davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-06
Curiosities Of the Earth.

At the city of Medina Italy, and
about four miles round it, wherever
the earth is dug, when the workmen
arrive at distance of sixty-three
feet they come to bed of chalk,
which they bore with an auger five
feet deep. They then withdraw
from the pit before the auger is re-
moved and upon its extraction the
water bursts through the aperture
with great violence, and quickly fills
the newly made well, which contin-
ues full, and is affected by neither
rain nor drouth. But what is the
most remarkable in the operation il
the layer of earth as we descend.
At the depth Of fourteen feet are
found the ruins of an ancient city
paved streets, houses, floors and diff
ferent pieces of mason work. I'm
der this is found a soft, cosy earth
made up of vegetables, and twenty
six feet large trees, with the wal
nuts still sticking to the stem, and
the leaves and branches in a perfect
state of preservation. At twenty
eight feet soft chalk is found
mixed with vast quantity
of shells, and the bed is two feel
thick. Under this vegetables arr
found again.
The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-06
Nav Chiffon.

There is beautiful tradition
that the first foot which passed the
snow.clad rock of Plymouth was
that of May Chiffon, a fair young
maiden; and that the last survivor
of those heroic pioneers was May
Allerton, who lived to see the plant
ing of twelve out Of the thirteen
colonies which formed the nucleus
of the United States. In the May
flower eighteen wives accompanied
their husbands to a waste land, and
uninhabited save by the willy and
vengeful savage.
On the unfoored hut, she, who
had been nurtured amid the rich
carpets and daperies Of the mother
land, rocked her newborn babe, and
complained not.
She, who in the home of her youth
had arranged the gorgeous shade,
of embroidery, compounded the
rich venison PARTLY as her share OF
the housekeeping now pounded the
coarse Indian corn for her chill
dren's bread and bade them ask
Gods blessing ere they took theil
scanty portions. When the SHOWS
shifted through their miserable roofs
upon the little ones, she gathered
the closer to her bosom; she taught
them the evening prayer and holy
hymn, though the war-hoop of the
Indian rang through the wild
Amid the untold hardships of colo
NAL life she infused new strength
| into her husband by her firmness,
and solaced his weary hours by hei
love.
The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-06
The Weeyil.

A correspondent writes: 81 have OBJ.
served of late numerous complaints of
the difficulty of guarding pea and bean
seed from the weevil. Your subscriber
has found an effectual remedy, and
gives it for the benefit of those seeking
such. After harvesting, dry thorough
ly in the sun, and aftervard place in
cans, jars or barrels that have been
thoroughly heated before The fire, place
ing in each vessel q bottle of turpen~
tine, not corking the bottle. but simply
tying a piece of cloth over its mouth.
Cover the vessel as air tight as possi-
BILE, and afterwards expose to the sun
occasionally. The fumes of the tur-
pentine engendered by the heat kills
the egg of the weevil deposited in the
seed when it is green. This is an eff
fectual remedy, and should be known
to all seed growers North or South.
The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-06
The Wife.

A delicate attention to the minute
wants and wishes of a wife tends,
perhaps, more than anything else to
the promotion of domestic hap
piness. 1t requires no sacrifices,
occupies but small degree of at
tention, yet is the fertile source of
bliss; since it convinces the object
of your regard that, with the duties
of husband, you have united the
most punctilious behavior of a low
er. The trivial tokens of regard
certainly make much way in the
affections of a woman of sense and
discernment, who looks to the value
of the gifts she receives, but per-
ceives in their frequency a contin-
ued evidence of the existence and
ardor of that love on which the su-
perstructure of her happiness has
been erected. To preserve unim-
paired the affections of her asso-
ciate, to convince him that his judg-
ment of her character, formed ante
cedently to marriage. he was neith-
er blinded by partiality nor deluded
by artifice, will be the study of ev-
| cry woman who consults her own
happiness and the rules of Christian
duty. The strongest attachment
will decline, if it suspects that it is
received with diminished warmth
The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-06
Social Honor.

Every person should cultivate a
nice sense of honor. In a hundred
different ways this most fitting ad-
junct of the true lady or gentleman
is often tried. For instance, one is
guest of family where, perhaps,
the domestic machinery does not
move smoothly. There is sorrow
in the house, unsuspected by the
outer world. Sometimes it is a dis
slpated son, whose conduct is a
shame and grief to his parents:
sometimes a relative whose eccen-
tricities are a cloud on the home. Or
worst of all, husband and wife may
not be in accord, and there may be
often bitter words spoken and harsh
recrimations. In any of these cases
the guest is in honor bound to be
blind and deaf, so far as people
without are concerned. If a gentle
word within can do any good, it
may be said; but to go forth and re-
veal the shadow of an unhappy Sc
cret to any one, even your nearest
friend, is an act of indelicacy and
meanness unparalleled. Once in
the secret precints of any home, ad-
mittted to its privacy, sharing its
life, all that you see and hear is a
sacred trust. 1t is really as con
temptible to gossip of such things
as it would be to steal their silver
or borrow their books and forget to
return them home.
The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-06
1iferary.
Memory.
BY JAMES A. GARFIELD.

This little poem from the pen of the late
President, was written before his first term
in Congress-hence some twenty years ago
! At that time possibly the President of a
Christian college was the Summit where
the sunbeams fell,' but the last lines are all
but phrophecy.
'Tis beauteous night the stars look bright
ly down
Upon the earth, decked in her robe of snow.
No light CLEANS at the window, save my
own,
Which gives its cheer 10 midnight and to
| me.
And now, with noiseless step, sweet memo
| ry comes
And leads me gently through her twilight
realms.
What poets tuneful Tyre has ever sung,
| Or delicate pen eer portrayed,
The enchanted, shadowy land where MEM
ory dwells?
| 1t has its valleys, cherries, lone and drear,
Dark shaded by the mournful cypress tree;
And yet its sunlit mountain tops are bathed
In Heavens own blue. Upon its craggy
cliffs,
Robed in the dreamy light Of distant years,
Are clustered joys serene OF other days.
Upon its gentle, sloping hillsides bend
| The weeping willows DER the sacred dust
OF dear departed ones; and yet in that land,
Where'er our footsteps fall upon the shore,
They that were sleeping rise from out the
dust
OF deaths long, silent years, and around us
stand,
As erst they did before the prison tomb
Received their clay within its voiceless
halls.
The heavens that bend above that land are
hung
With clouds of various hues. Some dark
and chill,
Surcharged with sorrow, cast with sombre
shade
Upon the sunny, joyous land below.
Others are floating through the dreamy air,
White as the falling snow, their margins
tinged
With gold and crimsoned hues; their shad-
ows fall
Upon the Aowery meads and sunny slopes,
Soft as the shadow of an angels wing.
When the rough battle of he..day is done,
And evenings peace falls gently on the
heart,
bound away, across the noisy years,
Unto the utmost verge of memory's land,
Where earth and sky in dreamy distance
meet,
And memory dim with dark oblivion joins,
Where woke the first remembered sounds
that fell
Upon the ear in childhood's early morn;
And, wandering thence along the rolling
years,
1 see the shadow of my former self
Gliding from childhood up to mans estate.
The path of youth winds down through
many vale,
And on the brink of many dread abyss,
From out whose darkness comes no ray OF
light,
Save that phantom dances DER the gulf
And beckons toward the verge. Again the
path
Leads DER the summit where the sunbeams
fall;
And thus in light and shade, sunshine and
Sorrow and joy, the life-path leads along.
The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-06
farm and gonsetold.
Small Farms and Big Crops

|
Twenty years ago the State of Mis-.
sippi, always famous for it's cotton
yield, contained about forty thousand
plantations. averaging three hundred
and seventy acres each; now she has
nearly twice as many, but the average
size is only half that of 1860. The nuns
Der of acres is less than in 1860, for
scarcely any rough land has been clear
ed and some plantations have been in>
jured by broken levees, and yet the cot
ton crop is about twice as large as it
was in the good old times. No better
proof could be wanted to establish the
desirabilisy Of decreasing the size of
farms and increasing the number Of
owners; ; but the lesson should be learn,
ed elsewhere as well as in the South.
Whole counties in the United States
are wretchedly poor because every farm~
er is trying to handle quarter sec>
tion'-one hundred and sixty acres
with only enough capital and working
force to properly till quarter as much
soil. A farmer with two poor horses,
two bad plows, boy or two or a hired
man, can get no more money out OF o
hundred and sixty acres of land than
from forty, but year after year he will
try to do it and succeed only in getting
poorer. The big farms of California
have been the subject of much envious
talk, but the class of California farm
ers, aside from capitalists. that make
most money is composed of the men
who have clustered in colonies where
scarcely a single estate exceeds iorty
acres. Any poor farmer with large
farm would be better off if he were even
to give away half his land. for then he
would be compelled to restrict him"
self to space that conld not yield him
less, if worked at all, and would not put
his pocket and muscle to the ruinous
strain that now they are enduring.
The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-06
Cultivated Tastes.

That it is misfortune not to be
able to appreciate flowers, music or
paintings, in their joy giving sense,
is fact not to be denied. A friend
of ours rather practical, determined
to correct her own defects in hel
children; she and her husband were
very practical in their nature. hav-
ing very little love or taste for flow
ers, music, or poetry, and like a SEN
sible woman she realized their de-
feet, and earnestly wished to coun-
teract it in her children. Hence
she improved every opportunity to
carry out this idea, even commenc-
ing to train them from the cradle,
striving to make their surroundings
tasteful and beautiful. The result
was entirely satisfactory, and the
older children, now young men and
women, exhibit not alone the strong
sense of their parents, but also pos
sess the charm of cultivated taste
and manners.
The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-06
Me Greside
The SIX Doves.

When Jimmy was seven years old
his father gave him six pretty doves
for birthday gift. Jimmy put
them III a large box in the yard,
and sent for all the boys he knew to
come and see them.
For q time the doves had very
good care; Jimmy fed them every
day, and they would eat corn from
his hand. But he soon grew tired
of caring for his pets. Winter
came on, and he did not like to go
out into the cold to give the doves
food and water.
One day he did not go to feed
them because it showed. The next
day he went to a SNOWFALL fight, and
did not get home until dark. He
ate his supper and went to bed,
thinking he would feed his doves
early the next morning. But he
forgot all about it until nearly noon
then the cook said she had no stale
bread to spare for the doves.
Jimmy went TO his mother and
asked her for five cents to buy some
corn for them. His mother gave
him the money, and he ran off to
buy the corn. But on his way he
passed a candy store, and the candy
looked so nice he felt that he must
have some of it. So he spent the
five cents for gum-drops.
Then he went to play with anoth-
er boy and did not get home until
dark. He was afraid his mother
would ask him if he had bought the
corn; so he went to bed as soon as
he could. The next morning he
got some bread from the cook, and
went to feed his doves. He opened
the door of the box, but the doves
did not come out. He looked in
and saw two of them lying dead on
the floor of the box. They had
starved to death, and were quite
cold and stiff. The other four doves
were too weak to eat the bread, and
they all died that night. o, how
sorry Jimmy was that he had spent
the five cents on candy for himself
His mother sent him to bed with.
out any supper, that he might know
what it was to be hungry. Jimmy
cried until he fell asleep. But he
learned a good lesson; for he never
neglected another pet.
The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-06
Womanly Modesty

Man loves the mysterious. A
cloudless sky and the full-blown
rose leaves him unmoved; but the
violet which hides its blushing
beauties behind the bush, and the
moon when emerging from behind
a cloud, are to him sources of in
spiration and of pleasure. Modesty
is to merit what shade is to figure
in painting-it gives boldness and
prominence. Nothing adds more to
female beauty than modesty. 1t
sheds around the countenance a
halo of light that is borrowed from
virtue. Botanists have given the
rosy hue which tinges the cup of
the white rose the name of "maiden
blush" This pure and delicate
hue is the only paint Christian vir-
tue should use. 1t is the richest
ornament. A woman without mod
esty is like a faded flower diffusing
an unwholesome odor, which the
prudent gardener will throw from
him. Her destiny is melancholy,
for it terminates in shame aad re-
pentance. Beauty passes like the
flowers, which bloom and die in a
few hours; but modesty gives the
female charms which supply the
place of transitory freshness OF
youth.
The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-06
A New Use for Coal Oil.

The American Cultivator says there
is a world of comfort to be derived from
the use of coal oil as a cleanser Of the
working mans stained hands. House,
hold work naturally causes the skin to
roughen and crack; into these intersti-
ces the smut and grim of kettle wash
ing and stove blacking often insinuate
themselves, causing them to look har-
dened and unclean after the most thors
ough washing with soap and water. No
woman, young or old, likes this, and
almost all women object to the rough
grimmy look of the hands far more
than to doing the work itself. A way
to prevent this evil is to fill an old bowl
half full with kerosene oil, then fill up
with water, and when the hands are dis
colored and soiled by rough work, be-
fore washing them dip the fingers in
the bowl and rub them in the usual
way, and the darkened skin will be eff
fectually freed from soil and CRIME;
then wash in soap and hot water until
the smell of the oil is removed. An
other new use for coal oil is in cleans
ing recently used paint brushes. By
soaking the brush in oil it can easily
be cleaned with soap and hot water, as
the paint readily mixes with the oil and
so loosens it that 1t is readily removed
by the application of softssoap and wa>
ter. Paint brushes, it is said, will not
harden and dry up if left standing in O
dish of kerosene.
The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-06
VOL. 1T.--NO. 8.
Grains of Gold.

A mans dress should not be re
markable.
A formal call is long if it last
over half an hour.
When mans temper gets the
best of him it reveals the worst Of
him.
To manage men one must have O
sharp mind concealed in a velvet
sheath.
There is no book which is quite
so good as a good biography of a
good man.
The thing that makes young peo-
pie strong is moral courage to do
right.
A weak mind. like microscope,
magnifnes trifles, and cannot re
ceive great things.
Ceremonies are different in ev-
cry country, but true politeness is
everywhere the same.
Resolve to perform just what you
ought; and perform without fail
Just what you resolve.
Advice to lovers: Give undivi-
ded allegiance-you can not love
two at once.
It's poor use of the past to let
its remembrances unfit us for the
duties of the present.
He who has no home has not the
sweetest pleasures of life, and most
comforts are lacking to him.
Anything in creation is sufficient
to demonstrate Providence to an
humble and grateful mind.
All the real difficulty of life is
concentrated in the first step of
those who behave well and do their
duty.
The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-06
u.ha Women of the South.

The question is, not whether the
women in the South shall be made
to work, but whether they shall be
allowed to work. There is no COM
pulsion about it. Southern women
are not averse to labor any further
than the traditions and practices OF
the past make them so. The be-
reayements and misfortunes OF the
war have produced all over the
South shining examples OF women
who, by their intelligence, industry
and enterprise, have rescued them-
selves and their families from pow
erty and dependence, and become
conspicuous in quiet way in the
task of founding a new economy
for their section; and when the false
old idea that women ought not be
permitted to work for their living
shall be completely abandoned, the
South while producing a race Of
women no less noble and virtuous
than their grandmothers, will
brighten with the increased wealth
and comforts produced by these
womcn's hands.
The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-06
How and Where Globes are Made

1t is fact not known, perhaps,
by many readers that Troy is one OF
the largest and best producers OF
school and library globes in the
country. The manufacture was be-
gun in this city in 1852. At first a
ball five inches in diameter was
made, but ten-inch terrestrial
globe was soon added. The list of
sizes was rapidly increased. The
balls are made in Boston, but the
appendages are supplied and the
globes mounted and shipped in this
city, where are owned the plates from
which the maps are printed.
Globe-making is skillful and
delicate process. The maps are
printed in small sections on English
drawing paper, and these segments
must be so nicely put upon the hol-
low ball of paper mache that there
shall not the slightest break in the
alignment of letters or the continui-
ty of lines when the smooth and
painted surface is complete. Three
months are required to construct
one of these worlds in miniature
from the time that the ball is begun
until it rests in Its frame or sits aloft
upon brass, bronze or nickel stan
dard. And it must be so trimmed
and mounted that it will have no
disclination to change its inclina-
tion in the frame and will hang so
truly in space that it will halt in
it's revolution at any time when so
commanded and remain motionless,
as if it's center of gravity were in
truth equally distant from all points
upon the circumference. If the
globe refuse to rest with any other
country than America on top, the
maker will be deemed more patriots
ic than skillful. The sizes manu-
featured for general use range from
three to thirty inches in diameter,
and from $2Ito 1925 in price, and
are mounted in forty different styles.
The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-06
How to Keep Sweet Potatoes,

Almost every one who has raised a
crop of this esoulent, has best meth
Cd for their preservation. 1t is un--
questionabIy true that thousands of
bushels are every year lost because of
their not being dug at the proper time
and correctly treated afterward. The
following method has proved successes
full in time past and should in future,
Dig as many as you can care for on the
day they are dug, permitting them to
remain in the sun to dry, provided the
sun is not too hot, and place them on a
piece of ground that will not become
wet during winter. Have from fifty to
sixty bushels in the bank; cover it with
straw, cornstalks or something of the
kind, about q foot thick, leaving to
sweat for two or three days. The sweat
ing process is one the potatoes must
undergo. During this time they must
be protected from rain. Cover with
earth to the depth of sixteen or eigh-
teen inches, and the work is done. Per-
sons who have tried this method say
they have not lost potato. 1t is not
best to dig Immediately after a rain,
but if compelled to do so, the sweating
process should be closely watched.
The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-06
Female Society.

What is it that makes all those
men who associate habitually with
women superior to others who do
not? What makes that woman who
is accustomed to, and at ease in, the
society of men, superior to her sex
in general? Solely because they are
in the habit of free, graceful contin-
ued conversations with the other
sex. Women in this way loose their
frivolity, their faculties AWAKEN,
their delicacies and popularity un-
fold all their beauty and captiva-
ton in the spirit of intellectual ri
valry. And the men lose their pc
dantic, rude, declammatory or sui
len manner. Their asperities are
rubbed off, their better materials
polished and frightened, and Their
richnesf pgold, is wrought into
finer ', ship by the fingers Of
won.,,a it ever could be by
thos@ The iron and steeI
of thel acter and armor of q
giant, by studs and knots of gold
and precious stones, when they are
not wanted in actual warfare.
The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-06
The Christian, The Man of One
Idea.

This expression may sound
strange, 1t may appear to many
as bad philosophy. Some may say,
Why this will make monomaniac
of the Christian. Nevertheless,
the proposition is correct one. l
know of no higher human standard
i know of none whose praise is
now greater in all the churches than
a man who once lived, but dead
long since and now with God. l
know of none whose Christian life
you or l could more safely initiate,
than this same man, who "deter-
termined not to know anything, save
Jesus Christ, and him crucified." !"
The power of God and the wisdom
of God is in it.
The man who has this one idea
may be called an enthusiast. Be if
so; he has a divine enthusiasm, and
his one idea is as vast and compre-
hensive as are the eternal years.
Would to God that every Christian
were such an enthusiast. Then we
should have more energetic school
teachers-we should have crowded
churches, and we should have well
filled treasures for all benevolent
and Christian purposes. Men of
the world with but one idea, are
selfish; but a lover of the Master
with one idea, is generous and his
heart full of love. With him, ''to
live is Christ, to die is gam" He
sees world lying in wickedness,
rushing headlong to hell. Merciful
God, how can he withhold his pray
ers, his tears or his warning voice,
and thus by precept and by exam
pie entreat sinners to flee from the
wrath to come? Christian friend.
has "Christ and him crucified" ia
ken full possession of your soul?
Have you but the one idea, that idea
Christ, vast as eternity! Remem-
ber, we cannot be too particular In
our Christian life, for we serve q
particular God.