Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1890 — Typewriting. [ARTICLE]

Typewriting.

AjSood horse-meat dinner can now be had in Berlin for five cents. Americans will find •*.O fault with the price. A well-known countess in England paid a board bill for herself and twenty-three cats, over forty goats, two dogs and a monkey. The photographic newspaper is the next thing in journalism. Paris already has one which deals with all sorts of subjects in the most thorough manner. London is likely to have one vfery soon. In Austria the hangman is a man named Seigfried, who wears a black uniform, with a cocked hat and white gloves. He has never had to hang a woman, for the Emperor thinks strangulation is a punishment which should Be reserved for males. I To handicap the activity of some of the members of the British Parliament who are noted for the presentation of bills for the reformation of everything, it is proposed that hereafter all bills 6hall be printed, before intoduction. at the expense of the members who introduce them. It is a risky thing to receive into the bosom of the family a long lost son who has no strawberry mark to identify him. A Pennsylvania farmer has been victimized by a clever sharper, who personated the returned prodigal loqg enough to eat the fatted calf and secure $5,000 in cash. Then he lost himself again.

The only female company of regular State militia in the United States is located at Cheyenne, Wyoming. The company was organized to celebrate the date of Wyoming’s Statehood, and met with such great approval that it was decided to make the organization permanent, and the young ladies were mustered into the regular service of the State. A strange case, which has enlisted tiie attention of medical men, is that-of James Melville, of Concord, Mass. For twelve years he has lain upon a bed without changing his position. The bony portions of his body have united into one piece, and from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet there is not a joint responsive to his will. In the province of Perm, in Russia, there has just passed away a remarkable person, Stefen Aberjew by name, in his one hundred and tenth year. The village priest, who has known the old man for the last thirty years, states that he had never seen him sober since his eightieth birthday. Toward the end of his life he drank over a quart of corn brandy a day. He was never ill in his life. Among the veterans who attended the Grand Army reunion at Boston was John F. Chase of Augusta, Me., who ■received forty-eight wounds by the explosion of a shell at Gettysburg. His right arm was blown off, and his left eye torn from its socket, and he lay on the field two days before it was discovered that he was alive. He is now in comforable health, and receives a pension of $46 a month. It is said that no worm or insect is ever found upon the eucalyptus tree, or in the earth where the roots penetrate. A row of trees planted through an orchard or vineyard will cause insects, worms, or caterpillars to vacate ,that region. The branches of the eucalyptus used in the rooms or windows, or as decorations in dwelling-rooms, will cause mosquitoes, moths, fleas, and flies to leave the premises. Jonathan Hart, of HiUsboro, HI., put a loaded gun into the hands of his twelve-year-old son and told him to •shoot anybody that entered the mejon patch and stole melons. Then he disguised himself, entered the patch and began to cut a melon, just to see if the boy would do as told. The boy did, and Jonathan got the contents of both barrels and may die. His idea was that a miserable melon was worth more than a human life, and fate seems to agree •with him.

Speaking of South Africa, a traveler lately returned from there makes the assertion that it is one of the best countries in the world for profitable real estate investments. It already has beautiful and thriving towns, and it is destined to be the seat of a great and progressive English-speaking race. 'When he was there some years ago he was surprised at the extensive improvements, at the energy of the people, and the natural resources of the land. It is the place of places to put away a few thousand dollars to let them grow. In visiting the foreign cathedrals and art galleries one is often struck with the utter disregard of time and truth that the masters displayed. At the Cathedral of Blanbeuren, in Wurtemberg, there is a rich canvas portraying the impending sacrifice of Isaac by his father. The picture, in its tones and tints, is perfect. Isaac seems endowed with life, so natural is the effect, and Abraham, the patriarch is a masterpiece. But the father has reached forward in civilization several thousand years, and is about to blow out his boy’s brains with a fiint-lock pistol. It is easy to imagine the incongruity of the effect. The quantity of meat thrown overhoard into the Atlantic is very great, •ays an English paper. Out of 185 car-

goes of animals sent to British ports in one year from Canada, consisting of 61,092 head of cattle, 61,382 sheep and seventy-five pigs, 658 cattle, 1,170 sheep and one pig were consigned to the deep during the voyage. Of the 342 cargoes imported from the United States to this country, comprising 138,661 head of cattle, 30,317 sheep and seventeen pigs, 1,570 of the firtt and 857 of the second class of this live stock were thrown overboard during the voyage, thus numbering 4,856 animals which were pitched into the sea for the the year. In the rear room of one of the most celebrated burial shops in New York there has met for years one of the jolliest social organizations in that city. It is known as the Midnight Club, and is composed of preachers, undertakers, men about town, embalmers, and men of business, with a newspaper man for president. There are caskets and coffins of every size in the huge cases that line the walls, and usually several corpses are awaiting shipment or burial, but the surroundings have no stifling effects upon the spirits cf the midnight gathering, and if anything they add zest to the jokes that bubble up to the surface in the intervals of more solid conversation. Perhaps the most valuable fad patronized by London society is the system of ragged schools which has for its aim and object the education of the poor and neglected little boys and girls of the East End,. Linder the promise of shoes, jackets, dresses, hats and wraps the half-savage and more than halfstarved children are allured to ; theso schools, taught a number of useful things and trained in the use of books, clothes, money, soap and Avater. Four thousand teachers are regularly employed, most of whom give their services gratuitously. Special features of the system are the penny savings banks, which have a fund of about £5,000 collectively, and circulating libraries with a total of 34,917 books.

There are two opinions as to impeachment in the United States, arising out of the vague wording of the Constitution : 1. That an impeachment can be ordered only for crimes on which the defendant is also liable to indictment; and 2, that it can be ordered whenever the House thinks that a high officer has been guilty of acts which, though not criminal, should cause his removal from and disqualification for office. These questions are yet unsettled. Only two of the seven persons impeached before the Senate have been convicted; of these Judge Pickering was convicted on March 12, 1803, by a strict party vote. Judge Humphreys, who had hot resigned his office to become a Confederate judge, was convicted on JuDe 26, 1862, unanimously; but this impeachment was merely formal, that his office might be declared vacant. Our system of impeachment is out date, and probably will not be used more frequently in the future than in the past.

Many authors find the typewriter useful for copying; but anything that is to have the literary touch must be carefully worked out with the pen. And that is not simply a matter of practice—though to be sure it is possible that it may be. That is, if one were trained from a child to use the typewriter instead of the pen or pencil, the art of composition might come naturally to him when fingering the keys. But I greatly doubt whether it can be learned late in life. The typewriter, like many other inventions, is not an unmixed blessing; at the same time, every manuscript offered for publication ought to be typewritten. Would-be authors would find it to their advantage to go to the small expense which the copying of their efforts by the typewriter would entail. Editors are much more willing to examine such manuscripts than those which are written in uneven, scrawling and crabbed hands,' even if there be some individuality about these. It is not individuality that the average editor is looking for; it is something fresh, striking and original, and he is loath to take the trouble to decipher bad chirography on the bare chance of finding something worth his while. So my advice to the young men and young women who add so much to the Government’s postal receipts year after year is to have their productions typewritten. They will save postage, too, as a typewritten manuscript is less bulky than one done by hand.