Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1881 — A Qsilt of 55,552 Pieces. [ARTICLE]

A Qsilt of 55,552 Pieces.

A more comfortable, old fashioned, quiet looking home for old ladies than the Union Home, at Forty-eighth and Lancaster avenue, could scarcely be fou*'d. Yesterday was donation day at the home, and the presents that poured in attested the friendship of those who have its welfare at heart. Barrels of flour, cases of canned tomatoes, hams, tongues, all kinds of groceries, fruits, etc., were piled up in the outkitchen until it looked like a wholesale grocery store, and gave promise of relieving the purchasing committee of all work for a time. A large number of the friends of the institution called during the day, and the managers gave a tea in the afternoon. Among the interesting objects made by the Inmates and exhibited was a quilt of 55,552 pieces, sewed together hy a lady who had been blind from her infancy—Miss Kate Smith. She worked three years on the quilt, used 100 spools of thread, and threaded every needle herself. She thinks she could make another such quilt in two years— Philadelphia Preet.

Immigration it would seem is getting to be a blessing with little discount. In 1879, 250,565 immigrants arrived in this country, last year the increase of population from this cause was 586,068, exceeding by more than 125,000 the immigration of any previous year, and figures isnotthe numbers which they represent, but the character of the persons enumerated. More than half the year’s immigration came from the British Empire; 134,780 from the neighboring dominion of Canada, while only 87.794 are reported as coming from Ireland, showing that an entirely different and a much more desirable class of emigrants are now arriving in our ports and settling in new sections of the west. Some of the Irish emigrants of last year, perhaps one-third came from the north Green Isle, which is quite equal to Scotland in its population.