Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1882 — THE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

THE NEWS.

Home Items. Spring plowing has begun in many parts of the Northwest. The reports relative to starvation m Northern Louisiana are untrue. United States bonis redeemed under .the 106th call amounted to $16,556,100. This winter is pronounced tbe cold'est there has been in California since 1855-56. Recent rains have greatly improved the prospects for good crops in California. Michigan had a balance of $11,739 - 362 07 iu her Treasury on the 30th of September last. A five-cent postage stamp bearing an excellent likeness ot the late President will lie issued March Ist. A bill appropriating $50,000 to encourage immigration is pending iu the Mississippi Legislature.

It is claimed that the cotton crop of Arkansas is more valuable than the wheat crop of Minnesota. A New Yorker obtained SIO.OOO damages from a street car company for the loss of an eye in a collision. Arthur Dwight Billings, the wellknown actor, suicided in New York, Sunday, with a dose of laudanum. It is estimated that over half a million dollars was wagered on the result of the recent prize fight at New Orleans. At Canton, Ohio, a patient, suffering from cancer in the stomach," died of starvation alter an involuntary fast of fifty t -one days. Ryan, the pugilist, who was beaten so badly by Sullivan, is not so much injured as was at first supposed and is mending rapidly. Dubuque, lowa, has harvested 50,000 toss of ice, besides what the packers have gathered, making the crop an unusually large one.

The Fire Commissioners of Boston have ordered rope tire-esoapes to be supplied by all mamlfaotuiWs employing five or more hands J. R Brodhead, a clerk hi the Military Division of the Pacific at Han Francisco, was arrested for raising a check frr m §4.50 to St 500. That part of tbe Kansas prohibition law whicb prescribes a punishment for drunkenness has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme court at Topeka. = - , The Methodists of Matooc, 111., are incensed agaiust their preacher, Mr. Villars, for having allowed his wife to oreaeh in his pulpit on the evening of January 15th. At Fern Ridge, Mo., Wiight, the Postmaster, shot and killed a drunkeD colored man who was cheating a disturbance and threatening with a pistol. Mrs. Wing, wife of the pastor of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan, while leading in prayer, fell to the floor, and died two hours later. Andrew Olson, a young man of Chicago who thought he was going to have small-pox, drank two quarts of whisky by way of antidote, and died iu half an hour. A man in North Carolina named Bivans, only two weeks married to an attractive looking lady, repented of his choice, and suicided by walking into the river. Count Z. Von Steuben has written to Mayor Hariison, thanking him, on behalf of the seven Steubens who recently visited Chicago, for the hospitalities received here. A wealthy English capitalist has purchased 45 OOP acres of land in Dakota of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and will locate an English colony there iu the spring. Iu St. Louis a man named Kring, who murdered Dora Broemser in 1875, and was sentenced to be hanged on tbe 24tfi inst., is to have a new trial,which will be the fifth he has had. William Miller, the oldest Freeman son in the United States (and probably in the world) died at Caldwell. Ohio, Thursday evening. He was 98 years old, and was initiated in 1801. The search for the bodies of the victims of the Midlothian coal-mine disaster has been stopped by fire m the mine, and tbe shah will be shut up. Twenty seven bodies are in the mine. D. W. Vfenderhoof, first book-keeper of tbe First National Bank of St. Paul, Minn., was arrested Friday evening, for embezzlement, of an amount variously estimated at from $20,000 to $30,000. A Nashville, Tenn., dispatch states that Wood Hight, a cousin of the James brothers, the highwaymen, was arrested iu that State and "taken to Missouri, where he is wanted for robbery. At Lawrenceville, 111., Miss Seed Postmistress of the town, recently superseded, took a fatal dose of chloroform, either with suicidal intent or to cure toothache. She died in a few hours. Craft and Ellis, the perpetrators of the horrible murder and outrage at the Gibbons farm, near Ashland, Ky., a few weeks ago, were sentenced to be hanged April 14, and the motion for a aew"trial overruled. At the blast furnace of the Calumet Iron and Steel Company, at Irondale, near Chicago, five men were suffocated by gas on Thursday evening. Two of them have died, two are iu great danger. and one has recovered. Adrian, Michigan, is excited over the discovery that some party or parties unknown , have been negotiating in New York fraudulent water bonds of the city of Adrian to the amount of §75,000. Mayor Navin has suddenly left for parts unknown. The till for the appointment of a tariff commission adopted by the Ways and Means Committee, provides for nine commheioners, who shall thoroughly consider tfo best method of revising tbe tariff, and report to Congress not later than December, 1882 At Lima. Ohio, Mrs. Vanatta sued a saloonist for §5 000 damages for selling liquor to her son, which intoxicated him, and caused him to engage in a quarrel, during which he received injuries which ended his life. She was a ward* d SSOO. / The Secretary of the Treasury has reported to the House that in the enforcement of the internal revenue laws twenty-nine officers had been killed and fifty wounded, and eight informers bad been assailed and wounded. Pitney, the ex-custodian of the Treasury, denies the statements attributed to him by the Associated Press reporter at Washington regarding the work done for Mrs. Sherman and notes relative thereto. He says there is not a word of truth in the story. Captain James B. Eads feels confident that the Senate Committe will make a favorable report on the sub ject of his proposed Tehauntepec ship railway scheme. If Congress, however, will not assist him in this way, he proposes to get foreign aid. The Adriau (Mich.) city water |bond complication remains inexplicable on any other grounds than that Mayor Navin intended to have the bonds cashed. Whether he intended to use the money'for legitimate purposes or otherwise-fs not yet fully decickd.

’ The Committee of Ways and Means of the House of Co§ grew is considering the question of the right of the Senate to originate a funding bill, and seems to betjjuclijaed to <Jenj such right. If that concision is finally reached, a new funding bill will be framed, ignoring tbe Sherman bill entirely. The Presbyterian Synod, com posed of (delegates from presbyteries in the ■ adjoining parts oi Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi, admitted a negro for several years, but in the present session the question of excluding him was raised, and a majority vote r to turn him out. This action was based solely od his color. The Pennsylvania Revenue Commission at Philadelphia has agreed to a report recommending taxing money at interest and personal property at 2 mills on the dollar, and that foreign corporations should be taxed upon the ratio of business done in the State, on the same basis as home institutions. The Committee on Civil Service Reform, of the House of Congress, is represented to be favorably considering a proposition to create a new department of the Government, in the interests oi agriculture, commerce and manufactures. This- department would have charge of the signal and life-saving services. It is said that the House of Congress Committee on Bauking and Currency has favorably-considered a bill which provides that the legal tender notes shall be liable to taxation on an equality with gold and silver coin, during the time they continue redeemable in coin, buton|y during such time. It is a just measure, which should become the law. - 1 -•* An interesting dispatch, giving a sketch of the Jeannette artic expedition, has been received. Many important results obtained by the scientists were lost in the wreck of the steamer. Three islands were discovered, viz,, Jeannette, Henrietta and Bennett Islands. Ice was eight feet thick of the winter’s growth, and the heaviest seen was twenty-three feet iu thickness. The conversion of Gen. Buford, the Kentucky race-tracK King, to Christianity, is creating something of a sensation in religious and sporting circles. It is said that he still thinks that horse-racing can be carried on legitimately, and not in a consisent with morals and religious principles, but admits that the sport has fallen very low in the scale of honor and decency, and he . will probably quit the track forever.