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Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
John Chinaman in New York
John Chinaman in New York - The New York Tribune describes the haunts of the Chinese in that city as follows:
In the Sixth Ward is a small district where most of the Chinese in New York live. A visitor to their opium smoking dens may go to Baxter Street, just below Franklin, where was formerly Donovan’s lane, the resort of the most desperate villains in the city, but which is now a Y-shaped court shut in on all sides by high tenement houses.
On the ground floor of one of these buildings is the establishment of "Old John", a Chinaman 74 years old, who has been in the United States 47 years, and was the first of his race to become naturalized. His quarters comprise three rooms. By the door is seated his assistant, who gives out the drug. Upon one side of the room is a low platform or dais; sometimes there are two, one above the other, like births upon which men are to be seen reclining in the different stages of opium intoxication. [How interesting - guess that’s where the word ’berths’ comes from].
The pipes consist of a bamboo stem and a porcelain bowl about 2 inches in diameter, in the centre [sic] of which is a small receptacle for the opium. A small piece of the drug is taken up on an iron rod and heated until it is dried to a proper consistency. Then it is inserted into the pipe, and the smoker slowly draws the smoke through, soon filling the whole room with a peculiar smell.
The proprietor furnishes his customers with pipes and a place to lie down. The drug is weighed out upon a rude pair of reed scales. The weight used is a silver coin. Each smoker is provided with a small horn box, which will contain about 15 cents’ worth of opium, enough to last an average smoker all night. The preparation is undoubtedly adulterated, since it costs the druggist $23.50 a pound.
A few doors below, on the same side, is another place where smoking is carried on, which does not differ materailly from Old John’s. There is, however, a temple connected with it. On the wall is hung a gayly [sic] painted picture of some Chinese god, at whose shoulder, on one side, man’s good angel is represented, and on the other, his evil angel.
The faces are very grotesque, and resemble those painted upon tea chests. Hanging upon the picture are numerous tinsel and paper flowers, with faces painted upon the petals, and a little below the picture is a shrine upon which stand two candles, to be lighted only upon festival occasions.
In the middle is a dish containing sand, in which are the burned fragments of several joss sticks. The pious Celestial lights one of these, and placing it in the sand on the altar prays to his deity. From the ceiling hangs two Chinese lanterns, and there is also a glass vessel containing some kind of vegetable oil in which floats a burning wick.
A cup of the same oil is placed in the shrine for the especial use of the god. Upon the wall are hung bulletin boards where the news which agitates the Chinese world is pasted. A curious scroll, resembling the red cover on a pack of fire crackers, attracts attention and proves to be a directory of business of the principal Chinese merchants in San Francisco.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Bummers in San Francisco
Bummers in San Francisco ... San Francisco has a ...full ... of bummers. Nowhere else can a worthless fellow too lazy to work, too cowardly to steal, get on so well. The climate befriends him, for he can sleep out of doors 4/5 of the year, and the free lunch opens to him boundless vistas of carnal delights. He can gorge himself daily, for a nominal sum get a dinner that a king would envy for 50 cents.
There are two classes of saloons where the midday repasts are furnished - two-bit places and one-bit places. In the first he gets a drink and a meal. In the second he gets a drink and a meal of inferior quality. He pays for the drink, 25 or 15 cents, according to the grade of the place, and gets his meal for nothing.
This consists of,in the better class of establishment, soup, boiled salmon, roast beef of the best quality, bread and butter, potatoes, tomatoes, crackers, and cheese.
Many of these places are fitted up in a style of Oriental grandeur. A stragner entering one of them casually might be under the delusion that he had found his way by mistake to the salon of a San Francisco millionaire.
He would find mirrors reaching from floor to ceiling, carpets of the finest texture and most appropriate patterns, massive tables covered with papers and periodicals, the walls embellished with expensive paintings. A large picture which had adorned a famous drink bar and free lunch house was sold the other day for $12,500. Some of the keepers are men of education and culture. One is an art critic of high local repute, who has written ...very readable...San Francisco. Scribner’s.
[After struggling to read this, I found it to be an excerpt of Scribner’s Monthly, July 1875, "The city of the Golden Gate", by Samuel Williams, p. 274].
Metcalf & Luther - [Illustration of an eye, with an imp leaning on top of it with a bandage covering one eye, between the letters O and C]. O C $50,000.00 worth of house furnishing goods to be sold this Fall, regardless of cost! ...
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Dissolution
Dissolution - The firm heretofore existing under the name of King & Hubbard, is this day dissolved by mutual consent. All persons indebted to said firm for more than 30 days are requested to make immediate settlement and save costs. Millers Falls.
Silver plated solid steel knives - a full assortment of these knives which every family is now using in preference to all others, just received and selling low. A good thing for $3 per dozen. C.P. Forbes. Greenfield.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
August Flower
August Flower - The most miserable beings in the world are those suffering from dyspepsia and liver complaint. More than 75% of the people in the United States are afflicted with these two diseases and their effects, such as Sour Stomach, Sick Headache, Habitual Costiveness, Palpitation of the Heart, Heart-burn, Water-brash, gnawing and burning pains at the pit of the Stomach, Yellow Skin, Coated Tongue, and disagreeable taste in the mouth, coming up of food after eating, low spirits, etc.
Go to the Drug Store of Childs & Payne, Greenfield, and W.B. Andrews, Orange, and get a 75 cent bottle, or a sample bottle for 10 cents. Try it. Two doses will relieve you.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Heath
Heath - Messrs.Editors: The death of our most aged mother and much beloved neighbor and friend, Mrs. Martha Spooner, widow of the late Philip Spooner, who died at her home in Heath with her son Deacon N.W. Spooner Aug. 21, aged 96 years, she being the oldest person in town - is deemed worthy of something more than a passing notice.
For more than 60 years the deceased was a resident of this town. Left in early life with a large family of children, almost entirely dependent on her labor for support, she neverthless maintained them in comfort and respectability, early training them to habitual industry, temperance and frugality, teaching them to reverence the Sabbath and be guided by the principles and precepts of God's word...
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Wendell
Wendell - There are growing signs of an upward tendency, all things included. A new hearse house has just been completed, and a new hearse is, we are assured, under way, and it is time, for the old one had become so frightful that no one would consent to be put into it on any condition.
The remark has often been made that there has been a decided improvement within the last few years in the expectation of men regarding the near future of these old hills, and in the actual effort that is being made to restore the place to its former relations, so far as that may be done. Although our population is the lowest that it has reached for 6 decades, yet there is a future for these hills and valleys that but few dream of at the present day of trial and tramps.
In the mercantile line a new change has occurred. J.N. Beach, successor of Danforth Putnam and the company he represented, as the legitimate successors of O.H.H. Powers, himself the successor of Messrs. Oatman & Fisk, who succeeded Mr. Creagh after the fire, who came in after M.M. Stebbins made the mistake in leaving the place and O. Leach, his immediate successor in quitting the business when it was prospering in his hands.
There is no trouble in trade here except the scarcity of paying, ready paying customers, and this seems to be the general complaint all around. There is one item in this matter which the welfare of the place requires to be stated. It is this: Orange and elsewhere have completely succeeded in deluding a large class of the people with the notion that they are, in coming to them with their trade, doing first rate when they just fleece them, with the expectation that they are getting things cheap.
But there is the other side to this matter. Where did the money come from to build up those fine blocks and shops and sich [sic]? Now quite a large slice of it came off from these hills. But Orange and elsewhere don’t pay any taxes to keep things up here moving; don’t build up anything here and don’t propose to do it.
What these greedy places evidently want is to have us get what we can and run down and bring it to them at the price they think best to give, and take their truck and dicker at their own price.Don’t suppose they feel any pangs of guilt in the matter; but this past and present state of things up here shows that there is a screw loose somewhere.But things will change sometime, if not sooner, when the valleys will be obliged to conform to the old hills, or go without potatoes.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Orange
Orange - Prescott Foskett, a respected citizen and well-to-do farmer, committed suicide by hanging himself at Orange, Sat. afternoon the 11th. He visited his son's wife, and deposited his spectacles, money, and a few mementos, stating that he was going to put himself out of the way. Upon being asked what was the trouble, he said he had seen trouble enough.
His son was immediately informed of his father's intentions, and a search was commenced for him, but after an hour proved unsuccessful; then an alarm was given, and business about the place was generally suspended. After another hour search, the body of Mr. Foskett was found suspended to a tree, about a half a mile from his son's house. The act occasions intense excitement in the vicinity. Domestic troubles are said to have led to the act. He was about 68 years old.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Probate court record
Northfield - Wills proved - Hezekiah Mattoon, Northfield, S.W. Dutton, Northfield, ex'r. Account filed - in estate of Joel Fay, N. Inventories filed - in estate of Samuel Alexander, N., $8351; Avery Clapp, Montague, $1869; Sarah M. Hawks, Deerfield, $489. [?] of notice - in estate of Jeremiah Dow, Erving; Alban Hill,Shutesbury. Next Probate Court at Greenfield.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Greenfield items
Rev. Mr. Warfield of Greenfield, who was instrumental in getting up the protest of the Franklin County clergymen against Mr. Beecher's preaching at Lake Pleasant, and who bore the protest to Mr. Beecher at the Twin Mountain House, is man enough to publish a letter in the Greenfield Gazette, vindicating the motives of Mr.Beecher in making his engagement, and rebuking that paper for its unjust and uncharitable statement -- Springfield Union.
We deny that our statement was uncharitable to Mr.Beecher, or intentionally unjust. Mr.Warfield and every clergyman who signed the protest presented by Mr. Warfield to Mr. Beecher, and a large majority of the people of this vicinity, approved of our article and were glad to see it. It was the first thing that opened Mr. Beecher's eyes to the nature of his engagement.
The only thing stated, not strictly correct, was that Mr. Beecher was to receive compensation for his services. Whether people go back on us or not, the Gazette & Courier will not hesitate at all times to advocate an observance of the Sabbath and good morals for the community in which it circulates.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Greenfield items
Greenfield - A number of our citizens, principally ladies, were taken in some weeks ago by a fellow pretending to be getting subscribers for a periodical called "Cottage Hearth".They paid their money, and when, after waiting a reasonable time the periodical did not make its appearance, they wrote to the publisher. They were told that no such agent had been engaged and they had been swindled. Moral: don't trust book agents, etc. with your money until you get the equivalent, and still better, don't have anything to do with them.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Greenfield items
Greenfield - Among the creditors of B.P. Murphy, a Chicago pork packer,whose total liabilities are $300,000, is the Franklin County National Bank of this town, which institution is owed $5000, and the Crocker National of Turners Falls is in for a like amount.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Greenfield items
Greenfield - The Greenfield Savings Bank does not acknowledge that the note passed by George W. Bardwell for $467 was an altered or forged note, and if not paid will take legal steps to collect the full amount of the note.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Greenfield items
Greenfield - J.C. Chase of Whitingham, Vt., who stopped Wed. night at the Mansion House, found, on reaching Coleraine the next day, that his pocket book containing $50 was missing.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Conway
Conway - Joseph Bennett and his brother-in-law, John Madison, we understand, have been purchasing of late some 30 acres of additional meadow land of a Mr. Hayes. Their fine, extra tobacco, of about 5 acres in all, is safely on the poles.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Conway
Conway - Mrs. Swan, wife of the cashier of the Conway Bank, with her little daughter, are away with friends in Connecticut. We wish them a pleasant time.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Conway
Conway - A birth "mark" on a child's face of this town was successfully removed without a physician's aid, by simply pricking it repeatedly, letting out the blood that had gathered and centered in that part. It was nearly as large as a silver dollar. Sufficient time has not elapsed to prove the cure sure and permanent.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
The Caledonians at Lake Pleasant
There was not the anticipated crowd at the Tournament of the Springfield Caledonian Society at Lake Pleasant on Wed. Special trains were run up from the South and from the east on the Fitchburg road, but many of the cars were nearly empty. The lake has had its attractions for the season, and people are now holding on to the spare coppers for the needs of approaching winter.
But few of the Caledonians were in full costume, yet the advertised programme was carried out, and the day’s sports were by no means a fizzle. The Fitchburg Band and Russell’s orchestra furnished the music, and the following were the successful winners in the principle athletic feats:
In the three-legged race, in which the competitors race in pairs with a leg of each tied to that of his comrade, Richard Harvey of Easthampton and Paul Fitzgerald of Shelburne Falls took the first prize of $6, and Hutchins and Wilson took the second of $3.
In the Hop, Skip and Jump contest, Thomas O’Donald of Northampton proved the best man, clearing 38 feet, and took the first prize of $5; and P. Sullivan of Ftichburg, who cleared 37 1/2 ft. took the 2nd prize of $2."Putting heavy stone" was a trial of strength of throwing a 16 lb. iron ball; John Purcell of Florence threw it 41 1/2 ft.and won the 1st prize of $6; Patrick Purcell of Florence, who threw it 31 ft. 4 inches, had the 2nd prize of $3.
Dancing the Highland Fling in costume was an interesting feature,George Bothwick of Boston taking the 1st prize of $6, and W.G.Smith of Boston the 2nd of $3. Tossing the caber ( a 12 ft. stick of lumber) was won by John Purcell who threw it 30 ft. 1 inch, receiving $5, and E.R. McCormick of Florence came next, and received $3.
In vaulting with a pole, Richard Harvey cleared a perpendicular jump of 8 ft. 7 inches and took the 1st prize of $5, and P. Purcell took the 2nd of $3. In the mile foot race, P. Sullivan of Fitchburg made the best time and took the 1st prize of $10, and E. Wilson was 2nd, and took the prize of $5.
There was a hurdle race, which was quite an exciting affair; R. Harvey took the 1st money, $6, and __ Hitchcock, the 2nd, $3. There were 4 contestants in the swimming match. The course was from the gent’s bath house to the landing. F.M.Sweeney of Worcester took the 1st prize of $15, and G.H. Crocker of Fitchburg the 2nd, of $10.
The single scull race was the great event of the day. There were 4 entries, and the course was the length of the lake and back. It was a close and exciting contest. John E. Brown of Worcester won the race and the 1st money, $40; Daniel McSweeney of Fitchburg came in 2nd, for $30; Jerry Callahan of Springfield came in 3rd and received $15.
Some boys caused no little sport in the tub race, where they were frequently capsized. The games were continued until the departure of the trains at night.
- Wed, Feb 24, 2010
