Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 December 1883 — WOOL. [ARTICLE]

WOOL.

An Effort to Be Made to Restore the Former Duty. Representative Converse, of Ohio, has introduced in Congress a bill providing for a restoration of the duty on clothing wools, combing wools, carpet and other similar wools, to what they were prior to the enactment of the present tariff law. Converse had a conference with Delano, President of the National Wool-growers’ Association, at which the latter gave the proposed measure his indorsement, and Converse said he had no doubt his bill would pass the House by a two-thirds majority. The wool-growing Industry, he said, was closely allied to the agricultural and farming class interested in the restoration of the old rates on wool, and this circumstance will give the bill strength before the representatives of the people. His State was the chief wool-producing State in the country, and had suffered most severely from the reduction made in the present tariff law. There were In that State 46,000 wool-growers, and their loss on sales of wool the last annual dipping amounted to more than 51.000,000. The effect of the reduction of the tariff on wool product has been felt so keenly in Ohio that both political parties there pledged themselves to work for the restoration of the old rates. Mrs. Lydia Sturtevant has just died in Albany at the age of 98. She leaves a sister living at the age of 94. Her mother reached the age of 97, and she had a brother who w*c killed by accident when in his 99th* year.

Expetiments are in progress in Ohio for turning palmetto leaves into paper for news print. It was the material used for Bank of England notes with such secrecy for years. The most important and valuable stamp collection in the- world belongs to a son of the Duchess of Galliera. Though it is yet incomplete, the stamp« alone have cost $300,000. < A Cisc iNNATi company has just given eleven conc^i jgtors, who have acted as such for one year, SIOO each as a reward for faithful and efficient services, in. accordance with a contract made between them and the company. —2 iu.it.i : The Secretary of a London bank recently got away with SIIO,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 beaa«a prosperous year • this incident should so badly prejudice . the result.” ■’■ ’• *; In New England alone last year there were 221 persons killed* by railroad trains ’ana 535 winded. There were many battles during the late war in which tire were less. The principal causes of |uch a large number of accidents are single lines of j-irack cross’ng at grade and track-walk-ing by careless peojle. u ’

» . ’ It is told of a prommehtWall street broker that in his' Office hfe is found “stretched at his. ease oh a silken couch, - listening in a dreamy way to an entertaining magazine article being read to Him by his* lady amanuensis, while* a -second lady clerk* rocks softly to and fro in a willow chair by the window, and the mild sunlight-easts fitful shadows upon the richly-decorated walls.” u *X■ Countess pe la Torre was recently arraigned in a London court for maintaining a cat nuisaned, which, it was •charged, was injurious to health and of many years’ standing. The Countess •confessed she had five cats, and fed some stray- ones, and had also two dogs. 'The Sanitary Inspector reported that when the lady was summoned on the last occasion she had eighteen cats and nine dogs. The court dismissed the ■complaint.

Increasing dissatisfaction shows itself in, London at the supine conduct •of the great landlords. It is complained that they 4° absolutely nothing for the town from which they draw their millions, and the same men, who are liberal and public-spirited enough :in their country homes, seem to think "that their London property has no •claims on them. The Duke of Westminister is by far the best of them, but his property happens to be that which least of all peeds much doing.to.it. John Swinton speaks as follows of Henry Villard: “I met him first during the war, in front of Richmond. He was then s> uewspapc“r correspondent. He was a slender, bright-faced, longlegged, eccentric young fellow then, with as light a»purse as the other members of his craft, but now, I believe, though I have not seen him since then, he is a solid man, over middle age, Richer than Ctasus, and up to the neck in huge undertakings. Poor Villard! bare-foot boy of * Germany, Golden Spike of America.” Mr. Lewis David Cohen, a Jewish •tradesman in London, declined to serve ■on a Coroner’s jury, on the ground that he was forbidden,to do sb by the Jew* ish law. reg^fds the descendants •Of Aaron, the Sigh Priest, the twentyfourth chapter of Leviticus says: "“Neither shall he enter into any house where there is a dead body,” and Mr, <Lhen was a direct descendant ■of Aaron. He was fined by the Coroner, but appealed. to the Court of Quarter Sessions, where Mr. Cohen’s objection was defended by his chief Tabbi, who had himself declined to attend a thanksgiving in St. Paul’s over the recovery of >the “Prince of Wales, on the ground that dead bodies were interred there. The Court remitted the fine and excused the plaintiff from future service on Coroners’ juries.

Dr. Henry Sciliemann, the digger for the ruins of Troy, is a naturalized American, but has not been in this •country for fourteen years. “My wife is a Greek,” he said lately to a caller in Paris, “and I now consider Athens my home. I have built a house there, and, though I retain my nationality as an \ American, Ido not contemplate a return to the United States. My family accompanied me to the Troad. I built half a dozen frame houses for myself and workmen. Our way of living at’ this time was not at all different from our way of living in Athens, and that is the same as Everywhere else in

Europe. We did not get fresh beef every day, os there was no butchers handy. I had to purchase my beef, mutton and veal alive, and have it slaughtered by one of my men. We had also to bake our own bread, but on the whole our life was European. ” Billiard parlor proprietors will undoubtedly be pleased to learn that a Western genius has perfected a device for registering the time and price of billiards. It is in the form of a clock and begins to work automatically as soon as the balls are put on the table and stops when they are removed. The most conspicuous merit of the invention is that it can register $25 worth of billiards for every table. It can be adapted to 50 or CO cents an hour, or any other price. By this device the proprietor of the room can tell to a cent what his tables earn during a given time. The clock has not yet been placed on the market. Sedonia P. Wagner, widow of Peter K. Wagner and sister of Gen. John L. Lewis, died in New Orleans a few days ago at the age of 85 years. She was a a remarkable woman and had a remarkable career. A native of Louisiana while it was a Spanish province, she was a spectator of many interesting events. Her father was a Magistrate ol the colony, and she knew all the prominent men of Orleans for the first half of the century. She met Wilkinson and Burr at her father’s table, and was one of the maidens that strewed camel* lias and jasmines in Jackson’s pathway through the Place d’Armes to the cathedral on his victorious return from Chalmette. She danced with Lafayette when he came here in 1825, and was for years a queen of New Orleans society. She married Peter K. Wagner, who edited the Delta, and was the earnest friend of Jackson and held, while Jackson was President, the naval office of the port. He was for years the chieftain of the Louisiana Democracy, and died just after the war.

Lord Coleridge talked in an easy but sympathetic and serious way to the students of Haverford college, near, Philadelphia, upon the authors they should read. Putting Milton next to Shakspeare, he told them that John Bright said that he bad built himself up on Milton. He then named Wordsworth, and said: “If I have any fault to find with America, -it is that I fear you do not do Wordsworth quite the honor which he deserves.” Gray, Shelley and Keats followed in the order named. Coming to American poets, he said: “You may be surprised at the name I shall select from your American poets, when I tell you to learn Bryant. Ij do not say Longfellow, because, although he is a sweet and noble and delightful poet, he is not American—l mean that his poetry might just as well have been written in England, or Italy, or Germany, or France, as in America—but Mr. Bryant’s poetry is full of the characteristics of his own country, as well as noble, natural and invigorating. ” Among prose writers he named Lord Bolingbroke “as a writer of the most perfect English,” next, “the greatest advocate since Cicero —and I say this, even remembering your own Webster—Lord Erskine;” then Burke, Hooker—not to be read as a whole, “except by the theological students”—Lord ,Bacon and Cardinal Newman. Among American writers he named Daniel Webster, and ,c your greatest writer, the master of an exquisite and absolutely perfect style— Nathaniel Hawthorne.” The appreciation which the little talk manifested of the aspirations of youth, and the vital importance of the formative period of of life, made it a delightful and winning address.