smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1877

dislike of patronage-monger which. while
it is delightful to the country, is of course
very hateful to the machine men, who see
him treat carelessly the things which are
most sacred to them.


To introduce permanence into the civil
service; to make appointments only to fill
vacancies, and only for character and merit;
to refuse to reward the workers" and to
regard 'claims" and delegations with con-
tempt-what can be more awful or embar-
RAISING to the machine men? We see it
stated as part of the outrageous conduct of
the President that he has not put into the
Cabinet or sent to q foreign mission a single
member of the Republican National Com
mittee. Evidently it was the hay at tho end
of the pole which made these horses pull;
and alas they see the hay now disappearing
around the corner. The Cabinet actually
does not contain single representative of
the workers." unless Mr.. Sherman be
counted one. It is truly awful, but the
country looks with pleased amusement at
the disappointment of the machine men,
and it will support the President if only he
will stand firm and resolutely break the
machine. He has engaged himself to the
people to reform the civil service. he can
not do this without "bresking tho machine
and he cannot do better thing for the
country.
Year: 1877

Something like year and half ago that
pre-eminent English comedian, Mr.. Mathews,
wrote and produced light and amusing
play which he christened "My Awful Dad
BY the perfection of his own acting in the
title r6le and the happy adaptation OF the
piece to the requirements Of the stage Mr..
Mathews succeeded in making "My Awful
Dad" the reigning favorite in London, and
now the Mathews of our own stage has un-
dertaken to introduce the terrible papa to
New York, where he promises to establish
himself in as great favor as he did on his
natal SOIL In his latest character Mr.. Wal
lack has made something of new depart
ure. He has been identified hitherto with
the young heroes of romance and comedy,
but in 'My Awful Dad" he shows that he
can be not less effective and at the same
time true to nature in depicting o
rather elderly beau. The thorough train
ing which the old school of actors
received gave them versatility to which the
modern never attain. In the old days,
known to the general public as ''palmy," the
best actor was tho man who could most
completely sink his own individuality and
assume with ease and truth q number of
distinctly different characters. At the pres
ent time the best young actors are special
lists who must have parts written to fit them.
During the present season Mr.. Wallack has
shown us how admirably he can play such
diverse roles as the rollicking Rover. the
alternately bashful and impudent Young
Marlowe, tho modern English swell, Sir
Edward Ardent, and the reckless, earnest,
passionate and self-sacrifcing Hugh Trevor.
Now he offers, in Adonis Evergreen, some
thing distinct from all these, and from any
thing in which we can remember him. His
triumph, which has been ungrudgingly
recorded by all the critics, is the best proof
of the efficacy of the old system of profess
sional training. The lesson is one that may
with advantage be taken to heart by those
who value their art and hope to retain their
hold of the public up to the last day of their
appearance upon the mimic stage.
Year: 1877

State dollar day, and at the end OF the
year the Virginia treasury will own all
the money there is in the United
States. 1t is proposed to keep the accounts
with the bell punch, and we observe that it
is said the making of these instruments will
be thrown open to competition. Are they
not aware in Virginia that the manufacture
of that great instrument Of civilization is
covered by letters patent?
Year: 1877

Let them meet the United States as friendl
ally and not as jealous rival. and the two
countries will pursue, side by side, their
onward progress, each On aid and encour-
agement to the other.
Year: 1877

THE GREAT Coal SALE yesterday exhibited q
further decline in anthracite, and set the curious
to wondering anew how the companies succeeded
in getting rid of the profits they must have de-
rived ut old time figures.
Year: 1877

The GREAT SILK WAR at the Custom House
is practically at end, to the great disgust of
those heads of families who fondly hoped the
goods might be retained by the government until
times should improve or ladies take sudden
fancy for cheaper fabrics.
Year: 1877

THE WEEKLY MORTALITY TABLE shows q
marked improvement OF the public health over
that of the corresponding week of last year. But
then the public health is not subject to depart
mcnt control or Legislative enactment.
Year: 1877

TIE REPUBLICAN SENATOR'S resolved in caucus
last night to reject the nomination of General
Mcclellan Superintendent of Public Works,
which action works utter ruin to large amount
of talk upon dead issues.
Year: 1877

An OLD METHOD Of ascertairing character and
capabilities was applied yesterday in the ease of
the Rev. Phnbe Hanaford, and if the satisfac-
ton rendered was great as reported we may
yet see the civil service reformed by o hitherto
unemployed agency. The President of the United
States, instead of Grazing his brain the COM
parative value of the recommendations of rivals
for any desirable office, need only tap his
bell for his private phrenologist and straight
way the best man will be designated If all
postmastcrs and collectors have phrcnologists as
signed to them for duty the unscrupuous will
know better than to apply for positions. Slate
makers in local politics will find the same plan
useful for, in spite of their experience, they do
not always nominate incompetent and dis
honest men us u careful chronological researcher
might discover In New York, however, the
system would bc doomed to failure; for the club
of the policeman like the rain from heaven falls
upon the just and the unjust and creates c1niiial
protnbcranccs which would drive any consci-
cntious phrcnologiss to the lunatic asylum.
Year: 1877

With respect to the financial condition of the country I shall not attempt an ex- tended history of the embarrassment and prostration which we have suffered dur ing the past three years. The depression in all our varied commercial and manu- factuping interests throughout the coun- try, which began in September, 1873 still continues. It is very gratifying, however, to be able to say that there are indications all around us of coming change to pros porous times. Upon the currency ques- tion, intimately connected as it is with this topic, I may be permitted to re- peat here the statement made in my letter of acceptance, that in my judgment the feeling of uncertainty inseperable from an irredeemable paper currency, with it's fluctuations of value, is one of the great est obstacles to return to prosperous times. The only safe paper currency is one which rests upon coin basis, and is

 at all times, and promptly, convertible into coin. I adhere to the views hereto fore expressed by me in favor of Con- gressional legislation in behalf of an early resumption of specie payments and lam satisfied not only that th1s is wise, but that the interests as we'll as the public senti- ment of the country lmperatively demand
Year: 1877

A MYSTERY. Ibid you ever notice
how a bachelor pauscs and looks scar.
cd Whenever, in the course Of his
walks, he happens TO encounter ba-
by carriage containng.twinsH Well,
II you should follow that man, you
would see him step out with unusual.
ly lively pace, humming swcetly,
"Ain't glad I'm out of the wilder
ness" And a few minutes later, II you
had the faculty Of looking through a
brick wall, you would see him sitting
on his trunk in scantily furnished
room in the top of four.story build.
ing, energctcally sowing on shirt but.
tons with a darning needle, without
the slightest profanity, and with n
look of calm and quiet content that an
angel would like TO borrow IL he was
going to have his picture taken.
Year: 1877

The question of morality or simple
honesty raised by the recent exposure of
the traffic called ''ticket-scalping," ought
not to be lost sight of. We are willing
to concede that there may be trade in
precepts of honesty, but it is certain that


the evidence of wholesale and extensive
frauds is so conclusive as to cast the
whole business under suspicion. 1t is
said that in some localities the scalpers


have dies and stamps, and that they
manufacture and forge the tickets, and
are thus able to undersell the railroads.
This is quite as bad as counterfeiting
money or forging draft. But even this
is not the worst phase of it. They are
often not merely dishonest themselves,


but the cause of dishonesty in Others.


They employ secret agents to seduce the
conductors and train agents into selling
the tickets taken up on the train, SO that


the scalpers may sell them over again.
Conductors who had hitherto borne un-


blemished regulations have yielded to
the temptations for theft artfully prepar-
ed for them by the secret agents OF the
ticket scalpers. Every man who deals


with the scalpers runs the risk of help


ing on this infamous complication Of
swindling. When he buys ticket from
scalper at price considerably below
that demanded by the railroad, the prob
ability is that he is buying stolen proper
ty and becoming receiver of stolen
goods. No man of sufficient honesty to


be trustworthy in ordinary business af-
fairs would consent to place himself in
such a position. Nor can any man Of


business now plead ignorance of the ma
ture of this nefarious traffic. 1t has been
so fully exposed and forced upon his at
tention that hereafter he who buys a
ticket from a scalper aids and abets a
traffic which nas been shown to be ini-
quitous in most of its operations.-BGt-
timOre Gazette.
Year: 1877

1t would be folly to assert that the
Republican party fully indorse the
Southern policy of President Hayes,
but what must be most gratifying to
the President is the unanimity with
which the party yield to his views ON
the subject, and their entire confidence
in the honesty of his motives. Should
his policy prove the success he aIticl-
pate, the Republican party will ac-
cord to him all honor, but should II
fail of the beneficent results which ne
prognosticates, he will not be slow TO
adopt new policy and knis Iallu,e
will be charged where 1t belongs-H1
the Southern people, who alone VIII, VIII,
be responsible and the pres'oent win
uot forfeit the confidence and esteem
of the party that elected him.
Year: 1877


Who is thy friend? The that shares thy pleasures
In banquet hall or beauty's witchng bowers
He that will dance with thee to follys measures,


And make no reckoning Of the squandered hours
To whom the revel and the game is all?
These the friends that help men to their fall.
Who is thy friend? The man that shares thy pride.


Thine hour of glory, or thy day of gain;
Who stands in every triumph by thy side,


And never finds that triumph false or vain,
But shapes his doctrine as thy humor goes9
These are the friends misfortune turns 10 foes.
Who is thy friend? The man that for his winning


To power or place hath need Of thine or thee.
Who will not fear thy risk. or blame thy SHINING.


SO IL but spread thy fortunes growing tree;
Whose praise is large, whose promise larger yet?
These are the friends that fail US and forget.
Who is thy friend9 The man of truth and trust


In gladness near. In sorrow nearer still;
To thy faults generous, TO thy merits just.


Thy help in every good from every i'll.
Whose love for the worlds hate might make amends
Alas for IL this life hath few such friends.
Who ia thy friend7 The best, the least regarded


In faith unfailing. and in love unchanged.
Through all the changeful years. though i'll rewarded


Give Him thy heart, so long and far estranged
And from thy broken reeds Of earth ascend,
To seek in heaven thine everlasting Friend
Year: 1877

WHEN TO SELL.-The producer will
profit more in the end by expecting
upon the earliest opportunity fair re-
numeration for his products, and
making immediate use of the money
they bring. than by holding on for
speculative rise, running the risk of a
heavy fall, and losing the use of the
money in the meantime. The Troy
Times relates the case of a farmer who
made it an invariable rule to turn his
crops into cash as soon as they were
ready for market, whatever the price
might be. Sometimes he lost, but more
frequently gained; and an experience of
thirty years convinced him that he had
made no mistake in adhering to the
rule. This case can doubtless be Offset
with innumerable instances where
farmers, waiting one, two or three
months longer than their neighbors,
have realized extraordinary profits. But
no mans experience is uniform in that
direction; and is as true of speculation
in the products of the farm as it is true
of speculation in Wall street; the pro-
portion of those who fail is ninety to
every ten who succeed.-RurdL Home.
Year: 1877

How TO SET THE HOUSE ON FIRE.
l. Rub your furniture with linseed oil,
and preserve carefully the old greasy
rags used for this purpose in paper-box
in an out-of-the-way place.


2. If the fire in the stove does not
burn well, pour benzine or kerosene on
it from well-filled gallon can.


8. When you light your cigar or gas
throw the burning match, no matter
where, and don't look after it, even If it
gets into the waste-paper basket.


4. Put burning candle on the shelf
Of a closet and forget all about it.


5. Always read in bed until you fall
asleep with burning candle near you.


6. Especially for builders: Put the
ends of the wooden beams into the fiue
walls. and if you build hot-air furnaces
be careful to use as much wood as possi-
BILE in their construction.


z. Always buy the cheapest kerosene
you can get.
Year: 1877

Among the strange incidents of the war
in the East is the eagerness the Russian
soldiers show for the purchase of the Bi-
bles sent for their use by the British and
Foreign Bible Society. Over sixty thous-
and Bibles have been bought by them
since the Russian armies crossed the Pruth.


An agent says that the readiness Of the
soldiers to buy is unparalleled in the ex-
perience Of The society's continental work.
1t is strange thing, he says, when fierce
looking Cossacks, armed to the teeth,
thank you ten times over for having
brought them the New Testament, and
when they can scarce be restrained in the
gladness of their hearts, from taking you
up in their bony arms to give you we'll.
meant hug of gratitude. .E


and not only do the men buy, but they
also read. The Russian soldier, he says,
has vet to be discovered who would speak
an irreverent word of the Holy Gospel.
The commanding officer has frequently
been the first to buy number for the peo-
pie, which he himself would distribute at
once us a gift to the common soldiers
around him. Philadelphia Post.
Year: 1877

Seward at the north, when the telegraph
flashed the news over northern wires that
he had ordered the arch rebels, Mason and
Slidell, to be released, and the bitter terms
of traitor to the Republican cause was ap-
piled extensively; but time developed the
fact that Seward was right, and that his
keen foresight and prudence was superior
to our indignant and shortsighted views.
We were not able to make war with Eng
land, and he was educated far enough
head of us to know that fact better than
we. Lincoln, upon whose action the en-
tire north depended for their relief from
the terrible maclstrom that the old ship Of
State was engulfed din, was traduced, Will
fed and accused of betraying his trust by
his slow and apparently useless move
ments, but when the time came he rang
the death knell to human bondage, but the
counterpart of what Fremont had started,
but too soon for the people to be reconciled
to it. Change of commanders in the army
fearful waiting, without ordering or al
lowing movements Of our great armies,
disheartened many of his former support
ers and warm adherants, and the party
was then threatened with an overthrow
as soon rs the soldiers could have voice
in the political field; time proved that we
were mistaken, and he knew better of the
magnitude and our great danger. These
are but few and feeble reminders, out of
the many that American history gives us
of the liability Of an impatient and hasty
people, to wrongfully denounce measures
that are being adopted and enforced in all
honesty and good faith for our benefit, and
possibly the only ones that work out re-
lief from threatened danger that our mar
row and partial vision does not discern.


No! Republicans do not be dlscourag-
ed. You that are such from principle will
not be, and if you cannot at present ap-
prove Of every measure the President adj
vocates, there is ample time to be apprised
of betrayal ifany ofyou fear that. Duty,
as we'll as love for the party that has been
the one that many OF us ever became
allied to, should keep us within its call
"OA" years are nothing new, only slight
ly disagreeable, and if they make you
uneasy, do as the Press d Dahotaian says
"a political experiment is going on, hold
your BREATH


All is we'll that ends we'll.
Year: 1877

personal pride and qualification to the
speaker that he could pay such tribute to
man OF such worth. Mentally and NOR
ally he was the peer OF any man in the old
Commonwealth, and his record was un-
spotted. Referring to Colonel Holidays
position on the public debt, he said he would
not detain the Convention with recital of
his views, as all who desired to know his
views could read his letter on the subject.
1t had been charged that Colonel Holidays
friends had formed some combination. He
desired to say that the charge was not true.
That Colonel Holiday himself was man
who knows very little about the highways
and byways across the political fields. It
was the intention OF Colonel Holidays
friends to use every fair and honorable
means to secure his nomination; beyond
that they would not 90. II, however, said
he to the Convention, you have any doubts
when your candidates are dropped where
to 60, cast your votes for Colonel +. w. NJ.
Holiday. He is the best rallying point in
the Convention. [Cheers and applause.]
Year: 1877

Mayor Yates and Drs. Nichols and Smith. Of New.
ark. a special committee Of the Board Of Health.
chosen ascertain tho facts regarding the alleged pol
luton Of the tassac in report just presented do
clare that "they have examined the matter carefully
by personal inspection OF the banks by testing
tho water taken at different points In tho course ol
the rivor, and Can confidently report that
taminaton Of tho water exists, produced by the
presence OF dead fish dcleerous matter such
degree as to be prejudcia 10 Tho public health" In
regard the collection and distribution OF tho water
the committee say:-"rhe water supplied to the city
Is derived from surface drainage aud natural sprnga
The quality Of tho surface drainage water varies
according TO the peculiarties OF tho season To thia
added tho salt which al high tide reaches the
pump works ~ BelcviIe, with some small amount OF
sewage matter from tho city On the ebb tide thcrc
probably mingled with tho matter
from the villages above The works, and yet from the
specimens collected aud tested the committee cannot
pronounce the water unhealthy"
Year: 1877

Education should consist much more
than it.docs in learning to do. TO act. TO
preform. The successful men of the
world are those who can accomplish The
ends of life, who can by their own en-
ergy and skill bring about grand and
useful results. Our educational insti-
tutions makes us learned, cultured. but
not sufficiently actors. One reason why
very often the young men who have
but little education from the schools
snrpass those who have lived for wears
in the college walls, is because they
have been trained TO action-action
gives strength and health. Culture
gives ease, grace and finish. They be-
long together. but have been separated.
Let them be brought once more into
some grand scheme of education. and
we shall have men and women as the
result, who can not only accomplish
noble work, but be IT the same time
fine scholars, with cultivated manners.
with grace and dignity of demeanor.
Year: 1877

whether produced by indigestion, improper food,
change of water or diet too free indulgence in ice
water, exposure to sudden changes of tempera.
ture, are Immediately relieved by II. One ounce
added to q gallon of
Year: 1877

| fatulency, sluggish digestion, want of tone and
| activity in the stomach and bowels oppression


after eating, are sure to be relieved by a single


dose taken after each meal great want exists
Year: 1877

the several States, to be used by them in
the support of public schools.


The general thought was approved by
the Convention. The plan OF distribu-
ton that commended itself TO them was
after this sort 1t was believed that the
most good would result from giving
most aid where most needed. Many OF the
States where the common school system
mas been long in operation are strong IN
support of their schools, which have
become firmly entrenched in the minds
and hearts of the people, and they are
able to carry them on.


Other States are comparatively weak.
Some have recently come out of dread
ful struggle with their resources crippled,
their ability to pay reduced, and at
the same time, by reason of this
freeing OF the blacks, with a largely in
creased number OF schoolsble youth
upon their hands, this added number
being in the main too poor to help them
selves.


To meet this pressing need in certain
quarters it was suggested by the con-
vention that the funds thus arising should
for time be divided among the sew
ersl States in proportion to the enumera-
tion OF youth between say ten sndtwenty-
one years on the basis of illiteracy.


The project of establishing grand
National University at Washington WAS
not entertained with favor.


The convention was treated with
special attention and consideration, and
It's deliberations watched with interest by
distinguished men, occupying high OIL
cial positions.
Year: 1877

NASHVILLE, December l7.-At five
o'clock yesterday morning the hardware
store OF Messrs Hughes Il Go. was dis
covered to be on fire. When the fire
was cxtnguished the building was found
to contain ll9 pounds of powder, which
was placed in three different parts OF the
house. One hundred and ninety-siI
bales of cotton, saturated with coal oil,
were scattered over the house Seventy
three pounds of powder in bulk YVES
within three feet of where the fire was
hot enough TO met metallic spoon. Had
either package of powder exploded 1t
might have killed the entire FIRE depart.
ment. The men were working m the
rear and front and IN very close ProIlm-
ity to the fire. The house WAS fired IN
four places The books OF the firm were
burned. The stock WAS insured for nine
thousand dollars.
Year: 1877

the inquiry. every easily. man, You see, buries
his wife and orders a stone for her grave from
some distant point. Before il is finished and de-
lvercd he will have another wife and IN that event
il il ten 10 one that he will decline TO take the stone
unless the freight has been prepaid. We insist now
ON prepayment for that kind of property. for we
have accumulated gravestOnes enough To start bIB
cemetery, and on that sort Of thing 1t Is pretty
hard to rcalize.D An instance like this put INTO
story would be called cynlcism, or at Least an Ill-
naturcd fancy. But railway corporations are neither
cynical nor fancifu. They simply feel that they
can't afford to be made responsible for mans
change Of affection until they experience a change
Of purse