davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-01-30
THE SWISS PEAsANTRx.

Romantic Tales of Love Reported from
the Land of William Tell.
will tell some stories which prove
that the Swiss peasants, though they
look SO stolid. have in them the stuff of
tragedy. There was lad in a valley
called Schaufigg, not long ago, who
loved and was betrothed to girl in the
Hinter Rheinthal, below Splugen. She
Tilted him, having transferred her af-
fections to another, and he went to take
formal farewell of his sweetheart in
her home. Every thing passed de-
corOus1y, so much so that the girls
brother put his horse into the cart and
drove the rejected lover with his own
sister down to Thusis. The three had
reached that passage of the Via Mala
where the Rhine loses itself in a very
deep. narrow gorge. 1t is called the
Verlosene Loeb, and is spanned by a
slender bridge thrown at right angles
over the river. Here, as they were
spinning merrily down-hill, the lad
stood up in the cart, sprang to the para
pet of the bridge, and dashed himself
at one bound into the grim death of
jagged rocks and churning waves below
them 1t was a stroke of imaginative
fancy to commit suicide for love just at
this spot. And now a second tale of
desperate passion: A rich man in the
Prattigau had two children, daughter
and a son. The daughter wheedled him
into allowing her to marry some peas
ant, who was poor and an unequal
match in social station. Then his son
set his affections upon girl equally in
eligible. The father stormed, but the
youth was true to his plighted troth.
During temporary absence of the son
his father contrived to send the girl off
to America with a round sum of money.
On his return, after hearing what had
happened, the lad said nothing, but
went down to the Landquart water in
the evening and drowned himself there.
And now third tale: Last spring, in
village not three hours distant from
Davos, lived a young man who was an
orphan. He had inherited a consider
able estate, and expected more from
two unc1es. Life, could he have man.
aged it prudently, would probably have
made him the wealthiest farmer in the
neigh borhOod, and he was, to boot, a
stalwart fellow Cd whom nature had
lavished all her gifts of health and
comeliness. Unluckily he loved girl
of whom his uncles disapproved as a
match for such youth of consequence.
One Saturday evening, as the custom is
here, he went to pay his addresses by
stealth to this maiden of his choice, and
returning early next morning he was
upbraided by his interfering uncles-
do not know what he replied, but GER
tainly he made no scene to speak of.
When his uncles left he unlocked his
gun from the wooden paneling of the
house room, went out alone into the
copse hard by and put bullet through
his brain.-Symonds, in Fortnightly
Review.
Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-01-30
IN MARROW QUARTERS.



North c.rolina Family a Twsnfy-
Eight Living In One Room.
In the western part of North Carolin..
and about seven miles west of Hot
Springs. there is . family by the name
OF Brooks 1t is very interesting one,
and many a visitor to the quiet little
town OF Hot Springs has had his crriosi-
" SO aroused by stories Of this family
that they have hired teams and driven
seven miles to the Brooks residence.
This consists of little, low log cabin
In an unsettled district, and is occupied
oy father, mother and twenty excep-
tionally handsome children.
Every one is a blonde. with golden.
yellow hair and peachy complexion. and
all as ignorant, wild and untutored "a
they are beautiful In addition to the
above family proper the two older girls
are married. One is widow with two
children and the other has three chill
dren and husband Both these little
families are living with the old folks
at home. making in all a family of
twenty-eight when none are missing.
The house, or log cabin. consists of but
one room. and that a very small one.
On two sides of this are built seven
wall. and they were evidently built with
the cabin.
In these ''boxes" the parents, chill
dren and grandchildren lay themselves
away when night comes on. Three
times day this interesting family may
be seen at meals. The older members
seat themselves about on the ground in
front of the house Indian fashion,"
g., 49, IL
spoons. while the younger ones stand
around rough homemade table inside
the cabin, eating beans with relish
that is good to look upon. This is the
principal diet; now and then they have
change, but it is of the same plain.
cheap order. They are all healthy and
robust, knowing nothing of sickness
The father of this family, who has tx
hustle for the beans to fill the TWEEN
ty-eight hungry mouths, makes as high
as SIS some months, but oftener his in
come will not exceed SIS per month.
which sum he earns by walking seven
miles daily to Hot Springs to work in
the mill of a Mr.. Frank Gahagan. The
mother, who has a baby in arms, seems
contented and happy as she sits with
one foot on the side of the homemade
cradle, made of an ordinary pine box.
with rockers sawed out of rough board,
which she every now and then gives
''kick'' to keep the cradle moving, while
she sings over and over again few lines
of some old hymn she has learned.
Every one is struck with the remarkar
BILE beauty of the children, from the
youngest to the Oldest 1t is something
wonderful. The parents have found
names for all but one, which is without
a name as yet.-St. Louis Globe-Demo-
crat
Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-01-30

The farmer who raises wheat or oats
or rye largely, and has not stables fitted
with manure cutters and reservoirs,
will do well to use straw literally for
bedding. If enough is used it will alb
sorb nearly all the liquid manure. The
liquid manure will hasten the decompo-
sition of the straw more rapidly, con-
verting it into . valuable fertilizer.
Without the straw or some similar sub
stance the decomposition of the liquid
manure is 50 rapid as to be destructive
and part of its value is lost. Straw
is very imperfect conductor Of heat,
hence, when it is used literally foI
bedding. much less food is consumed in
the production Of animal hest aud the
animals are healthier and thriftier.
AmeEiean Agriculturist
Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-01-30
THE PEACOCK THRONE.

One of the Wonderful Pieces of Extrava-
gance of the MOguI Emperors.
The MOgul Emperors were noted for
their magnificence and their splendor.
but must almost have outdone them
selves in the construction of the costly
peacock throne. 1t was set up during
the reign of Shah Jehan, and was the
work of a Frenchman named Austin,
formerly of Bordeaux, but who had been
engaged in crime, which caused him to
flee to Delhi. Conservative estimates
have placed the money value of this
piece of French Mogul work at $780,
600, 900.
The MogufS palace was called the
s'Hall of Private Audience" and in the
throne. In 1.-THE Archaeology of Delhi"
Beresford gives the following descrip-
ton of the throne: I'm the Hall of Pri-
vate Audience was the famous peacock
throne. SO called from it having the fig
ures of two peacocks standing behind it,
their tails being expanded and so inlaid
with sapphires, rubies. emeralds, pearls
and other precious stones of appropriate
colors as to represent life"
The throne itself was six feet long by
four feet wide. 1t stood ON six massive
feet, which, with the body. were of solid
gold inlaid with rubies, emeralds and
diamonds. 1t was surmounted by a
canopy of gold supported by twelve
pillars, all richly emblazoned with cost
ly gems, fringe of pearls ornamenting
the border of the canopy. Between the
two peacocks stood the figure of a parrot
of the ordinary size, said to have been
carved from a single emerald On each
side of the throne stood an umbrella,
one of the Oriental emblems of royalty.
They were made of thick crimson vel
vet and fringed with costly pearls, the
handles, each eight feet long and two
inches in diameter. being of solid gold.
Some writer's claim that the famous
diamond, Koh-i-noor (Mountain of
Light, was formerly used as one of the
ornaments on this wonderful piece of
extravaganza. The Koh-i-noor now be-
longs to Queen Victoria, and as it is
known that it once belonged to Shah
Jehan, the story of it once being part
and parcel of the peacock throne is not
at all improbable. Again, some authori-
ties state that the peacock throne was
built by Avrengzebe, son of Shah
Jehan, who in 1859 wrested the empire
from his father and committed the old
gentleman to the dungeon
In 1879 the Persians under Nadir
Shah captured Delhi and stripped the
jewels from the peacock throne, after
which they broke it up and carried it
away. The ruins of the palace and a
marble memorial tablet, where once the
throne stood, are all that now mark the
scenes of faded grandeur.-St- Louis
Ranyrhlic
Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-01-30
THE ORIGIN OF PIE.
1t Probably Landed I'm This Country with
the Pilgrim Fathers.

1t Probably Landed I'm This Country with
the Pilgrim Fathers.
The pie, we may remark, in lieu Of
going back TO Adam, is by no means OF
Yankee origin. 1t is of genuine En-
glish ancestry. English literature So
vors of pie from way back, and it un-
doubtedly landed at Plymouth Rock
with the germs of other free institu--
tions. ready to develop in new forms and
propagate a wide acceptation- The
puritans and the pilgrims came to a land
whose surly climate limited the enjoy
ment of fresh fruits to six months Of the
year What more natural, necessary
and wise than that the housewives
should dry apples and pumpkin and
compound the mysterious mince-meat In
order to serve a proper dessert before
the lords of the new continent? Pie
reigned by force of necessity and wit
The Englishmen left behind took ale
and beer. but these never developed .
strong hold on the New England table
But modern commerce and invention ara
supplying fresh fruits the year round
and to them pie yields With strawber-
ries in April and May, and steady sue
cession of other native fruits till New
Years, and thereafter oranges and
bananas, to say nothing of canned fruits,
the necessity of pastry desserts van
ishes. Wherever this abundance OF
fruit can be distributed and afforded it
will speedily revolutionize the popula
dietary; upon the farms the sway of ira
dition and the subsection to pie are less
easily broken ON account OF the absence
Of these substitutes-Springfe Re-
publican.
Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-01-30
THE FARM WORKSHOP.

Every Farmer Will Agree With This Adj
vice.
Every farm should have its workshop;
that is, some suitable place where re-
pairs can be made on short notice. The
farmer who does not have a few good
tools and place to keep and use them,
must necessarily lose much valuable
time in busy season. Farm imple-
ments will give way and break with
the best of management, especially
those that have become worn; nut will
loosen, bolt break, piece of timber
split, and in the course of a years work
innumerable little things will go wrong
that cause delay and loss of time. Very
often the time it takes going to and
from the regular repair shop amounts to
great deal more than the few cents the
mechanic will charge for making the re-
pair. 1t is certain, says the Ohio Farm
er, that all farmers can not live close to
town, and of course the farther from
the shop the greater the delay and cost.
1 suppose it would be hard to find a
farmer that does not have scattered
about, somewhere on the premises, a
hammer, saw, few augers, and per-
haps jack plane and chisel or two,
OuG Oh NOW lbrMS Cdu CucSo IOO1S
be found in a well-appointed room,
every one in a place made to keep it,
and where it can always be found when
not in use?
How many farmers in addition to
these few simple tools have a variety
of others, such as brace and bits, a few
chisels of different sizes, squares, files,
punches and a stock and dies with tap?
Perhaps some one will say, if every
farmer was so provided it would de-
prive the local mechanic of his patron
age and means of a living, as he has to
depend largely on the repair work OF
the farmer for his support. Not neces-
sari1y so. Every blacksmith will tell
you that there is little for him in those
small tinkering jobs that take but few
minutes to complete, taking him from
some other job where his time is more
valuable.
Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-01-30
LEW VILLAGES INVENTION.

He Has q Cross-Tie That May Pay Bet
ter Than " Ben Hur."
General Lew Wallace. who is of me-
chanical turn of mind. has invented
steel cross-tie with which he expects te
revolutionize railroad building.
"a big fortune awaits the author OF
Ben Hur' If he has succeeded in max
ing a tie that can be brought into gen.
eral use," said a leading railroad con-
tractor. For many years we have
been looking for something to take the
place of oak and pine, both of which
are becoming scarce and dear. Have
you any idea of the number of running
feet of timber used as cross-ties on the
railroads of the United Staeess OF
course not. 1t never occurred to you to
make an estimate. Well, let's see.
Each tie, taking the average size, con-
tains forty feet of lumber-board meas
ure. you understand-and, again taking
the average, there are about 900 ties to
every mile of road, giving us 100. 600
feet of lumber, and, as there are now in
operation about 10000 miles of rail-
road in this country, the total amount
of lumber used is Is, 600, 900 feet Take
a pretty big forest to supply that, Ell?
'.Now, in the timber region ties cost
from 80 to 40 cents apiece. but roads like
the Pennsylvania, for instance, that are
far from the pine country, have to pay
sometimes as much as 1.50 apiece for
them. Such roads must soon find a
cheaper and, if possible, better ma
teriaL There have been numerous ex-
periments with metal ties, but none
have been entirely satisfactory. There
are two difficulties in the way-cost and
rigidity. What we want is tie with
little elasticity and a tie that can be
produced at a reasonable price. i have
not seen General Wallace's invention.
nor have read a description of it, and
am therefore unable to Judge its merits
Il wish somebody would invent q con-
tinuous rail for roads, a rail that would
do away with joints and fshplates-
The rattle of the elevated roads, due en-
tirely to these open joints, is enough to
drive the town crazy. L can't see how
people living along the lines ever get
used to it. 1t seems to me there ought
to be some way of stopping the noise
A method of doing it Is worth S100,oo0
to the discoverer or inventor in cold
cash."-N. Y. Tribune.
Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-01-30
MRS. LIBBY CUSTER.
The Widow Of the Brave Cavalry Leader
and Her Work.

The Widow of the Brave Cavalry Leader
and Her Work.
I occasionally meet on the street Mrs.
Custer, wife of that great cavalry leader,
who has often been called the Marion"
of the civil war. She spends most of
her time in New York. earning her iv-
ing by writing for the newspapers. i
recall her when she was a beautiful
young girl, known to every one as Libby
Bacon. She was the daughter of Judge
Bacon, of Monroe, Mich, and long be-
fore she was of age was one of the most
popular girls in the Wolverine State.
The name of Custer is still revered by
the old soldiers, especially those who
live in Michigan, where he is looked
upon as the real hero of the late war.
Mrs Custer is almost as much admired
as her illustrious husband was After
she married the General she was nearly
always by his side. For two years she
virtually sat in Washington with her
valise in hand. waiting to go to the front
She was always the first woman in camp
after battle, and would have been de-
lighted to have followed her gallant hus-
band in his impetuous onsetS upon the
enemy She never seemed to know what
fear was, and many times put herself in
great peril. She was in Richmond two
DAYS before her husband reached there,
and almost before the sound of the guns
had ceased to reverberate about the Con-
federate capital. just after the surren-
der, when her husband came up from
Nottaway Courthouse to take her &c
his headquarters, he remarked that III
looked pretty bad for General to be
beaten into Richmond by his wife, after
he had been trying for four years to get
there first"
OF course, Custer, like all other sol
diers, died poor, and his wife and fam
lily are practically without resources.
except the pitiful pension of fifty dol
lars a month that the Government has
granted. Mrs. Custer has a great many
relics of the war, left her by her hus-
band and given to her by different OFF,
GERS of the army. Besides possessing
the first flag of truce the Confederates
brought into our lines, as the beginning
of Lees surrender, she has the flag of
truce carried by her husband into the
Confederate lines. She also has much
valuable data about the cavalry arm of
our service that has never yet been
given to the public It is really q pity
that fair history of this branch of the
service has not yet been written, or
even seriously contemplated 1 was
pleased to learn that she is getting .
good income from her books and other
writings-N. Y. Star.
Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-01-30

Al Interesting Trip Through News
paper Row.
Especial Washington letter.

topeclal washington letter.
The old original Newspaper Row" is
thing of the past. The growth of the
country has been kept pace with by the
growth OF the Metropolitan daily news
papers; and as corollar, of this fact,
the number of the Washington CORE
spondents has annually increased in SO
great degree as to overcrowd News
paper Row and compel many of the rep
resentatives of the daily papers of the
rapidly developing West to seek quar-
ters elsewhere. Some of the Oldest
and most widely known correspondents
have been caught up in the rout and car
ned beyond the sacred precincts. Mr..
E. b. Wright, formerly of the Chicago
Tribune, but for the past five years rep
resenting the Inter Ocean, has his office
around the corner on r street. W.B.
Shaw. ofton called the ssNestor of the
Press" is on Fifteenth street, opposite
the Treasury. Judge Noah, Of the Den
yer Tribune and Kansas City Times, is
two blocks away
Newspaper Row is distinctively that
half block between Pennsylvania ave-
nue. and the Ebbitt House, on Four
teenth street. It did not originally in
clude the B. & o. Building, but does
now. Turning the corner from the ave-
nue., and going north, the sojourner
comes to the stone steps which lead into
the fre-trap, the death-trap known as
the b. & o. Building. Upon the second
floor we find Mr.. Roberts, of the Chicago
Times. He has two excellent rooms,
plainly furnished, and divides one of
them with Conquest Clarke, of the New
York STAR Mr.. Roberts is a new man
here, but is a very bright one, and is do.
ing his paper excellent service. Con-
quest Clarke is an old timer and knows
all the news, you know, every day even
unto the midnight hour. Upon the
same floor are located the offices OF the
st. Paul Pioneer-Press, Philadelphia
Press, st. Louis Republic and New Or
leans Picayune. "Behold, how good
Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-01-30
INCOME or suYERs.

Subordinate Enpioyes Who Make Wors
Money Than Maaagers.
EFT viii probably surprise most peo-
pie" said one of the partners in dry
goods firm the other day, s'to know that
frequently some of the subordinate en-
ployes receive larger remuneration than
the man in whose hands rests the main
responsibility for running business.
The men who usually make the most
money in the very large firms are not
the superintendent and his chief as
sistants, but the buyers of departments.
THE nominal salary of buyer in
this house Is much less than that Of the
superintendent, but the superintend-
ent's salary, with the exception of
New Years present from the firm, is
practically the extent of his income.
The buyers salary, on the contrary, is
usually the least part of his earnings.
The responsibility of buyer ends with
his purchasing for his department. all
that the trade could possibly demand
of the quality desired by the customer,
and at price which will allow the firm
good profit while making the article
cheap for the purchaser. If, moreover,
he can undersen some other firm he is
pleasing his firm immensely, and is
sure to get substantial check as a
New-Year's offering.
I'm addition to this the jobbing firms
which sell to the retailers must compete
with each other to secure the favor of
the buyer. To illustrate: The buyer in
our china department receives salary
of So, 900 year, and he annually can ex-
pect from the firm a present of 81, 600. 1
have not the slightest doubt that he
gets fully as much, if not more, in
presents from the firm from whom he
buys. Dishonest? Well, perhaps so,
strictly speaking, but the fact is that
the custom, although not openly adj
mitted, is very general The firm
knows it. but, as I have already said,
their interest in the matter ends when
the buyer secures the right kind of
stock at the right price. The way in
which the jobbins firms give those pres
ents makes it next to impossible to get
direct evidence, even if the firm so de-
sired.
SIT might be said that if they did not
have to make these gifts they could af-
ford to sell their goods for less money,
and thus increase the profits of the re-
tail firm; but the fact is that, after all,
considering the immense sales, the
money given in this way by any one
firm would not materially affect the
prices if they were turned in to our ac-
count. The very fact that the custom
is so general and that the retail firms
know it is an answer to most objections.
l have even known of cases where the
buyer of a department., who was par
ticularly successful, refused to take a
partnership because his profits as an
employee were larger than he had any
reason to hope for as a partner. There
are a number in this town whose in
come ranges from $4,000 to S35, 900
year. while there are mighty few super
intendents who touch the lower of these
fgures.'-N. Y. Sun.