davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-04-02
EleDhants of the Past and Present.

"Thcrc were white elephants in this
country r%unnin. wild once" says an
elephant authority. GLOW 50! Merely
because white elephants occur wherever
other elephants do, and 1000 years ago,
more or less, this country had its herds
that roamcd over the land just us buiTa-
lOcs do now. There's not il State that
their remains haven't been found in.
Here in New Jersey they have been
found, seven or eight in the same bog,
where they had probably rushed in fer.
The positions in which they were found
showed that they struggled hard to get
out. In Connecticut, near New Britain,
il skeleton was discovered some time
ago that was three feet higher than
Jumbo. Another has been found on
the mountains in Vermont, and the finest
skeleton was umcarthrd in Ncwburgh
and placed in the museums ut Boston.
According TO Professor Dana, it, measure
mcnts are: Height, eleven feet; length
to the base of the tail, seventeen feet /:
tuskS, twelve feet long, two and Il half
feet being inserted in the sockets. When
alive the height must have been twelve
or thirteen feet, and the length. adding
seven feet for the tu>k>. twcnty-four or
twenty-five feet.
I'm the State museum ut Albany YOU
will find Il fine elephant that out iumbo>
Jumbo. People have tried to prove that
it was buried by Il Snowman, but the
skeleton was taken from an ancient pot
hole by Professor james Hall. the eminent
State ycoiogist, and before it was dis
covered there was blasting, and several
thousand loads of rock and gravel were
taken out. Nearly all the timber found
in the hole had been gnawcG by beavers.
and as this VAS ut COlloCs. where the
beavers are rather scarce to-day. 1t is
natural to suppose that the great Gle
plant dropped in IL good many years
ago.
There were Il good many different
kinds Of elephants in those days, all of
gigantic size. The mammoth WAS as
large Us any, and roamcd ovcr or North
crn shores, several other kinds finding
their way us far down as Mississippi.
One elephant had legs ten feet long, and
a body twice the size of .Iumbo's, and
its tusks turned down instead of up. 1t
probably lived in the water and hauled
itself out by using these weapons as
hooks. In India at this time there were
eight or ten different kinds, from giants
with very small heads and tusks fourteen
feet long, going down to Il very sharp
point, to others that were mere pigmics,
and had long hair. These lived high up
in the mountains, and have IL modern
representative. The very smallest lived
ut Malta, and were scarcely over three
feet in height.
among the hairy elephants there
were all tints and hucs. Some were
black, others were gray, grizzly white,
red, yellow, etc. All this is known, as
pieces of their hair and hide have been
found. The elephants are going fast.
There are only swo kinds lcft-thc Afri-
can and Asiatic-and in fifty years, if
Africa and Asia arc opened up as they
promise to be, they will be entirely
wiped out of existence. "-New York Sun.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-04-02
Frozen Fish Coming to Life

so you never heard of keeping a fish
alive for Il month out Of water? Well,
it's IL fact all the same. cause I've done il
myself" Frank, Il w%ell-known fisher
man who drags his living out Of the Mis-
sisippi not many miles above the city,
was talking to a reporter about his ex'
%pcricnce on the river. They were both
in Il resort much frcquentcd by men Of
his craft, and Frank was contcntcdly
sucking his pipe and toasting his shin,
before q rcd-hot stove. "Whcn old
Peter told me that such Il thing could be
done l laughed at him, and was just
about to call him n liar, but he looked
dangerous like, and l did not do it,
We were taking lunch, and offered tc
bet him two cam of oysters to one that
he couldn't keep q fish alive out of water
for a day. 1t was very cold and he took
mt up. The next morning he caught {
good sized buffalo. and almost before he
had him well ont of the water there was
Il skin Of ice over him, and in a little
while he was frozen rs hard rs Il rock,
l was having lots of fun laughing at him,
but the next morning he slapped him in
the water. 1t took the fish Il little while
to thaw, but just as soon as he began tc
warm up he began to move, and in
an hour he was lively as any of them.
I've kept a fish frozen for eight days this
winter and then brought him to life again
in water. I've done it many a time, but
it has to be cold enough to freeze him
quick, and you must not let him freeze
himsclf."-&. Louiy P1st-D ispatch.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-04-02
Petitions in Congress.

The Washington correspondent of the
Philadelphia record says concerning the
reception and treatment of petitions in
Congress:
Petitions from the people who choose
to exercise their glorious constitutional
right to forward them are treated rather
unccrcmoniously in the House of Repre-
scntativcS. 1t took so much valuable
time to present them in the course of the
days business that i year or two ago a
little walnut box a foot square was nailed
up at the clerks desk and labeled "Pc-
tition box" and the rules were SO
amended that petitions have to be
placed in it.. At the close of Inc day
they arc quietly taken out and pigeon
holcd in the committees having cognl-
zancc of their subject matter. In the
! Senate they arc still introduced with
the old formality. Sometimes the Sen
ator presenting them makes a little
speech abont them, as Mr.. Blair,
of New ..sSire, dit-Aa- resent
ing the petition &C 1000 or 3,00o resi-,
dents of this city asking that the sale OF
intoxicating liquors be prohibited in the
District of Columbia. lie also sue
cccdcd in getting in quite a long state
mcnt of the success Of prohibition III
Kansas. Altogether he got two columns
and more of the Congressional Rcord
for his petitions. These petitions were
followed by dozens of like character
from all over the country. They were
all nicely wrapped in brown-rcd paper
and tied with white ribbons. Of course,
| they had been sent out all over the coun-
try by the central committee of the
Womcn's Christian Temperance union
for SIGNATURES. That is the only way to
make these petitions at all impressive to
Congress. A single petition gets no con-
sidcration at all. Neither do half Il
Dozen, but 100 attra:t attention. SO
every movement has its petition factories.
Central committees of national OrganlZa-
tons prepare petitions, send them all
over the United States, get ~signaturcsto Tor
them through their local organizations,
and then have them forwarded to Senators
and Representatives here. The most sue
cesful work of this sort in recent years
is that of the mcn who are engineering
the movement for Il national bankruptcy
law. Their petitions arc better prepared,
better signed and better sent than any
others. Petitions, no matter how nu'
mcrous or hos we'll prepared, do not al
ways effect their purpose. Blair said, IN
Offering his prohibition petitions: II de-
sire, in presenting these petitions, to say
that for many years it has been the some
what common practice of the people OF
this country to send like petitions to the
two houses of Congress, but so far as ]
know, never yet with any tangible effect
upon the Legislation of this country"
Most members of Congress know how
these petitions are prepared. Ono OF
them spoke for all of them when he said
today: II don't pay that attention to
petitions that | did when was younger
they're too numerous. You can get a
mar to sign a petition for anything."'
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-04-02
Disappearance of the Reptiles.

Reptiles are at present Il small and dy-
ing race. They have seen their best days.
But in the great secondary age. as Ten
nyson graphically puts it. "a monstrous
eft was Of old the lord and master Of
earth" At the beginning of that time
the mammals had not been developed at
all: and even ut its close they were but a
feeble folk, represented only by weak
creatures like the smaller pouchcl ami
mails of Australia and Tasmania. Ac-
cordingly, during the secondary period,
the reptiles had things everywhere pretty
much their own way, ruling over the
earth rs absolutely as man and the NAM
mails do now. Like all dominant types
for the time being, they split up into
many and various forms. In the sea-, they
became huge padding cnalioSaurians; on
the dry land, they became great erect d.
nosaurians: in the air, they became terri
bic flying pterolactyls. Fora vast epoch
they Inherited the earth: and then at last
they logan to fail, in competition with
their own more developed descendants,
the birds and mammals. One by one
they died out before the face Of the
younger fauna, until at last only Il few
crocodilcs and alligators. Il few great
snakes, and Il few big turtles, remain
among the wee skulking lizards and
rcckos to remind lis of the enormous
rcptilrm types that crowded the surface
of the liassic oceans.
Long before the actual arrival Of true
birds upon the scene, however, sundry
branches OF the rcptilian class had been
gradually approximating to and fore
shadowing the future flying things. In:
deed, one may say that ut IN early period
the central rptilian stock, consisting OF
the lon-. 1.-the, four-lcg"cd forms like
the lizards. still closely allied in shape to
their primitive ncwt-likc and ccl-!ikc an
c%c.stors, began to divide latcrally into
sundry important branches. Some OF
them lost their limbs and became ser
penis; others acquired bony body-covcr-
ings and became turtles; but the vast
majority went off in one of two directions.
either as tish-likc sea ,saurianS. or rs bird
like and-SauriauS. It is with this last
division alone that wc shall have largely
to deal in tracing out the pedigree of our
existing birds. -P"p"hr Srirncr Monthly.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-04-02
An Old Maids Eccentric Will.

Miss Kcziah b. Blackburn, an elderly
spinster, who earned Il scanty livelihood
bv sewing for charitably disposed per-
son and who was generally supposed to
be very poor, occupied for 4 long time a
small room on the top floor Of a house in
Brooklyn. She was recently found dead
in her room, and her will, which had
been deposited with her spiritual adviser,
showed her to be possessed of 81, 200,
and its provisions made it compulsory
with her executor at her death to dress
her body in white, place it in solid
rosewood casket, having six silver han
dies and a silver plate, on which should
be inscribed her name and age. The
hearse at her funaral was to be drawn by
six black horses, and there were to be
six pail bearers, wearing white gloves
and white ties. Her body was to be
buried in Evergreen cemetery beside her
parents, and a tombstone bearing the in
scription:
ssBlessed be he who reveres these stones,
And cursed be he who moves these bones,"
was to be erected over her grave. Any
money remaining after the expenses OF
these numerous behests had been de
fraved, she desired her executor to place
at interest. to be paid to a man to keep
her grave in order.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-04-02
The Origin of the POstOlicc.

The Engli*A Illustrated Magnzine says
that the p~ostoflicc is m example of the
mode in which things change while
names remains. 1t was originally the
office which arranged the posts or places
at which, on the great roads, relays Of
horses and men could DC obtained for
the rapid forwarding of government dis
patches. There was a chief postmaster
of England many years before any s!ys-
TEN of conveyance of private letters by
the crown was established. Such letters
were conveyed either by carriers, who
used the sam horses throughout their
whole Journey, or by relays of horses
maintained by private individuals, that
is. by private post. The sci enc of car
rying the correspondence Of the public
by means of crow messengers originated
in connection with foreign trade. \
postoliice for letters TO foreign parts was
established ''for the benefit Of the Eng
lish merchants" in the reign of James l.,
but the extension OF the system to in
land letters was left to the succeeding
reign. James l., by Il proclamation is.
sued in 1875, may be said to have
founded the present pOstotficc. BY this
proclamation he commanded. his post.
master of England for foreign parts to
settle a running post or two, to runnlSht
and day between Edinburgh and Lon
don, to 60 thithcr and come back again
in six days. and to take with
them all such letters as shall be directed
to any post town in or near that road"
N~cighloring towns, such as Lincoln and
Hull, were to be- linked on to this main
route, and posts on similar principles were
directed to be established on other great
high roads. such us those to Chester and
lIolyllcad, to Exeter and Plymouth. So
far no monopoly w;ls claimed, but two
years aftcrwarl Il second proclamation
forbade the carriage Of letters by any
messengers except those Of the kings
acknowledgement, and thus the present
system WAS i%nauguratcd. The monopoly
thus claimed. though no doubt devised
by the king TO enhance the royal power
and to bring money into the cXchcqucr,
was adopted by Cromwell and his parlia-
MEM. one main advantage in their eyes
being that the carriage of correspondence
by the government would afford "thc
best means to discover and prevent any
dangerous and wicked designs against
the commonwealth" The opportunity
of an extensive violation Of letters, cSpc-
cially if they proceeded from suspected
rovaliStS, was no doubt anattractivc bait:
and it is rather amusing to notice how
the tables were thus turned on the mon
arlial party by means of II of the SOY
%crcign's own acts of aggression. How
ever, from one motive or another rOylllSts
and parliamcntarianS agreed in the c>tab-
lishmcnt of Il state post, and the inStitu-
ton has come down without a break
from the day Of Charles |. to our own.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-04-02
"Macbeth" Taken From the Bible.

You will find the principal characters
Of ''Muchcth' in the Book Of Kings.
.Jezcbcl in the Bible is "Lady Macbeth
in the play. She it was who stirred up
her husband to do All the d~cviltry he did.
Then take %lIazacl, Il servant to the KING.
Under the influence of his wife, .Iczclcl,
he plo,s to kill his master, and become
king of Syria in his stead. This plot Is
successful. and %IIazarl is crowned king.
This character exactly suits that Of "Mac-
beth" The minor characters can also br
found i IN the Bible. OF course, Sllaks-
pcarc has altered the words, but the plot
and characters are to be found there. Dir.
~IIalscy, in his lectures on Shakespeare at
Princeton college, stated that Shhks-
Ecarc's regular practice was to study the
Bible seven hours Il day. There were not
so many Bibles in his time as there arc
now. but although very costly, he had
onc and made a daily practice of study
ing it. Where DR.. lIalscy got his IN
formation ! do not know, but presume he
is correct.
Though Shakespeare was undoubtedly
a great man, I think he is considerably
ovcrrated, so far as his originality is con-
ccrncd. | think he was not endowed
with the genius of originality. but rather
with the genius of arranging the writings
OF those gone before, and rewriting them
in an attractive stylc.--h'ec. Rteh"rd Lee,
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-04-02
OUT OF LOVE AND OUT OF DEBT

OF happy men the happiest yet
is he that's out of owe ard debt,
Who owe no kiss to womankind.
Who has no dunS to craze his mind:
With heart and thought and conscience FREE
Where is the man more blest than he:
''Out of love and out of debt
Motto hone will eer regret.
To all surrounding %reconci.ed,
He sleeps as sweetly as a child;
By neither love nor debt DISTRESSED,
His dreams but glorifv his rest.
He never ,lrea,lSth the morn to see,
For days with days in peace agree.
"Out of love and out of G
Motto none will e'"r regret.
Who's had his share of debt and love
Knows what the peace they rob him of;
And. once relieved of love and debt,
His slavery never can forget.
No longer will he bend the knee,
But sing the pa ans Of the free
"Out of love and out of debt"
Motto none will Ger regret.
For all the bliss that love can give,
There's more Of woe with love to live;
He plucks the perfect, thornleSs rose,
Who hono-ed manhood, no man owes.
No love. no debt. all there's the key
OF life. for him, who'd happy b..
''Gut of love and out of debt
Motto none will er regret.
-Grufyc Birti>c g.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-04-02
Advice TO n Young Man.

No, son, YOU can't make up lost time
You Can only do the work of II life
time in Il lifetime. Yes, you may write
six columns to-day because you neglected
to write your three yesterday, but you've
discounted one day somewhere about
thirty-tivc or forty years farther on in
the account. You have about seventy
years placed to Your credit. Every day
you use OF misuse is charged to you, and
YOU can't credit for two days tomorrow
if you waste to-day. An engine three
hours behind time, may reach the term
inal station on time, by running fifty
miles an hour instead of thirty, per
schedule time. But when she gets in, she
requires nearly all, or quite all, OF many
hours more than the three hours she made
up, in being doctorcd for the strain on
nerves and Sincws of steel. by reason of
the extra effort and speed. There's
something sprung here, a bolt started
there, a journal burned out somewhere,
and she limpS away to the round house,
ovcrhcatcd. rafting in half a dozen
places, covered with crease and dust and
Slll!t. VIII al tISluctl SION my III HIS
cab and q master machiniSt yrumbling as
he walks around her. That's the way
YOU make up time" my boy. Believe
me, you'll last longer if you run on
schedule time day by day. You won't
make people yell and hurrah and you won't
make such a grand, thundcrbolt kind
Of a show rs if You would 80 booming
through the way stations, swinging along
like clyo"n But you'll 90 waltzing
into the l0unl-houSc in supremacy bet
ter style, with your steel bright and your
brass shining. not a sreck ON your jacket,
and ready 70 throw another hundred
miles ovcr Your shoulder the minute the
gong strikes. Just make your regular
time, day by day, my boy. The super
intcndcnt knows what YOU can do and
what he wants YOU to do, and YOU can't
treat yourself better nor please him more,
than to do exactly that much, without Il
mile wasted or Il minute TO Sparc.-E"r-
denr. IN M'~hryc.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-04-02
SUNLIGHT ALL THE WAY.
Jennie, the road is long,

"Good-bye. Jennie, the road is long,
And the moor is hard to cross;
But well you know there is danger
In the bogs and the marshy moss.
So, keep in the foot path, Jennie,
Let nothing tempt you to stray;
Then you'll get safely over it,
For there's sunlight all the way
Sunlight all the way;
So, never you fear,
Keep Il good heart, dear,
For there is sunlight oil the way
The child went off with a blessing
And a kiss of mother-love:
The daisies were down ut her feet,
And the lark was singing above.
On, OH in the narrow rOot-path-
Nothing could tempt her to stray;
So the moor was passed at nightfall-
There had been sunlight all the way;
Sunlight all the way;
And she, smiling, said,
AS her bed was spread,
~ had sunlight all the way"
And l, who followed the maiden,
Kept thinking as I went,
Over the p~erilous g a of life
What unwary feet are bent.
If they could only keep the toot-path,
And not in the marshes stray,
Then they would reach the end Of life
Ere the night could shroud the day,
They'd have sunshine all the way;
But the marsh is wide,
And they turn aside,
And the night falls OH the day.
Far better to keep the narrow path,
Nor turn to the left or right;
For if we loiter at the morning,
What shall we do when the night
Falls back on our lonely journey,
And we mourn our vain delay!
Then steadily onward, friends, and we
Shall have sunlight all the way
Sunlight all the way,
Till the journeys DER,
And we reach the shore
Of a never-ending day.
-Hdrper's Weekly
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-04-02
The Traiimouy OF Il Physician.

James Bcecher, N. D., OF Sisourney, Iowa
says: g For several years 1 have been using
a C ugh Ialsam, called DR.. VIM. HALL
Balsam for the Lungs, and i'll almost every
case through M practice | have had entire
SUCCESS. have used and pre- cribed hundreds
of bottles sine the days Of my army practica
1853, when | was surgeon Of Hospital No. /,
Louisville, Ky"
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-04-02

l can safely recommend Ely's Cream Balm
for the cure of catarrh, cold in the head, etc:
Before l have used the first bottleI purchased
l find myself cured. At times | could scarcely
smell anything and had q headache most Of
time.-Henry Eilly, Agt for the American Ex-
press Co., Grand Haven, Mich. price 6c.)
Last winter l found positive relief from
Catarrh with Ely's Cream Balm. Was
troubled for years. l have no doubt a thor
cugh use Of Cream Balm will cure Q majority
of d. Norton, Ithaca, n. Y. See ad.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-04-02
LONG SUFFERING

From Stone In the Kidneys Of ono OF TroJ's
Best Citizens-Ilis Recovery through the
use of DR.. David Kennedy's Favorite
Remedy (of Rondout. n. w
It is by no means strange that DR.. David Kennedy
should have received the following letter. BY reading
It you will see in one minute why James Andrews was
thankful:
IN. y. K.nnsdy, Rondout, ". r.:
DEAR SIR-Until within a recent date. had ior seV'
@ Al years suffered greatly from Gravel, called ~ inc
doctors the Brick.dust Sediment. For about o year
mast this sediment has not passed oil in tine usaa!
quantity, but has accumulated. CAUSING me untoto
main. Having heard Of DIR. DAVlD
FAyORTTE REMEDY, l tried it in my case, ana
nfter using about one and one.half bottles, lvoioeoA
stone f.om the bladder, of an oval shape, 7-l6 OF IN
inch long, and rough on its st rface. l send you the
largest piece that you may see Of what 1t Is composed.
Since then I have felt no pain. 1now consider mjs,t
cured, and cannot express my thankfulness AMI Rrau
tude for so signal a dclivcrance from q terrible disease.
You have my consent to IL g this Letter, should you wish
IN do 80. for the benefit OF other sufferers.
JAMES ANDREWS, >
No. 10 Marshal St Ida Hill, Troy. N. Y.
When we consider that the medicine which did this
service for Mr.. Andrews costs only one dollar q bottle,
1t would seem that persons afflicted IN like fashion can
afford the expense of testing its Writes. Get 1t OF your
druggist, or address DR.. David Kennedy, hondout'
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-04-02

"Walking yesterday along the Rue de
Scvres,' writes Il lady from Paris to the
London 7ruth, II saw tho following de-
lightful announcement painted ON the
side of a ~portccochcre: Madame Zcnobic
c., third story. lets out teeth for even
ing parties and balls.'"
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-04-02
4 Frightful Fungus.

One of the most remarkable lHngl OF
which there is any record grew in the
wine cellar OF Sir Joseph Banks. lie
received Il cisk Of wine us Il gift, and
finding it too sweet had it locked up III
Il cellar to ripcn. There it remained for
three years, probably during the time he
was with Captain Cooke in his voyage
around the world. At the end of that
prriod h. directed his butler to ascertain
the state of the wine, but the cellar door
could not be opened on account of some
uowcrr,ll obstacle within. The door was
cut down, when the cellar was found to
be completely filled with a fungus so
dense and firm rs to require in axe for
it's removal. 1t was then discovered that
the fungus had consumed every drop Of
wine and raised the cask to the ceiling.