smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1876

The racing set down for to-day at Jerome
Park includes four interesting events, the
principal of which is the Grand National
Handicap Sweepstakes Of two miles and a
quarter. This is always m exciting race,
testing the staying powers of the coursers
abundantly and giving every opportunity
for display of speed. Such fine horses as
Big Sandy. Vigil, Picolo, Shylock, sun
burst James A. and Miner (late Kidare) will
come to the post, and although McDaniel's
entries have the call in the pools there is
every probability Of a fine race to the finish.
The selling race, which is first on the pro-
grammc, will send Courier, Arcturus, CAL
way and other good horses past the string,
but we do not by any means predict that
they will catch the judges eye in, the order
named. A race of mile heats, third on the
card, with Rhadamanthus, Fiddlesticks and
Freebooter among the starters, will scarcely
result in any one of them distancing the
field, SO that good deal of excitement may
be looked for here. Last of all comes q
purse for two-year-olds over q five fur
long course, which will allow the young
sters to stretch out to their utmost with
out particular danger of injuring them in
their three-year-old form hereafter. Given
fine day, we shall expect to see the grand
stand filled with spectators, among whom tho
bright costumes aud compilations Of the fair
sex will relieve the eye when it turns from
the beautiful picture of the course and its
sylvan surroundings to glance over humanity
outside the quarter stretch Among the EN-
joyments which will be offered to the
visitors to Jerome Park on Saturday next
will be the chance of witnessing the game Of
polo. On every race day after Saturday the
Westchester Polo Club will begin a match
gaipe at four in the afternoon, on their
grounds hard by the race course, thus en-
abling those who attend the Jockey Club
meeting to see this beautiful and manly sport
without curtailing their pleasure at the
track.
Year: 1876

1t was to have been hoped that our Presi-
Dental election in this centennial would
be conducted with more moderation and
candor and less personal abuse than have
heretofore been common in such contests


We regret that this hope has been dis
appointed. We have not seen, in our time, a
Presidential canvass in which personal char
acter has been more rudely assailed or the
honor of candidates more foully aspersed.
Senator Conkling established new title to
public respect by that part of his Utica
speech in which he deprecated this mode of
party warfare. We are glad to find our own
sentiments on this point indorsed by so
strong and Jealous partisan as MIR.


Conkling, who sees that neither party
gains anything by campaign of
calumny which is as easy for one side as for
the other, while it debases our political con-
tests and makes them loathsome to large
portion of the community. The most recent
specimen of this kind of tactics "a verysmall
and mean one, indeed happens to come
from the democratic side. We refer to the
fac-simile of letter written by Gov
erner Hayes private secretary which
was paraded yesterday in the two leading
Tilden papers of this city A plate for
printing the same fac-simile was also offered
to the HERALD by the Tilden shop in Liberty
street, but we declined to use it. 1t does
not quite do to assume that the readers of
newspaper are idiots who think that the
exact reproduction of piece Of hand
writing gives a significance to its sub
ject matter which it would not have in


printers type. What interest can any two
legged creature have in the handwriting of
SO obscure person as the confidential clerk
OF q State Governo" K 49,, 4 i,
Year: 1876

cannot vot, again for o President until
the four yeas shall have expired. But the
press is as active, influential and vigilant
after the election as it was before, and the
actual measures of the administration will
succeed OF 4iscarry in proportion to the
support theyfeceive from the people, as ex-
pressed in he public press. The HERALD
takes little Interest in the immediate result
of this Prudential election. because it
expects to fxert controlling influence
on the mea3lres of the new administration,


whichever barty succeeds. There will be
hundreds jof unforeseen emergencies in
which thJ government will need the sup
port or MY profit by the criticism and ad-
vice of tie public press, and the HERALD
thinks Jan be more useful on such occasions
than it 9uld be in promoting the election
of eithr Presidential candidate. 1t is
chiefly lin this respect that it diff
ers f$m the party journals. That
part bf the press which advocates
the election of Hayes or of Tilden will
feel found to. support or oppose the
measures of the successful candidate through
thickIan thin but an independent journal,
which has been neutral in the election, re-
tain3 its liberty to support or oppose meas
ures on their merits. An administration id
power is sensitive to public opinion, and o
press which retains its liberty to give voice
to that opinion without fear or favor, after
a new President is inaugurated, has
better chance of public usefulness than
the party organs which bind themselves
in advance to support oil the measures Of
one candidate and oppose all the measures
of the other. If the function of the press,
like that Of the people, ceased with the cleo
ton, it might be advisable for the press to
take sides but inasmuch as it is the duty
of the press to make its influence felt
throughout the four years, it is unwise for it
to do anything in advance of the election
which would impair it's power afterward. The
HERALD expects to make its influence felt in
promoting good and thwarting bad measures
whichever candidate is elected, and it be-
lieves that the immediate pressure of public
opinion during the course of an administra-
ton is more potential than the claptrap
party platforms, which are consigned to OBJ
livion as soon as the election is over


We regret that the whole press of the
country does not take our view of public
duty. In this city both parties are very
ably represented in the press-the republi-
can party by the Times and Tribune, the
democratic party by the San and World If
Hayes is elected one set Of organs will advo-
cate and the other oppose all his measures !;
if Tilden is elected the same thing
will take place, with a change Of
parts Nobody can know whether such
advocacy or such opposition is sincere. But
when the HERALD, which stands neutral in
the election, and tells the plain truth about
both parties, supports or impugns measure
of the new administration the public will
have no reason for doubling that it ex-
presses both its own real opinion and the
drift of that general public sentiment which
the HERALD has seldom failed to represent.
Year: 1876

it is only just that they should be fairly
treated by monopoly which proposes to
destroy their business We wish to see the
new company success; but, at the same
time. we desire that the old hackmen, who
are an industrious and deserving class, shall
be fairly treated. and not be deprived Of
their means of living through the superior
strength of a rich monopoly.
Year: 1876

THE LAMENrABLE AFFAIR in Boone county,
Kentucky, wherein grandson Of President
Harrison figures as the attempted, II
not veritable murderer of lady
who had declined to marry him,
name. How great the responsibility is that
rests upon the bearer of such q name the
miserable man may judge by the Difference
paid in the neighboring State of Indiana to
one whose chief distinction is kinship in
the same degree as his to the President
elected thirty-six years ago.
Year: 1876

BOLD BEN BUTLER does not believe that
the republicans are doing right who are COM
bning to drive him out of the field in the
Lowell district. A spicy interview with the
Essex statesman on this and kindred topics
will be found elsewhere. What Judge Hoar
has to say for himself in the premises is also
laid before our readers. Vulcan's non-ap-
ut work on this republican bolt.
Year: 1876

RAPID TRANsIr-It will crafty the citizens
of New York to know that those interested
in furnishing rapid transit to New York
have not lost all heart in face of
the legal stumbling blocks thrown be-
fore them. Yesterday step was taken in
the Supreme Court in the direction of oom-
pleting the work Of the Rapid Transit Com
mission by appointing referee to take tes-
timony respecting the appointment of an
Appraisement Commission.
Year: 1876

The little intramercurial wanderer whom
the astronomers are looking for with their
long telescopes and accustomed patience
has not yet rewarded their labor by sailing
across the suns face He will be a very
small spot indeed when found, if he ever
gives the star hunters . chance. The
trouble is that the fact of not catching
him this time will leave the matter much
as the late trial of Babcock left the
safe burglary conspiracy. We know there
must be ''fraud" somewhere, but twelve
men. presumably ''good and true" could
not find it in Babcock when they had theft
eyes legally turned on him. So with Vulcan


1T is an even chance" says one saddenet
sky detective, ssthat the transit should have
taken place at night" 1T could be done
behind the clouds, says another. 1--WE shall
prove to the court" says Leverrier, like
bumptious district attorney of the universe,
"that it has taken place at the time stated"
But the witnesses contradict each other.
Some of them are suspected Of perjuring
themselves, others are said to be led away by
their lively imaginations, SO that the good
fame Of the respectable god, Vulcan, is as
much brought in question as il
he had been caught sending 'Sylph"
kilograms to Venus under the very nose
of old Jupiter himself about the
Whiskey Rings round Saturn, or found
forging Endorsements instead Of thunder.
bolts. All this time the lame old smith has
probably been minding his own business
putting new prong on the fish fork of Nep-
tune, mending Minerals spectacles, or put
ing fresh edge on the scythe of Time. His
inhabitants, who probably are not much
bothered about the price of COAL know moth
ing of the scientific worry they ars kicking
up here. Their country papers bear no
alarming pictures Of cooking stoves or Ulster
overcoats, although doubtless their s..ver-
tisements are flaming ones. The gas bills
are very light and the demon who sells
weather strips in this world through the
winter no doubt sells lightning rods in
Vulcan all the year round. There every
political canvass is heated and the most
disappointed office-seeker is never left out
in the cold. Whether in Vulcan the sun
has power to dissipate every haze that ID
thrown on the country we cannot yet
state, but for the matter of that we cannot
say more for the united efforts in the same
direction of the sun and the world we wot Of
until after the election Till then, like vul-
can, these things will be in nubibus.
Year: 1876

THE UTE INDIANS in Colorado and New
Mexico arc reported to have assumed
hostile attitude to the whites, and
an outbreak is said to be feared
at any moment. This news is rather
disquieting, in view of the utter failure
of our campaign against the Sioux, of which
it is highly probable the Utes have learned
by this time. Were it not for general ap-
pearance of scarishness about the report we
SHOULD regard the outlook in the far West
with increased gloominess.
Year: 1876

GEoRdn, as we predicted after very care
ful computation, has gone democratic We
may acknowledge, now that the popular YER
dict has been taken in that State, that we
were not o little shaken in our belief by the
confident tone assumed-we may now
safely say assumed-by the repubii-
can organs throughout the Union.
in their predictions that the Georgia election
would go the other way. So far as heard
from the Georgians have not to any great
degree manifested q desire to show by their
votes that they may be counted for Havesand
Wheeler. We now further state that We do
not think they can be. ''Ari Inn etic
men" may compute until the white paper
they usually print on is covered with
figures, but they will not shake our deliber-
ate belief that Georgia viii 90 for Tilden
and reform next November, nor that the
Dutch have captured Holland.


CoLoRADo has gone republican by at least
Two thousand majority. The terrible night
mare is therefore removed which oppressed
the politicians of both parties throughout
the Union while the mighty struggle was
impending in the Centennial State between
the prairie dogs and sage hens amid
their native gulches and over their
rolling sandhills. We fancy that the
democrats Will turn contemptuous
upper lip and an air-snihing nose to this
great triumph of the party Of Lincoln. Of
Sumner and of Fremont but we arc sure,
on the other hand, that the republicans
will let the cannon roar and the eagle
scream and shout themselves hoarse because
this great State has resolved itself into
bullet in the shrapnel which is to blow JEFF
ferson Davis and his following to the blue
blazes of sulphurous hereafter. No matter
what we think of it, the battle is over. That
is something. Now we are free to turn a
quiet attention to the voting in the little
places we call Indiana and Ohio.
Year: 1876

The digest OF the crop returns for Oc-
tober, as prepared at the department of
agriculture, indicates reduction in the
Weld of the wheat crop of nearly one
sixth, while the quantity is somewhat ~
perior. Every section of the union in
dicates a reduction of product except
the middle states. The figures point to
a yield of about two hundred and forty
FIVE million bushels. Rye is reported
four per cent. less than 1878, but the
quality is better. Barley is six per cent.
less than last year. Buckwheat is full
average Oats show a falling off OF
twenty-three per cent. Every section OF
the union is deficient. The corn crop il
deficient but the figures are not yet Oh
tanned The cotton crop will be arg,
and likely to approach tle heavy yielt
of 1873. Sweet potatot are a full aver
age crup. Sorghum full production
Iobsceo-rsport shows about an sverag
/ production.
Year: 1876

A Charlemont marketman, when de-
livering goods one morning, discovered on
leaving the house ofa customer a custard
pie setting in window where the lady
of the house had placed it TO cool for
dinner. He at once appropriated it, and
driving directly to the store of the lady's
husband, called him out and told him he
had "hooked " nice custard pie, and il
he would get some cheese they would
have nice time eating it. OF course
the cheese was forthcoming, and after
satisfactorily disposing of the pie the
question arose what TO do with the plate.
The merchant said that he would take
care of that, and, suiting his actions to
his words, dashed it against the wall.
When the merchant went home to dinner
that day his wife apoloeized for not hav.
ing any desert, saying she made a custard
pie for dinner and left it in the window
to cool, and she supposed some boys
must have stolen it. Her husband wasn't I
pie hungry, and seemed quite pleas d
about something, but kept mum" "
Next morning the merchant, meeting the
marketman, sang out "pie." In reply
the other said "Cheesel And whose
plate was that you smashed ?"
Year: 1876

1t is the impression of prominent post
office officials that the commission pro
vided for by congress to investigate the
subject of railway mail transportation
will take strong grounds in their forth
coming report in favor Of the re-establish-
ment of fast mail trains, and will support
their recommendation by the best evi'
dence of their necessity. The business
men of the country, especially those ol
the south and west, urge their re-
establishment, and it is quite possible
that congress will renew the service
This cannot be done unless the claim for
increased compensation Is conceded, whel
every fhility is promised by the railroad
companies.
Year: 1876

The following timely and sensible sug-
gestions are from the Lynchburg Sen
tinel /:


"Pei haps never in its history did
Tennessee need wise and judicious
legislation as badly as it does to-day,
and perhaps never since it has been
State has there been so much grum-
bling about many existing laws at pres
ent. Everything seems to have been
going on from bad to worse, until the
great Centennial year finds Tennessee
in a worse condition than it was TWEEN
ty-fve years ago. The Governor tells
the world we are unable to pay our
honest debts, and yet the people are
taxed higher than ever before, and on
every hand we hear it said that some
thing must be done to relieve the peo-
pie. There is one great cause for all
this, and that is bad legislation. We
are not careful enough who we select
to make our laws. We are too prone
to vote for our personal friends, with
out regard to their qualifications, aud
as a consequence we too often elect
men, though good clever fellows, who
know as little about law making as a
hog does about Sunday, and are as
much out of place in the legislative
halls, and play as sad havoc with the
interests Of the people, as bull in a
china shop.


There are good men in every county
in the State, and are well qualified for
seats in the General Assembly but
many of these men cannot afford to
spend their time and money in making
acknowledgements at every cross-road,
upon issues which circumstances alone
will control their votes in the legisla-
ture. The pay don't justify them, and
as consequence they don't. 0Fer.-
Men have quit serving the dear peo?ie
for honor's sake, aud the people have
no right to ask it of them. The Con-
stitution should be so amended, as to
give him fair compensation for SER
vices done. Then, and not until then,
will we have much wisdom at the
Capital.


1t is but few months until we are
called upon to select another General
Assembly, and it behooyes the peo-
pie to at once be looking around them
for the right men. Many important
questions are bound to come before
them, that it will take long heads to
successfully grapple. TheState is in a
bad fix, and it is only through wise
and iudicious legislation that she can
get out of it.
Year: 1876

Never put off until tomorrow what
YOU can do to-day Never trouble an
other for what you can do yourself.
Never spend your money before you
have it. Never buy what you don't
want because it is cheap. Pride costs
more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
We seldom repent of having eaten TOO
little. Nothing is troublesome that
we do willingly. How much pain the
evils have costs us that never happen
ed Take things always by the smooth
handle. When angry count ten before
you speak if very angry count a
hundred.
Year: 1876

Young man, don't waste your means.
Did YOU know that a nickle saved each
day amounted to SlS25 year? If
YOU will commence when you are Il
years old to save thus your means,
when you are a hundred and no longer
able TO work for your liquor you will
have laid up in the bank 81 AL .75, and
it will be source of extreme salts
faction to you on your one hundreth
birthday. to 90 to the bank to get your
nickels and find the bank broke.
Year: 1876

He said he didn't care anything
about liquor, only the effects. lie
never liked the taste of it, always made
him gag to drink 1t, and he made
no an awful face as he took 1T down.
But it was the effect he was after. If
it wasn't for the effects.he would never
drink drop of liquor in his life. He
was a nice young man when we first
heard him say that. lie had health,
good looks, property, and respect
able position in society. The only per-
ceptible effects of his potations then
were the heightened color in his cheek,
increased brilliancy of the eyes aud
yivacity in conversation. He was
generous and liberal with his money,
too, and had host of friends" Well,
he kept on drinking for the effects,
and he got them, as every man will
who keeps at il long enough. The last
time we saw him he was that pitiful
object, a human wreck, lie was stand
ing at BAR pleading for drink on
time, his trembling fingers being un-
able to find single nickel in the pock-
cts of his ragged apparel. He had
kept on gagging over his whisky, and
drinking for the effects until he hadn't
any effects left except those painfully
apparent ones, poverty, disease, priya-
tion and yanishedrespectability Verify
he got the effects.
Year: 1876

DID it ever occur TO you, kind man.
mas. asks the Boston Transcript, while
trotting your babies on your laps In
sueh a vigorous way, that If some
giant, about ten times your size, were to
frOt you in similar style, the breath
would be very apt to be jouced out OF
your body.
Year: 1876

To hear ex-Confederate congressman de-
plore the corruption of the Republican party
and to read the virtuous denunciations of Re-
publican leaders by Democratic journals, one
would think that in the "earler and better
days of the Republic" such a thing as un-
faithfulness and venality in office were not
known. Ofcourse it was no crime for Bu-
chanan's cabinet to plunder the treasury,
steal the Indian funds, and strike at the life
of the Republic. This was patriotic devotion
to great cause.


But we will not linger about those dark
days when treason was an excuse for plunder-
ing the nation but go back to the Democratic
days for which few of the present leaders are
responsible and consult history. January 9,
1889, in the House of Representatives, Mr..
Wise of Virginia made motion for select
committee TO be appointed to investigate late
defalcations of public offices, which at the
time ''had most deeply excited public anxiety
and ALARM" and it was part of this COM
mittee's work to do something to reform
''the alarming condition and abuses of the
Executive Department of the government,
from the highest to the lowest, and from the
nearest to the remotest functionaries." The
report of the Committee was made during the
third session of the Twenty-fifth Congress.
1t shows that the defalcations of Samuel
Swartwout while Democratic collector of the
port of New York amounted to $1,225, ,7O5.-
70; and, in the words of that document, this
abuse ''was permitted to grow upon the face
of his official quarterly return, made with
periodical regularity to, and for the investi-
CATION of, the accounting officers of the
Treasury Department" These defalcations
were continued through period of seven
years; and in speaking of the causes ofSwart-
wouts defalcations the Committee stated
that among other things they were owing
to the following causes:


'To culpable disregard of law and neglect of official
duty by the late naval officer of New York."


'Culpable disregard OF law and neglect OF official
duty by the First Auditor of the Treasury"


"Culpable disregard of law and neglect of official
Treasury


"The negligence and failure of the Secretary of the
treasury QIevi Woodbury. to discharge his duty as
the head of the Treasury Department


This serious defalcation took place under
the eye of the Secretary of the Treasury in
those earlier days of the Republic when
everything was lovely, pure and OF good re-
port among the affairs of the government.
A defalcation in those days of million and
quarter of dollars, would be equivalent to for
ty millions now, considering the difference
between the revenue of the port of New York