davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1901-05-15
Guaranteed SQ|Qy 5000 yeQT|y

Men and women to appoint agents and
represent us, some to travel, others for
local work. $500 guaranteed yearly
salary and expenses. Extra commits
sions. Old established house, pleasant
permanent positions, good chance for
advancement and increase of wages.
Write at once. Address
STAFFORD PRESS CO.,
Dept. e, New Haven, Conn.
The Scranton chronicle. (Scranton, Miss.) 1897-19??, 1901-04-27

into a y-shaped space between the
bulging stone and the steeple shaft, and
lay there on my back for minute or
so, resting. But when l started TO
raise myself I found my weight had
worked me down in the crotch and
jammed me fast, and it was quite Bit
of time before / could get free"
"How much time? A minute?"
"Yes, five minutes; and it seemed q
good deal longer"
Five minutes struggling in sort OF
stone trap, five minutes stretched out
helpless at the very top OF steeple
VIII re one false move would mean de-
struction-that Is what Merrill spoke
of as funny thingl Thanks, thought,
will take my fun some other way. and
lower down.
"You would be surprised" he went
on, "to feel the movement OF a steeple
1t trembles all the time and answer
every Jar on the street below. guest
old Trinity's steeple swsys IS inches
every time an elevated train passes
And st. Pads is even worse. Why.
she rocks like beautifully balanced
cradle; ii would make some people sea
sick. Perhaps you don't know 1t, but
the better steeple Is built the more
she sways. You want to look out for
the ones that stand rigid; there some
thing wrong with them-most likely
they're out of plumb"
The Scranton chronicle. (Scranton, Miss.) 1897-19??, 1901-04-27

est to this mud-ball of ours. How long
does its light travel until 1t reaches
us? ThIse years and several more
weeks.
And that Is the star by far our
nearest neighbor. The one next to it,
Cygnus 81, liz almsst eight light years
distant. The rays that are leaving
it's great mass Of luminous matter at
this minute will reach US in 1909, eight
years from dste. Those sLarp scin-
tiIIations that are penetrating to our
eyes tonight started there back in
1893. the year Of the great panic. Do
you remember something you were
doing some night ia 1898? Perhaps
you were young and romantic then,
and you looked up to the stars and
thought they were watching you. But
they were not. They have not begun
to see what you were doing until just
now.
A new star has suddenly appeared
In the constellation Perseus. AS re-
suit astronomers all over the world
are astir and hundreds Of telescopes
are nightly sighted at the wonderful
u bright speck called Perseps Nova.
The Scranton chronicle. (Scranton, Miss.) 1897-19??, 1901-04-27
GOOD RESOLUTIONS.

We promised mother when We woke
That we'd be awful good;
And mind when anybody spoke
And not be rough or rude.
And mother said she'd be so proud.
II We could recollect
One half the things. that We allowed
She could and should expect.
But OH it's just the hardest work.
This tryin' to be good
And so. next time, / guess III shirk
The sayin' that would.
For fore we started out for school
Bob hid my book and strap.
And broke fathers new foot rule
A-hittin' him clap.
At recess just had to night
That Tommy Green-'eause why7
Why. cause he says I'm 'fraid at night.
And run when cows go by.
] guess he knows some better now.
But maybe so do l.
For teacher heard the whole big row
Said he'd see me by'n by
When school was out we started home.
But stopped beside the brook;
And there we stayed and waded some
Down In shady nook;
Until behind the hill the sun
Went down most awful quick.
AS II he liked to spoil our fun
A-servin' US that trick.
That night / had the Group so bad.
And Bob with earache cried,
And mother dosed, till we were glad
Beneath the clothes to hide.
We were so sorry. and did mean
To do just what we should;
But, sakes alive-it's easy seen
Boys can't be always good.
Mrs. Lillias C. Nevin, In n. Y. Observer.
The Scranton chronicle. (Scranton, Miss.) 1897-19??, 1901-04-27
CLIMBING TALL SIRE.
s.steerie Bee. Makes Light OF a Tssh
the Very sight of which Fright
ens These Viewing ~.

According TO Cleveland Moffett. in ST.
Nicholas, Robert Merrill, alias "Steeple
Bob" makes light of climbing TO the
top OF Trinity spire. New York.
Merrill laughed about the climb up
old Trinity; the frst climb when he
carried up the hauling rope and worked
his way clear to the cross. with moth
ing to help him but the hands and feet
he was born with, and did it eoolly,
while men on the street below turned
away sickened with fear for him.
am telling you the truth said
Steeple Bob, when l say IL was an
easy climb; any fairly active man could
do 1t II he'd forget the height. I'm not
talking about all steeples-some are
hard and dangerous; but the one on
Trinity, In spite of its 3oO-odd feet, has
knobs OF stone for ornament all the
way up (they call them oorbels), and
all you have TO do is 90 step from one
TO another"
How much OF stepT'
"Oh, when I stood on one the next
one came to my breast, and then
could just touch the one above that"
He called this easy climbing!
"The only ticklish bit was just al
the top, where two great stones, weigh
ing about ton apiece, swell out like
an apple on stick, and had to crawl
around and over that apple, which wa'
four feet or so across. II 1t hadn'i
been for grooves and scrollwork in the
stone l couldn't have done it, and even
as it was / had two or three minute,
of hard wiggling after kicked off with
my feet and began pulling myself up.
"You mean you hung by your hands
from this big ball OF stone?'
81 hung mostly by my fingers; the
scrolls weren't deep enough for my
hands to go in"
"And you drew yourself slowly up
and around and over that ball?"
Certainly; that was the only way
"And 1t was at the very top?"
"Yes, just under the cross. II wasn't
much, though; you could do it your
self"
"I really thing Merrill believed this
He honestly saw no particular danger
in that climb, nor could discover thai
he ever saw any particular danger In
nything he had done. He always made
the point that II he had really though
the thing dangerous he wouldn't hav'
done il. And | conclude from this tha
being steeple climber depends quit
as much upon how a man thinks a
upon what he can do.
"a funny thing happened" he added
"After got over this hard place sli
The Scranton chronicle. (Scranton, Miss.) 1897-19??, 1901-04-27

of the circumference of the earth.
That distance is $4,000 miles, n gigan-
tic dimension, almost beyond our
mental grasp.
Now let us carry these dimensions
step by step further. Look at an as
tronomlcal map, and you will sec TINT
the earth itself Is but dot when the
distance to the moon Is shown, and
the moon in turn seems 10 be fairly
hugging tho earth, as compared with
the long, long road to the sun.
This distance from the earth to the
sun is $4,000 900 miles. No human
mind can begin to conceive of such
dimension, and the only way to judge
It is by comparison-taking first one
distance and considering what an
enormous jump 1t Is, and then figuring
that this jump is duplicated, again and
again, thousand times. In fact, the
figures for space in Astronomical
heavens run up into such countless
| billions aud trillions of miles that no
scientist thinks ot putting them in
| these terms. Instead, he measures
space in time of light. That is TO say,
taking the distance traversed by .
ray of light in second, minute or a
| year, he says that such and such q
star is SO many light years away from
us.
Light, ms we know, travels with
enormous rapidity; and the distance
of minute of light" is therefore pro-
| digious. In the case of the sun, for
instance, which, as already stated, is
%, ,ooo, 900 miles away, the light reaches
us In only 8 minutes and 10 seconds.
Now imagine what light hour" or a
Eight year" must mean.
We all know that the star nearest
| TO the earth Is our sun, and that ac-
cording to a commonly accepted the
ory the other stars that seem to na
mere specks are also suns with their
planets and moons like the solar sys-
tenn. Looking up at the heavens on a
clear night we may well conceive that
some OF these stars are so far away
that IL will take the light much longer
| than eight minutes--an hour, two,
three or four hours possibly, to reach
us. Perhaps, we think. there might be
star at such prodigious distance
that the light rays shot from its orb
do not begin to reach until the night
after we first espy it. What a stupcn-
dous. awe-inspiring dimension that
would bel Over 200 times o3,0o0,0o0
miles away.
Now let the astronomer give us the
real figures. Almost above our heads
TO the south is the constellation known
as the Corona, a cluster of bright stars
grouped close together. In IL is the
star outside the solar system, near
The Scranton chronicle. (Scranton, Miss.) 1897-19??, 1901-04-27
Iti.. star Of the fr.t magnitude, u.

scientists tell Us. and Is in a group
,mong those nearest TO this little
earth of ours, from 90 To 30 light years.
Now let rs see how far from us 1t Is,
and let us take II step by step by tho
following comparisons.
Many. many of the stars will not
hegin TO aee anght of tho happenings
Of this earth until long after you
arc dead. For the heavens arc stud
ied with suns so far out in space that
Il must seem TO them as IL tho
Corona and our own solar system
could lock arms. Here Is what Simon
Neweomb. the eminent astronomer.
says. I'VE may conclude with con-
siderable probability that most of
the stars visible To the naked eye lie
at distances which light would trav-
erse in between so TO 900 years. II
we suppose that tho smaller tele-
seopic stars have general average
of about the same intrinsic hrillianey,
these are at distance OF from so to
$4,000 years"
Now let MS conceive Of an infinite
mind possessed OF physical senses.
Or TO take the theory of thought
transferenee, which is now accredited
| by many eminent psychologists =
supposing by instantaneous thought
transference our minds could trans
fer themselves from star To star.
Then on going To such star rs Si-
rius, the brightest in the heavens,
we could see the things that were
happening on this earth about 1s
years ago. We could sec President
Arthur, young Boulanger just ris-
ing into power, Queen Victoria at tho
height of her reign. the iron chan
cellor OF Germany strengthening the
bonds of his empire. Transferring
ourselves n little further, we could
get TO point where the light rays
TINT portray the American and tho
French revolutions are just reach
ing. We could see George Washing
| ton inaugurated, then by quick
! Jump 10 n nearer star we would wit
ness Napoleon devastating the fields
of Europe. Or going further away,
we would see the medieval popes at
Rome. Martin Luther, John Calvin.
Ignatius Loyola.
We might travel on in thought 10
the constellation of the great Dip
per, and there. planted on cool
spot on some planet, we could watch
the developments in that great
period of history following the birth
of Jesus. Every single light ray is
reaching there now, not one OF them
lost. not the move of hand, not tho
The Scranton chronicle. (Scranton, Miss.) 1897-19??, 1901-04-27
THE USE OF BALATA.
south American Product rhst Is
CROWNS In Demand n sub-
stitute for nuhhrr.

4 ceeut Washington dispatch. re-
ferring to the policy of Venezuela IN
opening up the Orinoco 10 commerce
and Industrial development, inei-
dentally referred To the expectation
from that country of substitute for
India rubber known as balata. Il
is asserted that the amount of this
substance shipped from Ciudad Boli-
var was upward of 500 tons in lsas.
about $50 in 1899. and that 1900 would
probably double the latter figure. nj.
though the returns are not yet all in.
says the New York Tribune.
Balata has been known To the rub
Der trade for something Ike 20 years.
part of the supply coming from
Dutch Guiana and part of IL from
Venezuela. II resembles rubber in
being pliablc, but 1t is not elastic. II
has been used in Europe considerably
In making betting, the basis Of which
is canvas. Balata has also been tried
for electrical insulation. and no
doubt could bc employed extensive
ly in rubber compounds. IL Is hard.
~ necessary 10 tell any reader that
all Is not pure Para gum that bears
the name Of rubber Cheaper grades
of rubber and many substances that
are not like rubber Mt all are mixed
with the higher grades of caoutehoue
In the manufacture of tires. over,
shoes and host OF other rubber
goods. Although balata has not yet
been employed as an adulterant on
large scale, II is easy to perceive
It's possibilities.
Genuine rubber ranges all tho way
from 90 To 90 cents pound. The
price OF Para gum has been as high
as one dollar a pound at times. SUI
rinam balatn brings about Go cents
pound just now, and the orinoeo
article 45. The former comes In
sheets. and looks n little like common
glue. though not 50 stiff or dark. The
Venezuelan article is prepared Tor
the market In blocks. IL Will thus
be seen that balata Is cheaper than
the best rubber, and more expensive
than the inferior quality. IL cannot
| well replace the latter. but IL might
be substituted for, or compounded
with, the higher priced Para product
The opinion was expressed by an Of.
fcer Of one of the big rubber i'm.
porting companies OF this city that
not over 80 tons of balata are con-
sumed in the United States In tho
course of year. This may pos.
sibly be a conservative estimate ut
the present time, but IL probably
represents with accuracy the sitna.
ton ms II existed only very few
years ago.
The Scranton chronicle. (Scranton, Miss.) 1897-19??, 1901-04-27

"Water is round everywhere. espe-
cially when it rains, as 1t did the other
day. when our cellar was halffull. Jane
had to wear her fathers rubber boots
to get onions for dinner. Onions make
your eye water, and so does horse
radish when you eat too much. There
are a good many kinds Of water in the
world-rain water, soda water, holy
water and brine. Water 10 used for q
good many things. Sailors use II to 60
10 sea on. Water is good thing TO
FIRE at boys with a squirt gun and to
catch fishes in. Ny father caught a
big one the other day. and when he
pulled il out II was an eel. Nobody
could be saved from drowning IL thers
wasn't any water to pull them out of.
Water is frst-rate to put fires out with.
/ love to go to the fire and see the men
work at the engines. This is all can
think Of about water--excspt the
Hood"
The Scranton chronicle. (Scranton, Miss.) 1897-19??, 1901-04-27

turn OF a head. 1t seems n fanciful
speculation, and yet.-'witb the de-
yelopment OF this sixth sense OF
thought transference, combined with
the sharpening Of physical instru-
ments, who knows what the future
may reveal Of the past?
With the naked eye we can sec
from 5000 TO 5000 stars on clear
night, although we cannot easily dis
tingnish, much less count, that num-
ber; with telescope the total 10
raised TO 10000. All this is merely
the beginning. All the stars we can
distinguish are but the comparative
ly minute particles of single clus-
ter. Science has not yet definitely
proved the assumption, but IL is be-
Iieyed that all these systems. Include
ing our own, belong in group OF
which the milky way marks the out
ward edge. That is to say, astrono-
mers reason that all the stars we
know are spread ont on big plane.
Some of them may be trlllions and
trillions of miles away at perpen-
dicular TO our planet, but this di-
mension is trivial compared with tho
horizontal dimension II just as a
pancake may be thick, but Is thin
nevertheless compared with its hori-
zontal dimension.
Sometimes stars have been "discov.
cred" long before they were seen,
simply by noticing some minute de-
Election in the path of known star.
This. for instance, was the case with
the planet Neptune. The paths OF
the erratic comets are known, and
reference TO a chart will readily tell
an astronomer at what time this
or that famous comet will return.
The one espied in 1858, for example,
will return after trip OF 1900, ,oOo,.
Ooo miles in the year A. ID. 1920. by
| these calculations historians, also.
have been aided; for the phenomena
/ described in ancient times were
traced, and important dates OF bat
ties have been fixed.
By calculations on the star OF BETH
iehem we know that Jesus oil Naz-
aretb was born four years before
the date assigned for the beginning
of the Christian era-a date tina. ms
torians for centuries were incapaDie OF
fixing accurately. One OF the most
startling results of astro-historicai
research has been accomplished in ref
erence to Egyptian anthology In
tb;e case the astronomers have fg-
ured on the professions Of the equi-
noxes. the poles swinging around in
a small circle once every 26,000 years.
thus changing the aspect Of the
heavens from the earth's point Of
view. AS result they profess -
know that some of the events in ths
valley OF the Nile transpired as long
as 1900 years ago. upsettlng the
ciaimr Of historians. and forcing geol-
ogists 10 revise their figures.
E r. GgEpLAeH
The Scranton chronicle. (Scranton, Miss.) 1897-19??, 1901-04-27
GREATEST OF LoDESToNEs.
Attracts Not Only Metals, But such
Substance. ns Fishermen,
Dogs and Hogs.


A deep hole OF water In Nolynn
creek. ten miles south of lIogdenville,
KY. has for some time been attract.
Ing attention by reason OF the fact
that IL has very gtrong suction.
For years. says the Louisville conr.
| ier-Jonrnal, IL has been known MS
"the suck hole" 1t II about ten feet
deep and about 30 yards long. The
water is clear and bottom can easily
be seen. This hole has been watched
by people In that section for a num-
ber Of years. and IL has also to soma
extent been avoided. IL now de.
yelops that 10 Is no "suck hole" but
In the bottom OF the river II IL
claimed there Is streak Of powerful
loadstone.
A man in that community recent
ly constructed large and substar.s
tial craft for the purpose Of inyestl.
eating the causes of the suction ia
this particular part OF the river. IL
was discovered that the river bottom
Is solid rock, and that through the
center of the rock, running length
wise, Is black streak. ~ Is abolt
five inches in width. and runs the
length OF the hole. This streak was
examined with common fish CIR,
and was found 10 be very hard. The
gig adhered 10 the stone and il took
no little pulling to extricate 1t. Fur
fher investigation was made. and IL
Is said the streak following the bot.
| tom of the river is undoubtedly pow
erful Ioadstone.
This hole was discovered over 10
years ago by Enoch Atteberry. who
came near losing his life in thc
water, having been rescued by two
men. who pulled him out by means
Of long pole. Lum Wess and Luz
ther Trulock also came near losing
their lives in the hole short time
ago while seining. They were res
eued half-drowned by other .mern-
bers OF the party. The attraction
was so powerful toward chain on
the bottom of the seine that the SEM
ers had TO abandon II. The hole
"a not in the main stream, but Is an
outlet.
A dog thrown into the water never
4 comes out. but Is quickly drawn 70
he bottom. When a trout line is
stretched across the place the un-
seen energy attracts the hooks 10
the black streak and there holds
them securely until they are drawn
out. At times there is strong un-
dercurrent in the bayou, which is
unaccounted for, and which often
sweeps the bottom clean, relieving
the Ioadstone OF its collection
The locality OF the suck hole is get
ting to be much dreaded one. ez-
peclally by the superstitious. 1t is
known to all negroes as the death
hole" and farmers in that section
find it difficult TO employ negro help.
Many cattle and hogs have been lost.
The Scranton chronicle. (Scranton, Miss.) 1897-19??, 1901-04-27
HOW LIGHT TRAVELS
One of the Utterly Ineomprehensi-
BILE Wonders of Infinity.
kamberies. Worlds Are Areaud Is
All Framed hy the Same Dlsine
Artist and Conducted by
His tnerriag Hand.
Especial correspcndenee.l

TITS long journey from Chicago TO
New York. An express train traY-
cling at its highest rate is on the
road almost p hours from city TO city
Yet, in that day. the train has trav.
sled over less than one-twenty-fifth
The Scranton chronicle. (Scranton, Miss.) 1897-19??, 1901-04-27

Little fhree-year-old Clara. after
watching the lid Of the teakettIs rise
and fall. emitting al the same time tiny
puffs OF siesm- exclaimed: Look, mann
ma; the teskeitles got the sstbmsi"
The Scranton chronicle. (Scranton, Miss.) 1897-19??, 1901-04-27

Teacher (inculcating the Atry-try-
again" maxim)--If the arctic ex-
pIorers keep trying, year after year..
to discover the north pole. what will
eventually happen2 Well, JOHNNY
Johnny Uptownz~Ihe Eskimo des
win beeoms extincsf Puck,
The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-12-18
Reward.

S"i.Oo REM ARD Ton information that will lead
To the arrest Vi parties who stole or may
now have my larg" English setter registered dog.
Information strictly confidential schuyler "a.
Gcrnon 80! Madison avenue.
The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-12-18
THOMPSON.
he Scranton Tribune,

Special to the Scranton Tribune,
Thompson. Dec. 17.-Cieorge Me-
Namara. of LenoX, visited his brother,
DR.. w. w. Mcnamara. Sabbath and
yesterday.
The floods of Saturday night called
the traclmen from here to work on
the main line of the Erie,
Guy Foster. the efficient station
agent al Starrucca, is home since sat
urday, suffering from sore throat,
which seems 10th to yield to treat
ment.
Rev. ". II. French has been quite
indisposed for several days. Rev, F..
r. Tower supplied his pulpit at Lake
View last Sabbath.
A. w. Gates, who is over 81 years
old. is over in Sherman today, attend
ing to matters on his farm, while Mrs.
Gates, who has been shut in some
weeks, from dislocated hip, was out
shopping this morning without her
staff.
G. +. Spencer and son. Lyman, are
putting in a Spencer heater at Fac
toryville this week.
Superintendent Osgood is in town to-
day, putting in phones in G. NJ. Lewis
house and i'm T.. NJ. Lewis house. He
has the damage caused by the flood
repaired and everything ship shape.
Henry Leonard, of Alton, after a
The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-12-18
TUNKHANNOCk.

specisl 10 the Scranton Tribune
TLmkhannock. Dec 1I--'rhr small
pox cases are getting on nicely. No
new cases have appeared for a long
time and the fear Of any further
spreading Of the malady is at an end.
Edwin j. Jordan. who has been III
with pneumonia for the past month.
is now slightly better.
\ young man of the name of Glenn
was under bail here in the spring of
1901, charged with forgery; he skipped
his bail. which was sioo. and the
recognizance was forfeited in due
course by the court, and proceedings
started to collect IL. subsequently the
whole amount was paid To the COM
mssoncrs, and they asked the court
to appoint an auditor to distribute The
money. Judge Wheaton. OF Luzerne
county. specially presiding. granted
their prayer, and James w. Piatt. esq,
was appointed as auditor and on
Tuesday he sat to make distribution.
The law library committee attended
and claimed onc-half of the whole f,lNd
for the use of the library, under the
Act of 1901. The district attorney.
who brought suit. asked to be allowed
an attorney Zee, ana lne 'olllllllSSIou-
ers attorney. who received the money,
claims n commission for collecting.
The auditor will be heard from later.
The remains of Mrs. Daniel Smith
were taken TO Wnverly. \. Y. for in
terment on Tuesday morning. Tho
deceased was a sister of Alvin Day.
senior editor Of the Wyoming Demo-
rr3t.
Arthur X. Stockcr. tax collector OF
Nleshoppcn borough. and Alunzo l..
Williams. tax collector Of l'raintrin.
We're here on Tuesday. settling their
duplicates for the year.
Wilbur X. ArndtS, who has quite IL
long job OF electric wiring at Nich"l-
son. spent Tuesday with his family at
this place.
George T.. Kuta. the harness man, Is
having some needed repairs put on
his residence. on the corner of Second
and Bridge streets. Thomas M. Hard
ing is doing the work.
Many cellars We're partly filled with
water, on the streets adjacent to The
creeks and river during the high
water of Sunday. uutbuildings We're
Coated and overturned. ana a consid-
cradle amount Of damage sustained by
Individual citizens in different parts of
the town.
Walter r. Sickler. of Nnrthmore-
land was a visitor in town on Tues
day.