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harkles.bsky.social
@harkles.bsky.social
I was left alone to battle with the world as best I might. The struggles which it cost me to succeed in life were sometimes very trying; nor have they ended yet. But I have always turned a bold front to fortune

-Mary Seacole, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands
March 23, 2025 at 4:42 AM
I first heard Personville called Poisonville by a red-haired mucker named Hickey Dewey in the Big Ship in Butte...Later I heard men who could manage their r’s give it the same pronunciation...A few years later I went to Personville and learned better.

Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest
March 21, 2025 at 11:53 PM
There's a tree that grows in Brooklyn.

...No matter where its seed falls, it makes a tree which struggles to reach the sky. It grows lushly...survives without sun, water...It would be considered beautiful except that there are too many of it.

Betty Smith, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
March 21, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Carcosa.

Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies
But stranger still is
Lost Carcosa.
March 1, 2025 at 12:58 AM
‘Do you mean that they say it’s full when it isn’t,—that they won’t let me in although there’s room?’

‘That’s it,—bloke’s a-kiddin’ yer.’

‘But, if there’s room, aren’t they bound to let me in?’

‘Course they are,—and, blimey, if I was you I’d make ’em. Blimey I would!’
March 1, 2025 at 12:40 AM
"We would be ruled by a magic lord," they said.
"So be it," said the lord. "It is five hundred years since my people have spoken thus in parliament, and it shall always be as your parliament saith. You have spoken. So be it."
February 28, 2025 at 3:29 AM
"For seven hundred years the chiefs of your race have ruled us well; and their deeds are remembered by the minor
minstrels, living on yet in their little tinkling songs. And yet the generations stream away, and there is no new thing."
"What would you?" said the lord.
February 28, 2025 at 3:29 AM
In their ruddy jackets of leather that reached to their knees the men of Erl appeared before their lord, the stately white￾haired man in his long red room. He leaned in his carven chair and heard their spokesman.
And thus their spokesman said.
February 28, 2025 at 3:29 AM
The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany
February 28, 2025 at 3:29 AM
As I stood wondering what I should do, a man slouched towards me out of the shadow of the wall.

‘Won’t ’e let yer in?’

‘He says it’s full.’

‘Says it’s full, does ’e? That’s the lay at Fulham,—they always says it’s full. They wants to keep the number down.’

I looked at the man askance.
February 20, 2025 at 8:02 PM
I stared, stupidly, at the door which had just been banged in my face. I could scarcely believe that the thing was possible. I had hardly expected to figure as a tramp; but, supposing it conceivable that I could become a tramp, that I should be refused admission to...the tramp’s ward
February 19, 2025 at 10:36 PM
‘No room!—Full up!’

He banged the door in my face.

That was the final blow.

To have tramped about all day looking for work; to have begged even for a job which would give me money enough to buy a little food; and to have tramped and to have begged in vain...
February 19, 2025 at 10:36 PM
THE BEETLE
A MYSTERY

BY RICHARD MARSH

www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5...
February 19, 2025 at 8:05 AM
what a sight for a father’s eyes!—he beheld his child...almost buried under an enormous helmet...and shaded with...black feathers...without mentioning the unhappy princesses, his wife and daughter, the first sounds that dropped from Manfred’s lips were, “Take care of the Lady Isabella.”
February 18, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Manfred...despatched one of his attendants to summon the young Prince. The servant...came running back breathless, in a frantic manner, his eyes staring, and foaming at the mouth.

The fellow made no answer, but...pointing towards the courtyard; and at last...cried out, “Oh! the helmet! the helmet!”
February 18, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Manfred had contracted a marriage for his son with the Marquis of Vicenza’s daughter, Isabella...Young Conrad’s birthday was fixed for his espousals. The company was assembled in the chapel of the Castle, and everything ready for beginning the divine office, when Conrad himself was missing.
February 18, 2025 at 7:26 AM
During the winter of 1927–28 officials of the Federal government made a strange and secret investigation...in the ancient Massachusetts seaport of Innsmouth...when a vast series of raids...followed by the deliberate burning and dynamiting...of crumbling, worm-eaten, and supposedly empty houses...
February 17, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Manfred, Prince of Otranto, had one son and one daughter: the latter...was called Matilda. Conrad, the son, was three years younger, a homely youth, sickly, and of no promising disposition; yet he was the darling of his father, who never showed any symptoms of affection to Matilda.
February 17, 2025 at 5:20 PM
The following work was found in the library of an ancient Catholic family in the north of England. It was printed...in the year 1529...Such a work as the following would enslave a hundred vulgar minds...Miracles, visions, necromancy, dreams, and other preternatural events
February 17, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Oh! guard the marvels I relate
Of fell ambition scourg’d by fate,
From reason’s peevish blame.
Blest with thy smile, my dauntless sail
I dare expand to Fancy’s gale,
For sure thy smiles are Fame.

-Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto

SONNET TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LADY MARY
COKE
February 17, 2025 at 5:20 PM