Adding To the Ole Blog Roll!

I've added some great new sites to the blog roll in the past week...check them out! (h/t to "Hugh's Daily Frickin' Cartoons" for the graphic)

1) Frances Hunter's American Heroes Blog - If you've been here at my blog at all in the past week you know all about Frances Hunter's (aka Mary and Liz Clare) EXCELLENT nonfiction site that PERFECTLY compliments their historical fiction writing!

2) Caroline Rance at The Quack Doctor - Likewise, if you are a regular visitor here you know that I post often on 19th-century American patent/quack medicines...if you like those posts then you will LOVE her blog...she's from the UK so you will also get a unique perspective from across the pond!

3) Rusty Williams at My Old Confederate Home - Rusty is posting some great information in conjunction with his forthcoming book, My Old Confederate Home: A Respectable Place for Civil War Veterans (University Press of Kentucky, May 2010)...the stories associated with Confederate soldiers' homes that operated throughout the South, the border states, and California are fascinating!

4) John Cummings at Spotsylvania Civil War Blog - A discussion of all social, political and cultural aspects of the American Civil War battles fought in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, including Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness and Spotsylvania, from antebellum to modern day perspective of the material culture effects of these engagements, both military and civilian. John lives RIGHT THERE (!) so you'll get some great information and photos the battlefields!

Welcome - and keep up the GREAT work!

Historical Fiction Book Review - LEWIS & CLARK- CONTEST WINNER!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest for a free copy of the recent release The Fairest Portion of the Globe by Frances Hunter!

The challenge was to name your favorite PAIR of historical figures (and why) and we got some GREAT answers!

The winner is Regis Pluchet (from France!!), with this terrific and interesting pair:

Philibert (Commerson) and Jeanne (Barret)

As described by Regis:

"February 1767 : the french botanist Philibert Commerson, 39 years old, joined the Bougainville’s expedition around the world. His young housekeeper, Jeanne Barret, 26 years old, would accompany him, but expeditions were forbidden for women. Philibert was in great love with Jeanne. He disguised her as a man and as his valet, nicknamed Jean Bonnefoy. Incredibly, the passengers remained ignorant of her gender during 14 months.

April 1768 : the expedition reached Tahiti. The "savage" Tahitians recognised and revelead her true gender.

November 1768 : the expedition reaches Port Louis of Mauritius. Philibert remained at Port Louis with Jeanne, where Jeanne became a good botanist. After a journey to Madagascar without Jeanne, Philibert fell sick. Jeanne cared for him, but Philibert died in 1773.

Jeanne returned to France in 1774. She was complimented by King Louis XV for her courage and her botanical labours and granted a pension. She died in 1807.

Jeanne was the first woman to circumnavigate round the world. Philibert dedicated to her the plant genus Baretia (plants with ambiguous sexual characteristics !)

What a GREAT pair and a GREAT story!

Thanks Regis and CONGRATULATIONS!

Historical Fiction Book Review - LEWIS & CLARK! (Part III)

BOOK GIVEAWAY!!!!

To finish up this past week's posts about the terrific historical novel, To The Ends of the Earth: The Last Jouney of Lewis and Clark (my review here, buy the book here!) and my interview with authors sisters Mary and Liz Clare (aka "Frances Hunter"), I am pleased to announce:

A contest for a copy of their recent (February 2010) release, The Fairest Portion of the Globe!

It's easy to enter! Just leave a comment on this post, by e-mail (schmidtjamesm at gmail dot com), or as a Facebook message to me, with:

Your favorite PAIR of historical figures and why that is so (from a sentence to a paragraph)! The BEST answer will receive a copy of the book!

The contest ends Friday, 19 March, 2010!

Consider the possibilities:

Antony & Cleopatra

Bonnie & Clyde (you better have a good reason!)

Bert & Ernie (not so much...)

John & Abigail Adams

Victoria & Albert

You get the idea!

Historical Fiction Book Review - LEWIS & CLARK (Part II)

On Friday, I posted a review of a terrific historical novel, To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis & Clark (Blind Rabbit Press, 2006).

Today I am pleased to post an interview with the authors, Mary and Liz Claire. If you enjoy historical fiction, and even more especially: if you write historical fiction, you will want to read this interview by two accomplished authors in the genre!

You'll learn about period vocabulary, setting historical scenes, marketing your work, and much more!

Stay tuned for Part III - a chance to win a free copy of their latest book, The Fairest Portion of the Globe!!


Q: To the Ends of the Earth was your first book; what other kinds of writing had you done before this? What authors have influenced your writing?

Mary: I was a small business columnist for the Austin Business Journal in the early nineties and have always enjoyed writing fiction, non-fiction, and even occasional poetry. My article “A Dark and Bloody Ground: The Incident on the Nueces” was published in the May 1998 issue of Civil War Magazine. But novel writing is what I really enjoy. My biggest influence as a writer is John Jakes. No one would argue that his books are high art, but he knows how to tell a ripping good story. If you look at the structure of The Bastard or North and South, you see how Jakes drops you back in time, with a sense of immediacy and authenticity surrounding the historical conflicts that are taking place. His characters are both flawed and sympathetic. And his cliff-hangers are amazing—you just can’t put the book down!

Liz: I’ve always liked to write, and I’ve been a technical writer for over 20 years. And I’ve written a lot of non-fiction articles for newsletters and the like. A few years back, I got back into creative writing – which I loved in high school – via fan fiction. The response to my short stories was great and really satisfying, and I found new satisfaction in creating characters and stories that people liked and responded to. Besides Jakes, I would say I was most influenced by Howard Fast. Fast was a craftsman nonpareil. Take Citizen Tom Paine, in which he breathes life into the tortured patriot and writer, and wrings the drama and contradictions of Paine’s life for all they’re worth. You really feel for Thomas Paine even as you’re being inspired by his famous words. Fast was very political, but he never let his personal views interfere with the integrity of the stories he chose to tell. That raw honesty and genuine human emotion make his stories unforgettable.

Q: The vocabulary in To the Ends of the Earth is great! I always love to learn new words...especially "vintage" words. Where do you get them? I'm thinking especially of words you used like "shift" (instead of "dress" or "slip") or "dirk" (instead of "dagger," "knife," etc.). Is this important in your writing?

Mary: Yes, because the right words can transport you instantly back into the past. In researching our historical novels, we’ve read a lot of period documents, including the Lewis & Clark journals themselves. You become steeped in the cadence and vocabulary of 19th century speech, which in many ways was much more elaborate and florid than our own. An educated person in those days was likely to know Latin and Greek, and to be widely read in the classics. Lewis in particular liked to use “25-cent words.” One of my favorite words that appears in our new book, The Fairest Portion of the Globe, is “caitiff.” It means “cowardly.” It’s a word we don’t hear every day, but “Mad Anthony” Wayne peppered his letters with “caitiff” this and “caitiff” that, so finally I couldn’t imagine him speaking without using that word. All the same, we try hard not to let the dialogue become stilted. Lewis and Clark were gentlemen, but they were also tough army officers, and we try to make them sound like it—including occasional use of profanity. We just make sure the profanity is period-correct! We have a joke that if something sounds “too Tarantino,” we take it out of the book.

Liz: The only trouble is that you do find yourself talking 19th-century style. I recently got a funny look from a co-worker when I blurted out that “I cared not” how a certain task was completed, just that it be done. That was Meriwether Lewis talking. Which points up another difference in the language, and that is that people in Lewis & Clark’s time were generally much more blunt and plain-spoken than people are today. Though some, like Lewis and his mentor, Thomas Jefferson, may have used flowery language, they would have been appalled by the political correctness and obfuscation of today. When Jefferson told the Osage, “We are as numerous as the stars in the heavens, and we are all gunmen,” there’s certainly no mistaking his meaning.

Q: The settings are just wonderful I really feel like I'm in a tangle of limbs on those trails! How much traveling have you done - especially in the "backwoods" - and does this inform your writing?

Mary: There’s no doubt that seeing the actual spot you’re trying to describe helps enormously. We have traveled a large portion of the Lewis & Clark trail, from the White Cliffs of the Missouri to the Pacific Coast, and from Omaha to Fort Mandan. A few years ago, we drove the Natchez Trace Parkway along the route Lewis took in the last days of his life—after we had finished the first draft of To the Ends of the Earth. It was amazing, quite frankly, to see how closely the reality met our expectations, though we did find a few things to correct. At one point, based on a modern map, we had Lewis crossing the Tombigbee River. We found out when we got there that this wouldn’t have been possible until the Tenn-Tom waterway was completed in the 1980’s! So fortunately the error didn’t make it into the final version of the book.
Liz: One point I always like to make is that we’re not outdoorsy – we always stay in motels at the end of the day, where we can get a hot meal and a hot shower. These days, people seem to be disappointed if you didn’t do something “extreme” to get your story. But the Lewis & Clark trail is for everyone. It belongs to us all and most of it is accessible to us all. You don’t have to be a hardbody to enjoy it.

Mary: When we can’t go in person, we rely a lot on research magic. We research exhaustively to try to make the settings as authentic as possible. This applies whether we’ve been there or not. We can visit St. Louis today, but we can’t visit in 1809, when To the Ends of the Earth is set, so we had to learn all about St. Louis in 1809—how the streets were laid out, what the levee would have been like, what the people wore, what they ate, how they spoke, how they smelled. In our new book, The Fairest Portion of the Globe, Lewis and Clark meet for the first time at a frontier army fort in Cincinnati in the 1790’s. We’ve never been to Cincinnati at all, let alone in the 1790’s. So we had to use research and imagination to fill in the details.

Liz: A wise man once said that “The past is another country.” Fortunately, you can visit it through your imagination and the written word. You read as many travelogues, journals, and earlier accounts as you can and take a stab at it. There were earlier historians who trekked out to these places in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, while there was still a little bit left to see, who left some wonderful accounts. In one account, the historian takes the time to rhapsodize about the automobile and how it has revolutionized his research. That’s great stuff.

Q: St. Louis is the setting for a good part of Ends/Earth and your forthcoming novel about R.E. Lee...what attracts you to that city? Do you think people underestimate the importance of St Louis as THE great gateway to the West?

Mary: St. Louis was one of the great fascinating places in early America. It was a crossroads in so many ways. It was founded in the 1760’s by French traders, but it was part of the Spanish empire for decades, until it was secretly ceded back to Napoleon. Napoleon then turned around and sold it to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. In St. Louis, you would have encountered fur traders, frontiersmen, mountain men, riverboat men, Indians, and people from all backgrounds and walks of life, speaking French, Spanish, German, English and who knows what else. It was a rough-and-tumble river town, the jumping off point for adventurers heading west. During the time Robert E. Lee was there, the late 1830’s, it was also a pressure point between abolitionist and pro-slavery factions that escalated into great violence. Later, the Dred Scott decision was handed down in St. Louis. It has an enormously important history.

Liz: I think St. Louis gets underestimated a lot, partly because it was eclipsed by Chicago as the region’s major city, partly because of the incredible leap of faith they took in the 20th century to demolish most of the historic downtown to build the Gateway Arch and its surrounding park. In my opinion, the work that St. Louis did and continues to do kept the city from suffering the tragedy that has enveloped Detroit. But the consequence is that it is very difficult to get a feel for the historic nature of St. Louis just from paying a casual visit. At one point in 1838, three great Americans – William Clark, Robert E. Lee, and pioneering doctor William Beaumont – were all living under the same roof in St. Louis! Clark was elderly by that time, Lee was there to take on his first major project as an Army engineer, and Beaumont was conducting some extremely colorful human experiments. What a novelist’s dream. You can’t make this stuff up.

Q: You have a wonderful blog just LOADED with Lewis &Clark nonfiction! How does this compliment your fiction writing?

Liz: Fiction is a real challenge to market. The Internet has not leveled the playing field, but it does give small press authors the chance to get their name and work known in a way that they couldn’t have 20 years ago. The thing is, even with the Internet, the only way people are going to find your work is if your website ranks high enough in the search engines that people can find it. There is no effective way for people to search for fiction, but there are extremely efficient ways that people search for information. So we decided to create a Lewis and Clark non-fiction blog where we could indulge our passion for Lewis and Clark and early America, and start getting our names out there at the same time. We absolutely love working on the blog, and I do think it’s helping with recognition for the books too. It’s a long process though. You’re not always reaching the people you intend to reach. One of our most popular posts on the blog is about punishment in the old Army, because of people searching for “whipping.” I hope they’re not too disappointed.

Mary: The blog is one more way to get the word out about our novels. Not everybody is crazy about historical fiction, so showing we know what we’re talking about gives us a certain amount of “street cred” with historians. Frankly, I don’t think we could be historical novelists without loving history. Most of what I read for pleasure is non-fiction. We are fascinated by all aspects of the Lewis & Clark expedition, so creating the Frances Hunter’s American Heroes blog was a natural outlet for us to share our obsession with other people.

Thanks Mary and Liz!

Stay Tuned for Part III this week: A chance to win a copy of their new book, The Fairest Portion of the Globe!!

Historical Fiction Book Review - LEWIS & CLARK! (Part I)

"I don't often read novels, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis" - Jim Schmidt, "The Most Interesting Man in The World."

WAIT! That's not right! (although I do LOVE Dos Equis) What I meant to say is that I don't often read novels, but when I do I prefer **historical fiction**. And - as it turns out - I recently finished a TERRIFIC book in that genre, To The Ends of The Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis & Clark by Frances Hunter (Blind Rabbit Press, 2006). What's more, the author has recently released a new book: The Fairest Portion of the Globe (Feb 2010, Blind Rabbit Press).

Below is my brief review of the book (bottom line: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!)

Even better: tomorrow I will post an interview with author, and...EVEN BETTER THAN THAT: A CONTEST FOR A FREE COPY OF THE FAIREST PORTION OF THE GLOBE (SEE RULES TO BE ANNOUNCED TOMORROW!

I had the great pleasure of meeting Frances Hunter when I spoke about Lincoln's Labels: America's Best Known Brands and the Civil War to the Austin (TX) Civil War Round Table in December 2009. The first thing you need to know is that "Frances Hunter" is actually two people! They are sisters Mary and Liz Clare and are active members of the Round Table.

Mary and Liz live in Austin, Texas (with their bunny "Junebug" and their old beagle "Belle"). Mary works as a senior systems analyst for the University of Texas, and Liz works as a digital projects specialist at the Texas State Library and Archives.

Before the meeting, Mary and Liz introduced themselves and their new book, Fairest Portion of the Globe. Several members of the Round Table gave glowing recommendations of their first book, To The Ends of the Earth, so what else could I do but get the book at the earliest opportunity?! I'm so glad that I did. The book is just wonderful. I compare it to others of my favorite books of historical/literary fiction: The Dante Club, The Pale Blue Eye (my favorite!), and - especially - The Poe Shadow.

The Poe Shadow is about one of America's great mysteries - the death of Edgar Allan Poe. Similarly, To The Ends of the Earth is about an equally famous (and equally mysterious) death - that of Meriweather Lewis. Most historians consider his death a suicide, but there is enough debate to warrant other possibilities (or conspiracies?!) - and with that we have To the Ends of the Earth! The book is described as follows:

"St. Louis, 1809. Three years after the triumphal return of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, Meriwether Lewis never felt less like a hero. Trapped in a thankless political job, he's drinking too much and spending money like there's no tomorrow. When he's called to a mysterious meeting, Lewis hopes for a new adventure that will turn his life around. Instead, he finds himself drawn into a conspiracy to put him and William Clark at the head of a new American empire. Lewis has his faults, but he's no traitor ... and suddenly Lewis the explorer becomes the hunted. As for Clark, he's willing to risk everything to save his best friend from dishonor and disgrace. In the end, neither man can imagine the price to pay for their loyalty to each other and to their country. History and fiction merge seamlessly in this thrilling historical novel based on one of America's greatest unsolved mysteries. Lewis and Clark's last journey is a classic story of honor, vengeance, and redemption."

It's a great read on many levels! First, it's great to read stories of men who are close friends rather than the modern tendency to concentrate on the individual. Second, the main characters are not caricatures - they are multi-faceted (with one exception, I would say); they are good men, with some "warts." It makes it that more believable. Third - speaking of "believability" - that was indeed the best part of the book from beginning to end...it was authentic! A good part of the story takes place in St. Louis, a city that I think is (unfortunately) somtimes overlooked for its importance in early American history in favor of cities in the northeast. Finally, the book is quite exciting.

I will defintely read The Fairest Portion of the Globe and am looking forward to their work-in-progress: Bloody Island, a book about young army engineer Robert E. Lee, 1838 St. Louis, and a crisis that could leave the city "high and dry." Throw in corruption, conspiracy, and deception, and it sounds like another great story!

Mary and Liz were kind enough to answer my questions about their writing and especially about "authenticity"...I will post the interview tomorrow along with rules for a contest to win a free copy of The Fairest Portion of the Globe!

Until, then enjoy these GREAT book trailers (click to play):

Quack Medicine Advertising Disguised as Military History!

I have posted before how - even decades afterwards - patent/quack medicine vendors specifically advertised their nostrums and snake oil to Civil War veterans.

I've recently added an item to my collection that reinforces this theme: a pamphlet entitled "Decisive Battles" (c. 1899) with a thrilling illustration of Civil War combat on the front. On the inside front cover is a list of about twenty "Decisive Battles of the World" from Marathon (490 B.C.) to Hastings (1066) to Waterloo (1815).

Unfortunately, the "military history" ends there...kind of. "Decisive Battles" was a small and short (16-page) pamphlet put out by the "Dr. Williams Medicine Co." of Schenectady, New York, makers of the famous "Pink Pills for Pale People."

Military themes were a hallmark of patent medicine advertising, and - as the pamphlet begins:

"The battles enumerated on the preceeding page are those which have most influenced the history of the world. Not less important are the battles being constantly fought with disease, the outcome of which is to have a decisive influence on the lives of the sufferers and their families."

To that end, within the pages of "Decisive Battles" is a wee bit more military history, such as it is, in the form of Civil War veteran testimonials to "Pink Pills." Indeed, of the 10 short stories of miracle cures in the booklet, several are from veterans, such as this one:

A SOLDIER'S ESCAPE

_______________

Little Less Than a Miracle

__________________

From the Palladium, Oswego, N.Y.

Mr. S. R. Hunter, of South Scriba, N.Y., is a blacksmith, and for six years has resided at South Scriba. he was born at Henderson Village, Jefferson County, N.Y., sixty years ago, and when President Lincoln called for volunteers to suppress the rebellion, he quit the forge and was one of the first men in Northern New York as a private in Company K, Ninety-fourth New York Volunteers. Returning at the close of the war he took up his early ocupation, but the hardships of camp life had left him almost a physical wreck.

Sciatic rheumatism developed, and for years he was doctored and spent hundreds of dollars without obtaining relief. Three years ago his limbs became paralyzed, and he was unable to walk. Physicians gave him no relief, and he was unable to get about except by dragging himself from place to place by his arms. He says it was no trick for him to run a common darning needle into the muscles of his limbs without feeling the slightest sensation, and he believed that he would never be anything but a hopeless uinvalid. The remainder of the story of this remarkable case is best told in his own language to a reporter of the Palladium:

"A copy of your paper was handed me in the fall of 1895 by a neighbor. Therein I read an account of how Dr. Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People had effected a cure in a case that was in many respects like my own. I had very little money with which to buy medicine, and I talked the matter over with my wofe. The results was that I purchased a box of Dr. Williams' Pink Pills, and before they were half gone I noticed a marked improvement in my physical condition. I have taken nine boxes in all, and can now walk three miles without exertion. Had I the means to continue taking the pills I am confident that in a very short time I would be as well as ever, because with the condition I have described I am troubled with kidney complaint, and these pills are the only medicine that has ever given me relief from that ailment, which troubles me still, though not as bad as formerly. I have the utmost confidence in Dr. Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People, appreciating fully what they have done for me affter all hope had been abandoned and I expected relief in death only. It is proper to state that my rheumatic pains have not troubled me since last winter."

I found a copy of the original Hunter testimonial from the Palladium in several other period newspapers, including The Evening Herald (Syracuse, NY, April 18, 1898), The Bath Independent (Bath, Maine, July 9, 1898), and even in the Brisbane Courier of Australia (July 1, 1897)!

Lincoln's Labels Book Giveaway Contest #2 - Wedding Daze - UPDATED!

Here is another contest for "Lincoln's Labels" advance review copies and more!

There is an entire chapter in Lincoln's Labels: Best Known Brands and the Civil War about the interesting and important role that Tiffany & Co. played in the Civil War. Tiffany’s set aside its world renowned bracelets and brooches and made way in its store for swords, flags, and medals…one wartime Tiffany salesman wrote in his diary that “business in the diamond department is slow, but we are very busy in gold braid and cutlery”

That said, they didn't completely set aside their other finery and they were often the first stop for the upper class when it came to special and expensive wedding gifts.

During the Civil War, there were many high-profile weddings, but at least two really stand out for the prominence of the bride and groom and also for the contributions that Tiffany's made to the wedding in either gifts or jewelry.

The first correct answers to either of these questions via a blog comment, Facebook e-mail, or regular e-mail (schmidtjamesm at gmail dot com) gets a free advance review copy of Lincoln's Labels!

Good luck!

Wedding #1 - This wedding took plac in 1863 between a Washington socialite who married a New England governor. Abraham Lincoln attended the reception! The groom purchased a Tiffany jewelry set for his new bride of diamonds and pearls that set him back more than $50,000! Who were the bride and groom?

Wedding #2 - This wedding also took place in 1863. The groom was a "General" and his best man was a "Commodore" who had once wooed the bride but lost the contest. President Lincoln did not attend the wedding but did receive the newly-married copule at the White House. Tiffany and Co. gave the couple a beautiful silver carriage as a wedding gift. Who were the bride and groom?

(04 March 2010) - UPDATED WITH ANSWERS BELOW!

Thanks to everyone who participated! I received several correct answers (most of them through the book's Facebook page!) on both questions and will contact the winners by e-mail. And the answers were...

Wedding #1 - Bride = Kate Chase (daughter of Lincoln's Treasury Secretary Slamon B. Chase); Groom = William Sprague (Governor of Rhode Island, 1860-1863, and U.S. Senator, 1863-1875). Sprague's wedding gift to Kate was a tiara of matched pearls and diamonds from Tiffany & Co. that cost more than $50,000. Harper's Weekly described it in great detail in the November 26, 1863 issue, with an engraving. Unfortunately, the marriage ended in divorce in 1882, in no small part due to Sprague's drinking, speculation, and womanizing.

Wedding #2 - Bride = Lavinia Warren; Groom = "General" Tom Thumb; Best Man = "Commodore" Nut; all of them were in the employ of 19th-century showman P.T. Barnum. The wedding was also featured on the cover of Harper's Weekly (February 21, 1863). Tiffany & Co. presented the couple with a maginificent miniature silver horse and chariot, describe by the New York Times (February 11, 1863):

"The vehicle is ornamented with rubies. The eyes of the charger being garnet. The whole is in the chasiest style of fillagree work and is a model of beauty and art."

Lincoln's Labels Book Giveaway Contest #1 - Name This Brand - UPDATED!

I'll be conducting several contests and giveaways this week for Lincoln's Labels advance review copies and more!

Here is contest Number One...first correct answer gets a copy of the book...first 5 correct answers will get some great bookmarks! ONE DAY ONLY!! MORE CONTESTS COMING!!

Leave your answers in the comment section below, an e-mail (not a comment) to me on Facebook, or by e-mail at schmidtjamesm at gmail dot com

Here's the question:

What famous sauce:

• was first made in 1838



• was advertised in newspapers during the Civil War as "A few drops in Soup or Gravy imparts a most delicious zest"



• was advertised to Civil War soldiers thusly: "Citizens called from their homes on public duty and deprived of many personal comforts, need not be deprived of...this esteemed condiment...it will go far to remedy the discomforts arising from bad or irregular cooking"

UPDATE (02 March 2010) - THE ANSWER!!

Thanks to everyone who participated in Quiz #1...I received several answers through the blog and through Facebook, including several correct answers and some good guesses! I'll contact the winners by e-mail with their prize info.

And the correct answer is...

Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce!

Lea & Perrins is a United Kingdom food company, originating in Worcester; they are best known as the maker of their eponymoys brand of Worcestershire sauce, which was first sold in 1838 by John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins, dispensing chemists from Broad Street, Worcester!

See below a period advertisement as well as an 1861 engraving from Harper's Weekly, in which the sauce is lampooned in a parade of "food on its way to the front"!