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Barren Island

About This Item

  • Title: Barren Island
  • Date: 22 February 1859
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01079
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 22 February 1859: 2. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm scan of the original issue. Microfilm of original issue held at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the journalism, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This piece is unsigned, as was the case for most of Whitman's journalism. However, this editorial is part of a series of texts that deal with a coherent theme that has been identified by the Whitman Archive journalism team as likely authored by Whitman. This decision is based on a combination of historical and (auto)biographical accounts, similarity to contemporary Whitman writings, a history of scholarly attribution, extant clippings retained by Whitman, computational stylometric analysis, and, in some cases, manuscript evidence in Whitman’s hand.
  • Contributors to digital file: Kaylen Michaelis Jamie DeRousse Jason Stacy Karie Cobb Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Barren Island." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 17 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01079.xml (TEI)
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BARREN ISLAND.—

As Alderman Scholes says, "straws show which way the wind blows." In regard to the project for locating the Quarantine Hospitals on Barren Island, here are two straws—First, that on the very day our article was written, exposing the design of locating Quarantine there, a Mr. Richard C. Downing, of New York, recorded in the Kings County Register's Office the purchase of one-third of the island for $2500. And last night our usually facile and forgiving Mayor comes out in favor of sternly rescinding the offal contractors' contract—thus giving Cornell & Co. control over their third of Barren Island, free from obligations to the city. Here then are two-thirds of the Island conveniently ready for transfer to the State Government, through the medium of the lobby, who have no doubt been well feed by the State Islanders, both to defeat all attempts to punish them for arson, and to secure the transfer of the Yellow Fever Hospitals to Barren Island. Let our representatives see, above all things, that Barren Island, like Coney Island, is expressly exempted by law from the possible location of any Quarantine Buildings upon it.

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