smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1877

During an absence Of four or five days
from the city, from Tuesday until last
evening, we had an opportunity Of seeing
and hearing a good deal in regard TO the
crop prospects between Wheeling and
Chicago, along the line of the Central
Ohio and the sandusky & Chicago divi-
aions OF tho Baltimore & Ohio road. Such
fields Of wheat have rarely been known
in the history OF the country. The trav'
eIer is scarcely ever out Of sight OF hun
drcds OF acres of golden harvest fields
The grass crop is also remarkably good
and likewise the prospects for oats
There will DO an immense hay crop
cut this year. The corn is late
and backward but has come for
ward rapidly within the last few
days. II the season holds ont favorably
tnc yield Of corn will be very great.
Potatoes were never finer than this year
The prospect now is that they will be as
abundant ifnot as cheap as in 1875. The
country will be short Of fruitin most sec.
tions between here and Chicago. There
will probably befrom a third to half q
crop Of apples. Garden vegetation is al
that the hearts OF fhortiCulturists could de-
Sire. Every patch looked healthy and
promising, except in some few places
where there has been too much rain.


Notwithstanding the recent storms in
some parts of the West, by which consid'
cradle damage to the crops has been done
the prospect is so promising for great
abundance that the Chicago wheat mar.
ket sold down during last week from
81 As TO 81 So, and closed on Saturday
with declining tendency. Noteven the
uncertainties Of the European war could
sustain the market against the manifest
assurances OF All extraordinary harvest.


And yet, while it ID almost certain that
"Chuhil hANe EIeAb huuhuuhSS VI AOuu
this year, it is reasonably certain that
owing to a good foreign demand the far.
mcrs will receive very fair prices for all
they raise. The latest war news indicates
a campaign Of growing magnitude and
uncertainty, such as is calculated to keep
upa paying demand for American sup,
plies. This demand will leave the country
in better shape this fall than it has beer
since the panic, and may be the means OF
lifting US out OF the existing depression
and starting US forward once more on a
career Of comparative prosperity. The
business men Of Chicago are looking for.
ward hopefully to the fall business. They
pointto the vast grain fields otthe bound
less Northwest and say "behold oul
riches" These are the "Goldeu gardens
OF HGspcrides." From there will comG
health and strength for the whole coun
Iev
Year: 1877

THE City Assessors have made their
returns, and the Board OF Equalization
and Appeals will meet on the 9TH inst. to
consider the complaints Of those who feel
that they have been erroneously assessed
Year: 1877

IT was Benjamin Franklin who re- marked, Avoid all arguments al home" When Mrs. Franklin asked Benjamin to go out in the yard and split an armful of klndling wood, in stead of entering into a controversy over the subject, he would put on his hat and go down town to see a man. Thousands of husbands of today avoid arguments at home by adopting the same method.
Year: 1877

THERE is danger of stopping the pulsations of the heart by getting out .of bed too soon. It takes just seven teen minutes to get out Of bed grace fully and carefully, and any wife can have the fire started in half that tune Detroit Free Press.
Year: 1877

The first thing is TO go home, and this


sometimes seems to be the hardest part
of all. There is no use in denying the
fact; it is very charming to stay in
other peoples houses. There is good
deal of the tramp in all of us. One eats
with a greater relish at a table he has
not ordered. The flavor somehow is
apt to escape from the joint you have
skewered QIeaven send that joints are
skewered.); the cUcumbers you have
hunted down in three markets; the
pudding whose sauce has enlisted your
own anxieties, not to say energies. To
come to a table spread for you as the
ravens and the robins find theirs spread,
to be surrounded by q gay and kindly
folk, to be called upon to take no
thought for the morrow-it is exceed
ingly pleasant. You may feel that the
mould is gathering on your books at
home, that the weeds are flourishing
like a green bay-tree In your paths, that
the canker worm is devouring your sub
stance, and what the canker worm hath
left the caterpillar hath eaten, and yet
you linger, beguiled by pleasant words
and friendly ways.


1t is pleasant even to take thine ease
in thine inn. If the inn is perched
upon a point of rocks, swept past by
sunny waters rolling between wooded
hills into the distant sunset; if it crests
a mountain elf overlooking twelve
thousand miles of what seems to be
mere level plain, checkered and lonely
expanse too far of for any life to be
visible or any sound to reach-still it is
vastly pleasant. The steamers are but
pointed white splinters gliding along a
ribbon of river; the locomotive trains
are but little curling trails Of smoke;
the houses are but the toy houses of toy
villages, the ponds are tinybits Of mirror
CHASING the changing heaven. There
is motion. color, vivid splendor Of sky
Year: 1877

A Londoner's house may be his castle,
but his garden in decidedly his cats.
No, not his eat's-the London cat recog-
nizes no human possessor; he is a free
citizen, or-if the term be preferred
an Arab, the oasis in whose Sahara ia a
dust hesp, or snug corner on the
garden wall. Ii cannot be disputed
that the London cat is a species apart.
Take, for instance, his cynical indiffer-
ence TO broken bottles. The feline
community all over the world like to
lie softly. and are sensitive upon the
sNbject of moisture; but, now, watch
the London cat stretched at his ease
upon couch of jagged glass, blinking
forth upon life through a pouring
November rain. His whiskers are
drenehed and dropping, his fur resem-
bles the hat of the typical Leicester
square foreigner, but he is free and
happy. His passionate love OF inde-
pendence and his rejection of fixed
place of abode supposed to be the
dearest desire of his race are furt her
proofs of his originality. In considera-
ton of little mousing an assured home
has often been offered him, but always
he has resisted such overtures. We have
in mind a cat of an imposing presence,
whose black coat, though dingy and
lustreless from exposure and poor diet,
was unspecked with any tuft of white
ness, and lent him so much dignity
that he went by the name of the Black
Prince. He was an inhabitant of Lon
don, and could not otherwise have
specified his abode; but every day, at
two o'clock precisely, when the bell
rang for the children's dinner, he
presented himself at a certain house,
and waited on the window-ledge of the
parlOr until his wants were attended to.
Although nothing could be more de-
corous than his behavior, he was pro-
nOunced by the governess to be cor
rupter of the children's manners, and
to disturb that silence and absorption
in their meals to which well bred young
iOin ciiVuiu NC tAdihcu. acCoiuiHSil,
various discouraging devices were at


empted to induce him to renounce his
visits. A bucket of cold water was
poured over him; on another occasion
the housemaid assailed him with the
broom; on a third, he was taken by
member of the family five miles in an
omnibus, and then dropped by the way
side; and finally he was given over to
the butcher boy who was bribed to
make away with him. But even this
last attempt failed. On the following
day, as the dinner bell rang, precisely
at two O'Clock, Black Prince reappeared
at his post. At length this persistence
softened all hearts; it was decided that,
since he refused to be removed off the
face of the earth. his reformation should
be attempted. The window was thrown
open, he was taken in, well fed, washed
and decorated with blue velvet collaD.
put to sleep in basket filled with new
hay in the back kitchen. The next
morning he had disappeared. The din
ner bell rang at two o'clock, but the
parlor window ledge was deserted.
Where cold water, the housemaid's
broom and even the butchers boy had
failed this last cruel kindness proved
effectual-the children saw Black
Princes face no more.
Year: 1877

To think that the more a man eats the
fatter and stronger he will become. TO
believe that the more hours children
study the faster they will learn. To
imagine that every hour taken from
sleep is an hour gained. To act on the
presumption that the smallest room in
the house is large enough To sleep in.
To argue that whatever remedy causes
one to feel Immediately better Is good
for the system, without regard to more
Interior effects. To eat without an ap-
petite. or to continue TO eat after it has
been satisfied. merely TO gratify the
taste. To eat hearty supper for the
pleasure experienced during the brief
time it is passing down the throat, al
the expense of whole night Of dis
turbed sleep and Il night of weary wax
ing in the morning.
Year: 1877

Do not keep the alabaster boxes OF
your love and tenderness sealed up un-
til your friends are dead Fill theiI
lives with sweetness. Speak approving,
cheering words, while their ears can
hear them and while their hearts can
be thrilled by them. The things you
mean TO say when they are gone say be-
fore they go. The flowers you mean to
send for their cofiins, send to brighten
and sweeten their homes before they
leave them. | would rather have y
bare coffin without flower and fune-
raj without an eulogy, than life with
out the sweetness of love and sympathy
Scrip Book.
Year: 1877

Years ago there used to be party of
boarders at one of the La Crosse hotels
that were full of fun. There were Ken
nedy and John B. Webb, for instance,
who never let a chance slip to create
amusement. Then there was lawyer
Woodward, who never joked much, and
who would as soon have expected to be
struck by lightning as to have trick
played on him. At that time the board
was unusually bad. Times were hard,
the house was not paying, the proprie-
tors were disguised, and the bill of fare
was rather thin. One day the two first
mentioned bachelors put up a job op
Woodward. They got bill of fare and
filled it out with all the hne dishes they
could think of, and made lay out that
would have done credit to Delmonico.
This bill of fare they placed at Wood
wards plate, the waiter girl was let into
the secret, and after all the rest had been
seated at the table, Woodward came in.
Being trife near sighted, he placed the
bill of fare close to his eyes and read
"terrapin." For fear his eyes deceived
him he looked again, but the terrapin's
flag was still there. Said he, "It is
years since 1 have eaten terrapin fish.
Kate, bring me some terrapin." The
girl went to the kitchen and got gen.
erous slice of the surloin of catfish
and placed it before Woodward. He
tasted of it, looked grave snd doubtful,
and said, 81 will take some of the OK
tail SOUP" She brought him plate OF
beverage that looked as though vegeta-
bles had been washed in it, and he tasted
of it and set it one side, and said he
would take little canvas back duck,
with jelly. She went out and came
back and said it was all gone, when he
looked again at the bill, and said never
mind he would have some of the wild
turkey. She returned with some corned
beef and cabbage, which he ate. While
eating his corned beef, his eye glanced
down to the bottom of the bill of fare
and he said he would have some char.
lotte russo and some plum pudding, ice
cream and walnuts. The girl, almost
bursting with suppressed emotion, went
out and got slice of prune pie, with
eight hundred flies holding convention
on the crust. This was too much,
Woodward looked at Kennedy and
Webb, then at Kate, then at the pie
and then he said that it was the most
elaborate dinner on paper that he had
seen, but the most unsatisfactory that
he had experienced in that house. Ken
nedy said he had noticed it himself, and
Bum said it was like some generals in
the army, lightning on dress parade, but
pretty scarce in action. Woodward has
forgiven them now.
Year: 1877

Most of Captain Moss's time has been
in prospecting for gold. About 1862,
just at the time when there was such a
furore on the Pacific coast over mineral
discoveries in Arizona, he struck some
greenhorns whom he induced to shell
out one hundred and twenty thousand
dollars for ahalf interest in mine which
he had opened on the Colorado River.
There is nothing niggardly about Moss.
On the contrary, he is munifcent. When
he had got his cash for his mine he
started on an eastern tour, taking along
with him as friend and travelling COM
panion, Aratoba, a chieftain of the
Mojave tribe, who had great influence
with his people. The Indian had never
seen more than few men together at a
time, and his notions of eastern civiliza-
ton were very crude. Moss and his com.
panion went from Lower California to
San Francisco on a steamer, and when
the city and its shippings opened before
Aratoba's vision, he became unmanage-
able from amazement and excitement,
and attempted to jump overheard.
When they boarded train east of the
Rockies and the thing was getting down
to thirty or forty miles an hour, the cid
chief tried to throw himself out of win
dow, and during the remainder of the
first day of their journey by rail it took
two men to prevent him from breaking
his neck. He got used to railroad
travel, however, and liked it toward the
last; but the more he saw of city life
the greater his amazement grew.


Moss and his friend lived in the best
New York hotels for a week, faring
sumptuously. When he got ready to
visit Washington and Baltimore they
took the train from Jersey City ia the
evening, engaging berths in "a sleeping
car. During the nigh run whenever
the train halted at town Moss made
Aratoba get up and look out at the gas
lights. The object of this was to make
the Indian think that he was riding
through New York. They arrived in
Philadelphia before daybreak, and re.
mained there until night. When the
journey was resumed to Baltimore, Moss
still practiced his deception on the In.
dian by waking him. up at every town
TO convince him that they were still rid
ing under the gaslights of New York.
The game was played upon the unsus.
pecting and bewildered aborigine until
the trip ended in Washington.


When they returned to the wilds Of
Arizona old Aratoba feared to relate his
experience, for he knew that his people
would think that he was lying, or that
he had been bribed to deceive them.
Finally he consented to tell his story,
and on a certain day the whole tribe
assembled to hearit. When he described
his journey by rail, and told about rid
ing two whole nights under the gaslights
of the city, the untraveled Mojaves
denounced his narrative as monstrous
lie, and they nearly mobbed the old
chief then and there. A council was held
and it was decided to Danish Aratoba
from the tribe, and he was accordingly
stripped ofhis Eastern-made clothes, and
abandoned on an uninhabited island in
the Colorado River, from which he was
afterward rescued by his old friend
Moss.
Year: 1877

In the recent great walking match at
London, through constantly walking in
one direction around the hall, OLeary
had the muscles of one leg contracted
and drop of at least three inches of the
shoulder on the same side. This was the
result of walking five hundred and
twenty miles, with twenty-six abrupt
turns to each mile, always swung in the
same direction.
Year: 1877

THE painful perplexity and indecision
of the young lady who has the ankle of
Venus but a foot like an ironing
board, as she clutches her dress and
steps on muddy crossing, is the saddest
thing we know of.
Year: 1877

KAISER WILHELM is upwards of
eighty, but the crown prince, Unser Fritz,
has to be mighty spry to get in the first
kick at the book agent or ightning-rod
man when the old gentleman is about the
premises.
Year: 1877

most ofthe money in entertaining them
and giving presents to their families,
On the whole, they were just as much
ahead as she was, and they had no rea-
son to complain, except through cha
grin al discovering that she wasn't all
their fancy painted her. Her counsel
argued it mas merely a case Of dia-
mond cut utdiamond. The jury took that
view and let her off scot free. This
enterprising woman may be heard from
again. She has too much business ca
pacity to keep still. Besides, in all
her operations thus far she has not only
beaten her victims out Of their money,
but she has beaten them in court after
ward. It is quite encouraging to come
off first best right along in little affairs
of this sort.
Year: 1877

A LESSON FOR GIRLs.-That. was a
wise father who, on hearing his little
daughter requesting her brother to
drive few nails in the woodhouse for
her, said he would teach her how to do
it herself. She was apt, and drove in
all the nails successfully; SO pleased
was she with her success, thatshe would
have set double row around the shed
if her father had not concluded that
these would answer for the present.
''There, that little lesson helps to make
you independent, my girl" he said.
'Now l viii teach you some day how
to catch and harness up horse. You
have already learned to drive a gentle
one. Learn to sharpen a knife, and
whittle, too, without cutting your fin
gers. Don't let the doors creak for
want of an oiled feather, or the little
children's boots get hard in the winter
for the want of little grease" Take
a lesson from this, girls. You don't
know where you will be cast away some
time during your life. The most help
less people I ever met are those who
can only do one kind of work. Learn
to help yourselves, even if sometimes
you trench upon "boy's work.
Year: 1877

Soft fails through the gathering twilight,


The rain from the dripping caves,
And stirs, with tremulous rustic,


The dead and the dying leaves;
While afar, in the midst Of the shadows,


hear the sweet voices Of bells
Come borne on the wind of the autumn,


That ftfully rises and swells.
They call and they answer each other,


And answer and mingle again,
As the deep and the shrill in an anthem


Make harmony still in their strain
As the voices Of sentinels mingle


In mountainous regions Of snow,
Till from hilltop to hilltop chorus


Floats down to the valleys below.
The shadows, the freight of even,


The sound Of the rains distant chime,
Come bringing. with rain softly dropping,
Sweet thoughts of shadowy time;
The slumberous sense Of seclusion,


From storm and intruders aloof
We feel when we hear in the midnight
The patter Of rain on the root.
When the spirit goes forth, in its yearnings
To take all its wanderers home,
Or afar in the regions Of fancy


Delights on swift pinions to roam,
quietly sit by the freight,


The freight so bright and so warm;
For know that those only who love me
viii seek me through shadow and storm.
But should they be absent this evening,
Should even the household depart,
Deserted, should not be lonely,
There still would be guests in my heart
The faces Of friends that cherish,


The smile and the glance and the tone,
Will haunt me wherever I wander,
And thus / am never alone.
With those who have left far behind them
The joys and the sorTows of time;
Who sing the sweet songs of the angels
In purer and holier cline,
Then darkly, 0 evening of autumn
Your rain and your shadow may fall
Ny loved and my lost ones you bring me
My heart holds feast with them all.
Year: 1877

The moment man achieves success
there's always somebody at hand to tell
how poor, how obscure, how 0no ac-
count" he used to be, and to express
wonder and astonishment that he should
ever have amounted to anything. y
The fact that he has amounted to
something, that he has proved himself
a success, seems to make some of his
acquaintance feel that they have been
robbed in a manner, and that by SO
much as he has risen above them in
position or influence, by SO much they
are dwarfed. Men who have groped
blindly to find a fitting place for the
exercise of their talents, find it, and
with it come naturally appreciation,
money, influence, prosperity. Can their
good fortune cause anything but re-
joicing in a magnanimous and noble
mind? There are very few men of
note before the public who have not
fought their way up through poverty,
obscurity, disaster and countless oppo-
sitions of adverse circumstances. In
fact, almost everybody 'that is any
body" has had to fight for his crown,

and when he gets it, shouldn't every
body rejoice with him? Doubtless
there's many and many rough dia-
mond that is never polished and set,
but lies buried in mountain gulches
covered with mud; many 'mute, in
glorious Milton" sleeps in quiet coun-
try church-yards; but the world is
flashing with light from diamonds that
are set, ringing with melody from Mil
tons that are not mute. One thing is
certain; the man or the woman who is
occupied in picking to pieces the crown
lawfully won by a successful neighbor
is not likely ever to wear one; for the
time thus spent is worse than wasted,
and the disposition that can find plea
sure in employment so ignominious
and degrading can never find those
aspirations, labors and tolls congenial
which bring deserved reputation and
honor and success.
Year: 1877

will agree with me that there is no
position more trying than that Of a
woman that keeps boarders for iv-
ing, or for company, as some of them
hypocritieall aeclare.


There is the boarder who wants to
sleep on hard mattress, and the one
whom nothing but a feather-bed will
satisfy; the one who wants his steak
just warmed through, and the one who
wants his all fried up to rags; the one
who must have butter instead of lard
in his piecrust, and who will have oat-
meal mush for his breakfast, and the
one who declares that at does him no
more good to eat it than to lie on his
back and have the moon shine down
his throat"


l had all these varieties and more,
at my house at Oakwood, when young
Roy Ellery came to board with me.


He came in one bright June after
noon and left his valise, saying he
would be back to supper. Old Uncle
Lubin Dorm, who was eating bis lunch
at side-table, peered at him curiously
through his gold eyeglasses old Miss
Florida Dorm, his daughter, who had
been twenty-five for the past fifteen
years, skewed around to look at the
address on his shining sachel, "Roy
Ellery, Editor, N. Y. City, and said:
What beautiful young mani"


And he was handsome. Much as I
have disliked him since, there was no
disputing the beauty Of that war-Iike
face, with its large, long-lashed eyes,
that changed from blue to gray, from
gray to violet-a color coming and
going like a girls; a sweet, Byronic
mouth, shaded by an elegant amber
mustache, and, strange to say, his hair
was quite black, which, in this tall,
fair youth, presented quite a striking
combination.


He was the only young man in the
house at that time, and he ALT like
bombshell among our quiet party.


The only eligible single gentleman
hitherto among US was Mr.. Geasly, the
widower, pork-paeker, and reputed
to be worth a million and half. He
was fifty, bald-headed and bristling
like his own porkers; but for all that
he was considered great catch, as
Angie Barker, who sat next to him at
table, said:


@When you thought how rich he
was, he looked a great deal better to
you"


Angie was a young widow, pretty
and shallow, yet with sort of charm
ing sprightliness about her that made
you like her, in spite of her nonsense
and frippery.


Then there was Mrs. Yetherby,
very fat lady, with a very lean income,
whose husband travelled most of the



year, and, after you grew acquainted
with her peculiar pomposity, you did
not wonder he had a propensity to
journey.


Then there was Uncle Dorn's daugh-
ter, Florida, who was gaunt and spiny,
and who evidently considered herself
the one virtuous woman in the world,
as she had a spiteful word for every
one, especially young Emily Mills.


If ever I pitied any one from the
bottom Of my heart, it was young
Emily Mills. I kept stylish board
but I took her to fill up one
Of the chinks where rich boarder
would not go. She slept in the corner
attic, under the ROOT, where the rain
sounded so loud and the wind sung in
the corners, and kept books in the cot
ton factory.


Her father was worse than none,
and, as near as / could find out, that
girl had done almost every kind of
work to keep from starving.