smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1878

When sit in the twilight cleaning,
And the busy streets grow still,
dream of the wide, green meadows,
And the old house on the hill,
can see the roses blooming
About the doorway low,
And again my heart gives greeting
To the friends of long ago


Dear long ago.
can see my mother. sitting,
With life's snowfiakes in her hair,
And she smiles above her knitting,
And her face is sanity fair,
And see my father, reading
From the Bible on his knee,
And again hear him praying
As he used to pray for me


So long ago!
see all the dear old faces
Oh the boys and girls at home,
As saw them in the dear old days,
Before we learned to roam.
And sing the old songs over
With the friends used to know,
And my heart forgets its sorrows
In its dreams of long ago


Dear long ago!
How widely our feet have wandered
From the old homes tender ties.
Some are beyond the ocean,
And some are beyond the skies.
My heart grows sad with thinking
OF the friends used to know;
Perhaps shall meet in heaven
All the loved Of long ago


Dear long ago!
Year: 1878

READING is at once the basis and in
strument of all literary culture and
hence the most important branch of
school instruction. In learning to read
it is necessary for the child to acquire
the ability to associate with the printed
form of the word its appropriate pro-
nunciation and the idea which it is in
tended to represent, and to do this at
sight, without any hesitation or delay.


The object Of reading is two-fold:
first, to understand what is read, and
second, to give it proper oral expression.


Expression is always the index by
which the teacher may know whether
or not the pupil understands what he
reads; and it is essential to him who
would read for the entertainment or in
struction of others. But the all-import-
ant question is, "Understandest thou
what thou readest?" for unless the
reader understands what he reads, he
can neither acquire information for him
self nor impart it to others. His reading
is valueless; indeed, it is no reading at
all. Now herein lies, perhaps, the most
important Office of the teacher, especial
ly after the pupil has taken the few first
steps, to question him as to his under
standing Of words, phrases and idioms,
and develop in him the ability to gather
information from every province in the
realm of books.
Year: 1878

Mrs. Swisshelm recently wrote to the
Chicago Tribune as follows:


A newspaper extract which troubles
my friends quotes me as saying that
"Vassar is college with about 500 pu-
pills, principally FOOLS" Those who
think we'll of me cannot believe that I
did really say anything so wicked; but l
did, and unhesitatingly repeat it. Any
woman who Injuries her health and
shortens her life by wearing clothes
which compress the walls of her chest
and cramp her vital organs, is a fool;
for fool, according to Webster, is "a
person who is somewhat deficient in in
tellect; but not an idiot; or person
who acts absurdly, or who does not ex-
ercise his reason; one who pursues a
course contrary to the dictates OF wis
dom"


A woman who sacrifices health to cos
tune is a fool of FOOLS fool par excel
lence; and, as [ have every reason to
believe that a vast majority of the Vas
sar pupils do this, | am in duty bound
to say they are fools, according to the
definition Of the term. Moreover, their
folly is especially criminal, since their
brains have had special culture, and
one has a right to demand of them
"the exercise of reason" whereas they
set an example of atrocious folly to the
millions of other fools who have had
less opportunity of learning to be wise.


JANE GREY SwIsSHELM.
Year: 1878

With all his remarkable gifts of bril-
was essentially meager and thin, never
rising to the loftiest heights of feeling
or descending to the profoundest depths
of thought. Both his moral and mental
qualities were vitiated by an incurable
taint of frivolity. His convictions ap-
pear to have been sincere; that is, he
cherished no doubt of the absurdity
which he dragged to light beneath the
mask of plausibility, but we find no ira
ces of the passion for truth, the master
sentiment which inspires the soarings of
philosophy and fructifes the vigils of
science. In this respect, he compares
unfavorably with Rousseau, whose wild
est speculations were marked by intense
earnestness, and who pleaded for his
convictions, not as the fruits of fertile
fancy, but as vital truths for the regen-
Grafton of the race. Voltaire not only
adapted himself to the spirit of the age;
he presented its most conspicuous type
and characteristic expression; he was
the apostle, and prophet, and high priest
of the eighteenth century, of which the
philosophy was restricted within the
domain of the senses, and its ethics a
cunning contrivance for the highest de-
gree Of selfish enjoyment. The present
century has opened a new era in which
Voltaire would find himself stranger
and foreigner. His influence has left
but few traces on the intellectual devel-
opment of the age; his genius for sar-
casm and mockery has grown pale before
the rising dawn Of devout earnestness,
and the profound seriousness of inquiry
which mark the researches of modern
science; and the hollow and selfish Gym
icism of his morality has been thrown
into eclipse, even by the impassioned
appeals of August Comte, who, in this
respect at least, has approached the
borders of the Christian faith, in claim
ing a regard to the welfare of our
neighbor, no less than of ourselves, as
the supreme legitimate principle of hu-
man action. The spirit of the nine
teenth century calls for guides and
teachers of different metal from that OF
Voltaire. Let the mocking specter re-
pose unmolested in the realms of shade;
let no violence be offered to his aged
bones as they rest in their laureled
though moss-grown sepulcher; but let
him not be honored as the intellectual
sovereign of the present, or the coming
age.
Year: 1878

Boston Globe A lame man carrying
a basket of groceries went quietly down
Main street, Cambridge, yesterday, when,
with the suddenness Of lightning, his
hand went up to his eye and his basket
went rafting to the ground. The side
walk was flooded with broken eggs and
maple-sugar, and the air was burned
with profanity. A boy with a bean-sling
in his hand. and the impress of the dew
il on his face, peered around the corner,
and as he listened to the old mans bias
phemey he muttered: THAT was the
boss shot"
Year: 1878

A girl in Kentucky struck her cro-
quet partner on the head with mallet;
brain feverset in, and the young man
nearly died. The girl was kept under
arrest until his recovery, and, when he
got well, she married him, and now he's
sorry he didn't die.
Year: 1878

1t was a beautiful bit OF acting as
well as singing. The slow movement of
the extended arms, making the sailing
motion of the ship, in the first line; in
the second the upward lifting and pas
sionate clasping of the hands, then the
sudden dropping of the head over the
words Baby mine" had a natural fervor
that brought down the house. The fol-
lowing evening the young lady received
from an unknown admirer beautiful
locket, on which was engraved the
words Baby Mine, with date of month
and year. The gift was inclosed in a
basket of pure white flowers.


This week the boards of the National
displayed Strakosch's triumphal trio of
Kellogg, Cary and Roze. The willy old
manager allows no one to get ahead Of
him in any shade of advertising, there
fore the Colville incident was distanced
by the arrival at the hotel on the even
ing of the operate performance of a
small boy, with lungs like wildcats s..
He came into the world and sounded his
first notes in the ears of his critical pa
pa, who enthusiastically shouted, What
voice!" and rushed before the public
to announce the arrival of mine Baby"
Many shout went up for the youthful
Max from the crowd. The young Strak-
osch is said to have the clear, crimson
tinted complexion of his distinguished
father, his young mothers lovely blue
Year: 1878

The in6rmity known as "color-blind-
ness" is much more prevalent than one
would suppose; and managers of rail.
ways, when selecting candidates for the
posts of engineer, firemap or signal-man,
are often astounded bv the number OF
candidates they find afflicted with it. 1t
will seem scarcely credible to those who
have themselves got good eyes that three
men out OF five should be quite unable, ut
distance OF two hundred yards, to tell a
green lantern frem red one. The most
astonishing mistakes have been made in
this particular. Engineers who in broad
daylight could SEQ two miles before them
down n straight line, and detect paving
stone on rail at fifteen hundred yards
of, have been known to rush heedlessly
past danger signal at midnight aud
bring whole train to destruction. And
yet the glasses used in the red lanterns
that signify "beware" or "stop" are al
ways OF immense power, and on dark
night ought to be clearly visible to the
nuked eye ut a distance Of AT least five
miles. Similarly spor'smen who attend
hoase. races, or Doat-races, are often in
doubt as to which color wins, until the
victor is close under their eyes; and this,
although the jockeys jacket may bs of
the most Haunting hue, and although in
other respects than that of color-seeing
these people may have excellent, unerring
sight. A sailor who on the night watch


will find it quite impossible to say which
glass is "up" at Eddystone or Bell Rock,
may be the first next morning to cry out
"Laud,' from the top Of shaking mast
head. When mistake is made between
two colors, the error is almost always at
tributed to the peculiar obloquity of
vision, and color blindness itself is said
to proceed from rnalfOrmation OF the eye.
Year: 1878

An organization has just been effected
in this city whose object it is to promote
the relief of the surplus industrial popu.
lstion Of the community by Offering
practical help in settling ON farms in the
West. The association is composed OF
some of our best citizens, and it sets
forth its design by saying that it is "to
promote associate emigration to fertile
unoccupied lands, and to aid ia their dc.
yelopment into agricultural townships
aud homesteads, by these means contrib.
uting to redistribution of labor and its
diversion from trade aud manufactures
where in surplus, to the tilage OF the
earth, the basis of all industries and the
primary source Of all wealth. The asso-
citation is to consist of twenty one inom-
bers, in addition to which there is to be
an Advisory Board OF some two hundred
and an office is soon to bc
opened for business in this city.


Land is to be purchased in large tracts
and sold at cost, in alternate sections, to
settlers; and the settlements are to DC
made under the direction Of competent
sup perintendents, who will show those
who are ignorant this true method Of cuI-
tivating The soil. The class chiefly to be
benefited is that of poor woTkingmen
who now find it difficult TO obtain "a liv-
ing from lack Of work. A Committee
is about to go West and South to exam
inc lands which have already been Of.
fered to the Board. We take tho liberty
TO suggest TO the managers Of the s'socia-
ton the feasibility Ut securing farms in
different, parts OF New England, where
the unemployed workingman wilt not
be obliged to change his climate or home
associations. TRers is no doubt that a
good many of the pleasant country
towns vi New Eng and could be repopu.
lated in this way, while tho advantage of
near markets would more than balance
the larger crops that may be secured on
virgin lands His' Ploaghm0a.
Year: 1878

A man saw ghost while walking
along II lonely highway at midnight. The
ghost stood exactly in the middle Of the
road, and the wayfarer, deciding to i'll
veStigate polSed at it with his umbrella.
The next instant he was knocked twenty
feet into mud-hole. Moral-Never poke
an umbrella at a large white mule when
its back Is turned.
Year: 1878

Mr.. Stewart died between and O'Clock
on the afternoon OF Monday the 10th OF April.
1876 In what is known the lace room OF the
Stewart mansion. He had taken a severe cold
about three weeks previous. and although he
rallied from the first attack a second exposure
brought on n relapse which ended in death. At
the dying mans request. his illness was kept
secret from the public until Monday. At his
bedside were Mrs. Stewart. her brother. Mr..
Clinch two sisters OF Mr.. Stewart. her niece.
and her grand-niece. Telegrams had been
sent TO Judge hilton and TO Mr. Libbey but
they failed to arrive in time The great mer-
chant was fully conscious up to the last mo-
ment He died without pain. After death the
body was raised in bed. and several excellent
photographs were taken. II was then packed in
ice. preparatory to the funeral. DR.. Marcy. In
his medical certificate. said that the primary
cause OF death was cystitis. and the immediate
cause peritonitis.


noon Of the funeral was SO great that the
police found much difficulty In clearing a
The latter waited IN the the yestibaie % While 'S thc
undertaker's men were soldering up tho box
containing the casket. and then the procession
Boards had been laid over the narrow steps
leading into the vault. and after the last
prayers had been said the heavy box was Slid
down the inclined plane and laid on the floor
OF the vault. During this part OF the ceremony
the trees, the lamp posts. and the, windows OF





tators who watched the smallest details.


The casket was peculiarly rich and attractive
II was oblon2. OF thick OAK. highly polished. with
massive silver composition handles. six feet in
length. at the sides Each handle WAS supported
by three heavy silver lugs or brackets. gold
tipped. and the urn shaped screws were OF
silver tipped with gold. The outside OF the
casket had the richest OF Lyons silk velvet. with
a gold fringe four inches long. and heavy gold
tassels at the corners. A second lining
OF white satin. puffed and rayed into
silk fringe. covered the interior. The body
OF the dead merchant rested on a white satin
covered mattress. 1t was attired in plain black.
frock coat vest cut low with three buttons.
black trousers. and white shirt front. On the
shirt front were three studs Of plain pearl. The
right hand lay on the side and the left hand
rested on the breast. There were no shoes on
the feet. Enclosing the casket was a cedar box
an inch and half thick, with "A lead lining OF
one-quArter OF an inch. In soldering on the
top an aperture the size OF pin hole was left
Tor the escape of foul air. On replacing the
stone at the entrance OF the vault, the earth WAS
packed down upon IL and Il small marble slab
was placed 10 mark the spot


For days and weeks alter the funeral. throngs
OF dlers gathered 10 look at the slight mound Of
earth that covered the body OF the merchant
prince. Wild rumors were circulated about the
stores Of gold and silver buried with the dead
man. The place seemed to have a fascination
for iders. and knots Of them were seen at any
hour OF the day peering through the iron fence
and pointing with eager fingers 70 the single
marble slab.
Year: 1878

The suit Of Collector Love OF Jersey city. to
recover the difference between hs salary uAcd by The
charter and the amount reduced by the Board ot
Finance. has been accdcd against him by the Supreme
Court the ground thai the board possessed the authOr
iy make the reduction, and that hc accepted the
duccd warrants
Year: 1878

Twelve columns of Saturdays HERALD
were filed with the murder record. Muir
ders of all the standard varieties were in
cluded in the chronicle-and there were
some recitals of extreme acknowledgements
bly, that Of the hanging of q man who had
murdered thirty odd persons and the lynch
ing of five negroes for offences against
women. Only thorough study of the
statistics Of crime can determine
numerous year by year than they were fer
merly, or whether we have our murders for
a given period in a few groups, with inter-
vals of quiet; but in so far as general i'm
pressions on the subject may be trusted,
the murders reported are two or three
to one against earlier periods, and
there are no intervals. What are the
causes for all these bloody indul-
gences of cupidity, revenge or other
passions Immunity for murderers is one
cause, an entire loss of religious convic-
tions in great part of the social mass is
another cause, and a third is the failure of
society to discriminate against families
prone to take violent steps in differences
with their neighbors. Under our system Of
Jurisprudence Justice is SO enormously
handicapped in a conflict with murderer
that she has no chance, and the murderer
who sees his way clear to cheat the
gallows will laugh at the terrors of
the world to come; SO that he can
be restrained neither by considerations of
discomforts in another world nor danger
in this. Our philanthropy, our tenderness
tor the lives of cutthroats, the favors of
the law toward them, all these deprive So
ciety of an advantage it had under
harsher system, and which was perhaps of
great importance when everybody was
hanged who had unjustifably killed
another-and hanged without regard to
sanity-the natural selection" of the
times was against the numbering classes.
Now it is against the classes that supply
victims, and we are so far cultivating race
of men prone to murder.
Year: 1878

M. Gambetta is reported as predicting
that the renewals in the French Senate will
result in giving the republican party ma
jority Of twenty in that body. and his pre-
diction is entitled to the respect due to one
whose judgments on kindred points have
been conspicuously verified in the past It
is an unmistakable tendency of the French
nation to grow to the party in power, and
the Republic will derive the same advan-
tage from this tendency that other govern
ments have and will not be ruined by the
omnipotence it finally gives as other gov
ernments have been. If the Republic cap
lures the Senate in the January elections it
will practically have possession of every
great political division in the State, for a
president who is himself conspicuously a
republican will be consequence of the
election for the renewal of the executive
when both representative bodies have re-
publican majority. Gambetta's opinion.
that Senate is necessary, will not offend
the extreme republicans once they see
their way to believe that it is no longer to
be q refuge for reaction.
Year: 1878

In Bishop Dupanloup the Church in
France loses strong man. Not very old
man, he yet counted SO many experiences
in his life that he linked the present with
the past in peculiar way in some phases Of
his career. He gave absolution upon repen-
tance to Prince Talleyrand-a and if Talley-
rand could in return have given him a grain
or two of his political sagacity it might,
with the taste of the priest Tor public life,
his stout will and the depth of his convic-
tions, have made him very useful man to
his country in her gloomy days of trial.
He was also the confessor Of Chambord in
the early days of that narrow-minded per-
sonage, and may have done much to con-
firm that obstinacy in opinion which rem
dered impossible the restoration in 1871 of
the legimate monarchy. If he did it is to
be counted in the number of his services
to humanity. Dupanloup saw plainly the
evils to the Church likely to flow from the
policy that made the dogma of infallibility,
and opposed that policy boldly and openly.
Yet what he could see SO clearly for the
Church at large he could not see on
the narrower theatre OF ecclesiastical
operations in France. He could not
discern there that the Church had
separated itself from the mind of the nation
by bigotry and the culture of superstition,
but thought that the nation was on the road
to ruin for lack of religious sentiment, and
tried to save it by the stimulation of that
very spirit in it which had made the nation
its enemy. But he was a bold man and an
upright one, and fought always resolutely
for what he believed to be the truth.
Year: 1878

The mental pictures which respectable
murder are generally as horrible us the
crime itself, but we learn that the murderer
Longlcy, of Texas, whose confession we pub
lish in full to-day, and who has killed thirty
two men and yet died quite young, was the
very reverse Of bad looking. lie is said to
have been handsome, mild-eyed fellow,
with low, gentle voice. He seems to
have been quite impressionable, too, under
good influences, as, indeed, most border
ruffians are, and as cool and deliberate up
to his last moment as if he had been a sol
dier or sailor on duty. With proper train
reason to suppose that he would have been
other than good citizen. But whatever
morality may be In the abstract it is shown
by experience to have only relative sig
nifcance in practice, and SO this young
Texan, when he found that no penalty fol-
lowed his first murder, continued to vent
upon human beings that destructive feeling
which in better regulated country he would
have relieved by honest labor or some variety
of harmless sport Probably his disposition
was no worse than that of many o respect
able member Of society, but without occu-
patton, moral training, education or re-
straints, social or legal, he became what he
was. No possible explanation of his ca
reer can abate public horror at the nature
and extent Of his misdeeds, but it is great
mistake to drop all thought Of such men
as soon as they themselves disappear from
earth. The life of Longley is as valuable
a comment upon an existing state Of soci-
ETY. as those of any prominent historical
personages are upon the times in which
they lived, and moralsts and Legislators
would do we'll to give careful heed to it.
Year: 1878

by wise government to make it yield to the
city its full and principal advantages in the
shape of enhanced values to real estate and
remedy for the evils of our present tene-
ment house system. Other public improve
ments should follow this important step in
the direction Of future prosperity, and we
cannot hope for these if we do not infuse
vigor and firmness into the administration
Of our municipal affairs. The people of
New York are called upon to take part in
an election on the result of which
their welfare and progress materially de-
pend and they will not deserve good gov
ernment if they neglect or relax their efforts
to secure its benefits at this time. They
are likely to have choice of good candi-
dates, for no political party can now ven-
ture to put forward men of doubtful ca
pacity or qualifications. The probability
is that all the nominees of the conventions
that meet this week will be personally ac-
ceptable, and in that case the peo-
pie may decide to select the can
didate most likely to bring harmony,
strength and singleness of purpose into the
city government We cannot hope for
efficiency in an administration discordant
in its parts and antagonistic in its policy
any more than we could look for peaceful
and happy home in divided family. The
need OF the city now is a policy that will
encourage progression and improvement,
while exercising wise economy, and a gov
ernment that will unite in correcting ex-
listing abuses, instead of wasting its time
in departmental squabbles.