smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1877

A SOUTHERN war claim has been pushed
through the House by majority of one.
The claim was for property seized by the
Union troops in New Orleans, and there was
not even pretense that the claimants were
loyal. This is the entering wedge. If the
Democrats get full control of the government
they will pay out millions from the Treasury
to these Southern beggars. Unless we want
to indemnify the South for the losses it suf-
fered by going into the rebellion we must take
care that the Democratic party does not come
into power. The first thing for us to do is to
regain possession of the House.
Year: 1877

Joseph Cook says that ''the innermost
laughter of the soul at itself it rarely hears
more than three times without hearing it for
ever" That is to say, the subcutaneous each.
ination Of the ego at the ego:c dilemma con-
forms to the old rule-three times and out.
Year: 1877

The cold world little realizes the sense of
desolation that shuts down on a man who
thinks be has been handed too much change
by his grocer when he lodges around the cor
ner and finds it right to cent,
Year: 1877

1t was in Pennsylvania. He proposed to the
daughter of a neighbor. She laughed at him
and told him she was going to marry another
mana rival whom he dislked. He then went
home and hanged himself. When she heard
of his death she cried out, "Oh, intended to
marry Billy. was only teasing him." and be-
came unconscious. So it would appear that
Billy was none too soon In hanging himself.
Year: 1877

Elections are like the mumps If they
didn't exist We shouldn't know tho infinite
delight of being through with then.


Icelanders are fond OF rancid butter, which
looks as though nature had designed one
race on purpose to live In boarding houses.
Year: 1877

From the San Francesca Mining & Scientific Press ot June 16:

 The feature of the week past has been the extremely warm weather, which has lasted so much longer than our usual hot spells at thIs time of year. The weather has been the Lot test ever experienced in California The whole State has had broil. The hottest record was at Soledad, where Fahrenheit was 12e deg. Through the interior there were varying heats, from l06 to 1l3 deg in the city the highest point was 90 degrees; bu. this cOmpar- alively moderate heat is greater than we have had in June for the last five years. The most notable fact of tLe heating was Its long duration. h. stead of yielding at the end of three days lease of power the burning sun clung to Us for full five days; but now the spell is past and the city brealhes again.
Year: 1877

AGENT JOIN P. CLUM has very prop erly insisted by telegraph to Washing ton, on the naming of his successor to receive the government property under his charge; saying that under no cir cumslances would he submit to an iG- spection on his reserve by other than civil officers. No man with a manly or honest impulse in him could do otherwise.
Year: 1877

TIE NEW YORK HERALD had a ca ble report from London of General Grants reception covering one page of that paper The cost of that one dispatch would give most country pa prs the quick consumption or some other equally fatal disease.
Year: 1877

TIE Rlo Grande papers complain of the irregularity of the mails over that way, and we have reason to believe the complaint well founded. We have no report that ;he horseback service has been dispensed with east of Silver City.
Year: 1877

MINING supplies form very promi- nent feature in the trade of Tucson, and the quantity sold is constantly in IcreaSing. This tells well for this sec ton and shows a gradual increase of wLat will eventually be by far the greatest industry in the Territory.
Year: 1877

THE stages between here and Flor ence now run directly from Desert station and not via PicachO. The proprietors will cut down few breaks in the road where arroyos cross it, and then it will be quite smooth, and they claim it is at least twelve miles short CT, and all in all, the use of it prove a large saving.
Year: 1877

MINING stocks in San Francisco are now pointing upward, and we are glad of it for various reasons, and partlcu- larly because when stocks bring good, large price, men are much more will ing to embark in legitimate mining.
Year: 1877

Sunday is a good day for the study of nature. A Sunday walk ought to be a regular part of Sunday observance in all families that live in the country or can easily get to it. We do not recom- mend riding, for that generally re- quires some one to work-the coach man, or at all events the horse, who in most cases needs his Sunday as we'll as folks. But no exercise can we'll be more profitable than a quiet walk in the woods as the sun is setting, with the father or mother or both. This is the time to teach your children to ob- serve those beauties and wonders in nature the study of which is the best and surest protection against the later assaults of atheism or even irreligion. The boy who has been thus taught to see God in everything will be far more likely to remember him in after life than if he spent the same time in com- hitting to memory catechism which he can by no possibility understand. But do not be too didactic. Let him learn his own lessons. It is quite enough if you answer his questions.-Christian Union.
Year: 1877

A regiment quartered at certain town in Scotland had among them an expert gymnast, who taught his brother subalterns how to walk across the bar rack room on their hands. While en- gagged one evening the door opened and the colonel, stern disclplinarian, en- tered the room, looked attentively at the inverted company, shook his head gravely and departed without uttering word. An order to be on parade next morning was the least punishment ex- pected for this breach of discipline. Some days passed, however. and no notice being taken, it was thought an apology and explanation should be of- fered by the prime instlgator of these unsoldierly movements. A reference

 being made to the memorable night the colonel amazed the intended apologist by exclaiming: "Hush, sergeant, would not have anybody know it for the world! The fact is, I had been dining out with an old brother officer who had served with me in India, and 'pon my life I had no idea the wine could have had such an effect upon me,

 but when came to see if you were all right in your quarters 1 could have sworn that l saw you all upside down."
Year: 1877

The mischief of the little field mice is done so quietly and adroitly that few are ever caught at it, and much of the blame is put on the moles, squirrels and Woodchucks that have enough sins of their own to answer for. The meadow mouse of Europe, which is very like our own, forty or fifty years ago came near causing a famine in parts of England, ruining the crops before they could get fairly started, and killing almost all the young trees in the orchards and woods. More than thirty thousand of the little rascals were trapped in one month in q single piece of forest, beside all those killed by animals. About year ago. too, similar disaster was threatened in Scotland, where millions of mice ap- peared, and gnawed off the young grass at the root just as it should have been ill prime condition for the sheep; and when that was all gone they attacked the garden vegetables. The people lost vast numbers of sheep and lambs from starvation and thousands of dollars worth of food, but, finally, by all together waging war against them, the pests were partially killed off. They did in neither case come suddenly, but had been increasing steadily for years previously, because the game keepers had killed so many of the "ver- min" Gas owls, hawks, weasels, snakes &c., are wrongly called), which keep their numbers down. Farmers are slow to learn that it doesn't pay to kill the birds or rob their nests: but the boys and girls ought to understand this truth and remember it.. In this coun- try the greatest mischief done by the field mice is the gnawing of bark from the trees, so that in some of the Vest ern States this is the most serious diff culty the orchardist has to contend with, Whole rows of young trees in nurseries are stripped of their bark, and of course die; and where apple seeds are planted the mice are sure to dig half of them up to eat the kernels. This mischief is mainly done in the winter when the trees are packed away from the

 

 cause then the mice can move about concealed under the snow and nibble all the bark away up to the surface. Rabbits get much of the credit for this naughty work, for they do good deal of it on their own account. The gar dener has the same trouble of often finding, when he uncovers a rare and costly plant ill the spring, that the mice have enjoyed good winter quarters in the straw covering and have been gnawing to death his choicest roses. Millions of dollars, perhaps, would not pay for all the damage these small creatures thus accomplish each year in the United States, and we fear they will become more and more of a plague if we continue to kill off the harmless hawks, owls, butcher birds and snakes, which are the policemen appointed by nature to look after the mice and protect us against them.-St. NichOldS.
Year: 1877

Extreme busyness, whether at school or college, kirk or market, is a symptom of deficient vitality; and faculty for idleness implies catholic appetite and strong sense of personal identity. There is a sort of dead-alive, hackneyed people about, who are scarcely con- scious of living except in the exercise of some conventional occupation. Bring these fellows into the country, or set them aboard ship, and you will see how they pine for their desk or their study. They have no curiosity; they cannot give themselves over to random provo cations; they do not take pleasure in the exercise of their faculties for it's own sake; and unless necessity lays about them with stick, they will even stand still. It is no good speaking to such folk, they cannot be idle, their na- ture is not generous enough; and they pass those hours in sort of coma which are not dedicated to furious moiling in the gold mill. Whene they do not re- quire to go to the office, when they are not hungry and have no mind to drink, the whole breathing world is blank to them. If they have to wait an hour or so for train, they fall into stupid trance with their eyes open. To see them, you would suppose there was nothing to look at and no one to speak with; you would imagine they were paralyzed or alienated; and yet very possibly they are hard workers in their own way, and have good eyesight for a flaw in deed or turn of the market, They have been to school and college, but all the time they had their eye on the medal; they have gone about in the world and mixed with clever people, but all the tune they were thinking of their own affairs. As if a mans soul were not too small to begin with, they have dwarfed and narrowed theirs by life of all work and no play; until here they are at forty, with listless atten- tion, mind vacant of all material of amusement, and not one thought to rub against another while they wait for the train. Before he was breeched, he might have clambered on the boxes: when he was twenty he would have stared at the girls; but now the pipe is smoked out, the snuff-b empty, and the gentleman sits bolt upright upon a bench, with lamentable eyes. This does not appeal to me as being success in life.-The Cormhil Moqaztne.
Year: 1877

It seems that Moon mountain, in the southwestern part of the town of Mon- son, Mass, has veritable Indian legend attached to it, fantastic and romantic enough to suit the most fanciful. Of course, it's date is ages and ages ago, and most beautiful maiden is con- cerned with an unpronOlnceable name, but called, for short, ,Ke-wa-goosh-tunk kum-can-go-wock, which means some- thing about the top of mountain and the bottom of river, for she was born on the top of Moon mountain, and her mother, who died at the time, prophesied that in death her daughter should rest among the rocks at the bottom of Chi copee river. She grew to young womanhOod, and became her fathers darling and solace, to give him part ing caress when he went to the chase or to war, and to welcome him on his return. One day, when her father was gone, there came a terrible thunder storm, and at it's height there appeared at the door of the wigwam a young h. dian brave, who asked and was granted | shelter. The rain continued to pour and lightning, and the thunder that followed brought a coal black steed Just then heavy gust of wind blew away the wigwam, and the couple were left exposed to the elements. Then the white steed opened his mouth and said Maiden, your father is dying, and sent me to carry you to him;" and the black steed said, "Young brave, this maiden s father sent me to carry you as company for this maiden" So they mounted the horses and rode away with the speed of the lightning toward the west. When they came to the place where her father had been, he had been taken away, and they told her that spirit horse had taken him to his home. So they turned their faces toward the east again, and when they came to where their wigwam had stood they found an old man there, who said that her father had returned, but not finding her, he had driven his horse down to the river; so toward the Chicopee this Indian maiden and the brave made their way, and as

 

 father in an airy boat on the dark wa ters, being forced by an invisible power up the stream. He saw her and said: "Come not to me, oh my daughter; I am going to the happy hunting grounds. The Great Spirit has sent you pro- tector in the brave at your side. Fare well, will see youno morev' Then the airy boat disappeared and her father with it. Frantic with grief, the maiden urged her steed into the waters, and the brave followed. When they arrived at the spot where her father went down, the horses vanished from under them and they were left struggling in the waters. Then her father again appeared and said, My children, receive my blessing," and they all went down to- gether and were never seen again, not even through the mediums of the Spirit ualists. The moral of the story is ap- parent, as in most "big Injun" stories.
Year: 1877

even yield then. His last words were |: "DOn't give up the vessel. You will be able to beat them off The two parties were so near together that Mugford's mate seeing the flash of the officers pistol that killed his captain, transtiXcd that man (who proved to be the young nobleman in command, ) with his spear and tore open his body. The enemy retired at the end of half an hour leaving large number of killed and wounded. The scene, the next day, as the privateer sailed into Marblehead, was thrilling. The whole population, the news of Mugford's he- roism, having just reached the town, turned out to welcome him. No heart beat higher or more gladly than his wife's. She had secured him once from the enemy, and now he had captured the most valuable prize from the enemy since the war began. No news of the evening of the engagement had reached the people,, The flag at haif-mast was the only tidings ofevil. The town was profoundly moved when it heard of the death and received his dead body. His exploit reminds one of the capture of IiconderOga by Ethan Allen, Gin the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress" the year before. 1t was in some respects one of the most brilliant naval duels of the Revolution.
Year: 1877

A great deal of talent is lost in the world for the want of little courage. Every day sends to the grave a number of obscure men who have only remained in obscurity because their timidity has prevented them from making a first eff fort, and who, if they could have been induced to begin, would in all proba- bility have gone great lengths in fame. The fact is, to do anything in the world worth doing. we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and the danger, but just jump in and scram- ble through as we'll as we can. It will not do to be perpetually calculating risks and adjusting nice chances. Itdid very well long before the flood, when a man could support his friend upon an in- tended publication for hunred and fifty years, and then live to see it's slc- cess afterward. But at present man waits and doubts, and hesitates and consults his brother, and his uncle, and his particular friends, until one day he finds he is sixty years of age; then he has lost so much time in consulting his first cousin and particular friends that he has no time to follow their advice.
Year: 1877

hieing away to the fields in an irregu- lar and disorderly manner. A dozen examinations of the bushes in which these unruly conventions had been held failed, with single exception, to fur nish any intelligible cause, and in that one case there was found poor escaped and half frightened = to death canary bird. The hedge sparrow is destitute of the of the impudence of the house sparrow, and this is no doubt largely due to the enterprise of that European institution, the crow boy, whose duty it is to perambulate the grain fields to scare away the birds, especially the crows and sparrows, and whose earthly happiness appears to be measured by his capability to make unearthly wells, produced at the back of the throat and audible quarter of mile distant. Oc- casionally ''crow boy" will vary his | occupation by inventing an alarm note of his own, the whole sound, however, 1 rarely containing more than four notes.

 The English farmer resorts to numer- ous strategic expedients to rid himself of his superfiuous stock of sparrows, one of the most successful of which is to hold bird net close to a stack of hay or wheat in the winter nights, and placing lantern near the middle of the net, they beat the stack with sticks, whereupon the sparrows fly to the light and are caught, terminating their tan- gible existence in the sparrow pie which next day graces the farmers toble.

 Returning, however, to the sparrows in the country. They are nearly all house sparrows, and while sparrow with white feather or feathers is quite curiosity in England or France, they are quite common in and about New York city. They form at least five per cent. of the whole, while about ten per cent. of the female birds have their plumage interspersed with partly white feathers. In the City Hall Park may be seen at any time some sparrows with plumage lighter than others. At Bloomingdale some are seen unusually light. The European sparrow moves with clean and distinct hop, rising from the ground and making percep- tible pause between each hop; but the sparrows at Bloomingdale make a suc- cession of quick hops with very little rise, amounting to a short run, and stopping very short, resembling some- what the movement of the American robin. In fact, the result of ten years of observation is that the habits of the American sparrow are undergoing a steady change, and he appears to be entertaining somewhat of disdain for the insectivorousness to which he owes his importation, forgetful that in no other way can he pay his passage mOney.-Scientifc Anericdn,
Year: 1877

A FOUNTAIN on a CHURCH STERILE
Last evening the eyes of hundreds OF per-
sons on the streets were directed toward the
top of the spire of the new Catholic church,
where was seen a fountain spouting nu-
merous jets high in the air. A large iron
pipe is carried up through the steeple to
the la rye cross. The pipe then takes the
form of the cross, behind which it is hid
den, and from holes perforated at proper
Intervals the jets are sent up. From the
top OF the cross and from the end of each
arm large streams ascend TO the height OF
are thrown up great number of smaller
jets. The height of the top of the cross
fr ON the ground is one hundred and sew
enty feet, and last evening, the air being
calm, the numerous jets spread out in the
shape of fan. The rays OF the declining
sun fell upon the jets and spray al just the
proper angle TO light up and bring out the
whole in beautiful roseate glow, which
surrounded the top of the cross like glo-
ry. This novel fountain was not construct
ed for mere ornament. Ii is intended for
use in case of the breaking out Of large
FIRE as a protection TO the spire and roof of
the church. 1t is but the work of \ mo-
ment 10 turn on tho water and drench the
spire. The height to which the water Is
thrown above the cross shows the great
force of the waterworks of the city, Vir-
ginid, NeU., Enterprise, March 16.
Year: 1877

Unless a young woman means TO be Il
bigot, she should beware of requiring the
man whom she honors and loves to pro-
nounce her sectarian shibboleth. If he is
upright, amiable, liberal and efficient, she
may do much worse than to marry him.
In Yedded life good temper is more es-
senlial than sound creed, and noble sim
certify is TO be preferred to weak conformi-
ty. Men of high character are not so COM
mon as TO be wisely rejected merely on ac-
count of religious differences. The men
who before marriage are ready TO profess
anything that may be demanded, often
prove great backsliders when the irrevoca-
BILE step has been taken; and the girl who
thinks that she has certainly secured a
prize in the matrimonial lottery because
her husband is an "evangelicap church
member, is deplorably feeble-minded. In
most neighborhoods there are men who
are strict in doctrine yet lax in conduct,
conspicuous at the prayer meeting but ir-
rltable and exacting in their homes. 1t
must be very slight comfort to the man
who finds that he has married a shrew to
reflect that her name is on the list of an
''orthodox" church, Christian Register.
Year: 1877

JAPANESE s.-Free-and- easi-
ness is the great characteristic Of japanese
audiences. During the performance every
one smokes, eats, and drinks; criticisms
are very audibly expressed, conversation
and chaff are very general, people come in
and go out as they like; if the weather be
hot, superfluoHs rament is laid aside with
out ceremony; coolies enter with their i'm
plemenls of trade, aud reeking with the
dust and sweat of the day, much in the
same way that one may observe peasants
slouching into continental cathedrals for a
few minutes prayer. On the stage the
same nonchalance is apparent. If an actor
be not "word- perfect" the prompter fol-
lows him about with a book without the
slightest attempt at disguise; Stage car
penier, wanting light for his pipe, does
not hesitate 10 crawl in front of the actors,
and take one from the stage candles; men
who are killed during the play are allowed
to make their exits behind piece Of black
cloth, boldly brought and held up by boy
and no hitch or accident ever justites the
drawing across of the curtain.


Applause takes the form of wild shrieks
most frequently the name of the actor.
Dissent and disapprobation are invariably
expressed by loud and long-eontinued
chatting and booting.-AU the Year Round.
Year: 1877

Thousands of good people never half en-
joy even enjoyable homes, because they
are always looking ahead, and never learn
the beauty and the value of to-day. They
go through life expecting enjoyment by
and-by, but without the art TO take 1t a. 1t
comes. They learn too late that they pass
Year: 1877

/ leave to society ruined character,
a wretched example and memory that
will soon rot. leave to my parents,
during the rest OF their lives, as f1tch
sorrow as humanity in a decrepit and
feeble state can sustain. / leave TO my
brothers and sisters as much morti6ca-
ton and injury as / could conveniently
bring upon them. leave my wife .
broken heart, a life of wretchedness and
shame to weep over me and my prema-
ture death. / give and bequea.h to each
of my children poverty, ignorance, q
low character, and the remembrance
that their father was monster.
Year: 1877

We hear that workmen are engaged
in cutting this noble sentiment in the
marble cap over the front door of the
White House, out Of respect to the mem.
ory of the late President:


4 "No man worthy of the
Office of President should be willing to
hold it if counted in or placed there by
fraud, US. GRANT"