davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-06-12
An Index to Marriage.

1t don't require an astrologer, med
ium or gypsy with direct pack of
cards. 1t is very simple-lies in nut
shell, and can be expressed in few
words. They are these: The last per-
son you would naturally think of.
If girl expresses a fondness for ma
jestic men with large whiskers, make
up your mind that she will marry a very
small man with none. If she declares
that mind is all she looks for, expect to
see her stand before the altar with a
pretty fellow who has just sense enough
to tie cravat bow. If, on the contrary,
she declares she must have han dsome
husband, look about you for the plain
est person in her circle of acquaintance,
and declare, "that is the man." for it
will be.
Men are almost as bad. The gentle
men who desires wife with mind and
mission, marries a lisping baby who
screams at the sight of mouse, and
hides her face when she hears a sudden
knock at the door. And the gentleman
who dreaded anything like strong mind
edness, exults in the fact that his wife
is exactly everything he declared he de-
tested.
If girl says of one, "Marry himi
I'd rather die" look upon the affair as
settled, and expect cards to the wedding
of those two people.
! If a man remarks OF lady, "Not
my style at ally'' await patiently the ap-
pearance of his name in the matrImon-
ial column in connection with that very
lady's.
And if any two people declare them
selves "friends and nothing more" you
may know what will come next.
There Is no hypocrisy in all, and such
matches are invariably the happIest
People do not know themselves, and
make great mistakes about their inten-
tions. Love is terribly perplexing when
he first begins to upset ones theories
and when his arrow first pierces the hear
there is such fluttering, that it is hard
to guess the cause. Besides, man pro.
poses and God disposes, and it is the 81
don't know" with which people fall il
love, and not those peculiarities which
| could be given in passport.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-06-12
Lighthouses.

Most of the lighthouses in the United
States are on barren, desolate, and ex-
posed points of the coast. In some of
them the keepers can not communicate
at all with the shore during the winter
months, and in such cases supplies of all
kinds for the lights and the keepers
must be accumulated beforehand. In
many, fresh water for the keeper and his
family has to be caught in cisterns; there
is an official circular to light-keepers
telling them how to avoid the poisonous
effects of the water dripping from the
leads of the lighthouses by putting pow.
dered chalk into the cistern, and occa-
sionally stirring it. In many places il
has been found that cattle, attracted tc
the light at night, destroyed the strong
rooted grass which holds down sand
dunes, and thus exposed the lighthouse
itself to destruction; and in such cases a
considerable area of land must be fenced
| in to exclude these beasts. On stormy
nights sea-fowls are apt to dash them.
selves against the lantcrn-glasses. blind
ed probably by the glare of the lights
and all light keepers are specially warn
ed in their printed instructions to be on
the watch for such an accident, and extra
panes of glass, fixed in frames, are al
ways in readiness in every lighthouse
to substitute for those which may thus
| he broken
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-06-12
A Cruel Hoax.

A clerk in book store in Louisville,
where lottery tickets were sold, laid
aside one for himself numbered 3,307.
A short time ago the proprietor of the
store received letter from one Perkins,
living in an interior town, stating that he
had dreamed that 3,307 would draw the
capital prize, and requested said pro-
prietor to purchase that ticket for him if
it was to be had. The clerk stated that
this was the identical ticket he had Sc
lected for himself, and thereupon pulled
out his money and paid for it. He then
wrote to Perkins that he could have the
ticket for 5000. Strange to say, the re-
turn mail brought an acceptance of the
offer and request that the ticket be at
once forwarded to Perkins. This so ex-
cited the clerk that he backed square
out, and declared that he would not sell
it for less than 81 900. He was soon as
founded at the receipt of another letter,
agreeing to these terms and demanding
the ticket. This so worked upon the
nervous clerk that he refused point
blank to sell it at any price, and, for
fear that the priceless ticket might get
lost, he locked it up in bank vault.
The young man has discovered that the
whole thing was hoax, played upon
him by acquaintance, and what is worse,
has found out that 1907 drew nothing
but blank in the "grand scheme" !"
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-06-12
THE CZAR AT WOOLWICH.
The Great Nasmyth Hammer.

The Gar of Russia, before leaving Eng
land, was treated to a review at Alder
shot, but the clouds Of dust obscnred
everything, and the military display
was almost failure The next day he
attended u review at Woolwich, which
was far more successful. The grounds
had been copiously watered, 50 that the
dust gave no trouble.
The Gar and his suite seemed to be
much interested in their visit to the
WoolwIch arsenal. The London Tele-
graph says:
"The party made their longest halt in
the factory where the Nasmyth hammer,
the largest in the world-ftted with
top steam-is worked. Adding to the
forty tons dead falling weight of the
hammer the fifty-one tons added by a
full pressure of steam above, a blow
equivalent to a weight of ninety-one
tons can be given by it with as much
control as child may exercise over a
toy mallet. The Imperial party occu-
pied specially-erected platform to wit
ness the welding of the trunnion coil
Of a thirty-eight-ton gun. The Caro-
witch last year witnessed a similar pro-
cess with the trunnion coil Of a thirty
ive-ton gun. The massive door of the
furnace was raised, and in fire terrible
from the ferceness of its golden glow
stood the white hot cola cylinder
weighing twenty-three tons and half.
This trunnion coil consists of two thick
nesses of bar iron, coiled one upon the
other, and the work of the steam ham
mer was to weld them into a homogen-
eous cylindrical mass. The powerful
crane was set it motion, and the swarthy
smiths sprung to the beautifully adjust
ed machinery by which the fiery mass
was seized By giant tongs, swung glow
ing and kissing out of the fire, and plac-
ed under the hammer. Blasts of hot air
rushed across towards the spectators, but
the vast size of the building rendered
eye protectors unnecessary. The coil,
it is needless to say, was welded effect
ually-the very floor, although its foun.
dations are on a rock, vibrating with the
tremendous blows The force welded
by but dozen men at the lever of the
crane was astounding; yet the hammer
was subject to a steam power more form
| idable than itself In their anxiety to
see the next process the visitors passed
hurriedly through the heavy turnery
sighting room, where they might have
seen thick slabs of metal peeled off the
partly built guns, as apples are peeled
by desert knife. The party, without
bestowing more than passing glance al
the great guns on the lathes, went into
| the open air to witness the shrinking on
of the breech coil of thirty-five tor
gun. Lying side by side, smiling ir
their new polish, lay a remarkable col
lection of guns ready for use. The
largest cannon was the famous thirty.
eight ton gun, the largest yet completed
| The Woolwick Infants (thirty-fve tons
were an interesting family of four; o.
twenty-five ton guns there were twenty
five; and twenty of eighteen tons. AT
ter these frightful engines of destruction
no one troubled himself with the small
er cannon, whose name was legion"
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-06-12

The Columbia River is described by
General Rosling as "the Hudson River
many times magnifed and infinitely
finer" The noble Palisades, he says,
"famed justly throughout the world,
sink into insignifcance before the stu
pendons walls of the Cascade Range,
which here duplicate them, but on a
far vaster scale, for many miles together.
Piled among the sky ON either side, up
two or three thousand feet, for fifty miles
at stretch, with only a narrow gorge
between, the Columbia whirls and boils
along through this, in supreme might
ness and power; while from the summit
of the great walls little streams here and
there topple over, run like lace for
awhile, then break into million drops,
and finally come sitting down as mist,
into the far depths below. Some of these
tiny cascades streaked the cyclopean
walls, like threads of silver, from top to
bottom. Others seemed mere webs OF
gossamer, and these the winds at times
caught up and swayed to and fro, like
walls fit for goddesses."
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-06-12
EquinOctial Storms.

There is a popular delusion that a
three-days storm is inevitable when the
sun crosses the line in the latter part of
March and September, and the unsettled
state of the weather at this period,
which usually eliminates in showers of
some duration, is always spoken of as
the equinoctial storm.
According to Prof. Loomis, of Yale
College, however, the equinox has very
little to do with storms, and excepting
that the weather is generally unsettled
by the changes which are taking pla ce
in the atmosphere, there is no more like
ihood of storm upon the day the sun
crosses the line than upon any other of
the year.
So much for one of the popular theo-
ries, which, like our popular supersti-
tions, obtain a stronger hold upon the
public mind than the strongest facts. In
the light of this truth, it is not difficult
to account for the length of time, cen
turies perhaps, which it takes to discover
a popular error or establish scientific
truth; nor can we measure our indebted
ness to those men who devote their lives
to discovering facts in nature and art,
and establishing them upon a scientific
that is, real and knowable-basis
For it must be remembered that these
men are always in a minority; the mass
of mankind are content to take the
world as they find it, with all its errors
all its superstitions, all its prejudices
and feel no gratitude to those who dis
them
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-06-12
Towns Of the South.

A writer says: "Southern towns there
are in existence that are as untouched by
the hand of to-day as though they we're
buried deeper than Pompeii of old.
They are buried to all modern interests
and purposes. Not breath of air breath
ed by live, active men and women ever
reaches them; not ripple of the great
wave called progress ever touched their
shores; they have few books, and any,
thing they see in the newspapers beyond
the market, the crops and their side in
politics has no meaning for them. Yet
they have gentlemen and gentlewomen
in their midst, full of quaint, oldfash-
ioned dignity, and surrounded by an
aroma of good breeding not unlike in
quality to the odor of dried rose leaves;
they have few young men and girls
growing up in their mothers footsteps,
young people lacking the full measure Of
what society to-day reckon as thorough
bred, assured beau or belle; but often
their youths are honest and simple heart
ed even at twenty-five, and the girls
why, they grow up, and bud and blossom
into a modest, sweet beauty, have theil
day Of triumph and conquest, and settle
down to be the wife of some country
squire, and mother of children, whom
they will train to grow exactly az they
were trained.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-06-12
A Street Incident.

4 man living on Main street, not over
thousand yards from the Courthouse,
whose name our reporter, after dill
gent search in the directory, had not
found, but which is supposed to be Snooz-
er, went home last evening filled up to
the collar with benzine. Feeling rather
warm for the season" Mr.. Snoozer took
of his coat and boots, put on his slip
pers, and getting the garden hose went
out to sprinkle the street, SO as TO make
things cool around there. Now, it takes
a quick, dis corning, calculating eye and
a steady hand to properly manipulate a
hose in the day time. At night the diff
fculties are multiplied. But Mr.. Snooz-
er's mind was simply on the subject of
sprinkling. He gave the hydrant wrench
several twists, and had on full head.
After few erackles and spirits, steady
stream was let fly right on the boots and
white linen pants of man with a red
rosebud on the left lapel of his coat, who
was coming up from call on Fourth
street. The man stopped suddenly in
surprise, and Snoozer, noticing the mis-
hap, in the true spirit Of thorough bred
gentleman, advanced 10 render an apollo
gy, when the nozzle vas turned a quart
er of an inch to the larboard, and poured
in stream right against the strangers s
immaculate bosom. The latter might
have got red hot at this treatment, and
shown fight, were it not impossible to
do so under the cooling influences
brought to bear, and to avoid further dis
aster, the rosebud and linen pants popp-
ed around the corner into an alley.
Mr. Snoozer was then proceeding
quietly TO cool off the bricks of the pave
ment, when a gentleman with two ladies,
two shawls and one sore boil on his arm
walked up from a Vine street beer gar
den. To prevent another catastrophe,
the hoseman turned the squirting ap-
paratus toward the open street, without
the least intention of pouring about four
gallons of Ohio River water down the
odCho Vi d 4eios anu SoiitAOhlah " ho "CiS
riding by in tilted top buggy. The
gentleman, in words usually expressed
in print in dashes, told of his displeasure
uttered threats against Snoozer's life
Mr.. Snoozer said it was purely accident
al-that he was willing to take it all
back-that there was no sense in crying
over spilled water. While thus engaged
in an explanation, he was perfectly obi
| vious of the nozzle in his hand. He was
as innocent as an unborn baby of know.
ing that a stream, running at the rate o
forty knots an hour, was sailing through
the open window of a second story bed
room in the adjoining house, where {
man and his wife were sleepingr HI
never dreamed of such thing until fe
male shrieks were heard and man il
white raiment appeared at the window
and fired off seven shots from a revolver
Then Mr.. Snoozer thought he would
shut off steam. But he had mislaid the
wrench. He, however, kept the gather
ing mob at bay until his wife rushed out
hauled him into the house, and pervent
ed riot and bloodshed. No arrests
| G;n Co,,mez-ciny
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-06-12
John got up and came to the door to

John got up and came to the door to
find out what the matter was.
I'm going home, declared Mr.. Bum
bic. The train goes in fifteen minutes.
I thought I'd tell you 1 was going, so
you wouldn't feel alarmed.
But, Timothy
'Tain't no use,' said Mr.. Bumble, reso-
lutely; 4 wouldn't stay for anything.
I'm going now. Take care of yourself.
Goodbye and Mr. Bumble was of.
He half expected to be overtaken by
the widow, and didn't feel safe till he
had reached home.
Did you enjoy yourself?'
Asked the old housekeeper, as she got
him something to eat. You look all
worn out.
Il be- said Mr.. Bundle. L tell you
Betsey, I'm never going away from
home again unless / know it's safe to do
SO. I've been prosecuted; yes, Betsey,
prosecuted, Mr. Bundle heaved an aw-
full sigh of relief IF any woman ever
comes here that You don't know, just
lock the door and don't let 'em in, for
goodness sake. Tell 'em Pm sick or
dead; that I've got the small-pox-any-
thing you please; but don't let 'em in.
Mr.. BUNDLE couldn't forget his dream
for several days, and kept a constant
lookout for the widow, but she didn't
follow him. He has never ventured to
visit his brother John since.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-06-12
A PRAYING Insect.

An insect of the grasshopper species
has long had a good reputation which
he does not deserve. By the old Greeks,
many centuries ago, he was called "man-
tis," which means prophet or diviner,
and in English is known by the name
of the praying insect" In Africa, also,
he is venerated, and by some tribes wor-
shipped.
He is three or four inches long, and
when he raises head and breast, at right
angles with his body, and clasps the
joints of his front legs, he looks precise
ly like one kneeling in prayer. In this
position he often remains for hours to-
gether, without visible motion. 1t is no
wonder he has received the name. But
he is anything but devout in his hab-
its, for, unlike other grasshoppers, lie is
carnivorous and destructive, eating even
his own species. In the apparent pos
tute of prayer, he is only on the lookout
for a dinner, and when his prey comes,
his PRAYER ends.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-06-12
Value Of Precious Stones.

Suppose a sapphire as large as an
olive of ordinary French size. 1t would
be worth here in New York fifteen hun
dred dollars; an emerald of that size
would be worth eight thousand; dia-
mond, fifteen thousand; a ruby, forty
thousand; an opal of fine color of that
size would be worth only one thousand
dollars. These are comparative values
here in New York. Abroad, where
colored gems are very much liked, the
prices are different. Opal are worth
more, and sapphires are worth less. But
for the American purchasers, the dia-
mond is the one great staple, and
it is only of late years that there ha s
been any sensible demand for pearls.
These come to us from Central America
and from Lower California, as well as
from the Persian Gulf, but it is very
rare to find these gems possessing the
same lustre as the Oriental. Sometimes
pearls from the Oman Sea are so lustrous
as almost to ,ival the fire of an opal.
Some gems would be worth five hundred
dollars. Curiously enough this intense
lustre is sometimes found in the Ohio
fresh water pearls, but these are extreme
ly small-in fact, hardly larger thar
seed pearl.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-06-12
Presence OF Mind

One of the servant girls worth hav-
ing lives in indianapolis. The other
day three year old child climbed
through an attic window and walked
along the ledge Of the roof, thirty-two
feet from the ground, the whole length
of the house, and there stood uncon-
cerned and enjoying the prospect. She
was seen by the maid-of-all-work, who
pleasantly called out, "Come down; I've
got something for you" "All yite," cried
the little one; and she retraced her steps
and disappeared through the attic win
dow in safety. Most girls would have
screamed on seeing the child in such a
position, said how dangerous it was, and
how she would fall; and the little crea.
ture would have fallen, and very likely
have been killed
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-06-12
NUMBER 9.
The Richest Men In America.

The New York correspondent of the
Cincinnati Commercial writes: "The
three richest men in America are VIM
B. Astor, A. I. Stewart, and Commodore
Vanderbilt, all residents of New York
City. Astor's wealth is mainly in real
estate and its revenues; Vanderbilt's is
mainly in railway stocks and their divi-
dends; Stewards in goods, houses, stores,
factories, lands and stocks. The aggre-
gate wealth of each one Of them is sup
posed to be somewhere between S75, ,000,-
900 and 800, 100000, which looks rather
heavy. Nobody knows exactly; they
can not tell themselves, within a million
or two. Those who know most about
their affairs put the figures highest, and
they say that the income tax return Of
few years ago, which showed each Of
them to be worth between twenty and
thirty millions, gave no proper idea Of
their real wealth. Astor lives unosten-
tatiously: Vanderbilt lives in a three
story brick house on third class street,
and Stewart lives in a marble palace in
Fifth Avenue, more magnificent than
any other residence ON the American
continent, and e .ualled by few in any Of
! the great cities of Europe. Astor and
/ Vanderbilt are New Workers by birth;
/ Stewart is a native-of the north of Ire
land. Astor is large heavy man of
seventy, with strong features, and a
rubicund face like parchment, and gives
the impression of being hard-up; Van
derbilt is a tall, slim, handsome, proud
looking man of nearly eighty, straight as
an arrow Astor has heirs to his estate;
Vanderbilt has children to whom he can
leave his fortune; but Stewart is childless.
/ Astor's public benefactions are confined
to something like couple of hundred
thousand dollars, which he gave to the
Astor Library, and the two golden can
dlesticks, nine feet high, which he recent
ly gave to Trinity Church. Vanderbilt
has never made any public benefactions,
except steamship 20 the Government
during the war, till very recently, when
he gave a million dollars for educational
purposes-oDe-half of this sum to found
a university in Tennessee, and the other
half to another educational institution.
Stewart has always had the reputation Of
being close listed but he must be credited
with his million-dollar Home for Wo.
men,, which will be completed nexI
year. Astor is an Independent Methodist
and Stewart is said 10 be inclined to think
for himself Stewart is scholarly man
Vanderbilt is not; Astor is an accom-.
pIished man of the World.o
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-06-12
[From the Hagerstown CInd,) Friendly Visitor.
The Oldest habitant-Physical Con.
ditiOn and Habits.

Mr.. Geoage Castator, living with his
son of this place, is one hundred and ten
years old. He stands five feet eight in
ches high in his slippers, is but very lit
tie bent, measures forty-one and one
fourth inches around his chest, and is
twenty-three and one-half inches across
the shoulders, has full head of hair and
heavy beard, which he keeps closely
trimmed. He is full faced and has not
the general emaciation usual to extreme
old age; has several teeth in a good state
of preservation, his eye sight is remark
ably good for his age, though he can not
see to read; his pulse is moderately full,
regular seventy eight per minute, breath
ing full, regular eighteen per minute,
except at times he shakes all over when
the breathing is interrupted by kind of
signing. He has good appetite, but
eats only two meals day, taking break
fast at o'clock and dinner at IL; taking
a nap from P. NJ. till 4; he sits up till
p. NJ, when he retires for the night.
Is very regular in his habits; he can not
talk much but can hear quite we'll; his
speech. seems to be interrupted from a
spasmodic affection of the vocal cords.
In the last three years he has lost the
power of locomotion; not heing able to
get out of his room for two years, though
he is able to get from his bed to a chair
where he sits near the windo~, cross
legged, with arms folded, chewing his
tobacco, and looking out upon the busy
world, reminding one of old Father
Time himself, experimenting the opera
tions of busy, perishable mortals.
Cut this out and save it. Mr.. Casta-
| tor was very temperate man, neither
drinking spirits of any kind nor chew
ing tobacco; he was a very robust man,
fond of horse racing and all kind of ath-
letic sports; never had but one attack of
sickness, which was not serious; never
took medicine but once; he commenced
chewing tobacco at the age of ninety
| years, since which time he has become
very nervous, and failed every way much
faster than before.
Owing 10 his not being able to talk
much it is difficult to obtain his history,
but next week We will give all that can
be ascertained of this remarkable man.