smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1875

Thomas Brassey in the London Times-l


"The probability that the ram will
play decisive part of the naval battles
of the future furnishes conclusive ar
gument against extreme tonnage A
steam ram of novel type has been pro-
posed by experienced naval officers in
France and the United States. Armor
protection is retained in vital points:
but, as it Is impossible to give sufficient
armor protection to vessel of small
size without sacrificing some defensive
or offensive qualities, it is considered
advisable to give up the guns. If rams
were constructed on this system, the
vessel, to use the appropriate compari-
son, of Admiral Goldsborough, must be
the projectile, the steam power the gun
powder. In the last report addressed to
the Secretary of the United States Navy
by Admiral Porter, Congress is advised
not TO build monster iron-clads with
high free board protected by thick plat
ing-a task, be it observed, which has
never been attempted by the naval con-
miral Porter believes that rams and tor
pedo vessels are more likely TO be usefnl
in naval war, and he accordingly recon-
mends his Government to build thirty
powerful rams of great speed aud at
least fifty five iron torpedo boats IF good
speed and not less than one hundred tons
each. The frequent failure of submar
inc mines has convinced naval men in
the United States that the best form of
offensive torpedo. is a torpedo vessel fit
ted with an outrigger. a passage in the
report of the American Admiral re
minds us that in one important particu-
lar a naval action would probably be
fought in circumstances similar to those
which led to the destruction of the
Vanguard by the Iron Duke. Just as
dense fog in the Irish Channel caused
fatal collision between two friendly ships,
SO it will be in naval battle. Lands
men and civilians who have been present
at the naval displays at Spithead will
remember how speedily the splendid
spectacle was ohscured from view by the
comparatively insinni6cant explosion of
a royal salute. In a naval battle the
ships will be enveloped in a cloud of
impenetrahle density, and it is evident,
as Admiral Porter points ont, that
rams and torpedoes will have pretty
much their own way then, and the more
smoke there is the better il will be for
them.' 1t wonld only he by continual
and rapid movement that large ships
conld avoid the attacks of rams and
torpedo vessels. and where all depends
on the facility of evolution it is scarcely
polite to construct ships, like the In
flexible, of II 900 tons.
Year: 1875

/ have often wondered concerning the
mysteries of sleep. If you have watch
ed any one slnmbering. you must have
felt that there is something absent which
is there when the sleeper is awake.


Thought in moment can fly to the
other end of the earth. A woman born
and bred in Australia, being in London,
can constantly conjure up the home
stead. Why then, shall not the soul be
able when the body sleep, to go-who
knows whittier?


Sometimes, when we wake, for some
moments we appear to be struggling
with something, and then, suddenly, we
are still again.


Where are the souls of the mad? The
soul being n perfect existence, if it were
with the mad, then Its perfection would
overcome the madness. A man who has
never known any impurity of thought
becomes mad, and his fancies are in the
last degree terrible. Can the soul,
which guided him when sane, be still
with him when he has become some
thing worse than brute? Who knowsl
who knows?


Mohommed, wishing to illustrate the
wonders of sleep, told how certain
man, being sheik, found himself, for
his pride, made poor fisherman
that he lived as one for sixty years,
bringing up family and working hard
and how, upon waking up from this
long dream, SO short time had he been
asleep, that the narrow-necked gourd
bottle filed with water, which he knew
he overturned as he fell asleep, had not
had time in which to empty itself.


How is it that sometimes, when we 90
to a strange place. we fancy that we have
seen IL before? IL it possible that when
one has been asleep the soul has foated
away, seen the place, and has that mem.
ory of it which so surprises us? In a
word, how far dual is the life of man
how far not?
Year: 1875

Never take "Coue and see me" as a
phrase meant in earnest unless it is ac-
compaDied with a date. Such an invi-
tation amounts to nothing at all. If
lady or gentleman desires vour company
he or she will appoint time for yonr
visit. "Call on ME when you can make
il convenient" drop in as you are pass
ing" snake US visit whenever you
have an hour or two TO spare" are social
antiquities by which men and women
of the world understand that they are
not expected to do the thing requested.
When people wish to be cheaply polite
ness. The complimentary small change
of society must always be taken at a
large discount. It Is-never worth its
face or anything like it. Yet it is
convenient medium of exchange, and
heavy debts of gratitude that ought to
be requited in better coin are often paid
with it. People who have more polish
than principal use it lavishly-p plain,
blunt, honest men, sparingly or not at
all. Whoever makes a friendly visit TO
fashionable house on the strength of
mere "Come and see me" will very Of
ten find that the family circle he has
dropped into by request is as uBgenial
as the Arctic circle and he will prOba-
bly, leave it with chilly feeling that
will prevent him from venturing into
the same high latitude again. But
when a whole souled man, whom YOU
know to he your friend, grasps you Wig
orously by the hand and says, "Come
and dine with me TO day-dinner on the
table at 5 o'clOck-he sure to come, we
shall expect you" you can take 1t as
certain that your presence is warmly
desired 1t is pleasant always to make
or receive a visit from a friend, bnt
nod on the street is all sufficient from a
fashionable acquaintance.
Year: 1875

We read and hear good deal aboui
the inexhaustible fertility of the soil,
that the idea of exhausting the fertile
prairies of the West is too much like
trying to dry the ocean with a spoon.
etc. This doctrine may do very well
for visionary theorists to teach, but the
actual facts stand out in too bold relief
to justify any such groundIess assump-
tion. The old system of selling every
thing off the land for other people to
convert to their own use has brought
State after State into comparative i'm
poverishment, till the evil is spreading
to what was once called ''the West" for
it appears that Ohio is already going
down hill at rapid rate, and other
States of the West and Southwest are
following in the same track. What else
can be expected of system which ex-
ports everything from which is made the
strongest and most enduring manures?


The soil of Illinois and other Western
States, it is true, is deep and rich, but it
is not all on top or near enough the sur
face to be available to crops; and we al
ready hear from the most reliable sources
that the soil of Illinois is giving out
unmistakably; and unless the system
that now prevails is changed-the time
is rapidly approaching when the lands





cumb to its exhausting effect. 1t does
not require the mental abilities of Il
sooihsayer or of scientist to know that
manure must be applied to MAINTAIN the
fertility of any soil; otherwise continual
cropping will soon run ii down, despite
all the thor ugh cultivation and deeI
tillage of thousand theorists. Nor do
we need any other constructor than the
common law Of nature to teach us that tn
take away anything from something les
sens the amount, quantity, capacity,
force, or any other property of the lat
ter. Just 50 with the soil. It is no mat
ter if its fertility is so great as to pro
duce one hundred bushels of shelled
corn to the acre, and its productive pow
ers a-e reduced only the one hundreth
part in as many years, its complete ex
haustion would only be question OF
time at last.


The American farmer grows corn year
after year, and it is sent to England,
where it ia converted into beef, mutton
or pork for market, in doing which the
farmers of England make such vast
quantities of rich manure that by Its
application to the land the yield fire.
queatly doubles the rent, while the
American farmer in cultivating his own
land SO weakens its production by not
consuming his produce at home that il
ceases to return him fair average crops
"a fact which wifi be sorely felt by
posterity.


The soil is the foundation upon which
the hopes of the farmer must rely, but
he must not expect it to dispense it'
gratuitous bounties unless he recipro
Gates its favors. Or il may be liKened tC
a machine that converts dead, inorganic
matter into vegetable life for our sub
sistence; we must supply the machin.
with plenty of grease (manure) in or
der to give scope to its greatest utility
Nor is this all; it needs also our care, at
tention, and the application of our skill
and judgement before we can expect i
to do good work.
Year: 1875

On Sunday as one Of the strictest dea-
cons was getting ready to shake the lines
over his horses' backs and say "he hnp,"
his wife remrm bered that his calf hadn't
been fed. The deacon looked at his
Sunday clothes, and observed that he
did not deem it incumbent upon him to
snffer for the negligence of others; to
which the deacOness replied that such
language in the presence and hearing of
the children, on a Sunday morning, and
from pillar of the church, was enough
to shake ones belief in the professions
that had been made by one she could
name. The deacon handed the lines to
his eldest boy, and climbed over the
wheel without saying a word. He went
around to the front door, and took the
key from under the mat, and as he was
trying TO pnt the key in the hole it
slipped from his hand and slid down in
to the snow. Finally he got into the
kitchen, and started with the milk for
the barn-vard. He set the pail down on
the ground and called the calf, but the
beast whisked its tail in the air and
beloved at him. Then he captured the
animal and pulled it along by the ears
iammed its head into the pail. bnt the
calf gave spring, sending the milk
in cloud Of spray over the deacon's
shirt front. In trying to recapture the
beast. the deacon dropped his hymn
book out of his pocket. and before he
could rescue i. the calf stepped both feet
on 1T and tore the cover off. The dea-
con got mad. He took hoop-pole and
belabored the calf One end of the
pole strnck the shed. and, bounding mp,
knocked the deaccH's ping hat Of. 1t
rolled directly under the calf, who set
his foot through the tile, and went tear
ing madly around the yard with his tail
in the air and hat fastened just above
the knuckle joint. The deacon went
into the house, and as he unbuttoned
his shirt collar, he called out:


"Maria, you go on to church, and if
anybody asks after me, tell them | stay
ed at home to feed that d-n calf"
Year: 1875

Perhaps gentleman is rarer sPeci-
men than some of MS think for. Which
of us can point out many such in his cir
Gle; men whose aims are generous, whose
truth is constant, and not only constant
in its kind, but elevated in its degree;
whose want of meanness makes them
simple; who can look the world honestly
in the face with an equal, manly sym
pathy for the great and small? We all
know how hundred whose coats are
very well made, and score who have
excellent manners. and one or two hap
py beings who are.in what they call the
inner circle and have shot into the very
centre and bulls eye Of fashion; but Of
gentlemen, how many? Let US take q
little scrap of paper and each make out
his list. ~ Thacke-ay.
Year: 1875

The cash vanlt of the Treasury at
Washington requires three keys to open
it, and these are in charge Of three gen.
tlemen, each holding one key, and the
presence of all is necessary TO unlock
the vault The Secretary Of the Treas
ury appoints one, the Treasurer one. and
the Bureau OF Engraving and Printing
Year: 1875

LF-RELIANCE.-The success of in
dividuals in life is greatly owing to
their early learning to depend upon
their own resources. Money, or the ex-
pectation of II by inheritance, has ruined
more men than the want of it ever did.
If you teach young men to rely upon
their own efforts, to be frugal and in
dustrious, yon furnish them with pro-
dnctive capital which no man can ever
wrest from them.
Year: 1875

Professor Trauser asserts that the
moon does not revolve around the earth,
as the modern astronomy says; because.
if il were so, the eclipses of the sun
would begin by the oriental part of that
luminary, and end to the west; absolute
ly the contrary of what is observed.
But the moon accompanies the earth,
from west to east, in her annual revolu-
ton. Her apogee and perigee take place
indifferently when she is new. full, or in
her quarters. Apogee signifies the
point of the moons orbit the farthest
from the earth. At the summer solstice
the moon may be at perigee, when she is
new, and at apogee when she is full. At
the winter solstice, she may be at apogee
when she is new, and at perigee when
she is full.


From this regulation may be deduced
the general characteristics of the whole
plan: that the moon, in her movement
of annual translation, makes excursions
on each side of the terrestrial orbit; that
these excursions are included within
two circular limits, concentrlc with the
center of her orbit, and beyond which
she never passes; that the orbit Of the
earth being eccentric TO these two circn-
lar limits. our vision may allow itself to
be surprised by deceptive perspectives'
and thereby assign to the movements of
the moon, which are constantly uniform
and always in the plane Of the eeliptic,
inequalitie that do not exist: in fine,
may subordinate the judgment TO the
errors of a system of false appearances.
Year: 1875

THE NATIONAL CESTENNIAL.-The commit
tees representing the Chamber of Commerce
and the Tobacco and Corn Exchanges in the
matter of proper representation of Virgil.
MA products at the Philadelphia Centennia
met in full force yesterday at the office of
Messrs. Wise Brothers. and organized as q
Joint committee by calling Colonel Albert
Ordway to the chair. It was explained that
the Board of Commissioners appointed about
year ago, and which at present exists, bear
relation only to the Finance Board Of the
Centennial (Which was incorporated by act
of Congress), and that the purpose Of said
Board of Commissioners. is only to raise
funds for the general purposes Of the Centen-
NAL and it was therefore resolved that O
committee Of three be appointed 10 wait
upon the Governor day and request him
to appoint temporary commission, who, un.
til the meeting of the next Legislature, Shall
act in the matter Of causing the resources of
Virginia 10 be exhibited at the Centennial,
it being understood that such commission
will acl in accordance with the plan recently
published in the Dispatch by Professor Nal.
let, of the University of Virginia, and under
the supervision OF that gentleman as their
presiding officer.


The committee appointed to wait on the
Governor were General Logan, General
Peyton Wise, and Captain l.. l.. Bass. Colo
mel Albert Ordway, the chairman, was, on
motion, added TO the committee.


We learn that several OF the States have
acted by appointing such commission as re-
commended by this meeting. and are salts
fed that there is absolutely no incongruity
between them AID the boards OF commits
sioners appointed by the Centennial, but, on
the contrary, that both have defined mis-
sion, and each will act in an appropriate
sphere.
Year: 1875

A CANDID CoNFEssioN.-Thornton Carter


was before the Police Court yesterday on
the usual charge OF being drunk. A night
in the house had some " hat 5sobered
him, and he was penitent. He asked the
Police Justice to allow him to plead his own
cause, and consent having been given, there.
mon he began to read from the Dispatch of
yesterday The article beaded "a painful
scene and touching confession" which
confession he adopted as his own.& He reads
man have the highest conception as
10 what the life and character OF minister
of the Gospel sbeuld be. know that he
shosld lead consistent and 40 upright life,
that can be looked to by the community as
an example" At "as an example 'Inorn"
ton broke down, bis voice being too IN:
steady for eIocutlonary exercise. The Po-
lice Justice excused him from further exer-
tion of the kind. -, !,


II having been shown that the accused
was drawn juror of the Renrico Court,
and that his presence at the court was i'm.
be was discharged from custody.
Year: 1875

To the Editors Of The Dispatch
The enclosed communication was ad-
dressed to the Whig in reply to an editorial
in that paper. The editor baving courte-
ously declined its publication. respectfully
request its insertion in your Journal.


Yours truly, PACIFIC.
Year: 1875

His government was despotism not tenn
pered by epigrams, and it was controlled
By q despot who, though not devoid of a
sense of humor, had all CGrsican's mortal
hatred of ridicule No man in France was
less French than Napoleon, either in lineage
or in character. His moral position in
Year: 1875

CERTAIN CURE FOR A RATrLEssAKE
BITE OR SPIDER SrlSG.-A physician
in Oregon writes; "Take the yolk of "A
good egg, put in teacup, and stir in rs
much salt as will make il thick enough
not TO run of, and spread plaster and
apply 10 the wound. DO this when bit
ten or stung, and ! will insure your life
for sixpenee. have tried this remedy
in a number of cases, and have never
known il to fail"


RAW BEEF FOR DYsESTERy.-Take
half a pound of juicy beef free from any
Year: 1875

A BEAurIruL WoNAN.-The percep


tive faculty Of women Is usually keener
than the sane chronological organ In
men. Woman knows that beauty rather
than genius Is worshiped by the sterner
sex. A man may ta1k with his lips Of
the latter TO his lady love, but the keen
ness Of the woman knows that he Is
thinking Of the former In his heart. All
women have an innate desire TO please
their beoar. They are fond Of admira-
tion, hence one OF their longings Is To be
beautiful. The grand secret Of female
beauty Is health-the secret Of health Is
the power To eat, digest and assimilate a
proper quantity Of wholesome food.
Take VINEGAR hrrrrRs. II will cleanse
the stomach tone the vital organs, give
a perfect digestion, purify the blood,
clear up the complexion and produce a
state Of mental aud physical electricity
which gives symmetry ~ hrm, bright
eyes, white skin, glossy hair and gcnu.
Inc type Of female loveliness which no
cosmetic can compare with. ~
Year: 1875

SINCE the importation of the Chinese
into this country, big feet among the
fair sex have gone out Of fashion. The
style now is 10 wear a shoe with only
heel, tied up with ebony buttons.
Year: 1875

The Lives Insured by the Society carefully
selected in different parts of North America and
Europe furnishing, by this broad field of opera.
IONS an additional and exceptional safety to the
Policy holders. The assurances are made only on
the Mutual Principle. The Surplus Premiums are
returned annually to the Insured.
Year: 1875

M1sJUDG1Nc.-Why is it that we
are SO prone to assign bad motives
to the acts of others? Is it because
experience teaches us that men Of
tener act from bad than from good
motives? We do not believe that
experience teaches any thing of the
kind. But experience does teach
that we are very selfish beings, and
very anxious to consider ourselves
above our fellows, and unconsiously
we seek to put all others below us
by ascribing to them low motives
for acts which otherwise might make
US feel our own ittleness. This is
certainly a charitable way of putting
it at least, in which the charity does
not begin at home, Judge not that
ye be not judged, for with what
judgment We Judge, ye shall be
Judged.
Year: 1875

The organization of this Associa-
ton is meeting with enthusiastic en-
dorsement by the Patrons through


out the county. The Hay Greek


Grange had the matter up for dis
cussion at their last meeting, and
we understand that there is not a
member of that grange but that
will take stock. 1t seemed to be
the unanimous opinion that this or
ganization should be just what its
name imports Patrons Asso-
ciation. The idea is for every
member of the order in this county
to take one or two shares and in
vite the Patrons of Pierce county
to do the same, and then if there be
anything lacking let others take a
limited number of shares more to
Year: 1875

make up the amount. There are
probably a thousand Patrons, at
least, who would be directly inter
ested in this Association, and if they
took an average of two shares each,
it would make up the 100000
wanted. This would require the
payment of only ten dollars a quar-
ter by each subscriber to stock or
forty dollars a year. No one is SO
poor as not to be able to lay aside
forty dollars a year. If it is thought
best not to commence building and
preparing for manufacturing at once,
we do not doubt but that an act of
the Legislature can be obtained to
authorize the loaning of the funds
for short time on first class securi-
ty, until the amount shall be suffi-
cent to commence work, or the
money can be deposited for six
months or year in the banks and
SIX per cent. interest obtained.
Year: 1875

CLOSING OUr.-Simmons, Olson g.
Bush announce their determination to
sell out their large stock Of goods at
greatly reduced prices in order to close
out their entire business. Mr.. Sim
mons commenced business in Red Wing
over eighteen years ago and Messrs. o.
son and Bush about eleven years ago
These gentlemen all commenced busi-
ness in this city bare handed, and by
constant application have built up neat
fortunes and have decided to retire from
trade. They have the largest store and
by fourteen to fifteen thousand dollars
the largest stock of goods in the city.
The store and goods belong to them and
every cent paid for. The goods were
all bought for cash and bought by men
who from long experience understand
how and what to buy, and when they
say that they propose to throw their i'm
menso stock Of general merchandise in
to the market to close out, it means
very low prices to all purchasers. The
goods being all their own, they can do
with them as they please, and they
propose to get rid of them. Every body
is invited to call and examine COM
plete line Of samples with prices at
tached and satisfy themselves.


Choice Wines and Liquors for Medi-
cinal purposes at Poole's.
Year: 1875

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE.-Some


Men live entirely in the past. To
them all good died with their grand
fathers, OF when they were young,
the world is on the retrograde, and
the days of invention and discovery
ended. These men heve their op-
posites, who, disgusted with the past
and the present look only to