davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-04-28

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The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-07-09
WHAT PRODUCES DEATH.
Men the, Most Irregular and Incorporate
of AL Creatures.

of All Creatures.
Some one says that few men die of
age. Almost all persons die of dis
appointment, personal, mental or bodily
toll, or accident. The passions kill
men sometimes even suddenly. The
common expression, ''choked with
passion" has little exaggeration in it
for, even though not suddenly fatal,
strong passions shorten life. Strong
bodied men often die young-weak men
live longer than the strong, for the
strong use their strength, and the
weak have none to use. The latter
take care of themselves, the former do
not. AS it is with the body, SO it is
with the mind and temper. The strong
are apt to break, or, like the candle,
run; the weak burn out.
The inferior animals, which live tenn
perate lives, have generally their
prescribed term of years. The horse
lives twenty-five, the OK fifteen or TWEEN
ty, the lion about twenty, the hog ten
or twelve, the rabbit eight, the guinea
pig six or seven. The numbers all bear
proportion to the time the animal takes
to grow it's full size. But man, of all
animals, is one that seldom comes up to
the average. He ought to live one hun.
bred years, according to the physio-
logical law, for five times twenty are
one hundred, but instead of that he
scarcely reaches an average of four
times the growing period.
The reason is obvious-man is not
only the most irregular and most in.
temperate, but the most laborious and
Woodworking of animals. He is always
the most irritable of all animals, and
there is reason to believe, though we
can not tell what an animal secretly
feels, that, more than any other ami
NAL man chcrishcs wrath to keep II
warm, and consumes himself with the
fire of his own reflections. = N. Y,
Weekly.
The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-07-09

ishing after a vision had flashed by and
disappeared, we might have doubted
whether we had seen any actual man or
horse at all, may be"
William Cody, Buffalo Bill" had his
first experience on the plains as pony
express rider at the age of eighteen.
He rode over route that lay just along
the eastern slope of the Rockies. He
was considered one of the bravest of all
the brave lot
The precious stuff carried by these
messengers was made up of business
communications of the greatest impor
lance. No love letters freighted with
promises and verses ever weighed the
ponies, and no bulky newspapers were
carried as rail. The ponies were light
ly shod, If they wore any shoes at all;
the riders were clothed as simply as the
weather would allow, and every mes
sage conveyed was written on the thin
nest of paper and folded into the least
possible space. The messages were
placed in light saddle-bags, which were
VIlIOWii ofCl SiliulA ltSiAS SauiiSs
used. The bags were the only thing
changed, the new pony always having
stood, saddled, ready for the express
man to jump on his back.
The ponies started from Sacramento
and st. Joseph daily, so that there was
continuous procession of the little
racers extending both ways across the
great West. Despite the fact that five
dollars letter was charged as express.
age, the scheme lost money for its man.
ayers and Colonel Russell died poor
man largely asa result of his efforts to
maintain the pony express. The tele.
graph came about the time the ponies
began paying for themselves, and with
it came the end of one Of the most re-
markable institutions in the always
wondrous annals of the great West.
No Sunol Axtel or Palo Alto ever re-
ceived better care or more petting than
these wild, tough ponies of the plains,
and in their rough, big-hearted way the
miners and pioneers cheered the little
fellows as they sped along, and in every
camp and within every stockade their
virtues and wonderful work were laud.
ed to the skies. Kansas City Times.
The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-07-09
HENRY /. BlOSSAT, Business Manager.

work performed by the ponles," con.
tinued Colonel Majors, was in the de-
livering of one of President Buchanan's
messages in few hours over eight days.
The message was received in st. Joseph
by wire, Immediately placed upon light
manlfolding paper and given to the mes
senger. The pony was off like the wind.
Forty Of the little fellows were required
to do the work and it was done to the
queens taste. But the telegraph came
soon." said Colonel Majors, sadly, land
that broke the pony's back. Later the
railroads came and we had to stop our
wagons and close up our business"
The pony express company employed
abou six hundred of the hardy little
animals indigenous to the West. Post
houses were maintained every ten
miles, at which several of the ponies
were always kept. The run for each
animal was ten miles without a rest,
And it was run, too. Nota step of the
way was walked or trotted. For ten
miles the driver urged his carrier and
the horse fairly few over the familiar
ground, whether it was mountain OF
prairie, plain or desert. Each rider
rode three horses without resting, and
there was one fellow, q loose, easy-go
Ing daredevil who always rode sixty
miles at that breakneck speed without
resting. At the post-house, the man in
charge stood in front of the door hold.
tpr tho n h ~ th tn nor ru
the approaching rider. With rush tho
expressman came. There was cloud
OF dust, q jump, an instantaneous
change of the small, light saddle-bags
carried and in ten seconds from the mo-
ment of his arrival the rider was on the
rearing little animal that was so anx-
ious to be off. Away they went with a
plunge and a shout, to be lost moment
later in cloud Of flying dust. The
ponies entered into the spirit of their
work quite as fully as the men bestride
them. They never faltered, whether
the night was dark or the road uncer-
tain. 1t was always plunge ahead as
if on ride where life and death were
concerned. In his ''Roughing It," Mark
Twain tells of his first and last sight Of
the pony express from stage coach
window. The humorist pays high
tribute to the pluclsy little horses and
the daring fellows who rode them, clos
ing thus:
$50 sudden is it all, and SO like flash
of unreal fancy, that but for the flake
of white foam left quivering and per-
The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-07-09
Pl7H AND POINT.

Charity begins at home, but reform
Is different Washington Post
"A bad t,laper is an awkward thing
to have and dangerous thing to lose.-
Lynn Press.
Many have withstood the frowns OF
The world, but it's smiles and caresses
have Rugged them to death.
1t is only when man is compli-
mented that he thinks he is seeing
himself as others SEQ him.-Atchison
Globe.
Some men are born great, some
achieve greatness, and some couldn't
tell to save their necls how it hap
pened.-Van Dorne's Magazine.
"A thing becomes less formidable
upon approach to it. Even mountain
dwindles and loses its immensely, if not
its glory, when one stands among its
pars.-Judge.
Men talk as if victory were some
thing fortunate. Work is victory.
Wherever work is done victory is OBJ
tanned. There is no chance and NO
blanks. Emerson.
That peace is an evil peace that
doth shut truth out of doors. If peace
and truth can not 60 together, truth is
to be preferred, and rather to be chosen
for companion than peace.-J. Tilling-
hast.
Spirit is now very fashionable
word; to act with spirit, to speak with
spirit, means only to act rashly and to
talk indiscreetly. An able man shows
his spirit by gentle words and resolute
actions; he is neither hot nor timid.-
Chesterfield
The best way to influence our
friends is to understand their character
and sympathize with them in their sor-
rows and rejoice with them in their
pleasures. To exert good influence
we must be unselfish. for selfishness is
an ugly giant that kills every good
thought in our heart.-Western Rural.
1t is very foolish to argue that be-
cause some ignorant men have made
fortunes, education units men for bust
ness. A large part of lifetime spent
in recluse study forms habit that
would cripple or kill capacity for trade;
but minds trained in youth must always
be superior to the unframed. United
Presbyterian.
-'Neyer quit certainty for hope is
a good provisional axiom, but, had it
been strictly and invariably acted up.
on, commerce would still have been in
its infancy, and the history of discov-
cry, invention and progress still to be-
gin. All the great enterprises, whether
in commerce or invention, have been
begun and carried on in direct violation
of this maxim. Exchange.
People say: ''You mustn't be hasty;
you must not speak under a sudden inn
pulse. Wait awhile" AS if you had
said to a soldier at Gettysburg: "My
dear sir, do not fire so under this sud-
den impulse Wait till tomorrow or
the day after. Then the air will be
clearer, and your nerves more steady
and your aim truer." But, after all,
the time to fight is when the battle is
on.-Dr. Wayland.
The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-07-09
LIFE IN THE AIR.
Results of Investigation Regarding Aerial
NIicrO- Organisms.

Results of Investigation Regarding Aerial
Micro Organisms.
HETEROGENEOUS are dust-lille parti-
lies capable of cultivation or reproduce
ton in certain media, and at certain
temperatures, and these are scattered
everywhere in the air. DR.. Miguel, at
the Montsouris observatory, at Paris,
has made an extensive inquiry into
their distribution in air and water,
while in this country DR.. Percy Frank
lin has also investigated the subject
with commendable persistence. The
result of these inquiries is that in cold
weather, especially when the ground is
covered with snow, the number Of Or
ganisms in the air is very much re-
duced, and presents striking contrast
with that found in warm weather.
Experiments made on March show
that during dry, cold weather, with a
strong east wind blowing over London,
large number of heterogeneous may
still be present in the air. 1t is par
ticularly noticeable that after heavy
shower, and within few hours after
ward, the number of picro-organisms
! in tho air should be as abundant as
usual. Taking an average of the ex-
| periments made on the roof of the sci
| ence schools of the South Kensington
| museum, the mean number of organ
isms found in a liter Of air amounted to
| thirty-fve, while an average of 279 fell
Oh one square foot in one minute.
Other experiments made near Rel
gate, and in the vicinity of Norwich,
| present marked contrast with those
made in South Kensington. There was
remarkable freedom from micro-or-
ganisms of the air collected on the
heath near Norwich during compare.
lively warm weather in April, while the
air in gardens in Norwich and Reigase
was richer in organisms than that of the
open air.
Experiments made in inclosed places
where there is little or no aerial motion
shows the number of suspended organ
isms to be very moderate, but as soon a:
any disturbance in the air occurs, from
draughts or people moving about, the
number rapidly increases and may be
come very great. Experiments made il
railway carriage afford striking ex
ample of the enormous number of micro
organisms which become suspended il
the air when many persons are brougn
J together, Newcastle lEng.l Chronicle
The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-07-09
NEWS FROM MERCURY.
An Astonishing Discovery Made by Italy's
Most Famous Astronomer.

An Astonishing Discovery Made by ltaly's
Most Famous Astronomer.
The smallest and swiftest of the
planets has become an object of intense
interest. Schiaparelli, the eagle-eyed
astronomer of Milan, the discoverer of
the double canals on Mars, has turned
his eager gaze on Mercury and made
an astonishing discovery. He announces
that the suns nearest neighbor turns
once on his axis while revolving round
the sun, just as the moon turns once on
her axis while revolving round the
earth.
AS it takes Mercury lightweight days
to make his circuit round the sun, it re-
quires the same time for his rotation on
his axis. 1t follows that he turns always
the same face toward the sun, as the
moon turns always the same face to the
earth, completing her rotation in about
twenty-seven days.
Schiaparelli not only makes this an
nouncement, but confirms it by what to
him seems abundant proof. He has
been observing the planet for seven
years-since 1SS2-making his observa-
lions by daylight, and has obtained one
hundred and fifty drawings of the
planet The markings Or linear spots
on tho planets disc are permanent; they
have not changed during the seven
years.
The markings are so faint and delicate
that they are perceptible only to an OBJ
server endowed with exceptional visual
power intensified by long practice, and
assisted by fine telescope. These con-
ditions unite in Schiaparelli, and, what
is equally essential, the sky over Milan
is clear, and the atmosphere compare
lively steady and free from yapor, while
the astronomers enthusiasm for his
favorite science knows no bounds.
Ii these observations are correct what
q wonderful world Mercury must be,
with one- hemisphere basking in per-
petual sunshine, and the other doomed
to perpetual darkness. Mercury is
sometimes fourteen million miles nearer
the sun than at other times. This &C.
centricity of his orbit causes a great
filtration in longitude; the planet os-
cilates or swings % deg. Al min. on tho
east and on the west of it's illumined
side, bringing these regions into alter
nate light and darkness.
An enormously high temperature
must reign in the central part of the il
lumincd side, with the sun pouring
down from the zenith from four and a
half to ten and half times the light
and heat received by the earth at the
summer solstice-a sun, too, that never
sets. Eternal midnight holds sway on
tho opposite side, and a cold more in
tense than that of our poies!-Youth {
Companion.
The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-07-09
THE MAJORS WOUND.
lie Thought the BAH Had Gone Clear
Through His Body.

lie Thought tho BAH Had Gone Clear
Through His Body.
II was wounded three times during
the war;" said Major L., with a merry
twinkle in his fine brown eye-''once
fatally, but you see l am still an inhab-
liant of this beautiful earth"
Perhaps" suggested one of his list
eners. you were like the man of whom
the country newspaper man wrote: The
ball entered his left side, inf1icting a
mortal wound. With good care he will
be able to pull through all right
That's just where the ball lid enter, "
replied the grizzled veteran, cheerfully.
Il was in the Shenandoah Valley with
Sheridan and we were having lively
little time of it, regular hare-and'
hounds race all the time, it seemed.
We were chasing Mr. Johnny Rebel out
OF the country and in one of our charges
| suddenly stopped short, feeling as if a
red-hot sword had been thrust through
me. l was wounded, badly, too. The
ball had entered my left side and had
passed clean through my body, leaving
fierce burning trail.
Well, l said to myself, ABE L.,
this time you are dead man. No man
can live when bullet has plowed its
way through his vitals.
Il staggered out of the line. The
fighting business was SO brisk just then
that wounded men were looking out for
themselves. l managed to get to log
and sat down on it to wait until should
die. The pain was so fearful that l
could barely move my limbs. Itseemed
to paralyze my nervous and muscular
force. AS l sat there watching the
men scampering along, one Of my old
comrades passed me.
"'Whats the matter, Abe? he cried.
Hits?
They've done me this time I an
swered.
Hope not he turned to yell back as
he ran. One doesn't expect delicate at
tention at such times.
We'll, waited to die until finally l
said to myself: If this is dying it isn't
SO bad after all.
81 unbuckled my belt to ease the pain
and thought | would like to see what a
deadly wound looked like. took a
look and there was no wound there.
could not believe my eyes. l knew
had been hit, for ! could feel where the
ball had come out in my back. put
my hand around there to touch the
hole and could not find it. There was
not sign of wound in my side, not a
mark on the skin. 1t took me not more
than thirty seconds to buckle my belt
around me and make run for my COM
pany. / caught it in twenty minutes.
elbows this? two or three of the
boys painted. We thought you were
killed
"'Well, you see l am not, said, fall
ing into the ranks.
81 had been hit by spent ball, and
that night when ! examined my side
found black and blue spot on it as big
as my cap. l didn't mind it in the
least. A man who suddenly RECEIVERS
from mortal wound feels pretty cheer
full. IN. Y. Tribune
The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-07-09
UP AND DOWN.

wore up to-day on fortunes hill
And free from every sorrow,
nut in the wheel of good and Ill
All may be changed tomorrow.
,ra,,e ND and down as time flies on
Nav ease now hardest labor
Nh millionaire can safely frown
IJpon his lowly ncighbor.
pic,es take wings-thc man Of wealth
Nav meet with sudden losses,
while he whose only store is health
Nav ride behind his horses.
Then do not slight the toiling poor,
For labor ne'er disgraces,
And though your fortune seems secure,
Some day you may change places.
Col help us all-we'rc poor at best
Drpendent on each other
Though crowned with case or sore distressed
Weak man is still mans brother.
Then when on fortunes top we stands
No i'll our state attending,
Let us extend q helping hand
To those about descending.
Francis S. Smith, in N. Y. Weekly.
The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-07-09

~. sl9 urn would give good service in
W sae new venture Assistance from the
government was secured and in 1859
'ne ponies stated.
,oo iaey ran across the country for nine
months" said Colonel Majors a few DAVIS
eith never missing schedule time at
si ,ne' Oh the terminal points. The
MI Nh 9'he from St Joseph to Sacra
sbino him was ten days, and through sun
POOL " m storm, snow, mud, sand and
w. Ine hardy racers pushed on to the
snaas s " back to the East, with the
los, So -; u a railroad train. II the ponies
n,o. s.ne through bad weather over one
ano,S NOV. 'ne route, they picked it up on
miISu journey of two thousand
ba so - sone OF the weather was bound to
s HAe most noteworthy piece Of
The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-07-09
Birds in the Window.

There is one piece of advice, says
Olive Thorne Miller, writing in the
Christian Union on the care of birds,
that should like to put into letters
forty feet high, and stretch from the
Atlantic ocean to the Pacific coast-that
is: never put bird in the window! l
rarely go into the street in the summer,
or even on mild day in the winter, that
I do not see unfortunate caDaries hung
in the window. Even if the sun is not
broiling the brains under the little ye'-
low cap, a draught is blowing all the
time over the little body. People have
been told a thousand times that they
must not put a bird in draught, yet
how few remember that there is always
a draught in an open window.
The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-07-09

waters as clear, but when the iron
wheels of progress swept over her sandy
plains and scaled her mountain tops,
there was a change. 1t is indetinable,
for all that, but still one likes to read
OF the stirring times, of the times
Of border hardships and excitements
andof the gradual giving away otnature
to the hand of man. A man of middle
age may look back within his memory
and see the heavy, slow freighters
measuring their squealy way across the
plains, the Santa Fe trail within his
memory wound, serpent like, from the
banks of the Missouri at this city to the
lonely Spanish settlement in New Mex
leo. One by one he saw the relics of
earlier days slip out of existence toward
the setting sun, the railroad and the
telegraph pushed their way from the
East, and the pioneer glories of the
great West were over.
One of the last, and at the same time
the most prominent of these features of
the West before the railroads and the
telegraph came, was the pony express,
by the means of which messages were
carried from the Missouri river
to the Pacific coast In less than
ten days. How remarkable it all
seems nowi Ten days from the Missouri
to the Golden Gate on pony back. But it
is remarkable after all. Now it is ten
seconds; but for ponies, over mountains,
plains, through storms and sun, the
work was wonderful. One of the foun-
ders of the pony express system lives
in this city at ripe but active old
age, prominent in business and as bright
as in the days of his youth. Colonel
Alexander Majors is seventy. For years
he was member of the firm of Russell,
Majors & Waddell, of Leavenworth,
Kan, perhaps the most prominent
freighting house in the West in the days
before the railroads came.
1t was in 1858 that Senator Gwynn, of
California, known as Duke" Gwynn by
reason of some title conferred upon him
In Mexico, conceived the idea Of trans
hitting the mails across the plains on
swiftly running ponies. Senator Gwynn,
by the by, was killed in California be-
fore the war in duel with the famous
Frederick. Gwynn thought the coast
deserved better mail service than that
Afforded by the stage coach route
through the Southern territories by way
OF Los Angeles, and he went to Wash
lngton with his mind full of plans for
pony service directly across the country,
over what was known as the Central
route. lie was laughed at by his col
leagues, however, and told that an all
the-year-round service across the mid
ale Rocky moutains, through Colorado,
Nevada and Utah, would be an utter
amposslbility Nothing daunteG, SEN
aVof Gwynn sought Colonel Russell, who
spent great deal of time in Washing
toh and the two worked out a plan for
the service. The fact that Russell.
MAJORS and Waddell were the heaviest
iFeightefs in the West suggested that
The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-07-09
Had Enough of Farming.

The editor of the Walla Walla (Ore.)
Journal has tried farming, and is dis.
gusted. Hear him: 1.-THE basest fraud
on earth is agriculture. The deadliest
iEnis fatuus that ever glittered to be.
guile and dazzle to betray is agriculture.
We speak with feeling on this subject,
and we've been glittered and beguiled
and dazzled and deceived by the same
arch deceiver. She had promised us
bees and they few away after putting
head on us; promised US early pota toes,
and tho drought has withered them.
She has promised cherries; the cur.
culio has stung them; they contain
living things uncomely to the eye and
unsavory to the taste. She has prom
Used us strawberries, and the young
chickens have devoured them. We
were in the sheep business and hard
winter closed down on us, and the
lambs died in the she'll. No wonde,
that Cain killed his brother. He was q
tiller of the ground. The wonder is he
did not kill his father, and then weep
because he did not have a grandfather
to kill"
--"Well," said the rural visitor al
The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-07-09

"A mother started to tell the story Of
miser to her children, and upon ask,
ing if they knew what miser was her
seven-year-old replied: ''Oh, yes, ]
know; economiser--somebody who all
ways saves, and never spends cent"
The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-07-09
THE PONY EXPRESS.
k,omething OF This Wonderful Feat
ure of the Pioneer Days.
rough Ponies That Did the Work Accom-
\ plished by the Telegraph To-Day
The Plucky Riders and What
Was Expected of Them.
Z7HERE is ever a

HERE is ever a
cha rm a b on t
that which re-
lates to the West
in ante bellum
times. ! t w a S
not the S a m @
West as now
the sun is just
as bright, may
be, and the grass
and tree s as
green, and the