smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1866

A few evenings since, as a young gen
tleman was walking on the Common, he
came IN contact with a person going in
another direction. Both begged pardon
and passed on. A moment after it occur
red to our hero that there might be some
thing wrong, and he instinctively put his
hand In his Watch-poeket and found that
his repeater was gone. Turning round,
he saw the person whom he had suddenly
met walking at a leisurely pace, a short
distance from him. GFasDing his revol-
yer purchased in gaTToting times) he ran
towards the robber, came up to him. drew
his revolver and placed it In Incomforta-
bic contact with his head, and, in Ian
guage more forcible than elegant, deman-
ded his gold hunter, assuring him that
should he hesitate an instant, he should
pull the trigger, and cause a miscellane-
Gus scattering of his brains thereabouts.
The supposed robber unhesitatingly took
out a watch, and gave it to his dangerous
opponent, and got out of his way as quick
as possible.


With infinite satisfaction and thankful
ness the young gentleman put the watch
into his pocket, and, In fever of excite
ment at his adventure, walked home. On
his arrival there his mother noticed the
eXcitementwhich he was under, and asked
him the reason of it, whereupon he mar
rated to her the circumstances of the rob
berry, and recovery of his watch. Why, ="
said she, your watch is in your room,
where you left it after changing your
clothes before you went out n The
young man was dumb-founded, took out
the watch from his pocket with a spas
mOdic tWitch, and on beholding it became
still more. excited, for it was not his He
went to his room and found his own
watch where he had left it.


He looked into the glass aud saw high
way robber. Visions Of policemen, hand
cuffs, Police Court, Superior Criminal
Court, Judge Russell, a light sentence in
the State prison for the first offense, &c,
crowded into his Imagination in uncom-
Portable and regular order. As soon as
possible, however, he advertised his
il-gotton watch, and took other meas
ures, hoping to live to ask the pardon of
his victim, whom he unintentionally rob
bed, but at last accounts nothing had
been heard of him, 80 that be fears he
may be compelled to keep the watch as a
trophy of mutual fright.-BOstOn Trans
0Tipt.
Year: 1866

Man is a local being. While he natur-
ally loves travelling, yet he wants one
spot of earth upon which his affections
are centered, and where he can find rest
from the conflicts and troubles of life. We
did not create ourselves, nor can we
change the nature of things. What we
are, and how we should live, has been de
signed by our Maker. Our natural wants,
therefore, are fixed and imperative. Nor
can we be happy unless we live in harmo-
ny with the design of our Maker, and the
law Of our being. And here let US say
that pleasant home is the central want
Of man, and the great essential to his hap
piness. "Be it ever so humble, there's no
place like home" If you have no home.
rest not until you have secured one
What is not embraced in the word home.
We are aware that there are other things
which we must have in order to be happy.
We must have health. Our bodies and
minds must be free from disease. We
must be honest, temperate, industrious,
and we must love the true, the beautiful,
and the good. Our stomachs must be free
from dyspepsia, our joints from rheuma-
tisn, our nerves from neuralgia, our
hearts from moral pollution, and our
tongues from guile. Also, we must have
con genial emplOyments, and all relations
in life must be good. We must be true in
all things-true to ourselves, to our fami-
lies, to our neighbors, to our country, and
to our Maker. There is no happiness with
out loyalty 70 truth and right. But while
all this is true, yet mans highest happi-
ness is centered in sweet and lovely
home. We know many homes are not
what they should be, still a poor home is
far better than no home at all. Home, be
it ever so humble, is a place of refuge
Our homes are generally what we make
them. If the father and mother, brother
and sister, are not Industrious, economi-
cal, kind and loving to each other, home is
dark and dreary. Industry, fidelity, tenn
perance, cleanliness, purity, amusement,
competency, and love, are some of the es-
sentials of a true home. Wealth alone


does not make home all it should be. A
home IN poverty, industry, and love, is far
better than one in riches, 1aziness, hate
and contention. Love, gentleness, and


words of kindness-how sweet they are in
the home circle. And how grateful we
should be for our homes. These are the
greatest blessing we enjoy, and we should


be more thankful for them than anything
else. And as no man or woman can be
/ contented and happy without a home,
therefore it is the duty of alI-even in the


forepart of Iife-to make pleasant homes
/ in which to enjoy the purest bliss of this
life, and prepare for our final home in
/ CHAT celestial temple not made with hands,
/ eternal in the heavens"
Year: 1866

In the city directory of Philadelphia
are the names of eleven hundred and
eighty members of the Smith family. Of
this number, sixty-tWo are J ohm Smiths
straight, and seventy-three are j ohm
Smiths with a variation, that is, with
other initials.


In the New York city directory the
names of one thousand seven hundred of
the Smith family appear. Of this num-
Der, one hundred and twenty are John
Smiths straight, and sixty-nine with a
variation. Granting that the names of
all the Smiths are to be found in the di-
reetOry, and that all the Smiths go to the
post Office for letters, and that letters were
directed to John Smith, New York
City, the chances that each man will get
his own would be but one In one hundred
and twenty three.


IF a writ was placed in the hands of
a police officer with no other direction
than to arrest John Smith, he might ar
rest one hundred and twenty two before
he should get the right one, and in doing
so might be compelled to travel five hun
dred miles. At last Smith is brought
into court, found guilty, and fined, i'm
prIsoned, or otherwise punished. The
OblOquy is divided, of course, among the
whole number One hundred and twenty
three men blush at the misdeeds Of one.
John Smiths house is burnt or robbed,
and one hundred and twenty-three men
are sure to receive the coincidence of their
neighbors over the disaster.


A deed is made, conveying to John
Smith valuable property. Who is the
owner of it? John Smith gets married.
Whose wife is Mrs Smith Disguised
with the plebeian sound of the name,
John Smith, of New York, applies to the
legislature of the State, now in session, to
have it changed to Thompson Which
one of the John Smiths has now become
a Thompson with a 2 p When the
highly respectable John Smith sees a
newspaper notice to the effect that in the
recent terrible railroad accident the
highly respectable John Smith was killed.
how does he know whether it was himself
or somebody else?
Year: 1866

We recently read In an exchange that
a young lady in California broke her neck
while resisting an attempt made by a young
man to kiss her. This affords a sad warn
ing to the girls to submit gracefully to
such infections, and thereby save their
necks. Only see what the unfortunate
damsel was rebelliBg against Listen to
what the great Southern poet and novel
ist, VIM. Gilmore Simms, describes
kiss to be:


"A genuine, hearty, honest kiss is made
up of everything that Is good It smacks
of truth, of sensibility, or of delicate
sentiment, Of genial suseeptibilities, Of
strong natural sympathies, of ingenious
devotion, of preference of taste, of feel
ing, of an ardent yet artless nature. obey
ing the sweetest and simplest instincts of
nature, at once bashful and tender, will
ing to be won, needing the winning, yet
yielding reluctantly by the natural law
that makes coyness a sweet restraint on
Wooing, stimulating even when 1t denies,
and looking back to be followed even
when it darts away in flight. The first
kiss is the down upon the peach, the
opening of the rose bud, the blossom of
the down, the one star of the night, the
delight that makes all the future like a
dream of the Elysium, and hallOws the
home of memory, even when 1t no longer
harbors love"


Is there any girl IN this section who,
after reading the above, would emulate
the California damsel? Think of it, ''the
down upon the peach, the opening Of
the rose bud, the one star of the night, "
"the dream of the Elysium all without
money and without price Break your
necks rather than 60 without these del
icacies of the season.
Year: 1866




The many who have to take the world
rough and tumble are prone to envy the
few who roll through it unjolted in cush-
ioned vehicles on patent springs. The
toiler, as he stumbles through its thorny
thickets and limps over its foOt-blistering
gravel, is apt to curse the i'll luck that
placed him on such hard road, and to
sigh for a seat in one of the splendid equi-
pages that glide so smoothly over Fortunes
macadanized turnpike. Born with a
pewter spoon in his mouth, he covets the
silver one which was the birth-gift of his
do-nothing neighbor. The more fool he.
Occupation is the immediate jewel" of
life. It is true that riches are no bar to ex-
ertion. Quite the reverse when their uses
are properly understood. But the discon-
tented worker who pines for wealth with
out being willing to labor for 1t, regards
the idIeness in which it would enable him
to live as the acme of temporal happiness.
He has no idea of money as a great motive
power, to be applied in enterprises that
give healthfuI employment to mind and
body. All that he desires is to live a
feather-bed Iife-to loaf luxuriously. We
have no sympathy with such sensuous
longings. People who indulge in them
never acquire wealth. They lack the en-
ergy to break their way to the worldly in
dependence for which they yearn and
whine. They don't know how much more
glorious it is to tear afIluence from Oppos-
ing fate by main strength of viii and in
dexibility of purpose, than to receive it as
a windfan. There is infinitely more salts
faction in conquering fortune with brain
and muscle than was ever experienced by
slucky heir" in obtaining the golden
store that some thriftier hand had accumu-
lated. Your accidental Croesus knows
nothing of the pride of success-of honest
exultation with which the self-made man
looks back upon the impediments he has
overcome, and forward into the far future
which he has earned the right to enjoy.
Year: 1866

We learn from Mr. Amos Miller, of
our place, of very sad and fatal accident
that happened at Spring Hills, on Wed
nesday evening last


Miss Alice Smith, young lady, some
10 years of age, daughter of Mr. A. l..
Smith formerly of this place, went to the
well of Rev Mr.. TelfOrd, about dark.
The family of Mr.. Telford hearing the
noise of the wellbucket descending vio-
lently into the we'll, and not knowing Of
any one being at the well, went out, and
seeing no one, and finding the bucket at
the bottom, had their suspicious aroused,
and went to their neighbor's s house to see
if any one had been after water. On
learning that Miss Smith had gone to the
well, efforts were made at once to learn if
she had fallen In.


A young man went down into the we'll
and found her body at the bottom, stand
ing on the head, her neck broken, a hole
knocked in her skull, and her body badly
bruised.


The we'll is some So feet deep, and had
a very little water in it.


1t is supposed that Miss Smith, In lift
ing the bucket lost her footing, aud fell
head foremost into the we'll


The shocking accident has cast a deep
gloom over the whole community,-Be Belle
f0Untaigle Republic an.
Year: 1866

sensible.


Dying for love is a great mistake. If
you must do something in the dying line,
dye your whiskers or your mustaches.-
That may.help the case, and is not so ex-
pensive. The following stpome'' tells a
very sensible story of an unfortunate
''Iover:"
Distracted with care, for Phillis the fair,
Young Damon, her lover, resolves in
despair,


No longer to languish,


Nor bear so much anguish;
But, mad with his love, to a precipice goes,
Where a leap from above would soon fin
ish his woes;
But when he came there, beholding how
steep
The sides did appear, and the bottom how
deep,


He sadly reflected,


That lover detected


A new lover might get;
But neck that's once broken can never
be set,
And that he would live as long as he could,
And that he could die whenever he would;
And how cruel soever his torments might
grow
He scorned to endeavor to finish them so;


And then he very wisely conclu-


Ded that he would not do


What he was going for to do.
Year: 1866

Importance Of Punctuation.


Wanted a young man to take charge of
a pair of horses of religious turn of
mind.


A school committee man writes:


We have a school house large enough to
accommodate four hundred pupils four
stories high.


A newspaper says:


A child was run over by a wagon three
years old and cross-eyed with pantalets
which never spoke afterwards.


An exchange describing a celebration,
says:


The procession was very fine and nearly
two miles in length as was also the prayer
of D. Perry the Chaplain.


The following error in punctuation is a
good illustration of the use of the comma.
At banquet this toast was given:


"Woman-withOut her, man is brute p
The reporter had it printed: ''Woman
without her man, is BRUTE"
Year: 1866

a swallow in the Spring
Came to our granary and meath the caves
Essayed to make nest, and there did bring


Wet earth. and straw and leaves.


Day after day she toiIed
with patient art, but, ere her work vas crowned,
some sad mishap the thy fabric spoiled,


And dashed it 10 the ground.


she found the ruin wrought,
But, not cast down, forth from her place she few,
and with her mate, fresh earth and grasses brough


And built her nest anew.


But scarcely had she placed
The last soh feather on its ample floor,
When wicked hands or chance again laid waste,


And wrought the ruin o'sr.


But still her heart she kept,
And toiled again; and last night, hearing calls,
1 looked, and Il three little swallows slept


Within the eartb=made walls


What Truth is there, 0 NAM
Hath Hope been smitten in its early dawn
Hath clouds o'ereast thy purpose, trust or plan?


Have Faith and struggle on
Year: 1866

CURE PoR DAMP WALLs.--The follow
ing is stated to be a good remedy for damp
walls: Three Quarters of a pound of mot
tied soap to one gallon Of water. This
composition to be laid over the brick
work steadily and carefully With q large
fat brush, SO as not to form fr0th or
lather on the surface. The wash to remain
twenty-four hours to become dry. Nix
half pound of alum with four gallons Of
water, leave 1t to stand tWenty-four hours,
and then apply it in the same manner
over the coating of soap. Let this be
done in dry weather.
Year: 1866

The Herald's correspondent with Gen
erals Steedman and Fullerton, writing
from Grenada, Miss, says there are more
instances of outrage, bitterness aud law
lessness in that State than In all the 9TH
er States combined that have been visited
by General Steedman on his present tour.
An officer of the Bureau was recently
called out of his house and shot through
the head, by two persons, whom the au-
tborities are unable to discover. The
headquarters at Meridian were broken
open, and officers were also fired at. A
reign of terror is established at Grenada
by guerrillas of the war, whose supposed
leader is a brother Of General Forrest Of
the rebel service. There are no troops
whatever at Grenada, and General So
Wood does not appear to have done any
thing more than to offer a reward for the
arrest of the officers muTderers
Year: 1866

SHARP PRACrICE.-The New Phiia-
delDhia Advocate relates the following
instance of rascality which was pefpe-
trated in Crawford county: A pretended
wool dealer went to VIM. I'll. kinnear,
and talked about buying his wool. He
finally got Mr. K to write ms name in
his memorandum book. He then left a
note for several hundred dollars with
him, to be given to man living near
Gallon, or returned to him if he called
for it. The forger now goes back to Bu-
cyrus. and with the aid Of the name in
the book forges a note on Kinnear Tor
1880, and requests the landlord to look
up some one who viii buy a note on kim
near, as be is going out to settle with
him and get his note He takes q man
in his buggy, goes to kinnear and says he
viii take that note. 1t is handed over by
Kiunear in presence Of the third person,
and this third person suppOsss tits a note
signed by X. himself. They go back 70
Bucyrus, and the note is sold for $500
and the party leaves, when shortly aft
the note is found to be a forgery.
Year: 1866

rid Of peaceably if practicable, other
wise forcibly. No man would have been
safe in New England doing the equiva-
lent of that which hundreds of secret or
open abolitionists did in the Southern
States for years before the war. New
England was differently situated had
no class, of population that was sus-
pected of being combustible; offered no
inducements to the fomenters of insur-
rectionss and therefore New England
was exemplary-had time to turn its
efforts to quarters less favorably circum-
stanced. The difference in the condition
was enough to account for the difference
in the manners, without presuming any
special barbarism in Southern localities.
~ New England propagandism tended
not only to divest Southern people of
their property, but society of its safety.
Either of these otfenses are very we'll
calculated to excite the passions Of men;
and the latter especially, by arousing
their fears would naturally make. them
prompt and vindictive; and so it should.
1t may be, that in some localities, in con-
sequence of feelings upon the whole
Justly cnlerldiueu, SUNNI ihuoCcHt pSiSonS
were brought to grief, and suffered vica-
riously but it is not probable, all things
considered, that the sum of the punish
ment was greater than the sum Of the
desert


1t is assumed to have been a very laud-
able mission for Northern men and wo-
men TO 90 South and incite slaves to alb
scond, or to teach them that it was their
duty to combine, and, in the cant of the
day, strike for liberty" The assump-
ton is in every sense false. Whatever
may be the order of society, or of the
domestic relations in one place, it is
not the concern of people belonging
to another. The interloping reformer
is an incendiary, and deserves to be
punished in proportion to the dis
turbance he seeks to excite. Let the
people of the North keep their ideas
at home, with themselves; and they will
keep out of the way of doing or meeting
harm Barbarous as they are, there is
some sense and some justice in the way
the natives of New Zealand treat their
missionaries for the result always is,
even in ghostly propagsndlsm, that,
either actually or symbolicalIy, one party
or the other has to be eaten. The North
has never yet done the negro anything
but injury, and it never will; and IT 1t
has for him any mercy in its heart, 1t
will let him alone. gBsg
Year: 1866

On Saturday last an Irish hod-carrier
entered drinkery where whiskeyis sold
by the pint, and called for half a pint OF
whiskey


Where is your botile?" asked the
dealer, when he had filled the tan mea-
sure,


Meself is the bottle, was the reply
" I'll carry it inside of me. ~


The man of whiskey stared, but passed
over the utensil The hod-carrier drained
it to the last dreg He came back in
half an hour.


THAT half pint of whiskey is very
lonesome" said he, give me another
to keep it company" Another was
given him, and he drank it. At ; clock
the same afternoon he came again to the
whiskey dealer ,.


Them two half pints is quarrelln
he said, raising a disturbance inside OF
me let me have another half pint TO sep
arate them"


He got it, aud went his way. Whether
the man is still living is more than We
can tell. There was no death that night
or yesterday so far as We have learned,
of any one answering that particular
hod-carrier description.-PhiL Ledger
Year: 1866

The Crescent Monthly New Orleans)
for May has, as its leading article, we'll
written paper styled General Lee and
his Campaigns" by j. Quitman Moore,
Esq We quote the concluding para
graph which refers to the final scene, the
surrender of General Lees army, and
contains a trib0te to that leader, which
is Just as it is beautifully expressed


There stood the mournful remnants of
that once glorious army that had dipped
its conquering banners in the crimson
tide of eight and twenty sangulnary bat
ties, and strewn its heroic slain from the
feet OF the Pennsylvania mountains to the
gates of their own capital city; that had
given Manassas to Beauregard and
twined the fame of the Seven Pines bat
ties in the laurel wreath of Johnston
that had caused the waters Of the Shen-
andoah eternally to murmur the name OF
Stonewall jackson, and, stretching It's
right arm out to the distant West, and
planted victory on the dropping banners
of Bragg, that had witnessed four gigantic
campaigns, and through all their shifting
and tragic scenes, and under all Difficult
ties trials, tolls and dangers, had re-
NAMED steadfast and faithful to the last
and after having witnessed the rising
of the Southern constellation, as 1t
loomed up brightly on the horizon OF war,
pursuing to its splendid zenith the hery
path of Mars, now beheid, not unmoved,
its declining splendors going dawn in the
gloom of eternal night


And he, its illustrious chief, whose
lofty plume was ever its rallying point
in battle, and around whom its affec-
tons warmly clustered, now commended
it for its past devotion, and bade it adieu
forever Slowly and sadly he rode from
that mournful field, for his strong sword
hung shattered at his side, and the cause
that be fought for was beneath the foot
of power. Few were the eyes that grew
not moist at witnessing that departure
1t was the agony of great cause hnding
expression in the sublime soul of its
great defender And though that cause
be dead, yet will its memory continue to
live, and ever honOred will be those III
lustrious names that were sacrificed at
its altars And on the scroll of fame no
name among the list of eminent worthless
will shine with purer, serener or more
resplendent light than that of Robert
Edmund Lee. His fame is monumental.
His name will be placed alongside those
of the great captains of history-Marl-
borough and SAKE, of Tilly aud Eugene;
and as long as the fame OF the Southern
Struggle shall finger in tradition and
song, will his memory be cherished 10y
the descendants OF the Southern races;
while his character will stand up in the
twilight of history like some grand old
cathedral, lifting itself in impenshable
beauty above the objects of earth, majes
tic in its vast proportions, awful in its
solemn stateliness, sublime in its severe
simplicity.
Year: 1866

good right to show her graceful feet,
as a man his great, uugainly, uncouth
appendages, we can not see why our
much-abused sex, since they must wear
hoops, should not be allowed to wear IN
peace that particular kind which is the
most graceful, convenient and in every
way the most serviceable
Year: 1866

A BOTTLE OF BRANDY PER DAY.-The
London Review says: I'VE have heard a
rather good story Of Bismark. He is said to be
partial TO brandy, and before leaving Berlin
for the seat of war little of his sked him
how long be was TO be away. He replied that
he did not know. Thereupon a servant came
In TO inquire how many bottles OF cognac were
TO be packed mp la the Counts luggage
'Twenty-four.' was the answer sAh, papa
cried out the sterrible infant now / know
how long you are to be from home-twenty-
four days 80
Year: 1866

Some young men talk abohs


luck. Good luck is to get up about


six o'clock in the morning /, good


luck if you have only shilling a


week, is to live upon eleven pence
and save a penny; good luck is to
trouble your head with your own
business, and le. your neighbors
alone /; good luck is to fulfill the
ten commandments, and do unto
other people as we wish them to
do unto us They must no. only
work, but wait. They must pied
and persevere. Ponce must be-
iakeh care Of because they are the
seeds of guineas. To get on in
he world they must take care Of
rome, sweep their own door-ways
,lean, try to help other people,
void temptation, and have faith
n truth and God.