smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1878

People forget about the weather, and
then we hear it said that our present
mild winter is unprecedented. But a
correspondent, writing from New York
city, says:


My occupations. during the winters
Of 1928, fixed indelibly in my mind
the following facts, viz: The farmers
were plowing every month. The frost
interferred very little with their work.
There was no weather 50 cold as we have
had this season. The ice makers werein
trouble The heaviest snow of the
season fell on the afternoon and evening
Of Tuesday after the March meetings,
and scarcely vestige Of it remained On
Thursday following. There was no
sleighing for one half day. The Indian
maxim that winter will not rot in the
sky" was often quoted by my neighbor
But it did, Yet the spring was not
earlier than usual The apple tree were
in full bloom before the both of Nav;
but white frosts apperred every morning
till the 23d.
Year: 1878

| Cincinnati Saturday Night


Mrs Boggs had been under the wealth
er for two or three days. At least she
said she was, but these attacks came
rather frequently, Boggs thought, for
when his wife was having one of her off
spells he had to cook the meals and do
all the housework. We dent remember
what particular state the weather was in
this last time, but Mrs Boggs was under
it, and she was under it very bad She
even told Boggs that she didn't believe
she was ever going to get up out Of it,
anu she made hysterical request that
he bury her in some sunny spot where
the birds might come ane sing to her,
and she made him promise that he
would bring flowers once 4 week and
scatter them over her grave. A dozen
times that day Boggs was called from his
work in the kitchen to bid last fare
well TO his dying wife, bul still she lin
gered. He had been through this ex
perience 4 great many times before so
he wasn't so much alarmed as he might
otherwise have been.


That night as he sat watching. like
the afectionate husband he was, at her
bedside, she saw lhIt he was deeply en-
crossed in a book


"What book are you reading, dear??'
she family asked.


a railroad guide, my love-" was the
reply.


what do you want with a railroad
guide2" she inquired.


Il want 10 see how far it is to Wash
ing Pa, and how the trains run" said
Mr. Boggs.


She would have asked him what he
had to DO with Washington, Pa, but he
got up and went out, and she fell into a
doze, the inclination of which she didn't
care to repress, even though it delayed
the final departure that she had so often
prated about. When she awoke she saw
Boggs bending over her with candle.
He evidently hadn't observed that she
was awake, 30 closing her eyes she
feigned sleep and overheard the follow
ing soliloquy, which sufficiently ex-
planned to her now thoroughly awakened
senses his inquiry of the railroad guide
about the route to Washington, Pa:
Splendid subject for cremation-a little
scraggy (Mrs Boggis fingers worked
nervously under the bed clothes and she
had hard work to keep from. flying at
him. but the scraggy ones incinerate
quicker than the fat ones, the doctor
says. She could be creased if necessary
to make her go quicker. Think III.
! send her up by express, as I'm too busy
IN the store to get away. Her ashes can
Year: 1878

The English agricultural and other
press are in rapture over the Yates
horseshoe constructed of cowhide. 1t
is composed of three thicknesses of cow
hide, compressed in a steel mould, and
then subject to a chemical preparation.
1t is claimed for it that it lasts longer
and weighs only one fourth as much as
the common iron shoe; that it will new
er cause the hoof to split, nor have the
least injurious influence on the foot. 1t
requires no calks; even on asphalt the
horse never slips The slIOe is So elastic
that the horses step is ligter and surer
1t adheres so closely to the foot that
neither dust nor water can penetrate
between the shoe and hoof. If all that
is claimed for it is trne, the new hide
shoe will prove a great improvement
upon the old. The idea, however, is by
no means a new one. At the time of
the Roman and Carteagenean wars it
was frequent practice among cavalry
officers to bind the feet of their horses
with rawhide to protect them from in
Jury during an engagement. The in
inventor of the new shoe, Mr. Yates, of
Manchester, England, is nevertheless
entitled to every consideration for util
izing, in practical form, rawhide as a
substitute for heavy iron shoes.-T,rs,
Field and Farm.
Year: 1878

He lived just mile from the village,


Out there by the forks of the road;
His farm, by the help of good tillage,


Increased what he planted and sowed;
HIS dwelling was low and old-fashioned,
The roof was all covered with moss;
But still by his fixing and patching,


Ii kept out the rain and the frost.
He lived very peaceful and quiet;


We knew him as Jerry Todd;
So plain was his dress and his diet,


The neighbors all said he was odd.
The fashion he never would follow,


Nor try to put on any style,
But owing a dime or dollar,


He paid it when due with smile.
His words were but few and ellchosen,
Twas clear that he meant what he


said; 10 ,---
His temper-not heated nor frozen,


And calm was the life that he led.
He did not belong to the meeting,


And said very little of God;
And orphans were glad at his greeting,
And every one said he was odd.
If ever he tried to sell you


A COW or an OK or horse,
He made it his business to tell you


Each one of the animals faults.
He hired Billy Peters, the cripple,


To husk out the corn by the day,
An heaped up the grain on the bushel
To measure his wheat for his pay.
His name was not on the subscription


To save the poor heathen abroad;
His neighbors he helped in afllict.on-
The people all thought he was odd.
He never made any profession"


Nor said tnat he had new heart"
But something he had in possession


(which many more need a part;
As some that made him SO gentle,


So honest, so kindly and true,
If not church religion, we venture


That Jesus would say ''it will do"
He might, in the church, have been bet


ter,


And rendered more service to God,
And more of the spirit than letter"
And that was what made him so odd.
The preacher might say he was Goddess
Because he subscribed to no creed;
But still it was part of his oddness
The wretched and hungry to feed.
If Jerry failed of salvation


Because he stayed out of the church,
We cannot see how in creation


Professors will shun the lee lurch,
Who wear the garb of the pious,


But love not their neighbors nor God.
We choose, when our Maker shall try us,
To be like the old farmer-odd.
Year: 1878

\ young girl, about as pretty as they
grow 'em, recently went into a Cedar
Rapids music store and asked the clerk
inquiringly, if he had "A Heart That
Loves Me Only"


NO" he said, "but here "A Health to
Thee, Mary"


That wouldn't do, but before she turn
ed to go she asked: Have you One
Sweet Kiss Before We Part'?"


That Ceder Rapids clerk looked up
and down the store; the book-keeper
was out, the boss was up stairs trying to
sell a granger a wheezy old melodeon,
and so he leaned over the counter and
turned out about half a dozen of the
best and most artistically- finished articles
that the astonished young lady had ever
seen offered in a job lot.


She didn't say much, but she went out
of the store in step and a halfand rub
bed her cheeks thoughtfully all the way
home,
Year: 1878

she was chosen for her singular holiness
abbess of the double house Of monks and
nuns. She died A. d. 779, and ninety years
afterwards Olgar, Bishop of Eichstadt,
being warned in q dream, translated her
bones to his church. They were discovered
clean, but moistened with holy oil or
dew, and were placed in q marble tomb,
whence the oil has ever since distilled,
drop by drop into a silver she'll, the flow
increasing during the time of Mass. The
miraculous liquid when treated irreverently
has always evapOrated. On the removal
of the vessel below it, or in case of any
dirt lodging in it, the drops hang like
grapes, and while the country was under
interdict they ceased to ooze from the
shrine. This holy dew has wrought count
less miracles up to our own time, and ia a
heavenly medicine to the afflicted, whether
in soul or body.


A soldier praying in the church of St.
Wslburga in his rough gauntlets had them
suddenly wrenched off his hends, aud they
only returned to him on his lamenting his
irrevereuce. The distaff of woman who
spun on feast days became glued to her
hand, as did the ball of a little girl who
was over-fond of play; nor could they
obtain release till they mad done penance
at the SAINTS shrine.
Year: 1878

about the middle of the thirteenth century.
At the age of sixteen she fell away from
God, and for nine or ten years Margaret
led Q life of shame. She was still in the
bonds OF sin when one day che saw the
body of her partner in guilt. who had been
murdered, covered with worms. She then
entered into herself, and resolved to do
penance for her evil life. She returned to
her fathers house, and he received the pro-
digal child. Margaret spent night and day
in bewailing her past guilt, and with rope
round her neck begged pardon pu b1icly in
the parish church for the scandal abe had
given. Her stepmother thought that her
penance compromised the respectability of
the family, and persuaded the father to
send her away. Margaret thereupon went
to Cortona, and put herself under the care
of the Friars of st. Francis, who, after q
long trial to test the sincerity of her con-
version, admitted her into the Third Order,
called the Order of Penance. She who
had once lived in luxury, pamperipg the
body, lived henceforth a life of heroic NOR
tification in narrow cell, but perfectly
obedient in all things to her confessors,
growing in holiness, in mastery over self,
and in perfect detachment from the world.
She died February %, 1897, and her incor-
rupt body still testiies to tie efficacy
of her penance and to the recovered purity
of her soul.


Margaret left her fathers house for the
world, and was driven from it after return
ing to it, that che might find her true
Fathers house, who never sends the peni
tent away. She took vengeance on herself
that God might not do so, and punished
herself so severely by continued fasts and
repeated disciplines, that even in summer
the heat of the sun brought no warmth to
her wornout frame. But while her body
suffered INCREASINGLY from cold, her soul
was on fire with divine love, burning
sweetly and wasting gently away the
earthly tabernacle which held it.
Year: 1878

mediately, to enable me to leave the


house which have for these last five


years inhabited, in the same plight and
condition in which l found it, 500 live


rats, for which l will gladly pay the
sum of five pounds sterling; and a. |
cannot leave the farm attached thereto
in the same order in which I got it with
out at least i've millions of dockens, I do
hereby promise the same sum for said
number of dockens. N. B.-The rats
must be full grown and no cripples."
Year: 1878

murder case has been tried at Mysore. where
the prisoners were number of famine
stricken boys, who murdered a companion.
The whole of the boys were in the habit of go
ing about the streets and picking up the leaves
with the refuse Of food that were thrown out
OF the houses of natives, and eating the re-
fuse. The deceased being the biggest boy of
the lot, always came in for the lions share.
The others thereupon held consultation and
decided that he should be put to death, and
they formed plan for putting their decision
into execution. They asked the big bow to
come for a walk beyond the fort walls; then
they took him to the trench, threw a big
stone on him and cut him up with knife,
which they afterward hid in a garden. The
boy murderers Were sentenced to ten years
rigorous imprisonment.
Year: 1878

Democratic Representatives elected on the
issue Of reform. 1t Is wonderful that these
Representatives should wish to perpetuate as
an example Of their craftsmanship an instrtt
ment scarcely denied by Its trainers as only
designed to rob and plumber our people.
Year: 1878




The power of this most corrupt institution,
the Louisiana Lottery. is daily extending
throughout our State. We have long been
proud of the integrity of the country press,
which could not so easily be influenced for
bad purposes as most city journals; but of
late we have frequently been mortified to
find in some of our most respectable country
exchanges the new advertisement of the cor
rupt Louisiana State Lottery. The editors
of these journals doubtless think, as they do
not personally recommend the lottery that
they are not giving it any encouragement;
9a sn9 very Act OF h9 ad
The promises of q fortune held out by the
swindling concern are such that many cannot
withstand the temptation to invest. Hence,
our country parishes are being drained of
their wealth, to be squandered by the profit
gate Howard. We charge guilt upon every
paper which advertises it, and we want to
see enacted a law to make papers responsible
for every advertisement they publish which
misleads their readers and causes them to be-
come swindled. An editor should be very
cautious what he gives publicity to-
Year: 1878

Tn GOLD MINEs.-There
seemsto be no new development
at the gold mines. Persons con


tlnue to 60 there and locate
claims, and then return to pre-


pare for working their claims.


There is now no doubt but there
is gold in paying quantities, but
the great lack IS of water. A
spring has been found, and a
few miners are using the water
from it to wash out the gold.
We learn that there is no other
water except from the river,
which is considerably lower
than the bar in which the gold
is found. There is said to be a
lake short distance back which
is of sufficient elevation to fur
nish a good head and plenty Of
water for the entire year; but
ditch, which can be cheaply con-
structed, will be necessary to
connect the lake with the mines.
A gentleman of Snohomish city
states that he has known Of as
much as $4,000 in gold coming
from the vicinity OF this new
mine within the last two years.
The samples of gold are very
coarse, and give evidence Of
large pay in the immediate
neighborhood. So soon as water
is brought to the mines there is
no doubt but they will pay as
well as at first reported.


PARTIES who have just return
ed from the already famous Qui-
lyhute valley, report the recent
discovery of a few more small
praries varying in size from one
to three hundred acres, besides
a large amount Of first class
bottom land. Much interest is
being revived in that section.
The amount of rich, alluvlal
prairie land so far reported by
explorers aggregates several
thousand acres, upon which only
about two dozen settlers, all
told, have thus far located. We
predict rapid settlement of the
valley W thin the coming two or
three ye; rs.-P. Z. Argus.


THE Sullivan block on Front
street is now nearly completed,
ready for occupation. L. P. Smith
& Son expect to remove to the mid
die store of the block next week.
This is the finest wooden block in
the city, and adds much to the bus
mess appearance of that portion of
the city.


The Blakely steamer Success
went down the Sound yesterday
after boom of logs. and did not
return to her dock in this city until
s. late hour. Some OF the passen-
gers had begun to tffnh themselves
left by the steamer.


CALLED. AT an official meeting
of the Presbyterian society held last
evening, it was decided to send a
call to the Rev. H. W. Stratton, the
Presbyterian Missionary of the Sy>
nod of Oregon, Washington and
Idaho. This gentleman has visited
Seattle O number of times, and is
remembered as an able and pleasing
speaker.


CITY SURVEYOR P. G.. Eastwick
has been appointed to make the
survey of the Clearwater river,
and will depart for Idaho Territory
in short time.
Year: 1878

THE POWER THAT SOUND MONEY
GIVES THE WORKINGMEN.-T editor
OF the Fincastle Herald gives the follow
ing clear and true statement of how
much more money is able to do now for
the working classes than few years
ago, when it was scattered heedlessly
through the country:


''In these times of financial depres-
sion, when money is hard to get hold of.
it is q matter for consoling thought to
know that the purchasing power of the
circulating medium has enhanced in
about the same ratio as it has been re-
duced in quantity. To illustrate: In
1854 the cheapest iaborer received $3.50
a day at the present times he receives
about ST. But in 1864 the purchasing
power OF the dollar was not half what it
is to day. For instance, to take the
commonest articles, sugar, which can be
bought for 10 cents pound to-day, cost
20 cents in 1864: coffee in 1864 cost 46
cents pound, and now it can be had
for 20 cents; pork by the barrel cost
s45, while i'll 1878 it can be bought for
SO; prints and ginghams that are worth
now only cents yard cost then 40
cents, and so on through the whole list
of articles of ordinary and general con-
sumption. 1t is quite evident that
wages, low as they are now, will buy


much more than they did in the flush
times" after the war, and that dollar
to- day is worth al least twice as much
as dollar twelve years age.


I'm view of these facts, the farmer
should not be discouraged at the COM
paratively low price of the products OF
his farm. AT the present rates, he will
receive, in some cases, in substantial
value, more for his produce than when
he receives: double the present prices.


These views are AS applicable to the
day laborer and mechanic as to the farm
er, and II they were fully appreciated
the cry OF hard times would be less
vigorously and continuously sung than
it now is.n
Year: 1878

A Nevada paper tells of a ayoung lady
IN that region that is so delicate and
ETHEREAL creature that on losing a hair
PIN from her head the other day, she
caught bad cold that hung on for a
week.
Year: 1878

Reversible ulsters are to be worn by
the young men this winter, but it is a


mistaken idea that they are designed


especially for these who have encoun-


tered financial reversss, -
Year: 1878

Edison is about to put his electrical light
Streets aud he seems to be pretty confident
that the dream ofscientists of something
really useful in this line is to be realized.
He has been at work Il long time on his
task, and lie has kept his invention Sc
cret until lie gets letters patent, for which
he has applied in this country and Europe.
A company of capitalists has already been
formed to set the machinery in operation,
and IT will establish central stations i'll New
York city, at each of which there will b.
machines to generate the electricity which
will be conducted IN pipes to the points to
be Illuminated by wires laid inpipes under
ground, each station to control the terri
tory within radius of half a mile Tire
light, it is claimed, will be stronger than
gaslight, but more pleasant, and IT'S inten
sity regulated as easily as that of gas, while
it can be started by simply touching
spring, without the use of a match. There
will be no flame, and consequently no dan
ger of fire. Edison is now at work perfect
ing meter. If the Invention proves to be
all that Edison hopes, it will be the great
est yet from his fertile genus, and If, as he
promises, the light is to cost the public only
third as much as gas, there is good rea
son for the tumble in gas stocks at London
and the uneasiness among our home COM
panies.
Year: 1878

The inquest held on Miss Ella Hanbury,
who died from exhaustion consequent on
long immersion in the Thames and shock
from the Princess alice collision, is the
closing chapter in a touching romance.
Miss Hanbury was an American girl of 10,
only child of wealthy New York mer-
chant She was on visit here, and went
for run on the river in company with her
engaged husband, Mr.. Harrison, member
of the American bar. When the crash
came Mr.. Harrison embraced her and bade
her good-by, saying they would meet in
heaven. She saw no more of him. They
were parted on the instant, and she found
herself in the water. Partly swimming,
partly supported by plank, she fioated for
two hours and half, and was then picked
up, apparently nons the worse, for she was
about the next week. She then learned,
however, the loss of her lover, and since
then has altered and pined till she took two
days ago to the bed from which her body
was this day borne to the grave. Miss Han
bury was very rich heiress, and what
makes the fatality still sadder is that while
the inquest was in progress q telegram an.
nonncing the death Of her father was hand
! ed to the Coroner,
Year: 1878

a woman went into barber's shop on G
street some weeks ago and wanted to know
how much it would cost to dye mans hair
and moustache. The price was named and
she then asked the barber to get his dye and
follow her.


"Why can't the man came here ?" asked
the barber.


.He's dead" replied the woman, "and
the last thing he said when he was passing
away was Sallie, fix me up pretty for the
funeral' His hair curled beautifully, but
was little gray. It won't look well TO see
q woman crying round coffin with an old
gray-headed man in it, so want him fixed
up little. lie was always beauty when
he had his hair dyed. know I'd want
mine fixed that way If was gray and
dead y


The barber dyed the dead mans hair in
the highest style of the art, and the widow
remarked, wnen all was over, that !" he was
theloveliest corpse ever buried on the Com
stock
Year: 1878

Scientific American.


With the oversupply of labor and capt. al
in the East it is natural to look to the great
teeming Vest for an outlet for surplus labor
and for tie employment Of capital in great
enterprises and achievements. The West
holds a variety of resources and offers an
opportunity for industrial employment not
found elsewhere in the world.


Bound by ties of blood in a common
brotherhood, connected by the iron path
ways, and associated in trade and commerce
and political and social emulation, the
East looks Westward for her provisions and
raw material, and for a market for her sur
plus and the employment Of the overflow.
How far is the world justified in it's expect
atiuns of the West, and how much of hope
is there of its industrial future ?


What is to be the future of the West and
pr osperty IS bs tlRT 5G tPs
TALLY nominated. The fist principle is the
value to be derived from and the depend
ence to be placed upon her broad, unob-.
stlucted agricultural advantages. No other
nation or locality has such resources and
and advantageous opportunities 10 begin
with, and we are satisfied that the leaven
OF scientific cultivation DOW slowly working
is soon to produce astonishing results in the
great West Not one-half the fertile land
of Ohio Indiana and Illinois is under culti-
yation, while but half the returns from the
soil are received Of which the land is capa-
BILE. More labor will soon be given to
ten acres than one hundred now receive,
and the profits will be proportionately high.


Next after the agriculture the mineral
resources of the West will yet be scientific
ally developed, and that to a proportionate
profit. All other things upon the earth
and in and under it are for tho service of
the farmers pursuit, and in no part of the
world is it SO apparent as in the central
Western States. No people can have more
than they produce, and we are satisfied that
no part of the world will take more interest
or more pride in the development of their
home resources to their utmest than the
West. We are satisfied, too. that the
central West is to be the great inland in
dustrial empire of the world.