Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1877 — FRESH PARAGRAPHS. [ARTICLE]

FRESH PARAGRAPHS.

The Queen of Madagascar, Africa, has issued a decree emancipating' all the slaves on the island, and giving them the use of public lands in order to enable them to take care of themselves. The long-current story that President Grant offered the Chief Justiceship to Senator Howe, of Wisconsin, is confirmed by the ex-President, the only reason for his non-acceptance being that the then-Democratic Legislature would choofce a Democrat to succeed him. The London Times has a long article correcting the impression that Russia is on the verge of bankruptcy. The writer claims that the debt of Russia is in no way unmang cable, and that her resources are such as will enable her to carry on a second and third campaign without exhaustion. A correspondent of the Louisville Courier-Journal writes to that paper to say that R. Clay Crawford cannot be Osman Pasha, because Crawford was mortally wounded while leading a Cuban attack on the Spaniards in Cuba, and died on the field. And then he thinks Crawford was not of the sort of which great soldiers are made. The Cuba business gets on in neither direction. More troops from Spain, another change in the Captain Generalship, Jovellar going home in September, and the revolutionists as troublesome as ever. It does seem as if it was about time for Spain to do one thing or the other, crush the rebellion, compromise with it, or abandon the island. R. J. Gatling writes to the New York Evening Post that recent improvements in his gun have brought it to such a stage of perfection that it can fire 1,000 shots per minute, and one man can feed and fixe 600 shots per minute. In an official trial 64,000 rounds were fired from a single gun in rapid succession, and without stopping to clean the barrels. It has been decided by the Washington authorities to invite Sitting Bull to return, give up his arms and horses, and go upon a reservation, where he will be supported by the United States. Should he decline this liberal offer, it is proposed, if possible, to enter into an agreement with the Canadian Government whereby the intractable savage may be turned over, with his gun, tomahawk, scalp-locks and all his other paraphernalia to his Cousin John. The death of Thiers has caused extraordinary excitement, not only in France, but throughout Europe. A cable dispatch says that Berlin newspapers are unanimous in their eulogies, and they merely give expression to the conviction of universal Germany that he was one of the main guarantees of European peace. It is well known that Bismarck distrusts the Bonapartist and Orleanist parties, fearing the military passions of the former and the clerical inclinations of the latter, but he has little confidence in the Republican party, now that the moderating influence of Thiers is removed.