smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1875

Secretary BristOw seems to have shot ahead


long way in the Presidential by his Whisky Ring
disclosures His competitors should look alive IL Is
exceedingly popular nowadays to be ring sinasher'


The Independent Voter seems to be causing
the partisans good deal OF anxiety. The Republican
party press decides with much eainesness that he must
inevitably vote the Republican ticket The Democratic
journals just confident lie cannot consistently vote
any other ticket than the Democratic Neither side
seems entirely satisfied with its reasoning, bccaus,
manifestly enough neither knows anything about what
the troublesome personaSe in question VIII 90 ana IA
that the Independent Voter himself Ignorant of
what he Will do as they are


Senator Sargents important announcements
away Off there in San Francisco that he knew the PSi-
dent did want third term because he had heard him
say he was tired has not been received with that degree
OF respect which ii deserved. The majority OF people
have gone talking about the third term just as If 1t
much unsettled question as ever This sort OK


thing has dsgusted The Baltimore american Mr. Sarg nt
has put the phantom clear out of sight. that Journal
thinks, and II hopes hear about it. Bat II has
views about what the party ought to do. In the ts
place the should be removed from the
tro of the party machinery Then let eveTyDody say
candidate The Baltmor paper has been disgustcdwth
the lack Of Independence shown by the press IN discuss
ing the third subject and it doesn't want 10 see any
brow ng by the once-hoding llnta Whlch mas
mary killed e Pa Rgns w6nS sm the Ma1a3d E
pubicans uncommOny well, and alter him tLey would
like Secretary Blistow.


MOueSty mas never DeeH Il ldiIHlS vi Iiic III


ation Democracy Of the West There has been no share
of the party that they have been at all backward
in claiming. They talk loudly OF having u man after
their own heart for Speaker OF the next House OF Repre-
sentaives and are very coudent that the parys cani
date for President will be a somoney man. on the soft
est kind OF q platform. The Cincinnati Commercial.
which seems end Of advice all sorts OF sub
ects Just now, thus reasons with the more money"
shouters: I've have admitted that the papc: money
Democrats West and South might be able to scalp
Gov Tden. We do not Think however they can tako
ession OF tine Democratic National Convention AMI
dictate platform and candidate As TO the platform they
may be prevent positive declaration of Oin-
beyond that they cannot They must ne con-
tent with evasion OF course they can comfort them
selves the vigorous Interpretation of an egyocai
phrase They will probably succeed in knocking DOWN
the NewYork candidate and then The eyes OF the conn
try will be upon little Delaware 10 Is SAID senator Bay
ard has hard money record Perhaps is not 50 had
that he could stand upon platform oi e'hsiohs iho
nlaonists are In error II they PR sumo th'EiS ives
competent to declare doctrine aud name candidates.
They should tho virtue Of modesy before 10
eyerastingy too late.'
Year: 1875




Happy indeed would be the people Of this
country if the evils of bad government were
the mere phantoms which many believe them
to be, and if tho consequences always fell on
somebody else as still more vainly imagine.
The truth is that diseases Of this kind are as
real as any of those treated of in the
works of physicians, while those who escape
unharmed are not more numerous than those
who live to the age of two hundred years.
Gov. Tilden with his usual clearncss has just
pointed out the more glaring faults of munic-
ipal government in this State, and invited
the Legislature to take suitable steps for
bringing the subject under review at an early
date. Bad government of cities has, since the
war, become an epidemic, spreading all over
the country and doing its deadly work as
thoroughly as ever did the plague. The facility
with which the National Government con-
tractcd its monster loans and the impunity
which seemed to attend the assumption of its
vast load of debt opened the eyes of the ambi
tious politicians of our cities, and there sprang
up race of "bosses." The tribe, though
dwndling, is not yet extinct, and their monu-
mcnts will long exist in the shape of the debts
which they have saddled on the communities
where they held sway.


Gov. Tilden shows that the twenty four
cities of this State have local debt of
$175,G57,267, besides their share of the State
and National debts. Of the twenty four, Lock
port is the only one free from debt, and in
only four cities is the debt less than fifty
dollars for each able-boded male adult inhab-
liant. In three-fourths of tho cities of the
State the aggregate of the yearly State, city,
and county taxes is over fifty dollars for
each voter or head of a family, and in
the four largest it will average more
than one hundred. The simple meaning
of this is high rents and narrow accOmmOda-
tions for the laboring population, and for bus
mess men, property owners, manufacturers and
the like, what they arc now experiencing. AS
we remarked at the outset, if the evils of viO-
lating all sound principles Of finance and gOy-
ernment were purely matters of fancy and not
of fact, then indeed would change in the
weather, a return of confidence, or cup of
coffee cure them. Unfortunately confidence,
though of great service in contracting debts,
is of very little in paying them. The bond
holders, office holders, and others who draw
their income from the taxes do not live on air,
and what they receive those who pay the taxes
must necessarily do without Most OF the
local taxes are paid in the cities by the owners
of land and buildings, who of course cannot
pay them unless they receive high rents. If
they arc unable to get high rents they stop
building houses, which helps to make business
dull and increases the stagnatiOn. But this is
an unpleasant subject, and without ceremony
we, for the present, take our leave of it,
Year: 1875




A disaster like that of the Schiller becomes
private as well as public calamity. No man
can read of how the news came to many a
poor German mechanic and tradesman in this
CITY, who had worked hard for years to raise
money to send wife and children home to re-
visit the Fathcrland, without feeling that their
loss is in some sense his own; and no mother
perhaps, through all the land, read
of "the chids cry which was the
"last that was heard before the sudden,
lawful silence without straining her
own baby closer to her breast But what can
they or the outside public do in case like
this7 Neither their sympathy, nor even their
recognition of Power that orders all things,
will bring one whit of comfort or rccOmpense
to those whose best of life went down into
the greedy sea that day; "not all the preaching
"from Adam has made Death other than Death"
Nor is there any possible means of hindering
some of the causes of such casualty in the
future. Wind and tide and fog will wait for
no mans bidding; and even less can we hope
to control the mindless panic of any crowd of
helpless passengers walencd from sleep to
face death, or the seizure of boats by cow
ardly and brutal men who chance to be sea-
men. There are limitations beyond which Ma
ture and human nature refuse to be meddled
with.


But in every disaster at sea like the present
one. the actual cause has invariably been
proved to be a neglect of some simple precau-
tion-a neglect resulting from long familiarity
with danger. A drunken captain, an INSULT
cheney of boats, unseaworthy vessels; the


nd IN ha nf al mon
after the accident-which is no accidcnt-has
sent its booty of human souls to eternity. Be
cause nine hundred voyages have been
safely made in vessels unprOvided with
means of security in case OF leakage
or storms, the nine hundred and first goes out
uninspected and calm, and makes the end Of
the Schiller and we all hold up our hands in
wonder and talk of the visitatiOns OF God and
His inscrutable will 1t is too early to deter
mine as yet where the neglect in this instance
Law. 1t is hinted that Capt. Thomas had made
hut one voyage on the North Atlantic previous
to his appointment to the command of the
Schiller, and that he was therefore, nOtwith-
standing his bravery and GOODNESS, unacquainted
with the course and unfit for his position. The
jury declared that if telegraphc commune
cation had been established between Bishops
Lighthouse and the shore, no life need have
been lost.


Somewhere, we may be sure, the fatal neg
lcct lies, and, as usual, will be discovered toe
late to benefit the dead, and of little avail t.
benefit the living, unless some system Ol
stringent inspection be adopted, such al
was recommended in the English House o.
Parliament year or two ago. 1t was PROVED
then that between three and four hundred un
seaworthy vessels were annually wrecked pur
posely in order to defraud the underwriters
The same business, we have reason to believe
is carried on in this country to q sufli
cient extent to justify an authoritative
Board of Inspection, which would prove
equally effectuh in such cases as tn
Year: 1875

RAPID TRANSIT And TIE LEGISLATURE.


The present Legislature has not many titles
either to public or to partisan gratitude. The
Democratic majority in the House has been in
a perpetual wrangle over the Governors
action. The Republican majority in the
Senate has done little to avail itself of the
chances of the political situation. Both
might have found opportunities for brilliant
service in the cause of genuine reform, but
each has seemed jealous of the other while
both have been jealous of the Governor. On
the whole, neither House has been a success,
and the legislative session is only success
full in that it has been hndered by the
constitutional amendments by vetOes and by
the press, from doing much harm.


There is one opportunity yet for the Legis-
lature to redeem itself. There is q bare pos
sibility that it may succeed in giving US rapid
Year: 1875

It's an uncomm0nly queer story that we
publish this morning, as brought out by the
report of an investigating committee of the
Alabama Legislature as to how MIR. George L.
Spencer happened to be Topping around in
the seat of a United States Senator for Ala
bama. There has been, first and last, as
was remarked a day or two since, a
good deal of curiosity in the minds of the peo-
pie at large. as to how he camo to be there
The Alabama Legislature being not remotely
interested in the solution of this mystery, lately
set on foot committee to hunt the matter
out. The Committee has been some time at
work, and has brought out some facts in con-
nectiOn with Mr.. Spencers election which are
in their way quite remarkable. The report,
sent by the Associated Press, of the testimony
taken, is as interesting as a romance. The
candOr and frankness with which the methods OF
electing United States Senator's and indeed of
conducting politics generally, are disclosed,
are almost brutal in their Openness. The man
ner in which Senators and Representatives were
"drugged" and bought and bribcd, and put
out of the way, and in which the army was
used to intimdate the opposition, and all the
methods usual and unusual were used to in



ate-the whole machinery, IN short, is so
uncovered that we hardly know whether to be
amused or indignant.


That Spencer is blessed boon to Alabama,
Of course no one has the temerity to deny.
He supports the Administration with great
zeal and earncstness, and prevents the re-
enslavcment of the blacks, the repudi-
alton of the National debt, the payment
of tho Confederate bonds, the establishment
Of the COnfederacy, and various other
things. And he keeps great many honest
and sincere persons in Office who love the
Union and get up nights to shoot bullet holes
through their hats in order to assure the
General Government of the necessity of keeping
a standing army in the State to prevent Outrages
and give tho cOlOred man Lis rights under
the Constitution. Spencer is really tho boon
of Providence to the human race and special
blessing to Alabama. His fame is eternity and
his residence-just now-Alabama. Far be it
from us to intimate that he is not proper
possibly the most proper-person to represent
Alabama in the United States Senate Perish
the thought, that even though he did
in fit of absence of mind, slink in among a
lot of legally elected Senators to be sworn in
in March, 1973-he is not leading statesman
of his party and his period. But in the face
of these singular developments concerning the
means by which he reached his pres
ent elevation, we may perhaps be per-
mittcd to say that George E. Spencer sitting
in the United States Senate as Senator from
Alabama embalms in himself and his history
political period for which no country can fur
nish parallel. We may also add that he has
done his country the greatest possible service.
Tweed brought the fostering sore of munich
pal corruption and robbery to head, and we
owe him thanks for it. George f. Spencer is
the emctic of carpet -bagsery, and we owe him
thanks as a wholesome medicine.
Year: 1875

Well, now, this is something like benevolcncc and
kindness and Christian charity, that great rarity
under the sun! There is to be Baby Exhibition in
Memphis, and prize of $50 is to be awarded. To
the Most Beautifuli BY no means! The premium
is to be bestowed upon the Ughest We do not know
exactly how the mother of the monster may relish
its success but it is understood that the premium
will not be awarded without the maternal approval
There is another infant excellence which, to our sur
prise. the promoters of these baby shows have not
hit upon What honors would be too great, what
prizes too costly, what triumph too tremendous for
the Baby who cries least silent as it is sweet and
IA quiet as it is beautiful OF course the competi
ton would be by affidavts signed and sworn to by
disinterested parties domiced with the entered
Infants and at the exhibition little experiments
might be made with an ood-sk moon arranged as
q tempatiOn.
Year: 1875

Persons arranging to leare torn for the Spring
and Summer months can hare InE DAILY
TRIBUNE mailed to them at any address, ana
changed as often as they may DESIRE postpaid
for 81 q month.
Year: 1875

The arrival of the disabled steamer Metropo-
lis from Bermuda will be great relief to all
who had friends on board. Disasters 80 fire.
quently come in pairs, and the public mind
was so much excited by the Schiller disaster,
that there were many who had lost hope dur
ing the long delay of the Metropolis, as shc
was known to be in q crippled condition.
Year: 1875

The pardon by the President of Lawrence
Habel, who had been convicted of robblng
letter boxes, occasions much comment. This
thief appears to have been one of the most
expert of his kind. He was sentenced to three
years imprisonment at hard labor, and is now
pardoned at the end Of one Our mails have
never enjoyed the highest reputation for safety,
and such occurrences as the foregoing hold out
little hope for their improvement in that par
ficuIor
Year: 1875

Friendship is good deal like china. 1t
is very durable and beautiful as long as it
is whole but break it, and all the cement
in the world will never quite repair the
damage. You may stick the pieces to-
gethcr, so that at distance, it looks near
water. 1t is always ready to deceive you
if you trust it, and it is, on the whole, a
very worthless thing, fit only to be put
empty on a shelf and forgotten there. The
finer and more delicate it is, the more utter
the ruin. A mere acquaintance, which
needs only little ill-humor to break it up
may be eoursely puttied like that old vel
low basin in the stOre-clOset; but tender
ness, and trust, and sweet exchange Of con
fdence can no more be yours when angry
words and thoughts have broken them than
can those delicate porcelain tea-cups which
were splintered to pieces be restored tC
their original excellence. The slightes
crack will spoil the true ring, and you haC
better search for new friend than try t.
mend the old one. And all this has moth
ing to do with forgiveness. One may for
give and be forgiven, but the deed has beer
done and the word said the flowers anC
the gliding are gone. The formal =" max
ing up" especially between two women,
no more avail than the wonderful cement
that have made cracked ugliness of tn
china vase that you expected to be you
joy forever. Handled delicately, washe


to purity in the waters of truth, confde
to no careless, unsympathizing hands
friendship may last two lives out; but
does not pay to try and mend it. Ono
broken it is spoiled forever.
Year: 1875

An eminent lawyer of Boston tells the
following joke: A Aashily-dressed young
sprig entered Ben Buffers Office and was
requested by Benjamin to be seated. The
request was complied with, and the young
man was asked to state his business,
"Well, Mr.. B., what would be the first
thing for me to do in order to learn the
profession ?" Benjamin fixed his weather
eye upon the nobby-dressed young man
and surveyed him from his fashy necktie
to his highly-polished boots, and exclaimed
"The first thing you had better do would
be to go and roll in barn yard" An an
swer came as quick as the suggestion in
the following terse language: "If should
come and study two years in your office
wouldn't it do just as well?"
Year: 1875

1t is not often that q man is undressed by
machinery but such an event happened
to a miller in jackson, Michigan, One
night some gearing in the Etna Mills began
to creak, and while oiling it, key on the
shaft caught in the breast of his shirt and
held him down, drawing him still tighter.
He was thrown over the shaft, his light
went out, and then in the dark he coolly
braced himself, and let the shaft slowly
tear off his clothing by strips; the undress-
ing operation was not delicately performed.
Gradually his clothes parted company with
him, causing severe pain by the roughness
of their taking off, and at last he felt that
he was no longer in the tolls. Slowly he
drew himself back, and started to grope hii
way down the stairs, for he knew that cTiei
of help would not be heard below. On
hands and knees he made his way alonl
till he reached the head of the stairs, whei
he staggered to his feet, got down to th'


ground-foor, and appeared TO his fellow
workmen, pale and trembling, clad only il


n shirt collar and the waistband of hi


nantaloons. His first remark was, " Wei


boys, I've stopped that squeaking." Hi
shoulder was found to be dislocated, an
he was badly bruised. His clothes wei
wound around the shaft so tightly that
was necessary to shut down the mill to r
, move them.
Year: 1875

THOROUGH WORKMEN.-Says an exchange:
There is no more honorable position in
life than that of good craftsman in a sue
cessful occupation. His horny hand is a
more honorable badge of public service
than the bejeweled dignity of the dainty
clerk or man milliner. His labor-begrimed
face or greasy working dress are proofs of
the exaltation Of his rank among men. An
honest, competent workman has peers, but
no superiOrs. But to deserve all his honor
he must be competent-skilled in the mys-
teries of his craft. And it is no use for
| people to say that their observation-disclosures
makes up for everything; for man with
the wisdom Of a Solomon could not cOnsti-
tute himself a perfect artizan without the
| practical experience which makes a man
such. Journeymen are turned out in
multitudes day by day, who have hardly
an idea of the first principles of their trade
and many young men, hardly yet of age
are found bold enough to profess a thorough
knowledge of two or more handicrafts, any
and all of which they really know little Of
nothing about. Ask employers from whence
they have their most skilled laborers, anC
they will tell you that they come from thos,
workshops where long apprenticeships ser
we'd to turn out thorough workmen; wher,
engineering is not learned in year, shoe
making in a month, or printing in few
days. There are many reasons why thi
whole subject of mechanical training shoulC
be pressed upon our young men who expec
to live by mechanical labor. The grea
enemy of the workingman is the crowd q
bad workers who are admitted to his statu
without the proper experience, for whic
he has paid years of effort.
Year: 1875

1t is seldom easy to see the hidden bene-
faction in that which is an apparent affiic-
ton. A boy who was confounding" the
mosquito was told by his pastor that
"doubtless the insects are made with good
end in view" when the young gscamprepliedl
l can't see it, whether it is in view or not.
At any rate, don't like the end feel"
Year: 1875

Noting the present of a silver cup to
brother journalist, Western editor says
" He needs no cup. He can drink from any
vessel that contains liquor, whether the
neck of bottle, the mouth of pickle jar,
the spile of a keg, or bung of barrel"
Year: 1875

g lived with him nineteen years." says
an Indiana applicant for divorce, "and all
the clothes he ever bought me was bunch
of hair pins and tooth brush" You can
see by this what hard time she had to
keep well dressed.
Year: 1875

A tramping printer on the route between
New York and Newburgh, is accompanied
by his wife. When asked the other day by
country editor, why he carted her around
with him, remarked that she took him for
better or worse, and having had a good
taste of the latter, was endeavoring to find
out where the better came in.
Year: 1875

1t will hardly be necessary to tell the
name of the facetious party who went into
village dry goods store the other day, and
was observed to be looking about, when the
proprietor remarked to him that they didn't
keep whisky. 1t would save you a good
many steps if you did," was the stage
drivers quick reply.-BerkShire Courier.
Year: 1875

1t is mans owr fault if he is unhppy
with his wife, in nine cases out of ten.
1t is a very exceptional woman who
will not be all she can to an attentive
husband, and more exceptional one
who will not be very disagreeable if she
finds herself willfully neglected. 1t
would be very easy to hate man who,
having bound a woman to him, made
no effort to make her happy; hard not
to love one who was constant and ten
der; and when a woman loves she
always strives to please. The great
men Of this world have often been
wre chcd in their domestic relations,
while mean and common men have been
exc edingly happy. The reason is very
plain Absorbed in themselves, those
who desired the worlds applause we're
careless of the little world at home /;
while those " no had none of this ego
tism strove to keep the hearts that we're
their own, and were happy in their
tenderness. No woman will tove a
man the letter for being renowned or
prominent. Though he be first among
men, she will only be prouder, not
fonder; and If she loses him through
this renown, as is often the case, she
will not even be proud but give her
love, appreciation, kindness, and there
is n sacrifice size would not make for
his content and comfort. The man
who loves her we'll is her hero and her
king.