Stuart Arthur

@stuartarthurwrites.bsky.social

444 Followers 692 Following

Writer of speculative fiction. Fascinated by the history of Philadelphia and southern New Jersey. Has quite possibly explored more abandoned and derelict buildings than you have.

tall trees, greenery, and a diagonal sunbeam
The 556-foot-long (169 m) bridge, with stonemasonry abutments and two stonemasonry piers, with three Pratt-type pin-connected trusses, was built in 1894–1895 at a cost of $262,000 by Filbert Porter & Co. under the direction of Chief Engineer George Smedley Webster (1855–1931) of the Philadelphia Department of Public Works and James H. Windrim, director of the Department of Public Works. The bridge was designed as a double-decker bridge, but the upper deck was never built for lack of funds. The bridge carries two lanes of vehicular traffic on a 26-foot-wide (7.9 m) roadway, with 7-foot (2.1 m) sidewalks on either side, for a total width of 40 feet (12 m). (Wikipedia)
The Paracas people are renowned for elaborately embroidered textiles. Most were found as burial clothing: these stunning garments were likely wound in many layers around a tightly bound body. These bundled remains were then placed in stone-lined crypts in the dry desert of the southern Peru coast. Mantles and skirts were among the largest funerary textiles, their complex ornamentation and size indicating the deceased's high status in society. This extraordinary mantle and skirt are embroidered with the so-called "ecstatic shaman figures," identified by flowing hair, prominent rib cages, and bent and twisted bodies implying ecstatic performance and spiritual flight. The shaman, in a trance state, would travel between the natural world of the living and the spiritual realm of the dead, and thus was a suitable companion for the deceased and symbol of the transition to the afterlife.
“It was a fearful morning to fight a fire,” reported the Inquirer. “The thermometer was near zero, and the first line of hose, as it was unreeled, burst and covered everything surrounding with water that turned to ice the moment it struck.” “Firemen worked under the most discouraging conditions, the hosemen and laddermen taking their lives into their hands as they crawled cautiously up the ice coated rungs of their ladders, dragging after them their lines of hose, which were encased in a solid covering of ice. The streets around the fire were coated with ice… The fronts of the surrounding buildings upon which the water had been played presented a beautiful spectacle as they flashed back from their icy walls the rays of the morning sun.” “The firemen feared that the great Wanamaker establishment would go… At 8am, when “the Market Street front of the Hirsh building fell into the street…a torrent of fire rolled out and flowed across… and broke against Wanamaker’s. The building shriveled and blistered beneath the fierce deluge, and a tongue of flame shot up from the high clock tower at the corner of Thirteenth and Market Streets. Much to the dismay of the firefighters—and Mr. Wanamaker himself—“the jets from the hose could not reach the flames in the tower and the entire building seemed threatened with destruction.” Just as the chimes in the burning clock were striking 8:15, the “entire tower toppled over and fell with the great crash.” This “proved the salvation of the building, for the firemen were then able to fight the heart of the fire, and soon had it under control…” To the west, City Hall survived, although the heat was so intense employees couldn’t “bear to stand within five feet of the windows, which, to a one, cracked or broke.
Why the "Leeds Devil"? According to the legend, in 1735 South Jersey matriarch Mary Leeds was giving birth to her 13th child at her home in the Pine Barrens when, out of exhaustion, she cursed the unborn baby. The child was born with wings, hooves, a tail, and a thirst for the blood of animals. However, according to Dr. Brian Regal of Kean University, rather than being birthed by an overstressed mother, the devil legend more likely stems from a political characterization of Daniel Leeds (1651–1720), a prominent member of the Quaker community in the Pinelands area and printer of “almanacks.” Leeds became embroiled in controversy due to his printing of almanacs that incorporated astrological elements deemed heretical by members of his devout Quaker community. This conflict escalated, eventually prompting Leeds to leave the Quaker community, convert to Anglicanism, and begin publishing anti-Quaker materials. Combined with his known association with the despised British Royal Governor of New Jersey, Leeds became a target of political rhetoric and was accused of working on behalf of the devil. After Daniel Leeds died, his son Titan continued the family’s almanac business. In 1728, Titan began printing the Leeds family crest on his almanacs. The crest incorporated the symbol of the wyvern, a winged dragon-like mythical creature that bears resemblance to the modern image of the Jersey Devil. Some years later, the Leeds’ business encountered competition from Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack. To drum up sales for his Almanack, Franklin began a semi-friendly feud with Leeds. Franklin floated predictions of Leeds’s impending death and encouraged readers to purchase future editions of the almanac to see if the predictions proved true. He later accused Leeds of being a “ghost” who had already died. These tactics played on the reputation that had followed the Leeds family from the previous conflict with the Quaker community. (source: NJ Council on the Humanities)
This figure comes from the tomb of Duke Philip the Bold from the church of Champmol near Dijon (Burgundy, France). Philip, who founded the monastery and designated it as his burial place, hired the best artists, many of whom came from the Netherlands. While the commission was given in 1381, the work was not completed until 1410, six years after the duke’s death. This mourner is unusual for the time because it is not carved as a static low relief on the pedestal of the tomb but interact with the viewers and their fellow procession members. The lifelike quality of the figure is due in large part to the alabaster. Its softness allowed artists to carve details into the material, and the transparent, milky white stone could also be polished to a high gloss.
I'm carrying a heavy bucket back from the well. Trembling hands and losing water, losing my will. When we got home, nothing was left but knots in the lease. Now I'm heading west or someplace far from the East. Cortisol and Serotonin, stable's a thrill. Anhedonia at the surface. Here, I'm in hell. I'm carrying this empty bucket, I wanna empty myself. Because, everything is getting rid of everything else. Pacing parking lots, ignored. We are the same, but opposed. Something else is supposed to happen. You aren't having a good time anymore. It felt easy before I left, left in dust to carry myself. I really did dig my own hole, and I'm climbing out. I really did dig my own hole, but I can see the top. I'm climbing out. I really did dig my own hole. I'm climbing out. I'm climbing out. You can smell life here, what we call life above the ground. Hands stained dirty, but there is water to wash them out. Being this age always seemed so far away. How is life here, can we bring our trash outside the house? What we call life above the ground, left in dust. Left in dust to carry myself out.
The figure of a boy references three different practices at once: Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. His raised right hand would have held a brush (now missing), a gesture associated with Kui Xing, China's Daoist deity connected to success in Imperial examinations. The crescent-shaped gold bar in his left hand symbolizes the wealth available to the few candidates able to pass those tests. The baby figure represents an object of prayers and veneration to the Buddhist bodhisattva, Guanyin, for the birth of a son. Finally, the boy himself symbolizes Chinese Confucian ideals, because only a son could maintain the family's ancestral connection through the observance of annual rites as well as maintain or advance their social position by securing an official post in the Imperial bureaucracy.
Pipe Lines at 13th and Harold [Reading Railroad cars in background], 1907