Nothing To Eat (Illustrated) E-Book

Horatio Alger

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Nothing To Eat.Not by the Author of "Nothing to Wear."The ArgumentTHOUGH famine prevails not at all in the city;Though none of starvation have died in the street;Yet many there are now exciting our pity,Who're daily complaining of nothing to eat.The every-day cry and the every-day fare,That's every day heard where the Livewells are dining,Is nothing to eat, or else nothing to wear,Which naked and starving rich Merdles are whining.There's Kitty Malone-Mrs. Merdle 'tis now-Was ever on earth here before such a sinner;Protesting, excusing and swearing a vow,She'd nothing worth eating to give us for dinner.Why Kitty, if starving for want of a meal,And had'nt a cent in the world to buy meat,You wouldn't exclaim with a more pious zeal,"I'm dying of hunger-we've nothing to eat!!"The Proof-the Queen of FashionHoratio Alger, Jr. (January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899) was a prolific 19th-century American author, best known for his many juvenile novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty. His writings were characterized by the "rags-to-riches" narrative, which had a formative effect on America during the Gilded Age. Alger's name is often invoked incorrectly as though he himself rose from rags to riches, but that arc applied to his characters, not to the author. Essentially, all of Alger's novels share the same theme: a young boy struggles through hard work to escape poverty. Critics, however, are quick to point out that it is not the hard work itself that rescues the boy from his fate, but rather some extraordinary act of bravery or honesty, which brings him into contact with a wealthy elder gentleman, who takes the boy in as a ward. The boy might return a large sum of money that was lost or rescue someone from an overturned carriage, bringing the boy—and his plight—to the attention of some wealthy individual. It has been suggested that this reflects Alger's own patronizing attitude to the boys he tried to help.

Leseprobe

Horatio Alger, Thomas Chandler Haliburton

Nothing To Eat (Illustrated)

BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

The Argument

THOUGH famine prevails not at all in the city;

Though none of starvation have died in the street;

Yet many there are now exciting our pity,

Who're daily complaining of nothing to eat.

The every-day cry and the every-day fare,

That's every day heard where the Livewells are dining,

Is nothing to eat, or else nothing to wear,

Which naked and starving rich Merdles are whining.

There's Kitty Malone--Mrs. Merdle 'tis now--

Was ever on earth here before such a sinner;

Protesting, excusing and swearing a vow,

She'd nothing worth eating to give us for dinner.

Why Kitty, if starving for want of a meal,

And had'nt a cent in the world to buy meat,

You wouldn't exclaim with a more pious zeal,

"I'm dying of hunger--we've nothing to eat!!"

The Proof--the Queen of Fashion

The point I advance, if it need confirmation,

I'll prove by a witness that few will dispute,

A pink of perfection and truth in the naion

Where fashion and folly are all of a suit.

'Tis "Merdle the banker"--or rather his wife,

Whose fashion, religion, or music, or dress,

Is followed, consulted, by many through life,

As pilots are followed by ships in distress;

For money's a pilot, a master, a king,

Which men follow blindly through quicksands and shoals,

Where pilots their ships in a moment might fling

To destruction the vessel and cargo and souls.

'Twas money made Kitty of fashion the queen,

And fortune oft lends queens the scepter;

So fortune and fashion with this one we've seen

Her money and fortune in fashion has kept her;

While slaves of the queen with her hoops rules the day,

Expanding their utmost extent of expansion,

And mandates of fashion most freely obey,

And would if it bid all their souls to extinction.

The Object aimed at.

But what "lady patron" as queen holds the sway;

Or sweeping, whose hoops in the street are most sweeping;

The burthen is not of this truth-telling lay,

That should in its reading the world set to weeping,

While telling the suff'rings from head to the feet,

Of poor human beings with _nothing to eat_.

What another Poet did.

Another expounder of life's thorny mazes

Excited our pity at fortune's hard fare,

And troubled the city's most troublesome places,

While singing his ditty of "Nothing to Wear."

"A tale worth the telling,"' though I tell for the same,

Great objects of pity we see in the street,

"With nothing to wear, though a legion by name,

Is not to buy clothing, but something to eat.