davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-01-05
The German Christmas.

Ii is strange that Christ's mass should
be the great festival of the year in
Protestant Germany. In Catholic
countries New Years day is the grand
sete when visits and congratulations
are exchanged, and bonbons and etrenRes
fly about as at carnival times. With us
Christmas means good cheer, full houses,
blankets, coal and clothing clubs; plum
puddings dance while greasy Joan
doth keel the pot;" gardens are robbed
of their greenery; fair damsels decorate
the churches: there is feasting i'm the
services, neighborly greetings, peace
and good will all around the parish.
The holly, the yew, the ivy, and the
rosemary, climb up the pillars of the
sanctuary; the jolly mistletoe hangs
i'm the halls; no matter if coughing
down the parsons saw" he cuts his
sermons short without any scruples at
defrauding religion, and sends them all
home to their plum-puddings. 1t is
Christmas, and the people want TO be
happy i'm their homes.
But a German Christmas differs
widely from ours. There is more senti
ment (as we have seem about, and less
solid hospitality. More hustle, mystery,
and preparation, but less religious
fervor. The churches are bare and
empUy-the poor owe less to the bounty
of the rich. Ii is more domestic festi-
val, celebrated in each household for its
own special members, than a stretching
forth of the arms of brotherly love, of
tenderness, of charity, of loving kind
ness, which would fain embrace the
whole world and greet all humanity
anew. No, the rapture of rejoicing that
greets the nativity in rational Germany
quite loses sight of the great origin of
the popular festival and it is only in
fanciful utterances that the child learns
something of the Christ whose mass it
is. 1t may be that the lonely legends
with which the babe is fed sow the
seeds of unbelief i'm his mind, and that,
later on, he finds, with dismay, that the
religion of his childhood can never be
the religion OF his ripper years; that
all the fanciful fiction, and sweet, grace
full stories which made him worship
with the magi, and tremble at the
manger, are but so many foolish fables
with which his innocence has been
cheated. 1t has been said by a great
divine that a child should be drawn up
to Heaven, not Heaven brought down
to him; and, looking at the outcome of
German Professionalism, one is not in
clined to dispute the assertion.
Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-01-05
The Use OF Paper.

OF the ,30O, ,00O, 900 of human beings
inhabiting the globe, $40, 900, 900 have
no writing material of any kind; 5OO,-
600, 900 of the Mongolian race use paper
made from the stalks and leaves of
plants; 100000 use for graphic pur-
poses tablets of wood; 130, 1000, ,000-the
Persians, HindoOs, Armenians and Syri-
ans-have paper made from cotton,
while the remaining 300, ,000, 900 use the
ordinary staple. The annual consump-
ton by this latter number is estimated
at 1,S00, ,000, 900 pounds, an average of
six pounds to the person, which has in
creased from two and a half pounds
during the last fifty years. To produce
this amount of paper, 200. .O00, 900 pounds
Of woolen rags, 500, 200, 900 pounds of
cotton rags, besides great quantities of
linen rags, straw, wood, and other mate
rials are yearly consumed. The paper
is manufactured in $500 mills, employ
Ing $4,000 male and 10000 female
laborers. The propOrtiOnate amounts
manufactured of the different kinds of
paper are stated to be-of writing paper,
300, ,OOO, 600 pounds; of printing paper,
800, ,0O0, 900 pounds; of wall paper,
400, ,OO0, 900 pounds, and 200, ,0OO, 900
pounds of cartoons, blotting paper, &c.
Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-01-05

As to physical preferences, confess
that 1 have felt sufficient interest i'm the
subject to ask a score of short men the
kind of stature they most admired in
women, when they made the following
replies: two for medium size, two for
small, thirteen for tall, and three for
very tall. But, as may be observed,
twenty is hardly sufficient number on
which to base a theory; still, it is
enough to Indicate that there are proba-
bilities in favor of 1t, and in the absence
Of more extended tests am inclined to
believe that, where there are sixteen for
and only four against, the small man
prefers the large woman.
Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-01-05
Instinct OF whales on the Approach
Of Danger.

Sperm whales have a means of COM
municating with each other at long dis
tances-hOw long has never been deter
mined: but certainly at distances as
great as are commanded by the eve from
the masthead of ship, or in radius
of six or seven miles. The means are
a mystery, but every whaleman has OBJ
served the fact, and has based his opera
tions in the chase upon it. 1t has been
suggested that. as water is so good con-
ductor of sound, it may be by sound; I;
but the distances are too great for any
sound which the whale is capable Of
making to penetrate, and it is observed
that the telegraph is as perfect as ever in
high winds when a thousand waves are
breaking. Dart an iron into he-whale
or gallie him by going on his eye, and
almost simultaneously with his cutting
fiukes i'm the air the whole school will
show alarm by running and cutting
their fiukes, or by disappearing from
the surface, and coming up miles to
windward and running head out.
If 1t be female that is struck, the
males are arrested in flight, and are apt
to gather about her, and offer chances
for more than a single whale. Again
when a school of cows and calves are
frightened to windward and calf be
struck. the whole school will ''bring to, J"
and gather closely around the wounded
young, sometimes so closely packed that
the enclosed boat will not dare to use
the lance; and they will thus remain as
long rs the calf is alive or the iron holds.
But should the iron draw or the calf die,
the whole school will instantly scatter.
Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-01-05
A Popular Fsllaey Concerning Over.
work.

The subject of overwork, then, is one
of the greatest importance to study, and
has to be discussed daily by all of us.
My own opinion has already been ex-
pressed, that the evils attending 1t on
the community at large are vastly over
estimated; and, judging from my own
experience, the persons with unstrung
nerves who apply to the doctor are, not
the prime minister, the bishops, judges,
ard hard-working professional men.
but merchants and stockholders retired
from business, government clerks who
work from ten TO four, women whose
domestic duties and bad servants are
driving them to the grave, young ladies
whose visits to the village school or
Sunday performance on the organ are
undermining their health, and so on.
In short, in my experience see more
ailments arise from want of occupation
than from overwork, and taking the
various kinds of nervous and dyspeptic
ailments which we are constantly treat
ing, find at least six due to idleness to
one from overwOrk.
Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-01-05

BY CLARENCE COOK.

Let US begin with the frunk abandon
ment of any formal parlor, but, taking
the largest and pleasantest and most ac-
cessible room in the house, let us give
it up to the wife and children in the
daytime, and to the meeting of the
whole family when evening comes.
There is not much need at the present
time to emphasize this suggestion, for il
is one which experience and necessity
have already made to a good many peo-
pie; and now that the problem, ''How
to get dwelling at a rent within
moderate means is being solved by the
increase Of "hats" and apartment houses,
the ''parlor'' must be given up, there
being no provision made for it in the
common plans. But it is by no means
my notion that the liying-room should
be hOmely, matter-Of-fact apartment,
eonsecrated to the utilities, while the
MUSES. and Graces are left to kick their
heels in the hall. On the contrary, we
want in the living room, for founda-
ton, that the furniture shall be the
best designed and best made that we can
afford, and all of it intended to be used
and necessary to our comfort; not an
article to be allowed that doesn't earn
its living. and cannot prove its right to
be there. These wants being provided
for first, then we will admit the Orna-
ments of life-casts, pictures, ,engravings,
bronzes, books, chief nOurishers in life's
feast; but in the beginning these are to
be few, and of the choicest, and the
greatest care is to be taken in admitting
newcomer. The room, from the very
first, ought to represent the culture of
the family,-what is their taste, what
feeling they have for art; it should re-
present themselves. and not other peo-
pie; and the troublesome fact is, that it
will and must represent these, whether
its owners would let il or no. If young
people, after they have secured the few
pieces of furniture that must be had,
and made sure that they are what they
ought to be, have some money left to
get picture, an engraving, or a cast,
they ought to 90 to work to supply this
want as seriously as they would the
other, which seems the more necessary,
but in reality is not bit more neces-
sary. L look upon this ideal living
room of mine as an important agent in
the education of life; it will make a
great difference to the children who
grow up in it, and to all whose expert
eDce is associated with it, whether it be
a beautiful and cheerful room, or only
a homely and bare one, or a merely
formal and conventional one. The re-
lation of these things to education is all
that gives any dignity or poetry to the
subject, or makes it allowable for a
reasonable man to give much thought
to it. But it has real vital relation to
life. and plays an important part i'm
education, and deserves to be thought
about great deal more than it is. 1t is
therefore no trifling matter whether we
hang poor pictures on our walls or good
ones, whether we select fine cast or a
second-rate one. We might almost as
well say it makes no difference whether
the people we live with are first-rate or
second-rate.-
Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-01-05

If come home and find you haven't
done it, I'll lick you till you can't stand
upw
1t is more than boy of life size ought
to do in a whole day, but you are not to
blame that he is not thirteen years old
instead of eight.
If you hear that any one in the neigh
borhood has broken a window, stolen
fruit or unhiHged gate, be sure that it
was your boy. If he denies it, take
down the rod and tell him that you will
thrash him to death If he doesn't "Own
up" but that you will spare him If he
does. He will own up to lie to get rid
of a thrashing, and then You can talk TO
him about the fate of liars and bad boys,
and end up by saying:
eco to bed now, and in the morning
I'll attend to your case"
If you take him to church and he
looks around, kicks the seat or smiles at
some boy acquaintance, thrash him the
moment you get home. He ought to
have been listening to the sermon. If
he sees all the other boys going to the
circus, and wants fifteen cents to take
him in, tell him what awful wicked
things circuses are how they demoralize
boys; how he ought to be thrashed for
ever seeing the procession go by; and
then when he's sound asleep do you
sneak of, pay half a dollar to go in, and
come home astonished ut the menagerie
and pleased with the wonderful gymnas-
tic feats.
Keep your boy steady at school, have
work for him every holiday; thrash
him If he wants to go fishing or hunt
ing; restrain his desire for skates,
kites and marbles; rout him out at day
light, cold or hot, cuff his ears for ask
ing questions; make his clothes out of
your cast of garments, and you'll have
the satisfaction, when old and gray
headed, of knowing that you would
have trained up a useful member Of
society had he not died just as he was
getting well broken inn. Quad.
Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-01-05
RELICS.
By WILLIAM WINTER.

The violets that you gave are dead
They could not bear the loss. OF you;
The spirit of the rose has fed
1t loved you. and its love wsss true;
Back to your lips that spirit flies.
To bask beneath your radiant eyes.
Only the ashes bide with mel
The ashes of the ruined dowerz-
Types Of 3 rapture not to be;
Sad relics Of bewildered hours;
Poor. frail. foriorn, and piteous shows
OF errant passions wasted woes.
He grandly loves who loves in vsinl
These withered flowers that lesson teach
They suffered they did not complain:
Their life wss love too grest for speech
In silent pride their fate they bore:
They loved. they grieved they died-no more.
Far OF the purple banners fare.
Beneath the golden morning spread
know what queen is worshipped there,
What lanrels wreath her lovely head
Her name be sacred in my thought,
And sacred be the grief she brought
For. since i saw that glorious face,
And heard the music Of that voice,
Much beautyls fallen to disgrace
That used to make my heart rejoice;
And rose and violet ne'er can be
The same that once they were to me.
Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-01-05

A machine, it is said, has been in
vented by a VI. III. Huppinger for writing
spoken words. According to the Rerus
Hdastrielle, this instrument, which is
about the size of the hand, is put in con-
nection with the vocal organs, and
records their movements upon moving
band Of paper in dots and dashes of the
same sort as those employed in tele-
graphic writing. The person using NJ.
Huppinger's invention simply repeats
the words Of the speaker after him in
audibly, and the same words are then
faithfully written out on the moving
band.-LORdoR Iron.
Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-01-05

and all he had. And now the plain
house will bloom all over with roses,
and Uncle Seth will buy new hat
people always do when they get mar
ried, and he will have chance to eat
piiid,o to his hearts content.
BY the way, Uncle Seth laughed so
the other night, just after the wedding,
when asked him soberly, if he didn't
believe in cooking matches. He looked
at "my Helen" sitting by his side, and
said, rubbing his hands: Eyes, Polite,
it was a very good match, wasn't it?'
Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-01-05

Secretary Chandler is worth 81 600
600, made In the dry goods trade.
Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-01-05

Respect Your Tedchcr.-"Respect your
teachers, boys" said Deacon Green to
two smart young fellows from town
who were just now walking "acrOss
lots with him. Respect your teachers.
| don't mean only that you should treat
them with outward Difference, but want
you to truly honor them. If you try
10 do il and can't-why, go to another
school. Honor the man who teaches
you, who breaches you, who reaches
you, say l."
The boys laughed at the deacon's
funny rhyming, but noticed that they
Strengthened up "a he spoke, and, from
the bright look in their eyes, it was ev-
ident that they took his idea.-St. Mich
Olss.
The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1876-06-22
Raising Tomatoes.

Burr tells us that the French mode
of raising tomatoes is as follows:
AS soon as cluster of flowers is Wis
ible, they top the stem down to the
cluster, so that the flowers terminate
the stem. The effect is that the sap is
Immediately impelled into the two
buds next below the cluster, which
soon push strongly and produce an
other cluster of flowers each. When
these are visible, the branch to which
they belong is also topped down to
their level: and this is done five times
successfully. By this means the plants
become stout dwarf bushes, not above
eighteen inches high. In order 10 pre-
vent their falling over, sticks or
strings are stretched horizontally
along the rows, to keep the plants
erect. In addition TO this, all laterals
that have no flowers, and. after the
fifth topping, all laterals whatever, are
nipped off. In this way, the ripe sap
is directed into the fruit, which ac-
quires beauty, size and excellence
unattainable by other means.-Boston
Efobe
The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1876-06-22
A Good Suggestion.

Hon. Il. ID. Shannon, State Superin-
tendent Public Schools of Missouri,
calls attention to the fact that the
present year furnishes rare opportu-
nifty for a convention of all the super
intendents of public schools of the sew
eral States of the Union. lie says
"Doubtless all have made arrange
ments to attend the National Centcn-
NAL Exhibition, at some time during
its progress. 1t would be pleasant al
80 and profitable, to attend the session
of the National Teachers Association,
to be held in Baltimore, July 10.
The object of the circular is to re-
quest all educators TO so time their
visit to Philadelphia that they may
be in Baltimore at the assembling of
the representative teachers of the
Union, and at that point or at Phila-
delphia hold the proposed meeting.
"Shall we have a convention? 1t is
more than likely that every superin-
tendent will make it convenient to at
tend, and it is more than improbable
that such another opportunity Of meet
ing and comforting with one another
will ever again be presented. Will
you attend? Please respond as soon
as possible by sending me a postal card
at Jefferson City, Missouri, and when
1 have heard from the several States
and Territories, will publish the re-
sultv
The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1876-06-22
How TO Break q Muls.


Harvey Riley, Superintendent of The
Government Corral, Washington, in
his book on the mule, has the follow
ing sensible suggestion about break
ing a mule:
Don't fight or abuse him. After
you have harnessed him and he proves
refractory, keep your own temper and
slack your reins, push him round,
backward and forward, not roughly /;
then if he will not do what you want,
tic him to post and let him stand
there day or two without food or
water Take care that he does not
lie down, and be careful to have per-
son to guard him, so that he does not
foul in the harness. If he will not go
after day or two of this treatment,
give him one or two more of it, and
my word for it he will come to his
senses and do anything you want
from that time forward.
"The only way 20 keep mule from
kicking you is to handle il a great
deal when young, and accustom it to
the ways and actions of men. You
must, through kindness, convince it
that you are not going TO harm or
abuse it, and you can do that best by
taking hold of il in a gentle manner
every time it appears to be frightened.
Such treatment | have always found
more effective than all the beating aud
abusing you can apply. The mule is
peculiar in his dislikes. Many of them
when first harnessed, so dislike blind
bride that they will not work in it.
When you find this, let them stand
day or so in the binders, and then
take them of, and in forty-nine cases
ont of fifty he will 60 at once"
The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1876-06-22
Alfalfa and Plaster.

In an article which appeared in the
Lndustrialist of May 9th, we express
ed the opinion that our small field OF
alfalfa would yield fully one and one
half tons of cured hay per acre. Since
that article was written we have cut
and carefully weighed measured por-
ton of the field, fair average of the
whole and we find that we have great
ly nder-estimated the crop. This al
falfa was cut May 81, and during the
four days intervening the hay was
turned three times and thoroughly
cured. The piece cut yielded at the
rate of $50 tons per acre.
The portion Of the field recently cut
was, early IN the season, laid OFT into
five experimental plats, each 2x4 rods
in size, for the purpose of accurately
testing the efficacy of plaster or gyp-
sym upon alfalfa. To every alternate
plat eight pounds Of plaster were APP
piled, being al the rate of one hundred
and sixty pounds per acre. The sub
sequent occupation OF one of the plats
and part of another as a building site,
forced us to use two half plats and two
whole ones; one Of the half plats and
one of the whole ones, to which moth
ing had been applied, being adjacent
respectively TO the half and whole
plats which had received the applica-
ton of plaster. The plaster was APP
piled April 27,and as above mentioned
the alfalfa was cut just one month from
that date.
The weighing Of May 3lst shows for
the first half plat to which plaster had
been applied ll9 IL pounds of hay,and
for the half plat adjacent to which
nothing had been applied 1872
pounds; for the plastered whole plat
23S pounds, and fer the whole plat TO
which nothing had been applied 2l9 IL
pounds of hay. The comparative
yields per acre of the plastered aud
nothing plats will be shown at a glance
by the following figures: Plastered
plats, 4,776 pounds per acre; nothing
plats, 4,4l0 pounds; showing for the
application of 100 pounds of plaster
an increased yield Of S26 pounds
Of hay.
Before cutting, a marked difference
in the plats could be seen. The plas-
tered plats showing darker color and
more luxuriant growth than the I'M
plastercd. More marked results might
have been expected had we been able
to apply the plaster at an earlier date
than April 9th. This, however, the
impossible condition of the roads dur
ing the early spring rendered impossi-
bic. We ought to add that the article
used in the above experiment was OF
Kansas manufacture. having been man
ufactured by j. V. Coon 81 Son, Blue
Rapids, Kansas.
Recent experience has quite con-
firmed our suspicious as to the quality
of alfalfa hay. While cattle and horses
eat it with considerable relish, it is
noteworthy that after each feed there
remains in the managers large amount
of coarse stalks that are worthless for
any thing except the manure pile
Prof Il. u. Shelton in the LadustrialjSt.
The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1876-06-22
Build up a Homestead.

The feeling that you are settled and
fixed will induce you to work to I'M
prove your farms, TO plant orchards, to
set out shade trees,to inclose pastures,
to build comfortable outhouses, and
each successive improvement is bond
to bind you still closer to your homes.
This will bring contentment in the
family. Your wives aud daughters
will fall in love with the country,your
sons will love home better than grog
shops, and prefer farming to measur-
ing tape or professional loafng, and
you will be happy in seeing the con-
tented and cheerful faces Of your fami-
lies. Make your home beautiful, con-
venicnt, and your children will love it
above all other places; they will leave
lit with regret, think of it with fond
ness, come back to it joyfully, seek
their chief happiness around their
home freside.
Women and children need more than
meat, bread and raiment; more than
acres of corn and cotton spread out ali
around them. Their love for the beau
tiful must be satisfied. Their tastes
must be cultivated; their sensibilitics
humored, not shocked. To accom-
plish this good end, home must be
made lovely, conveniences multiplied,
comforts provided, and cheerfulness
fostered. There must be both sun
shine and shade, luscious fruit and
fragrant flowers, as well as corn and
cotton. The mind and heart, as well
as the fields must be cultivated; and
then intelligence and contentment will
be the rule Instead of the exception.
Stick to, improve and beautify your
homesteads, for with this good work
comes contentment.