smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1877

THE Republican is pleased to note
that the GAZETTE recommends that the
guilty should be punished In the case of
the bloody shooting in De Kalb county,
Mississippi. The GAZETTE has steadily
maintained that offenders should be tried
and when found guilty suffer the penalty
Of the law. But the difficulty in the
South has been that those guilty of
crimes against white men have either
not been tried, or when tried and con-
Victed have been pardoned out of prison
oy such Republican leaders as kellogg,
Ames, Packard and Chamberlain, to 90
and commit other murders. Then it be-
came notorious that the whole stock-in-
trade Of the Republican party was made
OF outrages manufactured for the purpose
OF keeping the "bloody shirt" before
The people. This was done until even
such Republican papers as the New York
Tribune, Herald, and the Philadelphia
Ledger and Evening Telegraph, and a
great part of the Republican party be-
came disgusted with it. We asked fol-
the trial of Fisher, Harrington, Babcock,
beiknapS and many others long before
they were tried. But trial was DELAYED
IN two cases until matters were fixed up
to secure escape from punishment, and
many other cases we believe have never
yet been brought to trial, because these
arrangements for escaping the law have
not been perfected. 1t is notorious
tnae the whites have suffered almost all
Klnds OF outrages from the negroes in
tae Southern States while the whole Of
the State governments were in Republican
hands. But we do not wish to see retail


lation, while this, to some extent. NIGH
be expected. We have nothing to do will
the people outside of our own State. 1
we had we should urge that the laws b,
fully vindicated in the North as well a
IN the South. If the two sections wer,
fairly compared we believe it would b,
found that there had been four times a


much crime in the Northern States tha


deserved just punishment as there ha


been In the South.
Year: 1877

The Turks are posting their reserves al
Schumla, as the most central point, Sc
that the weak point of their line on the
Danube may be rapidly reinforced. II
is not possible to anticipate the point at
which the Russians will cross, and it is
necessary to have a force to meet it
wherever that crossing may be.
Year: 1877

Daniel Webster is credited with
having said: "If / had as many
sons as old Priam, would have
them all learn a trade, so they
would have something to fall back
on IN case they failed in specula-
lations." A Philadelphia paper
thus sensibly moralizes thereon :
The number of young men who
are brought up to no useful trade
or calling, is on the increase. The
effect may be seen in political life,
where thousands of men are beg
ging, as at present IN Washington,
Tor 'positions," with a vague idea
that their unframed powers and ig-
norancc can find shelter IN some
cosy nook where they pay. Being
practically of no earthly use To
themselves or 10 any one else, they
only hope to find some place where
they can continue 10 exist without
beneftting any one. A destitute
man, without trade, and who Is
not qualified by practice TO ill any
position, is in a condition TO be
cose a tramp, aud the chances are
that he will become one, or fare
even worse by becoming a Grim
inal1
Year: 1877

There is thing of which l want
to speak, and that is the behavior
of young girls toward young men
who are not lovers, but simply
friends. Let me tell you plainly
that our sex were not meant to be
wooers. The custom prevalent
among a certain class of young la
dies of asking, directly or indirect
ly, the attentions of young gentle
men is not an admirable custom.
''My son." said lady to me not long
since, lis much prejudiced against
a young girl whom l admire, be
cause she is constantly sending him
notes, inviting him to be her escort
here and there, and planning to
have him with her" A modest and
dignified reserve, which is neither
prudery nor afectation should dis
tinguish your manner to gentlemen.
Too great familiarity and too evi-
dent pleasure in the society OF
young men are errors into which no
delicate and pure minded girl should
fall
Year: 1877




What the South needs is what
every new country needs, for it is
in the condition of new countries
generally. 1t needs plenty of mon
ey. 1t needs what alone will give
it life, animation and push to busi-
ness. To make money scarcer than
it is, which resumption will do, for
resumption means contraction
strikes us as about one of the last
ways that could be devised to help
the South out of its present poverty
and incomplete condition. The
South has the basis for great
wealth. 1t has the richest of SOIL
the most genial of climates, and
ample labor. Its development re-
quires money, and great deal OF
it. There is not enough now, To
shorten the present volume must
retard development 1t can not be
otherwise. The true interests OF
the South should demand the re
peal of the resumption act; and we
shall acknowledge ourselves sadly
mistaken if its members do not vote
for the repeal
Year: 1877

Fifty or sixty years ago Il was
the custom for gentlemen wishing
servants to visit emigrant ships as
soon as they arrived in port Sc
lecting the man or woman who
pleased them, they would pay his
or her passage money, about seven
ty or eighty dollars, TO the captain,
agreeing to give the servant cloth
ing and board, and at the end OF
three years service, twenty or thirty
dollars.


One day a gentleman, a man OF
fortune, residing in Philadelphia,
went on board an emigrant ship to
hire a girl or purchase her time,' -
as it was then called. He selected
one and was shown her father. The
old man was anxious TO go with his
daughter, and after some persua-
sion the gentleman purchased his
time. "Well, now," said the old
man, "here's my old wife; take her
also" There was something so az
tractive in the countepance of the
old woman that the gentleman
bought her time.


Going together TO the register s
Office to complete the bargain, the
gentleman was surprised TO find the
name which the emigrants gave
spelt and pronounced like his own.
Inquiries ended in discovering that
he had bought the time of his own
father and mother.


When six years old, son of the
old folks had been taken to Amer
lea by a gentleman, and they had
lost all knowledge Of him, indeed,
they had almost forgotten that they
had son in America. They recol-
lected, however, that their boy had
a figure of a cucumber on one OF
his shoulders. The newly found
son was stripped in the cflice, and,
to the delight Of the aged couple,
there was the birth mark.
Year: 1877

There is no law in the country to
prevent the consumption OF hot
bread, but the law Of common sense,
and unfortunately that is a dead
letter as a governing principle in
the lives of great many people.
That hot bread 10 nine cases out of
ten will produce dyspepsia is no
newly discovered fact, and especial
ly is this terrible result sure to fol
low a persistent indulgence on the
part Of those whose pursuits are
quiet, indoors and sedentary.-
And yet the reformers, or those
who call themselves such--the men
and women who work themselves
into a white heat over the sale Of a
glass of cider-will go on year after
year, not only making no outcry
against this pernicious indulgence,
but actually filing themselves up
day after day with the hot and pois
onous gases of the oven. This ser
want of the housewife can be made
as terrible a stomach destroyer as
the distillery, and the sworn foes of
the latter are apt TO be its best pat.
rons. Dyspepsia paints the nose
and sours the stomach as surely as
dram drinking, and many sufferers
from the former, though by their
own wilful acts, inveigh the most
loudly against the latter. A well
defined case of jim jams is the eli
max to a course of intemperance
and warns the victim that his alter
native is death or Immediate reior-
nation. But the dyspepsia that
hot bread, mince pie and kindred
denominations cause has no sudden
warnings. The man who uses
them goes on making both himself
and those around him wretched,
and refuses TO acknowledge that he
is a sinner above those whose light
er faults he fiercely condemns
Boston Post.
Year: 1877

"Mack, can you tell US the way
out OF the present hard timcsY' is a
question we are often asked. OF
course, we can. Keep pcgging
away-live within your income, and
save "a little for rainy day-sell
your surplus OF stock and grain--if
you can't get your price take what
you can get--take the money and


pay your debts; and IL you owe no
debts put the money on interest
work steady and be economical,
make no bad or fool trades. and the
first thing you know you will be
sitting up cross legged, with peace
and plenty. Now, we've told you
the way out, and If you don't go II
is your own fault Gevslond Banner
Year: 1877

In one of his speeches President
Hayes used these suggestive words !:
Let the immigrant understand that
his children can be freely educated
in the public schools and it is a
better advertisement for your State
than you can get for the amount of
money it will cost. l say educa-
tion brings immigration Of the best
kind Let it have your support and
with these and peace. prosperity is
secured" He never uttered trucr
sentence than this, nor one which
shows more clearly that he under
stands at least some of the greatest
wants of the South.
Year: 1877

OF the bills introduced in relation
to the tax on tobacco is one by
Mr.. Whitthorne, which provides
that it shall be lawful for planter OIL
producer to sell and dispose of any
tobacco in the leaf raised upon
premises under lease or rent by
him without the payment of any
tax, provided such sale is made IN
psyment Of rent or for the purchase
of any space needed by said planter
or producer.
Year: 1877

Three and half pounds of milk


are equal to one pound of meat; and
only estimate COW to give 4'ooo
pounds of milk in a year, this
would make the cows product IN
milk equal in food value to LOCO
mounds of meat, and this l,OoU
hounds of meat would require u
steer, under ordinary feeding four
wears to produce, so that the COW
produces as much return for her
food in one year as steer in four
Year: 1877

Among the many luxuries and
necessaries of life for which Spotted
Tail asked the President during the
recent conciliatory visit the aborig-
ines paid that functionary was re
lIgion-he asked the President to
send him a religion.
Year: 1877

The shrewd and fair dealing man
always spends his money with those
wbo make their business known
through the county paper. dc
reads the paper, sees who patronize
+ and then does his trading with
those parties. He sees that they
are doing Just what he is by taking
and paying for it, supporting 9
home institution that is indispensa'
hle 70 every town and county.
Year: 1877

We learn that some of the chron-
ic newspaper borrowers are greatly
down on the id CITIZEN" be-
cause it keeps telling them of it.
Well, it has been rather hard on
them, and we don't blame them
much, but it isn't pretty in them to
cuss about it. Better grit their
te eth a little and say nothing ont
loud. But seriously, no man of
sense would take offense at any
we have said to borrowers. He
would acknowledge the corn and
pay for a paper Of his own.
Year: 1877

Half the fools in the United
States think they can beat the doc
tors curing the sick; two thirds of
them are sure they can beat the
minister preaching, and all of them
know they can beat the editors run
ming the papers.
Year: 1877

There is common way of talking of
the period of childhood as If it were one
of perpetual happiness. Grown up
people are so far removed from their
early days, that in many eases, they
seem to forget what they endured as
children. They think of themselves as
having been happy, strong, free from
care, light heartbeat least in contrast
with the various conditions of life and
thought in which they now find them
selves, it seems as if they had been so !;
and they speak of happy childhood as if
entire happiness were the normal con-
ditien Of human beings in the early
stages of their existence.


1t is probable that there are some
persons who can look back upon an un-
interruptedly happy childhood, and,
when that is the case, they have mem
ories to be stored up which are, indeed,
priceless in value. But it is true, in
far more cases than the popular reckon
ing allows, that childhood is period
in which there is very little of positive
happiness, and very much of actual
suffering and unhappiness. Not only
are there the small griefs incident to
the discipline necessary for childhood
the petty disappointments which seem
so keen, the self denials which appear
so great, the restraints as to the exercise
of will which the necessary rule of
home or school imposes-but there are
far keener sufferings than these. There
are the cases of children whose whole
life is one of suffering, of actual or i'm
pending illness, who may, perhaps, by
constant care, grow up to be men and
women in tolerable health, but who
never can look back on a time when, in
their childhood, they were strong and
well. People are apt to think that such
children as these have their compensa-
tions in the extra care snd love given to
them; but, let anyone who has had ex-
perience of such childhood look back
to it, and say if the unhappiness of ILL
ness did not render life very sad. There
is, above all, the unhappiness of mis-
managed and misunderstood children.
There are children of peculiar tempera-
ments. whose whole lives are rendered
burden to them by the fact that the
persons set over them, either parents,
guardians, or teachers, have been desti-
tute of sympathy for them, and have
not thought it worth while to try what
change in the plan of managing them
would do. Harriet Martineau and the
young Brontes seem to have been chill
dren misunderstood; and their strong
natures struggled through into brighter
lives, yet there as hundreds, nay, thou
Year: 1877

The singular phenomena of sand
showers occurs every year in China.
During the showers there is neither
cloud nor fog in the sky, but the sun
is scarcely visible, looking very much
as when seeu through smoked glass.
The air is filled with fine dust, enter
ing eyes, nostrils and mouth, and often
causing serious diseases of the eye.
This dust, or sand, as the people call it,
penetrates houses, reaching apartments
which seem securely closed. 1t is sup
posed to come from the great desert of
Cobb, as the sand of Sahara is taken up
by whirlwinds and carried hundreds
of miles away.


The Chinese, while sensitive to the
personal discomfort arising from these
showers, are resigned to them from a
conviction that they are great help to
agriculture. They say that year of
numerous sand showers is always a
year of large fertility. The sand prob
ably imparts some enriching elements
to the soil, and it also tends to loosen
the compact alluvial matter of the
Chinese valleys.
Year: 1877

There is no use in getting into heat
over drawing-roOm furniture. We
shall spare ourselves much discussion
if we can agree upon certain definitions.
In the first place, cart decoration" as
it is commonly used, is confusion of
terms. The most of our decoration has
nothing to do with "art;" it is merely
following a fashion, indulging in a
taste for ornament, and may be guided
by not the least knowledge or feeling
for art. There is no art in sticking a
lot of colored figures upon jar and
putting on a coat of varnish. There is
no art in painting a jar or decorating
Jar, unless the decorator is an artist.
We are in danger of running the snb-
stance for mere show. The ornament
ing of our houses is all right, if We
don't babble too much about art and
aesthetic culture, and fancy that we
are artistic when we have not learned
the first rudiments of real art.


The sin of the age, especially here in
auicIICd, lc oupcihSAoAtt1' @hAo bhAo
decorative mania illustrates it. \ short
cut to art seems to have been discovered
just as years ago a short cut was found
to painting in what was called " Grecian
painting disease that ragged most in
the rural districts, and left its spit
marks" in so many desolate homes.
Now it seems possible for everybody TO
be an "art decorator" in her own house
and in the houses of all her friends.
In one respect we do not object to this,
as we shall say presently, but the danger
is that it shall have mere run, like
the fashion ofa garment, and pass away
without leaving any marks of real cul-
tiyation. II is superficiality taking
the place of real culture, which can
only be obtained by patient study.
Year: 1877

A number of ladies and gentlemen
assembled at the tent Of General Hunt
in Summeryille, recently, to witnes:
what is seldom seen in America, or in
any others country-the cutting and
dissection of a beZoar. or medicine stone


At the appointed hour the beautiful
gem was placed on the table, inspected
and admired by all present. Professor
Holmes then gave a short description
of the bezoars found in Eastern coun-
tries, comparing them with those OF
America, or more properly of South
Carolina. The name bezoar was, he
said, derived from the Persian words
''pa zahar." which signifies against
poison. In the East they are called
medicine stone; in Africa, bag stones
or charm stones. The specimen ex-
hibited on this occasion is about the
size of large hens egg, of notified
yellow color, with a tint of brown, hav-
ing its entire surface highly polished
The polish is natural, caused by the
action of the muscles of the stomach of
the animal in which it was found upon
each layer of mineral matter deposited


A piece of scantling having been pre-
pared and mortised with cavity just
large enough to contain the stone, ii
was imbedded therein firmly with plas-
ter-Of-Paris, the better to prevent flax
ing or crumbling, to which, from its
laminated and brittle structure. it is
peculiarly liable. With very fine and
highly tempered saw, it was then cut
longitudinally through the middle,
which took but a few minutes. During
the cutting some little excitement was
evinced as to what the nucleus or con-
tents of the stone would prove TO be.
Upon opening the bezoar, the nucleus
proved to be large and perfect acorn,
which, several gentlemen present i'm
mediately recognized as that OF the
white oak. 1t was covered by four lay
ers of lamina of a mineral substance,
composed generally of phosphates and
carbonates of lime and iron, and some
sileX. The mold of the acorn is very
perfect, having all the external mark
ings of the fruit. There are two i'm
pressions, apparently made by the teeth
of the animal before swallowing the
nut. Acorns are a favorite food of
Carolina deer. During the autumnal
months their tracks are almost always
to be found under the oaks Of the for
est which have borne acorns.


This is the third specimen of bezoar
that has been cut and examined by
Professor Holmes, and we believe the
only ones ever dissected in America.
The nucleus found in the first beZoar
was a flattened ball or buckshot with a
fragment of the skin and Il few hairs ;
the animal had undoubtedly been
wounded six years before it had beer
killed, as there were six layers or Ia
mime of mineral matter surrounding
the buckshOt. The second bezoar cut
contained pebble of quartz.-Charles-
ton Netrs
Year: 1877

This crustacean is found i'm other
parts of the West Indian Islands besides
Jamaica i'm limited numbers. In the
latter island they roam i'm large num-
bers, furnishing food for many months
OF the year to mass of the population,
and truly they are delicious, as the
most fastidious epicure admits on the
first taste. They are in size about four
to six inches in length by three broad,
and weigh about eight ounces each.
They live in holes i'm the rocks in the
mountainous parts of the island, and at
certain seasons of the year (from March
to May collect i'm vast armies, and
march down to the sea-shore to wash
off the spawn. At this time they are
very fat, and filled with rich mass of
eggs, and are then in their primest con-
dition as food. They march straight
on, not turning out of their way for
any obstacle. If they meet house
they try to climb over it, and numbers
fall and are killed in the attempt. On
arriving at the seashore the females go
on to the beach, where the waves can
dash over them, and wash off the spawn,
which at that time has come through
the apron under the crab. As soon as
that is accomplished, they return to the
mountains, and are then quite thin and
unfit for food.


The spawn is thrown by the waves
on the beach, and Matched by the sun.
The young crabs are quite red, and be-
gin to travel towards the mountains as
soon as Matched. The road and ground
is perfectly covered with them. A per-
son walking will crush hundreds at
each step. They will come into the
dwelling houses, and have to be swept
out b. quarts at time. Chickens,
birds and pigs feast on them. They
will only travel after shower of rain
and while the ground is wet, hiding in
the holes under stones at other times
Travelling only in this manner they are
long in getting up to the mountains,
and grow to good size before they ar
rive there. Their food consists of roots
and leaves, but they will eat bananas,
corn and even carrion, if they come
across it. They shed their shells once
year, stopping up their holes before
doing so. In this stage they are quite
defenceless-not being able TO move un-
til the new shell gets hard. They are
very fat then, and if dug out make a
luscious dish. These crabs are of diff
ferent colors-some black, red and yell
low, and others spotted. Like oysters,
they are not eaten in the months that
have not the letter r. Some knack is
required in catching them, as they can
give good severe nip with their claws.
When they once lay hold they will
rather leave the claw than let 90. They
are caught by grasping them by the
back, so they cannot turn the claw to
nip. As they only come out by night,
they are hunted with torches. Some
negroes are expert I'm catching them,
often getting a barrel full in a few
hours. They are sold at two or three
for cent. They can be kept for long
time in cages, fed with corn, &C., and
used as required. These crabs could be
introduced into Florida. They would
thrive in the palmetto thickets, and
serve as a wholesome, delicious food for
our people. They are quite harmless
never injuring any erop-costing moth
ing in any way. but are a great addition
to the poor mans larder.