The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ponkapog Papers, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

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Title: Ponkapog Papers

Author: Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Release Date: March 18, 2006 [EBook #625]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PONKAPOG PAPERS ***

Produced by Judith Boss and David Widger

PONKAPOG PAPERS

By Thomas Bailey Aldrich

TO FRANCIS BARTLETT

THESE miscellaneous notes and essays are called _Ponkapog Papers_ not
simply because they chanced, for the most part, to be written within
the limits of the old Indian Reservation, but, rather, because there is
something typical of their unpretentiousness in the modesty with which
Ponkapog assumes to being even a village. The little Massachusetts
settlement, nestled under the wing of the Blue Hills, has no illusions
concerning itself, never mistakes the cackle of the bourg for the sound
that echoes round the world, and no more thinks of rivalling great
centres of human activity than these slight papers dream of inviting
comparison between themselves and important pieces of literature.
Therefore there seems something especially appropriate in the
geographical title selected, and if the author's choice of name need
further excuse, it is to be found in the alluring alliteration lying
ready at his hand.

REDMAN FARM, _Ponkapog_, 1903.

CONTENTS

LEAVES FROM A NOTE BOOK

ASIDES

TOM FOLIO

FLEABODY AND OTHER QUEER NAMES

A NOTE ON "L'AIGLON"

PLOT AND CHARACTER

THE CRUELTY OF SCIENCE

LEIGH HUNT AND BARRY CORNWALL

DECORATION DAY

WRITERS AND TALKERS

ON EARLY RISING

UN POETE MANQUE

THE MALE COSTUME OF THE PERIOD

ON A CERTAIN AFFECTATION

WISHMAKERS' TOWN

HISTORICAL NOVELS

POOR YORICK

THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER

ROBERT HERRICK

LEAVES FROM A NOTE BOOK

IN his Memoirs, Kropotkin states the singular fact that the natives of
the Malayan Archipelago have an idea that something is extracted from
them when their likenesses are taken by photography. Here is the motive
for a fantastic short story, in which the hero--an author in vogue or
a popular actor--might be depicted as having all his good q