Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1882 — HERE AND THERE. [ARTICLE]

HERE AND THERE.

General BURBhiDGE expects to get a South American mission. About 28,000 children in Philadelpbia do not attend atry school. Six inches of snow fell in Louisville, Ky., on the night of January 30ih. Thebe were 20,000 Chinese immigrants to the United States in 1881. The Harrison revival is still progressing successfully at Cincinnati. There were 114 deaths from scarlet fever in New York City last week. i » i ■■ It is estimated that the hog crop will be one million short this year. Several negroes were sold as vagrants at Paris. Ky., a few days ago. There are over one hunderd murderers in the State prison of Arkansas. The organ of a Baptist Church in Brooklyn, has a snare drum attachment. At the present rate of reduction the National debt will be wiped out in ten years. It is said that there is not a gambling house open and operating in St. Louia. , f The in-coming tobacco crop of Cuba is said to be inferior in quality and quantity. Rhode Island legislators are allowed one dollar a day and a free newspaper. The school children of Kansas have raised over SI,OOO for the Garfield monument fund. San Francisco pays only an average of 4} cents a meal for boarding her prisoners. The damage by the recent flood of the Tennessee river is estimated at half a million dollars. It is said that Philadelphia manufacturers propose to make 23,000 miles of carpet this year. It is thought that the mission of Walter Blaine and Mr. Trescott, to Chili, will be afailure. It is said that there are thousands of insane persons in Tennessee suffering for want of proper care. The wheat farmers of Dakota were ©lowing the other day, with the weather as warm as May. The House of Congress has passed a bill prohibiting polygamists from occupying seats in that body. It wasn’t a first rate corn year, but still Kansas raised over 80,000,000 bushels of that grain in 1881. Ten lives and about $1,000,000 is the latest summing up of the loss by the recent fire in New York City. Bix hundred clerks will be discharged from the Census Office at Washington, in a few days. A tailor at Atchison, Kansas, is eeking fame by making each of the Ouiteau jurors a suit of clothes. It is probable that the Wisconsin Legislature will repeal the anti-treat-ing law passed by its predecessor. Messrs. Moody and Sankey are holding crowded and very successful meetings in Edinburg, Scotland. Cannon, would-be delegate in Congress from Utah, is Slightly widowered J>y the death of one of his wives. A fund of SIOO,OOO has been raised at Oberlin, Ohio, to be used in prosecuting Violations of the liqour laws. The amount of a recent Custom House defalcation at Taganrog, a South Russian seaport, is $47,000,000. Brother-in-law Scoville has entered the lecture field already, and proposes to write a book on the Guiteau trial. , . An autograph letter of Gen. George Washington, \ taking strong ground against slavery, has recently been disco vered. «•*—' General Sherman maintains that the entire sea coast line of this country could be made impregnably defensive in thirty days. A terrible coal mine disaster at Midlothian, Virginia, makes twentyseven widows and one hundred and eight orphans. Drinking shops in Warsaw, Poland, are required to be closed at five p. m., under a penalty of twenty-five lashes to the proprietor. Contrary to the general [expectation, the Sherman funding bill, eonsid-

amended passed the Senate by a fcbed majority. .j \ Weetim ated by Commissioned. Dudlejtlfat $1,347,651,593 will be re(fciredrM’pay pensions during tne next, twenty-five years. ' million dollars are invested in ostrich farming at Cape Colony, and of feathers is 'Valued &U 54,500,000. Snow fell to the depth of from one foot to eighteen inches on the night of J*n. 31st, in New York and the New England states. It is proposed in Congress that the free mail delivery system be extended to all cities and towns of not less than 6,000 inhabitants. - The exodus fever has broken out among the plantation negroes of South Carolina, and thousands of them are uioving to Arkansas. The people of several counties in Southern Illinois are said ( to be in a starving condition, on account of the failure of last year’s crops. The cost to Chili of the war with Peru was about $30,000,000, and now Chili takes territory from Peru as an indemnity, worth $1,000,000,000. At Carbon dale, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, February sth, the snow was three feet deep on a level, in the city and surrounding country. The authorities of Philadelphia having successfully raided and routed the gamblers, the authorities of New York propose to try the same plans. „ The Ohio Legislature is asked to provide for the payment of over $38,000 expenses of the Ohio National Guard attending the Garfield funeral. It is estimated that the people of England have lost from a hundred to a hundred and fifty million dollars a year, during the last three years, by bad harvests. Shepherd, President of the Peruvian Company, denies that General U. S. Grant is a corporator or stockholder, or has any financial interest in the company. The Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, has decreedt.bat the Roman Catholic drunkardsjwho die under his jurisdiction, shall not be buried in Catholic cemeteries. - Hon. John D. Deftees, the veteran Public Printer, has settled the “racket” over his “fat take” by tendering his resignation, under the advice of his physician. The City of Sonora, New Mexico, sets a good example by enforcing an ordinance compelling all persons between the ages of 6 and 16 to attend the puolic schools. During last year in New York city there was an increase of deaths and a decrease of births—3B,6o9 deaths in 1881 t 031,963 in 1880, and 2,7636 births in 1880 to 26,130 in 1881. A rill has been reported from the Committee on Pensions to the Senate of Congress giving the widows of President’s Garfield, Polk and Tyler' each a pension of $5,000 a year. A fourteen year-old boy named James Phillips, committed suicide at Corwin, Ohio, the other day. The baleful influence of wicked literature is given as the cause of his act. The wife of a farmer near Ellis, Kansas, recently gave birth to five children, all of whom are living, and the attending physician expresses the belief that they will live and thrive and grow. Rev. George C. Miller, successor to Rev. Robert Collyer in Unity Church, Chicago, astonished his congregation, last Sunday, by announcing his disbelief in a Deity and in the immortality of man. The Christian Church at Washington, of which [he late President was a member, is to have a new building commenced shortly which is to cost about $300,000. So far it ha 9 $20,000 towards the amount. Mr. and Mrs. Spurgeon devoted the s£o,ooo presented to them at the recent anniversary of their wedding to the endowment of an orphanage for girls. They had already established one for boys. The House of Congress, following the example of the Senate, will have a Standing Committee on Woman Suffrage. -It will consist of nine members, and the best looking man in the House should be its Chairman. About a thousand million dollars of our national debt have been paid since the war ended. France has now nearly treble our debt, and Great Britain more than double. Even Spain has a bigger debt than that which remains of ours. K The total of our interest-bearing

I nai&fid debt /how is The .‘total debt, including the fionJ* interest bearing obligations, is $1,987,649,794,*and deducting the cash m ,the Treasury, the Government’s liabilities amotinf t 051,752,512,8&). •’' ‘ u f * ’ The English Roman Catholic. Directory shows 38 Peers,47 Baronets,6 Privy Councillors, and 56 M. P.’s, of whom II represent Ijtoglbsh constituencies. Within twenty-five years the number of Roman Catholic clergy and churches in England and Wales has doubled. The Judiciary ComnSttee of the Virginia House of Delegates' has reported ad versely on a proposition to abolish the whipping post as a punishment for petty crimes. The law has been in operation sous years, and seems to give satisfaction to the Virginia people. During the last twenty-five years about thirty inebriate asylums have been established in this country, and nearly all of them are still in operation. They are sustained by those who believe in their sanitary value, and those who find them convenient prisons for incovenient relatives. A Boston paper thinks the trouble with the American lawyer is that he never omits, when he has the opportunity, and when five men are listening to him, to deliver a stump speech. He has cultivated his entire mouth and a quarter section of his brain, and the result is as you see it.

Mr. McCord; of lowa, has introduced into the House a bill making the term of office of a Presidential Elector to continue for four years. In case the bill becomes a law, the College would act in case upon to be called of the death or disability of the President. It is a measure that deserves careful consideration. The debt statement shows the reduction of the public debt during January to be $12,978,836; cash in the treasury, $246,025,468; gold certificates, outstanding, $5,188,120; silver certificates, $68,999,670;. certificates of deposit, $11,400,000; refunding certificates, $559,100, legal tenders, $346,681,016; fractional currency, $7,069,493; cash balance available, $143,901,663. Samuel E. Bullock, Democratic candidate for the office of County Clerk in Fayette county, Ky., died pending the election. His widow, backed by the friends of her husband, claims the office as his only heir. The State Attorney has given an opinion that if elected she can serve, and as her nomination is equal to an election, she is destined to act as Glerk of that county, for the Democracy have accepted Her. A cablegram received recently at Qttawa, Canada, from England, announces that the Imperial government has removed the restrictions regarding the importation of American cattle into Canada. Permission, however, will only be granted for importation of cattle for breeding purposes, and these will be subjected to ninety days’ quarantine, the same as the importation of cattle from other countries.

Investigation shows that land grants to various railroad corporations to the amount of 128,160,792 acres have heen forfeited and revert to the government. Of this, 10,872,955 acres are in the Southern States; 7,140,391 acres in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Dakota. The forfeited grant of the Northern Pacific amounts to 37,000,000 acres, the Atlantic and Pacific 42.000,000 acres, the Texas Pacific 18,000,000 acres, besides 12,000,000 acres in Oregon. ThE verdict of a Methodist clerical jury in the ecclesiastical trial of the Rev. H. O. Hoffman, at Bloomington, 111., by which he was disgraced,|was reached at 2 o’clock in the morning. The defendant asked leave to lead in prayer, just before the vote was taken, and was accorded the privilege, which he used most fervently. The jurors were deeply affected, and all wept as they signed the verdict of guilty. Hoffman had been extremely popular, both with congregations and fellow preachers. The Chief of the Bureau of Statistics reports that for the past twelve months ending December 31, 21,290,921 pounds of butter, valued at $4,072,817, and 140,357,826 pounds of cheese, valued at sls 506,871, were exported from this country, being about 16,100 pounds less of butter and about 3,900,000 pounds more of cheese than were exported during the previous year. The total value of the dairy products and provisions and tallow exported during last year was $133,329,242; for the previous year it was $143,882,570, The deadly cholera is moving silently aud destructively in several Asiatic countries, introduced mainly by thepilgrims to the Pagan and

medan shrines, who indulge in the ,most filthy habits, and are undsr very little sanitary supervision. An International Sanitary Council at Constantinople has prepared some regulations to keep the disease rout of Europe. The British Minister at Aden, a British station of the south Coast of Arabia, advised Lord Duffer in, British Embassador at Constantinople, that the cholera broke out there in August, and has been very bad ever since. A large number of the pilgrims have died of the disease between Mecca and Medina. It is following tne pilgrim routes through India and Persia. The plan of civil service reform formulated by internal Revenue Commissioner Raum, attracts much attention. It suggests the establishment of a term of office of four years for subordinate offices, clerks, and employes, the applicant to be first appointed for one year, after the proper examinations, and be eligible for reappointment. Promotions are to be for merit alone, and, as a stimulus to thejexercise of marked capacity, fidelity, and zeal, the pay of one-tenth of the clerks in each bureau is to be increased five per cent, upon proper certificates at the beginning of each fiscal year. Persons retiring without fault are to receive an honorable discharge, and those who go out of the departments after four years’ honorable service are to receive retiring pay equal to one month’s pay for each year, and pro rata for each fraction of • year.

The much mooted proposition to appoint a Government Commission to investigate the liquor traffic seems to be favorably considered by the present Congress. A bill providing such a commission has been reported from the proper committee, and will probably pass. The bill provides for a commission of five persons, who shall not all of them be advocates of the prohibitory liquor laws, in order to secure an impartial report, as free as possible from prejudice. The duty of the commission will be to investigate the alcoholic, fermented, and vinous liquortraffic. and manufacture, with reference to revenue and taxation, and the effect of each class of such liquors, in their economic, criminal, moral, aud scientific aspects in connection with pauperism, crime, social evils, the public health, and general reform of the people. Also, to inquire into the practical results of taxation and| license, and of restrictive legislation for the prevention of intemperance in the several States.

The report of a health physician in Buffalo, New York, has caused no little excitement and alarm in that city. In the primary department of one school he found no less than fifty pupils with the Bcarlet fever. Eight scholars in one class had died during the preceding eight days from the scourge. One death had also occurred in the intermediate department. The premises were in a bad sanitary condition. The wooden flooring in the basement was damp and rotten, and every morning the air in the school rooms was stiffling. The unhealthy cellar is the undoubted cause of the epidemic. Since the Ist of January seventy-five children have died from scarlet fever and diphtheria. The overcrowded condition of the schools and poor sewerage are doubtless the causeof this fearful mortality. Lack of, or poorly regulated, ventilation is also a cause of much illness and suffering on the part of school children. It is believed that proper attention is given to these important matters by the school authorities of thi3 city, but the presentation of the subject by example will do no harm, as vigilance with reference to it should never be relaxed. * -- The little mystery there was remaining in the Jennie Cramer story has been cleared up by the confession of the she-devil, Blanche Douglass. Jennie Cramer was a beautiful and fast, but repectable young girl, at New Haven, Connecticut. James Malley, a yotong “blood” of the town, saw her and resolved to possess her, at the cost of her ruin. Failing by the ordinary methods, he engaged the services and assistance of Blanche Douglass, a handsome and accomplished New York courtesan. Blanche, in the guise of a virtuous and charming girl, made the acquaintance of Miss Cramer and an intimacy at once ensued. Then the Malley brothers were brought into the plot on terms of easy friendship. The crafty Douglass girl led poor Jennie, despite the warnings and remonstrances of her loving but too indulgent parents, from one imprudent step to another, until at [last she was placed in the power of James Malley, at the Malley residence, with no one near her but the younger Malley and the Douglass fiend. There she was forcibly outraged by James Malley, while

the devil Dougina stood outside -’the.; door, / r unmoved by her screaming ands crying,; begging her to be silent and submit to her tote”. She was held a prisoner in that accnrsee house for many hours, persistently declaring she would expose herravishers, and that persistence sealed her doem. Her ravisher. and big assistants became her murderers. The story is a terrible one, but its lessons and warnings cannot be too seriously regarded by young women who are “not afraid to take risks” for the sake of fleeting and dubious pleasures. Heed to a mother’s homely and loving counsel would have saved Jennie Cramer’s honor and life.