... automatically, worn out by the gloomy day and by the perspective of a sad tomorrow, I put in my mouth a spoonful of tea in whi...ch I had softened a piece of the madeleine.... A delicious pleasure overtook me, isolated, disconnected from any idea about its cause. It immediately made life's vicissitudes indifferent to me, life's disasters became innocuous, its brevity illusory, in the same way that love operates, filling me with a precious essence: or, rather, this essence was not in me, it was me.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
At the Denver House, a hastily erected log structure roofed and partitioned with canvas, described by Horace Greeley in 1859 as "T...he Astor House of the Gold Fields," orchestra leader Jones and his spirited men were interrupted by sporadic but not unforeseen bursts of gunfire that sent them diving for shelter behind a low iron-plated enclosure. Before the smoke had fairly cleared away, they were up again desperately playing and singing: Ha, boys, ho! Ain't you glad you're out of the wilderness, Ain't you glad you're out of the wilderness? Ha, boys, ho!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I was not unemployed in my profession by the late John Jacob Astor; a name which, I admit, I love to repeat, for it hath a rounded... and orbicular sound to it, and rings like unto bullion.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It was somewhere in the '70's that the fiend gossip came into New York society to stay. The first newspaper outburst that I rememb...er was after the Beecher trial, which was a terrible beginning. Then the papers began with attacks upon women. There were stories of kleptomaniacs, and of a young and fashionable man who had stolen his cousin's ring at a dinner-party, etc., etc. None of this sort of story was allowed at the dinner of Mrs. Astor, Mrs. Belmont, or Mrs. Fish. I can imagine the fine face of the latter freezing into marble had any one opened such a door of Bluebeard's closet in her stately presence.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Napoleon wanted to turn Paris into Rome under the Caesars, only with louder music and more marble. And it was done. His architects... gave him the Arc de Triomphe and the Madeleine. His nephew Napoleon III wanted to turn Paris into Rome with Versailles piled on top, and it was done. His architects gave him the Paris Opera, an addition to the Louvre, and miles of new boulevards.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The more one knows of our life the more one must denounce it, lest it be suspected that one has a personal motive in defending it.... When other women speak of us you must assume an attitude of scorn, not only to protect yourself from suspicion, but that you may also feel it for yourself and have no temptation to return. When you think of us do not remember any small kindness that we may have shown you or that we show to one another. Remember only the things that have shocked you and outraged your traditions and your sense of decency. Remember your sufferings at the hands of beasts who are miscalled men. If you keep these things in view you will never again fall into temptation.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Why, since man and woman were created for each other, had He made their desires so dissimilar? Why should one class of women be ab...le to dwell in luxurious seclusion from the trials of life, while another class performed their loathsome tasks? Surely His wisdom had not decreed that one set of women should live in degradation and in the end should perish that others might live in security, preserve their frappeed chastity, and in the end be saved.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The process of education in the oldest profession in the world is like any other educational process, in that it requires time and... effort and patience; it can only be acquired by taking one step at a time, though the steps become accelerated after the first few.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
'Society' in America means all the honest, kindly-mannered, pleasant- voiced women, and all the good, brave, unassuming men, betwe...en the Atlantic and the Pacific. Each of these has a free pass in every city and village, 'good for this generation only,' and it depends on each to make use of this pass or not as it may happen to suit his or her fancy.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It was the feeling of a passenger on an ocean steamer whose mind will not give him rest until he has been in the engine-room and t...alked with the engineer. She wanted to see with her own eyes the action of primary forces; to touch with her own eyes the action of primary forces; to touch with her own hand the massive machinery of society; to measure with her own mind the capacity of the motive power. She was bent upon getting to the heart of the great American mystery of democracy and government.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »