Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1881 — THE NEWS IN RENSSELAER. [ARTICLE]

THE NEWS IN RENSSELAER.

Rensselaer being still without telegraphic connections with the rest of the world, received no news of the crime until the arrival of the train from Bradford Saturday evening. The first reports were received with incredulity, but overwhelming evidence of their truth soon made disbelief impossible. < The meager and disjointed details of the shooting which were brought on the train at once created a general wish to learn fuller and later particulars. A number of citizens accordingly joined together and despatched a messenger, Mry Linneas Martin, to with instructions to remain in that place . over night and to return to Rensselaer early Sunday morning with the latest news he could obtain. After a night of anxiety early risers learned tlpit Mr. Martin had returned during the night; and it was at once surmised that our worst fears were realized. A rumor indeed was on the street thnt the president was dead. No one could be found who had seen Mr. Martin after his return except the hostler - at the livery stable, and to him Mr. Martin had said nothing. Impatience to hear the news- soon broke the restraints of politeness and a delegation of citizens aroused Mr. Martin from his short sleep and cngerly demanded what tidings he* brought. The answer was that the president had died at 7 o’clock the previous evening. A few hours later the same report came by way of Francesville,* and the last vestige of hope was "drowned in Nothing was left for the people but the melancholy duty of giving some outward expression of their regard fdr the president, and of their desp grief at his fate. At about 10 o’clock’s movement was begun to drape the town in mourning. By noon nearly every business house, the Court House, and many private dwellings were decked in the sad symbols of sorrow. The Republican issued a bulletin announcing the death of the president and calling a meeting of the citizens at * the Opera House at 4 o’clock for the purpose of devising some more appropriate way of observing the approaching Fourth than by carrying out the previously arranged • exercises. But . better and toner tidings were at last at hand. The -kioay-hoars of that sad Sabbath day had dragged their slow length along towards 2 o’clock when Dr. Washbunt came in frocn. the direction of Fraucesviile with tha intelligence that Mr. Garfield w&» still living and with piospects of recovery. A little later Wo gentlemen brought,definite information to the same effect ftom the south, and our Bfoleai lash knew that the report]

the president’s death was a ctuei canard. The people assembled at Oh* Opera House at the time Appointed, not to mourn, but to rejoice* At the meeting a detailed account of the attempted assassination, and df the president’s condition and prospects, and also a history of the assassin, was read from a Lafayette paper by H. Price, after which were short addresses by the Hons. E. P. Hammond, Alex. A. Rice ami R. S. Dwiggins. The announcement was then made that the Fourth of July exercises would be carried out as previously arranged, and the meeting dispersed. Since then we have been alternately exalted by hope and depressed by fear, os the contradictory reports of the suffering hero’s condition reached us. Bulletins containing the latest intelligence have been kept posted at the post office, at Capt Babcock’s law office, and at Sears <t Son’s furniture store. As we write these lines this (Wednesday) afternoon it is with stiong hopes, amounting almost to assurance, that our noble Garfield will yet arise from his bed of agony to. direct once more with matchless wisdom and unchanging integrity, the destinies of our country. *

The comet still graces the northern heavens, but no longer shines with the* glorious radiance of its first appearance. It is receding from the earth at the rate of thousands of miles every hour, and we may expect thnt it will soon be “quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon,” and seen no more of meg! The Warner Observatory, ns everybody knows, offers a reward of two hundred dollars to the first discoverer of a comet, and the claimants of the cash and glory in this case are almost os numerous os the authors of “Beautiful Snow.” If they were to call* a convention and unite on a platform they could sweep the country. We understand that his rather royal and altogether sensibly majesty, Dom Pedro, of Brazil, has tried to get the • scoop on several thousand enterprising yankees, by claiming to have discovered this same erratic wanderer of the ethereal blue several weeks ago, but, with all defference to the royal star-gazer, it is our opinion that he can’t Comet, and we hope Dom will allow us the privilege of old friends to tell him so. Such a phenomena as a comet always affords a splendid opportunity for the universal race of dunderheads to develop themselves, as witness the ignoramuses who have published statements that they have seen two comets; one in the northwest in the evening, the othe other in the northeast in the morning, being so entirely innocent of the commonest facts of astronomy as not to know that comets ianst partake of the same apparent revolution around the earth as the other celestial bodies. Off the same piece is the man who has made the discovery that the comet is moving backwards, inasmuch as at present it certainly is moving in the same direction as the tail points. Now die astronomers never miss a chance to toll us that the tail of a comet is always in advance when the comet is receding from the sun. But let us console ourselves. If the fools were all dead where would the real estate market tumble to? Let us poetize: • There » a young man In Keru, Wlk> wiilke-l out with his girl in the (lew ; He gazed long at the Comet, But at last lie said- "Uoinet! “It's not hall so gurty as you.” Grisoom completes the fortieth day. of his starvation to-day. He is reported to bo cheerful. Tuesday afternoon he was to have taken a ride on the lake. It is useless to speculate-as to what would have been the ia case he had been seasick. There has been no great change jjfip the situation at Albany- since last week. Platt, having been detseted in a gross breaeh of morality, has withdrawn from the contest—what little ho had to withdraw—and his vote has mostly, gone to Crowley. GuiTEAC,Hhe assassin, belongs to a respectable family of Freeport, lU. His ancestors came from France, but they are not French Canadians, as hris been stated. There seems to be little doubt of the man’s insanity. -

Thr School Board met at the law office of M.- F. Chiloote, Wednesday,, and among other business transacted,the services of the following-named persons were engaged as teachers in the -Rensselaer Public Schools for the ensuing school year: Superintendent, Wm. de M. Hooper; Grammar Department, C. P. Mitchell; Intermediate Department, Mrs. C. P. Mitchell; Primary “B,” Miss Amanda Osborne ; Primary “A,” Miss Lydia Parris. School will commence on the Ist Monday in September, and continue nine months, with a short vacation daring the holidays. Go** tfe Bedfords for “Mnble” “Golden .Eagle,” “Spotted Fawn,” ‘ Climax,’’. sc star” ana other choice Stands of pl&g, fine cot and.smoking tobaccos. . * - -v <