davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05
Extirpating the Sweater"

1t is said that the Illinois Bureau of
Labor Statistics is about to begin an in.
vestigation into the sweating" system,
with view to prohibiting it by legis.
lation. Sweating is a word with a
bad sound, and we must expect to hear
the Illinois Labor Bureau praised for
what it intends to do, and the Illinois
legislature urged to act upon its sug-
gestions. Sweating" must be stamp
ped out!
But what is ''sweating?" A, CAPT.
talist, proposes to invest his capital in
manufactured goods for the purpose OF
supplying the market and reaping a
profit Buying raw materials, he turns
them over to B, and C, and d, upon
contract for manufacturing the finished
articles. B, and C, and d hire the re.
mainder of the alphabet to do the work
under their direction. and having paid
market wages and completed their part
of the contract, both with their own
employees and with A, they receive the
contract price.
Is not this ordinary business? Is
there anything wrong about it? Who
shall call it a crime?
Of course it is no crime. Nor would
any one think of denouncing it but for
the fact that in certain lines of work
wages are SO pitifully small that for b
and C and ID to extract benefit from
them seems like grinding the poor.
And so B and c and ID are called
sweaters" and we denounce their con-
duct as if it were not in perfect har-
mony with the legitimate laws of
trade.
The real wrong lies in conditions that
force the major part of the alphabet to
beg for work of 3 and and d at any
price and not in the efforts of the
sweaters to better their own condition.
But throats that swell with hard lam
guage at sweating" are silent when
it is proposed to abolish the cause OF
conditions that make sweating pos
sible. According to oil our standards
sweaters" are enterprising, thrifty
workmen who, with souls above the
drudgery 10 which they were born,
strive manfully to make their fortunes
better than those of their fellows.
They steal from no one They force
no one to work for them. They merely
buy labor for the price at which labor
offers itself. If labor is free, there is
in this nothing to condemn and much
to admire. If labor is other than free,
it is not especially the fault of the
sweaters
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05
a FORGETFUL HUSBAND.
He Did Not Know His Wife After an Abb
sence of Two Years.

He Did Not Know His Wife After an ABB
sence of Two Years.
The American nation is credited with
being the most careless of any other in
the world. but it is not so, said the i'm
migration agent at the barge office.
Some of the representatives of foreign
countries can give them points and beat
them out. An American may go away
and forget that he has wife and chill
dren. but if he does the chances are
that he wants to do so. Some of the
new arrivals at this port actually do
forget such things and lack of intelli-
gence is usually at the bottom of it. l
once saw woman walk up to a man
right here at the landing and grab
him. He had just arrived from
Bre men, and she called him hus-
band. The man pushed her away and
said she was crazy, but when some peo-
pie with him. relatives, l suppose. told
him that the woman was his wife he
greeted her affectionately and went
away with her. He actually had the
nerve to tell that wife of his that he
had forgotten her, although she had
only been away from him two years
His relatives informed her of his de-
parture for this country and the time
of his arrival. Lots of other forgetful
people come through here. Some for
get who they have come to see, and
others their own names and that of the
place where they came from and where
they are going. Immigrants relatives
who live in this country forget to come
for them. The latter cases are the
most numerous, and it may be that
some relatives don't want to remember.
st. Louis Globe-Democrat.
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05

they alone nave made Is jasllce, NOT
confiscation.
Our proposition is to put q stop to the
present coniscation, and to rescue
from private appropriation what
belongs to the public. If compen-
sation is to be made, il
should be from him who appropriates
to him who is desl oiled, not the re-
verse. And one would think that even
presidents and professors of colleges,
observing the crowded and unwhole-
some conditions of city life-the slums
wherein the workingmen and women
are forced to dwell, where anguish
drives thousands to the oblivion OF
drink, and prostitution claims its sub
jects from starving class-would
sometimes ask themselves what COM
pensation is possible for these victims
which a society that arrogates to itself
the name of Christian, offers up on the
altar of land monopoly.
Emerson understood the true method,
when the stakeholder called for com.
pensation-
"Pay ransom to the owner
And AL the bag to the brim.
Who is the owner. The Slave is owner,
And ever was. Pay him."
To me, as well as ,any others,
the lessening of poverty Ii the Using
of wages, which the single tax n-,m-
Uses, was an unwarrantab)e p. opnecy,
and in my letter of sympathy to Mr..
George said: 81 do not believe that
your plan is the panacea of poverty"
Nor l." he replied. but am sure
freedom is Since then my faith has
grown and is growing in the efficacy of
this measure with the fiscal name It
is the handmade of freedom aud must
unlock the bars and bolts
Voluntary poverty which results
from willful disobedience we have no
concern with, although with altered
conditions and higher standards of liv-
ing that too must wane. But self-de-
graduation. as sad as it is, is not the
sight that wrings our souls The sepsM.
alist and idler may be safely left to the
natural punishment which accompanies
transgression. las close as sin and
suffering joined" is the descriptive line
of Whittier. 1t is the involuntary and
man suffering at the hands of his
brother.
The wonderful increase of material
wealth, which fairly distributed would
make want almost disappear, the
swollen and stolen fortunes, side by
side with the sweat-shops and beggars,
the carnival of luxury and the discon-
tent of labor, all indicate the dangers
which threaten the republic and which
we would avert. We urge no arbitrary
remedy, but make the safe and moder-
ate demand conveyed in Emerson's
wise words, ''Give no bounties. make
equal laws, secure life and property.
and you need not give aims. Open the
doors of opportunity to talent and
virtue and they will do themselves JUS
tice. and property will not be in bad
hands"
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05

glimpse of neck had been disclosed, but
no more than that. He stared dow'l
upon the statuesque face. How beaut
full it was A thought flashed throu. :
his mind: eff had known that WON
an while living. how l could have loved
herr
Unconsciously he pressed his hands
together, and still stared with keen
ardor into those colorless features. A
strange impulse, full of passion that
bewildered while it beset him, now fired
his veins. ITO love a dead woman!
How horrible." he swiftly reflected.
The reverie which now possessed
Gerald was pregnant with pain. He
could not remember where he had seen
this lovely face before, but that he had
seen it before was certain to him. That
he had distinctly cared for it was also
certain, though his brain had not grown
so completely clouded as to let him be-
lieve he had ever been amorously
thrilled by it till now. And yet now
there entered his soul reverence, a
yearning, despair which dizzied and
distracted him. He wildly told himself
that never in the whole history of human
experience had man thus been placed.
He loved this dead creature devotedly-
or was it merely that he could have
loved her if he and she could have
known one another in life? Yes, it
must be Enthusiastically it was that and
nothing else! In such little while she
would be spoiled and furnished by the
one hideous fate of all flesh. Would he
go on loving her then? "Ah, yes" his
spirit seemed to respond, ''for her mem
DRY will abide with you always
He still gazed down at the beauteous,
hueless face. Anguish filed his heart,
and slow, heavy tears dropped from his
eyes. The kiss he had given her had
not repealed him, but it had seemed to
teach him, through the agency of an in
tense pathos, how futile death had made
this new, fierce emotion. There she
lies" he reflected, "a mockery of all the
love 1 had in my nature to bestow on
mortal woman. My ideal-that is just
she, frozen, stirless, irresponsible" And
now the thought that he had ever seen
her before forsook him and did not re-
turn.
Suddenly, with almost bound toward
the shelf on which it stood, he remem-
bered the flask of white liquid. For
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05

aginings of a distempered brain" He
never, for his own part, had the least
suspicion of Mrs. Calderly. Had this
been true, he would have sought out
the little lady with turn in her eye
against her own.
Of course the flight of this young
woman was a mystery. and the fact
that her having no other blood-rela-
tons Of any nearness except Mrs.
Calderly made her continued self
effacement stranger still. More than
once on the point of proposing that de-
tectives might be set to search for her,
Gerald refrained from a suggestion
whose acceptance would accord so i'll
with his present preoccupied mood.
Here another pang of self-rebuke as
sailed him. His efforts in that new-ap-
pointed laboratory enthralled him as
though he had grown the prey of some
wizards craft. He had never known
till now that he possessed those keen
and tiny agents of trouble which are
named nerves. One evening, after pro-
longed study and experiment, he felt,
on turning out his light and sinking his
head into the pillow, an unwonted
weight of detection, almost dark as the
darkness itself. what" he thought,
''if the search for this weird and occult
force carried with it stealthy and
subtle curse? What if the curse should
begin with just such minor alterations
from duty and human pity as have al
ready noted, and should end, should
end-?''
L.,
waits on the fatigues of youth and
health, left his last fantastic self-query
mercifully unfinished. And in the
morning he forgot the tinge of morbid
reflection which had crept across his
brain, and remembered only that the
day was full of sunshine, that his own
refreshed energies were full of purpose
and power.
The ardor with which he worked
grew in 4 way sacred to himself. Al
ways moved to reverence by the men-
DRY of his father, n more than filia1
sense now stirred him. At times he al
most saw his father, a shadowy shape,
and yet one vested with acute souvenirs
of their days together in picturesque
old Marylebone road. Now and then
the air would seem electric with admo-
milton His undertaking appeared to
him SO holy as forcibly to sweep vague
aroma through the harsh material odors
of his chemic pursuits. He swiftly be-
came the votary of IN imagined god
ship. This cult meant his fathers be-
queathed mission, and such mission he
now spiritually knelt before, in devout
regard To solve this enigma, which
had assumed for him the form of pre-
cious inheritance, was to guard it
against the least mundane disapprecia-
ton AS the struggle which he made
land it was a severe struggle, consider
ing his relatively few equipmcnts)
neared surer and surer the goal he al
ready had discerned, Gerald became
penetrated with respect for his toll
quite foreign to the intent which had
before infused him. His former passion
for realities abode the same, but this
had mistily vailed itself in a haze of
He constantly saw Clyde
and reported to him the results of each
day. You are growing feverish and
queer" his friend said to him one evcn-
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05
SHE WANTED THEM WEIGHED.
A Woman Who Doubted the Honesty of a
Grape PeddIer.

Grape peddIer.
She was a business woman ANYBODY
could see that. She had square Jaw,
a firm-set mouth, and as she stepped up
to State street fruit stand yesterday
afternoon the young man in charge felt
that he was in for it. She had been at
tracted by sign which read: ''Grapes,
cents per pound"
How much are those grapes worth?"
she questioned, in a green persimmon
tone of voice.
Five cents pound, ma'a
''You may give me three pounds" she
said, after pause.
The young man oponed a paper bag
and. with the assurance Of long expe-
rience in the business, filed it and
passed it toward her.
Il want three pounds of grapes" she
observed Jelly.
''Well, here you are. ma'am," persist.
ed the vender.
''You will weigh those grapes, if you
please!'' and the mercury in the Their
momoter across the street fell four de.
grees
Certainly, ma'am," and the boy ad.
iusted small pair of scales to the
three-pound notch. When the bag was
placed in them the lever went up with
a snap. He took out one bunch and laid
it back in his box. Still down weight
Another and the scales righted to hair.
There you are, ma'am-' but she
snatched the bag and bolted, mad
enough to murder omebody.-Chicago
Mail.
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05

When they had gone. and Gerald
stood alone beside the PROSTATE and
shrouded form Left with him. q Keen
abrupt fear began to ice his blood. He
clinched his hands. threw back his
head, and for u moment put forth in
tense effort at self-control Then he
went toward small cabinet and drew
from it decanter of brandy. pouring
himself large draught, which he
drank almost at a single gulp. 1t was
the first stimulant he had tasted
that day, and it almost instantly
tranquillized HIM.
The light from the chandelier just
above the covered figure poured forth
searching beams He slowly drew aside
the drapery that obscured the face of
the corpse.
Good God.'' he said, louder than he
knew, and recoiled a little. letting the
cloth which he helH fall sideways along
an edge of the slab-like table.
He had thought that perhaps it might
be woman, but he had not dreamed it
would be a woman so fair as this one.
Her face looked as if it had been cut
from a great glossless spearl. Death
had laid its cold finger with no rude
touch on those folded eyelids, that met
the chill cheek with their black, up
curling fringes in two delicate little
arcs. Her hair was still moist from the
river whence she had been dragged
but a brief while since. One heavy
tress flowed downward upon the table
and gave forth the same reddish tints
as the smooth, lit wood surface itself.
Gerald stared into the still face and
his amazement deepened as it began to
blend with a vague, Earring sense of
recognition. Where had he seen that
dead face before? Had he seen it be-
fore? A mist shrouded his eyes
for a moment. He staggered back
ward with one hand over his brow.
Somewhere, somehow you have seen
it, said voice.
Soon he had quite mastered himself.
He went close to the prone shape and
gazed upon it. The wrappings which
inclosed it were still almost intact. A
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05
PiTH AND POINT.

You never know how fond you are
of boy until you become engaged to
his sister.
"A mans sins are his creditors, and,
like them. they are sure to find him out
--Elmira Gazette.
--He-"Are we going to have some
music?" She-"No. Miss Van Howl
is going to singh. Y. Herald.
The dentist, like the rest of us, is
in the race for wealth, but he always
appears to be pulling out.-Yonkers
Statesman.
We may give a man credit for his
good intentions, but he can't get cash
for them unless they are backed by
deeds.-Puck.
why did Miss Antique leave the
hotel?' "She was insulted. Somebody
asked her if Noah was a pretty baby"
brooklyn Life.
Whisky never effects my brain"
said a boastful young Gayety bar-fre-
quenter. No" assented Top. But
it goes to your head, thought
Mr. Bumpus-''I've heard that the
ape can not swim. Very strange, isn't
H. MTS. DUN puS- les. very. DOi
go out too far, dear. "-Brooklyn Citizen.
1t is well enough to tell a man
when he is in trouble to look on the
bright side. The rub is to find the
bright side to look at.-Atchison Globe.
1t is the bald-headed man who
talks SO eXtravagantly and recklessly
when he finds more hair in his butter
than he puts in his nightcap.
mond Recorder.
-Winkle-'I wish could devise
some way Of hanging up my clothes"
Nodd-''I wish could devise some way
of getting them out after have hung
them up.''-Clothier and Furnisher.
The naughty Miss McBride-"Alas!
! fear l shall develop into a confirmed
invalid-why, Mr.. Basker. where are
you going?" Smiley Basler grabbing
his hat)-''I'm going to study medicine. ;"
Epoch.
"A Spinster Disillusioned-S
'What do you mean, sir. by asking a
young girl like me to marry you, who
are old enough to be my father?" He
"Sophonisba, do 1 really look like
centenarian?"-
-Nhe young man has won the
hand and heart of rich and lovely
girl, everybody joins in calling him a
lucky dog, except, possibly, disap-
pointed rival, who is rather inclined to
think of him as a conceited puppy in
Journal.
-Fangle ito Crinlle, Yalevard, '93) -
by the way, I saw a man from your
college at a summer resort. He was
carrying everything before him."
Crinkle (proudly)-"Yes, sir. That is a
distinguishing characteristic of our men.
What was he doing?" Fangle-''Acting
as waiter in the dining-room.'-
per's Bazaar.
Pm getting disguised with every.
thing and everybodyn' exclaimed Brown,
peevishly. wherever / go there is
fraud" 81 can't say that your do your
self an injustice, ;" remarked Fogg; "but
there is no need of your being SO in
genuous. The utterance of d self-evi-
dent truth is only waste of words, my
boy, only waste of Words
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05
CHAPTER VII.

1t was nearly half-past twelve, and
Gerald had got to be so anxious that
glimpse of his own face in glass made
him start annoyedly at its pallor. The
house was very still, and so was the
commonplace side-street, off near
Second avenue. n little westward of its
raw uptown ugliness. For a good
while he had not heard a single vehicle
pass. The curtains were drawn at his
windows; all was ready. Suddenly
clamor as of heavy wheels rang upon
his ears. He started up. The noise
ceased just at his door. He went down.
stairs with a fleet step; the descent was
a slight one.
Dr. Clyde had managed matters with
perfect tact. The two men who pres
emily bore something into Gerald's
front room and laid it on the long
wooden stretch of the table, deported
themselves as if the brilliant young
doctor were near them to murmur his
placid and apt command.
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05

s'Your life must be very monotonous,"
said Gus De Smith looking in the win
dow of the Austin post office at the
clerk stamping letters.
What makes you think sop
ut would drive me crazy to be ever
lastingly pounding letters with a hand
stamp. It's the same thing over and
over every day"
20. no, it's not" replied the clerk.
Yesterday 1 was stamping 81 on the
letters, to-day it's IS, and tomorrow
I'll be stamping the Goth of the month,
so you see it's not so monotonous after
all."-Texas Siftings-
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05
COrnered.

Caller-You have been abroad a long
time, have you not?
Hostess-Oui, oui, many months
Ibid you go to Italy?"
"Nong-I mean no. We feared zee
New Orleans troubles might make
Americans unwelcome. Comprondy-
voo?'
''Oh, yes. Where did you spend most
of the time?"
I'm Germany
Didn't you go to Paris?"
''Oh, oui, oui. We were thaire a
week.
Only week? Then how does it
happen you speak your native tongue
with a French instead of German ac-
cent?"-N. Y. Weekly.
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05
Copyright, 1890, By Edgar Fawcett1

CHAPTER vI.-CoNTINUED
''Ah, yes, she has told me. But sup
pose she has not spoken the truth? She
is a little sallow woman with cross
in one eye, who lives in a tiny brick
house on One Hundred and Tenth street.
i never liked her and she never liked
ne. She is SO unattractive a person
that / always wondered how she could
be near of kin to my comely Lucia.
Once my wife confessed to me that her
Aunt Janet disliked me on account of
my 'strait-laced opinions But the
aversion was reciprocal-indeed, yes.
Mrs. Calderly is what she calls liberal,
which means that when you take the
elevated of an evening up to her remote
and ugly little house you are apt to
find in her drawing-room at least one or
two offensive persons who have hard
things to state of every accepted idea,
from the Bible to the current fashion
in womens raiment. She certainly is
not Strait-laced; she is excessively
loose-laced; for that matter one might
say of her that she dispenses with
nearly all stays of any sort, either
mental or moral. Lucia always per-
sisted in being fond of her. But 1 al
ways read in her tart, curt speech and
her self-poised manner a kind of pert
challenge. She never looked at Lucia
in my presence that she didn't seem to
say: why did you ever marry that
man?' And when / went to her
in my great misery after my wife's
flight / burned all the while to search
her rooms upstairs and prove that she
wasn't really lying. Her denials that
Lucia was there came glibly enough; it
wasn't that. Afterward, while l lay
here with an upset brain, with all my
thoughts grotesque and helter-skelter,
1 used to fancy it was the turn in one
of her eyes. Perhaps this had given
her a certain assurance, don't you
know? Did it ever occur to you. Ger
aid, that cross-eyed person can pit =
deceiver with more steady duplicity
than others?"
''Oh." Gerald would weariedly tell
himself, these are but the sick i'm
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05

There is a printer in this town whose
little son in the public schools is likely
to follow in his fathers footsteps. The
other day the natural history class was
up.
What type of man is the slave?" in
quired the teacher.
'Minion, answered the boy prompt
ly, and then wanted to lick the teacher
because the accuracy of the question
was questioned.-Det Free Press.
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05
Musical Murder

What is all that noise?" asked Miss
Silensweet's father.
81 was just trying a new song" she
said. poutingly.
Don't let me disturb you, my daugh-
ter. 1 am a lawyer and honor the in
stinct which leads you to try your songs
before you execute them."-Wasking-
ton Star.
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05

Oficer-See here. sir! what business
have you with that life-preserver?
jeremiah Green from Watts Cor.
ners. n. J.}-Why, overheard some o.
the folks as sayin' that this here boat
was a-goin' to bust her record this trip,
an you jest bet I'm goin to be ready
fer her when she goes!-Judge.
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05
Musical Criticism.

Mistress (benevolently, to her maid,
in anticipation of compliment What
would you do, Jane, If you could play
the piano as we'll rs do?
Jane-I should take few lessons
ma'am.-Drake's Magazine.
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05

many minutes he had wholly forgotten
it, and there is no exaggeration in here
chronicling that he recalled 1t with a
desperate trenor of delight. The ready
means of applying it waited for his
hand to seize. He knew from his
fathers instructions precisely how to
use the fluid-first by pouring certain
amount down the throat of the dead
person, second by simultaneously inject
ing an amount yet smaller. Before an
other five minutes had passed he had
done all that he dared to do.
fro BE CONTINUED.
Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05
4 ROMANCE
TMO' BROTHERS.
BY EDGAR FAWCETT,

AUTHOR OF .Tm CONFESSIONS OF CLAun"
AN AMBITIOUS WOMAN" THE Evu.
TsAT MEN Do" "a NEW YORK
FAMILY" ETC.