smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1875

The editor of tho Winsted Herald ad- mits that. eft is pleasanter to have an un- trained choir out of range of the eyes of a church congregation, where the business department of the musical end of the church can be worked up behind red chintz curtains; where the soloists can be privately tutored during sermon time; where the choir library can be ransacEed for an appropriabe tune for an odd metre that the minister has put down on hls list,

 and where the members of the choir can tear fly leaves from tune books on which to wrIte notes to each other-pass around prize packages of sugared sweet flag, or catch few minutes nap while the pulpit end is finally drawing its essay to a con- cluslon." But he maintains that all the choir 'business" should be transacted at Saturday evening rehearsals. Perhaps; though it will sometimes rain that night, and tue very people who most need the practice will be away, etc, etc. Only the
Year: 1875

The common notion that ali children
should be taught alike is cminently un-
reasonable, on account of the difference
in their prospects and capacities.
Now large school tends to make chill
dren alike, because it molds them all to
one rigid form; but it is the interest
Of the community that each child's
special gift or grace should be sedulously
cultivated, not obliterated. We Ameri-
cans are so used to weighing multitudes
and being ruled by majorities that we
are apt to undertake the potential in
fuence of individuals. Yet we know
that Agassiz's word about a fossil fish
justly outweighed the opinion of the
whole human race besides; that Won
Moltke is worth great armies to Ger
many; that a few pages of poetry about
slavery and freedom by Longfellow,
Lowell, and Whittier have had the pro-
foundest effect upon the public fortunes
of this country during the past thirty
years; that the religions of the world
have not been the combined work of
multitudes, but have been accepted from
individuals. We must not be led by
our averages and our majorities to for
get that our life may be more precious
than other millions; that one heroic
character, one splendid genius may well
be worth more to humanity than multi
tudes of common men.
Year: 1875

The fishing itself is hardly what it
used to be when the lake was 0verfull of
speckled trout. 1t now requires more
skill. The trout do not rise so readily to
the fly, and yet the sport is not lessened !;
they are still abundant-if you can catch
them. They spawn n the brooks which
feed the lake. Spencer Stream is ia
nous spawning bed. 1t is filled with
little mounds or heaps of gravel stones
made by the trout, which carry the peb-
bles i'm their mouths, and place them in
regular order over their spawn with their
tails. The survival of the fittest is the
law of the realm of fishes as well as in the
contest of races. The male trout pro-
tects the female while spawning from the
reaches and red.tins which seek to de-
stroy the spawn, and these mounds are
the castles of defense which the trout
erect for this purpose. Even with this
protection it is estimated that not more
than one trout in one thousand arrives at
maturity. The little streams are alive
with the tiny trout darting to and fro in
schools in the shimmering light. The fish
have their haunts, with which all the
good guides are familiar. They often
follow the log booms in the spring, and
have their holes in the meadow streams.
The fly is used at all seasons, though Sep
tember is the best month. Deep water
fishing is best in June, July, and early in
August. Bait fishing is best from April
to June. White fish and lake trout are
caught in large quantities through the
ice in the winter. Buoy fishing is COM
mon all through the summer. Famous
stories are told of the lakers or togue.
The largest specimen yet taken weighed
twenty-seven pounds. These lakers are
the monsters Of the deep, and prefer to
live on their own race-cannibals in fact,
and cannibals in appearance. The
speckled trout are the best to eat, and
the most gamy to catch.-Harper's Mage
z;ns
Year: 1875

With lungs of iron and wings Of fame,
With nerves and sinews OF quivering steel,
With ribs of brass and a giants frame,
He spurns the earth with an angry heel.


Through the midnight black


His eyeballs glare


With CHASTITY stare


On the startled track,
And he rends the sky with scream OF pain
Oh, monster grim Is the lightning trainl
The legend tells OF a milk-white steed
That carried Mohammed from earth to heaven
As swift rs flash OF light her speed,
And jeweled feet TO her were given;


Each leap was as far


As the eye hath sight,


And each hoof as bright


As blazing star,
And gleam liks,ehe stream that the comet yield.
AL Borak left In the rosy fields.
A wonderful arrow was that Of old
That bore Saint Abaris through the land;
1t was feathered with light and barbed with gold,
And sped by the touch of Apollo's hand.


With sibilant song


IL cleft the cloud


That shouted aloud


As IL flashed along,
A vision so rare as the prophets ride.
The Sultan's cap and magical wand
Bore Fortunatus TO isles remote;
The talisman took him to every land
And TO every sky In its airy boat


But the cleaning shaft


From the archers arm,


Aladdin's charm,


And the phantom craft,
And the steed that skinned the azure plane,
Are all combined in the flying train.
II devours the forest and drinks the lake,
Then punges down the wild ravines
With the wealth of the world on its burdened back
A sooty man from the saddle leans,


And murky wreath


Its Jaws emit


As he tightens the bit


In the dragons teeth,
And his cheek is swept by the fiery name
Oh, monster grim Is the lightning train


w. A. C.
Year: 1875

Paper money has been used in
China from very early period. The
native banks of Fuhchaufu are quite nu-
merous, and the bank bills in use are
noted for their unique appearance, and
for the difficulty with which they are
counterfeited. The banks are not under
government inspection or control. Any
individual who has the capital, or any
company of individuals who can furnish
the necessary funds, may establish a
bank and issue bills, without getting a
charter, or applying for any kind of per-
mission from the government. The out
line of the bill, with various devices to
make counterfeitiDg difficult, is engraved
neatly on solid block of brass in the
case of wealthy banks poor proprietors
of banks use hard wood instead of brass.
The right hand margin is made an inch
or more wider that the left hand margin
of the block of brass or wood. The
value Of the bill and the day of issue are
filed in with the pen, and one or more
words to facilitate the detection of a
counterfeit. Various stamps, large or
small, round or square or oblong, some of
which are verycuriously and elaborately
engraved, are impressed on different
parts of the bill, using red or blue ink.
These add very much TO the appearance
of the note.
Year: 1875

PoLITENEss.-Polished manners have
often made scoundrels successful, while
the best of men, by their hardness and
coolness, have done themselves incalcu-
liable injury-the shell being SO rough
that the world could not believe there
was precious kernel within it. Had
Raleigh never flung down his cloak in
the mud for proud Elizabeth to walk on,
his career in life would have scarcely
been worth recording. Scores Of men
have been successful In life by pleasing
manners alone.
Year: 1875

The custom of eating fish on Fridays
and Lent is derived from the old Pagan
notion that fish were sacred to Aphrodite,
the foamborn goddess, and to the Roman
Venus. Hence the custom grew of eat
ing fish on Friday, the day of Frega, and
in spring, the season sacred to the goddess
of love.
Year: 1875

If France is not forced into war be-
fore she can reorganize her military sys-
tenn, she will soon have at her ready COM
mand an active body of troops number
ing two and half millions Of men.
Year: 1875

A certain minister, having become
much addicted to drink, his presbytery
had to interfere and get the minister to
sign the pledge. This the minister did,
and promised that he would never again
take drink under any pretense what
ever. The minister certainly kept his
word but the result was that the sud
den reaction was too much for him, and
he took so i'll that the doctor had to be
sent for. The doctor knew the habits of
the man well, and told the minister that
he must just begin and take his toddy
again. This the minister said he could
not do, as he had taken the pledge in
presence of the presbytery. The doctor
replied that he might get bottle or two
quietly, and that nobody but himself
(the minister) and the housekeeper
would know anything about it.


Man," says the minister, "my house.
keeper is worse than all the presbytery
put together, so that would not do"
However, it was arranged that the doctor
was to bring the whisky and sugar, and
that the minister was to make up the
toddy in the bedroom with the hot water
that he always got for shaving purposes
i'm the morning. The result was, the
minister got speedily well, and one day,
on going out, the doctor said to the
minister's housekeeper, Well, Margaret,
your minister is quite himself again"
"There's the doot about that, sir" she
replied; "he's quite well in body; but
there's something game far wrong WI his
upper story" whats wrong there,
MargaretT asked the doctor. Weel,
sir, I dinna ken, but he asks for Shawn
water six and seven times i the day."
Year: 1875

A DISAPPOINTED French lover was re-
Gently fined one hundred francs for in
terrupting the marriage ceremony Of the
girl "who went back on him." in the
novel manner of strewing the floor of the
church with Illuminating pellets, which
exploded with each movement of the
bridal party and the spectators, with SO
much noise at some moments as to COM
pei suspension of the service.
Year: 1875

There is said TO be an increase of
crime in summer. Suicides are more
common in summer, but this, also. may
be accounted for by natural causes.
Suicide generaIlg is the result of busi-
ness failure or lack Of occupation, either
or both combined producing despair,
and a careless disregard Of life. Prom
the general dullness which pervades
every community during the extremely
warm months, commercial failures are
common; from failures in business
comes lack of occupation, and from idle
ness comes misery. The disappointed
and unhappy fly to suicide, and the
more so in simmer, because the causes
of their trouble are more frequent in
that season than in any other. In France
suicide by drowning is frequent in July
and August, and other warm months
much more so than at any other time.
Not even a suicide likes TO jump into
cold water. There is something abont
the first chilling plunge that repels one
iiOhA ~ III " hhtSls Duh III TfttAiatsNA viz
heat of the atmosphere, and the FIRE that
is burning in a mans brain, make him
regard the spring into the waves as a
pleasant thing. 1t is to him the end Of
all trouble and the beginning of rest.
1t is so with financial crimes. Forgery,
embezzlement and petty larceny are
more frequent then because the summer
stagnation of business causes general de-
preston. This makes felt the need Of
funds, and obliges men to get money in
some way; and, if it does not come by
fair means it is obtained in any ready
way that suggests itself. Philosophers
have been specializing on the connection
between crime and warm weather, and
no doubt in time there will be evolved a
long, profound. non understandable
theory abont "Psychology and increase
of temperature during the summer
months, and consequent mental and
moral alteration"
Year: 1875

Winter and Spring butter is often
very much injured in flavor by allow
ing cows to eat the litter from horse sta
hles. Cows are not unfreqHently very
fond Of this litter, though il IS i'm
prcgnated with liquid manure from the
horses. and If allowed, they eat it greedi-
ly; and the effect is that their milk and
butter will be tainted with the taste of
this kind Of food. in the same way that
the flavor is injured by enting turnips,
but To- a more disagreeable degree. II
litter is allowed to be eaten, il should be
only given to cattle not in milk, and on
no account should milch cows be allow
ed To consume other than the sweetest
and purest food. Very nice butter
makers are sometimes at loss to ac-
count for stable taintz in bntter, espe-
cially ~hen extraordinary precautions
done in the most perfect manner. and so
on in all the processes Of handling milk
until the butter is packed for market
Still, butter has n disagreeable taini
and the cause often comes from allow
ing the cows, when turned ont to water
and exercise, to feed about the horse sta.
BILE, where they consume all the litter
which, on account Of its being soaked
with liquid manure, is cast ont Of the
stabla
Year: 1875

\ case of agony occurred, yesterday
at the corner of Chartres and Canal
streets, which makes the heart sad on
contemplation. A young lady came
along, hermetically sealed up by bat
terry of pins in one of the new style of
walking dress, which, by the way, has
the quality Of prettiness to recommend
it, whatever may be the physiological
objections to it. At the corner she hap
pened to drop her handkerchief, and a
man near by, whom the sequel will show
to be veritable beast in disguise, made
forward movement to pick it mp. In
the act of doing SO, he reconsidered his
resolution, and stood stately up, leaving
the handkerchief where it was. The
young lady made an agonizing appeal
with pair of brilliant black eyes TO
the tantalizing male, but he ungallantly
remained obdnrate to the mute request,
and laid his spine against the lamp
post. She then made three efforts her
self to pick it up, but failed. Finally
she made kind of semi-circular spring,
such as men make when they run races
in sacks. and. picking up the handker-
chief, she left rapidly, while the blnshes
went way back to her hair.-[New Or
leans Picayune.
Year: 1875

From a Review in the London SPECTATOR


Imagine how breathless the interest
with which we should have awaited each
revelation of the marvellous instruments
which science employs in the work Of
lunarian discovery, if our satellite had
been inhabited, and we could have dis
covered something like our own human
life? Unhappily any such Imagination
is out of the question. A place without
air and water, and in which the temper
AZURE passes through range Of nearly
700' within fortnight, must present
conditions of which we cannot form any
conception. Another Peculiarity which,
to our notions at least, would be unpleas-
ant, is supplied by the meteors. Here
they are pretty spectacle; in the moon
they cannot be seen, but they must, at
times, at least keep up very brisk can
onade. "As there il no atmosphere"
write our authors "to consume the me-
teors by fractional heat or break by its
resistance the velocity Of their descent,
they must strike the moon with a force
to which that Of a cannon ball striking
a target is feeble indeed" If these diff
ficulties could be removed, the moon
would be a most eligible place for the
observation Of astronomical phenomena
for finding out, for instance, all that
we are so laboriously seeking TO discover
about the sun. The earth, too, would
present a spectacle Of extraordinary
beauty.


At this sunset time, the earth, near
" in the zenith of ns (the supposed lu-
mar spectators) will be at its half illnm-
mated phase, and even then 1t will shed
more light than we receive upon the
brightest of moonlight nights. As the
night proceeds, The earth's phase will in
crease through the gibbous stages until
at midnight it will be full, and our orb
will he seen in its entire beauty. 1t will
perform at least one of its twenty fouI-
hourly rotations during the time that il
appears quite full (the night is more
than three hundred hours long, and the
whole Of its surface features will in that
time pass before the lunar spectators
eye. At times the northern pole will
be turned toward our view, al times the
southern; and its polar ice-cans will ap-
pear IA bright, white spots marking its
axis Of rotation. The seas wonld ap-
pear las far as can be inferred) Of pale
bluegreen tint, the continents parti-col-
ored, and the tinted spots would vary
with the changing terrestrial seasons"
Year: 1875

ming into one another, so that it l.
hard to tell where the one begins
and the other ends. The cost of
this stupendous structure, tunnel
and all, is put down at thirteen mil
lions of dollarsl Think of it, for
two miles of superstructure, which
is about the length OF the bridge and
tunnel. This is more than Cincin-
natl expects to pay for the Southern
Railroad, or rather moro than she
set apart for the purpose.


The first thing a cold-blooded per-
son asks, one who does not take
glory at the regular St. Louis rates,
docs the bridge pay? 1t does not.
The stock, if am correctly inform,
will be rendered worthless by the
first mortgage bond-holders, who, of
course, have first lien. The receip pts
of the bridge, deducting expenses,
will not pay more than two and a
half per cent on its cost. The effect
of this, of course, will be TO eat up
the stock of the stockholders. But
the rich men of st. Louis had
rather have their pockets operated
upon considerably than not to have
the bridge. It is their pride and
glory. The one big thing among
big things, a section Of the Great
Future brought into service ahead
of time.
Year: 1875

4 writer in one Of the reports of the
Agricultural Department states that
speed in a horse has now become essen
tial to the comfort and convenience of
the people, and it commands its money
value accordingly. The wants as well
as the habits and tastes of the communi-
ty have changed materially since rail-
road travelling has become SO universal.
Men accustomed to a speed of from
twenty to thirty miles an hour in the
cars cannot be expected to content them
selves with the common rate of five or
six miles an hour, and the majority of
the people now want a horse to go off
easily and even without over urging at
the rate of ten or even twelve miles an
hour, and the horses that do it are not
very common, whereas formerly they
were only exceptions to the general rate
of speed. Speed is, to be sure, only one
of the many qualities which are essen
tial to good roadster, and size, style,
action, temper, form, constitution and
enduring qualities are equally impor-
tant in making a general estimate of the
character of the horses of this or any
other period. The aggregate money
value has been greatly enhanced be
cause of the number of fast horses has
increased. and speed will demand its
price. The art of training the horse to
tie trot or to any other gate, and devel-
oping all his powers in it, is far better
understood now than it was forty or
even twenty years ago, and the increase
in speed has been to a great extent dne
to this source. Then it is a we'll ascer-
tained fact that the exercise and devel
opment of any particular qualities or
capacities in animals not only enables
them TO excel in such characteristics be-
come hereditary, or at least are much
more easily trained and developed in
their offspring. There is another thing
which has operated most hopefully on
the general improvement of our horses,
| especially in their speed, and that is the
high price which they have commanded
during the last few years. The profit
made in producing frst-class animals
have been great, and the stimulus it has
afforded to skill IN breeding has been of
itself sufficient to account for much of
the progress that has been made.-TN
| Y. Herald.
Year: 1875

From the Springfield Kentuckian.l


Enoch Royalty of Anderson county
discovered bee tree a few days ago,
large poplar. The bees had found hol-
low 107 feet from the root of the tree,
which they had taken possession of and
filed with honey. Enoch thought it
would be rich prize, so he adopted the
following mode of securing it: Com
mencing near the ground, he bored
large anger hole at a height he could
reach, in which he put strong pin; on
this he sat and bored another hole at
convenient distance above, in which he
drove another pin, and proceeded in this
way until he reached the height of 107
feet, where he deliberately cut of the
top of the tree. He then possessed of
the honey, rich IN quantity and quality,
secured the bees, and descended safely
to the ground. He proposes TO make
another similar and more adventurous
conquest in a short time. Above Ore
gon, on the Kentucky river, there ia a
cliff two hundred feet high, and at the
height of one hundred feet there is evi
IDENTIFY an immense bee home, where the
bees have been at work from time to
which the memory of man runneth not
back to the contrary. Enoch says that's
his meat, and before the season is over
he intends TO have it.
Year: 1875

The first object that strikes the
stranger, at St. Louis, is the bridge
across the Mississippi. This is a
magnificent piece of work, a credit
to St. Louis and to the brains and
muscles of the men who could con-
ceive and execute it. To be appre-
ciated, as Barnum says Of his show,
it must be seen. 1t is a great work
so great that it will be more of a
financial success twenty years hence
than now. 1t is ahead of this day
and generation; a bigger thing than
the day and generation can pay
living interest upon. On the west
side the bridge shoots up above the
houses, then in among them, into
the ground and under it, the ground
gradually sloping down to the river,
and the bridge and the tunnel rum
Year: 1875

There was a time, SAYS the. Phila-
delphia Press, when the offenders
against the law we're exposed to
stocks and pillories. 10 the butleting
and jeers of the rabble; that time
has passed, we are accustomed to
say, with some satisfaction in the
superior humanity Of our own age.
But abuses of this nature, which are
grounded in the coarse and low in
stincts of the race, are only very
gradually refined away, and If We
look about for survivals of the pill
lory we shall find them, wo are sor-
nv to say, in n class of newspapers
which seek TO raise a laugh at the
expense of those most pitiable of all
men, those who have done what in
them lay to forfeit human sympathy.
A correspondent calls attention to
this inhuman and demoralizing
practice on the part Of certain jour
mails, and makes a forcible appeal
for its discontinuance. The last of
all subjects for the exercise Of the
divine gift Of humor, supposing po-
lice reporters in possession OF the
faculty, is afforded by the circum-
stances attending the administration
of the criminal law. None but q
thoroughly demoralized nature can


find matter for witticisms and
laughter in the distress Of fellow
men.
Year: 1875

\ man drew note promising TO pay
one hundred dollars. lie used . print
ed form, and did not close mp the blank
devoted to dollars. and after passing a
negotiable p per, somebody inserted ''and
City" after the one hundred and before
the printed dollars. The note thus al
tered got into the hands of an innocent
party, who presented it to the drawer,
and the Supreme Court decided that the
maker OF the note was liable for it's face
because through negligence he did not
draw n line between the written word
hundred" and the printed word "dol.
lars" Any testimony that the drawer
might offer TO establish the fact that he
gave the note for one hundred dollars
must go for nothing. as there was moth
ing on the face of the note showing that
it had been altered. Evidence of alter
alton on the face of the note would have
changed the case Let this be lesson
to all drawers of promissory notes. No
one can be too careful in such matters.
Year: 1875

Washington had a headquarters in
Morristown n hundred years ago. George
seems to have had quite n genius for
creating headquarters. He spilled them
over the country pretty recklessly. The
Morristown headquarters is an old and
large farm house, which has been bought
by patriotic ladies, and will be kept as
q museum of Revolutionary relics and
other mementoes Of the old times.
Year: 1875

nervous state about fire, | waited till he
was alone in the pilot-house, and then
set fire to little wad of cotton, stuffed
it into the speaking tube, and the smell
came right out under his nose. A little
sugar in it, pard."