Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1881 — HERE AND THERE. [ARTICLE]

HERE AND THERE.

There Is a “corner 4 ’ on lemons In New York City, t • All the Miefaigan forest fires have been extinguished by rain. The Methodist Ecumenical Confer* ence favors international arbitration and Christian schools. • \ The snow-fall in lowa last Friday covered.three-fourths of the Blate, and in some places reached a depth of four inches. ’ , • • . ‘ It is stated that the average Free ch family is three, the average English family five and the average Irish family seven. , The LLlfoois liquor dealers have inaugurated a movement for a national convention of their fraternity, to be held in Chicago. Ireland has 3,000,000 of drainable land, and a company has been formed in London to reclaim this land under the Irish land bill.

An unusual mark ol regard for the late President is the order of Queen Victoria for her court togointu mourning for one week from the 21st inst. . Mother Garfield was 80 years old ’on the 21st Inst If the President bad lived until the 19th of November* he would have completed his fiftieth year. Henry Ward Beecher bays that he Is entirely cured of bay fever, after suffering with it for over thirty years. The disease has been considered incurable. * Over 2,000,000 sheep have been sheared this year in Michigan, and the clip amounts, by official figuies, to 10,974,163 pounds, or nearly 5| pounds ;>er bead. The Chicago Tribune says <he three physicians whose services in the President’s case were recently dispensed with, have made a charge of SIOO per day each. • The Land League agitation is to be resumed with increased fury and biterness.** Whatever is is wrong»’appears ihfe e mo:e^ WOrd ° f the It is feared by many that Mrs. Garfield will not live song. The terrible tr.als through which she has passed leave} lier in bad condition to withstand inevitable nervous reaction.

The examining committee of the Boston Public Library in i tß auilu . al report says, “there are Christian a the ° !d Tea *®ent is 5 9 den book to the young.” THE J ew 8 In Russia are about to hold a general meeting, to be attended depu hes representingall the princiCO “ muoi «es, to consider their apparently hopeless condition V - WKIGHT - ex-Gov-nor of Tennessee, was sent to Jail the other day for contempt of court. He reaud purged himself of the contempt after two hours of confinement. An Indianapolis scientist is fully persuaded that he can create a storm center, and biltjg « n a ra j Dj iu the dry . time of drought, by the explosion of 100 kega of powder “deep down in a well.” •’ The best of sermons, lithographed and ready for instant use, can be purchased in Chicago at the low price of thirty-five cents the market there’s no excuse for so much poor pulpiteering. The 1 resident died in the anniversary of the battle of Chicamauga, a contest in which he iendered glorious service to his country. The‘coincidence, to say the least of it, is very striking and • suggestive.

The Methodist Ecumenical Conference passed a resolution condemning the opium traffic, and calling on the government of Great Britain to deliver that country from the guilt of supporting so great a wickedness. When Mother Garflel 1 was told of the death of her son, she was greatly shocked, but becoming more calm she said: “It la not possible that my son James is dead. Ido not wish to live any longer. I shall soon be with him.” Bishop Simpson Is stated to be the most noticeable man in the Wesleyan Ecumenical Council, now in session in London, Tall, stately, dignified, venerable alert, he Is conspicuous in appearance and weighty and commanding in debate.

Dr. Luoenbell, the brother of Mrs Cbristiancy, rent a challenge to the ex-Senator the other day. Mr- Christiaucy respectfully declined the honor of being shot at by his irate brother-in-law, and swbre out a warrant for Xi» arrest. Director Swift, of the Rochester Observatory, says a new comet appeared at the very hour General Garfield was passing away. With the aid of a good telescope four comets are now visible, a circumstance unusual, Director Swifts adds, if not portentous. It is said by intimate friends that Gen. Garfield was always of the opinion that he would die on the 19th of September, the anniversary of the battle of Chicamauga. The testimony is abundant that be had strongly peculiar notions on presentments and kindred subjects.

Michigan correspondents 'report that in the burned district the intense heat killed the fish in the river, and they rose to the surface by hundreds. In Eckland, a cow making for the river got mired, and was so thoroughly cooked that-she fell to pieces when the attempt was made to pull her out. The Relief Committoe at Port Huron, Mich., acknowledges the receipt ot over $120,000 for the fire sufferers of that State. A ton of clothing arrived there Tuesday from Chkagn. ExGtovernor Marshall Jewell, of Connecticut, has forwarded SI,OOO for the sufferers. / , The usual monthly report of the Agricultural Bureau shows that the condition of the cotton, corn and tobacco crops has greatly declined

since the last report The falling offis owing almost who Uy to the protracted drouth. In Missouri and Kansas there are complaints of the ravages of the chinch bug in the corn. It is stated that the township in wbieh Garfield lived is about equally divided politically, but so great is the love and respect cherished for him by those who know him beet and most intimately, that when the votes were counted at the last Presidential election every one was found to be for him. Barnum’s big ox died at Ottawa, Illinois, a few days ago. The carcass yielded two barrels of tallow, and the hide, though very thin, weighed 129 pounds.. The steer was so fat that he could only be exhibited part of the time, as he would breakdown with the fatigue of traveling, and standing up for exhibition.

Dr. Hamilton was asked to explain how it was all the surgeons felt the bullet in the President’s back. He responded that the small lump they mistook for the ball was merely a gathering of the pus at the end of the long cavity, which had never become infiltrated, but remained hard, and to all appearance resembled the ball. A bushel of wheat or com or potatoes would .be just the thing to send to the Michigan sufferers. They need these things for food and seed, and if every farmer who could send one of these bushels would leave it at one of the city ware-houses there would soon be a store creditable to the county and well worth sending to Michigan. It is convincingly evident that Mason, the soldier who attempted to shoot Guitcau, is either a monomaniac or that he is seeking notoriety. In either role, he is a good subject to be left severely to whatever fate the law and the facts of his ease may decree for him. This country is able to take care of itself without the guardianship of such men as Mason. It is probable that the Senate of the United States will be convened in extra session at an early day, and thatfit will be organized by the election of Senator Bayard as President; but there is also some talk of conferring that honor upon Senator David Davis. The President of the Senate thus chosen, would succeed President Arthur in case of his death, holding the office until another President could be elected as the law provides.

Governor Jerome, of Michigan, has istued a proclamation with reference to the suffererers by the recent great fires, in which he says: “The necessity for continued assistance to enable the sufferers to go through the coming winter and become self-sus-taining is in no wise abated. The well known generosity of the American people has never been invoked in a more meritorious cause.” ' r President Arthukwss born in a 'small log cabin, in the town of Fairfield, Vermont, on the sth of October, 1830. His father, Dr. Wm. Arthur, was a Bapfiat minister, who came to tbe United States from Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland, when only 18 years old. President Arthur married Ellen Lewis Herndon, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1859. In January, 1880, Mrs. Arthur died, leaving two children, a son aged 17, and a daughter aged 11. It is probable that Mrs. McElroy, a sister of the President, will be the lady head of his household in the White House.

Liberia, according to a letter from Biship Penick, of the Episcopal church, is in a dismal condition. The whole of the Cape Mount district is involved in war. The savages are destroying farms and towns. The Deople are starving, and the greatest distress prevails. “Neither pen nor word,” he says, “can describe the horrors of the case. Hundreds are dying of starvation. Food cannot be had. Casadas and potatoes are stolen from the fields, leaving the owners to perish of hunger. Men drop dead. Robbery is the rule; no property is safe.”

Reports received by tne Department of Agriculture at Xyashington show that the general average condition of the potato crop September 1 was 70, a decline of 22 per cent since August 1. The condition last September was 90. The severe and protracted drouth is the chief cause of the unfavorable outlook. The general average ot the seven States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and lowa, which together produce threefifths of the crop of the country, is 68, or within 2 per cent of the average of the whole country.

The report of the Prussian Minister of Agriculture shows that the wheat crop is fully 20 per cent less than an average crop, and 25 per cent, less than estimates. In rye the falling off is from 25 to 30 per cent. All other crops are short from 10 to 15 per cent. In hay the falling off is from one half to two-thirds, while present prices ($24 per ton) are double last year’s at the same time. So great is the drouth that large processions of peasants, both at Dusseldorf and Cologne, have come to the churches asking and offering prayers for rain.

Free Masonry is astir with a sensation in England. The Prince of Wales lias just issued, under his sign manual, his warrant for the formation of a new lodge of Free Masons, to be called “The Gallery Lodge.” This lodge is to be confined exclusively to journalhts and gallery reporters, and His Royal Highness has sanctioned the appointment of Mr. H. Massey as first Master, Mr. F. Bussey as first Senior Warden, and Mr. Thomas Nushell as first Junior Warden. The want of such a privilege has lopg been felt.

Russian journals publish terrible details of the ravages of diphtheria, now epidemic in Russia. It is reported that in certain communes and parishes, all children under fifteen years have died. The origin of the attack dates from 1872, when the db ease first appeared in Bessarabia. Since then it has spread far and wide over the south empire, whence it lately began to make rapid progress toward the east and northwest In Pultawtf, a province of considerably less than 2.000,000 inhabitants, there have been 45,548 cases, 18,766 fatal.

While the Liquor Dealer’s Association ot Illinois was in session, a day or two ago, at Bpringfield, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, of Chicago, was, also, in session, and engaged in earnest prayer that tbe acts and resolutions of the Springfield conclave might come to naught Among the resolutions of the latter was one expressing sympathy for the President, and a desire for his recovery. Thus extremes met, and of course tbe pious Chicago ladies don’t expect, or wish, that their prayers will “ciunt” as touching that one point of agreement. There’s a plain lesson iu the incident, however, that the antagonizlhg bodies can find profit in pondering upon. A Little Rock special briefly - describes one of the most fearful horrors of criminal annals as follows: “Jane Campbell, a colored woman, living near Dyke’s Mill, La., killed two of her children, aged respectively ten and twelve. The woman beat out their brains with a pine knot for some trivial act of disobedience. After the inquest, and when the cause of death became generally known, a mob of whites and blacks dragged Mrs. Campbell from her cabin, tied her to a stake, and despite her screams, literally roasted her alive.”

It is widely mentioned tjiat tbe statisticians of Switzerland have established a singular relation between public houses (saloons) and divorces, that is, tbe number of divorces granted are in exact ratio with the number cf public houses. For instance, in the cantons which have thirty-seven public houses to every thousand full grown inhabitants, there are seventy-eight divorces to every thousand marriages; in tbe cantons which have twenty-five public houses to every thousand, there are only fifty-seven divorces to every one thousand marriages; and in those which have only sixteen public houses to every thousand, there are only thirty-six divorces to every one thousand marriages. This is a good argument for the temperance advocates.