smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1876

A Hopkinton IN. H.) correspondent
OF the Boston journal says The CIR
cumstances we are about to relate are
not recent, though Of such remarkable
character and OF such scientific import
ance, IL true, we wonder that apparently
no informed person OF the time to which
they belong made any account OF them.
But now, as years have passed since the
publication Of "Elsie Venner," it may
be proper to inquire II any such phono-
mena as we arc about to describe can be
correctly ascribed to the subtle poi
son Of the rattlesnake.


Sixty years ago, or thereabouts, Cap
tain Parker Parsons kept . country
"tAhvern" in the district Of Hopkinton,
known from time immortal a. "Stump-
fleld." Being personally engaged in
variety Of rural pursuits, tho captain
kept about the farm, as general help, q
young man about TWENTY-FIVE years Of
age, who bore the somewhat oppressive
~ suggestive cognomen, Moody Swallow.
At that time the rattlesnake was by no
means an infrequent habitue Of this
vicinity, though the number of repre-.
sentatives OF this class of reptiles had
been greatly reduced since the first SET
tlement. One day young Swallow gave
out that being himself close to q cluster
of elder bushes growing by q wall at the
side Of the highway, rattlesnake in
Aicted bite upon his leg, at the same
time confirming the statement by ex-
hibiting wound or scratch upon his
naked skin.


The information reaching us does not
state whether or no Swallow Immediate
" exhibited the effects of the serpent's
venom, but it is sclemnly affirmed that
soon he1became tho subject of "spells,"
during She attacks of which he mani
tested traits peculiarly and strikingly
snaky. His brow corrugated, his eyes
flashed, and he would actually crawl or
wriggle upon his belly. A resort during
these attacks was quite noticeable. Near
the "tahvern stood the old Parsons
homestead-an ancient, unoccupied,
dilapidated building, with roof extend
ing far down toward the ground on one
side. Here Swallow would repair and
give demonstration of luis fitful malady,
not the least astonishi' Of his exploits
being the exploring of the whole roof
on his belly, wriggling up one side and
down head first on the other, and SO
about to the extent of his serpen'
tine impulse or pleasure. These fits be-
came matters of such common observa-
tion in the neighborhood that on an oc-
currence of one people would say
"Swallow is having one Of his spells;
his snake is after him."


According to the information, these
things continued at least year, though
we are not told how frequently the at
tacks occurred or how long they lasted:
this town, nor it's long resident. He
soon went to Vermont, where he was
convicted on criminal charge of some
kind and sentenced to the State prison
at Windsor, where he was visited by the
person, now living, who informs us OF
these circumstances. From this time
we have no account of him.
Year: 1876

The restaurant charges in the Centens.
nial grounds will not be allowed to be
exorbitant, and man will be able to get
as good a dinner for 81 as he can get
elsewhere. There will be lunch rooms
where satisfactory lunch is promised
for twenty-five or fifty cents, and also
I" diaries" similar to those in New York
and Boston, where a bowl of mush or
rice and milk can be had for about twen-
ty cents.
Year: 1876

rear of the premises, by means of which
he made his entrance through the open
window. The ladder was only about six
feet high, while the window sill is seventeen
feec from the ground From this it is evi.
dent that the fellow had an accomplice to
assist him, although he was not seen. A
description Of the burglar was given to
the police. and they are searching for him,
Year: 1876

TRY THE ENAMELLED PIPE, IT WILL Non
! Rust or crack and costs only trife more than
common iron pipe. Is positively THE BEST thing
for water service pipe. have the exclusive agency
for Rock Island. FRED HASS.


Store in Star Block
Year: 1876

chairman read to the witness the lnstruc-
tions to bring all the papers before the
committee that were named in the sub
poems, and said that the committee
desired only to inspect the original docu.
ments: that the board need not part with
them; that the clerks of the committee had
been at work eight days copying the
originals, and were not yet near done,
and that it was not necessary that the
committee should see the papers? AS
soon as possible the witness replied that
he should submit the matter to the board
and reId communication stating that
the board refused to give up the original
papers, as they were records for the in
spection of the General Assembly only.


The Senate Committee.


The Senate committee met At half
past IL o'clock, and statement of the
votes rejected in each parish, and at what
polls they were rejected, was received
from the Returning Board.


Senator Mcdonald made q motion that
a subpoena duces tecum issue to the Re-
turning Board for all protests and stfi-
davits accompanying the consolidated
statements of the supervisors; also for the
returns of the commissioners of each poll
in each parish.


Senator Howe, chairman, said he could
not understood what figure the protests
and atfidavits which formed the basis of
the action of the Returning Board could
cut IN the investigation, unlesss
the committee proposed 10 review the
action of the Board in an appellate ca
paclty.


Senator Mcdonald said it was not the
province C the committee to determine
anything The committee wanted enly
facts for the information of the body
from which the committee derived its
authority. The committee ought to have
the facts upon which the Board rejected
the votes which, by the statement read,
they admit they did reject.


The question of calling tor the other
documents of the Board is now being
discussed by the committee.


Benjamin James, colored, testified be-
fore the Returning Board on November
2Sth-He resides in Onachita parish; was
constable in that parish for two years
and U. S. Deputy Marshal at the time
of the election; he testified on Novem-
Der 7th; at P NJ. he started from Mon
roe for the Logtown polls about II miles
away with the ballot box; that about
two miles from the city he was halted by
party of whites, who asked him where
he was gong, and that subsequently he
was taken by one nf the men to dwell
ing house, where about one hundred
men were gathered around u fire. Some
of these men were armed with guns
After a short psrley witness was ordered
to 90 down the road with one of the
men; he broke away from his keeper
and ran through the woods; several
shots were fred at him; he
WAS wounded in the arm. He took re-
fuge in ditch, but was discovered and
fired upon by one OF his pursuers, the
ball grazing his head. He was not fur
ther injured and succeeded in reaching
the residence of u planter in the neigh
borhood, by whom he has cared for and
instructed so make an affidavit sgsinst
the parties who had done the shooting.
He had left the ballot box and his horse
and pistol in the hands Of the
men who had stopped him on the
road
Year: 1876

TIE Jackson Clarion does not think


the causes bringing about the appoint


ment OF a rsceivership for the Central
railroad reflect discredit upon the man.
asemeut Of Colonel M'Comb and the
able corps whom he had engaged in the
service Of the road. They have done all
that men could do to overcome the OBJ
stacles with which they had to contend.
Year: 1876

MASSACHUSETTS is in the lead again.
Tae senate Of that State yesterday
passed tae woman suffrage amendment
to the constitution by vote OF is to 10
This is hut the beginning OF the end.
Woman's suffrage is hereafter to be an
important factor in the politics of the
country. We might as well prepare
Year: 1876

The Republican senators reached no
conclusion to-day in caucus to deter
mine upon a general policy in view OF
the proposed and contemplated reduc-
ton in the appropriation bills in the
house.
Year: 1876

SERMON BY A CLowN.-The fol-
lowing was preached by clown in
a circus that was exhibiting in one of
our country towns in this State.
There is a good deal of bitter truth
in it: "My friends, we have taken
in about six hundred dollars here
to-day, more, venture to say, than
any minister of the gospel in this
town will receive for whole years
service. A large portion of this
audience is composed of members of
the church. And yet when your
preacher asks you for money to aid
in supporting the Gospel, you say
you are too poor to give anything.
Yet you come here to hear me talk
nonsense. am fool because l am
paid for 1t; make my living by it.
You profess to be wise, and yet you
support me in my folly. But per-
haps you say you did not come to
see the circus, but the animals; why
did you not look at them and go
awayP Why did you stay to hear
my nonsense2 Now is not this a
pretty place for Christian to be in!
Do you not feel ashamed of your
selves? You ought to blush to be
caught in such place as this"
Year: 1876

TELEGRAPH IN MID OCEAN. -
Several foreign naval powers are
directing their attention to the prac-
ticability of establishing telegraph
stations in mid ocean, by which
messengers can be sent from any
part of the sea along the usual line
OF the cable to the terminus point on
shore, and vice versa, 80 that COM
munication with iron. .clads, mail
steamers and other vessels may be
established. The invention consists
of q hollow section column, with a
base plate attached by ball and
socket joint, which Is lowered in the
water, and anchored rigidly to the
the ground. The branch cable is
attached to the main cable, and car
ried along the column to the surface
Of the water to be there connected
with instruments on board the yes
sells. BY this invention 1t is pro-
posed to control naval and strategeti-
cal movements while ship in dis
tress could communicate her exact
position, the nature Of her disasters,
and thus procure assistance
Year: 1876

The Memphis appeal of the sixth instant
contains long report of an interview
which took place the day before between
this most remarkable woman and one Of
the attaches Of that paper. The report
covers nearly FIVE columns of the appeal, a
large portion being given to questions and
ans wers about the Baecher trial and Vic.
torias connection Herewith. We omit the
greater part of this, and present the ex-
tracts which follow:
Year: 1876

IT is enough that Texas must do the duty
and public service of the United States
and sustain military forces along the from
tier But now the Legislature is asked to
adopt a grand river and harbor bill such
as Congress enacts. The barbors along
the coast as we'll as frontier defense be-
come q local instead of Federal burden,
and Galveston is here to force the scheme
through the Legislature. We would like
to see a Granger, in good standing, try
his luck by supporting this scheme. Not
content with most generous subventions to
all roads converglng in Galveston, with the
extraordinary chartered right to levy un


heard of exsctions through the Wharf
Company upon the whole commerce of the
State, a body of exceeding good people,
who prefer to live on a sand bar in
the oceans midst to a spot on shore,
absolutely ask the Legislature to foot
bills incurred by the folly of those
who choose to dwell On such spot. Tex
as is asked to give up :he little wreck of
the public domain left US by Tom Scott to
quart sand bank against tho dacrees nf
Providence. If!the good people of Calves
ton must appeal to Hercules for help we
must insist that the doughty god find his
Olympus in Washington and not in Austin.
If Texas must open Galveston, or any har-
Dor, it were infinitely wiser for the State to
open that which the mouth of the BraZOs
would properly constitute, and If this task
must be executed by the State or its re-
sources, there are dozen points at which
the States wealth, for such purposes,


might be more wisely invested than at a


fiat sea beach where no ship, when tenn
pests are brewing, can ever repose in safety.
Year: 1876

TEXAS has one thousand and five hun
dred miles of sea coast and the Legislature
is expected to build coffer-dams along the
whole distance and open ports with public
land and build sea walls, and then erect
Chinese wall around Galveston to give it
safe anchorage. Meanwhile the wharf
company still levies, unheard-of exActious
upon the commerce of the State and fiat
shores of the sea-girt isle constitute no pro-
lection to vessels at anchor, and the people
say that 1t were wiser to expend a million
in opening the bar at the mouth of the
Brazos that the navies of the world msy
find safe haven on the coast of Texas.
Year: 1876

WHAT wsn al the rest of Texas do for
coveted internal Improvements when Texas
has disemboweIed itself of every remaining
acre of public domain for one local interest,
while the rest is held at the pleasure of a
foreign railroad king
Year: 1876

THERE have been many paragraphs
printed containing less truth than is en-
bodied in the statement of the Examiner
that nobody knows the influence exerted
by Hon. John Hancock's TRADE against the
press at Brenham nearly two years ago in
accomplishing his defeat as candidate
against Coke for the Senatorship. AS the
grand first cause, it would take high rank,
we are greatly inclined to believe, if there
were any means at hand to arrive at cor.
rect conclusion"
Year: 1876

LOUISIANA colOred church peol /, are
nightly excited about the proposed merge
church, and there is violent opposition to the
the scheme The cunning white fellows who
came down from the North to engineer the
religious business of the simple blacks war
the money to be picked by piety from pitt
full pockets, ana African preachers have
learned the value of the purse strings of
godliness and are little disposed to transfer
them to Bishop Haven's and Confessor
SIMPSONS immaculate missionaries. The
color line in religion is and should be as in
destructlble as in politics and in social life.
Year: 1876

GEORGETOWN will build tap road to the
international just below Round Rock;
.hanca if is fourteen miles 10 Manur. TnV
Central road will probably build branch
to connect with Georgetown near Round
Rock and thus Georgetown will have a di-
rect route to Houston. Of course this
Georgetown branch of the Central will be
extended to Lampasas and Brownwood
Would it not be wise for Austin to save
narrow gauge from this city to Lampasas
Nothing else can save to Austin the trade
of northern and northwestern counties
Year: 1876

lSDIANoLA should have a breakwater
built BY the State, and as it was really des-
olated when Galveston was not, the State
should pay for all the loss sustained in that
now desolate place.
Year: 1876

certain facts regard 10 tho escape OF Tweed his
completely Herewith, OF which II had been hts duty
to mako complaint to his government. Hc
found that Mr.. Young had personally bought
the passage ticket for Tweed tho Carmen that he
had had him living In his own apartments at the Con-
sulate and that when no telcgraphed to Consul Con-
crai Hall the release OF Tweed the despatch was 10
postponed that before the could reach him to
hold Tweed and send him back to Havana under arrest
capcd General Marin madc an Investigation
or these and other fncts, which led him
TO believe that thero were somc suspicious
that II was in fine. nothing but OF COLI tsion to
assist tho fight OF Tweed He decided cmbody these
facts and suspicious in report which nc forwarded
through the regular diplomatic from Cuba TO
Madrid whence they back TO tho State Depart
lncnt Of tho United Statas Immediately upon their
receipt tho showing was 80 bad for Mr..
Young that his removal promptly decided upon
and made General Marin expressed himself
while in Washington, as very indignant about the
affair. part OF tho tactics rcsortcd TO also for the
purpose OF cxtrcatng Tweed from the custody OF tho
Cuban officers OF the law dispute between tho
military and naval authorities as to whether Tweed
was properly a prisoner OF tho other, which
ended in his slipping from the grasp OF both. Il is
understood that Consul Young contcnded that Tweed
was all right and that his passport was in order.


THE PHILADELPHIA osTMAsTERsHrP-nEAsoNs
{. WHICH AcrUArED PRESIDENT GRANT IN THE


REMOVAL OF Mr.. yAIRMAN--DoN cAMERoNs


LESSON TO THE YOUNG MEN or PxSNsYL-


vANrA.


In the matter Of tho Philadelphia Postmastersbfp,
~AiaA AAA hAAa diaAnaaAA Al tha snsniai AhinaA
Year: 1876

A telegram brings the sad intelli-
gence of the death of A. II. STEWART,
who died at his residence in New York
at lao p. M. yesterday. A. T. STEW
ART was one of the wealthiest men on
the continent. An Irishman by birth,
he came to this country when young
man. By close application to busi-
ness and strict integrity he soon gained
the confidence and esteem of business
men. His integrity In business has
been proverbial throughout the United
States for many years. He alwaysim-
puted his wonderful success in business
to this single trait in his character.
He never had but one price for an ar
ticle, nor was he ever known to over
rate an article for sale. We knew him
personally and can say of truth that
he was one of the few successful men
who never lost his common sense.
Wealth did not spoil him nor make
him a fool. He was a noble-hearted
man, and we can truly say that
America has lost one of her most use
full citizens.
Year: 1876

Feeling inclined to be pious on Sun.
day, We went down to the Synagogue
to worship with our Hebrew brethren.
It was their annual Passover, an oc-
casion memorable in the history of
this wonderful people, and day
which every Jew in every nation on
the globe is inclined to observe as a
feast day because of the direction
given in Exodus, 18th Chapter and
from the Sd to the Goth verse inclu-
sive. And is to commemorate the prov
idential escape of the Jews in Egypt,
when God shifting the first-born of
the Egyptians passed over the houses
OF the Israelites which were marked
with the blood Of the pascal lamb.
This feast was ordered to be kept
throughout all generations by an or
dinance forever. The audience was
large and attentive, and the ceremo-
nies were solemn and impressive. AZ
ter the usual preliminary services on
such occasions, Mr. Edleman, the
Rabbi of the congregation, delivered
an address of thirty minutes; talking
for this subject. "Israel, past present
and future" Past.-In Abraham
their nationality began. They were
set apart as peculiar people, to
be the custodians of Divine truth
forever. All the promises of God
to their fathers have been faith
fully fulfilled, as evinced by history.
Their present distinct nationality,
scattered as they are among all ma
tions is but a fulfillment of prophecy,
and an evidence of Gods peculiar care
over them. The promise of their fin
al triumph and future glory, is yet to
be fulfilled. But He who made the
promise to their fathers was able, and
would perform it. The sermon was
more suggestive than explanatory.
But the speaker showed himself equal
to his subject. The church in this city
may congratulate themselves upon
having so able and exemplary a man
to officiate for them.
Year: 1876

Out of six hundred and ninety-one
bills passed by the Legislature, the
Governor vetoed six, and pocketed one
hundred to keep for his private use.
The Governor has more pluck than we
gave him creditor. We are informed
that the most of the bills he pocketed


were the big jobs put up by cliques
and rings, and would have saddled on
the cities and counties in this State
debts to the amount of many millions.
"Well done good and faithful SER
want, thou hast been faithful over a
few things, we will make thee ruler
over many things" We have been
informed that some of these bills
would have added several hundred
thousand dollars to the debt of our al
ready tax-burdened county and city.
We know nothing of any such bills,
except one for school purposes, for
thirty thousand dollars. We were
very much in favor Of this bill, and
feel sorry it was not passed. But we
will not stop to cry overit. Our Board
Of Directors must bridge over the diff
Guilty some how. 1t Is often the case
that what we consider our greatest
misfortunes turn out to be our great
Year: 1876

The NetO York Herald says the bill for giving
immediate legislative sanction to the Sand.
wich Islands treaty, which has been for some
time in obeyance in consequence of the ill
ness OF Mr. Wood, is to come up again for
discussion 1t is to be hoped that It may pass.
1t is a strong presumption in favor OF the
treaty that IL was ratified by the Senate by
large maj jority after careful inquiry ito its
merits. The bill for carrying into effect is IA
vored by the best brain and ability of the
House. The chief opposition comes from an
active lobby in the pay of American sugar
interests.


The Herald is mistaken in sup.
posing that the only opposition comes
from the sugar raisers. All California
and the Pacific coast stands firmly
against it. This treaty effects the
commerce of this coast directly while
it effects the commerce ofthe East in
directly if at all. Except sugar rails
ers we do not see that it has any in
fiuence on Eastern commerce what
ever. In our estimation this treaty
was gotten up in the interest and for
the exclusive benefit of few sugar
planters and fruit raisers. Under this
treaty, not only the fruits and sugar
of all these islands will be brought in
to the United States free of duty, but
thousands of tons will be shipped
from other countries to Honolulu and
from thence to the United States. 1t is
really opening the door for the grand
est wholesale smuggling in the world.
Fair play is our motto. If the COM
merce of one country is to come to us
free of duty, open the doors and let all
other countries have an equal show.
Discharge this army of sixty thousand
revenue officers and twenty thousand
detectives, and support the govern
ment by direct taxation. Those men,
bers of Congress from the Pacific coast,
who are favoring this bill, are looked
upon with suspicion, by ali the peo-
pie, as parties who are trying to feath-
er their own nest.