smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1868

From the Louisville COurier.l


DO You know. my dear BUFFERS. tina
this is leap ycarl 1t is your year o
Jubilee, wherein you may rest from YOU
labor Of counting and sit back, will
your hands crossed on yonr lap, anc
wait for propositions from the fair sex
From time immemorial it has been the
custom for the ladies TO ask all lead
ing questions one year in four. If any
suffering angel has been pining for you
in secret, you will be apt to find it out
before you are much older. Coaceal
ment which, like worm in the bud
has been feeding on her damask cheek,
will have to hunt up new boarding
house.


trust that you realize the great i'm
portance and dignity of the situation
you occupy, and that you will endeav-
or to sustain your well earned reputa-
ton of being the noblest work of God.
Let not your dignity degenerate into
stiffness, and at the same time guard
against levity. Avoid trihing with the
feelings of the gentle beings who may
desire to become oversecrs of your
happiness. Do not encourage hopes
that you know can.ncver be realized.
DO not suffer young lady to eXpentl
half her income in concert tickets.
French candy and buggy rides, know
ing at the time you receive those atten-
tons that she is nota congenial spirit ;
that she drinks and falls in love with
stock actors, and writes verses about
the same. When you once make up
your mind that she is not exactly the
style ofangcl you would be willing to
do marketing for, break the diastrous
intelligence to her as gently and firmly
as possible. Assure her that you feel
extremely flattered by her preference,
and you shall always esteem her as 4
friend. If managed with skill there is
no danger of the rejection being ac-
companied with the sacrifice Of human
life. / do not remember me of more
than dozen beaut,ous girls who died
because / could not love them unless
some other disease was complicated
with their affections.


If, which is quite likely, you make up
your mind that the suitoress is poper
being to sweetcn your cares and cof,
fee; to soothe your sorrows and rum
PIE your shirt bosoms, let your hand
rest in hers, and suffer your soft head
to fall upon her womanly bosom (mind
the breast-pin and murmur something
about papa. She will then call you
her dear little mouse, and other pro-
prieties and improprieties will suggest
themselves in their regular order.


Seeing that a brides trousseou costs
something less than s40O, the writer
suggests the following:
Year: 1868

TIE PRESIDENT NOT SUBoRDlNATE.-
The New York, Post, q leading Repub-
lican journal, titus treats the PROPOSE
ton to degrade the Presidential office
by the now reconstruction bill and its
supporters:


1T is useless for Gen. Garfield to ar
que that the President lis the subordi-
nate of Congress- He is not he is the
coordinate of Congress; the integrity
OF his function is just as necessary as
that ofCongress, and to destroy the
equilibrium is to destroy the peculiar
feature of our policy which has given
it strength and success. The vast.ma-
jority OF the people have been taught
for half a century to ookupon this di-
vision of powers as we state them, and
it would take them long time to un-
learn a doctrine which they identity
with the stability of the nation. 1t is
older than the republican supremacy,
and will outlast it if the opposite doc
trine be insisted upon"
Year: 1868

~ MI xtcAku sln vHBMAWs


From the Norfolk Day Book.l


4 Soon after the occupation ofthis city
Iby the Federal forces in 1862, there was


an Individual from Massachusetts or


Connecticut who came with them, nam


ed John Porter Ray. He established a
newspaper in Portsmouth called the


Nrginidn, in which he published a
statement in it's editorial columns, set
ting forth that the father of General
Benjamin F. Butler was a pirate; and
that for some of his acts Of piracy he
had been caught, convicted, and hung
in New Orleans. Whether this was
| true or no, we have no means of know
| ing, but we do know that the state
|ment, emanating from Federal source,
caused our people at the time good
deal Of surmising, and among other
things it was surmised that that was
why Mumfofd was hung in New Or
leans by Butler; that he had sworn an
oath for vengence on some citizen Of
that place for the hanging of his faith
er and that the occasion was availed
of by him to execute his oath of ven
geance. Whether this was surmise
alone or truth the future can only re-
veal.


Time wore on; John Porter Rays
paper gave up the ghost, and he him
self became rather an abandoned char
acter. He fingered on here, and finally
General Butler took command of this
department. Soon after this it was
given out that John Porter Ray had
died and was buried. People inquired
about from one to another if they knew
of his death or burial, and no one
could tell any circumstance of the death
or the funeral. Surmisc again sprang
up, and many were of the opinion that
Ray had been foully dealt with; but no
one could tell, Public opinion finally
settled into the belief that surmise had
dictated, and there the matter dropped.
Many to this day believed that John
Porter Ray had been assinated and his
body secretly buried, because he pub
lished the damaging re,elationin re-
gard to the taking off of Buffers faith
Year: 1868

1t looks as if the New York Tribune
was being egged on by thr Army and
Navy contractors, who made fortunes
from the late civil war, to do what it
can to stir up fresh conflict, so that
"gun contracts" and other fat jobs may
abound. On no other theory can such
language as the following be under
stood: 4.R
Year: 1868

aa a7 =


In the time of William the Third,
when the soldiers stationed at Kilkenny
are said to have found their most favorite
diversion in witnessing cat fights, it was
their custom to bring the belligerent cats
into action on a tight-rope to which the
animals were securely tied by their tails.
Thus placed on strained cable face to
face, the infuriated creatures used to
spring upon each other, and fight with an
indescribable ferocity. When the weaker
cat slipped from the embrace of his ad.
versary he hung by his tail, screeching
and writhing in rage and agony, until he
managed to recover an insecure footing
onthe rope, when the contest was renewed,
to the delight of its critical and humane
spectators. After this elevating past
time had been in vogue for considera-
Bile time, it was prohibited by military
order, issued at the request of the princi-
pal inhabitants of Kilkenny, where, in
the dearth of cats oecasioned by sport
SO largely destructive to feline life, the
mice We're verifying with unpleasant force
the truth of the familiar adage. But
when the order for the discontinuance of
cat fights had been promulgated, the au-
thorities found much difficulty in enforc-
ing obedience to it. Cats still continued
to disappear from Kilkenny town, and it
was well known that they were smuggled
into the garrison to afford the soldiers
brutalizing diversion. Such was the state
of the case when information reached
the commanding officer that cat fight
was going ON in an out-of-the-way room
of the barrack, and an officer was forth
with despatched to put an end to the
fight and arrest the soldiers thus guilty
of insurbordination. But before the Off
Ger and men could break into the room,
the spectators of the fight had received
warning of their danger. The tramp of
the intruding party was audible to the
men within the chamber, when one Of the
latter, with an admirable promptitude,
threw up the window Of the room, and
liberated the cat from the tight-rope by
cutting off their tails. In trice the an
imal had fallen to the floor, and disap-
peared through the window. The next
moment the invading party burst into


-
the room, when they saw no evidence Of
the breach of discipline except strained
rope and the two pendent tails of the
vanished cats. "Begorrah /" exclaimed
one OF the newly arrived lads in scarlet,
show the divils must have fought! They
have just eaten each other wholly, and
left naught but their tails behind them! !"
London Athenaeltna.
Year: 1868

A DANCING DEAcoN.-The Galaxy
tells story regarding the introduction
of a violin into an old Congregational
Church in certain village in Connecti-
cut. When the question first came up a
sharp debate ensued. The old folks as
a general thing, were opposed to it. The
novelty of the arrangement on the other
hand arrayed all the young people in its
favor, the innovation triumphed, and the
following Sunday brought both fiddler
and fiddle into the church. But after
the introductory prayer and reading Of
the Scriptures as soon as the first thrilling
squeak of the violin was heard, Deacon
Jones, who sat close by the pulpit, sprang
up danced once or twice forward aud
back" then taking a " chassez down
the aisle, keeping admirable time to the
instrument, danced out of the church to
return to it no more.
Year: 1868

by getting into hole. He met a fox
who had some fish, and asked how he
might also catch some. "Drop your tail
into a hole in the ice" said Reynard,
"and let it be in the water long while
never mind the pangs of pain--they
are bites-then pull it out suddenly, and
you will have large haul of fish,
Bruin did so, and the hole froze up; by
and by he gave leap, and, instead of
getting any fish, lost his own TAIL


There is something very comical about
some of these old fancies. The kilkenny
cats have passed into a proverb. Even
that tale is almost matched by one more
recent of hen which went to lay in a
new patent hens nest, in which the egg
drops through trap door, and SO deceives
biddy that she keeps on laying. This
particular hen went on the persuader, as
the invention is called, and never came
off again. The owner visited the per-
suader at night In the upper compart-
ment he found handful of feathers, a
few toe nails, and bill. In the lower
COMPARTMENT were three dozen and eleven
eggs. The delicate constitution of the
hen had been unequal to the effort; and,
fired by young ambition, she had laid
herself all away.


The man with the wonderful mechan-
ical leg, which would not stop walking,
was a very queer invention; but was
hardly equal to the person of whom there
is German legend, who, having lost his
legs in the war, was furnished with two
India rubber ones. On putting them on
he felt so happy that he sprung into the
air; but when he came down he bounded
back higher than before; and SO every
time he came down he rebounded into
the air with greater velocity, until, as
days and weeks and months passed on,
and he returned from his mrial trips at
longer intervals, he bounded above the
clouds and came down upon all parts of
the earth. 1t is supposed that he is still
bounding and rebounding among the
orbs of the universe, carried now to one
and now to another planet by different
currents of gravitation, and that he will
continue thus in unceasing motion through
all eternity. His fate was as terrible as
that of man who became the victim Of
ar incurable ague:


"And it shook him. shook him sorely,


Shook his boots off and his toe nails.


Shook his teeth out and his hair off,


Shook his coat all into tatters,


Shook his shirt all into ribbons,


Shrtless. eoatless, hairless, toothless.


Minus boots and minus toe nails,


Still it shook him, shook him. till it


Made MIN yellow, gaunt ana bUny;


Shook him till he reached his death bed.


Shook him till it shufled him


OFF his mortal coil and then. it


Having laid him cold and quiet,


Shook the earth all down upon him


And he lies beneath his gravestone


Ever shaking, shaking, shaking!''


Public Spirit.
Year: 1868

The Wounded Soldier and the old


ColOred Woman.


One sees a good deal of character
when travelling, especially in horse-cars,
and as | do great deal of the latter
sort, often get glimpses of the odd, dis
agreeable or pleasant side of my fellow
beings. Let me tell you a little scene
which was lesson to all who saw it.
Going to Brooklne one day, l took a car
at time when it was fullest. As we
rolled along glanced up and down the
two rows of faces, and amused myself by
studying them. None were particularly
attractive except boy of eighteen, or
so, who sat reading in the corner opposite.
He wasn't handsome nor very well
dressed; but there was something very
pleasant to me in the thin, brown face
bent studiously over the book. From
the cap he wore and the erect carriage
of his shoulders | fancied that he had
been in the army, and liked him all the
more for that. While | sat looking at
him an old colored woman got in. All
the seats were full, and no one stirred.
Two gentlemen had given their places to
white ladies, but none of the five seated
gentlemen offered the old woman a seat.
She was very black and shabby, but the
ugly face was kind and patient, and the
poor clothes were neat. Having no pref
udice against color, was about to offer
my seat when the boy glanced up, rose
instantly, and beckoning, said respect
fully


Here's place, a'am."


She took it with motherly Thanky,
dear, thanky," and settled herself with
sigh of satisfaction. Two girls looked at
one another and giggled, but stopped
suddenly, with an altered look, when
they saw, what none of us had observed
before, that the youth was lame. As ne
arranged his crutch the old gentleman
next me bobbed up in an impetuous way
which made me suspect that he was a
little ashamed of himself.


"Here. you mustn't stand sit down,
sit down." he said.


Certainly not, sir, can stand per-
fectly well !" and with decided shake
of the head the boy looked down at his
book, coloring little under the four-and-
twenty pairs of eyes fixed on him. The
old gentleman would MT sit down, and
glancing at the boys cap he said,-


" You've been in the army ?"


Yes, sir, short time"


"See any fghting?"


was at Wagner" :"


At that time little breeze of interest
blew through the car, and the old woman
patted the end of the boys coat, that lay
on her knee, with a look that was a
blessing.


Got wounded there?" said the old
man.


Lost my foot, SIR"


| Up got and insisted that he should
sit down. But he laughingly refused
saying he was going to get out; and with
a military salute, he left the car. 1t was
curious to see how carefully the ladies
drew their skirts out of his way-how
respectfully a man opened the door for
him, and how gratefully the colored wo
mans eyes followed him.
1t was small thing to do, but some
how | think every one had learned a les
son of that true gentleman, who had
proved that he was not only brave but
; courteous in the best sense of the word
J for something finer than politeness taught
! him to respect the woman because she
was old, and poor and black.-Me,1y.
: Museum.
Year: 1868

SELF RAISING FLoUR.-This article, one of


the most useful and economical discoveries of the
age, is now manufactured and sold at the Custom
Mills Of J. II. Schultz in this city It is an ar
ticle that has been in use for but few years,
but has grown so largely in demand that man
ufactures Of it are springing up all over the
country. The greenest kitchen girl in tho world
can make good bread or biscuit with this -four
every time-no chance for failure. "a
Year: 1868

BURNED To DEATH.-An interesting child,
three years old, of Roger Haley, living near the
aqueduct, in this city, was SO, badly burned on
Thursday evening of last week, by its apron tax
ing fire at the stove that it died next morning.
The mother had stepped out but moment to get
a pail of water, leaving the child with sister s
years old; but got back too late to save the lit
tie sufferer, whose hands and face were burned
to a crisp. and both eyes destroyed. ot aa
Year: 1868

A LIVING CHILD WITHOUT A HEAD
A correspondent of the Lacon (Ill.) Home
Journal writes that there is living in the
vicinity of Spoon river, in that State, child
which was born and has lived Eve years
without head he states the facts of
the case as follows: "Mrs.-, the mother,
is the widow of a soldier, formerly living in
Marshall county, who enlisted in the 65lh or
Scotch regiment, and was killed at the battle
of DeviDgtOn, Mo. She was standing beside
her husband during the engagement, when
a cannon ball carried his head completely
away, bis body falling into her arms and GOV.
ering her with blood. The shock affected
her greatly, and when, seven months after.
wards, her child was born, there was not the
semblance of head about it. The limbs are
perfectly developed, the arms long, and the
shoulders where the head and neck should
be smoothly rounded of. But the most sur
prisiDg thing of all is that the face is situa,
ted in its breast. Of course, there being no
neck, the power of turning its head is want
ing, except as the whole body is moved but
this difficulty is overcome by the singular
faculty it possesses of turning its eyes in
their sockets, enabling it to see quite as we'll
on either side as those more perfectly formed
The upper portion of its body is white as the
purest Caucasian, from the waist downward
it is blood-red. This strange creature, now
an active boy of five years old, as if to COM
pensate for its deformity, possesses the most
clear and birdlike tones ever listened to,
singing with singular correctness everything
it may hear, and its voice at this early age
accomplishing two octaves easily. Its health
is uniformly good. At the tune of my visit
it was just recovering from an attack of the
measles Mrs is a very quiet and lady
like person, living entirely alone with her
boy, cultivatiDg small garden, and support
ed by pension and an income derived from
government securities. Very few in the i'm.
mediate vicinity have seen her child, or even
know of its existence-it being only through
the interest of personal friend that l OBJ
tanned the privilege, reluctantly granted, of
making this statement"
Year: 1868

RISING IN THE WORLD You should bear con-
stantly in mind that nine tepths of us are, from
the ~ory aud nsssssities of the world born
to gain livelihood by the sweat of the brow.
What reason have we, then, to presume that our
children are not to do the same? lfthey be, as
now and then one will be, endowed with extra
ordinary powers of mind, those powers may have
an opportunity of developing themselves and
if they never have that opportunity, the harm ia
not very great to US or to them. Nor does it
hence follow that the descendants of laborers are
always to be aborers


The path upward is steep and long, to be sure.
Industry, care, skill, excellence, in the present
parent, lay the foundation of rise, under more
favorable circumstances, for the children. The
children of these take another rise and by-and-by
the descendants of the present laborer become
gentlemen. This is the natural progress. 1t is
by attempting to reach the top at a single leap
that so much misery is produced in the world {;
and the propensity to make such an attempt has
been cherished and encouraged by the strange
projects that we have witnessed of late years for
making the laborers virtuous and happy by Civ
ing them what is called education. The educa-
ton which speak of, consists in bringing child
ren up to labor with steadiness, with care, and
with skill to show them how to do as many
useful things as possible to teach them to do
all in the best manner to set them an example
in industry sobriety, cleanliness and neatness
to make all these habitual to them, so that they
shall never be liable to fall into the contrary let
them always see a good living proceeding from
labor, and thus to remove from them the temp
tations to get at the goods of others by violent
and fraudulent Means VIM. Cobbett.
Year: 1868

NO young man who has a just sense of his own


value will sport with his character. A watchful


regard to his character in early youth will be in.


conceivable 10 him in all the remaining wears Of
his after life. When tempted to deviate from
| strict propriety of department, he should ask
| himself, Can afford this? Can endure hereafter
| to look back upon this


1t is of amazing worth to young man to hav-
pure mind for this is the founda i;-i efa pure
character. The mind, in order to De kept pure,


must be employed in topics of thought which are


themselves lovely chastened, and eeyating. The
mind has within its own power the selection Of
its themes of meditation. If youth lnew how
frightful were the. moral deprivatons which a
cherished habit of loose Imagination produces on
the soul-they would shun them as the bite of a
serpent. The power Of books to excit, the ina
gination is fearful element of moral death when
employed in the service of vice.


The cultivation of an amiable, ele,ated and
glowing heart, alive to all the beauties of nature
and all the subimities of truth, invigrates the
intellect, gives to the will independence of baser
passions, and to the affections that power of ad-
hesion TO whatever is pure, good and grand,
which is adapted to lead out the whole nature of
q man into those scenes of action and impression
by which its energies may be most appropriately
employed, and by which its high destination may
be most effectually reached


The opportunities for exciting these faculties
in benevolent and selfdenying efforts fer the well
fare OF our fellow-men are so many aud great,
that it is really worth while to live. The heart
which is truly evangelically benevolent, may
luxuriate in an age like this. The promises of
God are inexpressibly good, the main tendencies
of things so manifestly in accordance with them,
the extent of moral influence is so great, and the
effects of its employment SO visible, that whoever
aspres after benevolent action and reaches forth
for things that remain for us, to the tne dignity
of its nature, can find free scope for it's intellect
I,nd all inspiring themes for the heart
Year: 1868

TEMPER UNDER CoNTRoL-It is one of the rich
rewards of self mastery that the very occurrence,
which fret the temper of an irritable person,
bring relief and satisfaction to him who rules
his spirit. The following anecdote of Wiber-
force is in pont A friend told me that he found
him once in the greatest agitation looking for a
dispatch which he had mislaid -one of the royal
family was waiting for it-he had delayed the
search till the last moment-he seemed at last
quite vexed and flurried. At this unucky in
slant, disturbance in the nursery overhead oc-
Cured. My friend, who was with him, said to
himself, 'Now, for once, Wilberforce's temper
will give way" He hardly thought thus, when
Wilberforce turned to him and said, "What
blessing it is to have these dear children Only
think what relief amidst other hurries, to hear
their voices and know they are well p
Year: 1868

Dos,r n,s a LossrEs.--Your tehessr,-Yhea=Aasti
high and dry among the rocks has not sense
and energy enough to work his way back to the
sea, but waits for the sea TO come to him. If it
does not come, he remains where be is, and dies,
although the slightest exercise would enable him
to reach the waves which are perhaps tossing and
tumbling within yard Of him. There is tide
in human affairs that casts men into tight places
and leaves them there, like stranded Holsters. If
they choose to lie where the breakers have flung
them, expecting some grand billow to take them
on its big shoulders and carry them to smooth
water, the chances are that their hopes will new
be realized. Nor is it right they should be. The
social element ought not to be expected to help
him who makes no effort TO help himself.
Year: 1868

LUCK don't have any good lucE-Fudge
What do you expect, you mere grunioler Is the
world to turn from its way and business TO sweet
eu you up, put you on your Plus, and then re-
turn TO its own affairs Not # it knows itself,
and the popular prejudice is that it has some ex-
petience in that line. Ifyou expect 'luck, " as
it is termed, without working like good fellow
for it, you W II simply be disappointed. And
you ought to be. 1t would be nothing else but
swindle Lack is product, not ii chance. II
is born Of toll does not fall ready at hand. 1t
comes to those who work and win and not those
who lazily wait. There is nothing more foolish
than for young men to believe in luck. 1t is a
faith without foundation, and sadly runous in
its consequences