smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1878

A West Hill minister picked up a fro
zen wasp on the pavement recently, and, +,
with a view of advancing the interests
of science, he carried it into the house
and held it by the tail while he warmed
its ears over the lamp chimney. His
object was to see if wasps froze to death
or merely lay dormant during the win
ter He is of the opinion that they
merely lie dormant, and the dormantest
kind at that: and when they revive, he
says, the tail thaws out first, for while
this ones head, right over the lamp
chimney was so stiff and cold it could
not wink, its probe worked with such
inconceivable rapidity that the minister
could not grasp fast enough to keep up
with it. He threw the vicious thing
down the lamp chimney, ana said he
didn't want any more to do with dor
mant wasp, at which his wife burst into
tears, and asked how he. a minister Of
the gospel, couid use such language
right before the children, too.
Year: 1878

Deacon H., OF r., was IN his wood lot
busily engaged in preparing load for
market. On the other side of a low
fence bis neighbor, s., was also loadin z
for the same market. 5. paused in his
work and watched the deacon for a
while, and then exclaimed: Deacon,
vou are fool in being so precise with
your load. You are altogether too par
tlcular. What is the use of packing so
closely, rejecting so carefully every
small and crooked stick, and every one
which wants single inch of the requir-
ed length? Look at my load /; it does not
contain nearly as much as yours,
though it will measure well, and will
sell as readily as yours, with consid-
erably larger profit The deacon simply
answered: You may do business in
your way; will do il in mine


They both drove to a neighboring
city and waited in the market place for
customers. S. was fortunate enough to
find customer without much delay,
while many hours passed before the
deacon could dispose OF his load. Upon
his return late at night, his neighbor,
who had been at home long while,
said to him: Il said you were a fool,
and was l not right. l sold my wood
for the same price you did, and, besides
a larger profit, have saved much time
The reply was, You may DO business
IN your way will do it in mine


Several weeks passed. Deacon Ii.
anu his neighbor were again with their
loaded teams in the city, where they
had been many times for a market for
their wood. The deacon was met by a
wealthy merchant of the city, who said
to him. Take your load at once TO my
yard; you need not stop to have it
measured; and do The same with every
load you bring, and | will gladly pay
your price


That night deacon II. was early at
home. Late in the evening ;. arrived
with his wood unsold. 'How was it,
he said, THAT you found such ready
sale to-day, while | could not dispose of
my wood at any price?'


You do business in your way, and
do it in mine. Who is the fool? 2 said the
deacon.
Year: 1878

The following singular means of cap
turing for killing the bear is said to be
frequently practiced by Russian peas
ants who cannot easilyprocure firearms.
As is well known the bear has fond
ness for honey, and will track his way
a great distance to where the wild bees
have filled some hollow tree. Their
stings cannot hurt him, and they and
their stores are entirely at his mercy.
In a forest known to contain bears, the
hunters examine all the hollow trees,
branch of the tree is then chosen, d.
rectlyabove the hole; ifthere is no such,
a stout peg is driven into the trunk. To
this peg a strong cord is fastened. and to
the end of the cord a heavy stone or a
cannon ball is suspended, at about half
a foot from the ground. The bear In
his researches comes upon the treasures
of honey. The pendulous barrier OBJ
structs and incommodes him a good
deal. He is an irritable brute-in such
cases one of the most irritable as well
as stupid in the forest. He begins by
showing the weight or stone one side !;
but it presses against his head, and he
gives it slight knock to free himself
from the Inconvenience. It recoils a
on the ear. His temper is reused and
he again pushes off the hard and heavy
mass, more violently; he gets a heavy
blow on the side of his skull, on its re-
turn. He becomes furious and with
a powerful jerk sends the rock swing
ing away. The pendulum cannot be the
first to tire Of this game; and it is a
game in which the blows are felt on one
side exclusively. The bear alone Suf-
fers; and the point is that he suffers as
much by the blows he gives as by those
he gets. He takes double punishment.
His very retaliations are all against him
self; and for every furious push, which
makes his skull acne, he receives an i'm
mediate equivalent, which makes it ache
again. At last his rage is unbounded he
hugs the block; he strikes it; he bites
it; but whenever he would thrust his
head into the hive, back on his ear
falls the obstruction, against which his
terrible hug or the blows of his paws
are of no avail. The brute ismaddened.
He faces his strange and pertinacious
tormentor and once more makes it re-
bound from his skull. But back again
it swings like a curse, which returns
upon the head from which ii started.
The bear falls exhausted under these
reiterated blows, one more violent than
another; and if he be not dead, the
hunters who have watched the contest
from their hiding place, soon dispatch
him.
Year: 1878

Many persons complain of always
getting up tired in the morning. This
is very often due to defective ventila-
ton of the bedroom, or from using an
undue amount of bed clothes and bed
ding. Feather beds are too soft and
yielding, and partially envelope the
sleeper, thus producing profuse pre-
spiration. The habit of lying too much
under blankets is also very pernicious
by reason of the carbonic acid exhaled
by the sleeper being respired. Again,
il is a common error to suppose that by
simply opening a window a little at the
top a room can be ventilated. People
forget that for proper ventilation there
must be an inlet and outlet for the air.
In bedrooms there is often neither, and
if there is fireplace, it is generally
closed up. Again, ii. is a mistake to
suppose that foul air goes to the top of
a room. Certainly the heated air goes
to the top, but the chief impurity, the
carbonic acid, falls TO the bottom.
There is nothing so efficacious in re-
moving the lower strata of air as the
ordinary open fireplace, especially II
there is fire burning.
Year: 1878

Sophie Gauthier had been found guilty
of horrible crime; she had killed all
her children by means of pins, which
she stuck into their brain. The death
of this revolving criminal recalls a few
Interesting fact connected with the ex-
ecution of women in France. Since
1910 nine women have been executed.
and they all met their death with firm
ness. Ten years ago man and woman
were executed at Chartres for having
murdered their parents. In those days
the guillotine was not the horribly. ,.neal
and compact little instrument that it is
now there were some steps TO ascend
before coming in contact with the eX-
ecutioner. When the criminal couple
reached the foot of the scaffold the wo-
man said, 81 should like to embrace
my husband before dying. Pray unite
my hands you can tie them again imme-
diately afterward. This supreme wish
was reluctantly granted for it was con-
trary TO the regulations. Her hands
were no sooner free than she gathered
up all her strength, and gave her hus-
band a ringing box on the ear. Accord
TO custom she was the first to suffer.
the extreme penality of the law. Be
fore the man had recovered from the
stunning blow she had dealt him her
head had fallen into the saw dust.
Another woman, who created great sem
sation was Virginie Dezon, who had
murdered her husband and two chill
dren. She was only twenty-five years
of age wonderfully beautiful, and be-
longed to one of the best families in
France. She had not the slightest fear
of death, and the moment the sentence
was passed she sent letter to the En-
peror, begging there might be no de-
lay in carrying it out. Prison life and
the loss of her long black hair produced
a much more disagreeable impression
upon this delicate woman than the sight
of the hideous chopping block and knife
Many summary executions Of women
took place when the regular troops en-
tered Paris during the lnsurrectlon. i
remember seeing one of the advanced
Republican ladies placed behind the
Great Northern Railway station. She
had just been taken with Il recently
fired rifle i'm her hands and standing by
the side of a dying sentry. Did you
shoot this MANI" inquired the officer,
pointing to the writing body of the
sentry - did, was the replv- land
am only sorry that | did not see you
before, as you were better worth the
trouble" Two minutes afterward she
was lying on her face with twelve
bullets in her boIy. Death had been
instantaneous; her victim, the soldier,
lived two hours after and expired in
horrible pain
Year: 1878

If you give to a healthy man of twen-
ty, who has never tasted it, either
cup of tea or coffee, it will keep him
awake all night. If you give to one
who has never drank fermented or dis
titled liquors glass of beer, wine. or
weak whiskey and water, it will make
him more or less dizzy, and perhaps
give him headache. If you persuade
one who has never smoked to try a
cigar, it will probably nauseate him,
and for time make him severely sick.
Now, what is the conclusion from these
facts? Simply that tea, coffee, fer
mented and distilled liquors and tobac-
co, are in their nature medicinal are,
in brief, drugs, and that, at least while
the body is growing, while he still has
superabundance of vital force, it does
not need either the preservative prop
critics of tea or coffee, or the digestive
and tonic ones of wine, beer, or brandy,
or the soothing one of tobacco, to keep
it in health and well being but that
on the contrary, when the youthful sys-
tenn is in its natural state and either is
offered it, disturbance, more or less pro-
nounced, is the result. What terrible
responsibility, then, do not mothers and
fathers incur, who from boyhood allow
their little children to drink tea and
coffee-nay, before the little things
think of asking for it tempt them to sip
1T out of their own teaspoon
Year: 1878

about to purchase was assured that no
money would be demanded for the hu-
name enterprise for years to come
when the heavy mortgage that lay on
the farm was to be lifted by the gener-
GUS but wealthy company who were
seeking to find some investment for
their funds on long time paper; when
each member of the family was to be
insured against accident from lightning
in the sum of $1,000; when only the
interest on the very small cost of the
rOdding of the house was to be required
as payment for the privilege of putting
on the rods, then it was that the
agent secured the signature of the owner
of the building to his very neatly con-
trived agreement-only that the great
head of the concern could know that
the boys he had sent out were meeting
with success in their benevolent work.
And now, in many sections, the owner
of a house is waiting patiently to try
the effect of his rod on the thunder
storm. Whether the electrician has
been fortunate enough to get thing
that will draw the lightning, remains to
be proved. But the owner of the house
may rest assured that he stands much
better chance of having his house struck
than his neighbor does. 1t is a poor
rod that does not attract the lightning
in some small degree, and the chances
are that he may feel the effects of it on
some shOwery afternoon. 1t may only
be strong enough to topple over his
chimney, knock down his baby and
shatter his cooking stove but then, he
will realize just as well the advantages
of lightning rod as though it stove his
whole shebang into splinters. But if it
happens that the fluid, on account of
the high cost of the rod, refuses to pat
rOnize it, the time is soon coming when
the party who owns it will be "struek." !"
Those good fellows who put on the rods
are gone another person appears with
notes, and the victims who were so
electrified" by the visit of the light
ming rod men, will awake to the situa-
ton and curse the day when they were
swindled out of sum of money that it
is impossible to raise.


If men desire to use lightning rods,
that is their privilege but the instances
are so exceedingly rare when loss of life
or property is caused by lightning,
which could be prevented by the use of
rods, that the necessity for them is very
small indeed. 1t should be remem-
bered that an improperly adjusted rod,
or one that gets out of repair from any
cause, only increases the hazard on a
building. Let us wait and hear the
wall that goes up when the last part of
this story is tOld.-BdrtOn Monitor.
Year: 1878

Is fully illustrated in the confession of
Thomaston (Ga.,) colored murderer,
Dick Dawson. He and his brother-in-
working farmers of Upson county, and
the best of friends until Dawson culti-
waited an unlawful love for Cunning
hams wife. She determined to put her
unsuspecting husband out of the way,
and as Dawson was 10th to take his life,
she urged him on with the accusation
that Cunningham had hired an aged
negro, who lived in the woods near by
and was credited by all the darkies of
the vicinity with possessing an evil eye,
to bewitch him. This was the reason,
as his mistress told Dawson, why his
garden did not do we'll why the fish
did not bite his hooks why it was dis
covered that it was he who stole goose
from a neighbours roOst. Dawson was
of course disturbed by the artful con-
struction which Mrs. Cunningham placed
upon every untoward incident, and was
finally placed in terror of his life by
her statement that at her husbands di-
rectiOn she had pulled nine hairs out of
the mole of his head. She said that he
would wind these about a rusty nail
that the wizard had given him and with
one blow daily for nine days drive the
nail into tree on the ninth day she
persuaded Dawson that he would die
an awful death. Dawson at once set
himself at work to break the enchant-
ment before the nine days should ex-
pire. He lured Cunningham to his
house with the promise to give him half
a pig he should kill that evening, and
then shot him, Drained him with hoe
and hid his body where it was finally
found by accident. Dawson was ar
rested and sentenced to be hung, on
circumstantial evidence, and has just
confessed his guilt, duplicating Mrs.
Cunningham, as the day for his execu-
ton had almost arrived. The woman
has been arrested while working in the
fields in another county and will be
put on trial for her life at the next term
of court.
Year: 1878

A double iron crane, used by the NewYork
Elevated Railroad raise the grders to their POSITIONS
was entirely disabled in HanOyersqunre, yesterday
The crane very strongly built and an engineer
said few days ago that he doubted ITS strength for the
work In raising the grders at one end OF the crane
crane from tipping While hOsting one OF the spans
Yesterday some the guys being SLACK the crane bcgsn
10 and tLen twisted and broke the top Of the frame
Ar the other end which swung the girder the crane
bent ana alo we'd the span TO fall team which was
nsssina at the time barely escaped being crushed
Although there were many persons standing near none
ver injured,
Year: 1878

Expose yourself day and night; eat too
much without exercise: work too hard
without rest; doctor all the time; take
all the vile nostrums advertised, and
then you will want to know.
Year: 1878

THERE is much talk in the press Of the
opposition to the effect that Senator Thur
man, in the late canvass in Ohio, changed
front on ths finance question. He did
nothing Of the kind. He denounced the
imitation hercsy, and contended that hard
money Is, and should be. the money Of the
country. What he did say was that the
National banks should be abolished and the
Government issue its notes direct. There
IL no sane man who will attempt to con-
trovert the correctness Of the Senator'S
views on this question.
Year: 1878

Whatever may be the demerits Of the ex-
convict whose complaint appeared in our
columns yesterday, his case elected the ex-
preston of some very peculiar logic from
an officer of the Prison Association. This
organization attempts to prevent discharged
prisoners from falling into their old ways
by helping them to new and honest ones,
and it has done good service to society in
its day. Now, however, its own favorite
injunction, 'it is never too late to mend"
is subjected to radical and dangerous mod
ification. 1t is held that there are some
fallen men who cannot be raised, even when
they want to be, and are willing to work
for their livelihood after having learned in
prison what hard labor is. Among these are
intelligent men who have sinned delib-
erately; these should not be helped to en-
ployment because their propensity to evil
would lead them to do wrong again
when opportunity offered. How they
are to live without SHINING when re-
fused the opportunity to live honestly
is doubtless too trifing question to de-
serve an answer. This theory is not new
in the history of human opinion, but it is
decidedly out of place in q reform associa-
ton. All theories of human will and
Christian ethics admit and claim that every
sane wrong doer is capable of reform if he
desires it. This opinion may be silly, but it
has been at the bottom of all reformation
that the world has known, and it is diff
cult to see how the new idea presented
above can successfully take its place. Ger
tainly it cannot do SO among discharged
convicts when they learn that the more in
telligent they were when they sinned the
moro chilling will be their reception by
the only helper that has offered them the
hope of redeeming their lives from old
habits and from the brutalizing effects of
most prison life. Meanwhile the associa-
ton's official should make haste to burn his
Bible, with its many theories opposed to
his own, and its facts about King David,
the Prophet Jonah and other intelligent
deliberate sinners
Year: 1878

A great deal mas been said recently about
the alleged impositions practised by bag
gage expressmen in charging extra amounts
for trunks delivered at a house when they
are required to carry them up stairs. Some
people think the fees charged for delivery
are sufficient to cover this extra service, and
insist that baggage should not be simply
dumped in hall but taken by the express
mon to the rooms where they belong.
Others, who do not object to giving small
remuneration for the extra service, con-
slider that it is not fair to charge as much or
nearly as much fer carrying baggage to
upper stories as for bringing it to the house.
There is doubtless some reason for these
complaints and some plausibility in the
argument that the work Of delivery under
taken by the companies should be thor
oughly performed.


The express business is so much better
in the United States than In any other
country that we are disposed, on the whole,
to be we'll satisfied with the manner IN
which the companies are managed. No
where else in the world can traveller be SO
wholly relieved Of all care or anxiety about
his baggage as here. Checks are collected
on the railroads and steamb boats, the address
at which the baggage is to be delivered
is given to the collector, and there the mat
ter ends. traveller finds his trunks on
hand within short time after he has
reached home, and sometimes before his
arrival A person going to q watering
place or distant city checks his baggage
at starting to certain hotel and has no
further trouble The charges for such SER
vice, considering the great convenience and
reliability OF the we'll organized SYSTEM are
moderate enough. Indeed, we do not un-
derstand that any one objects to the rates
demanded by the companies. What they do
find fault with is an alleged extortionate
charge for little extra trouble. This is
the fault of the employees and not of the
com panies, and it might and ought to be
guarded against. The remedy is simple
one. An express company whose regular
charge is forty or fifty cents for delivering
trunk at house might add printed
notice to it's receipt for the baggage, stating
that for carrying trunk up stairs the men
would be entitled TO make an extra
charge Of ten cents fight. This
might still be the perquisite of the
drivers but it would fix sum for their
remuneration, more than which they could
not demand, and would moreover be a
notice to the person sending the baggage
that the company only undertakes to de-
liver it in the hall of the house to which it
is addressed. We commend this suggestion
to the companies in the belief that it would
be satisfactory to the public and save much
fault finding and misunderstanding, as
we'll as operate as check on the drivers
and prevent any attempt at imposition on
their part The express business bears so
good a reputation in New York that any
just cause of complaint against the COM
panies or their employees should be
promptly and cheerfully remedied.
Year: 1878

The naval review in Portsmouth
harbor was, owing to the unpropi-
tious weather, failure, it having
been found impossible to carry out
the evolutions that had been intended.
In all twenty-six vessels were in line.
They represented every class in the service,
from the magnificent iron-clad down to
the modest and harmless looking torpedo
possibly have made such q magnificent ex-
hibition. Her Majesty was present and
signalled her satisfaction from the royal
yacht.
Year: 1878

The latest reports from the South do not
encourage the hope that the yellow fever
may be stamped out. Nearly hundred
and fifty new cases are reported at New
Orleans, and many deaths beside, while


the river cities below Cairo have ex-
perienced enough Of it to be greatly


alarmed. 1t is to be regretted that New Or
leans has not remembered the lessons in
vigilance and cleanliness which they them
selves will admit the Yankees impaired to


them during the war and which saved
tho much-abused Crescent City from
all epidemic diseases. Though such plaques
do not always originate in air poisoned by
exhalations from street filth and sewage
experiment has demonstrated that it is only
infectious diseases become epidemic in
their character 1t is not yet too late for
many Southern towns to fortify themselves
against the destroyer but points south OF
the Ohio and Potomac are not the only
ones that demand attention. Frost is still
far enough away to allow New York
to become badly scared and hurt, too,
unless the Quarantine officials, the
Health Board and the Street Cleaning
Commission do their whole duty. A mill
ion of people, the best of them living in
crowded neighborhoods and all Of them
breathing in every day the vile animal and
vegetable emanations that rise from nearly
all our streets, have poisoned many Of our
inhabitants to a degree which makes them
easy prey for any infection. Our Street
Cleaning Commissioners have been deaf to
every complaint provoked by outraged
Year: 1878

A mere glance at our columns during the
past few days will satisfy the reader that the
worst form of crime is still frighttully COM
mon, and for no cause that can be easily
named. Robbery, which is the only motive
for murder that the present condition of
some classes of the populace would suggest
as being specially stimulated, has not
been perpetrated in majority Of the
cases reported OF late. Politics are not
in q condition to lead to the death of any
thing but regulations long diseased. There
seems no reason why the passion of jeal-
ousy or that Of. unusual anger should
prompt men and women to slaughter each
other, and rum, which cnnalways be counted
upon to furnish murderers, is not in greater
demand than in other seasons Of the year.
The subject certainly offers some suggestions
worthy Of notice by Investigators other
than the police. There was time when
theologians were prompt to assign cause
for the unusual prevalence of any form of
crime but now they are too busily engaged
in fighting the assumed cause to be much
inclined to talk about it, and the task Of
further inquiry seems to belong to
scientists, and particularly to the medi-
cal profession. Pathological observation has
suggested so many avoidable causes of
crime that there is reason to believe it may
discover more, and it is not impossible that
meteorology may yet throw some light on
the subject. 1t seems ridiculous to dismiss
so grave a subject with mere reference to
idly to be explained away on such illogical
ground