smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1877

1t VIII do good to those people who
build elegant churches; who pull down
their barns and build larger who fare
sumptuously every day to understand
some of the privations and self denials
of the missionary. The following is an
extract from a private letter from a
home missionary now on duty in
Michigan:


eff You could but realize how thank
full we are to hear from you often We
received both of your letters but have
not had money enough to answer them.
The money used to send this letter is
borrowed. l shall relate something of
our circumstances, so that you may
know. We have about II Zone and "a
half bushels of potatoes, about two
thirds of a pint of sugar, one-balf a
teacup of baking soda, one quart of
salt, about two tablespoonsful of black
pepper, and one pint of lard. This is
every mOrsel of food in the house, and
not one penny to get any more with.
1t is two weeks since we have had any
flour or meal in the house, except lit
tie buckwheat -four we had left over
from last year, and we finished it at
breakfast this morning. We relished a
dinner of baked potatoes with salt and
pepper, and expect to have the same
for breakfast, dinner and supper to-
morrow, unless God sees best to send
us something else.


81 have told you this not in COM
planning manner, but have simply stated
the case as it is. We have some money
due us at the end of this month from
the A. III. NJ. S., but the state of the
treasury is so low that the Society has
not money enough at present to pay
the missionaries. If we were sick we
could get some money to help us
through, but since we have health we
are willing to wait our turn with the
rest of the we'll missionaries, and let
those missionaries who have children
and any who may be less able to endure
privation than we, be served first. At
the end of this month we will have
about sixty dollars due us from the
people here, but it is uncertain about
our getting it soon, as the people are
generally quite poor. l suppose that
you know that it is hard times all
through our country. Money is scarce
everywhere, especially in some places
like Northern Michigan. The A. FL. M.
S. is good for what it owes us, if the
churches are prompt in contributing to
the home missionary cause But it is
impossible to expect money from the
Society if the churches of our land are
slow to contribute their share to the
Society, since all the money in the
treasury is expected from the churches
and private legacies.
Year: 1877

THE STING OF A SHARP TONGUE DO
not hurt the feelings of others by say
ing sharp, sarcastic things. 1t is better
to dispense with the questionable repu-
tation of being smart than to merit one
of cruelty. A person, pushing his way
through crowd, dealing blows right
and left, thrusting his sharp elbows into
the side of this one, and stepping on
the soft corns of that one, is considerate
and tender III comparison with one, who
treads ruthlessly on the sacred feelings
of his neighbOr, or stabs him in tender
place with the sharp blade of sarcasm,
that stings him with ridicule. 1t is the
sweet little courtesies, dropped like
flowers by the wayside, that make life
summery and fill it with fragrance.
Year: 1877

TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER .-Peo-
pie who have been annoyed by the
changes of the weather, and have set
tied upon belief that its vagaries are
beyond all calculation, may have to re-
wise their opinions. A Russian weather
student, NJ Koppen, in the Reportorium
for Meteorologic gives ar account OF
an extended comparison of weather
changes, and their analysis by the law
of chances. His deductions are that
settled weather is the rule; change the
exception. Thus if a five-day cold
period sets in after warm weather, the
chances are to l that the following
period will also be cold. If cold spell
has lasted two months, the chances are
nearly TO l that the first five days ol
the month following will also be cold.
In general, betting on the subject of the
weather at some date long distance
ahead, may be conducted on the esti-
mate that there are two chances to one
against the probability of change in
the weather on any particular day.
Year: 1877

"We do not always expect to be
without bread we have been better
off, so far, than most missionaries. This
is the first time we have been quite so
poor. We have been out of money be-
fore, but had enough to eat until money
cameu
Year: 1877

And for the benefit of their many
customers and the public general
ly in this vicinity, will here state
that they have the best selection
of goods, and the lowest prices
ever offered i'm this market. They
wish it distinctly understood that
they will not be undersOld either
by home or foreign competition.
A cordial invitation is extended to
all, to call and examine goods and
prices.





4-5-5O
Year: 1877

THE able Democratic editors who have
been so remarkably luminous and volumin-
nous on the momentous subject of reform
are strangely reticent concerning that $4,000
check, and its connections. Their sublime
unconsciousness of this beautiful theme is
as curiously interesting as it is touchingly
Year: 1877

We do not read anonymous letters and commun-
cations. The name and address of the writer il
ali cases Indispensable not necessarily tor publication
but as guaranty Of good faith.


We cannot undertake to return or reserve commu-
ncatione that are not used.
Year: 1877

Agricultural Hall, at the Centennial is to be
taken apart and shipped to Spring Lake, near
Sea Girt. Out of its wood and hotel, rail-
road depot, and eight cottages are to be built.
Year: 1877

Let come together to pray, consult and plan for
the future


The 'Woman's Christian Temperance Union'' will
hold their Convention in connection with this.


The Convention will probably continue until
Thursday night
railroads.
Year: 1877

STORY OF A Pro. DIR. Jesse Laverty
living III East Pennsboro township,
Cumberland county, Pa, is great
lover of pork. A number of pigs are
raised yearly by him. and many chill
dren would be glad Cor the attention
given to the inmates Of his pens The
doctor aud Mrs Laverty recently took
trip, and were gone three days.
When on their way home. fifteen miles
away. they saw at the cross road q pig
which had wonderfully familiar look.
which stood facing the corners, and
when they came near made dash for
the buggy. and got entangled in the
running gear. which soon brought
things to stand-still. Satisfied that
the young porker was his own, the doc
tor gave him lift into the buggy,
where he lay still! IS child. When the
buggy neared the barn the jewish out
cast woke up. and made leap from the
buggy aud ran for his psn. 1t turned
out that the pig had been stolen and
carried twenty miles into the country,
and was homewsrd bound when he es-
pied his old friend and got lift into
the buggy. The doctor, whose veracity
has never been questioned. is willing to
testify to the above facts
Year: 1877

Frequency OF SUIcIDEs.-The number of
suicides in the United States during the
present year IS said to be unprecedented in
this country. France and Germany, where
infdelity has been more prevalent than in
almost any other countries, seem about to
yield their unenviable distinction in this
respect to the United States. One of the
leading causes is thought to be the hard
times, and, it is remarked, "fathers of
families who have been out of work during
the whole winter, and who have managed
to support themselves and their households
on the little savings of years in the hope Of
obtaining employment in the spring, find
their hopes blighted, and in a moment of
despair seek relief from the cares of the
world in DEATH"
Year: 1877

Listen to the water mill


All thelivelOng day
How the clicking of the wheel
Wears the hours away.
Languidly the autumn wind
Stirs the greenwood leaves;
From the field the reapcrs sing,
Binding up the sheaves;
And memory DER my mind
As spell is cast;
The mill will never grind


With the water that is past.
Summer winds revive no more
Leaves strewn over earth and main,
And the sickle ne'er can reap
The gathered grain again;
And the ripping stream flows on,
Tranquil, deep. and still
Never gliding back again


To the water mill.
Truly speaks the prOverb old,


With the meaning vast:
The mill will never grind


With the water that is past
Take the lesson to yourself,


Loving heart and true;
Golden years are feeting by;


Youth is passing, too.
Strive to make the most of life,
Lose no happy day;
Time will never bring you back
Chances swept away.
Leave no tender word unsaid,


Love while love shall last
The mill will never grind


With the water that is past
Year: 1877

Dr. II. V. Rcdficd, who has been travel
ing throught the South, says: " A physi-
clan in North Alabama, having a large
practice in the rural districts, and of neces-
slty stopping among his patients, tells me
that nineteen out Of twenty Of the meals
he sits down to are of fried meat and hot
bread. Yet dyspepsia does not follow to
the extent one would suppose. He thinks
they escape the disease which such diet
would seem to invite by the outdoor life
they lead. This physician says that dys-
pepsia would be an unknown disease in the
Southern States if it was not for hot bread
and the frying-pan. Army life during the
late war cured more dysyeptics than bullets
killed. | asked this physician why it was
that in the Eastern States, where hot bread
as steady diet is almost unknown, dys-
pepsia was even more prevalent than in
the Southern States. lie said that it was
pie and cake which played the mischief in
that quarter. Pie and cake worked the
same injury to the stomache of the Eastern
people that hot bread and the frying.pan
did for the Southerners. If anything, it
was worse. lie thought he would rather
risk his digestion upon Southern biscuit
than New England pie. The pie was the
greater curse, and annually killed more
people by slowly breaking down their
digestive powers"
Year: 1877

The following is said to be a cure for
felons. Take common rich salt, such as is
used for sailing down porl, or beef, dry it
in an oven, then pound it fine and mix it
with spirits of turpentine in equal parts.
Put it on rag and wrap it around the
part affected, and in q hours the feIon is
dead.
Year: 1877

The moment man achieves success
there's always somebody at hand to tell
how poor, how obscure, how I" no account" ;"
he used to be, and to express wonder and
astonishment that he should ever have
amounted to anything" The fact that
he has amounted to something-that he
has proved himself success-seems to
make some Of his acquaintanccs feel that
they have been robbed in manner. and
that by SO much as he had risen above
them in position or influence, by so much
they are dwarfed. Men who have groped
bllndly to find fitting place for tho exer-
else of their talents, find it, and with it
come naturally appreciation, money, in.
fluence, prosperity. Can their good for
tune cause anything but rejoicing 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
opposition Of adverse circumstances. In
fact, almost everybody "that is anybody" has
had to fight for his crown, and when he
gets II, should not everybody rejoice with
him? One thing is certain: the man or
woman who is occupied in picking to
pieces the crown lawfully won by a success
ful neighbor, is not likely ever to wear one F;
for the time thus spent is worse than
wasted, and the disposition that can find
pleasure in employment so ignominious
and degrading, can never find those aspira.
tions, labors .and tolls congenial which
brings deserved reputation and honor and
success.-Er
Year: 1877

There are two things that passeth the
human understanding. One is why
woman always sits down on the floor to put
on her stockings, and another is why she
prefers washbowl to 4 bath tub.
Year: 1877

An Electric Belt for Ladies, which is
said to have tranquilizng effect upon the
nerves, is the last invention. For steady
comfort, however, it is not likely to
supersede the old and popular belt which
is composed Of a coat-slecye with a young
mans arm inside of it.
Year: 1877

There is q growing conviction in the
minds of smokers that avest-pocllet should
be made deep enough to entirely hide a
cigar from the scrutinizing gaze of the man
who never has any.
Year: 1877

We know of nothing better to remove
warts than the leaves of the common bean.
Crush the leave between the fingers, and
squeeze out the juice upon the warts two or
three times day, until they dry up and
disappear. The cure will generally be
complete in less than week.-Er.
Year: 1877

The Pope, when he received American
pilgrims the other day, spoke in great
praise of the American nation and the
great things it had accomplished, and how,
in the flower of its youth, it had acquired
strength sufficient to arouse the jealousy of
European nations. But there were errors
OF youth in nations as in men, and he
would remind them of two he had noticed
in them-too great precipitancy in the
pursuit OF material things, and too proud
feeling of independence. They prided
themselves on being Republicans land
here there was laugh in which the
Cardinals joined), but they must remember
all must bow the head to enter paradise.
They must be humble, and not let material
things interfere with prayer.
Year: 1877

The Cincinnati Commercial furnishes the
following pen picture of Francis Murphy,
the great Temperance apostle to whose in


1luenco the present temperance reform
movement in the West is due. He was
born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1886, and as
has been before said, led life of greater or
less dissipation until, when he was keeping
sailors clearinghouse in Portland, Me-,
1869, he fell down stairs in a scuffie with a
drunken man, who was killed by the fall,
while he was arrested on a charge of
murder While in Jail on this charge of
which he was afterward acquitted, he was
converted to religion, went to preaching
temperance and turned all but five of the


prisoners to temperance. After leaving
jail he went to temperance barbecue
where Dio Lewis was to speak, but somehow
Murphy was persuaded to talk first, and
Dlo said as he sat down: "You don't
want to hear anything from me now. Take
that man and send him over this country,
and he will fire it from one end to the
other" Murphy began his work in Pitts
burg with a course of six lectures before a
temperance union Of young men, but these
were not successful, and Murphy one night
broke down while he was talking to some
reporters and said he could never work
that way, lecturing in the churches, but if
he only could have room where he could
fetch in dozen or SO of the "boys" off the
streets, he might do some good,-and he
burst into tears. One of the reporters i'm
mediately went out and got room for
him, the basement of church, and he
began to work as he wanted to with "the
boys;" got them to talk among themselves
and reform each other, and started that
movement which has transformed thous.
ands OF drunkards in Pittsburg and Al
leghany City into sober citizens. Murphy
Is short, stout man. When he talks to an
audience his speeches are delivered in an
easy manner at first, but generally, after he
has spoken slowly and smoothly for a
while, an inspiration seems to strike him
he sets himself as if he was going to give a
man blow, and for ten or fifteen minutes
the language flows from him like a stream
OF water from a great fountain. You might
as well take hold Of magnetic battery as
to take hold of his hand sometimes to
shake hands with him. lie is a very at
tractive man, all sympathy, all heart.
Year: 1877

The Doc IN CITIEs.-Thc dog question
IS once moro exercising the minds Of people
who cannot see why the dog, subject to
such disease as hydrophobia, and capable
OF communicating it to man, should be
cherished as household pet. Not long
ago Prof. Alvergnet died at Hartford, Con-
necticut, of hydrophobia, just a month
from the day he was bitten by dog. As
usual there are those who contend that the
disease from what he pcrishcd was merely
imaginary, but he died all the same.


Whatever the cause, here is a gentleman
cut off in the midst Of his career by a
miserable street cur, and he is only one out
OF number who every year perish either
from the bite Of the dog, or because such
terror and loss of selfcontrol follow the
bite that they die from their own fears.
Such being the fact the friends of dogs
ought to show some benefit which they
confer upon the community which com
pensatcs for the loss of SO many valuable
lives. They are of no use in cities, where
gasliGht, police, watchmcn, improved locks.
chains and bolts are worth more than DOGS.
Year: 1877

CHEAP SKINNER REsoRTs.-The New York
Times devotes leading editorial article to
this timely topic, in the course of which it
says:


The high prices so rigidly adheared to at
our fashionable watering places make it
impossible for any but the wealthy to avail
themselves of the doubtful pleasures and
comforts extended to all comers with dig
nitied reserve by the gentlcmanly clerks
who preside over the great summer cara
vansaries at Saratoga, Long Branch and
Newport. The main question at present
among the mass of those on whom summer
hotels depend for support and patronage is
not where shall we go for summer? but,
rather, can we afford to leave town? Last
season very considerable number of those
who generally pass July and August in the
country remained the whole summer in
town. The season, it will be remembered.
was exceptionally dull at the watering
places. From present appearances the
great hotels at fashionable watering places
will-until they adjust their prices in ac-
cordance with the times-be religiously
stunned by those who study economy.
Year: 1877

The Russian princes in Paris are all men of large incomes, but tgenerallyspend- thrifts. One of them borrowed the sum of ten thousand francs from money lender, giving his note for the same. On the day 1t fell due the holder presented 1t for payment, and was told by the prince that he had no money to waste in paying debts. At that moment gen tlenan entered, and the prince handed him twenty thousand francs to meet the losses of the night before at the club.

 The lender tore up his note of hand, and said, when going out: ." Now, prince, there is nothing between us but debt of honor." The prince bowed and hand ed over the money without word. The second begins in the same way, but when the lender presented his note the prince flew in passion, called him hard names, and, drawing a revolver, made him eat the note of hand. A few days later the lender received his money, with thou sand franc bill thrown in as interest.

 Shortly afterward the lender received letter from the prince, telling him that he was again in want of money, and telling him to present himself with 1O,- 900 francs and stamped paper upon which to write his internal notes of hand. The lender came with the money.

 "Where is your paper for the note ?" he said, taking the money. Here it is,

 prince" said the lender, drawing a large cake of gingerbread from his pocket.

 The prince laughed at the joke and short ly afterward paid the debt with interest.
Year: 1877

Butter from Thames mud" An arti- cle with this sensational head line in one of the London papers has had such demoralizing effect upon the British stomach that the Sanitary ReU5e,O has been compelled to describe the churning. It says: On visiting the place indicated we found four men, provided with long poles and nets affixed to the ends of them, engaged in collecting portions of the materials floating on the water at the outlet of the North Metropolitan sewage works. The men were in boats, moored so as to lie across series of channels through which the sewage passes into the river, and we were informed that the time of collecting is limited to about an hour and half during the flow of the tide. The materials as collected were stored in the boats, and they presented most unlnviting appearance, consisting of a great variety of articles, such as matted hair, bits of wood, pieces of matches and straw, tarry matter, and a fair sprinkling of particles of fat. After each skimming operation the boats with their contents are taken to small barges, where there are appliances for extracting and purifying the fat. We obtained samples of the materials from the men, and afterward operated upon them to extract the fat, with view to determine how far it was practicable to purify the fat so as to render it fit for use in the manufacture of butter as alleged. We subjected it to various purifying pro- cesses, but completely failed in rendering the fat bright and free from offensive and disgusting odor, and we can have no hesitation in assuring the public that there need not be the least apprehension of their breakfast table being supplied with "best Brittany" manufactured from fat recovered from Thames mud. That the refuse fat from the millions of kitchens in London, and contained in the sewage discharged into the Thames near Barking creek, may in part be recovered and utilized, is beyond question of doubt, but it is equally certain that the fat so recovered can only be purified to such an extent as to fit it for use in the manufacture of the most common kinds of soap and dip candles.
Year: 1877

Barbara sits in her porch so green

 All day long till the sun goes down. She bears the buzz of her sewing machine,

 She bears the hum of the distant town, And sometimes the drone of the hive sedate,

 Or the tick-tack murmur the mill wheel makes; But at every step at the garden gate

 A pause she makes and a thread she breaks |; And sadly saying: He comes not, then?" She slghs and turns to her sewing again. Summer winds, can ye bring no balm To weary bosom that knows no calm? Summer and winter, and early and late,

 Doth little Barbara sit and hark For that one swift step at the garden gate

 That never comes of shine or dark. fwonder, if she but the truth could know

 That is kept from so many fond anxious

 souls

 That her lover's head hath been long laid low

 Where the grassy sea of the prairie rolls How long would it be ere window and door Would be empty both, and her waiting OCT? oh, winds, west winds will ye never tell What long ago in your wilds befen? Nay, leave her be; let her knit and sew,

 And finger and listen, and watch and wait. In its own good time there will come, I know, A Amessage for her at the garden gate whisper will breathe in the anxious ears,

 Her wasted figure soft arm fold, And the love and trust of these weary years

 Will bring their reward in bliss untold. Though watching and waiting consume our

 prime,

 There are angels in heaven that bide their time. Ye winds, blow lightly still let repose The happy ignorance Barbara knows.