davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24
of this structure and not be impressed with
the greatness of the Chinese nation.
A GRAND MONUMENT


1t is greater monument than the pyra-
mids of Egypt built by selfish kings for
royal tombs, and its purpose was nobler. It
is a monument also of the great truth that
while man dies. his work remains, and that
the lives bottled up here 20 centuries ago
exist to-day as does the hand that carved
the Venus di Medici, the pen that wrote
Shakespeare and the Eneid, and in an
humber, though no less effective way, the
muscle that dug out the marble from the
mines, of which the builders and achitects
constructed the mighty cathedral of Milan.
This wall is right in the mountains.
There are no villages to speak of near it,
and the surroundings are the picture of
desolation. The road TO it, which was once
a paved highway, is now a mountain path
filled with boulders and puddles, and it is
i'm possible to get through with anything
else than mule litters, camels or donkeys.
We passed camels by the hundreds and our
mule litter and two donkeys, which made
up the outfit of the party, had often to stand
aside ior herds of black Chinese hogs and
droves of fat-tailed sheep which were being
driven from the wild pasture lands of Mon
golia down to Peking. Ponies and horses
can no more travel this road than they can
the passes of the Andes, and the mule
litter, in which my wife rode, is a fair
sample of Chinese interior travel. 1t was a
cloth-covered box about five feet long and
four high, swung between two of the raw
est, mangiest mules have ever seen. 1t
was hung upon shafts, and these mules, one
in front and two behind, carried it in single
file mp the hills and through the mud. In
passing through one of the villages they
slipped and the whole outfit came to the
ground. The muleteer was a Mohamme-
dan, as are many of these north Cinnamon.
He was as stubborn as his mules and he de-
cidedly objected when proposed putting
two people into the litter during rain.
We carried our own cook and bedding with
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24
CHAPTER XIII.
WHO KILLED SWAIN?

4
John GRAY went out from the presence Of
the dead, alone and in silence, with un-
covered head held low. Little had life ever
been to him at best. Life had begun, for him,
with death. He now felt that it must end
with him as it had begun.
No, he had not loved this girl, this angel
now; not really loved her. But it looked
to him now as if the sun had gone down,
and would never, never rise up any more
The flowers had been gathered from his
path. The stars had all fallen out of
heaven, and blackness was in their places.
That night as be sat and sat, and still sat,
in the solitude of his cabin. even when the
white finger of God came pointing sharp
through chink in the wall from out the
golden doors Of dawn, he could continually
hear a strong man moaning in dark corner.
He could hear the wild passionate appeal of
the wretched mother to the priest. And
Farla? And the little group Of children in
that awful silence and darkness about their
dead?
He lifted up his head with the rising sun,
and, reproaching himself for his selfish mis-
cry, he resolved, il possible, to be of some
better use in the world than he had yet
been.
What were all the buried rivers to him
now with their beds paved with gold? His
heart was not down in the deeps of the
earth now. His religious nature, and his
early religious training, too, came to help
him now. And so his thoughts were not
down in the earth but up in that vague and
indescribable somewhere which men call
heaven.
The singular and isolated man who had
set his teeth so terribly and clenched his
fists so firmly that night, chose to bury his
dead in silence, and almost in secrecy. 1t
would seem that he followed the grave and
laid his lost child away with his own hands
somewhere. 1t may be that Farla and he
did it together. For the next day after her
death Mr.. Gray walked up toward the
house, where he heard sound as of mailing
OF boards. But when Farla and her Iather,
who at that moment chanced to be looking
his way, saw him coming, they closed the
door. He went up to the strong gate, but
finding that also firmly fastened, he stood
still for little time, and then went back
home.
1t might have been months after, it
seemed years to Gray, that Farla came to
the cabin door, and hastily and excitedly
looked in where the artist, weary and desc
late, was trying to paint picture of the
dead girl from memory.
Swain! Swain has come back" she
Missed, and was gone.
1t is said that the murderer cannot keep
always away from the scene of his crime,
but will sometime return, even though it be
in his sleep. Two days alter FarIa had
hastily put her head id at the cabin door,
and as hastily passed on, the artist saw one,
two, three men searching up and down and
securing the hills and canons, as il for
something lost.
.Oa the third day the coroner came to i'm
panel a jury down on grassy bench of the
mountain by little trout stream, where
Swain the summer before had been so fond
OF fishing.
The dead had been found. The rich mans
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24

son from San Francisco had been found
living dead in the grass, all in a heap,
as if he had been pitched there; as
if he had been Shaken as dog shakes
drabble-bellied cat, and then throws it far
aside in the grass. Robbers? Murderers?
Thieves?
The papers were crowded with accounts
OF the dreadful crime. He was good young
man OF great promise, the papers said; but
too fearless of danger. And now he had
fallen victim to his own courage and his
romantic love of nature. The desperate
outlaws that hung about the savage haunts
of Mount Diablo had robbed and murdered
him.
But the Coroner found the costly diamond
still on his finger. His watch, too, was
found close by in the grass. And. strangest
Of all; his wel[flled purse was still in his
pocket!
Farla was not to be seen anywhere
about all this time; neither was her father.
True, little groups of children dotted the
door-yard and looked curiously out now
and then, as men went and came up and
down the green hills, and round and about
the little groves of graceful redwoods, but
that was all. The great, stout gate was az
firmly closed as if the white bull was still
the terror OF the hills.
According to the Coroner's report-col-
umns in length, but which L must compress
into paragraph-the jury found cruel fin
ger-marks on the young mans throat. The
distinct marks of three fingers about the
throat, more as if the rope of a hangman
had made them!
The thumb of the dead mans murderer
had almost buried itself opposite the three
red bars across the throat. The mans back
was found to have been brokenl
John Gray had taken intense interest in
all the proceedings. He was on the ground
along with the Coroner and his men from the
first; nervous, anxious. He wore painters
blouse. Up and down the front of this
blouse ran row of bright gilt buttons. He
kept rolling one of these over and over, and
round about, between his thumb and finger.
In this nervous way he had worked it loose.
1t was nearly ready to fall. He was still
twisting it about between his thumb and
finger when the surgeon announced that the
dead mans back had been broken. Then he
Jerked more nervously at the button than
ever. 1t came loose from the blouse, slipped
from his fingers and fell to the ground.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24
SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS.

The story opens with resume Of the history
of the mysterious Buried River, flowing be-
meath the Rocky Mountains and deep down in
the bowels of the earth, the bed of which is
paved with virgin gold. John Gray, the son Of
an American army chaplain killed in battle,
goes to Rome to study painting. There he
meets wealthy American who is dying of con-
sumption, and who wishes his portrait painted
before he dies. Gray paints the picture, re-
ceivlng in payment gold DUST The dying man
confides to the artist that he has discovered the
Buried River, and that it is the source of his
wealth. Before he can impart the secret of its
location beyond the fact that it is in California
he dies. After an unavailing search among
Spanish records for further information, Gray
starts for California to continue his search. At
Mt. Diablo he takes possession Of a ruined hut,
and there he meets Farla, the daughter of the
owner of the land. The girl, who believes he
is a surveyor who is seeking TO dispossess her
father, warns him to leave or he will be killed.
They argue the question for some time, when
the girl discovers that she already loves the
artist. Gray is introduced to Farla's sister
Sanello, who has an aristocratic lover The
artist, the girls and their father sail down San
Francisco Bay. Farla unaccountably refuses
to return with the party. When the others
reach home they find that Sanellos lover has
deserted her. Gray discovers the location Of
the haunted well, which is believed to connect
with the Buried River. He investigates the
well, and makes a startling discovery. Farla,
who had landed on a rock IN the bay, climbs up
to height from which she cannot retrace her
steps. Her distress becomes known and men,
of-war and other vessels go to her relief, but
are unable to assist. Farla finally makes rope
of her clothing and her hair. and lowers herself
down. The rope is not long enough by so feet
Farla drops that distance into the sea, and is
rescued by her father.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24

Why We Should Sleep With Our Bodies
Lying North and South.
st. Louis Globe-Democrat.l
Scientific investigation proves that there
is the best possible foundation for the belief
that we should sleep with our bodies lying
north and south. Each human system has
magnetic poles, one positive and one mega
tive. 1t is true that some persons have the
positive pole in the head and the negative
pole in the feet, and others the reverse. In
order that the person sleeping should be in
perfect harmony with the magnetic phenom-
ena of the earth, the head, if it possess the
positive pole, should lie to the south, or, if
the feet possess the positive pole, the head
should lie to the north.
The positive pole should always lie oppo-
site to the magnetic center of the continent
and thus maintain magnetic equilibrium.
The positive pole of the person draws one
way, but the magnetic pole of the earth
draws the other way and forces the blood to-
ward the feet, affects the iron in the system,
tones up the nerves and makes sleep refresh
ing and invigorating.
But if person sleep the wrong way and
fails to become magnetically in sympathy
with the earth, he will then probably be
too magnetic and will have fever result
ing from the magnetic forces working too
fast, or he will not be magnetic enough and
the great strain will cause feeling Of lassi-
tude, sleep will not be refreshing and in the
morning he will have no more energy than
there is in cake of soap. Some persons
may scoff at these ideas, but the greatest
scientific men of the world have studied the
snbiect.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24

A New Way 70 Serve This Wholesome
Cereal That is Not Generally Known.
New York SUM-
Our dealers in oatmeal report an enor-
nous increase in the consumption of that
wholesome cereal within the past few years.
Oatmeal porridge is used for breakfast
every morning in the families of tens of
thousands of wealthy people. As an arti-
Gle of diet, taken with good rich milk, it is
savory, nourishing, healthful, and cheap.
Some folks prefer the Scotch oatmeal, and
others the Irish, but the American is con-
sidered by many to be the best of all. All
the consumers of the grain in the United
States are not aware that it may be used
otherwise than in the shape of porridge In
Scotland, oatmeal cakes are greatly favored
by the common people. The cakes are
thin, laid in pan over hot fire, and
baked till they are hard or crisp, if not
brown. They may be eaten hot or cold, and,
when spread with fresh butter, are about as
good as most other things. Those who de-
sire 10 make them should take lesson from
a Scotch housewife.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24

Two Ex-Confederates Who Garry Around
Fragments of Their Own Heads.
Atlanta Constitution.I
Two ex-Contederates who applied for
allowance under the manned soldier act
yesterday showed strong proof that they were
badly hurt during theiwar About o'clock
Mr.. Lucius Maxwell walked in and taking
from his pocket an old Confederate passport
slowly unwound it and laid before Colonel
Tip Harrison six pieces of his skull. Mr..
Maxwell was a member of the Forty-second
Georgia Regiment, and received terrible
wound in the mead in one of the battles
around Atlanta in July, 1864.
About o'clock Mr.. Josephus Riden came
in and took from his pocketbook a piece of
his own skull which he has preserved all
these years. Mr.. Riden was member of
the Thirty-fourth Georgia Regiment, and
was shot in the top Of his head at the battle
of Jonesboro. To this day these unfortunate
veterans still suffer from the effects of their
dangerous head wounds, and have never
been able to 40 steady work since they were
received. 1t is hardly necessary to add that
the applications of both were promptly
allowed.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24

great retinue came out TO meet him, and
the man learned that he had been entertain
ing the imperial prince. he had been
talking very freely during the ride as to
what the people thought of the emperor,
Prince Kung and fifth prince, and he
feared that his tongue would lose him his
head. The fifth prince dismissed him and
the next day sent him lot of money and a
new horse and cart. This seventh prince,
as the father of the emperor, is now the
mightiest man in China and all the celestial
world goes down on its knees to him. He
rides about Peking occasionally, and is by
no means a bad-looking Chinaman. He is
well made and inclined to fatness, wears
the brightest of imperial silks and sports,
at times, hat for all the world like an in
verted dishpan. His pony is fine, white
Mongolian griffin and he goes about the
CITY with retinue of servants and soldiers.
/ have Just returned from a trip to the
Chinese wall, and l have seen enough to
say that there is no doubt of its existence
and its greatness. Built ], 200 years before
Amerlca was discovered, when our ancestors,
half naked and altogether savage, wandered
throughout France, Germany and England,
when Rome was in the height of her repub-
lican form of government, and when the
Roman empire had not yet began to be these
massive towers still crown the parapets
and the !, 600 miles of wall still stand
KEEP OFF THE GRASS {:
Tt is two days ride by donkey from
Peking, and one goes through the Dorthern
edge of the great plain of China and meets
it in the great chain of mountains which
separates China from Mongolia and Man.
churia. Manchuria and Mongolia lie d.
rectly north o: China. They are both sub
iect to and are governed by China, and they
equal in size about one-half the whole terri
tory of the United States. Above them lies
Siberia, and south of their western edge is
Thibet and Iii, which are also Chinese coun-
tries as to government All are sparsely
settled, and Mongolia has less than two peo-
pie to the square mile while its whole popu
lation is not greater than the city Of New
York. Manchuria has II, 600, 900 of people,
but both countries are far more savage than
the Chinese and the Mongolians live largely
in tents. The trade of all these people. how
ever, comes north from Peking and passes
over the mountains and Though the great
wall at the gate which visited. The wall
was built originally to keep them out, but
they have swarmed through in hOrdes again
and again, and it is Manchurian Emperor
that now sits upon the Chinese throne.
What a wonderful structure it is. 1t
would extend more than half across Amer
lea and it must have consumed years in
building it. As L stood upon its ramparts
could see it climbing the mountains and
going down the valleys as far as my eyes
could reach. 1t did not diminish in strength
nor size at the various points visited and
its masonry would have been good work for
the American builders of to-day' 1t is
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24
7 e BURIED RIVER

A ROMANCE OF CALIFORNIA.
JOAQUIN MILLER.

mother, sand says he can do no good any
more"
The priest put out his hand above the
troubled old head before him, but could not
comfort her, or quiet her moaning.
The dying girl gasped, started, half arose
in bed, and throwing out her half-robed
arms in wild, eager way, walled out, 81
want-I-I want ny-my little baby"
And then she gathered in her empty arms,
and so looking steadfastly ahead, and hall-
smiling, as il she saw what her hungry
heart so much desired, she sank back dead.
"Father, father shrive her, bless her, save
her SOUL" piteously walled the mother.
The bended, holy man laid his two hands
on the still head, and silently praving. Of
fered all the consolation his lips could utter.
The mother seemed comforted little at last,
and standing by the side of her dead she
put back the heavy mass of hair from the
poor, sweet face, and then kissed it tenderly.
Then looking up at the priest she said:
"We forgive her for keeping the secret
from US; God will forgive her for marrying
without letting us know; and surely you
knew what was best and what was right"
The good father began to look at her as
she went on: "And it was SO good in YOU to
come so Tar; so good in you to come up the
steep mountain. But I did so want you
who married her to bless her."
''But II did not marry her. did not
perform the ceremony"
Back in darkeped corner, for night was
falling, you could have heard the teeth of o
giant grind together like millstones. Two
huge hands clenched till blood ran down.
"You did not marry her? And she was
not married them shrieked the mother.
John Gray stepped little forward, and,
looking the holy man calmly in the face,
said in soft, earnest voice:
''Father, you have forgotten. Do you not
remember, l was there? You did marry
them; did you not?"
The good man, the brave, good man, un-
derstood:
ttYes I rannannhar nnrr I rrnarriad Than, %
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24
The Laws Inconsistency.

Philadelphia Record.1
Mr.. Noodle-Wall, it do beat all how the
laws work, one upsettin' another right
along.
Friend-Wha's wrong now?
"Wall, there amt much that isn't wrong.
Here I've been maxim good livin' as
juryman for years and years all because 1
don't read the papers an amt no 'pinions,
ye know"
"You can't read"
"No; never learned. Wall now I sot
great store on that there son o. mine, an
wanted to bring him up fer juryman, too,
but hang me eff they amt talkin' bout
laws ter make every boy 60 ter school.
Where's the jurymen goin' ter come from
in the next gineration. That's wot beats
me-"
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24

about % feet high and at the top it is
so wide that two carriages could drive
abreast along 1t and the hubs Of one would
not touch those of the other. Its exterior
walls are of blue brick of such a size that
they look like massive stones, and these are
filed in with earth and paved with brick
at the top. The grass and the moss has
now grown over the top of this great wall.
No archers now guard it, and iJ stands amid
the snowy mountains a monument of the
alrnond-eyed men, who thus, 1000 years
ago, sought to protect their homes and
those Of their descendants for all time to
come No one can stand upon the ramparts
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24


"There! Farla aud her old father shall
hold three heights. and keep their little
flock in hand together. There's two of
them; only one of me; only half one Of
me now"
He pitched the brush in a corner. No
more forever. His lip eurled scornfully as
he heard the cautious tread of the girdle of
men that was slowly tightening around the
cabin in the darkness without. His thoughts
went back to the old battlefield, and he stood
once more by the side of his dying father.
He felt that death was rot far of, and it
made him stronger now, in this trying hour,
to know how Indifferent had been his father
at the approach OF death-caring only to be
surely in the path OF duty in the end.
He laid some fine splints and knots on the
hearthstone, and there was cheerful
blaze. Closer and closer came the clumsy
feet without. Then there was dull thud,
thrust One! twol threeI fourl fyel tenl At
last ten glittering gun barrels were thrust
through the port holes, and four men came
crowding in through ihe door by the light
Of the pleasant fire The wonderful de-
tective headed the fo'ir.
Gray looked at him a moment and then,
pointing quietly &c the guns, said:
I'll those gun, are loaded you are putting
yourself in great peril.
The detective lodged, and called oat 70
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24
LINES ON THE PORTER.

But I started out to speak of porters and
not reporters. carry with me this year
small, sorrel bag, weighing little over ~
ounces 1t contains slight bottle of horse
medicine ana powder rag. Sometimes It
also contains costly robe de mutt, when,
do not forget and leave said robe in the
sleeping car or hotel. l am not overdraw-
ing this matter, however, when 1 say hon
estly that the shrill cry Of fire at night IN
most any hotel in the United States now,
would bring to the fire escape from one to
six employees of said hotel wearing these
costly vestments with my brief but imper-
ishable name engraved on the bosom.
This little travelling bag, which is not
larger than mans hand, is rudely pulled
out of my grasp as enter the inn, and 1t
has cost me S29 to get it back again from
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24

the porter. Besides, have paid Ss So for
new handles to replace those that have been
torn off in frantic scuffle between the
porter and myself 10 see which would get
away with it.
Yesterday was talking with reformed
lecturer about this pecullarity OF the por-
tiers. He said he used to lecture a great
deal at moderate prices throughout the
country, and after ten years of earnest toll
he was enabled to retire with a rich expert
encs and So in money. He lectured on
phrenology and took his meals with the
chairman of the lecture committee. In
Ouray, COL, the baggagemsn allowed his
trunk to tall from great height and so the
lid was knocked off and the bust which the
professor used in his lecture was busted.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24

probable feature about this story is the i'm
plication that bald-headed man would
commit a crime.
But still he did not become soured. He
pressed on and lectured to the gentle jani-
tors OF the land in piercing tones. He was
always kind to every one, even when peo-
pie criticised his lecture and went away be-
fore he got through. He forgave them and
paid his bills just the same as he did when
people liked him.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24
DO We LIVE LONGER?
The Average Duration of American Life
Being Gradually Increased.

Being Gradually Increased.
Boston Globe.1
There is good reason to believe that the
average American of this last quarter of the
nineteenth century is longer lived than his
ancestors of the last century. The most
casual reader cannot fail to have been
struck with frequent nstices in the daily
press of men and women who have lived
to become centenarians. The best medical
opinion of the day is, that the average dur
alton of human life is not only being made
longer, by reason of the improved diet
and better sanitary conditions Of these latter
days, but that it is capable of being still
further heightened by still greater improve
ments in our ways and means of living.