davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-12
A Snake Performers Awful Death.

One of the most intrepid wild beast
tanners in Europe, Karolyi,, a Magyar OF
colossal stature and extraordinary physi-
cal strength, has recently fallen a victim
to a dread contingency of his perilous
profession. He was performing before
q crowded audience in Madrid, Spain.
one of his most sensational. feats, which
consisted in. allowing a huge boa con-
strictor over twenty feet in length to
enlold ,h-:.3 body in its tremendous coils,
when suddenly a piercing cry escaped
him, which was greeted by the pubic
with 4 round of applause, under the
supposition that its utterance consti-
tuted a part of the performance. 1t
proved. however, to be the outcome OF
q strong mans death agony. The 81.
gantic snake had frightened its coils and
crushed poor Karolyi's life out of him
with one terrific squeeze. AS his head
fell back and his eyes became fixed in q
CLASSY stare the plaudits died away and
were succeeded by the stiffness of utter
CONSERVATION. The snake and its life
less victim swayed for a second or two
of inexpressible horror and then toppled
over on the boards of the stage, but the
boa did not in the least relax his grip
upon the corpse, which remained for
more than an hour imprisoned in its hide
Gus thralldom, nobody daring to ap-
proach the 1.-THE monster, of whose
powers such appalling proof had been
given. At length it occurred to one OF
Karolyi's attendants to place a bowl OF
milk in a cage within sight Of the
mighty serpent, which slowly 'lnwound
itself from the dead body an2 glided
into its den, irresistibly tempted thereto
by its favorite dainty. A post-mortem
examination of the unfortunate athletes
remains discovered no fewer than eighty
v fractures of his bones, effected by
the construction of the serpent's coils.
His death must have been almost in
Simultaneous, as the spine was disarticu-
lated in several places. IS
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-12
RegOnia.

About two centuries ago a French
navigator named Beson brought from
Asia a new plant, which is still called
after him, Begonia. Few readers would
suspect the part this plant plays in the
production of the handsome shawls so
priced by ladies. The best by far of
these are made in Cashmere, a beautiful
district at the foor of the Himalaya
mountains. The material used in their
manufacture is the finest down from the
Thibet goat. Every m has probably
remarked the si~ngulariy graceful pat
terms with which they are o~rnamented,
and perhaps wondered whether they
were studies from nature or the produc-
ton of the artists brain. They are the
former. Nature in the East supplies
admirably graceful leaves on which the
sun designs delicate ornaments, and the
workmen CT Cashmere initiate them, as
the Grecian sculptors copied the curves
Of the acanthus in the C%orinthian cap
itals. These leaves are those of the
beeonia. When the French arrived in
Egypt, ut the end of the last century,
they were surprised to see the Orientals
wearing costumes, shawls, turbans,
sashes, etc, of beautiful Cashmere work.
They greatly admired these dresses,
which fall so gracefully or the human
form. When the conquerors of the
pyramids returned to France, they dis
played their rich booty, which, immedi-
ateiy came into fashion among the
ladies. From that period they have
constantly remained in high favor.
Their prices vary from 5000 to $1,000.
Under the empire, no lady with any
%pretension went out without q Cash
mere shawl. The taste for these arti-
Giles, although not so great rs formerly,
has not entirely ceased. However, it is
very rarely now that a person wears a
real Indian Cashmere; the article in
general use are the product Of French
manufacture. 80
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-12
The MangoSteen.

Imust not omit the tree which bears
the famous fruit of the East known as
the mangosteen. 1t is not tall nor is it
particularly handsome. 1t is only some
twenty feet in height and has spreading
branches instead of the single tufts that
adorn the trees that I have just de-
scribed. But the fruit is the prince OF
the tree fruits of the world-the apple,
the peach, the orange. the pomegranate,
none cfthem cen compare with it, and
even if YOU combine all these fruits you
are only beginning to approach it. Ex-
ternally it has the appearance OF q small
apple that has been partially baked or
has become very brown in the sun. On
cutting it you find an external husk
harder than the rind of an orange and
three times az thick. When you have
penetrated this husk you find a mass of
snow-white pulp, and you need no in
structor to tell you that this is the ed
ible portion Of the m~angosteen: 1t melts
in your mouth like m over-ripe peach
or like snow on the surface of a river.
Its flavor is a combination of sweetness
and slight acidity. which you can no
more describe than you can tell how n
violet smells or q canary sings. think
/ have tasted nearly every fruit that
grows on the globe, and unhesitatingly
I award the prize of excellence to the
mangosteen. At this distance OF time
and place my lips moisten when think
of the mangosteens that solaced the heat
of lava and made the life of the island
more agreeable than il would otherwise
have been. If this fruit grew in the
Garden of Eden. I can well understand
why Adam and Eve wept at their ex-
pulsion; perhaps it was the mangosteen
which the serpent offered for the tempt
alton of our first mother, if 80, it is easy
to understand why she fell from grace.
~Correypondence Philadelphia Times.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-12
How the Sparrow was Introduced.

One Of the most interesting papers in
Harper's relates, to a little bird that has
been the subsection of praise and of de-
nunciation also. There is much dispute
as to the merits or the shortcomings of
the sparrow, and we are not certain the
American people will gratefully remem-
Der the person who first introduced the
foreigner to our country. This attempt
was made we are told by a gentleman
named Desblois, in Portland, Maine,
during the autumn of 1858; he brought
over a few birds from the continent, and
liberated them in a large garden which
was situated within the central part of
the city. They remained there shelter
ed and secure under the caves of a neigh
boring church throughout the winter,
and in the following spring settled
down happily enough to the labor of
nest-building and rearing their young.
Two years later the first pair of these
fnches were set at liberty neal Madison
Square, New York city; the importa-
ton was steadily repeated. the birds
being released in the, Central Park and
at Jersey City. They were first intro
duced to Boston IN 1868 by the city gov
eminent, and to Philadelphia by the
municipal authorities in 1869, and from
small beginnings the house-sparrow has
been spread all over this northern coun-
try wherever we have a city east Of the
Rocky mountains, and the futtering
focks of the robust, noisy little foreign
err enliven the streets thereof in every
direction. Their numbers are nearly
countless .-Bufalo Commercial.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-12
Foreign News.

The Kotwal of Cabul-a high ofncial-and
four others have been hanged by The English
for completely in the murder OF the British
Embassy.
According to the Russian budget for last
year the revenue IVES four hundred and sixty
eight million dollars, and the ordinary expen-
diture four hundred and fifty million dollars,
besides three hundred million dollars for OK
traordinary war expenses.
Cooper, the American, who has been COM
hitting such extensive forgeries in England,
has been sentenced in London to five years.
penal servituds.
Adolphus Rosenberg, editor OF the Londen
Toun Talk, has been sentenced to eighteen
months Imprisonment on the indictment
charging him with publishing defamatory
libels aguinst Mrs. Langtry, Mrs. CORVALLIS
West and Lord Londesborough.
Mrs. Tabb was struck by an engine at Ham,
ilton, Ont while walking on the track. She
was fatally injured, and her baby i'll her arms
instantly killed.
The Prussian Diet has been opened by q
speech from Emperor William in person.
The Official statistics of the recent inunda-
tions ir Murcia, Spain, show that tour-ftths
of the arabic land is ruined and that three
thousand persons are missing.
A dispatch from Italy says the proceedings Of
the congress which met ut Naples to promote
a general disarmament throughout the world
terminated with a scene OF indoscribable contu-
sion, amid kissing, applause and other demon.
STATIONS, owing to the opposition of a section
who disapproved the object OF the eongrsss.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-12
Words of Courage.

A great deal of talent is lost to the
world for the want of courage. Every
day sends to the grave a, number of OBJ
scure men, who have only remained in
obscurity because their timidity has
prevented their first effort, and who, if
they could have been induced to begin,
would, in all probability, have gone
great lengths in the career of fame. The
fact is, in order to do anything in this
world that is worth doing we must not
stand shivering on the brink, and think
of the cold and danger, but jump in and
scramble as we a n 1t will not do to
be perpetually calculating risks and adj
iusting nice chances. 1t did very well
before the flood, when a man could con-
suit his friends upon a publication for
one hundred and fifty years and then live
to see its success for six or seven centu-
ries afterwards, but at present a man
waits, and doubts, and hesitates, and
consults his brother and his uncle, and
particular friends, till one day he finds
that he is sixty years Of age; mat he
has lost so much time in consulting first
cousins and particular friends that lie
has no time left to follow their advice.
There is no such thing for o%ver-squeam-
lshness at present, the opportunity 80
easily slips away, the very period of
his life at which man chooses to venture,
if ever, is so confined, that it is no bad
rule to preach up the necessity, in such
instances, Of a little violence to feelings,
and to efforts made in defiance to strict
and sober calculation-Sydney Smith.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-12
From Washington

The national fair at Washington was opened
by a procession four miles long. Tho Presi-
dent and most of his Cabinet wore present.
The forthcoming report Of the superin-
tendent OF the railway mail service will show
that during the last fiscal year afty-nine lines
OF railway postofflces have been operated over
1880 miles of railway, performing about
80, 900 miles of daily service and nearly 49,
900, COO miles OF service annually. The aggre-
gate number OF miles of railroad service of all
kinds, including the transportation not only
of postal cards, but OF closed pouches, was
over SO, 900, 900 miles during the year. The
number OF letters handled and distributed by
the employees of the railway mail service in
postal cards during the twelve months was
about l,G69, 000, 600. There were also nearly
$50, 00O, 900 newspapers, showing a total in
crease of about 400, 0O0, 900 pieces, or nearly
twenty per cent. in the amount OF work as
compared with the preceding year. The total
number of errors in distribution (many OF
which were, however, merely technical and
involved no delay was about 7e3, 900, or one
error in each $500 pieces. The mail SER
vice employs l,09l travelling postal cars,
l,l91 route agents, 247 mail messengers and
1874 local agents.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-12
The Sunday.School Centennial.

+ 4 New York paper says. II that
honest enthusiast, Robert Raikes, who
ninety-nine years ago founded the first
Sunday-school In England, could revisit
the glimpses ofthe moon he would be
little astonished, no doubt. to listen to
the eulogies and hear the talk Of cele-
brating the centennial of his little school
in an out of-the- way corner of Great
Britain. It can scarcely be imagined
that the most enlightened insight into
possibilities should have perceived, in
1880, the extraordinary and almost uni
versal development that would be given
to the Sunday. school in the course of a
century. The centennial of the move
ment is to be celebrated next year with
a Sunday-school convention of the
world in London, and by public meet
ings in all the larger cities and towns in
Great Britain. At the gatherings col
l~ections are to be taken for the purpose
of establishing q permanent Sunday
school fund, to be employed in the i'm
provement of existing schools and in the
extension of the movement in all quar-
tiers of the habitable globe. The same
mode of observing the centennial has
also been adopted here. under the u
spices of the Foreign Sunday-school
Association, and will, without doubt,
be generally carried into effect. with the
result of raising a large fund for the pur-
pose of extending the movement. The
managers of the association expect to
raise a few thousands-say S25, 600 or
S30,000-in this way; but with the en-
thusiasm once aroused and the popular
wave in motion, q hundred thousand
dollars is more probable than half that
amount, ..; .t'.~ 5,yL .t,.,~ ..' .
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-12
A Common Mistake.

It is a great mistake to suppose that
little can be accomplished if a man has
reached the age of thirty or forty years.
Nine-tenths Of our clever men have ac-
tual,y exhibited more vigor of intellect
at fifty years of lage! than at forty.
Franklin was forty when he began, in
real earnest, the study of Natural Phil
osophy. The principal of M of the
most iourishing colleges in America
was a farm-seryant until past the age
when most students have completed their
collegiate education. Sir Henry Spell
man did not begin the study of science
until he was between fifty and sixty
years of age. Greek was the first for
eign language which Cato, the celebrated
Roman censor, acquired, and he did so
in his old age. Alieri, who, writing,
has caused a revolution in the dramatic
literature of Italy, was left without a
father in his infancy. and wasted his
early years. John Ogilby, the author of
poetical TRANSACTIONS from Virgil and
Homer. began the study of Latin when
about forty years of age. and Greek in
his forty-fourth. Boccacio, n of the
most illustrious writers that ever APP
peared in Italy, suffered nearly half Of
his life to pass without Improvement.
Handel was forty-eight before he pub
lished any Of his great works. DR..
Thomas Arnold, Of Rugby. learned Ger
manlat forty, in order that he might read
Niebuhr in the original.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-12
Large Sales OF Public Lands.

The forthcoming annual report of
the commissioner of the General Land
Office will contain an interesting COM
parative statement OF the d~isposals of
public lands of the United States to ac-
tual settlers during each of the last five
fiscal years. The totals range from
about $500, 900 to 1000, 600 acres each
for the fiscal years of 1875, 1876 and 1877.
to 7,l66, 974 acres for the year ending
June 80, 1873, and $3.50, 1ls acres during
the twelve months which ended with
last June. The totals Of entrys under
the homestead and timber culture
laws contrast rs follows: for the fiscal
year of 1877, 1893, III acres; for 1878,
6.28s, 776 acres; for1679, s,02e,6s5 acres.
The cash sales show q decrease of $685.
900 acres since last year, when they ag-
gregated about $4,000 acres. But the
net increase in the amount of land taken
by actual settlers during the last fiscal
year is found to have been nearly $780,
600 acres.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-12
Bucket Shop Gamblers.

According to the Chicago Tribune
the introduction of "bucket shops"
(low agencies where any sum from 81
upward can be invested on the rise or
fall of wheat) has led to wholesale gamb-
ling. The Tribune declares that
woman mot of desperate OF question
able condition" come to these shops to
gamble under assumed names, rs well as
lads from twelve to sixteen years old
"by the hundred" and men, "clerks,
statesmen, bookkeepers, men in bus
mess, hackmen, teamsters, nen on ST.
leries and men employed at days work,
stonecutters, blacksmiths and workmen
of all wages and occupation; students
and professors of colleges, reverend d.
vines, dealers in theology, members Of
Christian associations, members of So
cietics for the prevention of cruelty to
animals and for the suppression of vice,
gentlemen who war on saloons which
permit minors to play pool, and teach
ers of Sunday-schools, hard drinkers
and temperate men," who stake thou
sands o. dollars in small sums. Accept
ing the statements Of the Tribune as
true, the recent fluctuations in the price
of wheat have brought the community
to a worse pass in Chicago than ever
mining speculation did in the worst
days Of San Francisco.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-12
A California L0g.slide.

Around the foot of a steep slope,
where a spur Of the mountains thrusts
its shoulder into the water, the road
runs it's winding way. Following this
the traveller comes at last to a peaceful
spot, whose quiet would throw the
most timorous soul into reverie. Death
turks in ambush here, however, and
where there should be black flags, yell
low flags, red lanterns, skulls, and
cross-bones in abundance, there is no
omen of his distinguished and pallld
presence other than a mild warning,
marked on a strip of board and lacked to
a stump, which is hidden 50 deep IN the
~evergreens that none but the most yigi-
liant of observers would notice it. It's
the premonitory signal: LOOK out TOR
Logs" Reading this indefinite hint,
the traveller might feel a languid curl
osity as to what it meant, but he would
hardly construe it as significant of
peril. Perchance by day he would look
around for logs beaming with "tox-
fire" but as for apprehension of danger,
that were absurd. for Of all inanimate
objects the log, emblem of all that is in
ert and stupid, has always been con-
sidered most free from inimical designs
upon man.
A hundred feet further, however, and
the full force of this caution comes home
to him. A hundred feet further and the
road is cut by a line, from which his in
telligent horse shrinks as he would rom
a serpent across his path. 1t is a tram
way, or chute, of heavy timbers. sunk IN
the ground, reaching from the crest OF
the hill to the edge of the water. 1t IS
hollow, like a trough, and in places it's
concave surface is pushed with strips OF
iron. shining with a polish which could
come only from the most violent trlc-
ton. 1t is a "log-slid"," down which
the trunk of q large tree, peeled OF its
bark to make it slippery, is coming with
all the force of a ship from the stocks.
Such q battering-ram would send into
dust the strongest wall that was ever
made, and would bring utter annlhlia-
ton to the passing traveller so unlucky
as to be astride of the track at this crltl-
calmoment. A cloud Of splinters, smoke
and dust marks the wake Of its meteorlc
flight, which lasts but the length OF a
suspended breath, from the launch ut
the summit to its final leap from'the high
trestle-work to the water beneath, Where
it strikes with a sharp clap and dashes
the white spray into a cloud which
washes the highest tree-tops: linen,
tardy as the thunder after the light
ning's flash, there comes a yell of warn.
ing from the men assembled at the head
of the slide, who are responsible for all
this tumult and terror. To the jocular
natures of the men of Lake Tahoe every
log launched and every waytarer scared
are but items of their entertainment, tor
which, however, under the name OF
work, they receive liberal wages.-Good
Company, No. Q.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-12
Smelling Reform.

The straightest way to accomplish the
spelling reform is for the newspapers to
take hold of it. Indeed it is doubtful
whether any other agency can ever effect
it. The people read newspapers more
than books or magazines, and the daily
practice upon the new system Whlch
would be furnished by the journals
would educate the readers very rapidly.
The Minneapolis Tribune suggests that
if even a respectable minority of the
press will unite upon a new system of
spelling, the battle will be half won, and
to this end advises a convention of edi-
tors to consider the initial steps and lay
out a definite plan for a war upon the
hard words and super1uous letters OF our
Language. The newspapers have already
done considerable in this direction, and
with some concert of action they would
easily accomplish a great deal more
Springfeld (MaSs.) UfEon.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-12
A Pathhndress.

OOuu VI IkChASAUp ~ o1S
Sim. used to be called the Pathfinder,
and a proud title it was. Apparently
his wife, the Jessie Benton of old days,
has turned path finder too, though in a
different field of exploration. She found
in her new Arizona home a history class
of big boys and girls, the children of
Door parents, who had to work out of
hours ir order to get the time to attend
school. She was so pleased with their
looks and pluck that she volunteered to
help them: !'
at was a great pleasure TO me to find
that I could add to the knowledge of
these young people, that [ could make
real and human to them names and per-
sonages, that I could link together n
event and one personality after another,
until history became not q dry mass Of
names and datesand isolated events, but
a connected and yet broadening stream
ofhuman effort. I cannot, of course,
begin to tell you all I said to them, but
Ihe thirty-two history talks I gave my
Arizona flock each Friday were a piano.
rama of history as my father had taught
me to know it, rs I had realized it in
many a spot of classic ground ! n Europe.
as reading had enriched it with personal
belongings and lights, and as I had seen
it made both in France and in u own
great trial time. For this, when they
would thank me, I would tell them to
thank nv father. I acquired last win
ter apractical insight into the vast and
spreading influence of the spoken word
on receptive and willing young minds.
I have never done any N thing that
gave me so much content in the doing
and the remembrance"
What Mrs. Fremont has done in Ari-
IONA other women have done much
nearer home, and the Sun refers to one
such case in a New England town whose
high school itself would not be more
missed than the quiet little lady who for
into her parlors and inoculated them
with her own love for the best books,
and for the study ofthe wonderful world
around them.