Gabriel Gudding's Blog, page 31

the very dear paws of procyon lotor - as found under the ...

the very dear paws of procyon lotor - as found under the goodfield bridge

le pays des illinois

Marquette, 1673: "We left it [the Mississippi:] ... to enter another river, [the Illinois:]....We had seen nothing like this river for the fertility of the land, its prairies, woods, wild cattle, stag, deer, wildcats, bustards, swans, ducks, parrots, and even beaver; its many little lakes and rivers. That on which we sailed, is broad, deep, and gentle for sixty-five leagues." -- Jacques Marquette,

p. 465, The Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois:Con...

p. 465, The Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois:Containing Two Hundred and Sixty One Sketches of Old Settlersand a Complete Historical Sketch of the Black Hawk War,by Dr. E. Duis, Professor of German in the Bloomington Schools, 1874

old forgotten near drownings on the mackinaw

low water thaw after high water freeze january 2010"...and nearly three miles beyond came to the Mackinaw, a fine clear stream watering Tazewell County which we forded and about half a mile beyond came to a house where live a Quaker family of the name of Wilson. Here we got a nice breakfast which we enjoyed with great relish and some corn for our horses." William Cullen Bryant

low water thaw after high water freeze january 2010"...an...

low water thaw after high water freeze january 2010"...and nearly three miles beyond came to the Mackinaw, a fine clear stream watering Tazewell County which we forded and about half a mile beyond came to a house where live a Quaker family of the name of Wilson. Here we got a nice breakfast which we enjoyed with great relish and some corn for our horses." William Cullen Bryant

old forgotten people from illinois

Owen Lovejoy, resident of Princeton, Illinois, lover of the Illinois River, abolitionist, conductor on the Underground Railroad, trafficking many slaves up the Illinois to freedom, called by Abraham Lincoln "my most generous friend," whose abolitionist brother Elijah was murdered in Alton by a pro-slavery mob, writing a frightening twenty page open letter to the entire city of Alton, admonishing

told

told

conversations with walt whitman

Drift from mustardcuffins on Vimeo.

two writers radicalized by war

one public, one privateZinn, pilot, ww2, on war and the thesis that human aggression is natural: "If there was a spontaneous need to kill, why would we need a draft?"Salinger, infantry and counterintelligence, ww2, on combat: "You never really get the smell of burning flesh out of your nose entirely, no matter how long you live."[Here are some of JDS's stories in archive at The New Yorker. And at

"I am disgusted to see Dos [Passos] said that writers sho...

"I am disgusted to see Dos [Passos:] said that writers should not write now. If a writer has any guts he should write all the time, and the lousier the world the harder a writer should work. For if he can do nothing positive, to make the world more liveable or less cruel or stupid, he can at least record truly, and that is something no one else will do, and it a job that must be done. It is the