited Lowell while I was there,and gave a good report of what he saw in his "American Notes."We did not leave work even to gaze at distinguished strangers,so I missed seeing him.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 蒋勋说文学:从《诗经》到陶渊明

    蒋勋说文学:从《诗经》到陶渊明

    先秦、汉魏、两晋时期的文学,是中国文学逐渐成熟的阶段,是一幅幅陶冶性灵、崇尚自然,充满激情的生活画卷,它们的美满溢着情窦初开、浪漫忧思、风骨铮铮,为后世的文学树立了不同的典范。
  • 晚安我的自闭王子

    晚安我的自闭王子

    “现在开始,你不能丢下我。”我无语地望着眼前冰冷却又固执的大帅哥,嘴角抽了抽,勉强笑道:“我的大少爷,你今天又没吃药?”天啊,谁能告诉我,为什么大暑假的,我钟原希会来照顾这样一个大脑不健全还患有自闭症的男生?虽然他长得很帅……而且,为毛他要跟我一起上学?我的天……顾寒的手轻轻地梳着我的头发,温柔地望着我,嘴里的话却让我胆寒:“你说,你是要跟我在一起,还是和那个傻子?”我知道,我若是选错了,他肯定不会放过我……一个自闭症,一个笑面虎,我知道,我今后的生活,肯定会充满了‘乐趣’,我的盛世青春,即将开始!【这是一个关于友情和爱情的混乱故事……】
  • 我有一座地狱场

    我有一座地狱场

    滋……滋……欢迎进入……地狱场!玉兔:“呜呜呜,好阔怕,我不玩儿了。”周星拎着兔子的两只耳朵:“不玩?你钱都花了,不玩怎么行!”悟空吓得毛都竖起来了:“场主,我要退出。”周星淡淡道:“可以,把你身上的一件贵重物品给我。”白雪公主瑟瑟发抖:“天呀,我的冒险路线怎么还没完,场主你没骗我啵?”周星拿着手机一边直播一边说:“加量不加价,你还有什么不满意的?”
  • 等你,余生为期

    等你,余生为期

    作为一个独立,勇敢,却又不失温婉和智慧的芊芊女子,清风在竞争激烈的职场、在有失望也有憧憬的爱情生活里,越是憧憬,越要风雨兼程。冷静深沉、一手栽培她的上司——会计师事务所合伙人邓云生对她说,你知道,这些年,假装不喜欢一个人,有多难。热情炽烈,执着耐心的吕悦对她说,像你这样的姑娘,我不想总是拿不到号。你知道我在等你吗?清风徐来,水波不兴。铭心刻骨,就要一意孤行。等你,静待花开,等你,余生为期。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 仙家奇兵传

    仙家奇兵传

    诗诗、龙龙和壮壮来到圣湖湾森林度假,邂逅一只邪恶的兔子。它在神不知鬼不觉中,为他们打开了仙家精灵世界的大门。原本过着和谐生活的仙家乐国,因为黑魔妖的归来而惨遭涂炭。诗诗阴差阳错变身为仙家乐国的女王,她不得不扛起带领仙家奇兵抗击黑魔妖的重任。而现实世界中,贪婪的黑胡子来势汹汹,要霸占大森林,一场圣湖湾森林的保卫战随即找响。三个英雄少年在现实与幻想世界之间穿行,他们能守护住美丽的自然家园吗?
  • 核潜艇科技知识(上)(青少年必知的舰艇航母科技)

    核潜艇科技知识(上)(青少年必知的舰艇航母科技)

    不论什么武器,都是用于攻击的工具,具有威慑和防御的作用,自古具有巨大的神秘性,是广大军事爱好者的最爱。特别是武器的科学技术十分具有超前性,往往引领着科学技术不断向前飞速发展。
  • 如果风会划伤你

    如果风会划伤你

    得不到和拥有着然后失去了,哪一个会更痛一些呢?如果是18岁之前的琉心,会坚定地选择前者,如果是18岁之后的琉心,可能会犹豫一番,选择后者。而如果你问18岁的琉心这个问题,她会苦涩的反问你:“痛,是什么感觉?”琉心便是这样的人。18岁那年,琉心的世界分崩离析,近乎失去了一切。在别人看来,琉心高冷到让人敬而远之。却很少有人知道,她只是害怕了那种被赠予之后再夺去的感觉。琉心一度认为,她这一辈子,应该会无依无靠,孤独到老。然而十八岁这年,她的生命里,却出现了一个特别的人,狠狠的撕开了她这些年苦苦支撑的防线。亲情,友情,她都失去了。这次是爱情吗?是不是也可以试着去相信一次呢?相信不会再失去,亲爱的魔术师先生。
  • 做高效能管理者:管理者应该向狼学习的9条管理哲学

    做高效能管理者:管理者应该向狼学习的9条管理哲学

    在当今社会,企业的生存环境日趋恶劣,如同狼的生存环境一样,竞争不断,险象环生,别说发展,就连最起码的生存都不再脊易 那么对于企业管理者来说,到底该如何应对呢?
  • 冷面总裁宠娇妻

    冷面总裁宠娇妻

    他回头,看到拉着他的是她。“不要走,我不要一个人在这里。”她呓语着,睁开了朦胧的眼睛,美眸中泛着泪花和迷离之色,她的眼睛很漂亮,但此时却像是受惊的小鹿般看着他依赖着他。“我必须走,你还小,若我不走,你会被人说闲话。”男人乍看之下是个妖冶的美男,可此时却不妖冶,俊美的脸上挂着一丝关切。“不要,我不怕被人说闲话,留下来陪我好不好?”……
  • 投资大师讲的理财课

    投资大师讲的理财课

    不是每个人都能成为理财的高手。理财高手是需要从多方面进行培养的。首先要懂得思维决定财富的道理,理财中一定要知道“你可以跑不赢刘翔,但你必须跑赢CPI(居民价格消费指数)”的道理;要善于把握理财技巧,让自己真正品尝到经济增长给我们带来的果实;要想成为理财高手就不能懒惰,懒惰的人只能是第三个仆人,永远发不了大财;想做掌握了80%的财富的那20%的人中的一分子吗?那就要学会理财;要懂得让钱生钱,不要让钱躺在银行里睡大觉。