jauntily—cheerfully
The kids watched him walk jauntily down the steps and cross the wide bridge to the island.
knickers—short, loose-fitting pants that are gathered at the knee
Ted pushed his hands into the pockets of his brown knickers.
lagoon—a shallow body of water usually connected to a larger body of water
Its lagoons and basins were blue in the midst of the beautiful buildings.
meddle—to interfere in someone else’s business
“Don’t meddle in police business, little lady.”
parlor—a sitting room usually used for entertaining guests
In the parlor, Emily, Anna, and Richard were decorating their Christmas tree with colorful glass ornaments and white strings of popcorn.
pocketbook—a small purse for carrying money
Emily reached for her pocketbook and drew out her precious quarter.
porter—a person employed to carry luggage at a hotel
His ears filled with the rumble of waiting trains, the calls of conductors hurrying passengers aboard, and the clattering of wheels as porters dashed about with luggage.
ruckus—a commotion or disturbance
People in the audience stared, wondering about the ruckus.
suffrage—the right to vote
She was one of the main leaders of the woman’s suffrage movement.
telegraph—a system or device for transmitting messages or signals
She was glad to sit on the edge of the boardwalk with her feet in the street and lean against the bottom of a telegraph pole.
IMPORTANT PEOPLE AROUND 1893
Susan B. Anthony
Susan Brownell Anthony was one of the early leaders of the women’s rights movement. She fought especially for woman’s suffrage, or the right to vote. Born in Massachusetts on February 15, 1820, she grew up in New York and began teaching school at age fifteen. In time, Anthony took up social causes, opposing alcoholic beverages and desiring the immediate end of slavery; in 1863, during the Civil War, she founded the Women’s Loyal League to fight for the freedom of slaves. Her work for women’s rights began in 1851 when she teamed with Elizabeth Cady Stanton to fight laws that discriminated against women. From 1868 to 1870, she published a weekly journal called The Revolution, which demanded equal rights for women. In 1872, Anthony was arrested for illegally voting in the presidential election. Though she died on March 13, 1906, fourteen years before women earned the right to vote under the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Anthony is known today as the founder of the women’s rights movement. In 1979, the United States Mint issued the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin in her honor.
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an African American abolitionist, speaker, and writer. He was born a slave in Maryland on February 7, 1817, and at age eight was sent to Baltimore to work for one of his master’s relatives. There he began to educate himself and found work in a shipyard. Douglass hated slavery, and in 1836 he tried unsuccessfully to escape from his master. He tried again in 1838, this time with success, and fled to New Bedford, Massachusetts. There he changed his name from Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey to Frederick Douglass to avoid capture. In 1841, he began his career as an abolitionist, fighting to end slavery and protesting racial discrimination. Six years later, he founded an antislavery newspaper called the North Star, and his home was part of the Underground Railroad that helped runaway slaves reach freedom in the North. During the Civil War, Douglass helped to recruit African Americans for the Union Army, and he even met and discussed the problems of slavery with President Abraham Lincoln several times. After the war, he fought for the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, while also serving in the District of Columbia and federal governments. Frederick Douglass died on February 20, 1895.
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was one of the greatest inventors in history. He is most famous for his invention of the light bulb and phonograph, and for improvements to the telegraph, telephone, and motion pictures. Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, on February 11, 1847, the youngest of seven children. He attended public school for only three months and was mainly taught at home by his mother, a former schoolteacher. Edison was a fun and curious boy who liked to play jokes and ask questions. He also loved to read, experiment with chemicals, and build models. By the time he was fifteen, he was publishing and selling his own newspaper, called the Weekly Herald, and learning to operate a telegraph. When he was sixteen, Edison began working for the Western Union Telegraph Company and learned much about telegraphy, in part by experimenting with the company’s equipment. Over the years, Edison invented many new devices and made improvements to existing ones. In 1877, he introduced his phonograph, and in 1879, he unveiled the light bulb. In 1888, he invented the kinetoscope, the first machine to produce motion pictures, and in 1913, he joined it with his phonograph to create the first talking motion pictures. In his lifetime, Edison obtained a total of 1,093 patents for his inventions, the most the U.S. patent office ever issued to one person. Thomas Edison died on October 18, 1931.
Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini was an American magician known throughout the world as an escape artist. He was born in Budapest, Hungary, but when he was young his parents moved to the United States and settled in Wisconsin. Houdini’s given name was Ehrich Weiss, but he took a stage name from a French magician of the 1800s named Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin. In 1882, Houdini began his career as a trapeze artist. By 1900 he had developed an escape act, amazing people with his ability to free himself from any type of seemingly inescapable bonds—pairs of handcuffs, jail cells, nailed crates, even a tank filled with water. In one of his most famous stunts, Houdini was tied up and locked in a packing case bound with steel tape and then dropped into a harbor in New York City. In just fifty-nine seconds, he broke free and appeared on the surface of the water.
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin was an American composer and musician, famous for developing a type of music called ragtime. Joplin, the son of a former slave, was born in Texas in 1868. He taught himself to play the piano and learned classical music from a German neighbor. When he was fourteen, he left home and played the piano in various saloons in the Mississippi Valley. In 1893, he played at the World’s Fair in Chicago. The next year, he settled in Sedalia, Missouri, where he played at a saloon called the Maple Leaf Club. The owner of a music store in Sedalia helped make Joplin famous by publishing Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” and many more of his songs. All together, Joplin wrote more than sixty pieces of music including operas and his famous piece “The Entertainer.”
HISTORY IN PERSPECTIVE TIMELINE
1868—The first professional baseball team in the United States, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, is founded.
October 8–10, 1871—The Great Chicago Fire destroys four square miles of central Chicago.
March 10, 1876—Alexander Graham Bell makes the first call on his invention, the telephone.
1885—The prototype for the first gas-powered automobile is introduced in a German factory owned by Karl Benz.
1888—The Kodak camera is invented by American George Eastman.
October 12, 1892—The Pledge of Allegiance is first used in public schools.
May–October 1893—The World’s Colombian Exposition, also known as the World’s Fair, is held in Chicago, Illinois.
December 17, 1903—Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in an airplane.
1908—Henry Ford introduces the first Model T automobile.
1914–1918—The first world war, known at the time as the Great War, is fought.
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American Rebirth Page 48