Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1891 — Page 3

PROTECTED STATE.

THE FARMING POPULATION OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. Tht Census Return* for Now Hampshire Show ■ Decline In the Farming Towns ] —Manufacturing Cities Are Growing— What Protection Is Doing for the Farmer—A Case Where the Home Market Theory Coes Not Work. The Census Bbreau has recently published the details of the census of the State of New Hampshire; and the figures afford an interesting comparison -with those of 1880. New Hampshire is largely a manufacturing State, and as ■such it ought to give the protectionists an excellent field In which to show how protection helps the farmer by developing manufactures and creating a market (right at his doors for bis farm products. The census figures of the State, as sent out by Robert P. Porter, show that while the popnlatiou increased from 346,991 to 376,530, or at the rate of 48% per cent., three-fourths of all the towns, or townships, in the State have declined in population since 1860. A highly interesting comparison of the population in ten of the twelve counties of the State by towns, or townships, is made in the following table, showing the number of towns in each county which reports an increase or a decrease: No. towns No. towns showing showing Counties. increase. decrease. Belknap. 3 8 Carroll - 7 11 Cheshire..... 10 13 Coos 17 8 Grafton 11 28 Hillsborough 11 20 Merrimack , 8 19 Bockingnam. 15 22 Stafford 6 7 Sullivan 3 12 Total 91 148 When the census report is examined more closely it is seen that the decrease in population is in the smaller or agricultural towns, while the increase is in the larger or manufacturing towns and cities. The decrease has been the greatest in the towns with the smallest population, the towns with less than 1,090 inhabitants having suffered a loss of 10 per cent, since Isßo. These changesare exhibited in the following table sot the 249 towns and cities of the State: Towns and cities clas- -g -g . sified according to a “ popnlation in 1890. * Population. ® ° a -2 g'*9 Popnlation 0 - £ S 55 1870. 1880. £ “ Over 20.000 1 44,126 32,630 135.23 10,000 to 20,000 3 49,105 38,927 +26.15 4,000 to 10,000 .• 8 50,953 43,172 +18.02 2,000 to 4,00(3 23 63,271 62,609 +20.28 1,500 to 2,009. 20 34,184 32,867 +4.01 I,oooto 1,501) 49 59,168 61,734 *4.18 Under 1,000 145 72,723 85,052*10.97 Total 249 376,530 346,991 +8.51 +lncrease, *Decreaiie. In the four largest cities of the State the pdpulation-has increased nearly onethird in ten years. Towns having between 2,000 and 4,000 have increased almost one-fifth; those between 1,000 and 2,000 have slightly decreased; and those below 1,000 have lost almost one-ninth of their population. This decay of agricultural life in New Hampshire, as compared with manufacturing industry, has been going on for forty years, and has become more marked under the reign of the very protection which always promises to make the farmer prosperous by making the manufacturer rich”! The following table shows the changes of population for forty years: IPer oentTof total" Population. population. • gs-S |fa ~l?Xs g s ~7~ . *** 1-1 Hi I i. 8 S 3°"S 3~® g <■* 1 ~ sssgsf -a sa l g £3 3 t !3®3d § 2§ g I "&5.3 ~3.5i ~ 3 2 Q o o o >5 5 1890 207,455 93,352 75,723 55.10 20.11 1880 167,338 94,601 85,951 48.23 Sff.2B 24.51 1870 137,440 92,314 88.555 43.18 29.0 q 27.82 1860 126,235 97,815 102,020 38.71 gO.Ofc 31.29 1850 113,506 97,628 106,842 35.09 80.71. 83.60

The cause of this decline of the farming communities of New Hampshire is not far to seek. The farmer is not protected and there is no possible way to make protection of any genemal benefit to him. The manufacturer, on. the other hand, has his market shut up, j sealed and delivered to him by a high j tariff, and, besides, he usually has a 1 trust to help him gather up the tariff spoils. The case of New Hampshire is the same as that of New Jersey, another great manufacturing State. Last winter Mr. Franklin Dye, Secretary of the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture, was before the McKinley committee, and told the high-tariff solons about the decay of agriculture in his State. The following words from his testimony afford an interesting comment upon the facts’above given in regar.d to the population of New Hampshire: .“I think the year President Cleveland was elected I was in one of the pottery I establishments in Trenton, and told the , manufacturer that ho was taking all | our farm hands from us. He said: ! ‘You must pay them the same wages.’ j I said: ‘We cannot do it; we pay all ' the wages we can afford to pay at tho ! price of farm productions.” Then ii said: ‘You are protected; you know i just what you are going to get, what it costs to put the material in shape for j market, and, consequently, you knowj what wages you can afford to pay.’ What labor is left around Trenton and other manufacturing centers now is largely a poor class of colored people, j and now and then Hungarians. For ! you know the great tide of travel has 1 been westward. Moreover, to give continous protection to manufacturing industries, whereby they have been enabled to reap good-paying—and in many cases enormous—profits, while I not equally protecting the farmer in his products, has resulted adversely to our 1 farmers in several particulars. ”

American Fork in Germany.

Germany has again refused to admit American pork; but it seems to be generally admitted that the -time is now not far distant when the prohibition will be removed. It is very probable that, if we had not so recently passed the two McKinley bills, which are very unpopular in Germany, the late vote In the Reichstag would have been in favor of American pork. Our farmers may judge of the value of the German market to them by the fact that our exports

Jt — " . of bog products to Germany In 1881, before our pork was excluded, amounted to more, than sll,000,000. Lard is now the only hog product which we sell to Germany in any considerable quantities. Our exports of lard to Germany In 1889 amounted to $3,840,000, and last vear to $7,815,000. The German working people are anxious for our pork, and ftor want of it they consume a large quantity of our lard, eating it as we eat butter. It is the protection sentiment in Germany that keeps our pork out of the country. It was the rich nobles owning large country estates on which hogs are raised for the market who were the* prime movers in excluding American pork, and who still keep it out of the country. It is a case of extreme protection applied to ns.

SHALL TEA BE TAXED?

THAT IS WHAT A FEW IMPORTERS WANT. A Tax on Tea Wanted to Keep Up Prices —The Consumer Celt Out of the Calculation—Reciprocity -with a Vengeance —Shall the Breakfast Table Remain Free ? Last year, when everybody was trying to get higher protection on every conceivable thing, a movement was underto have a duty put on all tea imported from places west of the Cape of

Granny Hoar’s sad predicament.

Good Hope. This was an attempt to revive an old law which was abolished in 1883. This law imposed a duty of 10 per cent, on all tea coming from places west of Cape of Good Hope. The original purpose of the law was to promote the direct shipment of tea from China, Japan and the East Indies to our ports and thus to encourage American shipping. By “places west of the Cape of Good Hope, " the old law meant London and Liverpool. The present demand for the re-enact-ment of this old law comes from a few importers of tea, and it is not based on the idea of preventing direct importation. There is another object in view, an object which is frankly avowed. Out of a total of 79,575,984 pounds of tea imported in 1889, only 4,673.864 pounds came in by way of England. Why should our importers fear this small amount coming from England upon a second shipment and in competition with the bulk of our consumption which is imported direct from China and Japan? The answer to this question inay be seen from an extract from a recent number es Bradstreet's , as follows: “The stock of tea in this country is at present very heavy, and prices ard in consequenco lower here than in England. Hence London merchants are now buying tea in New York. The promoters of the new legislative agitation hope by means of it to buoy up prices and prevent a further decline. But many dealers have been free to predict that no such legislation will be passed by the present Congress. It Js claimed by the advocates of the measure that under free entry London merchants are able to place here large quantities of tea whenever the market shows a tendency to advance. ” The importers of tea who are pushing the measure in question are wonderfully frank. They do not talk about “protection to American interests,” they have nothing to say about increasing anybody’s wages, and do not promise that competition in the home market will make tea cheaper to the American consumer than ever before. They frankly confess that they want this law for their own benefit When they succeed in raising prices here, they will have no tea coming in from London in seven or eight days to bring down prices again. China and Japan are a long way off, and if the importers her;e can raise the price of tea it would take considerable time for other people to get cargoes of tea from those countries into our ports. The few importers here would meanwhile reap extra benefits from higher prices. But the danger of quick importations from London must be got rid of; and hence this movement or a small number of tea importers to get the law affecting “places west of the Cape of Good Hope. ” The New York Merchants' Review denounces the whole thing as “nothing but a scheme to advance prices when conditions arc favorable. * The New England Qrocer of Boston also condemns the proposed tax in stormy language. “It is simply an effort,it says, “pf a few concerns to dictate to 60,00 +,030 of people where they shall buy their teas, no question of protection being involved. Tfye whole effect of such a law would be to advance t"as which would be controlled by a few large concerns, while the smaller dealer, who can oply purchaso small lots, would have to pay higher prices because he would be cut off from purchasing in lots to suit his convenience from English markets, as he can do now Such a law will be an oppression to every retail grocer and every consumer in the United States of America.” Let not the consnmer suppose that these few importers are the only men in this country who stand ready to tax tea and make it dearer to every housewife iu the land. Some years ago, when it first began to be realized that the war tariff was producing revenues in excess of the needs of the Government, the protectionist leaders saw that something would have te be done to get rid of unnecessary taxation, and at the same time “save the protective system. ” Accordingly, the cry of “a free breakfast table”

was raised, and off went the' duties on tea and coffee. Now a new tariff law has been born into this tariff-ridden land. It is a cross between Chinese Wall McKinley and Reciprocity Blaine. In this cross-breed tariff law it is coolly proposed to tax every breakfast table in the land again, unless tea-producing countries shall grant us such reciprocal advantages in trade as shall satisfy the President. This is reciprocity with a vengeance. The tax was removed to lighten the burdens on our .own people. Now our lawmakers stand ready to reimpose that tax upon our people if China and Japan do not grant us such terms of admission to their ports as shall satisfy the President

The Barbed Wire Trust.

The farmers will probably soon have as great a grievance against the barbed wire trust as they have had against the binder-twine trust The barbed-wire trust has* been trying to get all the manufacturers of barbed-wire into it, in order to have complete control of the home market, and to be able to raise prices to the fanners. The trust lias just purchased certain patents for $400,000, and theso are to be used for the purpose of crushing out the manufacturers who are not in the trust, or else to compel them to join it. A member of the trust tolls very frankly what It proposes to do with the patents. He says: “We have purchased the patents from the Washburn-iloen Company for $400,000, and that firm, like any other member of the pool, will bo

DITCHED.

compelled to pay a royalty into the treasury of the association to be used as a sinking fund. The royalty per ton will probably not amount to more than 2 cents to members. Up to to-day $1 per ton was demanded It has been as high as sls. But manufacturers not members of the pool will be asked to pay a rather stiff price for the privilege of using the patents now controlled by tho pool. We can charge $125 Dor ton If we want to. This simply means that a manufacturer not a member of the pool cannot do ousiness Ho must come into the fold or quit making barbed wire.” When the “fold” has thus been completed and there are no outside rivals, the farmers may expect to pay high prices for barbed wire. These men have a right to their patent; possibly they have a legal right to combine themselves into a trust. There is at least one thing they have no right to, and that is the McKinley protection duty of $13.44 a ton on barbed wire. The farmers have themselves to b’ame for permitting tho trust to have this duty.

ENGLAND’S GOLD AND SILVER.

A Losnon in the ''Balance of Trade The* '•ry"—England's Exports and Imports of the Precious Metals and Onr Own. One of the groat objects aimed at by the protectionists is to make our exports of domestic goods exceed our imports of foreign goods, in order that to make up for the balance wo shall have a stream of gold and silver flowing into the country. They assume that if it were not for the tariff we should buy more abroad than we should sell to foreigners. This would cause gold and silver to “flow out of the country,” and we should be of all men most miserable. According to those gloomy views of the protectionists how pitiable must be the pljght of free-trade England. 'Tha’t country imports every year many millions of dollars’ worth of goods over and above her exports. Does this result in an outward stream of gold and silver frem England to other countries? Here is a table showing Great Britain’s total imports and exports of gold and silver for the year 1890: Imported from Exported to France $24,240,090 $ 4,060,000 Holland 15,530,000 1,230,000 United States 12,970,000 5,U5*,00c Brazil 12,560,00# 6,991,000 Australia 10,400,000 nil South America 9,490,000 3,275,000 South Africa t9,8»0.«00 3.750,000 Portugal 8,C25,000 16,230,000 Egypt 2.315,010 4,025,000 East Indies 2,290 0 0 13,980,000 Germany? 1,020,000 8,190,000 Spain -. 601,00) 4,540,000 Totals $139,490,0)0 $74,150,000 Inports $139,190,000 Exports 74,151,000 Excess of Imports $65,040.0. 0 Compare with this onr own exports and imports of gold and diver for the two fiscal'} ears 1889 and 1890 as follows: Imports. Exjjorts. 1889 $28,91.3, 173 $95,641,553 18)0 33,976,326 52,148,420 Totals $62,937,3)9 $148,783,973 Excess of exports $85,85),674 A curious fact is that for these two years our exports of merchandise were about $60,000,000 in excess of our imports. According to the protectionists’ “balance of trade theory” this latter sum ought to have come back to us in gold and silver. On the contrary, we sent Great Britain in these two years $85,000,000 in gold and silver over and above what we rece.ved ba#k from that country. Thu’s it is that England, a country of absolute fro; trade, not only draws frem all other nations a vast stream of merchandise over and above what it sends to them, but also it receives in a single year $65,000,000 in gold and silver ovor and above her exports of those metals; and, while we are sending away more merchandise tha« we get back in exchange, we also send abroad much more gold and silver than flows into the country. The so-called “balance of Mil theory,” as advocated by the pro<pflT<B ista, cannot survive facts like

SOME'KODAK PHOTOS

OF MINOR HAPPENINGS IN THE HOOSIER STATE. An A(td Man Burned to a Crisp--Cut in Two by a Saw—Biff Fire at Nebraska— Accidents, Deaths and Suicides. —Scarlet fever at Aurora. —Princeton’s broken out with incasels. —Thomtown will establish a creamery. —Seymour will organize an athletic club. —Goshen’s first school houso built In 1841. —Maybe Kokomo’ll have a knitting factory. — A religious revival is in progress at Bridgeport. —You cau’t get shaved in Now Albany o’ Sundays. —Terre Haute rejoices in a fourlegged chicken. —Ochre deposits ha,ve been found in Madison County. —Jackson County farmers have corn hustling frolics. —Four hundred and forty miles of Indiana is under water. —Peru grand jury found twenty-six indictments for gambling. —Fishermen defy the law along the banks of tho White every day. —Ora Gonder lost both oyes by a blast at limestono quarry, near Utica. • —Thomas McGowan seriously injured by falling tree near Martinsville. —Mrs. James Allen, aged 75, was found dead in bed at Greeucastle. —A child of Thomas Wilson, aged 4, was burned to death at Lexington. —Winter wheat all over tho Stato looks better than last year, ’tis said. —Measlos and scarlot fqvcr are alarmingly epidemic in Torre Haute. —Moses Fulwidcr, aged 80. a pioneer of Boone County, died very suddenly. —Fruit and wheat about Seymour thought to be killed by zero weather. —Delaware County Commissioners refuse to pay bill for washing prisoners’ bed-clothes. —Charles Coombs, of Crawfordsvillo, will bo held for tho murder of young Walter McClure. —Mrs. Jack Huffman’s family, Greencastle, came near crossing over. All ate poisoned hoad cheese. —lliram Terry Bush, Mishawaka, one time a man of wealth and influence, is dying in county asylum., —John Nowlin, of Plainfield, aged 20, fell forty feet from the top of a derrick, and was fatally injured. —Vincennes Sun thinks newspaper men ought to demand tho repeal of Grubbs libel law. Rignt. —Shelbyville saloons havo got to close at 11 p. m. week days and don’t dare to open an inch on Sundays. —Wicked men broko into Mishawaka Presbyterian Church and cut pulpit chairs and carpet to pieces. —Grandfather Krug, of Crawfordsvillo, who was 100 years old on September 20, is lying at tho point of death. —John Goodman, Marco, shot Erastus Frederick with a shot gun, sorlously. Said he alienated liis wife’s affections —George Casper, Shelbyville, ato twenty-five hard-boiled eggs, shells and all, on a 25-cent wager. Ought to be killed. —John Pindcn, a Washington County farmer, ha? been crazed by religious zeal, due to the lcvival at Rush Creek Church. —George W. Simonds, aged 75 years, fell from a load of hay at Logansport and broke his neck. Death was instantaneous. —Charles Walton, Shelbyville, has been given ten years in the pen for assaulting and robbing Charles Schettlcr, a German farmer. —H. Bassie, treasurer of Bartholomew County, fell from his stable loft at Columbus and fractured his skull. The injury is not fatal. —Samuel Cornett, farmer near Washington, was seriously hurt by the discharge of an anvil. He was celebrating a successful fox drive. —The farmers In the vicinity of Jamestown are being robbed of Chickens by tho dozen, and great efforts are. being made to trap the thieves. —George Bennett has been indicted of double murder by tho grand jury at Lafayette. Bennett is the man who killed two men last November. —The Seymour City Council has granted an exclusive street railway franchise for eleven years to B. F. Price, of that city. W'ork most begin within six months. —Moses Vadynewas sentenced to two years in the penitentiary for breaking into and robbing a freight car on the Wabash railroad, at North Manchester, last fall. —David Wright, a colored boy at Jeffersonville, lay in a comatose state for five days, when he coughed up a hunk of coeoanut and proceeded about his business. —The Montgomery County declamatory contest will take place at Crawfordsvillcon April 18. The boys will speak in the afternoon and the girls in the evening. —William Viddie, eccentric Versailles chasacter, spending most of his time in the woods, found a queer stone in a ravine the other day, for which a Cincinnati jeweler offered him $2,000. —Andrew Kyler died recently at his residence, near South Bend, aged about eighty-five years. He was one of the oldest residents in St. Joseph County, having lived in the county sixty years. —While a number of young men were racing their horses on the way homo from church, at Port Isabel, they collided with a carriage. Mrs. John Langston was thrown out and dangerously hurt. John Day was fajally iujqrcd and others were badly bruised.

—Mrs. Jaceb Werner, farmer’s wife near Jeffersonville, took the good old family rifle and shot a vicious tramp. —W’orkmon digging a well near Edinburg, struck a poplar log at a depth of twonty-four foot, two feet in diameter. —The Lebanon Patriot, a Republican newspaper of Boone County, changed hands recontly, S. J. Thompson Son retiring and Albion Smith, of Richmond, assuming control. —Tho oldest woman in tho vicinity of French Lick Springs is Mrs. Mary Flick, who was born in 1778. Sho weighs 200 pounds and is entirely blind. Her youngest son is aged 67. —The homo of G. W. Acord, at Sanford, was destroyed by an incendiary. Sonic time ago Acord received a threatening letter, signed, “A White Cap,” and mailed from Indianapolis. —The bondsmen for ex-Troasurer J. J. Field, of Orange County, whoso account with said county was 812,701 short, were released by tho gentleman and his wife paying tho amount in cool cash. —John B. Floyd, employed in tho saw mill of Bovins & Strand, at Boonvllle, met with a horrible death by falling against a rip-saw. Ho was simply sliced in two from head to foot. —Anna Maher, aged 5 years, of Crawfordsville, was playing near the fire and her clothing caught fire. Her clothes were burned off, and sho was seriously burned boforo the flames were extinguished. —Tramps broko Into a freight car on the Monon road at Greoncastle and stole a box of raisins. They were found soon afterwards in tho sand-house near the depot, where they had taken quarters 1 for tho night. Tho stolon fruit had been 1 devoured. Tho thieves, nine in all, were hold for trial at tho ensuing term of court. —Mary, tho 7-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Richard McKinney, was so badly burned at her home, near Livonia, Washington County, that she died a few hours after, The children of the family had been setting brush-heaps near tho houso on fire, and by some means tho flames were communicated to the clothing of the little one. —The will of tho late Mrs. Abbio Longee, of LaPorte, was probated. Among tho bequests was one of SII,OOO to the Orphans’ Homo, a public charity located at Mishawaka, Ind. The Institution owns no building of its own, and this money will bo used to erect one, aiid an endeavor will bo made to change the location to LaPorte.

—A clever forger has swindled a half j dozen business houses of Terre Haute, out of about S6O each. Ho sent a boy in the evening with a check made pavablo to Postmaster Greiner and indorsed by Greiner with a note signed by Greiner, all forgeries, asking the linn to cash it, as tho postolllce had been drained of cash by paying money orders. —At Nebraska, a littlo town on tho O. & M., fire broke out in tho store of Mrs. Allen. While about fifty people were trying to save tho stock, ten barrels of oil and 250 pounds of gunpowder exploded, wrecking the building and bruising several people with flying debris. The burning oil set fire to the residence of Mrs. Elliot, and it also was destroyed. The total loss was $12,000. —The wall on one sido of one of the Diamond Match Compiyiy’s largo buildings at Wabash, fell outward without a moment’s warning, leaving a hole thirtyeight feet long and two stories high. Several thousand pounds of paper pulp was ruined. No lives were lost, but several people very narrowly escaped. Tho fall was probably caused by the uneven settling of tho foundation. —As Mrs. It. C. Smith, of Crawfordsvillo, was carrying out a pan of hot ashes, her apron caught fire, and it was only with difficulty that sho escaped as well as sho did. As it was, her dress was burned off, her hair badly scorched, her eyebrows burned and her face blistered. She rolled upon tho floor and thus helped to put out tho flames, when her mother-in-law came to her assistance. —The village of Lena, Park County, a small station on the Big Four road, was thrown into great excitement«n night or two since by the fate that befell an aged citizen named Robert Bond. His dwelling caught lire shortly after midnight, and before Mr. Bond could bo rescued his body was burned to a crisp. He was about 85 years of age. The fire is said to have been the result of his own carelessness. . —An attempt at suicide occurred at Knightstovwi. Frank Ball, a young married man, repaired to a drug store, purchased 25 cents worth of morphine and took tho lot. On his way home again he changed his mind and started for a doctor. Dr. Barnott relieved him of all the surperfluous matter he had laid up for the last week or so. Family trouble is thought to have been tho cause.

—There is a widow living at Darlington, Montgomery County, who has been the wife of four soldiers, who are all dead, and she has drawn a pension as being the widow of each husband. As soon as she would marry, of course, her pension would cease, but she did not marry a man who was not a soldier, so when he died she would begin to draw another pension as the wife of the last one to die. —Many of the farmers of Montgomery county have entered into the chickenraising business on a large scale, and are selling from COO to 1,000 chickens every year. They says that it pays them better than raising cattle for the market. j —Jennie Ray escaped from the Dearborn County Asylum and fell into the hands of a gang of tramps, who maltreated her shamefuhy and left her more dead than alive on a straw-pile. Here 3he lay three days before she was discovered.

INDIANA LEGISLATURE.

The Senate. Feb. 2, passod a bill fixing a graded system of penalties for keepinggaming houses. Tho penalty for the first conviction is from $lO to SSOO fine: for the seeond conviction. $25 to SI,OOO fine, with imprisonment not exceeding thirty days, optional with tho Court. The third and all subsequent cunvicttpns. SSO to SI,OOO fine and imprisonment for from thirty days to six months. The Sonate also passod a bill prohibiting tho use of artificial means to force natural gas from the weJls or through pipe lines. This is meant to prevent tho piping of gas to Chicago. Three important measures were introduced in tho House. Tho first provides for the Establishment of a Stato Board of Fire Insurance, composed of the Auditor, Secretary, and Attorney General. The duty of tho commission is to equalize tho cost of insurance and udjust losses. The second requires candidates before conventions to file with County derks sworn itemized statements of campaign expenses. The third was a resolution appointing a committee to correspond with tho Legislatures of other States to agree upon a lower logal tax rate for all. In the Senate. February 5. the bill requiring the election of three school trustees, one of whom shall be a woman, was Indefinitely postponed after a long discussion. Bill abolishing the State Board of Agriculture and creating an agricultural and industrial board came up on the third roading, and its further consideration was postponed until morning. The House passod the following bills: For tho protection of the sorghum industry by preventing adulteration; compelling dealers in cigarettes to pay an annual license of S2OO and to make affidavit that all cigarettes sold by them are made of pure tobacco; amending the aot relative to public offenses and their punishment, by brinaing within the provisions of tho section concerning incest children' under tho age of 16 years, and making sisters competent to testify against their brothers in such cases; requiring officers of reformatory, oharitabie and benevolent institutions to purcliaso native live stook for food consumption at such institutions; preventing the adulteration of candy; making it unlawful for officers of State institutions to contract with tberabolvob or other officials of their or other institutions for tho purchase or sale, or to appropriate to their own use any of the rights, privileges, payments, slops, offal or immunities of any of suld institutions. The following bills were passod by the Sonate, February 4: An aot defining arson and prescribing the penalties therefor; to authorize cities and towns to lay out parks and public grounds; prescribing the method of assessing real estate in towns of less than two thousand population to defray the cost of street improvements; requiring corporations of other States acquiring property or doing business in Indiana to file a copy of their clinrter with the County Rocordor for record; legalizing the Incorporation and construction of the Lafayotte Union Railroad and aid voted to it. Tho following bills wore passed by tho House; Appropriating $8,032.81 to pay the WarrenSoliarf Asphalt Raving Company for Raving Mississippi street, on the west sido of the Btato-houso; providing that Deputy County Surveyors shall havo tho same powers In certain cases as their chiefs. [Under tho present law the construction of ditches must stop during tho illness of County Surveyors, because of tho inability of tho deputies, under the statute, tq act for ttyo former,]

The only measure that got through the Senate, February 5. on its way tb the statute books was Senator ShOeftnoy's bill looking to the breaking of pools and trusts. Having boon absent several days on account of sickness, tho Senate askod unanimous consent to consider the measure, Vrhioh was given, and it was read tho third time by sections. The main provisions are that all trusts, pools and combinations tending to prevent full and free competition In the production, manufacture or sale of any article produced in any Stato or country, that seek to regulate tho production of prtoe of any commodity, or tond In any way to create a monopoly, are declared to be conspiracies ‘to defraud the public, unlawful, against public policy and void. Any person entering into such combination as principal. stockholder or agent is mado guilty of I conspiracy to defraud, and upon conviction ! shall bo fined not loss than SI,OOO nor more than $ IP,OOO. It is provided that If any corporation or any officer or stockholder, as such, bocomes a member of any pool or trust, such corporation shall forfeit Its charter, it is further providod that any person or corporation damaged by any pool or trust may bring suit and recover twioo the amount of the dumuge sustained. The following bills were passed by the House: Reducing the charge for transcribing short-hand notes In criminul cases from ten cents to 0 cents per ono hundred words, ! and providing that, where a litigant is unable to pay for this service the court may, in its discretion, direct tho work to be done, tiie county to bear tho expense; providing for the change of vonue in all olvil actions; for the bettor protection of minors, regulating tho weighing of coal, and providing for uniform screens; to prevent persons not so entitled from wearing badges of the Grand Army, Loyal Logion. Union Veterans and Sons of Veterans, and imposing a fine of not more than S2O for such offense. Thebe was such a'slight attendance of both houses. February 6, that no business of Importance was transacted.

He Eats Baby Food Now.

Any able-bodied gentleman in need ot $5 and a reputation for bravery will find it to bis advantage to travel to Hellertown, Lehigh County, Pa. In that classic hamlet there dwells a certain citizen who numbers among his earthly possessions a chestnut filly from Kentucky, a brother who lives in wicked gotham and a valuable set of false teeth, imported from Paris. One day, when the mettlesome filly was feeling unusually jolly, the owner of the teeth took his brother for a drive behind the trotter. Out on the “pike,” three miles from Hellertown Court-House, there is a “road spring.” It was here that the Hellertown man stopped the filly, and while his brother drank of the bubbling waters be removed his “Paris” teeth and laid them on the grass. Just as he was on the point of taking a drink himself the filly started np the “pike” at two-minute clip. Then, before the gentlemen could understand what it all meant, a huge copper-colored snake glided np, and, to the dismay of the select audience, calmly swallowed the “teeth.” Jost what the snake did after insulting his digestive organs the gentlemen are not prepared to say, as they made a hurried exit from the vicinity and followed the filly back to town. In proof that the “snake” story is true the disconsolate owner of the teeth has offered $5 for the retarn of the same, and he now eats baby food.

Nail Furrows.

Nearly twenty years ago Dr. Wilks directed attention to the curious fact that a transverse farrow always appears ou the nails after a serious ulness. Medical men ignored what they called the visionary opinions of Mr. Wilks, giving the matter bnt little attention in their medical work. Recently a new interest in the snbjeot has been revived and pathological societies have begun au investigation. One remarkable case shows nail farrows caused by thre& days’ sea-sioknoss.