smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1877

A MEMENTo of the Granger movement in
Illinois came into court at Springfield in that
State, last week, in the shape of verdict Tor
81, $50 damages against the Toledo, wabash
and Western Railroad Company for charging
more than the legal rate. This is the nrst
verdict that has ever been obtained IN the
State against a railroad company for violation
of the - Granger law,
Year: 1877

A NEW counterfeit $1,000 grcenback has
come into the possession of the Treasury
detectives. The note was discovered recently
and the plate upon which it was printed is
said to have been in existence for two or three
years, and is believed to be the work of the
notorious Tom Ballard, now undergoing 30
years sentence of Imprisonment for counter
feiting. The counterfeit is an excellent once
Year: 1877

A SCIENTIFIC paper tries to show that the
dark spots on the moon are simply great
grazing pastures. We have poor opinion
of the man who explores in that direction for
stock ranges. Montana and not the moon is
the place to look for the succulent bunch
grass upon which sleek cattle feed and fatten
and chew the cud of plenty in solid salts
faction the year round.
Year: 1877

A printer sat in his office chair,
his boots we're patched and his coat
threadbare, while his face looked


weary and worn with care. While
sadly thinking Of business debt, old
Morpheus slowly round him crept,
and before he knew it he soundly
slept; and, sleeping he dreamed that
he was dead, from trouble and toll
his spirit lad fed, aud that not even
q COW bell tolled for the peaceful
rest Of his cowhide sole. As he
wandered among the shades, the
smoke and scorch in lower Hades, he
shortly observed an iron door uthat
creakingly swung on hinges ajar,
but the entrance was closed By q
red-hot bar, and Satan himself stood
peeping out, and watching for trav.
ellers Whereabouts, and thus to the
passing printer spoke and with
growing voice the echoes woke
'Come in, my dear, it shall cost YOU
nothing and never fear; this is the
place where | cook the ones who
never pay their subscription sums,
tor though In life they may escape
they will find when dead it is too
late; | will show the place where
melt them thin, with read-hot chains
and scraps Of tin, and also where I
comb their heads with broken glass
and melted lead, and if of refresh
ments they only think there's boil
ing water for them to drink; there's
the red-hot grindstone to grind down
his nose. and red-hot rings to wear
on his toes,and if they mention they
don't like fire I'll sew up their
mouths with red-hot wire and then
dear sir, you should see them squirm
while L roll them over and cook to
a turn" While these, last words
the printer awoke, and thought it all
practical joke !; but still at times SO
real did it seem that he cannot be-
Heve it was all q dream; and often
he thinks with a chuckle and grin OF
the fate of those who save their tin
and never pay the printer.
Year: 1877

A very ingenious swindle was
lately perpetrated on a prominent
dry goods house by 6nely-dressed
lady who appeared in the shawl de-
partnent, and after a careful exam
ination, selected camels' '-hair shawl
costing about 800, for which she
rendered in payment $1,000 bill,
which was carefully scrutinized by
the cashier, who doubling his own
power Of discrimination, despatched
messenger to the bank to ascertain
the genuinenss of the bill. In q
short time the messenger returned
and announced in an audible tone
that the cashier of the bank said
that the bill was good. The lady
upon hearing this waxed exceeding
wroth, aud demanded to know
whether he thought that she would
attempt to pass a counterfeit bill.
VI course apologies and explanations
were of no avail she refused to pur-
chase the shawl. demanded her mon
ey, and departed from the store the
very embodiment OF righteous indig-
naUtoh' a couple OF hours after
wards she returned considerably
moliifled, and confessed that she
was pleased with the shawl, and
that her Inability to find one which
she liked as well was the only rea-
son she returned, aud she concluded
to take it. The obliging salesman
delightedly wrapped up the shawl.
while the courteous cashier, disdain.
ing to entertain suspicion against
such lady, proceeded to count out
the 5000 change, with which and her
shawl the lady departed. The feel
ings OF that store. keeper can be bet
ter imagined than described when he
awoke to realizing sense Of the
fact that his lady customer had, az
ter all his precaution, succeeded in
passing upon him counterfeit ST.
600 bill.
Year: 1877

A thin little fellow had such fat wife,
Fat wife, fat wife,


God bless her!
She looked like drum and he looked like g fife
And 1t took all his money to dress her,


God bless her


To dress her,


God bless her,


To dress her /!
To wrap up her body and warm up her toes,
Fat toes, fat toes,


God keep her
For bonnets and bows and silken clothes,
To eat her, and drink her, and sleep her,
God keep her,


To drink her,


God keep her,


And sleep her.
Soc grew like target he grew like q sword.
sword-a sword; God spare her
She took all the bed and she took all the board,
And it took a whole sofa to bear her,
God spare her,


God spare her,


To bear her.
She spread like turtle; he shrank like pike,
pike-a pike-God save himl
And nobody ever beheld the like,
For they had to wear glasses to shave him,
God save him,


To shave him,


God save him,


To shave him.
She fattened away till she burst one day,
Exploded-blew up-GOd take her
And all the people that saw it say
She covered over an acre!


God take her,


An acre,


God take her,


An acre!
Year: 1877

About the only state in the Union
totally free from these accursed
strikes Is our own Nebraska. There
is some satisfaction In living in a
state where they have laws and have
the power TO enforce them.-hedrRCy
Press.


This Is truly very pleasant fact-if
wholly fact. But we are not so GER
tain that we could enforce the laws
any better than our older sister states
under the trying circumstances which
have tested their capacity within the
last two weeks. We have had no law
less strikes and consequentriots, as yet
hence our facilities for quelling riots
and putting down strikes has not been
tested. Had the occasion arisen for test
ing it we fear 1t would have found
US in most sorry condition. But we
started out 10 say that the proper
source 10 thank for the absence of RI
OTIS in Nebraska, is Superintendent
Clark of the u. z. road and other
railroad officials, connected with rail-
roads in Nebraska. Had they persis-
ted in reducing the wages of their
employees, it is very probable that
Omaha, Lincoln and other railroad
towns would have been to-day suffer
ing from the effects of the strike sim
Ilarly to cities and towns East Of Us.
Year: 1877

Governor CARRIER seems 10 have Civ
Ell himself away without the least bit
of reservation. The pardon of
criminals at the instance Of mutual
friends has gone to far. The people
will never endorse such weak admin
istration of the laws as il evinced in
this last outrage of his pardOning the
negro. Curry, whose sentence OF four
years confinement was light enough
at most.-NOrth Platte Republican.
A number of State contemporaries
have expressed themselves similar to
the above, and we have copied several
items in reference to the matter but
have not expressed any opinion as to
whether the Governor had given
himself away" or not.


We have been waiting for some
| friend of his posted as to the cause OF
his pardoning Curry to step forward
in the Governors defense, but hither-
to have waited in vain. To justify
the pardon of Curry there would have
10 be mitigating circumstances that
we are not aware of. But we have no
doubt that the Governor has a good
reason for this pardon. The Cover
nor is not the man we have taken
him TO be If he would do anything,
especially any official thing, without
a good reasOn-one perfectly satisfac-
tory to himself at least, in which the
law Is sustained and his own con-
science cleared. To thus acquit him
self is a Governors whole duty in the
discretionary. or partially so, pardon
ing of cOnvicts. He should be held
responsible for nothing more to the
people-the honest discharge of duty.
The honest discharge of duty would
be, not to discharge Curry for any dis
liko he might have for the man be
assaulted, or for the opinions OF news
papers, whether for or against, or even
for public opinion, but because he, the
Governor. belived the imprisoned
should be set at liberty under proper
and lawful appeal for his Clemency.


Men are too apt to jump to cOnolu-
sions when if they would stop
to reason, or thoroughly under
stand the facts, they would ar
rive at an entirely different
conclusion. We sometimes hear men
say, "I wouldn'r have pardoneu that
fellow out of the peniteDtiary-he
should have staid there hisfull term. +"
| Such remarks bear more or less weight
against the Governor; when, it is
very probable that the speaker, or
writer who made 1t, had be been in
the Governors place, an intelligent,
honest, and unprejudiced official, with
all the facts bearing on the pardoning
power in his possession, he would
have done the same thing. Or, he
might have done different under pre-
cisely similar circumstances, and be
right, If he cOnscientiously did what
he deemed right in the discharge of a
discretionary duty.


The minds of men are as varied as
their features. Individualization goes
beyond the physiological makeup of
the body and it is unreasonable,
therefore, and extremely arbitrary,
to pass judgment of condemnation up
on conscientious thinkers and dOers
because they do not think and do
from our standpoint of seeing and
reasoning.
Year: 1877

The citizens of Lincoln are not feel
ing so blue about the University
building as they were. Some of the
best architects, after thoroughly ex-
amining the building, give their un-
qualified opinions that the building
need not be torn down, but that with
few thousand dollars repairing done
to the foundation the building will be
as good and safe as any new one that
would probably be built. Every reas-
enable man will be glad If this be
true, and only the jealous and the
croaking fault finder will be grieved.
Year: 1877

That is the substance ofthe dispatch
es now. The fever has had its run and
the patient will soon recover.


BY the way, how does it happen
that there has not been a riot by the
employees of dry goods men of whole
sale and retail grocers, of farm labor
ers, of factory operatives ? How does
1t happen that only railroad employees
have been driven to madness ? Is 1t
possible the richest corporations in
the country have treated their men
more penuriously than any other class
of capitalists ?-St. Joe Herald.
Year: 1877

Jay Gould's Wall Street gold organ,
the New York Tribune, says: "All
intelligent men have seen that large
popular subscriptions to the new loan
would expose the Treasury TO grave
dangers" In other words, If taken
largely by the people, Wall Street
would be thwarted in its efforts to
corner the gold of the country, in the
matter of specie resumption.
Year: 1877

During the last ten days while the
strike has engaged the attention OF
newspapers to the exclusion of nearly
all news of the Eastern war, there has
been some bloody work done by the
contending armies in the passes OF
Balkans. The Russians are gaining
slowly on the Turks. have taken pos
session of the principal passes aud
established themselves on the South
Of the mountains.
Year: 1877

"If the height of imbeciIity, and
what Doesticks would call damphool-
ism, isn't reached, when grown men
go marching around the city for days,
compelling people who have work to
do and are willing to do it to quit and
go tramping with them then we need
not expect to see folly in our genera
tlon Inter Ocean.
Year: 1877

The Pittsburg Chronicle pointedly
remarks: six months ago it would
have been an insult to have political
convention and not ask the pOstmas-
ter to attend. Now II would be an
insult to hold a convention and ask
him to just drop In and look on.
Year: 1877

During the time the mob was most
violent and threatening I'm Chicago,
the Mayor had the saloons closed. 1t
Is probable that even that though tful,
but. TO some, Insignificant act may
heye prevented the spirit of the riot
becoming more formidable and saved
many lives and millions of property
Year: 1877

A man In San Francisco was caught
few evenings ago piling' fuel under
the dock of the Pacific Mail Com
.pany, with the evident intention of
setting 1t on fire. The culprit's pun
fshment was swift and terrible. He
was rushed off to police headquarters
aud fined for being drunk.
Year: 1877

The Kearney Press In reference to
the rebuilding of the University says :


There is one statement that can be
made, however. positively. and that
is the building will be erected without
expense to the state, no matter where
it is located.


We think the people will demand
that such shall be the case.
Year: 1877

We have not hesitated to say that
We believe the railroad strikers have
just cause for complaint, and we be-
Iieve it is the solemn, imperative duty
of the people and the government to
see that their just grievances are re-
dressed by the orderly, effectual pro-
cesses of law and legislatiOn.-Atchi-
son Champion.
Year: 1877

Chicago Times Every day adds
more testimony to prove that civil
service reform of the Hayes pattern is
n humbug which cannot be too soon
abandoned by a cabinet both incapa-
BILE and unwilling to reconcile its
practices with the Presidents the
ory,n
Year: 1877

a dispatch was sent to President
Hayes last week from New York by
the Grand Army Of the Republic of
that State. that that orgaization could
and would send thousands of volun-
tsers If they were needed to put down
riots,
Year: 1877

The Pittsburg Commercial Gazette
calmly reminds the citizens of Alle-
gheny County that under the law they
will have to pay the bill Of damages
for the late squirt of Communism in
Pittshurg. RiOting Is an expensive
amusement to the taxpayers.
Year: 1877




WAsHINGToN. Nov. ia private letter, just
received in this city from gentleman serving
with the Russian army around Plevna, says: On
the evening of the 2oth of September the ROu-
manians sent forward white flag bearing the
red cross Of Geneva desiring leave to bring in
the dead They were fired upon. and two off,
GERS and some men were killed The dead lie
in large masses on the steep hillside Just north
Of Of redoubt No; a 2 and can be plainly seen from
A few days since the dead bodies became 80
swollen in the process of decomposition that
they began to roll down the hill. The Turks
thinking they were wounded soldiers who had
partially recovered and were trying to escap pe.
This treatment Is unexampled in modern war
fare. I hear that the troops of Mehemet All
PaSha asked for truce to bury their dead
But the two battles Of which I can speak from
personal knowledge, there has been no truce for
this purpose. although it has been demanded
bullets.


Six days after the battle of September IL, I
passed along the advanced pickets in front of
kadiscus. and there | saw plainly with the
naked eye the corpses of the men who had
fallen in the Kirlows assault. not only un-
buried. but hauled away from the vicinity of
the redoubt and dumped in mass three or
four feet deep in the sunken road. The stencil
of decomposition was noticeable at the distance
of mile and a half.


I have every reason to, believe they are still
there. This portion of the ground is entirely
within the Turkish lines at Schipka.


The odor of the unburied bodies became so
offensive two weeks after the first fight that the
Russian surgeons were endeavoring to abate it
by the use Of dtsinfectants on grand scale.


On the other hand, after the Turkish attack at
Squalenitza. on the S1st of August, l rode over
the field the second day, and the last of the dead
Turks. of whom nearly 1000 were left on the
field. were then buried. The Russians were
cross; the Turkish graves had no marks, but
otherwise there was no difference in their burial.
Year: 1877

Yesterday the attendance at the Crescent City
Rifle Club grounds was not as large as usual.
The contest of the day was for a gold military
badge, with military rifles. Owing to the in
ducements offered by the New Orleans Club the
entries were not many. The day was cold and
bleak and the wind brisk


The prize was won by Mr.. J. W. Dauer, OF Lou
isiana Field Artillery, Battery B.


The following are the leading scores:
Year: 1877

THE CIVIL SERv1CE.-We have very
little faith in any plan of civil-service re-
form which proceeds by an inflexible rnle
of competitive eXaminati ons and the like.
The treachery of the Administration
abetted by the leaders of both parties in
Congress-has alternately battered and
crushed every hope of that reform so far;
and its sincere friends may well be dis
gusted, even if they are not wholly dis
heartened. The prize, it seems, is too
great to be rclinquished without further
effort. The present time, when there is
q lull in political!excltement, and the best
men of the two parties are cooperating
to MAKE a happy issue ofthe Presidential
trouble, is deemed favorable by It's advo-
Gates for considering some practical plan
to redeem the civil service. Theorists
would ask for o great deal more than is
offered in the bill presented by Mr.. Rice
of the House, and now before the Ways
and Means Committee. This bill is far
from embracing the whole civil service in
its refOrmatory purpose: for it only ap-
plies to the grades of clerks and others
whose salaries range between $50 and
$50 month. We do not see why the
friends of this measure should not extend
the operation of the system a long way
above that, and make promotions into
many higher classes of Office dependent
upon experience and proof of capacity
and integrity shown in the lower ranges.
But Congress will most reluctantly part
with any of the power and patronage that
now belong to members; and it will be q
great concession for them to yeild up
half as much as the Rice bill asks for
For any reform, even far less than that
contemplated by this bill, the public
which suffers terribly from the incapaci-
ty and dishonesty of Federal officials
will be truly thankful,
Year: 1877

We are obliged to the New Century
Art Publication Company for one OF
their exquisite chromos, but we feel
compelled to return it with the request
that they send us some less elaborate
study IN its stead. This picture, "Au-
tumn Scenes on American Farms" is
beautiful enough; the atmosphere is
marked with q rare transparency, the
foreground is a marvellous copy of ma
ture, the perspective is perfect, the
high light, middle tint and background
are all good, the drawing is accurate
and the coloring delicate and natural,
and We will say the other things about it
when the company sends us the other
art slang. But we cannot hang it up in
our house. We have a son, who III all
probability will be raised in the city,
and we cannot, without doing violence
to the feelings of a father, permit the
hope and staff of our declining years to
grow up, and by constant study of that
picture, fall into the belief that Ameri-
lean farmers, in tight boots and claw
hammer coats, and their wives and
daughters, in Princesse dresses and
Valenciennes lace and kid slippers, go
out in the autumn with pair of blooded
horses and basket phaeton and gather
blood-re2 and golden apples off the same
spreading, gnarled and rugged oak tree,
glowing in all the flaming splendor of


he autumn-glorItied maple. Take back
your picture, and give us David and
GOliah, with green grass and red blood.
Don't put in much grass, but pile on the
blood. d.-Burlin0tOn HGsUE-Eye.
Year: 1877

Recently you repeated, in an article
headed "Reform in Capital Punish
ment," what you have frequently said
before. viz. "' The neck is not broken,
and the victim perishes by the long and
painful process of strangulation. The
experience of John Burns, an old aud
heavy citizen of this county, leads me to
believe that strangulation by hanging,
like strangulation by drowning, is not a
very painful process after all. Some
time during the war some ruff
ans who desired to be thought
bushwhackers came upon MIR. Burns at
his house, intending to compel him to
give up some money that he was sup
posed to have. Burns had none, and
told them SO. They did not believe
him; and their next move was to cut a
cord out of a bedstead, tie one end
around Burns neck, throw the other
over "a jo;st overhead, and pull him up
till his feet were clear of the floor. This
they did four times, questioning him be-
tween whiles. Burns says that he lost
consciousness every time as sooe as his
feet left the floor; that he felt 10 pain at
any time; that after the second
hoist he meant to sham continued
insensibility when they let him drop
again Ito lower him they let go the rope
and he fell ON the floor, but it was be-
yond his power. His first conscious
ness was that he had raised h is body to
sitting position, which put shamming
out of the question. He experienced
no pain when the rope frightened nor
while he was suspended nor after he
was released, except the soreness caused
ON the skin by the chafing of the rope.


Mr.. Burns is a man of truth, and
there is no reason to doubt his state
ments. His weight was sufficient to
tighten the rope well, being about 200
pounds.-St Louis ReOubkic0n.
Year: 1877

Summer before last, when Gen. Judson
Fitzpatrick was canvassing Indiana for
the Republicans, he spoke of the late
Gen. Forrest in such way that the latter
challenged him to fight duel AS soon
as the challenge was sent Forrest wrote
to Gen. Basil Duke. of Kentucky, that
in case his invitation was accepted
which he did not doubt for q moment
he would call on Duke to be his second.


The letter further said that in the nec-
essary arrangement he would like Gen.


Duke to insist that the duel should be
fought on horseback with sabers, as that
was the proper way for two cavalrymen
to meet. Gen. Duke at once engaged
for his principal a steed for the encoun-
ter-a horse recommended by his owner
to go over a church steeple if necessary
and awaited Gen. Kilpatrick's reply
Fitzpatrick, however, declined to fight,
on the ground that he and Forrest Sc did
not move in the same social sphere. y
Had this duel taken place it doubtless
would have been conducted in style
delightfully."- dramatic. --NetO York World.
Year: 1877

The senses of the bees are very acute
By the aid of smell they find the sweet
est flowers, and thus the delicate clean
illness of the hive is preserved. While
certain odors are very attractive to them,
others are excessively repugnant. This
fOndness for certain perfumes is used by
bee-hunters in discovering the nests of
wild bees. When wild bees are seen
loiterir g around, an upright stake, to the
upper end of which is attached q small
horizontal platform, is planted some
where near; on this platform is placed a
bit of full comb, and in mont of it is sus-
pended an open vi1 of annis, an odor
they particularly love. To expedite
matters, one of the strange pees is fire.
quently captured by inverting over the
flower from which it is sucking a
small cylinder with glass over the
end. The bee flies up to the lighted
end; the lower part is covered by the
hand, and the cylinder placed over the
honey comb Oh the platform. AS soon
as the cylinder is darkened, by putting g
something over the top, the bee goes
down to the honey and fills his honey
sac. When fully gorged, it is released;
bee, with its honey filled, always
makes a " "bee-line for the hive.
When the load of stolen sweets is de-
posted, the little pilferer comes back
usually with companion-guided by
the scent of annis; both alight on the
platform, and are held in mild captivity
till they are filed. One is then re
lease l, the direction it takes is noted;
the stake is then carried to some dis
tance to the right or left of its former
position, and the second bee released.
The point at which the two Declines -
cut each other is the position of the
nest.-Mrs. S. B. HesTick, in Scribner
for NoUenlber.