smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1875

ELECTRICITY SUBSTITUTE FOR CoAL OIL A few years since one of our ablest chemists demonstrated the practicablity of producing light by electricity, but as the apparatus was somewhat costly, il did not come into general use, although it is the softest clearrst light ever produced by mortal means. Lately We see the papers are disposed to accord its in- vention to Russian as new thing.

 The dangers of kerosene may possibly be done away by the invention of a Russian who claims to have discovered a process for pro- ducing light by electricity, which Is thus de- scribed:

 "A small tube of glass. not more than six inches in length is filled with pencil of charcoal; the air is exhausted and the tube dramatically sealed. 4 moderate current of electricity is then passed through the charcoal from an electro magnetic machine, causing it to glow with brilliant, but at the same time soft light. IL is stated that tue char coal is not Perceptibly consumed by the pro- cess, but will last for an indefinite period and that the strength of the current reauired Is so small that two hundred of these lights. at considerable distance apart. can be easily maintained by a single machine. The in- ventor claims that he can light the whole city of St. Petersburgh-street lamps, stores. and private residences-by single fifteen horse power machine, with no greater cost than that of running a machine. Moreover. all the lamps of the city would be lighted at the same moment, and private lights would need no attention, except the shutting off of the current from the house when desired. Mercantile Journal.
Year: 1875

1t is very easy matter, says the Buff
falo Commercial Advertiser, for some one
member of family 10 make it rule to
examine carefully, after others have re-
tired, every place where there is a pos
sibility that fire could be ignited with
danger to the house. Five minutes
given to the examination of furnaces,
stoves, re-places and their surroundings
might be all that was necessary to pre-
vent serious and dreadful conhagration.
And the Advertiser instances the case of
housekeeper, who has been a faithful
family servant for thiry-fve years-a
long time in these days of "hired help"
This conscientious woman made it a
matter, one might almost say of religion,
to go every night, after the family had
retired, without light, from garnet to
cellar, to see if every chance of accident
from fire was removed Ridicule did
not make her swerve from this habit.
One evening, after the departure of some
guests and retiring of the family, on her
usual rounds, she found the hat-stand in
blaze. Calling the master Of the house,
with his assistance, but with no little
trouble, the flames were put out. 1t
seems that the umbrellas in the rack had
been ignited by spark from cigar held
by one of the visitors as he took his hat
from the stand. Needless to say that
the housekeeper, after recovering from
her fright, was more than ever convinced
that it did pay "to see if the house is on
Year: 1875

The New York Times, referring to the
bill for the admission of New Mexico
as State, remarks; The census of 1870
gives New Mexico 1854 people, but
that shows decrease of about two thous-
and within ten years, ard it is very well
known that large proportion of the
population is "Grease," or half-Breed
Mexican and Indian. Possibly there
may be in the whole Territory enough
inselligent white men to make a
decent appearance in Congress and man
the upper house of the Legislature. But
we have too much ignorant suffrage al
ready in the Union, and no one can think
OF creating a new voting element of this
character without a shudder. The peo-
pie of New Mexico are scattered over an
immense and barren area. Around
few forts and Indian agencies there clus-
ter few semi-white tribes, and some
poverty stricken towns have sprung mp
in some of the localities where springs,
grass and thickets redeem the soil from
the deseret Of mesquit bushes and cactus
that cover the face of the country. In
a recent paper in the North American
Review, General Hazen bitterly inveighs
against the farce of permitting this arid
and desolate tract any representation on
the floor of Congress, and the expensive
machinery Of a Territorial Government.
Yet it is gravely proposed to create
sovereign State out of this region, which,
if it were not for Quartermaster's dis
bursements, would tomorrow he aban-
doned to the horned toad and the preda.
tory Indian.
Year: 1875

The United States Type Setting Ma
chine Company has just completed its


perfected composing machine, which is,


without doubt, destined to work a COM
plete revolution in the matter of setting
type The new machine throws a COM
plete font of type, lower case and capi-
tails, dashes, commas, periods, spaces and
numerals The piano keyboard is ad-
hered to. Above the inger-board is the
case with the particular font of type to
be used. The type is laid in long tubes,
which are set in the rack at an easy
slant, each tube corresponding to box
in an ordinary case. At the back of
this case is an inclined plane, likewise
furnished with grooves that converge to
a single one. Connected with them Is
the justifying stand, about four feet in
length, which in turn adjoins the galley.


Type may be set by any person capa-
BILE reading manuscript or reprint. The
operator is seated before the finger
board, with the copy on the rack. On
touching key marked with the requir-
ed letter, lever knocks ont the bottom
type, and which with lightning rapidity
tax es its place on the "stieaz." 1t is ev-
ident that type can be set as fast as the
eye can read and the fingers play.


The justiier is seated by the galley,
and with rule in hand lays off the long
row of type for proving, according to
the desired measure If a practical
printer, the operator can readily para
graph and justify while measuring of,
so that the first proof is sure to exhibit
remarkable cleanliness.


For distribution the type is laid on
the distributor, a separate machine,
where it is distributed by one of the
simplest and yet most beautiful pieces Of
mechanism ever seen. The celerity
with which type can be set depends very
greatly upon the operator. The aver
age would be 5000 ems per hour. With
this machine any person who can read
the copy can set type, and this will be
one of the greatest advantages. 1t will
open up a new field of labor for women,
and will greatly rduce the cost of the
composition. The cost of the machine
will not exceed $500, and its value can
be saved in very short time by its use
in a printing Office.


The machine was perfected at the
works of the Towle Manufacturing
Company in Courtlandt street, construc-
tors of electrical machinery, who de-
serve much credit for the manner in
which they have turned out the pioneer.
The machine was constructed under The
superintendence of Mr.. Isadore Del
cambre, the inventor, and Mr.. John B.
Benton, Superintendent of the works.
This latest achievement of brains will
be on exhibition during the week at No.
2 Broad street, corner of Wall, where it
can be tested, and doubters in the abili-
ty of any machine to set type fast and
we'll, convinced that it can discount hui
man fingers.
Year: 1875

One Of the best trees 10 plant for pro
fit is the chestnut When properly car
ed for, it grows rapidly and will soon
bear nuts enough to afford full rcmuner-
alton for all outlay. The culture IL
simple, and no one who raises trees for
profit should neglect the sweet chestnut
The seeds may be planted either in
fall or spring; but il il usually better to
wait till spring. as they are frequently
thrown ont Of the ground by the frost
or eaten by mice when fall planted
One thing is Indispensable for success
the nuts must not be allowed to dry.
As soon as they fall from the tree they
should be planted or mixed with moist
sand and kept in cellar till time for
planting in the spring, More failures
arise from allowing the nuts to dry than
from any other cause. The nuts should
be planted in good, mellow soil and COW
cred about two inches deep. A slight
mulch Of straw or manure will be Of
great benefit in preventing a hard crust
from forming.


Unless the cultivator is near where
the chestnuts are grown and can be per-
fectly sure of getting fresh seeds, we
would advise purchasing one-year-old
trees from nursery rather than endeav-
oring to raise them from the nuts. The
one-year-old trees can be purchased at
very reasonable figures, and usually il
will be better to order them from the
nursery than to run the risk Of buying
and planting the seeds. For timber or
for nuts the young trees should be plant
ed in rows eight feet apart each way
This will give $50 trees to an acre. The
land should then be planted with corn.
as this will give shade and protection 10
the young trees, and keep the ground
cultivated and free from weeds till the
trees are Of sufficient age to take care Of
themselves. When the trees begin 70
crowd each other take out every altern-
ate tree, and in after years repeat the
process, 20 as to give each tree the nee
essary room. Chestnut trees require but
little il any pruning, and the moat that
should be done is to shorten in a few OF
the irregular branches.-LR Rural World.
Year: 1875

Every years experience more COM
pletely demonstrates the wisdom of a
varied agriculture. The farmer who de-
pends mainly upon one crop, although
that may be the most important one
grown, will find, every few years, that
the supply of that product will exceed
the demand so much that il will fall in
price, below the cost of production and
sale. We use the latter term consider
ately, because We are aware that the pro-
ducer pays a large commission for the
sale of its products. All the difference
between the price received by the farm-
er and that paid by the consumer, after
deducting the legitimate cost of hand
ling, storage and transportation, may be
set down as cost of selling.


Take the important product, wheat.
We think that large majority Of the
farmers, East as we'll West, will agree
with us that the price this year is too
low to pay the cost of production. 1t
may be said that the price of wheat is
exceptionally low this year, because the
yield is good all over the world. Yes.
that is trne; the breadth of wheat sown
is so great that a good crop. universally
o. generally, will so reduce the price
that large share of the growers must
produce it at great loss.


Take another product-apples. In
years when the orchards of the country
yield fair crop, the prices are too low
to afford any profit to the producer, and
farmer who depends mainly on his ap-
pie crop for income will be likely to
find that his income falls considerably
under his expenditures in such years
We think farmers snffer much less from
glut of apples than from an over pro-
duction of any of the leading cereals, be-
cause but few have a large proportion of
their farms in orchards.


Undoubtedly it is better for the world
that so great breadth should be sown
in bread-stuffs, that a small yield per
acre shall not result in scarcity, and
cause suffering or starvation, but the in
stinct of self preservation should induce
farmers to so economic in farming that
the failure or the over production of
any leading crop shall not result dIsas-
trousIy to their interests.


The farmer upon 100 acres, who has a
few acre in wheat, a few in corn, few
in oats, few in barley, and few in
potatoes and roots, and then has a liber-
al pasture and meadow, with four, or
five arces in apples and as many more in
pears, peaches, plums, qninces and cher
ries, keeping a half dozen COWS, and
perhaps twenty-five to forty long-wool
grade sheep, will be likely to come out
better, taking one year with another,
than one who devotes the larger number
of his acres to wheat, or some other lead
ing crop. If any one crop is a failure,
or sells too low to afford any profit, the
other may yield profit enough to pre-
vent any serious loss.-[ American Rural
Home.
Year: 1875

TREES ON BOUNDARY LINEs.-The
New York Court of Appeals not long
since decided that a man has no right
to the fruit growing upon branches of a
tree overhanging his land where the
trunk of the tree stands wholly upon
the land of his neighbor. But the law
regards the overhanging branches as a
nuisance, and they may be removed as
such; or the owner of the land shaded
may remove them if he is careful not to
commit any wanton or unnecessary de-
struction in SO doing. Where the trunk
of tree stands on the line, the owners
of the adjoining land have joint own
ership in the tree and fruit, and neither
one has the right to remove it without
the consent of the other.
Year: 1875


Every once in while we come across
a statement that this tree or that is not
hardy. There is no doubt that SO far as
temperature is concerned the trees refer
red to will stand all the cold they arc
likely to meet with in the regions refer
red to, but still the trees die.


1t may be as well to remind our friends
who lose their trees that il is not SO
much frost as wind which destroys them.
Death is the result of the whipping out
of the juices of the tree and not by the
freezing of its cells. And it is no proof
that because a tree dies in an exposed
windy place that ''is is not hardy" in
the deponent's latitude. That trees die
under different circumstances, where
they were thought hardy, is no wonder
to those who are familiar with trees.
Indeed, it is rather wonder that SO
many live that do.


Generally it is the tree nature TO be
gregarions. They grow up in forests
thousands together and by mutual pro-
lection hardly know what wind il. The
falling leaves protect the young plants,
so that in the severest winters day one
may go into dense wood and hardly
find frost an inch below the surface. So
that trees growing in the woods have a
double chance. They are kept from
severe waste Of their juices by their
mutual protection from wind, and the
roots, without much hindrance from
frosty ground, draw in moisture all the
winter through and thus easily supply
what little waste there may be.


How different is this from trees
usual fate. Set out alone to battle with
the winds unaided, and with the frost en-
casing every root, 50 that all the moist
ure they can take up has to be first
thawed by their own internal heat from
the frozen ground, why should not large
numbers perish? 1t is not in the nature
Of things to be otherwise, and it shows
rather a limited acquaintance with plant
life when the loss occasions any surprise.


But there is not place in the whole
country but might do we'll. The coolest
place on the bleakest Western prairie,
by thick planting Of shelter belts of
larches or other wind-proof trees, might
have everything we have-everything
we call half hardy-everything in fact
that any reasonable horiculturist could
wish.


To be sure much has been done in this
direction in the West. The agricultural
papers and agricultural writers have
written over and over again as to the
necessity Of shelter belts before much
can be done; but when we read, as we
continually do, Of experiments with
these trees or those, and the conclusions
come to that they are not hardy West"
when we know it is all matter of wind
and not of frost, we see how much more
is to be done in pushing knowledge of
the shelter idea before those regions can
half enjoy the full pleasure of horticul-
ture; and it il in the hope Of reinforc-
ing our Western friends who have la
bored so long in this field that we have
been moved to pen this article.-[Gar-
dener's Monthly.
Year: 1875

Six months ago, if any one had asked
ME if it we're possible that in single
season there could be a radical change
in any given variety of potatoes, I should
without hesitation have answered in the
negative But the results of this seasons
work have somewhat modified my opin-
ions on this subject. The facts in the
case are as follows:


Last spring l sent to Williamstown,
Mass, for one barrel of the Bulkeley
Seeding potatoes, which were advertised
asa frst-class variety, and sold for five
dollars per barrel. They we're duly re-
ceived, and were very large and fine look
ing potatoes. The color was a very dull
white, and there were no indications Of
any other variety being mixed with them.
They were planted on very fair land for
potatoes, and fertilized with the "Agri-
cultural Compound" and ashes, in alter
naterows. They received ordinary field
cultivation. On each side of this varie-
ty planted large red variety of po-
tato. When / came to dig them, TO my
great surprise | found, instead of light
colored potatoes, such as | plar ted and
which 1 expected to find, they were a
bright red color. A very few hills were
found which were as white as any pota-
toes that l ever saw. Neither of them
looked like the one planted. They did
not resemble the seed, more than Ne
gro resembles an Indian. In several
hills of the red ones, and in two or three
of the few hills in which the white ones
grew, found the seed, we'll preserved,
and of the same color that it was when
planted. There was not the slightest
perceptible difference in the seed, but
here were red and white potatoes grow
ing from it. The potatoes were all dry
some weeks ago. As the white ones were
very smooth, and looked finely, I
thought 1 would keep them separate.
Both the white and red ones have been
kept in an open shed exposed to the
light and air. The red ones are still
red, but the white ones have gradually
changed color, and are dull white, and
very clo-ely resemble the seed. 1t would
seem from this that the white ones were
the normal product of the seed planted,
and that the red ones were sport" or
mixture of some kind. Still it does not
seem possible that there could be a mix
ture on so extensive a scale, for the
whole barrel of seed probably did not
produce more than three-fourths of a
bushel of white ones, counting both large
and small, nearly all the crop being red.
Again, except in color, the red ones
more closely resemble the seed than the
white ones, which is a very strange fact
in the case. As to comparison in point
of quality, / cannot say, as ! never saw
the variety, except the one barrel which
planted, and do not remember cooking
any of them.


! 1t seems TO me that this is strange
case. / do not remember reading or
hearing Of any such change as | have
mentioned, and certainly never saw the
like before. 1T any one can offer a rea-
sonable explanation, should be vary
glad indeed to have him do Sex.
Year: 1875

Mrs. Fremont, in one of her pleasant
papers on distinguished people she has
known" pays a merited tribute to the
memory of Kit Carson. The motive of
her article was the false light of fiction
cast upon his name by poet of the
prairie and sierra. He was certainly no
savage rake or ruffler. His domestic
life was as regular and blameless as that
of any deacon in New England. Even
in his resentments he was as sincere and
steady as clock-work. He once said to
Mrs. Fremont, speaking of man who
had treated him unhandsomely, "If ever
/ get the chance 1 will do him an hon.
est injury" A volume could scarcely
give n more vivid idea of the old from
tiersman than this phrase.
Year: 1875

The Chief Justice Of Rhode leland
asks the Legislature to reduce his salary
from $4,000 10 $4,000, on the ground
that there ought not to be more than
$500 difference between his compcnsa-
ton and that Of this Associate justices
who get but 81 900. The said Associate,
however, while agreeing with him upon
the main point at issue, are Of opinion
that an equally efficient and altogether
more satisfactory method to obviate the
discrepancy would be to increase their
salaries to $500.
Year: 1875

a case of agony occurred yester.
day at the corner of Chartres and
Canal streets which makes the heart
sad on contemplation. \ young lady
came along, hcrmetrically sealed up
by battery of pins in one of the new
style of walking dress, which, by the
way, has the quality of prettiness TO
recommend it, whatever may be the
physiological objections to it. At the
corner she happened to drop her
handkerchief, and a man near by,
whom the sequel will show to he q
veritable beast in disguise, made a
forward movement to pick it up. In
the act of doing so, be recoDsidered
his resolution, aud stood sta;edly up,
leaving the handkerchief where it
was. The young lady made an agon-
izing appeal with a pair of brilliant
black eyes to the tantilizing male, but
he ungallantly remained obdurate to
the mute request, and laid his spine
against the lamp post. She then
made three efforts herself to pick it
up, but failed. Finally she made a
KIND OF semi-circular spring, such as
men make who run races in sacks
and picking up the handkerchief, she
left rapidly, while the bushes went
away back TO her hairy. o. Plea.
UuHc
Year: 1875

The love Of pure and noble
woman will do more TO elevate man,
will inspire him with loficr senti-
ments, and make him realize the
glories and beauties; of nature more
than all the books shat were ever
written or the sermons thai were ever
preached. Take away that love and
you shut out from hi; heart the sun
shine of life, and cast over him a
cloud so dense. gloom SO all prevail
ing, that the problhm of existence
becomes q Sphinx-likp riddle, which
it is not only impossible for him to
solve, but which he does not care to
solve.-N o. BuIIptiD.
Year: 1875

saw her working down the street


had to cast my eye back
She had such tiny little leet,


The girl who wore the tie'back.
| glanced at her, she glanced at me,


She siyhcd-l had to sigh back;
1t was a pretty sight to see,


The maiden Of the Tie back.
Thought by going down the lane,


That could quickly hic back;
And, passing round, could meet again
The girl who wore the tic-back.
+! felt that through al coming time


My every thought would fly back;
To meet her in 4 summer cline,


My angel of the tic-back.
We met, we sought cream saloon,
For had been quite spry back
Oh, how wished | were the spoon
That fed that lovely tiekack.


4 \
\ brawny fist between my eyes


soon laid me flat on my back;
! saw, somewhat to my surprise,
The husband of the tlc-back.
As down the street my footsteps raced,
wished | had my tin" back,
And never, never had embraced
The angel Of the pin back
Year: 1875

The times are full of signs that
the Republican party is not mort
bund, nor mastered by the tenden-
cies and spirit which brought it SO
low in the November elections, but
is only recovering its old power and
prestige.


This the better worth considering
because any third party movement is
utterly hopeless. Not only is there
no time and no distinct issue to raise
which would carry the mass of the
party into a new organization, but
the most trusty and sagaciOus pro
testing Republicans do not entertain
such project for a moment. They
know that the fight is to be made
with the old army, or not at all.
There is always the chance, indeed,
that its aroused conscience and in
tellige1ce may not get the control I;
but shonld that happen, no third par
ty could avail, for it would represent
only fragment of the present Re-
publicans. If those who do not like
Butler aud carpet-bag leadership
should be defeated, the only course
left would be to acquiesce in the de
feat as choice of evils, the other be-
ing Democratic success, to decline to
vote, or to bolt. The last two
courses, would of course, be a practi-
cal surrender to Democratic success.
A bolt from the Convention, should
it be well supported, might be the
germ of the new organization, but it
would not defeat the Democrats.