davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-24
A Perpetual Dancer.

"Eureka" yelled a Philadelphia in
ventor, as he rushed into his wife's
room with a ''dancing darkey' toy in
his hand. 'I've got an Improvement
on this thing and it will make my for
tune"
Don't see much chance for improv-
ing that toy; it's good enough now"
said his wife, suspiciousiy. "They are
sold everywhere and go by clockwork."
Eyes, l know, l know; and that's
where the improvement comes in.
Clockwork gets out of order, and be-
sides it costs money. I've got a plan
to make the darkey dance up and down
like mad and it won't require any clock
works at all"
"Well, that sounds little like sense"
was the rather Modified reply. .'How
will you do it?"
''Simple as A, B, c. I'll just con-
meet the darkey with the mercury of q
thermometer. "-Phizadelphsia CaM.
Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-24
GREELEY.
h1s Consciousness While In Apparent Slum-
ber-AC Curious Habit.

ms Consciousness While In Apparent Slum.
ber-A Curious Habit.
There was something very curious
about this habit of the great journalist;
Horace Greeley's sleeping in church..
1t was not sleep that overcame him,
but only somnolence-sleep of the ply
steal powers, but wakefulness of the
mind. The Psychologist and the:
psychologist may settle the matter
scientifically between them if they can.
In spite of appearances to the contrary,
MI. Greeley was ga nearer as we'll as q
door of the Word" His eyes might
close, his great head fall upon his
breast, or sway from side to side,
drawing the body after it, presenting
the usual external indications of sleep,
but his mental interior faculties were
sometimes so far awake that when the
service vas over he could give a clear
account of the sermon, both as to the
subject. plan and matter. 1 have
tested this a dozen times or more, and
never found them wanting. 1t was to
me a very curious phenomenon, and I
studied it with deep interest whenever
an opportunity occurred. I will give
two illustrations of this singular pecu-
liarity from my own clear personal rec
election.
/ went with him to hear a discourse
from Rev. William Henry Claiming. 1t
was Sunday morning, and the topic
announced was one in which he felt a
special interest. Mr.. Claiming was
then, in fact, ministering to a congre-
CATION of which MI. Greeley was
a prominent member. 1t was in
a hall on the west side Of
Broadway. near Canal street,
where Dr.. Dewey had preacher afore-
time. On the way thitheer, Mr.. Greeley
begged me to keep him awake. We
occupied a settee within six feet of the
platform and right under the eye of
the preacher. l tried to keep him
awake by frequent tuggings at his elbow
and playing a by no means soft tattoo
upon hi. RS. But it was of no use.
He was "nidnodding" through the
whole discourse, not a little to Mr..
Channing's annoyance, who observed
my unsuccessful efforts to keep his
great auditor awake.
But now comes the wonderful part
OF my story. MI. Greeley and I, when
the service was over, went back to the
Tribune office together. He sat down
to his desk at once, and made an abb
stract of MI. Canning's discourse. fill
ing somewhat less than a column,
which appeared in the Tribune of the
next morning. Mr.. Claiming was
utterly amazed when he saw it. and
afterward asked me if it was possible
Nj. Greeley had made the report.
When l told him that I saw him while
he was preparing it, and could certify
that it went to the compositor in his
own handwriting. and that, moreover,
I had myself read the proof, he ex-
pressed the greatest establishment.
Why" said he, 81 could not myself
have so accurate an abstract of my
own discourse, which, though premed-
itated, was extemporaneous. He has
not only given the substance of what
said, but he has followed my line OF
thought, and remembered not a little
Of my language."-ONve, Johnson. i,
Christian Register.
Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-24
HE WANTED THE EARTH.

How the Old Law, sNWhile You're a-Gittin'
Git a Plenty" was Illustrated.
Cady Herrick tells a good n of a
scamp who was arraigned at the last
term of the Court of Oyer and Termi-
ner upon the charge of bigamy. Hav-
ing no defense, the fellow pleaded
guilty, and in response to the query of
the Court as to what he had to say in
mitigation of his offense, replied:
II want a good, liberal. easy SEN
tence. pleaded guilty and saved the
county the expense of a trial, and
ought to be let down easy"
"How many wives did you say he
had married?" the Judge inquired,
turning to Herrick.
-Four" replied that gentleman.
Goodness gracious!" exclaimed the
Judge, 1 should think he had been pun
ished well enough already"
"Yes, indeed,n replied Herrick with
the air of a man who knew whereof
he spoke, and which carried convic-
ton with it; ''he has been pretty we'll
punished"
THAT being the case" responded the
Judge, .'we will deal leniently with
him. Prisoner, you are sentenced to
the Albany ~Penitentiary for the term
of one year"
Thanks, your honor. The sentence
meets with my approval and suits me
to a tee, and it ought to-" he remarked
to a %bystander. II could have got
five years, but 1 got one off for every
wife. Why, if l had married five I'd
been acquitted; but Ill call the turn
next trip" and he went philosophically
to prison.-Albamy Express.
Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-24
ON A POSTAL A r
How One Detroit Woman Managed to Con.
vey a Variety of Intelligence.

How One Detroit Woman Managed to Con.
vey a Variety of Intelligence.
She walked up and down the corri-
dor of the post-ofice for ten or fifteen
minutes before she asked of a citizen
who vas directing an envelope:
"Please, sir, but would you write a
word or two on a postal card for me?:"
"Certainly, ma'am; where is it to 20
to-"
Ito John Sessions, at Cleveland.
Put Esq, after his name. Isometimes
forget it, and it makes him mad"
"Your husband?"
"Of course When I want a postal
card written to a strange man it will
be a cold day. Now, then, begin with
MY Dear Husband"
'.I've got that"
"Say that 1 am all right, the baby IS
all right, and I haven't time to write
any more"
Yes"
"Then you'll want a P. S. that 1 have
only two dollars left, and shall look for
him to send me some next week"
"Yes'm."
"That'n be all, except to say from
your true wife to my loving husband,
and don't send less than five dollars,
and baby weighs eighteen pounds, and
the weather is still cold. Thanks, sir,
I'll do as much for you some day.
Detroit Free Press.
Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-24
LOOKING AHEAD,
A Useless Creature is the One Who is Al.
WINS Behind.

The most useless man in the world is
probably he who is always a few min
utes behind time. His life is a record
Of opportunities missed, and his motto,
the words that the poethas pronounced
to be the saddest ''of tongue OF pen"
In the voyage of life, whatever the
character of that life NAV be, what
ever the channel may be, the pilot must
look ahead. Still this is occasionally
more necessary in soEae lines of life
than others, and while in Z few they
are exceptional, a man has to look
ahead for years, the stock farmer must
at least look ahead a good many
months. Whatever he does to-day is
done. or should be done, with refer
ence to a future date. In breeding,
indeed, the breeder looks forward to
the o%fspring's offspring for genera
tons, but if he take only the care of
the cattle and other stock actually on
the farm. his interests make it neces-
sary for him to always look forward to
the ultimate destiny he has assigned to
each. Is this horse to be kept on the
farm, and for what special purpose, if
any? Is that to be sold? What calf
is to be kept, and why and which to be
sold?
What is for reproduction? what for
the market? are questions to be put in
regard to all kinds of stock, and that
man is never a success who never
gives either an answer till the time
for action has arrived. In summer the
prudent stockman thinks of and pre-
pares for the forthcoming fall and
winter. He is always forearmed, and
in case of a long, dry season, leaving
him with pastures parched and burned
in the early fall, the resources provided
in case of emergency are available.
His stock enter winter quarters in q
good condition, having made all the
gain possible during the summer
months when that gain could be Sc
cured the cheapest, and are sure to
continue it during the winter, SO that
all the winter fodder supplied to them
may not be just so much waste. Ere
long he will know for just how much
stock he can make good winter provis-
ion, the chances of a long. bleak
spring, like the last, being duly con-
sidered, and he knows what to get rid
of and what to retain. If you would
succeed, look ahead. - National Ltve
Stuck Journal.
Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-24
Why They Wore Out.

Mr.. Henpeck looked down at MINI
self as he stood before the stove in his
Office and remarked, partly to himself
and partly to his book-keeper:
.'Well, well, I guess I'll have to be
getting a new pair of pants"
'.Why, it hasn't been any time since
you got a pair, has it?" replied the
economical book-keeper.
'Not very long,
"How do you get away with them SC
soon?"
..Oh, easily enough. I'm not very
hard on them myself, but you see my
wife wears the pants when I'm home,
and between us we manage to give the
tailor a good deal of business. "--MeT-
chant Traveller.
Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-24
S

Some Interesting Facts and Figures Relat-
ing to the Metropolis.
Some of the more salient points Of
life in the metropolis may be seen in
the following figures:
l. /. Population. The population Of
the city of New York, according to the
United States census of 1880, is 1906.
'29e. =
2. Sexes. OF the population of the
city, 59O,514 are males and 615, 7S5 are
females.
8. Transient population. The tran
sient or floating population may be es-
'timated as follows: In any one day,
on an average, we may suppose there
are of immigrants temporarily stopping
in the city 5000; of seamen and boat
men, 5000; of visitors at hotels, $1,000;
of visitors at boarding and lodging
houses, $1,000; or, in all, say 80, 900.
4. Families. The number of families
living in the city is 24S, 157. The
number of persons to a family is 4.96.
5. Dwellings. The number of dwell.
ling houses in the city is 1864. The
number of persons to a dwelling il
1857.
6. Tenement houses. Houses con.
tanning three or more families are
classed as tenement houses. It is sup.
posed that there are 20, 900 tenement
houses, and that they contain a popu-
lation of 500, 900 persons.
z. Nativities. 727,6 29 persons were
born in the United States, and 478, 670
are from foreign countries of forty dit.
ferent natiOnalities.
8. Marriages. The number of per-
sons united in marriage in the city
during the year, is estimated at Z 1000,
equal to 1880 marriages.
9. Births. The number of births in
the city during the year is estimated at
4 5000.
10 Deaths. The number of deaths
during the year was 1904.
IL. Property: The total valuation
of propertyin the city is ST., 1S5, 947, 098-
II. City Taxes. The city taxes are
about $50, 000, 900 a year, or about $50
a head for the entire population.
Is. Public Amusements. The money
spent in theatres, operas, and other
public amusements is estimated at
81, 000, 900 annually.
IA. Public Education. For the sup
port of the public schools about
81, DOC, 900 are required.
Is. Police. For the support of the
police about 81, 600, 900 are required.
Is. Immigrants. The number Of
immigrants landed at Castle Garden
for several years has been 400, 900; last
year it was $50, 030. Christian at Work.
Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-24
A l.

The Splendid and Peculiar Pageant of
Morning in Southwestern Georgia.
Poets have sung of rosy dawns, of
orange sunsets waning low, and of that
later hour when large Hesper glitters
through the rosy spaces, while mid 81
lent spheres rises the deepening night.
But the poet is yet to be who will tell
IN numbers worthy of the theme the
story of that magical drama of ma
cure, the silver sunrise in the South, or
IN that part of it known as the Cotton
BELT OF Southwestern Georgia. There
the isotherm is semi-tropical. The al
most fiat, slightly undulating landscape
y, or was twenty years ago, under the
nigh cultivation of the slave system. a
sheet of verdure breathing incense in
the month of March, April, and May.
Inc tall cypress, the thick-leaved am
%orosial liye-oak, the heavy-scented
magnolia grandifora, form the upper
aoi'agge, betting the clear dark ponds
mat dot the low, fiat level tracts.
around their sedgy borders the cranes
ana curlews call, on their dark bosoms
swim the broods of mallard and teal
N"cks. All the beauty and picturesque
warm of nature do not belong to
mountain lands alone. To the lover of
nature in all her phases and moods this
POND land is full of beauty as of bloom.
~ Is lively at all seasons of the year,
a s hours of the day, but especially
"nen seen under a silver sunrise.
NOT every morning of the whole
year round is this wonder witnessed.
J. takes peculiar conditions of the at
TTosphere to produce the phenomenon.
IT, The savant belongs the task of telling
"Aat the conditions are that produce
: silver sunrise. The effect I will try
~ describe. In April or May, when
Et tee early spring rains that have soaked
Nv, porous soil and filled the ponds.
Ehh''o given the flush and lusty green
,.I TO the earth, have ceased to fall,
Ihaen the atmosphere is rarified by a
n nlat that makes the young cotton
,ha grow visibly under your eye; in
oni, darkness of a morning that is
my slightly cooler than the night
nf Shich you have watched the motions
me consultations in the cloudless
mems you may rise, as I have risen,
fnlng after morning, to catch that
sung first scene in the first act of the
reeoacular drama of 2 sunny day in
II sunny South.
kor ~ ~ not wait to hear the clock strike
4, 1ook at your watch, but when dawn
lyt ival' the swift-passing dawn of that
low. .'ue' which you will know by the
sro, murmur of insects and bird life
''au yen. rise and hasten forth. lou
Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-24
Great Expectations.

The widow Flapjack. recently Of
Austin Avenue, got two new gentle
men boarders.
care those two gentlemen married?'
she asked of Gilhooly, who is a reg
ular boarder.
mo, and they are rich. One of them
owns a goat rancho"
You don't say So" said Mrs. Flap
jack, and tripping out into the kitchen
she whispered to the cook:
"Put three extra beans in the coffee
mill when you grind the coffee this af-
ternoon''-1erds Sitlings.
Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-24

can see the white sands under your
1eet' but barely note the long, gray
MOSES that hang like stalactites from
1he branches of the trees above your
mead, only family in the gloom made
Visible by starlight and the swift-mov-
ing dawn. In that latitude twilight
ana dawn are matters of only a few
minutes The stars blaze out, as it
were, in the beam of the rising sun. In
the negro parlance of the old times:
ut is broad day before YOU know what
tyh you are about" The sedggy rims Of
.he ponds the tall cypress and oaks,
tne heavy trailing creepers of the
vlhes' the hight swaying banners of the
moss every tiny blade of grass and
leaf OF plant and weed, every flower
petal and wheel of field cobweb is
gemmed with beads of dew, but it does
not drip. 1t looks almost or quite like
hoar frost spread over the ocean-like
exPanse OF land and water, like a white
ven blending and making more beauti-
1ul the darker vcrdure of the foliage
around the pools, and the glowing en-
erald and color shades of the cotton
and corn fields.
A thousand hooking birds are all of
a sudden cleaving the blue vault above
you with such strains of unpremedi-
tated art as skylarks never dreamed of.
In fact, if one Of the Southern mocking
birds ever hears the song of n
Eof those English skylarks which
the late Isaac W. England
found a home for in the meadows OF
New Jersey, he will beat him so badly
in his own song that the British warb-
Ter will hide his head under his wing,
poor thing. and die of grief and
shame.
Affair off from thicket and leafy covert
comes the cooling of a thousand doves,
the soft whistle of as many quails, the
shrill cries of the redbirds. the shriller
calls OF the catbirds, and the notes Of
many another feathered songster.
whose names you must learn from MI.
Audubon. The t%hrushers, too, hardly
less musical than the hooking birds
sing from the leafy boughs and shrub
berry rear by.
While bathed, as it were, in this out
burst of liquid melody, this first diapa-
son of the opera of the day, suddenly,
without warning, with no rosy glow to
herald its coming, up from the white
misty horizon bursts the sun, a blaze
of silver light bigger than the biggest
cart-wheel that ever was made, daz-
cling, as if composed of ten thousand
Furnished silver mirrors flashing cleo
trio light through panes of crystal,
flooding the landscape with silver lace
dotted with diamonds and powdered
with sparkling silver dust. The sense
of the exquisite coloring of the scene
is lost in the wondrous radiance shed
over a landscape that stretches miles
away, until the dazzling view is lost
in the silvery haze of the horizon. 1t
looks as if all fairy land had met to do
battle on a field of jeweled silver, pan
oplied in silver mail, and every shield
and every spear decked and tipped
with gems. Not one moment is there
rest in this wondrous scene, which
lasts but a few minutes, for the first
breeze of morning waving the spark
ling banners of long moss, and the
first warm kiss of the sunbeams sweep
the ghttering pageant all aWay.-M Y
Sum
Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-24

The man who was killed by light
ming in Chicago during a recent thun-
der storm which visited that locality
had probably laughed a good many
times at the feminine propensity to
seek the protection of a feather bed at
the first ominous rumbling of a storm.
But there is nothing ridiculous in the
wholesome respect for thunderbolts.
They hit one of the human race about
as often as a cannon ball does, and, as
a rule, leave him in a worse condition.
-BuaIington w. Free Press.
Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-24

1t will be unfortunate if base ball
engenders the manners which have
caused the extinction of the game in
Cuba. The passions of the crowd up
on the tropical island far exceed the
power of law and order, and unlike an
American crowd, which simply hurls
insults at the umpire, the Cuban crowd
endangers life. 1t is not safe to play a
serious game in Cuba. Chicago 1Gase&
Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-24

The telegraphers of the country
have a mutual benefit association
with q membership of two thousand
eight hundred and a reserve fund of
forty thousand dollars. Since its Or
g%anization it has paid to heirs of menu
bers over two hundred and fifty thou
sand dollars. - Chicago Journal.
Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-24
-Whv ha believed him. Stre+oh;t

Why he believed him: Stretchit
was telling Gawley about an alligator
he saw in Florida. ''That alligator
measured sixty-three feet five inches
from the end OF his nose to the tip of
his tail. What do you think of that,
Gawley? An alligator sixty-three feet
five inches long. Doesn't that aston
ish you?" .'No." said Gawley, quietly.
'I'm q liar myself."-E1chanCe.
Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-24

-Hu Maxwell, of st. George. w.
Va, describes in the Scientific Amer-
tcan a strip of smooth sea in the
Pacific ocean through which he sailed
during a gale in 1888, and which the
captain ascribed to the presence of oil
rising from natural wells vt the bottom
of the ocean. 1t was fourteen miles
north of Santa Cruz Island.
Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-07-16
A Fly NewsboY.

Practice makes perfect" observed
the traiu-boy, as he folded and smooth
ed the newspapers he had gathered
from the seats. getting them ready to
be sold again. practice makes per-
feet. If a railroad man jumps from a
train when it is making twenty miles
an hour he does pretty well if he keeps
his feet, but used to jump off the linn
tied express on the New York Central
when it was making fifty miles an
hour. Did this time and again, and
often with a basket of peanuts in my
hand, never splitting peanut"
go and tell that TO some green
horn, " remarked the brakeman, as he
sneaked an orange into his overcoat
pocket; don't tell me any such lies. /
know better"
But it's the honest TRUTH insisted
the train-boy, land I'll tell you how |
did ii. You are not too old to learn a
thing or two, and now Just keep your
mouth shut and your ears open. | had
run on Il special Chicago express.
Every Saturday night | wanted to stop
oil at the town where my girl lived, but
the special made no stop there. So /
mad TO 60 up the road TO Syracuse and
there take a local train back. One day
it occurred to me that by little STRAIT
egg | might get off the limited at the
station and save all that time, bad
noticed that just before we got to the
station where my girl lived we always
passed local train running in the
same direction We were, and on the
track next to us. Usually our train
was going just a little faster than the
local. So one day locked up my box,
put some candy in my pocket, and got
down on the lower steps. just as we
caught up with the rear end of the To-
cal | stepped across to the lower step
of the last car of the other train. II
was just rs easy as stepping from one
freigIt-car TO another on the same
train, even if we were making fifty
miles an hour. In five minutes the To-
cal Stacked up and stopped at the sta
ton, and there | was. Think about
that minute or two, you thick-head-
ed stove-stokcr, and don't be so fresh
about telling your betters that they lie.
Ten cents for that orange, please. -
Utica Observer.
Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-07-16

Mr.. Royal, the English snob who
represents the English holders of Vir-
ginia state bonds, draws fearful pic
ture of the credit OF Virginia in England
and sneers at the honesty of the people
of that state. There has never been
any doubt in the minds of sensible peo-
pie that Virginia would pay these bonds
Old Virginia is simply "kickiugn
against paying the whole indebtedness
acquired while West Virginia was a
part of the state, and the payment of a
portion of which justly belongs to West
Virginia. According to late issues of
the Pail Mall Gazette the opinion of the
English monied aristocracy on ques-
tons of honor and integrity are not SO
highly to be priced as might be. vir.
ginia may be little slow in paying her
debts, but she promptly hangs those
who are guilty of what the English aris-
tocracy regard as a gentlemanly pas.
time.