Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1895 — NOTES AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Great Northern Steamship Company, whose vessels ply on the .Teat lakes, has announced that it will give a prize of s*2so in gold for all babies born aboard its steamers Northland and Northwest this season; SSOO for twins and SI,OOO for triplets. The only condition is that the officers of the company shall name the babies. Bullheaded courage was shown in a recent sewer gas accident, in London. A man went down into a sewer and did not come up. another man descended to look for him, and was followed, one after another, by three others. The sixth man who entered the death trap succeeded in bringing up the fifth still alive and in getting out the bodies of the first four. The census report covering statistics of churches, just printed, shows that there are 148 distinct denominations in the United States, beside independent churches and miscellaneous congregations. The total number of communicants of all denominations is 20,613,806, who belong to 165,177 organizations or congregations, having 142,521 edifices. It appears that the comparatively few losses to the Japanese troops in the Manchurian engagements in the recent war with China were not altogether due to the bad markmunship of the Chinese. As a means of protection against the cold the Japanese wore a quantity of floss silk under their outer clothing, and this acted more or less as a bullet proof shield. • The end of the world, announced by the German weather prophet, Dr. Falb, to take place in 1890, has been postponed by the doctor, owing to unexpected obstacles, until Nov. 18, 181)9, between 2 and 4 o'clock in the morning. In this announcement Falb agrees with Brother Philippe Olivarius, of the Clteux Cloister, in France . According to a manuscript written in 1544, left by the monk, the city of Paris is to be destroyed lu 1896, and the end of the world is to take place in 1899. It is claimed that E. E. Kessler, of Richmond, Ind., was the youngest private soldier in the war. Ho was born Juno 10, 1849, and onlisted in Company B, Sixty-eighth Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry, at Napoleon, Ohio, In September, 1801, at the age of less than 18 years. In June, 1805, at the age of 10 years, he was mustered out, having served for three years and nine months us a private soldier. Some enlistod at an early age as drummer boys, but none, it is suid, curried a musket at an earlier age than Mr. Kessler. He declared his age 18 in order to got into the service.

International agreement has been reached on the protection of birds, the Governments represented at the recent conference in I’ariH promising to establish regulations In accordance with its proposals within three years. Game birds were not meddled with. The birds to be protected between March and September, us being useful to agriculture, are owls and all nocturnal birds of prey; birds of pussago, including martins, swallows, finches,yellow hammers, wrens, starlings, redbreasts, peowits and storks, and the climbing birds, like woodpeckers. Birds not to be protected are those that prey by day, eagles, vultures, kites, hawks, crows, magpies, jays, herons, bustards, pelicans and cormorants, though the latter list is open to objections. Gen. Lew Wallace says that the future of the bicycle depends on the woman riders. “If the use of wheels were confined to the men,” he says, “the fad might spend itself in a season. But when the women take hold of the bicycle its future is secure.” Gen. Wallace believes that bicycle racing will eventually supersede horse racing. Ladies who ride will be interested to know that Gen. Wallace is an enthusiastic advocate of the fair cycler, and that he approves of bloomers, “about which there is nothing immodest, it being merely their present oddity of appearance that now excites comment. Why, in the Tyrol the women wear skirts coming just below the knee, and no one, not oven an entire stranger, looks askance.” .Thirty-three women’s clubs of Chicago have united to support “The Model Workshop and Lodging House Association," and they seem to have struck the happiest and richest vein in the whole mine of practical charity. Dr Sarah Hackett Stevenson is the president. A poor wandering woman can secure a night's lodging, a bath, a clean bed and a nightgown to sleep in for 15 cents a night, and have a chance to work it out by being employed either within or without the institution. A sitting room and library with music and bboks are attractions, and the whole tone,of the place is that of constructiveness of self-respect. They even plan in the future to run opposition business to the sweatshops. The association hadn’t time to build, but just rented a house and movea in and settled down to work. The Japanese living on the Pacific coast are all a bubble with patriotic fervor since the events of the recent war elevated their nation to such a notable altitude, and thpy seize every opportunity for “celebrating" in a general way, and for spellbinding about patriotism, liberty, freedom, and other interesting generalities. Last Fourth the Japanese of Ban Francisco had a particularly big time. They hired a hall, hung it all over, inside and outside, with banners and bunting, and celebrated and oratpd from dawn till long after dark. Everything that smacked of “freedom" went. The Declaration of Independence was road by a Jap in English; an eloquent Jap delivered an oration, “giving the history of liberty from the days of Athens to the present time in Japan ;" then the American flag was raised, and afterward the Japanese flag was run up; there was a parade in the rain, which the Japs didn’t mind a little bit, and the day wound up with a carnival of American and Japanese sports mixed. The Congregationalists in this country number 588,589.