Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1883 — LEGISLATIVE NOTES. [ARTICLE]

LEGISLATIVE NOTES.

The New York Graphic describes the quail-eating performance of Mr. Walcott: “A stranger, unaware of the cause, and seeing one man thus silently eating and forty other men standing by and as silently watching him, might with some show of reason imagine he had stumbled on a lunatic asylum. It has a *luhy’ look. The by-standers talk in low tones to each other. They seem sad and serious. The The quail-eater is the saddest and most serious of tnem aIL When he rises and sadly departs, the crowd closely inspects the plate of bones to see if any flesh adheres.*' Tub present King of Portugal is fully abreast of his fellow-sovereigns of Europe in education and advanced ideas. He keeps'close watch on new inventions and discoveries, and is quick to adopt any that may prove of real merit, lie has just had an elaborate telephone system established between his library, the offices of the various Ministers, and the opera, so ♦hat, he can, without moving from his chair, alternately occupy himself with his books and the translations by which he haw distinguished himself, with musio, and with the duties and cares of State. The reader will be surprised to hear of cannibalism in this day and yet information has been received at Brisbane, Queensland, that a three-masted schooner was lost on the shore at the mouth of the Fly river, New Guinea. Thejcrew, seventeen in number, were killed by the savages; their heads cut off, and distributed among the native village?. Captain Pennafeathes, of the schooner Heart, made a search, but found only a lot of wreckage, with nothing to identify the vessel. His party was frequently attacked by the natives. One old woman confessed the murder of the crew. Pennifeather burnt the native villages, and destroyed their canals.

Samvel Soott, of Wartburg, Tenn., has just died,his weight being 360 pounds. It is thought that his death was due to his extreme obesity. He was about five feet eight inches tall, but his body was puffed out to an abnormal size, and he oould scarcely walk. His physicians would not allow him to be in bed, and he slept in a very peculiar position, usually kneeling,with his head resting on a chair. It is said he would sleep as well in this apparently unoomfortable position as any one in a bed of down. He disregarded his physicians’ advice, however, and went to bed as any other person, and died during the night, it is thought of asphyxia. A white-haired, fine-looking old gentleman, giving his name as Maurice Morey, was arrested at Boston on Tuesday for parading the streets with a placard on a pole bearing the following: “None®—The Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a court of oonspirators and perverted judges conspiring against the life, liberty and property of the people. Judge Gray and his associates are a body of oonspirators, their reports are forgeries, and the State is the most supreme despotism that ever ruled over free people. “Macbtce Mobey.” It appears that Morey was sent to prison in 1878 on a charge of incest. He has just finished his term of sentence, and has always maintained his innocence. When released he secured testimony that he felt would vindicate him, but was told that he oould not present it except in defense. He then took this method to be arrested in order to. gain his point. A ghost which had annoyed the good people of Broad Greek Neck, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, finally brought matters to a climax by so frightening a young man who was walking on a lonely road with the girl of his choice that he fled ingloriously, leaving his beloved in a dead faint. He aroused the town, however, and a nnmber of citizens, including a courageous and practical man by the name of Jones,repaired to the spot Mr. Jones had taken the precaution to carry his gun, and when, on peering through the bushes, he saw a white .object and heard an uncanny sound, he fired, with the remark: “I think -I have laid that ghost; if any of you choose you can go into the thicket and look him up.” No one chose, but from that day to this no ghost has haunted Broad Creek Neck. A week ago however, Mr. Jones was brought into court by his neighbor, Mr. Hambelton, and compelled to pay for the full value of a hog whose dead body had been found in the bushes at the spot where the ghost was laid. A Commendable effort is being made «o preserve the view oi Niagaia Falls and prevent its being turned into sites for mills. The New York Tribune says: A plan to arrest the impending ruin of this priceless posession has been reported by a commission appointed for that purpose by the state. It is practicable. It is not expensive. It simply provides that the state shall acquire a title to a strip of land between the ciyst of the natun l ter-

race and the river bank. This strip is about MJOfeet wide along the rapids and broadens out at the falls to a more spacious area for the accommodation of viators. The space is not to be tracked out with the finery of so-called decorative gardening. No attempt is to be made to present nature in full dress. But the growth of native trees and swinging rines and rice underwood is to be restored so that all the elements of the original Niagara shall again group themselves in one harmonious picture and every dis tracting object be shut away from sight. If this well considered and simple plan aati be carried out, none of the grace or grandeur of this Unique spectacle will be sacrificed and Niagara will continue to piftkft its solemn and consistent appeal to the nobler nature of all beholders. Washington Tebbitoby is regarded as having the brightest prospects of any of the sparsely settled territories of the West and Northwest, and this for the reason that Puget Sound, situated within its boundaries, is one of the finest harbors in the world. Hopeful people, especially railroad men, express the opinion that somewhere along the shores of Puget Sound, a city will grow up within a few decades that will eclipse San Francisco, and rival Chicago and New York. Puget Sound is large enough and deep enough to float the ships of the world, and there is no ship so large that it could not easily float at any point where the future metropolis is likely to be located. Whether t.hiw future metropolis will be one of the towns already in existence, or whether it is yet to be located, is a question which greatly interests those who are now settled along the Sound, or who have interests there. Seattle is by many looked upon as the city, and it is said that the Union Pacific Railroad is extending its liTiAfl to that point in expectation that it will be. This city now has a population of 6,000, and is in all respects a full grown city, possessing among other features three daily papers. The Northern Pacifio Railroad is expected to extend its line to Seattle, and when that is done, it Is said a saving of five days can be made in the transportation of freight from China and Japan, over shipment by way of San I'randsoo, an inducement which it is claimed will of itself be sufficient to cause the transfer of the receiving port far Asiatic commerce (rom San Francisco to Seattle The future metropolis, whatever it may be, will also be an extensive shipping as well as receiving port, The finest timber in the United States is now found in Washington Territory, and a very large portion of it in the vicinity of Puget Sound. The mills already running turn out about a million feet of lumber daily, and the demand- will greatly increase after the completion of railroads to cities on the Sound. Much of the lumber now sawed is exported, and the trade is certain to increase largely in the future. While the fir forests of Puget Sound are by no means inexhaustible, they possess advantages over the same variety in other parts of the country, being capable of perpetuating itself. Instead of being followed by growths of deciduous trees, the young firs spring up where the timber has been cleared away, forming dense tliiokets, which in twenty years will grow trees from twelve to fourteen inches in diameter.'

A bill introduced in the House is to require county auditors to give bonds in the sum of $20,000. The present bond is only $2,000. The House has unanimously passed the bill appropriating $62,000 to complete. the women’s department of the insane hospital. Representative Shively has introduced a bill ranking it a misdemeanor for any person to vote or attempt to vote while intoxicated. A proposition is pending in the House to restrict the income of County Treasurers to SBOO per year—a uniform rate of payment throughout the State. Senator Graham has introduced a bill for the care of abandoned children, providing that where a father abandonee a a child for one year its mother shall have charge of it, if a boy until he is twentyone years old, and if $ girl until eighteen. Senator Willard tackled the railroads Thursday, by introducing a bill providing that they shall be liable for all damages sustained by their employes, even though they may be the result of the carelessness and negligence of other employes. The Warden of the Southern Prison asks the Legislature for baok pay to the extent of $1,200 for each of the Deputy Wardens, their salary having been only SBOO a year since 1879. The extra allowance askec|lfcr UPS|t.the rate of S2OO per year from 1880 to-188^ Representative McCormick has introduced u bill to restrict the t-rm for which a warden of either of the State Prisons can be elected to four and renders the ofßoialfl ineligible for re-election. He frViinkfl that the pqjpetuaripn of a prison % . t t

warden in office an evil, and seeks to remedy it. Senator Bell, Tuesday, introduced a bill, which, if enacted, will do away- with "graveyard” insurance and similar infamous operations. It makes it a felony for any person to insure or solicit insurance on the life of another person, punishable by a fine of not less than SSOO and imprisonment for not lees than two nor more than five years. Senator Foulke, Tuesday, introduced a bill providing that where a person or property was injured by reason of the intoxication of any person, the seller of the liquor which produced the intoxication, and the owner of the building in which the drinks were sold, shall be jointly and severally liable for the damage incurred. Mr. Foulke also introduced a bill authorizing county commissioners to erect separate jails for women. The commission appointed in the Sen ate to consider and report on the expediency of re-apportinoing the school fund was asked for by Senator Foulke, because the officials of Wayne county assert they cannot loan the money at the rate required by law, 8 per oent. Under the aor making the apportionment every county is charged wi*h the iutereet on the amount of fund given to it whether loaned or not «tnd of oourse, if it is not loaned the taxpayers must pay the deficit It is broadly intimated that in some counties, thd custodians of public funds do not lose any sleep in their efforts to place the school fund among borrowers, as while it remains in their custody it is good for four per emit per annum from the banks in which it is deposited. Senator Hoover, Tuesday, introduced a bill concerning the “good time” to be allotted oonvicta in the State prisons, in following plan: For the first year of servitude, the Convict if well behaved, is to be credited with one month; for the second year two mnnths; for the third year three months; for the fourth year four months, and for all sentences of from five to twenty-one jears the “good time” shall be five months for each year. Provisions are made for deductions from the good time for infringement of the rules, and the exercise of this deducting power shall be in the hands of the warden under cerain restrictions. This bill has been indorsed by the prison authorities of the State, and while it is quite liberal in its provisions, it is not so pronouncedly so as the laws of Michigan, and Ohio. Senate bill No. 247, introduced by Mr. Campbell yesterday, provides for the more profitable and equitable hiring by the State of the convicts in the State prisons and to prevent contractors from getting a monopoly of the oontract labor. It provides that proposed contracts shall be abvertised by the directors for ten days in two of the leading daily papers of Indianapolis, Chicago and Cincinnati, and by such other means as directors deem profitable. It also provides that when the exclusive right to manufacture any article is given, any subsequent addition of convicts by new contracts shall not extend beyond the expiration of the first pending contract, and that new contracts shall take effect at the expiration of the old contract, and shall be made sixty days before expiration of the old agreement. , The House Committee on prisons have returned from their inspection visit to the Southern Prison. They have not made their report, nor will not Until after inspection of the North Prison. But from a member of the Committee we are privileged to guess very nearly at some facts the Committee propose including in their recommendations: The capacity is entirely inadequate for the number of convicts incarcerated, and the buildings are old and many parts of them rotten and dilapidated. The walls of some of the wooden buildings are almost ready to give away. There are about 600 inmates, and, as is usual, complaint is made by them of their treatment. Some of the modes of punishment are severely criticised by the “members” as inhuman and ought to be abolished. The insane convicts are kept in wet, dark and dingy cells, “hell-holes as the member expressed - it, about 4ft wide by Bft in length. The mode of management too, while probably the opinion may come i 'nn a prejudiced source, is not entirely complimentary to the present warden. But the Committee if this should not be satisfactory, yill more than likely ask for an improvement.