davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-03-14
Habits of Reading.

All young people read a good deal
now but I do not see that a great deal
comes of it. They think they have to
read a good many newspapers, and a
good many magazines. They are very
entertaining. But it is not always GER
tain that the reader gets from them just
what he reads. On the other hand, it
is certain that people who only read the
current newspapers and magazines get
very little good from each others socie-
ty, because they are all fed with Just
the same intellectual food. You hear
them repeat to each other the things
they have all read in the Daily Trum-
pet or the Saturday Woodpecker. 1 see
no objection, however, to light reading,
desultory reading, the reading of news
papers, or the reading of fiction, If you
take enough ballast with it, so that the
light kites, as the sailors call them, may
not carry your ship over in some sud
den gale. The principle of sound hab-
its of reading, if reduced to a precise
rule, comes out thus that for each
hour of light reading-of what we read
for amusement-we ought to take an
other hour of reading for instruction OF
Improvement. Nor have any Objec-
tion to stating the same rule backward,
for that is a poor rule that VIII not
work both ways. 1t Is, think, true
that, for every hour we give to grave
reading, it is well to give a correspond
ing hour to what is light and amusing.
Now a great deal more is possible under
tins rule than you boys and girls think
at first Some of the best students In
the worldwide have advanced its af-
fairs furthest in their particular lines
have not in practice studied more than
two hours a day. Walter Scott, except
when he was goaded to death, did not
work more. DR.. Bowditch translated
the great " Mecanique Celeste in less
than two hours daily labor But then
it was regular as the movement of the
planets its described. It did not stop,
for whim, or by accident, more than
Jupiter stops in his orbit because a hol-
idav comes round. E. r. Hate.
The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-03-14
A Jewish Wedding in Algeria.

From the subioined sketch of a jew
ish wedding in Algeria, extracted from
the recent work of Lady Herbert on
'"Algeria in 1871, - it will be seen what
fearful and wonderful thing the we'd
ding ceremony, as practiced at the pre-
sent day in that country, is. Particu-
lar harsh Is it upon the poor bride; 50
much so that our American maidens
would doubtless declare, almost to a
man, that sooner than endure all the
steaming, scrubbing, fumigating, par
boiling, dressing, undressing, undress-
ing, baIlooing, psaImsinging, and mis-
cellaneous torture described by the fair
tourist, they would remain single all
their born days. The account runs
thus, in Lady H. s language:
We paused in our sightseeing to go
with Nine. de c. and her beautiful
daughter to see a Jewish wedding, for
which she had kindly obtained us an
invitation. We were received in an
allowed room, where a breakfast OF
sweetmeats, cakes and sweet wines were
set out, the bride and her parents being
seated on a divan at one end, dressed in
rich Jewish costume After a short
time we were told to precede the young
lady to the Moorish vapor bath, which
is the next part OF the ceremony. Such
a marvellous scene as there met our eyes
despair of reproducing on paper.
About fifty Jewish young girls, from
twelve to twenty years Of age, whose
only clothing was a scarf of gold or sill
yer gauze round their loins, with their
beautiful dark hair all down their backs,
and their lo lite necIs and arms
| covered VIII 4.c Iales and bracelets,
were seen dimIy through a cloud of
steam and incense, standing in the wa
ter, waiting for the bride, and when she
appeared they received her with loud,
shrill cries of "Lil Lii Ii p in a con-
tinually ascending scale. And among
these girls were hideous negresses
| equally scantily clothed, and one or two
Of them with their black woolly hair
! dyed bright orange color these were
1 eLS DtAtAiAI5 - "CAAASAl' AAiSg SSL@-seA ''9 -
/ the arm and wanted to fOl &c rs to I'M
dress too, which we stOutly resisted and
took refuge on the raised marble slab
which surrounded the bath, and where
/ the pretty little bride, with her mother
/ and aunts, was standing waiting to be
unrobed. They took off her heavy vel
vet clothes, and she appeared IN beau
tiful gold-fgured gauze chemise and
lovely short red and gold drawers
they then led her, with the same cries,
into an inner room, which was sitting
with steam, and here the poor child
who was only thirteen, remained fol
three mortal hours, the women pouring
water on her head from picturesquely
The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-03-14
Artists Studios.

As a rule there is nothing half so cory
as artists studios, though their style and
fashion is as varied as the works of their
owners. A few old examples may be
mentioned. Millaiss studio is fitted up
with artistic taste and elegance. Few
painters are so comfortably provided. To
my thinking, studio should be elegant
Iy and artistically furnished. MiIlais's
soft carpet, his classic vases, the flow
ing drapery, his pretty little piano, the
soft lights, the well-balanced color Of
his furniture, and his flowers lying
carelessly here and there, are apropos
in the highest degree. Mr.. O'Neil had
a severer taste; but the silence Of dis
tant fields and forests seems almost to
reign in the neutrality-suspicious. I
wOrk-room IN which Eastward Ho
and ''Home Again" grew and astonish
the artists friends. It Is easily &,
understand how the big, dull side sd
that famous ship would startIe the fl.
beholders who had access to O'Nei.I
studio. They thought their friend Hll
to fiIl his foreground with such an u 4
mass (; but they were silenced when IT,
real homely English men and women
began to come down the side. saying
farewell to the gallant fellows who
presently crowded the deck and looked
over the bulwarks at the sorrow-stricken
dear ones for whom the old boatman
vas waiting below. A contrast TO both
these studios is that Of Ben Leader, who
has made his way to the front as a lands
cape artist. It Is surrounded by the
| country which Leader loves TO paint
the middle distance is fine, rich, open
meadow-Iand in the far distance the
Malvern hills mount up to the sky in "a
graceful outline that rivals the sun sown
pictures of cloud mountains. Leaders
studio is as simple as the most ordinary
workship. There Is nothing in it to
distract the artists attention from his
work or to relieve the eye when It Is
weary but the worker has all kinds of
shutters and mechanical contriyaucgs
for the management of his lights AMI
he paints with great facility, working
with unhagging earnestness while lac is
at it. If he wants a change, there As his
horse at the door, and a glorious country
to ride through, with the old city Of
Worcester lying down yonder in the
valley by the Severn. The finest studio
I ever Yisited-it would hold all those +
have mentiOned-is Dore's in Paris. 1t
was planned long before the artist be
| came famous When there was soms
doubt about his pictures being hung at
the French academy, he said to his
| friend Jerrold, ST viii have my own
saloon; if they wish to see my pictures
they must come there" Brave words
/ in them spoke out the conscious soul,
the firm viii, the true genius.-LOHdo.-
/ Society.
The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-03-14
A Good Temper.

Good temper is the sunshine of the
domestic circle, and must be priced
and cultivated accordingly. Fretful-
ness. peevishness, sullenness, bitter
ness and anger must be viewed as so
many kissing snakes and driven from
every heart that claims the distinction
of being happy. When tempted to give
way to any ilI-feeling, self restraint
must be exercised and mutual forbear-
ance shown. Much will be accomplish
ed by carrying out the determination
that both shall never lose their temper
at the same time-one bringing water
where the others brings fire. LET
them treat each others feeling, it has
been well said. ''with lenity, and learn
to be, as occasion serves, blind, deaf
and ddumb-especially dumb. Not sui
IenIy dumb, but serenely dumb. Not
silent for moodishness and passion, but
silent from reason and affection, looking
out the while like a mariner in a dark
night for the first streak of the dawn,
and hailing it with grateful welcome. p"
A gentle contrast, a well arranged di
versity, gives a relish to married life.
It is the necessary condition, however,
of such a diversity that the pan ties
should view things occasionally from
different point of view, and wisdom
will be required, therefore, by mutual
concessions, gentIeness, good humor,
and forbearance, to prevent such diver
sites of taste and opinion becoming the
source of quarrel Irritation. or, to use
q phrase of modern coinage, maggie. >"
A clergyman, who had tied the mar
riage knot for many a couple was care
ful always to whisper to the bride as
his parting counsel Be sure never
to have the last word"-an advice
which is excellent, but which Is sur
passed by the recommendation that
neither party should take the first one
WE are surrounded by motives to piety
and devotion If we would but mind
them The poor are designed to excite
our liberality; the miserable our piety;
the sick our assistance the ignorant
our instruction those that are fallen
our helping hand. In those who are
vain, we see the vanity of the world ;
ia those are wicked Our own frailty.
When we see good men rewarded, 1t
confirms our hope and when evil men
are punished, it excites our fear
! Bishop Wilson.
The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-03-14
Physical Degeneracy of American
Women.

4 woman with abounding physical
health, to whom the mere joy of exist
ence Is an intoxication, has become ex-
ceptional, not to say phenomenal. Most
women call themselves well, if they are
not i'll enough to be driven to bed. And
for every one woman who cOddFes i'm
aginary ailments and thinks it interest
ing to be a little delicate, 100 women go
through the weary toll of daily house
keeping, who live and labor through
force of ambition and not through force
of muscle. We take much credit to
ourselves because we do not permit our
women to do fieId-lahor, but it is safe
to assert that no fieId-labor is so ex-
hausting as the endless toll of a smart
American housekeeper who Is poor, but
who, being American, must be genteel
She Is cook, maid-Of-all-work, seam
stress, tailoress, child's nurse. She
feels it right that the girls should have
ruffled petticoats, and the boys plenty
of changes, and the sewing four
kinds of cake when it meets at her
house, and her own gowns such trim
ming as appears in her favOrits monthly
fashion magazine. What Dutch or
Irish peasant woman who easily tills
her field could stand this pitiless strain?
Many causes are assigned for the de-
generate physique of modern American
women, but this is one folly Of over
S raining nerves and muscles IN this
climate, which itself overstTains all sen
sitive organisms, is the cbiefest cause,
we think. Corsets and a weight Of
skirts no doubt slay or MAIN their
thousands. But we should remember
that the corset of to-day Is a cobweb
vest compared, let us say, to the straight
Jacket of buckram and iron which is on
view at Pilgrim hall as a relic Of that
fair Puritan, Mistress Alice Bradford.
And the fashionable limpness of our
period has notably reduced the load OF
muslin which the mode Of twenty years
ago made indispensable While it must
be remembered that our grandmothers,
who were held up as examples of rosy
health, endured both the busked stays
and the pounds of pendent drapery.
Too many hours study in aud ont OF
The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-03-14
Selected Miscellany.
THE CITIZENS VISION; OR, SOMEBODY'S
WIFE.

The citizen sat by his parlor fire
Wild was the night, but he piled The coal higher.
And he looked at his wife, and his heart beat with
And he feItit o'erfiov as he looked at his boy;
And the citizens heart beat with joy.
q And o, thought the citizen, how am blessed .
0 that could draw back the curtain and see
All that must happen to mine and to me :"
And the citizen wished he might see.
His chair was easy, his fire was bright,
And twas all the more cheerful that wild was the
And the citizen slept. and he dreamed dream,
And the curtain was drawn by tie Hand supreme,
$50 the citizen dreamed in his dreamy
He saw his own form lying palIid and cold,
And the church lit up and the bell it was tolled,
As As into the charnel they lowered the dead,
While the hymn 1t was chanted, the prayer 1t was
And the citizen saw he was dead.
a dark panorama then seemed to outroH,
And he saw his dear ones whom he. loved like his
Meeting first with Indifference, then with cold
Till they wished in their hearts they had never been
born
Utterly sad and fOrlorn-
And then came dependence, and then biting want,
Theirlodgng cherries, their clothing scant
And with weeping, and sewing, and praying for
bread
The eyes of the mother was swollen and red,
Praying for 90 daily bread
e Mamma " said the boy, . are You going away?"
! - Yes, my dear child; go for the pay
For the work which has kept me busy so long,"
And she even was happy, and hummed old song
Poverty huuning song
As she hurried along at the edge of the night
Avoiding the streets where the gas burnt bright,
The tempest played prauks with her thin summer
shawl;
OF her elegant wardrobe this all
faded, thin, silk summer shawl!
With tear in her eye, but a smile on her face,
With sorrow, yet gladuess, she entered the place;
For she'd written list of the things she would
buy,
With the little proceeds of her industry
OF the coal, food, and clothing she'd buy.
| AS she gave her employer her bundle Of work,
| She saw meath his eyebrows the Evil One lurk;
But she thought she safe in the depth of her
No gulf yaFned beneath one already so low
She was safe in the depth of her woe.
&" Do you think will pay you ?" he scornfuy said,
As he slowly examined each stitch and each thread
| And then, rudeIy pulling, he tore down seam.
She sank on the floor she uttered scream
And the citizen woke from his dream!
Thank Heaven, It's dream! His loved ones are
there,
And he sits by the fire in his easy armchair;
Yet he fears after all it was but reprieve,
And, spite of his senses, he cannot believe
It is anything but reprieve.
So now. as the citizen walks in the street.
If a feeble old woman he chances to meet,
He relieves the Jistresses of somebody's wife
For he thinks of his dream, and the hazards of ife
And he says: " She was somebody's WIFE"
The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-03-14
NUMBER 30.

school, and neglect OF out-of-door exer-
else, are doubtless bleaching and desic-
eating their victims. Complex and
badly-cooked food, too much sewing
and too little shouting, too much dan
cling and too little walking, all have
their evil part But the very fact that
our girls can dance a whole night, or sit
at the machine and hem the measure
less web of tarlatan in which thev
dance, or live on the culinary stones
that are offered them in place of bread,
or study 10 hours day and practice
three, and not die, shows that women
a tremendous reserve of power, a tre-
mendous resistance to disease, which
can easily be transformed into health.
1t is apparently true that, the simpler
the food, the less luxurious the life, the
freer the exercise, the stronger the
body and the more capable of resisting
fatigue. Fortunately, the road to health
is cheap and easy. And it behooves
and trade to take this road forthwith.
Intelligent disease Will do less in the
world in the long run than stupid
health. American women are seldom
stupid, but they are very generally dis
eased. If, with that forcefulness which
is part of their fine endowment, they
Will reconstruct their bodily constitu-
tion, then both stupidity and disease
will vanish, and intelligent health, de
manding of all doors of occupation
that they open, viii be obeyed. Hearth
and TO777e
The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-03-14
Good Habits of Sleeping in Babies

One baby often rules whole house
hold, and with an iron rod, too. The
mother brings up the old excuse, that
she does not dare to control it, as she
should like to, on account of its nervous
temperament. So, for that reason, pa
pa, must go out of the room to read his
paper, because the rastIing Of it wakes
baby; auntie mustn't practice, Tor baby
is asleep; if anybody attempts to enter
the room, mama holds mp a warning
finger, with n look of pitiful distress
upon her face and if perchance the
door-bell rings or a door slams, the cry
of the baby is sure to follow close upon
1t. In fact, silence must be maintained,
if possible, while baby sleeps and
that, in most houses, is a pretty hard
thing to accomplish. Now, 1 do not
believe that all this regard for baby's
nerves is necessary. 1 believe, If the
mother begins Alright, she can accustom
her baby to sleep in spite of all the
noises incidental to the house. By
hushing every noise, and accustoming
the baby to sleep in undisturbed quiet,
she educates it to be nervous and to cry
out at every unusual sound. Many
mothers make a regular business, every
forenoon, of getting the baby to sleep.
They sometimes spend an hour or more
in their endeavors, rocking and singing
until they completely exhaust them
selves. I do not beleve such a process
is necessary, though I know many
mothers viii disagree with me. ] be-
liave that any healthy baby can be
taught to go to sleep on the bed by it
self, without any rocking or singing, if
the right means are taken ia season. 1t
seems but reasonable to say that no
child viii cry TO be rocked asleep who
never was rocked to sleep, or cry to be
walked with If that habit has not been
practiced. or, IN fact, CRY for any special
thing of which il knows nothing. I
speak from experience, not theory
Hearth and Home
The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-03-14
DO AS NEAR RIGHT AS YOU CAN.

The world stretches widely before YOU
A field for your muscle and brain;
And though clouds may often hOat Ger you
And often come tempests and Pin,
Be fearless of storms which Oertake your
Push forward through all like man
Good fortune will never fOfsake you
If You do as near right as you can.
Remember the WILL to do rightly,
If used, will the evil cOnfOund;
Live daily by conscience, that nightly
Your sleep may be peaceful and sound
In contests Of right never wayer-
Let honesty shape every plan,
And life viii of Paradise SAVIOR,
If you do as near right as you can.
Though foes darkest scandal may speed,
And strive with their shrewdest Of tact
To iniure your fame, never heed,
But Justly and honestly act;
And ask of the Ruler of Heaven
To save your fair fame as q man,
And all that you ask viii be given
If you do as near right as you can.
The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-03-14
Greatness.

We admire eminent men not for
themselves, but for their relations 20
mankind. The intellect and the moral
sentiments in the ultimate analysis are
not to be separated. There are many
men that say thought rules the world.
Who can doubt the potency of an ir-
dividual mindP It is this that fires the
ambition of every man It gives moral
character. We count as the worlds
great masters Alaric, Mahomet, Mira
beau, Napoleon, and even Henry VII
/ From these examples, 1 am bound to
say that no way has been found to make
heroism easy. The keynote of the
true man is greatness, and greatness
comes from energy. This belongs to us
all, to which we are sometimes faith
less, but of which we never quite de
spair. We hope to make 1t oIrr monitor
through the eternities. 1t is only the
best anecdotes of mind that we wish to
hear I know that men of character
think they must needs go to Africa,
to Rome, to China We have learned
that the college, the parlor, and the
counting-roon demand as much true
courage as the sea or the camp. 1t IS
very certain that we are not nor should
be contented by any glory we have
reached. Every mind comes one day
to be superfUous. We outgrow the
minds we once regarded as our teach
ers. How soon we become sick of the
playthings of the nursery! May not
the time come when the poetry of
Homer and Milton will seem like the
sound of a tin pan? The praise we
give to the true hero we shall unsav.
The very word greatness provokes n
feeling of hostility. Greatness! Is
there not something unfeeling IN the
word? There are points alike between
the old way and the new way of the
road to the stars. Self-respect is one.
To use a homely illustration, we are at
once drawn to that man in a tavern that
maintains his own opinions IN the face
of all the by-standers. We honor his
self-respect. The common labOrer re
fuses money for saving your life, and
makes himself your equal by the act,
and asserts his self-respect. What
bitter-sweet sensation we have after
pouring out our praises to one to find
him quite Indifferent to our good opin-
ion. One sometimes meets a gentle
man who, if good manners had not eX-
listed, would have invented them, show
ing what man originally owes 90 man.
SeIf-respect, then, is the following of
an inward leader, and is one of the
main elements of greatness. There are
functions of nature supplementary to
the bent of individuals. Thus, for
geology there will be men born with an
eye to viewing mountains and marking
the differences of strata. Such man
viii have a desire for chemistry, for ma
tural physics, for fishes, and for plants.
Men of the present find a stimulus
through the wonders laid open by
means of the solar spectrosoope, find
ing the same element in the sun and
distant planets as in the earth. Again,
one boy longs for the sea, another for
foreign lands, another to be an archi-
tect Thus there is not a man born
but, as his genius opens, turns in that
line to his pursuit. Emerson.
The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-03-14
ST. Agnes,s Day at Rome.

This is st. Agnes's day. Doyou know
what that Is? No? Well, then St.
Agnes, like Mary, always had little
lamb, F." and on the 18th of January two
little lambs are blessed by the pope ia
honor of St. Agnes. They were very
beautiful. Two little white lambs with
out spot or blemish and washed perfect
" clean, were brought into the church
of st. Agnes on cushions, then placed
on the altar, and after the ceremony Of
high mass were blessed by the bishop,
after which they were sent to the pope
for his blessing. Their legs were tied
together with red ribbons and their
bodies decorated with the monogram Of
St. Agnes Is. Al, also in red ribbon.
One of them remained very quiet, but
the other did not seem to relish the
smoke of the incense and struggled hard
to escape, but the ribbons were too
strong for him. They were brought in
by fuII-robed priests, and after the
blessing were taken IN carriage to the
Vatican to receive the pope's benedic-
ton. They were then sent to the con-
vent to be reared by the nuns of Agnes
until next summer, when their heeces
will be taken off and placed in a vace
over st. Peters chair until the wool IS
sanctifed, after which it is used in some
part of the pontifcal robes. As this
takes place every year there is Of course
more wool than the pope needs. The
balance is sent to the bishops and others
throughout the world on whom the pope
wishes to bestow some special mark Of
favor. After shearing the lambs are
served up as chops for the pope's table.