Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1878 — LEGAL. [ARTICLE]

LEGAL.

Declrtioust of the United States Supreme Court. The following Supreme Court decisions are announced: No. 24. Thomas Snell, et al., plaintiffs in error, vs. the Atlantic Fire and Marine Insurance Cfompany, Providence, R. I. Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Northern District of Illinois. Decree of the court below reversed, with costs, and cause remanded, with directions to enter the decree in conformity with the opinion of this court. This action was instituted to reform a certain policy of insurance concerning property of plaintiffs, so as to make it correspond with an agreement entered into previous to the issue of the policy. Plaintiffs allege a misunderstanding as to the interest intended to be insured; that Keith, one of the firm, intended to procure insurance on the whole interest of the firm in the property, and that by the terms of the policy only Keith’s individual interest was covered. The fundamental inquiry is, whether Snell, Taylor & Co. are entitled to have the policy reformed as to cover its interest. The court holds that upon the evidence complainants are entitled to have the policy so reformed as to correspond with the original agreement. No. 1. Washington Ford, plaintiff in error, vs. James Surget. Error to Supreme Court of Mississippi. Judgment affirmed with costs. The question in this case is whether the owner of cotton burned by James Surget under orders from the Southern military authorities can recover from said defendant the value of the cotton so destroyed. After trial before a jury the verdict was returned for defendant. Upon error to the Supreme Court of Mississippi that judgment was affirmed, and from that judgment appeal was taken to the Supreme Court. The court holds that the destruction of the cotton under the orders of the insurrectionary military authorities in order to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Federal army was, under the circumstances, an act gs war, for which the person executing such military orders was relieved from civil responsibility. No. 4. Samuel C. Cooke, plaintiff in error, vs. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In error to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Defendant in the cause refused to pay a tax for which he was liable under the laws of Pennsylvania for selling imported goods at auction in the original packages, and for account of the importers. In the suit in which judgment was rendered against him in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania he defended himself on the ground that the statutes authorizing the tax were void, because forbidden by Secs. 8 and 10, Art. 2, constitution of the United States. The court sustains this view, holding that the State law which imposes the tax is void both as laying a tax on imports and as a regulation of commerce, forbidden by tbe constitution of the United States. The judgment of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is, therefore, reversed, and the case remanded to that court for further proceedings. No. 44. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, plaintiffs in error, vs. Oden Bowie. In error to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. Judgment affirmed with costs by a divided count. This cause presents instructions as to what constitutes the delivery of freight to common carriers, so as to charge the latter with the loss. The particular freight in this instance was two horses, among which was the racing mare Australia, the property of Gov. Bowie, of Maryland, which was injured by being put upon the cars, and for which he recovered below SIO,OOO.

The Mariner’s Cautionary Signal. The cautionary signals for shippingare upon the coast, seaboard, or lake, and in view of the mariner. Each is under the charge of a sergeant and assistant, whose duty may be described as pickets of warning on the fringe of the country. The observations from the observing stations having converged upon Washington, and the general and special predictions arrived at, the announcements radiate from the central office—the brain —along the wires, or nerves, to the remotest digits upon the signal halyards. When, as is sometimes the case, the signal station is placed in the life-sav-ing service station, a farther advantage is gained, as the two work well together, and the life-saving service has the benefit of the wires of the sister enterprise. The cautionary signal of the United States signal service is a square red flag with a black square in the center by day; a red light is used by night. The flags are of two sizes—lsxls feet and Bxß feet, the black square being one-ninth of the area of the flag. The larger flag is used for important stations, about ten in number, and the smaller flag for the other stations. The stations on the Atlantic are from Maine to Texas, and the lakes from Oswego to Duluth. The number of sttftions on the Atlantic proper is twentyfour, counting Key West, and on the Gulf of Mexico, six, omitting Key West, already enumerated. The lakes have fifteen stations. Warning notices are also sent by telegraph to the-Canadian meteorological service when any disturbance occurs which is likely to aftect them, and is distributed to the points interested. The purport of the signal is this : “A wind having a velocity of twenty-five miles an hour may shortly be expected at this place.” That is all that the flag professes to say; the probable excess over twentyfive miles an hour, and the direction of the wind, are not given by the flag. The time may shortly arrive when, by an extension of the system, the additional data, such as “severe storm expected,” may be embodied in the signal; but at present the notice is just what it is called and professes to be-—“cautionary.” It is then the duty of the mariner, shipper, or whoever else is interested, to consult the weather report for farther information, and to make frequent examinations of local barometers and other instruments, and study the local signs of the weather. — E. H. Knight, in Harper’s Magazine for Decern her.

The Homeliest Man. A few years ago there lived in an adjoitAig county a physician who, though not Adonis, was not less respected for his professional attainments than admired for his social qualities. On one occasion, after a consultation in a neighboring county, and while at dinner with his Jipst, he asked hijn if he ever saw his

(the doctor’s) wife, and was answered in the negative. “ Then,” said the doctor, “ will you do me the favor to call on her the first time you go to town ? ” “ Certainly, sir, if you wish it,” said the host in some surprise; “butwhy? ” “Why? ’ repeated the doctor; “ why, because my wife insists that I am the homeliest man in the world, and one look at you will convince her of her mistake.” — Binghamton Republican.

Dissemination of Yellow Fever. How is the disease disseminated ? In two ways: In a given town or city, by a slow and regular progression from house to house; between distant places, by following the lines of travel and commerce. It is carried with especial fre - quency by sailing ships, aud generally makes its first appearance in a previously healthy place near the docks jhid wharves. Whether the part of the town nearest the water happens to be a clean or a dirty quarter, a rich or a poor one, makes no difference. Clean streets do not check the disease, nor does foulness favor its spreading. In 1857 the yellow fever prevailed in that part of New Orleans which was, by official report, “in the best possible sanitary condition,” and in no other, though the rest of the city was and had been for years almost indescribably filthy. The germs of the disease are portable, like freight in bulk, and they will take root in any soil. They lurk in baggage cars, in boxes, and in clothing, in any loosetextured substance that is closely shut up, as even in cargoes of sugar. In porous materials like those-— fomites, as physicians call them—the poison will hide and ripen for some two months’ time, and develop its fullest strength of infection. A parcel sent from New Orleans may start an epidemic of yellow fever in Boston or Quebec. The disease is one of hot climates, and of low alluvial ground by preference, though any kind of soil will do for it, and any elevation above sea-level that is not too groat for the degree of heat required. That degree is a daily average, continued for some weeks together, of from 77 deg. to 80 deg. F. —a temperature which is reached for a month or more together, and exceeded, during our more than torrid summers, in almost any of our town* and cities from Florida to Maine. Yellow fever has prevailed as far north even as Quebec, and may extend as far again in the future. Of the mysterious way in which the disease travels from house to house, a living messenger of death, we know little. Science has not yet been able to seize upon the secret of its cause, which in all cases is probably the same, though some observers think that there are two distinct forms of the disease. Is it in a microscopic plant or insect, too small, however, for detection by the highest magnifying power yet at our command, that its exciting cause consists ? That is probable. It is supposed that these germs enter the blood and destroy it by a process comparable to that which is set up in yeast by fermentation. It lias been suggested, very plausibly, that this living germ can enter the human body only at a peculiar stage of its own growth, and that when it has completed its career by multiplying there, it has no power to leave that body and invade the sanctuary of another life. This theory would account for the non-contagious-ness of the disease.— Dr. T. M. Coan , in Harper's Magazine for December.

Bijali and the Widow. The poor widow with nine small children and a month’s rent due was around to see Bijali. She began : “Mr. Joy, have you a heart?” He offered to make an affidavit that he had. “Then if you have, Mr. Joy,” she continued, wiping her eyes on her apron, “were you ever left a widow with nine small children crying around you for bread and no bread in the house?” Bijali reflected a moment and then concluded that he had never been placed in such a position. “Then you don’t know how awful it is, Mister Joy. I don’t care for myself, but it almost kills me to hear them nine children crying together in chorus for food. I came around to see you and ask you what I’d better do.” "“'“Why, I’d go to work and get up a square meal for them,” was his honest reply. “A square meal out of shavings!” she almost screeched. “I told you I had nothing in the house to eat—-not even an old oyster can!” He looked at her red nose, made a mental calculation as to how much liquor she had swallowed during the last ten years, and then calmly said: “Poor woman, return home and bring me your nine dear children, and I will have oyster soup ready for them, and then take the whole lot to a shoe store.” “I—l couldn’t do it, sir,” she stammered ; “they is all in bed with hard colds.” “Then I will go home with you, poor widow, and the little dears shall be fed and clothed.” “Oh--oh —but you couldn’t, sir—you couldn’t, ’cause my house doesn’t look fit for the likes of you. Hand me sl, sir, and I’ll hurry home to ’em, and fill every blessed darling with soup.” “I will go along and carry the oysters,” said he, as he got up. “Oh, no, sir—it’s too much trouble for you. Just hand me ouj 50 cents, and the angels will bless you forevermore.” “I’ll have to go along and get a $-30 bill changed—come.” She made a rush for the door, knocking the india-rubber cat clear under the table, and, standing under the window, she shook her fist at him and yelled: “I’ll go home and teach them nine dear children to call ye an old baldheaded ward delegate, and don’t ye forget the fact!” “Heart-broken mother distressed widow, return —hold on—come back!” he cried. But she never returned, — Detroit Free Press.

Gold and Silver Production.

The annual report of Dr. Linderman, Director of the Mint, shows the gold and silver production for the year to have beon as follows: Locality. Gold, Silver. California $15,360,676 $ 2,873.389 Nevada 19,543.513 28.180.350 Colorado *. 3,866,404 6,394.940 Montana 2:260,511 1,669.635 Idaho X 150.000 2.200,000 Utah 382.000 5.208.000 Arizona 500,000 3,000.000 New Mexico 175.000 500,000 Oregon 1,000,000 100,000 Washington 300.000 250,000 Dakota 3,000,000 Lake Superior 100,000 North Carolina 150,000 ...... Georgia 100,000 '. Other HOurcOH 25,000 . 25,000 * Total #47,226,107 $40,726,314 The common cat is fed on fish and bred for its fur in Holland,