davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-04-14
Wanted, More Home Life.

Rev. T. c. Jerome, of the Congregational
church at Patchogue, Rhode Island, must be
practical sort of preacher, Judging from
what he says to parents, and especially to
fathers, about home duties 1T pays to
make home attractive as well as instructive
with pure wholesome books, papers, pic
lures, and games. Wear palmer clothes,
live in palmer houses, set palmer table,
economize in all these ways, if need but
don't economize at the expense of your
children's brains or souls. And do your
selves love home and live at home. Loaf
less in the post-otfice and grocery-stores.
Stay utterly away from the walking matches
and the billiard rooms. Neglect your club,
your secret society, your prayer-meeting
even; but don't neglect your wife and chill
dren. Spend more time with them at home.
If your church has meetings every night in
the week, or five nights in the week, and
holds those meetings until ten o'clock, then
do you stay at home, or at least keep your
children home every other night, anyway.
Understand me do not say but that the
holding the meetings every night may be
right and wise. But the same persons ought
not to come every night, least of all the
same children or young people. Our Amer
lean society is, in every respect, too unnatu-
raj, artificial, passionate. We think too
much of emotions and excitement, and too
little of steadfast principles and slowly,
firmly developed character. We need more
quiet thought and peaceful home influences.
So bid you, fathers, not only to keep your
boys home nights, but also to stay at home
with them. Especially guard your own ex-
ample, that IT be wholly manly, true, and
pure. II you smoke or chew, by all means,
pray you, stop it. Tobacco is doing more
to demoralize our boys and young men than
is alcohol. Tobacco-drunkenness is not so
deadly, but it is far more universal, and is
feariully on the increase. DO you, if you
love your boy and love the boys Of America,
stop smoking, smoking and chewing
and snuifing. Be not slave TO any appe-
tite. BE man,-wholly continent, true, and
pure"
Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-04-14
Good Resolutions.


Most of the common sneering at good res
olutions, as precursors of good deeds, comes
from those who would rather make bad res
olutions than good ones, or who are content
to drift along through life, without taking
the trouble to determine on any fixed course
of action. Without good resolutions from
within we need hardly look for excellent re-
suits from without-wrought upon passive
agents by some miraculous exercise of di-
vine power. The Holy Spirit quickens the
heart to make all resolutions that deserve
the name of good; and " hell is paved not
with such God-sent purposes of amendment
and right action, but with the fruits of that
reckless wickedness which despairs of moral
success, after the speedy failure of some
wrongly made plan, based on self rather
than on the help of God. A good resolu-
tion should be made to rest on deep sense
of right and basal principle of Christian
living, not on any whim of individual de-
cision. Then, too, it ought to be made to
go into effect at once. 1t is not enough to
say that tomorrow, or next week, or next
year, we will do thus and so. When we can
carry a good resolution into instant execu-
tion, we ought to do so and when we cannot,
we should perform the purposed act at the
very first moment possible, counting all
time after that moment, if the act is still
undone, as time sinfully spent.-Sunday-
School Tunes.
Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-04-14
$4,000 for a Drink Of Water.

In one OF the hotly-contested fights in Vir-
ginia during the war. federal officer fell in
front of the confederate breastworKs. While
lying there wounded, and crying for water,
a confederate soldier (James Moore of Burke
county, North Carolina) declared his inten-
tion of supplying him with drink. The
bullets were flying thick from both sides,
and Moore's friends tried to dissuade him
from such hazardous enterprise Despite
remonstrance and danger, however, Moore
leapt the breastworks, canteen in hand,
reached his wounded enemy, and gave him
a drink The federal, under sense of
gratitude for the timely service, took out his
gold watch and offered it to his benefactor,
but it was refused The officer then asked
the name of the man who had braved such
danger to succor him. The name was given,
and Moore returned to his position behind
the embankment. They saw nothing more
of each other. Moore was subsequently
wounded, and lost a limb in one of the en-
gagements in Virginia, and returned to his
home in Burke county. A few days ago he
received communication from the federal
soldier to whom he had given the cup of
cold water on the occasion alluded to, an
nouncing that he had settled on him the
sum of $4,000, to be paid in four annual
instalments OF $1,000 each. Investigation
has established the fact that there is no
mistake or deception in the matter.-Home
Journal
Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-04-14
The Business of Parents.

The frequent publication of facts showing
that children are being pushed or punished
or slowly poisoned to death in our public
schools, without the knowledge of their pa
rents, suggests the question, What is the
business OF parents, anyhow in this after
noon of the nineteenth century Does it
stop simply with begetting, boarding and
clothing, pampering and "raising" chill
dren ? 1t would seem so in too many cases
The nursing is farmed out to an alien, the
early training of the tender babe given to IA
governess, the secular education is turned
over to the state, and the religious culture
to the Sunday-school, and, in happy-go-
lucky fashion, it is trusted that the child
will "turn out WELL" How many parents
know what their children are studying at
school what progress they are making
what influences they are under what air
they breathe what care they are learning
to take OF their bodies What has mother
busted herself about, that she does not know
when her little girl has suffered punishments
at school that may make her an invalid for
life? Where has father kept his eyes,
that he has not seen the moral and physical
decay of his sou Is the newspaper, that
will be stale in an hour, of more Importance
to him than the character of the books that
are marring the immortal soul of his child
The age of rush is a bad epoch for that
true family life which is at the bottom OF
all real prosperity in the state and all true
religion in the church. Our passion for do
ing things by wholesale, and treating every
thing en- masse, from stocks to souls, has
done much to impair the sweet, the holy and
the necessary features of family life and
government. We need revival of the old
fashioned ways of rearing children in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord" and to
habits of industry, economy and usefulness.
Golden Rule.
Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-04-14
In One Life Time.

Some one has recently written ;" am not
an old man; yet in material things have
seen the creation of new world. | am con-
temporary with the railroad, the telegraph, the
steamship the photograph, the sewing ma
chine, the steam-plow, the friction match, gas
light, chloroform, nitroglycerine, the mon
itor, the caloric engine, the California gold
discoveries, the oil well discoveries, gutta
percha, canned fruits, the electric light, the
telephone, etc. These are some of the foot
prints of material progress of the present
generation. Do you think the moral world
will remain the same as before That
society will remain unaffected by these
changes If you do, let me call your atten-
tion to the fact that the same generation has
seen the abolition of slavery on a grand
scale, the ascendancy of republican Amer
lea, the opening of China and Japan, the
institution of worlds fairs, aud the agita
tion for the freedom of women. And the
march is steadily on, with accelerating mo-
ton. What is its meaning? Where will
il end Z"
Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-04-14
The Charm OF True Marriage.

Our advanced theories of divorce and free
love- making the matrimonial relation merely
a partnership TO be dissolved at pleasure,
whatever else may be said in their favor,
strike deadly blow at an element in it
which was meant perhaps to be supreme
above all others. What is the sweetest
charm OF AL true marriage, what the great
est advantage, what the most priceless hap
piness, take life through, which it brings to
tho human heart Not the flush and splen-
dor OF its early love; not the richer develop
ment which 1t brings to the character not
even the children who are gathered around
its shrine. No, but the intimacy and relia
bility OF its companionship the fact that it
gives those who enter in it, each in the
other and through all scenes and changes, a
near and blessed standby. Marriage in
some of its aspects is doubtless the source of
an immense amount of unhappiness, crime,
injustice, blight and down-dragging, one of
the most perplexing institutions society has
to deal with--only the blindest sentimental.
ist will deny that. On the other hand, how
overland this is not mere sentiment, but
sober fact-of all the evidences of Gods
goodness to be found in this lower world, all
the proofs that he cares for us, not only with
the wisdom OF Creator, but with the inter
est and love of Father, there is none quite
equal to his sending human beings into the
arena of life, not to fight its battles, win its
victories and endure its sorrows alone, but
giving them, as they go forth out of their
childhood's home, relation in which each
two of them are bound together with the
closest Of all ties, live together under the
same roof, have their labors, their property,
their interests, their parental affections, all
in common, and are moved to stand by each
other, hand TO hand, and heart to heart, in
every sorrow, misfortune, trial, and stormy
day, that earth can bring. 1t is an ideal, if
not always realized in full which is tasted
even now, amid all that is said about mar
riage miseries, more widely perhaps than
any other appiness.-Sunday a fternoon.
Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-04-14
The Down Grade.

Two years since, three young Englishmen,
brothers, climbed Mount Blanc to its summit
without guide. On their return over the
frozen snow-tied TO each other, so that if one
slipped the others might hold him-the fore
most slipped and dragged the others down
with him. They slid gently and scarcely
unpleasantly, but with an everlasting speed,
till suddenly they went over the precipice of
twenty or thirty feet, at the foot of which
one lay dead and the other two insensible.
If the locomotive be climbing the steep up
grade of the Pennsylvania road over the
Aleghanies, and lose steam, or have insult
ficient power for the long train behind, so
that just before reaching the summit, it first
comes to a stand, and then begins slowly to
recede, it needs no prophet TO foretell the re-
suit. The passengers who would not be
dashed to atoms with the train, must leap
from it, as soon as it takes the down grade.
A moments delay, and it is death, whether
one leaps or remains. There is down
grade in life, and wretched is the fate of
OF those who have descended. Gay soci-
ETY., late hours, increasing expenses, dis
taste for all that is serious, growing fond
ness for excitement, the fashionable wine
cup, the opera, the theater, the ballroom,
crime, disgrace, open shame, ruin-such is
the grade. Warnings are met with derision.
They know not what they are about. The
grade is little down, that is true, Just
enough to make motion easy and pleasant.
When the speed increases they will jump off
upon the grass. Soon the speed shows i'm
minent danger, and friends cry out in alarm.
But they smile back. 1t is not yet perilous,
only exciting, and there is a charm in ex-
citement. So they act the madman, until
the DEVILS train is terrific, and the bottom
less pit directly ahead, when they look on
both sides for the soft grass on which to
spring, but there is only wall of rock, and
in moment the crash comes I"
Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-04-14
Keep Your Promise.

One of the most eminent of British states
men is said to have traced his own sense of
the sacredness of a promise to curious les.
son he got from his father when he was a
boy. When home for the holidays, and
walking with his father in the garden, his
father pointed to wall which he intended
to have pulled down. "Oh," said the boy,
/" ! should like to see wall pulled down"
Well, my boy, you SHALL" said the father.
The thing, however, escaped his memory,
and during the boys absence a number of
them this wall was torn down and a new one
was built up in its place. When the boy
came home and saw it he said: "Oh, father,
you promised to let me see that wall pulled
down" Instantly the father remembered
his promise, and was deeply panied to think
that he had seemed careless about his
plighted word. my boy" he said, "you
are right, did promise, and | ought not to
have forgotten it. 1t is too late now to do
just what | said | would but you wanted
to see a wall pulled down, and so you shall
And he actually ordered the masons up and
made them pull down and rebuild the new
wall, that as nearly as possible his promise
might be made good. at cost Inc twenty
pounds" he said to friend who was ban
tering him; "but" he added, if it had cost
a hundred should have thought it a cheap
way of impressing on my boys mind as long
as he lives the Importance that a man of
honor should always attach to his plighted
word"
Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-04-14
The True Push.

1t is both the curse and blessing of Amer
lean life that we are never quite content
We all expect to go somewhere before We
die, and have a better time when we get
there than we can have at home. The bane
of our life is discomfort. We say we will
work so long and then we will enjoy our
selves. But we find it just as Thackeray
has expressed it. "When | was boy" he
said, 81 wanted some tatfy-it was shil-
ling-l hadn't one. When | was man
had shilling, but didn't want any taffy,"
But say not one word against that splendid
discomfort that all the time makes a man
strike for something better. / like this idea
that every boy born in America dreams of
being president No man has any right to
be content not to do his best, and not To do
better tomorrow than he is doing to-day
But all that will come by keeping close to
manly and dutiful life, While we are going
steadily along TO whatever future awaits us,
the grandest thing we can do is to feel sure
that what we are doing for a days work,
with all that we do besides, is just the most
blessed thing so far as we can do, and that
we are very likely having the best time that
can ever come TO our life; that this work
aud wife and home and children, all they
are and all they mean, beats the world.
The saddest thing in our life is our discon-
tent when we ought to be more contented.
1t is our birthright TO get the good of life
as we go along, in these simple and pure
things that TO all true man and womanhood
are like rain and sunshine to an apple tree.
But when we will not believe this, aud dream
that the best of our life is 10 come when we
Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-04-14
" Slow and Sure.S

This in the end is a safe motto In the
clerkship it is better to begin at the lowest
round OF the ladder, as Mr.. Dodge did, and
Mr.. Stewart did, and Mr.. Vanderbilt did,
and thousands of rich men did, and work
steadily on, year in and year out, and learn
to wait as well as to work. Almost any hon.
est employment, faithfully and perseveringly
pursued, will bring a competency to an en-
ergetic, good man, with an average amount
of sense. Aud if he has brains, with tact,
he will be recognized and put forward by
those whom he can serve to their advantage,
while be helps himself upward in business,
Stick to your business until you are
called to something else because you have
done so well in what you are at. But ga
rolling stone gathers no moss" Going from
one thing to another makes one perfect in
nothing, and this explains why SO many
young men illustrate another proverb about
coming out at the little end of the horn.''
--IrenGus, in Observer
Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-04-14
Talk Over What You Read.

The subject of Home Reading has been
under discussion in the Christian Union. A
correspondent makes an excellent sugges.
ton: "After reading all that has appeared
in your columns, either editorially or from
correspondents, allow me to add one hint
that | do not think has been given: The
immense advantage of talking about what
one has read. Nearly forty years expert
ence as a teacher has shown me how little
truly know of subject until / begin to
explain it or teach it. Let any young per-
son try the experiment of giving in conver-
sation, briefly aud connectedly, and in the
simplest language, the chief points of any
book or article he has read, and he will at
once see what | mean. The gaps that are
likely to appear in the know ledge that he
felt was his own will no doubt be very sur
prising. | know of no training superior to
this in utilizing ones reading, in strengthen.
ing the memory, and in forming habits of
clear, connected statement. 1t will doubt
less teach other things than those | have
mentioned, which the persons who honestly
make the experiment will find out for them.
selves. Children who read can be encour-
aged to give, in familiar way, the interest
ing parts of the books they have read, with
great advantage to all concerned. More
than one youth | know has laid the fouuda-
tion of intellectual tastes in New England
family, where hearty encouragement was
given to children and adults in their attempt
to sketch the lectures they had heard the
evening previous. The same thing was
done with books"
Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-04-14
MONTPELIER, VT, WEDNESDAY, APRIL ii, 1880.

and rest it upon the pole, was death.
oh, deal less with faith, and
more with Christ, the object of faith. Your
weak faith, your little faith, your obscure
faith, your tried faith, your sinking faith, is
no reason why you should not look to, cleave
to, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, knowing of
truth that your sins are forgiven, and that
your person is accepted in the Beloved.
One believing blink Of Christ as the holy
Rutherford expresses it, and you are saved.
Or, to quote the lively picture of faith pre-
sented by another worthy, one of the early
reformers of Scotland at is not the guam
tity of faith that shall save thee" A drop
of water is as true water as the whole ocean.
So little faith is as true faith as the great
est. A child eight days old is as really
man as one of sixty years spark of fire is
AS true fire as great flame ; sickly man
is as truly living as well man. So it is
not the measure of thy faith that saves
thee; it is the blood that it grips to that
saves thee. As the weak hand of a child
that leads the spoon to the mouth will feed
as well as the strongest arm Of man,-for
it is not the hand that feeds thee, albeit it..
puts the meat into thy mouth, but it is the
meat carried into the stomach that feeds
thee,-so if thou grip Christ ever so weakly,
ne VIII not let thee perish. All that looked
to the brazen serpent, never so far off,--they
were healed of the sting of the fiery serpent;
yet all saw not alike clearly, for some were
near at hand and some were far off. Those
that were near at hand might see more
clearly than those that were sar off never
theless, those that were far off we're as soon
healed of the sting when they looked 10 III. |.
serpent as those that were near At hand & u
it was not their look that maze them whole
but he whom the serpent did represent. SO
il thou canst look to Christ ever so meanly,
he can take away the sting of thy conscience
if thou believest. The weakest hand can
take gift as well as the strongest. Now
Christ is the gift, aud weak faith may grip
him as well as strong faith ; and Christ is
as truly thine when thou hast weak faith,
as when thou hast come to these triumphant
JOYS through the strength of faith.-O Ociavius
Winslow, DID.
Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-04-14
What He Wants.

God wants not money alone. The silver
and the gold are his but he wants your
heart, your feelings, your time, your anx-
iety. He curseth these mere money char
tiles, making them engender poverty in far
greater abundance than they annihilate it,
and scourging them with the means of
those who grudgingly bestow. The mere
mammon worketh mammon's work divine
charity worketh Gods work. A Christian
man may as well give over his faith into the
hands of a public body, aud believe what
they appoint to be believed as cast his
charity over to public body-yea, or to
private individual-and think that he
thereby satisfeth God. Our right hand is
not TO know what our left hand doeth. 1t
is with the heart, and soul, and mind, and
strength, that he is to be worshiped and
served.-Ed0ard Irping,
Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-04-14
kidney and Liver.
Curl r.!
Another Proof that Bright's S
Disease, in its Worst
Form, is Cur BILE.

ROCHESTER, N. Y, November 81 1879.
Mcssrs H. H. Warner Co., Rochester, ~ Y:
GESTs-From my own sense of duty, and
upon the advice of friends, have concluded to
offer you testimonial, proclaiming to the world
that there is an absolute cure for Brights
Disease in its worst form. My daughter Carrie
has been afflicted with this terrible disease since
she was five years of age; she is now seven
teen, and during these eleven years her life has
been a burden. She has been treated by the
best physicians in Buffalo, Syracuse, Utica, Ith-
aca, Owego, Hornellsve, Rochester and other
places, and a fortune has been paid out in the
but all have pronounced her incuraJle; have
said that her kidneys were nearly destroyed,
that there was no help for her, and she must
abandon all hope of ever being any better
We finally heard Of your SAFE KIDNEY AND
LIVER CURE, and suggested to different phys-
clans that we make trial of it; but they
said it would be perfect folly.
We finally came to Rochester and tried sew
eral physicians here, but they, like the others,
were unable to do anything for her We also
mentioned your remedy to them, and they said
it had a good reputation, and made some re-
narkabe cures, and encouraged us to give it a
trial; so, as a last resort we concluded to at
least consult you, and seven weeks ago to-day
! came to your office for that purpose took
home two bottles of your KIDNEY AND LIVER
CURE, and commenced giving it to her accord
ing to directions, and by the time she had taken
one bottle there was marked improvement in
her condition: she acquired control Of her urinary
functions which she had not possessed since
childhood; all bloat subsidized she began to gain
in good, solid flesh, and gained thirteen pounds
in about three weeks. After taking three bot
ties Of the remedy she has, in this short space
Of seven weeks, become fully cured OF what was
regarded hopeless case of Brights Disease
! wish | could talk with every sufferer from
this fearful disease, and tell them as | cannot in
this letter that knoW Bright's Disease of the
worst type can be cured by WARMERS SAFE
KIDNEY AND LIVER CURE, and gratefully
acknowledge that my daughters life and health
is due to the use Of that remedy.
Yours truly,
Mrs NJ. J. CRANE,
No. Edinburgh Street.
Being the subject of the above testimonial, |
desire to testify to the truth of its statements,
and express my gratitude to whom it may be
due for recovery from this terrible aficton,
and to recommend similar sufferers to make
use OF the same remedy that did.
CARRIE l.. CRANE.