smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1874

A YOuNG MURDERER.-Tho boy John
Curtin, who murdered young child at
Acton, Mass, last July, and was sent 10
the State Reform School at Westboro in
consequence thereof, has developed dis
position TO repeat his crime at the slightest
provocation. Soon afler being sent to the
Reform School he was placed in the work.
shop 10 learn cane-seatng, and week or
ten days ago he came near taking another
life. One Of his fellow prisoners was pass
ing bin, and stepped upon the strand OF
cane which the young murderer was work.
ing. Some words passed between them
which the officer in charge did not hear,
and suddenly Curtin raised brad-awl and
struck the other by in the face with the
point The lad bled considerably and was
taken to the hospital. A physician was
called from the village, and afler dressing
the wound, stated that the injured lad had
a very narrow escape with his life. Young
Curtin is now under strict surveillance.
He is only nine years old.
Year: 1874

Longing.
OF ali the myriad moods Of mind
That through the soul come thronpng,
which Que was e'tr go dear, 30 Kind,
SO beautiful as longing7
The thing we long for, that VIC are
For one transcendent moment,
Before the Present, poor and bare,
Can make its sneering comment.
Still, through our paltry stir and strife,
CLOVIS down the wished ideal,
Aud longing moulds in clay what life
Csrves on tho marble Real;
To let the new life In, we know,
Desire must ope the portal
Perhaps the longing to be 30
Helps make the soul immortal
Longing is Gods fresh heavenward will
with our poor esrthward striving;
We qucnch It that we may be still
Content with merely living;
but, would we learn that hearth full scope
Which we are hourly wronging,
Our lives must climb from hope to hope,
And realize our longing.
All let us hope that to our praise
Good God not only reckons
The moments when we tread bis ways,
But when the spirit beokons,-
That some slight good is also wrought
Beyond self-satisfaction,
When We are simply good in thought,
Howe'er We fail in action.


james RusseH LOTeii
Year: 1874

\ clergyman of the Church of Scot


land. who was possessed of a fund of
dry humor. occupied rural parish in


Perthshire. bordering on the Highland
district. He took much interest in the
progress of Highland student, and
aided him as much as he could in his
studies preparatory to getting license
from the Presbytery. One thing, how.
ever, he was deficient in, and that
thing was indispensable. Time wore
on. and the day of trial approached.
Both minister and student were much
exercised as to how they were to
overcome the difficulty. Neither
knew anything of Hebrew, and
how the young man was to
meet the reverend court without il
sorcly puzzled them both. At last the
clergyman saw his way clear. as if by
Year: 1874

We have no more right to fling an un-
necessary shadow over the spirit OF
those with whom we have to do, than
we have to fling a stone and injure
them. Yet this flinging shadows is a
very common sin, and one to which wo-
men are particularly addicted. Oh,
what a blessing is merry, cheerful
woman in household! One whose
spirits are not affected by wet days, or
little disappointments, or whose milk of
human kindness does not sour in the
sunshine of prosperity. Such woman
in the darkest hours brightens the house
like little piece of sunshiny weather.
The magnetism of her smile, the electri-
cal brightness of her looks and move
ments, infect every one. The children
60 to school with sense of something
great to be achieved; her husband goes
into the world in a conqueror's spirit.
No matter how people worry and annoy
him at day, far off her presence shines,
and he whispers to himself, .sAt home
| shall find rest.' So day by day she
literally renews his strength and ener-
gy, and if you know man with beam.
ing face, kind heart and prosperous
business, in nine cases out of ten YOU
will find he has wife of this kind. For
nothing is more certain than that the
man who is married must ask his wife
for permission to be happy and wealthy.
Blessed is he who hath cheerful wife :;
the world may be "valley Of strife )"
to him, but his home is land of Beu-
lah, haven of rest and quiet; and his
life is made up Of cheerful yesterdays
and confident to-morrows.--Golden
Ace.
Year: 1874

A peaceful life is most likely to be a
full one, with finer and keener sensibili-
ties; better related to beauty and poe
try and all higher matters; more digni-
fed and self respecting.


Repose is the secret of power in per.
sons, pictures, statutes, architecture.
books, and nature, as if it were a means
of retaining as well as disclosing life;
and health demand frequent pausing
to restore the balance of the system,
and keep up perfect circulations.
The night. if spent in healthy sleep
after proper evening hours, reduce the
worlds chaos, and We are new every
morning.


Who does not know the magic of a
brief pause in the midst of the worst
confusion! A calm of five minutes
will invite back our vagrant powers
and ideas.


| So the home should be like a hush
and a lullaby in this headlong, whirl
ing. noisy, furious and distracted world
of the nineteenth century, nook apart
| from the thoroughfares--a grotto o,
Year: 1874

-Four little pictures, that was all,
TO tell his ended life
TO me a lonely woman still,


Who would have been his wife.
Out of his mothers feeble hand
l took them one by one,
heard his story, short and sa q,
Told by the faithful sun.
'sThis one''-she rubbed it with her
My eyes can scarcely see,
Twas taken when he was boy,
A dear good boy to mer'
A round and rosy little face,


With awkward, frightened stare,
And sturdy, nervous school boy hand,
Clutched tightly on chair.
And this was in his college days,
When he went counting you!''
pulled the veil across my tace.
And near the picture drew.
l saw the eager hazel eyes,


The careless wind-tossed hair,
The very knotting of the tie


| loved to see him wear
When browner shone these locks Of


mine


That folded grimmer gray,
When life no dim December knew,
Only the merry May.
laid it with silent sigh,


Softly upon her knee,
Remembering how my stubborn pride
Had parted him from me.
How bitter pain had followed fast,
Repentance all toe late
For him, in time, a loveless wife;
For me lonely fate
''And this she said, "was the best OF


ALL"


But-part of it was gone;
81 rubbed her figure off the plate
l could not keep it onv'
A bearded mouth. steiner face
That used to smile on me,
"A StalWart ngure lnL OF grace
Beside this could see.
The outlines of a woman's dress,
Along the mimic floor;
A blot, large as woman's hand,
The shoulder plainly bore.
A blotch that came SO near the heart
What pen could better tell
The tale Of faithless queen uncrowned?
What picture half so wellY
"And this was taken at Fair Ga Ks.
They say. 1t came to me
With gun and cap and hasty lines
Scrawled lying on his knee.'
Over the soldiers solemn face,
That time shall touch no more,
Nor sunshine find to add line.
Nor shadow darken more.
looked so might not forget,
Then whispered low prayer,
If might unto glory come,
That should know him there.
Year: 1874

MGppLErOwN, n. Y, Dec. 2.-The county
oranges Of Orange Couny ami Sussex County, y. j.,
Will hold meeting in this place on the 10th Of Decem-
ber 10 consider the milk business and the best plan TO
adopt that will give the farmers such control Of the mar
ket as will enable them make the business OF greater
and OF more certain profit themselves. They claim
that market is now ruled the producer Is eniFey
M the mercy OF the dealer debating what shall be
Maid and the manner OF payment. The farmers think
that organized as oranges and acting in concert they
may accomplish what tneY have failed 10 40 nv any
nI,n t uerto adopted The darymeu or Orange County
are entering into the movement hegrdy there now
beng sixteen distinct oranges, subordinate 10 the
county council with total membership or over 5'O.
the grange in sussex County also Large member
shin These counties furnish the great bulk OK the
milk sold IN NeW-YOrk and the ncighOorng cities.
Year: 1874

Too low an estimate is apt to be set on
the domestic value Of newspapers Alter
reading them, and putting ourselves,
through their agency, in mental eorespon-
dence with the world, they are thrown aside
and forgotten. But to suppose their use
fulness bounded by their news columns
and the waste-bag is thriftless mistake


In the first place, there are the house
hold recipes, TO be found in stray corners,
often excellent, and deserving a refuge on
the ay-leaf ofthe family cookbook. Then
come the pretty verses, the strange and
droll stories, the brief biographies and
"reminiscences which, pasted in scrap
book, are a source Of neyerending pleasure,
not only to those who do not care for
richer intellectual food, but to those who
have only odd minutes for reading.


Notwithstanding the squibs joeular
journalists have penned on the use Of
newspapers for bed-clothing, We know
from experience that these are not to be
despised. They may not be as comfort
able as your blankets, but certainly they
keep out the cold. Two thicknesses of
papers are better than pair Of blankets,
and in the case of persons who dislike the
weight of many bed-clothes, they are
invaluable. A spread made Of double
layer of papers between a covering Of
calico or chintz, is desirable in every
household. The papers should be tackled
together with thread, and also basted to
the covering to keep them from slipping.
An objection has been made on account Of
the rustling, but if soft papers be chosen
the noise will not be annoying, especially
should the spread be laid between a blank
ct and the eounterpane


As protection to plants against cold,
both in and out Of doors, nothing is better.
If newspapers are pinned up over night at
a window between pots and glass, the
flowers will not only not be frozen, but
will not even get chilled, as they are SO
liable to be at this season. In the same
way, if taken to cover garden-beds, on the
frosty nights Of early autumn, they will
allow the plants to remain safely outdoors
some time later than is common.


One of the oddest services to put our
journals to is the keeping Of ice in sum
mer. An ingenious housekeeper recently
discovered that her daily lump of ice
would last nearly twice as long when
wrapped in newspapers, and placed in any
kind of covered box, as when trusted solely
to refrigerator. This is very convenient,
since it is possible to have the best and
cheapest refrigerator constantly at hand.


To polish all kinds Of glass after wash
ing, except table glass, no cloth or flannel
is half so good as a newspaper and for a
bakers dozen Of other uses, quite foreign
to its primal purpose, it is without a rival.
---ScriBners for March.
Year: 1874

FEMALE Soc1ETY.-What is it that
makes all those men who associate habitu-
ally with women superior to those who do
not? What makes the women who are
accustomed to, and at ease in, the society
Of gentlemen, superior to their sex in gen
eral? Solely because they are in the hab-
it Of free, graceful, continued conversation
with the other sex. Women in this way
lose their frivolity, their faculties awaken,
their delicacies and peculiarities unfold all
their beauty and captivation in the spirit
of rivalry. The men lose their pedantic,
rude, declamatory or sullen manner The
coin of the understanding and the heart
changes continually. Their asperities are
rubbed of, their natures polished and
frightened, and their richness, like gold,
is wrought into finer workmanship by the
fingers Of woman than it could ever be
done by those Of men.
Year: 1874

Next in Importance to the habit Of self
help we would place that Of personal
tidiness. We do not care to guess how
many American men and women sit down
to breakfast every morning with their
toilets half made, the men without collar
and crayat, the women with unkept hair,
and the children resembling the parents in
dress, as much as in feature. "But you
see there are so many things to do in the
morning to feed, cows to milk,
fires to make, milk to skim, children to
dress, breakfast to get-that one can't
spend much time fixing themselves up"
All very true; but one doesn't go round
barefooted in the morning, or without
washing face and hands, because habit
tho reverse of all that has been formed.
"My hair is combed in the morning for
all day before | leave my chamber" said
an elegant house-keeper the other day,
and she keeps no girl; and we couldn't
help thinking the happiness her husband
must have had just in one particular Of
seeing her every morning for twenty years
with smoothly-combsd hair, and neat linen
collar, opposite him at the breakfast table,
aud of the order and cleanliness in tho
household Of which that one little item was
an index. That cleanliness is next to
godliuess," should be early and deeply i'm
pressed on every child, and it should be
taught to shrink from uucleanness and
untidiness as il shrinks from vice.
Year: 1874

How TO KEEP HAMs.--Every season
more or less hams are destroyed by insects
or rendered too unpalatablc to be eaten by
decent people. By following this method
the insect can be entirely kept at a dis.
tsnce, and it is very simple, and within
the reach of every farmer in the country.
After the meat has been well cured by
pickle and smoke, take some clean ashes
free from bits Of coal, moisten them with a
little water so that they form a paste, Oh
else just wet the hams little, and rub on
the dry ashes Rubbed in thoroughly
they serve as capital insect protector, and
the hams can be hung up in the smoke OF
wood chamber without any danger Of
molestation.
Year: 1874

husband.


The third winter that came to Alice in
her humbled home seemed to her colder
and drearier than any that had passed
before. The long confinement began to
tell upon her health, and at last she was
really III. She had never been able to
earn anything more than was necessary for
her daily expenses and now, with the
prospect Of sickness staring her in the face,
she often shuddered as she thought what
the future might have in store for her.
One morning, not being able to work, she
was sitting by her scanty fire thinking Of
these things. The memory that had haunt
ed her all these years came to her then
the memory Of the first three years of her
married life, that had been so bright and
happy. She thought Of the pleasant home
she had then enjoyed, with its cosy rooms,
well-laden tables and generous fires, but
more than all else she thought of the rich
love that had crowned her. "If l had
back my home and my husband | should
know how to prize them now, she muir
INJURED "but | am so lonely and misera-
bic here"


A tempest of tears and sobs shook her
slight form, and slipping from her chair
down upon her knees, she prayed to her
Heavenly Father for patience and submis-
sion, just as she had done so many times
in these later years. While she knelt
there the door opened, but she was not
conscious Of any presence save her own in
the room, till some one knelt by her side,
and a voice quivering with emotion spoke
her name. She looked up quickly then,
and met the face of her husband
not as she remembered having last seen it,
bloated and red with the effects of strong
drink, but tender, refined and loving as it
had been five years before


Thank God Thank God r. only
those words and she was folded to her hus-
bands heart, and her tired soul, forgetting
its desolation, driftcd back to the haven Of
rest once more.


Later, when they were calm, he told
how he had fought with the tempter in
the years since they had been parted, and
how he had come back then, master Of
himself, to ask her to begin life anew with
him.


" Let us go back" said Alice, "to our
old home. We shall be happier there"


SO they went back as she wished, and
rented the farm they had once owned, and
began at the foot of the ladder But they
had contentment in their hearts, and with
that even poverty is sweet.


Many years have passed since then, and
Gilbert is fine, hale old gentleman, and
Alice happy matron, the mother Of noble
sons and blooming daughters. Years ol
labor have brought them prosperity, and
the home of their ancestors is theirs ono,
more; and there they will pass the re
mainder of their days, both of them per
fectly satisfied with their one experiment
at Leaving the Farm
Year: 1874

"AIcE IL have left the city, and you will
probably never see me again. We are beg
gars, and the house in which we have lived
will be sold in week. Two years ago we
had quite nice little fortune Of our own, but
we have wasted it-you By your extravaganza,
and by dissipation. Had you been conten-
ted away from this accursed city we might be
happy now. But viii not lay all the blame
on you. We have both done wrong. 1t was
the mistake OF our lives that we ever left the
old farm. As ii is, ! am drunken bloat,
and you will be better off without me. Good.
bye, Alice. God knows l loved you once.


E..u....m
Year: 1874

Little Rock dates of the 18th place
Baxter in full possession Of the Office OF gov.
. ernor. All he state arms have been turned
over to him, and the federal forces are in
structed to recognize him as the supreme
head of the state, and directed to cooperate
with the local forces in bringing order out OF
chaos. The house passed q resolution and ap
pointed a special Commissioner to Investigate
as to whether any officers Of the state have
been engaged IN armed insurrection against
the state government. similar committee
was appointed in the senate. Chief Justice
Mcclure is a refugee. on his way to Washing
ton.


In Little Rock, on the 10th, both
houses, by unanimous vote in the house and
three dissenting votes in the senate, passed
bill providing for the assembling of con-
stitutional convention on the 14th day of July
next. The election is to be held on the Both
day of June at which time the electors vote
on the proposition and elect delegates to the
convention An agreement was made by
which Gen. Newton. the commanding gem
eral of Ba1ter's forces. is to send home with
out molestation all of Brooks men. The
state arms are to be left in the state armory.
The men retain their side arms.
Year: 1874

At a recent meeting of the Chicago
Academy of Science, Ex-Governor Bross
of that city read an elaborate paper on
the subject of the Mississippi inunda-
tiOns, in which he argued that the over
flows which are now devastating SO
large a portion of the finest cotton dis
tricts of Mississippi, Arkansas and Lou
isiana, and nearly all the choice sugar
region of the latter state, find their
explanation not in a larger volume of
water than usual poured into the lower
Mississippi from its tributaries, but in
the fact that the bed of the river is
gradually rising, thus lifting up its wa
ters to higher level, and causing them
TO flow over the banks and levees which
once confined them. In support of this
view he declared that he had cOnversed
with many intelligent and observant
boatmen in st. Louis, who confidently
averred that the bed of the river is
gradually rising fromthe deposit of sed-
iment, just as the river PO, IN Italy,
whose overfows are more frequent and
destructive than formerly, is lifting its
bed from the same cause. This view of
a very interesting subject is strength
ened by circumstances attending the re-
cent overflow. It is a noteworthy fact
that this recent overflow was not caused
nor accompanied by an unusual rise
either in the Missouri or upper Mis-
sissippi the floods came into the lower
river at and below Cairo, chiefly
from the Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee,
White, Arkansas and Red rivers and
the food in the Ohio lacked several feet
of being as high as former years have
witnessed. Had the great streams above
Cairo, the Missouri and its tributaries,
and the upper Mississippi, with its af-
huents, participated in the rise, the
lower river would have been raised sew
eral feet higher than it was-a height
that would have carried it probably,
over nearly all the levees, and caused
the inundation of all the lowlands bor-
dering on it. That so great and de-
structive an overflow as that which took
place should come from the compRra-
lively limited volumes of water poured
into the river at and below Cairo, seems
to suggest a decreased capacity of the
river channel to contain its waters, ow-
ing to the elevation of the bed. If this
theory be correct, some very interesting
questions present themselves How
long Is the process to go on? If the
levees on its bank are to be built higher
as its bed is raised, to secure the coun-
try from inuudation, there will come a
time when the mighty river viii flow to
the sea like an aqueduct, through chan
nels Ii ted up above the plain. But
there is a limit TO the work of raising
the levees the higher they are built
the weaker they become, and In a great
food, in which all the upper rivers shall
participate, the levees would be carried
away, and the released water would
submerge the 10 y regions in far more
destructive deluge than any we have
yet witnessed.
Year: 1874

An English writer says In the Pail
Mall Gazette Many political phenom-
ma of the modern democratic world have
shown that blunders and iniustices be-
loug TO no particular era or state of So
ciety and here we have the congress Of


United States repeating that particular
fraud of feudal princes which even In
the middle ages had fallen into the low
est discredit. There Is absolutely no


difference in principle between adulter-
atinR the metallic coinage and intia-
ting " the paper circulation. The sole


distinction consists In the greater llabIl-


ity of the older piece of cheating to be
found out. a medieval gold coin had


its proper intrinsic value III the market,


and the mOney-chauger who melted


down a coin of some particular issue
and discovered that it was half made up


of copper. at once knew that the sover-
eign had been swindling his subjects


But the effects Of adultsrating a paper
currency have to be detected, not Dy


the scales or the tests. but by some
slight labor of the brain. As a bank


note is, to begin with, piece ot paper
which is absolutely without appreciaols


value, a very superficial person may
/ conclude that anv number of pieces OF
yaIueless. paper may be made valuable
/ by printing on them the same Wor Is
F which appear on the face Of . redeem
able note. The difficulty. such rs II IS
/ Of seeing through this fallacy gives the
modern corrupter of money ms Sole ad-
vantage over his execrated preueceSsOI,
bnt both the act and its consequences
&c iJent;caI in tba two cases. The i'm
/ ace and superscription of the monarch
/ lied in the older example the assertion
+ that "the United States promises TO


paw is a lying assertion in the modern
! instance.
Year: 1874

Scranton, Pa, reports the suspension
OF the Lackawana Iron company, throwing
700 men out of work, while at Reading 1. 600
are likewise treated by the suspension of a
wool-hat factory.


A dispatch from the scene of the Mill
river disaster says the last two bodies have
been found, and the total loss of life is now
known TO BE- 147. Some idea may be formed
OF the terrific force of the rushing stream Of
death by the statement that the fissure in the
ruined barrier shows that the food must have
started with a volume of 175 feet wide, and
35 feet deep.


New York is experimenting in COM
pnisory education. A law has Just gone into
effect requiring the parents and guardians of
children between eight and fifteen years of
age to give them annually at least fourteen
weeks Of elementary instruction. Probably
the most practical feature of the law is that
which forbids the employment at any labor of
children within the above ages during the
time the public schools are open.