davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-01

key, two heavy iron doors swung
open, and we were uShered in. The
room was almost bare, with the ex-
ception OF some glass-topped cases,
such as are used at museums for man
uscripts and objects of interest, which
stood near the walls, and two central
stands, but when the cloths which
covered them were removed the sight
was dazzling. In the side cases was a
collection of tiaras and algretteS and
dendants, In brilliants and rubieS and
pearls. The central stands bore the
crown regalia. The emperors crown,
a huge mass of diamonds of the pur-
est water, surmounted by an extraor-
binary uncut ruby; the empress
crown, somewhat smaller, if possible,
more brilliant, and the scepter,
bearing on its top the cele-
brated LaZardoff diamond, of which
the story is told that it was stolen
from an Indian temple and carried of
concealed in cut in the leg of its
purloiner. Compared with these Mus
covite gems all others that l have
ever looked on are dull and small
One thing in the picture gallery OF
the palace was remarkable, and tha
is the absence of peculiarly Russian
worthless whose portraits covered tn,
walls. There were faces of strictly
English type, Swedish faces in small
number, and German faces in an,
quantity, but Russian faces none, ant
no one could guess that he was sur
rounded by the likenesses of the mel
by whom the great northern powe
had been built up. 1t is very muci
the same to-day. The leading me-
, here are quite different in appearance
from the mass of the people, so dill
] ferent that they might well belong t
another race. They have, many @
them, fine features and noble forms.
The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-01
Twice a Victim.

[Boston correspondent Chicago Inter Ocean,
General Burnside, when young
man, was engaged to young lady of
literary inclinations. now the widow
of Southern lawyer. The matter
progressed so far that she actually
went to the altar with him, but there
changed her mind. The two met only
once after that. 1t was when
she was carrying important dis
pathes to Jefferson Davis. She had
baked a painful of raised biscuits and
hidden the dispatches in them. Hav-
ing been arrested on suspicion, and
knowing that General Burnside had
command of the nearest division Of
the Northern army, she demanded
that she should be taken before him.
He recognized her. She said she was
going to Mobile and wanted a pass.
He hesitated a moment, and then
wrote out the pass in silence and
gave it to her. "Does that contain
your luncheon ?" he inquired, point
ing to a small basket that she carried
in her hand. EYES," LET me see it.
She opened the basket, displaying the
biscuit. "Win you try one, general ?
They are pretty hard" The general
rejected the proffer. and ordered
good dinner for her, and then himself
put her on the cars.
The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-01
The Winter Palace.
ISt. Petersburg Correspondence San Francisc,
Chronicle.l

ISt. Petersburg Correspondence San Francisco
Chronicle
The winter palace is huge build
ing of brown stone and covers a large
area, each of the sides Gt is nearly
square, measuring some $50 feet; but
it is not more than ninety feet high,
and the heavy cornice that forms an
almost unbroken line round the top
still further detracts from the height.
Placed on this cornice is a large
number of statues, which it requires
no great stretch of imagination to
conceive to be persons endeavoring to
escape from destruction by way of
the roof, so jumbled up are they with
the chimneys. The general effect of
the building, which only dates from
1889, would be poor, were it not for
its size, which, to some extent, makes
up for want of architectural grandeur.
The interior is also devoid of any
special architectural features, and
there is no grand staircase. 1t is SIM
ply a huge square box, divided up
into rooms, but some of these are
truly magnificent, and when filled
with the flower of Russian society, as
they are at state receptions during
the winter season, must look grand
indeed. Peters throne room, with
silver chandeliers, red-tinted walls,
and highly-decorated dome; union
hall, with gilded columns: the throne
room, with its massive iron pillars
and gold chandeliers and trophies of
gold and silyer-plate against the walls
and stands sloping up to the very cell
ings, are all imperial apartments in
every sense. The succession of recep-
ton rooms and corridors is also most
although the painting of
battle scenes, where carnage and
rapine are depicted in all their horrors
with a monotony that becomes
almost nauseating, seem to be hardly
adapted for the exclusive adornment
of rooms intended for gay assem-
blages, and they must form a CHASTITY
contrast to bright toilets and glitter
ing jewels and fair, womanly forms.
The visitor is escorted through hall
after hall decorated with almost bar
barrie magnificence, and at each one is
taken under the charge of fresh at
tendant attired in gorgeous imperial
livery. The palace, which at present
is quite unoccupied-as the emperor
resides at another palace some dis
lance up the Newsh prospect-fairly
swarms with servants, who are well
dressed and courteous, and extremely
IDEAS, having apparently nothing else
10 do except TO stand or walk about in |
The empty apartments, which are sell |
1om trodden by any other feet. Here |
md there is to be seen superior of
iceF, in full uniform, evidently in
charge of some part of the building,
md at one point we suddenly came
lpon two Cossack sentinels armed
o the teeth and standing motion
ess on each side Of
doorway. This was the en-
rance to the room containing the
roWn Jewels. Our attendant inserted |
The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-01
Will be Disappointed.
Bolton Journal


Those people who expect that the
extra session of the legislature will
materially reduce the rate of taxa
ton are liable to be SADLY disap-
pointed. If the comptroller's esti-
mate of the probable receipt and ex-
penditures of the government for the
next year are even approximately
correct there is not much hope
of reducing the regular state tax
below fifteen or twenty cents on the
dollar. 1t must be remember. that
in addition to our regular expenses,
the state is spending a good deal of
money for asylums and other public
buildings and that this extra expense
will probably continue for some years
to come. Then to keep the public
free schools open six months in every
year will probably require tax of
ten cents on the hundred dollars. The
Journal does not undertake to
say that taxes may not be reduced be-
low these rates, but it is Of the opin-
ion that under existing circumstances
it will be impossible to make as
sweeping reductions as many people
expect. No doubt the legislature will
reduce taxes to the lowest point con-
sistent with public policy, and it is
equally clear that many will be dis
appointed at the smallness of the re-
duction.
The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-01
Fence Cutting.

Editor of the Statesman.
GEORGETOWN, Tex, Oct. %, 1888.
In your issue of the 23d inst. was a
special from Centerfit in regard to
the cutting of the pasture fence of
Brooks & Standifer. And since there
is disposition, on the part of many,
to excuse such outrages on the plea
of self-defense, we would like for the
public, and especially our friends to
know, the facts in the case The
pasture is small one, only contain
ing about 2600 acres, all of which is
our individual property. No public
road runs through it, yet we have put
up five gates on the neighborhood
! roads, to our own inconvenience, but
for the accommodation of our neigh
bors. We have never allowed any of
our stock to run upon the outside
range. No one has been deprived of
water nor fenced in from the common
range. Yet for all this Jour fence has
been cut down twice since it was
built in August last. We are law
abiding citizens and only ask the
peaceable possession of our lawful
property. The authorities and the
laws of the land have proved them
selves wholly incapable of affording
any protection. Our property is de
stroyed and we are left without any
redress. G. W. BROOKS.
The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-01
Superstitious Mormon Women.
lChionr.., rIH,.sl,...,.a


A CHASTITY burial ceremony that is
practiced by the Mormons rivets the
hold polygamy has on the supersti-
ton of these creatures. Every wife
that is buried has black cloth laid
on her face, and the Mormon women
are taught to believe that on the
resurrection day, when the righteous
are called into the joys of their Lord,
no hand but that of husband can re-
cloth is lifted by his hand she must
remain in utter darkness forever. A
woman who believes that-and the
Mormon women believe it-can't
help behaving herself no matter how
many wives her husband takes. She
has to keep on the right side of the
only man who can take off that cloth.
The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-01
The AStOrs.

Only a few generations ago they
were butchers, selling meat to any
one who wanted to buy it; now they
are considered the most exclusive
family in New York. The Astors, by
the way, will celebrate the centen-
NAL of the arrival of the first Astor
in New York some time next month.
Old John Jacob Astor came over
here from Germany a hundred years
ago and set up butcher shop in the
Bowery, where he made great deal
of money. The brothers of
this original Astor were musi-
cal instrument makers, and when
the famous John Jacob started in the
fur business in New York he had mu-
steal instruments as one of the depart
mentS of his trade. Between flutes
and furs he made about quarter Of a
million dollars in sixteen years. They
were real merchants in those days and
owned their own ships, and Mr.. Astor
used to load his vessels with furs and
send them to London; from London
they would go to China and return to
New York with cargo of teas. 1t is
said that he often netted as much as
$4,000 on a single importation of
that article. The greater part
of his money, however, was made
by judiciouS investment in real estate.
The Asters bought property up town
when other people were buying below
Canal street. l believe they own as
many as eight hundred houses in the
most thickly populated uptown dis
tristricts. Most of their houses are
built of a grayish yellow stone, and
q 70 N
Astor home is now on Madison ave.
nue-at least that is where William B.
Astor, the senior member of the fami-
ly, resides-and is of the same colored
stone asI the tenement houses. Over
the front entrance is a glass and
stone enclosure devoted to flowers,
which breaks the monotony of the
stone walls and gives it very pretty
appearance from the street. Mr.. Will
liam B. Astor looks every inch the
millionaire. He is not pretty, but he
is distinguished looking, is tall and
stout. with a rudy compexion and
close-cropped mustache, and longish
side-whiskers that grow straight
down from the ears. But Mr.. Astor
is very much afraid of getting too
stout, and'he used to walk all the way
from his Office, which was in
the lower part of the. city-Prince
street, 1 think-up to his house on
Madison avenue. This is about the
only exercise that most of the New
Y ork men get. They dislike walking
for walking's sake, but will walk up
or down town once a day as a sort of
duty. 1 fancy they find it necessary,
because these bankers and brokers
are high livers, and if they do not
take some exercise are very apt to be
visited with ills that come from
high living. The wealth of the As
tor family now is said to amount to
$50O00,000 apiece for William and
John Jacob, the two eldest. John
Jacob has but one son, William w.
Astor. familiary known as Willie, the
present United States minister to
Rome.
The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-01
Military Notes.

Conformably to A. r. $50, Second
Lieutenant John Newton, 10Th in
fantry, will be governed by the sub
pGna, dated September 81, 1883, to ap-
pear at a term of the United States
district court of the second judicial
district of the territory of Wyoming,
to be holden in Laramie City, on the
9Th day of November, 1883.
Lieutenant j. G. Leefe, 18th infantry,
will be governed by the subpoena,
dated September 81, 1883, to appear at
term of the United States district
court OF the second judicial district of
the territory of Wyoming, to be
holden in Laramie City, on the 9th
day of November, 1883.
First Lieutenant F. E. Phelps,
Eighth cavalry, and First Lieutenant
T. W. Jones, Tenth cavalry, having
reported at these headquarters under
paragraph 8, special orders No. PA
current series, headquarters depart
ment of the Missouri, will return to
their proper station.
The travel is necessary for the pub
| lie service.
The commanding officer Fort Clark,
| IeXaS, Will select, and order to Fort
Davis, Texas, for temporary duty, one
enlisted man, familiar with the pa
| pers and duties of the subsistence de-
partment.
The commanding officer Fort Stock.
ton, Texas, will select, from the in.
fantry at that post, two enlisted men
and order them to Fort Davis, Texas
for temporary duty in the subsistence
department thereat.
| The uartermaster's department will
furnish transportatiOn to their respec
tive stations, for the members of the
department rifle team, now at the post
| of San Antonio, Texas.
Recruits Charles Anderson, enlisted
and Robert Douglassi re-enlisted, by
the recruiting officer at San Antonio
Texas, are assigned to company G
Sixteenth infantry.
Recruit Victor Johanson, enlisted
by the recruiting officer at San Anto
nio, Texas, is assigned to light battery
F, Third artillery.
Recruit John A. Smith, re-enlistet
by the recruiting officer at San Anto
MO, Texas, is assigned to troop G
| Eighth cavalry.
The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-01
STATE NEWS REPERTORY.

A deposit of very rich phosphates
has been discovered near Selma, Ala.
Some very rich mica mines have
just been opened in Mitchell county,
N. c.
The South Florida railroad will be
completed as far as Tampa before
Christmas.
The first colored jurors were sworn
in the Sumpter (Ga) supreme court
last week.
Senator Butler, of South Carolina,
is going to convert his cotton planta-
ton on the Savannah in grass and
horse farm, and is now in New Eng
land buying stock for beginning.
The crop of honey for the present
season at New Smyrna, Fla, amounted
to $50 barrels.
Last week is said to have been the
hottest weather for October ever ex-
perienced in Florida.
People are beginning to cultivate
the Japanese persimmon on the west
coast of Florida.
The fair just over at Huntsville,
Ala, is the most successful one they
have had for te0 years.
Ex-Gov. Brown, of Georgia, is to get
$4,000 per year as president of the
Florida ship canal.
The fair of the Stock Breeders asso-
citation was held in Meridian, Miss,
commencing October II.
By the Mississippi overflow of last
year Louisiana claims to have been
damaged to the extent of $60,OO0OOO.
Mayor Fannin, of Apalachicola,
Fla, has invented a cotton tie for
which has been offered S100,000by a
Baltimore firm.
The last census of Alabama shows
an aggregate gain of 1921 white,
1891 colored voters in the last decade
that cannot read or write.
W. j. Barlow, of Live Oak, Fla, is
102 years old. His father lived to
the age of log. and his grandfather,
it is said, was 1875 years old when he
died.
About fifteen miles south of Troy,
Alabama, it is said there are about
twenty acres of forest trees in a body
wilted and dead from the effects of
the drouth.
Three years ago dozen houses and
a small frame depot building consti-
tuted Big Lick station, fifty miles
southeast of Lynchburg, Va. To-day
the same place has 5000 inhabitants.
The fossil tooth found in Alabama
recently is declared by Judge Law
renee johnson, of the United States
Geological survey, to be the molar of
the primative elephant of America.
The Chattanooga Times says that
the number of Mormon converts made
in the South this year is about 1000.
They will meet in that city on the 10th
or 18th of November, and will start
from there for their homes in Utah.
j. F. and J. G. Kirby lay claim to
PAL acres of land, including most of
the land on which the Arkansas side
of Texarkana is built. The deeds are
filed under an old swamp land grant,
and it is understood that suit for pos
session will be begun.
The assractive winter resort for
wealthy tourists at Homosassa, on the
Yulee plantation, Florida, kept for
many years by Mr.. A. p. Jones, has
been lately destroyed by fire. Many
fine orange trees near the burnt build
ing are scorched and ruined.
The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-01
Another Gomez.

A very large comet has made its
appearance, and will soon be visible to
the naked eye in Austin. Prof. Carp
mael Ecaught glimpse the other
night of this new comet; but, as 1t
was only a few minutes in an opening
in the cloudy sky, time was not af-
forded for measurements of bright
ness and dimensions. Prof. Carpmael
says the nucleus was not well defined,
but tail was perceptible apparently
which was discovered September 8 BY
The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-01

Mrs. John Russell Young, wife of the
minister to China. died at the Hotel
de Able, in Paris, October %. She
left Pekln in April last for Paris, in
the hope that a change of climate
would benefit her health, which began
to fail soon after her arrival in China,
and to secure the best of medical at
tendance. She was a niece and
adopted daughter of the late Gov.
Jewell, of Connecticut, and was mar
RED to Minister Young April %, 1882.
She leaves one child, born in Paris in
August last.
The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-01

They are building in the Delaware
and Hudson Canal company's Green
Island shops snow plow twenty-nine
feet long by ten feet wide and ten
feet six inches high. 1t will require
four locomotives to push it.
There has been added to the collec-
ton in Lady Brassey's case at the
Fisheries Exhibition, London, cask
containing the eighty-four guineas
which were in Lord n elson's pocket at
the time he received his fatal wound
at Trafalgar.
The Minnesota Methodist minis
ters' conference, by close vote, re-
solved that the time has come for all
friends of prohibition to cast their
ballots for only such parties and can
didates as are unequiyocally COM
mitted to the utter determination of
the liquor traffic by the power of the
law.
Only half the number of trains
enter and leave Paris stations that
enter and leave London ones. Two
thousand two hundred trains enter
and leave London each day. OF these
there are only sixty-eight which do
not carry third-class passengers. In
Paris there are ITO trains which do
not carry third class.
The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-01
Rice and Beans.

Half the people of the world live al
most exclusively upon rice. 1t con
tains lightweight per cent of nutri-
ment, while roast beef contains but
twenty-six.
There are countries where the al
most exclusive diet of the masses is
beans; these contain eighty-seYen pei
cent of nutriment.
The dense and cheapest for the
dense populations OF Asiatic countries
therefore, is rice; and since, from the
general poverty of the people, varie'
ties of food are out of the question
bounteous nature has given them
more freely that kind which is among
the most nutritious of all foods. With
the rest of the world, rice is more of a
side-dish, and is served most frequent
ly in the form of pudding.
We venture to assert that when the
cost, the percentage of nutriment and
the wholesomeness of beans are con-
sidered, there is not in the world a
single article of food that can compare
with them. There is no other vegeta-
BILE food that answers so well as sub
stitute for meats. While they have so
much to recommend them in other re-
spects, they have no rival in economy,
A quart of beans, costing ten cents,
will furnish a family of five persons
with food for a day.
Much of the value of beans as food
depends on the manner of cooking. 1t
would be difficult to cook them too
much. They should be first boiled I'M
til soft, and then put into baking
dish and baked until they are brown.
A little salt pork or butter, but not
enough to make them taste greasy,
should be put in the baking pan, and
cooked with them. If beans are not
thoroughly COOKE they are difficult
of digestion; still there is not one
hotel or restaurant in thousand that
serves them sufficiently cooked; and,
as rule, it is not well to call for
them in such places; but at home,
when prepared under the supervision
of a good cook, they make a dish
that is wholesome and palatable.-
Halls Journal of Health.
The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-01

The French ministry of public
works has drawn up an account of
the number of accidents upon French
railways during 1881. There were IS
accidents to trains out of a total of
1874, 227 journeys performed and 49,
1887 travellers carried. Of these %
passengers were killed and 282 woun-
ded, or proportion of l traveller
killed out of 7,189,184, and ! wounded
out of 637, S89. The return does not
include persons killed or wounded
through their own carelessness or the
accidents to railroad employees.
The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-01
SATURDAY.
LAND pEPARTNTENT.

The land board, at a meeting yester-
day, adopted resolution declaring
the scohol, university and asylum
lands to be now upon the market, sub
ject to applications for buying or
leasing.
The board also adopted resolution
referring all claims of actual settlers,
under section five of the land law, to
the land commissioner for his deci-
sion.
Various forms for applications
drawn up by the secretary of the
board, Mr.. Lawrence, in accordance
with the new plan of the board for
sale and lease of the school, university
The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-01

If nominated for president Blaine
would probably run on his war record,
which consists in rushing down from
Maine to Washington; on the break
ing out of the rebellion, and getting
from the war department profitable
gun contract. This would do to fall
back on in case his congressional rec
ord should be too closely sifted.