Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1882 — Page 3

WASHINGTON

Sunator Van WycK, of Nebraska, has introduced a bill in the Senate, the object of which i 4 to compel the railroads to pay State taxes on unpatented lands donated to them by the Government. One condition of the land grants is that the railroads 'shall pay all costs of surveying the lands. The raitroad companies ho’d lands throughout the West which they have not yet surveyed and patented, and the courts have held that the States cannot tax these lands, because the United States still holds an interest in equity in them .by reason of the fact that under the conditions imposed by the grant the lands might revert to the Government through the failure of railroads to comply with these conditions. It js claimed that the railroads leave the lands unpatented to avoid taxation, and Mr. Van Wyck’s bill releases and quit-claims to any State that proceeds against these lauds for the collection of taxes, all interest in equity of the general Govern oaent. It “is thought this will encourage the State to collect theoe taxes. The biggest surprise of the sea ■•on is the nomination of Roscoe Conklmg for the Supreme Bench, and A. A. Sargent, of California, for Minister to Germany, just sent to the Sena e. Until within twenty-four hours-past, it has been believed that Edmunds would get the Supreme Bench, and Sargent would go into the Cabinet. Indeed, a member of trie stated privately four days ago -that Edmunds would go on the Supreme bench within a few days. Last evening, however, the President stated that Edmunds would not be appointed, but so well was the secret kept that nobody was prepared for the surprise of this afternoon. Of the sixty or more Senators present when the name was sent in, probably not a half-dozen had dreamed of such nominations. An audible buzz of surprise ran all over the Senate and the gallersies when the fact became known, and the news quickly spread to the House, which was busy with the private calendar. The general impression is that there will be no delay in confirmation, as the Senate seldom refuses to confirm one who has been a member of tbat body. Many people believe that Conkling will not accept, and that the nomination is simply a move in a much large game. But the cooler heads think he will ac cept the position, which may be considered the highest honor from a lawyer’s standpoint, and SIO,OOO a year for life. Sargent’s nomination is also a surprise, but attracts little attention beside the more important nomination of Conkling. Mr. Allen, member from St. Louis, continues very ill, and there is little prospect of his recovery. The report that he had sent m his resignation is stated to be untrue. His disease is connected with the bladder.

Representative Hawk, of the Fifth Illinois District, is preparing an amendment to the Hennepin Canal bill, to protect those of his constituents who enjoy water-power from the Fox river in Whiteside county, below the point where the feeder is to draw off the water for the canal. Mr. Hawk is heartily in favor of the canal, hot persons having large investments in factories, etc., on the river, fear the drawing off of the water will ini' -e them, and demand protection. To meet this, he will present an amendment creating a commission to examin into the question of damages, and report to Congress what sums, jf any, should be paid these persons for damages—the Commission to consist of three competent persons, .me appointed by the Secretary of War, one by the parties affected, ami the third by these two. Mr. Hawk doesn’t want to stand in the way of the canal, as he is greatly in favor of the project, but feels that he must protect his constituents. TUeJoill of Representative Smith, of the Bloomington (111.) District, providing that the government shall distribute pure vaccine virus, through the Surgeon General, at cost, will pass the House, amended to make the distribution through the State and municipal authorities, and ‘physicians. It has already passed the Senate. Mr. Smith takes particular interest hi this subject, having recently lost a beautiful child by the use of what proved to be impure vaccine virus. Captain Eads made a fine argument before the Committee on River Improvements this morning, advocating his theories foi confining the current by levees and deepening the channel. The nomination of William F. Tuck er, Jr., of Illinois, /Senator Logan’s son-in-law, to be Major and" Paymaster in the army, has evoked muchcriticism. It has not been an uncommon practice since the beginning of President Grant’s administration for

Presidents to appoint Paymasters from civil life, but Mr. Tucker is on§of the *' very few men appointed from civil life who have seen no military service. He. is a young man under thirty years of age, and, army officers declare, without military experience of any kind. Of the twenty-five Paymasters appointed from the beginning of President Grant’s administration to the date o the issue of the last Army Register, only three of them were men who had not seen service either as regulars or volunteers, and one qf these, |Mr. ftniffen, had been a clerk in the army, and so had some knowledge of military matters. With these exceptions the Paymasters who have been# appointed from civil life during the time mentioned have been men who had served in the war for the Union. This appointment, carrying with it the rank of Major, will put Mr. Tucker over the heads of 120 Captains of cavalry, 60 Captains of artillery, aud 250 Captains of infantry—or in all 430 officers—many of whom fought on the battle fields of the iate war, and most of whom have probably been twenty years in the service.

FROM THE WIRES.

A Reproduction of Important Telegraphic Dispatches—Records of Fire#, Crimes, Horrors, add Interesting Kvents, New York dispatch says: There is alarm about the British steamship Titania, which sailed from this port for Newcastle and Dundee on January 24, and has not since been heard from. She was commanded by Captain O’Neil, aud had a <7rew of thirty-two men. Her cargo consisted of provisions, wheat, corn, cheese, beef and canned goods, valued at about SIOO,OOO, and insured in Boston. She carried no passengers. The Titania was a water-ballast vessel, 270 feet in length, and 1,283 tons cargo capacity. Syracuse dispatch says: A westward bound freight train on the New York Central dashed through a freight train of the Rome. Watertown and Ogdensburg road at the cossing nortli of here. No person was injured. The Central Locomotive is lying in Onondaga Lake. The wreck took fire, and was generally destroyed. Johu Major Hicks, a colored man, born in Boyd couuty, Ky., April 15, 1862, was hanged at Covington Ky. The execution was the second ever had in Kenton county, auJ was the first quasi private execution in the State of Kentucky, and is likely to be the last, as the law requiring executions in an in closure has just been repealed, and will go into effect in thirty days. This execution was in a shell a building built o brick. All the lower-story • windows were nailed with boards. The condemned man was brought on the scaffold attended by Father McGiniey, Father Lambert and two other priests. At seven minutes past 10 o’clock they knelt and prayed audibly. The prisoner repeating, after Father McGiniey, the Lord’s prayer and the Apostolic creed. After this the prisoner was brought to the platform, where he shook hands with the priests. Then Father Lambert came to the front, and, addressing the 300 spectators admitted, said: “Mr. Hicks will say nothing. I speak for him. He takes this death as a punishment for his sins.” The noose was then fixed, hands manacled, straps and cap adjusted, Hicks all the while weeping profusely and saying. “God is good. Oh Lord Jesus, have mercy.” The priests exhorted him with the words; "Trust in Jesus. He can save the soul.” The trap dropped at 10:15, and the body was cut down at 10:44.The e was no struggling. He was hung for the murder of Henry Murray Williams, at . Ludlow, Ky., December 15, 1880, early in the evening. There were no liviug witnesses to she crime. This utterance of Father Lambert on the scaffold is the only confession he made. A Clinton, lowa, dispatch says: Tiijere was a wholesale poisoning at the Central Hotel in this city at 7 o’clock last evening, caused, as believed, by arsenic put in a pan of milk, by accident or design. A dozen guests, waiting girls, and others, at supper were more or less attested, the most serious case being Hon. J. W. Miles, of Miles, lowa, a banker, aud the founder of that town, who was attending the Masonic Convention at Lyons. He drank heartily of the milk, and was seized with vomiting aud purging, and lay in a critical condition all night. He is now vtry weak, but is believed to be out of dauger. George Hitchcock, an engineer, drauk milk in bis coffee, and was very

sickalb bight, He Is on, duty to-day. Johanna Thand, a serving -girl, Wag the most seriously affected of the waiters, but is now out of dauger. The affected milk has all been traced to one pan, aud as the other pans were filled from the same can, it is certain that the poison was placed iu only the one pan. Physicians pronounce the poison to be arsenio. A portion is under chemical analysis to-day. The only known theory, which is currently credited, is that .the poison was put in the pan by a colored cook named Johnson, who was discharged. He is known to be revengeful, aud was seen about the premises. He will be arrested. Louisville dispatch says: The forty-first drawing of the Commonwealth Distribution Company took place Tuesday February 28. The follow prizes were drawn: Capital prize, $30,000. by ticaet 87,473; second prize, SIO,OOO by ticket 73,014; third prize, $5,000, by ticket 90,574. The following tickets drew SI,OOO each: 11.040,.26 441, 44,250, 51,299, 69,300, 72,367.' Bloomington, 111., dispatch says: H. E. Ferguson, Deputy Circuit Clerk of this county, has been indicted by the United States Grand Jury at Springfield for collecting illegal fees from a soldier’s widow, for whom he had obtained a pension. Ferguson collected $1,700, and paid the claimant only SI,OOO of it. Several cases of this kind have occurred here, where certain Bloomington lawyers , have obtained fat fees through fraudulent misrepresentation. A dispatch from Batileford, Northwestern Territory, says the Blackfeet and other Indians in the vicin'ty of Forts Red Deer and South Branch are committing numerous depredations, and driving off aud killing cattle. In the Bow River country several American whisky traders were killed by them, and several other Americans have been found dead in the neighborhood, are aud supposed to have been killed by the same savages. ;

A Scene From the French Revolution.

Egslite shared the fate of the King and Queen. After his death a Mrs. Elliott was confined for three weeks in a dungeon, expecting death at every moment; but hersojouru with the rats and mice was at length relaxed, and she was allowed to mix with the other prisoners. From the Recollets, at Versailles, she was removed to the Prison of the Carmes, in Paris, where she found many acquaintances, among them Mad Beaubarnais, Mad. de Custine and her husbaud, and others. The details of her life in the prison are full of interest. Even in the presence of death they managed to enjoy themselves; and the dramas of real life played from day to day were at one time a farce, at another a tragedy. Mad. Beaubarnais (afterward wife of Napoleon) had bten on bad terms with aud separated irom her husband, until one day a fresh prisoner was added to those assembled in the large room of the prison, who turned out to be the Marquis de Beaubarnais. It was an embarrassing meeting for both husband and wife, who, under the circumstau03=i, agreed to be reconciled. The day that the Marquis de Beauharnais joined them was the one on which the husband of Mad. de Custine was executed. I never saw a scene of such misery as the parting between the young couple”, says Mrs. Elliot. “I really thought she would have dashed her brains out. Mad. Beauharnais and I did not leave her for three days and nights.” But Mad de Custine was young, full of spirit, and a French woman, and at the end of six weeks was consoled by the attentions of the Marquis de Beauharnais, much to the distress of his wife, who seemed attached to her husband. Mrs. Elliot says she did all she could to persuade Beauharnais to spare his wife’s leelings, but he was not 10 be controlled. “I am far from supposing that there was any thing wrong in their attachment,” she adds, “but certainly Beauharnais, was more in love than it was possible to describe, and the little woman seemed to have no objections to his attentions.” It was but a brief para lise :or Beauharnais, who was among the next fifty led out to execution. His death was a tragedy for the two miserable women who clung to him at parting, and one of whom never smiled after his death. After eighteen months’ imprisoment Mrs. Elliot w T as at last liberated, but during her incarceration she was once so near the scaffold that her hair was cut in readiness for her execution. The death of Robespiere was the signal for her delivery. She remained in Paris after this, moving in the highest circles during the Consulate and the Empire. Napoleon admired her, and, it is said, made her an offer befor he married her friend Madame Beauharnais. Iu the year 1801 she' returned to England,and was reported by those who knew her to be, at the age of thirty-six, more beautiful than ever. It was during this visit to England that she met DeChansents, whom she had so nobly rescued, and she had the satisfaction of liviug to see him reinstated as Governor of the Tuileries. She remained in England until 1814, when she returned to trance, where she lived to a good age, aud died at Ville d,Avray. •1 I » “A soft answer turneth away wrath,” and it’s a mighty good thing to when the iellow is bigger than youy

TABLE TALK.

Florida has only three daily papers, A misfit valentine store would do a big business. \ Nashville is retailing Irish potatoes at three for five cents. He who is perfectly vanquished by riches cau never be just. Boston’s census of voters by the police gives 83,197 names. It is the cross-eyed man who looks on both sides of a subject. It is curious that the pig must be killed Defore he can be cured. General Rosser, chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific railroad has resigned. It took forty extra carriers to deliver the New York city mail on Valentine’s day. An exchange tells of a man who "nearly put out his vital lamp by blowing out the gas.” The duke of Edingburg, is composing the music of an-operetta and has it nearly completed. Twelve bovs, ranging iu age from 11 to 14 years, are serving terms in the California penitentiary. Eleven hundred pictures were rejected by the committee of the artists* exhibition in New York. Dr. R. V. Pierce, of Buffalo, has bought a hotel at Suspension bridge that cost $250,009, for $12,000. A fund, amounting to $12,000, has been raised for the family of the late Governor Wiliz, of Louisana. The Boston training school for nurses has graduated seventy-six nurses and •has about fifty students at present The Garfield professorship at Williams college now amounts to $42,000. Eight thousand dollars more is required-

The furniture for the palace of King Kalakaua.at Honolulu.has been ordered at Boston by the King’s chamberlain. Bishop Clark, of Rhode Island, says: "The devout church goer who cannot be trusted on a week day is the present scandal of Christendom.” Mr. Ebenezer Prescott, the oldest resident of Troy, N. Y., and his wife celebrated the sixty-first anniversary of their marriage, on Monday. Candid: Counsel— " Why are you so very precise iu your statement? Are you afraid of telling an untruth?” \Vitness [promptly)— "No sir!” From the bank near the little town of Bciacca, Sicily, alone, within the last four years, more than 8,874,000 pounds of coral have been fished. The estate of the late Henry F. Durant, of Boston, the founder of Wellesley college, inventories $341,000 instead of $2,000,000, as was popularly supposed. California agriculturists are adopting many plants from China and Japan. Great hope is had for the success of the Soja bean, so extensively used for food in Eastern .Asia, The Pennsylvania railroad company will build 220 locomotives at its own shops during tha year. Thtre are at present about l,lou loemotives iu use on the line of the road. A Baptist minister immersed eleven persons in five minutes, at Clurinda, lowa, wading in aud out of the stream with each. Ft was a freezing day, and he had good reason for haste. Jennings, of Boston, filed with the Garfield auditing committee a bill for $5,000, lor the coustrucion of cool air apparatus in the executive mansion, during the illness of President Garfield.

A negro man in Christianburg, Va., is a habitual coal-oil drinker. He says in cold weather he often drinks a pint or more at one time, aud that the sensation produced is similar to that of whisky^ - Jefferson Davis’s daughter Varina is a great belle in the south. She is pale, sleuder aud reserved. At a recent ball she appeared as the Margravine of Beriuth in a rose pink velvet aud satin costume. The statement that all soldiers who enlisted between June 22. 1801, aud August 6,1861,are entitled to a bounty, is denied by the adjutant general, who says that no such decision has ever been made. Mr. Francis C Brown.of Wisconsin, offers gratuitou-'y to the executive committee of the Garfield memorial hospital a superior grade of Wisconsin granite, with which to erect the proposed hospital. The practice of keeping hives of bees in Paris has spread so exteusivley that the prefect of police has issued an order firbidding it for the future, except in tie case of persons who shall have received a special authorization. A Judge and a jury disagreed as to how much Mr. liobinsou of Hiduey, 0., ought to pay Miss Alleman for having kissed her against her will. The jury gave her a verdict of $450, and the Judge reduced the amount to S2OO. A dying man star lid the people of Bt. Albans, Vt., by confessing various crimes of which he had never been suspected, ranging from petty laicenies up to a murder; and there is corroborative evidence that he told the truth. According to Figaro, beef stewed in beer, and strongly odoriferous of the latter, is tne Prince Imperial of Germany’s favorite food, while his mother revels in eels and carp, with beer sauce, the venerable Emperor meanwhile lapping up with influite gusto his beer soup. Grogan and ‘McKenzie, influenced by the revival of popular interest in pugilism, went out to fight in a ring at Clinton, Mo. The encounters proceeded according to the established rules of the Rf, uutil McKenzie was nearly whipiiea, when he drew a pistol aud -44w»u at his antagonist. The bullet killed a spectator.

Mrs. Stewart was alone and unarmed when two tramps took forcible possession of her house, at New Vineyard, Me. While they were eating and drinking in the kitchen, she whittled a stick into the shape ofa pistol, blackened it with soot, and then made a fierce onslaught on the rascals who lied precipitately. Three voung fellows took it into their heads to dance at the grave of a friend at Lawrenceville, Hl. + and one them fell into it. Their conduct shocked the mourners, who drove them away, aud subsequently prepared to lynch them. They fled * hastily, making their way down the river, fourteen miles in a leaky boat, which finally sank uuder them. Tiiev swam to the shore, but it was a'cold night. They were too exhausted to go any further, end in the morning their dead bodies were found. As a part of tbe mourning for the Empress aud co-Regent, who died in Apiil, tbe Chiuese were forbidden to shave for a month. At Foochow the Mayor, finding that the order was disregarded, made a raid on the barber shops, aud sitfty culprits found, there were fined*, severely bastinadoed, and bad their shaven heads painted a bright blue—the color for mourning there—and nicely varnished. They further had to present themselves weekly for fresh coats of paint and varnish while tbe mourning lasted.

Rapid Breathing as an Anaesthetic.

[Richmond (Va„) Religious Herald.| Dr. M. T. Yates, iu a letter published in tbe Biblical Recorder, says of the surgical operations to which he has recently submitted: "My doctors said they had seen it stated by an American doctor that if a person would breathe as rapidly as possitde under au operation he would not feel the pain of cutting, and they wished, to try it on me, to which proposition 1 assented. Dr. Macleod superintended the breathing—which was like that of a dog ou a hot summer day—bolding, out of my sight, a hankerchiel, to be dropped as a signal—when he saw the color come in my face—for Henderson, the operating doctor, to go ahead. When Macleod told me "That will do,” I was surprised to find that the operation had been performed. This I have tried three times, and have not, at either time, felt more pain than is usually inflicted in the case of vaccination. I heard the knife rip through the flesh, like the sound produced in cutting leather, but I did not feel the pain. What is the philosophy of this kind of an amesthetic? Is it simply a diversion of the mind?” We presume the rapid breathing acts very much like the inhalation of laughing gas; that it oxydizes the blood most likely, and makes the heart beat faster as shown by the color of the face, and this exhilaration prod uses iusensibility to physical pain. A man slightly wounded in battle often does not know it at tbe time—partly, perhaps, because of mental preoccupation, but mainly, we suppose, because he is toned up by the excitement of tbe conflict. But, whatever may be tbe explanation, Dr. Yates’ experience is an instuctive instince of the connection aud interaction of bodily estate and mental sensibility.

A Faithful Sweetheart.

The heather bloomed gayly along the roadside; the hum of insects and the voices of larks filled the sumer air. By the brook that rippled merrily dowu the mountain side stood a young man, tapping impatiently with his cane a tiny foot that peeped out from beneath his checkered pants. Bruslud carelessly away from his white forehead were two golden locks, and a No. 5 bat was perched jauntly on the back of his head. "Will she never come?” he muttered, iu low. earnest tones; "never come to hear the sweet words of lpve that are waiting on my lips for her?” A fish rose to the surface of the brook, looked at the young man, and went away tired. "I will seek her,” he said; but as he turned to go a pair of gleaming arms were thrown around his neck, aud two rosy lips were puckered un for a kiss. "8o you have come at lasi,” he said, lookiug at her fondly. "Y<-s,” replied the girl. "Birdie McMur try never breaks a promise. I told mamma tbat she would have to hang out the clothes herself to-day, although it nearly broke my heart lo leave her at such a time.” "Great heavens!” said Roderigo to himself. "1 had forgotten that it was Monday.”

Gambetta.

[Harper's Monthly.] In the Be)f-eoutaiued, dignilied, somewhat imperious-looking President ol the French Chamber -of 1881, with his admirably lilting dress-coat and spotless white necktie, who daily mounts to his throne-like seat in the chamber, it would he difficult to And traces of the carelessly dressed, liery young Republican of the Baudlu days. M. Gambetta of 4d haH the prematurely aged look of a man who has made in youth heavy drains on his menial resources. Far from appearing like a mau in his prime, he looks like a man who has passed it many years since. The ffgure is heavy aud obese, although Gambetta’s movements are still vigorous, active and alert, and the gesture is as fluent as ever. But the face in repose wears a habitually fatigued expression. It is when he speaks that his Italian fervor returns to him. His greatest personal charm now is to be found id his voice, that wonderful, stirriug, magnetic voice, whose sonorous qualities seem to belong peculiarly to itself. It has in it the piercing, puissant vibrations of a finq brass instrument, making the air thick with sound. Gambetta’s intonations are sucu also that he seems to add something to the '‘delicate* idiom of Pails.” He imparts to Its lightness aud grace an indefinable and noticeable quality of richness and depth.