smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1874

During the last two or three years no charge
has been so often in the mouths of the people
who thought they were supporting the Admin
istration, as that Of treason to the Republican
party. When Mr.. Greeley with equal foresight
and humanity insisted that Jefferson Davis
should be tried or bailed, and denounced the
pitiful narrOwness which excluded year after
year a few thousand SOutherners from the
privileges which were accorded to their neigh
bors and their laborers he was furiOusly abused
by men who were as incapable of comprehend
ing his motives as they were of initiating his
benefcent life. When they cited him to appear
before little inquisition at the Union League
Club to give reasons why he should not be cut
off from among the loyal, hesanswered in that
incompatible letter, which will always remain
O masterpiece of reason and of rhetoric, giving
expression to the scorn which his emancipated
spirit felt for those marrow minded block
"heads who would like to be useful to a great
"and good cause, but did not know how" In
that letter occurred one golden phrase which
then seemed startling to many ardent Repub
licans, but which is seen every year to be
truer and wiser. Your attempt 10 base a great,
enduring party on the hate and urah neces-
"sarily engendered By a great Civil Var. is as
"taough you should plant colony on an iceberg
uhich had somehow drifted into tropical
ocean"


These are beautiful and memorable words,
and the Republican party would have been in
far better plight to-day if it had listened to
them when they were uttered. But they were
met with the loud anger of the violent parh-
sans, or the louder laughter of fools. The
policy of wrath and hatred seemed to them the
best for all purposes They could make more
money and more votes by it than by any other.
1t brought forward and kept in public life such
men as Butler and Logan, whose denuncia-
tions of rebels covered multitude of iDiqui-
ties. 1t proved the cloak to every kind OF
corruption. rogue had only to drapc himself
Year: 1874

"currency, it will to the last insist upon that
demand. Its purposes are crystallized into
" the form set forth by its State Convention
when it insists upon return to specie
payments and no step backward And
now what the country waits to see and hear
is the formal declaration, duly authorized and
sanctioned by the party as an organization,
that this utterance expresses not only the
opinion and belief of Horatio Seymour and
Samuel J. Tilden and tho Democrats OF New
York, but that it is in letter and in spirit
cardinal Democratic doctrine, binding in lndi-
ana and Ohio as in New-York and New-Jersey,
and governing the councils and the policy OF
the party wherever and whenever it comes
into power. Without it the party is incohcrent,
purposelcss, with no principle but plunder,
and no object but success.
Year: 1874

II there was any life left in the fiction OF
riotous White Leagues and general intimida-
ton of the negroes which filled the Admins
tration press for a month before the election,
it must have been pretty thoroughly stamped out
on Tuesday. In the whole South there appears,
according to our present advices, to have been
only one riotous outbreak, and that originated
in the attempt of some Alabama negroes to
prevent one of their own race from voting
the Democratic ticket. In the most fiercely-
contested States, Louisiana and Alabama,
blacks and whites, for the first time since the
war, ignored the color line at the polls, and
the negroes gave an Unexpectedly large vote
to the Conservative candidates. AS this Oc-
Cured in those places especially where the
perfect independence of the freedmen has
been placed beyond suspicion by the presence
of United States troops, it will be impossible
to pretend that the voting was under any sort
of cOnstraint. Our correspondence from Louis
lana has reported for some weeks past rapid
desertion of Kellogg by his black adherents,
and it looks now as if the political revolt
among the cOlOred voters was becoming gen.
eral throughout the States


This is probably due in some degree to a





said colored politician to our special cOrre-
spondent in Louisiana "dat dey been vOtn'
I" all de time and never seed no good of it yet
"Wages amt rasin' any, and it pears like we
" git wuss and wuss Off all de time. wouldn't
"kcar much if de Democrats was to git in one
" time I'd jess like to see what dey ID do"
Unquestionably this sable statesman repre-
sented the feelings of many of the race, who
had waited in vain for the extravagant prom
ises of the original carpetbagger to be realized,
and now saw the beautiful vision of the mule
and forty acres fading into thin air. They
voted year after year, and all the time they
{" got worse and worse off," 1t was not un-
natural that they should yearn for change.
Bnt besides these restless and dissatisfied per-
Sons there seem to have been others shrewd
enough to see that whites and blacks had a COM
mon interest in the prosperity of the State, and
that everything was fast going to destruction
under the rule of the ignorant and dishonest.
Such men as these have conquered fear and
a prejudice stronger than even the antipathles
of race, and consented, for the first time i'll the
history of their people, to vote for the candl-
dates Of their former masters.


In this sudden change OF temper we sec the
solution of the Southern problem made plain.
AS soon as political questions at the South ere
decided without reference to color, all pre-
texts for White Leagues and Black Leagues
disappear, and carpet-baggery loses its hold.
Ii remains now for the Southern whites, where
ever they have been restored to power, to
cement the alliance by the most generous and
considerate treatment of the allies who helped
them to the victory. Let them show the
negroes that white ascendency does not mean
oppression; it means nothing but honesty,
good order, industry and peace.
Year: 1874

in the star-spangled banner to steal at MS
leisure. A man who suggested that even
Southerners had some right and some interest,"
in the country, was instantly the target Oh
those Glib scoundrels, who were stealing the
South Door in the name Of liberty, and their
purblind associates in the North never failed
IN support them. No eminence, no abilities,
no luster of virtuous fame could protect man
who would not ioin in the hoarse cry of vul-
oar and narrow hatred. Sumner offended IN
This wav. and an obscure demagogue could
stampede the General Court OF Massachusetts
to censure him for it. Trumbuil chose 10 io',
low his instincts of lawyer and gentleman anu
he was turned out of the seat In which nc naa
for eighteen years done his State as m'tch
honor as service. We will not recall the IN
famy of that campaign of foulness in which
Greeley was bounded to his grave. No one
will deny that for eight years after the war
ended, it was more damaging for public man
to counsel justice and charity to the South
than it was to be caught pilfering from the
public chest.


But the iceberg has drifted into warmer
seas, and the colony at last finds its footing
insecure. This year the managers of the Re-
publican party, confronted by the most serious
peril they had ever met, loaded down with
record of frauds, misrule and abuse of power
which could not be explained away, and over
shadowed by still more important danger
arising from the greed and selfish caprice of
the President,-stll could think Of no issue to
fire the hearts of the voters and keep their
lines steady, except the old appeal OF wrath
and hatred. They could find no other argu-
ment to make people vote for the Administra-
ton except that the people of the South were
rebels and murderers. 1t was tried once too
often. The spell has lost its power. The war
was ended nearly ten years ago, and If the
South is not yet at peace, there is no hope
that General Grant can pacify it. If the Grim
son stories were true, there would be no argu-
ment in them. But they are false, and the
people have punished by their votes the
calumny and the blunder together. The words
of Mr.. Greeley, which were stumbling block
to the patriots of the Custom-house when they
were uttered, are now the common thought of
every one. The policy of hate and wrath will
never win another election. We leave it to
those Republicans who now see the truth OF
the text we have quoted, to pay the proper
tribute of tardy honor to the goodness they
mali gned and the wisdom they derided.
Year: 1874

A romantic incident occurred on the 23d nit, at
Point Pleasant, Mo. Dr. Evans had two tinted house
servants, George aged 10, and Mary, aged II. He
had an adopted child and that child had large
money-box containing $3.50 in specie. George and
Mary stealing this carefully boarded cash, without
the least regard for the feelings of the adopted child
embarked in skiff and glided down the river. As
they hoated they slumbered ,and when gentle
morning unsealed their weary lids, they found
themselves upon q sand bar, which they supposed
to be some foreign country with which our Govern
ment has no extraditon treaty. SO they landed for
the purpose Of exploration, and the first native dis
covered by them was sharp enough to take into
custody this dusky pair, together with the proceeds
of the ravaged money-box. The country proved
also not to be destitute of that civilized convenience
Justice Of the Peace; and after an interview with
him. the tender fugitives were consigned to dry
and dreary Jail. So ended one of the Voyages of
Life; so faded the golden anticipations of George
and Mary. bright with the confidence of youth, and
soidided by the actual presence OF illgotten specie
and real skiff.
Year: 1874

A desperate plot to make majority for the
Kellogg party by fraudulent counting is de-
scribed in our New-Orleans dispatch. Large
numbers of Republican tickets have been
printed since the election, for the purpose, it
is believed, of being counted by the Return
ing Board as ballots cast. The Conservatives
are watching this process with great anxiety.
1t is rather late in the day to attempt repe-
tition of election frauds in Louisiana, and we
doubt whether they can be carried out as
quietly and effectively as in 1872.
Year: 1874

A baby is a very tender thing, people
say but most of them are very far
from knowing how tender. Imagine
how nervous you are in certain states
when recovering from illness, say, when
the fall of q book or the slam of a door
makes you culver and feel faint, as if
some one gave you a blow. That is the
way q young baby feels at its best. A
puff of wind will set it gasping, its
little breath blown quite away. A noise
makes it shiver, a change of summer
air makes it turn death cold. A baby
is the most nervous of beings, and the
tortures it suffers in going TO sleep and
being wakened by careless sounds when
just dropping off" are only compar-
able to the same experience of an older
person during an acute nervous head
ache. Young babies ought to pass the
first months of their lives in the conn
try, for its stiffness no less than its
fresh air. But where silence is not to
be commanded, baby may be soCthed
by folding a soft napkin, wet IN warmish
water, lightly over the top of it's head,
its eyes and ears. 1t Is the best way to
put nervous babies to sleep. / have
tried it hundreds of times for a child so
irritable that paregoFic and soothing
syrup only made it wider awake. A
fine towel would be wet and laid over
its head, the ends twisted little till it
made sort of skull cap, and though
baby sometimes fought against being
blindfOlded in this way, five minutes
usually sent him of into deep and bliss
ful slumber. The compress cooled the
little feverish brain, deadened sound in
his ears, and shut out everything that
took his attention, so that sleep took
him unaware. TeethiBg babies find
this very comforting for their heads
are always hot, and there is feyered
beating in the arteries each side.
Year: 1874

There is a man in New York city who
is amassing a handsome fortune by buy
ing and selling pennies, two and three
cent pieces, and five cent nickels. In
many of the newspaper offices, news
depots, ferry offices, houses where cheap
goods are sold, bakeries and other
places the accumulation of small coin
very often becomes SO large as to be
cumbersome. It can not be disposed
of, for coin is so plenty that customers
object to taking it In change in any
great quantity, and IN business houses
where it is needed the regular sources
Of supply ere always ample. The coin
might be sent 20 the Philadelphia mint
for redemption, but the requirements of
the redemption department are enough
to discourage any business man. To
send pennies to the mint they must
first be sorted and wrapped IA packages
of five dollars each. Coin of each sep
arate mintage must be put together. It
Will not do mix the Old-fesEiOned cop
pers with the bright or bronze colored
nickels, nor can two OF three cent
piece be mixed with the pennies. II
they are packed IN this way they are not
even counted at the mint, but are ship
ped back to the sender without delay or
notice Of any kind. The law also pre-
scribes that the coins shall be packed
in iron bound boxes, and shipped at the
sender's expense. As coins are heavy.
the cost of transportation Is oOnsidera-
bic. The officials count the money at
their leisure, and sometimes the sender
does not hear from his consignment in
nearly a year. He thus loses the use Of
his money for that length Of time. This
combination Of vexatious details pre-
vents those who have an accumulation
of coin from sending It to the mint. and
It Beems as though the officials at Phila-
delphia intended that they should not
be troubled with it.


Every day a mao rides TO the newspa-
per and other Offices in q buggy, and
buys the coin which has been taken in
from the neWsbOys and the customers.
For the pennies and twe-cent pieces he
pay ninety-seven cents a hundred, and
for the three and five-cent uiekels he
gives ninety-nine cents for q dollars
worth. The sellers are glad to dispose
of the coins at this discount. The man
then rides 70 about the only tradesmen
in the city who desire a quantity Of PEN
nies-the pawnbrokers-and TO them
he sells the coins AZ par, taking their
notes for three months IN payment.


The pawnbrokeTs who have shops
among the poorer classes say that they
need small denominations of fractional
currency or coin, as many of their loans
do not exceed ten or hften cents Many
poor persons pawn their articles Of wear
ing apparel OF trinkets only when driven
TO do 50 by the want Of single meal Of
food, and sueh are not particular as 70
the denomination Of the money they re-
ceive. The pawnbrokers give their
notes without interest, thereby gaining
the use Of the money for three months.
Year: 1874

What Jerry Black has darkly limited
is now boldly stated in some of the
papers, that Secre tary Stanton hastened
his death, during the last days Of his
desponding illness, by a partially sue
cessful attempt to cut his own throat.
It was one of his customs, runs the now
extraordinary revelation, to be shaved
st home, AM the duty was performed
by colored barber who came regularly
for the purpose. In Mr.. Stanton's pri-
vate apartment stood an improvised
shaving chair, and TO this the trusty
valet would 60 at the appointed time to
perform his duty. Mr.. Stanton had
been apparently falling IN health for
week, and had become 50 despondent as
to almost excite fears of an alteration
of the mind. On the evening of the
23d Of December the cOlored valet
called to shave Stanton. They were
left alone In the private apartment, and
Stanton teok his seat IN the chair. The
barber had partially finished his task,
and. laying the razor on a little table
beside Stanton, stepped across the room
for some water. A movement startled
him and he turned Just in time TO see
the giistening steel fash by the barred
throat, leaving q strssk IN IFS wake.


Rushing to the side of Stanton, the
barber caught the razor before another
stroke could G made. He called fOr
help, and in few moments there Wors
at the bedside the surgeOn-geneEnl, 3
Year: 1874

The force requisite to drive the music
out OF the various wind instruments in
most frequent use has lately been scien-
tidcally gauged, and the result can not
but seriously diminish the sympathy
with which unenlightened audiences
have heretofore entertained for the
full-eheeked performers upon the trum-
pet, the bOmbardon, the bassoon, and
the rest. The euphonium and the bonn
bariOn are the easiest of all to sound
upon low notes, and the clarinet is the
hardest, next to it being the trumpet
and the bassoon; but the hardest to
sound on the high notes is the eupho-
mum, then comes the bombardon. cor
net, trumpet, horn, bassOOn, oboe, and
last of all the clarinet, which is not
half so hard to sound high note as a
low one with. None of them requires
as much effort as a sneeze or cough, and
the theory of lung injury from this sort
of work Is a mistake. AS for the sweet,
or the terrible sounds, =" a breath can
make them as q breath has made" and
the man on the stage who empties his
lungs into the trumpet, and occasionally
pauses to empty the trumpet, too, is
not having as hard time after all as
the one in the audience who puts his
energies into a sneeze, nor does that one
begin to rival the man who wants to
sneeze, but doesn't dare. He is the
true subject for pity. Science can not
measure the silent efforts that he puts
forth.
Year: 1874

There was no sentiment whatever
about Mark Kaller of Augusta county,
Va. There was no sentiment in his
courtship, mona in his marriage and
none in his married life. He lived
without it. He had some property
and a house and he wanted a house
keeper. He paid an agent S25 to get
him a wife. He married her without
a word of love-making, and put her in
his house, and went on with his life.
The couple were entirely congenial and
exceedingly harmonious in one respect
both loved whisky and they drank a
great deal of it. They never quarrel-
ed over the bottle, and life flowed
smoothly on. They drank as much as
they conld and got drunk tos ether,
and went TO sleep when they were
sleepy, and it was nobOdv's business.
They got old together in Old Virginia.
One day they had some distance to
walk on 4 public highway. Old Mark
tranapeG ahead with his cane and the
old woman trudged along behind smok-
ing her pipe. There was a good long
distance between them as the woman
was fat and wheezy, and waddled with
difficulty. By some means her cloth
ing caught on fire, and she was burned
to death there IN the public road. Two
gentlemen came along on horse back,
and saw the roasted woman. They es-
pied man, just disappearing in the
distance. One of them rode ahead
and, overtaking the old man, informed
him Of the occurrence. Mark expressed
neither sentiment nor emotion, but
with grunt turned around and re-
traced his steps. There lay his wife,
so charred and dis6gured as scarcely
to be recognized. Mark hObbled up to
the body, and giving it a punch with
his stick, said: "Humph, I told her
she'd better leave her pipe at home.
Now, what'll do for a housekeeper ?"
This was the only thing like a senti-
ment he ever uttered in his life. Old
Mark Kaller is dead now, but his type
still lives in a good many men who
hobble through life without the color
Year: 1874

picture Of her with red chalk on the
back Of an atlas, been we'll shaken for
putting bent pin in another boys
chair, scolded for whistiing out loud,
sentenced to stay after school for draw
ing ink mustaches on his face and black
ing the end Of another boys nose, and
soundly whipped for slapping three
hundred and thirty-nIne spit balls up
against the ceiling, and throwing one
big one into a girls ear. You can't be-
lieve half a boy says when he sings."
Year: 1874

TIE law requiring drinking places in
London to close st midnight is rigidly
enforced. At some of the theatres the
performances have usually lasted until
later. So fixed is the habit there of
qusfing after the play that confusion
dience leaving in the middle of the last
act rather than miss their drink. The
managers are abridging their pieces to
meet the requirements of popular taste.
Year: 1874

The only thoroughly blighted being
is the young man who has been deceived
in a meerschaum. When he has ex
pended his money in purchasing the
costly comfert, when he has consumed
tobacco enough to unsettle a rhinOcerOs
and the stubborn pipe still refuses to
color, demonstrating to him the fact
that he has been sold, then does the
hollowness of this world and all that
therein is become fully and disgustingiy
apnarenk
Year: 1874

lfrom the Kern County Courier


An examination into the case of fJol,n
Tilly, accused of the murder of Miss
BOlles at kernville, came M on an nm.
plication for writ of habeas corpus
ON Thursday. No fewer than forty-
hve witnesses, on the part of both
defense end prosecution, were present,
ana the examination before Judge
Colby is progressing. The case is one
OF the most remarkable on record, 4
man of high character, standing and
property is accused of one of the most
horrible crimes known to criminal
jurisprudence, on purely circumstan-
clal evidencc-a crime the whole tenor
of his previous life goes to disprove.
We have known Mr.. lilly we'll, and
certainly he is the last man on whom,
our suspicion would have fastened,
The history of the case is curious and
remarkable in the highest degree.
and deserves prominent place in the
records of crime.
Year: 1874

PLAIN FISANcIL TALK.-Senator shern an. IN
his recent speech OH 4he currency, said "if Con-
eress yielded one single inch 10 the desire Ter
more paper money the Rubicon would be passed.
and God alone could tell where il would stop
His speech was forcible and cogent presentation
of the need OF returning to specie payments and
the danger of further infstion: His summary OF
the acts. which must be copsid red fragrant viola
lions OF the national faith should be laid to heart
Senator Schurz also came to the point When ne
declared the indisputabie fact that the power to
issue legal tender currency not redesmabe IN coin
Is a power to con1scate every mans property.
This is so plain proposition that no one can
controvert or question it for an instant The only
road to resumption, however, Is economy-econo'
nay economy. Let the government accumulate
and show that il can have on hand real money
enough to pay lis debts, and then resumption will
have been accomplished. This it can only do by
making its income greater than Its current ex'
penJitures.- Bali. San.
Year: 1874

President Grant is reported to have said On
Friday last to some prominent Republicans who
called upon him at the White House


II begin to think it is time for the Republican
party to unload. There has been too mnch dead
weight carried by it. Tho success OF our arms
during the rebellion and the confidence that the
Republican party was strong enough to hold up
any burden have imposed ali the disaffection In
the Gulf States on the administration. am tired
Of this nonsense. Let Louisiana take care of her.
self as Texas will have to do. don't want any
quarrel about Mississippi State matters to be re
ferred to me. This nursing Of monstrosities has
nearly exhausted The life OF the party. lam done
with them, and they will have TO take care o.
themselves"
Year: 1874

Social HONOR. - Every person
should cultivate a nice sense of hon
or. Ia a hundred different ways
this most fitting adjunct to the lady or
gentleman is often tried. For in-
stance one is the guest of a family
where, perhaps, the domestic ma
chinery does not run smoothly. There
is sorrow in the house unsuspected by
the outer world. Sometimes it is a
dissi ipated son, whose conduct is a
shame and grief to his parents,
sometimes a relative, whose eceeu-
tricities and peculiarities are a cloud
on the home. Or, worst Of all, hus-
band and wife may not be in accord,
and there may be often bitter words
spoken and harsh recriminations. In
in any Of these cases, the guest is in
honor bound to be blind and deaf, as
far as peope without are concerned.