smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1873

and make note Of the quantity, quality and
price.


Goods retlilcd ss heretofore at Il fraction only
above wholesale figures. This can be readily
done, as the extra discounts of manufacturers
and importers are in many instances quite large.


Ny stock is now full and complete in all de-
partments, and the wants Of every one can be
supplied.


Fortunately for myself and customers, chronic
croakers have no influence in these quarters,
and shall continue to oppose any combination
to maintain extortionsry prices.


Thanking my customers and friends both IN
and out of the city for their liberal patronage,
confidence and influence during the past seven
wears, hereby further assure them that IN the
future as in the past shall exert myself msin-
tain stock of goods that will do credit to Alex
andria and continue to attract trade from all the
surrounding country.


Gzs"During the approaching season other De-
partmcnts will be added to stock, each of which
will be complete in every particular


G.S"Goods wholesaled NJ prices as low AS amy
iobbing house in New York.
Year: 1873

Cramps in the stomach and bowels,
cholic pains with children or older people,
is at once relieved by using Rennes Mag
ic Oil with molasses and water This
Pain Killing Magic Oil is frst-rate doc
tor in the family, and is sold by your mer-
chant and druggist.
Year: 1873

A SEVERE TEST. The Con.missary
General Of the United States, after trial
OF all the principal starches in the country,
decided that Duryea's Satin Gloss
Starch, was the best that could be procur-
ed, and the government from that time to
the present are buying this article This
is fact worthy the attention of consum-
Year: 1873

ASTONISHING. The progress made by
the Wilson Underfeed Sewing Machine.
Inventive skill has been taxed to its ut
most, and the result is the most perfect
and desirable machine for general and
family use yerprOduced 1t is simple and
easy to operate, is not liable to get ont Of
repair, its work is the best, as was shown
by the first premiums awarded it at the
Northern Ohio Fair, and it is sold at less
price than any other machine of its rank.
Salesroom at 37S West Madison St, Chi
cago, Illinois, and all other cities in the
United States. The company want agents
in country towns
Year: 1873

The propensity to make the best of


things is generally found in combination


with those smaller virtues which are


more annoying to ones neighbors than


most vices. The man who rises at five


every morning, who always ties up his


letters with red tape, and who is con-


vinced of the great truth that it is bet


ter to be half an hour too early than


half minute too late, is frequently


given to making the best of things.


The duty of doing so is moral maxim


just big enough for him to understand.


He probably reflects upon it in the early


morning at the time when his cold bath


is bringing ont that glow, physical and


moral, which makes him an offence to


all weaker vessels during the rest of the


day. The ruddy, jovial person who


gets himself up after the country-gen


tleman type, or the more unctious vari-


ETY. of popular preacher, is apt to be


perspiring this doctrine at every pore.


It is pleasure to him to meet some


body in distress upon whom he may


discharge boisterous comfort through


his favorite aphOrism, as tire-engine


sends cold water through hose. If he


acquires some dim consciousness of the


fact that his kind exhortati )ns sound


like bitter mockery to his victims, it


only increases his sense of virtue. They
cannot comfort themselves under the


loss of a wife by the reflection that
they still have several first cousins, and
money enough to pay for handsome
monument. That only proves that they
have not studied so we'll as he the great
art of properly directing their senti-
ments. For of course he will deny in
the most pathetic manner that he would
ever advise anything like self-deceit. |
He does not avowedly ask sufferer to
profess that q toothache is rather a
pleasant distraction than otherwise he |
only recommends him to fix his atten- |
ton upon his great toe or some other |
remote part of his body which may ap- |
pear to be enjoying good health. And,
in fact, there are some people so envia- |
bly, constituted that small pleasant OBJ |
ject elevates them more than great un- |
pleasant object depresses them. They |
are people, so to speak, of small spe- |
cifc gravity, who cannot be submerged |
without heavy burden of melancholy. |
The person who makes the best of |
things processes to be of this tempera-
ment. It is not, he would have you be- |
lieve, that he does not sympathize with |
grief, but that his constitutional buoy |
ancy makes sympathy with him compat-
ible with exhileration he does not de- |
ny the existence of evils, but the small |
est grain of good makes him happy,
Just as half glass of wine makes some |
men drunk. There are, we say, such |
people as these-men, if we may coin a |
word, easily intoxicable. But we are |
inclined, as rule, to vehement sus-
picion in both cases. The man who is
upset by the first glass has generally |
had certain number of glasses before,
and the man who makes the best of |
things is generally helped to be serene
either by the absence of strong feeling |
or by the want of courage to look at
Year: 1873

It is really a great wonder (writes DIR.


Hall) that everybody is not dead and


buried, and the world itself used up
entirely, if the thousandth part of what
is told us about microscopical and other


discoveries, so called, is true. Ore
man has discovered myriads of insects
(gregarines) in the chignons of the Ia
dies, boring into their skulls and suck
ing out all their remaining brains OF the
dear creatures. A German sdUdn now
tells us that every sip of tea we take is
full of oily globules which gets into the
lungs direct, weaken them, set up a
cough, and the person dies of consump-
tion. Another man has found that the
purest spring water, clear as crystal to
all appearances, if let alone, will dep osit
a sediment, which generates typhoid
fever hence he proposes that every
body shall leave off drinking water. An
other says that the bread has so much
lime in it that il is turning us all to
bone, and makes us stiff in the joints,
that being the reason that we have no
1.-THE, sprightly old men nowadays
hence we are full of rheumatic pains
long before our time therefore we had
better leave off bread altogether, and
live on rice, and sago, and tapioca.
Some folks assure us that pork and ham
are full of abominable trinchide, and
that, if one is swallowed and gets fairly
nestled into the system, it will breed a
million more in a short time.


And here comes other philosophers,
laden with microscopes and spy-glasses
which show as plain as day that the air
is swarming with living monsters,
which fly into TIE mouth, and crawl up
the nose, and creep into the ear hence
it is death to breathe such pestilential
air, and that the best way is to keep the
mouth shut, plug up the nose, and ram
cotton into the ears.


Ever so many learned professional
gentlemen have undertaken to prove
that everybody is either crazy or soon
shall be that the annual increase of
crazy people is ten per cent, conse-
quently in eleven years everybody will
be crazy.


The fact is, that the people who spend
their time in Matching these vagaries,
ought to be put to work and be made to
earn an honest living. This world has
been pretty we'll taken care of for some
thousands of years, increasing in COM
fort, and wealth, and life, the average
length of which last las doubled within
two centuries, and the population in
creased perhaps three-foid and the
presumption is that the great Maker of
all will SO arrange the various antago-
nistic forces of life for the future as
eventually to make the wilderness
and the solitary place to be glad, and
the desert to rejoice and blossom as the
rose" and the race be happy still.
Year: 1873

The great Hoosac tunnel, after twenty
years of labor and the expenditure of
twelve millions of money, is at last
completed, at least sufficiently to let
daylight pierce through the mountain.
1t was, undoubtedly, a source of relief
and special thanksgiving to the people
of Massachusetts, when it was announced
that the last section of stone had been
blown out. While it has been triumph
of enterprise and skill, its history is
marked by many acts of
and ignorance, and the eff
forts of its friends to obtain legislation
developed the most corrupt lobby the
state has ever know. The spade was
Year: 1873

THEN AND Now.-Two years ago
Tweed was the great power of New
York. Hundreds waited in his ante
room. His coupe drawn upon Broad
way, with its satin linings, gold-gilt
harness covered with monograms, its
liveried driver and ieweled whip, at
tracted crowds. The authorities at the
penitentiary were more than rigorous in
their reception of Tweed. The larceny
jacket did not belong to the class of
crime for which Tweed was incarce-
rated. His treatment was not only
humiliating but rather rough. In all
the prison wardrobe there was not
suit that would fit the burly form of
Tweed. The one put on him would not
meet. The sleeves reached little be-
low the elbow, and gentleman who
saw him, the next morning after his iu-
generation, with his head shaved, beard
off, and this child's suit on him, said he
was the most pitiable sight he ever be-
held.
Year: 1873

HARD TIMES IN NEW YoRK.-The
dullness of all departments of trade
shows how intimately society is linked
together. That the stock market and
real estate should be down is natural.
But the grocers, the butchers, the coal
dealers and the bakers say their bust
ness is reduced one-half. The oyster
men tell the same story; so do the bar
bers, the apothecaries and the presidents
of our city railroads. The same is true
of our ferry boats. How all these in
terests can suffer from a panic, when
men must ride and eat, is marvellous.
Men who usually buy six pounds of
meat content themselves with three
instead of a chest of tea a pound is
bought; seven pounds of sugar take
the place of barrel, and the reduction
is almost universal. Last year at this
time. one oyster house sent s., 900 worth
of picked oysters to Chicago a month
a hundred dollars now suffices. Men
walk who formerly rode, and shave
themselves who called in the barber.
Year: 1873

Those only are happy who have their
minds fixed on some object other than
their own happiness-on the happiness
of others, on the improvement of man
kind, even on some art or pursuit, fol-
lowed, not as a means, but as itself an
ideal end. Aiming thus at something
else, they find happiness by the way.
The enjoyments of life are sufficient to
make it pleasant thing, when they are
taken en- PEASANT, without being made
a principal object. Once make them
so, and they are Immediately felt to be
insufficient. They will not bear scru-
tinizing examination. Ask yourself
whether you are happy, and you cease
to be so. The only chance is to treat,
not happiness, but some end external to
it, as the purpose of life. Let your
self-consciousness, your scrutiny, your
self-interrogation, exhaust themselves
on that; and, if otherwise fortunately
circumstanced, you will inhale happi-
ness with the AIR you breathe, without
dwelling on it or thinking about it,
without either forestalling it in imagi-
nation or putting it to fight by fatal
questioning.
Year: 1873

1
Meal-time ought to have been the


pleasantest time in the day at Mrs.


Fraser's. The family gathered around


the finest damask. The china and sill.


yer and cut glass made the table bright,


and the cook understood her business.


But it was not a cheerful time at ALL


Moth,r had formed the habit of taking


that time for doing up the family re-


proving. It SEE med quite handy as the


family were then all together Those


not in fault could get the benefit of the


example made of the delinquents. So


it naturally became a time when each
brought up his charges against the


other. Susy had something to tell of


Mary's bad behavior at school, and Paul


was sure to mention any misdoings of
Tom. It was not hard, in such family,
| for the others to retort and find enough
flaws to pick with sisters and brothers.
There is nothing so contagious as i'll
temper, and so the whole family were
in a well-bred snarl by the time the
carving was done. If they had lived in
cabin they would likely have tried the
arguments in knocks and blows upon
each other. As it was the war was one
of words only. But how demoralizing
the habit on all parties. How destruct
i've of that peace which should reign
around the family board. Was food
eaten in such frame of mind likely to
be well digested and made over into
good, rich blood, that would nourish
all parts of the system?


IF you observe in your family the
least approach to this custom, Danish it
as you would the most unwelcome
guest. It will grow upon you, unless
you resolutely set your face against it.
Study the very best time to administer
reproof, and never let it be at meal-time
or bedtime. Don't have your little |
ones SO accustomed to punishment at
the latter hour, that they shall say like |
a poor little fellow when he began to |
feel drowsy:


81 am so sleepy, mamma. Please
whip me and put me to bed"


What memories of their early home,
think you, do such children bear with
them out into the battle of life? Are
they those that will make their arm
strong in the conflict? Will they be as
a talisman to guard them from the wiles
of the tempter? All, there are no holy
SO childhood's spells surrounding
faultfnding home. The children OF
such mother cannot come up and call
her blessed. They will early leave such
q home and rarely return to it.
Year: 1873

Loss OF TINE.-Tnere are not few
who, without any intentional idlenesS, yet
waste odds and ends of time and with
them lose that sense of its value, on which
all permanent success depends. Any one
who will take the trouble to add together
all the minutes lost in week by waiting
for some expected person or event, by
frivolous aud useless gossip, or by needless
pauSes IN the midst Of labor, will be aston
lshed at the aggregate result, Where
persons who are working on time fall into
such habit, they are rob5ing their en-
ployers as certain as if they took money
from their till. Some commence a days
work few minutes late, leave off little
too soon, and extend the noon recess a
triae. If a friend comes in, they Il de
slst from their work to converse, and in
similar petty ways will really defraud
those who pay them for their full time. 1t
is sad fact, but one we'll established, that
the average of men will do from one fifth
to one thmd more in day, when they are
working for themselves, than when they
are working for another and are paid for
their time. But the truth is, such persons
are defrauding themselves even more than
their employers. They are their own ene-
mics, They are losing their reputation
for punctuality and reliability, and will
thereby lose the confidence of those who
have trusted them, and at length the en-
ployment itself will be withdrawn. But
beyond this, they are losing their own in-
tegrity, their tielity, their virtue, which
thus go from them in driblets, and will
leave them stranded on the shore of dis
honor.
Year: 1873

SHERIDAN's REMINIscENcEs.-D
his stay here General Sheridan was con.
versing with few friends touching hia
military experiences and campaigns, when
he SAID There is mighty sight of ro.
nance and great many Interesting epiSo-
des connected with the war that the his
torlans never got hold of. For instance
there has been great deal said about the
battle Of Winchester, little affair in which
| had hand. Well, it was pretty
square fight, but do you know that battle
was fought on the strength of information
which L obtained from a young lady in
the town OF Winchester, and if the rebels
knew she was giving it to me they would
have hung her in minute. | was very
anxious to get information of the rebel
strength and movements so as to know
just when aud where to strike them, but
1 did not know how to get it. Finally |
heard of a Union lady in Winchester who
could be relied on if [ could get word to
her. Her name was Miss Wright. l
think she is in the treasury department at
Washington now. But the trouble was
to communicate with her. One day |
heard Of an old colored man. living outside
of my lines, who had pass to 60 into
Winchester to sell vegetables. sent
for the old mar, and on talking with him,
found him loya!, as the colored folks were,
you know. Finding he could keep a
secret, asked him If he would undertake
to fnd lady in Winchester. The old
fellow said he would So | wrote letter
on thin tissue paper, and rolled it up in
tlnfoi. 1t made ball about as big as
the end Of ynur thumb, and | told the
old man to put it in his mouth and deliver
it to Miss Wright, in Winchester. He
went off, and in about two days came
back with an answer rolled up in the same
piece of tin foil | found | had struck
mighty good lead, and l followed it
carefully till got all the information


then | got from all other sources,
and | planned the battle of Winchester
almost entirely on what | got from
her. She was nice girl, and true as
steel. ."-Hdian4poiiS Journal
Year: 1873

We often hear people speak of a heroic
action with certain surprise at its per-
formance not altogether complimentary to
the performer. "lle forgets himself"
they say L" he surpassed HIMSELF" he
was carried away by noble impulse" "
This is not true. A man does not forget
himself in emergency; he asserts himself,
rather. That which is deepest and strong
est in him breaks suddenly through the


a moment you know his real value; you
get measure of his real capacity. But
this capacity is not created, as some say,
by the emergency. No man can be car
ried farther by the demands of the moment
than his common aspirations and sober
purpose have prepared him to 60. A
brave man does not rise to the occasion !;
the occasion rises to him. His bravery
was in him beiore-dormant, but alive !;
unknown perhaps to himself: for we are
not apt to appreciate the slow, snre gains
of convictions of duty steadily followed,
of patient continuance in well doing, of
daily victories over self, until a sudden
draft upon us shows what they have
amounted to. We are like water-springs
whose pent up springs rise with opportu-
nifty to the level of the fountain-head and
no higher. A man selfish at heart and in
ordinary behavior, can not be unselhsh
when unseGshness would be rewarded
openly. If he will not be unsel6sh when
he ought, he can not be so when he would


Is it not question practical for every
home What sort of characters are We


parents and children, forming by every day
habits of thought and action? Emergen'
cies are but experimental tests Of oul
strength OF our weakness and We shall


bear them, not according to sudden resolve


but according to the quality of our daily


living. The oak does not encounter NOR


than two or three whirlwinds during it


long life; but it lays up its solid strength
Year: 1873

HE FLOOD rIDE-'' There is tide in the
atfIlrs Of men which. taken at the f)oi,
leads on to fortune Who, looking back
upon his past life, can say, Il did not miss
that tide; [ took it at the food p Who
can say toat he never deferred until that
Tomorrow which never comes, the full
flment OF an important duty?


The necessity of embracing the present
opportunity cannot be better illustrated than
IN the question Of lite insurance, the value
OF which is, that 1t provides at once against
the consequences of ID risk which may occur
az any moment, and which no human power
can avoid.


So innumerable are instances of the dan
ger of delay which come within our obser-
vation and experience, that we are astonlshed
at the want Of promptness shown In dealing
with what is one Of the most important du-
ties in all mems lives. The events of a week,
day, or even an hour, may be such as to
render life Insurance impractcable, setting
aside the always impending possibility of
death itself; and still it is deferred from day
to day, from mouth to month, and perhaps
from year to year, till some mlschance oc-
ours, and then tae most anxious applicants
for insurance fnd that from impaired health
or accidental injury, the Insurance society
will not accept their application, and thus
they have lost the only chance that was left
to them for simple duty to their families.
Anxiety and care, and many useless regrets,
follow this disappointment; and when 1t is
too late these men would gladly make any
personal sacrifice to recall that tide which :,
taken at the food, might have led them on
to fortuue but,


"Oilitted all the voyage of their life


Is bound in shadows and in miseries."
Year: 1873

GETTING OUT OF BED-Dr. Hall does
not approve of the old-fashioned doctrine
which was instilled into the minds of
children, namely, that they should spring
out of bed the instant they awake in the
morning. He says that Sup to eighteen
years every child should be allowed ten
hours to be in bed. They may not require
ten hours sleep, but time should be
allowed to rest in bed until they feel as if
they had rather get up than not. 1t is a
very great and mischievous mistake for
persons, old or young, especially children,
and feeble and sedentary persons, to pounce
out of bed the moment they wake up; all
our instincts shrink from it, and 6ercely
kick against it. Fifteen or twenty minutes
spent in gradually waking up after the
eyes are opened, and in turning over and
stretching the limbs, do as much good as
sound sleep, because these operations set
the blood in motion by degrees, tending to
equalize the circulation for during sleep
the blood tends to stagnation, the heart
beats feebly ard slowly, and to shock the
system by pouncing up in an instant and
sending the blood in overpowering quanti-
ties to the heart, causing it to assume a
gallop, when the instant before it was in a
creep, is the greatest absurdity. This
instantaneous bouncing out, as soon as the
eyes are opened, will be followed by wear
mess long before noon"
Year: 1873

to get their allowance, William g.
stood back. If he chanced to be near at
the time, such look of real pain came
over bis face that every one noticed it.
So, too, when he heard an oath, that same
look came up as naturally as smile on
some mems lips.


He was always prompt and faithful in
even the smallest duties. The command
er said he wished all his crew were like
him, except lis religion. He didn't think
there was much need of that on ship
board.


However, the officer could not help
noticing that look when he swore. A
first it made him angry; but as William
said nothing, he could not we'll quarrel
with a man for LOOK. Then he begin to
feel guilty, and at last left off swearing
solely on account of that look.


Another of the ships crew had felt him
self reproved in the same way, AMI hi
conscience was SO aroused that he also let
off swearing. About the same time b
beg IN to look in his Bible, and to prom S
in his heart that if he ever lived to get o
shore, he would attend church, He ha
not been inside of one for ten years.
Year: 1873

ENJOY lie PREsENT.-lt conduces
much to our content if we pass by those
things which happen to our trouble, and
consider what is pleasing and prosperous,
that by the representation of the better,
the worse Nay be blotted out If [ be
oVerthrown in my suit at law, yet my
house is left me still and my land, or
have yirtuous wife, or hopeful children,
or kind friends, or good hopes If have


lost one child, it may be | have two or
three still left me. Enjoy the present,
whatsoever it may be, aud be not solicit
Gus for the future for if you take your
foot from the present standing, and thrust
it forward to to-morrow's event, you are
in restless condition by fearing you
shall want drink the next day. If to
morrow you shall want, your sorrow would
come time enough, though you do not
hasten it /; let your trouble tarry till its
own day comes Eljoy the blessings of
this day, if God sends them, and the evils
OF it bear patiently and sweetly, for this
day is ours. We are dead to yesterday,
and not yet born to the morrow.-Jeremy
Taylor.