The daily sentinel., 1905-02-06
StrayStories
(Found by II. NJ. Horn.)

Something each day-a word,
We cannot know its power;
1t grows in fruitfulness
As grows the gentle flower
What comfort it may bring.
Where all is dark and drear;
For a kind word every day
Makes pleasant all the year.
Something each day-a thought
Unselfish, good and true,
That aids another's need,
While we our way pursue;
That seeks to tighten hearts,
That leads to pathways clear;
For a helpful thought each day
Makes happy all the year.
Something each day-a deed,
OF kindness and of good,
To link to closer bonds
All human brotherhood.
Oh. thus the heavenly will
We all may do while here;
For good deed every day
Makes blessed all the year.
Where Tom Taught School.
Until recently there stood in
pretty oak grove in the heart of
Sotclston. Cal. a forlorn-looking
brick building. which perhaps in its
palmy days had some architectural
beauty to recommend il; but for a
long time. as age and neglect began
10 ha
structure. its windows stared blank
~ and its shutters creaked upon
their rusty hinges until people fan
cied the old place was haunted. If
the old walls could have spoken,
what interesting anecdotes they
would have been able to relate of
bygone days! What tales might
be told out of school; for this
building was once VanDorn hall,
built expressly for school purpos-
es." and famous as the old place
where Thomas b. Reed, late speak
er of the house of representatives,
taught school for several months.
He was then young man, giant
in size and strength, fresh from
Bowdoin college. and he came to
stockton to fill the position vacated
by his former classmate, w. f.
Greene, who recommended him high
ly as his successor. 1t was the~first
and last position held by Tom Reed
as school teacher; for soon after
he received the appointment of as
sistant paymaster in the United
States navy, and he then returned in
1864 to his eastern home
+ + +
Buffalo waIlows.
A curiosity of the plains is the
buffalo wallows There has not been
buffalo in them for thirty years.
but they are the same today as they
were generations, or even centuries,
ago. They are no longer frequented
by cattle, of course, and therefore
not freshly worn, but they remain
TO this day barren and black amid
the vast plain of living green. In
the spring they stand full of water
until the advancing summer sun
evaporates IL, and then they are bar
rem and black again. They are per-
feet circles. some large as a circus
ring, and their basins are packed
firm and hard by the tread and roll
of many generations of the bison.
Another recollection here of this ex-
tinct race is the buffalo birds, which
abound in great numbers. Their
functions now, as in the time of the
bison. is TO pick insects from the
backs of the cattle which feed on
the plains. Sometimes twenty or
more feed on steers back, while
the steer calmly and with evident
pleasure munches buffalo grass.
Blown Inside out.
The following cyclone stories
were too ancient to be kept over
winter, so Kansas editor sprung
them upon his readers recently:
"A man was riding along the read
with a jug of whiskey strapped 20
lie horn of his saddle when a cy-
{ one came along. After the blow
Lad ceased the jug and st ap Was
sticking in the nozzle. the ing hav-
ing been blown inside out withoU.
,spilling a drop of the liquor. saw
cyclone once that picked up a
straw stack, moved it a mile and put
it back straw upon straw as it was.
Another time l saw a twister
suck sixty gallons of molasses out
of barrel in front of a grocery I
store and distribute 1t to every fam
lily town who had bucket on the |
back porch for the milkman. Back 1
in the 7Os we find terrible cyl
clone out in western Kansas. 1t
blew the cracks out of the fences, /
pulled a cistern out of the ground. (
moved the township line and /
changed the day of the week.
81 have known it to blow twelve !
days at a stretch and hold a sheep 1
up against a barn until it starved |
IN death "