William H. Elson and Christine Keck - "Elson Grammer School Literature, Book Four."

Arthur Conan Doyle - "The Last Galley Impressions and Tales"

Harry A. Lewis - "Hidden Treasures"

F. Jewell - "Little Abe"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Watch Yourself Go By

A >> Al. G. Field >> Watch Yourself Go By




In the early days of the "Smoky City," for such had become its nickname,
the residents were wont to sit for hours and gaze at the sun and sky;
this pleasure is denied residents in modern Pittsburgh. The only
knowledge they have that there are sun, moon and stars, is that which
Professor John Brashears (from Brownsville) supplies with his
astronomical instruments. Hurrah for Brownsville!

In those good old days there was no caste or class. On a Saturday
afternoon the entire populace would gather at Scotch Hill Market and on
Fifth Avenue at night.

Andy Carnegie knew every man who worked for him by his first name and
could be seen daily at the Bull's Head Tavern where the men always
stopped to open their pay envelopes.

The leaders of society were consistent. There were two balls each winter
and one picnic in summer. City Hall and Glenwood Grove were the scenes
of those gayeties.

Harry Alden, Mayor Blackmore, Chris Ihmsen, Tom Hughes, Major Maltby, N.
P. Sawyer, John O'Brien, Jimmy Hammill, Harry Williams, Major Bunnell,
John W. Pittock, Bill Ramsey and Dan O'Neil were the social, political
and business leaders of Pittsburgh in those days. No social function, no
political scheme, no public celebration from a wedding to a boat race
was successful without their active co-operation.

Ben Trimble, Harry Williams, Matt Canning and Major Bunnell controlled
all the theatres. Jake Fedder was the toll-taker at the Smithfield
Street bridge, a position second in importance only to that of mayor.

Those were happy days for Pittsburgh. Everybody had a skiff and fishing
was good anywhere. The suckers were all salmon in the river and you did
not have to go to lock number one to catch white or yellow perch. A
twine line could be bought at any grocery store. Sporting goods
emporiums had not taken over the fish hook industry.

Happy would Pittsburgh have been could it always have existed as in
those golden days. But communities, like humans, grow out of their
simplicity, encouraged or subdued by the successes or failures of life.

Alfred was in Pittsburgh again among friends whom he loved. Johnny Hart
had graduated from second cook on the tow boat Red Fox to stock comedian
at Trimble's Variety Theater. Harry Williams was the stage manager.
There was a place made for Alfred on almost every bill.

The Levantine Brothers, Fred Proctor, of Keith & Proctor, Harrigan &
Hart, Delehanty & Hengler, Joe Murphy, Johnson & Powers, and all the
famous artists of that time appeared at this house.

Alfred impersonated a wide range of characters while in this theatre.
Harry Williams, the stage manager, was an ideal "Mose" in the play of
that name. (It was the Saturday night bill for weeks.) Alfred made a big
hit as the newsboy, sharing honors with the star. He added new business
to the part weekly and was retained several weeks for the one
performance on Saturday night.

Alfred was engaged by Matt Canning, the manager of the Pittsburgh Opera
House. In those days all first class theatres employed a stock company;
the stars traveled alone, or at least with only a stage manager. The
manuscript of their plays, the scene and property plots were sent in
advance. The company studied their parts until the arrival of the star
when a grand rehearsal was gone through with. This was a strenuous day's
work, particularly if the star was a stickler.

Booth, Barrett, McCullough, Edwin Adams, Joe Jefferson, Jane Coombs and
many other noted stars appeared at the Pittsburgh Opera House and Alfred
had the honor of supporting all of them, by assisting in moving bureaus,
dressing cases, center tables, cooking stoves, bedsteads, bar fixtures
and other properties required in the plays, up and down stairs. However,
parts, and minor roles, were entrusted to Alfred. If the stock system
had continued it would be greatly to the advantage of the dramatic stage
of today. It made the actor, it proved the actor. He remained in the
ranks alone on his ability, impersonating many characters in one season.
His art broadened.

Actors do not compare with those of the olden days. This is true. We may
have a few actors as able as any that ever lived but the dramatic
profession in general has deteriorated since the combination system
superceded the stock company.

The stage has advanced in the authorship of plays and their production,
not in their rendition. The actors of today are not the students or
workers as were those of the earlier days, neither have they the
opportunities.

Alfred was entrusted with many roles not congenial to him; in those he
generally failed. In a society drama, appearing in evening dress, a
turn-down collar, a large red and white flowing tie, a huge minstrel
watch chain attached to his vest, he was reprimanded by Jane Coombs,
the star, in the presence of the company.

Another time he led a Roman mob costumed as a Quaker. John McCullough
laughed over this afterwards, but at the time, what he said cannot be
printed. When Joseph Jefferson appeared as Rip Van Winkle, in addition
to impersonating one of the villagers, Alfred was entrusted with the
task of securing children to take part in the play. The stage manager
advised the bashful children to make merry with Rip; that he was very
fond of children and would enjoy their familiarity. Whether it was the
shaggy beard or the assumed intoxication of Rip, a child refused to
clamber up on Rip's back. The stage was waiting; that the scene should
not be marred, seventeen year old Alfred attempted to perch himself on
Rip's back. It was not the Jefferson of later days but the Jefferson of
middle manhood. Alfred was dropped to the floor amid laughter that the
scene never evoked previously. Instead of the great actor being peeved,
he kindly inquired of Alfred if the fall had hurt him. As a matter of
fact Alfred purposely made the fall awkward.

Dick Cannon had a number of young friends--Billy Conard, Clarke Winnett,
Charley Smith, Billy Kane and Alfred. Dick had a large luxuriously
furnished room in the hotel. One evening each week he set apart to
entertain his young friends. To pass the time away Dick introduced a
game he had played a few times while tending lock at Rice's Landing. It
was a Greene County game, new to Fort Duquesne but universally popular
in Pittsburgh since. The game was known as "Draw Poker" in Greene
County.

After several lessons, in which Dick's courtesy and unusual interest in
his young friends was evidenced at the end of every deal, as Dick raked
in the pot with the air and manner of a learned professor of a college,
he explained to each player who had lost--and his lecture always
embraced the entire class, for when the pot justified it, they all
lost--just how they should have played their hand to win. "It's just as
important to learn how to lay 'em down as it is to play 'em up," was his
advice.

Alfred had failed, notwithstanding Dick's teachings, to learn even the
rudiments of the game, so he sought the dictionary. He had become
convinced that a person to be proficient should, as Dick advised in one
of his lectures, not only study the game but human nature as well.
Therefore, Alfred decided to start right. He found the word "draw"
signified "to drag, to entice, to delineate, to take out, to inhale, to
extend." The word "poker" signified any frightful object, a "spook."

[Illustration: The Old Greene County Game]

The echoes of Gideon's words were daily percolating through Alfred's
gray matter: "Don't know enough to quit the game when you got velvet in
front of you."

When questioned as to the cause of his absence from the weekly seance,
Alfred replied that, as he understood it, the object of Dick was to
teach and enlighten each in the class, and that he had thoroughly
mastered the mysteries of the game and he felt it was imposing on Dick
to take up his valuable time and devour his delicacies longer; Dick
should get a new class. "I'm graduated," concluded Alfred.

* * * * *

Alfred's connection with the drama was both pleasant and profitable. The
probabilities are that if a certain production had realized the hopes of
its authors, he would have continued in the dramatic line. It was the
beginning of that evolution of the stage that culminated in the
ascendency, for a time, of the melodrama.

A serial story under the title of "From Ocean to Ocean," then running in
Street & Smith's _New York Weekly_, was dramatized for J. Newton
Gotthold and in so far as the writer is informed it was Bartley
Campbell's first play. The play bore the title of "Through Fire." It was
a stirring drama, and both actor and author had high hopes of its
success.

J. K. Emmett, recruited from the minstrel ranks, had made himself
immensely popular, and wealth was rolling in on him. His vehicle "Fritz"
was a flimsy frame on which was hung Emmett's specialties.

Byron's phenomenal success in "Across the Continent" was achieved only
through his artistic ability. It was argued that J. Newton Gotthold, a
sterling actor, with a sterling play, was sure to attain success. Alfred
was engaged for the spring trial of the play; also the following season.

The opening occurred in Youngstown, a western city, so looked upon by
Pittsburghers in those days. After two nights in the west there would be
a week or two weeks in Pittsburgh.

Alfred, in addition to doubling the character of a young snob,
afterwards a quick gun-man, also led the Indians' attack on the wagon
train.

A number of supes were employed in Youngstown, husky young rolling mill
men of muscle and grit. Alfred, at the head of his Indian braves,
attacked the wagon train of emigrants; instead of the supes falling
back, as rehearsed, then charging forward, led by the star, they
pitched into Alfred and his Indians at the first rush. Alfred to save
the scene, fought valiantly to stem the tide of strength and sturdy
determination. But the supe pale-faces were too muscular for the copper
tinted braves whom Alfred led. In fact, at the first onslaught of the
whites the Indians, with the exception of one or two, fled and left
Alfred to battle alone.

Alfred was overpowered, completely vanquished--a blow between the eyes
laid him low. The Youngstown supes not only wiped up the stage with him
but they wiped their feet on him. The gallery howled, the down-stairs
applauded, the company laughed. The curtain fell amid loud applause.

Alfred was anxious to continue the conflict after the curtain dropped;
the supes were agreeable. But the stage manager, the stars and others of
the company interfered. The matter was amicably adjusted.

Alfred, although badly maimed, played his parts during the week's run in
Pittsburgh, although the war club he carried was not the imitation one
he wielded in Youngstown. However, there was no recurrence of the
Youngstown scene.

The play did not meet with success. After the Pittsburgh engagement it
was carefully laid away and thus Alfred was preserved to minstrelsy.

It is a curious fact that the only play Bartley Campbell ever wrote, a
play with the theme of which he was not in sympathy, written for
commercial purposes only, has lived longer and earned more money than
his most meritorious creations. We refer to "The White Slave." Who is
not familiar with those thrilling lines:

"Rags are royal raiment
When worn for virtue's sake."

Bartley Campbell was a self made man--from laboring in a brick-yard to
journalism, then a dramatist. He was a noble boy, a manly man. He toiled
patiently all the days of his only too brief life for those he loved.

* * * * *

It was in the early days of the beginning of that race for wealth that
has made Pittsburgh both famous and infamous. Jared M. Brush had been
elected mayor; Hostetter Stomach Bitters had become famous in all dry
sections of the country; Jimmy Hammill had won the single sculling
championship of the world; the Red Lion Hotel had painted the lion out
and painted St. Clair Hotel in gilt letters to attract trade from
Sewickley, which community, so near the Economites, had imbibed a sort
of religious fervor exhibited outwardly only. It was argued by the
proprietor that when the residents of Sewickley drove by on their way to
market to dispose of their garden truck, butter and eggs, they would be
attracted by the word "Saint." The St. Nicholas Hotel on Grant Street
always boarded the court jurors. The St. Charles on Wood Street had the
patronage of the Democrats of Fayette County. Brownsville people always
stopped at the Monongahela House.

The bleating sheep, the frolicking calves, the cackling hens, that had
been heard on the verdant ridges of Pennsylvania Road, had been crowded
to the rural district known later as East Liberty and Walls.

The log houses had given away to brick and frame dwellings owned by
those who occupied them. Doctor Spencer had opened a dental emporium on
Penn Street near the old ferry, then known as Hand Street, now Ninth.

Business was so good Joe Zimmerman had to paint his name upside down on
his store front near the union depot. The fact that this cigar store was
always crowded suggested the idea of another railroad for Pittsburgh. At
first it was contemplated building the road along the south or west bank
of the Monongahela, extending the road to, or beyond Brownsville.

Bill Brown then resided on Braddocks field, although he has repeatedly
and earnestly protested to the writer that he was not at home when
Braddock fell and did not hear of it for some time afterwards.
Therefore, it is hoped those who are not acquainted with Bill will not
connect him in any way with anything that happened to Braddock--the
general, not the village.

When Bill learned of the projected railroad he interested a number of
capitalists who owned coal land and town lots in Braddock. Hence, the
new road was built on Bill's side of the river. First, it was completed
to McKeesport. The opposition steamboat lines plying the river, (the
boats being much fleeter than the railroad), controlled the passenger
traffic.

When the projectors of the new railroad had this fact forced upon them
they abandoned the plan of building the road further up the Monongahela
than McKeesport. Surveying a route along the Youghiogheny River and
thence to Connellsville they announced that they would eventually build
to Uniontown and down Redstone Creek to Brownsville thus entering
Brownsville by the back door, as it were.

However, this change of route did not work as the railroad people hoped
for. The railroad carried a few passengers for Layton's Station, West
Newton and several settlements between McKeesport and Connellsville. All
travelers to McKeesport still patronized the boats, even those for West
Newton and Layton Station traveled on the boats to McKeesport, and
awaited the train to continue their journey.

The railroad people, dispirited and almost bankrupt, appealed to Brown
and his friends who had held out such glowing inducements to them to
build the road on their side of the river. An investigation of
conditions was ordered and Bill, with his usual good luck and influence,
appointed chairman of the investigating committee, with powers to expend
whatever amount was necessary to the investigation.

Bill made one trip on the railroad to Connellsville. Thereafter, he
spent the greater part of the beautiful autumn traveling up and down the
Monongahela, even as far up the river as Geneva, although the scope of
the investigation was to extend only as far as McKeesport.

The palatial side-wheel steamers were always crowded to the guards with
travelers. Many slept on cots in the cabins but Bill had the bridal
chamber. The mirrored bars employed a double shift of irrigators. They
were never closed except when the boats were moored at Pittsburgh, and
then Bill could always get in the back way. The food was bountiful;
stewed chicken for breakfast, turkey for dinner, fried chicken for
supper, and at night a poker game in the barber shop.

Again and again the railroad people requested a report from Bill but he
was busy investigating as to why the steam cars were running with empty
seats.

Finally notices were mailed to the railroad people, the superintendents
who were also the section foremen, that the chairman of the committee
was ready to report. They were requested to meet at Dimling's where Bill
often assembled himself.

[Illustration: Bill's Report]

Brown arose to read his elaborate report. He began by making a short
explanatory speech mostly devoted to the immense amount of labor
entailed upon him in the investigation. He thanked the railroad people
for the confidence they had placed in him. He deplored his lack of
ability and knowledge. In fact, in his talk he expressed such a
contemptuous opinion of himself that those present (country folks), from
Hazelwood and Port Perry were wrothy that they had entrusted Bill with
the mission and money to complete the investigation. They were ignorant
of the fact that the speech was one he had delivered to the members of
another body yearly when elected to the office of treasurer.

Bill then read his report. It dealt with the crowned heads of Europe,
the free traders of Pennsylvania, the populists of Kansas and Nebraska,
the government of Ancient Greece and the wars of the Romans. Of course
this had nothing to do with the subject under investigation but it
served to rattle and confuse those to whom the report was read and
impress them with the wide scope of the investigation.

The report referred in scathing terms to the unparalleled audacity of
the officers of the rival lines of steamers, more particularly the new,
or People's Line. That line had only two boats, the "Elector" and
"Chieftain," while the mail line had the "Fayette," "Gallatin,"
"Franklin," "Jefferson," "Elisha Bennett," and other boats.

Bill, like everybody on the inside, felt that the mail line would soon
absorb its rival and it was politic to be "in" with the stronger
corporation.

The report demanded that the runners for the boats be restrained from
soliciting passengers; that the steamboats be restrained from departing
on the scheduled time of the railroads. Thus, if the West Newton and
Layton Station passengers could not make connections at McKeesport, that
is, if the trains arrived prior to the boats, travellers would be
compelled to patronize the railroad.

He also compared the officers of the steamboat lines to the Gauls who
devastated Rome, the vandals who had over-run the fairest plains of
Europe. That part of the report ended with: "God forbid we live longer
under these conditions."

Having thus artfully worked up the feelings of those present, Bill gazed
over the assemblage with the air of a man who has gotten that which he
went after, and continued to read:

"After diligent research, entailing much traveling, including many trips
up and down the river at great expense including shoe-shining, your
committee has succeeded in evolving a plan whereby the Pittsburgh and
Connellsville Railroad may be able to control the passenger traffic on
its lines. And it is to be hoped that all concerned will take the proper
view of the matter and concur in the recommendations of the committee:
First, that all trains on the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad
(excepting when otherwise so ordered), be and are hereby ordered
equipped with an extra car, divided into three compartments, namely,
dining room, bar-room, and another room."

The chairman explained that the words "excepting when otherwise so
ordered" were inserted as a precautionary measure. "It might happen at
times that two cars, of the kind the committee recommended, might be
required."

After concluding his report the chairman carefully folded the paper,
placing it in his hat. Casting his eyes over the meeting he silently
waited for some one to say something to Dimling.

After the meeting adjourned, one man ventured to remark that Bill had
gone about the investigation like a colt approaching a brass band,
prancing and dancing, wrong end foremost.

Many were the written protests sent Bill. All these he ignored. He not
only refused to reply to them, but to emphasize his contempt, used them
for an unseemly purpose.




CHAPTER NINETEEN

Hang on! Cling on!
No matter what they say.
Push on! Work on!
Things will come your way.


"A person dunno till after they've fell intu a muddy ditch how meny
roads they cud a took an' kept out uf hit. But after ye've fell in the
mud a time ur tu an' then ye don't no enuf tu keep outen hit, ye ain't
much; ye're only gettin' muddy an' not larnen eny sense, an' thar ain't
much hope fur ye." This was Lin's answer to Alfred's declaration that he
would never go out with another show unless it was first class.

If there ever lived a boy who has not experienced the feelings that must
come to a rooster that has been in a hard battle and lost the greater
part of his tail feathers, he is one who has never looked over his
record and endeavored to rub out the punk spots. There are but few boys
who have not an exaggerated ego, and it is well that they are so
constituted, they will better battle with the rebuffs and the
disappointments that youth always walks into.

If a boy is lacking in confidence--conceit is confidence increased in a
boy; conceit is ignorance in a man. Conceit renders a man so cock-sure
that he ignores advice.

The first thing for which a boy should be operated upon is an
overdeveloped bump of self-conceit. The earlier in life this
protuberance is punctured the more quickly he will become useful to
himself and family. It often requires several operations to effect a
cure.

Over-zealous friends are responsible to an extent for the failure of
many promising young men. Many persons regard exaggerated praise
necessary to the advancement of youth. A boy entering almost any
profession or trade can be unfitted for his labors by fulsome
flattering.

Alfred's best friends filled him with the false idea that he was a great
actor, that he was being abused and thwarted. Had his friends been
sincere, he could have side stepped many stiff punches that he walked
straight into. Most fortunate is the boy who gets knocked through the
ropes early in the bout of life; his youth will enable him to come back
the stronger.

The King Solomon of showmen, P. T. Barnum, the father of fakes,
originated the "Gift Show"--the giving of presents to all who purchased
tickets of admission. Everybody received a prize. Several hundred of the
prizes were of little value. There was one that was valuable: a gold
watch and chain, a diamond pin or other article of jewelry, was
generally the capital prize as it was designated.

People flocked to Barnum's museum to win the capital prize; Barnum
reaped a harvest. Of course the idea of the "Gift Show" was immediately
taken up by ignorant imitators who are always quick to appropriate the
ideas of others. Numerous magicians were soon touring the country with
their alluring advertisements promising presents far exceeding in value
the receipts of the theaters in which they appeared, even though the
prices of admission were doubled.

The circus concert adopted the "Gift Show" scheme, and when a circus
side-show, or concert, adopts an innovation of this character, it is
safe to wager that the yokel will "get his" good and plenty.

The "Gift Show" idea was worked so successfully that the numerous
jewelry concerns that had sprung up in Maiden Lane and on the Bowery
could not fill the orders for the brass ornaments required to supply the
enterprises distributing them.

Everybody got a prize; there were no blanks. Alfred and another boy,
George, did the distributing act. Stationed on either side of the stage,
they received the tickets. Pretending to look at the number, they handed
the prize out. Alfred had four packages of prizes; he was ordered to
alternate. First a lady's breast pin, then a gent's collar button, then
a stud, then a finger ring. The capital prize the boss awarded in
person.

Since the days of Barnum's "Gift Show," no "sucker" has ever seen the
capital prize except when the proprietor of the "Gift Show" was not
looking.

The "Gift Show" man usually placed the capital prize in the show window
of a prominent store. Everyone who bought a ticket hoped to capture the
capital prize. The "Gift Show" always fixed the landlord of the hotel or
some man about town to draw the capital prize, returning it to the "Gift
Show" manager afterwards. It is amazing the many who were willing to
play the part of capper in this game.

After a number of tickets were presented and not less than a peck of the
cheap presents distributed, the capper would pass up his ticket, and the
boss proclaim in a loud tone: "Four hundred and sixty-two wins the
capital prize, a solid silver tea set." The plate was set out on a table
covered with a black velvet cloth to brighten the appearance of the
ware.

"If the gentleman prefers we will gladly pay him one hundred and
seventy-five dollars in gold for his ticket." The money counted out to
him in the presence of the gaping multitude whetted everybody's desire
to win the capital prize. The following night the hall was crowded
again.

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