Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1889 — Page 3

INDIANA HAPPENINGS.

KTENTB AND INCIDENTS THAT HATE , LATELY OCCURRED. An Interesting Summary of the More Important Doings of Our Neighbors—Weddings and Deaths—Crime, Casualties and General News Note*. - Board of Trade Organized. The business men of Frankfort havo reorganized the Frankfort Board of Trade by the election of the following officers and directors: Hon. D. W. C. Bryant, President; George A. Smith, Vice President; W. H. Hart, Secretary; Col. J. W. Coulter, Treasurer. Directors—D. F. Allen, W. R. White, D. A. Coulter, G. A. Smith, W. R. Hines, N. J. GaskiH, Milt J. Swann, W. H. Hart, E. H. Staley, D. W. C. Bryant, and G. A. Smith. The completion and great success of the natural-gas plant and the location of the Clover Leaf Railroad shops there is making the city experience an unexampled prosperity, and the Board of Trade proposes to add as many other substantial and legitimate industries as possible.

Minor State Items. —The town of St. Marys of experiencing a boom. —Joseph Bailey, 80 years of age, and one of the early settlers of Morgan County, is dead. —Joel Newlin, a Hendricks County farmer, while crossing a field, was seriously gored by a vicious bull. —The Governor has appointed Theophilus R. Kumler, of Butler County, to be a Trustee of Miami University. —Jacob Clark, of Goshen, while tearing down a barn on Friday, was struck by a falling beam and fatally injured. —The school trustees of Winchester have bought four acres of ground, and will erect a $50,000 school-house thereon. —Logansport has organized a Reform Club, with A. W. Stevens as President, which will continue Mr. Murphy’s work there. —The Portland Wind Engine Company, with a capital of $300,000, has been organized. The factory will employ 400 men. —Forest fires near New Providence have destroyed the timber on fifty farms. Everybody in the vicinity is out fighting the flames. —The completion of a large drainage ditch just north of Peru has reclaimed thousands of acres of extremely fertile swamp land. —Two hogs belonging ta George Craven, a farmer near Milan, died from hydrophobia in the most violent form a few days ago. —As a result of the Murphy meetings at Spencer, a temperance league club has been formed there with thirteen hundred members.

—Lazarus Bose, of Lagrange, who •died iiitestate, and wia belaived to be a poor man, left $50,000 in notes and mortgages in an old leather belt. —Emery Calvert, aged 22 years, son of Eev. Jesse Calvert, a prominent Dunkard minister, of Elkhart, fell from a train, and was run over and killed. Timothy Obenchain, who was injured in an accident on the Fairland Bailway at Morgantown, last August, has •compromised his $5,000 damage suit for S6OO. Jesse Crecelius, of Eckerty, aged 70, and Miss Ellen Cunningham, yet in her teens, were married a few days ago at the residence of the bride’s father, near Jasper. —A new G. A. E. post has been organized at EussellviWe, and is named Hazlett Post, in honor of a deceased soldier. There are seventeen charter members. —An enraged bull created a panic in the streets of LaPorte recently. Before it could captured several persons were knocked down and one young lady fatally injured. —Andrew J. Sutton, aged 62 years, an early settler of Elkhart county, and a veteran of the Mexican war, fell dead from heart disease. He leaves a small family in Elkhart. —Mrs. Walter Leeds has quit fighting the Michigan City saloons, her husband having promised to drink less vigorously. She says her only purpose was the protection of her own home. —Esther Innis, the 3-year-old child •of Mr. and Mrs. Lon Innis, living near Milroy, fell into a tub of hot water and was so badly scalded that she died a few hours afterward in great agony. —Samuel Eeist, an alleged clairvoyant, has created a sensation by locating boxes of old coins buried on farms in the vicinity of Goshen. His last discovery contained money to the value of $lO. —Adjutant-general Buckle says that •■the colored men of Crawfordsville cannot be mustered into the Indiana Legion, from the fact that Montgomery •County has now two companies of infantry. . —Hemlock, a small village near Kotomo, is excited over an alleged case, of hydrophobia. A hoy named Eads, who was bitten by a dog there recently aas been taken away in search of a madstone. —Jack Canatsey, residing four miles southwest of Martinsville, was kicked on the side of the head by a mule while tie was currying it. Mr. Canatsey was rendered unconscious and may not recover. '

-T - - -r —Jonathan Davee, who lives five miles northeast of Martinsville, was very badly crushed while loading a saw-log. A chain broke and the log rolled back over him. He is past sixty, and cannot recover. —Charles Schell, the Marshal of West Indianapolis, who shot and killed William McManis, a citizen, two months ago, was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary. The shooting occurred becanse McManis resisted arrest by Schell. —A Deputy State Veterinary Surgeon is investigating two cases of glanders among the stock of a farmer named Ham, at Mt. Etna. A valuable horse and a mule have already died, and another animal is ill. The farm has been quarantined.

—James C. Morgan, a carpenter, by the fall of a portion of the bnilding on which he was working at Indianapolis, was crushed to death. He was aged 38, and leaves a wife and two children. The fall of the house was due to a sudden squall of wind. —Charles A. Osborne, a brakeman on the Vandalia line, was caught between the bumpers of two freight cars, at CrawfordsvilLe, and had his left shoulder and arm crushed'- and the collar-bone brokon. His« recovery is rather doubtful. —Harrison Hogan, the old man who made things warm for the deputy sheriffs when they attempted to arrest him at his floating arsenal on Bull Creek, Clark County, is again free, having paid his various fines and compromised the trouble with his wife. —While J. Hamilton, a laborer, was engaged in equalizing staves at the factory of Johnson & Chenoweth, at Shoals, a heavy gum belt parted and was hurled against him with such force as to inflict serious if not fatal injuries. He has a wife and two small children.

—A jury at Vincennes gave Lee Buck, a prominent farmer, $4,000 damages for injuries sustained by reason of a switch engine on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad running into vis wagon while Buck was attempting to cross a street, at which there was no flagman stationed. —lt is generally conceeded that the growing wheat in Jackson County never looked finer, more thrifty, or in a more healthy condition than now. On many fields the growth stands fully two feet high and as thick as it can be. The indications point to an immense yield. —The citizens of Tipton are much enthused over the knowledge that the Lake Erie <& Western Railway Company will locate shops there, making Tipton the division of both lines. It is understood that negotiations are pending for forty acres of land east of town on the main line at SIOO per acre. —Leonard Hackney, proprietor of the Bissell Hptel, at Columbus, is in a critical condition from blood poisoning. A short time ago, while waiting upon his wife, who was afflicted with erysipelas, he scratched his hand, and in that way contracted the poison. He is the father of Judge L. C. Hackney, of Shelbyville. —The body of Leo Miller, aged 10, who disappeared from home at Evansville, on the 19th, was found recently in the waterworks reservoir. The body was swollen beyond recognition, but the clothing was identified by the heartbroken mothei. It is supposed the little fellow was claying on a float which was used in repairs on the reservoir, and, falling overboard, was drowned. —While boat-riding at Rockville, Willie Butterball, son of a widow, and Johnny Beadle, both aged 8 years were drowned; Glenn Tenbrook, an older boy was in the boat with them when it upset, and he escaped, but the other boys could not swim. The water was from fifteen to twenty feet deep. The dam of the pond was cut to get the bodies which were in the water about two hours.

—George Messick, an old and highlyrespected citizen of New Castle, was killed by being run over by a heavily loaded wagon. He was driving a team of mules to a wagon loaded with building material, and, by some accident, fell from the seat on top of the wagon down in front of it, two wheels of the heavy vehicle passing over his body. He was removed to his home where he died an hour after from the effect of his injuries. —A company with a capital of $750,000 has been formed at Bushville to pipe natural gas from the Hancock or Henry County fields to that city, a distance of twenty-five miles. The directors are Martin Bohannon, Oliver Posey, Theodore Abercrombie, William Churchill, Alonzo Link, Edwin Payne, George H. Puntenney, Theodore Beed, W. J. Henley, George C. Clark, and Claude Cambern. Mr. Puntenney is President; Mr. Henley, Secretary, and Mr. Payne, Treasurer.

—The largest gas well ever drilled in Delaware county was developed on the land of the Delaware County Tiand and Improvement Company west of Muncie about one mile. The capacity is estimated at 12,000,000 cubic feet per day, and the flow of gas is so strong that the drillers have found it next to impossible to pack it. Heavy weights pitched into the mouth of the six-inch orifice are thrown up through the derrick, a distance of one hundred feet with the velocity of a huge ball shot out of a cannon. Muncie is highly elated over the good results.

SPALDING AND ANSON.

THEY PROPOSE TO HATE A TEMPERANCE BALL. CLUB. Prospects of an Exciting Season on the Diamond Field—A Glance at the Playing Strength of the League Clubs—Notes and News of the Came. [CHICAGO CORRESPONDENCE.] The base-ball season is fully opened. Tho American Association commenced nearly two weeks ago. and the League began work on Wednesday last. From the present outlook the season of 1889 promises to be the most success.ul and interesting in the history of the national game. The Cnioago Club is in good trim to contest the League race with the New York and Boston teams. They have been playing all through the winter, and they enter the field in probably better condition than any of their rivals. The strugile between these three teams will be the event of the season.

The National League is composed of teams from the following cities: Boston. Chicago, Cleveland, Indianapolis. New York, Philadelphia. Pittsburgh, and Washington. Tho New York Club captured the pennant last year, and will make a strong pull for it this season. In the personnel of the team there is little or no. change. The Boston Club ha 3 been strengthened by the addition of Brouthers, liiohardson. and Bennett, the famous first and second' basemen and catcher of the old Detroit nine, which has drooped out of the League. Pittsburgh has been slightly strengthened by the addition to her ranks of Hanlon, the brilliant center fielder of last year’s Detroits. Barring this change, the club enters’ the field precisely as it was constituted at the close of last season. While there is not much danger that the championship flag will go to the Smoky City, her representatives on the green diamond are sufficiently strong to make it interesting for uny rival with which they may cross bats. Philadelphia also enters the contest without any material alteration in the personnel of the playing nine, the substitution of big Sam Thompson, formerly of the Detrolts, for Coleman in right field beiDg tho only change. It is doubtful if this adds any strength to the team. Thompson was onoe a mighty batter and a fine fielder, but since his right arm went Tame, more than a year ago, he has failed miserablyin both points of play. As a base-runner he always was a dead failure. On the contrary, Coleman, whom he supplants, is young, active, lithe, speedy as a base runner, a herd left-handed hitter, and a brilliant fielder. Harry Wright, it is generally conceded, has not acted wisely in making the change. But time proves all things. Let us wait and see. Old Harry has a mighty long head, and he may be right in this case, as he nearly always is. The playing strength of the Washingtons has been materially increased by the accession of Morrill and Wise, the old first-base-man and short-stop of the Boston Club, and, with proper management, the Senators will make it lively for all comers. The only change in the roster of tho Indianapolis team is the addition of Gotzein, the famous old Detroit pitcher. The club will probably occupy about the same position It did last season, unless there should be a better display of managerial work than has heretofore been shown. Cleveland, which has taken the place o,_ Detroit, is the "pony” team of tho Leagues and will in all likelihood bring up the rear of the procession at the close of the season. The players are largely young men. and light-weights at that They are, besides, weak in the box.

I hero have been some marked changes in the make-up ol the Chicago team. Baldwin and Daly. Anson’s lavorite pitcher and catcher the last two seasons; Sullivan, who has the last two years occupied left Held, and Pottit, a lino outfielder and great baserunner, have all been released. A Pittsburgh dispatoh reports Capt, Anson as saying, when asked for the reason for dispensing with the services of theso players: “They were dropped because we did not want them. In the future it will require something more than to be a ball-player to get to play on the Chicago team. A man must be a gentleman as well as a ballplayer. There isn’t a man left ondhe team that I anticipate any trouble from. Old Silver has been cautioned. He heeded the caution, and now looks like a useful man. I know I won’t have any trouble from him. The men we played today are all sober and steady. The battery is composed of two men who never drank a drop of liquor in their lives. The other men either don’t drink anything or scarcely anything. When you gat sober men on a team they are generally in good spirits and will do better work than better ball-players who drink, have headaches, and feel mean all around as the result of drinking. Besides, when players get so that they want to run the club it is time to drop them. Thoie lias got to be some head even to a ball club.” "How are you off for players?” "We are all right. We 1 have signed Hutchinson, Krodk and Gumbert, and will have Tener. They ought to be able to do our pitching. As catchers we will have Flint, Farrell, Sommers and Darling. “We would not sign Daly if ho was the only catcher in the world. He and Spalding couldn’t get along, and I wasn’t stuck on him. It’s his habits and manners and monkeying that we both object to. He is a demoralizing element; all the time in some mischief or trouble, and won’t pay attention to anybody. “Baldwin has fallen into some of Daly’s ways, and that’s one reason why he has gone. He is a great pitcher when he can get the ball over the plate; when he can’t, he’s no good. “Sullivan and Pettit were not released. They were not reserved and were not signed. Both men are good ball-players*, and will have no trouble in getting engagements. AVe didn’t like their ways and let them go. Hereafter wo don’t propose to be bothered by the habits of our players. There is no use of it. and we won’t have it. That’s just how the Chicago Club stands." There is a prevalent opinion that there was bad blood engendered between these four men and Anson through some row on the trip around the world. President Spalding, being interviewed on the subject, emphatically denied this, and said it was simply to strengthen the club that they were not kept. As Sullivan and Pettit were not reserved last fall Chicago has no claim on them. Baldwin and Daly were reserved, and while they have not been released they have been told by Mr. Spalding to look around and see what they could do for the season.

With Gumbert. Dwyer, Krock, and Hutchinson as regular pitchers, and Van Haltren and Ryan in the field, Chicago is well supplied with pitchers. With the exception of Krock, however, the rest are more or less of an experiment. There are certainly no Kee’es or Clarksons among them. When President Spalding, of the Chicago Club, was in Boston last week, so says a dispatch from that city, he spoke his mind pretty freely about the conduct of the Boston management in letting Morrill go and retaining Kelly. He regarded it as the height of folly. In the evening at a banquet he made a speech in which he said that he didn’t believe in allowing base-ball players to be owners of or interested in saloons or drinking'-places for reasons that must be obvious to everybody, and he intended at the next meeting of the League to offer an order or resolution preventing any player from being interested in a drinking-place. In fact he has already served notice on the Boston management that he intended to do so and they could readily understand what he meant by that.

NOW FOR A BOGUS CENSUS.

That we Ere to have a bogus federal census has beau certified in the appointment by the President of Robert P. Porter to superintend the statistics of 1890. The figures of~lßßo mutely denounce the war tariff. The remorseless effects of high tax& are the e spread forth for all to see. Another and a still worse showing would Sain the tariff-masters. Acoor.iingly, the ired man of protection, the delegate of monopoly, the private secretaiy of greed, extortion and quackery—the man who for a decade has drawn no dollar that was not a part of the tariff plunder, who has prepared no table of figuies that did not aim to support a lie—this person has been foist on the census itself. The Herald can not condemn General Harrison too harshly for an invasion so i-hameless of a domain that has hitbeito enjoyed the confidence of the people. A bogus census of the United States is shocking in the idea, What ills, then, may not grow out of the thing itself? Robert D. Porter the recipient of pay for all his tariff “arguments,” will proceed to build an array of figures which will prove that the farmer sells iu the daareist market and buys in the cheapest; that woolen mills prosper under a nigh tariff on wools; that wages rise under the effects of immigration, and that immigration declines under the stimulus of war prices for labor and goods. All of the fallacies, overthrown iu the census of 1880, will be carefully reinstated by the false figures of 1890. The free trader of 1892, delivering the speech in joint debate, must appeal for his factß to thb other orator’s figures. The huge enginery of monopoly and tariff, capable of purchasing tho election of a President'and a Congress against a popular plurality of 100,000, has laid sacrilegious hands on the census. A cheap fellow, without love of his country, will now proceed to tabulate for facts the impressions, delusions, snares and base fabrications of every respectable thief in the nation. The total will be the official enumeration of the people, their estate, their employment and their increasing prosperity. Carnegie, Jones and other old-time patronß of the cheap man may depend on a compendium which will exhibit a dwindling aristocracy, a tremendous growth of the well-to-do class, a country without tax, whose levy is a bagatelle, whose yeomanry and labor are constantly employed at fabulous hire, who*e men and masters are bound to each other by the unbioken rnd unyielding' ties of a homo market. The miner Will live in a palace; the operator will share the hovel. Tbemill-worker will go to Europe and do the smuggling; the mill-owner will reap a profit of 60 Jents a day, with long intermissions of loss. All this infernal scoundrelism the low tariff orator must qtiotein 1892, if he shall iare to appeal to the eleventh census.—» Chicago herald.

Death Rebukes the Spoilsmen.

The politicians of New York and tVasliington who are responsible for the removal from office oLPostmaster Pearsou of the former city probably are abashed by the sudden ending of the honorable man’s life whose last days they have embittered by an unjust act. Mr. Pearson had worked unceasingly, for years to make his offioe what it was—a model establishment for the carrying on of public business. It is believed that his life was shortened by the heavy cares of the position which he held. He was the uncompromiskig foe of the spoils system. The great postoffice was run on business principles and the head of it would listen to no dictation from politicians. Throughout tie Cleveland administration this worthy Bepublican remained in his place, notwithstanding the great efforts made by the Democrats to secure his removal. On President Harrison’s accession to power Mr. Pearson was promptly sacrificed in order that the New York postoffice might become what it was not before, an adjunct of the Bepublican party. The worthy public servant who had won his way to the top by many years of faithful posi office work* was turned out to make room for a politician with no knowledge of the business or special fitness for it. The assefflTbttds made, and apparently with reason, that this shameful return for the conscientious labor of half a lifetime greatly hasteued the course of the disease which caused the death of Mr. Pearson. The man whose caieer displayed the rare advantages to be gained by divorcing politics from the public offices lived only long enough to experience the unscrupulous methods of men in his own party. If his death was not hastened by this act, at least the two form a singular coincidence. President Harrison may well regret the leadiness with which he listened to the appe Is of the New York place-hunters. It would be difficult to conceive of any. thing moro likely to inspire in the minds of right-thinking people a hatred for the infamous spoils system than the treatment which has been accorded Mr. Pearson and its sad sequel. —Chicago News.

What Makes the Solid South.

It is solid Africa that makes the solid South. Northern papers and persens of superficial views are constantly urgng the breaking up of the “Solid South” at any cost, and blaming the while Democrats of the South for its so’idity, all the time reusing to recognize the fact that it is the solid colored Republican vote throughout the South that makes the white vote solid. Such papers and persons exhort the intelligent and educated classes of the South to vote for the candidates favored by the dull and ignorant for no other reason than that the words “Solid South” irritate partisan Republicans. Would it not bn better to advise the colored voters to divide? They have no interest in the protectionist policy of the Republican party. They have nothing whatever in common with that party, except a memory of emancipation and certain ruined ho? es. Is it not, then, move rational to try to break the solid African vote in the line of the African’s real interest?* The white Democrats would be only too glad to divide on sny one of a dozen issues if they were not ever face to face with a solid mass of voters, impenetrable to argument, who are led by Northern partisans to believe that thoy must never vote any but the Republican ticket. It is solid Africa that makes the Solid South, and not any hostility to the Union or to the Northern States. —Baltimore Sun.

THE NATION’S GROWTH.

FORTY-TWO STATES NOW COMPRISE THE UNION’S GALAXY. • How Star After Star Ha* Boon Added to the Flag;—Historical Facts Not Generally Known—The Union as It Was and Now Is —lnteresting Data.

TATES of the Union, on March 4,1789. when government under ’the Constitution began, numbered only eleven. North Clsro’lina formally came in on November 21, of that year, and Rhode llsland.then the only one awaited (of the original thirteen, ratified the Constitution on the 29th of May, 1790. Hod the tardy little State delayed much longer she might have been outstripped by a newcomer, for, under the act of March 6, 1790, Vermont had been formed out of a part of the territory of New York, and on February 18,1791, an act of ConSeas admitted her for the 4th of arch following. It may not be generally known that, although Vermont was thus the first new State added to the original thirteen, the act admitting Kentucky was really passed and approved a fortnight earlier than the one admitting Vermont.

Kentucky’s application had been two months earlier than the Green Mountain State’s, but the act admitting her was framed so as to take effect only on June 1, 1792, so that she came in second. Fifteen States joined in the election of l President Washington for his second term. As New York had set off Vermont, amd Virginia had set off Kentucky, so in December, 1789, North Carolina had Bet off Tennessee, and early the following year this Territory was fori uiallv convoyed to tho General Government, 1 and Dy It accepted. Six yoars later its people, I in convention, adopted a* constitution and ap- ! iflied for admission into the Union, which apJ'lication was promptly granted, to date from r une 1, 1796. Long before that time the Northwest Territory had lieen established under the famous ordinance of July 18, 1787. During the remaining years of the century this tract waa slowly settled, and an act was approved April 80, lStia, allowing the eastern portion of it to become a State on forming a constitution. This was effected on November 1 following, and full oomplianoe with the law on November 29, 1802, so that Ohio then became the seventeenth Stale. Nine years and more passed before the admission of another State. Louisiana had been formed out of the territory ceded by Franoe under the treaty of April 80, 1808. The following year this French territory had been divided by • Congress into two port's, tho southern being called the Territory of Orleans and the northern the District of Louisiana. Tho people of the former, early In 1812, formed a government under an enabling act passed hv Congress eleven months previous, and the act for their admission as the State of Louisiana was approved April 8, 1812. Louisiana was followed by Indiana December 11,181(1; by Mississippi Deoemfier 10, 1817; by Illinois December 3. 1818, and by Alabama December 14, 1819, making four new States In four successive Decembers. Indiana and Illinois, of course, had been formed from tlib Northwest Territory: the other two from territory ceded t» the United States by South Carolina and Georgia. Maine also quickly followed, March 15,1820, being formed out of a part of Massachusetts; while Missouri, which waa formerly the District of Louisiana, and had received its new name in 18X2, wcyi admitted August 10,1821. Hers was one of tho most memorable of all admissions, for the act authorizing it wail klso ontjtlcd an act “to Prohibit slatforw in certain Territories, passed Marcin 0. 1830. The memorable debates on that subject resulted in the appointment of a joint committee of Senate and House, which ropmtod a “resolution providing fox tho admission of the State of Missouri into the Union on a certain condition,’’ which condition was formally accepted. The nino years from 1812 to 1821 had thus been fruitful to tne extension of the Federal system, having resulted in the admission of seven new states covering a large area. THls activity in State-making waß followed by a lull lasting fifteen years, during which no State was added. But when tne flrßt naif century of;the Government under the Union drew to a close the event was prqface<|by the Qreation of two new States —Arkansas, formed outof the French Territory, admitted June 15, 1886 formed from the Northwest Territory, admitted January!®, 1887. Thus tho fifty years closed with twentysix States in the Union. Another long Interval followed before a new PfWiod of, State-forming activity. Spain had ceded FloHda to the United Slates under the treaty of February 22, 1819, and twenty years afterward, in 1839, its people sought admission as a State. But a contest arose over thp proposal to divide the territory for the purpose of ultimate admission into tne Union of East and West Florida. The wariness which had for many years existed regarding the admission ofa great preponderance of either Northern or Southern States prolonged this dispute, and meanwhile the great Northwest had begun to grow rapidly. The consequence was a double admission, the first in the history of the country—though now outdojip by the recent quadruple admission—the Territorial profiting by it being lowa and Florida. There was something very significant in the extreme southeast and the extreme northwest of the then populated regions being brought in together as if to offset each other. It happened, however, that the admission of lowa was not consummated till 1846, and meanwhile Texas came in ahead of her. The act of March 8, 1845, followed the usual formula except for Including two States instead of one: “That the States of lowa and Florida be, and the same are hereby declared to be, Stateß Of the United States of America, and are hereby admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever." The entrance of Texas, which occurred near the end of 1845, was exceptional as the first admission of an independent republic, and also, of course, in its being followed by war with Mexico. In 1848 Wisconsin came in, and California followed in 1850. Another interval of eight years then occurred without the admission of a State, succeeded by a period of nine years during which no fewer than ih States were admitted. These were Minnesota, in 1858; Oregon, in 1859; Kansas, in 1861; West Virginia, in 1868: Nevada, in 1864; Nebraska, in 1867. Then, after another nine years, came Colorado, in 1876. Finally, after an interval of thirteen years, we gee tho first oentury of the Union rounded out by four new States, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington and Montana.

OUR CENTENNIAL, A Notable Event in the History of American liberty. The centennial celebration on April 30 marks the most interesting and most Important event in the history of American liberty, The declaration and the war of the revolution which established it was the beginning of a new epoch in the history of nations, but all the labors and sacrifices of that time would have been la'vain had not a government been devised which har. monized to a great extent the conflicting ideas of State and national authority. After experiencing all the inconveniences of an Inadequate and powerless central authority, and staggering along under the confederacy for eleven years, the States finally adopted the present Constitution, though not without extreme reluctance. The framers concluded their labors in Philadelphia September 17,1787, and provided that the ratification of the conventions of nine States for the establishment of the Constitution should be sufficient as between the States so ratifying, so little faith had they that all the thirteen would accept the instrument. It was not until midsummer of the following yearthattbe consent of the requisite nine States was obtained, with the ratification by New Hampshire. Then followed Virginia and New York, making eleven States, and the Continental Congress appointed the first Wednesday of January, 1789, for the States to choose electors; the first Wednesday in February for those electors to choose a President and Vice-President, and the first Wednesday in March for the new Government to go into operation at the city of New York. The last-named day fell on the 4th of Miwi., That day has Jong been familiar to every American, and it is a puzzle to many minds now why thq 30th of April should be the anniversary oi the celebration aad not the 4th of March. If the latter day hod been fixed for this centennial observance all would have Understood it. and yet it Wquld not have been the proper day.