Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 November 1890 — Page 6

OUR FEAST-DAY. BY HIUS CHASE. ® Welcome,thou grand old FeastLie idle in the soft. Shorn of their splenAgain the lanes have glimmered With farewell goldAnd gentian fringes The tinted olive sod. But thou, 0 grand old Feast-day, Thou hast tm need of these To draw us to thee. Though thou bring Gray skies and leafless trees— A hundred welcomes to thee! Ye altar fires of home, Shine out, and kindred gather From sea to mountain dome. So hail thee, grand old Feast-day! The wind-swept orchard boughs Have flung their ruddy gold and green Upon the earth; the mows Are rich with grain; the furrows Sleep ’neath the sun’s veiled ray— And all the land is glad and greets A new Thanksgiving Day.

THE TURKEY’S LAST COBBLE. EHOLD me now, A Turkey with a Time, 9o’clock a. m. '/ft. m, WBysp. m. Ml x>l> ) 1 What will I be? j|M ■' r J A wreck; A total wreck; " A travesty on ani'JnNKKr mated organism; A'mex, A weird, bewllderjg; Entanglement of bones And gravy; A hollow mockery; With every wad of stuffing Eternally knocked out of It! A ghost, Clothed In the Bony relics of Its living entity! A ruined destiny Carved out To stand a monument To appetite! A gobbler with his gobble Gone to those Who gobbled in another key! A But hold. This is Thanksgiving Day!

SAUCE FOR THE TURKEY.

SCENES IN THE CRANBERRY MARSHES OF WISCONSIN. 'lmmense Tracts ol Hitherto Worthless Lands Devoteil to the Production of the Thanksgiving Berry—How and Where It Grows—Winnebago Indians the First to Pick the Fruit—Amusements and Housing of the Harvesters Ituring the -Season.

TTI. HOSE who have =WI W never taken tin* trouH f ble to study cranberJ I\l rv culture have no B . intelligent concepts ■ li k |o, ‘ the P oss ibiliA, 11 ties of this agricul- ' /ftural industry, its Jr present importance, \vy and the methods adopted to gather in the crop and lit it

for those who prepare a delicious saucerelish for a Thanksgiving dinner. It is over twenty-five years since the golden discovery was made .tliat there is money to be made in cranberries. During these years fortunes have been made and other fortunes expended to place what appeared worthless marsh in a condition to bear fruit. The little city of Berlin, Green Lake County, YVis., writes a correspondent of the Chicago Tribune , is the center of a cranberry-producing area that turns out thousands of barrels of fruit annually, which fact has given the place the name of “Cranberry City,” a mamc which it proudly wears in contra•distinction to its sister city, Ripon, whose prosaic pursuit of late years has been the growth of cucumbers, and is therefore dubbed “Picklcvilie.” ■ At first the men who made money out of cranberry culture were those who had great holdings of wild marsh, surrounded with tamaracks and garnished with a wilderness of sage brush and ihuckleberry bushes. The crop blossomed in wild neglect and tbc fortunate possessors of these tracts found themselves taking off from $20,000 t 0550,000 in clear profits annually without spending a dollar except tp the, pickers. Then the hunt began for marsh land that would grow cranberries. Many were succesful in finding from three so ten and fifteen acres tracts, and in numerous instances pools were formed so that larger areas might be purchased and parceled out. The small growers went to work planting vines and have now the satisfaction of reaping ample returns. Fortune has been more fickle with the big growers. The science of the culture was pushed too far, perhaps. The great canals that were dug for flooding purposes and the expensive pumping machinery that was put in have not had the effect of producing a corresponding increase in the crop. Cran-

PICKING CRANBERRIES.

terries are like Indians, they are not benefited by tco much civilizing. The tame marsh cannot bo relied upon to iVield every year. Aside from the “natural intentions” of the berry it is threatened with destruction from various sources —heavy floods, worms, blight, scalding, drought and early frosts being among the dangers; so that a man who burdens his mind with the probable fate of a crop from the time it blossoms through the summer season is not likely to be at peace with himself. However, there is rarely a year when there is a general failure of the crop, andeachsuc-

ceeding year witnesses a grand rally of men, women and children from a radius of twenty miles to the cranberry fields. The pickers are generally enlisted from the foreign element, although there may be seen a liberal sprinkling of the native Americans and occasionally a small band of the Winnebago Indians. Fifty years ago the Indians were the only ones whoappoared on the cranberry exchange, dumping a few b’anketfuls of the berries on the market, and. after spending the proceeds in beads and “benzine,” went off whooping. Now they are

TICKERS’ SHANTIES.

rarely seen, but when they come into camp they hunt the festive berry fast and furious daytime and beat the tomtom at night. They are great gamblers, and it is not unusual to see a “buck” get away with all the tickets at the close of the harvest. The mistaken idea may not be so prevalent as it was five years ago, but it is well enough to repeat that cranberries do not grow on bushes, like blueberries, nor do they He supinely on a vine that trails itself along with runners. It is the fruit of a growth that reminds one of tough-jointed grass or grass stems whose appendage consists of small elliptical leaves. You may tear a vine into fragments, scatter tho pieces 'to the four

winds, and tread them into the soft marsh, and they will return good for evil by spring up and bearing fruit. In the spring these broad acres of swamp land are a literal matting of cranberry vegetation, covered with a tiny white blossom. If one out of ten of these blossoms, or even one in a hundred, runs the gaunlet, a good crop is assured. The harvest begins the first week in September and generally lasts from ten days to two weeks. At the appointed time a motley tide ol humanity sets in toward the cranberry

A FIGHT AND ITS CAUSE.

marshes. They are drawn by teams hitched to lumber wagons, and generally carry baggage and provisions enough to last them through. On the high land bordering the marshes are erected rows of one and two story shanties, and into these the pickers are stowed. Sometimes tents are necessary to shelter this overflow. In a few days everybody knows his neighbor, and a labor commune is established. Fun and hard work are equally mixed. It is a welcome change to these people who, for a few days, get out of the humdrum rut of their existence, see new faces, crack jokes, dance and sing, and add a small sum of money to their scanty savings for the winter. It is an interesting sight to see the pickers go to work in the morning. Everybody is d/essed for the job. On the heads of the women, are i broadbrimmed stt ayv hats tied down over the ears, suubomiets, shakers, or the clean white linen! CSfcthes, after the style of the German market women. An old jacket, a calico skirt, and'a heavy pair of shoes and stockingsicomplefe the costume. The men wear anything that “wpn’t hurt,” but all, by previous experience, know enough to keep dry wraps in camp in case of a wot sinking marsh or a sudden shower. Evfcry one carries a large shallow milk pap, Ail'd each picker is provided with a slatted rectangular box holding exactly a bushel. Arriving at the ground tp be picked t-he hands are ranged in airow, under the direction of a boss to every forty flickers. The boxes are thrown on the; ground, the pickers, get on theiruands and knees and commence to fill the shallow pans. It is in this work, sis’with all other kinds, some grow wonderfully skillful, and with deft fingers "rhtifllng ’ through the vines, like" a comb, fill their pans quickly, while others are clumsy and slow. As thfey are paid by the bpx, the earnings vary accordingly. As the lino of pickers advance across a .“forty” it grows irregular, and keeps the bosses

poking about among the vines to see that no ground is being neglected. Sometimes disputes arise over the rights of a particular swath and a fight ensues, when all business suddenly comes to a standstill until the war-cloud passes away. Pretty girls are also the frequent causes of a cranberry fracas, the cases being numerous where two “bloods” ! insist upon protecting the same maiden from the Poygan or the Black Wolf country, who enjoys the reputation of being the best dancer on the marsh and at the same time is well able to take care of herself. A rough-and-tumble fight is a diversion, and the people like it. But the picking goes on just the same. Portab.e tramways are laid, and the boxes, as fast as filled, are run on small cars to the warehouse, where they an 1 piled up in long tiers to dry, cure, and ripen thoroughly. When the berry reaches the market it is generally red, but when it is picked it is nearly white, with a faint rosy tint just beginning to show. As each picker hands over his box of berries he receives a ticket which he can “cash in” for the current price, usually from 5 to 6 shillings. They earn from SI. 50 to S 3 a day. The present method of handling the crowd is much better than it used to be when every one kept his pickings in bags until measuring-up time at night. Then the whole crowd would assemble about the boss on the marsh and wait their turn. The soft spongy ground under the pressure of the crowd, increased by the weight of the bags of berries, would sink and leave everybody up to their shoe-tops iu water. Now the harvesters rarely get wet. The large number qt j marshes prevents the massing of so many people as formerly. If a man secures 500 or I,<XX) pickers he considers it a great crowd, while ten years ago it was not unusual to see 2,500 or 3,000 at one time. - . > ■ t—' It is a btantifal sight. Stretching away for miles lie the cranberry fields, , perhaps at some past age the basin of a placid lake, now covered with verdure, * reflecting rich colors in the sunshine and teeming with life. From the camp, i nearly a mile away, you catch the shouts j

MERRY-MAKING CRANBERRY-PICKERS.

of exuberant ones, and occasionally the glitter of a pan as it |s whirled high in the air after a trip to the box. But what sets one. to thinking m6St is the bobbing heads with the white linen, Silverings. These are the Polish or German women, working hard to pay tho op the church, to add a few more to the small but well-cultivated farm; >to clothe and educate the ohJWrqm or to augment the “roil” alrea&jr’.iifO an old stocking or-truuk. - ’Many of these foreign-born picners are well-to-do, and having no faith in banks, hoard their money in hiding places at their homes. They are a good class of citizens to cultivate thp wasto places, and they have taken up a great deal of land in this part of the State. As the day draws to a close* the tired ones drop out and the older ones prepare to go back to the shanties. The day’s work is talked over, supper is eaten, the crowd begins to scatter, and the evening fun begins. Various kinds of hawkers appear. The kodak man sells his views and the “sutler” disposes of his goods Liquors, wheels of fortune, and other harmful attractions are forbidden, but music fills the vacancy, and at the first rasping notes of the violin the boys and girls are ready for the dance. It is a free-for-all, in a rude pavilion, at 5 cents a dance. This dancing will compare with anything North or South in its local character. The old folks look on for awhile and then go to bed, while the youngsters keep the ball rolling until nearly midnight. Such joking, swinging, flirting, love-making, and merrymaking were never experienced under tallow and kerosene, unless at the old quiltings and corn-huskings of early days. A few days later the crowd breaks up, to know each other no more until another harvest. As the Thanksgiving diners lift a dainty morsel of jelly that is destined to

join a fragment of turkey, they can tUiik of the’ craiibcrty’s marshy birthplace, and the" dream of Jollity through which the berry passed before it was hurried tojnarket to be c'ooked, sugared, and.squeezed for their benefit.. „ , „ , There is something crooked about the law of retribution. It isn’t the woman just in front with the big hat who gets her feci stepped on-when the man goes in pursuit of cloves. , A lover differs .from some,*roedical prescriptions in that, he cannot very well be shaken befdre fid is taken. ' I— v- “—f*wis w„ People get so well acquainted with their oxyn faults that they don’t mind thou* existence.

THE CRANBERRY'S APOTHEOSIS.

WEARY OF IRON BARS.

ICEMAN O’SULLIVAN MAKES. A CONFESSION. Be S»ys He Lnred Cronin to the Fatal CvCtage, supposing Only that He Was to Be Hade to Give Up Some Valuable Papers t» His Possession^ — Story of the Murder. [Chicago dispatch.] The cabal of Cronin conspirators has been broken. Patrick O’Sullivan’s love of liberty Is stronger thau his allegiance to the Irish Nationalists. He has made a statement of his connection with the murder of Dr. P. H. Cronin, and by so doing has thrown light in dark places. He is angry, defiant and determined.' 'He is serving a life sentence in the prison at Joliet. He says that he is guilty of nothing more than aiding in a- conspiracy to identify an alleged British spy and to secure some “papers.” O’Sullivan now realizes that the securing of papers was not the chief purpose of tho conspiracy and that Cronin was not a spy. A few days ago an intimate friend called upon the iceman and was furnished with the facts which are the cause of O'Suliivan’s great confidence that he will be given his liberty. The story was told with every indication of sincerity, and may be accepted as the first break in the oath-bound compact. O’Sullivan says that he never was involved in any conspiracy to murder Cronin. He was a member of the Nationalists. and it was common talk among the members that Cronin was a British spy and an enemy to the order. He believed the statements made th him, and as an ardent friend of the Irish cause he came to look upon Dr. Cronin as a traitor to the people of his native land. He was told that Dr. Cronin cou'd be identified as a British emissary, if necessary, and that upon his person could be found papers which would ndt only prove him to be an enemy of the Irish Nationalists but which, unless secured, might be used as evidence against prominent Irishmen. Drawn on by the enthusiasm of his oathbound associates, O’Sullivan says that he entered into the conspiracy with Daniel Coughlin, Martin Bourk, Patrick F. Cooney, and others whose names he will give at the proper time. Drniel Coughlin had absolute charge of the matter and the others acted under his instructions. O’Sullivan does not tell who was next in authority above Coughlin. The iceman says that he was not acquainted with the inner workings of the conspiracy. He was the dupe. It was he who was assigned to look after the securing of the Carlson cottage; he was sent to make a contract with Dr. Cronin to furnish medical services for his (O’Sullivan’s) employes at the rate of SSO a year; he was the one who was to send a card to Dr. Cronin's house in order to inveigle the victim into the ambush of the murderers; he was the man forced out into the open while the others remained under cover and perfected their plans of assassination unknown to him. O’Sullivan says that up to the very hour of the murder he was in ignorance of the real motive of tho preparations which the conspirators had been carefully making for seventy-two days. He knew that the Carlson cottage had been rented and furnished by Martin Bourk, knew of the other arrangements for leading Dr. Cronin into the e But Coughlin repeatedly assured hint pbfit the intention was to get possession of Cronin and examine hint for documents which were valuable to the Irish cad3je and which would prove the treachery of the man who professed to be a friend of Ireland. was at the cottage on the nrghfcoff May 4, 1889, but he- was not in tlie.frbnt room when the fatal blow was struck.'’

The mysterious driver of the white horse- had been sent to Dr. Cronin's residence, carrying one of O’Sullivan’s business cards. The iceman either does not know or refuses to give the name of the driver. The remainder of the narrative can be put in O’Sullivan’s own words as ho has told! ft within the last few days: “There were three of us in the front room of the cottage at 8 o’clock that evening, safd O’Sullivan. “They were Martin Bourk, Patrick Cooney and myself. We- were waiting to see- whether our plan was successful. I was feeling prettjy nervous, for I did not lik e the way Bourk and Cooney acted. I did not see any weapon, and I will always say that I did not go there that night to commit murder,. When the buggy bringing Dr. Cronin drove up the street toward the cottage I weakened and began to realize that there might be trouble—a struggle at least —and so I went out through the back room and down the rear stairway. I stood back of the house trembling with horror as I heard the sounds of the struggle from within.” O'Sullivan’s story in regard to being in the back yard at the time of the killing is corroborated by the testimony of Mrs. Carlson and of the German washerwoman, who saw Dr. Cronin enter the cottage. Both of them testa fled at the trial that some one was standing at the rear o-f the house at the tiimeef the murder. In continuing his story O’Sullivan says that after remaining outside of the house for a time, undecided what to do, ! he went in and found Cronin lying, ap- j pfirentfy dead, on the floor of the front | room. The walls of the room were spattered with blood and there was a pool of blood on the floor. Dan Coughlin was in the. room. He had been waiting up the street and had come in at the front door just after Bourk and Cooney, “the Fox; p had completed their bloody work. As OUSullivan came in the back,.wav Coughlin walked up to the body of Dr. Cronifi lying on the floor and began kicking the dead man in the head. O’Sullivan caught hold of him and told him to stop. Coughlin paid no attention to the iceman, and continued stamping upon the head of the lifeless n;an. Then O'Sullivan drew a revolver and said: “You scoundrel, you have killed this man, and now you Ar.e kicking his dead body. If you don’tstop, I’ll shoot you.” Coughlin dUt of the room at the i>oint of ijdtSslllvan’B revolver. O’Sullivan left '<the house and had nothing to do with putting the body into the trunk and disposing of it. It was his understanding at the time- that Martin Bourk struck the fiVst blow, which dazed and stunned the yfctinj, although it did not prevent him from struggling UDtil he received jjss other death wounds. O’Sullivan will swear, upon the witness-stand, if an opportunity is given him, that he did not furiilsh the weapon with murder fj* committed, and that u one of hid Sq-picks was used it was without his knowledge The. mysterious wound upon: the back of Cronin’s head was caused by a kick from, Coughlin after the victim was dead.

The above Is, to substance, the story told by the Lake View iceman after nearly a year of penitentiary reflection at Joliet. It is the story which wished to tell the jury whon he felt the colls of circumstantial evidence tightening dbout the defendants in the trial. He says that ho placed all the facto ** the disposal of tho attorneys and fait they told him it would be unwise for him to testify. Hopes of acquittal were held out to him, and so, doubting and fearing, he kept quiet under protest If he had been placed on the stand tha whole mechanism of the C4an-na-Gael conspiracy would have been laid bare. Some one might have gone to the gallows, but O’Sullivan thinks he would have gone free. His own life and liberty, his little prbperty and his many friends in Lake View are dearer to him just now than any oath-bound obligation t, men who, as he claims, deceived him.

The prosecution in the Cronin case could never understand why O’Sullivan had been so indiscreet in making his contract with the doomed physician and then sending his busiuess card by the driver, thus furnishing the strongest kind of circumstantial evidence against himself. His present statement, if accepted as true, furnishes the explanation of his conduct. Ho did not observe the secrecy to be expected of one who waa planning a murder which was sure to be investigated thoroughly. When Dr. Cronin had been missing over night, T. T. Conklin, with whom Dr. Cronin had boarded, picked up O’Sullivan’scard from the mantel an'd went out to the Lake View iceman in regard to the physician’s disappearance. It is claimed by O’Sullivan that if he had been a part of the conspiracy to murder he would not have been so careless in having his identity revealed to the Conklin family; neither would he have selected the Carlson cottage, only a few feet from hi’s own house, as a safe place to do the dangerous job. O’Sullivan was careful in his endeavor to keep suspicion away from' Cronin’s mind, but he did not cover' up f his tracks, and he thinks this fact ought to speak eloquently in his behalf. It. is certain that tho State’s Attorney could not satisfactorily explain the Iceman’s boldness in carrying, out his part of the deeply laid plot, while the others were so quiet in their operations.

O’Sullivan’s verbal confession has been in the hands of certain well-known gentlemen for several days. Some of them are interested, at least in sentiment, in the identification and punishment of all who were connected with the groat conspiracy, which had its origin, they say, with men whose political and social station was far above that of jpoughlin, O’Sullivan, Cooney, Bourk and Kunze. One of them, who is acquainted with tho O’Sullivan version of the tragedy, said last evening: “At no time did we believe that O’Sullivan was in the room at the time of the murder. He was in the back yard crouched against the building and cowering with fear. He lost his nerve when he saw the buggy approach. When he saw Coughlin kicking the lifeless man he drew his revolver and attempted to aid the victim of the murder. We believe O’Sullivan’s story, but whets I picked up a morning paper and read that he was anxious to make a public statement on the witness stand the news- seemed too good to be true. I only hope that O’Saltivan will speak out and name the men who used the iceman and the others as their deluded tools. ”

Short but Good.

In a hospital at Washington! is a patient who is suffering from the effects of eating raw pumpkin. The Statistical Institute of Rome announces that 63 per cent, of ail Italians are unable to read and write. Ax Atchison candidate worked so> hard that he lost twenty pounds during the canvass, and then got beaten. The most abiding results of sunstroke are all referable to impaired functional energy of the cercbro-spinal system. Before the invention of the telescope an object upon the moon’s surface fifty miles in diameter could not be teen. An orchardist at St. Helena, Cal., has obtained a profit of more titan $1,600 from one acre of apple trees this summer. A pair ©f bantam chickens were sold at the London Crystal Bajace for SSOO, which was almost twice their weight in. gold. Society is dull in Leavenworth because of a. lack of young men, and dull in Topeka because of a scarcity of young ladies. A bird is. one of the most wonderfully organized of all animals, and almost the whole of Its organization is arranged to. facilitate flight. Asafocdita is a vegetable,. not an animal, product. It is prepared from theToots of a extensively grown in Persia,, Bdoocmstan, and Afghanistan. The telescope enables us to. measure the invisible by first making it visible; the spectroscope enables us to, measurethe invisible without making it visible. The use of India rubber- erasing pencil marks was first suggested in or just prior to 1753 by an academician named Magellan, a descendant of the, great navigator. There are mote than 20©vOOO persons ill Italy who inhabit dark collars, and 4,965 communities which are so. poor that meat is never seen on the- table, and bread only on Sundays. Swifts and swallows fly ©very year from England to Southern Africa and to the Moluccas, and the restless, wander ing flight of various oceanic birds is still more surprising. The Aryan race has proved itself immensely superior to the Semitic in its capacity for political organization and for passing on to systems of self-govern-ment and federation. i “Better late than never” was used over three hundred years ago by Thomas Tucker in his “Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry.” Later on Bunyan used it in his “Pilgrim’s Progress.” t The pneumatic line between New ! York and Philadelphia is now considered lan assured fact. It is expected that it i will transport large packages between ! the two cities in less than twenty minutes. “Tell your master that he has made , a mistake of twenty marks in the account he sent me.” “Impossible!” “’Why impossible ? It is human to make mistakes.” “Yes, I know that, but my master is not human.” I > . 1 Mrs. XVickwire—lf yon go first you •will wait for me on the other shore, won’t you. dear ? Mr. Wickwire—l suppose so. I never went .anywhere vet without having to wait for you at ldhat half an hour. - >

HUNDREDSMEET DEATH.

FEARFUL DISASTER TO A BRITISH MAN-OF-WAR. Thn (raiser Serpent Founder* Off the Coast of Spain and of 216 People • n Board All but Three Perish In the Wave*—An Admiralty Official’s Heartless Conduct. I London dispatch, j The British torpedo cruiser Serpent, has foundered off the coast of Spain. Out of a total of 276 souls onboard only three were saved. The Serpent was a twin-screw vessel of 1,770 tons and 4,500 horse-power and carried six guns. It went on the rocks during a storm Monday night. A heavy mist prevailed at the time of the disaster. Owing to the violence of the storm it was impossible to send assistance from the shore. Tremendous seas swept the decks of the doomed vessel, carrying away group after group of the unfortunate men on board. The news of the wreck was conveyed to Corunna, a distance of sixty miles over mountain roads. The Serpent’s complement was,l7o officers and men. The others on board were going out to relieve men now on ships of the African station. The vessel was lost at a point twenty miles north of Cape Finisterre. * An official telegram from Corunna savs that the Serpent was wrecked off Cape Rucy, near the village of Camarinas. There were 276 persons aboard, of whom only three were saved. The bodies of three ladies have been washed ashore. The Governor has ordered the authorities at Camarinas to render every assistance in their power. The three persons saved from the Serpent are sailors, who swam ashore at Camarinas. They express the bolief that all the others on board were drowned, but only four bodies have been washed ashore as yet. There is no telegraph station at Camarinas. The Serpent was a third-class cruiser of the type of the Archer, of which the Concord, Yorktown and Bennington are practically copies, It was provided with whitehead torpedoes, tubes, and apparatus for firing. It is said by experts concerning this class of vessels that in the construction of the hull “economy of weight has been carried to excess. The plating is too thin for durability. The armament is overdone. In a seaway the heavy top weight causes loss of speed and throws an undue strain upon the light structure on which it is placed.” Of one of these cruisers it is stated that its speed “when meeting a strong head wind and- sea was reduced to live knots, as the vessel was being buried under water forward the forecastle, bending down three or fonr feet under the weight of water. ” The Serpent was built of steel, 1,770 tons displacement, 4,500 indicated horsepower, 14 feet 6 Inches draught of water, 225 feet length, 36 feet beam. It was built at Devonport, launched in 1887, cost (hull and machinery) £91,606. Its armament comprised six six-inch, fiveton breech-loading rifle guns, eight throepounder rapid-firing guns, and three machine gums. It sailed from Devonport, being put fn commission June 24 last, under command of Capt. H. L. Boss, ordered to the Cape and the west coast of Africa. Lord George Hamilton, First Lord of the Admiralty, on rising to speak at a Conservative banquet at Acton this evening, said he was sorry to- announce that just before he came there he received a telegram that H. M. S. Serpent was lost on the coast of Spain, and he feared there-had been groat loss of life. The Serpent, he said, was one of our best cruisers* and was a valuable- vessel, with excellent officers and crew. He could not tell the cause of the disaster. The announcement caused a sensation and it was evident that many of those present would have thought it proper to postpone the banquet, but, no- action being taken to-that end, the entertainment proceeded, and after the- guests had eaten and drank heartily,. Lord George Hamilton led off in tho toasts with an unusually jolly speech, his rollickinghumon provoking peal upon peat of laughter; Tho news of this affair soon reached the London clubs and excited much adverse criticism. It is considered that Lord conduct may cause scandal against himself and the Tories such ao was aroused against Mr.. Gladstone and his political adherents by the alleged presence off the Liberal Premier at a theater on. the evening off the day whon Gordon’s death, was announced; in the London newspapers.. The Duke of Edinburgh was attending a Patti concert at Plymouth, when thenews of the disaster reached that town, id-e was immediately informed; of the calamity,. and at once left the concert hall and hastened to the various newspaper officer in search of further details. After reading all- the dispatches that had been Received concerning the disaster hewent directly home without returning to the concert hadl. He expressed the utmost sorrow at the fate that had overtaken so many brave men. Commander Boss is said to have been to the habit of treating his men with undue severity. The Serpent started last Saturday on its maiden voyage. It was commissioned for service In Africa last Jane, but was detained by several mishaps to the machinery. It and its consorts were cordially disliked by the service. The Serpent has a bad record. It broke down more than once in the maneuvers of 1888. Lloyd’s agent at Corunna telegraphs: “It appears that the Serpent was running for shelter into one of the bays north of Finisterre, It Is not known whether it founded or grounded on the fearful reefs that are a continuation of the Galician Mountains. If it foundered nobody need be surprised but the Admiralty. If H grounded on the reefs it could not stand a minute’s battering in the heavy sea."

Personal Brevities.

The Princess of Wales is the Queen’s favorite daughter-in-law, and has always been most affectionately regarded by her Majesty. Ben Cloves, President of the Kansas Alliance, who succeeds Congressman Perkins, is from Ohio and 55 years old. This is his first office. Count von Moltke is the first landed proprietor in Germany to adopt the eight-hour rule for the peasants working for him upon his estates at Crisan, and is well satisfied with the result of his experiment. Princess Bismarck is said to be happier now that she is able to live in retirement with heb husband than she has been 3ince he became a Minister of State. She has Always disliked the publicity entailed upon he; by her high social positto*. j.| -: '