davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-01-16
THE ALASKA INDIANS.
Life on st Paui's Island-Habits of
the People-How Business is Carried

the People-How Business is Carried
on.
Among the passengers of the steamer
st. Paul, eleven days from Ounalaska,
were number of gentlemen who had
spent some years in the solitary islands
adjacent to Alaska, where the great seal
fisheries are carried on by the Alaska
Commercial company, and from whom
some interesting facts were learned
The islands are largely populated by
natives, who live in primitive style of
hut called barabaka. These natives are
as dark as Gypsies, where their blood is
pure, and have faces of the usual Es-
quimaux.type. Their standard of moral
ity is low, and scrofulous diseases pre-
vail. They drink liquor made from
brown sugar and an infusion of herbs,
which is more overpouring in it's effects
the most villainous whisky, and are,
moreover, much addicted to gambling
when they have the wherewithal to
stake. The native tongue is corrup-
ton of Russian, but the majority have
learned to speak very fair English from
their intercourse with the employees of
the seal company. They are devout
worshipers Of the Greek Church. and the
restraining influence of church and
priest is of incalculable value. The
temperature of the islands is quite cold,
but without the sudden variations which
occur in the New England states. The
summer season is extremely short, and
the only vegetable that can be raised
throughout the islands is the radish,
which can neither be fricasseed, boiled
or stewed for change, but must be eat.
en- in the simple, old-fashioned way,
however greatly tempted the cultivators
may be to present some variety in the
way of serving their one fresh vegetable
Potatoes, onions and cabbages are car.
ried up from San Francisco, and the
company transport every variety OF
canned and dried fruit and vegetable
but fresh fruit and the choicer vegeta
bles, such as green peas, string beans
green corn and asparagus are not tasted
from one years end to another, save in
their poorly canned substitutes, a de-
privation that must be particularly
severe On Californians. St. Paups
Island, one Of the principal seal fisher
les, is billy strip Of land about twelve
miles long, with beautiful harbor
There are about 600 houses here, bull
by the company for the natives in theil
employ, and the company's house, ,
frame building of plain exterior, con
tanning ten or twelve rooms and mic,
library and piano, much appreciated b!
the exiles and visitors to this lionel,
land. Mails are received only abou
twice year, but the time is passet
pleasantly and happily, far away as tn
Inhabitants are from politics and fash
The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-01-16
The Indian Game of Pachisi.

Pachisi is favorlte game in India,
and an eager player will carry rolled
round in his turban the cloth which
serves as board, SO as to be ready for
a game at any moment. These cloths,
when embroidered with the diagram in
colored silk, are quite artistic objects,
and one does not often see prettier toys
than a set of men in Mr.. Franks collec-
ton, little cones Cor rather sugar-loaves)
OF rock crystal, with the colors they are
to bear in the game shown by mounting
in the top a ruby for red, an emerald for
green, etc. There are even stories of yet
more sumptuous games, where the board
was a courtyard laid out in marble
pavement, on which living draughtmen
clothed in green, red, yellow and black
walked the circuit and hustled one
another off the squares. Our Anglo
Indians sometimes catch the enthusiasm;
and there is al often-told tale of that
official parsonage who, when he paid his
native servants their wages, would sit
down with them to a match at pichisi,
and sometimes win his money back.
The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-01-16

.e--o,-.v>., vooI rose TO an enormous price,
and the metropolis was threatened with
darkness from the inability to the gas
companies to secure fresh supply.
The next winter, when the allied forces
were shivering in the Crimea, was to the
full as severe. On the Goth Of January,
1856, the lakes were frozen over; on the
22d of February fires were made on the
Serpentine in Hyde Park, and in the
fens in Lincolnshire was established q
traffic on the ice thirty-fve miles long.
The spring was late, and there was cold
weather till the Goth of June. In 1860
England experienced probably her cold
est weather. From the 23d TO the Goth
or December the cold was intense. At
Torquay the mercury went down to
twenty degrees below zero. In Hyde
Park it was II degrees, and a letter to
the Times recorded that horse had been
seen with icicles at his nose three inches
in length and as thick as three fingers"
a sight by no means uncommon in Lower
Canada. The Thames was partially
frozen in it's tidal reaches, and from
Teddington Lock to it's most remote
sources was covered with ice
from six to ten or even twelve
inches in thickness. Skating par
ties were arranged for journeys from OK
ford to London and back, and the year
in question win always be memorable
among skaters as the one in which round
heeled irons finally superseded all others.
On the 9th of January, 1861 there were
bonfres and grand displays of fireworks
on the ice in st. James and the other
parks, January, 1867, was another cold
month, snow and ice practically suspend
ing traffic at London for several days,
though people offered capmen fares Of
fifteen aud twenty shillings mile. 1t
was on the 10Th that the ice in Regents
Park gave way beneath some five hun
dred skaters, of whom forty-one were
drowned. Still another cold season was
the winter of 1901, during which the
poor people of Paris and the illy-equipped
republican levies of Gambetta suffered
so severely.-N. 7. WORTH.
The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-01-16

November to January people crossed the
Thames at the custom house on the ice.
Again, from Christmas eve, 1874, to
February Is, 1895, England experienced
a season of intense cold, only intermitted
for one day, January %. December II
was also remarkably cold; on Christmas
day the thermometer in London marked
l60 below zero, the greatest cold regis
tered up to that time. On the 18th of
January, 1910, the quicksilver was
frozen solid at Moscow. The winter Of
1913, during which Napoleon's army
struggled home from Russia, leaving
100000 dead men to mark the track it
mad taken was a very cold time.
This is pleasanter than Moscow" said
the emperor, rubbing his hands over a
fire in the palace he had regained after
posting across Europe; the soldiers he
had left behind were literally frozen stiff
in circles as they lay or sat around their
bivouac fires. In 1874 England endured
a winter of exceptional severity. A
writer in London paper wrote a few
days ago that he that winter walked on
the Thames from Horseferry road to
London bridge and back. The por-
trieve of Tavistock set out to take the
oath of Office at the Quarter Sections,
thirty two miles away, and, the "Annual
Register" records was stopped by snow
and ice after proceeding twenty-one
miles, and imprisoned in little hamlet
for twenty-six days without communica-
ton with the outer world. Soldiers
marching from town to town were frozen
to death on the road. The snow
drifted in the streets to such a
height that all the shops were
closed; by the middle of January Lon
don bridge was blocked, but that made
no difference, for the Thames was COM
pletely frozen over few days later,
when a frost fair was opened on the
river and bullock roasted whole. For
many days there were no mails, though
the postofice put forth all its powers to
compel overseers and parochial authori.
ties to clear the highways, and sent
agents down into the country TO dig
roads along which toiled mail coaches
drawn by ten horses. No coal could gel
to London, and when the householder
supply Of fuel gave out there was moth
ing for him but to shiver and wait. Il
was difficult even to reach the butcher
shop, where there were neither fowls mol
vegetables to be had. The children hac
to be kept warm and amused within
doors, where all day long the lamps were
lit, for the snowdrifts shrouded ths
panes. The water pipes were all frozel
and people had to melt snow in pail
within the tenders. The Solway wa
frozen over for the first time within tn
memory Of living men, and the crews 0
coasters and fishing boats starved ane
persisted of cold at sea, being unabl
from the accumulations of ice to max
port. In the Scandinavian peninsula
The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-01-16
Mr.. Gladstone as an Orator.

After listening to Mr.. Gladstone's re-
cent speech to his constituents, the first
time he ever heard him outside of the
House of Commons, Mr.. Smalley writes
of him as follows: But whatever Mr..
Gladstone's defects may be, they are for
gotten when he begins to speak, and
while he speaks. If he was too much
the politician before, heis plainly states
man and orator at the first sound is
heard of that wonderful voice. 1t would
be impressive if it uttered nothing but
nonsense. 1t is deep and musical, with
much variety of tone, and with a
strength so great that its beauty was
hardly impaired or it's volume diminished
at the end of two hours speech. The
orator stands almost erect, leaning very
slightly against the rail. The arrange
ment of the lights is bad. A row of
gas-iets ran across the gallery just above
the speakers head, but just behind him,
so that his face was in shadow. It was
only when he turn half round to the
chairman that the light fell full on the
broad forehead, the sunken and glowing
eyes, the hard, strong lines about the
mouth, and the powerful jaw. have
seen Mr. Gladstone In many circum-
stances, and I know few faces more i'm
pressive than his. It is not like the late
Mr.. Webster's in feature; there is moth
ing between the two men which could
ordinarily be called resemblance; but
Mr.. Gladstone's face nevertheless re-
minds one Of the great expounder's;
Sydney Smiths description Of Webster
might well be applied to Mr.. Gladstone.
He, too, is steam engine in trousers.
The illustration is none the less apt be-
cause of a certain clumsiness Of move
ment which occasionally betrays itself.
But at first you see none of that. You
see man intensely in earnest and in
tensely conscious Of his power. He
The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-01-16

He didn't stop there. He changed the
position of his ears, hauled in his
tongue, planted his fore feet and his
head between his knees, and from the
fore shoulders to the tip of his trunk was
in lively motion, and he didn't look like
he was more than two years old, the way
he was kicking that old wagon body into
kindling wood with his heels. He had
it all to himself, and was doing fine,
when the old darkey rushed up the hill,
got in front of him, and grabbing him
by each ear. shouted, "Whoa! / tell
you. Watts de matter wild you?
Whoa-upp and looking around at the
crowd, yelled, "Will some O your gem
men git dat er boot leg out vile 1 hole
him? kase de waggin's mine an 1 jes
borrowed de mule" But no one ventured,
and when we left his heels had almost
reached the toll-gate, and the old darkey
was still yelling "whoa!" -LouisvilJe
ConrSeT-,J0urna5.
The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-01-16
A Tale Of Four Pins.

We find the following romantic yarn
in a very readable letter from the Her
AIDS Paris correspondent:
Apropos, there is breach in the win
dow of one of our best jewellers to which
curious tale is attached. The breast
pin is mounted with great art and set
with gems. It is divided in four parts,
and shows four twisted, bent and blunt
ordinary pins under a transparent en-
amel. Where were those four found
Did they hold fchu, shawl or flower?
The poetry of the breach had to be
looked into, and the following has been
ascertained: A foreign count was years
vgo one night hurried out Of bed and
arrested for political offence. Ere bis
dreams had been quite forgotten he was
dressed by those who had spied out bis
abode and dragged him to prison. II
happened to be rather dark one. The
day after this occurrence he began tc
think how terrible it would be to live
long in such location with nothing tc
do, and as he thought he fumbled about
his coat pockets. While doing SO he
discovered four pins which ne had stuck
in the lining of one of his frock tails II
case he might require one. He held tht
four for some moments, then flung then
right and left about his narrow cell. /
was quiet one, but, listen with all the
intensity he could, there was no way O.
knowing where they had fallen. HI
therefore went down on all fours ant
carefully felt about, sprawling in every
direction until he had recovered them
Then he got up and recommended scat
tering them for the sake of another ex
citing hunt. Well, readers, this he die
six and seven times day and when ht
was sleepless, for six long years. Napo
leon III. died, then Victor Emanuel
and the count was set at liberty. Th'
four pins were kept, and a comtesse il
to wear the brooch they are enshrined in
This story seaches that all must take al
interest in life, and the most exciting
the best under the pressure of grief
The comte has related that had he los
one of his four pins he could not hav'
endured captivity. Each time he funl
them about he fancied they were quit
lost, and the ardor with which b
crawled over his nude floor was equal t.
that of the chase. Books papers ant
pens were denied him.
The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-01-16
COLD SNAPS.

Some Account Of Severe Winters in
Europe---Interesting Data Of Fifteen
Centuries.
What passes in England and Cont
mental Europe for a severe winter"
would be regarded in the Northern
States and Canada as comparatively
mild and open season. "Forty-six de.
grees Of FROST as the London papers
shiveringly put it when recalling the
hard winter Of 1860, lose much of their
Importance when translated into our
equivalent of fourteen below zero;"
and since the invention of the thermome-
ter it is doubtful if the mercury has
gone in England below twenty degrees.
Memorably severe winters have there
been in Europe, not few Of which have
had their Importance as well as their, in.
terest in history. In 401 the Black Sea
is said to have been frozen over for TWEEN
ty days, and between October, 1853, and
February, 764, such frost prevailed at
Constantinople that the seas are spoken
of as frozen for hundred miles from
shore.
It is certain that two centuries before,
in $50, Zabergan, King of the Hume,
crossed the Danube on the ice, and rout-
ing the troops of Justinian spread over
Thrace to the very walls Of Constantine
pie, this being the first incursion of the
Bulgarians who are next week to choose
a prince and regain their autonomy. In
1922 ice covered the Hellespont. In
1894 the Cattegat was frozen over; in
1923 the Baltic was passable to travellers
for six weeks; again in 1902 it was
frozen from Pomerania to Denmark, and
twenty-four winters later its surface
would bear rider from Lubbock to the
shore of Prussia. In 1860 horsemen
rode from Denmark to Sweden, and in
1913 sled es drawn by oxen travelled on
the sea from Rostock to Denmark. In
1868 Charles X, with his army, horse
and foot, and his artillery trains and
baggage, crossed the Little Belt from
Holstein to Denmark, to lay siege tc
Copenhagen.
The German chronicles contain az
many records of severe seasons. In 1885
the large fowls Of the air sought shelter
in the towns of Germany; in 1868, and
again in 1914, wine merchants in Elan
ders cut their wines champagne frappf
with a vengeance, only champagne was
still thing corked up and wired in tht
bottle of the future--with hatchets anc
sold them in Jumps. In 1866 the lazy
Scheldt was frozen SO hard that it sus
tanned the weight Of loaded wagons
again, in 1894, it and the Rhine wer'
frozen over. In the great cold Of 1872
the Zuyder Zee was ice-bound, and il
1891 the winter brought the wolves int
the streets of Vienna, where they at
tackled horses, and even men.
The cold seasons of modern Englan'
have been most carefully noted, with al
The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-01-16

"041. Aou eau see IN his eye that he
has been hunted and has hunted others.
He is utterly mercenary and destitute OF
all patriotic feeling; indeed, the only
difficulty in securing his services is
that his brother, with whom he
has for years carried on q
bloody feud, has already sold him.
self to us, and he would on that account
alone prefer to fight on the opposite side.
Though OF little use as an ally, he is
decidedly troublesome as an enemy; in
different alike to heat and to cold, to
thirst, hunger and fatigue, he
can glide, invisible as panther crouch
ing stealthily on hillside; he can run
like deer, and shoot at pot shots with
all the accuracy Of which his barbarous
weapon will admit. But it is not the
soldier who fears his attacks; it is the
struggling camp-follower, WHOM he robs,
murders, and mutilates whenever he can
do so with a certainty of efecting his
escape. But despite his cruelty and
thirst for blood and gold, he has an i'm
presslble side to his nature. His highly
strung nervous organization is peculiar
ly sensitive to the influence of music,
and by no means proof against the
allurements OF love. At the warlike
strains of the Sernai or bagpipe he will
shout and dance with demoniacal enthu-
slasm, and there are few more weird and
enthralling sights than a war dance on
pitch dark night round lurid watch
hire on the bleak crest of some lone bill.
where the Qukka Kheyl, like evil spirits
OF the night, join in fierce and flendish
revelry. They shout, they sing, they
wind through the mazes of the dance.
circling round the campfire and waving
aloft ther swords like gladiators from
another world.
Sudden their changing shields the echoes waken
All the rough hills along;
ana wnen at intervals their posts are taken,
Roars the unequal song.
What Ossian saw in Fingal's camu
above the stream of Turthor, Sir
Samuel Brownies soldiers may see in the
rude defles of Khyber. In his loves the
Qukka Kheyl loses much of much of his
barbarity; he melts from ferceness to
tondness as suddenly as hailstone in
the sun. His poetical mind is filled
with images of garden in which there
Is one flower combining the beauties of
the tulip, jessamine, and the rose; he
sends his signs to her upon the morning
breeze; he ikens himself to the nightin-
gale in love with the rose, singing his
despairing song seated upon thorn;
and, in still more strained metaphor de-
clares her the mistress of the world
whose confines are but the borders of her
palaces, and calls upon us to behold how
the heavens bow down on all sides to kiss
the threshold which she has sanctifed
with her footsteps.
The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-01-16
PalmerStOn's Basket

1t appears that during Lord Palmers
tons long stay at the war office he insti
tuted communication between his own
room and the registry. A basket
always at his side, could be drawn al
any moment, on given signal, into the
registry, and returned to him in the way
IN which it came. Whenever visitor
called on Lord Palmerston he was ALWAYS
desired to send in his name. The name
was at once placed in the basket, whisked
into the registry, and returned with all
the papers relating to the visitors case
When Lord Pslmerston had listened t.
his applicants preliminary statement h
used to interrupt him by saying, "Dea,
me, its very remarkable, but have you1
case actually before me now," and diving
The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-01-16
THE QUKKA KHEYL,

A Specimen Of the People that Dwell
About the ali Musjid-- 1.-The Ishmael
ties Of the Afghan Border.
Postwar CORES. London Telegraph.
The surrounding tribes are four kheyls
or section of Khyber Afreedies, known
as Kuki Kheyl, Mulick Deem Kheyl,
and Qukka Kheyl. The last Of these
are, par excellence, the Ishmaelites of
the border, whose hand is against every
man, and every mans hand against
them. Their characteristics, however,
are only those of their neighbors some
what exaggerated; and in choosing them
for description, as representative of their
tribe, no greater error in judgment is at
tributable to US than could be laid at the
door of the historic John Horner ESQ.,,
who, in testing the qualities of Christ
mas cake, congratulated himself on hav-
ing selected one prominent plum as a
sample of the whole. A turban of
the scantiest proportions, shawl
of the poorest material, coarse
and tern, thrown loosely over his shout
ders and covering a vest which is next
to his skin, and has never been removed
therefrom since the day when it was
first put on; loose trousers blending
with the other garments in harmonious
tints of dirt; andals so loose and 80
worn that it is wonderful the noun
taineers can move without leaving them
behind him; long dagger and powder
horn, with few bullets tied up in rag,
Turk in the folds of a voluminous, albeit
ragged, scarf, which is wound round his
waist; a jazail, or matchbox, quite six
feet long, is grasped in his hand, with
it's ugly-looking barrel RESTING on h;~
The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-01-16

which gives it the first rank. The Nile,
in Africa, is estimated at $500 kiloms.
In Southern America, the Parana and
the Plata have 4, 1000 kiloms. The Jenis-
sci, in Siberia, $500 kiloms. In Europe,
the VOLTA has 3400 kiloms., and the
Danube only 5000, and the Seine no
more than no. The Pacific Ocean
measures 175,0OO,00 of square kiloms.,
the Atlantic 100,000,000; the other
oceans, Arctic, Antarctic, ETC., occupy
98,0O0,000. Altogether, they cover 373,-
100000 Of square kiloms., that is to say
three-fourths of the surface Of the
globe, and the land occupies the other
quarter. But, taking into account
the lakes and water courses, the
proportion the dry ground is re-
duced to a fifth, while the waters COW
er four-ffths. Lake Superior, Canada,
has $4,000 square kiloms; the Victoria,
Nyanza, Africa, $4,000; the Sea of Aral-
Asia, $4,000; the Titicaca, South Amer
lea, 10000, etc. The largest quarter of
the globe is Asia, Al, 100000 Of square
kiloms., and the smallest, Europe, 49,
100000 The total population of the
globe is calculated Mt about /, 500, 000,-
900 inhabitants, thus distributed: Asia,
nearly 80O,00O,000; Europe, 325, 100000;
Africa, 210,0O0,0OO; North America,
100000; Oceanic, 36,000,O00; and
South America, 100000. The popu-
lation is densest in Europe; 80 inhabi-
tants to the square kilom.; Asia has only
IS; Africa, 6; Oceania, 8; North Amer
lea, 2; and South America, /. The
highest mountain in the world is Gauris-
hankar, in Asia, which is $40 metres
high; next comes the Hlampon, South
America, 1906 metres; the Kilima-
Ndjufo, Africa, GIG metres; the FL
brouz, Circassia. Europe, $500 metres
Mont Blanc, the so-called Monarch of
Mountains, 4,81O metres.
The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-01-16
HILL-voIoEs.

The curlew wheeling Ger the height
Hath touched softer note tonight;
hear 1t calling In Its fight,
Helen, Helen!
The sad-toned burn from yon hillside
Sends nav fond secret floating wide,
And whispers to the white-lipped tide,
Helen, Helenl
The sheep are bleating on the fell,
The night wind chimes the heather-bell,
Helen, Helenl
That spell hath sway within my breast,
And moves me TO its one behest;
On, grid me for some goodly quest
Helen, Helen!
For brooding thought makes young hearts sore
And have fingered by the shore,
All weary for the passing DER,
Helen, Helen!
But life to me is not so lone,
Aid death to me hath darker grown,
Since on my path thy presence shone,
Helen, Helenl
So 'mong the hills dream my dream,
Under the starlight's wandering CLEAN,
And all around the voices seem,w
Helen, Helenl
The curlew now is nestled still;
the sheep are silent on the hill;
But aye the burn goes singing shrill
Helen, Hell en-!
Good Words