Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 October 1890 — BROKE OFF THE ENGAGEMENT. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BROKE OFF THE ENGAGEMENT.

A rich find cf silver is reported to lave been made in Calhoun County, Alabama, in ■what appears to be a mine formerly worked by Indians. The ore is mid to assay 60 per cent, of pure silver.

J. H. Spangler, of Fontano, Lebanm County, Pa., three years ago brought i sprout of a banana tree from Florida and planted it. It has grown to a Height of twelve feet and has leaves Ive feet long.

Gov. Mellette of South Dakota, with three other gentlemen, recently itarted out for a few days’ hunting. They became lost and nearly died of itarvation and thirst on the prairie. In in exhausted condition a cowboy found ;hem and conducted them home.

An Irishman of Company D, Third Maine, was eloquently describing the first battle of Bull Bun, in which he had been one of the promptest participants. A member of the Seventeenth Maine asked Pat: “Did you run?” “Faith, and I did,” replied Pat, “and the fellows that didn’t are there yit!”

J. D. Smith is a crippled tax collec-tor-of Charleston, Me. So great is the sympathy of his neighbors foriiim that, although he is able to move about, the taxpayers all help him to perform his duties in an effective manner, and men have been known actually to take him to where he could attach their property.

John French, of Des Moines, told little Willie Campbell that there was ao such locality as Heaven. Mrs. Campbell at once brought suit against him lor $5,000 damages, and she would not let up until she had spent $175 and the ;ase had been thrown out of court, ishe’ll be certaiu of it when she gets there.

A Piute brave walked into the Col- * * • .... r - . e 4V--fax Sentinel office (o see the paper printed. He was in full dress, with leather and linen duster. The foreman asked “Afraid-to-wash-his face” why he was not in the hop field. He said: ‘Me no like pickum hops, too much jtickum hands. My woman get $1.75 a day/'

“Our next issue will be our last,” writes a Georgia editor. “We are satisfied the people of this town can jet along without us, for we have been jetting along without the people for six months past. There are some subicriptions owing, but we will not collect them, as the citizens will soon need die money to defray the funeral expenses of the town.”

It is remarkable bow the French hold on to the monopoly of crystallizing fruit. It is not pi'etended that French fruits are superior to ours, or that they begin to compare with California products; but although workmen have been brought over from France for the purpose, the industry never seems to have gained a substantial footing in this country.

A number of Sfax fishermen, near Tunis, were sitting the other day round a fire which they had kindled on the shore, when suddenly there was a terrible explosion from the heart of the burning mass, one person being killed and several seriously wounded. It was subsequently found to be the explosion of a shell which had lain under the sand since the French bombardment in 1881.

Driven nearly to insanity by the cruelty of her wealthy husband, Frau Augusta Shley, the wife of a prominent Berliner, drowned herself and her 15-year-old daughter in a river near Berlin the other day. Before leaping into the water the mother and child wept bitterly, then kissed and embraced and died locked in each other’s arms, having struggled fiercely with the fishermen who strove to rescue them. A New Zealand paper reports something entirely new in the sporting line. At a horse race the course lay across the sands at Okaroa bay, and, through delay, the tide rose so high that the horses had to swim some distance before the winning post was reached. The result was that one of the animals, which would otherwise have been beaten, came off victorious, on account of superior natatorial powers.

The Indians near Elk Rapids, Mich., cannot be persuaded to cross Bass Lake in winter or summer, and although it is full of the best fish they never will cast in its waters. They have a legend that many moons ago, while fisning in the lake, one of their number was seized and borne beneath its dark waters by a great, big, horrid monster, just like the one claimed to have been seen this season by several parties. They tell this little story of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, with needless apology based upon her age and mental infirmity. Walking in a friend’s garden one day, she asked the gardener: “Have you ever read‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin?”’ The perplexed fellow slowly unbent himself. He was unwilling to wound the sensibilities of Mr 3. Stowe, and he wished to say the most for himself. And so he felt himself getting very red as he stammered: “Well, not exactly, ma’am. Not as you might say ‘read it,’ but I’ve tried to, ma’am.” lowa has passed a stringent tramp law. It declares that any male person sixteen years of age or over, who is

physically able to work, who is wandering about begging or idle and who can not show reasonable efforts to secure employment, shall be deemed a tramp, sent to jail and put to hard work. While in jail he shall not be allowed tobacco, liquors, sporting or illustrated newspapers, cards or any other means of amusement. The tramps will give lowa a wide berth.

James Bailey, of Birmingham, Ala., the king of voudoo doctors, is in jail. He worked the colored folk for miles about his home and was ruling things in great style. He might be a free man now. only he went to the house of a colored woman in Birmingham the other dav and got into trouble. Ho told the woman that a pot of gold was buried in her garden, but said it could not be fbund unless he had gold in his hands. She gaye him a pair of gold earrings to hold, when he decamped. She promptly had him arestel-

Bismarck is one of the largest landowners in Prussia, and he carries on successfully at his various estates the business of cattle-breeding, geesebreeding, distilling spirits, brewing and the manufacture of yeast. His cattle and geese industiies yield him an annual piofit of $3,500 to $4,500, and the annual income from his yeast business, the most important item in the ex-Chancellor’s income, is about $34.000. His jewels, pictures and plate represent a value of $500,000, and his total income is not far from $175,000 a year.

William F. Murdoch is the name ol a youth livipg near Lynn, Mass., who is bound to achieve greatness, though he has to create the opportunity himself. Taking advantage of the present frequency of train-wrecking, he put a rail across the Boston and Maine tracks the other night, and then, with great apparent bravery, saved a train from going to run over the obstruction. In trying io collect a reward he was detected and obliged to confess the ludicrous plot. It was a discouraging be ginning for the career of a hero,’ but it displayed a willing spirit. —2— -c at —l “Why is whiting or soap rubbed all over the inside of the windows of a new building?” was the question I put to a master builder in the doorway of a new structure. I always thought it was for the purpose of obstructing the view, so that workmen inside would not be abstracted by objects outside. “It’s a warning to the workmen for the protection of the glass.” was his reply. “Before the glass is put in the window apertures are used daily to pass boards, scantling and timber in and out. The glass does not show unless it is daubed with whiting or soap, and any workman would be liable at any minute to shove a board through it.”

It is likely that some of the money confiscated by Napoleon will be accounted for, with interest, by the present French Government. Jean Thiery, a merchant in the Rhine provinces, died in IH7G. leaving a fortune of 50,003 louis d'or in Paris, and 800,000 thalers in the "Venice Mint. His heirs, for some unknown reason, did not draw the money from the depository in Venice, so at the end of the last century Napoleon found it still untouched, and appropriated it to the use of his army. For the last thirty years the descendants of Thiery have been trying to find a way of recovering the 800,000, thalers, with interest. It is said that the French government lias considered their claim, and advocated its payment.

A Young American Recants Her Promise to Marry an English Barrister. The English friends of Miss Nettie Carpenter, the yqjjng American violinist, are much put out over the manner

in which she has upset the plans which they had been instrumental in making for her marriage to a barrister named Thrushfield, who moves in high social circles, and has been regarded as quite a catch. But it appears that Miss Nettie has ideas of tne old-fashioned kind, that the sentiment of love should precede the exchange of marriage vows, and at almost the last moment she broke off the engagement. Miss Carpenter has resumed her musical studies, and for the time the god of love has been banished from her presence. She has been for two years in England studying the violin, and has made commendable progress. The young lady is twenty-three years of ago. Her real name is Storey.

At one time Gen. Custer tamed a tinv field mouse, and kept it in a large; empty inkstand on his desk. It grew very fond of him, and ran over his,head and shoulders and even through his hair. ■ • 1

MISS NETTIE CARPENTER.