davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14

This old brown house stands, but 1t has become a tenement, iI which live a mill operative and his swarm of chil- dren. But here at least the memory of the original dwellers is known, and the motherly housewife takes pride in say ing that some of the younger members of the Olney family were born there.
 The mill itself is run by it's present owners, Andrew Howarth & Son, in about the same old way as fifty years ago, when young Richard played about it and listened in childish wonder to the click, click of the looms. The same number of hands are employed-be- tween fifty and sixty-the same prod uct is turned out-white flannel-and the same power is still supplied by the French river, small stream, damned upinto two beautiful ponds encireled by two hills wooded with pine and maple.
 It was in Oxford that Richard Olney passed the formative period of his life. It was at the district school here, held not in the kind of little red schoo1house famous in story, but in a room of the corporation clearinghouse, that he learned his first lessons. This building is now divided into 8 number of tene- ments, But among the shifting popu- lation of mill help all traditions of the old school and its famous pupil have vanished. Only one old weaver, who has worked in the mill as man and boy for over forty years, is able to point out the building. It was to this home in the little mill hamlet in remote cor ner of Oxford that Richard OIney re- turned on his.vacations from Leicester academy and Brown university, which he attended.
 The oldest resident of Oxford, Miss Erlunia Smith, was teacher at that time, and boarded in the O1ney house. hold. Sheis in her eighty-seventh year, and she threw some strong side lights on life in the old brown house.
 T always thought that Richard had pretty high notlons," said she. Those times when he came home from college on visits he held his head up well and seemed to think good deal of aris- toeracy. got that idea from remarks he would make. He was great read CT, and 1 remember that on one visit he brought David copperfeld' and read it aloud to the rest of the fam fly evenings. While we women sewed, Richard and his father would read aloud"
 The resident who best remembers Richard Olney as a boy is Jonathan Pratt Dana, eighty-three years of age. He was school commissioner when Richard went to the district school.
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14

localities. The general opinion ex' pressed in the columns of those years of progress was favorable to the garb. It was pronounced elegant, convenient, and in no way open to the charge of in delicacy. According to Robert Cham bers, an American lady lecturcd on the subject in London in the autumn of 1851, and created something of sensation. She wore, it seems, a sblack satin jacket, skirt and trousers, and urged upon English ladies the adoption of the new costume" But this reformer and her followers succeeded only in raising ] laugh. Even in America" declares Mir. Chambers, ssthe boomer costume, as it was called, speedily became a thing of the past. As by sort of re- action, the monstrosity of eumbrous skirts has since, in all countries, be- come more monstrous, until men are beginning to ask what proportion of the geographical area the ladies mean to occupy"
 These lines, it should be remembered, Neither MT. Chambers, nor, for that matter, Mrs Bloomer herself, even re- motely dreamed that Q steel steed would shortly be created, and that it would revolutionize the situation. Mrs. Boomer herself elung to her idea more firmly as time passed by. She always lived very quietly, and to the day of her death many people were unaware that ] boomers were named after an actual woman.
 The picture here shown of Mrs. Boomer is from photograph taken in 1851 by Mr. T. ". Brown, of Auburn, N. Y. Mrs. Boomer never prescribed any particular form for the upper gar ment to be worn with the boomers. As will be seen, she wore with it a decol- lete affair, which was her view of a ball dress. The effect created by Mrs. Boomer when she danced must have been thrilling. She was quite young at the time, and the personal courage es- sential for such an experiment must have been considerable
 1 The women who have charge of the project for monument to her memory are among the best known in the coun- try Mrs. Ellen Battelle Dietrich is deeply interested. So, too, is Mrs. l Potter Palmer.
 The feminine bicyclists have gone in for the plan enthusiastically Mrs. Russell Sage fayors it also. There has as yet been no very definite plan for mulated, but a call has been issued for an assemblage of ladies at Sorosis late in July or early in August.
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14

that the heroic lady first displayed to an admiring world her idea of the new woman. It is little singular that not until the bicycle came into vogue did the boomer conquer. Few women, perhaps, who now tool along in the habit think of what their dead and gone sister endured for the sake of the progress. Mrs. Bloomer was editor of a temperance paper published at Sen eca Falls in New York state. She had advocated in her little publication the desira bility of the change in woman's attire; but experience convinced her that if she wished to make any impress sion in the matter at all she must her self lead the way. Mrs. Bloomer had undoubted social position, fact which aided her materially in her efforts; and when, in July, the great ball of the year came off at the house of a leader of society in her town she profted by the occasion to don her new garb. Those who have access to the columns of the Lily, publication now reposing in bound form on the shelves of quaint old libraries, will be edifed by pe- rusal of Mrs. Boomers own ideas on the subject.
 If delicacy," asserts the lady, Ire ouires that the skirt should be long, why do our ladies dozen times q day commit the indelicacy of raising their dresses, which have already been sweeping the sidewalks, to prevent their dragging in the mud of the streets? Surely few spots of mud added to the refuse of the sidewalk on the hem of their garment are not to be compared to the charge of indelicacy to which the display they make might subject them. ,
 Thus the progressive Mrs. Boomer. And she carried her theories into prac- tice bravely enough. That ball was one of the best attended functions of it's year, and the courageous female achieved distinction in night. She attracted more attention than any other woman in the rooms. An Eng fish historian who has undertaken to make the matter one of official record -see "The Book of Days" by R. Cham bers, Edinburgh's great publisher and author-makes the following com | ment:
 Ut was an attempt to substitute for the cuInbrous, inconvenient, inele- gant, in many other respects objection l able dress which then and has since prevailed, one of a light, graceful and convenient character
 Mir. Chambers continues to remark that in no part of the world, perhaps,
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14

can discover my object, particularly if you will recall the article read you last evening on the fashionable game of golf"
 ''oh, golf! how lovely and so excIu- sive, tool" smiled Mrs. T.
 At this moment Mir. Tramway, who was practieing with an old shinney stick and croquet ball, took another swing at the obstacle. This time suc- cess crowned his efforts, the ball rose as a thing of life, sped like a meteor, made a graceful curve and struck a flower pot on the balcony railing. The fragments of the earthenware flew in all directions, but the contents of the vase, the rich, dark mould-the color and consistency of nice, old-fashioned fruit caleeAthis solid chunk of mud,
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14

New England towns that, forgotten by time, change not. It has held It's une- Fentful course, hardly disturbed by rip pie, since Richard Olney was bornthere, sixty years ago, on September 15, 1885, Even now it scarcely awakens to the thrill of pride in its most illustrious son.
 Old, worn and gray with the suns and storms that for a century have beat upon it, the house of his grand father, Richard Olney, whc~e he was born and whose name he bears, still stands a sad reminder of the past. It has been moved from its commanding position at the intersection of two 'oads and placed close to the street, where it stands, scantily shaded by two young chestnut trees. Its present oc- cupant was until recently quite uncon- seous of its dignifed past.
 1t was the irony of fame! In re- sponse to my vigorous Knocking at the lont door, an elderly woman appeared
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14

Ws uasa disturbed look on her face. ha nlen l asked about the memorable saa 5a'n that occurred in her house sixty ssars ': ago, she said: Il don't know any sh. ,.ng about it. l have only lived here ws siee or four years Richard Olney? bno tbiS IS he, anyway, and what is all ala alS russ about? Eve seen lots of peo- f.s pointing out this house this week. :" nlp pOn oelng told that it was the birth rlsce nos of the secretary of state she said: sba, Sa, yes; well, I'll have to read up eas shortly after olney's birth, his par Ion;a ~, moved from the old homestead to Wnl'sVnle, Ky. While there his father, casas1, ason olney, engaged in trade unsuc- 0rfaul, 0.u,ly' and the family returned to old d0tu, Ny When the boy was seven years ksa. m Wilson olney then became book iatbo PCT TOT the woolen mill in which his kaaS: kaef mad an interest. In addition to eer,. the company's books, he was usnan n the company's store, as is nay the case in the mill towns. tha .ii'll was at Howarth's, mile from wo,,' 'own proper. So as to be near his neas, a' MT. olney built home on a tbas asshoorlng hillside, little aside from
 ~ factory tenements.
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14

Perhaps you think I'm saving wood or beating the parlor carpet"
 "No," quickly put in Mrs. Tramway, "for then you'd be accomplishing some thing. I thought you were busy going crazy, that's all, swinging that ax- handle around your head"
 'Birdie," said MT. T., with biting sweetness, ''you know you have nice little brain right round up here" tap ping his own head.
 "Now, husband, if I used my brain in an argument with you," chirped in his little Birdie, II would be taking a mean advantage of you"
 Heedless of this interruption, he con tinued: You exercise that alleged brain just trife, then perhaps you
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14

that sort of thing are such shrewd business people. Be this as it may, there is probably no such motive back of the project to build a monument to Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, the lady who became saint, or at any rate an angel, in Heaven, after years spent in popularizing the quaint garb which will forever bear her name. The women bicyclists of the country have taken hold of the matter very earnestly, as every one knows, and the woman suffragists have in- dorsed the project in the bargain. Mrs. Elizabeth Gady Stanton has even gone to the length of asserting that no more practical work was ever achieved by mortal woman than Mrs. Boomer, unaided, performed. The monument, when it is complete and dedicated, will show b an admiring world exactly how Mrs. Bloomer looked when she donned the first pair of those immortal things.
 The bIoomer has conquered. There is no doubt whatever about that. At the same time the lady who led it to vic tory has received but a small share of the glory that by right is aers. There is something particularly Interesting in the story of how ths bloomer was first worn. A glance at the picture accompanying, which is taken from a photograph of Mrs Bloomer, made in 1851 and now very rare, will show ex- aetly how the primitive garb-for it was then primitive, whatever it may be to-day-looked. It was at a ball given
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14

while Mrs, T., leaning far out of the upper-story window, with the mop handle in her ivory finger tips. was reaching toward him.
 At this juneture Neighbor Thinner appeared in the yard. What n tn world air you a-doing up there?" ejaeu- lated the caller.
 For moment gentle silence like the stiffness of the. twilight hour hung over the atmosphere; then Mrs. T., in accents as soft as the sweet tinkling of Chinese tambourine, exclaimed:
 tsWhy, Mir. Thinner! delighted to see you; now you can help us. You see, husband and I were just learning golf, and the ball got knocked up into the gutter of the roof. ]"
 "Well, here it is, guess, said Mir. Thinner, as he piekedsup the ball from under his feet.
 'Now, we'll begin all over" said Birdie, cheerily, as the three met a lit- tie later in the backyard, the clothes line being removed.
 Husband, in his anxiety to display his dexterity at golf, was trifle i'm petuous, explaining to Mr. Thinner that the main thing in the fashionable game was to learn how to hit the ball. He prepared to illustrate it, and swung round the stick with sudden whirl. The club end just escaped "Birdie's' head, but, alas, her new summer hat was less fortunate, This creation, fresh from the delft hands of the Sixth avenue milliner, was rudely swept into the dirt, and the next moment, before Mr. Tramway was conscious of the catastrophe, he stepped back and put his ham-lil1e foot into this marvel of the milliner's art.
 Birdie" didn't faint and have hys- terics, so some women would have done she was as calm as whirlwind. She only seized the hat, and, muttering that she'd forgotten an apple pie that was baking in the ice chest, she hied herself houseward.
 Mir Ira p,yxn ". wac i11e+ harir1nir1o hr
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14

"WelI, well, it's nigh onto fifty years ago Mir. Olney was one of our school boys, said MT. Dana, musingly, as he sat on the front steps of his house on the outskirts of the town. The good old man shows age in the countless seams of his face and in the ragged snow-white beard that encircles it. But his eye is bright and his mind is clear as ever. He belongs to that al most extinct type of old-fashioned dis trict school commissioners who titled their farms and stopped on the way to market to visit the schools along the road. In this capacity he served the town from his twenty fifth to his sew enty-ffth year.
 live have had good many bright boys in our schools here, said the old man, 'but I remember Richard Olney was foremost among his class at his age. It was at the district school de- bates that noticed him most. then thought he was about the smartest boy in argument that ever saw. His logic al powers were remarkable for his age and the advantages he had had.
 A Richard $ mother was an intellectual woman. She took good care of her family, never had a servant, but she wassn more than housewife. She was companion to her husband and the boys-that I call model woman."s
 Richard Olney's father was an unas- suming man, who took the greatest interest in his children. He wished to see them make something of life. He was a money-eerner but not a money maker He never became rich, though during his later years he held the po- sition of cashier of the Oxford bank. His duties there were of a clerical na- ture, and while esteemed by the direc- tors for his honesty, he was never re- narded as a shrewd banker. He al- ways filled positions that enabled him to keep his family in comfort. All he could spare he spent on his boys esucation Tn this he was assisted by Potter Butler, his wife's brother, a ll-lSnown and prosperous Boston merchant. It is said that this large hearted man contributed to Richards s academic and college expenses. Rsf
 The grandfather. also shelped the boys. He was money getter and ac- cumulated small fortune by hard work and close saving. He had the reputation of being a hard man to drive a bargain, though he was strict ly honest. In his advanced years, when he had considerable property, he got into dispute with the town ap- praisers because he thought they taxed him too much, and moved to Burrell- vile to escape the Oxford assessors. The traitsof this strong, rugged man are said to be largely developed in Richard Olney, who made the success in life which his own father missed.
 HERBERT HAYWOOD.
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14

tip over furniture and break up iesoi1y ties and things-no, she didn't even stir-she couldn't, for the window o1sh had dropped and held her pinned.
 MT. T. was man of strong instincts self-preservation was one of them-and his first impulse was to keep an inper- tant business engagement in town, but other feelings tliumphed, and with 8 half-reluetaat look in his anxious erbs,
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14

breathe, but he left tsit off on hearing his wife's siren whistle voice from the window demanding his help to open the stove door. You know it some times sticks, she explained.
 He obeyed the summons like man called to Monday dinner in the coun- try. A moment later Mr, Thinner heard weird noises from the house.
 'sHow that stove door must stick" he murmured, as he hugged himself at the thought of his lonely bachelor ex. istence. WILL PHILIP HOOPER.
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14

bleached golden tresses, it also went Into her ears, rushed down her neck and paraded down her back, till Mrs. Tramway looked like mermaid after taking dive at low tide in mud flat.
 Now, you know how unreasonable some ladies would have been under this weight of trouble, but Birdie" was different. She didn't scream-oh, no! That is, not mueh-just one or two to let Mr. Tramway know that the contents of the flower pot had arrived.
 She did not yell and run around and
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14

''I THOUGHT YOU WE'RE GOING CRAZY" :" he went to the assistance of his impris- oned ''Birdie.n
 Far be it from us to peer into the sanctity of the family jar; we draw the dark, somber-hued curtain.
 A little later Mir, Tramway was seen in his shirt sleeves on the ridge pole of the shed; there was a nervous express sion to his clothing as well as his face,
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14
MR, TRAMWAY LEARNS GOLF.
The Trials of 'sBirdie" and "Hus- band" at the Fashionable Cams.
They Wanted to Do Their Duty, But Fats Was Too Much for Them, and uLs- band Won't Play Any More
 for Nine or Ten Years.
lcoPYRIGHr. Is95.l

HAT am do ing?" yelled MT.
 Tramway, in re- sponse to h $
 bette llalf's gentle inquiry from the kiteh- en win q o W ''W h a t am I doing? " ha t do you think I'm do in 2 I?
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14

held firmly together in one mass, fell with dexterous skill right on to the fair head of Birdie" Then, it broke, the
 mass of dirt spread and flowed and rolled in one generous fountain of soil.
 It was not satisfied with putting a layer three inches deep on her fair,
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14

- for over thirty years, not two hun lVn ,1a1 men know him by sight when he uls~ pnears on the streets. He reached his appsat ppfsont distinction neither through the .,;tical arena nor by stirring deeds of p.-;otism. He was practically un- Down pa.1 to public life until his sudden hLh iadnction into office two years ago, iuS uSen he was appointed attorney gen aa .a1 Previous to that time he had held s.s', snt one office, and that was twenty sao,s sa aco. when he was member of .bs state legislature.
 M Mr. 0lney's rise to the highest cab ..at s nosition is a surprise to the people as .ls Roston. and they are asking: "How Y < that we never heard of 0lney, rhsn he has been living among us all .bese M vears?" Yet there is no mystery sbout @ it. He has been serving as cor ovation attorney for the Boston &s Maine railroad, and other companies, and this legal work did not bring him iato contact with the people or into Dooular notice, as he rarely appeared k,f r conrt He acted chiefly as, counsel in his own office, which is in the same building as that of Charles Francis Adams, formerly president of the Union Pacific.
 From his legal practice Secretary 0lnev has accumulated wealth. He has 2 ssummer home at Falmouth, near Bug ards bay, and a winter residence on commonwealth avenue, the finest boulevard in Boston.
 Mr. 0lney has, however, risen to af- auence from a humble New England origin. He comes from hardy Worees- ter county stock, and is a native of OK ford, eleven miles south of Worcester. lis village among rocky, wooded hills, with all the charm of those quaint
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14
MONUMENT TO BL0OMERS
Pictur, of the First Pair on tho
 First Woman Who Wore Them.
How She Went to a Ball In 1s51-A Re former Who Lived Before Her Time, But Who Is Now to
 Receive Due Honor.
-ICOPYRlGHT. .fs95.1
DWELL once re-

0A ELL once re- marked that it was possible to get a monu- ment built to anything, not because people are disposed to honor things or persons in par ticular, but be- cause the men who deal in ite and
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14
She Knew Them.

= "What will you do if you find both oi your husbands in Heaven?"
 "Oh, but I won't find them there "- Judge.
Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-07-14
oLNEY's BoYHooD.
rarlv Life Of tie Secretary of iD' state in Oxford, Mass.
u,or in the Old Homestead Whore lp' no yas Born Had Never Heard of Him. But Others Remember
 Him Well.
icoPYRIGHT. 1895. l

E L DO NJ has whimsical fate thrust high pc sition upon a man so little known to the people as Rich ard Olney, sec- retary of state.
The San Francisco call., 1895-12-19
AL|B| FOR DR., HEARNE,
His Counsel Endeavoring to I'm
peach the Witnesses for the
Prosecution.
Failure of an Attempt to Open the
California Divorce and Remar.
riage Record.

BOWLING GREEN, No., Dec 1s.-Miss
Virginia Hearne, daughter of the defend
ant in the Stillwell murder trial, was one
of the witnesses examined this morning.
Her testim onv, like that of the other wit
nesses, was devoid of interest.
Expert testimony was given by two
physicians as to the cause of death, in
which human skull played part in
illustrating the effect of the fatal blow.
Three witnesses next testified to the good
character of DIR. Hearne.
The main reliance of the defense will be
an alibi, as was revealed by the testimony
of DR.. Lucy Hawkins, who was on the
stand to impeach DR.. Vernetta. She testi-
fed that Vernetta was at home sick the
night he claims to have seen Hearne at
the corner of Fifth and Broadway; that
she lived in the same house with him at
the time and had occasion to see him sew
eral times during the early part of the
night; that Vernetta told her he proposed
to get even with her for real and fancied
injuries.
Several times during the day the State
tried to open the California divorce and re-
marriage record of the Rearnes without
success. It is believed the case will go to
the jury tomorrow night.