davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12
THE BEST PAPER! TRY It'll
Beautifully Illustrated.

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The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12

Among the gratifying evidences
of a return to loyalty and kindly
feeling in the South, we may men,
ton the letter of General Forest, of
fering his services to the Govern
ment in case of war with Spain.
General Sherman, with true soldier
ly chivalry, recognizes the gallantry
of General Forest, whom he regards
as one of the most extraordinary
men developed by our late civil war,
and who, he believes, would fight
against our national enemies as We
hemently as he did against us, and
that is saying enough. This speaks
well for the Southern soldiers, and
is a most hopeful augury for the fu-
ture of the country.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12

AUBURN VS.. SING SING.-Despite the
well-known influence which secured a
pleasant reception for Frank H. Wal
worth at Sing Sing prison, it has not
been sufficiently potent to render his
stay at that institution permanent one
as he, together with James H. Ingersoll,
the celebrated ring chairmaker, was
transferred to Auburn prison, among a
draft of fifty jailbirds on Friday last.
This augurs i'll for the future comfort OF
those two respectable" convicts, as Au-
burn, on account of the rigid discipline
practised there, is particularly dreaded
by wrongdoers. Shut in by lofty walls,
with no pleasant view of the Hudson
river to relieve the monotonous life of
the convict, and chances for escape made
next to impossible, it is the last prison
in the State which an experienced Grim
inal would select. In this transaction
the State Prison Inspectors have evil
IDENTIFY risen above party or personal
considerations.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12

STEAL OR sTARvE.-This morning a
young man, peddler by occupation, ap-
piled to Deputy Mayor Salisbury, of
the South Side, and asked to be commit
ted to the Workhouse for thirty days.
He stated that he was out of work had
no money or monied friends; did not
want to get drunk, steal, or starve; was
willing to work for living, but could
get no work, and earnestly pleaded with
the Magistrate to be sent up to the bar
rel factory. The Deputy Mayor de-
clined to commit man to the Work
house for no offense. Some of the citi-
zens advised the man to get drunk as a
solution of the problem, but even the
money to get drunk on seemed not to be
forthcoming. The Magistrate consigned
the applicant to the Station House for a
few days, to give the matter further con-
sideration. PiHsburg Telegraph.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12
A Novel RailrOrd.

There has Just been completed at the
machine shop of Lafferty & Bros, Glou
cester City, n. J., four ton locomotive,
designed to run on one rail. 1t is built for
a street railroad company in Georgia.
This engine can with propriety be
called steam velocipede, as it rests
upon two wheels, one following the 9TH
er The rail or track upon which it is
to run, a sample of which is laid in the
yard of the builders, is styled a "Pris-
mold" or one-track railway, and is COM
posed of several thicknes$es of plank,
built up in the style of an inverted keel
of a vessel, with a fiat rail on the apex.
Upon trial, speed of about twelve
miles an hour was attained, and the
inventor and patentee claim that the
speed can be almost doubled on a
like, Ga, is the inventor and patentee
of both track and engine, and he
claims that his invention demonstrates
tractive power superior to anything
in the locomotive line of equal weight.
The capacity for running curves is very
much greater than the two rail system
The track upon which the trial was
made contained thirty-six feet of lum-
Der and eighteen pounds Of iron to the
lineal foot, proving itselfequal to span
of twenty feet, remaining firm and un-
yielding under the pressure of the en-
gIne as it traversed the road. The re-
volving fanges attached to the engine,
and which run on the outsides of each
wheel, Mr.. Crew claims, absolutely
lock the rolling stock to the prism,
and obviate the necessity of SO much
heavy rolling-stock in light traffic at
high rate of speed. 1t is also claimed
that prismoidal railway built with a
base of fourteen inches, angles forty-five
degrees, can be built at cost of $1,000
per mile The inventor is of opinion
that his engine and track is particularly
adapted to the propelling of canal boats
and will compete successfully with horse
power on canals without necessarily in
terfering with the use of the latter, but
he does not state in what way. The
engine will shortly be shipped to its
destination Atlanta, Ga.,) where it goes
into operation on a street railroad built
at an elevation of twelve feet above the
sidewalk.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12

TwEED's LITTLE BooK-The TIL
States, Port Jervis, New York, news
paper gives currency to a report that
Big Six at last is going to make revela-
tions of his mode of buying Legisla-
lures and manipulating politics. 1t
says:
"a former resident of Port Jervis,
who saw William NJ. Tweed shortly af-
ter his conviction informs us that Mr..
Tweed surprised him by stating that he
proposed to publish a book, of an auto
biographical character, as soon as he
can secure time enough to attend to it.
Mr.. Tweed has carefully kept diary of
his life, and he proposes, now that he oc-
cupies felon's cell, to give the world
some startling disclosures. He proposes
to tell the world his manner of doing
business, whom he bought to serve his
purposes, and the average price of AL
bany Legislators. Probably no one
man in the country has had so varied
an experience in this line as Mr.. Tweed,
and no man can make such startling
revelations"
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12

The salary grabbing business is
making quite stir in Congress just
now, and members seem to be very
uncertain what to do with it. A
bill to repeal the law has been intro
duced, and now the question comes
up as to the power of Congress to
repeal it, nnder the Constitutional
provision relative to the matter of
increasing or diminishing official sa-
laries during the term for which the
incumbents were elected. 1t seems
to us it would have been better to
consider that matter before the law
increasing salaries was enacted. But
why quihble about the Constitution
in the matter? The law is either
right or wrong. If right and just,
then there is no question of its con-
stitutionality; and if wrong, repeal
it, for the wrong cannot be Consti-
tutional in itself, while to right the
wrong cannot be anything else but
Constitutional. Right or wrong
that's the question. Let Congress
decide that, and then take action,
and they will find no trouble with
the Constitution.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12
Our Government is steadily com

Our Government is steadily COM
pleting arrangements for the recep-
ton of the steamer Virginius, to be
surrendered by the Spanish author
tiles of Cuba to the United States,
according to the agreement between
Secretary Fish and Admiral Polo,
the Spanish Minister.
Notwithstanding the agreement,
ratified as it is by both Governments,
there is still an evident doubt in the
minds of our authorities as to wheth-
er the Cuban officials viii perform
the agreement. Accordingly an
immense naval force, in fact the
whole naval force now available, has
been ordered into Cuban waters,
and most active preparations are go
ing forward in all the navy yards
of the United States. Recruiting
for the navy is going on rapidly, too,
a circumstance of no little signifi-
canoe. All may terminate favora-
bly,, and without war, but it is quite
evident, from the magnitude of the
preparations now making, that our
Government has no very firm faith
in the probability of a peaceful so
luton of the difficulty. Time will
soon tell. ~
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12

An amnesty bill passed the House
of Representatives yesterday, by
the decisive vote of 141 ayes to 2e
nays. 1t removes all disabilities
imposed and remaining on any per-
son by the third section of the four
teenth amendment of the Constitu-
ton, and substitutes for the ''iron
clad" oath the modified" oath now
administered to persons from whom
disabilities have been removed. In
the brief debate ON the bill in the
House, Mr.. Lawrence, of Ohio,
asked whether, under the law, JEFF:
Davis, the President, might as well
have seat in the House as Alex.
ander HI. Stephens, the Vice-Presi-
dent of the Southern Confederacy,
if the people should think proper
to send him there.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12


The cause of woman's rights
seems to be advancing. AT the late
election in Illinois, a dozen or more
ladies were chosen County Superin-
tendents of Common Schools, in
most cases running against other
women, and in one or two instances
against men. And now the innova-
ton has spread to New England.
Boston invents good many pro-
gressive ideas, but is not the first, as
rule, to give them a practical
trial. The advanced thinkers there
ings difficult to break through.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12

High wages mean the prosperity of
the whole community; for when work
men are well paid they are able to buy
largely, and thus render retail and con-
sequently wholesale trade, and manu-
factories, and all the branches of trade
and industry-intimately inter-depen-
dent as they are-also prosperous. But
since the shrinkage of value which fol-
lowed the panic money is worth more
than it formerly was, and will purchase
more. Wages must share in the general
fall, but the nominal decrease in the
comfort of the laborer, since less wages
will, to great extent, buy as much of
the'necessaries of life as full wages would
before the panic. The manufactures
throughout the country that are resum-
ing work are doing so at reduced wages.
What is needed is that workmen every
where should consent to the necessary
reduction, and thus complete the revival
of business. 1t is inevitable that wa ges
should fall in the new adjustment of val
ues caused by the panic. Wherever
workmen have realized this necessity,
and have acquiesced in decrease ofwages
corresponding to the decrease in all 9TH
er values, there has been an end of inan
cial disturbance. 1t is merely a ques-
ton between standing idle or acceptin g
at once the rate Of pay that must be ac-
cepted when workmen find that it is
useless to fight against the laws of polit-
ical economy.-DdiIy Graphic.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12

FRUGAL SwITZERLAND.-Fiv mil
lions of dollars, or thereabouts, must GO
great way in Switzerland, for, with less
than this amount of money, Geneva ex-
poets to "reduce its municipal debt, build
a new theater and opera house, demol-
ish old houses so as to widen streets, en-
large its school houses, repair the Cathe-
dral, and make additions to the pnblic
collections of sculpture and paintings" :"
The money, which is a legacy of the ex-
Duke of Brunswick to the city, was first
estimated at 5000, 900, but it is now
estimated at $4,75O,O0O, ofwhich 81, ,OOO-
600 consists of property in Germany and
America. From the total amount,
100000 is to be deducted for the testa-
tors man of business and executor.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12

THERE is frequently reason to sup
pose that money contributed to societies
and individuals for charitable purposes
does not reach its proper destination.
The City of Memphis, however, has
openly misappropriated charitable funds
in way that ought to entitle it to the
rank of champion sneak-thief city of
the country. In September last the city
authorities determined to give $4,000
to the Howard Association, for the BEN
eft of the sufferers by the yellow fever
epidemic. There being no funds in the
treasury, notes payable in six months
were issued and cashed by leading citi-
zens. When these notes came due they
were cashed, but out of the charitable
funds given in trust to the city authori-
ties by other cities during the epidemic.
1t is also said that service of plate,
valued at 81, 800, which was ostensibly
presented by the City of Memphis to
physician who had signalized himself by
his noble conduct towards the sick, was
paid in the same way. When next
Memphis appeals to the country for aid
people will understand that the way in
which their gifts to the sick are to be
used is to pay the city's debts
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12

Franis E. Spinner, the United States
Treasurer, is the typical Roman of the
day. Born in Herkimer county, New
York; aged seventy one, January 20,
1873; father an educated German clergy
man; himself twenty years a band officer,
held catalogue of county offices; Audi
tor of Naval Office in New York four
years; six years in Congress, and ap-
pointed United States Treasurer by Lin
coin; looks like Prussian officer; is
honest, hot-tempered, of elastic energy,
steady pluck, and warm heart. We
hope he may live long and prosper
Philadelphia Press.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12
How BuIIfrogs are Like Men.

A gentleman in Lynn, while passing
round pond in that city a few morn
ing since, witr essed singular scene,
which he describes a follows: Around
the margin of the pond, in the water,
there was large collection of common
toads; close beside them was an equally
large gathering of bullfrogs; and battle
between the two in progress. The frogs
being the more powerful were busily en-
gagged in drowning the toads. One or
more frogs would seize a toad and hold
his head under the water until he was
drowned. Sometimes frog would find
that he was overmatched, and then he
would utter peculiar sound, when one
or more of his companions would come
to his aid, and the toad was sure to go
under, never TO rise again This battle
continued for several minutes, until the
toads were completely "cleaned out"
when the frogs Joined in one triumphant
croak, as though they had achieved a
victory over mortal enemies. The scene
was a most singular one, and such as is
rarely witnessed.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12

The Golden Age prints a sugges-
ton made by one of its contributors,
that a National Relief Fund be es-
tablished in this country, with a
branch in every large city, which
shall be held for the immediate re-
lief of sufferers from plague, fire, or
tornado which may come upon any
city or section of the country. The
suggestion is made because, not
withstanding the prompt and gem
erous response made to the appeals
of Chicago, Boston and Memphis,
in the time of their affliction, the
delay in forwarding the aid fre-
quently detracted from its value
1t is proposed to sustain the fund by
an annual collection taken on the
first day of every year in all the
churches of the country. While
this plan has probably been recon-
mended in spirit of generosity, it
ought not to be carried out. The
cases of Chicago, Boston and Mem
phis have already shown that the
relief win be promptly forthcoming
whenever the necessity for it arises.
The same is true of the suffering
and loss entailed by great fires in
other places. And besides the ex-
istence of a fund of one million
would not only be a loss and an ex-
pense, but it would be standing
temptation to corrupt practices, of
which we already have enough in
this country, and it would have the
effect Of stopping all contributions
by the general public, which are
now spontaneous, and may always
be depended upon in case of any Sc
rious calamity.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12
soon tell.

The trial of Marshal Bazaine end
ed ON the 10th inst. The Marshal
was found guilty by the Court, and
sentenced to death, and to be degra-
ded from his rank in the army and
Legion of Honor After sentence,
the whole court united in an appli-
cation for mercy to President Me
Mahon.
It is doubtful if this sentence will
be executed. The sentiment of the
civilized world is against it, and
France is not in a condition to des-
pise the public opinion of Christen-
.1onr-Fr4F 4H a4r sH.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12

OUR connections with other Real Estate
" Agents is very extensive, and aided by ouI
advertising arrangements, gives us splendid op-
pOrtunities for buying and selling property.
We will do all in our power to secure purchn-
sers, and having found them we win assist them
in getting what they want, with just the kind
Of title they want.
We offer for sale the following property:
270 acres of first class farming and grazing
land, with good buildings, plenty Of water and
timber, also an abundance Of good fruit; 8 miles
south east Of Somerset, Ohio, and on very rea-
sonable terms.
167 acres 2 miles south Of Somerset, Ohio in
very good repair, good soil, 100 acres cleared,
balance in the best Of timber, all well fenced,
good springs and about 1900 fruit trees; truly a
good farm at a low price and easy payments.
16 acres of land in Thorn township Perry coun-
ty, Ohio; very neat "A story house, good fruit
some timber, and every thing In the best OF r
pair; fine little home for some one cheap
$40 acres Of first class prairie land in O'Brien
county, Iowa, will sell cheap or trade for a small
farm in Ohio, or town property.
10 acres Of land with good improvements,
water, adjoining the corporation OF Somerset,
Ohio. VIII positively sell cheap.
desirable property situate in the city Of
Circieyille, Pickaway county, Ohio, consisting
Of dwelling house In very good repair contain
ing six rooms and kitchen, good well Of water
cistern, necessary out buildings, well set with
fruit trees, in healthy locality and quiet neigh
borbood.
Also n vacant lot situate In said city and In the
same locality as the above said lot; Is nicely stu-
ated for building In good neighborhood. These
properties win be sold on reasonable terms.
August 8, 1879. vlni7
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12

A TEASPOON SToRY-Some of our
readers may recollect that in our issue
of November 9th, 1877, we gave an ac-
count of the peculiar death of Mrs. Mar
tha Barr, near Boston. As our subscrip-
tion list changes from year TO year, and
as most readers of newspapers scan rath-
er than memorize the articles that they
read, we may be pardoned for repeating
the substance of the anecdote. Mrs.
Barr had a wild longing for the next
world, and for years had to be watched
carefully lest she should pass suddenly
away before her predestined hour. One
day when her keepers came to take away
the cup and silver spoon after her repast
they could only find the former. Search
where they could no spoon appeared.
Finally she remarked that she had swal-
lowed it. Days, weeks and years came
and went, and still Mrs B. tarried on
earth. One day, however, being left
alone, she made cord of her blanket
and choked herself to death before she
was found. The friends gathered to do
her reverence. Skeptics scoffed at the
spoon story, and her husband sighed for
the spoon, SO post mortem was held.
Hidden away in the lady's stomach was
found this piece of household furniture.
1t was apparently uninjured, and had
lain there for one hundred and eighty
six weeks. 1t was recovered, and prob
ably reinstated with the other spoons
For more than three years it had been
thus useless, and Mrs. Barr had been as
well as ever. Such was vitality in those
days. And when the would be suicide
of to-day undertakes 10 put himself out
of the way let him look back at the Wig
or of Mrs. Barr and reflect what puny
specimen he is about to make war upon.
He ought to have pity enough to spare
himself, for he probably is not worth
killing. The spoon which Mrs. Barr
had secured was nearly eight inches
long and nearly two inches broad, and
weighed to ounces. Such were existence
and teaspoons in those days.-Hartford
Courdnt
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12

Down WITH THE MIDDLEAIEN.-At
recent public meeting of the Farmers
Club at Monticello, Illinois, a preacher
who was member through the owner
ship of stock farm in an adjoining
county, took occasion to harangue the
brotherhood on profits accruing to mid
dlemen, who by their sharp dealing were
swindling the tiller of the soil out of his
legitimate earnings, and advised his
hearers from this time forth to sell at
headquarters and buy in the same way,
avoiding all contact with those who put
themselves between the producer and
the consumer. A butcher who happen
ed to be present, and, by the way, was a
member of the preachers congregation,
took offence at the gist of the preachers
remarks, and resolved to let him know
the state of his mind at the first oppor-
tunity.
The next morning, with basket in
hand, the parson visited the meat shop,
and inquired the price of a roast for din
ner. The butcher as usual, waited upon
his spiritual adviser with alacrity, but
at this particular time he was moody,
and refused to deal any longer with the
eloquent tfarmer-preacher. "What is the
matter now" said the middle man in re-
ligious matters, "have l not always paid
you for meats brought?' "Yes," replied
the butcher, ''but that speech of yours
last night done the business for me.
Hereafter follow your advice, so far as
you are concerned; in future you will go
to the bullock for your meat, and 1 will
go directly to Jesus Christ for my sal
vation"
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-12

One of the charges for which an ar
tillery officer was recently cashiered,
specified that on certain occasion he
entered a store in Sitka, Alaska, and
seating himself on the floor beside an
Indian squaw, took her pipe and smoked
it. Such condGct was considered unbe-
coming an officer and a gentleman.