Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 April 1884 — Page 3

®lje gemocrotitStntinel RENSSELAER, INDIANA. I. W McEWEN, - - - PUBUBHKB.

A man named Chen worth, who lives in the village of Cowboy, Kan., owns a horse which he sends to a store three miles distant for provisions. A note tied to the horse’s mane has a list of the articles wanted. They are strapped in a bag to his back. The animal never stops to nibble grass, but goes the whole distance at a brisk trot. When Charles Dickens was in America for the first time he dined at the house of one of the Harper brothers, the well-known publishers. A little Harper came to the table. Dickens placed him on his knee, and said: ■“You are a very fine boy, indeed; you are the son of the greatest pirate on earth!” * Albbbt JEdward, Prince of Wales, seems to have a large fund of good sense, and in this respect differs from nearly every other Guelph that ever lived. In accommodating himself to the times, and accepting a position on the commission of inquiry into the condition of the poor, he has displayed more than usual tact. His action in this matter will certainly increase his popularity.

Hebe is a true fish story. Last year, at Portland, Me., there were taken and packed 47,400 barrels of mackerel 14,400 barrels of herring, and 7,000 barrels of shad. This gave employment to 2,020 men. There were also caught 122,000 quintals of codfish and 3,000,000 of lobsters, and 1,000,000 pounds of haddock were taken and smoked. The more the reader thinks about how much “1,000,000” is, the more will this look like a fish story. Tbaveling by railway, M. De Lessepa gets into the first compartment at hand, and drops into the first vacant seat he finds. Then he scrutinizes the other passengers sharply. If he can gef up a conversation with' one of them he does so; if not, he folds his arms, goes to sleep, and only wakes up when his destination is reached. At sea, he lies in his berth, fast asleep, all the time,, except when at his meals. Ona □recent voyage from Marseilles to Alexandria, lasting 130 hours, he spent 107 hours in sleep. He has given up ice--water baths, but still takes much horseback exercise.

An interesting ceremony took place fit Birmingham, England, recently, on the occasion of the “home-coming” of a man named Hall after twenty years’ penal servitude for wife murder. Thousands of people, it is stated, met Hall at the railway station and gave Jhim an enthuiastic reception, greeting him with loud cheers until he was driven off in a cab with his relatives. These tokens of sympathy and esteem must have somewhat surprised Hall. Wife murder was, twenty years ago, looked upon as a rather serious offense, even when, as in the ease of Hall, it was committed under circumstances of- extreme provocation.

Philadelphia school-boys are dangerous creatures. One of them, not yet 16 years old, spent a short vacation up in the country lately, and while there so captivated the affections of a farmer’s daughter that she took poison and tried to die when he failed to answer her letters. She said she wanted to go out of life “like Ethel St. Maur in the Broken Vow.” Her father had the poison pumped out and her life saved, and. then he wrote to the youth that he ought to be ashamed of himself, and if he would come up to that neighbourhood again some time he would horsewhip him within an inch of his life. When that second visit occurs the youth will have aged by many moons.

In 1880 the population of Cochin China amounted to about a million and a half. Of these only 1,825 were French, 1,366,139 were Annamites, and 58.500 Chinese. A book lately published in Paris by Messrs. Bouinais <twelve years a Government official in Cochin China} & Paulus gives a very favorable account of the Annamites. They are gentle, docile, and sober by habit, although the rich have a tendency to indulge in opium and brandy. They are very sensible, eminently endowed with the imitative faculty, rapidly familiarize themselves with the habits of civilized life, and are greedy of instruction. The French have established a regular system of communal schools. The authors attribute most of the weak pointe of the Annamites to the brutality with which they have been governed. Their chief defects are a lack of perseverance and of gratitude. France has only had this colony about twenty years. Dr. Savory says in the British Medical Journal that among the chief causes of injury to the health from gambling,’ is the prolonged mental strain which becomes necessary to the maintenance of self-control during ex-

tended periods of intense excitement. He cites the case of a lady who had lately returned from Monte Carlo much broken down in health, and greatly weakened by the severe fits of exhaustion from which she invariably suffered after an hour or two at the gaming table. She said that her ability to continue the game was determined by the extent of her power to sustain an aspect of indifference in the presence of spectators.

Atlanta Constitution: The com-mittee-in charge of the matter has selected for the late Senator Hill’s statue the following inscriptions from his writings : “He who saves his country saves all things and all things saved do bless him; who lets his country die lets all' things die—dies himself, ignobly—and all things do curse him. ” On the reverse side: “The Constitution should know no section, but should know, all the States.” On one side piece: “We are in our father’s house, our brothers are our companions, and we are here to stay, thank God, forever. ” On the other side will bg a brief reoord es the Senator’s public and professional life. The statue is rapidly ap-. proaching completion.

In full season millions of dollars were often turned in one night at Crockford’s celebrated gambling club in London. The net profits of the season were $7-50,000, and yet the weekly expenses averaged $5,000. The fitting up of the house cost nearly $250,000. Crockford’s was ostensibly organized as a club, and the committee elected the members, but any one who had a fortune to lose could easily obtain admission. The Duke of Wellington was an original member, but was never known to enter the hazard-room. For ten years before Crockford’s was started there was very high play at Watier*B (the principal frequenters of which were hopelessly ruined), at Brookes’, and also at White’s, where the late Lord Granville was the great player. He is said to have been nearly a million to the bad at the end of his career, although at one time he*had won $550,000. Lord Granville once lost $115,000 at hazard at a single sitting Of seven hours, and $50,000 at one night’s whist.

Forty-four years ago three men, Mr. Miller, Mr. Dorr, and Mr.'Merritt, went to settle in a Pennsylvania village. Miller built a tavern and sawmill. For forty-four years Miller ran the tavern and sawmill; for forty-four years Dorr boarded in the tavern; for forty-four years Merritt sawed in the mill, the three never missing a day’s work, Miller making a fortune. The sawmill had of late years cost S4OO per year more than it could make. Mr. Miller had deeded his property to his son, and not Img ago this son sold the tavern and mill, against his father’s wishes, who was 75 years old, and whose one great wish it was to die in that tavern where he had so long lived. Mr. Miller took to his bed and died immediately. The next morning his fid friend and champion, Dorr, was found dead with his face in the brook; he was 80 years old, and very strong, mentally and physically. The next night after that the alarm of heard in the village for the first time. The sawmill was in flames, and burned to the ground. It was fired by Merritt, the sawyer, who on the following day paid the purchaser the value of the mill, saying that he had turned the water on the wheel the first time and htyi sawed every log sawed in the mill. Merritt left the village forever. He had never been away before since he first came there.

Skinderson vs. Skinderson.

The other morning a volcanic-looking matron appeared in Judge Lawler’s court and demanded to be informed asto the very earliest moment a divorce could be granted to a cash customer. “Have you a complaint, madam?" said the Judge, soothingly. “I should say I had, Judge,” snapped the applicant. “I’ll just tell yon> what the brute Skinderson—l’m Mrs. Skinderson, more’s the pity—what that brute Skinderson’s been doing. Flesh and blood can’t stand it.” “Did he beat you?” inquired his Honor. “I should like to see him try it,” said Mrs. S., with an indignant sniff. “It’s a heap worse. This morning I was talking with the aggravating thing for over two hoars —just arguing with him, mind you, about a new paper for the parlor—when what do vou suppose he did?” “Tried to shoot himself?" hazarded the Judge. “I just wish the mean brute had. No’, sir; the wretch rang for a district telegraph messenger boy, and when he came Skinderson lay down on the lounge, and says, with one of those cold, tantalizing smiles of his’n, * Martha, I’m worn out now, and I’m going to take a nap. Just wrangle with this boy for an hour or two, apd when I wake up I’ll relieve him. If he gives out meanwhile, just ring up another. ’ ” “I’m afraid you couldn’t get a divorce on that,” said the Court, reflectively. “Couldn’t, eh?” cried the victim of domestic infelicity, in a rage. “All right; I’ll go straight home, and if Skinderson hasn’t woke up yet, I’ll dump some hot ashes on his head; I’ll fix lum yet 1” with which consoling anticipation she sallied out.— San Francisco Post.

High Protective or Revenue Tariff. CNorval,* in Indianapolis Sentinel.] The gross value of manufactured products in the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 were as follows: Gain per cent, in each ten 1850 .. $1,019,109,616 years. 1860 1,885.861,775 85.05 1870 4,232,325,442 124.42 1880 5,369,579,191 “ 26.87 The valuation for 1870, as is well known, was made on an inflated currency, the average premium on gold having been about 20.03, or, as stated in the census tables, about 20 per cent, discount on the paper. Hence to get a correct basis for 1870, to compare with 1860 and 1880, the census tables of 1880 give the following as the correct basis for manufactured products in the years mentioned: Per cent, of *- gain in ten 1860 ' $1,019,109,616 years. 1860 1,885,861,676 85.05 1870 3,385,860,354 , 79.34 1890 5.369,579,191 58.59 Thus it will be clearly seen that our greatest increase in manufacturing took place in the free trade decade from 1850 to 1860, and this fact of itself should convince all workingmen, farmers, and business men that a revenue tariff and not high protection is the true policy for this country. Again, the census tables give the net value of manufactured products or what they were worth after deduoting the cost of the materials consumed. Still deducting 20 per cent, from the inflated values of 1870: Par cent of Net Value. gain In ten years. 1850 $ 488,935,296 1860 864,256,584, 84.13 1870 1,395,118,560 63.31 1880 1,972.755/842 41.49 Again the free trade year of 1860 is in advance.

The increase of capital invested in manufacturing in 1860 over 1850 was 89.38 per cent., 1870 over 1860 was 67.80 per cent, and in 1880 over 1870, 64.66 per cent Hence, it is clear that capital was not afraid to engage in manufacturing in a free trade peried as 1860 is still in advance. The increase of wages paid in 1860 over 1850 was 60.08; in 1870 over 1880 was 63.76; and in 1880 over 1870 it was 52.78 per cent. In this comparison 1860 is a trifle behind on the advance increase in total wages paid, but so little as to cut no figure, but when we compare the cost of living in 1860 with 1870 or 1880 it is clear beyond a doubt, that the mechanics and laborers of 1860 were much better paid, considering the purchasing power of the dollar in 1860. The census show that a large increase in wages from 1860 to 1880 has taken place, and yet the laborin gmen of our country are not as well paid to-day as ’in 1860, when we take in account the vast increase in the price of commodities, rents, and other necessary expenses. In my own city, houses which rented in 1860 for $5 or $6 per month now bring sl(4 and sl2, and these are on old streets where but little change has taken place. Workingmen in those days got board for from $2 to $2.50 per week, including lodging, while railroad men and other irregular boarders got their meals at from twelve and a half to fifteen cents, and at many terminal points lodging thrown in. Let us take the expenses of a railroad brakeman in 1860, counting thirty days a month: Ninety meals at 15 cent5..:.................513.50 Thirty iodgiflge at 121 s cents 3.75 Total expenses $17.25 Wages paid to brakemen in 1860, S3O per month, and aftef deducting his board and lodging we find the brakeman of that period would have $12.75 per month left. Now let us tajte a brakeman of the present. His board costs him 25 cents per meal and lodging 35 cefits per nigjht: Ninety meals at 25 cents $22.50 Thirty lodgings at 25 Ants *, 7.50 Total expenses $30.00 Bailroad merf are now paid by the trip, based upon 100 miles for a local man’s day’s work; the price going up, as course, as the distance is greater. I find the average for through and local brakemen on such a run is $45 for twenty-seven days work in 1883.

Brakemen’s wages >15.00 Board and lodging 30.00 Balance after expenses $15.00 Here we find that the brakeman of 1883 has sls left for clothing and incidentals, as against the same class of men’s $12.75 in 1860. Is there a man in all this land so stupid as not to know that $12.75 in 1860 would buy one-half more that sl6 in 1883, of the general necessaries. Or if the’brakeman had a family and lived at one end of his “run” and was enabled to board and lodge at home half the time, his financial matters would stand thus at the end of each month away from home in 1860: Board half-moath, 45 meals, at 15c $ 6.75 Lodgings half-month, is, at 1254 c 1.88 At home, house rent per month 5.00 Total $13.63 Wages per month . 30.00 Here we find that the brakeman of 1860, after paying his board away from home, and house rent at home, would still have $16.37 for provisions and clothing for self and family, and, when we take into account the prices of the above articles in that year, it is well known that the family of a young man could live comfortably on that amount. Now let us take the same man in 1883: Wages per month H 5.00 Boa d halt-mouth from home: Forty-tive meals at 25c... ..$11.25 Fifteen lodgings at 250 3.75 House rent per month 10 00 $25.00—526.00

■ • $20.00 Here we find that the brakeman of 1883 would have S2O, or just $3.63 left more than the brakeman of 1860 had, for provisions and clothing, and the most ignorant man in this land knows, .f. he has any knowledge of prices in 1860, that $16.37 in that year would buy as much provisions and clothing as S3O will buy in 1880 or 1883. The wages of 186 Q are based upon a daily run pf a hundred miles. Of course if the man did “more running, or doubled the road," he was paid for the extra work at the same proportion, viz., S3O per month. The wages of to-

day are based on a daily run of a hundred miles on freight also, but lam aware that men often draw more pay, but they do more work for it in “doubling the road.” The prices of meals and lodging are based upon actual payments made by this class of men in 1860 and in 1880-3. The house rents are based upon actual payments made in each period, and in the same cities and towns in the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The above scales of wages will apply equally to -passenger brakemen and baggage-masters, with slight variations on different lines. We will now take a local freight conductor in 1860: Wages per month $50.00 Meals sway from h0me,45«.®15c... .$ 6.75 Fifteen lodgings, at 12)i0..... x.... 1.88 House rent at home 8.00 Total .• $16.63 16.63 Balance left $38.37 Conductors, getting more salary, lived in better locations or houses, and hence, in 1860, as now. paid higher rent, and we find that the local conductor of that year, after paying board and lodgings' away from home and house rent at home, had $33.37 left to buy provisions and cloth'ing for his family. We will now take the local freight conductor of 1880 and 1883: Wages per month $65.00 Meals from home, 45c.®25c. $11.25 Fifteen lodgings, at 25c. 3.75 House rent at home per month 15.00 Total . $30.00 .00

Balance left $35.00 Here we have a clear proof as to to the manner in which protection protects the workingman.' In revenue tariff 1860, and the year of the lowest tariff in this country, the hard-worked local freight conductor had, after paying his board away from home and house rent at home, $38.37 left to buy provisions and clothing for the month, while the equally hard-worked conductor of 1883 has but $35 left for the same uses; and yet it is a well-known fact that the $33.37 of the 1860 conductor would buy as much in the. way of provisions and clothing as SSO would in 1883. The wagesfof conductors for both periods are based on a run of 100 miles per day, it being well understood that in either period a larger mileage will secure more salary, while the house rents for both periods are based upon actual payments made.

Why Clothes Are So Dear.

The New York Times (Rep.) publishes a comparison of the difference in the prices in New York and London of men’s clothing, which no fair minded reader can consider without acknowledging the injustice of the outrageous system that makes such a difference possible. For instance, a broadcloth dress suit which costs SSO in New York, costa only $22 in London. A heavy business suit which costa. S3O in New York costa but sl3 in London. A spring serge overcoat which costa S2O in New York costa but $8.50 in pondon. A winter beaver overcoat which costa $35 in New York costs but $14.50 in London. A silk hat which costs $5 in New York costs but $3 in London. These articles altogether cost in New York $l4O. In London they cost but s6l. The man who buys these clothes, therefore, in New York pays $79 more for them than he could buy them for in London. What causes this difference in the prices of the two cities ? *Our tariff. No one will dispute that, with the tariff removed, the same goods eould be purchased as cheaply in New York as in London, at least as cheaply plus the freight rates between the two cities. The man who pays, therefore, $l4O for clothes in New York really buys s6l worth of clothes, on which he pays $79 taxes. And where do these taxes go ? ' If the goods ate manufactured in this country not one cent reaches the Treasury. It is simply $79 taken by law from the man that buys s6l worth of clothes and given to the man who grows wool and the man who makes doth.

If the goods are manufactured abroad, $79 goes to a Treasury which does ndt need it, and can raise all the revenue it requires on whisky, tobacco, and articles of luxury. In either case the purchaser of the clothes gets absolutely nothing for the $79 of the $l4O which he spends. If on buying the clothes he had to pay s6l to the clothier and $79 directly to a tax collector, how long would he stand such extortion? In result there is not a particle of difference between that system and the present tariff system, according to which he is thus unnecessarily and exorbitantly taxed, not only on his dothing, but on nearly every other necessity of life. How long will the people of a country which claims to be free submit to this legalized robbery, which those who uphold it, and grow fat upon it, are pleased to call a “protective” tariff?

The Morrison Bill.

The Morrison bill proposing a reduction of tariff duties which amounts on the average to little more than 15 per cent, is now before Congress. The report recommending its passage is brief and to thepo : nt; the adverse minority report thrashes over old straw about “agitation” and “business disturbance,” but offers not a single argument to show that the proposed reduction is unjust in principle or that it will work any injury to the country in practical operation.— Chicago Tribune. (Hep). In a' recent speech President Arthur said his happiest days were when he was a school teacher. It is safe to bet a tan-yard that his Excellency’s gloomiest day was when John Sherman and R. B. Hayes - used their brogans upon him to purify the New York Custom House. John Sherman for President and Fred Douglass for Vice President would be a ticket in accord with t'he eternal fitness of thingk.— OmahaHerald.

THE BAD BOY.

“Bay, come in here now and give me some information," caid the grocery man to the bad boy, as he stood on the steps behind a barrel of axhelves, waitfor a boy to throw a wet snow-ball at him, when he intended to push the barrel over on the boy; “you ought ■to know everything, because your pa takes the papers and your ma belongs to the sewing society. I don’t read any pauers and depend entirely on what customers tell me when they come in to trade. What is this I hear about Bismarck and the Lasker resolutions, and Congress, and all that ? ” and the grocery man lit a clay pipe and sat down on a basket of turnips. , “Bismark and Lasker* said the boy, as he rolled an orange on a barrel he’ad to make it soft; “don’t you know anything about that? Well, you ought to keep posted. There are lots of times when hired girls come here to trade that you could make yourself solid with them by informing them the topics of the day. You see, Bismarck was one of the star-route robbers. It was their habit to wear big tin stars, and go out on the plains to rob the mail carriers. Lasker was a good man who used to carry the mails between Laramie and Helena, Montana. Lasker knew the robbers were going to rob the mails one day, so he filled a mail sack with dynamite, and when Bismarck ordered him to throw up his hands, he just threw the mail sack to Bismarck, and the dynamite exploded, and blew him and his band all over the Territory. .“You don’t say so," said the grocery man; "I ought to read more. I got an idea from just glancing at the headings in the papers, that Bismarck started a town somewhere out in Dakota and Lasker tried to jump his claim. lam much obliged to you for the information, and if anybody comes in here and, fires Bismarck and Lasker conundrums at me after this I won’t have to pretend to be deaf and change the sUbjectWhat is this tariff business IJiear customers talking about every little while ? Is this tariff running for any office ?” “No, tariff has not been for anything yet, but expects to be,” and the boy looked out of the eorner of his eye at the grocer to see if he was as big a fool as he pretqjjded. “Tariff is a Republican when he is in Republican, localities, and a Democrat when he is in a Democratic locality, and where the thing is about even he straddles the fence and hangs one leg on each side. Tariff wants to be President, but don’lj knew which party to take the nomination from. Ra is for tariff, in some sa-i loons where he is working up bial chances for Alderman, and in some sa-, loons he is opposed to tariff. It is queer how it works, but a boy musn’t auk too many questions or he gets fired outdoors.” a “I am glad that I know about this tariff,” said the grocer, scratching a match to relight his hipe. “That thing has bothered me more than any one thing. Somehow I got an idea it was a sort of barnacle that attaches itself to goods that are shipped from foreign countries, from what I heard people say. One day I found a peculiar formation on the bottom of a basket of imported dates, and I says to myself, ‘that must be a tariff,’ but it was only some mud. But, say, what does the doctor say about your pa? Will he pull through?”

“Pa is better, thanks to careful nursing. You see pa began finding fault with me again because 1 didn’t play more jokes on him. I told him that people were getting an idea that I was mean as pusley because I played jokes on him, and I had quit. Pa said, ‘ Never mind what people say. lam your father, and it pleases me to have vou practice on me. I think if more men allowed the natural of youth to have ita fun at home, there would be less deviltry done away from home. Now, if*you don’t make your pa walk turkey in less than twenty-four hours, I’ll take you across my knee, you hear. The fun I have at home is what braces me np for a political campaign.’ Well, when pa said that I felt that it was an undutiful son that would £0 back on his parent and deprive him of the excitement his nature demanded, $0 I went to work to think of something to make pa remember old times. That C suing at the supper table, we got to king of spinal meningitis, and pa said pome of our best citizens were having it. He said it was an aristocratic disease, and it was a compliment to a man’s standing in society to have it. I psked him what the first symptoms were, and he said he understood it was ■ p cold feeling along the spine. The j text morning I took about two quarto of ponnded ice, and filled the two* pistol pockets of pa’s pants with it, and the i tail pockets of his coat, and he pnt on : |iis things and come down to breakfast.. i He said the dining-room was cold, and , he rubbed his hands’, land occasio ially j looked sort of scared, but he sat down , to breakfast. He had not sat there ; more than a minute before he told ma i he didn’t want any breakfast, and he went and lay down on the lounge.. I told ma whatl had done, and she l&ffed, and pretty soon pa began to call for ma. She went to him and told himhe-looked sick. Pa said he was. He said he had .got the aristocratic disease, and didn’t care who knew it. He kept getting cold, and finally concluded to> send for a doctor, and I went after him, hut I didn’t hurry back. Ma, she had a quiet talk with pa on his condition, and made him believe he was overworked, and made him promise to let politics alone, and try to lead a different life. Pa got better before long, and sat up, . and when he found his coat and pants all damp from the pounded ice, he said he guessed he had sweat the disease entirely out of his system, and he changed his clothes and eat alate breakfast, but I guess he found some ice in his pockete, for when I came in, he said, ‘You’r 3 nice boy, ain’t you, to try and play freeze-out on your poor old» pa! Don’t let it occur again.’ Qtfeer, ain’t it, that ft man will yearn to have jokes played on him, and order them as'you would groceries, and when they’come he has to get huffy. Well, I must go apearng suckers,” and the boy went off, leaving the grocery man badly mixed ip on Bismarck arid the tariff.— Peck's •Sun.

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

Xhb evidence of coal deposits In various parts of thia county will likely lead to an investigation of the matter. A small sum Of . money spent in investigating might prove a good investment.—Steu-ben County JowmaL Dennis Downes, one of the bandits who, in collusion with Bert Loomis, the agent, robbed the car es the Pacific Express Company, on the Eel Hirer division of the Wabash line, near Boaan.last September, has been sentenced to live years in the penitentiary. The jury in the voted damage suit of Mary B. Eelhl vs. The Alquiva Turnpike Company, for damages on account vs a fracture of the skull, caused by the horse she was drivingbecoming frightened at a saw-log along the road, and upturning tho- boggy, returned a verdict for the defehdhno. Thvease was tried at the last term of courts and tho jury failed to agree. F. B. Thomas, Jacob Delhi, and a drummer were sitting in tho odJceef Uhe Delhi Hotel* at Bedford, and they agreedi to play a joke on Samuel Jacobs, a peddler who was boarding at She house, ty giving him- eroton oil on oggs. This was done the* next morning. Jacoba was taken 111, and foe several days lingered between life and death. He has commenced suit against F_ B. Thomas and Jacob Delhi for $5,000. The Hom Henry C. Lord, lor many years Prerlfient of the Indianapolis Cincinnati A Lafayette Ballroad, and also prominently identified with other public interests, died of cancer of the: throat at his residence at Biverside, near Cincinnati. ’ Mr. Lord was the son of Dr. Nathan. Lord, of Amherst, and a grad* uatoof DartouMMh College in the class of 1843, His- wife-, the daughter o* the Hon. Nathaniel Wnight, and three children survive him. Tna Ptesbytenjr of Indianapolis' at its- last meeting, officially dissolved the pastoral reationshlp botwean Rev. Myron Beedi and the First Presbyterian Church of that city. Mr. Reed,"seme waste since, announced his resignatiomof the pastorate he has filled with distinguished acceptance for screw years* Ho has accepted a call from Denver,. Colo* Tho presbytery bads: him godspeed in his new floldiqf labor; and paid a handsoma compliment to his-broad and uniform charity toward all classes,.and: his manly stand for the welfare of.the common people.

In the report of tho-Commissioner of Agriculture, just issued, it Is stated that the corn on hand imlndiana on March 1 wav 23,686,000. bushels, which l»30 per cent. at tho crop In the State last-year. That retained for country consumption amounted t0>79,490,000 bushels, or 80 per cent, of the entire <nrop. Eight perrcentlof the- envp remains IB the field, indiaaa/raissd.aiaurplus last year of 38,686,000 bushels, against 38,594,348 for the year before. Indianatexoeeded the: surplus crop of Ohio in 1882 by 11,000,000 bushelk and fell short of.lllfnoii 49,000,000 bushels. In 1883 her surplus wtw 18,000,000 more thahj that of Ohio, and was 38,000,000 less thunillliaois. Tub Board iof Directors of the Indiana University met at Indianapolis last week to open bids for the two new college* building* to be located on ths- new ciwnpusiattßlaOiaington to* take the place of the pne-burned last year. The bld of H. J. Nichole * Sons for $59,982 was accepted I The two buildings are to be finished by December; 1684. Each is a fire-proif building; two atorios, with baeoment of brick With stone finlSttu. The larger building, 108x88 foot, is for the department of chemistry and natural phUo ophyj the other for tho natural hlstony department. The buildings wlll.be imposing iir appearance, and fitted with every convenience andidivlded into apartments suilublorto the. purposes designed. Last June the bulliliag of the institution was- struck by- lightning and entirely destroyed. The low was- 8300,(1:0, lacludlhg content). According to>theuoontraot work it to begin at once? and. bo- completed Deo. 12.

James 8.. Rag ax, off Putnam GOowtjr, comes to Congress with: aisornewMutt unusual claim. It grows out of the late-war. Ha, ■ says that be is 35 years old, and was * private in Company H, was bonarably dischatwod at thoeicaa of the trouble. Im 1865 he was-omdaty at Comp Morton, neatrladianapoUa. a private, and, us was customary; wore a revolver, fur* nfshed him, by the Government. He was at one time-kept on guard, for-forty-eight hours. He fall asleep. Some one—he never eould apprehend, the thief,, although he made strennous oßprttodo so— s£U« the ’revolver from him. The prioe< of the, weapon—s2s— charged to blmandi deducted from hl* pay.. < He thinks that charge inequitable and unjust,.and asks.the GosKMnunent to refund it to him, with interest sinan May, 1865. He swears to the merits of th* plaim, and it has been presented in the House by Representative Matson, and. noferied to the Committee on. Claims.— Wath fagton upeclal. The court-room at Lafnyette was crowded 'to hear the decision of the Hon. D. P. Vinton ton the motion for a new trial in the Keyes ■ murder case. The Judge delivered a very ; elaborate decision, ruling upon the several I rooeons sot up, summing up that under alii the circumstances ho did not feci justified tn. ' setting aside the verdict of the jury. Keyes ; was then asked. If he had any reason to oiler why sentence should not be pronounced upon him. Keyes hesitated a moment, and then, In an almost inaudible tone, said he had not. The J(Udpe theu lentenood him to the Penitea. tiary for life.. His counsel moved an airest. in judgment, and prayed an appeal to, the SupFemo Court, which was granted, and ninety days, given in which to perfect au appeal. Keyes is aged 30 year.". Ho> was charged with seducing a daughter of Samuel Stewart, of Carroll County. The father brought proceedings against him', ondi Keyes married the girl but never recognized) her as his wife, nor would ho live with her. July 2.’, 1833* Stewart said to Keyes be must live with the girl, leave the county, or b»buried. Keyee went off, got a revolver* and camo back accompanied by his father. The quarrell was renewed and Keyes shot Stewart dead.

Cou J. H. Woodard, widely known in .the West as “Jayhawker," - the Indiana correspondent of the Cincinnati Enquirer, is at the Gilsey House, having come East to take the measure of political sentiment for his paper—New York Tribune. . Gbohoe Starks entered the Courier office at Wabash, intent upon pmnmeling the editor, Mr. Lee Linn, but the latter gentleman belabored the interloper with a chair, and he fled in disorder. Tub J’riwceton Clarion demands a eity ehw-, ter for that sown. i