smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1871

In a recent sermon Rev Robert COllyer
discussed the True Woman's Work, speak
ing this word for those who would not sit
down in idle waiting until called to a do
mestic pastorate


The trouble Is, as We all know, and
most painfully the woman herself knows,
that she cannot depend on that gracious
household any more than the pilot can de-
pend on the Mississippi keeping to its
channel. Moreover, there are a multi
tude of women that can never be con-
tent to look forward to such a career as
the best and wisest they can enter on.
They do not care to be married, as some
men do not care to be married, and espec-
tally they do not care to sit in dumb ex-
pectancy until the man that happens to
want a wife comes that way and asks them
to keep house for him and be the mother
of his children, and then to smile and say
Thank you it is what [ was waiting for.
There are tens of thousands of women
whose whole soul revolts at the disadvan-
tage of the woman's position in this most
sacred transaction, and who infinitely pre-
fer to live their life alone, rather than be
subject to this for moment.


1t is also true that vast numbers of wo-
men feel the same impulse men feel to do
something besides breathing paradise in a
household. They have that true genius
that can kindle its own fires, and the fire
burns for another purpose than that of the
wife and mother, though | feel very sure
it can never burn for higher purpose un-
der the sun. Still they feel they have got
something else to do, either independently
of that sacred election, or in addition to
it, and they will forego the dearest natural
instincts and yearnings as our Saviour did
if they stand in the way of their convic-
tion of duty; and so they interpret for
themselves the noble canon


ITO thine own self be true,


And it shall follow, as the night the day,


Thou canst not then be false to any man


II is finally settled thing now with
thousands of our bright, wide-awake
American girls, that while they intend to
get married, when their time comes, they
do not intend to spend their time waiting
and watching for it, eating the bread of
idleness and drinking the wine of modest
dissipation. They are determined to Sc
cure themselves against the chance that is
always possible of not meeting the man
they can love, and to maintain themselves
handsomely, if love be their lot, until he
does appear, and then if he falls sick be-
fore they are so forehanded as to keep
Year: 1871

We noticed briefly when 1t occurred the
death of the widow of Nathaniel Haw-
thorne in England, and there perhaps it is
best that we should pause. When the
gentle, quiet life of woman such as this
ebbs away into the gentler quiet of death,
silence over her grave has more meaning
than any requiem. As cheerful song,
or happy day in the Autumn fields, her
memory becomes pleasant, tender reality
with us forever but we cannot, if we
would, impart or share it with others.
There is morbid curiosity throughout
the country, however, about Hawthorne
and all that surrounds him, arising out of
the as yet half acknowledged feeling that
in him America lost her greatest poet );
and it is only right that this curiosity
should be so far gratifed as to do justice
to this woman, whom if he had never
loved, Hawthorne would in all probability
have died undeveloped and unknown.


No biographer of the great romancer
can delineate the strange elements of char
acter that mixed themselves in him, and
were expressed in his figure and face tho
hereditary abnormal tendencies toward
solitude and gloom; the almost insane
dread of contact with his fellow-men; the
oblique and shadowed aspect in which, as
he stood apart, the world appeared to him.


Friendly hands may give US the outside
facts of his life, the cut of his clothes, the
attitude and gestures which he used to
those about him while trying, out of a
keen fear of being ridiculous, to fit him
self with their alien habits of thought and
speech but the only glimpses left to us of
the real Hawthorne are in his books. The
man was of his own blood, alone in the
world of thought. and has left no kinsman
Between him and the outer world came
only his wife. There was something at
once comical and pathetic in the dismayed
Year: 1871

\ THOUSAND MILES AN HOUR-Sitting
quietly at my desk this calm evening, the
wind hushed outside, and the sound Of con-
versation unheard in the house, how can |
believe that in spite of all this silence |
am not at rest Is it true, as | have been
told it Is. that while | sit IN my arm chair,
| am at the same time travelling more
swiftly than the swiftest cars were ever
driven, or the swiftest bird can ever fly ?
If 50, then in what carriage am l drawn
and where Is the steed which draws 1t ?


You and are travelling more rapidly
than the swiftest antelope can run. The
world itself Is our carriage, and the power
which drives it is the force which God.
who made the world and US, has brought
to bear upon it.


Look at the sun in the early morning
1t is seen in the eastern sky, Just rising
over the hills or the tree tops. Higher
and higher it climbs, until noon, and then
lower and lower it sinks until it goes out
of sight beyond the western hills. Men
once thought that the sun did thus travel
every day from east to west We are not
to trust the appearance it tells us false
1t is not the motion of the sun over our
heads; it is the motion of the earth it
self, which makes the sun appear to rise
in the east. Every day the earth turns
around, and carries US and all the other
burdens of hills, and forests, and rocks,
and seas with it. just as riding swiftly
in a railroad car, we sometimes, for the
moment think the trees and houses, rocks
and fences to be hurrying past US in the
opposite direction, so the world, carrying
us swiftly onward from west to east, has
made it appear that the sun, and moon and
stars were travelling from east TO west


But who can tell how fast the earth is
turning on its axis? Why, any boy or girl
who has studied arithmetic can tell. For
the earth is 2, 200 miles in circumference
and turns once around in exactly twenty
four hours. Now, Jamie says, divide 25,-
900 by "A, and you get the number of
miles it must turn in one hour. And
find it to be little more than one thou
sand. So while you and are sitting by
our evening lamps, quietly reading and
writing, we are being whirled along our
journey, never stopping. and at the rate of
more than a thousand miles an hour-ProE.
L. C.. Cooley IN Bright Side.
Year: 1871

appeal with which he turned to her when


the ordinary business of life bewildered


and Jared on him, and the alertness and


bright gentleness with which she served


as his shield and shelter She be-


loDged to one of those old families in New


England who have imbibed culture with


the air. She had an intellect of quick


and harmonious movement, which found apt


and pleasant expression both by her pen
and pencil. But there are so many of
whom all this may be said Now, when
woman seeks primarily self-development,
there are so many artists and authors 1t
may do US no harm to look for moment
at this one who had no other aim than to
be simply wife. There is significance
to all women in the fact that, while the
genius and idiosyncracies of her husband
placed him on an entirely different intel
lectual level from her own, the infinite love
between them made them one, and fitted
her, with her keen tact and wholesome [
sweetness of temper, to interpret between
him and the world. If it had not been for
that cheerfulness and sunny temper, which
kept daylight about him perpetually, the
moody genius of Hawthorne would never
have struggled through its shadows into
light. 1 he world owes great debt TO
this woman, who was contented to be only /.
a wife.


There is a pleasant hill-slope near Con-
cord, full Of shady lanes and dusky with F
apple trees, where Hawthorne and his wife .
were used to walk at evening, cheerfully .
talking as they went. He sleeps there
noyU aloDa We capnot hear IN think thev
will leave the gentle, bright-faced lady to
rest in one Of the damp churchyards OF
foggy London. But however that may be
we think that somewhere, where he waited
for her, they must have met ere now. We
like to fancy that the wife's work is not
yet all done that even in the limitless
possibilities of the hereafter, the homely
love and care which are left behind US
here are needed and waited for and to
believe that through the lives to come this
man and his true wife will pass on side by
side together.-N. y. Tri61tne.
Year: 1871

Many women suppose that they
love their husbands, when, unfortunately
they have not the beaming of an idea
what love Is. Let me explain to my dear
lady. Loving to be admired by man,
loving to be petted by him and loving to
be caressed by him, loving TO be praised
by him, is not loving man. All these
may be when a woman has nc power of
loving at all They may all be simply
because she loves herself, and loves to be
hattered, caressed, coaxed as cat likes
TO be -coaxed and stroked, and fed with
cream and have warm corner.


But all this is not love it may exist
to be sure where love is it generally does.
But it may exist where there is no love.
Love my dear ladies, is self-saerifcing, it
is life out of self and in another its very
essence is the preferiDg of the comfort, the
ease, the wishes of another, for the love
we bear them Love is giving, not receiv-
ing. Love is not sheet of botting paper
or a sponge, sucking in everything to
itself. Loves motto has been dropped in
to this world as chance gem of great
price, by the loveliest, the fairest, the purest,
the strongest of Lovers that ever trod this
m ortal earth, of whom it is recrded that
he said


1t Is more blessed to give than to re
ccive.


Now, in love, there are ten receivers to
one giver. There are ten persons in this
world who like to be loved, and who love
love, where there is one who knows how
to love. That, oh my dear ladies, Is a
nobler attainment, than all your French,
and music and dancing You may lose
the very power Of it by smothering it
under a load of early self-indulgence.


BY living just as you are all wanting
to live-lving to be petted, to be fatter-
ed, to be admired, to be praised, TO have
your own way, and do only that which is
easy and agreeable-yOu may lose the
power of self-denial and selt-sacrifce:
you may loose the power of loving nobly
and worthily, and become a mere sheet of
blotting paper all your life.-Old and
Aeyr
Year: 1871

\ correspondent of the New York Sun
writing from Lancaster, Pa, narrates the
following;


Not very far from here there is little
edifce called the Octararo Methodist
Episcopal Church, and over whose congre-
cation Parson Gregg sometimes presides.
Parson Gregg is a man who fears the Lord
but never stands in dread of man, be he
ever SO mighty. The Octario Church,
generally known as the Gray Horse,
stands in sort of desert, and lies one
half in Pennsylvania and one-half in Ma
ryland that is, the old Mason and Dix
ons line cuts it in two, and leaves the
sacred building equally divided between
two states.


Whenever there is a revival the ungod-
ly from the Southern side of the line come
over and raise Cain among the faithful.


One night a party of them came over
the line and disturbed the meening. Par
son Gregg paused minute in the delivery
of his sermon, and rolling up his sleeves,
uttered himself as follows;


Young men, if there is another disor-
derly word from your disreputable crowd
III come down from the sacred desk, and
in the name of the Lord put head on
every mothers son of you. Get down on
your knees, you hounds, and pray for bet
ter manners, or else leave.


Saying which he proceeded with his
sermon a most edifyiDg discourse.


In moment the noise again began. An
audible swear of the first magnitude filled
the room with its bad odor, and caused
the worshippers to shrink within them
selves with horror.


Parson Gregg came down from that pull
pit in state of quiet rage. He took off
his coat and hung it over the chancel rail,
and then went for thoses wicked young
men, only one of whom he succeeded in
overhauling within the church. Him he
basted satisfactorily. Following close
upon the trail of others, he came up with
the most outrageous heather of all, Jim
Page Bedloe, whom he tackled without
word of grace. Parson Gregg gave Bed
loe most clerical canonical wallOping.
When he had finished pounding with his
fists he resorted to his heels. Jim was
able to defend all of him but the other
end, and when his punishment and been
duly administered he went home wiser
and sorer than when he came.


The parson then returned to his pulpit
and finished his sermon. He will never be
troubled any more.
Year: 1871

4 GRAND EXPERIENCE.-Rev. J. f. W.
Ware, writing of superstition, says So
if a bride stands before a looking-glass
there is woe in store | declare to you,
that of all the couples have married in
these five and twenty years, don't be-
lieve one has ever stood anywhere else,
and there never has any of them turned
out badly, except in one case where there
wasn't any looking-glass at all, and where
the bridegroom had one foot in the grave,
and the bride the tartar in both eyes and
| always blamed myself for not having had
the moral courage to refuse to have any
thing to do with it but [ had been led
long way at night by total stranger, left
in strange house by myself long while,
and when finally the old man hobbled in
with that vinegar yisage shrew on his arm
who had already done one husband, I
could only gasp, Is that what l have
got to Go p and did it
Year: 1871

The TwENTY-THIRD PsALN.-David has
left no sweeter Psalm than the short
twenty-third. 1t Is but moments open
ing of his soul but as when one walking
the winter street sees the door opened for
some one to enter, and the red light streams
a moment forth, and the forms Of gay chill
dren are running to greet the conner, and
genial music sounds, though the door shuts
and leaves the night black, yet it cannot
shut back again all that the eye, the ear,
the heart. and the Imagination have seen,
So in this Psalm, though it IS but mo-
ment's opening of the soul, are emitted
truths Of peace and consolation that will
never be absent from the world The
'twenty-third Psalm Is the nightingale of
the Psalms. 1t is small, Of a honey feath-
er, singing shyly out of obscurity but,
oh, it has filled the air of the whole world
with melodious SOY, greater than the heart
can conceive. Blessed be the day on
which the Psalm was born.
Year: 1871

! KINDLING Coal FIREs-Before coal


kindles it must be heated through and
/ through, made hot enough to blister the
fingers in an instant, although still black
| 1t is easy to see that a small bit of Goa


will get thus heated sooner than g larger
one hence the smaller the coal, the SOON


er it will ignite.


Coal must be kindled with wood The


wood will give out a certain amount of


heat, and no more; and as a given amount


of heat is necessary to kindle the coal, the


more wood aud the less coal, and the small


er the pieces, the sooner and more certain


will the fire be lighted.


In the face of these facts, persons are
frequently seen in rail cars, when the FIRE
in the stove is low, to put on a large
amount of coal, the result being that the
more coal put on, the more the fire will not
burn, because the small amount of heat Is
distributed over a large amount of coal,
all of which is heated some, but none of it
heated enough for ignition. The more
coal fire is stirred, if little low, the more
certain 1t is to 60 out.


The best way to replenish a coal fire is
to put on a small amount of coal while 1t is
burning well and after this is thoroughly
kindled. and has been red for a short time
add little more coal In this way fire
may be kept burning a whole day in a
CRATE without using the poker once aud
good housekeepers know that every time q
pokeris used, the ashes fly in every.direction
and valuable time is expended in brushing
them up. Ifthe poker must be used, the
time to do it is when fresh coal has been
thoroughly kindled, for then there is no
danger ofits going out.


If a coal fire is burning too much, either
cover it with some of the ashes which
have fallen through the CRATE; this makes
the mass much more compact. and
the draught, or if it is desirable
to put the fire out altogether, as when
going to bed press the coal down from the
top with a shovel or blunt-egded poker.


1t has been the custom to use the larg-
est-sized coal for the furnace this requires
a great waste of wood in kindling, besides
much time is lost in firing up in the morn
ing, the very time when most heat is want
ed, and wanted quickly. 1t will take less
coal and give incomparably more comfort,to
feed furnace with coal, the largest piece
IF which is not larger than hens egg,
oniy taking care to put on coal every hour
Observation and close calculating economy
nave shown this to all our river boats, tugs,
and steamers-HalEs Journal Of Health.
Year: 1871

them out of poverty, or dies and leaves


them in widowhood, they want to have a


calling that will stand them in as good


stead as any good handicraft does man.


They know how poor thing it is to de-
pend on the short catalogue of callings
that are commonly considered lady-like
and Misunderstanding French and music
or little school, or drawing and painting
or sewing for an overcrowded market. In
all these directions they see women weary
and heartsick, trying to live and hardly
able and so they conclude that that is
the most lady and womanly calling at
which a woman can best take care of her
self and those who may look to her for
bread, and SO barely cross the line of the
old prescriptions, and learn type-setting,
printing, and scores of crafts besides that
used to be considered only mans work,
SO that they may be ready for whatever


lot may fall to them.
Year: 1871

Next in importance to a thoroughly
clean skin is the preservation Of that organ
from the injurious action of sudden chan
ges Of temperature. OF all terrestrial an
imals man is the most scantily supplied
with natural protection. The necessity
for artifcially maintaining the animal tenn
perature is thus forcibly put by DR.. Evory
Kennedy


Strange as it may appear, clothes are
used equally in cold climates to retain the
natural heat, and in warm climates to iso-
late the body from the surrounding highly
elevated atmosphere and burning rays of
the tropical SUM-


Between the layers of clothes there are
strata of air kept at equable temperature,
which but slowly conduct alterations IN 1t
from within or without; and as they are
confined by the dress, they do not freely
allow of the admission of colder air. 1t is
for this reason that, in going from a warm
room into the cold, we should put on our
extra clothing some time previously, so as
to heat this protective stratum OF air,
which is actually a non-conductor.


Linen, which is so great tavorite IN
temperate climates, is Objectionable ma
terial for dress on account of its high con-
ducting powers, in consequence Of which
it feels cold and does not freely distribute
heat 1t is also attractive of moisture,
which it retains, and thus keeps a damp
instead of dry medium around the skin.


In warm climates cotton or thin WOOL
ems are entirely substituted for linen gar
ments, and the only objection to them is
their rougher surface, which occasionally
irritates sensitive skins. Notwithstanding
this objection, which habit will overcome,
there is no other medium so fitted for
variable climate as this, since it preserves
the warmth of the body during great cold,
and prevents the conduction of intense
heat.


When linen is put on perspiring skin,
Year: 1871

INFLUENCE OF TEACHERs.-A certain
philosopher was always talking very much
to his friends about the garden in which
he was in the habit of walking, and where
he carried on his studies At length, one
of them came to see him; and he found
his garden was patch of ground about
twice the size of the floor of his own room
What said he, is this your garden ?
It's not very broad No. said the phiIos-
opher, it's not very broad, but it's
wondrOus height And so | would say
to you, Sunday school teachers; your
work in your class is not very large one,
but it's a wondrous height. 1t goes up to
heaven to conceive of it Alright, it goes
right out to eternity.
Year: 1871

already examined the remarkable body of


water under consideration, should do SO


without fail before he dies, for it will give
him new ideas attainable from no other
source If he cannot make it convenient
to come all the way to Florida for that pur-
pose let him arrange to see the lakes at
home. A good microscope, with drop of
impure or stagnant water upon the stage
will enable him to have the same kind of
lake at any locality he may select.-Prof'
J. Parish Steele.
Year: 1871

\ former Kentucky Congressman went
out riding with his sweetheart. and, in
his own words: We were nearing small
skirt of woods, the horses at their best
speed. had determined in my own mind
that when we reached particular spot
would pop the question, and so L did,
but, would you believe me? she said no.
Just as the word escaped her lips l pur-
posely ran the sleigh over stump. Out
we went, she to cool her person in the snow
and l to counteract the damage she had
given my affections. Her first words after
getting back in the the sleigh were ;: Ex-
cuse me, sir; [ wished to tell you to no.
tice the stump We often refer to the
sleigh ride, but to this day she believes it
was an accident We live near the Indi-
ana liue-a divorce is not wanted.
Year: 1871

Bonaparte once said to Madame de Con-
dorcet, widow of the philosopher and
noted politician of her time do not
like women who meddle with politics. To
which impudence she instantly replied
All! mon general, as long as you men
take fancy to cut off our heads now and
then, We are interested in knowing why you
do it,
Year: 1871

There is one touching incident of the
life of William Writ. In his younger
days he was a victim to that passion of
intoxicating drinks which seems peculiar
to the bane of our profession. Atlianced
to beautiful and accomplished young
woman, he had made and broken repeat
ed pledges of amendments, and she, af-
ter patiently and kindly enduring his dis
graceful habit, had at length dismissed
him, deeming him incorrigible. Their
next meeting was in the public street of
the city of Richmond. William Writ
lay drunk and asleep, on the sidewalk,
on hot summer day, the rays of the
sun pouring down on his uncovered head
and the flies crawling over his swollen
features AS the young lady approached
in her walk, her attention was attracted
by the spectacle, strange to her eyes,
but alas J SO common to others who
knew the victim. as to attract little re-
mark. She did not at fist recognize
the sleeper, and was about to hurry on,
when she was led by one of those i'm
pulses which form the turning point in
human lives, to scrutinize his features
What was her emotion when she recog.
nized in him her discarded lover She
drew forth her handkerchief aud careful
ly spread it over his face, and hurried
away When Writ came to himself he
found the handkerchief, snd in one corner
the initials of the beloved name With
a heart almost breaking with grief and
remorse, be made new vow of reforma-
tion. He kept that vow, and he married
the owner Of the handkerchief Well
might he preserve the handkerchief, as
he did, all his life, guarding it with a
Jealous care with which Othello kept the
Egyptian charmer's gift, and making it
darling like his precious eye