Rare Book Monthly

Articles - October - 2003 Issue

The Dutch Dominie of the Catskills<br>By David Murdoch

Elmira in the 1890s

Elmira in the 1890s


Their cave was occupied at the time Teunis gazed down, by another race, whom the great Mohicans, in the days of Etan-o-quam, king of the rivers, would have despised. About sixty negroes of the jettest black, male and female, were assembled around a rough stone furnace stone furnace, about three feet high, which looked like one of those ancient alters at Baal, seen in the pictures of old Dutch Bibles. On the top burned a bright fire, fed by cones, gathered near the place. The heat and smoke diffused around; finding their way up to where Teunis lay, looking down upon the whole crew with curious amazement. They sat on their haunches in a circle around the fire; a man and a woman alternately, all naked to the waist. Their elbows rested on their knees, while they held out the palms of their hands, between their faces and the fire, as if to catch the heat and turn aside the blaze. In this posture they chanted some outlandish words, which were varied by a chorus, which came nearer to a squeaking of pigs than any sound the listener ever heard.” 94-95

Throughout the book there is a return to the suggested theme of satanic rituals – always practiced by Blacks, often enticing a few Whites to participate.
“When they had fairly run themselves down, they fell on the floor, rolling and screaming over each other, till they appeared actually like so many black hogs, with a few White ones among them, roused in their pen, when some thing disturbed them. Gradually they slackened down to a lowered key, but not less din. That was kept up in the night soon after the confusion of tongues tool place; for not a word could be distinctly distinguished till some one cried...” 280

America was on the edge of civil war. There were strong sentiments on both sides. Certainly this book seems intended to undermine northern sentiment to wage war to abolish slavery. The Blacks, as portrayed in this account, would not seem to merit the blood of an invading northern army.

“The festival table was the ground, raised as if a ditch had been dug round the knoll, into which the feet might be stowed away, and the edge of the bank used as seats. Many of them chose the flat places, squatting down on whatever was below them. There were at least fifty or sixty persons of the black population, with at least a dozen young Whites – sons of the farmers, whose low tastes led them to seek such frolics, where the animal propensities could be gratified unrestrained.” 367

Here the faithful Phoebe produced her liquor jug, well filled with strong waters of some kind, that had the usual effect upon human brains. All kinds of frolicking commenced, and some of a nature that could not be described without defiling my page. Savage nature came out in its most loathsome forms, such as we read of in histories of paganism at its feasts. Looking down upon them, Teunis saw the rolling and tumbling as if it had been the wiggling of black snakes, in a round pit. 368

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    Auction 54
    Books, Autographs & Manuscripts
    October 8th-10th 2024
    Gonnelli: Menù di gala per l'incoronazione di Nicola II Romanov e di Aleksandra Feodorovna. Moskva, 1896. Starting price 1000 €
    Gonnelli: Raccolta di 38 albumine, molte colorate a mano, di vedute della Cina, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Giappone e vari ritratti, 1880. Starting price 340 €
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    Gonnelli: Lucio Fontana. Milan: Achille Mauri, 1968. Starting price 400 €
    Gonnelli: Mucha Alphonse, Documents décoratifs, 1901-1902. Starting price 10000 €
    Gonnelli: Christie Agatha, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. A detective story. London: John Lane, 1921. Starting price 460 €
    Gonnelli: Alberti Leon Battista, Ecatonphyla. Venice: Bernardino da Cremona, 1491. Starting price 10000 €
    Gonnelli: Menabrea Luigi Federico, Sketch of the analytical engine invented by Charles Babbage Esq. London: Richard and John E. Taylor, 1843. Starting price 5000 €
    Gonnelli: Bardi Giovanni, Memorie del calcio fiorentino. Florence, 1688. Starting price 1000 €
  • Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: J. R. R. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. London, 1954-1955.FIRST EDITIONS, FIRST IMPRESSIONS, ALL IN THE EXTREMELY RARE FIRST STATE DUST JACKETS.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Francesco Fontana. Novae coelestium terrestriumque rerum observationes... Naples: Gaffari, 1646. FIRST EDITION. Contains the first observations of spots on the surface of Mars.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. London: Printed for W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1776. FIRST EDITION of “the first and greatest classic of modern economic thought” (PMM).
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Benjamin Franklin. Mémoires de la Vie Privée de Benjamin Franklin, écrits par lui-méme… Paris: Chez Buisson, 1791. FIRST EDITION OF FRANKLIN'S MEMOIRS IN THE PUBLISHER'S ORIGINAL WRAPPERS.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Samuel Johnson, Jr. A School Dictionary… New Haven, [Connecticut]: Edward O'Brien, [1798]. FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST DICTIONARY IN ENGLISH BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR, AN EXCEPTIONAL RARITY.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Joseph Smith, Jr. The Book of Mormon. Palmyra: Printed by E. B. Grandin, for the Author, 1830. FIRST EDITION.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Miguel de Cervántes Saavedra. El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Madrid: Joaquin Ibarra, 1780. THE BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED IBARRA EDITION.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: James Joyce. Ulysses. London: John Lane The Bodley Head, [1936]. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, SIGNED BY JOYCE. Designated a “Presentation Copy” in ink beneath Joyce’s signature.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: [Photoplay]. Delos W. Lovelace. King Kong. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, [1932]. FIRST EDITION of "a most sought after title" (Davis).
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon & Schuster, [1993]. 40th Anniversary Edition. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR TO HUGH HEFNER.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Neil Gaiman. Original manuscript for the "Neverwhere" BBC television miniseries. [London: Crucial Films, LTD., 1995-1996]. TYPESCRIPT "NEVERWHERE" WITH NEIL GAIMAN'S NOTES AND AMENDATIONS THROUGHOUT.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: [DICTIONARY]. Noah Webster. An American Dictionary of the English Language... New York, 1828. FIRST EDITION OF WEBSTER'S DICTIONARY, UNCUT IN THE PUBLISHER'S ORIGINAL BOARDS
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Stephen King. Full Dark, No Stars. Baltimore: Cemetery Dance Publications, 2010. WITH AN ORIGINAL TWO-PAGE COLOR ILLUSTRATION BY GLENN CHADBOURNE
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: George Orwell. Nineteen Eighty-Four. London: Secker & Warburg, 1949. FIRST EDITION, IN THE ORIGINAL DUST JACKET.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: H. G. Wells. The Time Machine: An Invention. London: William Heinemann, 1895 [but 1897]. With a SIGNED PHOTOGRAPHIC POSTCARD laid in.
  • Old World Auctions (Oct. 10): Lot 1. Rare First Edition of Oronce Fine Double-Cordiform World Map (1531) Est. $50,000 - $60,000
    Old World Auctions (Oct. 10): Lot 2. French Edition of "Rudimentum Novitiorum" with Woodcut Maps of the World and Palestine (1543) Est. $27,500 - $35,000
    Old World Auctions (Oct. 10): Lot 3. Complete Edition of Munster’s Cosmographia with over 100 Maps & Views (1560) Est. $32,500 - $40,000
    Old World Auctions (Oct. 10): Lot 4. Purchas' Important Collection of Voyages with 88 Maps, Including John Smith Map of Virginia (1625-26) Est. $55,000 - $70,000
    Old World Auctions (Oct. 10): Lot 5. Complete First Latin Edition of De Bry's "Grands Voyages," Parts I-IX (1590-1602) Est. $120,000 - $150,000

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