Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1881 — TABLE TALK. [ARTICLE]

TABLE TALK.

M. Renan's translation of Ecclesiastes, with an elaborate preface, is now in type, and is expected to be out at the dose of the year. The French fishermen suffered last month almost as much as the British. At Boulogne the October storm has made 96 widows and 280 orphans. A Western actor claims that, while performing as JuliusCtesar,he is under the spirit control of the dead Emperor and does nothing of his own volition. At an expenditure of £IO.OOO, under the’ stock protection act, 400.000 kangaroos and wallaby dogs have been destroyed in New* South Wales in a year. ,

Dr. McCreary, of Louisville, believed that a thoroughly acquired appetite for rum was incurable, and therefor*, when he found himself possessed of one, he committed suicide. An account of a Chicago funeral sgyr that the burial casket “was made to conform as far as possible with the comforts the occupant was wont to surround himself with in the home ne has left.”

A religious controversy at Nevada, la., resulted in the election of four anti-Christians out of the six School Commissioners, and the Bible has consequently been excluded from the public'schools. Ex-Governor Johnson, of Missouri, harges the St. Louis police with being ]jaid by the gamblers for failing to enI’orce the law against gambling. Several suits for libel have been instituted and the police officials are likely to be incidentally hauled over the coals. McPherson, of Toledo, had been a hard drinker for many years when his wife, on her death bed, made him solemnly himself to total abstineee. After three days without aloohol he gave up the struggle; yet he would not break his vow, and suicide became his desperate resort.

One intoxicated man said it was a bundle of rags that lay on a window sill 200 yards away, at Ails tin, Texas, and his companion said it was a woman’s head. They made a bet, and decided it by shooting at the object; but neither won, for it was a boy’s head whieh the bullet grazed. At Odessa the mercantile community requested the Bt. Petersburg Government to allow the harbor to be lighted by night. The Government having agreed, the work of shipping of wheat goes on by day and night. This is done to counteract what foreign joui nals style “the obstinate comer” in grain in America. Blackjack is a Missouri town of some sentiment, notwithstanding its name, for it has just had an elopement, involving a furious pursuit of the flying pair by the girl’s father on horseback, a charge of shot fired scattered into their backs, a runaway by all the scared horses, a fight between the two men, and the final triumph of the two lovers.

, That fishing, as an industrial occupation, ranks very high in France, is shown by the fact that a little deoked vessel of twenty-five tons, belonging to the port of Croisic, has earned during the last five years upward of 74,000 francs, after paying expenees, of which the owner got 23,421. or at the rate of 4,700 francs per annum—a very handsome interest tor his out lay. A Parisian Journal estimates the total number of recognized medical men throughout the civilized world at 189,000, of whom it assigns 65,000 to the United States, 35,000 to Greit Britain and her colonies, 26,000 to France, 23 000 to Germany and Austria, 10,000 to Italy, and 5,000 to Spain. Of the whole number 11,000, it estimates, have cousributed to medical literature —2 800 in the United States, 2,600 in France, 2,000 in Great Baitaiu, 2,300 in Germany and Austria and only 300 in Spain.

A Louisville girl made an engagement to elope with a young man whom her father had forbidden to enter the house. The plan was to ride in a close carriage acros-s the line into into Indiana, have the marriage ceremony performed, and return to boldly announce Ithemselves husband wife. This was carried out as far as the start of the carriage. Then the man kissed the girl and she found whisky on his breath More than that, she judged his unusual vivacity to be the result of slight intoxication- Bbe at once declared the affair off. A i he would not turn hack, she called e. policeman to her aid, got into aDotner carriage and went home unmarried.

A Coroner’s jury at Brackett, Texas, was somewhat surprised to see a Mexican who had been shot by a jealous husband, and who was thought dead, rise up just as they were about to begin sittiDg on him, and inquire what all the fuss was about. ‘The supposed corpse came to just about in time to prevent n& usual dissection and postmortem examination.

An orator at Malden, Miss, is reported by the Press as saying that the place is “so charming a village that the very got of light eagerly kisses her hill tops in the morn and bottles them in regd splender at the close of day.” It probable that the word “bottles” should be “bathes” though the orator may have intended a novel figure of speech.

Connecticut is a happy State. There is so little litigation there that, according to the Hartford Courant, the legal fraternity of that city are in a state of chronitf discontent, while, according to the Register of New Haven, the Superior Court, now in session, “is begging for something to do.” A few years ago. “an attorney was fortunate to get a case tried in four or five years” in that court.

The sermon that the Rev. James L. Hill delivered at Lynn, several days ago, Was not remarkable in quality: yet tne preacher became so affected that he had to lean on the deek for support. the sexton fell flat in an isle, the choir could not sing the doxology, and a number of women were oarried out in a fainting condition. It was coal j *ss from the heater, and not eloqunce i rom the pulpit, that made this commotion.