smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1877

The Comm unistic Meeting Last Night.


The assembly OF Communists last night was
a Jiasco. The twelve resolutions tired the
crowd; the speeches acknowledged that the
movement has no strength or force, and
the sentiments, such as were not common
place, were repugnant to all American
workingmen. The police sat and looked
on in majestic silence, and at the close the
meeting dispersed in good order and thus
showed the wisdom Of the authorities in
giving permission to hold it,


On one point we wish to say word to
the workingmen Of New York. One of
the speakers remarked that while
lying uncultivated men are starving
here in the East He touched there upon a
truth, though he could not use it rightly.
There is great abundance of uncultivated
land in the West; the government offers it
to actual settlers MS free gift. If the rail.
road men, or any other workingmen, arc
discontented with their lot why do they
not take up q hundred and sixty acres of
Uncle Sans free farms? That is their true
remedy. And we can tell the strikers that
while they are wasting their time in
combinations and unions and their
means in strikes the sensible men
of their class are quietly removing
to the Western lands and becoming
Independent. That is the way an American
citizen helps himself out of disagreeable
position in life. Millions have done so in.
past years; thousands are doing it every
year and if the railroad union men haii
common sense they would use their fund ,of
three hundred thousand dollars in formrac
a prosperous farming colony in the far
West, where they could 60 and live in in de-
pendence. Instead of that they allow n few
demagogues to persuade them to childish
discomfort, and from that to lawless action
for which the circumstances of the country
give them not the least excuse.
Year: 1877

YACHTISG.-The victory of the Estelc over
the Madeleine in the cruise Of the Brooklyn
Yacht Club from Greenport to the fishing
grounds is q notable event in the American
yachting world. The latter is of the fastest
boats in our waters, and the handsome triumph
OF her rival is all the more noteworthy.
Year: 1877

TIE LIQUOR QUEsTIoN.-The dismissal of the
complaints against the liquor dealers who ap-
piled for licenses and were given receipts by the
Excise Board seems only just. The accused
certainly complied with the spirit of the law.
Year: 1877

Breeding = Famine for the Poor.


All the necessaries of life are becoming
scarce in the centres of disturbance, as
dispatches from dozen different points
show. OF course the poor, who keep no
supplies on hand, feel the distress of this
first of all. The strikers are thus bringing
suffering into thousands of innocent FAM
lilies. They are doing it in violation of the
law, for they have blockaded the freight
trains, which would be running but for
them.


Remember, workingmen, when your fami-
lies suffer from scarcity of food, or when
you have to pay three or four. prices out Of
your moderate wages, that this is the work
of men who have lawlessly blockaded the
freight trains. 1t is not The strike which
does this. Every man has right to strike ;
but no man has q right to keep others from
working; and that is wb at these strikers
are doing. There are plenty of men
ready to run the trahis :; anxious to
do it to support their families.
The strikers will not let them; they
prefer to condemn you and your fam
lilies to famine. Is this right? Is this fair
and honest? If man does not want to
work on a railroad let him stop and go at
something else But he has no right to
prevent any one else fiom taking the work
he leaves


The workingmen ought to take this mat
ter in hand and co mmand order. Why
should their familie suffer from what is
clear lawlessness andl injustice on the part
of the strikers?
Year: 1877

crty against the attacks of tramps and
thieves.


The present outbreak will probably have
the good effect of directing the attention of
the people and of Congress when it meets
to measures necessary and entirely possi-
BILE to relieve the depression OF our in
dustries. Our laws and commercial
conventions with foreign countries are so
unfortunately arranged as to disable us
from selling our surplus products in other
markets. Secretary Evarts said but few
days ago that il we want to sell we must
buy. The laws and treaties affecting for
eign commerce must be changed so as to
allow us to exchange our products for
others In this the railroad companies and
their people have common interest and
the managers OF these companies are to
blame that they have not foreseen trouble
and averted it by showing their workmen
where lies the true remedy for the general
depression and leading them to demand
needed changes. The country is not really
poor; it is suffering because it has too great
abundance. One of the Communistic
speakers said last night that the great in
crease in labor-snving machinery had not
improved, as it ought, the condition of the
workmen. He was perfectly right but the
wcrkmen arc themselves largely to blnne
for this they have tolerated n total neglect
Of foreign commerce, and in the course of
time the country has come to point where
it can manufacture more-not much more,
but vet more than it can consume The
surplus weighs lika lead on every branch
of industry; it dcpresses prices and dis
ables manufacturers, who find the home
market overstocked by nine months work
in the year, and are prevented, by blunder-
ing laws from selling the surplus abroad
Suppose our wheat farmers could not sell
their surplus in Europe? They would be
utterly ruined, no matter how great their
crops were. But that is precisely the con-
dition of our manufacturers and all inter-
ests suffer with them, the railroads, of
course, chief of all. The workingmen can
easily and quickly change all that, but not
by striking. Let them demand that Con-
gress shall free foreign trade from some of
it's shackles, and they will see a new pros
perity rapidly springing up and labor in
demand everywhere. We must sell our sur
plus
Year: 1877

UNITED STATES BONDS have fallen one
half per cent in London and three-eighths
per cent in New York, since the prospect of
the passage of the silver bill became immi-
nent. While the bonds have fallen. gold
has made distinct advance. The silver
agitation has thus hit two birds with one
stone. 1t has deprecated the greenback and
reduced the market value of the bond. Both
these effects are natural, for the swindle i'm
pairs both the value of the dollar of the la
bOrer and the credit of the nation.
Year: 1877

1t was stated in the Gazette of yes.
terday. that Thomas Farral, the man
who was, stabbed on Monday night
in Chester, had denied his first ante
mortena statement, and had made an
other.


The man who was charged the sec
ond statement. with the crime was
arrested and given a hearing.


He gave his name as Elmer Foreacre
and stated before the Mayor that on
Monday evening his wife heard rat
ting at the back door, and upon
opening it, Farral rushed,in grabbed:heI
and threw her. TO the floor, she scream
ed and he ran to her assistance when
the man rushed at him and a scu file
ensued for a few minutes, he asked
him what he wanted but he would
not answer him. He had small
knife in hispocket when he went to
his wife's assistance. He finally got
the man to the door, and pushed him
out.


Several witnesses testified to hearing
the scuffle and the words "get out"
several times. Also seeing the man
leaning up against fence with his
bowels on his hand or on his arm.


He was held to answer the result OF
the stabbing.
Year: 1877

CRUELTY TO HoRsEs.-Y esterday
morning G. NJ. Weldin drove into this
city, and hitched his double team at the
corner Of Seventh and King streets.
About 5 O'Clock in the afternoon word
was sent to the police station for an off
Ger to take the team away, as it had been
standing there from II o'clock in the
morning until O'Clock in the afternoon
Captain Cropper went up and drove the
team to livery stable and had them fed
Last evening Weldin was given a hearing
before the Mayor, and was required tc
pay costs.
Year: 1877

A good many years ago, the family of
a country storekeeper in Eastern Mary
land, having on one occasion houseiul
of company to lodge, sent their two
boys to spend the night at the store.
The elder of the two was smart lad of
sixteen, named Ned. They made up
snug bunk behind the counter, and were
much pleased with their new quarters.
What happened afterwards, the younger
brother tells in recent number of the
Missouri Republican:


We soon talked ourselves to sleep, and
had been sleeping perhaps for several
hours when we were awakened by
grand crash of some description, and l
was prodigiously frightened.


"What is that, Ned ?" anxiously
whispered.


"Hush, lie still I" he replied, as he
raised up and lisened intently. Two or
three crashing blows on the window
shutter with some heavy implement left
no room for doubt on the mind of any
person of even limited information as to
Cne nature Oh Ine sOuHus.


"What is it, Ned 9' reiterated.


al think it is robbers trying to break
in" he replied.


l had read little about robbers
principally Italian bandits-and the word


pBqa meaning to my ears full of horror.


I thought of nothing else but bein
gagged and carried off to cave bound
hand and foot, and being subjected to
all sorts of barbarities. Terror nearly
oyerpowered me in the darkness and
stiffness when every sound in nature
seemed hushed except the occasional
crash on the window. and the loud beat
ing of my own heart, every pulsation of
which sounded to me like the blow of a
sledge-hammer, and when my brother
rose to 90 toward the window which was
being 50 rudely assaulted, would have
screamed had not my voice been par


alyzed by fright.


As Ned advanced towards the window


T listened with suspended breath to dis,


cover what weuld happen. He had


scarcely got in front ofthe counter, NOV
ing softly aud silently, when the robbel


got the window-shutter open and found
) the sash already raised, the season being
warm.


Just beside the window stood barre
of tar on end, with the head out for con
!, venience of dispensing it, and as the rob
ber, after pausing moment to learn
all were quiet, had balanced himsel


across the window-sill in climbing in
Ned scooped handful of the tar ant
suddenly smeared it over the marauder'
!. face and eyes. The intolerable smart t.
= his eyes from the acrid and penetrating


stuff caused the robber to utter shril
cry of pain as he fell to the ground out


side of the window, where he lay writh
ing in pain and unable to make even al
7. effort to get away. An outcry 500
9 brought plenty of people to the spot an
s. he was carried off to prison.
J. Ned got good deal of credit for hi
. GOODNESS in the emergency and for hi
e shrewd plan of capturing the burgla
Q but he disclaims any merit as to tn
IL latter, saying that in feeling round ft
some weapon with which to strike th
Is fellow, he accidently ran his hand int


the tar, and just happened to think wh'
T. good joke it would be to dab it into h
er face and eyes, without any thought as
"a what the result might be.
Year: 1877




One of the most trying creditors that
our business men have to deal with is
the man who is perfectly responsible"
None but the merchants and the build
ers, and the contractors know OF the
large number making up the class we
are referring to men who have got some
property together, and are entirely able
to pay their debts, and for that very rea-
son ought to pay them; but who actually
make their responsibility reason for
not paying. "Ain't perfectly respon-
sible ?" they ask. Of course +; that's why
you trust them-you think them respon-
sible and therefore you expect them to
pay when your bill is presented. But
they don't do it and appear to be offended
at your feeling disappointed; for are
they not perfectly responsible?" Ger
tainly. certainly but then what is the
good of mans responsibility if he
doesn't pay? That's the puzzle. Aman
who is not perfectly responsible who
has no real estate, no property-is the
man who is expected to pay on the nail,
while his more prosperous fellow citizen
is to be trusted an indefinite period.
This seems rather an upsetting Of the
true state of things. 1t is not much sat-
isfaction to a young man who has just
started in business, and needs to keep
his capital well in hand, to be told that
his customer is perfectly responsible
which too often means, if it means any
thing, that he is a man who can be sued
and after a tedious delay, and much
trouble, and the recovery of judgment
can be forced by the constable or the
sheriff to pay what he ought to have paid
in the first place. The verbal promise
to pay of the wealthiest man in town il
not SO valuable to the young merchant
as the poorest customers cash in hand
If you are perfectly responsible" goot
sir, it should be your first duty to pay
your debts promptly.
Year: 1877

You can always tell boy whose
mother cuts his hair. Not because the
edges of his hair look as though they had
been chewed of by an absent-minded
horse, but you tell it by the way he
stops on the street and wiggles his should
ers. When fond mother has to cut her
BOYS hair, she is careful to avoid any
annoyance and mess by laying sheet on
the carpet. 1t has never occurred to her
to set him on the floor, and put the
sheet around his neck. Then she draws
the front hair over his eyes, and leaves
it there, while she cuts that which is at
the back. The hair which lies over his
eyes appears to be on fire. She has un-
consciously continued to push his head
forward until his nose presses his breast,
and is too busy too notice the snuff1ing
sound that is becoming frequent. In the
meantime he is seized with an irresisti-
BILE desire to blow his nose, but recollects
that his handkerchief is in the other
room. There is fly lights on his nose,
and does it so Unexpectedly that he
involuntarily lodges, and catches the
point of the shears in his left ear. At
this he commences to cry and wishes he
was a man. But his mother doesn't
notice him. She merely hits him on the
other ear to inspire him with confidence.
When she is through, she holds his
jacket-collar back from his neck, and
with her mouth blows the short bits
from the top of his head down his back


He calls her attention to this fact, but
she looks for a new place on his head


and hits him there. Then he takes tn.
awful disfgured head to the mirror ant


looks at it, and, young as he is, shudder


as he thinks of what the boys will say
Year: 1877

IJassy Correspondence Boston Journal


This section of Roumania between
Bucharest and Jassy, on the line of this
hideously constructed single track rail
route, is very populous. We stopped
every few minntes at villages of five
thousand, two thousand, or ten thousand
inhabitants. But what villages Verify!
the Russians will do well to begin elevat-
ing the Roumanians before they under
take their sublime mission of raising the
Bulgarians out of the depths into which
they have been thrust by the barbarous
Turk. There seems no independent
thought, no sense of energy among these
kinds. They are abased; yet there is in
them the material of noble men. 1t is
simply their ignorance which crushes
them to the very earth. I was struck,
in passing a long procession of water
carts on the Chaussee, the principal
promenade of Bucharest, with the de-
graded types of the men driving the
scrubby little horses. These men were
not abused by vice or drink; they were
simply rustic clowns, completely devoid
of any knowledge of the outer world, of
their OVID, or the country's destinies-
good only to tand sleep, and do their
dull round of daily work.


The villages generally consist of long
rows, interspersed here and there with ir
regular groupings of one-story matched
cottages, the doors and windows in which
are of the most primitive character
Some of these huts are whitewashed out
side, like the shanty of an Irish laborer
in America, and the window and door
frames are painted blue; but the mass
are undecorated and dirty in appearance
The mud was SO deep in some of the village
streets that the.villagers were picking
their way with staffs, trying a quagmire
before they ventured to walk through
it, as they came down to the stations to
"see the train" Just above Pascani, I
saw a village the main part of which
was composed of rows of huts built
around three sides of a square. In this
square there was not blade of grass nor
| a tree, nor any attempt at garden ;
there were no walks, no pavements; one
dead level of stagnant mud stretched
from the door of one peasant to the door
of another peasant. In these huts, look
ing out upon this inspiring prospect,
stood the peasants with their woolen
caps drawn down to their very eyes,
their long hair hanging in ringlets over
their backs, and their immense mus
taches permeated with the smoke from
their pipes and cigarettes. The women
were so smothered in sheepskin cloaks,
made in ungracious form, that the poor
creatures appeared precisely as if they
had borrowed their husbands overcoats
that it was impossible to judge whether
Or not they were pretty. Many Of them
wear huge boots, which are, of course,
highly necessary in this muddy weather,
and to see them tramping across the
fields, one is entirely at loss as to which
sex they represent. The beauty of the
Roumanian woman has been highly
praised in song and story. Perhaps un-
der these humble thatched-roofs, and in
the midst of these muddy fields, fail
creatures are born, but it hardly seems


possible.
Year: 1877

A lady. closely veiled, hired, not long
ago, in the suburbs of Duna, Russian
city on the River Dumburg, carriage,
and dumping box securely corded into
the vehicle, ordered the driver to stop at
a shop where, as she said, she had to
make some purchases. The driver stop
ped and waited; but the lady did not re-
turn. Then he asked the shopkeeper to
allow him to leave the box. Permission
was denied, but on consultation, the
box was opened by the two men, when
the body of an infant was exposed. The
driver did not know what to do, fearing
that he would be arrested for murder.
The shopkeeper advised him to put the
box in the carriage, drive to the market
place, and leave it unattended while he
ate dinner, in the expectation thai some
one would steal the box. Tine driver
took the hint, and the box disappeared
Neither the lady or dead body has since
been heard of
Year: 1877

Colonel Waring says in Serabner: In
ing a considerable portion of the year,
the water falling upon the roof of any
house, if properly collected and stored, is
ample for the whole supply of the family
which that roof shelters. This water as
it falls is ordinarily free from any inn
purity that can affect its taste, and from
every source of serious fouling, though
after long continued drought it is we'll
to divert and discharge upon the surface
of the ground the first ten minutes flow
of a showcase that the impurities of
the air and the dust of the roof may be
first removed. After this first dash,
lead to the cistern all that follows. Even
with this precaution the water will be
more agreeable for use if filtered. There
are numerous systems for making filters
in cisterns. but no ether is so simple, nor
80 durable and satisfactory as the separa-
ton of that part of the cistern from
which the suction-pipe leads by wall
of brick and cement. It is simply neces-
sary to build wall of brick set on
edge 1.-TWO and half inches thick)
so as to include about one quarter
of the area of the bottom, sloping
it back SO as to terminate against
the side of the cistern at height of from
four to six feet This wall should be SO
we'll cemented at its joints that wafer
can only pass through the material OF
brick, and for strength its form should
be slight tly bulging. A wall of this sort,
measuring say six feet at its base and
rising to a height of six feet at its high
est point. will transmit an amount OF
water sufficient to supply the demand ot
the most constant pumping that any
domestic use can require.
Year: 1877

The Arizona Indians have weakness
for cremation. Among them when
husband and wife get at that point where
in civilized land separation in bed and
board is considered desirable, the grand
council of the tribe sits on the case and
condemns the couple to be burnt to-
gether. When, moreover, a mother dies
in childbirth, the offspring is burnt alive
on its own responsibility. No mission
aries.
Year: 1877

How often, oh, how often we find
man who will pay eleven dollars for
box of cigars without n QUESTION or
moments hesitation, who will contract
his brows and start back in speechless
horror and stare for ten straight minutes
at the item, "to one piece of dress braid'
ten CENTS" in dry goods bill that his
trembling wife hands HIM.
Year: 1877

A New HAMPSHIRE paper relates that
at Newton, in that State, mad dog,
after having been wounded, took refuge
in barn, where some of the hay became
soaked with his blood. The hay was fed
to a horse, which went mad.
Year: 1877

In correspondence published re-
Gently, we are constrained to belleye
our contributor was misinformed
concerning the alleged efforts Of
Capt. ]. II. Swift, OF cove land, to
lure the prospects Of the Oak
Harbor people by interfering with
their mail route.


The captain states that he took
no affidavit before Col. Larrabee,
concerning the safety of the harbor,
and that he has no wish to deprive
the people of that point of their
rights in any respect. He says, as
does captain Britain, that the har-
Dor is all that is claimed for it in
point of depth of water at low tide,
accessibility, &C., but that the chan
mel is very narrow and the mud fats
at low Glib are quite too extensive
for it to be expected that man
would land the mail and carry it to
the Office at all times. He thinks the
passage in and out of the harbor an
unsafe one in very stormy weather,
from the fact Of it's being so narrow;
but if the people will make such a
landing place for the steamer, as they
claim they will, there is no doubt
they will be visited as regularly as
the weather will permit.


There is no doubt that Mr.. Coulter,
the mail contractor, is making an eff
fort to have the routes changed so as
to extend the route from Port Town
send to Covcland still further taking
in Oak Harbor. 1t is quite plain that
if this were done, and the mail steamer
from Coupeville to La Conner re
lisved Of the necessity of calling at
Oak Harbor, the last named place
might ask in vain for steam commun
ication, for years to come. The resi-
dents of Oak Harbor are, very natur-
ally, fighting against the change be-
ing made, and Capt. Swift AYERS that
he does not blame them.


One fact seems quite evident viz,
that if the people over there make
the proposed improvements, the
steamer will be compelled to call un,
less the route is changed. This last
extremity, it is hoped, willbe averted.
Year: 1877

leader must be eloquent. We have a
picture of the power of the man in the
patience with which he sowed the seed
throughout the land, and in the influence
which he attained over the masses.
When the time was ripe for the change
he said to his supporters, "Vote one
name as your landlord directs, but for
the other candidate choose Protestant
who will do you justice" They obeyed
him, and thirty thousand men who had
lost their homes by their devotion to the
cause appeared. The Irish saw that he
was an honest man. But he had also a
magnificent presence, grace of action, a
voice that could be attuned to any
emotion, and his eloquence was as effort.
less as natures creation of the violets.
The Grafton concluded with narratives


which illustrated the wit, the honesty,
or the patriotism of the great Irishman.