Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1883 — Chinese Finger Nails. [ARTICLE]

Chinese Finger Nails.

In North Branch, Snjlivan county, N. Y., everything was ready for the wedding but the bride backed out. Thereupon the groom went off and got drunk. A few days later the girl made up her mind she would go to the altar, but then the groom refused. Then she went on a drunk. The Secretary of a London bank recently got away with £IOO,OOO of the funds of the institution, and the Directors, in a circular to the shareholders, say: “The Board can only regret that just at the close of what would otherwise have been a prosperous year this incident should so sadly prejudice the result.” William Andrews, an old farmer living in the suburbs of Saco, Me., has in his cellar nearly fifty barrels of wine. He will not drink it, sell it, give it awuy, or throw it away. As he made it all himself, its sale would not' only conflict with the State laws, but with national ones, and the propeity keeps improving in quality every year, to the . exasperation of Mr. Andrews’ fellowcitizens. Some of it is already more than twenty years old. New York and Brooklyn boys, armed with brickbats and hickory broomlmndles, are to be seen dodging about the alleys. They are cat and kitten catchers, and they sell the pelts and heads to furriers and milliners. The prices paid for skins from first hands are 3 cents for common yellow and black cats, 4 cents for large kittens of the same variety, and from 5 to 7 cents for Maltese. Nights and Sundays, experts say, are the best times to go out catting. A court-martial has just convicted an army officer of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentlemen, and sentenced him to be dismissed for marrying a woman with whom he had been living without marriage. Up to that point his conduct as an officer and a gentleman seems to have been fully up o the standard army morality; but an attempt to repair a wrong and to live decently is intolerable. The courtmartials say, with Hamlet: “We will have no more marriages. Those that are married already shall live. The rest shall keep as they are.”

George Q. Gannon told to a reporter in Wa hington that he feared the Mormons “would be compelled to give up polygamy.” This remark Vas intended exclusively for the ears of the Eastern people. Cannon preaches an entirely different doctrine in Utah, and most of his addresses there are urgent appeals to the members of the church to take more wives so that they can have “a higher place in glory.” % Mr. Cannon also denies that he is a candidate for the office of President of the church. Everybody who knows anything about Mormon affairs now is aware that Gannon is the actual de facto head of the churcli to-day, and that Taylor Is only an automaton in his hands. Dr. Charles C. Beatit, of Steubenville, Ohio, had a peculiar method of disposing of his wealth. At first he prayerfully set apart one-tentfi of his income for the cause of Christianity; but when the financial revulsion of 1837 wrought widespread distress he resolved that one-fourtli should go to religion and charity. After this, in.view of the fact that, as die says in the written pledge found since his recent death the Lord had blessed him pecuniarily “beyond what he had ever expected or desired.” he made a covenant never to allow the principal of his fortune to exceed $70,000, and that all above this should be given away. Accordingly, the value of his estate i 8 $65,000, and the aggregate gifts amounted to SSOO, DOO. The Chronicle, of San Francisco, finds fault with the recent local census returns for that city, and says that the population is nearer to 300,000 than 250,000. It basos its calculation on the,, fact that the returns show that the average number of inhabitants to each dwelling is 6.86. It is preposterous, it says, that San Francises with 30,000 Chinese huddled together by hundreds, a city filled with large hotels and board-ing-houses, land Where few large dwellings? jge occupfd by a single famijy, sliotlPPOTily huge an average of 6.8$ persons to a dialling, while pities like Brooklyn and Chicinpfvti are Represented to have .respd*i»ly Ot'fl persons to me ' dwelling. San Fraucisco. shSWIld tr 9t. Louis plan Let it take A “fee” the directorv<aa** 'Senator Logan says of his recent interview with fitting Bull and hi 3 fel-low-Indians: “Why, I saw the whiskers of one ®f our massacred soldiers which had been cut, flesh and all, from us face, dangling to the pipe of one of

those Indians, and this pipe was passed around as the pipe of peace. I say tc| you that I don’t want to talk about any policy which —but I won’t say it.” Many thousands of people are like Gen. Logan. When, for instance, they, see such a Chief as Benita, who killed Judge McComas, outraged and murdered his wife, killed their daughter and probably killed their son, strutting up and down on a Government reservation big as a bird, fed by the Government, protected by the Government and armed by the Government, they are not disposed to accept the branbread view of the Indian question. Tom Thumb’s little widow was exhibiting recently in Cincinnati. She was interviewed and said: “I was so lonely at home I could not remain there. The General and I lived, together twenty years, and in that time were constantly together. He never left me except for a few minutes at a time. With ns it was not like it is with most married people, where they are often separated for long periods, and thus become in a measure accustomed to being alone. I could not be alone, and, as I feel more at home when I am before the public, I thought it would be better for me to appear in public again. Some people think it is strange that I appear again, and especially upon the stage, but they do not understand how it is with one who has been before the public as long as I have. To remain at home after such an active life, and especially without the General, was too much forme.”

The Chicago Daily News says: Just why the author of the story called the “Bread-Winners” should want to maintain his incognito is not plain, but this is a fancy which quite often takes possession of storv-writers. In this case, however, the effort at secrecy is very ineffective, it being about as clear that John Hay is the author as if his name were attached to every chapter. Mr. Hay was the private secretary of President Lincoln, and gained a certain insight into social life which is of service to him in this work. Later he married the daughter of a great iron manufacturer in Cleveland, and through this connection has become very familiar with the details of the iron trade and the lives of iron-workers, which he uses to marked advantage in his story. Always more or less interested in politics and thrown in the company of public men, here and there, his pictures of the local politician are strong, if exaggerated, he makes this knowledge count with the rest. New York Herald: The great tidal-wave caused by the Java earthquake was propagated to the Pacific coast of South America. At Talcabuano, Chili, the ocean rose, Aug. 28,(tw0 feet above high-water mark, and the day after earthquakes were felt in San Salvador, Colombia and Ecuador. Alarming detonations about the same time were heard in all the towns of the Bogota plateau, while at Manabi, Ecuador, troops were turned out to meet the supposed enemy. This record will enable seismologists to ascertain the extent of the disturbance caused by the Java earthquake. Almost simultaneously with the Andean earthshocks and the Chilian tidal-wave the ocean rose on the California coast, as reported by Prof. Davidson, Aug. 29. In the West Indies an extraordinary tide rose in the harbor of St. Thomas, at 7:30 p. m., Aug. 27. As the tides at St. Thomas seldom go above twelve inches, and that of Aug. 27 rose three and one-half feet, and was followed on the 30th by a heavy earthquake shock, there can be but little doubt that this disturbance was the result of the terrible commotion in the Sunda straits. If to the same agency be attributed the destructive tidal-wave which visited our Jersey coast, Aug. 28 and 29, if; would seem that the agitatiou extended to all the oceanic area around the globe, forty degrees on both sides of the equator.

The Chinese ai-e very inconsistent iq their talk about the dignity of labor; Once a year the Emperor and .chief noblemen at his court go into a field and plow up a few furrows, while the Empress raises cocoanuts of her own to set a good example to their subjects. At the same time they allow the finger nails to grow to an extent that incapacitates them for labor of any description. It is considered a sign of greatest gentility, and a remarkable amounlj of time and talent is expended in polishing and sharpening them. When they have reached a few inches in length, they are inclosed in silver or gold sheaths, and turned backward to 1 the elbow for protection. One gentleman in Shanghai has grown his nails, to the length of eighteen inches. The women, as is well known, have their feet bound from the time they are born, and when they are grown the exceeds ingly-fi'ne ladies have to be helped around by their maids, so useless have they become! I have seen women whose feet were only three inches and a half in length. —Shanghai letter. Paper is now made in Sweden from the bleached and blanched remains o| mosses that lived centuries ago, and arq now found in enormous quantities. The paper is turned out in all degrees of ex? cellence, from tissue to sheets threefourths of an inch thick.