davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-10-22
The Size Of Countries.

Greece Is about the size of Vermont.
Palestine is about one fourth the size
of New York.
Hindoostan is more than hundred
times as large az Palestine.
The great desert of Africa has nearly
the present dimensions of the United
States.
The Red Sea would reach from Wash
ington to Colorado, and it is three times
as wide at Lake Ontario.
The English channel is nearly as large
as Lake Superior, and Lake Huron is
as large as the Sea of Azov.
The Mediterranean if placed across
North America, would make sea navi-
CATION from San Diego to Baltimore.
The Caspian Sea would stretch from
New York to St. Augustine, and is as
wide as from New York to Rochester.
Great Britain and Ireland are about
as large as New Mexico, but not as large
as Iowa and Nebraska. They are less
than New York, Pennsylvani and Ohio.
Madagascar is as large as New Hamp
shire, Massachusetts,, Vermont, COnnec-
ticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vir-
ginia and North Carolina all put to-
gether.
The Gulf of Mexico is about ten
times the size of Lake Superior, and
about as large as the sea of Kamtsehat-
ka, Bay of Bengal. China Sea, Okhotsk
Sea, or japan Sea. Lake Ontario would
go in either of them more than fifty
times.
The following bodies of water are
nearly equal in size to the German
Ocean, Black Sea, Yellow Sea; Hudson''
Bay is rather larger than the Baltic
Adriatic half, Persian Gulf, and Egear
Sea about half az large and somewha
larger than Lake Superior.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-10-22
The Origin, Manufacture, and Uses
Of Brass.

Brass, though very ancient, is not an
copper and one part zinc. BY changing
these proportions, or by adding lead. tin
or antimony, the color and qualities are
changed to suit different tastes or to
make the shade more harmonious with
its various surroundings. Brass was
common in Egypt long anterior to the
exodus of Israel; for, during the nations
journey to Canaan, the Israelltish wo-
men contributed their brass mirrors,
which they brought with them out of
Egypt, when brass was needed to make
Egyptians were able to burnish brass so
highly as to give perfect reflection of
the "human face divine" would indicate
not only great skill but large expert
ence in it's manufacture and use. Five
hundred years after this period, Hiram,
of Tyre, cast two pillars OF brass-Jachin
and Boaz-for the portico of Solomonis
temple. These were more than thirty
FIVE feet high, and some five or six feet
in diameter. So valuable was the brass,
of which these pillars were composed,
considered, even by the Babylonians,
when the pillars were near 500 years old,
that, after the destruction of the temple
by Nebuchadnezzar, his soldiers broke
them up and carried the material to
Babylon to increase the riches of that
great city. Among both the ancients
and the moderns brass has always rank
ed high among the useful and the orna-
mental metals. AS early as 1850, mills
and machinery for rolling and Sitting
iron were in operation in the United
States The first of which we have any
record, were put up in Middlehoro',
Hanover, and Milton, Massachusetts.
Bat not until 1902 was such machinery
called into reqnisition to roll brass and
more readily to make it useful. AT that
| time Abel Porter & Co., started brass
button manufactory in Waterbury, Con-
necticnt This firm had their brass in
gots partially rolled in an iron rolling
| mill, and then completed the process by
means of small rolls, driven by horse
power, in their own mill.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-10-22
Limit Your Wants.

From the natue of things the income
of most of tire inhabitants of the earth
must be limited, and indeed within very
narrow bounds. The product of labor
throughout the world, if equally divid-
ed, would not make the share of each in
dividual large. 1t is impossible that
every one should be what is called rich
But it is by no means impossible to be
independent. And what is the way to
compass this GLORIOUS privilege" as
Burns appropriately designates it? The
method is very simple. 1t consists in
one rule: Limit your wants. Make
them few and expensive. To do this
would interfere but little with your real
enjoyment. II is mostly matter Of
habit. You require more, or you are
satisfied with less, just as you have ac-
customed yourself to the one or the 9th.
er. Limit your wants, estimate their
cost, and never exceed il, taking pains
always to keep it inside of your income
Thus you will secure your lasting indie
pendence. Young men, think of this
A great dead of the happiness of your
lives depends upon it. After having
your money, spend it as you choose
honestly; but be sure you make it first
4 -[American Manufacturer.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-10-22
Why She stopped Her Paper.


She came bouncing through the sane
tum door like u cannon ball, without
pan<ing to say How dye do? she
brought her umbrella down on the table
with mighty crash, and shouted:
4 want You to stop ny paper
'All right madam
Stop it right of, too she persisted,
whacking the table again, for ! waited
long enough for you to do the square
thing
She quieted down for moment, as
We run our finger down the list of names
and when we reached hers and scratch
ed it out, she said:
There, now mebbe you'll do as you'd
ought to after this, and not make light
of a woman jest canse she's poor. If
some rich folks happen to have little
red-headed, y! dy-legg@d. squint eyed.
wheezy squaller born to them, you puff
it to the skies, and make it ont an angel;
but when poor people have a baby You
don't say a word about it, even If its the
Squarest-toed blackest haired, biggest
he tded, nobbiest little kid that ever
kept woman awake nights. That's
what's the matter, and that's why +
stopped my paper
And she dashed ont as rapidly as she
came
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-10-22
Life's Brightest Hour.

Not long since / met gentleman who
is assessed for more than million.
Silvered was his hair, care was upon his
brow, and he stopped beneath the burd-
en- of his wealth. We were speaking of
that period of life when we had realized
the most perfect enjoyment, or, rather.
when we had found happiness nearest TO
being unalloyed "I'll tell you" said
the millionaire, "when was the happiest
hour of my life. At the age Of one-and-
twenty I had saved eight hundred dol
lars. ! was earning five hundred dollars
a year, and my father did not take it
from me, only requiring that ] should
pay for my board. At the age of TWEEN
ty-one ! had secured pretty cottage.
inst outside of the city. / was able to
pay two-thirds of the value down, and
also to furnish it respectfully. was
married on Sundays Sunday in june
at my fathers house. My wife had
come TO me poor in the wealth of her
womanhood The Sabbath and the
Sabbath night we passed beneath my
fathers roof, and on Monday morning ]
went TO work, leaving my mother and
sister to help in preparing my own home.
On Monday evening, when the labors
of the day were done, ] went not to the
paternal shelter as in the past, but to my
own house-my own home. The holy
atmosphere of that hour seems to sur
round me even now in memory. open
ed the door Of my cottage, and entered.
7 laid my hat upon the stand in the hall.
and passed on to the kitchen-our kitch-
en- and dining room were both one then.
7 pushed open the kitchen door, and was
in heavenl The table was set against
the wall. The evening meal was ready,
prepared by the hands Of her who had
come to be my helpmate in deed as we'll
as in name, and by the table with a
throbbing expectant look upon her face,
stood my wife tried to speak, but
could not. could only clasp the wait.
ing angel to my bosom, TINS showing
her the ecstatic burden of my heart.
The years have pessed-long, long years,
and worldly wealth has flowed in upon
me, and ! am honored and envied. but,
as true as heaven. would give it all,
every dollar. for the joy of that hour of
that June ever ing, in the long, long
ago."
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-10-22

INDIG EsTIoN IN HoRsEs.-M. Petty
French veterinary surgeon, draws at
tention to the liability of horses and
cattle suffering from indigestion from
the consumptian Of forage in humid
or musty state. 1t is from over feeding
this complaint is ordinarily produced,
or to the too rapid transition from dry
to unlimited green food. Another very
common cause is the putting of animals
to work Immediately after their feed.
The giving of chaff and the refuse of
the threshing machine is also another
principal source, IA well as excessively
cold water and, above all, allowing the
animal TO drink the water of marsh
es. A little salt or handful of meal is
excellent in the drinks. Old animals
ought never TO be given too much food
at once, and it should ever be mixed
with a little straw. When the horse
shows symptoms of indigestion, restless
ness, suddenly refusing food, resting ON
one leg, then on another, the head
dropping and seeking the left flank, its
excrements either hard or liquid, etc,
an excitant, as three ounces of kitchen
salt or glnss of gin in bottle of water.
will afford relief; or an Infusion OF
chamomile and sage. In case pain exists
two spoonfuls of laudanum will prove
excellent. or courfe, soap injections,
I
friction and fumigation; are not to be
overlooked. Bleeding, in case of grain
! indigestion, becomes mortal.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-10-22

Thomas Brassey in the London Times-l
"The probability that the ram will
play decisive part of the naval battles
of the future furnishes conclusive ar
gument against extreme tonnage A
steam ram of novel type has been pro-
posed by experienced naval officers in
France and the United States. Armor
protection is retained in vital points:
but, as it Is impossible to give sufficient
armor protection to vessel of small
size without sacrificing some defensive
or offensive qualities, it is considered
advisable to give up the guns. If rams
were constructed on this system, the
vessel, to use the appropriate compari-
son, of Admiral Goldsborough, must be
the projectile, the steam power the gun
powder. In the last report addressed to
the Secretary of the United States Navy
by Admiral Porter, Congress is advised
not TO build monster iron-clads with
high free board protected by thick plat
ing-a task, be it observed, which has
never been attempted by the naval con-
miral Porter believes that rams and tor
pedo vessels are more likely TO be usefnl
in naval war, and he accordingly recon-
mends his Government to build thirty
powerful rams of great speed aud at
least fifty five iron torpedo boats IF good
speed and not less than one hundred tons
each. The frequent failure of submar
inc mines has convinced naval men in
the United States that the best form of
offensive torpedo. is a torpedo vessel fit
ted with an outrigger. a passage in the
report of the American Admiral re
minds us that in one important particu-
lar a naval action would probably be
fought in circumstances similar to those
which led to the destruction of the
Vanguard by the Iron Duke. Just as
dense fog in the Irish Channel caused
fatal collision between two friendly ships,
SO it will be in naval battle. Lands
men and civilians who have been present
at the naval displays at Spithead will
remember how speedily the splendid
spectacle was ohscured from view by the
comparatively insinni6cant explosion of
a royal salute. In a naval battle the
ships will be enveloped in a cloud of
impenetrahle density, and it is evident,
as Admiral Porter points ont, that
rams and torpedoes will have pretty
much their own way then, and the more
smoke there is the better il will be for
them.' 1t wonld only he by continual
and rapid movement that large ships
conld avoid the attacks of rams and
torpedo vessels. and where all depends
on the facility of evolution it is scarcely
polite to construct ships, like the In
flexible, of II 900 tons.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-10-22
Mysteries Of Sleep.

/ have often wondered concerning the
mysteries of sleep. If you have watch
ed any one slnmbering. you must have
felt that there is something absent which
is there when the sleeper is awake.
Thought in moment can fly to the
other end of the earth. A woman born
and bred in Australia, being in London,
can constantly conjure up the home
stead. Why then, shall not the soul be
able when the body sleep, to go-who
knows whittier?
Sometimes, when we wake, for some
moments we appear to be struggling
with something, and then, suddenly, we
are still again.
Where are the souls of the mad? The
soul being n perfect existence, if it were
with the mad, then Its perfection would
overcome the madness. A man who has
never known any impurity of thought
becomes mad, and his fancies are in the
last degree terrible. Can the soul,
which guided him when sane, be still
with him when he has become some
thing worse than brute? Who knowsl
who knows?
Mohommed, wishing to illustrate the
wonders of sleep, told how certain
man, being sheik, found himself, for
his pride, made poor fisherman
that he lived as one for sixty years,
bringing up family and working hard
and how, upon waking up from this
long dream, SO short time had he been
asleep, that the narrow-necked gourd
bottle filed with water, which he knew
he overturned as he fell asleep, had not
had time in which to empty itself.
How is it that sometimes, when we 90
to a strange place. we fancy that we have
seen IL before? IL it possible that when
one has been asleep the soul has foated
away, seen the place, and has that mem.
ory of it which so surprises us? In a
word, how far dual is the life of man
how far not?
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-10-22
MISCELLANY.
The Illusions Of Travel.
From the London saturday Resisw.l

From the London Saturday Reyisw-l
Another illusion of travel is the fan
cy that you have entered the realm Of
perpetual holiday. Looking at the sur
face of things only as you pass along,
you refuse to look below the surface. No
sombre shadows feck the gay scene.
Your mood resembles that of the fine
lady who did not know that poor people
existed, and who regarded aged paupers
in the light of picturesque specks in a
landscape which required to be enliven-
ed by red cloaks. To you all people
and places seem in festival. Some mag
ician has gone before to create an Area
dia along yonr path, like that with which
Potemkin grati6ed the eyes of his i'm
perial mistress in her journey to the
Crimea. You fash by hamiets which
seem to you like the painted villages of
a child's toy box. The groups of peas
ants belong not to the gross race of
horny handed, weather beaten sons of
toll. They are idealized into Elvinos
and Masettoes, and it would hardly sur
prise you to hear them b,Irsti into reeita-
tive, or to see them join in rustic
dance. An air Of -operatic levity
envelops them. They are actors IN a
prearranged pageant And the same il
lusion haunts you in gray old cIties re-
dolent of the middle ages. 1t never oe-
ours, to you, as You thread their quaint
alleys, business in all its ramiicatioHs
is going on around You with the same
prosaic routine which attends il in far
off England, or that within a stones
throw of you clerks are docketing ac-
counts, tradesmen selling their wares,
clients consulting their attorneys, attor-
neys revolving bills of cost, farmers
putting their samples, doctors going
their rounds, priests tending their iocks,
students assem- mbled in their classes, pro-
fessors enlightening them from the chair,
and. above all, hundreds of artisans en-
gagged in all the varieties of manual la
Dor. To the holiday maker all around
him seems a holiday his own contentment
is contagious, and infects all his sur
roundings. His capacity for realizing
the fact that the new world into which
he has strayed has its labors, its cares,
and its SORROWS is temporarily suspend
ed. In few weeks his sympathies with
workday humanity will revive, and he
will reawaken to a proper sense of his
responsibilities to his fellowmen. But
for the present he contemplates them as
the puppets of theatric show of which
he is the spellbound and impassive spec
fafnr
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-10-22

Never take "Coue and see me" as a
phrase meant in earnest unless it is ac-
compaDied with a date. Such an invi-
tation amounts to nothing at all. If
lady or gentleman desires vour company
he or she will appoint time for yonr
visit. "Call on ME when you can make
il convenient" drop in as you are pass
ing" snake US visit whenever you
have an hour or two TO spare" are social
antiquities by which men and women
of the world understand that they are
not expected to do the thing requested.
When people wish to be cheaply polite
ness. The complimentary small change
of society must always be taken at a
large discount. It Is-never worth its
face or anything like it. Yet it is
convenient medium of exchange, and
heavy debts of gratitude that ought to
be requited in better coin are often paid
with it. People who have more polish
than principal use it lavishly-p plain,
blunt, honest men, sparingly or not at
all. Whoever makes a friendly visit TO
fashionable house on the strength of
mere "Come and see me" will very Of
ten find that the family circle he has
dropped into by request is as uBgenial
as the Arctic circle and he will prOba-
bly, leave it with chilly feeling that
will prevent him from venturing into
the same high latitude again. But
when a whole souled man, whom YOU
know to he your friend, grasps you Wig
orously by the hand and says, "Come
and dine with me TO day-dinner on the
table at 5 o'clOck-he sure to come, we
shall expect you" you can take 1t as
certain that your presence is warmly
desired 1t is pleasant always to make
or receive a visit from a friend, bnt
nod on the street is all sufficient from a
fashionable acquaintance.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-10-22
Soil Inexhaustible.

We read and hear good deal aboui
the inexhaustible fertility of the soil,
that the idea of exhausting the fertile
prairies of the West is too much like
trying to dry the ocean with a spoon.
etc. This doctrine may do very well
for visionary theorists to teach, but the
actual facts stand out in too bold relief
to justify any such groundIess assump-
tion. The old system of selling every
thing off the land for other people to
convert to their own use has brought
State after State into comparative i'm
poverishment, till the evil is spreading
to what was once called ''the West" for
it appears that Ohio is already going
down hill at rapid rate, and other
States of the West and Southwest are
following in the same track. What else
can be expected of system which ex-
ports everything from which is made the
strongest and most enduring manures?
The soil of Illinois and other Western
States, it is true, is deep and rich, but it
is not all on top or near enough the sur
face to be available to crops; and we al
ready hear from the most reliable sources
that the soil of Illinois is giving out
unmistakably; and unless the system
that now prevails is changed-the time
is rapidly approaching when the lands
cumb to its exhausting effect. 1t does
not require the mental abilities of Il
sooihsayer or of scientist to know that
manure must be applied to MAINTAIN the
fertility of any soil; otherwise continual
cropping will soon run ii down, despite
all the thor ugh cultivation and deeI
tillage of thousand theorists. Nor do
we need any other constructor than the
common law Of nature to teach us that tn
take away anything from something les
sens the amount, quantity, capacity,
force, or any other property of the lat
ter. Just 50 with the soil. It is no mat
ter if its fertility is so great as to pro
duce one hundred bushels of shelled
corn to the acre, and its productive pow
ers a-e reduced only the one hundreth
part in as many years, its complete ex
haustion would only be question OF
time at last.
The American farmer grows corn year
after year, and it is sent to England,
where it ia converted into beef, mutton
or pork for market, in doing which the
farmers of England make such vast
quantities of rich manure that by Its
application to the land the yield fire.
queatly doubles the rent, while the
American farmer in cultivating his own
land SO weakens its production by not
consuming his produce at home that il
ceases to return him fair average crops
"a fact which wifi be sorely felt by
posterity.
The soil is the foundation upon which
the hopes of the farmer must rely, but
he must not expect it to dispense it'
gratuitous bounties unless he recipro
Gates its favors. Or il may be liKened tC
a machine that converts dead, inorganic
matter into vegetable life for our sub
sistence; we must supply the machin.
with plenty of grease (manure) in or
der to give scope to its greatest utility
Nor is this all; it needs also our care, at
tention, and the application of our skill
and judgement before we can expect i
to do good work.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-10-22
Didn't Say.

A ninth avenue hoy stopped catching
flies all at once Yesterday and turned to
his mother and inquired:
"Ma, aint Mrs. Parsons a nice woman,
though.
al gness so-why?" she answered.
Because, when was over there this
morning she put her hand on my head,
like this, and she almost cried rs the
said: "Poor, dear boyl how conld your
father ever think of marrying that
sharp nosed, vinegarfied old maid for a
second wife ~
She took Henry into the shed, and
while she held fast to his ear she inform
ed him that il would be nothing short Of
death IL he ever entered Mrs. Parsons
hnusa again
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-10-22
The Deacon and His Calf.

On Sunday as one Of the strictest dea-
cons was getting ready to shake the lines
over his horses' backs and say "he hnp,"
his wife remrm bered that his calf hadn't
been fed. The deacon looked at his
Sunday clothes, and observed that he
did not deem it incumbent upon him to
snffer for the negligence of others; to
which the deacOness replied that such
language in the presence and hearing of
the children, on a Sunday morning, and
from pillar of the church, was enough
to shake ones belief in the professions
that had been made by one she could
name. The deacon handed the lines to
his eldest boy, and climbed over the
wheel without saying a word. He went
around to the front door, and took the
key from under the mat, and as he was
trying TO pnt the key in the hole it
slipped from his hand and slid down in
to the snow. Finally he got into the
kitchen, and started with the milk for
the barn-vard. He set the pail down on
the ground and called the calf, but the
beast whisked its tail in the air and
beloved at him. Then he captured the
animal and pulled it along by the ears
iammed its head into the pail. bnt the
calf gave spring, sending the milk
in cloud Of spray over the deacon's
shirt front. In trying to recapture the
beast. the deacon dropped his hymn
book out of his pocket. and before he
could rescue i. the calf stepped both feet
on 1T and tore the cover off. The dea-
con got mad. He took hoop-pole and
belabored the calf One end of the
pole strnck the shed. and, bounding mp,
knocked the deaccH's ping hat Of. 1t
rolled directly under the calf, who set
his foot through the tile, and went tear
ing madly around the yard with his tail
in the air and hat fastened just above
the knuckle joint. The deacon went
into the house, and as he unbuttoned
his shirt collar, he called out:
"Maria, you go on to church, and if
anybody asks after me, tell them | stay
ed at home to feed that d-n calf"