Tea at Trianon: The New York Blizzard of 1899

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, January 10, 2010

The New York Blizzard of 1899

What a difference a century can make. Share

2 comments:

Celticlady's Reviews said...: I grew up in Milwaukee and I do remember snowstorms like this...Having to shovel tunnels to get to the street... and we complain now when we get a dusting. Although not me because I like the winter.. and I now live in Northern Wisconsin and it is supposed to snow here....
Have a great day!!; January 10, 2010 at 12:59:00 PM EST
Anonymous said...: Where I live the school closings start being announced the night before if there is threat of a dusting. I know someone from one of the Dakotas and she relates a story of being taken to school in a horse drawn sled where her father would have them lie down and cover them with blankets. it seems Schools do not close so readily in that area. (By the way, this did not take place during the horse and buggy era, it was just easier for a sled to get through the snow in those days before 4 wheel drive.); January 10, 2010 at 4:54:00 PM EST