Cultural Notes:

Tammany machine - Tammany Hall, or simply Tammany, was the name given to a powerful political machine that essentially ran New York City throughout much of the 19th century. It began modestly as a patriotic and social club established in New York in the years following the American Revolution, when such organizations were commonplace in American cities.

The Society of St. Tammany, which was also called the Columbian Order, was founded in May 1789 (some sources say 1786). The organization took its name from Tamamend, a legendary Indian chief in the American northeast who was said to have had friendly dealings with William Penn in the 1680s.

The original purpose of the Tammany Society was for discussion of politics in the new nation. The club was organized with titles and rituals based, quite loosely, on Native American lore. For instance, the leader of Tammany was known as the “Grand Sachem,” and the club’s headquarters was known as “the wigwam.”

B efore long the Society of St. Tammany turned into a distinct political organization affiliated with Aaron Burr, a powerful force in New York politics at the time.

Portico - (from Italian) is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea first appeared in Ancient Greece and has influenced many cultures, including most Western cultures.

A doration of the Magi - is the name traditionally given to the Christian subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having found Jesus by following a star, lay before him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and worship him.

Ionic column - The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian.

The Hell’s Kitchen - is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City that covers roughly the area between 34th Street and 57th Street, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River. Several different explanations exist for the original name. An early use of the phrase appears in a comment Davy Crockett made about another notorious Irish slum in Manhattan, Five Points. According to the Irish Cultural Society of the Garden City Area: When, in 1835, Davy Crockett said, '"In my part of the country, when you meet an Irishman, you find a first-rate gentleman; but these are worse than savages; they are too mean to swab hell's kitchen," he was referring to the Five Points.

The Tenderloin - was a once-seedy neighborhood in the heart of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Police Captain Alexander S. Williams allegedly coined the term in the late 1870s. This district was in Midtown Manhattan from 23rd Street to 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue to Seventh Avenue, much of which is known now as Chelsea and the Garment district. The northwest corner of the Tenderloin was Longacre Square, now called Times Square.

T uskegee Normal - Tuskegee University is a private, historically black university located in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States.

Booker T. Washington – see the character reference part.

SS Carmania - was a British passenger liner, which in World War I was converted to an armed merchant cruiser.

Read chapter 40 and answer the following questions:

1. Follow the fate of Mother’s Younger Brother as he had left New York. Why do you think would he dedicate his life to the revolutionary struggle?

2. Comment on the phrase: “The signs of the coming conflagration were every­where”. Speak about Europe as Morgan found it before his trip to Egypt. What was the purpose of the trip, did he achieve it?

3. The career of Harry Houdini was experiencing its rise, but what was the strange occurrence he had had when swaying in a straitjacket over Broadway and Seventh Avenue? Comment on the phrase: “It was at this moment that an image composed itself in Houdini's mind. The image was of a small boy looking at himself in the shiny brass headlamp of an automobile”.

4. How did the family end up after Coalhouse’s fall? Describe the run of events following it.

5. What else of the characters we had read about do we know from the last chapter of the novel?

Look up the dictionary for the following words and phrases:

Carbine (n)

Line up (v)

Intersection (n)

Volley (n)

Snort (v)

Shy (v)

Scant (adj)

Clamp (n,v)

Sagebrush (n)

Sullen (adj)

Replenish (v)

Squint (v)

Bib (n)

Adobe (n)

Billet (n)

Throng (n)

Barrel cactus (n)

Spanish bayonet (n)

Castellated (partII)

Macuch (n)

Cornhusk (n)

Cartridge belt (n)

villista (n)

Seethe (v)

Faction (n)

Gourd (n)

Fuse (n)

Smelter (n)

Garrison (n)

Zapatista (n)

Foray (n)

Spindly (adj)

Trestle (n)

Gorge (n)

Skirmish (n)

Abhorrent (adj)

Prim (adj)

Renunciatory (adj)

Dogfight (n)

Conflagration (n)

Stutter (n)

Majolica (n)

Brass (n)

Bas-relief (n)

Missals (n)

Spat (n)

Outfitted (adj)

Paddle steamer (n)

Stow (v)

Impreg­nable (adj)

Causeway (n)

On all fours (phr)

Aper­ture (n)

Deign (v)

Squat (v)

Dragoman (n)

Bedbug (n)

Incandescence (n)

Beanie (n)

Aghast (adj)

Slain (adj)

Panoply (n)

Winch (n)

Marquee (n)

Jackknife (n, v)

Confederate (n)

Wig (n)

Accrue (v)

Ordnance (n)

Recoilless (adj)

Tracer bullet (n)

Puttied (adj)

Stucco house (n)

Mischievous (adj)

Deport (v)

Bull Moose (n, phr)

Companero (n)