smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1874

The yule log is of very ancient origin,
and is undoubtedly a relic handed
down to us from the ecandinavians,
who were accustomed at their winter
festivities to burn, amid great pomp
and splendor, bonfire, to their god Thor.
With less pomp and show the burning
of the yule log has been maintained as
Christmas Eve custom. We imagine
that it was not unlike the social old
black log of modern time, but now a
relic of the past. The yule log was
drawn from the woods with great rejoic-
ing, and every passer made obeisance to
it as the emblem of welcome and cheer.
At the close Of the festivities the partial
ly-burned log was carried to the cellar
until the next anniversary, when it was
used to light the new log. 1t was pop
ular notion that if the partly-burned log
was in the cellar the house was secure
from fire. 1t was considered a bad
omen if squint-eyed person entered the
house while the log was burning. As
an attendant upon the yule log was the
yule or Christmas candle, which was a
candle of magnificent proportions that
was placed upon the festive board, and
shed its joy-giving light throughout
the house. The lighting of the yule log
was the commencing of all manner OF
sports and games.
Year: 1874

DIR. Hall says that it quite mistaken
notion which leads many persons to
sleep in cold rooms; the generality of
people cannot safely sleep in room
where the atmosphere is under fifty de-
grees Fahrenheit. Many persons wake up
in the morning with Inflammation of the
lungs who went to bed well, and are
surprised that this should be the case.
The cause may often be found in sleep
ing in a room the window of which has
been foolishly hoisted for ventilation
The water-cure journals of the country
have done an incalculable injury by the
blind and indiscriminate advice of hois-
ting the window at night. The rule
should be everywhere during the part OF
the year when fires are kept burning to
avoid hosting outside windows. 1t is
safer and better to leave the chamber
door open, as also the Fireplace; then
there is draft up the chimney, while
the room is not so likely to become cold
If there is some fire in the room al
night the window may be opened al
inch. 1t is safer to sleep in a bad all
all night with a temperature over fifty
than in pure air with a temperature
under forty. The bad air may sicker
you, but cannot kill you; the cold ail
can and does kill very often.
Year: 1874

A few evenings since a Detroit chap
was sparkling west side girl who wore
an Elizabethian ruff. Expecting his
coming, she had dressed herself for the
occasion, and the ruff, stiff as an unre-
stricted- use of satin starch could make
it, was of the most stunning character.
The lover came at the othodox time,
and was ushered into the parlor, where
the enchanting maiden and her father
and mother were seated. He was cor
daily received, and the evening passed
pleasantly, although the old folks sat up
good deal longer than the young folks
thought necessary. Finally they went
to bed, and the twain were left alone
After a certain amount of bashfulness,
the maiden consented to her lovers re-
quest for kiss. He essayed to take it,
but was met on every point by bristling
wall of tatiatan and starch. He came
up in front, and was g6uged in the eye.
He sidled up to her, and the right hand
prong cut one of his ears half off. He
attempted to reach the prize over her
shoulder; and checaua de .frize of lace
tickled his nose until he was obliged to
sneeze. Then the maiden came to the
rescue, and held down one side of the
provoking ruff, and again the lover ad-
vanced. Just as he had all but reached
her blooming cheek, the damsel lost her
grip, and the razor decoration flew up
with force that took an "under bit out
of his right ear" Then he got mad
Then they both got mad, and an antici.
pated wedding has come to a premature
end Ddnbury Neuos.
Year: 1874

The other morning" says the Detroit
Free Press "two farmers and their fami
lies, who were driving to Maiden to at
tend church, noticed, when about eight
miles below, or near the town, a ships
yawl on the lake, heading towards the
beach and about half mile away. They
could plainly make out man in the
stern sheets steering the boat with an
oar, and, although there were no vessels
in sight, the morning was so pleasant and
that the man had put out from shore to
pick up something, and but little atten-
tion was paid to the yawl. Passing the
same spot on their return, the men found
the yawl hard on the beach, and the man
sitting stiff and motionless in her stern.
Leaving their wagons, they discovered
that the man was ifeless and frozen as
hard as a rock. He sat bolt upright on
the seat, the oar out behind and both
hands grasping the handle, and it re-
quired hard work to wrench it from his
death grip. There was about foot of
water in the boat, but the craft did not
show hard usage. The mans legs were
almost covered with ice up as far as his
knees, and the spray had dashed over
his back and shoulders and frozen there.
There was no name on the boat, and the
person who brought the information to
Windsor could not say that anything
was found on the person of the man to
reveal his identity nor show how lie had
been cast adrift. 1t is not believed that
he put off from any vessel, but it is the
theory of some of the marine men that
he was driven from some of the islands
or from some point down the shore. No
one could say how long he had been
afioat or when death overlook him, but
he must have been dead at least three
days or more. There was neither mast
nor sail to the boat, and there was moth
in it but the one oar, showing that the
poor fellow had not intended a long trip
blown off the shore. He had used his
oar to keep before the wind. and had
frozen to death on his seat. For days,
and perhaps for a fortnight, the frozen
man sat there with his icy fingers clinch-
ing to the ashen oar, and the gales and
the waves spared him to reach the shore
and receive Christian burial, while a
score of hardy men who manned a
staunch propeller, saw her go down to a
grave in the deep waters and followed
| a flor
Year: 1874

From the New York World.


Great fear and trembling which made
all his bones to shake fell of late on the
Pennsylvania pedagogue who, looking
forth along the serried benches and the
rugose perspective of whitfield desks,
saw one by one his pupils, as with com
mon catalepsy, doubling in helples coli
lapse and tumbling lifeless upon the
floor Since the "four times fifty living
men" fell before the wizard eye Of the
ancient mariner no such mysterious top
ping of human ninepines had been
known in human experience or record
ed human story. We can only cOnjec-
ture what the terrified pedAgogue did in
this ghastly conjuncture, but it is like
ly that he enacted some lively exploits
of investigation. He was rewarded by
the discovery that the stoyepipe was dis
placed and was pouring volumes Of coal
gas into the room where the pupils sat
convulsed with fractions and saddened
with alb abs. Of course they tumbled
off their benches, and of course the
watchful and intelligent schoolmaster
broke all the windows, opened the door,
carried the scholars out and laid them
in rows along the landscape; and then,
with great presence of mind and resolu-
tion, readjusted the stovspipe. The
children, we are happy to record, all
came to life at length; and we comment
upon the strange occurrence not so much
for the purpose of cautioning school
masters to keep constant eye on their
respective stovepipes, as for that of ex-
pressing anew our conviction that, ow-
ing to the ignorance and incapacity of
architects or district commissioners, an
immense number of children in this
country pursue their studies amid pois-
oned atmosphere, and drink in disease
while they are learning to spell and
cipher. It is not often that they tumble
off their benches one after another as
did asphyxiated children the other day
in Pennsylvania, but the furnace hue,
with its withering sirocco blast, if it
poisons less swiftly than the displaced
stovepipe, does so hardly less surely.
And the intelligent schoolmaster may
correct the displacement of the latter.


But the former he has no power over,
and while helpless to arrest the slow
suffocation of his pupils is compelled to
inhale the poison with them.
Year: 1874

The season having arrived in which
people throughout the country are de-
iberating upon the allowance of read
ing matter which they can afford for the
year to come, the Inter-Ocean desires to
offer its word of advice on the subject.
The best indication of the thrift, intel


igence, and public spirit of any COM
munity is evidenced to the outside
world by well supported, neatly printed,
sprightly and carefully edited local
journals. There are many such on our
exchange list, and we would like to name
several that is always pleasure for us
distinctions would seem invidous. In
no way, through no conceivable channel,
can the wants, aspirations, or conse-
quence of any locality or community be-
come so well known to the world at
large as through its home papers. If
the reader will call to mind any inland
town near his residence, which enjoys a
fine reputation all over the land, he will
find that such place is favored with
an excellent paper, the editor of which
Is wide awake and alive to all of its in
terests, jealous in protecting its good
name, and untiring in his efforts to pro-
mote its welfare. Such papers and such
men deserve the highest rewards and the
most thorough appreciation at the hands
of the people for whom they are per-
forming so useful and noble mission.
This being true-and no one will dis
pute the premises-it follows that the
first duty of the people in the interior
is to subscribe and pay for their own
home paper before looking abroad for
more reading matter of any kind. Do
not put off paying for the local paper,
or seek to make it matter of barter,
hut make glad the heart of the edi-
tor and publisher by paying him in
the only medium which will buy paper
and labor. This religious duty per-
formed, the Inter-Ocean will not only
commend your judgment, but be glad to
continue your name upon its books,
promising you everything you can ex-
pect from a journal devoted to all the
general topics of the times. But we
never solicit patronage, nor seek in any
manner to advance our own interests to
the disadvantage of the local press, for
it fills measure of the highest useful
ness outside of our field of labor, and
with which we have neither the disposi-
tion nor the ability to compete. No
moneys should be transmitted to the
city papers until these faithful conserva-
tors of home interests are secured and
paid for during the year 1874. Having
served long apprenticeship in the bu-
siness of our country journalism, we
feel we have an experience and appreci-
alton of the merits and usefulness which
justifes US in this emphatic expression
in their behalf Chicago Inter Ocean.
Year: 1874

Englishmen who visit this country are
very apt to forget that our servant girls
refuse to perform several duties which
devolve upon them in the old country
as a matter of course. Cleaning boots
is one of these. In England the mas
ter of a house where even oniv one ser.


want is kept, sends his boots to the
kitchen every morning to be cleaned,
and IL he comes to the United States he
naturally supposes the same Office will
be done for him by the same hand
When the Rev. Newman Hall was in
Oberlin he was the guest 'of President
Fairchild, and the morning after his ar
rival he sent his boots below for an OBJ
vious purpose. They were not returned
to him when the bell called him to the
breakfast room, and he appeared in his
toilet slippers. President Fairchild
noticed this, and he also noticed pair
of strange boots in a strange place. He
would probably have as soon thought OF
asking the kitchen maid TO verify a qno-
tation for him as to black his visitors
boots and SO he blacked them himself.
The Oberlin Times, in narrating this an
ecdote, divertingly adds: "This is only
another circumstance confirming the
truth that no man, whether his station
be high or low, that ever comes tC
oberlin but that in departing he carries
with him, in some form or other, mor'
or less OF the native polish Of the place
Year: 1874

Under the head of "One of the Ways
of the World" an exchange gets off the
following: "a farmer cut down n tree
which stood 80 near the boundary line Of
his farm that it was doubtful whether
it belonged to him or his neighbor.-
The neighbor, however, claimed the tree,
and prosecuted the man who cut il for
damages. The case was sent from court
to court. Time was wasted, temper
soured and money lost; but the case was
gained finanAlly by the prosecutor. The
last we heard of the transaction was
that the man who gained the case went
to the lawyers Office to execute deed
of his whole farm, which he had been
compelled to sell to pay his costs. Then,
houseless and homeless, he thrust his
hands into his pockets and triumphant.
! Iy exclaimed, I've beat himP
Year: 1874

Several years ago, when 1 was re-
turning from tour to the West, 1 put
up at small town near the Allegheny
Mountains. Whilst was sitting, watch
ing the variegated hues produced by the
ray of the setting sun upon that wild,
rough, mountain scenery, saw eight or
nine large baggage Wagons approach
ing, drawn by four and some of them by
six horses. now ascertained that the
tavern where I was stopping, was reg
ular lodging place for those strong,
coarse mountain wagoners. A short
distance from the place where / was sit
ting, in front of the house, was a pump,
with large trough, which was used for
watering horses. The handle of this
pump, noticed, always sprung up
whenever any one got through using it.
Some pump handles, you know, always
fall down; this sprung up 50 othat a per-
son, when pumping, had no occasion to
lift the handle, it raised itself


At the time the string of wagons ap-
preached the tavern, there was but lit
tie water in the trough near enough
to supply the horses. Imagine, if you
can, my pleasure and surprise, to see
one of the horses that was first unhar-
messed, go to the pump, lay his head
over the handle, press it down, and make
the water issue from the spout. As he
raised his head, the handle would spring
up; but down again he would press it,
and force the water into the trough. In
this manner that horse kept pumping
with his head, until all the horses had
finished drinking. He then left the
handle, went round to the trough, drank
as much as he wanted himself, and then
deliberately walked into the stable an6
took his place in one of the stalls"
Year: 1874

We count the broken Tyres that rest


Where the sweet wailing singers slumber;
But Ger the silent sisters breast


The wild flowers who will stoop TO number;
A few can touch the magic string,


And noisy fame is proud to win them;
Alas for those that never sing


But die with all the music in them
Nay, grieve not for the dead alone,


Whose song has told their hearts sad story;
Weep for the voieeless, who have known


The cross but not the crown of glory
Not where Leucadian breezes sweep


O'er Sappho's memory-haunted billows,
But where the glistening night dews weep
On nameless sorrows ehureh-yard pillow.
o hearts that break and give no sign,
Save whitening lips and fading tresseS
Till Death pours out his cordial wine,


SlOw-dropped from Misery's crushing presses;
If singing breath or echOing chord


To every hidden pang were given,
What endless melodies were poured,


As sad as earth, as sweet as heaven.
Year: 1874

A MoRPHINE-IsT.-The Louisville
CoHrier-Journal says that young lady
in that city CONSUMES bottle Of NOR
Phine every two days. A night or two
ago she rushed into certain drug store
and threw dollar bill ON The counter.
The clerk, knowing what she came for,
instantly handed her a bottle Of the
deadly narcotic. She instantly jerked
the cork from the bottle and, exhibiting
symptoms Of excitement, poured out the
contents until the palm Of her hand was
fairly covered; then, with the greediness
Of child eating sugar, licked the pow
der from her hand and swallowed It.
Then she drank a little water and walk
ed from the store with the utmost compo-
sure"
Year: 1874

i have known country society which
withered under the "dry rot" of gossip
only. Friendships once firm as granite
dissolved to jelly, and then to water,
because of this; love that promised a
future enduring as heaven, and stable
as truth, evaporated into a morning
mist, that turned to days long tears,
just because of this.


A father and son were set foot to foot
with the breath of anger, that would
never cool again, between them, only
because of this; and husband and his
wife, each straining at the lash, which
in the beginning had been the golden
bond of Godblessed love, stand by
where their love and joy lay buried,
only because of this.


/ have seen faith transformed to
doubt, hppe give place to despair, and
charity take the features malevolence,
all because of words of scandal, and the
mutterings of gossip.


Crimes work wrongs, and the TRACE
dies of life spring from its passions
but woeful are the uncatalogued trage-
dies that issue from gossip; mournful
the shipwreck made Of noble natures
by the dead sea-water of slander. Sc
easy to say, yet so hard to refute-throw-
ing blame on the innocent, and punish.
ing them as if guilty, if unable tc
silence words they never heard, perhaps
Gossip and slander are the deadiiest
Year: 1874

The cotton planters in various parts
Of the South are entering into written
obligations to reduce the amount Of land
devoted to next years cotton crop by o.
least one-third, in order to secure better
prices for the cotton raised and better
supply Of provisions. Throughout the
interior Of Louisiana and neighboring
States provisions are scarce and high.
while cotton is too low to pay the cos,
of production. Such a condition OF
things can not, Of course, be maintained.
The movement is wise one.
Year: 1874

Aaron Goodrich, who has spent seven
years in Belgium looking the matter up
will tell the world in a book TO be pub
lished by the Appletons, next year. that
the name Christopher Columbus was an
alias or a nickname, and that the old
man didn't discover America at an. a
little rest in the matter Of these start
ling historical discoveries viii now be
in order
Year: 1874

The New York World, describing
Wednesday, fog in that city, says cat
half-Past 9 A.. NJ, the fog in the streets
was SO dense that person could not
recognize intimate acquaintance Mt dis
tance Of more than twenty feet People
standing on the street corners wish
ing to take car, heard the cars rolling
by and the bells jingling, but saw moth
ing. 1t was necessary to go out into the
middle of the street and stand close to
the track, and then risk hailing the
wrong carr
Year: 1874

The officers of the Association inform Us that
from present appearances the number of people
and horses will far exceed that Of he State Fair
held here two years ago, Ample accommoda-
tions are making to accommodate all the cXcur-
sion and picnic parties tina. will be here. Henry
Walthcr is going to cater for the crowd and in
tends to supply his tables with all the substan-
tials and luxuries Of the season. Willis will be
on hand with music for dancing. Also several
base ball clubs will be present to amuse the
crowd.
Year: 1874

FREAKs or LIGHTSING.-On Thursday after
noon last there was heavy wind storm accom-
panied with rain and considerable electricity.
Loud and frequent pcals Of thunder were heard
and the eye frequently dazz!ed for an instant by
brilliant lightning.


The telegraph pole in front Of Kneussps drug
store and the one next west were struck appar-
emily simultaneously, and the wire between In
stantly melted. Little spdrkles or balls OF blaz-
inr fire fell at both poles in showers, one Of them
burning a hole in DR.. Godfrcy's coat as that gen
tleman was standing upon the walk in front of
the drug store Every one along the street be-
tween the points where the Lightning struck was
more or less shocked and momcntarily blinded
bv the sudden, dazzling light. The subtle fluid
ran along the wire and entered the telegraph
Office of the Great Western line. The operator,
a lady. had lust thrown or the connection 20 pro
tect the instrument and SIN held hook q
the ground wire in her hand when tremendous
fash and shock came and when she rccoYcrcl
herself the instrument was partially destroyed
and the hook Of the ground wire melted in hoG
hand, and bits Of the other wire co.lcd up around
her like so many little snakes. Her life was
saved because the ground wire was all right, the
greater portion Of the electricity having passed
into the earth.
Year: 1874

them to arise, which they did, remarking that
il was rather early for call. The constable
told them they were wanted at Leland very
much and he would escort them there with
pleasure They finally settled by. paying the
constable for his trouble and retunding the
Year: 1874

They have a delightful charity at
Boston, called the Boston Flower
Mission," the object Of which is to
tighten up the sick wards of hospitals
with gifts OF flowers, and by their pres
ence to cheer the hearts Of the poor
suffering patients by their fragrance and
beauty. During the past five months
the ladies of this mission have received
nearly eight hundred contributions of
flowers and one hundred and thirteen
Of fruit, and in the same period the
number of their flower distributions
exceeded thirteen Thousand, and the
fruit distributions nearly reached six
teen hundred. The wealthy in Boston
sent liberally of the flowers and fruit
from their Conservatives for this gra-
cious charity, and great numbers in the
adjacent cities joined to swell the beau
tiful and heart-gladdening gifts. One
person, who is known in Boston as 'the
Pansy- during the past flower
season, brought in over six thousand of
the beautiful purple flower after which
he is named, which were distributed
among the sick ''for thoughts" This
is q graceful charity, and certainly is of
the kind that is "twice blessed"