Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1883 — A Bone Coat of Mail. [ARTICLE]

A Bone Coat of Mail.

The startling stcry comes from Eurepe that young girls are abducted from Lou* don and Paris to adorn the harems of the Orient • * Judge Amos Bbiggs, of Philadelphia, has made the singular ruling that all who do not believe in a Divine Being and divine rewards and punishments are incompetent as witnesses in the court Persons who mail newspapers weighing over two ounces with but a single cent stamp upon them commit a great mistake. The rules of the Postoffice Department require such papers to be sold as waste paper, hence they are not forwarded to their destination or to the Dead Letter Office as letters with insufficient postage are. Attention to this point would save many people much disappointment and the loss of papers they ma.il.

Russia is on the brink of bankruptcy. The State debt, both foreign and internal, amounts to the enormous sum of 3,142,000,000 roubles, and the annual interest amounts to 185,500,000 roubles. This debt instead of decreasing is annually increasing, for the Government, being unable to pay the interest as it falls due, issues new obligations. An annual deficit of some 100,000,000 roubles has become a matter of fact in the Ozar’s financial administration. Russian Government securities in the different European exchanges now stand lower than ever before. Even after the third defeat of the Russians at Plevna they stood four per cent, higher than now. It is said that a financial panic is spreading all over the Empire . .

The Kentucky public school system is far inferior to that of Indiana, but is improving. Instruction in the common branches is now furnished by the State, but no provision is made for building or repairing school houses, for fuel, or for other necessary expenses. These must be furnished by the patrons, and consequently the schools are much neglected. One will not find the comfortable school houses and pleasant surroundings like we have in Indiana. High schools supported by taxation are rare except in the larger cities. Instruction in the higher branches is afforded by private academies and seminaries in nearly all the towns. Collegiate instruction is given in 34 colleges, while Indiana only has 16 such institutions. Thus, while K the means for the education of the masses is limited, ample provision has been made for the higher education of the wealthier class. And this is true over the entire South.

The action of the coroner’s jury in the case of the shooting of Patrick McGow an, last week, will commend itself everywhere. Roundsman Delaney was sent to arrest an offender in a saloon, notorious for its dangerous character. McGowan resisted the officer and endeavored to prevent him getting his man, going so far as to club the officer over the head with a revolver. McGowan then jumped into a hack and tried to escape. Delaney followed, his face and eyes covered with blood from his wounds. McGowan then fired at him, the ball striking him in the eye and lodging in the temple, making a dangerous and it may be fatal wound. The officer fired twice in return, sending a ball through the desperado’s heart. The jury concluded its labors by commending Delaney's act, and presenting him with a handsome gold watch and chain in recognition of the bravery displayed in performing hie duty. Such evidences of appreciation arc calculatad to encourage police officers in the discharge of peril ous undertakings, while att h 3 same time they discourage sentiments- Ji ibberings over dead desperadoes. Aoobnb and “pig nuts” have long been known as good feed for swine, but it will surprise most people to learn that they have a foreign export value. Mr. Letterman, of St Louis county, Missouri, recently shipped 300 bushels of red oak acorns to Europe, and about the same time 120 bushels of pig nuts were shipped by parties in Pennsylvania. The shipments were made under the direction of the American Forestry Society, and the nuts are to be used for seed in England and Germany. Experiments in these countries with various kinds of bard wood trees indigenous to North America have proven the hickory and red oak to be best adapted to foreign soil and cliand an attempt will be made to introduce them on a largtf scale. Id their adopted land they will be planted on barren hillsides and such other untillable lands as can only be utilized in the pursuit of forestry. Acorns are not a mer- , chantable article. Neither can pig nuts be procured in the market; for these reasons there was no little difficulty in filling so large an order. The seed had to be gathered between one fall and spring, otherwise it would be worthless. It was

with considerable misgiving that those in charge of the matter undeitook the contract for so large a quantity of the nuts, but by employing men, women and children to gather them it was finally accomplished.

One would hardly look to a dime museum for a love episode, nor to a living skeleton for a “masher.” Still, there are always exceptions, and the unpromising quarters of a dime museum in New York has developed a skeleton that made a mash on a professional beauty. < Isaac W. Sprague is the attenuated human ossification in question, and bis heart was so touched in sympathy for one of the beauties who failed to get a prize in the late contest, that he figuratively wept with her over her chagrin and disappointment Hej number was seventy-one, and her name Minnie Thompson. When the skeleton breathed forth his tale of condolence, Miss Thompson was impressed. He weigns forty pounds, while she kicks the beam, metaphorically, at 160. In short she’s plump and he’s thin. But that didn’t interfere. He was impressed by her, of course for she was a beauty, and she was favorably toward him, because—well, just because. The engagement was over and the other competing beauties went their various ways, but still she lingered near, and waited patiently about till the reason did appear. With an eye to the. beautiful she had seized Mr. Skeleton, and come to the conclusion that he would be perfectly lovely in her parlor posing on one leg as a stork. So asthetic, you know, and all that. The plot thickened. Sprague kept right on in business on his slender capital, and Miss Thompson—probably a relative of Thompson’s colt—made daily visits to the museum. He found precious opportunities to whisper sweet nothings in her ear, and managed to slip his arm about her waist, murmuring that it shoujd always sustain her, be'a whale bone to her and the little olive branches that should grace their table in coming years. In the evenings she practiced at balancing herself on his knee, while his fingers, like bunches of licorice root, conjured warm blushes into her*cheeks. In a few weeks they were clean gone on each other, arid when he asked her if she loved him, she sweetly lisped: “You bet your bones.” That settled it, and he hied himself for a license, and they were married. This teaches that true love is lumtum everywhere—in the palaces of the poor, as well as in the humble cottages of the rich. Be good, dear girls, and “fly,” and you may marry a skeleton or-a fool yourself some day.

Ralph Corbit, an ingenious 12-year old boy of Honeybrook, Chester county, Pa., has devised a novel plan of getting rid of the rats which infest lus father’s tiellar. He has constructed out of old fruit jars a battery of three I<eydeu jars, which he connects and places upon a large iron plate which touches the tin foil on the outside. The bait is so arranged that when the rat, steps upon the plate and seizes the bait he at once makes the connection between the outside and inside of the jars, and they are discharged through his body, killing him literally as quick as lightning. He charges the jars by means of an electrical machine also constructed by himself. He ran a couple of wires through the floor from the cellar to the room above, and as soon as he would hear a rat squeak he would immediately recharge the battery. The first time he put the machine in operation he slaughtered twenty-five rats in the space of three hours, and in two days the cellar was entirely cleared of the pests.

Philadelphia Press. Iron armor is a thing of the past, but bone armor, and notural at that, is quite a new thing, but Luther Moore, of Dayton, Pa., is so far from thinking it a good thing that he has declined to wear it, Several years ago the gentleman named was struck a violent blow on the right shoulder by falling timber. No bones were broken, but shortly afterwards a little hard lump made its appearance, and in spite of all local and external applications, grew out and spread itself over his shoulder, down his 'arm and over his breast, until it became apparent that its removal was absolutely necessary, else the patient would in time be incased in an armor of bone. Already his right arm had become partially useless, and more serious results were feared. A few days ago Dr. Singer, of Connellsville, assisted by Dr. Henry, of Dawson, removed the bony tumor. The operation was a complete success. It is many times larger than any of its kind mentioned in the whole range of medical authorities. In shape it is like the crown of a Derby hat, and fitted closely over the shoulder like a cap, extending down over the arm, chest and back.