davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Opelousas courier., 1886-04-24
CHEAP MEALS.
A Paradise for Tranps in the
Great Metropolis. .
A Restaurant Wssre a Dinner May be
Obtained for a Few Gents.

After a very pleasant lunch in Park
Row, Detective Gilbert Carr said to a
New York reporter, 'We know how all
decent people live; suppose we see how
the beggars and tramps eat their food:
Let us go to Tramps' Hail." Tramps'
Hall is a small restaurant, if it can be so
styled, in Pearl street near Chatham.
The sign over the door bears the inscrip-
ton, "Small Delmonico." There are a
half dozen tables and twenty-four stools
in the place. The tables are made OF
rude material and are covered with white
oilcloth. There are a few cheap pictures
and theatrical show bills hung up on the
walls. The kitchen is in the rear and
communicates with the eating place by
means of a door in which an aperture has
been cut. Through this door the dishes
ordered by customers are handed out.
The cook and the kitchen are rigidly
kept in seclusion. No outsider is allowed
to enter the mysterious laboratory in
which the repasts of the Lazaruses of
New York are prepared. There are no
walters, for the proprietor, Mr.. R. Barna-
DO, is too wise to trust strangers in so
economical a business. He acts as wait
er and cashier, and his deep trousers
pocket is the till from which he make
change. Mr.. Barnabo is an adipose Ital-
ian of an o~leaginou> nature, something in
the way of a cross between Mr.. Wardle's
fat boy and Uriah Heep. He fairly bub-
bles over with good nature and impress
es a casual visitor with the idea that he
is ready at any moment to throw his
arms around the strangers neck and kiss
him on both cheeks, after the traditional
and repugnant italian fashion. A curious
crowd was partaking of Mr.. Barnabo's
cheer. There were two blind mendi-
cants and two blear-eyed women who
share their spoils, a cripple who hobbies
about on the stumps of his legs, an organ
grinder who had deposited his instru-
ment under the table at which he sat,
and a vagabond dressed in soldiers uni
form, who is doubtless familiar to the
general public as a b~roken-down veteran
who lost his arm at Fredericksburg. The
plates were of the c~oarsest crockery, the
knives and forks of the commonest kind
and the spoons of pewter. 'It does not
pay to have expensive articles here" said
Detective Carr, with an explanatory smile;
'the customers might be tempted to
leave the house and take them with
them" Mr.. Barnabo proudly exhibited
to the reporter his bill of fare and price
list. It read as follows:
The Opelousas courier., 1886-04-24
Tue Red Lights on the Trachs.

"Ever ride on an en- zine on a dark,
stormy night. eh2 Have you learned
what a red light means2 I remember
n bleak, dreary night in the winter OF
1877 I was running on the Erie. We were
behind time, and were skimming down
the hill toward Alden, when we rounded
the curve and saw what seemed to be a
blaze of red lights before us. 1t seemed
to me that the country was on fire. My
heart jumped into my throat, and
thought my time had come. I reversed
my lever, put on the air-brakes and open
ed the throttle wide. My fireman had
jumped, with serious consequences to
himself, and | thought l was a goner. ]
let one brief prayer escape my lips, and
felt a terrible jarring.
cat first it flashed through my mind
that we had struck, but as I heard the
Earring of the wheels / found that we
were at nearly a dead stop, the wheels
SiifDIIuS OI dICouuU Va liz u LlO
steam which had run up. Just about
two feet from us was the caboose of a
freight train, which we would have run
into had we not stopped in time. After
the excitement was over one fool of a
passenger came up and asked why we
had stopped 50 quick, swearing at both
the road and myself for stopping trains
SO quick. The cylinders of my engine
cut a little on account of the cinders
which were drawn in through reversing,
but beyond that no damage wa done.
"You can bet your bottom dollar, my
boy, that the two red lights on the back
of that caboose looked to me that night
more like a great mountain of red stone
on the track than they did like two in.
offensive crimson lights. "--BytJfao Ey.
n,reee
The Opelousas courier., 1886-04-24
Life studies of Lie Brocn.

No man who loves anything good can
be hopelessly bad.
Keep the heart right and the feet will
not go far astray.
The survival of the fttcst is the doc
trine that always wins in a dog fight.
In close application to business moth
ing on this footstool exceeds a mustard
plaster.
The man who worries about things
that cannot be helped is saving timber
for his own coffin.
Sitting up with the girls is pleasant
pastime, but remember, young man, that
it takes hog and hominy.to keep house.
Somebody says the American type of
manhood will steadily improve until it
surpasses sill others that arc or ever have
been all Of which it would be dreadful
hard to make q dude believe.
A bachelor poet ~propounds the follow
ing conundrum: What is warmer than
a woman's lover In response to which
a married prose writer would like to in
euire: What is colder than a woman's
fect2n
A man who saved a young woman's life
from drowning in New Jersey, recently,
made a proposition of marriage to her,
and was accepted. In less than a year
this same young man will be regretting
that he ever learned to swim.
Science is said to have made. the dis
covery that the molecules of which the
most solid substance is formed never act.
ually touch each other, but you couldn't
make the man believe it who unexpected.
ly bites on a shirt button in his pie crust.
A magazine writer asserts that a few
vocal sounds have the power to express
all the feelings and emotions of the
human soul; but anybody who has ever
been head over ears in love, or mad tc
the marrow, will have reserved opinions
on the subject.
Some folks claim that. q woman has
none of that Jove-like intuition of the
divine within her that makes the king
bee of the hive grand, gloomy and pecul-
lar when communing with nature. But
the unelad truth about the matter is that
d sixteen-year-old girl al see more poet
ry in a new bonnet with pink trimmings
than a man with a head like fleece of
wool could discover in a thunder gust
Chicago Ledger.
The Opelousas courier., 1886-04-24
The Georgia Bloodhound.

The Georgia bloodhound is just now a
national topic. His wonderful perform
ance at the convict camp at Oldtown
cooked his ears. His ignominious cap
ture by lobe Jackson, the alleged dyna-
inter, left him fop-eared again. Justice
to ourselves, the hound and the public,
requires a summary of his qualities.
To begin with, the Georgia blood.
hound does not quarry his game unless it
is a rabbit-a small rabbit. He is Meth
er fierce nor powerful. A boy can hold a
pack off with a cornstalk. But for trail
ing a fugitive-for hugging him close as
his shadow-or for flying along his track
Wien even the grass has forgotten its inn
press and the wind has powdered it over
with dust, he is as relentless as death it.
self.
Let me tell you what he can do, and
he can be made to do this any fair day
at Oldtown camp.
1. A convict sleeping in one bunk of a
hundred, shod and clad precisely as the
hundred convicts about him, may slip
his chain and flee. Ten miles away he
may meet his fellow-prisoners again, may
run to and fro among them, may walk
with them a mile and leave them. Six
hours after, these hounds, put on his
track where he slipped from the camp,
| will follow him to where he met his gang,
will thread his tracks in and about with
their hundreds of tracks. take it up
where it leaves them and run him down,
though he cross convict gangs every mile
he runs.
2. This escaping convict, clad ip
stripes cut from the same bolt with a hun
Tdred Others, may run through the
woods, touching weeds and bushes as be
runs. Fifty convicts, clad as he was
clad, may run through the same
woods in every direction. The dogs will
hold his scent running full tilt, breast
high. If he makes a curve of forty-fve
degrees, the dogs will not u the line,
but will catch his scent thirty yards away,
and cross the angle, though it were filed
with the convicts who had eaten and
slept with the fugitive. Often a dog
will carry a scent in gallop, running par
allelthirty yards to the windward.
An uncanny and terrible little beast is
the redbone hound, trained for the hunt
ing of man.-Atlanta Constitution.
The Opelousas courier., 1886-04-24
Orfatse OF the WhnLe.

Professor Flower remarked, pertinent
" to a description by DR.. Struthers in
the biological section of the British asso-
citation, of the Tay whale, that the whale
carried its pedigree on its own body and
in every part Of its structure. It had
been thought that mammals might have
passed through an aquatic and marine
stage before they came to the land. But
observations of the anatomy of the whale
showed that this could not have been the
case. There could be no question what
ever that the whale had been derived
from o ~forr-footed animal. It was a
characteristic of a mammal to have d
hairy covering. Whales were at one
time thought to be an exception, but it
was shown, in almost every one that had
been examined, that at some period
of its life it must have had a
q rudimentary covering, which was gen.
orally found in the neighborhood of the
upper lip; that covering was funetionless
and often lost before birth. Another re.
markable feature was the teeth. AL
these whales were furnished with a set Of
teeth, rudimentary but complete, and
not characteristic Of the fish, but of a
more completely developed land mammal.
These teeth entirely vanished at an early
period, sometimes before birth and they
were entirely functionless.
The Opelousas courier., 1886-04-24
Losipo Their Food SupnLfer,

"The most northern inhabitants of any
territory belonging to the United States
are rapidly dying of their privations,"
said a signal service observer, who spent
tw~enty-seven months with Lieutenant
Ray at Point Barrow. "Their sufferings
deserve all the more sympathy because
the whites are responsible for the great
diminution in their food supply.
These natives around Point Barrow
now number about 400 souls. Whales
and seals are their staple article of food.
The supply used to be abundant, and
the natives hardly knew what hunger
was. For twenty years past, however,
the coast off Point Barrow has been a IA
vorite resort for American whalers. They
have caught great numbers of whales
there, and have almost exterminated
them in those waters. All whalemea
have known for several years that it was
getting Improbable to seek for whales
around Point Barrow.
While we were there the 100 natives
in the village at Point Barrow caught only
two whales. They eked out a living on
cider ducks and other game obtained in
the summer months. The failure of
their food supply is a possibility that
constantly confronts them. Every now
and then they are pinched for food, and
this new hardship, added to the others
they already endured, are killing them
fast. The population of the four viii
lagos around Point Barrow has decreased
about one-third in the past fifteen years.
For a little while during our stay there
the natives in the village near our station
were .sorely pressed for food, and we
helped them out as much as we could
from our stores.
These natives are a branch of the Es-
quimaux, and they give the ethnologists
who assert that the Esquimaux all came
from Asia across Behring Straits
a rather hard nut to crack. If
their ancestors came from Asia it
seems strange that the natives of to-day
appear to bear no relation to the Chouk-
chees, who live just across Behring Straits
in Asia. Their languages are entirely
dissimilar, and, while the Point Barrow
natives hunt the reindeer, they have new
er domesticated them, while the wealth
of the Chouk chees consists in their herds
of reindeer. "-Nep York Sun.
The Opelousas courier., 1886-04-24
The BOV Got AEomo.

The Wall Street Daily Neps tells this
story: stIt was a New York capitalist
who flung $1,000 at one of his sons a
year ago and said; There it is, and it
is the last dollar you'll get from me. You
don't know enough to pound salt. Spec
ulation! You haven't sense enough to
buy and ship eggs. The other day the
old man went down to Florida to see
about a 8, 00O-acre tract of land he had
purchased at $3 IN acre for an orang>-
grove. He went to the headquarters of
The Florida Orange Grove Estate Agen-
cy,' and he found that his SON was Pc
dent, Secretary, Treasurer, and sole own
eE. Half an hour later he discovered
that his 5000 acres raised alligators In
stead Of oranges, and that the boy had
cleared about So, 900 ID the single trans
action.
The Opelousas courier., 1886-04-24
SCRAPS.

The steady shrinkage of glaciers in the
Swiss Alps has caused severe losses to
many of the peasantry by the drying up
Of pastures formerly moistened by glacial
ills.
Rain water is stored in the moss and
heritage of the woods, to be consumed
by the vegetation during the dry season.
A striking illustration of this fact is
given in a forest on the western coast of
The Caspian sea, where the vegetation is
verpluxuriant, although it never rains
except in the fall and winter.
A remarkable variation has been OBJ
served in the stature or the inhabitants
of France. If a line be drawn diagon-
ally across the country from Manche to
Lyons, the people of the northeast of the
division have an average height of five
feet SO inches, while those on the south
west side average only five feet 4.6 inches.
A French scientist has p~ropounded a
new theory of the formation of coal. He
believes it is produced by the sinking OF
floating islands like those which now oc-
cur on many lakes and rivers, and which
are conspicuous on the Upper Nile.
These islands are composed chiefly of
turf, which, being swallowed up by the
water, becomes fossilized at the bottom.
The lowest temperature at which the
seeds of common cultivated plants germ
mate has been determined by Mons. He'll
riegel. Barley and oats were found to
start in soil having a temperature OF 35
degrees; rye and winter wheat at 80 de-
grees; Indian corn at AZ degrees; the
turnip at 80 degrees; flax at IS degrees;
the pea and clover at IS degrees; the
bean and lupin at 38 degrees; asparagus
at So degrees; the carrot at 80 degrees;
and the beet at 40 degrees.
Taking the greatest depth of the
ocean as five miles and the height of the
highest mountain as five miles above the
level of the sea-" says the Engineer, ''and
remembering that the globe itself has a
diameter of 5000 miles, the comparative
insignifcance of all the surface Unequal
tiles of the earth is at once forced on our
attention, but it is better seen if we take
a circle sixty-six feet in diameter, having
On it's surface a depression of one inch,
or "a globe one foot in diameter with a
groove on its surface one-sixteenth of an
inch in depth, which would represent on
a true scale the greatest inequality of
mountain height and ocean deep on the
surface of the earth"
The Opelousas courier., 1886-04-24
Wenthercochs.

At Bishopstone church, in Hereford
shire, the rant is in the form of a grid
iron, this being the symbol Of the cruel
death of st. Lawrence, the s'patron
saint of the place.
The towers of the towlf-halls are FIRE.
quently furnished with five yanes, g cen.
trail one higher than the rest, and n at
each angle. Sometimes the initial letters
of the four points are placed midway be-
tween the vanes. We know the market
place of a small Border town, pebble
paved, with d tall market-cross raised ON
nine steps near the centre of it. There is
still q large square stone among the peb.
bles, where bulls used to be baited, tied
to the ring upon it. There is still an an
nual procession to it Of men on horseback,
carrying halberds, to proclaim q fair.
There is still a bevy Of pleasant country
women clustered in it every Saturday,
who have brought butter and eggs fol
sale from the distant farms among the
hills and moors. It is always cool, quiet,
and grey, with the surrounding hous es
looking down upon it pensively. Among
these houses, on the west side, stands
the Town Hall, with an archway run
ming right through it for foot-passengers,
and on the top of the hall rises q central
80.
tower, with the vanes all pennon-shaped.
Curiously, IN country residences, the
yane IS generally placed in the stable.
yard, either on the bell-clock turTet OF
on the louvred yentilator.
AS these notes have raised eyes to
objects above The ordinary level, we may
notice the ornamental ridge with which
large steep roofs are generally furnished,
as they have an origin not generally
known. In early times i predecessor
placed tlifs OF clods on the upper ridges
Of the slanting sides Of Che rough roofs t
keep out the rain at their junction. Out
Of these humps of earth clusters Of hoWers
and weeds grew freely. Accustomed +
the floral outlines thus made, orr more
recent ancestors handed down their re
4~nembrance Of these wind-borne seedlingt
ia the conventional foliage of the oras
mental clay ridge nov il common use.
QuSper.
The Opelousas courier., 1886-04-24
Whfp-noor-,cfLL,

The sun is sinking to his rest
Behind the brown hills distant cresb
Tine river wanders toward the sea,
The weary bees drone drowsily;
Whom, swiftly as the falling star,
A clear voice soundeth from affair
W~hip-poor-win, w~hip-poor-wilL
A field, with harvest sheaves agleam,
Tall willows, dropping to the stream
A farmhouse with its messy sheds,
"A garden from whose spicy beds
A savory odor, rising, floats,
And mingles with those mournful notes.
Whippoor-will, whip-poor-wiL
The cloud ships in the western sky
With close reefed sails at anchor lie
Upon a sea whose tints of gold
And purple hues lie fold on fold,
And with the dewdropis gentle fall
There echoes still that plaintive call
Whip-poor-will, w~hip-poor-wil
One pale star trembles in the east,
A long guest at a gorgeous feast,
Whose brilliant colors slowly fade
AS drops the nighttime's somber shade.
And clear and soft the distance lends
The voice that with the twilight blends
Whip-poor-will, whip-poor-win
All through the darkness and the dew,
Until the day begins anew,
The katydids and nightjars lone
win sing their weary monotone;
But only through the dusky trail
OF evening comes that tender vail
W~hip-poor-will, w~hip-poor-wiH.
-Efie N. Lane,
The Opelousas courier., 1886-04-24
A Mothers Sacrifice.

CHOW, Eliza, listen to me and pay at
t%ention, for on these few words may de-
pend your future happiness"
Eyes, ma"
"When Henry comes this evening and
you pass him the pie, watch his eounte-
Closely
Eyes, ma"
If he trembles with joy, ask him how
he likes your cookery. But if he shud-
ders, just mention casually that your
mother always attends to the pastry"
"Oh, ma! how kind of your
"Don't mention it. He will hate me,
but when / live with you after marriage
all will be cxplainea."-CaA.
The Opelousas courier., 1886-04-24
seYou shall have themin an hour, mon.

t'You shall have them in an hour, mon.
%sieur," she replied.
The clothes were sent, the work was
begun, and two days afterward Dame
Yvonne received the first proof of the
portrait. She uttered a cry of joy.
sit is he!" she exclaimed. Il know
him againi It is my sonl Seel there is
the little vest with the silv,r buttons
the little trousers | made with my own
hands; there are his little arms, his tiny
fingers, his long, golden hair, falling over
his shoulders. oh, yes, it is-it is my
little child! Oh, monsieur, how much
do I owe you'll"
Madame" said the photographer, Sin
presenting to you an image which you
recognize as your son, dead six years ago,
/ have accomplished a miracle. Miracles
are not paid for"
For us, the miracle is not difficult to
explain. Nothing is so like, in figure,
all. ana attltuac, 10 q cnlld I've years olu
as another child of the same age. The
photographer merely placed before tho
camera one of his own children, dressed
in the pretty Breton costume of the dead
boy. He was represented kneeling on a
cushion, his head bent, his face hidden
by his hands, which were raised and
clasped together in the noble and grace.
full attitude Of prayer.
Dame Yvonnc returned to Brittany.
She showed the portrait to every n she
knew; and to all who would listen she
enlarged, i'll terms of reverence and won
der, on the marvellous power of photogra-
ply, which had produced the likeness OF
a boy who had been dead six years.
The Opelousas courier., 1886-04-24
Lsahr,,fn1 rAoeoarz pha.

At a recepa meeting q the Franklin
Institute Prof. Houston resented two
photographs, taken on a dark night By
the light produced by flashes of light
ming, in which a building and trees were
distinctly shown. They were thrown on
the scene by the aid Of Prof. Holman's
lantern microscope. The duration of the
flash by which the plates were secured
was estimated at the 1900 part Of a sec
md Chicago Tribune.
The Opelousas courier., 1886-04-24

behavior in the future and extended an,
apparently cordial invitation to the Stew
ensons to return. Now" said Keam,
'tyou are talking like men. We will keep
you another night"
The next day they were set at liberty
and went away crcstfallen and repentant.
-Neu York Times.
The Opelousas courier., 1886-04-24
Floral.

MAUD, dear, why is q gardener like
your chceks2p
mo, Johnt you know / never can
guess conundrams. Why is aean
Because be Is the cutler Of roses,
Tableau.-Free Press.
The Opelousas courier., 1886-04-24

When asked how he could sell food at
such a price and earn any profit, Mr.. Bar
nabo smiled, shrugged his shoulders and
said: Economy, signor, always con
my" On leaving Tramps' Hall Detect
i've Carr said to the reporter: There is
no mystery about the matter. In the
hotels the unused food left on their
plates by guests at meal-time is sorted
out when brought back to the kitchen.
Every evening Mr.. Barnabo calls with his
wagon, secures it and recompenses the
cook with whom he is doing business.
That is the cooks perqulsite. So it is
that the precise article which a surfeited
millionaire refused to his stomach yester-
day is consumed complacently to-day by
"One-eyed Jimmy" or "slobbery Mike"
in Tramps' Hail.
The Opelousas courier., 1886-04-24
B. MARTEL, by. Clerk & Notary Public,

Real Estate Agent, OpelOmsas. La.
XNILL give special attention TO the pursnass ~. n
w sale of lands in the parieh of st. Lsndryyii 4 sair
sieu. Cameron and Lafayette tAttakrpas), 20 = MI Is
of homesteads and procuring patents for Same 7
all matters concerning lands. nar
References-Hon Geo. w. Hudspath; u. IN gss
land. Atty. J.. L. Tanssy. Atty, L ". ~ .oayt
Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-02-12

colleges are taken by the sons of wealthy
city people. These young men seldom
have any tlear notion of what they want
to be, or to do. They are aware, howev-
er, that study is irksome and life dreary
without amusement, and they devote a
considerable part of their time to finding
it. The end is the state of things hinted
at in the correspondence quoted.
1t is, of course. not to be assumed that
all the students in any college are mere
spendthrifts and idlers. Much solid work
is done at Yale and other similar insti-
tions; but the tendency is the other way.
Hence the increasing popularity of the
smaller colleges. There the students
have purpose. None of them are very
wealthy. They take a collegiate course
because they believe it will benefit them.
Some are obliged to endure privations in
order to obtain an education. The main
business with these young men is not
boat-racing, or baseball, but the acquisi-
ton of knowledge. And, besides such
helpful surroundings, peculiar to small
colleges. there is another feature of them
which does not have the weight it ought !;
we mean the opportunity afforded for
personal acquaintance of teachers and
pupils. Almost every young man who
thinks at all forms sometime and some
where an ideal of manhood; hits upon
some one, either in books or real life, who
serves as model upon which his char
acter and conduct are based. 1t is apoor
faculty which does not afford models of
this kind and there are few graduates of
been shaped and moulded by their ac-
quaintance with one or other of their
teachers.