smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1877

1t is surprising that intelligent Ameri-
can citizens, as SO many OF the chief rail
road employees are, should have yielded
to the sophistry that attempted to justI-
fy the recent action of the strikers. No
reasonable man will admit any essential
and necessary hostility between capital
and labor, an the orators and writers who
insist upon it are merely preaching bar


barism. Skill ahd talent produce more
and earn more than dullness and igno


rance; and to demand that idleness and
stupidity shall be paid equally with in
telligence and industry, is to require that
common sense shall be disregarded and
civilization stop. Capital and labor are
not essentially hostile, but they are mu.
tually dependent The problem always
is, not how to subject one arbitrarily to
the other, but how to combine both iair-
ly. They both assume the fact Of prop


rrty, but the strike denied it, or course
mere striking for higher wages does not
deny it. but preventing others from work
ing on their own terms does deny il. II
the intelligent railroad hand who reads
this will think OF it for a moment, he
will see this plainly. When the men on
the Baltimore and Ohio road, for in


stance. resolved that the road should not
be used for the transport Of freight, they
Year: 1877

ever kind and willing his mother might


be. the task was too much. lar more than


he would wish TO put upon her. This
state OF things he felt could not long con.


tinue and after the lapse Of a lew months


he became convinced that there was no
alter native for him but 10 marry again


But who. be thought. could take the
place Of his dear Lost wife? Who could


BE- a mother TO his cbildren7 In all the
circle Of his acquaintance there wss but
one he felt that he could trust lie chose
her. and the choice proved a wise one
She went to his home and gently aud
tenderly gathered up the wrecks Of
broken family circle. She called the
children by eudearing names. and they
were attracted toward her A. IL by magic
She did not hide the fret wife's portrait
IN the garret. nor wear the first wifc's
clothing a. her own; but the portrait
was lett hanging whore all the family
could gaze upon u. and the clothing was
carefully laid away for the benefit OF the
little girl in after years. She manifested
no feelings Of envy nor jealousy when her
husband referred 10 the decreased wife.
but fully sympathized with him In bis
great sorrow, and when he shed tears In
memory OF the departed one. NJ be fre
quently did. she mingled her tears with
his. To a fri-nd's inquiry IL IL did not
burt her feelings to have her husband
express grief over the loss Of his fret
wife. she replied:


Not at all On the contrary. honor
him Tor IL. and would not have IL other
wise; Tor II be cared nothing for Aer. how
could hope be would care Tor me


The welfare Of both husband aud chill
dren was carefully studied. and when In
alter years children Of her own claimed
attention, no psrtiality was shown, or %
any. it was always in favor OF the moth
@rlrss ones. As result she gained the
affection Of the children. the love ol her
husband. and the respect OF all Who knew
her. That little boy and girl are nov
young people. Advantages according 10
their means have been gwen them. they
are good and useful members OF soci+ty.
and INSTEAD OF turning Ia cold drri.ion
from a "heartl~s, step mother" they
rise in honor and call her blesL'
Year: 1877

THE Democratic speakers, in response to
to the serenaders last night exhibited their
usual want Of good taste by coarse and vul-
gar abuse of the Chief Magistrate Of the
nation. Freedom of speech is one thing
and tongue license and low blackguardism
ere quite different things. When it is re-
membered that the men who last night
characterized the President as an "usurpor"
were leaders in the pa-.sJ mat proposed and
sSruen nie law that authorized the Electo-
ral Commission, which awarded him the
election, by virtue of which he now exer-
cises his high Office, it will be universally
conceded that they should be the last per-
sons to accuse him of usurpation. But such
accusation comes from them with much
worse grace when 1t is accompanied, as in
this instance, with the additional charge
that he has simply carried out their own
6vorite Southern policy in his treatment oil
those Southern States whose votes secured
his triumph.
Year: 1877

A CORRESPONDENT calls attention to the
false economy of Congress in providing for the
fire and police. departments of this District,
and illustrates his points by reference to the
destruction caused by the Patent Office fire
The expense involved by this fire would have
gone very far towards paying a police aud fire
department that might have prevented this
loss entirely, or at least have gone very far in
its mitigation. We think several lessons may
be learned from the recent confagration. First
all watchmen in the public buildings aud
members of the police force and of the fire de.
partment should be sober, discreet and viglant
men. This, as a preventive measure. Tn,
numbers of these forces should be increased Sc
that each member may have proper and rcgu'
lar hours for rest and recreation. Then these
forces should be so well paid MS to secure the
requisite degree of talent in their composition
These departments, upon whose efficiency SC
largely depends the safety of life and property
should be composed of men of education and
intelligence us well as courage and discretion
1t is hoped that Congress will take an enlarged
and liberal view of this subject in making tn,
appropriations
Year: 1877

We INSERT very able and important
letter this morning on the duties of the
Clerk of the House in making up the roll
Of members. 1t should have appeared yes
terday, but was inadvertently omitted in
the makeup of the paper.
Year: 1877

HAYES LRTTERs:-Those who read
tbe orders of the President with regard to
the presence Of the U. S. troops in Loui-
siana and South Carolina, cannot fail to
observe the studied care taken to state
the fact that he found the troops there
upon entering upon his official duties.
This, in connection with his repeated
declaration that he could find no law or
reason for continuing them in that posi-
ton. is of itself condemnation of the
the policy of the late administration, and
must be so considered by Grant and those
who were in his Cabinet, and their back
ers and excusers.
Year: 1877

We have heard the history of a man
who was for many hours watched by a
bear without his being able to remove
from the spot where he was sitting; here
is more terrible one of man and lion.
A man returning from q visit to his
friends at Bethany, South Africa, took a
circuitous course in hopes to kill an anie-
lope to carry home to his family. Seeing
no game when he reached the spot, he
laid his gun down on low, shelving
rock, and went down to pool to drink,
after which he returned to the rock.
smoked his pipe, and fell asleep. In a
short time the heat reflected from the
rock awoke him, and he saw large lion
crouching before him, with his eyes glar-
ing in his face, and within little more
than yard from his feet. He sat mo-
tionless for some. time till he had recover
ed his presence Of mind then, cycling his
gun, he moved his hand slowly towards
it. The lion, seeing this, raised his head
and gave q tremendous roar He made
another, and another, and another attempt,
but the. gun being far beyond his reach,
he gave it up, as the lion seemed we'll
aware of: his object, and was enraeed
whenever he attempted to move his hand.
The rock on which he sat became so hot
that he could hardly bear his naked feet
to touch it, and he kept moving them,
alternately placing one above the other.
The day passed, and the night also, but
the lion never moved from the spot.
The sun again rose, and soon rendered
his feet beyond feeling AT noon, the
lion rose and walked to the water, only a
few yards distant, but looking behind as
he walked, lest the man should move
and seeing him stretch out his hand to
take his'gun, turned in rage and seemed
about springing upon. him: Tho animal
went to the: water, drank, and returning,
lay down againsa the edge of. the rock.
Anotherjnight passed the man in describ.
ing it said he knew not whether he slept,
but, if he did, it must have been with his
eyes open, as he always saw the lion be-
fore him: Next day the animal went
again to the water, and while there he
listened to some noise apparently from
an opposite quarter and disappeared in the


bushes. The man made another effort
and seized his gun, but his ankles were


without power and he could not. walk


He. .crept doWnSto the: water, gun ii hand


expecting the return of the lion, which


however never came back. The unfortu.
nate man remained cripple ever after
Year: 1877

Middletown IN. .Y.} Argus. !.E n / !:
A strange case ofwell- deserved retribu-
ton has been lately reported to us; the
circumstances Of which ! are as follows i
On one Of the best farms in Orange Coun-
ty, located within q few miles of Middle
town, there lived q. farmer who came into
possession of his property, it is said, by
detrauding his aged father out of it. He
induced the old ! gentleman to deed the
homestead and farm j;over to him, repre-:
senting that he would be we'll taken care
Of during his declining years, and that
were the property in his own name he
would take more interest init No SOON
er was the deed made out and delivered
than the son began la'series of petty per
secutions against his father, compelling
him to perform duties about the farm,
iovertaxing his strength; excluding him
from the family table and dealing out to
him in q gingerly manner sustenance
hardly sufficient to keep soul and body
together: These acts of cruelty were car
ried to such an extent that the broken
hearted father was compelled to leave the
roof which he himself had erected; and
throw himself upon the charity of the
world, at one time, we believe, becoming
an inmate of the county poor-house.
Things went on in this way for some
years, the son apparently prospering and
accumulating quite large share Of this
worlds goods. He became suspected of
several acts of dishonesty in dealing with


his neighbors, and lost no opportunity to
enrich himself at the expense of others.
To such an extent did he carry his parsi-
monious practices that at last he endeay-
ored to escape the payment of some Of his
just debts by secretly conveying his prop
erty to his son, little thinking that his
own son would be as ungrateful to him
as he had been to his father. He thus
successfully evaded the payment of his
debts, but when he attempted to continue


control OF the farm an unexpected obsta-
Gle presented itself, the son proclaimed


himself sole owner and refused to follow
out his directions, or allow him in any
way to control the proceeds. Disputes
and recriminations followed, until finally


the son ordered the father off the premls


es. and refused to contribute to his sup
port. The upshot of the whole affair is
that the grandfather is now reinstated in
the old armchair in the family circle. and
will be tcnderly cared for during the re-
mainder of his natural life, while his son
is employed as farm laborcr in q dis
tant part Of the country. 1ngratitude, in
every second generation, is no doubt
hereditary IN the family, and it will be
curious to observe what the present own
cr's son will do if he gets chance.
Year: 1877

First Of all, what is barometcr2,: 1t is
tube or pipe, closed at one end and
opened at the other, madesof some trans
parent material, such as glass, so that it
may be seen through. This tube is filled
with the melted metal called mercury,
and, when quite full, the thumb is placed
over the open end $50 as to keep the mer-
curry from falling OUT, and the tube is
turned upside down. So the. closed end
is at the top, the open end at the bottom,
and, it the thumb were removed, the mer-
curry would If course run out But now
suppose you wished not to waste any, and
so put the open end Of the tube into a
basin with some mercury in it, and then
remove your thumb, what would happen?
"Why, the mercury would all run out in
the basin2" some one will say. But this
is mistake, as the italian philosopher
Torricelli found out; and whatever size
or length Of tube be taken, the whole of
the mercury will not run out, but a length
OF about thirty inches Of the tube will re-
main full Of mercury, and you cannot
make it run out into the basin unless YOU
either pull the open end of the tube out
of the mercury or make hole in the
closed end of the tube.


This puzzled Torricelli for a long time,
until at last the thought struck him that
the only thing which was on the mercury
in the basin was the air, and that it was
probably the weight. Of the air pressing
on the metal which prevented its running
out into the basin. eff so," thought Tor
ricclli, then if take my tube and basin
cf
Of the tube will remain full, for there is
evidently less air above the basin at the
top of the mountain than at the bottom" i"
You may be sure he didn't wait very long
before he made the experiment; and to
his great delight, he found the mercury
getting lower and lower IN the tube, thus
proving that it really was the weight of
the air that kept it in the tube at all and
so the instrument was called barometer,
which is derived from the Greek, and
means in PLAIN English weight meas
urcr."


But if the barometer is watched it will
be found to contain different quantities
of mercury on different days. On a fine
day the mercury will, as rule, stand
higher in the tube than on wet day or
just before rain; and now for the reason
of this: Why does the barometer rise (or
rather, the mercury in it, in fine weather,
and fall when it is going to be wet? *
Now, dry air is much heavier than wet
air, or air containing steam. The conse-
quence is, that when the air gets moist it
becomes lighter, and presses less on the
mercury Of the barometer, so more mer-
curry lows out into the basin, and, conse-
qucntly less remains in thetube, or, as we
usually express it, the barometer falls.
Now, when the air is very wet, there is,
of course, more chance of rain than when
it is dry, for rain is formed by the cooling
Of the steam contained in moist air.
Year: 1877

"a war correspondent Of the London
1aaecs in Asia Minor, writes as follows.
After having visited some of the less ser
1ous cases in the Russian hospitals saw
some OF the worse ones, and here it was
that the CHASTITY side Of warfare was vis
:ble.


Most Of the wounds were fractures of
limbs from shells of the enemy. But in
several cases one or more limbs had been
removed. But the saddest case I ever
saw was in the room for dressing wounds.
The man had picked up Turkish shell
which had not exploded, and in his desire
to open it he was foolish enough to strike
it with stone. He certainly succeeded
in opening it, but the result was awful to
witness. An arm and leg were broken
beside the jawbone, and one side of his
face together with his nose, was carried
away. 1t was ghastly sight, but not
more so than the one which succeeded it
the funeral OF an officer who died in
hospital. He had been examining the
enemys fort from his battery with field
glasses, when shot crushed
through his forearm and shoulder blade.
He seemed to be doing we'll, and his
wound was healing, when suddenly it
opened again and in short time he was
dead.


In tent open at two sides, table
covered with white was placed, on which
lay picture of the Virgin and candle.
In front of this was the coffin-white,
with black lines on ton each side of
which was tall silver candlestick, with
a candle burning: The pope in his stole
chanted the burial service, accompanied
by single voice. Half way through the
service the lid Of the coffin was removed,
and the corpse was seen in uniform, with
an arm and sleeve crossed over his
breast, and the ugliest wound hidden
with cotton wool. There was something
solemn in the ceremony, and 1 was much
struck with the devout aspect of the SIS
ters of charity. Those who are here now
are excellent workers, and even the mill
tary hospitals are supplied with Sisters of
the Red Cross.
Year: 1877

Describing an election of schbol trus-
tees in Denver, Colorado, on the seven
teenth instant, the Ne,oS of that city says:


Three hundred and twenty-three votes
were cast by women, and some laughable
incidents occurred during the day. The
married ladies almost invariably gave
their husbands initials, and one of them
wanted to vote for her husband, "who
couldn't come" she said. Several ladies
in giving their names added very earnest
ly that they didn't want to ''go into the
papers. Only one vote was challenged
that of young miss of eighteen, who
knew she was old enough to mary and
thought she was old enough to vote. Ev-
erything passed off pleasantly enough,
but there was little quiet indignation
at the attempt to run in an opposition
ticket by bidding for the suffrage votes,
and the women would have damaged their
cause materially if they had suffered
themselves to be led away captive by the
scheme. Fortunately they did themselves
the credit of voting according to their
judgment, not their prejudiees, and thus
demonstrated the fact that they may be
safely intrusted with the ballot.
Year: 1877

MR. Ep.: 1 suppose that when a man edits a paper he says some things that every body is not pleased with, and something's that pleases a few, and I suppose he must weigh everything carefully before he says it; but you said something not long since that pleased me to a scribe; :; and that was about men chewing tobacco in church house,-a house erected and dedicated to the worship of the Eternal God, not only chew ing the weed, but to spit on the floor, in the corners, on the seats, throw out the coods, and when the sermon is over the house looks but little better than a nice pig pen. It is shame to do Gods House in this way, and it is no nnfreqhent sight to see the church members and church officials doing what they know to be wrong, by messing up the church house with tobacco.

 There should be law to protect church houses against all filthy abuse. I hope this will induce all that see it who is in the habit of splitting on the church house to resolve that they will end it.
Year: 1877

The Hot Springs Sentinel says: It is a sad and neiaGcholy sight to see our elegant sad costly court house be-sprinkled all over with ad. vertisemenss of legal sales, most of them writ.en in a hand that would defy the oldest inhabitant to read. This kind of advertising is fraud upon it's face. It not only swindles the newspaper man, who is spending his time and energies in laboring for the public advancement, but it is often an injustice to the man whose property is sold, as it seldom gives sufficient notice, and the property is sacrificed. If the property is worth advertising properly. There are newspapers for doing this kind of work, and they are the proper channels to make known these forced sales.

 It is to be hoped that we will have a General Assembly next time, that will not want notices posted on urt-houses, post offices, black smith shops, pine trees, etc. Ac cording to the law now, q great many people who would advertise are prevented from doing so, because some party concerned would have q right to object to paying an adyer- Using bill, and there are always some that "strain at gnat and swallow a camel" Advertising in newspapers gives all 9 chance and is the only fair and proper way of doing that kind of business.--Lawrence County Journal.
Year: 1877

Helena World: The editors of Arkansas during their session at Fort Smith, promised to cease the low and unmanly practice of acting as the footstool of the average office seeker, but we have failed to notice any decided improvement upon the old habit. To many outside of the fraternity, the editor is regarded as a kind of medlcant, who must sing hosannas in behalf of any fellow who happens to belong to the party. No matter what his imperfections may be, that side of the case must not be presented, and the man who launches -laudations upon him and creates new creature as 1t were, Is sometimes thrown q dry bone to pick, and more frequently told that he has done nothing more than what he should have done in behalf of the party's veal, and that should be enough of reward. There is alto gether too much of the prastering business going on for the good of the community, or for the good of the democracy, and those who han dle the trowel not only work against the country and their political views, but make themselves despicable in the view of every fairly balanced citizen.
Year: 1877

In San Francisco paper was found posted on house intimating that those employing Chinese would be shot down without further warn ing. The author said he was good shot, and meant business, and con cluded the note as follows: q have had no food for two days, nor my family. This is the last notiee-- look sharp
Year: 1877

It IS a current belief among the peasantry of Normaney that if girl treads upon the tail or the claw of n cat her chances of matrimony are materially diminished; and if she treads on both at the same time 1t is an infallible sign that she will not be married for at least four years.
Year: 1877

Every one wants to see better times
and is squealing because some one else
does not make them better, unmindful
of the fact that all are interested in
that work, and no one should wait for
the other to strike out first. We must
all help and encourage each other, not
lie crouchcd down seeking whom we
may devour-and thereby cause all the
harder times by the scares arising there
from. Remember that men makes times
hard, but hard times do not make men. The
longer we continue entertaining
thoughts about suing and breaking
down men who are in our debt, depend
upon it, just so long we may expect the
times to remain hard, and affairs to re-
main as they now exist-without conf
den0e. If you want to see better times,
begin to improve them yourself. Don't
wait for some one else to start first; roll
up your sleeves and strike the monster,
panic, on the head, first. Your neighbor
won't be behind if he sees you striving !;
his neighbor will not be outrivaled; the
next neighbor will come forth and the
next still won't be behind; so all along
the line will the revival extend until
there is a complete revolution all
around. Begin as though you were be-
ginning over again after a disastrous
failure, with all the determination of
"fresh man," and then you will soon
see the result, and be happy.
Year: 1877

The thieves of Paris, like the Paris.
ian police, have long been supposed to
be preternaturally acute, A thief OF
Bois-Colombes has lately proved how
much he could excel either. M. Bour-
dais owns piece Of property in the
place indicated, which two years ago he
rented to an eligible tenant. M. Bour-
dais dwelt in another place, and for a
year and half his rent was sent to him
with the most perfect regularity. No
landlord could ask for better tenant.
At the end of eighteen months M. Bour-
dais received no remittance, and wrote
many times to see what was the trouble.
He received no answer. Finally, after
some months delay, he determined to
go to Bois. Colombes, and upon arriv-
ing there what was his surprise to find
that nothing of his "place" remained
but the ground itself. He sought dill.
gently for his house, but alas he had
no house; 1t had been dismantled, de-
molished and removed. In rage he
laid his grievance before the police, who
are probably now searching for the
dwelling with the best quality Of micro
scopes. The police are, however, doing
better work on more crying evil than
the theft Of houses, and are at present
seeking to close some of the
gaming houses of the capital, and there
by advertising some Of them which have
hitherto not been generally known to
the public.