Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1875 — Page 1

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THE NEWS.

The Turcoman difficulties in Khiva have been settled. The King of the Sandwich Islands left Washington on the 23d for New York. The Holmeses, of Philadelphia, still continue their “seances” and protest their innocence of any complicity with the “ Katie King” frauds. Their sittings are still attended by earnest and undoubting believers. The father of Charlie Ross has offered a reward of $5,000 for the return ol his child. A New Orleans dispatch of the 23d says the Returning Board had given the Republicans 47 and the Conservatives 46 members of the House. The Conservative committee withdrew from the Board because of its alleged arbitrary ruling, and entered a protest against the action of the Board in rejecting the returns of certain precincts and thus securing the return of Republican in place of Democratic candidates. The Board announce the election of four Conservative and two Republican Congressmen. The Conservative sub-committee certify to the election of four Conservative and two Republican Congressmen; the election of Moncure, State Treasurer, by 4,851 majority, and the election of seventy-one Conservatives and thirty-seven Republicans to the Legislature. A train on the Great Western Railway, England, ran- off the track near Woodstock, on the 24th. Thirty persons were killed and wounded. At an explosion in the Bignall Hill col liery, England, on the 24th, twenty miners were killed. The British ship Basilisk, just returned from a four years’ cruise, reports the discovery of a large group of islands near New Guinea. The Secretary of the Interior has written a letter to the War Department asking that the most effective measures may be adopted toward all persons encroaching upon the Black Hiils reservation. James Walker, D. D., formerly President of Howard College, died recently at his residence in Cambridge, Mass. The meeting of 'Railway Commissioners for the Northwestern States has been postponed until Jan. 26, 1875. Madrid dispatches of the 27th report food as very scarce in the town of Pampalona, and all known Carlists had been expelled from the place. The Carlists had offered to restore the German brig Gustav upon payment of the customs duties alleged to be due. The Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia, the hero of the diamond scandal, has been ajudged to be insane. The emigrant ship Cospatrick was burned on the 17th off the Cape of Good Hope. It is estimated that 465 persons perished. Over 400 men and women were recently discharged from the Bureau of Printing and Engraving in consequence of a large part of the work having been transferred to New York. Mrs. Herman Bauer, her infant child, servant girl and a Mr. Beckerdt were frightfully burned in St. Louis on the 26th by the explosion of a spirit lamp. In an affray in New Orleans on the 26th between ex-Gov. Warmoth and D. C. Byerly, of the New Orleans Bulletin, the former stabbed the latter and inflicted wounds which shortly proved fatal. The difficulty grew out of a newspaper discussion on political affairs. Personal charges of an offensive character were made, and the editor of the Bulletin, Jewett, challenged Warmouth to a duel, which the latter accepted. The next day the fracas occurred, Byerly making the attack, with the result above stated.

The Election Returning Board of New Orleans report the following result for State Treasurer: Dubuclet, 69,544; Moncure, 68,586; majority for Dubuclet (Rep.), 958. The five constitutional amendments recommended by Kellogg and adopted by his Legislature are all carried, according to the count of both parties. The Postmaster-General has issued a circular enjoining upon Postmasters throughout the country the necessity of curtailing expenses in view of the anticipated deficiency for the current fiscal year. Gerrit Smith died in New York on the 28th from an attack of apoplexv and paralysis. He was seventy-seven years old. During a dense fog which prevailed in the vicinity of New York on the evening of the 28th several collisions occurred between ferry-boats and vessels. Several persons were killed and injured. One of Irwin’s checks for $115,000 has been traced to Postmaster King, es the House of Representatives, who drew it in May last. G. W. L. Smith, who was kidnaped in Massac County, 111., and taken to Tennessee some months ago, has been released. Ihe receipts of the Minnesota State Treasury during 1874 have been $1,112,812 52, and the expenditures $1,148,059.96. Balance in the Treasury $183,151.94, against $218,398.85, last year. In a dispatch sent from New Orleans on the 25th McEnery says: “The wrong just perpetrated by the Returning Board against the people of Louisiana.is a more crowning infamy than the action of the Lynch Returning Board.” He further says that resistance to the national authority is not meditated. According to a Washington special of the 28th the President had removed Gen. Emory and put Gen. Terry in his place. Gen. Sheridan had been ordered to pro-

THE JASPER REPUBLICAN.

VOLUME I.

ceed to New Orleans, with authority to take command in case such an emergency arose as in his judgment would make it proper for him to do so.

CONGRESSIONAL NEWS.

Announcement was made in the Senate of the absence of Vice-President Wilson from the city, whereupon Senator Carpenter was elected President pro tern, ot the Senate by a vote of thirty-three to eighteen for Senator Thurman. The House resolution for adjournment until Jan. 5 was agreed to. The Naval Appropriation bill was received from the House and referred. After executive session the Senate adjourned until Jan. 5..... The House Committee on Elections reported in favor of Snyder, the sitting member from Arkansas, which report was concurred in. An adverse report was made on the bill authorizing Illinois to select 367,000 acres of public lands. The Senate Finance bill was made the special order for Jan. 7. The Bpeaker named Coburn, Albright, Cannon, Buckner and Luttrell as the select committee on Alabama affairs. Adjourned to Jan 5.

THE MARKETS.

NEW TORE. Cotton. —Middling upland, 14X@14Vic. Lrvs Stock. —Beef Cattle —[email protected]. Hogs -Dressed, [email protected]; Live, [email protected]. Sheep—Live, [email protected]. * Hbeadstuffs. —Flour—Good to choice, $5.03® 5.60; white wheat extra, [email protected]. Wheat—No. 2 Chicago, [email protected]; No. 2 Northwestern, $1.12 ®1.13; No. 2 MUwaukee spring, [email protected]. Bye—Western and State, 93@96c. Barley—[email protected]. Corn—New Mixed Western, 89@91c. Oats—Mixed Western, 68@69Hc. Provisions.—Pork—New Mess, $20.37 l 4 @20.50. Lard—Prime Steam, 13*@13«c. Cheese—l2J4@ 15*C. Wool. —Common to extra, 43@65c. CHICAGO. Lit* Stock.—Beeves —Choice, [email protected]; good, [email protected]; medium, [email protected]; butchers’ stock, [email protected]; stock cattle, [email protected]. Hogs—Live, good to choice. [email protected]. SheepGood to choice, [email protected]. Provisions. —Butter—Choice, 30@37c. Eggs Fresh, 24@25c. Pork Mess, $18.75® 18.90. Lard—[email protected]. Cheese-New York Factory, 15@15>4c; Western Factory, 14H@15c. Bheadstuffs.—Flour—White Winter extra, [email protected]; Spring extra, [email protected]. Wheat —Bprlng, No. 2, 90@90Qc. Corn—No. 2, 79 ®79V4c. Oats—No. 2, 53Q@53V4c. Rye—No. 2. 97@98c. Barley—No. 2, [email protected]*. Wool.—Tub-washed, 45@57c; fleece, washed, 40@48t; fleece, unwashed, 27®35c. Lumber. —First Clear, [email protected]; Second Clear, [email protected]; Common Boards, sll.oo® 12.00; Fencing, [email protected]; “A” Shingles, $3.00®3.25; Lath, [email protected]. CINCINNATI. Breadbtuffs. —Flour —$5.00®5.50. Wheat— Red, [email protected]. Corn—New, 70@71c. Rye—sl.o9®l.lo. Oats—sß@62c. Barley—[email protected]. Provisions —Pork —[email protected]. Lard—l3® 14c. ST. LOUIS. Liyi Stock. —Beeves —Fair to choice, $4.25 @6.00. Hogs—Live, [email protected]. Breadstuff's. —Flour —XX Fall, [email protected]. Wheat—No. 2 Red Fall, [email protected]. CornNo. 2 New, 69@70c. Oats—No. 2, 57K@68c. Rye—No. 1, [email protected]. Barley—No. 2, $1.25® 1.30. Provisions. —Pork —Mess, [email protected]. Lard —l2*@l3c. MILWAUKEE. Bbbadstuffs. —Flour —Spring XX, [email protected]. Wheat—Spring, No. 1, 95V4®96c; No. 2, 90 @9OHc. Corn—No. 2, 65@66c. Oats—No. 2, 50tf @slc. Rye—No. 1, 95@96c. Barley—No. 2, [email protected]. TOLEDO. Bread stuffs. —Wheat Amber Michigan, [email protected]; No. 2 Red, $1.08*@1.09. CornHigh Mixed, New, 72@72‘/,c. Oats-No. 2,55 K @s6c. CLEVELAND. Breadstuffs.—Wheat, No. 1 Red, $1.1114® 1.12; No. 2 Red, [email protected]. Com—New, 72 @73c. Oats—No. 1 State, 57V4<&58c. DETROIT. Bbkadstuffs. —Wheat—Extra, [email protected]. Cora—79@73c. Oats—s4&@"6c. Dressed Hogs—sß[email protected]. buffalo. Livr Stock.—Beeves—[email protected]. Hogs—Live, $6.40®7.25. Sheep—Live, [email protected]. EAST LIBERTY. Live Stock. —Beeves—Best, [email protected]; • medium, [email protected]. Hogs—Yorkers, [email protected]; Philadelphia, [email protected]. Sheep—Best, $5.75® 6.25; medium, [email protected].

Rats on Board of Ship.

Rats greatly infest ships, and are by them carried to every part of the world. So industriously do they make homes for themselves in the numerous crannies and corners in the hull of a ship that it is almost impossible to get rid of them. Ships take out rats as well as passengers and cargo every voyage; whether the former remain in the ship when in port is best known to themselves. When the East Company had ships of their own, they employed a rat-catcher, who sometimes captured 500 rats in one ship just returned from Calcutta. The ship rat is often the black species. Sometimes black and brown inhabit the same vessel, and, unless they carry on perpetual hostilities, the one party will keep to the head of the vessel and the other to the stern. The ship rat is very anxious that his supply of fresh water shall not fail; he will climb on deck when it rains, and climb up the wet sails to suck them. Sometimes he mistakes a spirit cask for a water cask, and gets drunk. A captain of an American merchant ship is credited (or discredited) with an ingenious bit of sharp practice as a means of clearing his ship from rats. Having discharged cargo at a port in Holland, he found his ship in juxtaposition to another which had just taken in a cargo of Dutch cheeses. He laid a plank at night from the one vessel to the other; the rats, tempted by the odor, trooped along the plank and began their feast. He took care that the plank should not be there to serve them as a pathway back again; and so the cheese-laden ship had a cruel addition to its outward cargo.— All the Tear Bound.

According to a Washington paper all the gentlemen at a recent party there wore “ striped silk stockings and low shoes, with buckles and rosettes.” —Next spring will find the American Tract Society half a century old. During these fifty years it has published over 1,000 volumes.

OUR AIM: TO FEAR GOD, TELL THE TRUTH AND MAKE MONEY.

RENSSELAER, INDIANA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 1875.

LIITLB MINISTRIES.

The murmur of a waterfall A mile away. The rustle when a robin lights Upon a spray, - ■ The lapping of a lowland stream On dripping boughs, The sound of grazing from a herd Of gentle cows. The echo from a wooded hill Of cnckoo’s call. The quiver through the meadow grass At evening fall: Too snhtle are these harmonies For pen and rale, Snch music is not understood By sny school; But when the brain is overwrought It hath a spell, Beyond all human skill Md power, To make it well. The memory of a kindly word For long gone by, The fragrance of a fading flower Sent lovingly, The gleaming of a sndden smile Or sndden tear, The warmer pressure of the hand, The tone of cheer, The hush that means, “ I cannot speak But I have heard!” The note that only bears a verse From God’s own Word: Such tiny things we hardly count As ministry; The givers deeming they have shown Scant sympathy; But when the heart is overwrought, Oh, who can tell The power of such tiny things To make it well 1 — F. JB. Havergal. in Good Words.

THE TALKING BIRD.

A bird bo very remarkable for its powers of speech is about to be described that it will be well to premise that the sketch to be offered is perfectly true — not the least a fiction—and furnishes an interesting addition to the curiosities of natural history. The subject of the narrative is a parrot which belongs to Mr. Peter Truefitt, photographer, Edinburgh, and may be seen in that gentleman’s establishment at 65 Princes street by any respectable lady or gentleman who may wish to make its acquaintance. lam grateful to Mr. Truefitt for his kindness in authorizing me to make this statement, because it will save me "from being suspected of inventing the story of the bird’s extraordinary talkativeness. I became acquainted with Mr. Truefitt in the summer of 1873, and having occasion to visit him one Saturday afternoon was invited to drink tea with the family. The only other stranger present was a Mr. P , who, like myself, had called on business. Mr. P was a Spiritualist, and of Spiritualism in his conversation there was no end. He told us of having been present at a seance in London the previous week and could assure us that he had seen a human body pass horizontally through the air from one room to another without any support save that given to it by the “spirits.” “What!” I exclaimed, “a human body pass through the air horizontally without any support!” Mr. P quietly answered: “ I have said so.” There was silence for a moment; and then a voice— I hear it yet—quiet, grave, solemn, but intensely satirical, uttered these words: “My conscience!” I turned round and found, to my astonishment, that the speaker who had so suddenly and unexpectedly introduced himself was a parrot, which, after having thus expressed itself, sat on the lower part of its cage, with its head on one side, looking straight across the table at Mr. P——. “ Wonderful!” I ejaculated. Mr. P. trembled, but could not keep his eyes from the parrot. “Eh, you rascal,” laid Poll, “go to the kitchen. You’re a Fenian. That’s what I say.” And having thus delivered itself it sprang into its ring, and shouted at the pitch of its voice: “Ring the bell, ring the bell.” Mr. P became pale, rose to his feet, called for his hat and umbrella, and finally said “ good-by,” and took his departure. He did not long survive this fright. Peace be with his ashes! As the reader may suppose, I was at once an admirer of Poll. I had heard parrots in a cracked voice endeavor to say “ Pretty Pollbut what other parrots had attempted this parrot had achieved, and having been assured that what he had said was nothing to what he could say, I was determined to interview him. This determination I made known to Mr. Truefitt, who invited me to spend the following Monday with him. According appointment I went early and was ushered into the diningroom by the servant. Breakfast was set, but, with the exception of Mrs. Truefitt, no one had come down stairs. Poll was in his usual place, and appeared to be very much excited.. I got out my pock-et-book and pencil to be ready. “ We’ll take our seats at the table, said Mrs. Truefitt; and we had no sooner done so than Poll perched on one of the bars which ran across his cage, and looking toward the door of the room shouted in a sound, clear, distinct voice: “ Peter, come to breakfast. Polly wants his breakfast. Quick, you rascal.” It being summer-time there was no coal in the grate, but, lifting the poker, Mrs. Truefitt made a feint of stirring the fire, when the parrot, in a most pathetic voice, said: “Is it very cold?” When Mr. Truefitt entered the room Poll more than surprised me by bowing most gracefully and saying: “Good-morning, Mr. Truefitt; I hope you are well.” But when the auntie of the family appeared the joy of the bird was unbounded. “ Auntie,” he said, “ comment vous, portez-rxms t What news in the Scotsman this morning? Come and kiss me, auntie. Come and kiss me, darling. Kiss me, then. Oh, kiss me!” This was uttered in a most affectionate voice. I felt astounded, and could scarcely believe my own eyes and

ears. Nor would be cease repeating the latter sentence until the auntie approached him and wishediiim good-morn-ing. What surprised ore most was the appropriateness of the bird's words to the circumstances. Of course this was the result of training; but how could a bird, not possessed of reasoning faculty, be trained to know not only how to articulate certain words, bnt when to articulate them 7 This was the question which puzzled me. For example, when the cups were being filled he looked gravely down to the table and asked: “Are ye wantin’ yer tea?” and when we began to eat he imitated the smacking of lips, and asked: “Is it nice? Is t good—very good?” And after he had partaken of some dainty which Mrs. Truefltt gave him he again imitated the smacking of lips and pronounced it “good, good, nice, nice, very nice.” The fact jf this appropriateness says much fjr Mrs. Truefltt, his sole and exclusive teacher; bat I confess that I have always felt a difficulty about it. We had salmon for breakfast, and, some one having asked if it was good, Poll said: “Fine, fine; taste it, taste it;” and again imitated the smacking of lips, as if he were tasting it himself. During the half hour or so we sat at breakfast he seemed to know that I was there.to hear him and report; at least—which is not a usual thing with him so early in the day—he kept dancing about the cage, ai t firing off snch sentences as the following: “ Mamma, Polly is going to school. Mamma, he’s going to college to learn to be a doctor. Yes, my pretty bird—yes.” Here he would pause a little, and then start another theme. Sometimes he shouted like a mariner: “ What ship ? what Bhip, ahoy? Mate, there’s a man overboard, of the royal navy.” This last sentence he articulated most admirably. Then he was a baronet, and a candidate for the suffrages of a constituency. “ Vote,” he cried, “ for Sir Polly Truefltt. lam a member. Maj. Polly Truefltt, of the British army.” And that he was interested in passing events was evident from the fact that he asked Mr. Truefltt the following question: “Peter, have you seen the great Shah?” Then, as if he wished me to understand that he was not altogether ignorant of literature, he quoted: “ Lay on, Macduff, and " coward be he who first cries, Hold, enough!” “ A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!” “Richard is himself again!” He repeated several other quotations, which I neglected to take down, but I remember that at the close he very emphatically, and with a dash of pride, pronounced the author’s name —“Shakespeare”—and shook his head, as much as to say that he knew what he was about. After a little silence he said in a woesome manner: “Poor papa, poor papa; he is up among the little stars ” This he had picked up after the death of the late Mr. Truefltt, who was very fond of him. He repeated this several times; and then, naming a terrier that once belonged to the family, he said, mournfully, “Poor Blucher, poor Blucher! Blucher is dead;” then sharply, “ but Blucher was only a dog;” and very proudly, “ but Polly is a good, good, good little boy. Ah, Jock” —this to the new dog —“ you are a bad boy. Go to the kitchen, sir. You are a bad boy—yes, yes.”

After breakfast I was left alone with the parrot, but not long. An old gentlemen called to see Mr. Truefitt in his studio. He had a boy with him about eight years of age, who was put into the dining-room to wait until the old gentleman came down stairs. The boy sat down on the seat nearest the door, directly opposite Poll’s cage. A few moments of silence occurred, and then Poll, pulling himself up, addressed the little stranger thus: “John, attend to your master. John, fetch me a cigar. John, a glass of beer with the chill off. John, put the horses to the carriage; Polly wants a drive in the gardens with Lady Polly. John, brush my coat; quick, you rascal!” At the conclusion of this speech, which was delivered with an air of authority, the poor little fellow, whose name happened to be John, was nearly frightened out of his wits, and leaving the room he disappeared up stairs, screaming, “ Grandpa, the bird in the room has been speaking to me!” When the old gentleman came down he would see this wonderful bird; and he had no sooner made his appearance in the dining-room than Poll very sharply asked: “ What’s your name, sir?” The old gentleman literally sank into a chair. “My name,” continued the parrot, answering his own question—“my name is pretty Polly Truefitt, seventytwo Princes street” (the number of a previous house). “I’m a Volunteer; Capt. Polly Truefitt, first Highland company. What corps are you?” Then putting himself into the attitude of a drillsergeant he unburdened himself in the following manner: “Attention! Dress. Eyes front. Shoulder arms.” (The reader will excuse Polly’s order.) “ Fix bayonets. Rear rank, take open order; right about face; quick, march! Hooray, hurrah for the Prince of Wales! Sergeantmajor, right wheel. Make ready, make ready—present fire.” He then continued for some time shouting “ toot-oot-oot,” etc., in imitation of firing of rifles. The old gentleman was thunderstruck, and no wonder, for Poll’s pronunciation while delivering himself of these words of drill, the inflection of his voice and entire attitude are so perfect that a captain of volunteers told me that the first time he heard him at it he was waiting for Mr. Truefitt in the adjoining drawingroom, and could scarcely believe, even after the truth was made known to him, but that Mr. Truefitt, being a Volunteer, had engaged a drill instructor to post him up for the evening. “ Indeed,” he

added, “I never heard a drill-sergeant whose articulation was to be compared to that of the parrot.” After this effort, of having done a good morning’s work, Poll wished us “goodby," and leaping into his ring said no more until the one o’clock enn, which is fired from the castle, went off; when, ronsing himself up, he made the room ring by crying, “ One o’clock ! one o’clock! Polly wants his dinner. Jeanie, lay the cloth. Polly wants his dinner, with a glass of sherry;” and ceased not until the cloth was laid and the dinner set. It will be necessary to pass over the afternoon performances of this wonderful bird, as a description of them would take up too much space. In the evening four ladies were present, and among them, a clergyman’s wife, who was more than delighted with Poll’s singing. As if certain that he would be desired to sing, he made'the following request to himself: “Poll,” he said, “sing a pretty song \o the ladies;” then coughing, like a nervous young lady about to entertain a party, he sang the following verses, giving to each its appropriate tune: ‘Oh, dear! what can the matter be? Jockey stays long at the fair; He promised to bay me a bunch of bine ribbons To tie np my bonnie brown hair.” “For Poll’s a jolly good fellow, Pqll’s a jolly good fellow, Poll’s a jolly good fellow. Which nobody can deny.” “ Down among the coals, Down among the coals, Polly is a clever chap, Down among the coals.” “ I wish I was a swell, A-rovlng down Pall-Mall, Upon the street to spread my feet, I wish I was a swell, Don’t I? rather!"

He sang other verses during the evening, such as “ Charlie is my darling,” but, of course, substituting “ Polly” for “ Charlie;” “Upin a balloon, boys;” “My dear boys, my dear boys, he is a pal o’ mine;” and “ Champagne Charley is my name, up to every little game, my boys;” and amused, and delighted us all by dancing to one or two of his tunes. His singing of “ Polly’s a jolly good fellow” was inimitable; but when asked to repeat it by the clergyman’s wif# he very sharply told her to “go to the kitchen.” That he objected to being encored was evident, so we allowed him to sing, dance, speak, laugh or be silent, just as he pleased. Polly is a capital laugher. He bends and unbends, and does it so heartily that it is difficult to believe that he is not consciously amused. Then he cries, too, most mournfully, and generally indulges in it when he hears anyene speaking in piteous tones. When the company had dispersed on the evening in question he looked as if aware that he had shown himself off to some advantage, and indeed went the length of saying, “Poll is a very pretty bird He’s a good little boy.” When drawing near to the later hours he interrupted an interesting conversation by saying, “Are you not going to your little beddies? Polly is going to his beddie. Yes. Goodnight, good-night.” He then leaped into his ring, and retired for the night, evidently highly satisfied with the day’s performance.

I am certain that I have not recorded the half of what I heard Poll say, but enough has been quoted to show that he is a most wonderful bird. A lady offered twenty guineas for him lately and was astonished to find that a hundred guineas would not buy him. The last time I saw him he distinctly pronounced my name after hearing it a few times. He then wished the Duke of Edinburgh much joy, and informed me that he was proud to have the honor of the acquaintance of the Prince of Wales. Indeed, he seems to be extremely fond of this future King, and an anecdote illustrative of this trait in. his character may very appropriately conclude this paper. When His Royal Highness, accompanied by his beautiful Princess, was in Edinburgh laying the foundation-stone of the new Infirmary, the royal procession passed along Princess street and halted for a few minutes opposite Mr. Truefitt’s window, which was open for the occasion. A maiden lady of democratic principles was heard to say very ostentatiously that the people of Edinburgh were very foolish in making such an ado about two common mortals like themselves. Some one very politely told her to hold her tongue, but she would not be put down until Poll, who was brought to the open window, fairly silenced her by shouting until the procession moved on, “Hurrah for the Prince of Wales!” That sentence was the bird’s latest acquirement, and all who heard him were unanimous in saying that he made the best possible use of it. Poll’s linguistic accomplishments clearly show to what extraordinary lengths a bird can- be taught to speak, not by mere_note, but with a wonderful degree of rationality and adaptation to circumstances.—Chambers’ Journal.

—“Now, then,”- said a physician, cheerily, to a patient, “ you have got along far enough to indulge in a little animal food, and ” “ No, you don’t, Doctor,” interrupted the patient; “ I’ve suflered enough on your gruel and slops, and I'd starve sooner than begin on hay and oats.” . —The Medical and Surgical Reporter says: “Dr. D. H. L. Hogg, of Texas, writes us that he has found liquor calcis (water of lime) very useful as a mouthwash. It improves the gums and prevents the toothache. He has used it in private practice and personally.” An Arkansas grocer has been sent to the Penitentiary for six years for shooting a man who “ kept helping himself to the crackers,”

NUMBER 16.

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Ten million five hundred and sixty thousand is the number of eggs shipped from Pierrepont Manor, N. Y., during the past season to New York city and the Eastern States. There is a happy couple in the First Ward of Syracuse, N. Y. They have thirteen children, the eldest of whom is ten years old. Six pairs of twins are among the number, and the thirteen are girls. “ I can’t say as he went to heaven,’ remarked a Fort Scott citizen of a deceased townsman, “but he paid a bill of eleven years’ standing only the day before he died, and you can judge for yourself.” The New Zealand Government has sent special agents over to England for the purpose of collecting a quantity of small birds of various kinds, and a colony of humble-bees, for introduction into that country. The San Francisco Chronicle dropped into poetry and welcomed King Kalakaua thus:

Hoky, poky, winky, wank, We’ll honor the King if we bnst a bank To give him a welcome due the rank Of the King of the Cannibal Islands. The editor of a journal in Ne"w York thus appeals to the better nature of his delinquent subscribers: “To all those who are in arrears one year or more, who will come forward and pay up, we will give them a first-class obituary notice gratis in case it kills them.” Mrs. ex-Judge Pratt, of San Francisco, sues for divorce and alimony of $1,000,000. If some of the wives of us fellows would only sue us for divorce and that amount, now, get both and marry us again, what a big thing it would be for the family!— St. Louis Republican. The New York Evening Post thinks that horseback riding is very well for those hardened to its use, but for people who have to eat their dinner off the mantelpiece after the exercise, they will find it “an unnatural motion” and exhausting to stamina and vitality. Cheering. —The New York Times says: “It seems to be the general opinion of our tradespeople that a better business has seldom been done at this time of year than that which is now going on. The influences of the holiday season are opening the hearts and pockets of all classes, and for the present stagnation^'n trade has disappeared, we hope not to return.”

Angora, generally celebrated for cats, is a town of Asiatic Turkey, 215 miles from Constantinople. It contains the ruins of ancient Byzantian architecture and Greek and Roman relics. Just at present Angora is in great distress, being upon the point of starvation. The Sultan of Turkey, a monarch not generally credited with charity to his subjects, has contributed SIOO,OOO for the relief of its inhabitants—an act which greatly redounds to his credit.

“ A gentleman, occupied all day, but having some hours of leisure in the evening,” instead of advertising for books to write up, has set up a semi-suburban private patrol, charging his neighbors four dollars a month for watching their premises. When asked whether he did not find it exhausting to work all day and walk round all night he admitted frankly that he only visited his customers once a month and that was to collect. “ But don’t they find you out?” said the querist. “Oh, no,” he replied; “they hear the burglars going round and trying the doors and they think it’s me.” —Chicago Tribune.

There are various ways of obtaining money in this wicked world, and perhaps as agreeable a mode as any is that of abducting heiresses. So thought, at least, Mr. William Timms, of Idebury, Oxon, England, aged fifty-six, as he ran off with Miss Annie Sophia Power Turner, aged fifteen years, daughter of William Power Turner, Esq., of Field Terrace, Bath Road, Worcester, gentleman. A few days elapsed when the anguish of the parents was still further heightened by the receipt of a note asking forgiveness and mentioning casually that the young woman had been married at Dover to William Timms aforesaid. The young lady is the presumptive heiress to a large fortune and the old reprobate now lies in a dungeon awaiting the sentence of the law upon his mercenary and heartless crime.

J. M. Stearns, Jr., in the New York Sun, draws a comparison as to the speed of railroad trains between the present time and that of twenty years ago. He suggests that the difficulty is to be found in the ponderous cars now used in the transportation of passengers. If we wish to travel fast, says the writer, we have got to have small, light, low cars, with basket-work easy chairs, sides of glass, steel frames and low trucks, to bring the center of gravity down as low as possible. These, provided with airbrakes, can be made to roll over the line with a proper locomotive fifty miles to the hour, without any more damage to the permanent way than is occasioned by the pounding of tons on tons of dead weight now dragged after the engine. Such cars should not hold over twenty persons each.

A Paris journal describes a new rifle of novel construction recently invented in that city. According to this account the gun presents nothing remarkable exteriority, but the lock is so arranged that the breech is opened by cocking the piece, and, the charge being introduced, the breech is closed and the gun fired by touching the trigger. The cartridge consists of a hollow leaden cone filled with powder and closed at the base by a piece of cork. At the moment the cartridge is

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introduced into the breech the powder escapes by a small hole in the cork, and an imperceptible ball of fulminating powder, which forms the priming, takes its proper position. The triple action of , cocking, loading and firing is thus effected simultaneously, so that a man with but slight experience can fire twenty rounds a minute. The cartridges are stored in an iron tube, which is placed parallel with the barrel, and contains thirty balls, so that the piece may be fired as many times almost without any interval, and without removing the stock from the shoulder, there being nothing to be done but to cock and pull the trigger.

Smuggling.

How many acts of smuggling are perpetrated no one knows; we are only cognizant of those which are found out, on the principle that Whet- U hit is history. Bat whet is missed is mystery. In a recent year 180 pounds of tobacco and cigars were concealed by one of the engineers in a hollow beam in the engine-room of a steamer; the Argus .eyes of the English customs officers ferreted out the secret when the steamer entered port. In another instance a vessel came over from Stettin, in the Baltic, with several casks of camomile flowers among the cargo; in the very midst of the camomile the officers found 150 pounds of cigars. A similar mode of illicitly introducing 130 pounds of cigars was about the same time adopted in a vessel hailing from Hamburg. Early one morning nearly 1,200 pounds of tea were found quietly reposing in a furze brake in Guernsey, evidently waiting for a favorable opportunity of transit to'some part of the English coast, there to take its chance of evading customs duty. On another occasion several cases, of glue were found to have more than 1,100 pounds of cigars snugly embosomed in their midst. One day a coast-guardsman near Portsmouth saw a boat laden with barrels of snuff drifting about; the quantity was no less than 4,600 pounds; the owners were probably not far off, but did not deem it prudent to come forth and show themselves. A French fishing bark, the Jenne Henriette, came into an English port with forty pounds of tobacco concealed among the fish and the tackle. In one instance 600 pounds of tobacco were found concealed in some bags of hops in a vessel coming from Ostend; on conviction the owner could not or would not pay the duty and fines; so he was put “in durance vile.” A cask of potatoes was the hiding-place of another batch of smuggled tobacco. One ingenious rascal outdid most of the others in inventiveness; he concealed four pounds of Cavendish tobacco inside two loaves of German bread! — Ha/rper's Baaar.

Egyptian Flies, Rats and Ants.

A large stable contained the twenty horses, which, by great care, had kept their condition. It was absolutely necessary to keep them in a dark stable on account of the flies, which attacked all animals in swarms. Even within the darkened building it was necessary to light fires composed of dried horseduhg, to drive away these persecuting insects. The hair fell completely off the ears and legs of the donkeys (which were allowed to ramble about), owing to the swarms of flies that irritated the skin; but in' spite of the comparative comfort of a stable the donkeys preferred a life of out-door independence, and fell off in condition if confined to a house. The worst flies were the small, gray ones with a long proboscis, similar to those that are often seen in houses in England. In an incredibly short time the station fell into shape. I constructed three magazines of galvanized iron, each eighty feet in height, and the head storekeeper, Mr. Marcopolo, at last completed his arduous task of storing the immense amount of supplies that had been contained in the fleet of vessels. This introduced us to the While Nile rats, which volunteered their services in thousands, and quickly took possession of the magazine by tunneling beneath and appearing in the midst of a rat’s paradise, among thou sands of bushels of rice, biscuit, lentils, etc. The destruction caused by these animals was frightful. They gnawed holes in the sacks, and the contents poured upon the ground like sand from an hour-glass, to be immediately attacked and destroyed by white ants. There was no lime in the country, nor stone of any kind, thus it was absolutely impossible to stop the ravages of white ants except by the constant labor of turning over the vast masses of boxes and stores to cleanse them from the earthen galleries which denote the presence of the termites.—” Ismailia ,” by Sir Samuel Baker.

The Pig.

The pig was thus written up by a Georgia boy, whose composition was published in his local paper, the Griffin News, and was as follows: “ The pig is about as big as a sheep, only a pig’s wool isn’t good for making stockings of. Why is a pig like a tree? Because he roots. That is a conundrum. A pig washes himself in the mud. A pig has four legs, one under each corner of his body. They pickle pigs’ feet, but not until after the pig has done using ’em. A pig squeals awful when it rains, also when you pull its tail. A pig has got a first-rate voice for squealing and he grunts when he feels good. You can’t make a whistle of a pig’s tail ’cos it is crooked. Why is a pig like Tommy Grant? ’Cos he’s got his nose in everybody’s business, Tliis is another conundrum, which is all I know about a pig.”