smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1871

Blessings brighten as they take their
flight; so thought Missouri farmer
who went into st. Louis TO look for his
wife, who had fed from his house.
He came home drunk one day, abused
his wife, she refused to get him any
dinner or supper or breakfast, and he
went into town and stayed a day,
coming home to find his house desert
ed, the wife having taken her boy,
clothes, &c, and some money, pur-
chasing a ticket for St. Louis. The
husband wes penitent, declared she
was a dear little woman, and loved
her more than ever now he had lost
her, and if he could only regain her,
would never get drunk again or abuse
her in any way or manner.
Year: 1871

Young men who go to see the girls,
have adopted a new way Of obtaining
kisses. They assert, on the authority
OF scientific writers, that the cOncus-
sion produced by kiss will cause the
flame of a gas jet TO flicker, and easily
induce the girl to experiment in the
interest of science. The first kiss or
two parties watch the flame TO see it
flicker, but soon become so interested
in the experiment as to let it flicker if
it wants to. A kerosene light will do
just as well, or even ION a pinch) a
talloW candle.
Year: 1871

The feeIinaS oS a near-sighted
man who finds he has kissed his
hand to the wrong lady.


The finding your pocket book
gone just as you are about leaving a
strange hotel, with no time to spare
to reach the train.


The rapidity with which fancy
stocks decline, when you go in, and
rise when you sell out.


The sensation from a lady's boot
heel (present style } when she steps
on your foot accidentally.


The prices charged at some hotels
on the European style.


The skill with which the gentle
manly bar keeper gives yoH short
change.


Your mother-in-law's remarks if
you do not go to the mountains or
sea shore during the season.


The being asked by a person at
an evening party, with whom Won
are acquainted, but whose name
you cannot recollect to introduce
him to your friend, Miss Smuggling,
who is coming towards yous@Bo
! Commercial BwRetla,
Year: 1871

Have you top-dressed the soil around
about every bearing tree with lime or
with wood ashes7 If not, it will pay to
scatter two or three bushels of quick
lime, as soon as it is Stacked, over the
surface of the ground, as far each way
as the longest branches extend. The
earlier it is done in the growing season,
the more satisfactory will be the effect
on the bearing tree. If wood ashes are
SO scarce that only one or two bushels
per tree can be applied, let them be
scattered at once. Barn-yar1 manure
also constitutes an excellent top-dress-
ing around about fruit trees.


Have you pruned away all the super
numerary, worthless and decaying bran
ches from every tree top? If you have
not, procure a good pruning saw, climb
into the top, and then cut out the bran
ches, when they are too thick. Let
branches be removed with a smooth cut,
after which, carry a kettle of LIQUID
grating wax into the tree-top, and with
a paint-brush smear the wounds with
warm wax, and press a piece of paper
into the wax which has been laid on the
wound, before it cools. Avoid the prac-
tice of cutting off large branches. Fruit
trees shold be so pruned when they are
small, so that it will seldom be necessary
to serve large branch.


Have You searched the branches of
your apple trees for the eggs of the tent
caterpillar, which are glued to small
twigs near the extremities of the outer
limbs? If not, take an hour or two oc-
casionally, and collect the eggs of these
depredators before they hatch. Insects
are now so numerous that the price of
fruit is measured by unremitting vigi-
lance.
Year: 1871

Vest erday, a little after o'clock, the
attention of citizens generally was at
tracted to the river by the sudden out
burst of a deafening chorus of steam
whistles, varied occasionally by the re-
port of cannon. The cause of the ex-
element was an important event in
connection with the east abutment pier.
About twenty minutes past 4 o'clock
the caisson reached the rock, and Sup
erintendent McComas, and the other
gentleman associated with him in the
work, felt so rejolced at the event that
they had turned on in full blast all the
steam whistles about the works and fired
a salute with small piece of artillery
which they have at the works to be used
on such occasions. The caisson reached
the rock at distance of 199 feet 10
inches below the surface of the water
and 127 feet 4 inches below the city di-
rectrix. The pressure in the air cham
Der is now about 48 pounds per square
inch. The gangs of men working in the
compressed air have numbered each
from 25 to 80, but owing to careful
medical supervision no i'll effects have
been experienced. The work of filling
up. the chamber in the manner indi-
Gated in our recent allusion to the sub
ject will be pushed forward rapidly. To
any person familiar with the peril and
difficulties of carrying down these pier
foundations, it is not hard to under
stand the satisfaction of the men actu-
ally engaged in the work when it draws
to a conclusion I'm this case there is
particular grounds for rejoicing, as the
last caisson is now sunk to the rock bed
under the Mississippi. When the air
chamber is filed the balance of
the bridge work will be above ground,
in the free atmosphere in which ordi-
nary mortals @ have their being"
Year: 1871

"There's many slip 'twixt cup and
lip," is an axiom of ancient times, but
can be applied with every sense of pro-
priety in the present sorrowful instance.
On Monday night last, a young man in
the employ of Judge Strong, of Setau-
ket, named Du Troit, left the beach in
a small boat for Port Jefferson, for the
purpose of getting suit OF clothing
which he had previously ordered, and
some trinkets for a young lady. From
the residence of his employer a girl of
nineteen, quite handsome, and withal
good-natured, accompanied him to the
beach, and bade him goodbye as he
pushed off for the other side. To this
girl he was engaged to be married, and
it was for his wedding outfit he was 60
ing to Port jefferson, as on Wednesday
they were to be married.


From that time to the present moth
ing has been heard from Du Troit. AS
he did not present himself on Tuesday
morning, those who were interested in
him felt worried, and began to make
INQUIRIES regarding him. No one had
seen him. The boat in which he de-
parted could not be found. The night
wos dark, and it occurred to some that
he might have met with an accident.
Wednesday came and went, and SO lid
Thursday, but brought no tidings of Du
Troit. On Friday it was thought best
to dredge the bay. The boat was found
at the bottom, near the Port Jefferson
landing; but, notwithstanding the
dredging was most thorough, not the
slightest vestige of the object of the
search was discovered. The people now
entertain the belief that he has been
foully dealt with. If he persisted in the
bay his body would have been found.
The poor girl is completely broken
down with grief. To her the stroke is
a hard one, as all her hopes are thus
blighted on the eve of the wedding day.
-4H1,av Journal
Year: 1871

The ancients believed that the indi-
vidual whose hair was straight and lank,
was weak and cowardly. Frizzly hair
was indicative of coarseness and clumsi-
ness. The hair that specially won their
admiration was that which, flowing
down, terminated in ringlets. The Em-
peror Augustus was favored by nature
with wonderfully fine and abundant
hair. Auburn or light brown tresses
were thought most distinguished, and
the possessor of hair of either tint was
pre-supposed to be intelligent, industri-
Gus, and of peaceful disposition. Black
hair was not hold in esteem by the Ro-
mans. Red hair was positively hideous
in their eyes. Ages before the time of
Judas it was an object of aversion. 1t
was even held to be an omen of wicked
ness in its possessor. Fortunately, these
old time prejudices have quite worn
away. Men no longer base their esti-
mate of character upon the color of the
hair.
Year: 1871

An interesting case was recently tried
in the Superior Court of Baltimore. The
plaintiff, on May l, 1867, purchased a
through ticket from New York to Balti-
more, and proceeded on the Philadel-
phia, Wilmington and Baltimore Rail-
road as far as Perryville, where he loft
the train-the conductor, after leaving
Philadelphia, having taken up the
through ticket, and given the plaintiff
a check il. lieu of it. On the 9th, the
plaintiff got upon the train for Balti-
more at Havre de Grace, and offered the
check in payment of his fare, which the
conductor refused, Notwithstanding the
plaintiffs assertion that on leaving the
train at Perryville, on May /, he was in
formed by the ticket agent there that
the check would be good on any other
day. On the plaintiffs refusal to pay
the fare in money, he was elected. In
an action to recover for this election, the
Court instructed the jury that the plain
tiff was not entitled to recover, unless
more force was used than was necessary
to put him off, and unless he was put off
at point where there was no station
house at hand, or no place for shelter
and food. The Court also held that if
the check had been indorsed in writing
by the ticket agent or by the conductor,
May j, it was good for another train at a
subsequent time, and would have bound
the company but that the conductor
of the train, May 6, was not required to
take ones word, unsupported by writ
ten authorization.
Year: 1871

A VISTA OF Busy LIFE.-While visiting
the new store of John v. Farwell & Co.,
one day last week, we were surprised at
seeing the large amount of goods being
sold by them. The enormous drain of
their daily shipments would soon empty
their mammoth store, were not their
stock replenished during the night from
the immense reserve in their warehouse,
as well as by fresh arrivals from
the manufacturers in this country and
in Europe. The daily emptying and
filling up of this great depot of dry goods
is like the ebbing and flowing of the tide.
In the amount of sales they lead all
competitors.
Year: 1871

From the New York Times March IS.


Retail prices of coal have now come
down to about the point where they
stood five weeks ago, before the suspen-
sion of work in the mines. Some deal
ers, fearing that a general prostration
would follow the resumption of work by
the miners, have been glad to keep
little below prevailing prices in order to
clear off their stocks. Others have found
that the clamor about high prices and
the mildness of the weather reduced the
demand so much that unless they low
cred their prices they could not make
any sales at all. The result has been a
constant, though irregular, decline dur
ing the last ten days. In the wholesale
market there has been no corresponding
fall. The few operators who control the
small amount of coal which is for sale
not being affected by the causes which
have influenced the retailers, have sue
ceeded in keeping up prices, so that the
usual order of things have been reversed,
and the coal market presents the pine
nomenon of an article selling lower at
retail than at wholesale. In fact, the
trade appears to be in disordered con-
dition after its violent spasm, and retail
prices vary in the most extraordinary
manner. Each individual seems to have
put such prices on his wares as conform
eQ 10 MS own CneOfleS or the state OF the
market, without the slightest regard to
what his neighbors were getting. Hence
it comes that white-ash coal, egg and
stove size, for which dealer, who may
be called A, charge S12 so per ton, was
found, on inquiry, to be for sale by B, in
the very next block, for $3.50, while c,
D and E. along the street, varied in their
charges between those two extremes.
Wise purchasers compare the prices of q
number of dealers before buying, and
make a saving thirty per cent, thereby.


OPPOSITION TO New INVENTIONS
ly every new invention by which pro-
ductlon is made easier and cheaper, has
met with strong opposition. The old
way of making boards was by splitting
up the logs with wedges; and, clumsy
as the method was, it was no easy mat
ter to persuade the world that there was
better. Saw-mills were first used in
Europe in the fifteenth century. In
1868 Dutchman built one in England,
but the public outcry against it was so
vehement that he was soon obliged to
decamp and, for the next hundred
years, no one ventured to repeat the ex-
pertinent. In 1868 another rash adj
venturer began to erect another mill,
but a mob gathered at once and tore it
down.


A MAINE man, going into the wilder
ness, took what he supposed was his
compass, but found, when he needed its


L IL L.
Year: 1871

A FRIEND of ours who is chief clerk in
the Government Dispensary, says that
no medicine chest is now complete with
out Johnson's Anodyne Liniment. We al
ways Supposed it was prescribed by law /;
if it is not, it ought TO be, for certainly
there is nothing in the whole materia
nedica of so much importance to the
soldier and the sailor as JohnsOn's Ano-
d17e Linime7lt.
Year: 1871

WONDERS OF CHEMIsTRY.-Linen can
be converted into sugar sugar into al
cohol and carbonic acid; alcohol into
ether and water. Sugar can also be
converted into oxalic acid, and like
wise into pure charcoal and water. AL
cohol will readily change into acetic
acid or vinegar. Coal tar is transformed
into dyes that surpass the Tyrian purple
of old. Starch may be transmitted into
gum, alcohol, sugar, vinegar or oxalic
acid; and these are but few of the
magical changes which modern chemi-
cal science has made familiar as house
hold words"
Year: 1871

and look at the patient, and that he would
take the boy into his service. With warm
gratitude the boy thanked him, aud FASTENED
to the bedside of his mother while old LON.
bard returned to his scrap Of fire, and thought
over his bargain.


=" | must have a boy to help me, so he
said. &C. can hire this boy for a tenth Of
what ! must give to another can feed him
sparely, work him hard Umph | might
have done worse"


So with this reflection he put out the candle
and went to bed in the dark.


by the bedside Of his mother the boy watch.
ed all through the night, and as the gray
dawn appeared saw-and his heart leaped at
the sght-hs mother open her eyes, and
heard her speak to him. She was better the
medicine had done its work How grieved,
and yet how grateful, was she when she heard
OF her boys bargain She was sorry that he
would have so hard a master-plcasod that
he had accepted the service for her sake and
when she was well again, and he was 70 begin
bis duties in old Lombard's shop, she threw
her arms about his neck and assured him that
God would prosper a son who so honorcd aud
loved his mother.


And was it so7 Yes The work was very
hard; the food was bad aud scanty. A kind
man would not lodge a dog as that boy was
lodged but he prospered He was studi-
Gus, clever boy, and in that chemists shop he
learned enough to make him wish for wider
information. He was so civil aud ebliging
that Lombard's customers increased-so in
dustrious aud painstakiug that even old Lom-
bard was satisfied and all the while he was
cheering his dear mothers heart by telling
her what he meant to do when he was a
man.


God prospered him. lie was blessed with
q good mother, and he remembered the words
Of Solomon "My son, forsake not the law Of
thy mother When thou goest, it shall lead
thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee
when thou wakest it shall talk with thee"


Years passed, and the boy became a man.
and found that ga good name was rather to
be chosen than great riches" While every
body despised the rich miser, they esteemed
the poor young doctor, who in the course of
time became Que of the most celebrated men
in Europe le was appointed inspector gen
eral of health, was loaded with honors and
received patent of nobilty--ior the poor
boy was none other than Parmenter, the
chemist.--B. c. H., IN Merry's MuSeam
Year: 1871

The winter evening is in the truest and
closest sense the Evening at Home What
one most misses in it, perhaps, is little sen.
sble organization. Nobody seems to realize
how very hard it is for number Of people to
amuse themselves and one another for dozens
of nights in succession. There are a few ira
ditions like those of reading or music, that
bring order into the chaos but the books are
chosen haphazard, and the music is left to
chance. The family group which began so
merriy over the fire breaks up by a series Of
quiet secessions Mamma resumes silence
aud her knitting-needles, Mary wanders off to
her music-stool, the sehoolboy filings himself
on the sofa with novel; papa Is asleep in the
easy chair. Everybody yawns with certain
weary relief when the prayer-bell rings, and
yet nobody could exactly say why the even
ing had been so wearisome. The truth is
that the bulk of people think that entertain.
ment comes of itself, and that the least organ
ization is the death Of any real amusement.
The evening is left to arrange itself, and it
arranges itself in the way we have described.
The boy who loafs about a playground soon
finds how wearsome merely casual amuse-
ment is, and betakes himself to the organized
" game" and the woman who once set to Of
ganizing her evenings at home would soou
find that the prayer-bell came too early rather
than too late. Variety is the first thing need.
ful for amusement, and little unwrtten pro-
gramme which arranged conversation, music,
reading, aud the round game in their due
sequence would be simply introducing into
the family party the same priuciplo which is
proved by experience to be essential to the
success Of any public entertainment,-Sat
day ReUieio.
Year: 1871

God does not mean us always to be SOM
ber least Of all upon Sunday the glad feast
Of the Resurrection, day whose atmosphere
throughout should be one of quiet unwordly
JOY Let not boisterous merriment disturb
the calm let hearty worship, and kindly in-
tercourse, and refreshing rest--rest of tired
mind from its dragging brood of weekday
anxieties, rest of tired body from the round
of week day TOILET this be the employment,
this the tone of the hallowed day Religion,
not in every word, act, look, obtruded with
painful effort, but present in the heart, should
peryade the day, its rest, its reading its con-
yersation Oh ! never represent Sunday
at any rate, to the young-as dull aud
gloomy day nor dream that heart devoted
to the kind God need abjure all that is genial
and Joyous, or that subdued, spirit-broken
step is necessary to the child who has chosen
to walk beside that tender Father, holding
by his hand,-Random Thoughts.
Year: 1871

AFFECTION AMONG THE POoR. There is
stronger knitting of affection between poor
people in poor neighborhoods than there is
among rich in their wider thoroughiares. -
Perhaps it is the narrow streets, that draw
them closer to each other perhaps it is the
common struggle to keep body and soul to-
gether in which they arc all engaged per-
haps it is the unconscious recognition Of a
higher law Of humanity than prevails else
where perhaps it is the absence of the wider
barriers Of exclusiveness, among which the
smaller and more beautiful flowers Of feeling
being so humble and unassuming-are in
danger of being lost or overlooked. Anyhow,
the ties Of affection are stronger among the
poor. Putting necessity and sickness aside,
more mothers nurse their babes from love
among the poor than among the rich
Year: 1871




All that we need to know Of man is what
he sacrifices. Where the heavy sacrifices Of
which every life is necessarily made up do
not fall first and sternly on the lower life,
they have to fall on the higher. There is
no eyading this Sacrifice, then is on the
whole the inevitable expression OF exercise,
aud therefore the accurate practical eqNva-
lent, Of worship. Many, indeed, contrve to
mix the upper and lower worlds in their sa-
crlices, so as to make an equiyoca.looking
average But there are two common little
words that will separate the elements like
the touch Of the poles Of the battery. They
are " may" aud must The sacrifices that
| will make if | may are my own sacrifices,
and that for which | make them shows the
direction Of my cultus, as unerringly as the
magnetic needle points to the north. Those
that | make because | must, 90 for nothing,
and the things so sacrificed are surely on the
side that my heart is on. They are my ne
cessity's gifts, not mine. Now the man who
will have the service Of his whole sensuous
existence as simple aud limited as good con-
science will say that he may, and will forego
an exercise Of beneyolence or devotion only
as necessity OF duty dictates that he must, is
one who serves God and eschews evil with a
perfect heart The direction of his bent is
wholly upward, and there is no trace of pro-
civity, or moral evil, in his life. He who
will have all the pleasure for which he can
get leave, and will give to God and MS neigh
Dor just what duty exaets, is precisely the
opposite kind of man, no matter how scrupu-
lously he minds his may aud must or how
closely he may contrive to approximate a
blameless adjustment, He may stand in
many respects at the same point in practice
with the FIRST (conceiyably j but the two
stand back to back, looking opposite ways,
and it is the direction, not the distance, that
makes the man
Year: 1871

Till we have reflected on it, we are scarce
y aware how much the sum Of human hap
pness in the world is indebted to this one
feeling - sympathy. We get cheerfuness
vigor, we scarcely know how or when, from
mere association with our fellowmen, and
from the looks reflected on us Of gladness and
enjoyment. We catch inspiration and power
to 60 on, from human presence and from
cheerful looks. The workman works with
added energy from having others by. The
full family circle has strength peculiar to its
own. The substantial good and the eifec,ual
relief which men extend to one is triAing.
1t is not by those, but by something far less
costly, that the work is done. God has in-
sured it by much more simple machinery.-
He has given to the weakest and poorest the
power to contribute largely to the common
stock of gladness. The child's smile and
laugh are mighty powers in this world
When bereavement has left you desolate,
what substantial benefit is there which makes
condolences acceptable 1t cannot replace
the loved ones you have lost. 1t can bestow
upon you nothing permanent. But warm
hand has touched yours, and its thrill told
you that there was living response there to
your emotion. One look, one human sigh,
has done more for you than the costliest
present could convey.
Year: 1871

i love to feel the Sabbath coming, but
cannot bear to awake and find it gone. But
yet Jesus is my everyday Sabbath, and in
Him ind happiness and peace all the week,
and all the year, when | am kept abiding -
This is all want, never to wander more or
expect any good from anything or anybody,
but look for all in Jesus, in whom now find
Heaven bcgun,-Ruh Bryan.