davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1873-06-11
Ny Step-Mother's Secret

We are an interesting, but withal
an unmanageable troop of children,
when my father diversified the mo-
notony of our lives. after four years
of wild 'werhood, by bringing home
his second wife.
I, Helen, the eldest of a family
Of five, was just twelve years old
when this blow las we chose to con-
slider it) was dealt to US. For four
years we had lived an easy life in
our home in a midland county-;aa
life that was Independent of all
system, of all authority, and l am
almost inclined to think now, in
looking back upon it, that it was
independent of all property too.
1t was in February; the earth
was few degrees less iron. bound
than it had been for several weeks
previous A few flowers were
cropping up, and altogether things
were looking brighter. W e adorn-
ed the occasion by dressing our
selves as prettily as we could, half
expectant of some young and love-
" woman, and Madge put snow
drops and primroses in such an ar
t.stic .iuxtaposition that no one
thought of finding the arrange:
ment cold AID pale. . -
I believe all. our five little hot
hearts beat thickIv, painfully, when
we heard the carriage that brought
them home, stop at the door. For
nv own part, I would have liked
nothing so we'll as to feel myself
able to fling myself into my fath-
er's arms and say 'Dear. papa,
though I'm your clever little
daughter, I wish you a muchness
of happiness, I do, though you
have set some one above me-"
/ However a foolish something re-
strained me-. and'I only went out
with the rest in orderly procession.
The bonds of orderly procession
would have been hurst with impa'
tience if they had been five seconds
more coming into the house. Our
father was just the same; to our
unbounded surprise marriage had
mot made him one whit wiser or
more foolish lin appearance) than
he had been before. His hair was
no blacker and no ,grayer. His
face was no tatter and thinner. He
still spoke as if he saw the ghost
of a possible joke after his accas'
toned manner. There was nc
change in him. That it should be
: so was odd to our unsophistlcateo
minds, but we accepted the fact
and were thankful for it,.
AS for our step-mother, his wife
words cannot express the anxiety
and curiosity with which we look
ed upon hel as she came into the
light of the hall. I saw Madge
the beauty-lover of Our family
; start hack disappointed; and ther
T remembered mvself as the eldes
Miss Levton. and vert forward ant
tried to be attentive.
The thing. though, that struct
, US most about her was the wa.
. she greeted our brother Ted, as w
f called him. $50 this is you
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1873-06-11

n Observation-Disclosures.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1873-06-11
POETRY.

The following beautiful lines Wer
written bva Mr.. jacques, of Charleston
6 q The savannah GA rises IN the Blu
Ridge, near the Gap, on the road from
the head of the railroad (Old Fort now
and empties into the French broat
River, two miles vest OF AsheVllle' N
c.:
Swannanoa, nymph of beauty,
/ would WOO thee in rhyme;
Widest, brightest, loveliest river,
OF our sunny, Southern cline!
Swannanoa, well they named thee,
In the mellow, Indian tongue;
Beautiful thou art most truly,
And right worthy to be sung.
have stood by many q river
known to story and to song
Ashley, Hudson, Susquehanna,
Fame to which may well belongs
1 have camped by the Ohio,
Trod Scotia's fertile banks,
Followed far the Juniata, .
In the widest of her pranks.
But thou rcignest queen forever.
Child of Appalachian hills,
Winning tribute as thou hoWest
From thousand. mountain rills;
Thine is beauty, strength-begotten,
Mid the cIoud-begirded peaks;
Where the patriarch of the mountains
Heavenward far thy waters seeks.
Through the laurels and the beeches,
Bright thy silvery current shines,
Sleeping now in granite basins,
Overllung by trailing vines;
And anon .careering onward,
In the maddest, frolie mood,
Waking, with its sea-like voices, -
Fairy echoes in the wood.
Peaceful sleep thy narrow valleys,
In the shadow of the hills;
And thy fower-enameled border,
All the air with fragrance fills;
Wild neutrality-suspicious. tillage-
Here alternate meet the view;
Every turn throughout. thy windings
Still revealing something new.
Where, oh graceful Swannanoa,
Are the warriors who of old
Sought thee at thy mountain sources,
Where thy springs are icy cold.
Where the dark browed Indian maidens
Who their limbs were wont to lave
worthy bath for fairer beauty,
In thy cool and limpid wave?
Gone forever from thy borders,
But immortal in thy name,
Are the red men of the forest
Be thou keeper of their fame!
Paler faces dwell beside thee;
Celt and Saxon till thy lands,
Wedding use unto thy beauty
Linking over thee their hands.
Swannanoa-Cherok kee-beautiful.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1873-06-11
LIFE INSURANCE.


DEAR SIR: There appeared an ar
ticle in the last Il. R. Presbqteria" con
tanning seventeen objections to Life
Insurance. Having a disposition at
times to write little, I concluded
would reply to some of his objections
and ask you to publish in your valua.
hlc paper, as 7 supposed Mr.. Bonner
would not like a controversy of q
secular matter carried on in his paper
I enter upon the discharge of this
dntv with reluctance, feeling my own
inability to do the subject Justice, and
especially as I am altogether in the
dark "a to who wrote tho article re-
fcrrcd to. bnt suppose we are friends
and hone we will not fall ont about
tho matter. The writer ia entirely
ignorant ahont the whole system o1
life Insurance, its plans and work,
inrs. Tn this enlightened age to be
in error IN this important subject
though "it he OF Inc head" amounts
10 criminalitv. Some Of the ohicc
tions are too ridiculous and ahsnrd to
merit even a passing notice. Should
Life Insurance he blamed hecanse
man suffers his Policy to "lapse" OF
receives q s'paid-up Policy ?" [ trow
not. The fanlt lies at the mans own
door. Every man when he receives
his Po1isvpknows full we'll that he
must meet his "preminms" nnnctnallv
and it is his duty to take due notice
and govern himself accordingly. All
companies DANG business in this Dia-
trict have a ''surrender value" to their
Policies.
In regard to the second objection
have to know or even hear of the
first case in. which 20 Policy due g
poor. widow has been withheld.'
Whenever q company goes to law
abont paving a Policy it is hound tr
Jose, the inry will invariably lean t'
the side Of the widow and children
I have known instances where com
panies have paid up losses on Policies
frandu1ently obtained, not "for effect.
not because their families were "rict
and influential" hut simply from thu
fact that the basis and superstrnctnrF
upon which Life Insurance is built, is
foreign from anything selfish ane
|uncharitable, and would "tread light
I1y on the ashes of the dead" by pay
ing a few dollars, rather than expos
their conduct to a gain-saying world
A company that pays the loss to
widow and children under such cir
cumstances, displays magnanimit.'
that reaches far above the sordi'
things of this world. I dare say
that there is not Company of fv
years standing that has not paid NOR
or less of these kind of Policies
The 9th objection is true to the LEI
ter, but is no objection to Life lnsu
rance. Should a man fall out an
blame his stomach for receiving a
over supply Of food that proves bu,
4hensome, ard must a man blame hi
cart or wagon from tumbling dow
in the road from an overload.
Passing by Z, s and 9 as not bein
germano to tho subject in hand, W
come to number 10. There are yer
few nowadays who are trouble
with handling large sums Of none
from any source, but take it. 20
will find families who are willing t
risk their financial ability in mans
ging large sums of money, and
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1873-06-11
Rosadalis! Rosadalis

rOR the cure of Scrofnla, in it's
various forms, also for the cure
Of Chronic diseases of the Blood,
Liver and Kidneys, for sale at .
W. T PENNEY'S.
March 5, 1873, 47-tf
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1873-06-11

Rev. T. G. Herbert, Presiding
Elder Spartanburg District, has
lost his flitlful horse ".Jim." But
as all of his friends are not dead,
# has been determined that Jim's
death shall be no peenniary loss to
Brother n. May such folks never
die.-CGNtan Meuhbor. =
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1873-06-11

They have arrested Mr.. Apple
gate out in Nebraska merely for
having three wives. stealing a horse
forging note and setting fire to a
barn! IF Nebraska is going to al
low a man absolutely no liberties
at Al how docs she expect to at
tract immigration to her shores?
Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-10-30
Trojan ROcking.HorSeS.

To the vandal declaration which one
often hears in these days, and which as
serts that there is no practical utility in
the study of the ancient classics, a
singular and complete refutation has re-
Gently been made in France. The
French police were struck this summer
with the extraordinary number of wood
en- rocking-horses for children which
were being imported into France. Now,
in that country, however it may be in
this, the policeman is suspicious ami
NAL, having provoking habit of being
always around, of putting this and that
together, and of thrusting his peaked
official nose into other peoples bust
ness. Seeing, therefore, this sudden
invasion of France by vast herds of
hobby-horses, and wondering at this
extraordinary "demand of French ba-
bies for wooden equation" he began
to think what it could all mean. At
this point, the policeman's well-known
devotion and classical study served him
in good stead. He remembered reading
in his Homer, how Troy was ruined by
one wooden horse and he resolved that
France should not suffer in a similar
way from some hundreds of them. He
captured one of the creatures, disem-
boweled it, and discovered that its body
was full of fine foreign cigars-an in
genious, but short-lived device of the
smugglers.
Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-10-30
Struggle with Devil-Fish-A Diver
Nearly Crushed.

Mr.. Charles B. Brainard, of Boston.
in writing to the Scientific american
about specimens of the devil-fish, relates
this interesting incident
The strength which these creatures
possess is almost beyond comprehension,
as is evidenced by what took.place when
my pet CD was captured. He had seized
hold of a submarine diver, at work in
the wreck of a sunken steamer off the
coast of Florida. The man was power
full Irishman, who claimed to weigh 800
pounds. His size and build fully veri-
lied his statement, and, to use his own
language, the basic landed ON top OF
my shoulders and pinned my arms tight.
1 felt my amor and myself being
cracked into a Jelly" 1t seems that he
was just about being brought to the sur
face, else the monster would have killed
him, for he was suffering so from the
terrible embrace that he could move no
part of himself. When dragged onto
the raft from which he had descended.
and finally released, he had tainted.
The men on the raft seized the fish by
one of its wriggling arms and tried to
pull it off, but could not break the power
OF single one of the suckers. The fish
was only removed by being dealt heavy
blow across the sack containing the
stomach. This sack stood stifiy up
above the eyes, while the eyes stood out
like Holsters eyes, and cleaned like fire.
The monster is, all in all, one of the
most frightful apparitions it could be
the fate of man to meet. It fulfills in
every particular the horrible features
attributed to it in Victor Hugo's "Toil-
ers of the Sea-" Notwithstanding the
severity with which the able Frenchman
has been criticised for creating a non
descript with his weird imagination, -
the truth must be granted that his
50 nondescript has an actual existence,
and is evidenced by the specimens in
Brighton and Hamburg, as well as my
own.
Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-10-30
Tree-Planting.

Few things are more gratifying than
the interest IN tree-planting which is
now exhibited all over the country. The
plans for reserving large areas of forest
untouched by the AK, which have been
initiated in this State, are supplemented
by efforts to induce a general system Of
planting, by which the evils arising
from a too lavish destruction of the
forests may be permanently averted. In
a paper by Prof. Hough, of Albany. on
forest-culture, read before the Scientific
Association recently, there are laid down
several systematic plans for tree-plant-
ing and the development of forest-cul-
ture. 1t is proposed to offer premiums
TO counties, towns, and individuals, for
the greatest number of trees success
fully planted; to require railway COM
panies to plant trees along their routes,
and town corporations to plant them
along highways. 1t would be well for
the Legislature to appear In the matter
SO far as the reservation of forest-lands
are concerned, and also, perhaps, in the
proposed requirements of railways and
town corporations, but the premiums
proposed should come from a society
organized for the purpose. The Legis-
lature already disburses more money
than it can manage to do honestly, and
the fewer opportunities we afford it in
this way the less occasion viii there be
for our censure. a society, moreover,
would be enabled to act so favorablv
upon public opinion by persistently
keeping the subject in the press, that in
time premiums would be quite unneces-
sary. Tree-planting would come to be
recognized as an urgent duty, and, what
with many people is more potent in
fuence, very decided pleasure. We
may come to revive the custom of invit-
ing every honored guest to plant tree
or OF planting tree as commemorative of
every interesting event or incident in
our lives-at our marriage, for instance,
and at the birth of each child. Once
let planting take possession of the
national mind as wise as well as a
graceful act, and ere long thereafter we
shall see it more in danger of excess
than OF neglect.-Apptetoas' Journal.
Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-10-30
A Figuratiye Story.

A man from Illinois went over to Fort
Madison the other day with sweet pota-
toes to sell. His early education had
been defective in arithmetic, for he
offered to sell his entire wagon load at
sixty cents per half bushel, or 81 per
bushel. Baskets andsacks were begged
or borrowed, and every one was buying
potatoes at sixty cents per half bushel.
The man did not see it until the last
half bushel was sold. He persisted in
selling at sixty cents per half bushel,
thinking doubtless that there were four
half bushels in bushel. Another said
he would take three half bushels. A
third took two half bushels. Before the
man commenced the retail business, a
grocer bought two bushels for his own
use at 81 bushel. He offered $1.90 a
bushel for the whole load, in order to
sell again, but was refused. When the
man saw his blunder, he held up both
hands and exclaimed, "Oh thunder p
Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-10-30
Wheat and Physical YigOr.

Nothing is more sure IN the chemis-
try of life than that the great bread
eaters are the great thinkers, or that
the phosphorus which wheat contains,
in the outer kernel, Immediately beneath
the husk, is the feeder of brains and
the material substance which provokes
to thought, study, reason, and all the
forms of nervous energy. There are
Psychologists who attribute the remark
able success of States like Ohio, Indi-
ana and Illinois to the bounty and per-
lection of the wheat crop, and the intel
lectual stimulus, or rather food, which
it affords the brain. Certainly no COM
monwealth in the world has evinced
higher sense of law and order, Or more
rapidly developed social system which
has no equal in the world. The COnsti-
tuition of Indiana, for instance, the very
center of the wheat zone, is beyond
comparison the best III the Union, and
produces the highest results in our civ
ilization.
There is q Southern wheat belt, which
includes Australia and South America,
where civilization equal to that of the
central North of the United States is
growing up.
But the full value of wheat as civil
izer will never be fully realized un-
til wheat-meal takes the place
of boltek -four, and the people learn to
make bread without yeast or risings.
Good brean is emphatically the 'staff of
Gfe," but the commercial article is the
way to dyspepsia and prenature death.
Science of Health.
Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-10-30
The "Land0 Of Fish.

The fish of the United States are un-
surpassed in flavor in the world.
Sportsmen who, with rod and line, have
whipped European waters, say there is
nothing like them there from the Nor
way fords to the Granddaughter. Africa
and Asia are both poor in this respect.
Even in China, where fish is an album
dant article of food, and is found in
great variety, the flesh is coarse. The
salmon of the Scotch locks afford the
nearest approach to the succulence and
tender delicacy of our mountain trout
and the faky tenderness of our salmon
trout. Then there are the whitefish,
the bass, the shad, and an innumerable
multitude of others. We have but one
rival, and that prolific, but small one
1t is the French sardine, when fresh.
This delicious little fish will, in a few
years, cease its rivalry, however, if re-
ports are true from the coast of France
At present the sardine fisheries employ
10000 sailors and some $4,000 men,
women and children on land to prepare
the fish for market. Each year shows
an advance IN the price and diminu-
ton in the catch, and in no great length
of time everlasting will have produced
its usual Consequences failure of the
fish.
Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-10-30
Straw Beds.

DIR. Dio Lewis writes the New York
Times: "Of the eight pounds which
man eats and drinks in q day it is
thought no less than five pounds leave
his body through the skin. And of
these five pounds considerable per-
centage escapes during the night while
he is in bed. The larger part of this is
water, but in addition there is much
ehete and poisonous matter. This be-
ing IN great part gaseous in form, pene-
trates every part of the bed-mattress,
blankets, as well as sheets-soon become
foul and need publication. The mat
tress needs this quite as much as the
sheets. To allow the sheets to be used,
without washing or changing, three or
six months would be regarded as bad
housekeeping; but I must insist if
thin sheet can absorb poisonous excre-
tons of the body to make'it unfit for use
in few days, thick mattress, which
can absorb and retain thousand times
as much poisonous secreticns, needs to
be purified as often, certainly, as once
in three months. A sheet can be washed.
A mattress can be renovated in this way.
Indeed, there is no other way of clean
AhS d hIt'ACSo Du1 ny StSdlllHS OF PICK
ing it to pieces, and thus in fragments
exposing it TO the direct rays of the sun.
As these processes are1 scarcely PRACTICAL
bic with any of the ordinary mattresses,
L am decidedly of the opinion that the
good old-fashioned straw bed, which can
every three months be exchanged for
fresh straw, and the tick washed, is the
sweetest and healthiest of beds. If, in
the winter season, the porousness of the
straw bed makes it little uncomforta-
able, spread over it comforter or two
of wooden blankets, which should be
washed as often as every two weeks.
With this arrangement, if you wash the
bed covering as often as once in one or
two weeks, you will have a delightful,
healthy bed. Now, if you leave the
bed to air, and not make it for the night
before evening, you will have added
greatly to the sweetness of your rest in
consequence, and to the tone of your
health. [ heartily wish this good
change could everywhere be introduced.
Only those who have thus attended to
this important matter can Judge of its
influence on the general health and
spirits
Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-10-30
Muscular Christianity.

Boys who disturb camp-rleetings by
crying "Amen" in the wrong place. and
remarking "Glory" with more zeal than
judgment, should read and ponder the
fate of thirteen small boys in Kansas.
These thirteen ill-advised boys were
guilty, SO the story goes, of disturbing
Kansas camp-meeting by insisting on
shouting "Amen," when very musical
preacher, who prides himself on his
voice, was singing hymn. The
preacher bore it for some time, but final
~ becoming filed with righteous
wrath, he descended from his pulpit,
and, never once interruptiong his hymn,
successfully reversed and spanked the
thirteen small boys. AS his avenging
hand descended, and the dust of the
small boys filed the air, the rest of the
congregation shouted in rapture and
encouraged him with loud cries of
" Go on, brother, go on r Then he re-
turned to the pulpit, still singing, and
those boys went half mile away behind
haystack and lay down with their
faces to the ground, weeping bitterly.
Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-10-30
How He'd Find Out.

In night school the other evening,
in a village not twenty miles from Ok
ford, England, the teacher was trying to
make his class understand the meaning
of subtraction, and to illustrate his SUBJ
ject, said:
" Surprising farmer had 400 sheep,
and he sold fifty of them, by what pro-
cess would he understand how many he
had left? What would he do ?"
A raw-boned lad of IA, with bearning
face aud outstretched arm, replied, as
soon as he caught the teachers eye:
"Ask the shuppard. sir"