davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-09-30
A DOnkey's Deep Grief.

Newspapers have often told storie
about the affection that dogs, horses
and other animals had for each other,
but we have never heard of q jackass be-
ing accused of any such tender senti-
ments. 1t is now our duty to record
the faithful love one donkey had for a
companion who had shared his lot for
SO long. W. D. Wasson went out to
Tioga district on prospecting expedi-
ton, taking two jacks along to pack his
blankets, tools and provisions. In COM
ing down the mountain one of the long
cared freight transporters fell over o
precipice and broke his neck. The
other frightened the birds and the CO.
MES in their burrows with the sound of
his lamentations. Mr.. Wasson tried to
coax the grief-stricken mountain barge
away, but the donkey only lifted up his
voice and wept, and would not be COM
forted. Then he essayed to drive with
sticks and stones the noisy beast from
the scene of his lament. But drive he
would not. The donkey remembered
how he and his beloved companion had
foraged together from handy clothes
lines; had in friendship masticated
fence-posts and sections of barb-wire,
and had contentedly nibbled such tender
morsels as old gunny sacks and cast-off
overalls, or had assuaged keen hunger
with old boots and oyster cans, and
could not be induced to leave the spot.
The cruel master beat him terribly; still
his grief nerved him to obstinacy. The
master felled two or three large trees on
his back, but to no purpose. Finally,
the master, in despair, took the pack of,
and left him with dead. The last seen
him he was eating the cropping Of a
quartz-ledge and weeping for his friend.
Homer (Cal.) Mining Iader.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-09-30
An Owl on the Ocean.

Birds get lost in the air sometimes, as
really as boys get lost in the woods.
Far northern species are often storm
driven out of their native latitude, and
no doubt may sink in the sea. One day
steamer which arrived at New York
from Liverpool brought strange pas
senger who had boarded that vessel in
mid-ocean. A large, white owl dropped
on one of the forward spars in an ex-
hausted condition one evening wnen the
vessel was about 800 miles off the coast
of Newfoundland. When brought to
the deck by sailor the owl was found
to be nearly dead from cold and hunger,
and almost too weak to eat. It had be-
come greatly emaciated, and trembled
violently in endeavoring to swallow the
first morsel of meat which was placed
in its beak. The owl slowly recovered,
and is now perfectly well. It is land
bird, and is supposed to have been blown
off the coast of Newfoundland by the
westerly gales which had for some days
previous prevailed there. Finding it.
self once out at sea, it had probably
ceased making efforts to reach the land,
and had drifted before the gale, its only
efforts being to keep above water. The
bird must have possessed remarkable
powers of endurance to have kept up so
long.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-09-30
That Particular Night,

Recently, man charged with steal
ing chickens was alraigned before an Ar
kansas Circuit Court. The proof against
him was pretty strong, and when the
Prosecuting Attorney arose he showed
exactly how the defendant lifted the
chickens from the roost. He described
the surroundings and the excited haste
of the prisoner, until the charged man
arose and said:
"Jedge, reckon you'll let me say
fcw words No objection was ex-
pressed, and the man continued "Jest
sign me down guilty.
"Do you plead guilty %
~ reckon I'd jest as we'll. This fell
Ter is determined that I did steal the
chickens, an ruther than dispute his
word, fur he seems to be a clever sort of
feller, I'll let it go his way"
"The question is, did you steal the
chickens %
Ono, Jedge, 1 was at prar-meetin' on
that night, an can prove it, but ruther
than make the young feller feel bad I'll
let him have his way"
You say you were at Irayer-meeting
on that night %
"Yes, SIR
(Which night %
Why, on the night I stole the
chickens
Ten minutes after his declaration he
was sentenced to the penitentiary for two
years.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-09-30
Hiding Money.

The fact that Spain, though chrono-
logically in the nineteenth century, is
really living in the seventeenth, is illus
trated by the following from Temple
Bar. In old Spanish houses there is
generally very cleverly-contrived secret
receptacle for money, akin to the ''secret
drawer" of the English desk. Even now
this secret cupboard is much used, the
Spanish idea of security being (an idea
founded on bitter experience of many
years. to cage the windows in iron bars,
lock up the house at night in winter,
look at the money, and then say, in Sc
curity and self reorganization:
''Why, I am very safe; all love and
all I need is contained within the four
walls of my casa.
There is a vast deal of distrust of banks
and government securities, and a great
holding to the proverb, 'No friend save
God, and dollar in your pocket" And
now with the middle class there is no
banking of money.
The bankers, to begin with, give no
interest, as rule; and so, just as in Scot
land, in the troubled year of 1850, the
goldsmiths were the only bankers, so
now, in Spain, the gentry constantly
hoard their money in their own houses;
some put their jewelry and plate in the
naontes dc piedad.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-09-30
A Curious AfhictiOn.

A physician writes to the Syracuse
Standard: 81 notice in this mornings
issue of your paper the report of the
cases of two young men, afflicted by
peculiar rash or eruption recently, sup
posed to have been induced by bathing
in Onondaga Greek. This reminds me
of two cases in my own practice, occur
ring within the last few weeks, of two
young men whose entire cutaneous
surface, including the scalp, was studded
with an eruption, first papular and at
tended with intense inflammation, burn
ing, and itching, then versicular, then
pestular, and finally disappearing by
desquamation. These young men had
recently bathed in the creek, habitually.
The disease was unique to me, having
never observed or read of any eruption
exactly like this. 1t had the semblauce
of chicken-pox, although it lacked the
pearly, circular characteristics of that
disease. Although have not conferred
with other physicians on this subject. to
learL whether they have encountered
like cases, still am inclined to believe
that these cases are not mere CO.
incidences, but were caused by some
poison in the water or in the deposits
along the borders or the bottom of the
stream, and therefore it would be adj
visable to avoid bathing in the creek
anywhere between Kinks woods and the
lake
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-09-30
Fallacies of the Learned.

Seneca, Claudian, Basil, Augustine,
Gregory, Jerome, and perhaps Thucy-
dldes, agreed in the belief that crystal is
simply ice strongly CONCEALED and such
men as Scahger, Albertus Magnus, and
Brassavolus assented to the proposition.
1t is, however, but fair to say that there
were always opponents to this theory.
Pllny denied the assertion, and in his
company we find Agricola, Dioderus
Slculus, Cosius Bernardus, and others.
vi course, the test of specific gravity
settles the matter at once. AS for
astronomical and geographical fallacies,
their name is legion. Xenophanes as
serted that the earth had no bottom /;
Thales Milesius averred that it hoated
on water, and almost every old writer
has his own pet craze about the problem.
A glimpse at the monkish map of the
world which is still preserved in Here
ford Cathedral will prove the unsyste-
matte nature of the Typographical studies
in much later days but such errors are
too numerous to be more than briefly
limited at, and fallacies respecting crys-
tails and precious stones afford in them
selves sufficient matter for tolerably
long dissertation. To them, therefore,
let us keep for the present. Pliny be-
ieved that the diamond will suspend or
prevent the attraction of the loadstone
if placed between it and piece of iron;
and, although the problem was one ca
Pable of speedy solution by experiment,
he went on to ascribe the same remark
able property to the plant garlic. Eu-
sebius Nierembergius, learned Span
lard, had his own private craze. He
imagined that the human body, left to
turn as it would, would always point its
head to the north, and it is hard to un-
derstand how this and most of the other
fallacies connected with the loadstone
escaped detection by experiment. Le-
lius Bisciola, for instance, asserted that
one ounce of iron added to ten ounces
of loadstones would only produce total
weight of ten ounces, and Apollonius
and Beda join in testifying that there
are certain loaadstone which attract only
at night, while other learned authorities
affirm that the mineral in question, when
burned, gives off an unbearable stencil,
and that, if preserved in certain salts, il
has the power of attracting gold, even
out of the deepest wells.-AU the Yea,
Round.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-09-30
NUMBER 26.
A Fighting Turkey.

A certain General, who had earned half
. dozen decorations in the Turkish
campaign, was walking a few days ago
along one of the streets of Tamboff, in
Central Russia, when he was suddenly at
tackled by ferocious turkey. The unex-
pectedness Of the encounter seems to
have entirely paralyzed the faculties of
of the son of Mars, for although he wore
his sword at his side, and might easily
have made mincemeat of his assailant,
he raised no resistance against the enemy,
but shouted for the police. These gen
try hurried from every quarter, but were
anticipated in the assistance by decon,
who, passing by at the time, seized the
enraged bird-then fiuttering on the
Generals breast-by the neck, and held
him captive till the gorodovie and
dvornik came up and took him into
custody. An owner of the trlrkeycock
was soon afterward found, and he was
charged with culpable negligence in not
looking after his poultry. At the trial
the evidence adduced added nothing to
what we have already stated, and de-
tense was raised ON the simple grounds
that the article of the code mentioned in
the Indictment did not refer to feathered
kind, but merely applied to ferocious
bipeds and quadrupeds. The magistrates
dis ,ussed long among themselves the va
idity of this argument, and at length,
amid breathless silence, announced that
Estate Secretary Nikiferoff, as owner of
a dangerous turkeycock allowed to roam
at large, was amenable to the article of
the code referred to in the indictment, 2"
and sentenced him to pay fine of ten
copecks (threepence) or undergo twenty
four hours imprisonment. A rear of
laughter followed the decision of the
bench, in the midst of which the solicitor
of Nikiferoff arose and gave notice that he
should carry the case to the st. Peters
burg Court of Appeal.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-09-30
Sunshine at Midnight.

The spectacle of the sun shining at
midnight attracts many foreigners i'll
Swedish Lapland during the month of
June. For six weeks there is scarcely
any night in the North of Sweden; the
sun never sets, and the soil, constantly
heated, produces in a month and half
barley and other crops At that time of
the year the Laplanders pen up their
reindeers and move their huts toward the
cultivated fields. Being very hospitable,
they greet with JOY the arrival of tourists,
who generally meet at Mount Gellaware,
about ninety miles from Lulea. From
that hill, which is about six hundred
yards high, the beautiful spectacle of the
''midnight sun" can be admired in bet
ter conditions than from any other place.
The oath of June is the day selected for
the ascension; it is the longest day in the
year, the sun being twenty-five hours
above the horizon. This year the Gath
of June was not favored by fine weather,
and owing to cloudy sky the sun was
not visible Mt midnight, but the following
day travellers we're well rewarded for their
trouble, the sun shining brightly at mid
night. London Globe.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-09-30
A Willy Poodle.

A blind beggar was in the habit of
frequenting the Pont des SITS. Peres,
France, where he used to station himself
with clarinet and very intelligent
poodle. Contributions poured freely into
the little wooden bowl which the dog
held in his mouth. One day the blind
man, who had reached an advanced age,
was not to be seen. He had fallen ill.
His companion, however, continued to
frequent the accustomed spot, aud the
passers-by, to whom he was familiar,
understood that his master was unwell,
and, touched by bis fidelity, dropped
their pence into his bowl in increased
numbers. The beggar went the way of
all flesh, an event which the willy poodle
carefully kept to himself, until he also
became an absentee from the Pont des
SITS. Peres. The poor animal was found
lying dead in u cellar near his former
masters abode, sum of 10000 francs.
in bonds of the Orleans railway being
discovered under the litter on which he
was stretched.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-09-30
Press Censorship i'm Russia.

Again the Tif1is journal, ObzOr, has
"come to grief" For five years the edit
or, M. Nicholadze, has waged warfare with
the censor, and three parts of that time
his journal has been in suppressed con-
dition. In 1875 Nicoladze, who had
made mark as contributor to the Golos,
went to Tifis with the express purpose
of fighting there the battle of the Rus
sian provincial press. Between the lat
ter and the newspapers of the two capi-
tails marked difference exists. The
Golos, Moscow Gazette, and other large
newspapers of st. Petersburg and Mos
cow are allowed to publish their news
and articles without previously submit
ting them to the censor, while the
provincial sheets cannot print advertise
ments, let alone paragraphs, without OBJ
tanning first the sanction of the local
press authorities. By law, the proof of
leading article, after being corrected in
red ink by the censor, has to be submit
ted again to that functionary before it
can be published, and, as Russian CEN
sors are usually as deficient of energy
as Government officials in our own
country, an article sent in on Monday
and corrected on Wednesday can hardly
be issued, If it contains alterations, be-
fore the following week. If town has
no censor, the police-master or some
official supervises the local press, read
ing carefully everything, from the puff
of somebody's pills to the official an
nouncements copied from the Govern
ment gazettes. Nicoladze made it his
practice to publish the shreds of the ar
ticles expurgated by the censor, without
taking the trouble to fill in the gap with
fresh words. When he had sufficiently
stimulated public opinion against the
censor by this practice he openly dis
credited him by inserting the articles
with the expurgations, which showed
how ridiculous the provincial censors act
in erasing words and sentences having
nothing illegal or obnoxious in them.
This led to repeated suppressions, and
at last to trial, which lasted two years,
and resulted in the Supreme Court at
Tiflis finding verdict in Nicoladze's fa-
vor. Since then he has been elected q
municipal councillor, and was one of the
members who recently Impeached the
Governor of Tifis Of mafpractices.
London Examiner.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-09-30
A Child's Library.

Our own experience has convinced us
that, for the average child, the element
of possession of book is of great i'm
portance. The borrowed book, however
attractive, is never read with the loving
enthusiasm with which the child devours
the volume that is his own. Try the ex-
pertinent of loaning to your pupil
Scott's Lazy Of the Lake, Robinson
Crusoe, arabian Knights. Give to
another pupil the same book as his own
property; in nine cases out of ten the
borrowed book will be read on the gallop,
hastily taken in and forgotten. The
book owned by the child will be read
leisurely, returned to, and fingered over
with loving fondness; taken out under
the trees in summer; taken down from
the shelf for consultation; really assimi-
lated into the mental and moral being.
It is the most commonplace tr,1ism
that the value of reading does not de-
pend half as much upon the quantity
gone over as the quality of the book and
the deliberate and thoughtful method of
using it.
Now, the natural way to interest a
child in reading is to give it book, suit
able to its years and mental condition,
and leave it to its own way of appropri-
ating its contents. Every child, now-a-
days, even the poorest in the public
schools, shonld be encouraged to found a
library. The boy who sees a growing
bookshelf every morning, when he gets
out of bed, will have constant reminder
to save his pennies to buy some favorite
book, rather than spoil his stomach with
candy or buy ticket to the Black Crook.
Nowadays, when readable editions of
the English classics can be bought for
fifty cents a volume, almost every child
is able to buy few books every year. 1t
is surprising how soon such a library as
sumes respectable dimensions, and amaz-
ing how many beautiful books and valua-
BILE magazines are destroyed by children
nowadays for want of some definite
plan of keeping them together. And
anybody who knows child nature can IN
derstand how much more thoroughly
the books of that home-library will be
read than the volume borrowed from any
source.
Teachers and parents, set your chill
dren to this good work of founding a
child's library, and keep them at it till
they need no pushing from you. And ii
may turn out that few shelves of good
books will educate your child more than
all the schools and universities E..
Journal of Education.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-09-30
Food to Make Flesh.

Sugar, syrup. fresh cheese. wheaton
grits, hominy, juicy meats, are the foods
to make flesh. Almost any woman will
get plump on brown bread and wheaton
grits, or oatmeal eaten twice day with
plenty of meat and vegetables at break
fast and a supper of brown biscuit, with
sweet-meats, cheese and cream, or coffee
drank with plenty of sugar and cream.
1t is not necessary to eat largely if the
appetite does not call for it, but the food
must be tempting, and if hunger is keen.
one who would be plump and spirited
should not be afraid to indulge it. Un-
relishing, distasteful food, will no
nourish and stimulate like what is piquant
and savory and changed in variety day by
day.-Scicntifc american.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-09-30

YuNa KwAI, the Chinese boy. who was
graduated from the Springfield Mass
High School last June with the saluta-
tory address, became a Christian, and
wrote home about it to his father, who is
one of the highest of the Chinese mobiles,
though not of royal blood The father
wrote very indignant letter. and ordered
him to return home, threatening to
starve and beat him into renouneing his
views. As the boy was determined to be
true to his new faith he looked upon his
return to China as going to almost GER
tain death; but he started quietly with
other boys for Boston. whence they were
to sail for home by way of Europe.
Yung Kwai, however. stepped from the
train in Springfield, and that is the last
that has been seen of him. If he sue
ceeds in keeping hidden for a year, he
will then he twenty-one. and can become
n citizen of the United States
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-09-30
Watches a Hundred Years Too Slow.

Neither literally nor figuratively can
the watches of the world be persuaded
to keep the same time. The watches of
France, in a good many instances just
now, fail to go with perfect simultane-
BUSINESS, and even in the case of the
grand National Fetes there is some
slight divergence in the pulsation of
public opinion. For example, it is stat
ed in the Paris Figaro that the Countess
Fernand de la Ferronnays, on receiving
from the Mayor of her reimbursement a
printed invitation to hang out flags from
her outward walls by day and illuminate
them by night addressed to the muni-
cipal functionary naughty, icy reply,
in which she declines in any way to CO.
operate in the "so-called National Fete"
of what she sarcastically reminds the
Mayor is 1.-THE Third Republic" The
Countess refuses to participate in a
manifestation which "pretends to do
honor to all the crimes of that revolu-
tion which broke out in 1889, and the
duration of which is not yet terminal
ed. The names of our murdered
parents would rise before us to curse
us" concludes the enthusiastic dame.
The Figaro styles this lovely protest
against Republican institutions "belle
response" With more propriety 1t
might be headed, "Curious case of q
lady's watch being ninety-one years
slow" The Americans have a stout
gentleman who, on the morning of
certain Fourth of July few years since,
happened to be an inmate of hotel in
the beautiful Catskill mountains. When
breakfast was over the landlord politely
asked him, as being apparently the
senior among the company, to address
a few appropriate words to The assem-
bled guests "on the present auspicious
occasion" "What occasion ?" asked
the stout gentleman, with stare Of as
tonishment. "Why," explained the
landlord, "this august anniversary"
"What anniversary" asked the stout
gentleman. "Blame my cats p cried
the landlord, "ain't this Independence
day?" The face of the stout gentleman
grew dark, and, in a voice trembling
with passion, he vociferated: "Do you
mean, sir, the unnatural rebellion
against my late and reverend sovereign,
King George Ill, of blessed memory ?"
The stout gentleman turned out to be
an Englishman whom the landlord had
mistaken for an American, ard it was
only a case of a watch that had been 60
ing slower and slower ever since the
year 1776.-LondOn Telegraph.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-09-30
BAD .oI;: g; Ss:S:s ss .-'AC1. I'm.
1T y. W. R1LKY.

Tell you q story-an' it's tac'i-
wunst vus little boy, name wus Jack.
An he had sword an buckle an strap
Made Of gold, an n visible cap;"
An he killed gi'nts at ct whole cows
tn horns an all, en- pigs an sows
But Jack, his golding sword vus, ohi
So awful sharp at he could 20
An cut the ole gi'nfs clean In two
Forey moved whaty was goin' 10 del
An one ole dat, he had four
Heads, and name wus " Bumblebore
An he was feered OF Jack-'oause he,
Jack, he killed sixty-hve-ten-t three,
An all tn utber ole gi'nis but himi
An thay was n place you had 10 swim
Forey could Qit q ole " Bumblebore -
Neu they was griffuns " at the doori
But Jack, he thist plungs d In an swum
Clean acrcst an when he come
Th'uther side he thist put on
. His visible cap" an peu, dog-gonei
You couldn't see him at all and 80
He sewcd the grifuns," boff, you know.
Neu, horn was hunged up over his head
High on tn wall, an words at re.d-
"Wnoever can this trumpet blow
Shall cause the gi'nts overthrow"
An Jack. be thist reached up an blovcd
The siuffin' out OF iti and throwed
tn castul-gntes vide open, an
Nue tueK his gold sword In his hand,
An thist marched In u ole L" Bumblebore.D
An forey knowed, he put bout four
Heads on him and killed him too
wsht at Up been Jack i-don't your
-Indianapolis Journal.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-09-30

A pEcENThY dressed workman came to
photographer recently TO have the por-
trait of his wife taken. While the ope-
rator was arranging the camera the hus-
band thought fit to give some advice to
the companion of his life concerning her
pose. "Think of something serious"
he said. "or else you will laugh and
spoil it. Remember that your father is
in prison, and that your brother has had
to compound with his creditors; and try
to imagine what would have become Of
YOU if had not taken pity upon you.
The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-09-30

j. P. BENJAMIN has arrived in New
York city, after riding on horseback
from Fort Worth, Texas, a distance of
2, 400 miles. He resides in New York,
went to Texas ON business, and made
the trip home on horseback in order to
see the country. He started ON the 10th of
May, and made the journey in ITO days.