Eli Whitney

“ His son, Eli Whitney, b. in New Haven, 20 April, 1836; d. in Hampton, Conn., 1 Oct., 1895, was graduated at Yale, and at Sheffield Scientific School, after which he studied chemistry and physics in the Universities of Heidelberg, Marburg, and Berlin. Prof. Blake was professor of chemistry in the University of Vermont (1867) ; professor of physics at Cornell (1868-'70) ; acting professor of physics at Columbia (1868-'9) ”

“ Ninian planted Christianity in Scotland, and founded a church to St. Martin in 397.
Whitman, Walt, the poet of “Democracy,” born in Long Island, U.S., of parents of mingled English and Dutch blood; was a large-minded, warm-hearted man, who led a restless life, and had more in him than he had training to unfold either in speech or act; a man eager, had he known how, to do service in the cause of his much-loved mankind; wrote “Leaves of Grass,” “Drum-Taps,” and “Two Rivulets” (1819-1892) .
Whitney, Eli, an American inventor, born in Massachusetts ”

“ Eli asked for the loan of some of his tools.
The careful carpenter did not wish to lend them.
He at last gave his consent in this way:—
The gentleman with whom Mr. Whitney boarded must promise to pay all the damages.
But he soon saw how skilful Mr. Whitney was.
He was surprised and said:
"There was one good mechanic spoiled when you went to college."
Mr. Whitney graduated in 1792.
[59] He was engaged by a gentleman in Georgia to teach his children.
It was on this journey to his new work that he met Mrs. Greene.
Mrs. Greene liked Mr. Whitney very much. ”

“ Bel Bree's simplicity went nigh to being a stronger battery of defense than any bristling of alarmed knowledge.
"No," said Morris Hewland. "Not there. It would not do for you, or her either. But I could give you a little home. I could take care of you all your life; all my life. And I would. I will never make a home for anybody else. I will be true to you, if you will trust me,—always. So help me God!"
He meant it; there was no dark, deliberate sin in his heart, any more than in hers; he was tempted on the tenderest, truest side of his nature, as he was tempting her. ”

“ Bel stopped first.
"It isn't half so funny as it sounds," she said. "It's part of the poetry; the rhyme's inside; it is to everything. We're human people: that's the way we get it."
And Bel went away, and stuffed the grouse, and grated her bread-crumbs, and sang over her work,—not out loud with her lips, but over and over to a merry measure in her mind,—
"Everything comes to its luck some day:
I've got chickens! What will folks say?"
"I'm solving more than I set out to do," Sin Scherman said to her husband. ”

“ Petty Persecution.—During their sojourn in the little Pennsylvania village, Joseph and Oliver suffered considerable annoyance at the hands of mischievous persons who, having no faith in their work and regarding it as a hoax, seemed bent upon rendering their situation as disagreeable as possible. Learning of their unpleasant situation, and desiring to help along the sacred task to which they were devoting themselves, Peter Whitmer, Sr., a farmer living at Fayette, Seneca County, New York, sent his son David with a team and wagon to bring them to the Whitmer home. ”

“ Whether they menaced still, she thought not; a voice she knew and trusted was in her ear; a grasp of loving strength sustained her; she was utterly secure.
So vividly she felt the presence—so warm and sure seemed that love and strength about her—that waking out of such pause of peace, before her senses recognized anything that was real without, she stretched her hands, as if to find it at her side, and her lips breathed a name—the name of Roger Armstrong.
Then she started to her feet. The kind, protecting presence faded back into her dream.
The horrible smoke, the scorching smell, were true. ”

“ I ain't ready to be put underground,—not yet awhile. Not even by way of going to heaven, every night; or as near as four flights can carry me."
"In the country they don't have cellar kitchens. And anyway, there's always a window, and a fire; and with things clean and cheerful, and some green thing growing for Cheeps to sing to, I'll do," said Bel. "You've got to begin with what there is, as the Pilgrim Fathers did."
Ray Ingraham could have told them, if she had been there this Wednesday evening, how Dot had begun. ”

“ She never stopped sewing, either.
Well,—he did not see those ten stitches! He might not have been the wiser if he had. They were not carpenter-work.
But Ray knew better than to pick them out, while her mother and Dot were by.
That next day was made for them.
Days are made for separate people, though they shine or storm over so many. Or the people are drifted into the right days; what is the difference?
I must stop for the thought here, that has to do with this question of rain and shine,—with need, and asking, and giving. ”

“ Bartholomew was quiet enough for a minute; he must have his cat-pleasure of crouching and creeping; he must wait till nobody looked. He knew very well what he was about. But the tail trembled still; the green eyes were still wild and eager.
"The kindlings are in the left-hand closet, you know," said Aunt Blin, with a big pin in her mouth, and settling her shoulders into her shawl. "You'll want to get the fire going as quick as you can."
Poor Bel turned away with a fearful misgiving; not for that very minute, exactly; she hardly supposed Bartholomew would go straight from the sermon to sin ”

“ And indubitably first in importance no less than in natural order is the great fact of his heredity. William Dwight Whitney was born, in 1827, at Northampton, Massachusetts, and in his veins flowed the best blood of a typical New England community, of the Dwights and the Hawleys,—heroes of the heroic age of Hampshire. His stock was remarkable for sturdy vigor, both of body and of intellect, and was in fact that genuine aristocracy which, if it be true to its traditions, will remain —as for generations it has been—one of the prime guarantees of the permanence of democracy in America. ”

“ Mrs. Jeffords was in the entry on the instant; surprised, puzzled, but all ready to be hospitable, to she didn't know whom. Relations from Indiana, as likely as not. That is the way people arrive in the country; and a whole houseful to stay over night does not startle the hostess as an unexpected guest to dinner may a city one.
But the persons who alighted from the clumsy stage-wagon were Mr. Christopher Kirkbright, Miss Euphrasia, and Desire Ledwith.
"Didn't you get our letter?" said Miss Euphrasia, as Sylvie, from her mother's door-way, saw who she was, and sprang forward. ”

“ Men, till something is accorded, are willing to take so little! And then the little must become so entire!
"Well, I declare!" exclaimed Mis' Battis, as Faith came in. "Who'd a thought o' seein' you home to tea! I s'pose you ain't had none?"
"Yes—no. That is, I don't want any. Where is my mother?"
"She and your pa's gone down to Dr. Wasgatt's. I knew 'twould be contrary to the thirty-nine articles that they should [Pg 109] get away from there without their suppers, and so I let the fire right down, and blacked the stove."
"Never mind," said Faith, abstractedly. "I don't feel hungry." ”

“ Only—we go down from here, don't we, Jeannie?"
"Yes. And a very good thing for you, too. You've been in the clouds long enough. I shall be glad to get you to the common level again."
"You've no need to be anxious. I can come down as fast as anybody. That isn't the hard thing to do. Let's go in, and get salt-fish and cream for our breakfast."
The Haddens were new to mountain travel; the Thoresbys, literally, were "old stagers;" they were up in the stable-yard before Mrs. Linceford's party came out from the breakfast-room. Dakie Thayne was there, too ”

“ The secret of this enduring influence is to be sought in Whitney's individuality; it is a secret of character. His was, indeed, an opportunity; he came in the fulness of time to find a new world waiting to be won for a new science; but the opportunity opened alike to all his generation. He alone measured up to it and mastered it. He laid his hand upon it, and it became achievement.
This he did through his absolute devotion, his singleness of purpose. He never sought his own; he never spared or coddled himself. If any man ever forgot himself in the service of Science, it was Whitney. ”

“ Seems to me people ain't living,—they are only just looking; or is this the same old Boston that you told about, and where are the real folks, mother?"
"We shall find them," said Mrs. Ripwinkley, cheerily; "and the real of these, too, when the outsides are settled. In the meantime, we'll make our house say, and not look. Say something true, of course. Things won't say anything else, you see; if you try to make them, they don't speak out; they only stand in a dumb show and make faces."
"That's looking!" said Hazel. ”

“ Bel replied most irrelevantly. She sat watching the fowls scratching around the barn-door.
"How different a rooster scratches from a hen!" said she. "He just gives one kick,—out smart,—and picks up what he's after; she makes ever so many little scrabbles, and half the time concludes it ain't there!—What was it you were saying? About mother? O, she don't want me! The trouble is, Aunt Blin, we two don't want each other, and never did." ”

“ There's a living in the world, and a way to earn it, besides clothes, and bread and butter. If you want it, you can choose your work nearest to where the living is. And wherever else it may or mayn't be, it is in houses, and round tea-tables like this."
"Other people's living,—for you to look at and wait on," said Elise. "I like to be independent."
"They can't keep it back from us, if they wanted to," said Bel. "And you can't be independent; there's no such thing in the world. ”

“ She's a study; and I set you to finding her out."
Last night, as he had told Miss Sampson, the family had been "frightened to death." He had found Faith sitting on the front stairs, at midnight, when he came in at a sudden summons. She was pale and shivering, and caught him nervously by both hands.
"Oh, doctor!"
"And oh, Miss Faithie! This is no place for you. You ought to be in bed."
"But I can't. Mother is all alone, except Mahala. And I don't dare stay up there, either. What shall we do?" ”

“ Eells has as fair a reputation for truthfulness as some other common mortals, he very kindly has simply charged the fault to Dr. Eells' memory thirty-six years after the memorable journey. I do not deny that the memory of aged people is sometimes treacherous as well as that of some of us who are younger; but whether it failed Dr. E. at this time must be decided after reading the following: In 1882 I published a pamphlet about Dr. Whitman, his journey East in 1842, and what he did to save Oregon and promote the immigration of 1843. I sent a copy of this to Gov. Evans. ”

“ Red Squirrel did not quite like the sudden coming face to face, as Sim reined up in a hurry just below the door, and Rodney had to pause and hold him in.
"A tellagrim for Mrs. Argenter," said Sim, seizing his opportunity, and speaking to whom it might concern. "Eighty cents to pay, and I 'blieve it's bad news."
"O, Mr. Sherrett, stop, please!" cried Sylvie, turning white in the dim light. "What shall I do? Won't you wait a minute, Miss Sherrett, until I see? Won't you come in again? Mother will be frightened to death, and I'm all alone."
"Jump out, Amy ”

“ I knew by her look that she wanted me to hear."
"If they want you to hear, why don't they ask you to sit down and hear comfortably?" said Elise Mokey, who had got her social science—with a little warp in it—from Boffin's Bower.
"Because it's my place to stand, at that time," said Bel, stoutly; "and I shouldn't be comfortable out of my place. I haven't earned a place like Mrs. Scherman's yet, or married a man that has earned it for me. There are proper things for everybody. ”

“ Such folks never has. You can't be smart and easy going too. 'Tain't possible. She's right-up-an'-a-comin', and she expects everybody else to be. But you like her, Bel; you know you do. You ain't goin' away for that. I won't have it that you are."
"I like her—yes;" said Bel, slowly. "I know she's smart. I mean to like her. I do it on purpose. But I don't love her, with a can't help it, you see. I feel as if I ought to; I want to have my heart go out to her; but it keeps coming back again. I could be happy with you, Aunt Blin, in your up-stairs room, with the blue milk out in the window-sill. ”

“ Sparrow, and yet with the same conscious shyness, as if she had been eighteen, and the poor old watchmaker twenty-one. Because, you see, she was a woman; and she had but been a woman the longer, and her woman's heart grown tenderer and shyer, in its unlived life, that she was four and fifty, and not eighteen. There are three times eighteen in four and fifty.
"O, Mr. Sparrow isn't any good!" cried Bel, impetuously. "If you wouldn't mind seeing whether Mr. Hewland is up-stairs?"
Miss Smalley did not mind that at all ”

“ When you have finished, somebody else may have a word to answer."
"I don't know as I could finish," said Bel Bree, "except by going and living it out. And that is just what I think we have got to do. I've said it before; the girls know I have; but I'm surer than ever of it now. Why, where does all the work come from, but out of the homes? I know some kinds may always have to be done in the lump; but there's ever so much that might be done where it is wanted, and everybody be better off. We want homes; and we want real people to work for ”