Chapter 10

“Rucksack | Definition of Rucksack in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/rucksack.

Our American Cousin is a play in three acts by Tom Taylor. The play is a farcical comedy whose plot is based on the introduction of an awkward, boorish American to his aristocratic English relatives. It premiered at Laura Keene’s Theatre in New York City on October 15, 1858.The play’s most famous performance came seven years later, however, at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865. Halfway through Act III, Scene 2, the character Asa Trenchard (the titular cousin), played that night by Harry Hawk, utters one of the play’s funniest lines — however little sense it makes out of context:“Don’t know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal—you sockdologizing old man-trap.”During the raucous laughter that followed this line, John Wilkes Booth, an actor who received his mail at Ford’s Theater but who was not in the cast of Our American Cousin, assassinated Abraham Lincoln. He chose the timing in hopes that the sound of the laughter would mask the sound of his gunshot. He then leaped from Lincoln’s box to the stage, breaking his leg, and dragged himself out. As he leapt, Booth shouted “Sic semper tyrannis!” Others in the audience heard it as: “The South is avenged!”Before its history was changed by Lincoln’s assassination, the play had already made a cultural impact. The character Lord Dundreary became popular for the absurd riddles he propounded. “Dundrearyisms,” twisted aphorisms in the style of Lord Dundreary (e.g. “birds of a feather gather no moss”), also enjoyed a brief vogue. The same character’s style of beard – long, bushy sideburns – gave the English language the word “dundrearies.”

Schulz, Sam. “The Last Play Lincoln Saw: ‘Our American Cousin’ Stages Comeback.” NBC4 Washington, NBC4 Washington, 14 Apr. 2015, www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Our-American-Cousin-Lincoln-Assassination-Fords-Theatre-Play–299643681.html.

“PBR Ribbon Sticker.” Pabst Blue Ribbon Store | PBR Ribbon Sticker, store.pabstblueribbon.com/products/pbr-curved-top-logo-sticker.

History.com Staff. “Carpetbaggers & Scalawags.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2010, www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/carpetbaggers-and-scalawags.

“Yul Brynner.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 28 Apr. 2017, www.biography.com/people/yul-brynner-9542628.

“Kvetch.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kvetch.

“Our American Cousin” flopped when little-remembered British playwright Tom Taylor first wrote it as a melodrama in 1852. But after he reworked it into a comedy, American actress Laura Keene bought the U.S. rights in 1858 and turned it into one of the biggest hits of its era.

The premise of the melodrama-turned-farce was simple enough: A heroic Vermont bumpkin spouting nonsensical yankee slang goes to England to claim his inheritance, and outwits a bunch of villainous and pretentious Brits along the way. Hilarity ensues, in the form of a lot of broad, slapstick comedy and bad puns.

This was the last play Abraham Lincoln saw before he was assassinated.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Our-American-Cousin-Lincoln-Assassination-Fords-Theatre-Play–299643681.html

“Clause three of the 1884 legislation endorsed the views of British Columbia agents and clergymen opposed to the celebration of the “Potlatch” festival. These celebrations, which local officers and missionaries described as “debauchery of the worst kind” were considered by the Deputy Superintendent-General to have “pernicious effects” upon Indians. In a sense, this was a landmark amendment for it represented the first in a long series of attempts by Parliament to protect Indians from themselves as well as from unscrupulous “whites”.”

If the potlatch, the cornerstone of the culture of coastal First Nations, could be eradicated, then the government and the missionaries would be free to swoop in and fill the cultural void with Christianity. On paper this must have looked like a good idea but in reality all it did was drive the potlatch underground. Resistance to losing the freedom to continue with traditions was severely underestimated.

Joseph, Bob. “Working Effectively with Indigenous Peoples®.” Potlatch Ban: Abolishment of First Nations Ceremonies, 16 Oct. 2012, www.ictinc.ca/the-potlatch-ban-abolishment-of-first-nations-ceremonies.

“Pogrom.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/pogrom.

“Russian novelist and short-story writer whose psychological penetration into the darkest recesses of the human heart, together with his unsurpassed moments of illumination, had an immense influence on 20th-century fiction.”

Morson, Gary Saul. “Fyodor Dostoyevsky.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 15 Nov. 2017, www.britannica.com/biography/Fyodor-Dostoyevsky.

Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay,

Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away,

Gone from the earth to a better land I know,

I hear their gentle voices calling “Old Black Joe.”

I’m coming, I’m coming, for my head is bending low:

I hear those gentle voices calling, “Old Black Joe.”

Why do I weep when my heart should feel no pain

Why do I sigh that my friends come not again,

Grieving for forms Now departed long a go?

I hear their gentle voices calling “Old Black Joe.”

I’m coming, I’m coming, for my head is bending low:

I hear those gentle voices calling, “Old Black Joe.”

Where are the hearts once so happy and so free?

The children so dear that I held upon my knee,

Gone to the shore where my soul has longed to go.

I hear their gentle voices calling “Old Black Joe.”

I’m coming, I’m coming, for my head is bending low:

I hear those gentle voices calling, “Old Black Joe.”

Foster, Stephen C. “Old Black Joe by Stephen C. Foster.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44257/old-black-joe.

He studied journalism at Stanford University and at the University of Minnesota. In 1943, he entered the Army and a year later won his first recognition as a journalist: first prize in a nationwide essay contest sponsored by the Republican Party. Mr. Reasoner’s entry told Republicans what he thought they should do in the postwar years.

After the war, he worked for The Minneapolis Times and became its drama critic. He lost the job, he later confessed, when he gave a touring production of the musical “Up in Central Park” an unfavorable review. In Minneapolis in those days, he said, drama critics weren’t supposed to pan touring productions from New York, for fear that they would cross the city off their tours.

At the same time, he produced his only novel, called “Tell Me About Women.” Years later, Mr. Reasoner told friends: “It was warmly received. That means it didn’t sell too well.” When it was reissued in 1964, Mr. Reasoner said he winced at some sentences.

In the early 1950’s, he worked as a newswriter for WCCO, the CBS Radio affiliate in Minneapolis, then moved to the United States Information Agency, for which he traveled extensively in Asia. When he returned to the United States, he became news director of KEYD-TV in Minneapolis. From Turkeys to Rebels

He joined CBS News in New York in 1956 and carried out a variety of assignments, ranging from politics to events at Cape Canaveral, at least one Thanksgiving Day Parade and interviews with Fidel Castro’s rebels in Cuba.

CBS asked Mr. Reasoner to become co-host of a television show called “Calendar” in 1961, with the actress Mary Fickett. Jack Gould, reviewing it for The New York Times, called it “a delightful oasis of fun and intelligence.”

His stature at CBS continued to grow with reports and essays on the CBS “Evening News,” “The CBS Morning News,” “CBS Reports” and various news specials. But Mr. Reasoner said he wanted to be the anchor for a nightly newscast, and at CBS. Since the network had the services of Walter Cronkite, that was not possible, but he did substitute for Mr. Cronkite on dozens of occasions.

In 1970 he moved to ABC News, where he continued to win plaudits, but not from everyone. Bruce Herschensohn, a special assistant to President Richard M. Nixon, attacked several reporters for “false prophecies” about the Vietnam War, and Mr. Reasoner’s name appeared on a list of reporters with whom the White House was especially displeased.

Among Mr. Reasoner’s many prizes were two Emmy Awards, a George Foster Peabody Award, and citations from the Society of Silurians, the Overseas Press Club, the Friars Club, the University of Missouri and the University of Minnesota. In addition to his novel, his books were “The Reasoner Report” (1966), “The World Today” (1975) and “Before the Colors Fade” (1981).

Severo, Richard. “Harry Reasoner, 68, Newscaster Known for His Wry Wit, Is Dead.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Aug. 1991, www.nytimes.com/1991/08/07/obituaries/harry-reasoner-68-newscaster-known-for-his-wry-wit-is-dead.html.

McCrary, Charlie. “Religion in American History.” The “Beecherite Synthesis” and the Fabric of American Religious History, Blogger, 23 June 2014, usreligion.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-beecherite-synthesis-and-fabric-of.html.