smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1874

An honest old farmer from the
country gave his recollections of the
hot spell as follows


at was so dry we could't spare
water to put in our whisky. The
grass was so dry that every time the
wind blew it flew around like SO
much ashes. There wasn't a tear
shed at funeral for a month. The
sun dried up all the cattle, and burnt
off the hair till they looked like Mex.
lean dogs, and the sheep all looked
like epoodlepuppies, they shrank upso.
We had to soak all our hogs to make
them hold swill, and if any cattle
were killed in the morning they'd be
dried beef at dark. The woods dried
up so that the farmers chopped sea.
soned timber all through August, and
there amt match through all the
country-in fact, no wedding since
the widow Glenn married old Baker
three months ago. What few grass
hoppers are left are all skin and legs
and Liidn't hear a tea kettle sing fol
six eeks. We eat our potatoes
bs l, they being all ready, and We
Int spare waterto boil 'em. AL


red-headed girls were afraid te
L. out of the house in daylight, anc
tell you was afraid the devil hat
moved out of his old home and set
tied down with us for life. Why, w
had to haul water all summer to keel
the ferry running, and-say, it's get
ting dry; less take suthing'." Louis
vilIe Commercial.
Year: 1874

have not been very successful
with my experiments in grape cul-
ture. bought vine sometime ago,
and the man who sold the cutting to
me enjoined me to be careful to water
it thoroughly every day; did SO, but
it didn't seem to thrive. One day l
asked my neighbor Pitman what he
thought was the matter with it, and
when | mentioned that watered it
daily, he said:


"Be gracious, Adcler, that'd kill
any one! A grape vine don't want
any artificial waterin'."


Then he advised me to discontinue
the process, and to wash the vines
with soapsuds, in order to kill the
bugs. My anxiety to know why it
still didn't thrive was relieved some
time afterward by overhearing a man
in the cars remark, that "some men
kill their grapevines by darned fool
cry i'll putting soapsuds on 'em." He
said that all grapevine wanted was
to have the earth around it loosened
now and then with a spade. Then l
began to dig around my vine every
morning; but, one day while engaged
in the exercise, Cooley came and
leaned over the fence, and said:


"Adeler, you'll kill that there vine
if you don't stop dlggin' at it. Moth
ing hurts a vine wuss than disturbin'
the soil around the roots, now mind
me. That vine don't want nothin'
but to be trained upon trellis and
fastened with wire"


l ordered trellis that afternoon,
and tied the tender shoots of the vine
to the cross piece. The job cost me
thirty-four dollars. On the following
Tuesday l read in my agricultural
paper that if man wants to ruin a
grape vine, the quickest way is to tie
it up with a wire, as the oxidation
destroys the bark. SO took off the
wire and replaced it with string. I
was talking about it to the man who
came over to bleed my horse for the
blind staggers, and he assured me
there was only one sure way to make
a grapevine utterly worthless, and
that was to run it up on trellis. In
France, he told me, the vineyard
owners all trained their vines on
poles, and that was the right way. l
got the axe and knocked the trcllis to
pieces, and then fixed the vine to a
bean pole. Still it didn't thrive very
well, and asked Il nursery man near
me to come and look at it. He said
he couldn't come, but he knew what
was the matter with the vine as well
as if he saw it. 1t wanted pruning.
l ought to cut it down within ten feet
of the ground, and manure it well,
| did cut it down, and emptied Il bag
of guano over it; but as it seemed
sort of slow, / insisted on the nur-
seryman coming over to examine it.
He said that his fee was ten dollars
in advance. Ipaid him and he come.
He looked at the vine a moment, then
he smiled, and then he said, 'by gosh,
Adeler, that isn't a grapevine at all!
It's Virginia creeper."


SO have kind of knocked off Oh
grape culture and am paying more
attention to my cabbage.
Year: 1874

Correspondence Utica Herald.


A singular story comes to us from
Westmoreland and / feel that no in
justice will be done the parties by
giving the facts as they have thus far
occurred:


There are two residents of West
morcland (whom we will consider
Jones and Smith) whose land 'joins.'
Jones is a farmer, and has daughter
who will be sixteen years old in
few weeks. His neighbor Smith (who
is in the employ of the Rome, Water
town & Ogdensburg Railroad Com
pany) has among his children boy
who will be sixteen years of age in
January, and to whom it was his in
tention to give a trade and educate
till he should attain his majority
Last April Mr. Smith indentured his
son to farmer Jones for period of
six Of seven months, and at the expi-
ration of that time the boy was to 60
to school. An attachment sprang up
between the young people, and a few
days ago young Smith asked his faith
er's consent to the union, saying that
farmer Jones favored it. Smith call
ed Jones a few days subsequently,
who denied giving his consent to the
matrimonial arrangement, and told
Smith, in plain English, that his son
had lied. After Smith left the house,
Jones is said to have told young
Smith that his father proposed lock
ing him up. in the morning. What
particularly followed is not known,
save that these two children were
packed off to the church in Lowell
and legally married, young Smith
wearing suit of clothes belonging
to Jones' oldest boy. AS soon as
Mr.. Smith was informed of the mar
riage, he saw his boy and made him
this proposition: To stay at the home
of farmer Jones three nights in the
week, and at his (Smith's) the re-
naming four nights, which would in.
sure going to school a trade, as a
start down the matrimonial stream.
Up to yesterday Young Smith had
not reported, and 'All's quiet along
the lines"
Year: 1874

The Forty-fourth Congress will de-
vote much Of its time to the consid-
Grafton of contested election cases.
Some of these arise legitimately, and
many more will probably be brought
with the assurance that \ Democratic
House will know and love it's own.
Of course the rule ofthe House, when
in doubt, will be, to recognize Dem
ocrats. We have yet to notice q dis
position on the part Of the victorious
Democrats to soar in the empyrean
towards which they were always as.
piring, when out Of power. The IA
grantpractices which were not proven
but charged against the Republican
party are not too bad for Democratic
acceptance, now that their inning
has Chicago Tribune.
Year: 1874

Burleigh," in one of his recent letters to
the Boston Journal, states that Frank Pierce,
in 1854, in the anticipation of a possible nomi-
nation for the Vice Presidency, went early in
the morning of the day the Il ,tiOnal convention
was in session, out to the Mount Auburn
Cemetery, and passed the day in meditationS
emOng tie tOmbs; that after his nomination
was telegraphed to Boston, his friends hasten
ed out to his retreat to communicate the news
and found him reclining in deep meditation
at the moment in the lot of the Webster
family. This anecdOte is now travelling the
rounds of the country newspaper press with
great rapidity, and is accepted as one of those
evidences of eccentric character which stamp
the individual as person of extraordinary
qualities of mind. The story is, however,
slightly at variance with the facts in the case.
Mr.. Pierce was not in the Webster lot drawing
inspiration from the contemplation of the il,
lustriOuS dead !; he was not in Mount Auburn
on the morning of that, to him, memorable
day, He went from his home in Concord tc
Boston during the forenoon, and when the
telegram announcing his nomination was re-
ceiVed in Boston he was with few intimate
friends in Bliss K Brothers wine store. or
Congress street, about half a dozen doors from
State street, discussing the probabilities of thC
convention with scarcely remote thought tha





President. When the news arrived the writel
was sitting in cigar store, in Exchange street
on the opposite side of State street, smoking {
| cigar with friend. A gentleman stepped i,
and made the inquiry: "Who do you suppos
has received the nomination p Half a dozer
names were given in quick succession, bu
neither of these was the lucky party. "Then
who is it?'' Frank PIERCE was the re
spnnse I" left him about five minutes ago i


Bliss's wine store, where he has lust received
the news" We started Immediately to tn
store to congratulate the nominee hut he ha


left before we reached the place. On makine
inquiry where he would likely be found, MI


Bliss replied "Why, gentlemen, he left her


not over five minutes ago, and made bee lin


Ia very difficult matter, by the way, on tn


streets of Boston, for the Lowell depot,


take the first train home" Now, if Fran


Pierce was among the tombs Ut Mount Auhur


that day, it must have been after he left Cor


gress street, and only by mistaking a Can


bridge omnibus for the Concord train but tn
origin of the story is due more probable to II


prolific brain OF " Burleigh" than to any e
J centricities on the part of Mr. Pierce
Year: 1874

stand that was available in the whole house
being used in their display.


SOMETHING MORE ABOUT THE DRESSES, &c.


The day before the wedding it was found
necessary to enlarge the list of guests, and
some important omissions were rectifed. Still
there is much said about invitations being sent
to friends in other cities, and so many army
and navy people besides the diplomatic corps
being left out This dissatisfaction, however,
always occurs when the invitations are not
general. No one likes to be slighted, and as
this was to be an especially pretty and elegant
wedding, the desire to be present was natural.
[ must enlarge a little upon the brides trouss
eau, as only gave general idea OF its sump-
tuOusness. must also correct my statement
about Mrs. Grants dress. A week ago she
told me she would wear lavender colored silk,
but when l saw her the day of the wedding
she was dressed in the handsomest black tulle
over black silk that l ever beheld. Lilac rib
bons and large purple pansies trimmed the
skirt, while the waist glistened with jet. One
of the seven black silks of the trousseau was
embroidered and trimmed with jet fringe. One


polonaise was OF black guipure lace, and is to


be worn with black and gold reversible sash.
A white silk brocaded in colors was made with


court train over q petticoat of white silk
| trimmed with phsses and puffs of white tulle
Three dresses arrived from Paris the day be-


fore the wedding. They may have been pres
ents from friends abroad, for is there corner
! of the globe that there are not ofice-holder
| who feel indebted to the President for thei


positions, and took this opportunity to testif,
| their gratitudeS
Year: 1874

Life would be miserable if men and women
had Ho grievance. Itis highly probable, indeed,
that large number, if they could find moth,
ing to grUmble at, would die of simple enHui.
1t is positive enjoyment to many people to
have good grewl; they take intense delight
IN PersUading themselves and these by whom
they are surrounded that they are martyrs on
a small scale. They do not act thus always
with the mere intention of iavoking pity on
their behalf; perhaps if the truth were to be
made kRown, they are intensely angry with
the being who has the audacity to pity them
They are actHated by q somewhat vague feel
ing of discomfort. They feel that, somehow or
other, things are not exactly as they ought to
be. They may have plenty to eat and drink
they may have good clothes on their backs,
and sufficient money to provide them with all
healthful luxuries they may have friends who
love them, and comfortable homes, and yet
will they feel dissatisfied and seize an oppOr-
tunitg of making their dissatisfaction felt.
They may be good hearted people in the main
they may give money to feed the hungry and
clOthe the naked; their eyes may water at the
sight of suffering, and yet, unaccOuntable as il


may appear, they will take positive pleasure
in making these with whom their daily lives
are spent temporarily unhappy.


Human nature is made up of such palpable
contradictions there is so much instructive
good in every one of us-that there is ne res
son to be surprised at this. Such being thu
constitution of many mems minds, it viii
readily be conceived that even when peopl,
are exceptionally prosperous they make poin
OF positive glOating over trivial trials, making
out, indeed. that they have as large a share o
che bitters of life as any of their fellows.


Indeed we may 90 step further, and sa
that those who have most trials talk least abou
them Those whose lives are one continue
grind, who have to struggle hard to keep tn


wolf from the door, have 10 fact, little time fo
grumblng. They have generally to be conte1


with things as they are. 1t would be founC


were inquiry made, that the honest hard


workers are so busily engaged in thankin
J Providence for such small mercies as ar


vouchsafed them, tat they forget to murmu


except at odd moments, on account of thoi
which are denied.
Year: 1874

If you heard that a great ship of two or
three thousand tons burden had gone to the
bottom Of the sea several miles from the Shore
you would think it impossible that she could
be recovered and brought to the surface again.
Out of sight, filed with water, and torn by
rocks, she would be considered lost forever by


inexperienced people, old as well as young.
But hopeless as her case seems to you, a
wrecker might decide that it would be quite
possible to save her. Several of the Hudson
river and Sound steamers, which some of US
often travel on, have once disappeared beneath
the waves, though they are now as strong, as
busy and as fast as ever. The Albany steam
er Dean Richmond, familiar to many of you,
was sunk in the Hudson two or three years
ago, and was lifted by the Coast Wrecking
Company within thirty days after the disaster
and brought to New York under her own
steam. So, too, the steamer City of Norwich
was capsized in the Long Island Sound, and
went down bottom up, apparently total
wreck. ln three or four months she was lifted
and again in service. But much greater
achievement than either of these was the res
cue of the ship Aquila from the bottom of San
Francisco harbOr by the Coast Wrecking Com
pany in 1864. She was large, three -masted
vessel and sailed from New York, having on
board, in detached parts, the United States
monitor Comanche, which weighed sixteen


hundred and fifty tons. In four months ship
and monitor were raised-damaged OF course,


but still fl for work. Very likely you imagine


that this must have required the labor oi


many hundred men. But so complete is the
machinery used by the wreckers that only
twenty five of them were needed in the task.
In the fresh water of the lakes vessels may be


submerged for years without falling to pieces
For example, the steamer Lac Ia Belle lay


deep in the st. Claire river for three years
and was then raised in fourteen days by the
company before mentioned. Does not thi
read like wonder story rather than a recort
. of factsP Yet it is all true. And there ar,
other things in the wrecker's experience ye
more strange The fine steamer Thomas A
Scott went down in Lake Huron year or tw


ago, and was hidden in ten fathoms Of water
Twelve hundred tons of cargo held her cossl
I to the bottom. But the wreckers came prompt
ly, and on the fifth day of their work she wa


ahoat.
Year: 1874

How TO SUCCEED.-If your seat is two hard
to sit upon, stand up. II rock rises up be-
fore you, roll it away or climb over it, Ii you
want moHey, earn it. Ii you wish for conf
dence, prove yourself worth of it. 1t takes
longer to skin an elephant than mouse, but
the skin is worth something. Do not be con-
tent with doing what another has dOne--sur-
pass it. Deserve success, and it will come.
The boy was not born man. The sun does
not rise like rocket, or go down like bullet
fired from u gun slowly but surely it makes
its round, aud never tires 1t is as easy to be
a leader as a wheel-horse. If the job be long,
the pay will be greater; if the task be hard,
the mere competent you must be to de 1t.
Year: 1874

A somewhat novel appeal is made by the
National Brewers Association in behalf of
which the temperance crusaders and other re-
formers have renewed, the Brewers propose to
meet moral suasion with logic and to over.
throw sentiment with figures The gist of the
whole appeal is that the greater part of the ma
tiOnal internalrevcnue is derived from the taxes
on stimulating beverages to cut off these taxes
would be ruin. Of course, the obvious ans
wer to this is that we cannot afford any national
housekeeping that is sustained by notoriousy
demorlizing traffic.
Year: 1874

" 1t is a waste of vaIor for us to de battle"
said lame ostrich to negro who had sud
denly come upon her in the desert; let as
cast lots to see who shall be considered the
victor, and then go about our business They
cast lots the negro cast lots Of stores, and the
went about his business, which consisted ia
skinning the bird
Year: 1874

A Cincinnati reporter says that there is
something grand in the sight of pair of run
away horses but We believe that coed deal
depends on whether man is on fence or
trying to climb over the end board of the
wagon
Year: 1874

A stingy man who pretended to be very
fond Of his horse, but kept him nearly starved,
said to friend You don't know how much
we all think of that horse [ shall have him
stuffed, SO as to preserve him, when he dies. y
friend, $50 as to preserve him living"
Year: 1874

At the last grand ball in Wyoming Territory,
Miss - was attired in a buff grosgrained
buckskin dress, with army blanket oyorskirt,
bottom looped up with buckskin strings cut
bias. Hair dressed la Red Cloud, in which
was twined few sprigs of sage brush, the
whole secured behind in bunch with hand
some pin made with pino splinter and
buffalo's ear
Year: 1874

A Kentucky farmer refused to look at
sample sewing machine not long ago, as he al
ways sewed wheat by hand" He is related
to the man who did not want threshing ma
chine on his farm, q for, said he, give me
harness tug or a barrel stave, and can make
my family toe the mark according to the law
and Scripter'
Year: 1874

A man who fell into vat of boiling lard
and got out alive, says that it was not an Ea
pleasant sensation after the first moment, but
he thought what a mighty queer shaped
doughnut he would make.
Year: 1874

One of our neighbors had Just put on on his
pants, the other morning, when he Immediately
took them off again, under the impression that
they we're haunted. The kitten was pulled
out by the tail and drowned.
Year: 1874

"You haven't pat on clean shirt to day
said an American captaiR to his corporal;
you never saw aRe without clean shirt On
parade when 1 was corporal.


True, captain but then your mother was
a washerwoman!'
Year: 1874

And editor, who speaks with the air Of maR
who has discovered new fact by experience,
says that the new way to prevent bleeding as
the nose is to keep yeGr nose Owt OF ether pee
Dle's business
Year: 1874

OLD AND New IDEAS OF WORTH.-A Lon
don correspondent of the New York Times
says it is rather droll that the Emperors OF
Germany and of Russia should have allied
themselves to family (tha: of Queen Victo
ria) which has allied itself to another family
THAT of the Duke of ArgylD in which there
are two merchants Merchants the cor
respondent adds, " are not thought much Of
by the nobility of Germany, and in Russia no
man of family, no man occupying a high
grade in the State service, would admit mer-
chant into his house except in the way of bust
ness. What the correspondent speaks of as
rather drolf' is evidence at any rate that the
world moves. The first Napoleon once con-
temptuOusly styled the British nation OF
shopkecpers. 1t may have added to the bit
terness of his Overthrown that such a nation
beat him in the end in his own trade of war,
and exported him to the island of St. Helena.
There are foolish prejudices existing among
some even in our own country against certain
vocatiOns, but they are rapidly passing away
under the influence of common sense and civil
lizstion. The late address of Carl Schurz in
Boston, in honor of Charles Sumner elo-
quently described this as a land which, having
raised itself from Obscurity against the most
adverse circumstances, regarded as its best
representative men those of its people whose
individual career had, like that of the nation


been brave and successful struggle from the


lowest round of the ladder of fortune t


the top.
Year: 1874

A LEFT HANDED COMPLIMENT T-The La
zieSt Member Of the B0dy-A Western ex-
change has the following:


The very sensible query is asked by the
Scientific american: "Why should not a
child be taught'tO write and draw with both
hands = The very natural echo is, "Why?"
The human body can be educated to do almost
anything. Men have written with their toes
and done all sorts of wonderful things with
their teeth and yet since the creation of man
that intelligent animal seems to have regarded
the left hand as a sort of tender to the right
In fact, the left had is thelaziest member of
the human body. Whenthe right is scribbling
away for bare life, the lett looks on placdly !;
keeps down the paper with its fingers and
shows its rings. la truth, tho only things in
which 1t seems TO excel, except when occasion
ally helping its big brother in an indifferent
sort of way, consist in hitting from the should
er in prise fight, and in rising fork to ad,
vantage. The left hand is always too pretty to
do any work. Ladies show off its lines OF
beauty while delicately resting their lovely
chins upon its fingers. Let poor fellow have
his right hand shot away, and then just see
what the left can do In wonderful short
space of time it can button a coat, write let
ter, and do things, which, in its palmy days
it never dreampt of. BY all means educate
the left hand, and if it will not work, make it
There is nothing in the world to hinder a mar
writing two letters at once, like Ristori il
Queen Elizabeth, and keeping up an ami
mated conversation with his unruly member a
the same time. The left hand was given maj
to do its share in the business of life, Just a
much as its twin brother in boots At presen
it is kind of lOafer, doing the gentle pres
sure business in love affairs, and having all tn
tun. We are down on lett hands, and strongl


recommend that they be put to school.