davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02

watching the other people bathe every after
noon, his pores were opened, and by drink
ing beer at odd times whenever the idea oc-
CURED to him, he became SO healthy that it
was almost impossible to make the lid of
his coffin stay on.
But those who ride to the ball game or to
South Beach do not see the best part of
Staten Island. The hundreds of beautiful
walks and drives through the most wonder
fully diversified wealth of verdure, the COM
bination of land and sea, the old homes, the
broad grounds, the continual change and
surprise at new style of landscape with
the sea in the distance, are not understood
by those who skim the borders of the island
and follow the crowd The crowd is what
Staten Island has fought against for years,
and although it does not invade beyond the
lines of transit and the beach, the tide of
hot humanity from the populous kilns of
the city has set in toward South Beach.
A TORY STRONGHOLD.
Staten Island in Revolutionary times was
extremely Tory in its politics, but is now
friendly to the United States with the ex-
ception, perhaps, of slight bitterness still
felt toward Constable's Hook. Constable's
Hook is like Adams and Jefferson. Though
dead, it still speaks. A man who had lived
for long time at Constable's Hook might
DlOW OUT MS gas at nlgnt ana wake up bright
and refreshed in the morning. Asphyxia
would be a pleasant relaxation for him.
The time is coming, and at no distant day,
when Staten Island and Manhattan Island
will work together more harmoniously. and
as business picks up and trade is encour-
aged, many Staten Island business men will
have quiet homes in New York. The feel
ing of rivalry, though keen and active, is a
purely friendly one, and there is no bitter
ness at all. There is no reason why New
York and Tompkinsville should not walk
together hand in hand in the great march
of progress Each has her sphere of action,
each her allotted task, each her field of
work. While some classes of merchandise
may be bought cheaper in New York, owing
to railroad competition between the latter
and Chicago, other lines of goods are
cheaper at Tompkinsville.
Though live on Staten Island have
not allowed my prejudices to influence me
in any way in what I have said. 1 have
tried to be fair and truthful in what have
said, for 1 have the kindliest feeling toward
New York and always have had, and after
a hard and active day in the busy marts of
trade at Tompkinsville, nothing rests me or
builds me up like an evenings romp or q
straw ride on Fifth avenue. BILL NYE.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02
CHAPTER II.
THE EXPEDITION.

was not at home, that is, not in my own
cabin, at the time the Indians rose up and
massacred all the people in what is now
Modoc county, California, but had taken a
party of young Indians and gone a days
journey deeper into the mountainous will
derness on a grand annual elk hunt. Pos
sibly my absence from home had something
to do with the sparing of my lite. But l
think not. As before said, my insignif-
canoe, both as boy and holder of prop
erty, saved me, perhaps. Yet let it be re-
membered, had friends among the Indians
excellent, true and brave friends. And
they are as faithful to their friends as any
people on earth. Yea, let me say this now
at last over the graves of these dead red
men: owe them much; owe no white
man anything at all. Looking back over
the long and dubious road of my eveutful
life, can say this and snap nv finger at
the rebuke it may bring. But surely owe
no white man for favor or friendship or les
son OF love or forbearance Of any sort Yet
to the savage red men that gathered about
the base of Mount Shasta to battle and to
die owe much, much, much-all that am
or can ever nope 10 De.
Our great elk hunt had been wonderfully
successful. We had overtaken band Of elk
in dense wood. where they had gone into
winter quarters with the snow walled in
around them higher than their high-lifted
and splendid antlers. We had plunged in
upon them here. where they and their an
cestry had been secure for perhaps a thou
sand preceding winters. We had poured in
upon them with such impetuosity that the
antlered ranks of the huge bulls, as they
stood on the outer edge of the vast herd,
were broken up as we rushed nghtin among
the cows and calves, while the bulls took to
the hard-crusted snow and wallowed away
as best they could. This left us perfect
slaughter yardl The bulls were not desira-
BILE; but the cows and calves even at mid
winter, with the snow breast deep and with
nothing but the bark of willows and birch
and vine-maple to feed upon, were fat. My
excuse for killing 10 huge COWS with my
own hand at that time is found in the fact
that a friendly tribe of Indians down the
mountains near my own home was literally
starving. The gold hunters had made the
water in the rivers so muddy that the fish,
on which these Indians had largely depend
ed for centuries, had either died or forsaken
the streams in this region. And in this fact
the Indians who massacred 'the people of
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02
Irrigation a. II i. In Erxpr.

But this is the work of the Ganges alone.
It is five times as much as is carried by the
Mississippi to the gulf, and further down
the river where the great Brahmaputra
joins it and flows out into its hundred
mouths the silt output is still greater. Dur
ing the rainy season alone the river here
carries out enough silt to load Is, 900 ships
with J, 400 tons each every day for four
months. During this rainy season this
whole delta OF the Ganges is covered with
water to the extent Of about 80 feet. You
see only tops of trees, and villages which
are built upon the hills, and the river fur
ther up the country is diverted bv canals
from its course to every part of these vast
plains. The best of the wheat is irrigated
and the water being allowed to lie upon the
land drops this fertilizer and enriches it.
All over India, or through the part which I
have travelled, see this irrigation even
now going on. Much of it is done in the
most primitive way. Two halfnaked men
stand just above the river with basket
hung by long ropes between them. This
basket is water tight, and by swinging
motion they scoop it down into the river and
lift the water up into a canal above,
from whence it runs off into other
canals over the fields. Here at Ben
ares bullocks are largely used. The
water is stored in great wells and it is
drawn from them in skin bowls, each of
which holds about bushel of water. The
bowl is pigs skin kept open with hoop
of wood and to its top by four strings is
fastened rope. This rope runs over rude
pulley at the top of the we'll and at a dis
tance of 20 feet from it, it is tied to the yoke
of bullock, which, led by man, raises the
bucket to the top of the well. Here it is
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02

apex of the triangle and the area of the
whole is equal to the size of Europe with
out Russia, or nearly one-half of the United
States. 1t is a country of mountains and
valleys. The lower part and the greater
part of the center is an immense tableland
and between this tableland and the Hima-
laya mountains there is a wide strip of vast
plains through which the mighty Ganges
runs and the bulk of which has been made
by the rich tertilizing earth which she has
brought down from the mountains.
There is no doubt but that in the far dis
tant past the greater part of India was an
island, and it you could sink these Ganges
plains 500 feet downward the sea would
rush in and the Himalayas would be divided
from the plateau of South and Central
India. These plains are the richest part of
India. They are the most thicklv popu-
lated, and it is from them that the great
bulk of the rice and wheat of India comes.
The wheat area of India is increasing year
by year. 1t is now about equal to the wheat
area of the United States, and its product
completes with the American wheat in the
markets of London. For this reason these
plains are double interesting to Americans,
and the influence of she Ganges is felt more
and more every year in the Stock Exchange
of Chicago.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02

brought with me, not knowing what might
happen, and through the aperture saw the
game, though, of course, imperfectly. When
l left the hole, there was a ring worn around
its circumference quite distinctly, where 1
had chafed the board with my nose while
trying to follow the course of the lofty fly.
HOW HE ENJOYED IT.
Early in the afternoon De Cappa's Justly
celebrated band played some overtures, in
terspersed with interludes The disad-
vantage of a knothole as q lorgnette is that
one has to look through it with his ear while
the band plays or miss the melody. ! do
not know much about baseball, and for that
reason, I have been repeatedly called upon
to umpire the game. People are apt, in
choosing their umpires as in choosing their.
juries, to confuse Ignorance and impartiality.
The game was played between our own
New York club and that of Cleveland, O.
First our club would swat the ball and run
around the goals for awhile and then the
other would do so. This was kept up until
Cleveland had five and the New Yorks had,
just what they started with.
Speaking of Cleveland reminds me that 1
saw him the other day walking ND the
street with ex-Secretary FairchiId, between
and o'clock, going home like plain
American citizen from his work, scorning
the horse cars, the elevated road and the
cabs l had heard that Mr.. Cleveland was
very rarely recognized on the street here and
so kept my eye ON the two men for several
blocks. They were absolutely unrecognized
to all appearance and the ex-President actu-
ally finds more solitude on Broadway than
he did when he quietly went away on his
bridal tour to a secluded place where he
could commune with himself, and woke up
in the morning to find the front yard full of
artists, correspondents and telegraph in
struments. presume that nothing makes
a newly married President madder, as may
say, than while strelling about the grounds
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02

pistols in their belts; but their guns leaned
in hopeless neglect, wet and empty, against
the pines. The Indians could easily glide
in on the crusted snow FROM the darkness
that environed us and tomahawk the last
mani
But the next morning, brilliant with
snow and sunlight, found the men sleeping
peacefully. One by one thev crawled forth
from their blankets, now sunken heavily in
the snow from the weight and warmth of from
two to ten half drunken forms of humanity,
and stared bopelessly about. The great
roaring fires of the night before had sunken
deep down in the melting snow. Only here
and there the embers of some huge pine log
still held fire away down in the smoke
blaekened pit that yawned at the feet of the
California volunteers in their blankets.
From under the low boughs OF a dwarf yew
tree where 1, along with my horse, had
spent the night apart from the tumuItuous
crowd, could see little groups of men
gathering on the side next toward the little
city, away below the snow and DAYS
journey behind us. These little groups
would accumulate like rolling balls of snow,
and then break off and silently, but speedily,
turn their backs on the ehaltawakened camp
of California
They had had enough of the first great
campaign against the murderous Modocs.
There remained at informal roll-ealI only
two classes, the best and the worst. The
worst cared not, or dared not, to return to
prison fare, and the best of the men who had
gotten up the sudden expedition felt that
the eyes of the State were on them; besides.
that they had the massacre to avenge, to re-
cover lost estates; to reclaim once more to
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02
The Geography of India.

It is wonderful river, and how wonder
full it is, it is impossible to know without
understanding the geography of this semi
continent of India. If you will take your
map of Asia you will find that India is
much the shape of an equilateral triangle,
the base of which is the Himalaya noun
tains and the apex of which rests in the
Indian ocean. Each side of this triangle is
nearly 1000 miles long and two sides of it
are almost bounded by water. 1t is coun-
try of magnificent distances. From Calcut-
ia to Bombay is as far as from London to
Naples, or about the distance that New
York is from Denver. The distance between
Iceland and Spain is just about as far as a
straight line from the Himalayas to the
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02

sunk, but at the distance of 4S1 feet the
auger broke. At this point the end of this
rich soil had not been reached. The amount
of fertilizing material brought down by the
Ganges has been lately estimated and scien-
tifc investigation shows that some distance
above the point where it unites with the
Brahmaputra ats yearly burden is the enor-
nous amount of 355, 600, 900 tons. A thou
sand-ton ship is by no means small, and q
feet of $50, 900 such ships could not carry
this burden.
The average freight car is "a feet long and
it takes strong car to carry 80 tons. Sup
pose our freight cars to be each 16 feet
longer than they are. Load upon each car
so tons of this fertilizing mud and it would
take train of more than 2, 200, 900 such cars
to carry the yearly fertilizing output of this
great river. If these cars were on single
track the track would have to be 81, 400
miles long. It would reach twice around
the earth and leave enough cars over to run
two continuous trains through the center.
The most of this silt comes down during
four months of the year and if there were
daily fleets of 1000 ships each containing
l. 400 tons of mud during these four months
they would just carry it.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02

SASoO paper.
NO PLACE FOR POLICEMEN.
But we were speaking of Staten Island.
Probably Staten Island is, to the majority
OF the residents, even in New York, terra
lncognita. 1t is also terra to the police
sometimes for being 1917 miles long by ~
miles In width. Nine policemen have great
diticulty in being on the ground when
trouble occurs. especially when the roads
are bad. So the Staten Island poiiceman's s
lie is not one of luxurious ease as one might
suppose. Ny heart has not been so touched
Tor years as last autumn while strolling
through the beautiful woods which are en-
gagged in clothing the hillsides of the island.
The air was crisp and exhilarating; the blue
sea glimmered through the red and gold of
the autumnal foliage
Suddenly thought heard sob. Ever
ready to comfort the distressed, provided it
does not cost anything; always on hand to
ask the suffering if it still hurts, and if so,
where it hurts. and engage the sufferer in
pleasing conversation, climbed the fence
and penetrated still further into the woods,
where found policeman. Tears were in
his eyes. can bear anything better. than
the sight of policeman bathed in tears,
Inquired the cause of his anguish. Ee
said that it was so quiet and lonely on his
beat that he had strolled off into the woods,
and in an unguarded moment he had thrown
his club into chestnut tree to knock down
few nuts, not having had chance to
knock down anything else for long time,
and the club had remained up there. He
dared not 60 home or back on the beat with
out his club, for it would be disgrace, and
besides that, he might be attacked by some
one on his way home and have no means of
defending himself It was a sad case.
Lott LII L. L.
States evidence and getting a promise from
the policeman that he should be free from
arrest for five years, went up the tree and
returned with the Billy do.
HE BECAME HEALTHY.
Staten Island has 10 postoffices and fort.
Fort Wadsworth has an excellent site for
tort, but there is SO little fighting to be done
lately, and there is such close competition
that it is not selfsupporting. 1 am told
that il influential friends at Washington did
not do something for it every year it would
have to be abandoned.
South Beach is now getting to be. the
Coney Island of the approaching season.
Excursionists can ride from Harlem to
South Beach for 15 cents, which, on the
round trip, gives each excursionist 20 cents
advantage over Coney Island. This amount,
which is carefully invested in beer, will, in
one season, yield large returns. Added to
all this, South Beach has water front,
large number of msrry-go-rounds and fresh
baked peanuts. Beer can be had by ap-
preaching only authenticated parties in the
proper way. Many people are benefited
every year by sitting at the seashore where
they hear the billows burst upon the strand,
while they quaff some more beer. knew |
man once who went to the seaside living |
skeleton, but by patiently and regularly |
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02
The Gsnre. Holy it. Entire Leneth.

But it is not alone at Benares that the
Ganges is holy. From its source in the Him.
alayas, where it is supposed to flow from the
big toe of the god Vishnu, all along the
winding 1,5OO miles of its course, its waters
are sacred and purifying. found thousands
bathing at Calcutta, and many Hindoos
make six years pilgrimage from the source
of the river to its mouth. There are hun
dreds of places upon its banks which, like
Benares, are especially sacred, and there is
an island at the mouth which is annually
visited by vast number of pilgrims. This
is known as the island of sugar. At ALA
habad the Hindoos say there are three rivers
which come together. One of these is the
Jumna, the other is the Ganges and the
third comes direct from heaven and is invis-
ible to mortal ewes.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02
An Excellent Fertilizer.

The water is the color and thickness of
pea soup and the silt or mud is so rich that
these vast plains use no other fertilizer. The
crops are harvested by pulling the stalks
out of the ground. No cows or horses are
allowed to pasture in the fields and their
droppings are mixed with straw and mud
and then dried and used as fuel. In this
Ganges valley nature is always giving, but
never getting. Every atom of natural fer
tilizer, save this Ganges silt, is taken from
the soil. Still the land is as rich as guano
and produces from two to four crops every
year. About Calcutta the alluvial deposit
is 400 feet deep and an experiment was late
+ng the end Of it. A well was
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02

tering throng just above the water were
square benches covered with umbrellas as
large as the top of summer house, and
under these sat wrinkled old priests with
boxes of red paint beside them. Each wor-
shipper came to those priests as he finished
his bath, and the priest, dipping his finger
into the paint box, made one, two or three
marks upon his forehead. These marks were
to remain on until the next days bathing,
and they were the signs of the gods. Among
the bathers were peddlers of Ganges water.
These carry the holy fluid in jars to viii
lsges far out in the country, and each pill
grim who comes takes q load home to his
relatives.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02

civilization a region as large as all New
England These men could not desert now,
But what a dismal, smoky, doughy, dread
full breakfast The ''jail-birds'' were bribed,
bullied, beaten into doing the cooking And
there were two big fist fights before it was
half over!
As we sat or rather stood at breakfast. a
lineup of coffee in the right hand and
sandwich OF dough and burnt bacon in the
other, two tall and comely Indian warriors
stood over like silhouettes against the rising
sun on the crest of the snowy mountain be-
fore us. Instantly 1 knew them for my two
young friends who had gone down into the
I valley OF death with me when we had first
heard Of the massacre. Take a map and
trace the route of nv travel since leaving
my own camp, and you will see that in
three days had made almost the entire cir
cult Of the grandest and sublimest snow
peak in all the world. was now not 40
miles from my own camp, my own Indians,
my own cattle and horses. These swift and
splendid young fellows had kept promise
and were coming to tell me how things row
stood. Their information, whatever it might
be, was of the greatest importance. Did the
compact with the Modoes still hold good?
Was Pitt River and Modoc and Shasta still
friendly; or had they quarreled over the
plunder, after the fashion of white nations?
All this was important to know.
But such PANEL Pistols in the air in
stantlyl A dozen. 40, 90 shOtsl The two
tall and shapely figures melted back and
away as thev had come. And that was all;
all except a stampede" of horses, cattle,
mules, menl The cattle first took fright at
this apparition, those two shapely and
shadowv savages on the steep deep snow un-
der the pines that lifted before us, and they,
like the men in the early morning, started
for the world below! Then the mules, madlv
braying, followed the believing cattle.
Then the horses. Then the men dashed
bravely down the mountain after their
horses. And they never came back, cattle,
horses, mules or men!
Ike Rodgers, the banker, whose father
had fallen in the massacre, pulled the rem
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02

miles. and as fertilizing bearer she sur
passes any river on the face of the globe.
Egypt is the gift of the Nile. You could
lose Egypt in these plains, which are the
gift of the -Ganges. The mighty Nile, with
its unknown source, does not carry down as
much water as this holy river of the Hin
docs, and her maximum discharge at a
distance of 400 miles from the sea, with
many of her tributaries yet to hear from, is
one-third greater than that of the Missis-
sippi. Where the Ganges rises bursting
from a Himalayan glacier it is 27 feet
wide. 1t falls $500 feet in the first ten
miles of its course, and it has an average
depth of 80 feet 500 miles from its mouth.
Its delta is as wide as the distance from
New York to Washington, and hundreds
of mouths run from this width back in a
sort of q parallelogram for 200 miles more,
where they unite. The water of the Bay of
Bengal is discolored for miles by the mud
brought down by the Ganges and the whole
country is fertilized by it.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02

which is % minutes from New York, via the
Statute of Liberty, is the point where the
disemboweled umpire may be found. 81
George is not really town. 1t is not even
a postofice; it is only name. 1t has hne
base ball ground, however, bank, bright
and handsome paper called the Staten ISL
ander, and telephone, by means of which
one can converse with parties in New YORK;
but it has no inhabitants.
I desired one evening to converse
with Mr.. Chauncey Depew upon a
personal matter, so I asked for the
New York Central Office. I got 1t
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02

ares is the Mecca of the Hindoos and the
Ganges is to the Indian more than the Jor-
dan is to the Christian. On the top of a
house boat, with six d-tulbaned, black
faced and bare-legged rowers, slowly
dr1fted past the bathing CHATS this morning.
The sun was just rising, and over fields of
green extending for miles away on the left
of the river its rays came to gid the brass
jars which each pilgrim carried. 1t turned
the semi-bare brown skins of the men,
women and children to a rich mahogany
and brought out the shadows in the fort
like walls of the temples lining the other
side of the river. 1t was a scene for
painter. The wonderful colors of oriental