davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-10-25
Bleaching Bones.
Ist. Paul Pioneer-Press. !

Mr.. Frank NJ. Fleming, of Minneapolis,
who left here last spring to assist in
building one of the new military posts
on the Yellowstone River, returned
home a. few days since bringing some
very interesting particulars in regard to
the work of construction and the result
of his observations at the scene of the
Custer massacre on the Rosebud.
The post upon which Mr.. Fleming was
employed during the summer is located
at the mouth of the Little Big Horn,
which is only eighteen miles distant from
the spot where Custer and his gallant
comrades met their terrible fate. Upon
their first arrival at the site of the new
fort the civilian mechanics had occasion
to complain of the meagre allowance of
provisions issued from the commissary
department merely for the purpose of
swelling profits in some direction. This
fraud and dereliction was finally brought
to the attention of the commanding
officer, Col. Buell., and after one or two
unsuccessful efforts on his part, the citi-
zens gained their point and obtained the
right and full ration which the govern
ment and the commandant intended
they should have. Since then Mr.. Flem-
ing states that the mechanics from Min
| neapolis and st. Paul have been well sup
piled and are now working contentedly.
The Big Horn post is rapidly approach
| ing completion, is of sufficient capacity
to accommodate formidable force and
strong enough to resist any attack which
Sitting Bull, Joseph, or any other savage
warrior may make upon it. The second
post is about one hundred miles distant
from the Custer battle ground. Shortly
before Mr.. Fleming's departure home he
visited the scene of the Custer massacre,
and his description of it is painfully in
teresting. He says that from the sad
traces found, Custer must have struck
the center of the Indian camp, leaving
the right of it, which was in timbered
and circular ravine, to swing against his
right flank and rear, and shoot down
officers and men as fast as they retreated
to the highlands, were their dead and
mutilated bodies were subsequently
found. He is disposed to believe that
the command was butchered and an
initiated in this way, without intiicting
any serious damage upon the Indians, as
the whites must have been almost COM
pletely at their mercy.
The bones of the dead horses are still
lying loose upon the desolate hills.
Owing to the necessarily hurried burial
of the soldiers, the bodies were but i'm
perfectly covered with earth, and since
the funeral rites were performed the
coyotes have removed the thin covering
and torn the limbs from the bodies,
leaving the feshless bones exposed on
ground.
Mr.. Fleming says the field is strewed
with feet, legs, hands, and arms, which
had been wrenched from the shallow
graves by the coyotes, the nationality OF
their owners being shown by an oc.
casional shred of the army blue. Feet
still covered by the cavalry boot and
with the flesh gnawed clean from the
exposed parts are found thickly strewn
over the sanguinary field sickened
mementoes of that last and fatal charge
on the Rosebud.
The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-10-25

Dams turn to go out. and as he was about
ready to move, he took his mothers
picture from his pocket and knelt at the
fire to see if she had changed any dur
ing the last four hours. Perhaps Adams
had been waiting for this, for he walked
directly across to Dan, and emptied the
tobacco juice in his mouth over the
picture, and growled:
"There, baby, that will add to its
beautyW
We were all around the fire, and
every man saw it and took it as a per-
sonal insult. Yet it was ten seconds be-
fore any one moved. The burly renegade
stood looking down upon Dan, chewing
his tobacco and half smiling, and his
victim was the first of us to move. With
a low cry he dropped the picture and
rose up, and as he reached his feet he
had his knife in his hand.
Ah-ha! he's gamy little bantam,
isn't he?" growled Adams as he leaped
back and also drew his knife, and almost
before any of us had realized the situa-
ton the two men had, in their first
struggles, scattered the fire and left us
in darkness.
"Kill himl shoot himp screamed a
dozen voices, but no one dared fire a
shot. The combatants were. dogging,
twisting, turning, advancing and re-
treating, and we could not tell one from
the other. As their knives met sparks
of fire flew in showers, and the oaths of
the renegade brought no word from Dan.
They fought back to the house, over the
fire-brands and down almost to the
mouth of the bay in less than three
minutes, and they were coming back
when old Hen called out:
"Gather up the brands and light a
fire! Quick, now, for your lives"
Every man of us worked to get the
fire started, and around us, almost over
us, those two dark shadows lunged and
slashed and found each others blood.
As the fire blazed up we had our re-
volyers ready to shoot the renegade, but
we were too late. AS the red tongues
.lesped up and united and began to light
up the dark spot, there came yell of
pain and rage from the giant, and he
threw up his arms and fell beside the
fire, thrust through the heart. Then
Little Dan spoke for the last time.
Throwing away his bloody knife he
called out:
Where's my picture? Where's my
picture? Don't step on mothers pic
ture."
1t had miraculously escaped our feet.
and he was the first to find it. Lifting
it from the grass he bent to the fire,
wiped it tenderly, and joyfully called
out:
Its all right-isn't damaged bit. +"
And you will hardly believe that he had
no less than thirteen cut and stabs about
his hands, arms, face and body. He was
almost carved up, though none of the
wounds were severe. He was covered
with blood, and he tainted before he
could get his clothes off. Adams, the
renegade, had more stabs than Dan, and
was beyond creating further trouble.
Two of the men dragged him down to
the prairie by the legs, and all through
the long night the sentinel heard the
wolves at their horrible work. DaE had
nothing to say.
Fever came on at midnight, and as his
wild eyes looked around the shanty he
whispered: Don't tell mother-don't
let 'em take mothers picture away"
The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-10-25
Gallant GOrtchak0f.
bucharest CORRESPONDENCE of the New York T

bucharest CORRESPONDENCE of the New York Times.
Old Prince Gortchakoff himself is not
a particularly edifying spectacle and
does not give the stranger high idea of
dignity. In his black coat and stifiy
starched cravat, with his cold unim-
passioned face, and expressionless eyes,
which puts one in mind of Levers COM
parison of {" a sick Goldfish or an oyster
with the measles" he relies pretty well
the traditional type of the high comedy
statesman. But if there is a woman
present, the metamorphosis is as sudden
as it is complete; his features light up,
and the dull fish like glare gives place
to an ogle worthy of bagman in the
society of a barmaid in some English
provincial tap room. The Prince fairly
worships womankind; whether she be a
Duchess or cocotte he cares little, but
if it is from simple alteration of the sex or
because its member are skillful if some
times unconscious spies, is not certain,
although we do know he keeps up a
regular correspondence with phalanx
of pretty women, cleverly disseminated
in the fashionable drawing rooms of
Paris, Vienna, London and Berlin.
Some of his enemies reproach him for
his oceans of Cliquot guafled in COM
pany with some of the Princesses of the
Bucharest stage, but may his orgies not
have been rather prompted by his wish
to drown dull care, and shut out for
the moment his poignant regrets at
the massacres of Bulgaria and the
butcheries of Plevna, and all the horrors
of this war to which he has always been
so persistent an adversary? At all
events, there is probably more of
politics than of dissipation in the
Princes strange partiality for the queen
of society, and a great deal of private in
formation as to certain public function
aries is CLEANED from the particularly
not high toned conversation of these
nymphs, many of whom are said to be
regularly paid by the private Police
Department OF the empire. Every one
has heard of the latest instance of a
detected female detective, and it is not
here the place to give details of the affair
of Nine. Aristarchi Bey, convicted and
banished as a Russian emissary, but
there is an anecdote concerning her
marriage which is not generally known
Her father, Gen. De Bonin, an ex-
Minister-of-Prussia, was not rich in this
worlds goods, but very we'll off in the
way of daughters, of whom she had
nine. To him came Miltiades Aristarchi,
then Turkish ambassador at Berlin, to
ask if he might aspire to the honor of
becoming his son-in-law. With
pleasure" replied the General, without
even inquiring which of the olive
branches was the chosen one.
"But, General" continued the suitor,
" l belong to the Greek Church, and"
C. your Church." was the irrrever-
ent answer; az thought you were a
Mohammedan."
The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-10-25
Chinese Farmers.

We doubt if a happier race exists
than the Chinese farmers and peasantry.
The farms are small. and so the owners
are not wealthy; but they are very re-
spectacle. Each farmhouse is little
colony, consisting of some three genera
tions-namely, the grandfather, his
children, and his chi1dren's children.
There they live in peace and harmony
together; all who are able to work on
the farm, and if more labor is required,
the stranger is hired to assist them.
They live we'll, dress plainly, and are in
dustrious, without being in any way op-
pressed. The female members of a
farmers household have much more lib
erty than those of higher rank. They
have small feet as usual, but they are
not so confined to the house, or pre-
vented from looking on and speaking to
strangers, as the higher classes are. If a
stranger enters the court of the house
unexpectedly, he will see a number of
ladies, both old and young, sitting in
the verandah, all industriously en-
ployed on some work-some spinning,
some sewing or embroidering, and one
probably engaged in culinary opera
tions; if the stranger is an unknown
foreigner, the whole will rise hurriedly
and disappear like covey of part
ridges, overturning wheels, stools, and
anything else that may be in their way
This" says writer on Chinese Gus
toms, was frequent scene in my ear.
lier visits, but it gradually wore of
when it was found l was civilized be
ing like themselves. These same ladies
afterwards would often ask me to sit
down, and even set chair for me, and
bring me a cup of tea with their OWL
hands; and while drank my tea, they
would 60 on with their work, laughing
and chatting as freely as if had beer
| a thousand miles away.
The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-10-25
Counterfeit COins-1he Perfection of
the Wicked Art,

There are firms of operators who are
manufacturing nickel coins in great
quantities. They make it exactly after
government pattern, material and all.
There is not whit of difference between
the counterfeit and the genuine. AS
nickles cost the government only cent
and half to manufacture them it is
easy to see where the profit comes in.
The second successful counterfeit is a
gold coin. 1t was but day or two ago
that Riggs & Co. sent in some gold coin
to the treasury here, when a remarkable
expert detected in the pile, one coin that
did not suit him. He could not tell
why. 1t was gold certainly, but it did
not satisfy him. 1t was an eagle. He
sent it over to the Philadelphia assay
Office, when it wasdiscovered that it was
worth only seven dollars and a half.
1t was of correct weight, however. being
made up with baser metals. This
counterfeit is the most dangerous of all,
and none of its operators have ever been
discovered. The third counterfeit is a
base metal coin heavily plated with
gold. This coin is of correct weight,
rings out clear and sharp, and will stand
the acid test. The only way to discover
this is to dig down through the plating.
Of course, for general circulation, this
coin for long time is as good as any
other. The enemies of specie payment
will find a word of comfort in all this,
and that is that coin can be and is more
successfully counterfeited than paper
money.
The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-10-25
WHOLE NUMBER SAT.
Massachusetts, Vital Statistic

The vital statistics of Massachusetts,
for 1876 have just been issued by the
Secretary of State, and show that the
excess of births over deaths was 1858,
or fifty-hve less than the excess in 1875
one living child was born to every forty
persons, one in sixty-six was married,
and one in every fifty-one died. The
whole number of births, including still
born, was 43, ,923, and the cities gave four
births more to every 1000 inhabitants
than the country. The births of for
elgn parentage are proportionally less
than i'll any year since 1860. In ten of
the cities the ratio of foreign to native
births was l72 to 100, and in the rest of
the State but 7S to 100. Four parents
were blessed with triplets and 345 with
twins, thirty-six per cent. of whom were
native and forty-nine foreign. The
statistics for ten years back show that
there are just 100 single births to one
plural, and one child in thirty-three is
born dead. The illegitimate children
increased to 713, or eighty-one more
than in 1875, but of these Suffolk County
is responsible for 461. The number Of
marriages was 1919, or 914 less than in
1875, 1887 less than the average since
1865, the great decline being attributed
to the business depression and the grow
ing carelessness of ministers and town
officials about making returns. In ten
cities the ratio of marriages to popula-
ton was S.12 to 1000, and elsewhere 7.09
to 1000, and Worcester, Lawrence and
Lynn were the only cities where the
rate advanced over the previous year !:
$50 bachelors married maids, and $50
took widows; 1,417 widowers took
maids, and 1927 chose widows. The
number of deaths also decreased their
number, 33, 1856, being 1892 less than in
1875, and also less than in any year
since 1871. The percentage of deaths
to population in the whole State was
1876 per Loon; in Boston it rose to
1924, and in Berkshire fell off to 1897.
The largest numbero of deaths occurred in
July and August, and the smallest in
June and November, while 1874 more
women than men died; twenty per cent
of the dead were less than a year old,
and thirty-three per cent. under five,
these percentages being trife more fa-
vorable than in 1875. Eleven of them
were over 100, eight of them being wo-
men, and all married. Of the causes of
death diphtheria has shown remarkable
rise in fatality since 1872. Then, and
in 1872, it ranked nineteenth, in 1874 it
stood eleventh, in 1875 seventh, and last
year it took the second place, &c, ,610 dy-
ing from it, 5,329 from consumption,
and 2,447 from pneumonia, which was
particularly fatal in all the counties.
Twenty died from abortions, which is
an unfortunate increase, thirty-one
from smallpox, and but forty-seven
from measles.
The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-10-25
Value of the Study of Physiology.
Popular Science Monthly

The chief ground upon which 1 ven
ture to recommend that the teaching of
elementary physiology should form an
essential part of any organized course of
instruction in matters pertaining to do
mestic economy, is that knowledge of
even the elements of this subject sup
plies those conceptions of the constitu-
ton and mode of action of the living
body, and of the nature of health and
disease, which prepare the mind to re-
ceive instruction from sanitary science.
1t is, / think, eminently desirable that
the hygienist and the physician should
find something in the public mind to
which they can appeal; some little
stock of universal truths, which may
serve as foundation for their warnings,
and predispose toward an intelligent
obedience to their recommendations.
Listening to ordinary talk about
health, disease and death, one is often
led to entertain doubt whether the
speakers believe that the course of nat,
ural causation runs as smoothly in the
human body as elsewhere. Indications
are too often obvious of a strong, though
perhaps an unavowed and half-uncon.
scious, udercurrent of opinion that the
phenomena of life are not only widely
different, in their superficial characters
and in their practical importance, from
other natural events; but that they dc
not follow in that definite order which
characterizes the succession of all Other
occurrences, and the statement of which
ua coll q law nf notura
Hence, think, arises the want o.
heartiness of belief in the value O.
knowledge respecting the laws of health
and disease, and of the foresight anc
care to which knowledge is the essentia
preliminary, which is so often noticea
BILE; and corresponding laxity anC
carelessness in practice, the results o
| which are unfrennently lamentahle
The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-10-25
AdOrnnent.

1T was one of those pretty houses,
surrounded by shrubbery and flowers,
about which almost every passer re-
marked, Oh how should like to live
in that pretty housed" Such is the
description of house we have in our
minds eye, and it could be true of al
most every farm house in the land, did
the occupants only will it so. A few
flowers, little grass and a few shrubs,
all we'll cared for at tri1ing expense of
money or labor, and the thing is done.
A little care each day would keep every
thing neat and in order and a little
thought each week would regulate that
care to the best advantage. We do not
live in this world for ourselves alone
but for the whole world. Upon this
principle, we know a woman who al
ways keeps light in the front rooms of
her house every winter night because, as
she says, "we not only have the warm
glow of it ourselves; but to every passer-
by it gives out cheerful message which
produces in his Imagination picture of
comfort and happiness within. So it is
with the adornments around the house.
1hey hoe only give eHJoy hleHg W tHtlI
possessors, but to every one who passes
they send message of thrift, refine,
ment, and happiness, which should alone
be sufficient compensation for the little
labor and expense they may cost.
We remember once passing through a
little village in which almost every house
was surrounded with flowers, shrubs and
vines, and which left upon our mind an
inefaceable impression. Though nearly
twenty years have passed since then, we
still think of it frequently with pleasure
Could the occupants of those pretty
village places only know of this, they
would doubtless feel amply repaid fol
all their trouble. In all your calcula
tions on the profits of your crops, by al
means fail not to include your crop o.
household adornments. The profits OF
your grain may be lasting, probably viii
not; but the profits on your pure, God
given pleasures, though not counted il
! dollars and cents, can never vanish.
The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-10-25
FOOTPRINTS of the Past,

London Capital and Labor says: The
number of ancient leather boots and
shoes discovered during excavations in
the city of London and its vicinity, is
far larger than most people imagine.
Some few years ago hundreds of leather
soles and uppers of the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries were disinterred in
the neighborhood of Blackfriars Bridge,
and are now in possession of North
amptonshire dealer in curiosities, who
purchased the same at the sale of the
collection formed by the late DR.. Roach
Smith, the London antiquary. Very
recently other relics of later period
have been brought to light. These con-
sist of huge pair of cavalry boots,
which are made of the thickest of horse
hide, stand thirty inches high and weigh
ten pounds each. The soles, which are
an inch in thickness, are, as well as the
heels, covered with thick iron plates.
Huge roweled spurs resting on ledges
projecting from the back of the boots
are attached thereto by heavy steel
chains, while, as a protection to the
thigh, a dome-shaped cap of double
lulChDCSo VI hluC Hall way UP
that member. The boots were dis,
covered during the demolition of some
old houses in Clerkenwell, and as both
Cromwell himself, his son Richard Ireton
and Fairfax at one time resided in Clerk,
enwell Close, while the humber follow
ers of the great Protector also dwelt in
large numbers in the vicinity, it may
with fairness be assumed that they, al
some time or other, were the property
of one of the Ironsides" The boots
are in most excellent state of preserva
ton. 1t is much to be regretted that
we have no trade museum in which such
articles could be permanently placed
If the city companies could assist il
forming collection similar to that al
the Hotel de Cluny in Paris, it would
be a source of much interest and infor
nation.
The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-10-25
Spiritualism and the Order of Nature.
IScience Monthly1

This sultra-material realm, tits claimed,
is manifested by material effects. But
it is not by those effects which occur reg
ularly and uniformly, and to which we
give the name of laws, that is the Office
of science to trace out. These are not
attributed to spiritual agencies. The
spirits are never alleged to be the spirit
of cohesion, refraction, digestion, grav-
ity, or any of the matter-of-course oper-
ations that go on around us. They are
only disclosed to us by striking won
derful, exceptional or miraculous mani
festations; that is, the common order of
nature gets along without them, and
they are only known by breaking
through it. In nature we see with our
eyes; in the psychic realm men are
said to see with the backs of their heads.
In nature tables remain at rest upon the
floor forever unless some definite terres-
trial force is applied to move them; in
the psychic realm they travel about
or rise to the ceiling without the inter-
vention of any earth lycause. In nature
bouquet will not pass through the
woody barrier of door, or resisting
uldSOHdIy VI d wall III ehO PSyIhio
realm" a large bunch of hollyhock,
asters, laurels, and other shrubs and
flowers" is mysteriously spirited into
house without coming through the
usual opening in the usual way by which
material bodies are transferred. In
nature, if man unguardedly loses his
balance in a window, he falls to the
earth; but in the psychic realm Mr..
Home floats in the air by moonlight
out of one window and in at another at
height of seventy feet from the
ground" In nature if we wish to 60 to
house, we must walk there or get con-
veyance to be carried, and then can only
get inside by the opening of some pas
sage of entrance; but in the psychic
realm" buxom Mrs. Guppy " sails
through the air all the way from High
bury Park to Lambs Conduit Street,
and is brought by invisible agency into a
room of which the doors and windows
were closed and fastened, coming plump
in the midst of eleven persons who
were sitting in the dark shoulder tc
shoulder"
The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-10-25

THERE isn't vegetable that can
ketchup with the tomato Worcester
Press.
Yes, and what sauce of satisfaction
that must be to Commercial Adrer-
tiser.
Yes, but it is easy enough to get a
head of the cabbage Whitehall Times.
But the last remark proves the "pun"-
kin.-Neao York Republic.
Beastly attempt to-martyr the En-
glish language. Turnip your nose at
this, now.-Brooklyn Times.
The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-10-25

If a man can shoot at target better
when tied up in knot, why can't
lawyers talk better when standing on
their heads?" Because, you see, the
cases are different, you observe; the
rilemen get used to it; their position is
knotty, but it's nice; but if the lawyers
were standing on their heads, however,
nevertheless, you see they couldn't get
their hands into other peoples pockets.
The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-10-25

WHEN Kemble was rehearsing the
romance sung by Richard, in the play
of Richard Ceur de Lion," Shaw,
the leader of the band, called out from
the orchestra: Mr.. Kembie, my dear
sir, you are numbering time" Kemble,
calmly and coolly takinga pinch of snuff,
said: I" My dear sir, it is better for me
to murder time at once than to be con-
stantly beating him as you do"