Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1883 — Make the Gallows Less Interesting. [ARTICLE]

Make the Gallows Less Interesting.

A firm in London. England, advertise that they want American honey in large lots, and will pay an advance of 5c per pound over the New York market for prime fancy comb honey. England has this year 2,660,000 acres under wheat, while America has nearly 40,000,000 devoted to the same cereaL Great Britain has 6,000,000 head of cattle, America has 30,000,000. Prof. Kedric, of the Michigan Agricultural college, is making a series of experiments to show that growing plants in a close room are not injurious to human life. He says the notion that it is unhealthy to sleep in a room containing plants is sheer nonsense.. The plants may not injure one, but it would occur to some, perhaps, that a close room is not conducive to the health of either animal or plant life. A noble lord of high degree is the English Mandeville, but he went down to a prize-fight at Flushing and acted in the capacity of impromptu bottleholder to one of the knockers, and had his pocket picked of an expensive heirloom watch for his pains. A paper of his country says: “Lord Mandeville should be ashamed of himself, and his loss should teach him to choose better associates.” Let him ask Boston if there is a better associate than a pugilist. Daniel Shaw, of Troy, N. Y., was a most unfortunate man. When a boy he had his skull cracked by a kick of a mule. Subsequently he had a frightful experience with a circular saw. He was struck by three trains, and had an eye knocked out. Three well caved in on him. He had fits, and during an attack fell on a red-hot stove. Four times he was bitten by mad dogs. A coal wagon ran over him and crushed his legs. He had a fit on a railway track, and an incoming train finished him.

It is so unusual for gamblers to leave any considerable sum of money to their families when they die that an exception is remarkable. Henry Behm, familiar to the fraternity of Syracuse, N. Y„ as “Dutch Hank,” has been a gambler for thirty years, and when he died the other day it was found that his fortune amounted to nearly $200,000. He left the entire property to his wife. If any young man can suck encouragement from this morsel he had better hasten to buy a rope and test the elastic« properties of his neck. The cotton crop of the South last year amounted to 7,000,000 bales—enough to supply the demands of the ohief portions of the civilized world. In addition there were produced 2,500,000 tons of surplus cotton seed, which might have been transformed into 105,000,000 gallons of oil, 1,500,000 tons of oil cake, and 800,000 tons of paper. To what enormous extent this crop may ultimately be increased can scarcely be foreseen. Cotton is no longer king, but it remains, nevertheless, one of the chief commercial pillars of the country. A family in De Soto, HI., has a pet coon which was caught before its eyes were yet open to the light of day. An old cat took charge of and cared for it as if the animal were one of its own • little ones. Now the coon takes care of itself, although the cat continues to feed it with mouse and rat dainties. The children in the house have taught the coon any number of little tricks, such as begging for a biscuit, and putting its paws about one’s neck. Her couch at night is on the dining-room lounge, and she shares that with the dog, who allows none of his kind to approach or annoy her, and is almost as fond of her as the cat.

A lively scene occurred in a den. tist’s office at Westfield, Mass. A young man who had taken ether to have teeth extracted, after the operation was over became temporarily crazed from the effects of the drug, and, under the impression that he was a Western hero, made a hot attack on the dentist and physician in attendance. One he jammed up into a comer and shook him until his teeth rattled, and ’ the other he dragged around the floor in his effort to throw him out of the window. Other occupants of the building rushed in, but were quickly put to flight by the etherized man, and one of them was chased around the halls and into his own quarters. The patient was finally secured by the dentist, and knew nothing of. what had occurred when the effect of the ether passed off » few minutes later. A oattle-owner of . Montana was in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a short time ago. He engaged a room at a hotel and went out for the evening. During his abeenoe an English nobleman came to the

hotel, and, no room being vacant, the clerk gave him that of the Montana man, who, being only a “common person,” could not be supposed to object to such a proceeding. But that was just what he did. When he heard of it, and before five minutes had passed, the poor Englishman was running wildly out of the room, crying “Murder !” There was no murder, however, but the Englishman had to take a cot in the hall, the Montana man got his room, and the clerk was very careful afterward not to try experiments with “commcn persons” from Montana. Washington letter: The spiders had become so bad under the eaves of the White House that it became necessary to bring out a fire engine to wash them down. The deluge of water caused a veritable shower of spiders to the stone floor below, and very soon at least 1,000,000 of them were crawling about in every direction—small, middling and large, of every shape and hue known to the species. About 3 o’clock the thor-oughly-chilled insects began crawling up the large pillars toward the roof in such numbers that the pillars l<rt>ked as though they had been painted black. The predominating variety, which has been christened the “Presidential spider,” because it has inhabited the old portico ever since its erection in large numbers, has a round, plump body, six legs, two formidable feelers, and is of a mixed gray and yellow hue. Thousands of wasps visit the locality during wasp season and carry off large numbers of the Presidential spiders and stow them away for winter rations. Mb. Leland, of the Leland house, Chicago, doesn’t believe what he sees in the papers about the effect of the recent Supreme court deoision on the rights of the colored man under the Fourteenth amendment. He had occasion to eject Samuel Henry from his .hotel, the other day, and had him arraigned before a Justice of the Peace for disorderly conduct. Henry had a colored brother as his attorney, who proceeded to cross-examine Leland. •“Did you tell dis boy to come down and get his pay and den have him arrested when he came down stairs ?” he asked. “He pushed me,” said Mr. Leland. “Seeheah; you are not answering my questions*” said the attqjmey. “You will please confine youah remarks to answering what I ask you, sah.” The hotel proprietor turned to the Justice. “You will have to answer the gentleman’s questions,” said the Justice. Mr. Leland was then subjected to a severe cross-examination. At each attempt to .evade a question he was whipped into lino by the despised colored man. After which Samuel Henry was fined $1 and costs.

On a recent morning, in Cincinnati, a b'and of colored persons marched to the water’s edge on the Ohio, just below the Newport and Cincinnati railway bridge and directly opposite Sausage row, where the vilest negro desperadoes resort. They had come to take part in the ceremony of baptizing by immersion a newly-converted sister. The weather was very cool, and the early morning, when few were stirring, was chosen to escape interruption. After a song and a prayer, the gowned minister and the candidate a coal-black, stout young girl waded slowly into the chilling water. The girl shivered at first; but, exhorted by the minister, she followed*, him until he halted where the water was waist deep. Suddenly she made the Kentucky shore echo these words: “Lord-a-massa, I can’t stan’ dis; lemme go!” “But remember the Master’s command, dear sister, and don’t turn back to the wicked world,” said the minister. “But I mus’ go; it’ll kill me, I know it will,” the girl replied. She made a desperate effort to escape, but the parson held on, saying, as he struggled with his obstinate convert: “ Yo’ head mus’ go under.” In the effort to duck the girl’s head both went under beyond their depth. They soon rose to the surface and floated down stream, shouting for help. Boats were at hand and they were rescued in the usual way. Now the colored theologians are discussing whether or not this was a Christian baptism.

If anything would convince me that hanging should be abolished it would be the universal accompaniment of the spiritual adviser and the triumphant entrance into glory of the condemned and executed criminal. It is impossible that any moral effect, such as is desirable, should be produced when a hanging, instead of proving a terrible punishment, is made the termination of an interesting devotional scene where the murderer is given the most flattering and respectful attention and his “last words” madethe sensational headlines of every daily newspaper in the land. It is foolish to mitigate the terrors of the law by such means, and the custom should be abolished. Let it once become a law that from the moment sentence of death is passed upon a criminal he is never to be seen or heard of by the world again; that all persons about him and admitted to him are bound to silence concerning him, and the punishment will assume an aspect more terrible.— Washington Bepuhlic .