Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1881 — NEWS OF THE WEEK. [ARTICLE]

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

DOMESTIC INTEIXIGENOE. Kmc. It stormed at intervals last week at New York, and then there was a copious rain, which will probably have the offect of averting the water famine. There is a prospect that the New Yorkers may be enabled to take baths without going to Brooklyn, and that the saloonkeepers can take down the placards advising customers to use water moderately. The extensive brewery of Mayer & Bachman, at Clifton, Staten Island, was destroyed by fire. The loss is estimated at $500,000, and hundreds of employes are idle. The Mechanics’ National Bank of Newark, N. J., for many years regarded one of the most stable financial institutions in the State of New Jersey, suspended payment. Its cashier, Oscar L. Baldwin, was arrested a few hours afterward, and confessed that he was entirely to blame for the suspension; that he had misapplied $2,000,000 of the funds of the bank. Like most men in his position he was “ completely prostrated” by the fact that his rascality was found out His explanation is that in 1873 he began to makedoans to C. Nugent & Co., morocco manufacturers of Newark, asking neither the sanction of the bank Directors nor security from Nugent & Co. Having begun, he says be fult that he was in the power of the firm, and made loans to them whenever they wanted, sometimes loaning them as high as $50,000 a month without any security whatever. The Nugent firm promised that all loans would be made good, that it had plenty of property, and also assured him that there would be no trouble. Baldwin's story will do to investigate. It is evident he has not told the whole truth. He affects great sorrow for his sins, and says he is ready to go to the penitentiary to ekpiate them.

Under the inspiration of Mrs. Ballou, the evangelist, the authorities of North Bennington, Vt., quietly raided seven saloons, spilling all their liquors in the streets. The Bostonians are going into the world’s fair business with earnest energy. A circular is to bo sent out to prominent merchants and manufacturers, and subscription books are to be opened in a few days. At the Home for Aged Women in Boston, Mrs. Emma W. Skelton passed away at nearly 104 years of age. "VV eat. Secretary Windom is said to have proposed to President Garfield at Leng Branch the week before the latter w'as shot, a plan of civil-service reform for the Treasury Department. This plan, which met with the approval of the late President, proposed to allot to each State a number of appointments ; the appointment of a committee of thiee in each State before whom candidates for the places should be examined at least once a year, the examination to be so conducted as to test the experience and capacity of the applicants ; appointments to be made from among those who stood highest on the list, according as vacancies to which the State of the applicants was entitled occurred. It was also contemplated that, other things b( ing equal, soldiers, their widows and children should have a preference. The wreck of the steamer Jennie Gilchrist floated down tbe Mississippi to Buffalo, and lodged against a tree. The corpse of William Wendt, of Cordova, was found in the cabin. The body of Mrs. Mary J. Camp was recovered twelve miles below Davenport. 0. F. Johnson, of Moline, 111., and John McCall, of Le Claire, lowa, are known to have perished making thirteen victims. Tiiree young men in a saloon at St. Louis got into a dispute, when one of them, Henderson, in trying to shoot at his comrades, struck two bystanders, one of whom has since died and the other is in a critical condition. At the residence of Hon. W. H. H. Muir, hear Lawrenceville, 111., Albert Nichols killed John Tenehan, his rival for the hand of a servant girl. The Minnesota House of Representatives passed the Senate bill for the adjustment of tiie old bonded debt by a vote of 77 to 29. Rough estimates of the damage caused by the recent flood along the Mississippi river, between Keokuk, lowa, and Louisiana, Mo., place the total at $2,930,000.

Gov. Cullom lias issued a proclamation prohibiting the importation of cattle into Illinois from ten counties of Pennsylvania, thirteen counties of New Jersey, five counties of Maryland, three of New York, one of Connecticut and one of Delaware, unless accompanied by a certificate of health signed by a duly-authorized veterinary surgeon. Gov. Cullom gives as his leason for the. proclamation his belief that pleitro-pneumonia exists in the districts herein named. Mrs. Garfield has removed to Cleveland, where she will occupy for the winter one of the handsomest residences on Euclid avenue. Her health is excellent. Mrs. Garfield went to Painesville last week and took out letters of administration, the bondsmen being Revenue Collector Streator and Postmaster Sherwin, of Cleveland. The main property is tho house at Washington and the farm at Mentor. The life insurance of $50,090 has been equally divided between the widow and family. Snow fell at various points throughout tbe Northwest on the 3d of November.

POINTS. The President has appointed Clifford Stratham I’o.-tmister at Lynchburg, Ya., in place of Wilson, suspended, in accordance with the programme arranged by the last Senatorial caucus. Congressman J. 0. Burrows, of Michigan, announces himself a candidate for the Speakership, and has already commenced an active canvass. Secretary Blaine is credited with saying that he believes that President Arthur’s Cabinet after the Ist of January will be a Grant Cabinet from top to bottom. He seems to tbiuk that ex-Senator Frelinghuysen will succeed him as Secretary of State, at latest by the Ist of January. Mr. Blaine wiU recommend no more Consular appointments. He will leave that matter to his successor. WASHINGTON NOTES. Gen. Drum, in his annual report to the General of the Army, says the losses of the army during the year were : Deaths, 248 ; discharges, 6,564 ; desertions, 2,361 ; total, 9,173. The number of recruits assigned was 3,895 ; the number of soldiers re-enlisted, 1,964; total, 5,769. This shows an increase of 1,260 discharges, 13 deaths and 318 desertions. The General recommends a change in the method of promotion to the rank of field officers below the rank of Colonel, and this end he thinks can only be attained by promotion in the army instead of by commission in a particular regiment. Lieut. Hoxie, of the Engineer Corps, in a report to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, recommends the reclamation of the Potomac Flats, which would be of great Hvautege from a iwitary point of view. He

also has a scheme for removing all steam tracks from the streets of the capital city and placing them on elevated railroads or under ground. The estimates for expenditures by the United States Postal Department for the current fiscal year are $43,661,300. The estimates of the postal revenue are $42,741,722, thus leaving only a deficiency of $19,578 to be supplied by taxation. An insane man called at the White House to see Dr. John Noethng, who the Holy Spirit, he said, had told him was President of the United States. The guard saw at once that he was a crank, and tried to induce him to leave. He refused, and was then arrested, but not without a fierce struggle, however. A six-shooter was found in his pocket. Following is the regular monthly public-debt statement, issued at Washington on the Ist inst.:

Six per cent bonds, extendeds 161,876,080 Five per cents, extended 401,504,900 Four and one-half per cent, bonds 250,000,000 Four oer cent, bonds 738,749,750 Refunding certificates 598,050 Navy pension fund 14,000,000 Total interest-bearing debt 51,566,728,750 Matured debt 13,746 305 Legal tenderss 846,741,056 Certificates of deposit... 8,310,000 Gold and silver certificates 71,535,590 Fractional currency 7,093,151 Total without interest. 433,679,791 Total debt 52,014,154,853 Total interest 12,340,584 Cash in treasury 240,960,971 Debt less cash in trea5ury51,785,534,466 Decrease during October 13,321,548 Decrease since June 30, 1881 55,064,348 Current liabilities— Interest due and unpaid.s 2,041,671 Debt on which interest has ceased 13,746,303 Interest thereon 833,955 Gold and silver certificates 71,535,570 United Hiates notes held for redemption of certificates of deposit 8,310,000 Cash balance available Nov. 1,*1881.... 144,493,448 Totals 240,960,971 Available assets— Cash in treasurys 240,960,971 Bonds issued to Pacific railway companies, interest payable in lawful money, principal oijtstandings 64,623,512 Interest accrued and not yet paid 1,292,476 Interest paid by United States 71,467,272 Interest repaid by companies— Interest repaid oy transportation of mails 14,662,941 By cash payments of o per cent, of net earnings 655,198 Balance, of interest paid by the United States 86,149,132 Coined during October— Eagles 6-48,506 Half-eagles 755,004 Stacdard silver dollars 2,350,004 Cents 4,t50,00( Col. George Cowie, Chief of the Diplomatic and Consular Division of the Fifth Auditor’s office, has been removed. His resignation was asked for by Fifth Auditor Alexander, who is of the opinion that Cowio improperly recommended the payment of certain consular claims. Cowie refused to resign, and was removed.

It is reported from Washington that Defrees, the Public Printer, is making a vigorous .effort to be retained, but will probably be compelled to give place to 8. P. Rounds, of Chicago. Geh. Joseph K. McCammon, of Philadelphia, has been appointed Auditor of Railroad Accounts, to succeed Theophilus French. It is said that Chauncey I Filley, of St. Louis, will be appointed Postmaster Generamn January, and that the Secretaryship of the Interior lies between cx-Senators Chaffo3 and Sargent. Since the sth of March stai-route reductions amounted to about $1,000,000.

Another “ crank” turned up at Washington, the other day, who claimed that he had been elected Vice President of the United States and that David Davis had usurped the place. President Arthur has called the attention of Acting Secretary of the Treasury French to the loose system of bank examinations. He says the Newark defalcation shows that the Bank Examiners are cither inefficient or tlieir inspection of the banks is merely nominal. This indicates a purpose on tbe part of the President to have the examinations mean something for the future. Dr. Walsh, the editor of a medical journal at Washington, D. C., is out in an editorial in which he maintains that President Garfield’s wound was not necessarily fatal, and in which he disputes many of the statements of Dr. Bliss—among others that the President wished Bliss to have the management of- tho case. Walsh prints a letter from Dr. Lincoln charging Bliss with ignorance of the nature of the wound and unskillful treatment during tho first days after the shooting, and with excluding other physicians through jealousy. Walsh claims that the late President wished Dr. Baxter to take charge of the case, but that Bliss maneuvered to exclude him.

The thieving on Government timbered reservations in the South is to be stopped. An effort will be made at the next session of Congress to secure the admission of Dakota into the Union as a State. The Treasury Department will take steps to ascertain if there is any ground for the boom in Confederate bonds. The annual report of the Pension Bureau shows that on the 30th of June last there were in the United States 268,830 pensioners, being 18,028 more than there were in June, 1880. The total amount paid for pensions during the year was $49,723,147, of which $20,954,180 was paid for accrued pensions covering periods dating back to the date of the discharge of the soldier who collected, or his widow or children.

United States Treasurer Gilfillan’s report for the fiscal year ending June 30 of this ■year shows an increase in receipts over those of the previous year from every source. In customs, an increase of $11,637,611; internal revenue, $11,255,011 ; sales of public lands, $1,185,356; miscellaneous sources, $3,177,702. The total increase was $27,255,681. During the year there was a reduction in expenditures of $6,930,070, thus making an increase in the surplus revenue of $34,185,751. The net revenues for the last year were $360,782,292, and the net expenditures $260,712,887. Of the excess $90,872,261 was expended in the reduction of the public debt

FOREIGN NEWS. The steamer Calcutta, from Melbourne for Sydney, foundered at sea during a gale. All on board, twenty-two persons, perished. The British ship Omba, from Batavia for Melbourne, foundered in the same gale. All hands were lost. President Grevy has offered M. Gambetta a Cabinet position and the latter has accepted. It is expected, that he will choose the office of President of the Council, and that Leon Say will be Minister of Finance, De Freycinet Minister of War, and Jules Ferry Minister of Public Instruction. Manila, the capital of the Philippine islands, suffered a loss of $1,000,000 by a conflagration last month. Archbishop McCabe, in a pastoral just issued, decides that the Parnell “no-rent” order is Communism, and opposed to the laws of God, the teachings of the church, and of common honesty. Surcog & Debbas, a Paris firm dealing largely in Egyptian securities, have failed for 5,000,000 francs. On account of a serious disturbance at Belmullet, Ireland, a military force has been forwarded, and the work-house has been converted into barracks. The first decision under the Land act was given at Monaghan, where the Commissioners reduced the rent by 50 shillings for the next fifteen years. Sexton has been released from prison on account of illhealth. The Government has traced out the man who conveyed Parnell’s manifesto from Kilmainham jail. The Freeman's Journal, which has all along favored the Land Court, predicts that it will fail, because of the overwhelming mass of business. The City Council of Waterford has conferred the freedom of that place on John Dillon. The editor of a French paper published at Cairo stated in his journal that Mohommed was a false prophet. His paper has been suppressed. The Sheik decreed that he should die, but he sought the protection of the French Consul, who sent him to France to avoid the threatened doom. The Austrian Government has appointed Herr J. von Schoeffer Minister to Washington. In the municipal elections held ! hroughout England the Tories made large ■.rains, owing to Irish voters supporting the Tory candidates, or refusing to support the Liberals.

Fresh reports of threatening letters Ind Nihilistic proclamations come from St Petersburg. It is said that the police burst open the door of a residence, and seized a man and woman engaged in preparing explosives. The Pall Mall Gazette emphatically lonics that there is any money in the Bank of Rugland to the credit of the late Confederate States of America available for the payment of Confederate bonds. The Gazette doubts if i here is a penny in any British bank available ?or such a purpose. It also says that the recent speculation in Confederate bonds is without substantial foundation. The first complete railway train passed through the St. Gothard tufinel in fifty minutes. The Nihilists threaten to prevent the coronation of the Czar unless he grants speciied concessions. The Ladies’ Land League met in Dublin without interference, and formed themselves into a political prisoners’ aid society. A daughter of the late John Stuart Mill, in addressing the Ladies’ Land League in Dublin, expressed the opinion that only in Turkey could such atrocities be possible as are now being committed in Ireland.

A farmer in Galway was shot dead while entering his house. Two men have been arrested. It is supposed the man was murdered because he paid his rent. He had been “boycotted” for this offense some time ago. The London Daily News claims that the Confederate liabilities long ago absorbed what money they had in the Bank of England, and hoped there would be no more agitation on the subject. Tne principal journals of London continue to demonstrate the impossibility of any return from Confederate bonds, and the price has fallen materially within a few days.