davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30
He Was Not Kicked.
[Cincinn ati Time Star. |

=
Not long ago fruit grower, near Gin
cinnati, discovered crowd of boys in his
pear orchard They had been annoying
him so long that he resolved to catch one
of the lads and make an example of him.
Accordingly he softly stole through the
trees and was almost on the lads before
they discovered him They ran, but he was
successful in catching one of them. The
little fellow cut comical figure, with his
pockets bullying with fruit, the tears run
ming down his cheeks and dreadful an.
ticipation marked in every line of his
facea. The man almost laughed at the
ridiculous sight but he suppressed his
tendency to smile, and said in his tough.
est, gruifest voice
snow. sir, what shall l do with your"
"Please. mister. 4" blurted out the boy,
as be dug his khuckles into his stream
ing eyes, "kicE me real hard and let
me go.
After this the fruit grower did not have
the heart to punish him. and to this day
the little fellow wonders why he was al
lowed to go scott free
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30
Antiquity of Bridges.
lArkansaw Traveller.

The first bridges were of wood. and the
earliest of which we have any account
was built in Rome 500 B. c. The next
was erected by Julius Caesar for the
passage of his army across the Rhine.
Trajan's great bridge over the Danube.
a, 40 feet long, was made of timber, with
stone piers. The Romans also built the
first stone bridge, which crossed the I'll.
ber Suspension bridges are of remote
origin. A Chinese one mentioned by
Kirchen was made Of chains supporting
roadway $40 feet in length. was built
A. d. s.. and is still to be SEEN The
first large iron bridge was built over the
Severn in 1777 The age of railways has
brought remarkable development in this
branch of engineering, especially in the
construction of bridges of iron and steel.
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30
Ths formation of Coal.

The early biologists pictured the car
boniferous swamps where the vast stores
of fuel were accumulated, as covered with
great forests of epidodendrons, sigillaria.
calamites. and gigantic tree ferns, and
enveloped in an atmosphere so saturated
with carbonic acid gas that only the low
est forms of animal life were possible
The ideal foliage of the coal period is y
diagram familiar to most students, and it
is certainly very striking
Now, however, patient investigators
with the microscope, and in the field
point out to us the structure of moses
and lichens in the apparently structure
less coal. mere weeds by the side of the
pictured giants, and show us the unde-
niable similarity between the ancient
swamps of the carbonferous and our
present peat beds The excess of car
bonic acid gas i'll the atmosphere, which
formed so pleasant and convenient an
hypothesis has been so far reduced that
there is even doubt whether the amount
was any greater than at present. The po-
sition of the coal beds is no longer as
cribed to the sudden sinking of the car
boniferous formations and the rapid &C.
cumulations of the superimposed strata.
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30
wretched Boy and wretched Dog.

shall not stop to picture all this, but
only wait to tell you of a poor, dirty.
faced, ragged little street rag-picker, who
made one of the throng on Broadway. He
had mite of white dog with him, as
ragged and uncared for as himself. But
around that dogs neck was tied bit of
faded ribbon and his uneouth pranks and
gambols found even fresh favor in the
boys sight. If you can call so uncouth,
blind and animal an instinct, love, then
indeed it was plain to see that between
the wretched boy and his wretched dog,
there was great bond of affection
But suddenly, while the small dog was
in the exuberance Of canine joy, and the
boys eyes were sparkling with relish Of
this one thing in life that was his
own to enjoy, as much to him as your
greatest treasure is to you, there came a
rapidly-driven dray down the crowded
street A moment later l saw little fell
low with HARDEST face gather i'm his
arms poor little main ed and dying brute,
and softly walked away. What had hap
pened! Only worthless street CUR,
trampled to death. Only worthless lit
tie street rag picker robbed of the only
bit of joy his wretched life ever knew
the only friend that loved him, that was
eyes that made my heart ache, and the
fluttering bit of ribbon about the dead
dogs neck brought mist to my eyes that
hid the splendor of the day.-New York
Cor. Chicago Journal.
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30
A Lucky Discovery.


Professor James Warren is announced as
the inventor of new process of reduc.
Ing ores by the aid of electricity. While
examining piece of gold. bearing quartz
the professor accidentally let it fall into
one of the dynamos. which was in motion
at the time On looking for the piece Of
quartz the next dav he found 1t in the
dynamo. and. to his surprise. the gold in
the quartz had been melted and had run
to one side of the rock. forming beau
tiful button. He Immediately instituted
series of experiments and succeeded in
evolving a process by which gold. silver
and copper can be instantly smelted from
concentrations by powerful electric
shock almost eIualing in intensity a
stroke of lightning. The successful ap,
plicaton of this process to other ores, al
lead or anthony, is also expected
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30
An Artist In Tobacco Signs.


The artist settled himself into a chair
for talk, and the reporter asked how it
was that the Indian first came to be popu-
lar as sign for tobacco vendors.
at got to be matter of growth in
taste. replied the artist little YEARLY.
NEARLY thirty years ago, when | was q
boy living in New York, cigar-store keep
ers used to buy up the old, discarded
figure heads of ships and use them as
signs. These were in great demand and
good prices were always paid for
them When | was ~ the idea
struck me that there was money
in the business, and l set to work
to cut out figures. The idea of the Indian
originated with me, sir History tells
how Sir Walter Raleigh learned the use
of tobacco from the Indians, and l
thought good, lifelike brave or squaw
would make the best kind of a sign. as
well as crafty the popular taste for the
beautiful The first one sold created a
Juror. and two days afterward | had
orders for work enough to keep me going
for six months When l started thcre
were not ten figures in New York, and
now there isn't tobacconist anywhere in
the country who thinks he has cigar
store at all if he hasn't one of my signs :"
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30
One of England's Foremost Civilizers.

A few weeks ago, as the cable informed
us, there died in England a nobleman
named Lord Strathnairn, who earned his
military notoriety as Sir Hugh Rose He
it was who gained a monstrous celebrity
for blowing Sepoy prisoners from the
mouths of his cannon, and perpetrating
the most horrible atrocities during the
Indian mutiny. An eyewitness thus de-
scribes the scene: A man was chained
facing the muzzle of the cannon, the
mouth of the piece against the center Of
the body; and behind him were bound
nine men, close together, all facing
toward the gun. At one horrible days
slaughter, forty pieces of artillery were
occupied for hours. The discharge of the
gun blew the ten men to shreds; and the
assembled multitude of Indian witnesses
had an illustration Of English vengeance
that was calculated to insure submission.
Augusta (Ga) Chronicle,
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30
How the Romans Made stuoco Houses
saturday Reylewl


saturday Review.l
Not far from the Colline Gate stands
large part Of the great house Of Sallust.
originally built by the historian with the
money which he acquired during his ad
minislration of the Roman province OF
Numidia The walls. which were very
thick and lofty, were most valuable ex-
amples of the Roman use of concrete
unfaced by brick or stone. Clear prints
on the face of these walls showed very dis
tinctly the Roman method of casting their
houses In long wooden boxes Rows Of
upright pieces Of timber. about 6x4 inches
In section, ten feet long, aud set at inter
walls of three to four feet. were arranged
along both faces of the future wall.
Boards about ten inches wide were then
nailed horizontally along the uprights
forming two parallel wooden walls,
within which semi fluid concrete was
poured till the whole space between the
boards was full up to the top When the
concrete had set, the wooden framing was
removed and rehxed at the top of the
concrete; the space was again filled in
with concrete aud the whole process re-
pealed till the wall was raised TO the
required height
In this way whole house was as Solo
q structure as If 1t had been cut out OF
the native rock and was far more dura
Bile than any building Of masonry, how
ever large the blocks, The jerry builders
of modern Rome had no difficulty In
pulling down the wall of Servus stone
by stone; but these massive concrete
walls hav. given them the greatest
trouble, and it is only by the use Of gun
powder and dynamite that their destruc
ton was accomplished. 1t has been in
deed melancholy sight to watch during
the last two years the laborious destruc
ton of these most valuable remains
which had for so many centuries defeated
both the great edax rerum himself ant
the repeated attacks of both Goths ant
\andais, only to fall at last under the
much more barbarian hand of the nine
teenth century specializing builder.
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30
Utilizing a Dude Brake man.


II think have the most useful brake.
man ON the road. I" said a freight train
conductor. "Hes called the dude. DO.
cause he wears stand'up collar and dyes
his mustache. Greatest man for dying
his mustachs ever saw, 1t must take
40 per cent of his salary TO keep
beard in color And as for hair
OIL why. he just swims in 4
When he stands up on top of the cars
and the wind is in the right direction the
country girls with whom he liirts can
smell him coming long enough ahead to
have time to fix up their hair and run
down to the track before we get TO EN-
Tut. as said, he is very useful man.
though 1t was only last week that We
learned to appreciate him as he deserved.
One of the boxes on a freight car got so
hot that It burned the waste out and
threatened to fire the train. AS luck
would have 1t we hadn't bit of oil with
US, and how to fix that box couldn't
tell That was where our dude brake.
man helped us out.
@Howr"
"Why. we stuck his head down over
the dry box and squee ed enough hair oil
into 1t to run US liz mics
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30

In China the blood of the dog is often
found swarming with an infinite multitude
of minute, thread like worms, the parents
of which, three to five inches in length,
are found in the cavities of the heart. In
the same country. in India, Egypt,
and Brazil, worms of the same appear
ance have been found in the blood Of
man, and have received the name of Fila
ria sanguinis hominis These worms are
SO small that fifty of them might swim
side by side through an aperture the size
of pin hole without interfering with
each others movements
DR.. Manson. of Annoy, China, is con-
WINGED that they are spread from man to
man by way of the bites of the mosquito.
The dog is the only animal infested with
them, SO far as known, and it may be in.
ferred that the mosquito may carry them
from the dog to his master as well as
from man to man. When the lymph
channels in man are INSTRUCTED by balls
of these worms an enormous overgrowth
of the skin takes place. forming the dis
ease known as elephantiasis, or "Barba.
does leg. the latter name being derived
from that of one of the West India
islands, where it has been frequently
observed
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30

An Attractive English Watering Place.


One of the most attractive watering
places in England now is Eastbourne, Sus-
sex. 1t chiefly belongs to the duke of
Devonshire, one of whose numerous seats,
which he gives up to his only sister omar
ried to the only son of the "young gallant
Howard" of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage,
is in the neighborhood. The duke has ex-
pended vast sums in most judicious i'm
provement of the place.
Among its attractions this year have
been two men with piano placed on a
donkey cart. One wears green goggles
and the other bandage over his face,
and their soft felt hats are drawn well
over their faces. One is an admirable pi-
anist, the other has a splendid voice, and
they have the appearance and mien Of
persons of high class. They draw big
audiences. London Letter
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30

The Lake Moeris of Herodotus, usually
regarded as myth, was wonderful
artificial inland sea about sixty miles
south of the pyramids of Gizeh. 1t was
450 miles in circumference, and was ere.
ated by leading the waters of the Nile into
vast depression. Believing the mar.
Vicious story of the Greek chronicler, an
American explorer. Mr. Cope White.
house. has sought the ancient lake. and
has discovered its supposed site in an i'm.
mense hollow in the desert, which de
scends more than 200 feet below sea level.
1t is now proposed to fill or refill this hol-
low by means of an easily made passage
from the river. and thus give fertility 10
q large area and relieve the lower Nils
-eounr; from its disastrous inundstiona
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30
The Chicken Industry.

1t is little singular that this country
cannot grow its own eggs We bought
from the Canadians last year II, 500, 600
dozen for which we paid them 50, 900, 600.
When there is so much complaint of hard
times and of lack of light employment
for women it is wonder that the poultry
business does not get greater degree Of
attention. 1t is business which does
not admit of being carried on in whole
sale way. Large colonies of hens do not
thrive. They are subject to visitations Of
disease which carry then off by hun
dreds. But fowls can be made source
of income to thousands of small farmers,
paying them better than more costly and
laboriOus investments
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30
BELOW THE SEA.

Deep m the bay the old church lies,
Beyond the storm-wind's power
The waves that whelmed 1t ever play
In ripples round the tower,
And II you look down through the lido
Many and many time
You may catch the glimmer Of the stoncA
Or hear the sweet bells chime
For they that dwell deep In the sea,
Below the wind and rain,
The Mermen and the Mermaidens,
Have built it up againl
They have made fast the ruined walls
With their immortal hands,
And strewn the aisle with red sea-fiowers,
And with the wet sea sand.
And when a drifting boat comes back
Rock shattered to the shore,
With never captains at the helm,
Nor sailor at the oar,
Then down below the stormy foam
The sweet old bells ring free,
They call upon the mariners
That come no more from seal
May Kendall in Magazine Of Art.
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30
ASTRONOMY AMONG THE pluTes.


The Father and the Mother of the starr
sorrow OF the Moon.
Dan do guile has been interviewing
Tooroop Eenah desert Father) ON astron-
Omy, with the following results:
Divested of the desert Fathers" pecul-
lar pronunciation, it was as follows: "The
sun is the father and ruler Of the heavens,
He Is the big chief, The moon Is his wife,
and the stars are their children. The
sun eats his children whenever he can
catch them. They flee before him and
are all the time afraid when he is passing
through the heavens When he (their
father appears in the morning, you see
all the stars, his children, fly out of sight
go away back into the blue of the above
and they do not wake to be seen again
until he, their father, is about going to his
bed
"Down deep under the ground-deep,
deep under all the grounds great hole.
At night when he has passed over the
world, looked down on everything and
finished his work, he, the sun, goes into
his hole, and he crawls and creeps along it
till he comes to his bed in the middle part
of the earth. So then he, the sun, sleeps
there in his bed all night.
"This hole is so little, and he, the sun, Is
30 big, that he can not turn around in it,
and so he must, when he has had all his
sleep, pass on through, and in the morn
ing we see him come out in the east
When he, the sun, has 30 come out, he be-
gins to hunt up through the sky to catch
and eat any that he can of the stars,
his children; fol IL he does not so catch
and eat he can rot live. He, the sun, is
not all seen. The shape of him is like a
snake or lizard. 1t is not his head that
we can see. but his belly, filled up with
the stars that times and times he has
swallowed.
"The moon is the mother Of the heavens
and Is the wife Of the sun. She, the moon,
goes INTO the same hole as her husband to
sleep her maps But always she has the
great fear of the sun, her husband, and
when he comes through the hole to the
nobee (tent), deep in the ground, to sleep
she gets out and comes away II be be
cross.
"She, the moon, has great love for her
children, the stars, and is happy to travel
among them in the above, and they, her
children, feel safe and sing and dance as
she passes along. But the mother she can
not help that some of her children must
be swallowed by hefather every month.
1t is ordered that way by the Pah-ah
Great Spirit, who lives above the place
of all
EVERY month that father, the sun, does
swallow some of the stars, his children,
and then that mother, the moon, feels sor-
row. She must mourn. So she must put
the black on her face for to mourn the
dead. You see the Piute women put
black on their faces when child is dead.
But the dark will wear away from the
face of that mother-the moon-a little
and little every day, and after a time
again we see all bright the face of her,
But soon more of her children are gone
and again she must put on her face the
pitch and the black. Francisco
Alta
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30
LlNcoLN's FIRST DOLLAR
The Story rs Told to MIR. Seward "A Most
Important Incident.

The Story as Told to MIR. seward-A Most
Important Incident.
Nv. d, Kelley In New York Start
One evening when q few gentlemen.
among whom was Mr. Seward had met
in the executive chamber without Official
business, and were telling of the past, the
president said Steward. you never
heard. did you. how earned my first dol
larS"
"No," said Seward.
"Well, replied he, II was about 16
years of age. and belonged. as you know.
to what they call down south the scrubs.
People who do not own land and slaves
are nobody there. But we had succeeded
in raising, chiefly by my labor, sutii-
cient product, as thought 10
Justify me in taking it down the
river to sell After much persuasion l
had got the consent of my mother to go,
and had constructed flatboat large
enough to take the few barrels of things
we had gathered down to New Orleans
A steamer was going down the river We
have. as you know. no wharves on the
western streams. and the custom was, II
passengers were at any of the landings,
they were to go out in boat, the steamer
stopping and taking them on board l
was contemplating my new boat and
wondering whether l could make II
stronger or improve it in any part, when
two men came down to the shore in car.
riages. with trunks, and looking at the diff.
ferent boats. singled out mine and asked;
Who owns thisr answered modestly; i
do Will you, said one of them. take
us and our trunks out to the steamer
Certainly. said l.
~ was very glad to have the chance
Of earning something, and supposed that
each of them would CINE me couple OF
bits The trunks were put on my boat,
the passengers seated themselves on
them, and l sculled than out to the
steamer They got on board. and /
lifted their trunks and put them on the
deck. The steamer was about to put on
steam again when l called out: You
| have forgotten to pay me Each of them
took from his pocket silver half dollar
and threw it on the bottom of my boat.
could scarcely believe my eyes as Tpicked
up the money. You may think it was q
very little thing, and in these days it
seems to me like trihe. but it was a
most important incident in my life. |
could scarcely credit that l. the poor boy,
had earned 81 in less than day, that by
honest work l had earned 81 the world
seemed wider and fairer before me was
more hopeful and thoughtful boy from
that time
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30


Sportsmen will be interested in novel
boat which Mr. Lew Casaday, of this
city, has invented snd had patented 1t is
designed for duck shooting, and test
made with it one day this week by Mr.
Casaday proves its efficiency He shot
and secured forty-seven ducks, and thinks
he killed about 100 in all. To make an in
visible boat Mr.. Casaday takes common
boat and cuts from the bow back say one
third Of the entire boats length down to
the water-line. This is made water
tight, and at its opposite end from the
bow mirror Gin this case twenty eight
inches high and forty-eight inches long
is placed so that the glass reflects the
water in front and the decoys
Behind the mirror the hunter sits and
paddles his boat toward the ducks and
makes his observations through small
spot in the mirror from which the ANAL
gam has been removed. As the boat
moves up to the ducks they can see their
own reflections in the mirror, and in some
instances swim toward the boat When
the hunter is near enough to shoot he
drops the mirror forward by loosening a
string, and gets two effective shots--one
at the ducks on the water and one as they
rise. Mr.. Casaday's patent includes the
use Of mirrors and also boat whose sides
are entirely covered with mtrrors.-South
Bend Und.) Tribune
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30

Great improvements are being effected
In Venezuela The work of building q
lreakwater at Laguayra, on the coast, a
few miles from Caracas, is to be begun at
once. The entire breakwater will cost
$4O, 100000 Blocks of concrete weighing
500 tons each will be laid in the sea. No
money will be taken from the public
treasury. The London company agrees
TO accept certain sum per package for
all merchandise going over the break
water for ninety-nine years.-Panama
DiSpatch
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30
Too Clever by Half.
lHumoristis he Batter.

Merchant to clerk)-Here. I have just
written out the following letter: @DeaI
Sir: As respects the amount to which l
am indebted to you. | beg to state that l
intend to pay you in full very shortly,
- you are my principal creditor and the
rest of my liabilities are scarcely worth
Iaentioni G." etc, etc want you to
make thirty copies of this letter and send
them to the addresses given in this list
Merchant next day)-Well did you at.
tend to that little matter? Clerk-O, yes;
but to sa trouble had the letters litho
graphed before sending them off.
The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-30
At TWILIGHT.
tAlice Turner,l

lAlice Tlrnerl
10 close my eyes and dream
OF things star, until I seem
To catoa the fragrance Of the ssa;
To hear its rush upon the shore
And grow heart-siok to feel, "No more
Can that old life belong TO mo-"
10 know the leaves are gold AMI bro wn
Along the road that leaves the town.
And creeps, long gray line adown
Between the hills that calmly stand
The monarchs Of this quiet land,
Where all OF lie Il pure and free,
And silence oomprehends our thought
And, through the way which we have
sought.
Helps US to grasp eternity.