Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1892 — Tansy. [ARTICLE]

Tansy.

With a fortune of $750,000 safely laid away, Edwin Booth has positively decided not to appear again upon the stage. A Rochester man named Vital Reche is nearly 100 years old. It’s very few of us nowadays that have a vital reach which will span a century. Osman Digna is alive once more. He will be due to die again some time next week. A man with all his lives would be a fine addition to the census of a boom town. The lady who gave birth to the witty remark that females who fought strenuously for woman’s rights were generally men’s lefts, was Mrs. Wills, a London lady who died recently. Definite work is not always that which is cut and squared for us, but that which comes as a claim upon the conscience, whether jt is nursing in a hospital or hemming a handkerchief. Another “magnificent steel ship” has gone down in the lake in a very ordinary storm. Apparently the marine architects of the great lakes are chiefly skilled in their use of adjectives. An eloquent and conversational woman says that talking rests her back. The trouble is she will not confine herself to talking to her back and telling it how she is trying to rest it. The Prince of Wales is about to become a bicyclist. He will not only need a safety machine, up to eighteen stone, but he will find an elevator to hoist him into the saddle a very acceptable addition to it. A Nevada man who had for twen-ty-five years refrained from washing even so much as his face had the decency to die the other day. This circumstance shows that the worst of mortals somewhere within them have redeeming traits.

As soon as we lay ourselves entirely at His feet, we have enough light given us to guide our own steps; as the foot-soldier, who hears nothing of the councils that determine the course of the great battle he is in, hears plainly enough the word of command which he must himself obey. * Some people think that justice applies exclusively, or almost exclusively, to money transactions and dealings in business. But that is a very restricted and imperfect view of what constitutes justice. It lies quite as much in the habit and manner of speech as in the making and fulfillment of contracts. People who did not know that the Chicago University has started in “full-fledged” will please take notice that it has a football team, and the members are already off eastward to vanquish some Buckeye experts. The Chicago University did not have to “wait and grow up with the country,” but was born a giant. Phcebe Couzins rises in haste to eay that she is not the Miss Couzins who recently advocated in London the use of dynamite in converting men to the policy of woman suffrage. Miss Phoebe seems to make out a case. She says that she has not been in London, does not believe in woman suffrage, and abhers dynamite. One of Mexico’s bravest generals, failing to capture Garza, has been sentenced to death. Such retribution adds a new feature to military ethics. If generals are to be slain when defeated in battle there will be no battles, and the annual peace congress need only meet hereafter for the purpose of congratulating itself. Now that the hardships of the winter season will soon be upon the poor, charitably disposed persons will do far more to relieve misery by giving their alms to church or secular organized charities than by indiscriminate support of professional beggars, who victimize the public and the really deserving poor at the same time.

When a pair of fighting animals, presumably human, are offered $40,000 to batter each other in a ring, . and hesitate about accepting it, the inference that they are mutally fearful 'of being licked is not only fair but obvious. The inference as to the state of the public mind that makes such an offer possible is left for future psychologists to worry about. A man named Calvignac over in France was a faithful employe of a mining company. Fortune elected him Mayor and he neglected his vulgar duties for those of office. Then bis employers bounced him and all his associate miners struck. So began an industrial war that has paralyzed Carmaux. But firm and unflinching Mr. Calvignac holds onto his office. He is much like other people. The loyal people of Granada, who had expected a visit from the Queen and were disappointed, attested their grief by by resolving themselves into quite a successful mob. They sorrowfully kicked tfbe lights out of some buildings; with aspect dolorous tore others down and trampled sadly upon triumphal arches. Having thus demonstrated that their woe was

genuine, they went howling to jail, a structure that in their haste they had neglected to overturn.

The Pittsburg agent of the Humane Society advocates the establishment of the whipping post as a means of punishing wife-beaters. He thinks about 50 per cent, of the grievances laid before the Department of Public Safety and the Humane Society are complaints against wife-beaters. If this is the case Pittsburg is even a tougher town than it has been generally supposed.

Beaders of public library books are familiar with the work of the superior person who marks passages for the purpose of attracting the special attention of others whom he assumes to be less capable than himself of appreciating a good thing at first sight. People of dull perceptions are greatly indebted to this gifted individual for pointing out what is particularly excellent in the library books.

At Santa Rosa, Cal., a man hurled a stone through the plate-glass window of a bank, explaining that he did so because he was hungry. He was asked why he had chosen to quell his clamorous appetite with so large and expensive a pane and lacked the presence of mind to reply that it was because he was very hungry, indeed. No man with a stomach flapping idly against his spine could reasonably be expected to find satiety in a 10x12 window light worth two bits.

The determination of the United States authorities to prevent European immigration from recently infected districts during the winter is wise and Just. Thousands, of immigrants scattered throughout the country during the winter would be certain to spread the scourge in every quarter when the hot months are reached. The interests of the people at all times should be thoroughly guarded, and next year, when we expect the whole world as our guests, it is imperative that no blunders should be made. Uncle Sam can get along without his usual million of immigrants the coming year.

There are peculiar people in Milwaukee who, but for the great fire, would never have known ‘fame. When charitable citizens sent funds liberally for the benefit of the poor who had been burned out, these people appeared and gratefully accepted their dole. It was found that some' of them were worth $20,000, owned houses outside the burned district, and had long bank accounts. When they appeared the second time they were surprised by being kicked down stairs, and went their way convinced that, while charity suffereth long and is kind, it does occasionally draw the line. One not infrequently sees a news item to the effect that the brain of some criminal has been turned over to the learned anatomists for study and discover wherein it differed from the ordinary human brain, and often with the idea of throwing some new light on the character of a criminal or the reason of his depravity. At a late meeting of the Neurological Association this subject was up for discussion, with the result that nothing is yet ascertained that can be practic ally useful. It is not possible to pick out the criminal's brain from a dozen others by’ any special marks, fissures or evidence of criminality. It may be worth while handling criminal brains over to the doctors for study, for only by so doing can there be any discoveries in this line, but up to the present time there has been very little discovered worth mentioning. If the account of a recent occurrence at Northwestern University is strictly true, then great improvement can be made in the methods of discipline employed in the “co-ed” department of that institution. It is reported that 100 young ladies were summoned to appear in the chapel at midnight, attired as they happened to be at the moment, and were compelled to remain there while two Chicago detectives searched their rooms for a sum of money alleged to have been stolen from one of their number. The matron is indignant that the affair should have gained publicity and says that the young lady who told of it committed a dishonorable act. In this the matron is mistaken The proceeding, if it occurred as related, was most extraordinary and in poor taste and could not possibly have been kept secret. A grave suspicion was cast upon the young ladies whose rooms were searched, and the indignation which they feel is perfectly justifiable and natural.

“Tansy” humble plant. Its name has seen far better days. In Greek it was athanasia. How little of the original is left—only a shred. In old New England days, and oven now, the kitchen garden had its tansy bed to draw from in the interest of “tansy cheese,” “rum and tansy,” “tansy bitters,” and, ia case of illness, “tansy tea.” It is only a trace of classic custom that has come down through the ages. So powerful its properties that should Jove's messenger administer a draught of tansy cordial to a mortal he took on immortality. The Yankee took it for another Teason. So popular was Tansy that it was adopted as a christening name, and in several European countries to-day Athanase (immortality) is very popular. As an example of word debasement tansy is rather striking.— Davenport Democrat. In the afterpath of the Columbian celebration comes the discovery that when Columbus, standing on the deck of the Santa Maria, first beheld land, he then and there originated the famous question, “Where am I at?”