Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 October 1883 — A Niee Boy. [ARTICLE]

A Niee Boy.

The assessed value of Texas has in* creased more than $100,000,000 within the past two years. The products of the State this year are valued at $119,900,206, against $85,000,000 in 1882. Gen. Crook is now living at Fori Whipple, near Prescott, AT. His home is a pleasant, roomy house of two stories, surrounded by piazzas, and commanding a fine view of hill and. valley. The Indians of the section call him “The Gray Fox.” A Georgia, man, after nearly jerking his leg off trying to get his foot out of a “frog” on- a railway track before an approaching train should reach him, finally had to unlace his shoe, pull his foot out and leave the shoe to be run ever. Just os he got his foot ont safely the train went by on another track, and he used his shoe to kick himself with for not seeing that he was on a sidetrack all the time. The new English Illustrated Magazine is not only going to give Harper and Scribner a tqpsle in the old country, but will beard them in their native den. It will be published in England for 12 cents and in America for 15 cents. Harper's sells for 18 cents in England and Scribner for 24 cents. All magazines there sell by retail for 25 per cent, less than the published price. A thoroughly-good illustrated magazine for 15 cents will be a novelty in this country. There are about thirty blind newsdealers in New York city. Most of them own their own stands and are’doing a good business. Some of them, are so active and dexterous that many of their customers do not suspect that they are blind. It is said that nearly all of them are experts in detecting false coin, and, what is more wonderful, can determine almost instantly the value of most foreign silver coins presented to them by customers in payment for newspapers. An improved ice-freezing apparatus is the subject of an invention for which * patent was recently granted to Mr. John Bowes, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The invention consists of an apparatus for freezing water by natural cold, the water being fed into shallow pans for that purpose. Steam-pipes are provided for thawing the frozen blocks free from the bottom and sides of the pans, after which the pans are tied up and the blocks of ice are discharged into the ice-house by gravity. A remarkable feat was recently accomplished by John Macdonald, of Dundee, Scotland. His brother Archibald was passing through a field when he was attacked by a bull, and, being a cripple, attempted to defend himself with his crutch. John ran to his rescue, and, having no weapon, caught the beast by the horns, and with one supreme effort gave a sudden twist to the head, dislocating the neck by the the jerk, and killing tfie bull. Mr. Macdonald was at one time champion athlete of Scotland. Sitting Bull is in poor health. He says: “I have been offered much money to travel and to be present at the Cincinnati Exposition, but I never traveled on the cars, and I fear that to do so would make me sick. I now have a lung disease, and fear that in a short while I must go to my fathers; therefors the little time that is spared me I want to spend with my children, whose sight delights me. I have ten children and many relatives, who want me to stay with them. I also fear if I trusted myself from home that the whites would starve me. or that I would die before returning. ” Youthful crime is not winked at in New Jersey by the stern representatives of law a'hd justice. At Paterson, the other day, a 7-year-old boy, while engaged in eating some cake, was approacued by Master Leonard Folden, a 4-year-old sinner in petticoats, who demanded a piece of the toothsome viand. The demand being refused, the hardened youth in kilts whacked the 7-year-eld over flhe head with a stick. He was promptly arrested and taken before a magistrate on a oharge of assault. On account of the tender years of the prisoner, the Justice did not impose the full penalty of the law, but reprimanded him and bound him over to keep the peaee. Next time* that boy may be depended upon to take the cake. A neat little story is going the rounds of the English press about Premier Gladstone’s experience with a wide-awake detective who was detailed to guard him during his stay at Hawnrden Oasfcle. The cattle police force had for some reason been reduced before the Premier arrived there, and the Scotland Yard authorities hearing tikis sent one of their most experienced detectives there, where be

took up private quarters. Shortly after midnight of the first day of his arrival he heard soft footsteps in front of the castle, and, after listening some time satisfied himself that it was an intruder. Having prepared himself for a fierce straggle with a conspirator or a dynamite plotter or something of that sort, the gallant Vidocq rushed out on his unsuspecting prey, but was surprised to find that no resistance at all was offered him. He was more surprised, however, when, holding his lantern to the face of the midnight prowler, he discovered that he had pounced upon the Premier himself, who was just on the point of calling for help. The detective has been recalled to Scotland Yard. Charles O’Conor is said to have recently endured half an hour or so of undiscriminating praise of John Howard Payne. The dreary dissertation led up to a particularly, painful recitation of “Home, Sweet Home,” with interjected comments and ejaculations of praise. “Don’t you think that is a masterpiece ?” the elocutionist inquired quite rapturously. “I do not,” was the blunt reply; “it is doggerel, and you would know it if you had any judgment at all abou-t poetry. ” There is nothing more nonsensical in the whole history of literature, the venerable lawyer is represented as saying, than the fame given to Pavne for those rhymes. “There isn’t a thought in them worth preserving beyond the old and worldwide one of the sweetness of home. There isn’t any excellence of language or structure. The piece as a whole is on a par with the sentimental songs oi the negro minstrels. The tune is all that has kept the words from oblivion, and that was an old Sicilian air, stolen by Payne. Unrewarded genius? Payne hadn’t any; and if he was able to make a fair living, as he did, out of his common place writings, he got all the reward that he deserved.” If the number of deaths caused by recent earthquake and volcanic eruptions in Java should prove as great aa it is stated—a hundred thousand or thereabouts—it is doubtful if history reoords any equally-calamitous oonvul' sion of nature. The earthquake of Lisbon, en Nov. 1, 1755, caused tbe death of 80,000 persons; and the great earthquake which occurred in Sicily in 1693, killed just double that number. Another formidable earthquake was that of Riobamba, in 1797, which swallowed up fully 40,000 human beings; and the mortality resulting from the two shooks in Calabria, in 1873, was exceedingly great, though there seems some doubt about the exact ’figures. The most formidable volcanic eruption mentioned in history is beyond all doubt the great eruption of Vesuvius, described by Pliny, which buried Herculaneum and Pompeii under the layers of ashes and lava which covered them for centuries. The fact that the volcano and the earthquake combined their forces to heap ruin upon the unfortunate people of Java explains the exceptional mortality caused by the recent terrible visitation, which in destructive force and intensity may be compared to the violent cataclysms that so often labored the surface of this planet in prehistoric times.

“Nice child, very nice child,” observed an old gentleman, crossing the aisle and addressing the mother of the boy who had just hit him in the eye with a wad of paper. “How old are you, my son ?” “None of your business,” replied the youngster, taking aim at another passenger. “Fine boy,” smiled the old man, as the parent regarded her offspring with pride. “A remarkably fine boy. What is your name, my son?” “Puddin’ Tame!” shouted the youngster, with a giggle at his own wit. “I thought so,” continued the old man, pleasantly. “If*you had given me three guesses at it, that would have beeu the first one I would have struck on. Now, Puddin’, you can blow those things pretty straight, can’t you?” “You bet!” squealed the boy, dfelighted at the compliment. “See me take that old fellow over there!" “No, no!” exclaimed the old gentleman, hastily. “Try it on the old woman I was sitting with. She has boys of her own and she won’t mind. ” “Can’t you hit the lady for the gentleman, Johnny?” asked the fond parent. Johnny drew a bead and landed the pellet on the end of the old woman’s nose. But she did mind it, and raising in her wrath soared down on the small boy like a blizzard. She put him over the line, reversed him, ran him backward, till he didn’t know which end of him was front, and finally dropped him inte the lap of the scared mother, with a benediction whereof the purport was that she’d be back in a moment and skin him alive. “She didn’t seem to like it, Puddin’,” smiled the old gentleman, softly. “She’s a perfect stranger to me; but I understand she is the matron of h Truant’s Home, and J thought she would like a little fun, but I was mistaken.” And the old man sighed sweetly as he went back to his seat. He was sorry for the poor little boy, but he couldn’t help it.— Drake's Magazine. » Capt. Richard King, the cattle king, pays taxes on property in Neuces county, Texas, valued at a million dollars.