Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1890 — “Cast Up” [ARTICLE]

“Cast Up”

The height of Mr. Sullivan’s ambition as an actor is to play Richard 111. Unless his pugilistic instincts are under good control he might subvert the climax of that great drama by refusing defeat at the hands of Richmond and knocking him out. A peculiar torture is practiced in; the prison of Uskub. Thieves and forgers are chained naked to the floor and fifty ants are placed on the body of each person. It is said that the uneasiness caused by the ants roaming freely over the body is the most exasperating torture. Says the London Illustrated News: Americans are complaining that their heiresses all leave them to marry English peers, and a syndicate has actually been formed, with the motto, “American Girls for American Men,” to cneck what they call “free trade in heiresses.” * Excuses for schoolboys are sometimes oddly expressed. Here is the latest, brought by a tall, red-haired boy of about seventeen to his teacher: “Dere Cir—Pleze to eggcuce Henry for absents yisterday. We made sourkrout, and he had to tromp it down. Allso he had to Help butcher 2 pigs. Respeckful yuers, His Rap.” Joseph J. Jonasson, has been acquitted of the awful crime involved in the charge lese majesta. He got into a political dispute at a German restaurant and exclaimed, “I sneeze at the Emperor,” vhereupon he was arrested for sedition. A man who would use such a silly exclamation of contempt as that ought to have been convicted as a milksop. The pacification of France ii a policy that remains dear to the German hea/rt. Nothing so wins the good-will of a neighboring nation as an enlightened interest in what it is doing. The arrest of a German spy with plans of the fortifications at Cannes will prove to patriotic Frenchmen that Germany is not indifferent to their progress in the arts and sciences. A jury at Syracuse, a short time ago, found a verdict for the defendant, but the foreman blunderingly announced a verdict for the plaintiff, and the court recorded the same and gave judgment accordingly. When the mistake was discovered after the jury’s discharge the judge said he could not change the record. The case furnishes a riddle for j the lawyers. An utterly unprecedented accident 1 was caused by a freak of the wind in Paxton, Hl. During a heavy windstorm the spire of the Congregational Church was raised on the wings of the wind, elevated to a considerable height, and then plunged point foremost through the roof. The novel sight drew vast crowds of spectators, who were axious to behold a church turned wrong end upward. Last year Philadelphia built 11,964 housesaveraging in cost $2,172 each. In the same time New York built 6,722 houses, the average cost of which was $11,293 each; Chicago, 4,931, averaging $5,083; Brooklyn, 4,500, averaging $5,706; Boston, 4,431, averaging $7,312; Minneapolis, 4,355, averaging $2,006; Washington, 4,048, averaging $1,523; Denver, 2,741, averaging $3,942; Omaha, 2,498, averaging $1,083, At a London dinner recently an Englishman inquired as to the size of Texas: “Well,” replied an American, “it is about as large as England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, Portugal and Greece combined.” It became at once evident that the questioner not only disbelieved the statement but was indignant at what he regarded as an attempt to chaff him. The host managed to pacify him. The news that comes from Japan of the ravages of cholera is horrible. This scourge is always sufficiently terrible, but the virulence of the epidemic among the Japanese is hideous. Out of 1,732 cases in one district there were 1,138 deaths, in another district 961 cases and 57d deaths, in another 349 deaths out of 600 cases. At the time of the sailing of the China there had been a grand total of 17,068 cases and 9,790 deaths. This is as deadly as those great < plagues which swept Europe from time to time in the middle ages. : .The stockholders in the Eiffel tower enterprise are feeling blue just now in consequence of the steady diminution of their receipts. In the season now closing 665,000 francs were taken in. The cost of keeping the tower open was 350,000 francs and 300,000 francs were spent for repairs. Next season the small profit of this season will be wiped out, it is expected, and a con- j siderable deficit will appear in place of it. In view of this probability 168,000 francs were reserved for future use from the profits of the exhibition year. A couple who had not been long in Millville, Pa., decided at a social party that ji-“marriage in jest” would be productive of great fun; so they were wedded by a sedate-looking gentleman, who proved to be a justice of the peace. To their amazement they discovered ] that the knot had been legally tied. They determined to stand by the ceremony, and to make the alliance still more satisfactory, they were remarried

by the Rev. Clearville Park. The parties to this strange bridal are Charles Harris, of Bridgeton, Pa., and a young lady whose ante-nuptial name was Miss Nellie Butler, of Norfolk, Va. The pressure of natural gas wells in Indiana and Ohio is steadily diminishing, the diminution having amounted to between 30 and 40 per cent. Prof. Orton urges the imperative necessity of cities and States taking action to restrict the wasteful use of gas, but even the strictest regulation, he says, can not prevent the exhaustion of the supply in a few years. In this connection it is interesting to note that the Pennsylvania Company has taken the step of refusing to sell natural gas in Erie, Pa., except by meter, charging 22| cents per 1,000 cubic feet, in order to prevent waste of gas. No factories are to be furnished at any point on its line, as all the gas will be used sor 1 domestic purposes. A murder that is bold and original in conception and artistic in execution procures the murderer, it seems, no special favors at the hands of the jury. Arthur Day invited his wife to take a little pleasure trip to Niagara Falls. On getting there they strolled leisurely down to the bank of the chasm, and while gazing in silent awe at the mighty waters he gave her a push and down she fell into the awful abyss below. Here was a murder full of originality and of startling interest, but its merits—merits that would have excited the liveliest admiration of a De Quincey—counted for nothing with the practical-minded jury, and Day will go to the gallows like the commonest of murderers. The interest in lawn tennis is dying out in England, and it may be expected that the craze will soon decline in this country. Immense sums of money are, in the aggregate, spent for the accessories of the sport, and heads of families who are called upon to provide them will doubtless be glad to learn that interest in the game is on the wane. Tennis is not a great game for young people general'y, after all. It is very poor sport if not played well, and the nmber of people who have the activity and skill to play well is small. Besides, tennis is going the way of rowing, cricket, foot-ball and base-ball, and becoming a game for professionals and champions. There are better sports for the lawn than tennis, and among them prominently appear archery and croquet, old-timers which commend themselves highly.

We read that a Frenchman has manufactured a kind of biscuit containing all the ingredients necessary to support human life. “Portable food tablets," we understand is the name of the new product. Armed with this compact and convenient form of victuals, equally good, be it remembered, for breakfast, luncheon, dinner, supper, or any hybrid meal, one cm set off on long excursions with a security that he never had before. A young fellow with a stout pair of legs under him would be able to spend whole days traversing the hills, for example, without being compelled to seek an indigestible meal in some low-lying tavern. It is notorious that people out driving in the country always have to turn around and go home for an early dinner. The “food tablets” will change that. Every well-appoint-ed rural vehicle will hereafter contain a small tin box of this new human prqvender, which—together with a few oats for the horses—will annihilate time and space, and put the hands of the clock from midday to morning.

One morning some of the early risers made a discovery on the beach/ There had been a heavy sea and a strong tide during the night, and on the hard, -wet sand lay a corpse. It was that of a man, clothed in a bathing suit. He lay face downwards, one leg drawn up, and his head was covered with seaweed. News of the ghastly discovery spread quickly, and in half an hour there were five hundred of us around the body. No one had been drowned off our beach, but he might have come from above or below. After a little time a man w as found willing to do the “bossing, ” and he sent a man after the coroner. He was about to send another after a doctor, when* a very practical gentleman from Pittsburg wanted to know if a man who had been dead for two or three days could receive any substantial benefits from the visit of a doctor. Then it was concluded not to disturb the doctor, but a very practical woman from Syracuse came forward and demanded to know: “Are you fellers going to roll him on a bar’l or no ?” There was a move made to get a barrel, but again it was concluded that it would be only a waste of time. “Why don’t somebody rub him?” asked one. “Send for the life-guard,” added another. “Someone go for camphor,” put in a third. Nobody moved, of course. The only thing to be done was to wait for the coroner, who lived about two miles away. Meanwhile it was in order to wonder who he was, how it happened, and all that. Many of the women shed tears, and a man from Canada started to pass around the hat. We had been surrounding the body for three-quar-ters of an hour, and some one had just remarked that the coroner would soon be there, when the dead man suddenly straightened out his leg and sat up. Then he pulled the sea-weed off his head, threw up his arms and indulged in a yawn, and started off up the beach with the remark: “Mighty queer that a fellow can’t take a sun bath without evervbody making such a fuss about it.”— lietrotl Free Frew ‘ ,

Twenty-third Illinois Volunteers, known during the war as the “Irish Brigade,” she accompanied him, sharing not only his campaigns but also his fate as a prisoner of war. She was appointed Pension Agent by President Cleveland, and during her four years of service disbursed about $30,000,000. Mrs. J. Sanford Lewis is by birth a A irginian. She is a fine business woman, and not only succeeded in retrieving a lost fortune after thej fire but in accumulating one much larger than the original. Being able to command her time, as her private fortune is ample, Mrs. Matilda B. Carse has for many years devoted her entire time to philanthropic effort.' Mrs. Carse is a woman of splendid energy and indomitable perseverance, and much of the most striking and successful work of the W. C. T. U. is the result of her effort. Mrs. Walter Q. Gresham is a native of Kentucky, as were her parents before her. She was brought up in the