Serving up a heaping helping of hell-raising

The Autobiography of Mother Jones has been fully recorded, uploaded, edited and published on Librivox. I read chapters 3, 5, 9, and 18. Click on the title of this post, or the link within to listen!

The Fairy Nurse

I've just recorded The Fairy Nurse, one of the tales in the Lilac Fairy Book. I read every color of the fairy books when I was in grade school. They are public domain books now, and a few people at LibriVox are coordinating recordings of them.

So the poor Molly, the Fairy Nurse, needed to spend more time at Mass I think - I could see no other fault she had. Of course, this is an Irish tale. My favorite part is when a neighbor woman, who has been asked by the fairies to come and attend a new mother, gets a bit of green ointment in her eye.

Here is an excerpt from the story, wherein the good neighbor visits the fairies and sees Molly:

'Just as I was falling asleep last night, I heard a horse's tramp on the grass and a knock at the door, and there, when I came out, was a fine-looking dark man, mounted on a black horse, and he told me to get ready in all haste, for a lady was in great want of me. As soon as I put on my cloak and things, he took me by the hand, and I was sitting behind him before I felt myself stirring. "Where are we going, sir?" says I. "You'll soon know," says he; and he drew his fingers across my eyes, and not a ray could I see. I kept a tight grip of him, and I little knew whether he was going backwards or forwards, or how long we were about it, till my hand was taken again, and I felt the ground under me. The fingers went the other way across my eyes, and there we were before a castle door, and in we went through a big hall and great rooms all painted in fine green colours, with red and gold bands and ornaments, and the finest carpets and chairs and tables and window curtains, and grand ladies and gentlemen walking about. At last we came to a bedroom, with a beautiful lady in bed, with a fine bouncing boy beside her. The lady clapped her hands, and in came the Dark Man and kissed her and the baby, and praised me, and gave me a bottle of green ointment to rub the child all over.

'Well, the child I rubbed, sure enough; but my right eye began to smart, and I put up my finger and gave it a rub, and then stared, for never in all my life was I so frightened. The beautiful room was a big, rough cave, with water oozing over the edges of the stones and through the clay; and the lady, and the lord, and the child weazened, poverty-bitten creatures--nothing but skin and bone--and the rich dresses were old rags. I didn't let on that I found any difference, and after a bit says the Dark Man, "Go before me to the hall door, and I will be with you in a few moments, and see you safe home." Well, just as I turned into the outside cave, who should I see watching near the door but poor Molly. She looked round all terrified, and says she to me in a whisper, "I'm brought here to nurse the child of the king and queen of the fairies; but there is one chance of saving me. All the court will pass the cross near Templeshambo next Friday night, on a visit to the fairies of Old Ross. If John can catch me by the hand or cloak when I ride by, and has courage not to let go his grip, I'll be safe. Here's the king. Don't open your mouth to answer. I saw what happened with the ointment."

I'm not a humanitarian, I'm a hell-raiser

I have been on break for the winter holidays, and was able to record four chapters of the Autobiography of Mother Jones for LibriVox. One chapter, Victory in West Virginia, made me cry when she described how the mine owners tried to quell the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek strikes in 1912 using force. One man had his feet shot off as he tried to roust his family in the middle of the night when gunmen came to the tent camps of the strikers.

A short biography can be read here, at the Illinois Labor History Society, and here, at the AFL-CIO.

I did a little more research, and found an audio file from the Library of Congress collection that referenced Mother Jones, and her visits to coal country. Mae Bongalis was just a child when Mother Jones came to organize the miners, and in this clip she remembers the kindness shown to her during a meeting.

StoryCorps

Have you caught any of these stories on NPR? Here is the mission statement from the StoryCorps site:

We've modeled StoryCorps—in spirit and in scope—after the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the 1930s, through which oral-history interviews with everyday Americans across the country were recorded. These recordings remain the single most important collection of American voices gathered to date. We hope that StoryCorps will build and expand on that work, becoming a WPA for the 21st Century.

To us, StoryCorps celebrates our shared humanity and collective identity. It captures and defines the stories that bond us. We've found that the process of interviewing a friend, neighbor, or family member can have a profound impact on both the interviewer and interviewee. We've seen people change, friendships grow, families walk away feeling closer, understanding each other better. Listening, after all, is an act of love.

Go there. Listen.

Mother Jones, William Wilson, and Arnot, PA

I am recording chapter five of The Autobiography of Mother Jones. In this chapter, "The Victory at Arnot, Pennsylvania," Mother Jones discusses the Arnot coal miners strike of 1899-1900. This strike was the longest on record in Tioga County, and went on for eight months, over a hard and bitter winter.

I was curious about the location of these mines, and found that Arnot, Pennsylvania is very close to where I live. One of the men mentioned in this chapter, William Wilson, was the Secretary-Treasurer of the United Mine Workers. Wilson emigrated to Arnot from Scotland as a boy, and began working in the mines alongside his father at the age of nine. He later became the first United States Secretary of Labor under Woodrow Wilson.

Reading an entire chapter is difficult. On the other hand, I am learning how to edit with GarageBand. I hope to have it recorded and uploaded in the next couple of days.

Fire and Ice

Recorded and uploaded Fire and Ice by Robert Frost. I am version 7 on the page. This is my first LibriVox offering. Now to wait for feedback from one of the people on the admin team. It's all a little nerve-wracking the first time.

Project Gutenberg and Bartleby both have a selection of Robert Frost poems.

Schwagcast

I found a local podcast. Accidently! It's a pretty good one! The Schwaggie guys are funny and the music is great. I really don't care for our local radio stations, and try to find new music where I can. Thanks, guys.

Podcasting for the people

I am very interested in podcasting as a means of putting books and other written texts in the public domain back into the hands of the public. So of course, I signed up for a class in podcasting, am doing hours and hours of research, and am looking for the necessary hardware. I found the LibriVox site and fell in love. Their tagline reads "acoustical liberation of books in the public domain." Volunteer today!

The wonder of free audiobooks is another reference to LibriVox by Kevin Maney, writing for USA Today.