davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03
Novel Grocery Pass-BOOk System.

Boston groeerymen have novel and
curious system for keeping account with
their customers by which the "pass
book THAT volume of figures so pro-
duotive of squabbles between shop-keep-
ers. and patrons altogether done away
with. AS a substitute for the ancient
method "mOney books" are employed,
the leaves of which are made of imita-
ton bank notes representing all the way
from one cent to q dollar. Some of the
books contain 50, and others So, $40,
SIS and even $50. Instead of running
an account with a customer the grocer
gives him book, and for every article
the purchaser buys he pays in this
''fat' money which, of course, is only
good ct the establishment whence it is
issued. If he invests in seventy five
cents worth of flour, tea and sugar he
tears out like amount of money checks
and hands them over, thus making each
transaction, rs it were, for cash. Each
grocer has board with many hooks
upon it, the number attached to every
hook corresponding with the number of
a book. Thus, let us suppose that A
has book No: 20. The money checks A
pays for goods are hung upon hook No.
~, uut NLGl n pay Ills DIl1 lO Ildo OulJ
to cash the checks upon his hook. The
amount represented by the torn stubs
in AS book will prove the account. But
no error is possible; for AS checks can
not be mixed up with BIS, since AS are
all marked "No. 25'' on the back of each
when the book is issued and BIS are
marked ''No. g." The point of the
whole business is that the grocer, instead
of giving his customers credit in the
usual way, actually lends them money
which is receivable only at his shop. If
q book is lost, it is of no use to any one
else, nor are the checks negotiable I'm
less the name of the dealer who issues
them is stamped on the reverse side as
well as the number of the person to
whom the book is given. If a customer
pays cash for book and buys it out
right in advance, it is usual to allow
him three per cent. discount, or FIVE |
cents in goods. The grocerymen also
have cash-cari," made after the
fashion of a restaurant Communication |
ticket. Each of these is good for $40, |
in various small amounts printed on the
margaIn, which are punched out every
time purchase is paid for in cash.
When the pasteboard is exhausted the
buyer is presented withffty cents worth
of groceries.-Neio Orleans P;CdyuHe.
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03
A Place Where Steel Rails Creep.

In his address to the American Socie-
ty of Civil Engineers, Mr.. 7. G. Keefer
says: There is an interesting example
of rail creeping on highly elastic roa
bed on the division between Winnipeg
and Fort William, where the line crosses
"muskeg"-the Indian term for bog
causing it to yield about six inches to
every passing train. With heavy con-
Solidation engine, hauling thirty-fiye
cars, this track crept twenty-six inches
in the direction in which the train was
moving. The rails creep for about three
quarters of mile east and about half
a mile west of a small bridge ut the foot
of q grade in both directions. They
creep with every train and in warm
weather will often run twelve inches IN
der an ordinary train. Track bolts break
almost daily and repairs are to the ex-
tent of box of bolts per month.
Cinder ballast keeps the track in line
and surface fairly well, but does not in
the least preveat the creeping of the
rails. Lining and surfacing are necessa-
ry at least once a week. On account of
the fanges on the angle Plates spikes
must be left out of tie on each side OF
these plates, otherwise the creeping rail
would carry the ties with them and
throw the track out of gua2e. Three
trains running in the same direction are
often sufficient to open adjoints on one
side and close them on the other side of
the bridge between. The whole muskeg,
when train is passing, shows a series
of short waves five to six inches deep,
rising and falling with the passing load,
and the rails can be seen moving with
the passing train. The general super
intendent of the Western division, Mr..
WHITE. to whom am indebted for the
above, proposes to use twelve-foot ties,
forty-inoh angle bars and cut slot in
alternate sides of the rail at every tie,
as means of holding the rails in posi-
tiOn
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03
Statistics Interesting to Apiarians

The subioined is a summary of infor-
nation derived from the individual re-
ports to Gleanings in Bee Culture, :"
and according to that source gives a
correct idea of the purest condition of
the apiarian pursuit throughout the
States and Territories:
1. The average price of the comb
honey throughout the United States is a
fraction over 10 cents per pound. The
market is improving some, as will be
noticed. In some cases it sells as high
as thirty cents. In large number OF
Localities it is sod for 25 cents. In only
three or foar places does it sell for
less than Is cents. 2. The average price
of extracted honey is fraction over u
cents per pound. There seems to be
less huctuat:on in the price of extracted
than the comb. 3. A trifls over 4S per
cent. of honey was secured throughout
the United States by the reporters, and
probably this percentage represents
vely nearly the proportionate amount
secured by the bee keepers 0s a whole
through the country. 4. OF those who
report in regard to the quality of honey,
sixty-six report good, thirty-two fair
and only eight poor. 5. OF the num-
Der who reply in regard to the season,
thirteen report it to have been good,
forty -four fair and fifty-three poor. If
we put those who report good and those
who report fair together, the ratio stands
81 TO 50. Iu other words, in about half
the localities the season has been poor,
and in the other half from fair to good.
6. This season is decidedly better than
the last, &c report better, II about the
same and u worse. At this rate we
may enpect tolerably good season next
year if the gradations from worse to
better mean anything. 7. AS to feeding
very little has been done of those who
report 80 will not be obliged to feed at
all. The remainder, II, will feed some,
but not much.
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03
Making Leather MOccasins.

The making of leather moccqsins is
carried on in Maine quite extensively.
Now Maine has not n great many In
dams, but she has thousands OF lumb T.
men, and each lumberman wears mecca
sins in winter.
The Indians, if they were all mecca
sin makers, couldn't begin to supply the
market, so the moc2asin factory takes
hold and helps them out. A moccasin,
by the way, is a sewed boot, made with
ont sole leather, the top and the bottom
being of the same piece. The leather is
tanned by a peculiar process which
makes its color yellowish white. 1t
is soft and very easy on the feet. Each
pair of boots is made large enough
to hold the owners feet and two or three
pairs of stockings, thus enabling the
lumberman to defy snow and cold. The
moccasins are not of deer skin, but of
leather made of the hides of cattle.
They are cheaper than cowhide boots,
and the lumbermen greatly prefer
them. There is not country store in
the whole State where they are not kept
for sale.
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03
Killing Whales with Cannon.

Steamers hunt the whales. The har-
pooh is made with four umbrella-like
ribs, which is fired from q cannon on the
ship into the whales body. Pressure
makes it open up and take a wider and
firmer hold, and the whale pulling sets
OFT some nitro-glycerine confined in the
cone or front part of the harpoon. With
all this the whale sometimes runs for
miles, drawing after it the ship, often at
the rate of sixteen knots an hour, and
marking its course with blood. Two
thousand feet of heavy rope are fastened
to the harpoon, but this, rs indicated,
does not allow sufficient play for the
great monster which is often seventy TO
eighty five feet long, and weighs 1000
pounds. Afterward, when the whale is
dead or nearly SO, an iron chain is pat
around its body and towed into the har-
Dor of the fishing company,-Pittsb,rg
Dispatch.
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03

one side of the pike and the Nineteenth
the other. We came in sight of the
enemy's wagon train, and were all haste
to take it, but our speedwas greater IN the
Sixth Corps than in the Nineteenth, and
at the critical moment, we were ordered
IN the Sixth Corps to halt for the other
troops to come abreast of us.
No spectacle of the war presented a
more magnificent sight than this ad-
vance. AS we rose over each elevation
in the road, we could see the enemy's
long lines of battle stretching across the
valley and moving away from us. BY
their dress they could scarcely be dis
tinguished from the plowed ground OF
the fields, but their lines of battle were
marked by the flashing of their bright
musket barrels in the sun. Fronting
the enemy's lines of battle was their
skirmish line, which was continually
attacked by our cavalry skirmlshers.
We had infantry skirmishers following
just behind the cavalry. The enemy
frequently checked our cavalry line, and
then the infantry would come up, and
the enemy moved on. Behind our
skirmishers was the long black line OF
our infantry, behind which was the sec
ond line, moving by the right of the reg
iments to the front, ready to swing into
line. Our artillery was run out to the
skirmish line, and at every fair oppor
tunity opened on the retreating army of
Early, which only hurried on the faster.
We were capturing few prisoners, and
hoping the main body of Early's forces
could not escape, when the shades of
night closed us in and we were forced
to bivouac on the fields Early made
good his time, and placed several miles
between us and himself before the sun
rose next morning.
The limits of this article admit of
only passing reference to the decisive
battle of Cedar Greek. The writer, in
company with the Surgen-in- Chief of
the Sixth Corps, met Sheridan at 8 o.
clock in his famous ride from Winches
ter, and ioinsEfin behind him with his
staff. The Sixth Corps had halted, and
were in position for defense when Sheri
dan passed along the lines. In the
most familiar manner he spoke to the
MEL, calling them ''good boys" and
saying, 'I will put you in your old
camps tonight" The charge at O.
clock p. m. carried everything before
it, and with the night operations of Gus
ter changed defeat on our part into n
disaster to the foe.
This will be enough to give some idea
of army life under Sheridan in the Val
ley, when he was winning th@se laurels
which give him imperishable fame. He
was the man for the occasion. He always
knew the necessities of the hour, and
had the quick perception to know how
to meet them. No soldier that ever
fought under Sheridan could be I'M
moved as he heard of the hero's death.
No Union General won more truly the
affections and admiration of his men,
Chaplain A. 4. Hajnes, in SUSSEX (N. ~
In0ependent.
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03
A Latter Day Miracle.

One of the physicians at the City Hos
pital at Jersey City was called the other
day to attend Arthur Barry, little col
ored boy who had broken his collar
bone. The doctor was admitted by a
white woman, who said she was the boys
grandmother.
"How does it happen" the doctor
asked, ''that he is colored and you are
white!"
81 am colorcd woman" the old wo-
man responded. "Three years ago 1 was
treated in the City Hospital for dropsy
White spots appeared on my body, and,
merging one into tho other, made mo
white.''
She was as fair as any Caucasian of
her age. Warden Osborne corroborated
her story.
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03
A Mechanical Cure for IIiccough.

Procure a glass of water and pour a
little of it down the patients throat.
While he is drinking the water he should
press n finger on the orifice of each ear.
BY this method you open the CLOTHS,
and in five seconds the thing is DONE
Should you by any chance meet with an
obstinate case you may rest assured that
the throat and cars were not closed at
one and the same time. Either tho water
was swallowed before the ears were
thoroughly stopped, or the water was
not sufficient to fill the throat. Another
precaution is to keep the chin well up.
This cure was obtained by the writer
from an old Indian medical officer who
had experimental for some years to dis
cover a method of relieving the terrible
stage of hiccoughing in yellow fever and
this cure was the outcomo.- harmaceu-
ticuL Journal.
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03

PHILADELPHIA can boast OF a modern
Hercules in the person of George Sept
man, q giant in muscle and stature.
He stands six feet four and half
inches in his stockings, measures fifty
inches around iho chest, and weighs
273 pounds, scarcely an ounce o; which
is superiuous flesh. His proportions,
says Philadelphia exchange, are adj
mirable, and he has amazed many an
athletic expert by his displays of
strength. SOptman recently paid a
short visit to gymnasium on Arch
street, and gave an exhibition of what
be could do. The pupils eyed him
curiously when he picked up the one
hundrcd-pOund dumb-bell and twirled
it between his fingers as dude might
do with a bamboo cane. When he
stretched out his arms and asked all
who possibly could do so to jump on
his back, arms, shoulders, and head to
take ride, eight sturdy and strong
men complied with the request, and,
holding on to his ears, hair, and collar
button, they bore their weight upon
him. He carried them without much
difficulty, and the gymnasts who saw
the performance were almost inclined
TO think contemptuously of their own
comparatively puny physiques. Not
satisfied with this, the young giant
went to the strengthening scales and
pulled up the 2,O1O-pound weight
with ease. He then wrapped two
straps around his shoulder and back.
and fastening the ends to 1900 pounds
of iron, he calmly raised the weight
and took promenade around the hall
with his load. As n last act, instead
of wrestling with Nemean Ion, as
Hercules of NEUROLOGICAL fame did, he
caught hold of bear, which a friend |
had expressly brought, and Rugged the
animal 50 hard that it granted for
mercy. Spotman has yet to perform
seven more difficult tasks, and then he
will pose himself as modern Hercules
aud the hero of twelve unparalleled
leafs of strength.
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03
Turning a Switch from an Engine.

A device has been invented which en-
ables the engineer, when in his cab, to
turn switch which can be closed again
from the rear of the train. 1t is operat-
ed in connection with tho central
throw switch and consists of "shoe, y
which is dropped from the forward and
rear trucks. This strikes n crank, which
is overthrown, and the switch closed or
opened as the case may be. A switch
left open carelessly may thus be closed
by the locomotive while at high speed,
or train side tracked quickly in case of
dancer. Denrcl. Nc1ns
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03
HOrseflesh for Human Food.

The "horsehesh for human food
question has been ngitating certain
quarters once again, though one might
have concluded that this folly had died
long enough ago. Hippophagy might
put money into the pockets of few by
raising the price of cats meat, but il
would form q feeble solution to the
question of q cheap animal food supply.
Old and broken down "knackcrs" would
require an excessive amount of stewing
before they could be brought to q di-
gestible condition, while young horses
III good condition, are too valuable to
use for the purposes of the table.-Her-
ali Of Health,
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03
A Grain of Wheat.

A German expert reckons that if q
single grain of wheat produces fifty
grains, and that these fifty each produce
fifty grains moro, and so on, there will
be in the second yenr $500 grains in
the third year, $4,000 grains in the
sixth year 15,G25,000 grains; in the
twelfth year, 244, 40, G25, 600, 900 grains.
The third years crop would give 800
men one meal, leaving enough bran to
feed eight pigs for one day. The pro-
duce of the single grain in the twelfth
year would suffice to supply all the in
habitants of tho earth with food during
their lifetime.
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03

THE price of ten copies of the ADvo
CATE to one address, or to ten separate
addresses, is ten cents per week. You
cnn start your friends Investigating our
ideas by handing them a copy of this
paper occasionally or by having it sent
TO them. Then they will buy tho Stand-
md and themselves become more or less
active workers. II we can get, in all,
fifty ten-copy subscribers we can expend
more for typesetting and give more care
to editing and selection. The ADVOCATE
has, we feel, been as good as we could
afford TO make it: it rests with YOU,
among others, to improve it by enlarg-
ing its resources.
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03
A Peculiar Russian Bath.

A wealthy New-Yorker and a titled
European were served, while hunting
in the Big Horn Mountains not long
ago, with Russian bath Of the peculiar
type INDUCED in by the Indians. The
Indian takes no bath whatever during
the cold half of the year, but when sum
mer comes he bathes often, and then he
wants a good thing. His is no Muscovite
importation, housed in marble walls and
furnished with luxurious crouches, cozy
reading rooms, and the seductive allure
ments of modern bar. 1t is original
i'll design and simple in construction, but
very effective and satisfying in its re-
suits. The camp having been pitched
on the bank of mountain stream, the
bucks lie down on the grass and smoke
their pipes while the squaws build the
baths. Tall saplings are cut and thrust
firmly in the ground at each end in
or coop.
A large hole is then dug in the ground
underneath the coop, fire is butt, and
q heap of stones thrown loosely on top
of it. After the stones have been we'll
heat the coop is covered with hides
and wet blankets and the fire extin-
guished with water. A dense cloud of
steam arises and the bucks crawl into
the apartment, while the squaws read
just the hides and blankets and make
the place as nearly steam tight as posi-
BILE. The Indians sweat till the steam
escapes or condenses, and then they
crawl from under tue flaps and jump di-
rectly into the brook. When they leave
tho water they lie down in the sun; the
squaws bring dry skins and blankets
and the bathers refresh themselves with
pipes and firewater.
Eastern sportsmen who have sought
excitement in the West have sometimes
been surprised to find the wild Indian
enjoying some of the extreme refine
ments of civilization. The latest pat
tern of popular rifle for big game was
in the hands of the Indian before it
could be purchased in New York. Local
sportmen who had sought in vain for it
in this city went out on the plains and
found the first savnges they met armed
with it.-N. Y. Times.
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03
"Jf a woman is pretty,
To me It's no matter,
BE she blonde or brunette,

SO she lets me look NJ ner.T7
An unhealthy woman is rarely, il ever, beau
tiful. The peculiar diseases to which so many
of the sex are subject, are prolific causes Of
pale, sallow faces, blotched with unsightly
pimples, dull lustrelcss eyes and emaciated
forms. Women so afflicted, can be perma-
nently cured by using DIR. Picrce's Favoritc
Prescription; and with the restoration Of
health comes that beauty which, combined
with good qualities of head and heart, makes
women angels of lpveliness. "Favurite Pre-
scripton" is the only med cine for women,
sold by druggists, under a poSitire guarantee
from the manufacturers, that it will give sat
isfactiOn in every case, or money will be re-
the bottle wrapper and faithfully carried out
for many years.
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03

HERE are some Georgia old folks
worth mention: Henry, Mink, aged
80, has never taken n dose of medicine;
has not missed meal in sixty years;
is still equal to farm work in the hottest
weather, though he does not like to get
wet. Here, then, is Redding Regishe,
who has been bailif to the grand jury
of this county for thirty seven consecu-
tive years, and wants only to live to
make it up to forty, and Rolly Boat
weight, esquire, with eighty-two Demo
cratic years behind him, and after him, old
George Charles, black and blind, yet
making n living at eighty-fve in spite of
his intirmity, and even saving enough to
pay for his small home.
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03
Parrots that Destroy Sheep.

You have no doubt heard of the great
rabbit scourge in the provinces of Aus
tralia, and how the Government of New
South Wales has offered q reward of
$125,000 to any one who will invent
some effectual means of Kidding the
country of the pestiferous little ami
mails. Thomas W. Knox, in his last
book of travels, tells us about the par
rot scourge there which is almost as de-
stllctive to sheep as the rabbit scourge.
The rabbits eat up the pasturage and
the parrots attack the sheep themselves
When the sheep farmers first estab-
lishei their stations among the noun
tains, there were focks of green parrots
living in the glens and eating fruit and
leaves. They were beautiful birds
and no one expected any harm from
them.
After while it was discovered thai
many of the sheep, and they were in
variably the finest and best of the flock,
had sores on their backs, and always in
the same place, just over the kidneys.
Some of the sores were 50 slight that
the animals recovered, but most of
them died or had to be killed to
end their sufferings. The cause of
these sores was for some time mystery,
but at length herdsman on one of the
high ranges declared his belief that the
parrots were the murderers of the sheep.
Investigation showed that in the severe
winter the parrots had come at night
to the gallows where the herdsmen
hung the carcases of slaughtered sheep
aud picked off the fat from the mutton,
showing a partiality for that around
the kidneys.
How they ever connected the carcasses
with the living sheep is a subject for
to puzzle over, and especially
how they knew the exact spot where
the choicest fat was to be found in the
living animal. It seems that the attacks
on the sheep began within few months
after the parrots had first tasted mutt n
at the meat gallows. They are gradu-
ally exterminated, but the sagacious
birds that formerly came without fear
into the presence of man, now venture
out only at night.-PAiIadelpE5d Times
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03

SIDNEY BARTLETT, who was gradu-
sted at Harvard College seventy years
ago, and is over ninety years old, ar
gued q case before the Supreme Judi
cial Court of Massachusetts recently
with marked success. Mr.. Bartlett has
been engaged in cases with such men
rs Lemuel Shaw, Rufus Choate, and
Daniel Webster, and has long outlived
them all
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03

The old lady who replied, when asked h no%
her liver was, "God bless me, never ne I..na
that there was such a thing in the mousse nsn
chained to a rock, might as well have pre- pre-
tended to be happy as the man who IS chalnea
IN a diseased liver For poor Prometheus
there was no escape but by the use OF pr
Pierce's Pleasant Pufgatiye Pellets, the dis
agreeable feelings, irritable temper cons.l pa
which are caused by Il diseased liver, promptly
disappear,
News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03
Womb Won Relieve

The Proprietor of Kemp's Balsam gives
Thousands of Bottles away yearly This mode
Of advertising would prove ruinous II the
Balsam not perfect cure for Coughs ana
all Throat and Lung troubles. You viii SEQ
the excellent effect sstsr taking the first dose.
Don't hestate! Procure asa,,,.le to-day TO keep
In your home or room for imIfeeaa., e Z, ,li1re
Size Soc and 81.