Out from Behind this Mask

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— Image citations:  at bottom of post, include a line that says (Image credit:  Site Name) — a nd make “Site Name” a link to the webpage on which you found the image

— Insiders and Outsiders NYC

Insiders
Philip Hone — describing the Great Fire of 1835 — burned down printing houses — forced WW to move back to L.I. and begin short-lived teaching career.

Hone’s son — NYC commerce

Outsiders

Charles Dickens

Dickens visits 1842

— compares NYC to Boston — faded town.  p. 51
— Tombs — surprised by condition of the prisoners.  Suicides.  lack of exercise.  dark.
— pigs — comparing the pigs to people —

“He is in every respect a republican pig, going wherever he pleases, and mingling with the best society, on an equal, if not superior footing, for everyone makes way when he appears, and the haughtiest give him the wall, if he prefer it. He is a great philosopher, and seldom moved, unless by the dogs before mentioned. Sometimes, indeed, you may see his small eye twinkling on a slaughtered friend, whose carcass garnishes a butcher’s door-post, but he grunts out “Such is life: all flesh is pork!” buries his nose in the mire again, and waddles down the gutter: comforting himself with the reflection that there is one snout the less to anticipate stray cabbage stalks, at any rate.”

— America as dirty, uncivilized

Who is Dickens’ audience for this travelogue?  How these passages about the Tombs and pigs compare to his descriptions of colorful clothing and bright colors on Broadway

Dickens’s tone — condescending — interview with Tombs guard

How did Whitman deal with the pigs?

— pp. 92-3 —

“Why what have you thought of yourself?

Is it you then that thought yourself less?

Is it you that thought the President greater than you? or the rich better off than you? or the educated wiser than you?

Because you are greasy or pimpled—or that you was once drunk, or a thief, or
diseased, or rheumatic, or a prostitute—or are so now—or from frivolity or
impotence—or that you are no scholar, and never saw your name in print . . . .
do you give in that you are any less immortal?”
— Weren’t there slums in England?  Why would Dickens be so harsh about NYC slums when London had similar slums?

Fanny Kemble

Edgar Allan Poe

Frances Trollope