The Death of Halpin Frayser Quotes

“I will not submit unheard. There may be powers that are not malignant travelling this accursed road. I shall leave them a record and an appeal.”
― Ambrose Bierce, The Death of Halpin Frayser

“He thought he was walking along a dusty road that showed white in the gathering darkness of a summer night. Whence and whither it led, and why he traveled it, he did not know, though all seemed simple and natural, as is the way in dreams; for in the Land Beyond the Bed surprises cease from troubling and the judgment is at rest.”
― Ambrose Bierce, The Death of Halpin Frayser

“She held out her hands for his inspection. What
diagnosis of her case the young man may have thought it best to conceal with a smile the historian is unable to state, but for himself he feels bound to say that fingers looking less stiff, and showing fewer evidences of even insensible pain, have seldom been submitted for medical inspection by even the fairest patient desiring a prescription of unfamiliar scenes.”
― Ambrose Bierce, The Death of Halpin Frayser

“Over all was that air of abandonment and decay which seems nowhere so fit and significant as in a village of the forgotten dead.”
― Ambrose Bierce, The Death of Halpin Frayser

“In many instances nothing marked the spot where lay the vestiges of some poor mortal-who, leaving "a large circle of sorrowing friends," had been left by them in turn-except a depression in the earth, more lasting than that in the spirits of the mourners.”
― Ambrose Bierce, The Death of Halpin Frayser

“Halpin was pretty generally deprecated as an intellectual black sheep who was likely at any moment to disgrace the flock by bleating in metre. The Tennessee Fraysers were a practical folk - not practical in the popular sense of devotion to sordid pursuits, but having a robust contempt for any qualities unfitting a man for the wholesome vocation of politics.”
― Ambrose Bierce, The Death of Halpin Frayser

“Here and there among the bushes were small inclosures containing graves, sometimes no more than one. They were recognized as graves by the discolored stones or rotting boards at head and foot, leaning at all angles, some prostrate; by the ruined picket fences surrounding them; or, infrequently, by the mound itself showing its gravel through the fallen leaves. In many instances nothing marked the spot where lay the vestiges of some poor mortal - who, leaving "a large circle of sorrowing friends," had been left by them in turn - except a depression in the earth, more lasting than that in the spirits of the mourners.”
― Ambrose Bierce, The Death of Halpin Frayser