Jasper Republican, Volume 2, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1875 — THE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

THE NEWS.

Prof. Thomas Hewitt Key, the eminent English philologist, died in London on the 30th uILAdvices from the African coast represent Liberia as likely to be overrun with native savages. The colonists had been defeated in an engagement and forced to leave their inland settlements and concentrate at Moravia. Judge Advocate Gkn 4 Holt, of the United States Army, has been retired and Assistant Advocate Gen. Win. McKee Dunn appointed to succeed him. Gen. Myebs, Chief Signal-Officer of the Army, in hi& annual report says that of ithe nuirJoer of cautionary signals displayed during the year 76 per cent, were afterward reported as verified.

Oar 30th ult. Gen. Babcock sent a •dispatch to the United States Attorney at :8t Louis, declaring his innocence of any •connection with the whisky frauds and demanding a hearing. The house of Albert Wood, at Pony Hollow, near Elmira, N. Y., was burned on the 30th ult., and his wife and three children perished in the flames. The Erie Canal and the Hudson River were frozen up on the 30th ult., and navigation was virtually closed for the season. The troubles along the Rio Grande growing out of. the cattle raids by Mexicans were as bad as ever on the 30th ult The Grand Jury of the United States District Court at St. Louis have recently indicted D. W. Munn, late Supervisor of Internal Revenue for the Illinois District, on charges of complicity with the whisky frauds.

A London dispatch of the Ist says the Spanish authorities at Toledo had closed an American Protestant church and expelled the preacher and schoolmaster. A telegram from Madrid of the Ist says the last note from Spain to the United States, which is declared to be the ultimatum, promises gradual emancipation and increased freedom of conscience; that foreigners when arrested shall have an immediate hearing, and that legal redress shall be obtainable for past injuries. On the morning of the 30th ult. the wife of Hon. Hugh Chllde-s was found dead in her bed at her husband’s residence in London. A bottle containing . chloroform was found by'her bedside. Intelligence was received in Washington on the 30th ult. of the death of Hon. Benjamin P. Avery, American Minister to China.

The annual report of the Superintendent of Public Printing shows that the total cost of printing, etc., for the Government for the year ending Sept 30 last was $1,560,425. The Congressional Record cost $88,959 additional. There are 1,200 employes in all the departments, with a monthly pay-roll of $95,000. The compositors receive sixty cents per 1,000 ems, or $4.00 a day for eight hours’ work. A. E. Wilson, of Louisville, Ky., has been appointed Chief Clerk of the Treasury Department, to fill the vacancy created by W. O.’Avery’s resignation.

The statement of the public debt Dec. 1 is as follows: Six per cent, b0nd5...51,033,866,550 Five per cent, bonds 660,384,750 Total coin b0nd551,694,251,300 Lawful money debt 14,000,000 Matured debt 22,4:10,870 Legal-tender notes 372,541,479 Certificates of deposit 42,610,000 Fractional currency 42,356,1(5 Coin certificates 19,79-*,500 Interest 34,960,516 Total debt 52,242,946,770 Cash in TreasuryCoin $70,404 676 Currency ...; 12,014,962 Special deposits held for the redemption of certificates of deposit. 42,610,000 Total in Treasury. $125,029,638 Debt less cash in Trea5ury52,117,917,132 Decrease during November 480,078 Decrease since June 30, 1875 10,771,593 Bonds issued to the Pacific Railway Companies, interest payable in lawful money, principal outstanding.... $64,623,512 Interest accrued and not yet paid... 1.615,587 Interest paid by the United States.. 28,202,807 Interest repaid by the transportation of mails, etc 6,575,854 Balance of interest paid by United States. 21,626,953 On the 30th ult., in New England, the cold was very intense, the thermometer ranging from 30 to 47 degrees below zero. At Mount Washington the velocity of the wind was 170 miles an hour and the mercury sunk out of sight. One woman froze to death in Boston. The steamer Sunnyside, from Troy for New York, was cut in two by the ice near West Point, N. Y., on the morning of the Ist. Eleven persons were drowned, six of whom were waiters and chambermaids on the boat and the remainder passengers. There was great activity in the navyyards at Portsmouth, N. H., and Brooklyn, N. Y., on the Ist. A Philadelphia dispatch of the Ist says the iron-clads at League Island were ready for sea. The fleet consists of nine or ten vessels. A collision occurred on die Ist between a passenger and freight train, near Buffalo, N. Y., in consequence of which four persons were killed and a number of others seriously injured. Deacon West has lately addressed a communication to the members of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, requesting them to join with him in calling a mutual council to investigate the charges against Mr. Beecher. The National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry installed its newly-elected officers on the evening of the Ist, and adopted a resolution to adjourn at noon on the 2d. The Michigan State Grange will meet at Lansing on the 14th inst. Messis Schutz and Brrgenthal, Milwaukee distillers, convicted of shipping crooked whisky, have been sentenced to pay a fine of SI,OOO each and to be imprisoned for four months in the County jail.

According to a Berlin telegram of the 2d Turkey had energetically protested to. Montenegro against the Montenegrins taking part in the Herzegovinian trouble, and that the great powers had unanimously indorsed that protest. A Vienna dispatch of the 2d says Gen. Kaufman had recently demanded of Russia a reinforcement of 50,000 men, with artillery, as otherwise he Would not be able to relieve the garrison at Khokand, his entire force being employed in guarding the frontier. Several failures occurred in London on the 2d, the most important being that of Bruggiote Bros., stock and share brokers, whose liabilities exceeded $350,000. The German Federal Council on the 2d added 100,000 marks to the sum already appropriated to facilitate the display of German products at the Philadelphia Centennial.

A Hindoo residing near Kingston, Jamaica, recently beheaded five children. He was religiously insane. In a recently-published private letter Chief-Justice Waite expresses the opinion that the position he holds should be a bar to any aspirations for the Presidency. Gen. Babcock addressed a letter to the President on the 2d demanding a court of inquiry and an immediate investigation of the charge-that he was a member of the St. Louis whisky ring. The anniversary of the Methodist Freedmen’s Aid Society was held at Washington on the evening of the 2d. The Centennial Committee have selected William M. Evarts for the orator, Henry W. Longfellow for the poet, and a grandson of Richard H. Lee, of Virginia, for the reader of the Declaration of Independence, on the occasion of the opening ceremonies of the Exposition. Patrick Toney, of New York city, on the night of the Ist covered the clothing of his wife with kerosene oil, and then set it on fire. She was fatally burned. Hon. Ira Harris, formerly United States Senator from New York, died at Albany on the 2d, aged seventy-three years. The first fast evening mail-train between New York city and St. Louis left the former city,on the evening of the Ist. The recent accident on the New York Central Railroad, near Buffalo, is said to have been caused by the carelessness of a flagman. A meeting of the Executive Committee of the Independent party was recently held in Chicago, at which Mr. 8. M. Smith, of Kewaunee, 111., presided. Resolutions were adopted—demanding the repeal of the Specie Resumption and National Bank acts; the establishment of a monetary system adapted to the demands of legitimate business; civil-service reform, etc., and calling for a delegate convention to be held at Indianapolis, May 17, 1876, to nominate candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States.

John B. Bingham, one of the parties charged with whisky fraud at Evansville, Ind., when before the court at Indianapolis on the 2d, withdrew his former plea of not guilty, and entered a plea of guilty. Several minor members of the Evansville whisky ring had already confessed their guilt- s . The Bank of America, at New Orleans, suspended on the Ist. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin has lately reiterated a former decision that the agent of an insurance company, authorized to take risksand issue policies against fire, may waive by parol any condition in a policy issued by him. The schooner J. G. Jenkins foundered in Lake Ontario, near Oswego, a few days ago and all on board, numbering nine persons, were lost. It was reported in Vienna on the 3d that the Princes of Abyssinia had appealed through American missionaries to the United States to protect them against Mohammedan invasion.

The municipality of Paris has appropriated $6,000 toward the fund to send a delegation of French workmen to the Philadelphia Exposition. A New York dispatch of a recent date says that, according to the tax records of that city, Wm. B. Astor’s real estate at the time ofhis death was worth about $25,000,000. They also show that he owned $636,000 worth of bank stock, and he was known to have been the holder of large amounts of State, city and national bonds. It was believed that the total value of his estate would not exceed $45,000,000. A second letter to Plymouth Church from Mrs. Moulton was published on the 3d, in which she repeats the charges she had previously made against Mr. Beecher, and declares that Plymouth Church had acted unfairly toward her. She indicates the questions she wishes to be submitted to the Church Council to determine whether her past conduct has been proper, and whether the action of the church in dropping her name so summarily was in accordance with justice and fair dealing. A business meeting of Plymouth Church was held on the evening of the 3d, at which Deacon West’s letter was presented and tabled. Resolutions were introduced characterizing the publication oi such letters in advance of their presentation to the church as a flagrant and presumptively intentional insult; that the contents of Deacon West’s letter, if unexplained and disavowed by him, constitute an aggravation of bis acknowledged offense, and instructing the Examining . Committee to summon Mr. West before them for a satisfactory explanation of his conduct or a full and ample apol-’ ogy therefor. Mr. Beecher said he heartily approved of the resolutions, and declared that the time for silence had passed;

that whatever was to be said should be said, and when matters of the church were at issue he intended to be there. The resolutions, as well as file second letter of Mrs. Moulton, were referred to the Examining Committee. The Philadelphia navy-yard was sold on the 2d for $1,000,000 to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. A*/ a greenback mass-meeting held in Indianapolis on the Ist resolutions were adopted demanding of Congress the repeal of the Specie-Resumption act, the retirement of all National Bank notes and the substitution therefor of legal-tender paper money issued by the Government. The trial of the Chicago whisky cases has been set for the 11th of January next. The Democrats of the Fourth Tennessee District have nominated F. R. Riddle for Congress, to succeed J. M. Head, lately deceased. In the Milwaukee whisky suits, on the 3d, Taft and Weimer were found guilty of defrauding the revenues. Louis Rindsfkop was sent to jail for contempt of court in refusing to answer questions as to payments to ring officials disclosed by the check-book.

In the Avery trial at St. Louis the jury found a verdict on the 3d of not guilty on the first, second and fourth counts of the indictment, but guilty on the third count. He was taken to jail. A barrel containing the remains of a woman and a child was recently delivered by the driver of an express-wagon to the United States Express office at Chicago, for shipment to lowa City. The suspicions of one of the messengers being aroused the barrel was opened and the nature of the contents discovered. An investigation showed the corpses to be those of Mrs. Emma P. Adams and her infant child, which had been buried in Graceland Cemetery and stolen from there by resurrectionists, for medical purposes. Several of the perpetrators of the outrage were discovered and arrested. The physician concerned had not been found up to the morning of the 4th. According to a Madrid dispatch of the sth the operations of the Spanish army in 'the north had been greatly retarded by the immense quantities of snow which had fallen.

A London dispatch of the sth announces that the French steamer Amerique had not been heard from for several days. She had been spoken some time before in latitude 47:40, longitude 17, at which time she was in a disabled condition. An English war steamer had been sent out to see if anything could be learned of her fate. In consequence of an explosion of firedamp in the Powell-Duffryn colliery, near Tredgear, England, on the sth, twenty persons were killed and ten severely injured. A Paris telegram of the 4th says United States Minister Washburne had departed for Turkey on a three-mouths’ leave of absence. In a caucus of the Democratic members of the House of Representatives held in Washington on the afternoon of the 4th, M. C. Kerr, of Indiana, was nominated for Speaker. The first ballot stood: Kerr, 71; Randall, 59; Cox, 31; Saylor, 1. Second ballot: Kerr, 77; Randall, 63; Cox, 21; Saylor, 1. Third ballot: Kerr, 90; Randall, 63; ,Cox, 7; Saylor, I—Kerr receiving nine votes more than enough to elect him. The other caucus nominations were: For Clerk, Geo., M. Adams, of Kentucky; Sergeant-at-Arms, John G. Thompson, of Ohio; Doorkeeper, L. H. Fitzhugh, of Texas; Postmaster, James Stuart, of Virginia; Chaplain, Rev. I. L. Townsend (Episcopalian), of Washington. The Republican members caucused the same day and nominated all the old members of the House, including Mr. Blaine for Speaker. A Washington dispatch of the 3d states that Commissioner Atkinson had unearthed a ring, composed of three firms of claim agents in Philadelphia which had succeeded in fraudulently getting through, during a few years past, many thousand pension cases, involving the payment of over sl, 000,000 annually. The ring includes one Deputy Clerk at Philadelphia. A large number of persons, who appeared on the rolls as pensioners, have made affidavits that they had no disabilities, but were paid so much to sign blank papers presented to them by the above firms. The evidence was fraudulent, but appeared genuine, and pensions were allowed which have been regularly drawn by the ring, under powers of attorney.

President Grant on the 4th designated Gens. Sheridan, Hancock and Terry as a military court of inquiry to investigate the charges against Gen. Babcock, to sit in Chicago. Col. Gardiner Professor of Law at West Point, was designated to act as Judge-Advocate. Susan Denin, the actress, died at Bluffton, Ind., on the 4th, from injuries received from a fall while performing some weeks ago on the stage at Indianapolis. New York was greatly excited on the evening of the 4th by the announcement that Wm. M. (“ Boss”) Tweed had escaped from the custody of Warden Dunham, of Ludlow Street Jail. The Warden had accompanied the prisoner to the residence of Mrs. Tweed, and while there had acceded to his request for a private interview with his wife in an upper apartment, Dunham and his deputy remaining below in company with one of Tweed’s sons. After waiting ten or fifteen minutes the Warden sent the son to tell his father to come down at once, and the young man soon returned with the statement that his fattier had disappeared. The house was searched, but no trace oF the “Boss" could be found: The police authorities were notified of the escape and

■ detectives were sent out and scoured the city in all directions. Sheriff Conner offered a reward oP<IO,4DO for the arrest of the escaped prisoner. Up to the morning of the 6th no clew to his whereabouts had been found. Police-Commissioner Matsell had no theory in regard to the escape, but in his opinion there was collusion somewhere. A New York special of the sth says Gov. Tilden had notified Sheriff Conner that he should hold him personally responsible for Tweed’s escape.