Macaulay is identified as being the editor of the Leisure Hour and the Boys’ Own Paper on the title page. The book is primarily aimed at children.
No preface but preliminary word [n. pag.]
Every year produces numerous story books intended as Sunday reading for the young. The editor of the present volume thinks that a collection of true incidents may prove as attractive, and more useful. He is indebted to the courtesy of several publishers for permission to make extracts from books, in all cases acknowledged; and also to the Religious Tract Society for the use of various articles and illustrations. If some of the narratives are recognised as old and often-told tales, let it be remembered that they are new to successive generations of readers. And it is hoped that the record of things that are true, and pure, and of good report, while securing attention and exciting interest, may also help in the formation of virtuous and Christian character in the youthful mind.
Contents
The True Story of Alexander Selkirk 1Robinson Crusoe’s Island 6
H.M.S. Challenger at Juan Fernandez 11
Buried Alive in an Avalanche 16
Left Ashore on Greenland 20
A Ludicrous Alarm of Fire 24
Perils of Whale Fishing 27
Wonderful Preservation of the Ship Esk 39
The Speedwell Mine in Derbyshire 50
Remarkable Deliverance of Two Norwegian Students 57
Wreck of the Lady Holland East Indiaman 60
Sight-seeing in Jerusalem 72
Waterloo Revisited 77
Troubles and Adventures of a Commissariat Officer 88
A Providential Deliverance 95
The Early Life, Conversion, and Character of Lord Haddo, Fifth Earl of Aberdeen 99
The African Lion 109
Wrecked on an African Coral Reef 115
Remarkable Deliverance of William Okeley and his Company 118
Assassination of Juan Diaz
Conversion and Life of Brownlow North 125
Abolition of the Slave Trade and of Negro Slavery 134
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden 142
The 52nd Regiment at Waterloo 151
Garrison Life at Dublin in 1821 156
An Old Soldier’s Ideas on Worldly Amusements 163
Religious Tracts in the Army 166
The Great Storm of 1703 171
Condemned to the Galley 181
Anecdote of Abraham Lincoln 202
A Lawyer’s Recourse to Prayer 203
Saved by a Flash of Lightning 205
Among Smugglers 213
Conscience in Business 216
The First American Electric Telegram 223
Anecdote of Frederick William III of Prussia 226
Wait till You See 228
Great Thunderstorm of 9th August, 1843 236
The Great Hailstorm in Oxfordshire 239
Thunder and Hailstorm at Tottenham 245
A True Tale of the Covenanters 247
The Echo of a Hymn 257
Coronation of Queen Victoria 259
A Steamboat Trip on Lake Michigan 270
The Lost Purse 277
Sunday at Sea 279
Young Edward VI, the good King of England 284
Anecdote of Lord Nelson and Captain Ball 288
Sir Alexander Ball, R.N. 291
The Massacre of the Huguenots 297
Wonderful Escape from the St. Bartholomew Massacre 301
Ramadan 304
A Sermon under the Gallows 310
Through Fire and Water 314
The Young Irish Scholar 318
The Great Flood at St. Petersburgh in 1824 320
The Volcanoes of the Hawaii Islands 326
Queen Kapiolani 332
A Noble Ottoman 336
Anecdotes of Principal Carstairs 341
Icebergs 343
Remarkable Escape of Moravian Missionaries 345
Captive Jews in the Circus at Alexandria 348
The Martyr of Delhi 349
Christmas at Bethlehem 353
How Crooked Things were made Straight 358
History of Africaner 367