On Dec 27, 2011, at 2:30 PM, Tarter, Brent (LVA) wrote: > Yesterday, 26 December 2011, was the 200th anniversary of the theater > fire in Richmond that killed more than 70 people, including the > governor > of the state. T George Tucker (1775-1861) writes in his Autobiography of watching the awful tragedy of the burning of the theatre, from which I had a narrow escape, and where I was instrumental in saving several females from the flames, I had fortunately quitted the house while it was on fire, tho' I did not know the fact, being prompted by what I had suffered from the cold about my feet, having dined out that day and wearing, as was then the practice, thin shoes and silk stockings. The play was over, and there appearing to be much delay in bringing on the afterpiece, I remarked that 'the pain of cold feet was greater than the pleasure of seeing out the play and I would go home'--but the cry of fire prevented my reaching my lodgings, and hurried me back to witness a spectacle of human woe which I have never seen equalled. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------- Terry L. Meyers, Chancellor Professor of English, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg Virginia 23187 757-221-3932 http://wmpeople.wm.edu/site/page/tlmeye/ http://www.ecologyfund.com/ecology/_ecology.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------- Have we got a college? Have we got a football team?.... Well, we can't afford both. Tomorrow we start tearing down the college. --Groucho Marx, in "Horse Feathers." ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html