Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1891 — Page 3

PROTECTION WATERS IT

RAILROAD CHARGES INCREASED BY THE TARIFF. Prelection's Cheek—Thn tTse'ess Wool Tar-ill—-Profits In Foreign Trade—Hamilton ▼a. McKinley—A Point About Nee Ilea— Reform Notes. Watered by Protection Our farmers very justly complain that railroads are very « f ten capitalized at much more than their actual value, and then proceed to charge freight rates high enough to earn dividends upon their watered stock. This complaint is, In many cases, only too well founded; yet the men who make it often overlook the fact that they themselves have a very deep pecuniary interest in cheapening the legitimate expenses of railtoad bal'd ng and equipment. Even a railroad honestly capitalized at its actual cost has to earn dividends upon a mu h larger capital than would be otherwise necessary, owing to the artificial values cau ed by the protective tariff. . There are some farmers who fancy that the price of steel rails, for example, is no concern of theirs. But they must see that it does concern them, since whatever increases the cost of making railroad becomes an element In fixing freight and passenger charges. The New York Commercial Bulletin, one of the highest authorities in business matters has recently said: “When it is considered that th » materials and labor required in the construction and operating of our roads are increased in cost on an average probab y fully 30 per cent through the operation of the protective Silicy, it will be seen that our transportion is costing us s >me $325,000,000 per annum more than it need,” and it went on: "that ($325,000,000) needless tax has to be paid out of our products and labor, ana thereby becomes an embargo noon our whole comm rci and industry, and an obstruction to our competition for the commerce of the world. ” A correspondent having askel for further explanation of this, the Bulletin answered in part a follows: “In applying this 30 per cent, ratio to the enhancement of the cost of railroad construction and transportation, we aimed to be large y within the truth, as will appear from the fact that for the years 1805, 1875, 1880, and 1885 the duty on Iron rails averaged 40 per cent., and home-made rails must have ranged above foreign prices approximately in about that ratio. For the period between 1863 and 1890—the epoch of high duties—the cost of railroad constructed, as it is expressed in the stocks and debts of the companies, has amounted to 8,500 millions; and, therefore, taking the enhancement of cost of construction at only 30 per cent., we have during that period incorporated into our railroad system no less than 2,550 millions of virtually fictitious capital, or nearly double the present amount of the national debt; upon which the roads, not being responsible for this artificial increase of their outlay, demand with some show of right that they must be allowed to earn interest. Allowing them only 4 per cent, on this compulsory inflation, it follows that the protective policy is now forcing upon the railroads a necessity for exacting from the public, for capital account alone, $102,000,000 per annum tnore than would have been required in the absence of that policy. This item was embraced in the aggregate of $325,000,000 given in our remarks of the 15th Inst, based on the fact that every item among which the 1.080 millions of current gross earnings is disbursed has been directly or indirectly subject to the inflating effect of the tariff. “We hardly know how to make it plainer to our correspondents than we already have how this artificial increase of the cost of rail transportation ‘has to be paid out of our productsand labor.’ What else is there but products and labor to, provide the means of paying for transportation service? The cost of transportation has to be added to the cost of labor and products, thereby enhancing the price of both; and so far as there is any artificial augmentation of this element of cost there is clearly so much abnormal embargo upon both our Industries and our trade; which must be an obstruction to our competing with nations which are less subject to tariff impediments. “And just here lies the fundamental blunder, the fatal weakness, of protection. Whatever producers may be supposed to gain through the tariff raising prices, they cannot but lose through a corresponding increase in the cost of labor, plant, materials, management and all other outlays, and the result of the artificial contrivance is simply nil. For the device diverts a large amount of capital and labor from pursuits for which we have the best facilities to those for which we have the worst; and the net result is a waste of productive power and a failure to turn the national resource into the most natural current and to the best account. Protection is simply an attempt to subvert and counteract natural laws; and as such it can never benefit the Industry at large of any country, although it may be so contrived as to help some interests to the corresponding detriment of others.”

The Useless Wool Tariff.

If we are to continue to be, on the whole, the best-clothed people in the world, we must continue to consume a large portion of the product of woolgrowing countries. The proposition of Judge Lawrence and his associates, to grow all the wool of every kind that we require, is known by every manufacturer, and this should be evident to any Intelligent person who will investigate the subject, to be the most arrant nonsense. Thousands of farmers in this country, who have attempted the raising of special breeds of sheep in various localities and abandoned it as unprofitable business, know it to be impracticable. They can do something else more Drofitable, for which they are better circumstanced. Practically, therefore, it is the same as impossible to force this business to any great extent. Under any circumstances, it is a matter of many years experience in the adjustment of various brevis of sheep to special localities. This cannot be done by increased duties on foreign wools —Wade’s Fibre and Fabric.

Tariff the Main Issue.

ID a recent interview upon the issues of 1892, Senator John G. Carlisle says: “I have ha hesitation in saying that the Democracy should keep the tariff to the front It is the great issue of the day and on It the fight shou'd be made. Upon it the party is united and can make a confident and aggressive battle. “The party Is not united on the free coinage of silvor, and it woald be suicidal to advance that issue to a position of equal importance with the tariff; but

this will not, in my opinion, be done. Nothing can get in front of the other Issue; the cause of revenue reform wl 1 still be the paramount question, even with free coinage. If the drain on the people produced ty high prices is continued, how are they benefited? Their money will still be wrung from them through custom house exactions.”

Is the Fcreign Market a Curse?

Our enormous crops, with good prices, which would not be possible in the narrow confines of the home market, are now teaching our farmers the value of their foreign market as they have never seen it before. While they are thus learning in a most practical way the immense importance of the European market, let them not forget what the protection doctrine about that market is. The principal American book setting forth the doctrines of protection is that of Carey. This is the greatest work yet produced by an American protectionist, and our high tariff crowd are accustomed to swear by Carey. And what says Carey abjut the foreign market? “Our country would be better off if the Atlantic were an impassable ocean of fire, and a prolonged war between this country and our best customer, England, would prove an advantage. ” Do the farmers think so? Let them imagine what would now be the price of wheat if the 200,0)0,009 bushels which Europe will probably call for this year were kept at home to glut our own market. But this queer doctrine is also the doctrine of McKinley. Here are his words: “If our trade and commerce are increasing and profitable within our own borders, what advantage can come from passing by confessedly the best market that we may reach the poorest by distant seas? In the foreign market the profit is divided between our own citizen and the foreigner, while with the trade and commerce among ourselves the profit is kept in our own family and increases our national wealth, and promotes the welfare of the individual citizen.” Yet “the poorest by distant seas” is now booming the prices of wheat in a way to make the farmers smLe Would it not be wiser to court that market very vigorously by taking moro freely what it has to offer in exchange?

Prolection's Cheek.

The great crops of all kinds of agricultural products are now attracting universal attention; and already the protectionist organs are congratulating themselves that these big crops are going to make the farmers so happy that they will forget all about agricultural depression and go on voting for the blessed high tariff. The organs do not even stop here, but have the sublime cheek to claim that these big crops are due to the McKinley law. Thus the New York Tribune, the chief sinner of them all, has the assurance to say: “The expansion of production at this time is not entirely a matt rof luck. One principal object of the new tariff was to afford better protection to agriculture. It contained new duties for the express purpose of enabling American farmers to secure the home market more fully. At the same time it gave them assurance of expansion of manufactures and establishment of now industries, creating a far greater horns demand for their products. Early last fall, as soon as the new tariff went into effect, these resulti were perceived. American farmers, thus encouraged, increased their production in every direction, and so rapidly that they might have found reason to regret it if unusual foreign demands had not arisen. The encouragement of industry here was the legitimate fruit of a tariff intended for that purpose. ” But who can discover a single farmer that planted more this year of the McKinley law? Such a tarmer ought to bo found at once for exhibition purposes. Any dime museum could offer him a good salary. The idea of McKinley encouraging farmers who export an enormous surplus of their products!

A Po nt About Needles.

Mistakes will occur even in the bestregulated protection families. Here, for examule, is one of the “tariff pictures” of the New York Press: “Ladies, the McKinley bill has not advanced the price of needles. They cost sl.lO a thousand last year, and only 73% cents this year; because we make them in this country, and the tariff does not touch home-made goods if we make enough of them. That’s mighty good reason why we should make enough of them, isn’t it?” And here is an extiact from McKinley’s speech at the great protection banquet in New York last April: “Do you know why we put sewing need es on the free list? We did it upon the great underlying principle of protection, because we didn’t manufacture them at home. ” That is why needles are lower now. The duty taken off by McKinley was 25 per cent, and already needles have fallen in price, according to the figures given by the Press, more than the entire amount of the duty. But do wo make needles? McKinley says no; the Press says we do, and that this is the reason that the price has come down. McKinley says he put needles on free list; the Press says there is still a duty on them. Yet, it is a well-known fact that this organ was subsidized by a rich Connecticut manufacturer to expound and defend protection.

Profits In Foreign Trade.

Here are the yearly profits which England gets out of its foreign trade, together with its interest on investments in foreign countries: Profits on freight j£ <5,000,000 Interest on the capital in foreign commerce 5,000,0 0 Insurance 2,500.000 Profits of the merchants J7,5C0,000 Interest on investments 55,000,000 Total 126,000,000 or $612,C00,0C9 per annum made out of foreign trade and by putting money into foreign countries. Yet we have many protectionist wiseacres in this country who tell us that “British free trade” is bringing a “bitter harvest’ upon England. Do these* figures show that foreign trade is an unmitigated evil? The organ of Ihe Protective Tariff League has found a new consolation for lhe woolgrowers to compensate them for the decline in the price of their staple since the McKinley bill went into effect. It says: “The duty on wool may or may not increase the price cf this year s clip, but five years from now the number of sheep will be increased, and the fleeces which are cut from those sheep will weigh more than those cut in 1890 or even in 1884. ” This maybe the effect of the tariff on the sheep, though we cannot see how it will come about. But

if the effect an the farmer Is to make hind 1 weigh less (and that is the way it works, now), we shall still think that there is a net loss to the country from the wool tariff.— Evening Post.

Hamilton vs. McKinley.

Alexander Hamilton, the sc-called “father of protection," did not delude himself with such sophistries as one hears from the McKinleyites of the present day. He rejected utterly the preposterous claim that a protective tariff adds nothing to the price of the domestic-made article, but he frankly admitted that the tariff gives a bounty to manufacturers. Here are his words: “Duties evidently amount to a virtual bounty on the domestic fabrics; since, by enhancing the charges on foreign articles they enable our manufacturers to undersell foreign competitors.” And again: “As a duty upon a foreign artie'e make -an addition to its price, it causes an extra expense to the community for the benefit of the domestic manufacturer; a bounty does no mure. ” Hamilton did not have the gift of selfdeception and blowing hot and cold.

The Nicaragua Canal Project.

A Mexican gentleman lately gave a bit of curious history with regard to the proposed Nicaragua canal. He said that in the early days of the Spanish occupation there was talk of a canal across the Isthmus, and a-Spanish explorer named Gomara in 1551 ind cated the Nicaragua route as the most feasible between the two seas. The Spanish government did not at the time the matter attention, but in 1781, desiring quicker communication between the oceans, sent out an officer named Galisteo to make a survey of three different routes, and among them that through Nicaragua. He also reported in favor of the latter, but Spain could not raise the funds for construction. In 1838 the route was again surveyed, this time by an Englishman named Baillpy, who was employed by the State of Nicaragua, and again in 1851, by Col. Childs, for a company which proposed to undertake the canal. Nothing came of it, but in 1873 an officer of the United States navy made the survey which resulted in the choice of the route by the company which is now engaged on the work.

Reciprocity.

A little. girl in my school, writes a Youth’s Companion correspondent, recently came to me in tears, regretting the fact that her father’s illness made it necessary for her to “leave and go to work. ” I bade her good-by, and with a schoolmarm’s hankering to keep a creditable pupil, added, “When your father is we'l come back to me.” Then, obeying a sudden impulse to take advantage of what I knew to be, in all probability, my last chance to influence' the precious waif for good, I said, “But if I never see you again I hope you will try to do your duty wherever you may be. Whatever work you may have to do, try to do it well. I hope you will be an honest, honorable woman. ” “Thank you, ma’am,” she replied, putting up her mouth to be kissed. “I wish you the same. ” The dear child! I know now what St. Paul meant by the “foolishness of preaching.”

Prehis oric London.

Three Chaldean monuments of antiquarian value were recently discovered under the foundation of an old London house. The site was formerly occupied by the dwelling of a Dutch merchant who traded in Persian ports. At the time of the great fire the stones probably fell through the ruins by their weight, and escaped notice when the house was rebuilt. They belong to the pre-Semitic age, and the characters upon them are of the most archaic form. It is quite possible tfiat we have spoken disrespectfully of reciprocity, and why not? Isn’t it a humbug, pure and simple? Isn’t it a roundabout and awkward way of arriving at the ends which the tariff reformers have in view? The worst of it is, it does not promise valuable returns, but the admission of rabid protectionists that reciprocity is desirable means much; it gives the lie to many of their arguments in the past, and deals a severe blow to the fabric of protection, already tottering to its fall. —New York Merchants’ Review. “The overthrow of the present horrible system of tariff taxation is absolutely essential to the liberties of the people. Taxation of the laboring masses for the enrichment.of the protected and privileged few is a re-enactment of slaiery in this country more odious and abominable than African bondage when it existed. Tnis issue is to be fought out to the bitter end, and I have faith that sooner or later tie people will triumph over the ruins of the piu'ocracy. There are other issues also which must take their place in the National Democratic platform.”— Senator Voorhees. It is a singular fact that ju t a; soon as President Harrison starts off on a speech-making tour he begins to promulgate “free trade” ideas. At Newburg, for instance, he said: “Divided sometimes in the method by which it is to be obtained, we are consecrated in the one purpose that this Government shall be so administered that all the people shall share in its benefits and that no favored class shall usurp its benefits.” If this isn’t one for the highly protected industries, what is it?— Bos'.on Post. A becent dispatch from Germany says: “The nogot ations between the representatives of Austria, Germany, and Italy at Munich, looking to the formation of a commercial alliance or zollverein between the negotiating powers, are advancing satisfactorily.” This is the great customs league which those countries are forming, partly, it is said, in retaliation for our McKinleyism It is expected that Amerl an farm products will come in for heavy retaliatory duties. Between 1850 and 1880, a period of thirty years, the wages of the toilers in England and Scotland has advanced 50 per cent., says the Chicago Industrial World, a prominent protectionist trade paper. The same journal was not long ago arguing that England’s free-trade system was working very disastrously to English labor. Money is a good thing to have, but you can not buy happiness in the home or purchase refreshing sleep even with bushels of it. Skeletons are as often in the closets of marble fronts as in the humble pottage. If the land in England was divided among the people, each family would have about seven acres, or in Belgium and Holland about three acres, while in this ceuntry we could give two hundred acres of land to every family.

IF YOU ARE IN QUEST

OF FRESH INDIANA NEWS, PERUSE THE FOLLOWING: — Important Happenings o? the Week— Crimes and Casualties Suicides— Deaths—Weddings, ttc. —Sixteen eloping couples were married in New Albany last week. —The long continued drought in St. Joseph County has boon broken by copious rains. —ln a runaway accident at Covington, W. H. Miles and Jesse Haupt were dangerously hurt —Burglars at Greensburg looted the residence of George H. Dunn, jr., carrying off jewelry and money. —Mrs. William Snyder, of Clarksville, Clark County, was gored in the abdomen by a cow. Her injuries are serious. —Alice Percy, of New Washington, fell from a load of hay some weeks ago and has been paralyzed from the hips down ever since. —Ohio river pirates are plundering everything and everybody within reach. They operate chiefly between Madison and Jeffersonville. —The safe in M. A. Pickering’s dry goods store at Caijfz was blown open by burglars, but no money taken. Part of the stock was carried away. The loss will amount to SSOO. —The directors of the Owen County Agricultural Society say that, notwithstanding the unfavorable weather; the society cleared several hundred dollars on its recent exhibition. —Rev. J. M. Oldfathcr, of Hanover, for eighteen years a missionary in Persia, brought home with him a valuable collection of war curiosities. His home is described as a veritable museum. —At Farmland, Charles Ross and John Harness attempted to jump on a train after it had started. Ross was thrown to the ground and seriously hurt, having his 4*loo mashed and one leg hurt. —Thousands of martins are gathering in Clark County. The birds roost on the islands in the Ohio falls and in the trees near the river. In the evening, as they return to roost from the north, their flight fairly darkens the sky. —The condition of William Bullard, the Hope desperado and barn-burner, who wounded himself in an attempt to assassinate George Rothrock, at Hope, on the morning of July 4, and who is still lying in the hospital of the Bartholomew County jail, is very serious. —Milo Spencer, of Napanee, was leaning with his arm upon the muzzle of a loaded gun. His dog, while playing about him, caught its foot in the hammer and discharged the gun. The load of shot went in at the armpit and camo out above, lacerating him in a terrible manner. His recovery is doubtful. —A large barn and all its contents except eight horses was burned on the farm of James Reynolds, on Terre Coupe prairie, near South Bend. Besides the barn the destroyed property consisted of 1,000 bushels of grain, sixty-five tons of hay, harness and farm implements. Insured in Farmers’ Mutual of St. Joseph County. —A fatal accident occurred on the Toledo, St Louis and Kansas City Railroad about a mile west of Wingate. The west-bound passenger train was running at a high rate of speed, when one of the connecting rods on the engine broke, and •rashing through the cab, killed the engineer. The engine was stopped by the fireman without further accident.

—A young man named Hail was accidently killed near Windfall. His father, Henry Hall, a farmer residing three miles east of that place, was cutting down a tree, when the boy approached, ’unnoticed by the father, at the time the tree started to fall. A limb struck the young man on the back of the head, crushing his skull. He lingered a few hours unconscious and died from his injury. —While digging a well on the farm of John Wcnrlch, a few miles southwest of Martinsville, the 15-year-old son of Thomas Fulford, a neighbor, died from what is supposed to have been asphyxiation. Stone was encountered at some depth, which it was necessary to blast. After the charge was exploded young Fulford was lowered to see what effect the blast had. He reported a largo hole torn in the stone. The rope was withdrawn to lower an assistant, when he called, “Let the rope down quick.” This was done and the boy grasped it with a firm death grip. After being hauled to the surface he gasped for breath and was dead. —Mr. Geo. Dixon, a well-to-do farmer east of Seymour, has a hen that is now several years old, which, up to iast spring, was clad in a coat of feathers after the fashion of other hens, and iayed an abundance of eggs each season up to the present. Early iast spring the hen shed her feathers almost to nudeness, and when the feathers grew out again the first to appear were the long and beautiful tail feathers, common to the barnyard rooster, and in a short time the body was fully feathered in a brilliant coat of male attire, giving the hen every appearance of a rooster except the large comb and head-dress of red. She now crows in good style, but continues to lay eggs. < * —The onion crop raised by the farmers residing on the river bottom west of New Albany is saiifto be very large and fine this season. Four hundred barrels have already been shipped to Northern points. —A beautiful owl of an unknown species was captured by D. P. Enoch, near Crawfordsville. The bird had a back of a gold and silver color and a white breast covered with bright spots. The bird was exhausted when captured and soon died, but it has been sent to a taxidermist for mounting.

ICE IN WHEAT FIELDS.

GLOOMY REPORTS FROM THE NORTHWEST. w Futile Efforts to Dissipate the Frosts by Building Fires—*lh‘« Damatt Wldesprea I, Affecting Mlnne ota, Dakota, and Manitoba—Harvesting Hardly Fairly Commenced. Seven Degr e« Below Freezing. The reports which come from the North Dakota wheat fields arc of a discouraging character At Cooperstown, Griggs County, there was a heavy freeze, ice forming a quarter of an inch thick. Late grain is cooked, and wheat in shock and in process of cutting is damaged. The thermometer reached the freezing point at midnight, and at 10 in the morning stood at 25 degrees. Farmers generally had placed st aw on the nortle side of the fields, and most everybody sat up all night and tended their smudres, but it wsts of no use, for what 11 tie breeze there was came from tho south and carried the smoke In the wrong direction. About 25 per cent of the grain is in shock. The thermometers ran down to 28 at several points in Ramsey County, and ice was found on the heads of wheat in many fields Smudge fir s were not started until late in tho n ght, and it is feared they did little good. About 50 per cent, of the grain is cut in that r gion. Villages along tho northern border report that tho temperati.ro was in places not much above 20. It was 28 at Pembina, 24 at Hol o, 86 at Cando, and 30 at St. John. It was cloudy, however, at the last two points named. Manitoba reports are black. Every point in the province shows that the temperature was from 28 to 27. The wheat there is still in the milk, and a large percentage of It will be a total loss. Oliver Daliymple, North Dakota's great wheat-grower, said, on the condition of the crops, that he estimated the frost had destroyed about one-seventh of the entire wheat and oats crop in tho Red River Valley from Fargo to the Brit sh possessions. The last freeze would, of course, reduce the figures, Ind ho feared onesixth of tho crop would be destroyed. On the n ght of the first frost one«half of the wheat acreage had been untouched by the harvester. He says that Ml the wheat uncut at that time has had what is called a “brand" frost. This wheat will be equally as good for mßing purposes as No 1 hard, but tho farmers will receive a grade lower. In explaining tho action of the frost on the uncut wheat he said the amont of damage would altogether dope d on the condition of the wheat berry at tho time of the frost The wheat standing which had turned to dough but had not ilpened would rot bo materially injured by this severe frost. It would only result in corrugating the surface of the grain, which would destroy its brightness and cause it to lese a grade. The wheat in the milk would be an entire loss whenever there was a frost below 32 degrees. Tho straw would turn to yellow and might deceive even the most Experienced farmer, but the grain would never pass out of its milk state A Duluth dispatch says: Board of Trade men received reports from North Dakota that frost seriously injured late sown wheat throughout the State, while letters about the prior frost indicate that more damage was dona than had previously been estimated. A Church’s Ferry, N. D., report says: The thermometer registered 28. Ice was found on the heads of wheat in many fields. Farmers tried smudge fires to a largo extent, but some think they did not commence soon enough, some of them waiting till almost freezing point before starting the fires. About 50 per cent of the grain Is cut and half of the balance is ripe. There is no frost at Cando or St John, but it was heavy at Rolla. At St Vincent, N. D., it was 32 degrees, the same as the former cold snap, but there was apparently a much heavier frost About 70 per cent of the crop is harvested. At Pemb na, N. D., it was four degrees below freezing. All over Manitoba the damage Is formidabia The thermometer was from two to five degrees below freezing all over the province. A great quantity of tho wheat is still green.

WONDERFUL RUN OF MINNEAPOLIS MILLS.

The Output ol a Week Aggregated 185,38 J Parrels <-f Flou--. Considering that over 3,000 barrels dally capacity was idle, the Minneapolis mills made a reiaarkgblo run fora week. The output has probably not been equaled more than half a dozen times. The aggregate pr.duc lon was 18'>,380 barrels —averaging 30,897 bar.els dally, against 17?,075 barrels the week b fore, 161,265 barrels for the e»rr spending time in 1890, and 86,200 barrels in 1889, Nineteen mills weie in op ration, and they wera rrinding at the rate of 31,000 barr Is p r twenty-four hours. The millers are gradually Inert asing the quantity of steam In use to make up for the deficiency in water power. Two or three mills which have no steam are being restricted in the use of water, and matters will grow worse with them as the river gets lower. The mills, as a ru'e, are being operated as strong as j os ib e, and were it not for improvements in progress two more would bo in the operative list The prospects of higher freight rates is still a stimulus for heavy work. The advance of JO cents per barrel to the teaboard whi< h was announced for August 2.5 has only part y been enforced, some of the lines mak.ng a rate of 27 cents per JO.) pounds to Now York and to Boston.

Wise and Otherwise.

Never look a gift horse-pistol in the muzzle. He who is always complaining deserves to have good cause to lament One is a setter of type and the other Is a type of setter —the conundrum la obvious. Ir is not a lack of stone that is delaying the Grant monument It Is a lack of rocks. Edward J. Sanderlin, a negro barber of Denver, has acquired a fortune of 8200,600. When it comes to discharging a man, every employer likes to become his own. shipping clerk It Is said that the tomb of Georg* Sand and her son offer a sad spectacle of forgetfulnesa If you don't toll what God is to you. It won’t be long until yoc won’t hay* any thing to telL

IT IS RIGHT IN LINE,

IS THIS COLUMN OF FRESH INDIANA NEWS. A Large Number of Accident*—A Few Sn|. elites and Deaths—And Other Important New*. Iteunlon of the Burton Family. The seventeenth annual reunion of the Burtons, one of the largest familes in the State, was hold at the reunion grounds, three miles west of Mitchell. The rain reduced tho attendance greatly, but about five hundred persons were present Addresses were made by Edgai Burton, Dr. G. W. Burton, of Mitchell, Josiah Burton, of Kentucky, and Rev. N. Carr, of Franklin College. The annual paper, containing a record of all matters of interest relating to members of the family, was read by Miss Lynn Vandell. The remarkable family numbers 1,700 residents of this county, who themselves or their mother bear the name of Burton. All are direct descendants of J. P. and Susanna Burton, who emigrated from North Carolina and settled in this county in 1818. This couple were parents of ten sons and throe daughters, of whom only one, ’“Uncle” Ell Burton, is living to-day, and though about 85 years old, is hale and hearty, and attended the meeting. The Burtons are of English descent, and among the colonists of Jamestown this name appears. Two other large families live In Connecticut, and others, comprising about two thousand members and closely related to the residents of this county, reside In Clay County. Maliy letters received to-day were from members in all parts of the country. A history of tho family, which has been under preparation for several years, is being compiled by Simon Bur ton, of Connecticut. Tho magnitude of the labor is manifest from a careful estimate that the Bujtou family In the United States numbers about 75,000. Minor State Item*. —A wood pulp factory to cost $70,000 will be built at Marion. Ono hundred men will be employed. —Heaps of cattle are dying near Shoals from some very mysterious disease which affects their throats and logs. —Hiram May, a teacher, foil out of the third story of tho Trumbo mil), in Jefferson County, and broke one arm and a leg. —Quails are unusually plentiful throughout the State this season. Many are breaking tho record by hatching second broods. —William Clegg, while handling heavy timbers at tho Jeffersonville car-works, was severely Injured by one of the pieces falling on him. —Thomas Hoover is dying of ammonia poisoning at Jeffersonville. The poison entered his system while working In a Louisville factory. —Tho Flftv-soventh Regiment Indiana Infantry, familiarly known as “tho fighting Methodists,” will hold its annual reunion at Hagerstown, Oct. 14 and 15. —Sheriff Ward, of St Joseph County, has returned from Mercer County, Ohio, where ho secured Chas. Alberson, charged with stealing a horse about June 14 from Oliver A. Hewlett, at Newcastle. Alberson acknowledged tho theft and was bound over In .SSOO bond and is now in jail.

—As the west-bound fast train on the Wabash thundered through Burrow’s Station, a lad about twelve years of age jumped off the train. Ho was Instantly killed. There was nothing on his person by which to identify him. He is thought to have hailed from Royal Center, Cass County. —During a soldiers’ reunion at Turkey Lake, the premature discharge of a cannon in a sham battle took off Elijah Forbes’ right arm and Adam Shellstall’s thumb, besides otherwise Injuring them. The men served together for three years in the late war in the same capacity which they assumed at the time of the accident. —lsaac Rodgers, residing near Eminence, Morgan County, was sitting down and loading a a gun. He was just ramming the load down, when his dog endeavored to scramble into his lap. The dog’s foot threw the hammer back enough to discharge the gun. Rogers tost his index finger, and was terribly lowder-burned about the face. —Two men near Waynetown, Montgomery County, are having a peculiar lawsuit. One man sold tho other a sow, and after weighing the hog, the man who bought the animal put it in a pen. Next morning the sow was found in tho woods with a litter of six sigs, and now the man who sold the sow demands extra pay for tho pigs, and the man who bought the sow claims that as ho bought the sow by weight he also bought tho pigs. —The claim adjuster for the Wabash Railway Company has settled with the officers of the Wabash County Agricultural Society for the loss occasioned by the burning of the buildings of the fair grounds several weeks ago. The railroad company paid 82.800, wflieh tho society" thought best to accept rather than engage in long and costly litigation. The society has a large force engaged on new Buildings, which will be finished in plenty of time for the fair, beginning Sept. 22. —The Montgomery County Board of Review reduced the assessment of the Crawfordsville fair grounds from 817, )00 to 82,000, holding that it was more >f a beneficial ;affair than to make nouev. —Edward Carter, of Martinsville, has nrought suit against the Big Four Railway for 815,000. Carter lost a foot last 'all while voluntarily helping to switch, >y getting his foot fast in a frog. He was not in the employ of tho road, beDg under age.