smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1873

The Rev. q. n. Gordon, writing in
the Church Missionary Intelligence, thus
describes the reputed site of the Tower
of Babel.


A high mound is surmounted by a
ruined and unfinished tower of brick.
the summit of which is 235 feet above the
unin. An examination OF the mound
shows that il is composed of the same
clements as the mounds of Babylon-
masses of brick and rubbish, interspersed
with broken pottery. These bricks ere
all OF them inscribed on one side with
cuneiform characters. The cunei-
form is the ancient Assyrian, and
is supposed to be the oldest writ
ten language in the world One
side, where excavations have been made,
Won may see walls of brick ascending tier
above tier with mastery ambitions. On
another, all in convulsion and disturb
ance--huge masses of brick work, rent
and overturned, yet, so solid in their
ruin that it is easier to pulverize the
brick than to separate it from the mortar.
One of these blocks rolled bodily to the
foot of the mound. Others are yitrified
or fused by process which can be none
other than electricity or fire. Curiously
enough the Arabs have tradition that it
has been destroyed by fire from heaven.
The sides of the mound are pierced with
holes and strewn with bones, which
plainly indicate the lairs of wild beasts.
The view from the summit at sunrise is
distant and varied. The broad sheet
of the Euphrates winds for many mile.
until lost in the distance in the sea
like plain. 1t is difficult to resist the
conviction that Birs Nimrod is the Tower
of Babel, the oldest ruin in the world.
There are those who like Mr.. Rich) be.
leve it to be the Tower of Belus, and re-
gard it as a part of the ruin of Babylon,
but prefer to hold the older tradition.
And, surely, it is, when standing on
ground like this, that the language Of the
Scriptures acquires vividness and real
ity which rewards the toll of patient in
vestigation, and makes the privations of
travel forgotten; and voice seems to
breath from the resting place of the
prophets beside these mighty rivers
which is daily more heard and felt, re-
buking the sneer of the scoffer and the
skeptic.
Year: 1873

stretched arm and hand, quivering
them, and allowing her body very
slighly to partake of the same move
mept. Her feet mark the time of the
music, not by being raised, but by mere
ly pressing the floor with the toes. The
action and movement thus seem to run
like wave through the body, greatest
where it begins in the hand, and grad
ually diminishing as it dies away in the
foot. With change of time in the ac-
compartment the girl drops her arm,
advances a step or two nearer the per-
son before whom she is dancing, and
leans back, supporting her whole weight
on one foot, with the other put forward
and pressing against the floor the bor-
der of her drapery.


In hel han Is she holds little scarf,
which serves to give motive to the ac-
ton of her arms and head. The move
ment in this figure. which admits of
great variety, no two performers being
alike at all in it, is somewhat stronger
than in the first. The undulation, too,
instead of dying away gradually from
its commencement, runs with equal
force, like the line of an s, through the
body. Without any pause in the music
the dancer sometimes glides impercepti-
bly, into, sometimes begins with start
ling suddenness, the next movement.
The general position remains what it
was before, but to describe how its
principle of life and motion seems con-
centrated below the dancers waist, and
from thence flows in undulating streams,
to flash from or to dull, according to
her organization, the eyes, and to crisp
the child-like feet with which she
grasps the carpet, is for me impossible.
One of these girls is a perfect actress
numberless shades of expression pass
over her delicate features, but the pre-
vailing one is a beseeching, supplica-
ting look. We administer to her, as the
custom is, some rupees in token of our
admiration, and with an arch smile the
no longer supplicating damsel passes on.
Year: 1873

The London Spectator thinks that il
the departure of the Germans prove
the signal of an explosion, France, now,
as ever, will be stronger than assembly,
or intriguers, or soldiers, and will adopt
some form of administration which will
be effective, which will be strong, and
which in some way or other will suit
her national genius. What this form
will be we are as unable to divine as to
divine why Napoleon went to war with
Prussia in the teeth of his own convic-
tiOns but we are more inclined to be-
lieve that the form will be the one ex-
isting, a sovereign assembly to which
any one may be elected, which merely
by existence keeps all careers vide open.
If the COmte de Chambord would abdi-
cate or go to heaven, it might be easy
to construct constitutional monarchy,
for that, when legitimate or an APP
proved king is on the throne, secures
that opening for all careers and all par
ties without which France is kept sim
rering with fear of violent change ;
while his heir is a man ready to accept
the principle. SO also it might be easy
to construct republic, We will not say
conservative" because the word has
been abused, but 50 strong or swayed
by so strong a man, that it would have
the power to conserve all that is worth
conserving, including the institution of
property. It was not a king, but
mere president, removable at will, who
delivered so crushing blow to the COM
mune in its stronghold. Marshall Nc
Mahon may reign while he gives salts
faction, the assembly may vote while 1t
creates no disgust. but failing in either
of the conditions, France would see
its way to the election of one or the dis
solution of the other. Frenchmen,
with all their outward fuss, and haste.
and noise, are singularly patient and
persistant. They may be hot, but no
other nation ever formed queue.
They may be chsngeable, but no other
nation ever adhered as they have done,
through ill report, and good report, to
the BOurbons, or in later times to the
Bonaparte family, which, unless all re-
ports are false, could, but for timidity
in Paris, have remained there still.
They may be variable, now sanguine
and now despond mt, but no other ma
ton has ever been so persistent, not to
say obstinate, in two decisions, that
France must be great power respected
abroad, and that at home equality must
be the ideal.
Year: 1873

LACK OF INGENUITY IN AUSTRIA. The
most stupid expenditure of human ma
ture is seen in everything here. There
seems to be an utter want of ingenuity.
Shovels and spades have handles six
feet long as thick at the tops 'as at the
bottom, and twice as heavy as required.
You cannot make a wOrkman-Or his
employer for that matter-understand
that this immense handle Is no stronger
than its weakest point, and that tn S
weak point Is just at its junction with
the iron. The scythes used are nothing
but exaggerated bill-hooks, two feet
long, six inches wide at the base, the
back being a solid mass of iron more
than half an inch in thickness. The
snaths are perfectly straight, five feet
long and Is large as mans wrist, and
one straight peg foot long for ham
die. But the best illustration is the
process of planning q board. A small
plane, some 10 inches long. and nearly
square, has Q hole bored through one
end, and through this hole peg q foot
long is thrust, protruding on each side.
II takes two men to work this machine.
The two seat themselves astride the
board, and one pulls, the other pushes,
and both pause few moments to rest
every time they have to hitch along the
board. In order to plane ten foot
scantling, therefore, an affair of two
minutes with us, two men work for more
than an hour. Besides-and such i'll
credible folly exasperates an American
the two men sit in the blazing sun with
out thinking it possible to carry theil
board to q plaae Of shelter, perhaps ter
PAGES away, OF to put up an awning will
the boards lying idle about them Ant
yet Austria objects to a fair patent law
or even to sanction fair discussion o
the subject Wenna letter.
Year: 1873

All along the road on either side can
be seen nothing but brush and rough
lumber and shake shanties, in size
twelve bv thirty feet, and shafts and
drifts with rough and ancient l'oking
windlasses, rockers. pans, pumps, and
other tools and equipments incident to
diggings OF this class. All the tools
and fixtures used are old, and none of
the more improved and scientific are to
be seen in use. For example, they do
not even use our style of forge bellows,
but have a most ingenious and cheap
substitute in the form of an OblOng box,
about three feet long, which is made on
the same principle as steam-chest, and
in the box is piston-rod, which by
pulling ont and pushing back again
elects blast Of wind through a rude
looking iron nozzle, the whole worked
NV two valves on either end of the box.
There is but one white blacksmith
among about four to six Thousand of
these mining Celestials, and the other
forees are run entirely by the Chinese
themselves. They do rot use our iron
anvils, but as substitute species Of
black granite stone, large fiat piece of
which they forge and point their picks
on. and when the stone is broken they
substitute a new one and so on, thus
saving the expense Of an anvil. They
are primitive in all their workings
around the shaft. and carry out or imi-
tate the ideas of the California miner of
over twenty years ago. We saw one
fellow washing his shirt and pants,
hanging them up on some tailings to
drv, and going around clad in his boots
until they were dry enOngh to wear. 1t
is indeed singular that, with all their
awkardness and ignorance of mining,
they can make such wages as they are
certainly doing.-Ororitle (Cdt.) Mer-
curry.


The JIMMYJOHNs.-Mrs. Diaz tells in
Our Young Folks comical story of two
twins, who looked 20 much alike that
the neighbors could not tell which was
Jimmy and which was Johnny, and so
called them "the Jimmyjohns." And
this is the account of one of their funny
"ways." When the Jimmies were little
tOddling things, Just beginning to walk.
they were constantly falling down, tip
ping over their cradle Oh humping their
heads together; and Mrs. Plummer
found that the best way to stop the cry
ing, at such times, was to turn it into
kissing. The reason of this is very plain.
In CRYING. the mouth flies open: In
kissing. it shuts. Mrs. Plummer was q
wopdeful woman. She found out that
shutting the mouth would stop its cry.
ing, and to shut the mouth she con.
trived that pretty kissing plan, and al
the first sound Of bump would catch
up the little toddlers, put their arms
round each others necks, and say


kiss Johnny, Jimmy. Kiss Jimmy
johnny 1t was enough to make any


body laugh to see them, in the midst O


a crying spell, run toward each other


their cheeks still wet with tears, and t.


see their poor, little, twisted, crying


mouths trying to shut up into kiss
Year: 1873

B. F. Patterson, of Phoenix, Arizona, lost
COW. The animal had been tied over night,
and the rope was cut 1t looked like the work
of COW thief, and COW tracks mixed up with
horse tracks, turned away from Patterson's
house, had a still more suspicious appearance.
The tracks were followed until they reached
butchers shop, and there they were lost,
but the butcher Ia Mexicanl, had just killed
a beef, and there was the hide of Mr.. Patter-
sons cow stretched out to dry. Patterson
knew the hide, and suspected that the beef
came from under it. The butcher said he
had bought the cow of another Mexican
(naming him., and that other Mexican was
found and taken before magistrate to give
an account of himself and the COW. He was
also remembered as wearing ring that had
belonged to man found dead in the woods
one day. He had never explained satisfac-
toriy how he got that ring, and the people
had never ascertained how the man who had
owned and worn the ring among them came
to his death. But this is depression. We are
after Mexican who sold COW to butcher,
who forthwith turned the COW into fresh
beef Before the magistrate the butcher and
his wife testified that the prisoner had sold
them the cow. The prisoner said that was
all true, and Patterson said he had lost COW
and found hide and fresh beef that he be-
lieved belonged to her and him. He more
over asked the butcher to pay him for his
USSi' MS tAS uueShCi POslIihCiy IciuSru W
do, as be had payed for the COW once. After
the examination the Mexican thief was taken
to jail. The Mexican butcher was also arrest
ed, and his examination was to take place the
next day. The farmers began to collect in
town very early the next morning. They
were very quiet and orderly, but there were
good many of them. They went to the Jail and
asked to see the cow-thief. The Sheriff glanced
at the number of visitors, and he thought
he'd let 'em in. The Mexican took a morning
walk with them little way out of town, and
they came back in an hour without him. He
had climbed tree. The butcher was exam
ined before the magistrate, and the farmers
stayed to hear the trial. The butcher was
acquitted by the Court, and the farmers still
hung around. They were so thick around
him that the butcher found it difficult to get
along after he had got out of the Court room.
And still the farmers hung around, and the
butcher found himself walking with them to-
ward the country. He at leugth consented
to pay Patterson for the fresh beef which he
had declined to do the evening before, and the
farmers hung around no more. They went
to their several homes.
Year: 1873

Americans at Vienna are jubilant over the
complete success of our reapers and mowers,
at the recent trial on Danube plain. Both
England and France backed out when it came
to the competitive trial
Year: 1873

Dispatches from Havana say the officials


who carried out the execution of the prisoners
on the Virginius claim that she was taken as
pirate, and that all those captured upon her
were treated as pirates. Those who had been
in the insurgent army were tried by a naval
court martial, which lasted bnt one day, and
which sentenced the four who were tried to be
executed at daylight on the morning of the
4th. They were accordingly executed with
out the slightest protest from the acting consul
of the United States at Santiago, and, of
course, without the protest of the consul at
Havana, who was assured by the captain
general that the prisoners would have a fair
trial before a competent tribunal. At ia Cab
met meeting in Washington on the llth the
subject of Cuban affairs was considered at
some length. There is no difference Of opin-
ion among the members as to the proper
course to be pursued. There is no doubt that
the admiral and commanders of our fleet in
the Cuban waters will be, if they have not al


ready been, instructed to observe the orders


issued in the spring of 1869, when reports
came to the Navy Department through the
press and telegrams of several American YES
sells having been searched by Spanish men,
of. war in British waters and on the high road
of nations in the Gulf Of Mexico. The Gov
ernment then, as now, took the position that
while the United States Government wished
to observe strict neutrality in regard to the
difficulties existing in the island of Cuba, they
could not consent that our merchant vessels
should be molested in their lawful pursuits,
or overhauled and examined, unless they
were found committing some violation of
Spanish authority. This they could only do
by landing arms and munitions of war. The
waters between Cuba and the United States
being used as the great highway of all ma
tions, vessels should not be molested unless
they were within marine league of the ISL
and and not even then unless detected in
some overt act.
Year: 1873

The Cuban authorities have manifested
an inhumanity in the execution of more
than fifty of the persons found on the Vir-
ginius, which will go farther than heavy
losses in battle TO damage their cause. Our
government in the rebellion, though
strongly provoked to hang traitors and
buccaneers. wisely abstained from such a
course, leaving no instance on record of
the kind. The Spanish government will
find itself under the necessity of disayow-
ing all responsibility for these murders. If
it does this it may relieve itself in some
degree of the public odium brought upon
it. but the act will raise up avengers that
may force the government to extremity
and remove the chains of Spanish tyranny
from Cuba. The Spanish race is far be-
hind the enlightened sentiment of the best
European nations and the United State:
in humane and merciful ideas. Revenge
and cruelty are prominent traits in the ma
tional character. Probably they will be
astonished that other nations are STRUCK
with horror at the wholesale massacre
they have just perpetrated The savages
are not more ready to take life than they
1t is time we think they were made to fee
the force of more humane ideas, or a
least to learn that they cannot outrage tht
world by barbarous, lawless, wholesale
executions without being made to suffel
for it. Every nation is interested in put


ting stop to such blood thirsty proceed


ings as these. There are disgrace to the
age and should consgn those who perpc-
trated them to severe punishment.
Year: 1873

A gentleman connected with one of the
largest manufacturing establishments in New
England has Just returned from visit to the
South He reports business good and money
sufficiently plenty to enable all business men
ergsscd ~ legitimate trade to meet their pay
ments promptly. The price of cotton is low,
but the owners are more fore. handed than
the old planters used 10 be, and they can sell
at profit now or hold for higher prices as
they see fit.
Year: 1873

We are glad to see that the Louis
vile Commercial is opposed to lotter-
les We extract the following from a
long and able editorial in that paper of
recent date, and in doing so endorse
every word that it contains;


The State has always discovered that
only the most severe and stringent
laws keep lottery managers from prac-
ticing the most outrageous frauds upon
the people They have to be hedged
in and watched like thieves or high
way robbers to prevent them from
preying upon the public. After time
the State when it finds all its efforts
are idle to make right what is eternally
wrong, to change the character of
theft and robbery by legalizing them,
bodily declares lottery dealers to be
robbers and makesthem amenable to
law as guilty criminals, dangerous to
public morals, and destructive of the
public good. This, in general, is the
history Of Iatteries in their relation to
the State.


Sometimes, indeed, the States joins
with the lottery dealers, and shares in
their spoils and thus becomes directly
interested in their maintenance. In
such countries there are always a low
condition of public morals and a la
mentable state of civilization. We
are not afraid to say that, just as ma
tiOns advance in civilization and moral
and intellectual enlightenment. and
governments begin to make laws for
the good and protection of the people,
they begin to rank the lottery as a
g, >%eies Of fraud OF systematized rob-
berv and to east it ous as . pois Onous
exryese, 'ee and an intolerable abomi-
nation
Year: 1873

Now move the paper slo,eiy toward
the eye. which must be kept fixed ON
the cross. At a certain distance the
other figure-the letter O-will sud
denly disappear but, if you bring the
paper nearer, it will come into view
again You may not succeed IN the
experiment on the first trial, but with
a little patience you can hardly fail ;
and the suddenness with which the
black spot yanishes and reappears is
very striking. Now, examination has
shown that, when it disappears, its I'M
age falls exactly on the spot where the
optic nerve enters the eye, thus prov
ing that spot to be blind.-,Scienee o
! Health.
Year: 1873

IN THE LINE OF PROM0TIoN-A A
London correspondent of the Boston
Globe states that it is not at all unlikely
that Mr.. Benjamin, ex-Confederate
Attorney-General, will be elevated to
4 judgeship, sooner or later. lie Is at
this moment one of the most success
full advocates at the English bar, with
AN enormous and growing practice
The appointment of a barrister Of for
eign descent to so high an Office would
be very unusual, if not unprecedented
In Great Britain.
Year: 1873

THE PEOPLE OF TENNESSEE remind
one of the man who owned large
tract of fertile land, rich in minerals,
and almost entirely covered with fine
timber, and yet contented himself with
an imperfect cultivation of only a few
acres of it.
Year: 1873

An earnest wish to attain some de-
sired end often causes the human mind
to neglect the necessary means. by
which alone that end can be reached.
Immigration to the South of indus
trious and thrifty farmers, mechanics
and laborers, is very desirable end,
the means to reach which we have
greatly neglected.


FARMERS ARE INVITED


to settle in this State whose people
have adopted and cling to system, or
rather want of system. in the manage
ment of country roads and bridges,
which the Governor in his message
lately pronounced the worst imaginable.
The world is informed, and correctly
too, in that message, that the condition
of our country roads is so wretched as
to interfere with and discourage the
cultivation of our lands, since from
this cause the products of the soil can
not be brought to market, except with
great expense and trouble. Eloquent
speeches have been made, pamphlets
published containing elaborate argu-
ments and carefully prepared statistics,
and all to induce immigration to a
State that has not only failed to give
her own native born citizens a good
system of roads, but has also enacted
such measures as must necessarily pre-
vent the construction Of decent, passa-
BILE highways.


MECHANICS


are asked to come to Tennessee before
any employment is provided for them
by the establishment of manufactures.
There is not city, town or village in
the State where three hundred artisans
could find employment, if they should
come in body, within one year after
their arrival. What would become of
fifty machinists landed together in
Nashville, from Europe :? or of fifteen
or twenty mechanics of any calling,
who would arrive at one time in Clarks-
vile? They would find themselves in
want of employment, which they could
obtain only by going elsewhere.


WHITE LABoRERs


are expected to come here and engage
to work in competition with a system
of labor, and a kind of laborers, which
are unspeakably offensive to them.
Wherever negro laborers are employed
to any considerable extent, that place
will be avoided by white laborers,
though it were as enchanting as ''the
gardens of Gul In their bloom" The
moderate use of very small amount
of common sense ought to be sufficient
to perceive the utter incompatibility
of the employment of white and black
laborers together, and the unwisdom
of trying, as matters now stand, to IN
duce white laborers to immigrate to
this State. A contemporary thinks that
African colonization can be made
practicable only when white laborers,
insufficient numbers, immigrate hither.
We would like to suggest to the editor
of that journal another idea equally as
brilliant: He can easily catch swamp
blackbirds by first sprinkling salt on
their tails. We hope he will try this
plan next spring.
Year: 1873




regularly kept in my stock. They
have now stood the test for several
years. They have been pronounced
the cheapest in the market. They
are admitted to be the prettiest. My
assortment is very complete. ] ask
you to try these goods. I have sold
large quantities. Have just added q
New supply for january and
February Sales. If you will look I
think you will be convinced that it is
greatly to your advantage to buy
Certainly no one can offer you greater
inducements: few, if any, as great.


TO one other Department also beg
your especial attention, viz:


NV stock of