| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: He asked for a ticket for himself and one for
his slave to Philadelphia. This caused the prin-
cipal officer--a very mean-looking, cheese-coloured
fellow, who was sitting there--to look up at us very
suspiciously, and in a fierce tone of voice he said
to me, "Boy, do you belong to that gentleman?"
I quickly replied, "Yes, sir" (which was quite
correct). The tickets were handed out, and as my
master was paying for them the chief man said to
him, "I wish you to register your name here, sir,
and also the name of your nigger, and pay a dollar
 Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: give the least trouble and the greatest security to his rider in the
circumstances of war; while, conversely, a beast who either out of
sluggishness needs much driving, or from excess of mettle much coaxing
and manouvring, will give his rider work enough to occupy both his
hands and a sinking of the heart when dangers thicken.
[10] Al. "thoroughly."
IV
We will now suppose the purchaser has found a horse which he
admires;[1] the purchase is effected, and he has brought him home--how
is he to be housed? It is best that the stable should be placed in a
quarter of the establishment where the master will see the horse as
 On Horsemanship |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain: right man would be found, and hoping some more news about the matter
would come soon--right away.
II
Hadleyburg village woke up world-celebrated--astonished--happy--
vain. Vain beyond imagination. Its nineteen principal citizens and
their wives went about shaking hands with each other, and beaming,
and smiling, and congratulating, and saying THIS thing adds a new
word to the dictionary--HADLEYBURG, synonym for INCORRUPTIBLE--
destined to live in dictionaries for ever! And the minor and
unimportant citizens and their wives went around acting in much the
same way. Everybody ran to the bank to see the gold-sack; and
 The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg |