Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1880 — Page 1

Jjteftifrftnrc. ‘ ’ •- "■ - ■■" ■ -= i muxx) xtxxt Friday xourxxe, MAJOR BITTERS & SON, PnbUaben sad Proprietor*. OmcMr-ln Nikmer’i Building, north ride Public Square. TEMMH OF HLBSCBIPTIOX : Op«re<»,atai«H(*l* entrants ..*1 60 Sir months, * i•• 1* Three months “ “ SO The Official Paper of Jasper County. XU Mads at Plain sad Ornamental JOB PHIXTOfO BtwnDtle executed.

EPITOME OF THE WEEK.

Y Current Paragraphs. Recorder Hackxtt, of New York U tj, died on the 38th. The First Ward High School building la Milwaukee was horned on the night of the 21st. . ' The first regular train passed over the Boston, Hooeac Tunnel A Western Railroad on the 30th Frank Hatton, of the Burlington Bamk-Egt, has been appointed by the President Postmaster at Burlington, lows. . Am agitation has been begun in Canada having for its object the secession from the British Empire snd annexation to the United States. The King of Italy has issued a Royal decree ordering the cessation of quarantine on reseels coming from northern ports of the United States.

The British Government has granted a pension of £SOO annually to. the widow mud £IOO to the mother of Sir Louis Cavagnarl, massacred at CahuL The President has approved the bill authorizing allowances for loss by leakage or casualty of spirits withdrawn from distillery warehouses for exportation. * Several Russian officers of the artillery and engineer corps have been arrested on the charge of complicity in the recent attempt on the life of the Czar. Secocoekt, the South African savage who has resisted the British since the fal] of Cetewayo, has been captured and is May to Cape Town a prisoner. A Liberal member of Parliament was elected from Sheffield, Eng., on the 23d, to succeed the late Mr. Roebuck. There was great excitement and some rioting. Gov ERROR G ARCELOR, of Maine, has issued an address to the public Justifying the reversal by himself and his Council of the election results claimed byuhe Republicans. It is stated that, owing to the scarcity of greenbacks in the Treasury, new United States notes can no longer be furnished from the Washington office for bankers’ drafts. „

A Columbia (S. C.) telegram of the 33d says that Governor Simpson having been elected Chief Justice at the late election, Senator T. B. Geter would be Governor until the next election. The British Ambassador at Constantinople has demanded the release of the Mussulman under sentence of death in that city for the crime of translating the Bible into the Turkish language. Duriro the month of November last the United States exported provisions and tallow to the value of £3,900,708, against exports of the same value] at $9,090,482 for November, 1873, showing a failing off of #739,778. -- A special dispatch of "the 25th from Pataskala, Ohio, says that George Lynn, who was personating Santa Clans at a Christmas festival in the Methodist Church, was probably fatally burned by his costume taking fire. Bosse, the book-keeper of the Fire & Marine Insurance Company’s Bank at Milwaukee, who lately defaulted and absconded, has pleaded guilty to embezzlement and been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in the House of Correction. The British law authoritiei have deckled to re-open the Tichhorne ease, being influenced thereto by the reasoning of the New York Court of Appeals iu the case .of William M. Tweed on the question of cumulative or concurrent sentences. A telegram from Washington on the 35th says the conferences with New York bankers and others had coavincad the Secretary of the Treasury that a vast amount of s's and 6’s, which will accrue during the next year or two, cannot be funded at less than four per cent. • A gentleman connected with chemical works has informed the Glasgow Philosophical Society that, after experiments since 1888, be has succeeded in obtaining crystalled forma of carbon which Professors Tyndall and Smyth and Mr. Maskelyne. of the .British Museum, do not doubt are diamonds. In unloading what purported to be a cargo of oranges at New few days ago, it was discovered that the boxes were filled with sand, small portions of the fruit being used at knot-holes and cracks to deceive the eyes of inspectors. Baring Bros., of London, advanced money on the stuff, and will be the principal losers. , y Three of the political offenders reicently convicted at Odessa, Russia, have been hanged, and four others condemned to imprisonment for terms ranging from ftn to fifteen wears. At Rieff on the 23d the au-thorities-surprised and surrounded a body of Nihilists while in secret session, and secured niflety-eight persona

A shoddy mill at Bennington, Vt., burned on the zfternooe of the 30th, and Seymour O. Stone, the proprietor of the mill, aiid two workmen had to rurh through the flames to reach the street. Stone was so severely burned that he died soon afterward. Others were badly burned. When Mrs. Stone waa informed of the death of her husband she became frantic with grief, and has since become a raving msniac. In a letter from Professor NonlenskJold, the Arctic explorer, to the Russian Geographical Bociety, he advocates the establishment of a regular navigation line to the mouth of the River Yenisei, in Siberia. He even believes that the mouth of the River Lena may be regularly reached from Russia and America, and, with a view to this end, he proposes the establishment of life-boat and hospital stations on Siberian shores. The Secretary of the Interior has rendered s decision of importance to all purchasers of public lands by “ private entry, •’ holding that whenever, prior to patenting, it is discovered that the land previously offered snd entered as agricultural is really mineral in its character, the entry must be canceled and the land reserved for entry under the laws especially applicable to mining lands. The issue was presented by the css** of Smith Scroggin vs. Charles E. Culver et aL, Involving the title to a tract of 2,000 acre* of land in the Camden (Ark.) district, which was purchased from the Government at the private entry in 1878, but subsequently found to contain argentiferous lead ores. li* an interview at St. Louis on the S6th Mr. Moody, the evangelist, stated, in regard to the alleged conversion of Dan Rice snd the announcement that he would speak at Moody’s meetings, that there was no foundation for these reports. 80 far as he knew, Rice had not been converted. He had had but one conversation with Rice, and In that be gave no evidence of conversion whatsoever. Rice had not been announced to speak at his meetings, nor would he be. Mr. Moody added: *‘ In such cases it is not my habit to put new men forward at once, nor to call upon them immediately to preach, exhort or

Rensselaer Republican.

VOLUME XII.

lecture. It is well to try them awhile, and when their life and acts show the genuineness of the change, It is time enough to put them forward oo the platform. v . General. A St. Petersburg dispatch of the 22d says the revolt in Afghanistan was wholly due to the cruelty of the British since Cahul fell into their hands. It charges Gen pral Roberts with the grossest inhumanity in dealing with the prisoners taken at that time. A Washington telegram of the 22d announces the dismissal of the case of the Lottery Agent* against the PostmasterGeneral, at the Instance of the counsel for the plaintiff* It was stated that the lottery men would await the result of the application for an indictment against Mr. Key for illegally opening private letters before pushing, any other cases. Secretary Schurz received a dispatch on the evening of the 23d, from Los Pino*, 20th, stating that Ouray, had returned from the White River Utes. He had given the tribe'until the 23d to bring in the prisoners. This wss his ultimatum, and if it was not complied with by that time he would call for Government troops and assist them In a war against Chief Douglass and bis tribe. Another dispatch from Los Pinos, dated the 21st, says Ouray had informed the Commission that the Indians had accepted his ultimatum. General Hatch was ready to leave with the prisoners, bat was compelled to await the arrival ot Sowerwick, who was on his way from Grand River, to accompany the chiefs to Washington. Chief Jack bad decided to quit the reservation and Join Sitting Bull. He informed Ouray that he was a man with a carbine and plenty of ammunition, and he proposed to fight The steamer Bomssia, from Liverpool November 20,'for New Orleans, foundered in mid-ocean on the 2d of December. Of the 185 passengers and fifty-four sailors on board the only person* known to be saved are the Chief Engineer, the doctor, the boatswain and six seamen, who were picked up in an open boat on the sth and reached Queenstown, Ireland, on the 23d.

Great excitement continued to prevail throughout Maine on the 23d over the situation of political affairs in that State. Up to that date several indignation meetings of those opposed to the course of the Governor and Council had been held, and strong denunciatory resolutions had been in several cases adopted. A meeting of the Republican State Committee and prominent Republicans from various parts of the State, held in Senator Blaine’s residence at Augusta on the 23d, resulted in the appointment of a committee to advise and co-operate with the Republican members of the Legislature. Senator Blaine has made a speech against the action of the State authorities, in which he said “a great pbpular uprising will avert these evils (described by him) and restore honest government to Maine—and the people are already moving.” The Fusionists held a public meeting at Augusta on the evening of the 23d, at which speeches were made indorsing the action of the Governor as being thoroughly in accordance with the law and the Constitution of the State. Resolutions expressive of these views were adopted. Governor Garcelon made a speech asking that himself and colleagues be sustained in the action they bad taken. At an indignation meeting in Portland on the same evening ex-Governor Washbume presided. The assemblage criticised severely the action of the Governor and Council, and appealed to “honest Democrats to denounce their proceedings.” The large corset and suspender factory of West, Bradley A Cary, in New York City, was destroyed by fire on the night of the 23d. Twenty women were in the building, and barely escaped with their lives. Four of them jumped from the seventh story upon the roofs of adjoining buildings, a distance of three stories, and were seriously injured. Two firemen were severely injured. The entire loss is about 8300,000. The batchers of Chicago— those employed at the various packing-houses—struck a few days ago, ostensibly? because in some of the establishments men were employed who did not belong to the Butchers and Packers’ Union. On the 23d none of tbs packing-houses were buying stock, and only running to work up the hogs on hand. The results of the strike up to that date were the idleness of from 5,000 to 10,000 men, a sharp decline in the price of live hogs and an appreciation in the price of the manufactured product. A. Madrid dispatch of the 24th announces that one branch of the Bpanish Cortes had passed the bill for the abolition of slavery in Cuba, by’ a vote of 134 ayes to 14 noes.

An Alexandria (Egypt) dispatch of the 24th says dispatches had been received from General Gordon, containing such preposterous propositions tbet the only conclusion on the pert of the Khedive and his advisers was that he had suddenly become deranged. Another defeat of the allied forces of Peru and Bolivia by the Chilians was announced on the 25th. In a colliery explosion near Bolton, Eng., on the 25th, eleven men were badly, and some of them fatally, Injured. Bangor (Me.) dispatches of the 25th say that city was the scene of great excitement growing put of an attempt being made to remove the arms and ammunition from the State Arsenal to the railroad depot The Mayor of the city, a number of exMayors and other prominent citizens signed a communication to the Governor stating that, on seeing the movement of the arms and ammnuition along the principals streets of the dtv, “ there was an immediate uprising of the citizens, so filling the streets as to prevent the passing of the teams. The Mayor, who had been sent for, having no knowledge of the authority under which the arms were being moved, first demanded who assumed the responsibility of the movement.: He was answered by a Mr- French, representing himself to be a clerk in the Adjutant General’s office, that be was actiDg under verbal instructions from Governor Garcelou to remove the arms and ammunition by

railroad to Augusta. Mr. French, Seeing the difficulties in the way, and being informed by the Mayor that he might be unable to restrain the people with the force at bis command, decided to return the arms to the arsenal, and the citizens quietly dispersed.” At a meeting of prominent citizens, held in the evening, the situation was fully discussed, and it was unanimously determined to use every effort to prevent any disturbance and allay public excitement. An old man named D. A. Sikes committed suicide on the 24th by jumping from the new suspension bridge at Niagara Falls. Gas stocks were publicly sold at New York on the 24th for the first time since the announcement of Edison's new discoveries The prices obtained were much lower than those prevailing before the late renewal of speculative interest in the electric light. A steam tug which arrived at Liverpool on the 34th reports speaking an outwardbound bark having on board five more of' the survivors of the steamer Bonus!*. An attempt was made on the 25th to steal General Grant’s Arabian stallions from General Beale’s farm near Washington, by some men who had been employed by Beale to look after them. President Hayes left Washington on the 20th for New Jersey. He dined in the evening in Philadelphia, at the residence of Mr. John Welch, meeting General Grant, who waa also a guest there.

RENSSELAER, JASPER COUNTY, INDIANA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 1880.

A New York telegram of the 26th reports the gas men of that city as saying that they were antenrified by the reports of the successful operation of the electric light. They had investigated the subject thoroughly some months ago, and were of th* opinion that “ there is nothing la it.” The National Socialistic Convention met in Pittsburgh, Pa., on the 28th, forty delegates being present A- R. Parsons, of Chicago, was elected temporary President In his address the President said the party owned twelve newspapers, was out of debt and had money in the treasury, and was generally flourishing, financially and otherwise. It was thought xt Augusta, Me., on the 26th that Governor Garcelon would agree to refer the pending political troubles to the courts, In accordance with a suggestion to that effect from ex-Governor Morrill. He had been petitioned to do so by a large number of citizens of both On the morning of the 26th an express train on the Chicago <fc Alton Railway was thrown from the track near Berdan, 111., by a broken rail. In the chair car the stove upset and, the wood-work taking fire, the coach was soon In : flames. The passengers were all rescued except Colonel Bond, of Auburn, 111., who was fatally burned. The porter of the sleeper was killed and about twenty-five passengers were slightly injured. Dispatches received at Denver on the '-6th say that Ouray presented himself at Los Pinos on the 24th with the chiefs selected to accompany him to Washington, but, as be had brought in only a part of the murderers of Thornburgh and Meeker, General Hatch refused to start unto the demands of the Commission bad been complied with. Ouray demanded more time, and the General, giving him five days, promised to await his coming at Cline’s ranch, thirty miles away.

Prisoners' Views as to the Forms of Capital Punishment.

Naw York, December 23. A reporter for a morning paper visited the Tombs to-day, and discussed, with men imprisoned on the charge of murder, the forms of capital punishment. One regarded hanging as " too ignominious and uncertain,” and added: *• Ido not think a death of agony is airy deterrent to crime, and good moral effects of executions are mere delusions ” Another preferred drowning in water or whisky. A third quoted the couplet. No roffue e'er felt, etc., and said: “ Stand me against the wall and send a bullet through my heart.” A fourth would prefer chloroform, remarking that “ the contemplation of death by hanging was enough to drive a criminal insane.” One Italian, who was unable to speak English, indicated a preference to be stabbed to death, while another Italian poured water on his head, which was interpreted to mean drowning. A man under a lifesentence answered the usual question thus: “If I had to choose my way of death, I should prefer suffocating by gas. It is the only merciful ana respectable means of execution. Hanging is a disgrace, which is covered by the name of justice.” An accomplice of crime with a preceding prisoner, who declared himself no murderer, not only favored hanging every murderer, but exclaimed: “f am in favor of quartering the fiends.” Balbo, under sentence of death for killing his wife, was found on his knees in prayer; but his prayers were not powerful enough to save him from the cruel questioner, to enable him to preserve a calmness of spirit as he answered the heartless question, “Do'you believe murderers ought to be put to death?” “Me no want to die; me want to live; me only twenty-four years old—too young. Me pray all the time. Me believe in Jesus Christ—He makec me save; keepee me in jail long time; makee me good. Me want be good. Oh, save me! save me!” The Warden was moved to tears by the heartbroken appeal, and the chronicler withdrew to chat with that interesting criminal, Chastine Cox, who announced his belief in hanging all men over fifty ! rears of age. but young fellows, like limself ana the reporter, would be likely to repent and reform, the two not being hardened old rascals, but beings with feelings and hopes. The soldiers death, however, was announced as Cox’s individual preference. Two printers refused to converse, one saying he was afraid of exciting himself and injuring his reason.

What Edison Claims to Have Accomplished.

New York, December IL The Hemid devotes a page ’to Edison’s “ Triumph in Electric Illumination, 1 ’ giving .a full and accurate aocount of his work from its inception to its completion, with illustrative diagrams. The Herald says: •‘ The new light, incredible as it may appear, is produced from a little piece of paper—a tiny strip of paper that a breath would blow away. Through this little Btrip of paper is passed’an electric current, and the result is a bright, beautiful, mellow light. * But the paper instantly burns, even under the trifling heat of a tallow candle, 1 exclaims the skeptic, • and how, then, can it withstand the fierce heat of an electric currentP Very true; but Edison makes the little piece of paper more infusible than platinum—more durable than granite—and this involves no complicated process. The paper is merely baked in an oven until all its elements have passed away except its carbon framework. The latter is then placed in a glass globe connected with wires leading to the electricity-producing machine, and the air exhausted from the globe. Then the apparatus is ready to give out a light that produces no deleterious gases, no smoke, no offensive odors —a light without flame, without danger, requiring no matches to ignite, giving out but little heat, vitiating no air, and free from all flickering —a light that is a little globe of sunshine. And this light, the inventor claims, can be produced cheaper than that from the cheapest oiL The inventor finds that the electricity can be regulated with entire reliability at the central station, Eas the pressure of gas is now regnd. The entire cost of constructing the lamp is not more than twenty-five cents.”

—They receive a great many very queer letters at the White House. Nearly everybody in the country who happens to be short of money makes it a point to apply to the Executive for a loan, saying that he is a good friend to the party, and that Mr. Hayes will not miss a few dollars out of his large salary. These letters come in by dozens every day. Not long ago a man out West, who had a mortgage on his farm that he could not meet, wrote a very pathetic letter to the President, asking him to stand by him and put up enough cash to relieve his homestead —Atfales Young, a son of the late Brigham Young, is studying law in

SENSE AND NONSENSE.

Stir pot, eight o’a, f 1,006.000.00. A mam with a wheelbarrow carries all before him.— Boston Transcript. In asking a man to settle his bill, the thing is “ no sooner said than don.*’ From the moment that a defect can no longer be concealed we exaggerate Tight boots and an accusing conscience are about equal in their ability to make a man uncomfortable. It is, for some reason, a great deal easier to hate a bad man than to keep from being one yourself.—.AT. Y. Herald. Why is it that people always see paragraphs that reflect unpleasantly upon them in the newspapers, and, when they have a particularly favorable notice, they happen not to have read the paper that day? 1 “I was not aware that you knew him,” said Tom Smith to an Irish friend, the other day. “Knew him?” said he, in a tone which comprehended the knowledge of more than one life, ‘‘l knew him when his father was a boy!” I» boys only knew that when they areaway from mother’s presence her heart is with them, and when they return her eyes have interrogation points of interest in them, they would be careful about the places they visit and the associations they form. ‘‘How far,” asks an exchange, “will bees go for honey?” The answer to this conundrum is unknown to us, but it is a well-known fact that a bee will go miles out of r its way for the purpose of stinging a hare-footed boy on the heel.— Norristown Herald. Elder sister (to little one who apg eared to take great interest in Mr. kibbonaj time your eyes were shut in sleep. J ’ Little pet —“ I think not. Mother told me to keep my eyes open when you and Mr. Skibbons were together.”

No true lady Will bounce out of the room and slam the door after her when asked to forego her new silk dress for a few davs and let her husband settle an old cigar bilL —Detroit Free Press. And no true man, simply because he edits a paper, will rush into print with his family troubles. —Louisville Courier - Journal. A Nevada newspaper says that the pursuit qf agriculture in some parts of that State is not marked by that calm monotony so prized and praised by the old-fashioned lovers of husbandry. Owing to the sterility of the soil and the uncertainty of titles, the Nevada agriculturist is obliged to plow both his own soil and his neighbors with buckshot and rifle-balls. The Boston Sunday Courier is responsible for this: A popular clergyman was greatly bored by a lady who admired him without reserve. “Oh. my dear Mr. said she, last Sunday afternoon; “there isn’t any harm in one loving one’s pastor, is there?” “ Certainly not, madam,” replied the worthy cleric; “ not the least in the world," so long as the feeling is not reciprocated.” As originally made this world was too warm for a man to catch on with any comfort. Professor Proctor says it took three hundred and fifty million years for the thing to cool down for the formation of strata, on which something could stand. The Professor is particular as to the even fifty in the millions. He is positive that it was one million years more than three hundred and forty-nine millions.— N. O. Picayune.

A gentleman in Paris paid a visit the other day to a lady, in whose parlor he saw a portrait of a lovely woman of, say, five-and-twenty. Upon the entrance of the lady, her visitor asked her if the portrait was a family portrait, and was told that it represented her deeeased daughter. ‘‘Has it been long since you lost herp” asked the gentleman. “Alas! sir,f’ replied the lady, “she died just after her birth, and I had a portrait painted to represent her as she would have appeared if she had lived until no\v.”-*r Studies in Paris, by De Amiris. An emigrant at (Hie* Union Station, in Toronto, while waiting for the Western express, invested live cents in apples, and distributed them among three or four companions. On cutting one of the fruit through the center he was surprised to find solidly Imbedded therein a silver half-dollar.' How the coin came there is a mystery, hut the appearance of the apple would indicate that some one had cut it in halves, placed the coin in sideways, andglued the portions together again. The apple'woman who sold the miit wanted to claim the coin, but the shrewd foreigner would not have it that way. 'fj A burglar forced an entrance into the house of Hawley Landers at Wallington, early Sunday morning, and attempted to chloroform Mr. Landers, bat awakened him instead. The robber, who was masked, demanded his money and threatened to shoot him if it was not forthcoming. The noise, tosether5 ether with the screams of Mrs. Laners' daughter, brought to the rescue their hired boy, WiUiim Doyle, who seized an old-fashioned iron shovel and struck the burglar about the face and head with it several times. A struggle ensued, but the burglar finally made his escape through the cellar, the way by whicn he had entered, leaving, however, plenty of blood to show that the shovel had done good service. The lad, who showed more pluck than many a man, would have done under the circumstances, is only sixteen years of age. The burglar, with his accomplice, was tracked about three miles in the mad, and then the trail led into the woods and was lost— New Haven (Conn.) Courier, tu

How to Behave at a Church Festival.

When you go to the church festival, my son, wear your old clothes. You will not attract so/ much attention, but then the wise man never goes to the festival to be seen olf men; or, that is to say, to be sought yf women. Be pleasant andljsmiliug and cheerful. When they offer you the seductive bowl of oyster soup, bead over it, affect to examine it critically, smell it, then rise up, shake your head sadly, and with a sweet, suggestive smile, say, “ No, thank you, fjfcuess not.” This adds greatly to tjhe; happiness of the silver haired, motherly old lady who made the soup. Lie boldly to the first girl who wants you to take a chance in the parsonage cake. Tell hervou have already taken two chances. This will make it easier for the next lie. Then when she looks over her list and says she can’t find your name tell her you bought your chances of the other young lady. Then when she says she is the only person selling chances in this cake, tell her then it must have been in the other cake. Then when she says this is the only cake they are raffing on, brace up,

look her right in the eye, and tell her, “Oh yes, yon remember now, it most have been In the cake last year.” She can’t deny this, and yon can look triumphant. Bat remember, my son, if you start a thing of this kind you will have to keen It up. If you pick up any pretty little article on the fancy tables, ask the price of the same, and when yon are told, drop it from your nerveless fingers, and, as it falls upon the floor, exclaifh, in tones of amazement, “Well, I am ” and leave the audienoe to imagine what yon are. This never fails to please the young lady whe has charge of that table. She will mention yon to her friends. Should you meet the pastor during the evening say to him, if he asks whether yon are having a good time, “ Oh, yes, I feel like the man who went down to Jericho and—’’here look very archly at the young ladies behind the embroidery table, and proceed—“fell among thieves.” a pleasant but natural and undisguised horror of the tidies, and designate the worsted work as “ stuff.’! Wonder what the lambrequins are for, and laugh, a short, explosive, sardonic laugh, when the ladies tell you. If some girl has sent a water color or oil painting of her own to the fair, affect to mistake the road for a river, and wonder why people are driving along the top of the water in a wagon. Also try to spell out the name of a hotel on the elm tree in the foreground, affecting to mistake it for an old-fashioned swinging country inn sign. If • possible, coax the prettiest girl away from the refreshment table and keep her promenading the room all the evening with you, while a tired old woman does her work. Talk a great deal to all the girls at all the tables, and spend just as little as you talk much. Your conversation is considered vastly more valuable at a church fair than your money. By closely observing these rules, my son, and carrying out the line of conduct they vaguely suggest, you will not be much annoyea by the begging committees, for they will soon learn to know you, and you will be set down as a man about town and a young man who knows what’s what. You will also be set down as an ass; an empty-headed, conceited, stingy, shallow-brained ass. . . If you want to pay the price, my son, sail in; the article is yours.—Burlington Hawk-Eye.

An Awful Fate.

At Mount Holly, N. J., near this city, to-day, the dwelling of Matthew Gleason, a laboring-man living on the tenantfarm of James W. Allen, near Erystown, was totally destroyed by fire, his three little children perishing in the flames. Gleason, who with his wife slept in an upper story, was awakened by a crackling noise and a strong smell of smoke. He hurried down stairs to find the shed in the rear of the kitchen in a blaze. On opening the door the flames rushed in with such fierceness thu* he was compelled to retreat for his life. He awakened his wife, and the two jumped from a window, hardly reaching the ground before the entire building was a sheet of fire. Three children —two boys aged ten and two years, respectively, and a little girl aged seven—appeared at the upper window, making frantic efforts to escape, and shrieking piteously for help. Their agonized screams were too much for the lieart-broken mother, and, unable to bear the strain, she fainted. The distracted father tried, by means of a pole, to raise the window, bat without avail, and the children perished in his sight. The locality is sparsely settled, the nearest house being a quarter of a mile distant, and, before aid could arrive, all that remained were a few charred beams and a heap of smoking embers. Th« Gleasons were taken care of by sympathizing neighbors, and parties went to work at once to recover the bodies of the children. When found they were burned to a crisp. Of one there remained bat the skull and spine, the two others being without head, arms, or legs. The bones were carefully gathered, and will be interred to-morrow in one coffin. —Philadelphia (Dec. 22) Special to Chicago Tribune.

Keeping Children After School.

There is one common practice of the public schools which ought to be abolished at once and everywhere without question or parley. That is the practice of imprisoning the children in the school-nouses beyond the school hours. Pretty nearly every school-house in the land is thus turned into a penitentiary in which children are immured every day, some of them for imperfect recitations, others for faults of deportment. This method of punishment might, if the teachers were all judicious, De resorted to occasionally with good effect; but teachers are not all judicious, and thousands of children are thus detained every day to whom the detention is a serious injury, and a grave injustice. For some trifling breach of order, like turning in the seat or dropping a pencil, for some small failure in a recitation, and often for no fault at all—whole classes being kept on account of the indolence of some of their members, and the innocent thus suffering with the guuty—the children are shut up in the school-houses, sometimes during the intermissions, often aftec the close of school. Thousands of children in delicate health, to whom the regular school hours are too long, are permanently injured by this system of confinement. If only the stupid and willful and those in sturdy health were thus punished, there would be less reason of complaint; but any careful investigation will show that such discrimination is not generally made, and, from the nature of the system, cannot well be made; and that the injury to the health of the pupils resulting from the practice more than outweighs any good that may result from it. The health of the pupil is a subject to which the average schoolteacher gives but little consideration; any practice, therefore, which is liable to result in the impairment of the puEit’s health ought to be forbidden by w. This plea is based upon an observation of the working of this system in several towns and cities, and upon the concurrent testimony of many medical men. In some places the rules of governing boards forbids the imprisonment of children, but the rules are generally set at naught by teachers. They ought to be enforced. It must be that there are methods of discipline for schools less injurious and more effectual than imprisonment.— Good Company. - They say it takes nine tailors to comfortably make a man; but to make a man uncomfortable only one tailor with an unpaid bill is required. —The best trade-mark—f.

The New Electric Lights.

There does not appear to be any question that Mr. Edison has at last solved the problem of the electric light, as the dispatches report that his test on Christmas Eve was successful in the illumination of his laboratory and several houses, and even Christmas trees, at Menlo Park. He himself says that his work is done, and now, after many sleepless days and nights, he shall rest. He has given to the world a Christmas gift of rare value, use and beauty, and one which will send his name down to posterity high up in the ranks of the world’s great inventors. It is only a little lamp, about the size of an orange, and a strip of paper of the shape of a horseshoe, but a lamp almost as magical as that of Aladdin, and certainly much more useful. This little lamp, which can be made at a cost of twenty-five cents, is a plain glass globe, in the bottom of which there is a metallic stopper, through which pass copper wires connected by a strip of carbonized paper. The secret of the process is sending a current of electricity through the strip of paper, the carbon becoming luminous at once in the globe, which is hermetically sealed. The only condition of success is the exclusion of the air. The carbon filaments are not consumed. On the other hand, though they glow with a very brilliant light, they grow harder, and more serviceable, and give better light, with use. Mr. Edison’s previous exSeriments had been made with platinum, ut a fortunate accident in one of his processes revealed to him that paper, which costs comparatively nothing, would answer all the purposes of the precious metal. ■; So far as the possibilities of this ligdt are concerned there seems to be no limit. Its endurance seems to be inexhaustible. It does away with matches to a great extent, as it only needs the touch of a key to produce the illumination. The light is warm, but there is no danger from the combustion sufficient to break the globe. There being no heat from it, the most intense illumination will not affect the temperature of apartments. There being no combustion of course v there is no smoke. The light itself is described as of the quality of mellow sun-light; it can be regulated to any degree of softness, and does not harm the eyes. There is no purpose of illumination to which it cannot be applied, and no place in which it cannot be used with perfect safety, and, once applied, there is no limit of the improvements that wil! be made. Other inventors* starting from Edison’s foundation principle, will increase its uses, for all we know of electricity even now is small as com{ared with it* wonderful possibilities, t must come in general use in the manufacture of dangerous compounds, in all dangerous places, on ship-board, in mines and light-houses, as we}l as for the lighting of streets and all public places. The Hash of Edison’s paper horse-shoe marked a moment of time from which epochs in science will date. There is another feature incidental to Mr. Edison’s discovery which has not received much attention, but which, if it be true, will be hardly less important than the illumination, and that is the curative power of the fluid in nervous and rheumatic complaints. Electricity as a remedy for physical ails is nothing new, but Mr. Edison, if reports are correct, has applied it with a degree of success in the curing of neuralgia, rheumatism, boils, fistula, poll-evil, and other diseases of the blood and skin, that will introduce it as a blessing to suffering humanity. What a blessing it would have been to Job and Lazarus had Edison lived in their day! Mr. Edison should be a happy man this Christmas, for he has made the world happy with the results of his skill and labor. He has provided it with one of its most indispensable needs in a more intense, beautiful, practical and economical form than ever before, and he has opened the door to its adaptation to every possible use, besides preparing the way for possibly still greater and more useful discoveries in this wonderful field of electricity. Among all his great discoveries none has been more remarkable than this, which give s the world safe, cheap and beautiful light; and it must add to his pleasure that he has lived to witness the success of his experiments and receive the congratulations of mankind.— Chicago Tribune.

The Mistaken Kindness of a Philanthropic Father.

A whiffling wind sent it whirling and gyrating through the air, apparently through the open window in the upper storv of some building in the neighborhood. It was difficult to tell wnat it was as it floated overhead. It might be a handkerchief, a sheet of paper, a night-cap, a lady’s collar or any other light thing of that kind. At length it came down, and the reporter ran and put his foot on it to keep it from being picked up by the wind and again whirled away. It proved to be a few sheets of paper, crumpled so that they stuck together, and the reporter, on smoothing them out, found them to be covered with writing, as follows: September 1, 1879.—We have just moved into our'new house, and this is a good time to start the diary that I have been so long contemplating. No one, I think, ever starts a diary except at some epoch, however trifling. September s.—Our new house is just lovely. That is to say, it has a large recess front door, with no end of wide steps, where several couples can sit of an evening and not crowd each other. There is a crook in the street close by, and the street light over the way is thus brought behind an umbrageous tree, making everything light around, whilst our front is thrown completely in the shade. Lucy and Nellie and 1 have been comparing notes about this peculiarity, and we agree that it is more than satisfactory. September 6.---What splendid weather we are having and what delightful evenings we spend on these front steps! The dim, religious light makes everything so cozy, and Fred always seems to feel happier out there than anywhere else. But the moon will soon be a little troublesome by lighting up the scene too vividly. But no matter for that, if Fred is here alone, as we can sit in the recess, and the moon cannot shine in there. September 17.—How provoking! I was out shopping this afternoon, and when I got home I found the gas-fitter at work putting a huge lantern in the recess of the doorway. I asked them what that was for, and they said papa had ordered it. I bounced him about it when he got home, and he said that he had noticed that we all sat out in front a good deal and thought he would make it as nioe as he could for us. Poor, dear, innocent old papa! He is so good and kind and always means so well. But then he knows so little about

NUMBER 16

things. Of coarse, I coaid not explain to him why it was so undesirable to have oo much light on the subject; but I suggested to him that our gas bills were already prettv large. But he replied that we could turn down the gas in the back parlor while we were sitting oat there, and that would make it all right There is one comfort, however: We don’t need to light the lantern, and we won’t September 20.—Last night Fred, and Gsu, and Harry were all here, and we were all-out on the front steps having such a good time, when papa came Some. With his hearty ways, there was of course a great hubbub of hand-shak-ing, welcoming, and all that sort of thing, which was the fashion, I suppose, when he was a youngster. By the way, it seems droll to think that he ever was a youngster; but I suppose he was. When the performance was through with, papa, exclaimed, in his bluff way, “Why bless me! what are you all sitting in the dark for, when it is so easy to nave a light?” With that he ran and got a match, and in an instant everything was in a blaze of glory, with what we girls nickname his ‘’calcium light.” The effect was just what any one but papa would have anticipated. In the language of Scripture —I think it is Scripture, or is it Tristam Shandy? But it reads, “ And immediately there was a great calm.” In a few minutes, when the silence was beginning to become painful, Fred suggested that we go in and have some music. I think that is what they call cutting the Gordian knot. We went in and in a few minutes all the rest followed after us. I watched my chance, and slipped and turned the calcium light on, thinking that- perhaps we would all go out again. But it is sometimes difficult to take up the thread of anything just where it was broken off, and the evening was completely spoiled. September 24.—Papa keeps on lighting his calcium every night whenever he sees any one sitting out in front, just as if he were doing the kindest thing in the world, as no doubt he thinks he is. But good often comes out of evil, as I heard a preacher say once, and it has turned out so in this case. The second night of papa’s illumination I saw that Fred was growing restless, poor fellow; I knew just what was the matter with him, and I would have grown restless, too, if I had been a man, but we women have more control of ourselves. I tried to be as interesting as I could, but it was no use. Fred would not get interested, and directly he said, quite abruptly: “ Let’s go and get some ice cream.” It was the same way the next night and the next, and last night we went ott to the theater and to-moirow night we are going to a concert. I don’t know that the calcium is as bad as I thought it was and- papa builded better than he knew, unless he was deeper than I ever gave him credit for. September 30. —The evenings are now too cold to set out in front and Fred and I have got into such a habit of going to theaters, concerts and dances that I am seldom home of an evening. December 4. —It is now more than two months since I have written a line in my diary. lam getting tired of it any way, and what with Fred being here every night and me being taken up every day planning things, I don’t set any time—so here is an end of the usiness. —Missouri Republican.

Reporting the Proceedings of Congress.

To A stranger it seems simply incred-’ ible that a verbatim report can be taken of the verbal whirlwinds which visit the House of Representatives so frequently. One member nominally has the floor, but a dozen or twenty other members are §n their feet making all sorts of noises, interrupting, contradicting, appealing to the Speaker, interpolating all sorts of parliamentary abuse, nonsense and retort, while the Speaker is adding to the din by rapping on the desk with nis mallet, demanding order. Inarticulate shouts of approval and disapproval contend for the mastery. Meanwhile the member entitled the floor is sawing the air and beating his desk in dumb show. But the reEorter, practiced in such scenes and nowing what they mean, who are making the noise and what they are making it about, catches a word here and there, supplies broken sentences, makes grammar out of disjointed phrases, has the intelligence and discretion to know what is simply the chaotic accompaniment to be ignored, and which the stream of essential melody running through it all to be noted ana preserved, an i thus, with the help of occasional assistance from his fellow-re-Krters and the recollection of the comtants themselves with regard to the controversy just ended, he can present to the readers of the Record next morning a report which will be almost absolutely correct, of the stormiest scenes of the session. And if his record is not faithful he will be very apt to know it next day, for although the proceedings of Congress are not the most exciting feature of the day's news to the general reader, we may be certain that there is one man who reads the official report of yesterday’s proceedings with a critical attention, ana that is tne person whose utterances form part of those proceedings. Hence it follows that the reporter’s work passes in review every day before exacting critics, and that a reputation for good or bad work is speedily acquired. —Good Company.

What Constitutes an Insurance Company.

The Circuit Court of St Louis has recently rendered a decision of interest throughout the country. An express employe was insured for the benefit of his wife in three Mutual Aid and Insurance Societies. His wife died a couple of years ago, and he died some time afterwards. There being no children, his wife’s relatives claimed the insurance money as her heirs, while his relatives disputed the claim. The Court decided that these Insurance Societies are not Insurance Companies within the meaning of the law. If the insurance had been in a company, the wife’s heira would be entitled to tine policy on her death, as the policy is a contract, and reads in favor of the beneficiary or his heirs and assigns. In case of the society, however, there is no such contract, and, after the wife dies, the husband can designate a new beneficiary if he chooses, and, if he fails to declare in favor of the wife’s relatives or heirs, they can have no claim to the insuranoe money. Hence the claim of the husband’s heirs was sustained. —Some relations once paying a Lancashire old lady a visit, and prolonging their stay beyond her contemplation or wish, were somewhat taken back one morning, before they were Si, by hearing her call out loudly on e stairs, ** A fine morning for cousins to go home.”

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FACTS AND FIGURES.

California has 60,000 acres devoted to grapes. There are sixteen tons oi gold in the New York hanks. In the Cornell University library of 40,000 volumes there is not & single work of fiction. Within the past five years the acreage of cereals m the United States has increased from 74,000,000 to 96,000.000. For the year ended November 1 $160,000 were paid out for sponges at Key West, Fla., and December will add $30,000. Since 1830, when the Georges fishery first commenced, there have been lost from the port of Gloucester, Mass., 2,118 men, and 405 vessels, valued at $17,696,899. Apropos of the .English Methodist Wesleyan “Thanksgiving fund,” thefol- ' lowing recent donations are significant of the wealth of the body: One of $50,000, one of $20,000, two of SIO,OOO, one of $10,500, seventeen of $5,000. The sum already promised exceeds $1,000,000. It may safely be asserted that not a single one of these wealthy donors is, in English fashionable parlance, in society. - The weight ot registered packets, supposed to contain diamonds, which passed through the general post-office, Cape Town, m 1878, was 1,149 pounds 13J ounces. Allowing one-half of this weight to have represented the actual weight of the stones themselves —the other half being the weight of the paper, etc., in which they were packed —this would give a total of 1,006,260 carats, or 20,125 diamonds, of an average weight of fifty carats each. Gastronomers assert that the merits of the truffle were very early recognized. and there is an Egyptian tradition that it found a place on the tables of the Pharaohs. Volatiles truffee, ala Perigord, was, in Talleyrand’s opinion, the ne plus«ultra of culinary accomplishment, and his chef was unexcelled in its production. Dogs are better for truffle hunting than pigs, who are supposed to be special adepts at it, ana, moreover, don’t eat the dainty; pigs invariably do it if they get the chance. Bridge-Building in France.—According to statistics published by the Ministry of Public Works there are at present 1,982 bridges in France which may be regarded as important ones. Of these 861 were built previous to the nineteenth century, 64 during the First Empire, 180 during the Restoration, 580 during the reign of Louis Philippe, and 297 since 1848. Nine of them are of iron only, 14 of wood, 20 of iron, wood and masonry and 854 of stone. The principal bridges are 11 in number, and their construction cost in all 47,888,553 francs. The troubled state of the relations between China and Japan gives interest to an estimate of the strength of the land forces of the former country, contributed to a German paper by a well-informed writer. He estimates the total strength of the armv at 662,000 of all ranks. Of these 87,000, in round numbers, are cavalry; 195,000 form the field infantry and artillery, while the remaining 320,000 constitute the garrison of the two latter arms of the service. Although, however, the Chinese army may have this strength on paper, its actual numbers are much fewer. In making any calculation, also, of the armed strength of China, it must be remembered that such troops as really exist are dispersed over an immense area, embracing some 4,000,000 of English square miles, which is traversed by very few good roads; while there are no railways to facilitate the concentration of large masses of men.

A Mother.

A touching incident occurred a few weeks ago at the distribution of prizes in the English School of Sciences and Arts at Keighley. The Bishop of Manchester gave the prizes. To the pupils and most of the large audience, the Bishop occupies the place of a father to his children; not' only revered as a man of God, but as a liberal practical thinker, one. of the leaders of opinion in England in all matters which influence the elevation of humanity. Surrounded by the boys and-their parents the good Bishop suddenly was led to speak of his own mother, and told the story how she, “ not a clever, managing woman,” had been left a widow with seven children; how her love and trust in God had helped ier to live, sacrificing not only luxury, but comfort; to make a home, bare of all but the most meager necessaries, bright and happy as that House Beautiful, whose chambers were called Peace, and from which could be seen the hills of Heaven. Most of her children, through her efforts, have risen to positions where they could help to make the world wiser and better. “ She is now,” said the Bishop, with broken voice, “in my house, paralyzed, speechless and helpless; and when I looked at her sweet face this morning, I thanked God, who had f'ven her to me. I owe to her all that am.” . ; Goethe, it is said, always declared that to his mother he owed not only all his genius, but his strength. There is a period in the life of most boys when they feel themselves immeasurably wiser than their mothers; the little knowledge they have acquired from books intoxicates them like new wine. Probably they find the good woman at home, who gave them life and has sacrificed herself for them dailv, is ignorant of their hobbymathematics, or Latin, or base-ball—-and they are too apt to shew heir contempt in rude disobedience. When a man reaches the position of Goethe or the Bishop of Manchester he is wise enough to appreciate a mother’s unselfish love at its real value.— Youth's Companion.

—The late Mrs. Eaton told the following story of blunt old President Jackson: She was once visiting at the Hermitage, where among the guests at a dinner party was a Judge of the Court of Tennessee, with a wife whose head had been turned by a season in Washington. Present also a brother of the lady, who had been a tailor, which fact was carefully ignored. The lady’s airs and graces grew insufferable, and finally General Jackson pricked the bubble of her pride by saying to the brother, “ You know I really never have had a comfortable coat on my back since you quit tsttoMng.” —A short time ago a boy of sixteen years, in Washington, D. C., had one of his fingers crushed in the cog-wheel of a “ merry-go-around,” or flying hones, at the National Fair Grounds. The injury seemed to be slight at the time, but lockjaw set in, ana he died.