davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07
Living In New York.

Eli Perkins has been visiting the poor
Of New York. He says
The first hut we visited was occupied
by sturdy German, his wife, and six
children. The lord of the manor was
smoking cherry pipe. As we passed
into the little 7x6 yard, big bull-pur
made n lunge for us, but soon came To
the end of his chain, where he hung
with his mouth open. He CRASHED his
teeth and invited us to early dinner.
"Git e-o-u-t " shouted my friend.
"Ton't yes pc feared of mine toggy,
for he is tied very tight nit stirring
said the German.
Inside the miserable hut were y coal
cooking-stove, u bed, n table, and Il good
many pictures of saints, and two moi
very cheetul cruciixions (crucihxions
are never cheerful pictures to me). A
very pretty German girl was standing
over the stove, while red-headed boy
sat on the floor and grinned, and the
big-faced mother stood with her sleeves
rolled up to receive us. There were nc
extra chairs, and only ono window in
the house.
"What wages do you get, my good
man ?" | asked
"Yel, 1 works for two tollars for a day.
/ works up by the park, but now | only
gets one tollar and foofsty cents by the
day Think Of that reader, $i5 per
month to support a wife and six children
on.
What rent do you pay ?"
."Thirty life tollars for year"
"What does your wife do ?"
"Sho takes care of the childers and
gathers coal"
How gathers coal ?"
"Vel," said the old woman, advancing
to the relief of husband 81 goes out
every morning bout seven o'clock nit
mine basket, and | chucks mine hands
through all the ash-barrels in front oil
the great houses"
elbow long does it take You to gel
coal enough to last you all day ?"
81 gifts enough in two hours
"Do your children work ?"
eyes. Angelina works in Robbcr's
match factory, on Fifty-second street
She makes sixty cents for day"
"Why don't you leave this wretchej
abode, and go West, where the Govern
ment will give you, free of expense, {
farm of eighty acres ?" I asked, think
of Mr.. Greeley.
"Vel, the childers are all girls bu
one, and they can york peter when they
gifts pig enough, here in New York. ="
Outside, the man had fine pig, and
running around the rocks, a she goat
which they milk daily. One girl goes
to the Ward school, and she showed mt
very nice map of Europe which She
had drawn ON slate.
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07

A MYSTERY Birmingham, England,
has got its mystery now, and gloats over
it, A commercial traveller for firm of
brass casters and bell-foulders had been
sometime in Russia on business of the
firm. He returned to London, and his
employers had been for some days ex-
pecting to see him in Birmingham, when
a letter came to them bearing the Lon
don postmark, and purporting to be
written by the missing traveller. The
letter stated that the writer was u men,
Der of Russian secret society that for
some offence, he was detained in Lon
don and had been condemned to death,
and in week the sentence would be car
ried into effect. His luggage, the letter
stated, would be found at his hotel.
Nothing further was heard OF the matter
for a week, when the firm received
another letter, also dated 'London, !"
but written in broken English, inform
ing them that their traveller was dead
and hurled according to the regulations
of the society. The firm placed the
matter in the hands of the police, but
nothing has yet been heard either Of the
traveller or his luggage.
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07
Gree.

You hold my heart in your slender hands,
In your cold, your cruel, careless hands,
In your beautiful hands, famed by breath
LikOth breath of the rose, it is dying its death.
In your beautiful hands with their glitter Of
rings,
Each ring trophy that sconfully sings
OF other hearts that have lain like mine
On your cruelty beautiful, pitilcss shrine.
OF other hearts that have gone to their death,
Swooned to sleep by that sweet, sweet breath,
That breath Of the rose that comes and goes
As tho smiling, beautiful lips unclosc.
When night after night down di2zying dances
They follow and follow your dazzling glancos,
While round and round by the music whirlcd,
As I'd follow and follow you over the world!
Then hold me fast in your slender hands,
In your cruelty beautiful, ritiless hands;
Let me forever be dying my death,
Soothod to sleep by that sweet, sweet breath
Let me forever be whirling there,
Lost in trance diyincly fair,
Lot me forever be stricken and slain,
And dying with this delicious pain.
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07

ABOUT Sun SPOTS. Mr.. Proctor, in q
communication to the Astronomical So
ciety, shows reason for believing that the
spots ON the sun are an effect Of volcanoes,
reused, as it appears, into activity by the
relative proximity of the planets. This
view is supported by the fact that earth
quakes and volcanic eruptions occur most
frequently on our globe when the moon
is nearest to us. Even the small changes
produced by tidal action were supposed
by the late Sir John Herschell to have an
exciting effect on VOLCANOES in the neigh
borhood of the coast. "And it," says
Mr.. Proctor, /" the mightiest of the plan
cts sympathises with solar action-if,
when the sun is most disturbed, the belts
of Jupiter are also subject Gas IN 1860 to
strange phenomena OF change-how read
lily do we find an explanation of what
would otherwise seem so mysterious,
when we remember that, as Jupiter dis
turbs the mighty mass of the sun, so the
sun would reclprocally disturb the mass
of the largest of his attending orbs."
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07
Jamaica Coal Heavcrs.

At the sound of the bell on steamship
company's wharf, at Kingston, the coal
beavers emerge from their dwellings in
every part of the city, and in few min
utes the dock is alive with coal whippers,
anxious to earn few shillings. These
coal carriers are among the most indus
trious people in Kingston, and they work
with steadiness and alacrity that is sur
prising. They carry twelve head-loads
of coal on board steamer for one penny,
equal to about two cents in American
money, and are able to earn from a shilling
to shilling and threepence day. At
night their wages are doubled. Much of
the labor Of coaling the Transatlantic
ships is done at night, and it is then the
carriers are in their highest spirits. An
unceasing flow of song-the words, as
nearly as could catch them, sounding
something like go Lord remember
Moses !"-is kept up till long after mid
night, and SO much work is accomplished
by the inspiration of the rude music that
one feels bound to confess that the melo-
dy is not wasted. The Neva, in which |
arrived at Kingston, is a large screw
steamer, and the work of coaling her is
no slight task, The coal whippers began
to fill up her hold at noon, and by six
o'clock the next morning, not counting q
three hours spell for breakfast, 800 tons,
of 2,240 pounds, had been put on board.
In addition to the wages regularly earned
by the carriers, the agent Of the company
generally gives each Of them a small gra-
tuity, and this, even more than the pay
ment of the money, insures the attend
ance of the carriers when they are want
ad
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07
opportunity, was filling his mind with

opportunity, was filling his mind with
thoughts Of retaliation.
But when he looked into the face OF Al
fred, and saw its patient sweetness, angry
feelings and evil thoughts vanished like
morning mists in the sunshine. He forgot
the fretting trials of the day, and was lifted
into tranquil regions.
"More and more, every day, do ] feel
this" answered the mother. " God is
good to our dear boy, and good to us in
him.
"And he is only cripple-a helpless
suherer-a burden and care, said the
father, his voice dropping into tender re-
gretful tone.
ooh, no! Don't say a burden and a care
was quickly replied. 1T is my daily de-
light to be with him, and to minister to
his needs. Love gets as sweet a return
now as when he first lay babe upon my
BOSOM"
The years passed on, and Alfred found
his work. 1t was good and great work,
though he knew it not.
"They serve the Lord who only stand and
wait"
He did more: he stood waiting with a
sweet patience that difused itself around
him in sphere as palpable to the spiritual
sense as the odor of flower is to the nat
ural sense, and all who came near him felt
the tranquilizing power of this heavenly
atmosphere. Leon grew to be strong,
earnest man, active in good deeds. There
was a time, as the self-reliant, self-willed
boy stood on the verge of manhood, when
passion and pride threatened to mar the
Just proportions Of his forming character ;
but the power Of another lie, purer, sweet
er, more loving and patient than his, soft
ened his asperities, lifted him into regions
of clearer sight, and helped him to see and
feel the beauty of goodness. With his own
weak hands, Alfred could not move the out
side world; but he held such power over
the heart Of one whose hands were strong
to do the bidding of an active mind, that
he made himself widely felt, and always
on the side of light and benctcencc,
And not alone through Leon did his pure
life blossom and find fruitage in the world.
Virtue seemed to go out OF him, whenever
a human soul came near enough to draw
from his full-chargcd inner life an electric
current.
Yes, the mother was right God had a
place in the world for the poor cripple, and
work for him to do, and the world was bet
ter because of his life poor, inefficient and
cramped as it seemed in the eyes Of all.
L. S. ARTHUR.
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07
British India.

All British officers acknowledge that
England has a very frail hold on India,
and that it could not hold it day with
outa army over 200, 900 strong. Never
theless, its grip is greater and closer now
than ever before, To say nothing Of the
reaction in favor of British power since
it quellcd the terrible mutiny, its railroad
and telegraph system arc worth to il
100000 soldiers or more. And there is
no confidence between Englishmen, and
Hindoos, and Mohometans. There is nc
bond Of unity in any way, except that OF
force. The races are in all respects re.
pugnant, the one to the other, To in
crease its security, the Government
makes up the native regiments about one.
half from Hindoos, ind the other Ma.
hometans and it relies more upon the
Sikh soldieHthan upon any other-the
Sikh from the up country, who has great
contempt for the men Of the plains-tho
Sikh, who, in the last mutiuy, stood faith
full when everything else was dropping
away. Education is doing something to
soften the mistrust of race but Christian
missions, as yet, seem to be doing little
or nothing. Education, however, at first,
only makes Deists Of Hindoos and Ma
hometans. 1t takes away from them all
respect for their own customs, while ii
cannot sever them from the associations
of their brethren and kindred They lose
their respect for the Koran and the We
das, and yet they have no more respect
for the bible. But, doubtless, this is n
process through which the heather mind
has to so before it can comprehend the
sublime truths of Christianity. Accord
ing to the best authorities, the Hindoc
Pantheon is peopled by precisely $685..
100000 gods-and suchN lot of divinities,
of course, are not to be got rid of in a
hurry Then, the castles are not to be
broken down without tremendous social
STRUGGLES The Brahmins, even, count
1000 separate distinct families of theil
order alone. Then, the abominable
castles in some parts of Jndia-that is, the
outcasts-out-num these Brahmins il
the proportion OF three to one, exclusive
of the other impure and very low tribes
Bankers in Bengal rank below BARRIERS
But | shall not write a book on castles
Nor shall L dwell more upon the Indian
as contrasted with the European-fol
what can / know, in my fight over ani
through the land ? All L can give is i'm,
pressions and one of the most vivid Of
my impressions is, that the Indian is fal
inferior to the Chinese or the japanese
in almost every quality that goes to make
up the man. --Le'ter from lanes Brooks
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07
A Bill from England.

England, according to Punch, has made
out quite bill against the United States.
Among the items charged we note the
following For encouraging the Fenians,
and putting Canada in dread of Fe-
aian invasion, ona-half penny. For al
lowing Mr.. G. T. Train to be ont of n
lunatic asylum, six pence. For the use
of the works Of ancient English authors
from VIM. Shakspere downwards, and
for calling them American authors e.
600, 100000. For piracy on modern Eng
fish authors, and for n OF calling great
many of them American authors II ,0O0,-
600, 900. For spelling great number of
decent second-rate English actors, and
sending them home with the idea that
they were Keans and Kembles, seven
shillings and six pence. For outraging
humanity bynot annexing Mexico, and
putting an end toits atrocities, 81, 0OO,-
100000.
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07
How to Make Beef Tea.

Cut into small pieces a pound of per
fectly lean beef. Add five or six drops
of muriatic acid-and stir for moment
The acid, disengaging all the nutritivt
part of the meat from the FIBRE leaves {
clear red juice which is strained off,
heated very hot, and seasoned with salt
and, if the patient likes it, pepper. This
beef tea has frequently prolonged anG
saved life in desperate cases.
Cd. Beef-tea made in Il bottle One
pound of perfectly lean beef is cut into
small Dice, placed in a strong quart
bottle, corked, and set to boil in a pot Of
water. The heat disengaging the juice
of the beef, gives after three hours
cooking q strong and nourishing liquid
into which the essential principle of the
meat is condensed. Let it grow thor.
oughly cold before using, 50 as toremove
every floating particle of fat-then re-
heat, season, and serve A tea.
spoonful of arrowroot stirred in while
the beef tea is heating makes an excellent
addition.
Sd. Beef-tea for cases Of lighter i'll
ness, where it is to supplement- rather
than replace other food: Take a pound
of lean beef-steak and broil it for an In
slant on both sides. Chop fine as for
mince meat, then add quart of water,
and boil slowly for an hour and half
Strain it, let it get thoroughly cold, skim
off the fat, and season with salt, pepper,
and, if the doctor permits, a SOnpc0a OF
tomato catsup. A little rice boiled with
the tea makes it nice-or sprig of celery
dropped in to lend flavor. This soup
is admirable food, and almost all sick
persons will be found to like it.
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07

WILD BEASTS AND SNAKEs.-India is
not quite such pleasant place to live in
after ALL if we may judge from the stats,
tics recently issued by the Calcutta gov
eminent, of deaths during the three years
ending 1869, from wild beasts and snakes
in India. Bengal leads off with 14,787
deaths from snake bites, and 6,741 from
wild beasts. Madras counts 7G0 from
snake bites, and 8S8 from wild beasts.
Northwest Provinces, 2,474 and 2, 16S re.
spectively. Central Provinces, l,9Gl and
1,347. Bombay is more moderate, the
return being 58S deaths from snakes, and
148 from wild beasts; while British Bur,
NAH seems the safest place Of all, there
only having been % deaths from snake
bites-but here we think there must be a
mistake and 107 from wild beasts
Once Week.
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07

The QUEsTToN.-The present position
of the dispute between the United States
and Great Britain affords considerable
satisfaction to our government. Earl
Granville, in his reply to Secretary Fish's
note, took no exception to the position
assumed originally in the presentation of
the American case before the general
conference. In replying to Earl Gran
vile, Mr.. Fish will call attention to this
fact, which is regarded as tacit indorse-
ment by Great Britain Ct the ground tax
en- by the American government, and he
will point out that if the omission was
unintentional it is now too late to rectify
it. Our country has acted, and will con-
tinue to act, on the theory that the Brit
ish government accepted the construction
put upon the treaty by Mr.. Fish, and was
prepared to stand by the consequences
N, Y Paper.
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07
A Slow Train.

The train that night seemed to be
wandering about somewhere in the inter,
ior OF the State, through n country well
lighted by the moon, windy, very cold
and rather spectral with the snow and
bristling evergreens, looking for farm
houses and convenient places to stop.
And stop it did frequently, start it did
reluctantly, and move about it deliber.
atoly. We got to know all the pleasant
little detail Of breaking-up and getting
underway again. First the whistle, ther
q percepNble slowness of motion, then
the jerk of the brakes, and Il sudden
stop, followed by loosening of the
brake, another lunge Of the ear, then a
rattle of the chains, and long creak OIL
rather sigh Of relief, and the train stood
still, ominously silent, as if dead This
silence had something in it appalling.
1t was sure to be broken, however, by q
nasal voice at the end of the train ring
ing out on the night air : "Hello, Jim
How's life ?" "All superior" replies
the young man in the baggage-car, i'll
the latest railroad slang.
"Seth, send along them castin's p
"Seth didn't need nothing" Seth be
hanged" and remarks follow about Seth
which should not care to hear about Il
friend of mine. The bell rings, the en-
CINE snorts, and slowly moves off. Con-
versation is also carried on inside the
car, upon the various events of the night.
" What are we stopping for now ??
" Are we stopping Station probably
"No, there is no station here docking
out of the frost-covered window, after
scraping place; we are right in the
open country" Will be station here
train is waiting for it to grow The
explanation is not satisfactory. After n
little while the sleepless one discovers
that the train is doing something else.
"There, we are backing, What are we
backing for ?" "Don't know probably
to get back" but we back ever SO
much" "Of course. You see,' says
the sleeper rousing himself to explain,
"we have to go one hundred and forty
four miles in ten hours and we couldn't
do 1t if we didn't go backward part Of
the time. "-EtchaRge
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07

DURABILITY OF DIFFERENT WOODS
Experiments have been lately made by
driving sticks, made of different woods,
each two feet long and one and half
inches square, into the ground, only a
half inch projected outward. 1t was
found that in five years all those made of
oak, elm, ash, fir, soft mahogany, and
neerly every variety ofpine, were totally
rotten. Larch, hard pine and teak wood
were decayed on the outside only ; while
acacia, with the exception Of being also
slightly attacked on the exterior, was
otherwise sound. Hard mahogany and
cedar of Lebanon were in tolerably good
condition, But only Virginia cedar was
found as good as when put in the ground.
This is of some importance to builders,
showing what woods should be avoided
and what others used by preference in
underground work.
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07

IRON STATISTICS. The "Financier
gives the following statistics of the man
ufacture of iron in the United States,
taken, doubtless, from the report of the
Iron and Steel Associations Product of
pig iron in 1871, $780, 900 tons, namely,
made with anthracite coal, $4,000 tons ;
with raw coal and coke, 100000 and
with charcoal, 1877, 600 number of per-
sons employed in the manufacture, 14O,-
600 value of the product, for Transport
tation, must therefore deduct, for trans
portation, commissions, profits, insur-
ance, taxes, &C., at least twenty-five per
cent. leaving TO- labor and materials
S60,O00,O0o or, for 300 days, 100000
per day that is to say, SLAB per day
for each OF the lao, 900 men.
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07

. VERY KINDS j. Hestor, an eccentric
gentleman of Hartford, Ct, regularly
stamps all letters held for postage in
that city, attaching to the envelope a
printed statement OF the fact. The re-
sponses he has received would fill large
volume. A resident of Elizabeth, New
Jersey, writes that Marcus l.. Ward be-
came Governor of the State through that
course. A Boston burglar says: Hes
tor, you're gentleman ammo mat.
ter what but I got letter you stamped
Just in time to dodge the beaks and be
off. Here's stamp, and, if l ever hap
pen in Hartford in professional way, |
shan't crack your bin if l knows myself.
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07
Along the Hudson.

1t was in the evening gray
Late l wendell slow my way
By that calm and silent river,
Rolling smoothly down forever.
AS wandered on alone,
Over shrub and over stone,
Saddening fancy seemed to say,
"Gloomy spirits crossed this way"
Der the leaves, crispd, old and dun,
To and fro the shadows run,
And where'er turned my eye,
Shades of spirits lowered nigh
Silent and in thoughtful mood
Near the LAYING ebb l stood,
Watching, waiting-thinking DER
Friends upon distant shore.
Gazing on the vapors where
All around scem'd peopled air,
Something in this heart was moved,
Which one CLEAN Of solacd proved
But the dark blue waters roll'd,
And the mystic vapors told
OF the shadows on my breast
Shadows never finding rest.
Hearts, once true, soem'd turned to stone
And my woes dense, darker grown;
And my soul, in monotone,
Wept and walled, "Alone-alone
Then I turned to memorys bier,
Where my hopes lay cold and scar
Where each thought of lifos young bloom
Pressed me downward to the tomb.
But what made me suffer more,
When thought on friends of yore,
could feel no moistened eye:-
l had drained them with sigh.
Oh, why this soul of longing hopes,
Why this gloom through which it gropes
Why this fear, and doubt, and love,
If there is no balm above2
On my car, from vale and glen,
Came the shouts of living men;
But my fancy, chiding, said
"They are voices of the dead"
Oh, shadows, which are spirit land.
You charm and hold me whore stand,
And while breathe and see that breath
] feel a strange and subtle death.
Hugh p. MDamoH
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07

A WOLF SToRY.-The main street of a
village Of central India, where children
were always at play, ran down the slope
of the hill and while one Of two wolves,
which was smaller than the other, would
6sconce itself behind some low bushes
between the village and the hill, the
ether would go round to the top, and
watching an opportunity, race down
through the street, picking up a child
by the way, and making off with it to
the thick cover Of the ravine. At first
the people used to pursue, and some
times make the marauder drop his prey;
but, as they said, finding that in that
case the companion wolf usually sue
ceeded in carrying off another of the
children in the confusion, while the
first was usually so injured as to be be-
You'd recovery, they ended, like phleg-
matte Hindoos, as they were, by letting
them take just as many of their offspring
as they wanted. An infant few years
old had thus been carried off the morn
ing of my arrival. 1t is scarcely credi-
bic that | could not at first obtain sufi-
cient beaters to drive the cover where
those two atrocious beasts were gorging
their unholy meal.
Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-07

WHAT THEY THOUGHT. Washington
served two terms as President of the
United States, and when he finally re-
tired from Office to the quiet of Mount
Vernon, the Philadelphia aurora thus
spoke of him eff ever a nation has
been debauched by man the American
nation has been debauched by Washing
ton. Let the history of the federal gov
eminent instruct mankind that the mask
of patriotism may be worn to conceal
the foulest designs against the liberties
of the people"