smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1874




A correspondent of the st. Louis
Dispatch gives some interesting stories
of the late Senator Wigfall:


read with some interest your ar
ticle on the death of General Lewis 4.
Wigfall, Of Texas, man who to my
mind, was one of the most remarkable
characters the South ever produced,
and | have thought some "reminiscences
of him strung together at random
might not be unacceptable at this time,
especially as his death has brought his
name once more prominently before
the public.


In conversation he was one of the
most facinating men it was ever my
fortune to be thrown in contact with
not only a brilliant talker, but a
learned and profound talker as well.
Possessed Of wonderfully retentive
memory, a great fund of anecdote, a
style that was exceedingly picturesque,
and gift in making metaphors-for it
cannot be called by any other name
that was inexhaustible, he could come
as near proving black to be white in an
hours talk, as it was said Lord Macau
ley could, Before an audience of peo,
pie proper he was irresistible. Once
! after the war, and in the mountains OF
Colorado, General Wigfall happened to
be passing through some little mining
town in the silver regions. think il
was in 1870. II was raining hard and
had been all day. The vehicle in
which he had taken passage broke
down a short distance from the place,
and this necessitatcd hault for the
night. Roughly clad covered with mud
and wet to the skin, Wigfall struggled
up TO the nearest hotel in the settle
ment and registered his name While
drying his soaked garments at the
stove, shout was raised outside, and
the news came that well known char.
acter Of the place, a desperate called
Texas Peter, had been caught with n
sack Of gold dust in his possession that
did not belong to him, and that the
miners had formed them selves
into court of jusAce 10 try him for his
life.


"Whcre is the man FROM Wigfall
asked Of the landlord,


They say he is from Texas, but
don't know, He has a bad name here
abouts, and expect it will go hard
with him"


Wlgtall himself was from Texas, and
perhaps some memory of the state, at
me time, was busy at his
heart and earnestly at work
upon his sympathy The sob
riquet Of Texas Peter, iu all
probability a borrowed one, arrested
his attention at once. lie rose abrupt,
iy from his seat, went among the min
ers, gathered together in the rain TO
pass sentence upon fellow mortal who
N their eyes had committed the unpar.
donable sin. The culprit had no
friends lie was gaunt man, with scar
across the right check, iron gray hair
aud face that was strongly marked
yet sinister His guilt was establisbeG
beyond doubt, and with all due formal
ity he was sentenced TO death. Tn,
rope was brought, aud from purpl,
hue the mans face turned asher
pale


! Wigiall leaned over to him an,
asked him gently if there was aayon,
IN Texas who would be sorry to hea
that he had died like dog. Yes, ther


was one; wife, whom he had onc
Year: 1874

The president and the lesser lights
who run the government at Washing.
ton, are getting tired Of the city and
longing for the day when they can
leave it, and enjoy the pleasures of
Cape May, Long Branch etc. --
Year: 1874

The following is literal copy of a
judgment just rendered by a Florida
county judge, in case between an old
black man and his wife "Be IL known
throughout all Christendom that tho hus-
band is the hoad Of the wife, ard what
ever 10 hisn is hisn, and whatever is hers
IL his'n, and come weal or woe, peace or
war, the rights Of all property is gosted in
the husband, and the wife must not take
anything away. The OK belongs to Uncle
Ben, and he must keep it aud the other
things, and If the old woman quits, she
must 60 empty-bandei Know all that
this is so, by order Of the Judge Of pro-
hAtn.u
Year: 1874

A widow sat In her solitude one
stormy winter evening, thinking over
her happy youth and her present DESC
lation. The father and mother who
had SO tenderly cherished her we're
sleeping in the grave; the competence
they had left her had vanished like
vapor In unfortunable investment;
and after that had fallen the heaviest
stroke of all, her husband, q brave
and noble.hearted sea captain, had
died in foreign land, and left her
with an embarrassed homestead, and
two little boys to feed, and clothe, and
educate, with her own weak hands.


Tears fell on the white hands that
lay folded so helplessly on her lap, IS
she thought of her early friends with
whom she had played in childhood.
They were prosperous and happy.
Three Of them lived beside her; and
the contrast between their lot and her
own made hers appeared still darker.
She began to imagine that she was for
gotten or sighted by them. and per-
haps forsaken by God also. She did
not know that the blue eyes of one
friend were often red with tears for her;
or that other eyes with yet stronger
sympathy, were kept wakeful the long
night with plans for her; and that her
third friend was pleading, with care
less, money-loving husband, day and
night, not to foreclose the mortgage on
her home. She saw the clouds that
gathered about her prospects but she
did not see the sunbeam that was al
most ready to dlspel them.


The twilight grew deeper and the
north wind moaned more wildly with.
out, when suddenly the door burst open
and her boys rushed In, from the pond
where big boys had been teaching them
to skate.
Year: 1874

A writer in Chambers Journal says
"The great centre of Swiss embroidery
is at st. Gall, and the day on which the
work is brought is festival early in
the morning the young women arrive
from all parts in their Sunday attire.
After attending service in the church
they collect in large room around a
long table, where each receives a glass
of white wine. They begin to sing one
of their melodies in parts, while the
master goes round the tables, examines
the work and pays for it. If he refuses
any, and declines to take it, the dispute
is decided by syndic, who sits in the
next room. When examination is over,
the head of the establishment throws a
mass of embroidery patterns on the Ia
BILE; each girl chooses the kind she
likes best it is inscribed in her book,
with the price agreed on, and the day
when it is to be returnedA They are
very industrious and by reasons of
their gre at frugality, are contented with
very poor Temunel alton and be slight
ly sewing their pieces af work together
can have them washed at half the cost.
In Saxony the wages are SO low that it
is wonderful how the women can live
upon Inem III OcOIlhnu IL Is SalO tIlaI
many of the children receive only half
penny day. A small number in Nan
cy, who can embroider coats-of-arms
and crests, earn three shillings a day !;
but from ten to twenty pence is the usu-
al wages. It is a kind of work that en-
dangers the sight; and as fashion reigns
supreme, it not unfrequently happens
that a style is abandoned before the or
ders are completed; when the merchant
profits by the smallest pretext to refuse
the work from the manufacturers and
in this way the loss often falls upon the
poor woman, who can scarcely buy her
bread or clothes"
Year: 1874

No other country ever produced such
an article. He can be distinguished
anywhere by the qualities that are
enameled on his scoundrelly counten-
ance. He is so cowardly, cruel, cum
ming and vicious that one does a great
wrong to call him beastly. He is q
bully. ever imposing upon and abusing
the weak, and shrinking before the reso-
lutte and strong. He begins life by
robbiug his father, If he has one to
know, and beating his mother, and he
ends it as New York Alderman or
Judge. There is no place where the
rough is found in such perfection, il /
may be allowed to use the word, as in
New York. He abounds everywhere in
our blessed land of free institutions,
especially about our cities, but nowhere
such a specimen as in New York. Some
years since he was produced upon the
stage under the name of Nose the fire.
man. But Nose, unfortunately for
himself, volunteered in the beginning
of the late war, and appeared at the
first Bull Run as a zouave. The pen
sive public was disgusted TO learn that
its favorite Nose ran away like a pol
troon, as he is, at the first fire, and
could not be rallied or stopped even.
He disappeared from human view and
human fayor.--DOl Pidtt
Year: 1874

The st. Louis Republican relates the


following: ella Chausse, a Paris hack


man, had pretty wife and wanted to


keep her near him. He used to drive


her around in his hack when passengers


we're scarce, and took pleasure in often
looking to see if she was there. He


may not have made much money, but


it paid him in the satisfaction of know


ing that while his wife was riding be-


hind him in the carriage she had not run


away. He was sure he had her and that


was as good as fare. La Chausse's wife


must have been constitutionally tricky
came of a tricky family, perhaps. at


any rate, poor La Chausse's anxiety


about Nine. La Chausse was not with


out cause. One day he could not find


her to take drive with him, and was


plunged into deep gloom. he was told


that his favorite passenger had run


away with lover. This news, received


from sympathizing neighbors maddened


him. He soon heard that his wife was
in London, and he started there to hunt


her up. He looked high and Iow-in


high places and in low places-but


could not find her. She was a hand
some woman and he loved her, and


could almost have felt her anywhere
within a mile of him. One day, while
feeling his way through London, he
heard of the assassination of a woman,


and felt that it was his wife. He went
to see the corpse, and sure enough it
was she. There could be no doubt
about that, for he both saw it and felt
it. He turned away from the sickening
sight, and went back to Paris and
mounted his coach-Oox, with as good
heart as he could, He began to drive
furiously-so fast and reckless that pas
sengers were afraid of him. He lashed
his horses, and every minute turned and
looked with terror stricken stare, in
his carriage. His colleagues of the box
wanted to know what allied him? He
asked them if they saw no battered face
and bleeding eyes in his carriage. They
did not, and he only plunged furiously
again through Paris. He always had
passenger now-he felt her presence,
and saw that she was there. She never
got out OF his carriage. It was the form
of the murdered woman he had seen in
London. He was trying to drive away
from her now-or dash her and himself
to pieces on the stones. She was his
only passenger, and he came to be sure
she was always there-the reminder of
his wife his love and wrongs. So one
day he did not mount his box, but took
a razor and cut the cord which bound |
him to his phantom passenger. He and
that ghastly shadow forever pursuing
him peopled the world alone To him
there was no one else. He felt only her. |
His death was reported among num-
ber of late suicides now SO prevalent in
Paris--a grim procession marching slow
ly with their wounds freshly bleeding,
towards the land of shadows"
Year: 1874

A writer on De Quincy says: /: "At
one moment he dropped upon his &C
quaintance from the clouds at another
he would vanish into utter darkness for
weeks or months together. One day he
came to dine with Christopher North
so we are told in the Professors life
was detained for the night by heavy
storm of rain, and prolonged his i'm
promptu visit for year. During that
period his habits must have been rather
amazing to well-regulated household.
His wants, indeed, were simple, and in
one sense regular, particular joint Of
mutton, cut according to a certain
mathematical formula, and an ounce of
laudanum made him happy for a day.
But in the hours when ordinary beings
are awake he was generally to be found
stretched in profound opium slumbers
upon a rug before the fire, and it was
only about two or three in the morning
that he gave unequivocal symptoms of
vitality, and suddenly gushed forth In
streams of wondrous eloquence to the
supper parties detained for the purpose
of witnessing the display"
Year: 1874

Friday evening a woman about thirty
years old was arrested in the western


district for disturbing the peace, and
the event almost distracted her, al


though she had seen the inside of a cell


before. She began bowling and weep
ing as soon as she was locked up, and
| Biiab, the ianitor of the Ninth-avenue
station, felt his heart getting tender.
He offered her harvest apple, but she
merely stopped long enough to see what
it was, and then went on CRYING out:


s. am dying, I know am |"


He besought her to live for the sake
of her husband, who is away on the
lakes, but she said she would be cold in
death before morning if not set at liter
ty. He showed her the almanac and
tried to induce her to peruse it and
settle her mind, but she tried to pull
his hair through the bars and raised her
voice until It could be heard two blocks
away. He began reading the almanac
out loud, but she drowned his voice and
he had TO give up. Then he went out
and bought some peppermint drops and
handed to her, saying that it was a
burning shame to arrest lady like her
for merely hitting another woman on
the ear with shovel. She was quiet
for few minutes and then broke out
again, and the roof of the station seem
ed to be raising up. Bijah offered her
pound of gum drops, a new bonnet, a
black silk dress, house aud lot and $50
900 in bonds if she would only quit,
but she danced up and down and yelled:


"Lemmie eoutor shall di-ah -


He locked all the doors and sat down
on the front steps to let her exhaust
herself, but, after an hour and ten min
utes, there being no cessation, he ran in
with an ak on his shoulder and threat
ened to cut her head right off if she
didn't stop.


"I won't ! I won't A.! I won't !'' she
shouted, dancing up and down, and
taking a fresh start. He drummed on
the coal scuttle with the ak to drown
her voice, but the voice drowned the
scuttle. He put the hose on the pen
stock and threatened to drown her, but
she shut her eyes and pitched her voice
on new key.


The old man was in despair. The men
up stairs couldn't sleep, and people out
doors thgouht that a panther had been
Gagged. As the officer rubbed his bald
head and looked around his eye lighted
on an old paper, and his smile extended
from ear to ear. He carried it in,
turned up the gas, and shouted


" Have you read the Beecher scandal
yet?"


"Read what !'' she exclaimed, sud-
denly ceasing to scream.


"The Beecher -Tilton matter, p" he con-
this ERE thing what every
body is talking about ?"


"No-where is it ?'' she asked, and
he passed in the paper, telling her that
if she would be good he'd hunt up the
rest of the statement in another paper;
and from that moment until daylight
the woman never uttered word, except
once when she asked if there weren't
seven or eight more papers with state
ments in.-Detr0St Free Press.
Year: 1874

IL is quite manifest that the advices
from different sections of Minnesota,
Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and Iowa
indicate that the prospects for the yield
of spring wheat are not SO fattering as
they were two weeks ago. In fact, it
seems to be conceded that the yield Of
1874 will be far below that of 1873.


Reports from all sections indicate
that the corn crop looks as well as it
did in 1872, which was an unusually
prolific year, and corn is really food
for both man and beast, and therefore,
of the very first importance to the
farmer. The weather continues dry,
and if the corn has hereafter a suffi-
cheney of rain, and the country IS not
visited by the early autumnal frost, the
farmers will make on their corn what
they will lose ON their smaller wheat
crop. The harvest throughout the
north west generally will at least be ten
days earlier than it was in 1873,
Year: 1874

The ethereal blue color of the sky is
due to minute particles of matter which
float in the air. We're these particles
removed the app arance of the sky
would be dead black. It is a fact in
optics that exceedingly fine portions of
matter disperse or scatter the blue rays
of light, coarser portions scatter red
rays, still coarser portions scatter all the
rays, making white light. An atmos-
phere is full of aqueous vapor, the par
ticles of which diffuse white light in all
directions. When these particles are
enlarged they become visible in the
form of clouds. The vapor particles of
the white clouds are supposed to be
finer aud lighter than those of the dark
clouds. That the diffusion of light in
our atmosphere, the blue coloring of
the sky and the color of the clouds are
due to the presence of matter floating
in the air, has been conclusively proven
by Tyndall. On passing beam of sun
light through glass tube the beam is
rendered brilliantly visible by the re-
feotion of light from the dust particles
floating in the air contained in the tube.
But on removing the dust particles,
which is done by filtering the air by cot
ton wool, or causing the air to pass over
a flame, the beam of light Is no longer
visible in the tube.
Year: 1874

Detk life survive the touch of Deaf
Deaths hand alone the secret no
Which as 20 each one he unfolds
We press to know with bated breat
whisper there, q whisper here,
Confirms that hope to which we g;
But stiil we grasp at anything,
Ana sometimes hope and sometime ar.
Some whisper that the dead we knev
Hover around us while we pray.
Anxious to speak. We cannot saE
We only wish it may be true.
know a Stole who has thought,
" As healthy blood flows through veins
And joy his present life sustains
And all this good has come unsoug
For more he cannot rightly pray,
Life may extend or life may ceas
He bides the issue. sure of peace
Sure of the best in Gods own way.
Perfection waits the race Of man;
If, working ont this great des5gu
God cuts us off, we must resign
To be the refuse of His plan"
But 1, for one, feel no such peace
dare to think have in me
That which had better never be;
If lost before it can increase.
And oh the ruined piles of mind,
Daily discovered everywhere,
Built but to crumble in despair p
/ dare not think him so Lnkind.
The rudest workman would not fling
The fragments of his work away,
If ey'ry useless bit of clay
He trod on were sentient thin0-a
And does the wisest worker take
Quick human hearts, instead of stone,
And hew and carve them one by one,
Nor heed the pangs with which they break
And more if but creations waste
Would He have given us sense to yearn
For the perfection none can carr
And hope the fuller life 20 taste
tbink, if we must cease to be,
II is a cruelty refined,


To make the instincts Of our mini
Stretch out toward eternity.
Wherefore welcome natures cry,
As earnest of life again,
Where thought shall never be in vs.a,
And doubt before the light shall fly.


HdcmiWdns E7JgziHe
Year: 1874

Time is money. and many people pay
| their debts with it.


Ignorance is the wet-nurse of preiu-
| dice.
Wit without sense is a razor without
a handle.
Half the discomfort of life is the re-
suit of getting tired of ourselves.
Benevolence is the cream on the milk
of human kindness.
People of good sense are those whose
opinions agree with ours.


Face all things; even adversely is po-
lite to a mans face.


Passion always lowers a great man,
but sometimes elevates little one.


Style is everything fer a sinner, and
little of it will not hurt saint.


Men now-a- days are divided into slow
christians and wide-awake sinners.


There are people who expect to es
cape hell because of the crowd going
there.


Most people are like eggs-too full of
themselves to hold anything else.


It is little trouble for a craven image
to be patient even in fly time.


Old age increases us in wisdom-and
in rheumatism.


A mule is bad pun on horse.


Health is loan at call.


Wheat is a serial. am glad of it.


Manner is a great deal more attractive
than matter, especially in a monkey.


Adversely to man is like training to
pugilist. It reduces him to his fight
ing weight.


Pleasure is like treacle. Too much
of it spoils tie taste for everything.


Necessity is the mother of invention,
but patent right is the father.


Did you ever hear very rich man
sing?


Beware of the man with half-shut
eyes. He's not dreaming.


Man was built after all other things
had been made end pronounced good.
If not he would have insisted on giving
his orders as to the rest of the job.


Mice fatten slow in church. They
can't live on religion, no more than min
listers can.


Fashion cheats the eccentric with the
claptrap of freedom, and makes them
serve in the habiliments of the harle-
quin.


There are farmers so full of science
that they won't set gate post till they
have had the earth under the gate post
analysed.


When lambs get through being lambs
they become sheep. This takes the SEN
timent out of them.
Year: 1874

where the wife is the unpaid servant,
toiling for love far longer than she ever
could for pay, and often supplementing
her husbands wages with some small
earnings of her own, the fiction falls.
1t is partnership of labor; it should
be of gain and loss as well. 4"
Year: 1874

"A writer in the Rural New Yorker
says, that cows should be salted every
morning, and in the stable, before fod-
dering, but never after taking water.
This is the practice of the best stock
keepers of Switzerland, and he thinks
it quite preferable to sailing them once
or twice week, or to keep It constantly
within their reach.
Year: 1874

pending upon their residence for the
time being. The Princess of Wales is
naturally bewildered with the manifold
religions of her royal relations, and
clings to the faith she was taught in
Denmark
Year: 1874

Many young people think that an
idle life must be pleasant one. But
this is a sad mistake, as they would
soon find out if they made trial Of the
life they think go agreeable. One who
is never busy can never enjoy rest; for
rest implies relief from previous labor;
and if our whole time were spent in
amusing ourselves, we should find il
more wearisome than the hardest days
a uork. Recreation is only valuable ss it
unbends us; the idle can know nothing
of it. Many people leave off business
and settle down to life of enjoyment;
but they find that they are not nearly
30 happy as they were before, and they
are often glad to return to the occupa-
tions to escape the miseries.
Year: 1874

Each period of life requires espe,
cial gifts and graces. Therefore, inde-
pendently of the progress of character,
persons shine particularly in one or an.
other period, according to their natural
temperament and endowments. Those
who most charm us in youth do not
always dispense the steady fragrance OF
good deeds in middle life; and ouI
ideal of old age is often best satisfied
by those who have passed unnoticed
through the more active periods OF life.
Year: 1874

TIE Science Of Health" thus calls at,
tention to o fact which can not'too ire
quently be enforced on peoples minds
"The perniclous habit Of breathing
through the mouth while sleeping or
waking Is very hurtful, There are many
persons who sleep with the mouth open
and do not know It. They may go to
sleep with It closed, and wake with It
closed, but II the mouth Is dry and
pArched on waking, 1t Is a sign that II
has been open during sleep. Snoring is
auother sure sign. This habit should be
overcome. At all times, except when
eating, drinking or speaking, keep The
mouth firmly closed, and breathe through
the nostrils, and retire with q firm deter.
mination to conquer. Tho nostrils arc
the proper breathing apparatus, not the
mouth. A man may inhale poisonous
gases through the mouth without being
aware oi 1t, but not through the nose"
Year: 1874

For the South Atlantic and Gull State!
and Tennessee partially cloudy and warn
weather will prevail, with cast 10 south
winds and q high barometer east Of The
Mississippi River.


For the Middle States generally clear
weather, northwest to southwest winds
no decided change in the temperature
and a rising barometer during the night


For the Lake regions generally clear
and warm weather, with southeast tc
southwest Winds and q stationary or fall
ing barometer.


For the Northwest increasing cloudi
ness, southeast TO southwest winds, higt
temperature and falling barometer.