Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Thematic Connections
- Chapter One Charlotte Temple, A Tale of Truth (1791), entire work
- Chapter Two The Life of Washington; with Curious Anecdotes, Equally Honorable to Himself and Exemplary to His Young Countrymen (1800), selections
- Chapter Three American Tract Society, entire works (1825–Present)
- Chapter Four Awful Disclosures, by Maria Monk, of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery of Montreal (1836), selections
- Chapter Five The Illustrated Self- Instructor in Phrenology and Physiology (1840), selections
- Chapter Six A Treatise on Domestic Economy for the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School (1841), selections
- Chapter Seven The Quaker City: Or, The Monks of Monk Hall A Romance of Philadelphia Life, Mystery, and Crime (1845), selections
- Chapter Eight Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie (1847), entire work
- Chapter Nine Reveries of a Bachelor: Or, A Book of the Heart (1850), selections
- Chapter Ten Uncle Tom's Cabin; Or, Life Among the Lowly (1852), selections
- Chapter Eleven Ten Nights in a Bar- Room, and What I Saw There (1854), entire work
- Chapter Twelve Malaeska; The Indian Wife of the White Hunter (1860), entire work
- Chapter Thirteen Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Boot- Blacks (1868), entire work
- Chapter Fourteen Little Women, or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy (1868), selections
- Chapter Fifteen The Gates Ajar (1868), entire work
- Chapter Sixteen The Luck of Roaring Camp (1868), entire work John Jenkins, Or, the Smoker Reformed (1871), entire work
- Chapter Seventeen Ben- Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880), selections
- Chapter Eighteen The Hidden Hand: or, Capitola the Madcap (1888), selections
- Chapter Nineteen In His Steps. “What Would Jesus Do” (1896), selections
Chapter Sixteen - The Luck of Roaring Camp (1868), entire work John Jenkins, Or, the Smoker Reformed (1871), entire work
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Thematic Connections
- Chapter One Charlotte Temple, A Tale of Truth (1791), entire work
- Chapter Two The Life of Washington; with Curious Anecdotes, Equally Honorable to Himself and Exemplary to His Young Countrymen (1800), selections
- Chapter Three American Tract Society, entire works (1825–Present)
- Chapter Four Awful Disclosures, by Maria Monk, of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery of Montreal (1836), selections
- Chapter Five The Illustrated Self- Instructor in Phrenology and Physiology (1840), selections
- Chapter Six A Treatise on Domestic Economy for the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School (1841), selections
- Chapter Seven The Quaker City: Or, The Monks of Monk Hall A Romance of Philadelphia Life, Mystery, and Crime (1845), selections
- Chapter Eight Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie (1847), entire work
- Chapter Nine Reveries of a Bachelor: Or, A Book of the Heart (1850), selections
- Chapter Ten Uncle Tom's Cabin; Or, Life Among the Lowly (1852), selections
- Chapter Eleven Ten Nights in a Bar- Room, and What I Saw There (1854), entire work
- Chapter Twelve Malaeska; The Indian Wife of the White Hunter (1860), entire work
- Chapter Thirteen Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Boot- Blacks (1868), entire work
- Chapter Fourteen Little Women, or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy (1868), selections
- Chapter Fifteen The Gates Ajar (1868), entire work
- Chapter Sixteen The Luck of Roaring Camp (1868), entire work John Jenkins, Or, the Smoker Reformed (1871), entire work
- Chapter Seventeen Ben- Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880), selections
- Chapter Eighteen The Hidden Hand: or, Capitola the Madcap (1888), selections
- Chapter Nineteen In His Steps. “What Would Jesus Do” (1896), selections
Summary
There was commotion in Roaring Camp. It could not have been a fight, for in 1850 that was not novel enough to have called together the entire settlement. The ditches and claims were not only deserted, but “Tuttle's grocery” had contributed its gamblers, who, it will be remembered, calmly continued their game the day that French Pete and Kanaka Joe shot each other to death over the bar in the front room. The whole camp was collected before a rude cabin on the outer edge of the clearing. Conversation was carried on in a low tone, but the name of a woman was frequently repeated. It was a name familiar enough in the camp,— “Cherokee Sal.”
Perhaps the less said of her the better. She was a coarse and, it is to be feared, a very sinful woman. But at that time she was the only woman in Roaring Camp, and was just then lying in sore extremity, when she most needed the ministration of her own sex. Dissolute, abandoned, and irreclaimable, she was yet suffering a martyrdom hard enough to bear even when veiled by sympathizing womanhood, but now terrible in her loneliness. The primal curse had come to her in that original isolation which must have made the punishment of the first transgression so dreadful. It was, perhaps, part of the expiation of her sin that, at a moment when she most lacked her sex's intuitive tenderness and care, she met only the half- contemptuous faces of her masculine associates. Yet a few of the spectators were, I think, touched by her sufferings. Sandy Tipton thought it was “rough on Sal,” and, in the contemplation of her condition, for a moment rose superior to the fact that he had an ace and two bowers in his sleeve.
It will be seen also that the situation was novel. Deaths were by no means uncommon in Roaring Camp, but a birth was a new thing. People had been dismissed the camp effectively, finally, and with no possibility of return; but this was the first time that anybody had been introduced ab initio. Hence the excitement.
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- Bestsellers in Nineteenth-Century AmericaAn Anthology, pp. 853 - 864Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2016