smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1873

---iiow the Work Is Done-.-A Victim.


The examination Of the charges of


conspiracy against the members of the


mysterious Chinese tribunal has been


deferred, says n San francisco paper,


and in the meantime the police are


making every effort to secure evidence
! fo ffsir conviction. The safe taken
| froD she council room still remains at


the police headquarters. The Celcstials


reuse to open it. for an inspection Of
its contents. The curiosity to know


what it contains is intense. many he


lieving that the tales OF the Spanish in


QUESTION would pale before the start
! ling revelations which an inspection of


the records of this society (supposed to


be in the safe) would bring to liglt. On
gard the Chinese rs too cunning to
place on record any of the more serious
Judgments of this council.


Their mode of procedure with a
doomed offender is dark and secret. A
hired assassin is chosen among their
lower classes, the victim is pointed out,
and the assassin is offered certain sum
of money, generally supposed to be
81 900, to put him ont of the way. The
man who is thus condemned is not mp
prised OF his sentence, but the hired
assassin dogs his steps and watches his
opportunity. At time when he least
suspects it the quick daggerpierceshim him
from behind. or the favorite weapon of
the Chinese, the murderous hatchet,
cleaves his brain, and he falls victim
to this fearful power" His body is
either cut up into pieces and burned, or
secretly buried, or placed in sack and
anchored i'll the bay. His bones do not
return to the Flowery Kingdom. How
they account to the home Government
for this noncompliance with one of
their strictest rules is unknown, but
Chinese ingenuity is equal to that small
requirement in the line of falsehood.


Two or three years since Chinaman
was found drowned in the river near
few days after he left this
city. 1t was well known that he was
under the ban with this society-in
fact, that he had defied their power.
Tbs evidence that he had been foully
de lit with was conclusive. He had
brother residing in this city who spoke
English well. He did not make move
toward discovering his brothers assas-
sin, but meekly bowed to the supreme
power of this terrible society.
Year: 1873

I heard that in this land were many poor,
Therefore ] sought them out from door to door
Methought had gift would comfort give,
And make them wish on earth to longer live.
Mygift fered freely everywhere
TO those who some deep want did seem to bear,
But MI in vain for only anper store
or gold they wished whereby to heap up more.
NY gift was lovo--which they must needs pass


by,


Since it exacts the largest usury.
Year: 1873

The detectives, who are looking for sharkey in
Houston street, have not by any means captured
him. This should not be wondered at, although
the name OF the classic locality Is dear to the
escaped Eighth ward murderer. There is good
reason to believe that he was In Houston. Texas q
few days ago, and that his halt there was on the
xuov To Ma viz
Year: 1873

A report of repeated outrag-
es lately committed upon the
property and family Of a man
named Bolen living near
Cheshire have reached us.
FIRST, property was destroyed;
then in his absence his wife
was assailed with missiles as
she stepped outside the door,
by two men who she thinks
were white with faces BACKED,
one stone struck her but she
was able to get hold of a shot
gun and fire at them as they
ran of. Again, Mr.. B. who is a
carpenter, being engaged at
work here, his house was en-
tered by two men, his wife
seized, and thrown on a bed,
and held by one while her feet
were bound together with
cords, then her hands by the
other, when a gun shot was
heard and the men ran away.
Shortly after a man who had
been hunting and had dis
charged his gun at a squirrel
called at the house for a drink
of water and cut the cords with
which Mrs. B. Was bound.


Such is the story as told us
and our Cheshire friends who
have an envlable reputation as
law abiding citizens will un
dJubtedly investigate the mat


ter at once -Meigs Go. Ne,cS
Year: 1873

The United Brethren pro-
pose to follow in the wake Of
the Methodists, and admit lay
men as delegates in their
Church Conference. BY vote,
of 80 to -, the recent General
Conference agreed to submit
the question to the churches in
November next, and abide
their decision.
Year: 1873

IT is certainly good news if
1t be true-the hest news Of
the seasons, that one peacock
will clean an acre Of potatoes
of the potato bugs. We are
afraid that the only way this is
likelyto happen Is that thebugs
may get scared at their sing.
ing.
Year: 1873

what is vastly more to us, shall not make us
unhappy by the story Of their suffering or re-
buke our littleness by the nobleness of their
sacrifices.


No; we put on airs whom we talk In pity
ing way of these explorers and navigators /;
we assume too much when we call them fool
hardy, or undertake to weigh the results of
their lorg and weary voyages against the pri-
vati0ns and dangers and the death they cost.
1t is not for us to put the puny scales of our
judgment TO such tests. For however small
and insignificant these results may seem to
us, we cannot weigh them here and now.
Their influence reaches further forward into
time than we can see. Their contributions TO
science are longer and broader than to-day.
And even If they bring US back no new
acquisitions that shall be the Sepping-stones
Of future discovery, they have done better
than any of us who spend our days buying
and selling and getting gain. They enrich
history with such great examples of devotion
and sacrifice as will make the world better
worth the living in, and humanity better
worth the wearing 1t is not for US to say
there shall be no more Arctic voyages. Let
us be a little more modest.
Year: 1873

advise that body, as the Constitution of the
United States requires. to call upon the Presi-
dent to protect the State of Louisiana from
domestic violence.


When this has been done the duty OF the
President will be plain too. In deciding to
install Mr.. Kellogg as Governor of Louisiana,
Gen. Grant undertook to sustain him in exc
cutting the functions of the office, to give him
all the troops he needed, and to put down all
resistance to his authority. He cannot now
retreat from the position he voluntarily as
sumed. It is an ungracious, an odiOus position ;
but it is too late to change it. We cannot
suffer Louisiana to drift into anarchy, and at
present there seems to be no choice for her
except between anarchy and military despot-
ism
Year: 1873

The failure of the Aldermen to confirm the


nominations already made by the Mayor, and
their adjournment until next Monday, when the
time allotted for makingnominatOns expires, are


the result of unanimous resolution OF the
Aldermen to do nothing more until their own
claims are satisfied. Ii is a D0g-in-the- Man
ger policy on their part. They assert that there
shall be no Reform that does not provide their
friends with places and themselves with pat
rOnage.


The fears of true refOrmers exaggerated the
danger last night. The accounts of the various
newspapers this morning will doubtless err in
the same direction; we fancy our own report,
published elsewhere, somewhat distorts the
danger and makes it appear really greater than
it seems, but we do not modify what eye-wit-
nesses saw and heard of the conflict The
simple truth appears to us to be--and we
think all friends of honest government will
recognize it before the week is ended-that the
Aldermanic Board is composed of such incOn-
gruOus clements that a strong, determined
combination is impractical and impossible.
There are in the Board four Custom-bouse peO-
pie, four Tammany Hall Democrats, two Apollo
Hall Democrats, two Reform German Republi-
cans one Reform German Democrat, etc; and
to combine these except upon one basis is
impossible. This basis is the one upon
which they united temporarily to postpone
confirmation. They want to know what they
are to get before they go any further in
giving patronage. They are unwilling to
accept in good faith, ~ the public does, Mayor
Havemeyer's past nominations as indicative of
his fixed purpose and future policy. They are
had eli
able-to recognize the City's just right to
Reform Commissioners in all departments as
superior to their own claim for petty patron
age in each office.


They will come ID recognize this before
next Monday. The apparent combination of
yesterday will be broken by that time, and
dissensiOn and CONSERVATION will prevail
before the Aldermen again meet. The natural,
irrepressible expression of public opinion will
produce this result. 1t is a crisis-a minor
one to be sure-which calls for such ex-
preston, and it VIII not fail to be heard.
The action of the Aldermen is the first faint
attempt at the organization of Ring. 1t is
the first weak growl of party for place; and
that spirit of Reform, which has been so deter
mined for two years past, should be heard in
no equiyocal terms in condemnation of the
partisan spirit which the Aldermen have
betrayed. Under the present condition of the
City Government, with Havemeyer insisting
upon Reformers in all public places, and with
Green guarding the public funds irrespective
of political claims, and neither caring for their
future political prospects, Ring il impossible
if only the people are faithful to themselves
and the true men in power.
Year: 1873

If we know enough already of this round
globe of ours if we have reached the ultima
thule; or if not having reached it we are
content with so much knowledge as we have,
and have fully made up our minds to indulge
no strivings for broader acquisitions of learn
ing, then we may well accept the dictum of
the current commentator that the Polaris ex-
pedition shall be the last effort to penetrate
the dark and dangerous mysteries of the
frozen Pole. Because this last expedition,
half equipped as it was, and containing in
itself elements of discord, has not succeeded
to the full extent of its projectors hopes, and
because the leader died, as all men some time
must, and score of men were shipwrecked
and compelled to endure hardship and priya-
ton, as scores Of men are doing and have done
through every rolling year, shall we say,
"There, now, let us have an end Of this. 1t
"comes to nothing but just pushing forward
"a hairs breadth on the map of the field of
"human discovery, at the price Of discom-
"fort, distress, and death. and it does
"not payfn Shall adventure be given up or
the field Of discovery abandoned because
there's peril in it and some men suffer and
others die for sake Of itf There's very little
of the spirit Of the old Ulysses in
this kind of talk; nothing of the pluck and
daring and quenchless thirst for knowledge
that bid his mariners "push of, and sitting
| well in order smite the sounding furrOws."
Nothing here of the purpose to "sail beyond
/" the sunset and the baths of all the western
stars until he died. This is rather the
echo of the Pintas mutineers.


1t is not unnatural, to be sure, that sitting
by our fresides reading of the long Winter on
the ice foe, of the six months drifting under
Arctic night and in stormy sea, of the
disabled ship and broken crew, and
Of all the perls and privations of
the voyage, we should conclude that
it does not pay, and that men ought not be
allowed to incur such dreadful risks for so
small results. All, well. what is life worth
| Death closes ALL Are We doing better than
those adventurous souls who at such large
sacrifice widen ever so little the boundaries of
| knowledgef We die some time. Some
| time in the midst of our ledgers and cash
| books and stocks, bonds and investments,
we lay all these things by and stop. They
do no mo re. They do no less than that
| on the ice-hoe or in the wreck, OF
on the desolate shore. Only human
thought goes further; human knowl-
| edge takes wider range. Science gathers
new harvests. All the worlds experience is
enriched and ennobled and made rounder and
fuller because these men have lived and done
and dared. But for us playing games of chance
with each other, living softly and easily and
gathering comforts to ourselves, what do we
do here that widens knowledge or enriches
experience, or In any grand way makes living


worth the while of anybody that comes after
us I And yet we undertake to say, sitting in
easy chairs and growing selfish and narrow
every day. that men shall not go into dangers
and privations to slake their thirst for knowl-
edge; that they shah stay with us in safe
places. and be comfortable and haDDY and
Year: 1873

The bare intelligence is given this morning
that the Prussian Minister of Commerce has
resigned his position. 1t is difficult to conceive
of any other cause for this than the fact that
be has been implicated in the irregularities in
granting railway concessions, which have been
the subject of investigation.
Year: 1873

Perhaps il would not be right TO be amused BIZ
anything connected with the frightful Dixon disas
ter, but the voluble and graphic statement made
by woman who escaped is at least interesting AZ
q study Of feminine philology. " In the twinkling
of an eye" she said, there tremendous crash
and we were all spilled out" In the midst Of it,
the lady went on to say, al went into the water
with thud. 1 went down with my mouth open,
screaming. j think must have struck bottom.
From the time was spilled till was dragged
ashore seemed to me three hours. Ny back hair
is gone among the rest / sha MT advertise it the
finder is welcome TO it, am sure" Il Mt this rather
vivacious narrative for woman just out Of the
Jaws Of death Somewhat more serious was tho
statement made by Dr. Hoffman TO the reporter Of
The Chicago Tribune. His description Of the sensa-
ton of drowning is curious Twas greatly aston
ishod at the number of events that passed through
my mind while under the water. Nothing that Oc-
Cured during childhood was evident but every.
thing which has occurred since was about nne
teen years old appeared before me as if photo
graphed." When he was rescued. the Doctor says
"The sudden transition from the beati6c state in
the water to the dry land seemed to have bad
effect upon me, and made me indifferent to what
was going on around me-" Something analogous to
this is related by De Quincy out Of his own expe
DenCe
Year: 1873

THE PRESIDENT AND THE GOVERNOR


The dispatches from Louisiana are still full
of discrepancies. One account says that I" the
"whole affair is virtually over" another pre-
diets that the trouble has hardly begun. 1t is
certain that tho people of the State are no
more reconciled to the Kellogg usurpation now
than they were two or three months ago; and
although they have no disposition to fight
against the United States army. they will not
submit to Mr.. Kellogg until at least show
has been made of compulsion. Whether their
submission is to be enforced quietly and speed
ily depends upon the action OF the President
and the Governor. The policy Of the citizens
seems 10 be to organize passive resistance to
the acting State authorities wherever they can
do 80 with reasonable prospect of success !;
to disturb the peace no. more than may be
absolutely necessary in order to assert their
position; and to disperse at once whenever the
Federal troops are marched against them.
Their action, therefore, is not civil war, but q
great popular protest against illegal power.


In the meantime anarchy virtually prevails
in some Of the remote parishes; the processes
of law cannot be executed the courts cannot
perform their duties life and property are in
secure. No State must be allowed to remain
in this condition. An illegal government is
better than no government at all and if there
is no chance of the installation Of McEnery
in the seat TO which he was chosen, we must
all hope. for tho sake of order. tina, Kelloggs
authority may be recognized. The acting Gov
ernor pretends that he is the honest preference
of tho electors Of Louisiana. He assures us
that a vast majority of the people sustain him,
and his only opponents are few miserable Reb-
els. 1t is time for him to abandon this absurd
pretense, which deceives nobody. and to confess
that the insurrection is beyond his control. He
cannot govern without the Federal bayonets,
and everybody knows it. Now let him throw


off DISCUSSES. and since he processes TO be Gov
ernor. let him govern in earnest His duty is
] plain 1t is TO convene the Legislature. and
Year: 1873

II is not probably so much prejudice against
foreigners as a determination to keep up a
combination against employers that arms the
Ohio coal miners. These men were on
"strike.n They found their places filling up with
immigrants, and they banded together to re-
sist their employment by fOrcible means.
This is a sorry story, and the sorriest part OF
II TO the strikers is that their demonstration
seems likely to end in their being thrown out
of employment.
Year: 1873

most susceptible young gentleman wss Frank
Chandler late of Fryeburg, Mo. First Of al he fell
in love with his fathers young hOusekeeper and
secretly married her. But upon the avowal Of this
union old Mr. Chandler declared. we don't know by
what authority that he did not approve of It and
so the wife went homo to her family. But it is Of
no use to waste sympathy upon young Chandler, for
he straightway fell in love with another lady, and
wanted to marry her before the divorce proceedings
were finished. To this tho old gentleman naturally
objected, which so discouraged the youth that hs
took great dose of laudanum and is no longer IN
the flesh The father is one of the weasthiest farm
ers of that region
Year: 1873

In reply to a courteous inquiry from the ladies
of Philadelphia a. to the lists Of the women.
contributors to the Charity Fund of 1789 we beg TO
say that they VIII be found in tho appendix TO the
second volume of the Biography of President Reed
of Pennsylvania. by his grandson. They coDtaia


for we have taken the trouble TO count theml up
wards of 1.4O0 familiar Philadelphia names,
ancestors, we doubt not, of many of those who are
engaged in kindred work now. The original lists are
deposited in tho Historical Society Of this city, and
are easily accessible to any one who wishes 10
examine them. They are very curious. In con-
nection with this subject may we make suggestion
to our Philadelphia friends . What better stimulus
could there be TO the feeling they are striving to
excite than memorial volume for general cir
culation and therefore not too large as to the day
and deed of independence Strangely enough, tho
doings moment Of trial and of daring have only
been described incidentally by grave historians
Hence q special volume would be very rich and ap-
propriate After all. sympathy with the classic part
is tho rock on which this commemOration must DO
built. 1t failing all fails.
Year: 1873

That is singular view which is taken BY Blltt
more lawyer Of mania for poisoning. He thinks
that when man woman posons human being
without detection, in ninety -nino cases out OF .
hundred the poisoner becomes insane Hls reason
ing is that successful crime of tins sort begets
such sense of power and of ability 20 remove at
will every human obstacle so bunting, at the same
time, the sympathes that in nearly every ease the
mind becomes warped. and the pOisonor is ready
with the deadly draught 10 ayenge the most riiling
disrespect OF wrong" Let those who thmk OF
poisoning anybody take warning
Year: 1873

for such thing, he would never for
give the man who kept close beside
him at every turn, and whose worn,
haggard face was enough to move
stone to pity. Ii he did find her, if
God would but hear and answer this,
the most terribly-in-emnest PRAYER
that he had ever uttered in his life, it
would make him changed man for all
time.


We make such VOWS in these dire
straits which overtake US now and then
the worst for us if we do not keep
them.


The sun began to get low in the
Western horizon, and yet nothing.
Would it be in vain? Could he give
her up now, just as he was certain of
her love, and upon the very threshold
of what might be bliss? His eyes were
straining far around in every direction,
the hope and despair alternating in
them, making them dreadful TO see.
lie was a strong man, but strong men
love with a fearful intensity some
times, and love over possible and
probable grave is always more or less
terrible.


At last, after another hour, he gave
such start that Mr.. Forsyth caught
him. thinking he was about to plunge
overheard.


do you see that?' he said, his face
white as ashes, pointing off toward
what seemed to be a mere speck upon
the water.


Then came the command:


More steam on Straight ahead p


AS for katharine, God took care of
her as he does for all when everything
human fails.


She had somehow outliyed the
stormy night, and though she was drift
Ing helplesslv out to ea,-her oars had
been lost long beforc-she was alive,
and kept up faint courage until she
knew that help was coming. When
they lifted her on board, she lay Ike
one dead, and for hours afterward she
only repeated deliriously in answer to
either her father or her lover, You
will let him drown! You will let him
drown


By the time Mr.. Forsyth saw his
daughter really saved, he was quite
ready that she should become Mrs.
Captain Alcott, and AS "All is well
that ends well" the lesson wa. a good
one for him and certainly not likely to
be soon forgotten.
Year: 1873

According to a prominent manu-
facturer, there are more pianos injured


by improper tuning than by legitimate
use and the consequent natural wear
Of the instruments. The frame of a
good piano, fully strung and tuned, is
made to resist a tension equal to about
seven tons. This severe strain relaxes
as the strings recede from the pitch,
but is renewed when the piano is tuned ;
and it is frequently discovered, as a
result Of this repeated process, that
the frame is bent or belied and at the
hands of an ignorant tuner, or one
lacking good judgment, an instrument
at this stage is soon injured beyond
remedy. With reasonable use, . piano
is expected to remain in good condition
for seven years, and the best makers
Year: 1873

GooD CoUNsEL.-No young man can
hope to rise in society or to perform
worthily his part in life without Il
fair moral character. The basis of
such character is virtuous, fixed
sense of moral obligation, sustained and
invigorated by the fear and love of God.
The youth who possesses such charac-
ter can be trusted. Integrity, justice,
truth, ,benevolence are not with himwords
without meaning, he feels and knows
their sacred import and aims in the tenor
Of his life, to cxemplify the virtues they
express Such man has decision of
character; he knows what is right, and
is firm in pursuing it; and is not to be
made the tool of unprinciple and time
ser wing politicians to do their dirty
work of party. Such a man has true
worth Of character; his life is a bles,in
to himself, to his family, to society, and
to the world; and he is pointed or' ."
future generation as a prope


tor the rising youth to en-
Year: 1873

pleasure; il she is poor, her horizon is
filled with the mirage of what she might
be if she were only rich. She has in her
mind an ideal husband, whom usually
she does not marry. But the ideal
American girl we will not profane the
memory OF the happy age when all the
world believe in her existence, by cynical
comparisons.-Ihe Gala1y for Dec.