smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1878

Miss Emma Davenport. the young lady
mail robber, appeared before Judge Hughes
OF Goochland, Va, the other day in the United
States District court, held in Richmond.
Miss Davenport wasicharged with abstracting
valuable silk dress and two valuable pack
ages of jewellery from the mail while she was
acting as deputy postmaster at Goochland,last
Christmas. She is of good family and very
pretty, and there was naturally much SYM
pathy manifested by the crowd assembled in
the court room. Her lover was in the court
room, and that he was armed with pistol
with which to blow out his brains should the
sentence be Albany. But when the clerk
said: "What say you, guilty or not guilty"
the fair prisoner REPLIED with tremulous
voice. 'Guilty!' then there was a scene.
with the word guilty Miss Davenport shrieked
threw up her hands and fell back into the
arms OF her stalwart bctrothed. The jury
was moved to tears, and the judge hid his
face in his handkerchief. It was half an hour
before the lady revived. The courL imposed a
fine OF 800. then she tainted again and the
court adjourned. Miss Davenport and her
lover returned to Goochland where report has
it they will wed shortly.
Year: 1878

Here isapathetic story which appears to
De told IN good faith, concerning famous
English novelist. While staying at Obau.
last summer, he felt inclined for a swim one
morning, and selecting the quietest nook
he could find along the beach, he laid his
clothes carefully under rcck, and pro-
ceeded to eEjoy his sea bath. Presently
young lady, with one of his own novels
IN hand, came walking along the beach.
and, absorbed and unconscious, sat herself
down close by the unseen garments. The
poor man did not know what to do. He
made coise with the water, bobbed up
and down, and tried by every modes
means in his, power to indicate that he
was in the vicinity, and not in full dress.
He was ashamed to stand up and shout,
and hardly ventured, indeed, to show
more than the top of his head. So ab-
sorbing, however, was his own story that
he could not attract attention. He had
never before wished that his literary DOW
er was less, but at that moment his fond
est hope was that he had written at least
one dull chapter in his volume. That
wish became an inspiration, an ambition,
a desire begot in agony, when presently
there came along that way short-sight-
ed sportsman carrying gun, who, seeing
something strangely acting in the water
uear at hand, thought it must be game of
some kind or other, and presented his
gun to shoot The novelist could not
stand this. Forgetting the lady with one
Of his own novels in hand he startled both
her and the sportsman, as, flinging him
self bolt upright. he lifted his arms above
his head, and cried, with pathetic rapidity,
pray don't shoot; please don't shoot!
I'm man. I'm man! I'm manr'
The lady by the seashore took the hint
and disappeared.
Year: 1878

A lady teacher in an East Brooklyn
public school recently visited house where
beggar woman said she had dead husband
whom she could not bury, as she had no
money. On bed, covered with a sheet, laya
man apparently dead. The eyes were closed
and covered with old.fashioncd pennies, a
handkerchief was tied over the head and chin
FROM her small earning the teacher gave one
dollar and promised further aid from her
friends. Returning hastily for mutf she had
forgotten, she was amazed to see the suppose
corpse sitting up in bed counting the money
that had been received from the over credu
lous teacher. The dead man and his wife re-
moved from the nelgborhood, sut have been
heard of recently as attempting the same trick
in a distant part Of the city. There arc sever
al women in Brooklyn who periodically visit
families on the hill soliciting money to assist
in burying husbands or children. A lady on
'koscisuko street, having been twice swindled
by one of these impositors who tells q pitiful
story with great pathos, sought for police
man the few days ago to make an arrest.
The chronic beggar ran off, and will probably
not visit him again.
Year: 1878

about as tight place as ever got into, said
Comstock miner, was some years ago al the
ola Empire shaft, Gold Hill. Myself and An.
other man were down in the shaft for the pur
pose of trimming it up, as the swelling ground
was squeezing in the sides and it was u good
deal ont of shape.


We were not on Il cage, but simply plat
form made of planks with ropes going up
from the corners to the main cable, which was
OF hemp: When We reached tight place in
the shaft VIC stopped and trimmed out the
guides, and then went ON till another such
place was reached. At one point, having civ.
en- the signal to lower, We went down some
distance, when We finally stuck. We reached
ior the bell-rope in order to give the signal to
stop, but We found that it wound round a
nail some distance above and that We could
not use it. The engineer knew nothing of our
trouble and continued to lower away. There
was no station near, and on all sides rose the
smooth walls Of the shaft, leaving us suspend
ed over the horrible chasm.


Down upon lis came the heavy cable. We
feared every moment that the platform would
turn over or would be pressed through the
tight place and drop from under U.S. All we
could DO was to get hold of the cable. and kcep
the cols OF 1t under our feet as it came down.
should the platform turn over or drop from
under US we might be able to save our lives
ny hanging on to the cable. We shouted up
the shaft till We we're hoarse, but no one b hcard
our cries, and steadily down came the cable.
causing US great trouble to keep on top of its
coils. We felt that the great weight must
soon start the platform, when both would most
| likely be hurled to the bottom of the shaft.


Finally, to our great relief, the cable ceased
to descend: For a long time we waited in sus
pense, not knowing what would be the next
move of those aboYe. At last, however, we
heard the voice OF man shouting down to us
from the nearest station above. We explained
our perllous position in a few words, and at
length the great cable began to crawl slowly
up the shaft again. Still 'eing afraid the plat.
form would give way, we were obliged to keen
hold of the rope and dance about on the coils
as they unwound.


1t was tedious business, and was all the
time matter of the toss of penny whether
we got out alive or went to the bottom, but at
last the platform frightened up under us and
we began to ascend. Our work was over then
and We felt SAFE


On arriving at the surface we found that the
engineer had concluded that VIC were going
to far, and, without halting or stopping his
engine, had sent a man down to the station to
find out if anything had gone wrong.


may have been i'll more dangerous pl aces
in the mines, but was never i'll a place where
the danger lasted so long and all the time M
to lever heat. 1t was too long time for any
mans hair to stand on end.-Virqinia City
(Ner. Enterprise:
Year: 1878

The recent heavy rains have raised the
water in the Sacramento river about twenty
five feet above low water mark. The levee
broke about mile and half below Sacramen.
to city, and the water at once began spreading
over the low country extending to the case OF
r street levce, which protects the city on the
south. A large force of men were at once cnl.
ployed to fill the openings in street levee,
where the streets pass through, and the city
is considered now secure. The only danger is
from back water.
Year: 1878

Florence Correspondence Philadelphia Tele


graph.


1t is not generally known that the great
Turin Prison called "La Generala,' is turned
to a strange use. There are some 800 prison.
ers in this gloomy abode guilty of the worst
crimes, many under 20 years of age, and the
building is SO unsuited to the character of
its occupants that they live indiscriminately,
and riots are but too frequent. Government
so far has turned deaf ear to the prayers
of the prison managers and directors that
some change may be made. Meanwhile an
extraordinary abuse has crept in. Sons of
noble Italian families are sent here when
they have given cause of complaint to their
parents, treating the prison as a reforma-
tory. Thus you see among the worst
criminals, amidst the corrupt conversation
of the most abandoned and
vicious of that class of men who are
styled the scum and refuse of
society, you will find young noblemen, some
too crushed and spiritless to complain, few
maddened by the horror of the position,
ready to do or say anything that will make
them forget for time the truth. These
yum e fello ws are kept for an indetinitetim .
in the prison by the inexorable cruelty of a
parent who thinks that he will thus break
the spirit of an undisciplined, wayward child
The result is not satisfactory. Health, and
spirits, and every noble feeling are left in
the 'Generala'' never to he regained, and it
is not wonderful that the director of the
prison should try every means to obtain the
release of those unfortunate prisoners whose
sense of injustice is perfectly right one
and has powerful influence over the othe1
prisoners, and makes prison-riots and rebel
the military are called in, and the offender
shot down at once. In no instance is the re
quest for liberation addressed to the father
of the unjustly detained prisoners of an,
avail. ''You see that handsome young man.
said one of the guardians to friend, O
Year: 1878

81 One compositor who worked on the
NeWs then still lives, says writer in
st. Louis Spirit, and has made consider
able noise in the world. We allude to
Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark
Twain. He was then about twenty-one
or twenty-five years of age, very good
looking, and most impressed with that
fact. He was the LATEST mortal that
ever soldiered'' on the hook. In that
year the Crimean war and the printers
were raging-the latter over the long
diabolical combination of consonants
that male the Russian officers names.
When q steamer arrived at New York
the telegraph would fire these internal
hard names over the wires until the
tops of the posts were shattered to pieces.
Sam Clemens used to say that the oper-
ator never wrote these names when he
came to hard name he just took up
pepper box of black and shook it over
the manuscript. Sam was known to
dwell for fifteen minutes over Russian
name, and then snatch few rs three
&'s, and then fencing them in with an !!
he would 60 ahead until the first galley
came around to allow him rest. He
occupied stand in the corner of the
room which had been christened Sebas-
topol.


AS we have said, Sam was lazy He
had peculiar manner of drawling out
his words that was irresistibly comical
when relating joke, and he was etern-
ally relating joke or something that
reminds me Of" But he was good
hearted and good natured and much
liked. One hot morning in June, Sam
did not make his appearance until about
nine o'clock, when he ought to have
been there promptly at seven. The
foreman was excited and angry, and
as Sam came sauntering slowly in,
tanning himself with his straw hat,
Bailey said: "Sam, if you can't come
here before this time of day you needn't t
come at all" Sam leaned upon the
imposing stone with both elbows and
drawled out: "Well, John, I guess ]


won't come agin, It's too id hotp'
and he slowly meandered out of the com.


posing room. He got a berth on the


river, became a pilot and Mark Twain
The world knows the rest. He used to


drop in occasionally when in port, and


on one occasion he insisted on his brother


Henry, who worked in the office accom-


panying him down the river. They were


blown up and Henry killed; but MARI


with his usual luck escaped uniniured
Year: 1878

The following laughable incident is
told by a well-known German office
holder who has numerous tales to tell OF
his observations and experience: There
we're two seats in the car turned so as to
face each other. One was occupied by
a lady and the other by Chinaman.
Evidently, the lady did not relish the
presence of the Chinaman. She ex-
planned to him that she wanted to take
the cushions and their frames and place
them lengthwise across from seat to seat.
John said, 'all hghtee, and got out in
the aisle while she proceeded to lie down
on the bed thus improvised, with her
head resting on her valise. She supposed
that the Chinaman would take the hint
that the lady wanted to rest in the space
usually occupied by four persons. But
John proceeded at once to crawl in and
stretched himself by her side, with his
hand on a little bundle of his own.
These Chinese are an initiative race, and
like to do as others do, you know. The
lady, as soon as she discovered that she
had bedfellow. got up little wildly
and started for the next car, to the
infinite amusement of the passengers,
who had been watching the little scene
with some interest. John took no notice
of the fun he had created, but went to
sleep with the whole bed to himself"
Year: 1878

SOME very curious provisions against
the Chinese have been proposed in the
Constitutional Convention OF California.
Among those that have actually been
adopted by the Committee on Chinese
is one that disfranchises citizens who
employ Cinnamon. Another prohibits
Cinnamon from suing or being sued in
the courts, and declares that any lawyer
who appears for them shall forfeit his
license to practice. 1t also provides
that no business license shall be granted
TO any corporation or person employing
them, and forbids public officers from
having them in their employ under
penalty Of removal from office.
Year: 1878

The bar-room journalist stands in the
stores with his back to the stove and
tells how he could run newspaper !;
how he could he as independent as a
hog on ice, and call things by their
right names; how he would expose cor
ruption in high places: how he would
write good common sense, and none of
your frivolous try-to be-funny stuff.
Then he criticises other peoples methods
of conducting newspapers, and just
wishes some one would give him a
chance to show his journalistic ability.
The way to cure one of these chaps is
to get him to write very sensible article
every day for week. Before the week
is out he is sure to be pumped dry, and
will gap worse for an idea than chicken
does.
Year: 1878

SOME of the New York banks give the
combination of the vault to newsboy,
who tells the janitor in the morning, so
he can open the vault. That is good
deal safer than the old way. We are in
clined to think that an old-fashioned
meat safe, or refrigerator, with wooden
button on the door, is the safest bank to
keep money in.-PecPS San.
Year: 1878

der in payment of all dehts. Two kinds of
Treasury notes will then he in irculation,
one OF which viii be a full l' gal tender, and
the other not Even bet een national banks,
as is now the case with their notes, the full
legal tender notes will be of greater value
than the other class, unless they are
both alike redeemable in gold at the
commercial centers. 1t is believed by
the Controller that this proposed sub
stitutiou is impracticable, and that
the repeal of the National Bank Act will
result not in an additional issue of Treas
ury notes, but in a restoration of State sys-
TENS similar to those which were previously
in opera ion.


In regard to resumption, the Controller
says: Congress has fixed day for the
restoration of the specie standard, and the
legislation needed is that which will not
overthrow, but CO operate with the present
well-managed monetary institutions of the
country in accomplishing this result. When
this is done, the present banking system,
if then thought desirable. may be modified
without danger to the creditor or the busi-
ness and commercial interests of this great
nation.


Then follows table, showing that the
amount of reserve held on the 1st of fOctober
last was greater than that required by law.
The Treasury Department owns 4OU00,00
coin, which is equal to more than forty per
cent. OF the entire issue of legal tender
notes. and is available for their redemption
while the banks hold nearly one-third of
the legal tender notes. If therefore, the
banks OF the country cooperate with the
Treasury, it is impossible that resumption
shall fail; hut even if the cooperation
should not be universal, it could not affect
the ultimate result, for if any consider
able portion of legal tender notes be ex-
changed for coin at the Treasury and with
drawn from use, the notes Will become
scarce, and can he forced into circulation to
supply the requirements of business and fill
the gap. The coin will soon thereafter be
returned to the Treasury in payment of Gus
toms duties, and internal revenue taxes,
aud offered in exchange for greenback coin
certificates, which will be more generally
acceptable to the people for the same rea-
son that notes of the Bank of England and
Bank Of France are preferred to coin.
Year: 1878

OTTo BERGER, son of an attendant to
the Grand Duke of Baden, died in
Wards Island Hospital last summer,
and his body was taken to the Morgue,
where, being embalmed, it has lain ever
since, waiting for instructions from his
father. A letter has just been received,
in which the father begs that the body
may be buried in Potter's Field, as the
son was scapegrace and not worthy of a
parents consideration.
Year: 1878

The follies of philosophy have been
the squaring the circle, the perpetual
motion, the inextinguishable lamp, at
traction and repulsion, the philosophers
stone. the universal solvent, the elixir
of life, the influence of the stars and the
raising of spirits. These several subjects
have, in the last fifty generations, alb
sorbed the lives of at least ten thousand
men in each, amid the veneration or fear
of the vulgar of all ranks.
Year: 1878

A GIRL in st. Joseph, Mo-, went to a
drug store to buy arsenic with which to
kill herself. The clerk happened to
know that she had quarreled with her
lover, and he guessed her purpose. He
gave her corn starch instead of arsenic,
and hurried out to tell her lover. The
lover repented having grieved the girl,
went to her house, found her lying on a
sofa waiting in vain to die of a dose
OF corn starch, and made up with her.
Year: 1878

committed in the corridors of the Court
house, and within a few yards of the
Criminal Court, where the trial of Guetig
forthe murder of Mary McGlew was at the
time proceeding. The murderer was ar
+pl
Year: 1878

A miner in the Black Hills writing to a
friend in this city, tells ofa horrible reminder
of the fearful snow storms of last winter, and
of the perils of those who We're caught out
and lost their way on the plains. He says
that recently, while he and two others were
crossing the country, they came upon the
skeleton OF horse, within W hich was the
skeleton of man, with the grinning skull
looking out at them from between the ribs Of
the animal, like prisoner peering through
the bars of his cell. The two skeletons told
the whole story. The man had killed his
horse, cut him open, and crawled inside OF
him, thinking TO thus escape perishing OF
cold, but the flesh OF the animal froze solid,
and the man was much of a prisoner as il
lie had been shut III by walls oi iron


They have {; similar case up in
Chippewa county. a man can there
be seen grinning inside the body of a
jackass; and the two are SO indissol-
ubly joined that you can't tell where
tie man ends and the Jackass begins.
The mans name is Ole Lien. The
jackass belongs to the School Book
Ring.
Year: 1878

Honest Old Peter Cooper does not have to
shell out $50, 900 TO Wallace p. Groom Just
yet-so says the jury. We wish the world
was full OF as honest men Us Peter Cooper
He may BE- u little enthusiastic over his
greenback theory, but Just now green backs
are disgracing nobody. unless it is the fellow
who has none.


We are sorry to think it, but the
conviction is forced upon us that
Wallace =. Groom is not ''all our
fancy painted him
Year: 1878

1HE ANTI -MoNoPoLIsr wants TO know why
John Sherman sold tour and q halt per cent
bonds, which are at n premium in the open
market, to the syndicate at par. The A Nj
ought to be better informed The syndicate
paid . premium tor its bonds and has only
raised the market price since it concluded its
contract ana thus gained control OF the
market-there beng no more OF the bonds
for sale.-St. Paul Dispatch


Weido not 50 understand it. brother
Castle. The syndicate got their bonds
at par and are selling them ut Il
premium. Let us see your proof of
the contrary statement.
Year: 1878

FALL RIVER, May 2S Tn re is no doubt
that, with two Or three exceptions, all the
print-cloth mills will within few days de
eide to run on haI-time Tor the next eight or
ten wee<s, either by running alternate
weeks or three days each week.


We can see how rapidly good times
are returning TO an afflicted land.
Year: 1878

Grant! why, of course, | will vote for
him in preference to a lukewarm Republican,
You have no idea how Grants stock is in
creasing in importance really believe that
Grant will be the next President. Robert
lngersol..


No wonder that man don't believe
in hell.
Year: 1878

An Irishnlan no stood near the third base
watching a game of base bail, was sent to
grass by ioul which struck him under the
fifth rib. "a fowl, waz ut Begorra thought
it WIZ mule"


That the way Ole Lien felt when
the Merrill bill passed last winter.
Year: 1878

Coined money was known among the
Chinese as early as the eleventh century
before Christ. but their inability to COM
prehend the principles upon which a
currency should be based, led them


into all sorts of extravagances, which


have been attended by disorder, famine,


and bloodshed. Coins came at last to


be made so thin that 1000 of them piled


together were only three inches high !;


then gold and silver were abandoned !;
and copper, tin, shells, skins, stones,
and paper were given fixed value, and


used until, by abuses, all the advantages
to be derived from the use of money
were lost, and there was nothing left for
the people to do but to 60 back to bar
ter, and this they did more than once.
They cannot be said now to have a coin
age; two thousand nine hundred years
ago they made round coins with
square hole in the middle, and they have
made no advance beyond that since.
The well known cash is cast-brass coin
of that description, and, although it is
valued at one mill and half of our
money, and has to be strung in lots of
one thousand to be computed with any
ease, it is the sole measure of value and
legal tender of the country. Spanish,
Mexican, and our new trade dollars are
employed in China; they pass because
they are necessary for larger operations.
- Science Monthly.
Year: 1878

Hard times always have soft side to
them. The fool of King Charles cried
when he went down hill, but laughed
when he went up. Being asked why, he
said: IF am going up hill now shall
be able to go down next, but if I am
going down now, shall soon have to
climb" The country has some things
to groan over; traffic is thoroughly at q
loss in its circulation manufactures are
bankrupt; and yet we never had more
bountiful harvest than in 1877. The land
teemed with every variety of pro-
duct. There was enough and to spare
for every citizen of the union. The
difficulty evidently had risen from the
fact that too small proportion of our
population has been in the direct line of
production. The plentiful or SUPER
abundant provision of nature fell
lavishly into the hands of q smaller num-
Der than it was intended for. That we
have land enough to provide comfort
and competence for every one who will
work is .self.evident. The lazy will be
badly off under all circumstances, and
neither nature nor neighbor can make
them permanently contented or happy.
This the pressure of the times Is at last
driving the people to recognize. Men
can live, and live we'll, on the land, if
they are willing to work and use econ>
omy. The demand for farms, either to
buy or to rent, is vastly on the increase.
While rents drop continually in the
cities, and town lots are unstable at any
price, farms do not anywhere beg for
occupants and workers. This is not
notably true in the east, where the ten
dency has been for years to press toward
the cities. Young men are less ambitious
of rapid wealth, simply because they have
become satisfied that the avenues are
closed. They must learn to he patient.
laborious and saving. It costs less not
only cashwise, hbut demands less ezhaus-
ton of vital force to live in the country.
This ebhing of the human tide carries !