Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 October 1886 — Page 3

WORKING THE SHOPS.

The Little Game Which the Republicans of Indiana Are Engaged In. A Manufacturer’s Scathing Reply to the Republican State Central Committee. The Erils Which the “Protective Policy”. Has Entailed Upon the Country Eloquently Discussed. [From the Indianapolis Sentinel.] . The following is a copy of a circular now “being sent to all manufacturing firms in the State by the Republican State Central Committee, F. Doherty <fc Sons, to whom this particular one is addressed, being leading carriage-makers in Crawfordsville: Indianapolis, Sept. 10,1886. Fisher Doherty & Co.: Deab Sib— Your institution, so favorably known, must certainly feel a deep interest in the principle of protection to American manufacturers being sustained. The marvelous growth of this country for the twenty-five years of Republican supremacy evidences the wisdom of our party tenets. The Democratic party believes in free trade, and will, if given control -of both houses of Congress, certainly inflict this calamity upon us. It is most important that we should retain control of the Senate, and hence the great interest that centers in the effort to control our next General Assembly. We must do our utmost if Senator Harrison is to be his own successor. A decisive victory in Indiana, this year, presages national success in 1888. To effect a change in the national administration, it is almost absolutely essential to carry Indiana, and if we do not carry it this year wo can hope for little in 1888. We must provide reading matter for the people, pay expenses of speakers, distribute documents, get absent voters home, awaken an interest in our behalf, and get out a full vote, to do which requires in the aggregate considerable money. Wo can expect no hope from abroad, but must rely upon ourselves. Our organization is such that it should be a guarantee to all that all moneys received will be wisely used. Evidence your interest in and fealty to the cause by an immediate resppuse, which wo will promptly acknowledge. Yours truly, J. N. Huston, Chairman.

Mr. Doherty’s Reply. Cbawfobdsville, Ind., Sapt. 13, 1)85. Republican State Central Committee: Gentlemen—Your circular-letter of September 10th is at hand, and in reply 1 beg to inform Jou that you are wholly mistaken in your man. can not be influenced by an appeal to my selfinterest to do and act wrong toward my fellow beings with the prospect of increasing my gains at their expense. The only protection that I desire, or that any manufacturer should desire in a country where competition should be free to all, is that my goods merit the patronage of the consumer. Whenever you declare by law that one manufacturer shail receive a greater price for his goods than they might bring if competition were not restricted, you place a burden on the great laboring mass of consumers. Hence, “protection" is simply another term for enriching the few by legally stealing from the many. My sympathies have always been with the oppressed, and every practice and every law that places unequal or unjust burdens upon the toiling millions of laborers meets with my utmost detestation and contempt. The “protection” given to manufacturers by your party for the last twentyfive years has created a few very wealthy men, but, on the other hand, what hai been the result with the great mass of laborers? Manufacturing l>eing confined to fewer establishments rendered the competition of labor too great, and thus the price of labor was reduced far below living wages, and the importation of foreign pauper labor, at still reduced rates, drove millions of laborers onto the highways as tramps. The concentration of capital in these “protected establishments" soon drove out all competition, and the great mass of consumers was compelled to pay exhorbitant prices for goods, because protection added its percent, to the cost of production without any healthy competition. Your party has boen zealous to protect manufacturers against the introduction of foreign pauper made goods, while it has steadily refused to protect American labor against the importation of foreign pauper laborers. Your party has been so zealous in protecting the manufacturer against foreign imports, that all our maritime commerce has ceased to exist, and our agricultural and manufactured articles have to be shipped in foreign vessels. Your “protection" has diverted capital and laborers from maritime employment, and filled to overflowing all our factories, the products of which must find a market if other nations ■can not supply the demand and are disposed to do our carrying. The same is the result of your system in the agricultural products of our country, tor if England, which does the great shipping business of the world, can sell her goods in India or Australia, she sends them there and returns with wheat •or cattle product, and ours must remain at home or be shipped in their bottoms at prices in competition with India. South America wants our wares ; we want her hides ; but, unless we can get a British vessel to do our carrying, we have only to wait, as a direct result of your “protective” system. It takes a British steamer to go from London to Buenos Avres only twenty-three days, while our iittle sails require six months to go from New York to the .lame place. Now, wherein is the beauty of your system of protection to manufacture: s with a vast surplus for masket, without being able to put it on the market for want of the means of transportation? Have the British been your secret partners in this game, or is it chance, for the purpose of demonstrating the fallacy 6f your protective Bystem? The farmer and the laborer, ground down to want by your brazon-foced fallacy of “protection, ” look with eager eyes on anything that may give relief from the misery you are inflicting. “The marvelous growth of the country-as an evidence of Republican wisdom and statesmanship.” lam surprised that you do not include the sunlight and the air as omanations from the wisdom of your party tenets. The marvelous growth of the country is simply the natural result of the development and progress of the age. Victor Hugo says “that for 400 years the human race has not made a step that has not been marked. The sixteenth century was the century of painters ; the seventeenth the century of writers ; the eighteenth the century of philosophers ; and the nineteenth finds all embodied ■iu one grand struggle for development.” The political question was shaken when feudalism grounded its arms; when the Mayflower sailed for the New World she was freighted with tbe concentrated essence of new ideas, and tho problem of a free government, where man should be his own sovereign master, was solved when Cornwallis surrendered his sword to Washington, and no pent-up policy could stay the steady march of progress, but onward and upward was the course of deHtinv. Slavery in half the States had to crumble to make way for progress. Your boasted Republican wisdom seems doomed to be rubbed from the political chess-board, because it has filled the measure of its course, and a more expausivo policy must be Instituted to meet the demand of the age When your party was first organized it most zealously opposed the abolition of slavery, and early in tho war officers were detailed to return fugitive slaves to their masters, but as the war progressed public sentiment gradually changed, ■>«nd the Republican party waß reluctantly compelled to free all the slaves, because the people clamored for it, the progress of the age demanded it, and no sophistry could avert it. "With equal • persistence does your party now oppose a revision of the tariff laws, ko as to make them move in conformity with the arts and sciences, with the education and intelligence of the people, with the rapid transit of news and transportation of goo Is. But, like the little stone seen by the Prophet, a more liberal policy has commenced to roll through the States, and soon, reluctantly as vou may feel, your loved system of ‘ protection'' will be consigned to the region of fossil forms. Late statistical reports prove that three-fourths of the exports from the United States consist of agricultural products, which have nominally no pro-

taction, nor do they aik any, while one-fourth must be largely protected, which is thereby in. creased in cost to the purchaser, for the purpose of upholding a system which makes it too much of a luxury for the laborer. You say, it is most important that the Republican party should retain control of the United States Senate. To an unbiased mind the question arises, why? You controlled the Senate wnen millions of the public lands were granted to the various railroads. You controlled the Senate when these lands were declared forfeited by the people's Representatives, and yet you refused to accede to the will of the people. You controlled the Senate when the people, through their Representatives, demanded a law prohibiting foreigners from holding large bodies of land and converting our place for homes into European cattle ranches, and you failed to hear the cries of the people. You controlled the Senate when the exorbitant rates of transportation on our grain and cattle from the fertile West left no margin to the farmer, and though Representatives fresh from the people asked the passage of the Reagan bill to control railroad freights in such a way that the farmer could save a pittance of his earnings, you refused their appeals. You controlled the Senate when the House bill to apply the surplus revenue to the purchase of the interest-bearing bonds had passed the House by more than a three-fourths majority, and it was presented to you for approval, and by your manipulation of it you made it inoperative, and in the interest of Wall street brokers, and yet you are brazenfaced enough to say that it is most important that you retain control of the Senate. You say you must use extra exertion to retain Senator Harrison for next term. What has Senator Harrison ever done to engraft him so firmly in the affections of the farmers and laboring men of Indiana? What great statesmanlike step has he ever taKen to grapple with the financial or any other problem of the age? I know of but one step, and this was when he declared the Greenback party fanatics and idiots. Their fanaticism and idiocy consisted in demanding that Congress exercise its constitutional right to coin all substances used as money, making them a full legal tender for all debts, aud keeping the amount in circulation equal to the demands of commerce. He called them idiots ; they knew him to be a fossil, either unable to comprehend what it takes to constitute money, or knowing he lacks the moral honesty and courage to declare his convictions. If money consists of gold alone, from an innate principle inherent within it, why does it fluctuate so that at one time it requires more weight for a certain amount than at auother time, and hence this gold is money by its innate principle, or it is money by virtue of the law of Congress. Now, if it is money by its inherent nature, why does it require more weight at one time than at another? Or, if it is money by act of Congress, wherein does it differ from any other thing that Congress declares to be money ? If the law makes even gold of a certain weight to be called so much money, by the same authority so much silver, or so much copper, or so much nickel, or a certain marked piece of paper, can be declared to be so much money, for money only consists of that substance which the law declares shall be called money, and be u legal tender from one man to another. Now if Senator Harrison knows that money is what the law declares it to be, and that alone is money, he is acting the part of a demagogue when he says of the Greenbackers they are idiots, because they ask only the constitutional law governing money. If he is ignorant of the law governing money, then his ignorance should bar him from being returned to the Senate. Bui ho is not ignorant. He wants the power to issue money vested in the banks so as to enable them to contract the currency of the country at will, and thus, by controlling the circulation, the farmer’s products are doEreciated, his debts are doubled, laborers ecome paupers, and ruin stalks through the land at midday. With two-thirds of the real estate of Indiana under mortgage to bunkers, insurance companies, and foreign capitalists; with railroad freights eating up the grain and other products of our farms to transport them to the seaboard; with a steady contraction of the circulation of monsy while interest and taxes threaten foreclosure, why, I would ask, in the name ofi conscience, should the farmers and laborers of this State be asked to use extra exertions to return Ben Harrison to the Senate? He certainly has not one sentiment, one interest in common with the agricultural and laboring classes of this State, and when these classes go to the polls and \ote for the legislators to return him to the Senate, they are tightening the fetters about their limbs that your party has been forging for them for the last twenty-five years. The aristocracy of Europe declared at the close of the rebellion “that it was well to abolish slavery, for slavery carries With it the cares of slavery; but by controlling the money of the country they could control the labor of the country." Twice they failed to conquer us with the sword; but now, through the manipulations of Elect street and Wall street bankers and the United States Senate, they are in a fair way to subdue us at last. I shall stoer clear of your policy. Respectfully,

A Contemptible Recourse.

The policy to be pursued by Republican leaders in the campaign just opening is definite in one respect. The word has passed down the line from Mr. Blaine that the Prohibitionists are to be denounced on all occasions for seeking to ruin the Republican party by organizing a third party, thereby assisting the Democrats into power. The Prohibitionists are therefore to be charged with hypocrisy and with having no other real object in view than the extinction of the Republican party. It has required a great deal of nerve to make this unwarranted assumption, but Mr. Blaine has always been equal to business of this kind. Just why the Prohibitionists should seek an underground alliance with the Democrats when the latter are opposed to prohibitory legislation is not very clear, neither is it clear how the Republican leaders are to achieve anything of benefit to their party by this unjustifiable recourse. To assume that men may not be sincere in their distrust of existing political organizations; that they may not be moved by the best of motives in organizing a party of their own, and that Providence has specially decreed the immortality and trustworthiness of the Republican party, could ouly emanate from such a Pharisee as the bedraggled statesman of Maine. The principle underlying the assumption is wholly contrary to the spirit of American institutions. The Prohibitionists have at least proved their sincerity. They have at last brought the Republican party of Maine to its knees begging for their votes, and promising to go the whol« length of the Prohibition doctrine in return therefor. But their votes being refused, they are now subjected in that State to the charge, specifically made by Mr. Blaine and echoed in Indiana, that they have simply organized in order to strike some kind of an absurd bargain with the Democrats, whom they have persistently declared for years to be inimical to the principles they maintain. Altogether it is as contemptible a scheme as was ever conceived by a party in a despairing mood. But the scheme is just what might havo been expected from such a trickster ns Blaiue, the most conspicuous charlatan of his time.— Indianapolis Sentinel.

Cleveland’s Administration Well Liked.

General W. 8. Rosecrans, Register of the Treasury, returned to his desk this morning. During his month’s absence he has attended soldiers’ reunions in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, and has met a large number of people. In reply to questions he said: “The administration is well liked. The people think it is a great improvement on the past, are thankful for the present, and are hopeful of future results.” The Geueral is confident that the Democrats will carry Michigan and elect their Governor. He says he has never seen more enthusiasm among the young men of any party than he saw in that State.—Washington special.

FISHER DOHERTY.

POLITICS.

The Knights of Labor Actively at Work in the Political Field, Hera and Thera. And They Will Probably Upset Many a Calculation—Political Notes and News. Workingmen Taking Political Action. The workingmen throughout the country are talking a great deal about political action, and will no doubt do better than they have done heretofore in that direction. The 30,009 signatures in favor of Henry George's candidacy for Mayor of New York have been secured, a convention has nominated him, and his friends aud backers are making a vigorous canvass. A cigarmaker and Greenbaeker have been nominated for Congress at Albany, N. Y. The New York State Committee of the Greenback pariy met at Albany and nominated a cannida.e for Judge or the Court o:' Appeals. Gideon J. Tucker is their choice. The New Hampshire Greenback State Convention met with the Labor party of the State, in convention, at Manchester. The labor men and the temperance people at Toronto will try to form a third party. The workingmen of Allegheny County, Pa., are arranging to take a hand in politics, A full labor ticket will be put in the field at Evansville, Ind. The Industrial Labor parly of Babimore has put up candidates for city councils. A labor convention at Richmond has nominated the District Master Workman for Congress. In some districts the Greenbnckers and Republicans have fused, and in others the Grembackers and Democrats have joined hands. The Petersburg (Va.) Republicans have nominated a Knight of Labor for Congress. The Milwaukee Knights expect to elect members of their older (o the Legislature. A labor convention was held at Foit "Worth. The party there is called the Anti-Monopo-ly pa ty. The Greeubackers and Democrats have joined hands in the First, Thiid, and Fifth Districts of Kansas, and Jesse Harper is working the State. The farmers and wage workers around Minneapolis are working on the same platform. A Knight of Labor has been nominated for Congress in Muscatine, lowa, and will be supported by the Republicans. Two Richmond delegates at Trenton will he run for the New Jersey Legislature. The Democrats and Knights of Labor will unite on a preacher in the Salem, Mass., district. It is estimated that the labor organizations cf New York will cast 69,200 votes, and Henry Georg.' may probably be elecied Mayor. Congressional Nominations. Ninth Illinois District, L. E. Payson, Renublicau; Tenth Missouri, M. J. Rntchford, Labor; Twelfth Pennsylvania, John Lynch, Democrat; Fifth Illinois, Charles "Wheaton, Prohibitionist; Third Louisiana E. J. Gay, Democrat; First Ptnnsylvania, H. H. Brigham, Republican; Second Pennsylvania, Charles O Neil, Republican; Fourth Pennsylvania, W. D. Kelley, Republican; Fifth Pennsylvania, A. C. Harmer, Republican; Sixth Maryland, Victor Baughman, Democrat; Second Nebraska, James Laird; Fifth Missouri, William Warner, Republican; First New Jersey, George Hires, Republican; First Maryland, Thomas S. Hodson, Republican; Second Maryland, W. M. Martine, Republican; Fifth Maryland, W. C. Tuck, Republican; Seventh New York, J. F. Storey. Prohibitionist; First Connecticut, J. R. Buck, Republican. Fourth Wisconsin, John Black, D.-inocrat; First Wisconsin, L. B. Caswell, Republican; First Michigan, H. A. Robinson, Republican and Labor; Ninth Indiana, B. F. Ham, Democrat; Eleventh Michigan, S. C. Moffat, Republican; Third Wisconsin, Hugh J. Gallagher, Democrat, Seventh Wisconsin, S. N. Dickinson, Democrat; First Nebraska, Church Howe, Republican; Second Minin sota, 0. P. Bullis, Democrat and farmers’; Twenty-first P< nnsylvania, G. T. Rafferty, Democrat; Seventh Missouri! John E. Hutltou, Democrat; Third lowa, J. 0. Cook, Democrat; Third Tennessee, J. T. YVilder, Republican; Eleventh Texas, S. W. T. Lanahan, Democrat: Fourth Alabama, J. F. McDutt'ee, Republican; Eighth Illinois, Hiram 11. Cody, Democrat; Third Indiana. J. K. Marsh, Democrat; Dakota Territory, 0. S. Gifford, Republican; Culpeper (Va.) district, W. H. F. Lee, Democrat. Politics Down in Georgia. |Now York special.] Gen. Gordon, the Democratic candidate for Governor of Georgians in New York on a flying visit. In response to an inquiry regarding the canvass in Georgia, he replied: “We haven’t any. We are presenting the sin ular spectacle in Georgia of having only one candidate for Governor. So far it seems that the one we have is acceptable to botu parties. There is no parti ular excitement among us now, and our people are paying the strictest attention to their matirid interest;. Cur people are natural poliri i ius, but the necessities of our new conditions have made them pay more attention to their planting and ga'hering than in those days when they had somebody to work for them.” Gen. Beauregard on Mr. Cleveland. Gen. G. T. Beauregard of New Orleans, who is in New York, said to a reporter: “Mr. Cleveland appears to be making a very good President, and I think he will gain in popularity before his term expires. He has been handicapped by the Republican Senate in making removals. Civil-sen ice reform may be all right, but 1 tuink onehalf of the people wbo are in should be turned out before we should apply it. That would he no more than fair. Tbe South is having an era of piosperity, and our people have very little cause to complain. ” Ucpuklican Nominations in Nevada. The Nevada Republican State Committee met at Carson and nominated the following ticket: Governor, C. C. Stevenson; Lieuteunnt Governor, 11. C. Davis; Secretary of State, J. M. Donner; Supreme Court Judge, T. D. Edwards; Tieasurer, George Tu.ty; Comptroller, J. F. Hallock. Charges Against Commissioner Atkins. I Washington special.] Herbert Welsh, Secretary of the Indian Rights Association, proposes to prefer chaiges of bad administration against Commissioner Atkins, of the Indian Bureau, and Assistant Commissioner Upham. Welsh claims to have affidavits showing mismanagement at a number of Indian agencies.

ODD-FELLOWS AND KNIGHTS.

Sovereign Grand Lodge of OddFellows at Boston-Figures from the Reports. Great Aggregation of Knights Templar at St. Louis—The Parade and the Drill. Knights Templar. There was an enormous attendance upon the triennial conclave of the Knights Templar in St. Louis. The grand parade was to have taken place Tuesday, September 21, but rain caused a postponement to Thursday. The city was gorgeously decorated for the occasion. “Some of the decorations along the line laid out for the parade were magnificent,” says a correspondent. “Public buildings and business blocks were bright with parti-colored bunting. Flags and pennants billowed and flutt.red from their fronts, and high up at the tapering peaks of their lofty fiagslaffs. Masonic emblems and mottoes, fanciful figures, wrought out of bunting by the decorator’s skill, and wreaths of beautiful evergreen adorned the streets. The great Court House was surrounded with garlands of evergreen suspended from high poles, bearing the coats of anus of various States, from each of which graceful tricolored pennants streamed to the ground. Immense pyramidal pillars of evergreen, crowned with Masonic emblems, stood on either side of the entrances to the great building, and directly over the entrances were fixed semi-circular sunbursts of bunting and evergreens.” One of the events of the conclave was the drill and concert at the fair grounds, which was witnessed by 75,000 people. The commanderies participating were: Detroit (Mich) No. 1; DeMolay No. 13, of Louisville; Riper No. 1, of Indianapolis; St. Bernard No. 35, of Chicago; Louisville (Ky.) No. 1; Zion No. 2, of Minneapolis and Jackson No. 7, of Jackson, Mich. The city was brilliantly illuminated Wednesday night. “The Flambeau Battalion gave a parade and exhibition on the most prominent thoroughfares of the West End. Ivan hoe Commandery of St. Louis held a formal reception, which was largely attended, and proved a brilliant, affair, while all the local and visiting commanderies kept open house. A notable reception was given by Oakland Commandery of California, at which thousands of callers were entertained in the most magnificent style. Among tho tooted.commandpries which called in bodies were: St. Begird of Chicago, 200 Knights and ladies; Apollo of Chicago, 100 Knights; DeMolny, Louisville, 150 Knights and ladies; mul the Mary Commandery of Philadelphia.” The Ancient Arabic Order of the Mystic Shrine, one of the highest orders of Masonry, of whose members 2,0110 were in attendance upon the conclave, initiated 200 candidates at midnight of Wednesday, the close of the Arabic year. The ceremonies were conducted by the Medina Temple of Chicago, assisted by the Imperial Potentate, Samuel Briggs, of Cleveland, Ohio. Tho elaborate costumes, rich jewels, mystic emblems and rites rendered the services most impressive. Previous to the ceremonies the sbriners paraded the principal down-town streets, each temple accompanied by a band. The costumes and uniforms were of many varieties, the only article worn in common being the red fez. The two temples which attracted the most attention and received the most generous applause were those at Baltimore and Ch cago—the former appearing in full evening dress, the latter in legulnr Turkish costume, fez, crimson bag trousers, jackets, etc. Odd-Fellows. The annual meeting of the Sovereign Grand Lodge, I. O. O. F., attracted an immense number of people to Boston. The Grand Sire, Henry D. Carey, in his report, traced the growth of tbe order since its last meeting in Boston, twenty-two years ago, in 1854, with less than 10,000* New England members. The same territory now numbers 65,000 brethren. The order in general has shared this prosperity. In 1864, in the whole world, tho number of members was 137,263; to-day there are 517,310 members, with an increase in tho total revenue of over $4,000,000. The order is prosperous in foreign countries. Mr. Carey advocated the retention of the permanent location of the Grand Lodge in Baltimore. The figures of various Odd-Fel-lows’ beneficial associations show receipts for the past year of $1,050,905; paid t« the families of deceased members, $873,363; deaths, 1,752; members in good standing, 46,144; money on hand, $578,820. The figures cover forty-one bodies —all that reports have been received from. The Grand Secretary’s report contained statements showing the condition of the order in the United States, Canada, and foreign jurisdictions. The prospects of both lodges and encampments for the present year are very flattering. The report of the Grand Treasurer showed a balance on hand, on August 20, 1885, of $15,672; receipts for the year, $49,043; expenditures, $42,420; available assets of the Sovereign Grand Lodge, $78,096. The grand banquet given in Odd Fellows’ Hall by the Sovereign Grand Lodge was a very en oyable affair. Plates were laid for nearly five hundred persons. The gathering comprised the supreme officers and other high dignitaries of the Order, together with many ladies. Th* parade was one of the finest ever witnessed in Boston. I ifteen thousand OddFeilows and so ty bands were in line. A platoon of police led the way, followed by the Boston Cadet Band and Grand Canton Luzerne, of Lynn, one hundred men acting as an escort to Lieutenant General Underwood and his staff of patriarchs militant. Three divisions of patriarchs militant follow ed. This portion of the procession was its most marked and interesting feature, the brilliant uniforms, fine matching. skillful evolutions, and splendid appearance of th • patriarchs calling forth universal commendation. The main body of Odd-F’tllows came next in order. This part of the procession was made up of seven divisions. The p ocession passed in review before the Grand Sire of the Grand Lodge at Odd-Fellows’ Ball, before Mayor O’Brien at the City Hall, Gov. Robinson at tbe S ate House, and Lieut. Gov. Ames on Arlington street.

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

—Fort "Wayne was recently visited by a severe wind-storm, accompanied by a most terrific fall of rain and hail. The hail stones were tho largest ever known to have fallen in that vicinity. The damage to window glass was extensive, it being estimated that over five thousand panes were broken. The rain-fall was so great that the sewers could not carry away the water, and in several portions of the city they burst, tearing up the streets. The wall of the new St. Mary Catho'ic Church was undermined, and will have to be pulled down. The severe gale which accompanied the rain did not do any damage other than twist off a few shade trots. —An Indianapolis barber, who went to Lafayette six months ago, dropped into a saloon during the recent encampment, where he found the bartenders asleep. Thinking that somebody might rob the place, he concluded to take charge of the cash-drawer and deliver it to the proprietor himself, and at the same time play a capital joke on the liquor dispensers. Unfortunately for him the bartender awoke just as he was leaving the door, and spoiled his fun by having him arrested, and now a jury with no sense of humor, has given him a year in the penitentiary. —Until the recent rniu in the Northern part of the State, many of the marshes, heretofore coverod with one to four feet of water, had become dry, and were taken possession of l>y innumerable rattlesnakes, vipers, and other poisonous reptiles. In some sections they were so plenty that hunters could not reach their favorite shooting-grounds without incurring groat risk. It is also said that the snakes havo eaten nearly all the young waterfowl, as fast as hatched, and that none of the native birdß are left for tho fall sportsman. —Three young fellows of Centerville got drunk last week and concluded to have a little fun with one of their number. A mock trial was held and he was sentenced to ho hanged, which they proceeded to do by putting a cord around his nock, throwing one end over the limb of a tree, and then swinging him off. The cord was expected to break, but didn’t, and ns his companions were too drunk to rolenßO him, he came very near strangling to death boforo sober assistance arrived and cut tho string.

—A man employed on a farm twelve miles from Evansville, got up during tho night in his sleep, went to the barn and attempted to commit suicide by hanging, but through mistake tied a rope around his feet instead of his neck, and then jumped from the loft. The sudden stopping at the end of the rope awoke him, leaving little breath in liis body and almost soaring him to death. His cries aroused the household and he was rescued. Ho lias been a somnambulist for years, and suicide is always a hobby, but not when awake.

A negro minister who liaß been preaching at New Paris and Palestine for several months, has gone, under a cloud. His wife discovered some letters from another woman of Palestine, couched in most endearing terms and referring to their proposed elopement. Going to Palestine, where he was officiating, she exposed him to the congregation, which at once denounced him, and he and the girl disappoured the next morning. —Wm. H. liro.vn, of Allen County, ia the banner convict iu the northern prison. He has just been returned to that institution for the seventh time, after a vacation of six months, and is said to bo one of the most incorrigible criminals in the State. He rarely stays out of prison longer than the interim between the session of court, and always commits an olfense entitling him to a sentence of from one to three years. —Some time ago a human skeleton, with a fractured skull, was discovered under a tree in the vicinity of Hoover’s Station, Fulton County, and now the place is said to be haunted by the former tenant of the skeleton. Some of tho wiseacres of the neighborhood are trying to couple the story of the mysterious disappearance of abopkngent several years ago with that of tho newly-found bones. —A Knox County man was out at work with a clover-huller for a few days, and on his return his house was empty, wife, children, household goods, and a team of mules gone. Ho found a brief note from his wife informing him that she had “gone with another fellow; you may look out for yourself.” He hunted up his mules, but let his wife go.

—A man has discovered on his farm, near Puoli, a ledge of very fine yellowish gray stone, which is of excellent quality for building purposes. It is said to he of finer texture than the Bedford stone, and but little harder. It can be polished almost as easily as marble, and is plentiful and easily quarried. —A beautiful and accomplished young lady hanged herself at her home, near Armstrong Chapel, fourteen miles from Lafayette, recently. Bhe was engaged to bo married to a worthy young man, but had of late been subject to fits of melancholy. No cause is known why she killed herself. —A Rush County farmer says that if bogß are allowed to run in fields where the jimson weed grows abnudantly they will never have the cholera. He backs his statement by saying that he has followed this plan and never lost a bog by the disease, while his neighbors have lost hundreds. —There are more licensed fruit distilleries in Fioyd, Crawford, and Perry Counties than in any previous year. As (he apple crop is so large the market has' been overstocked and the fruit has been converted into apple brandy.