Tag: connecticut yankee

They Gave Us Liberty: Roger Sherman, by Ellsworth S. Grant

Arthur MullenLeave a comment

"This archetype of the Connecticut Yankee had a reputation for taciturnity. One of his political mottoes was: 'When you are in a minority, talk, when you are in a majority, vote!' In his country drawl, daughter came out as 'dat-ter' and applesauce sounded like 'ap-plesass.' But Jefferson remarked that however awkward his manner Sherman 'never said a foolish thing in his life.' And he was by no means silent. During the Convention he spoke 138 times, each speech short but pithy, only three others were more vocal."

A Connecticut Yankee at Yale, by Wilbur L. Cross

Arthur MullenLeave a comment

"I had but to walk over to Carll’s Opera House, where in one season or another I might see the great contemporary actors: Booth and Barrett, Irving and Terry, Modjeska or Bernhardt, or Joe Jefferson (a favorite of the students). It may have been in New York that I first saw the elder Salvini in the role of Othello. Was it then or later that Gilbert and Sullivan’s operas came to town? I thank God that the visual age was in the far distance when novels and plays were to be washed out with pictures on a screen."