Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 March 1883 — A NEW SCHOOL LAW. [ARTICLE]

A NEW SCHOOL LAW.

It is pleaant to note that Jupiter has got over hiwiolent troubles and is cooling off. Tn red spot on his face—so the aetaronomereay—has entirely disappeared, and no trther danger from the internal fever thl produced the phenomenon is apprehenoj. This red spot was upward of 30,0flmiles long by 6,000 or 8,000 miles wide. An Americk resident in the City of Mexico says L has known of but one fire in that city dring the past three years where the danage amounted to as much as §3OO. is that the houses are virtually fie proof, being built of massive masony, with stone stairways, and roof and fljor of brick and cement, Herein there is I valuable lesson for the people of this g|>rious Republic. It is believed jhat the tenant farmer in England is dooned. Many of the farm owners are now personally superintending the cultivat in of their land,* employtog laborers to < a the work, and the results are quiw satisfactory. With the tenant class eliminated, the farm laborer becomes a mom important person, and his condition will improve. The necessity of emigration will bring the tenant farmers to America where they will better their condition

Investigation shows that in Utah the Mormon Church has about 120,000 members; in the Western States ard Territories about 80,000, and in the Sandwich Islands about 7,000. It has about ninety churches in Great Britain, and the denomination is one of the largest in the southern part Wales. They have also churches in many of the countries of Europe, in Turkey, Palestine, India and Australia. The Book of Mormon has been translated into a score of tongues. There are over 400 missionaries in foreign lands. In spite of anti-polygamy laws and frequent fulminations from executive authorities in this country and in other lands, it appears that Mormonism is still a vigorous and lively “twin jeliG.”

Tbm merchants of Chicago are now reaping the fruit of t e gambling in wheat a year ago. It is said that the unusual dullness in trade in parts of the Northwest is due entirely to to the fact that the farmers are generally holding their grain for a higher price than is now paid, the prices of a year ago .having caused them to expect the same this year. The grain being unsold, the farmers have little money with which to buy goods, and many of them are even borrowing from country banks to carry them along until the price of grain shall go up. The country stores are selling comparatively little to their customers, and are consequently not in a position to buy largely from wholesale dealers. r lhe results of Jast year’s grain gambling ought to be a lasting lesson to the country.

Thb Chicago Tribune published in a mud road (State, iudoraed by the Memphis Avalanche, from the mud road section of Tennessee, reconamends a plan of bettering country roads, which has been tried successfully and has the merit of eheapnees: It consists simply in laying on both sides of the road, ordinary farm tiles at a depth of about four feet, which should have a slight incline and open at intervals into ditches to carry oil the drainage. The road bed between the rows of tiles could be twenty-five or thirty feet This arrangement would thoroughly drain the road bed and keep it firm and dry, except for a little while after heavy rams; in other words to quote from the Avalanche, there will then be occasional muddy roads during the rainy season, whereas now there are only occasional dry roads after a long spell. The farmers of the State spend enough time and labor in wasteful and almost useless work on the roads under the existing system to pay for this system of effective tiling in a few years. The experiment is worth the trial, and if it is succewful as has been in Memphis and elsewhers the improved road will more than pay for itself in a year.

Tn*regular biennial change in the road law of Indiana has been effected uy the recent Legislature. According to this new law the township trustee be : comas the superintendent of all the highways in his township. He is io divide his township into road districts of not less than six square miles, and to number them, commencing in the north-east corner of the t< wnship, and file a correct plat of the same within ten days with the county Auditor. The districts are subject to change in the month of January, and every two years thereafter. The supervisors are to be elected at the April election, 1884. In the meantime, the Trustee has the light to appoint them. Each supervisor is to receive $1.50 per day,and may continue working for sixty days in

each year, but no longer. When appointed or elected, supervisors must serve or pay the sum of six dollars, but no person can be compelled to sene oftener than once in six years. Owners of property have the right to work out their road tax. To do so they must make application to the Trustee, and do the work as low as the same could be done by others. For all time devoted to the highways the Trustee is to receive $2 per day, provided the same is not in excess of sixty days in each year. An emergency clause is attached, and the law will go into effect as soon as approved by the Governor.

Indiana has finally done justice to the dog, it would seem. The new dog law, which, having an emergency clause, is now in force, does away altogether with ' the system of tagging licensed dogs as heretofore. It makes it a misdemeanor to kill, maim, injure or steal a dog for which the tax has been paid to the county, but provides no means by which these privileged canines, which are now for the first time in the history of the State recognized as property, may be recognized by the less favored of that race. The main provisions of the new law are as follows: Township Assessors are to ascertain, between April 1 and June 1 of each year, the number of dogs in each townshtpubver the age of six months, and for ack of proper diligence in this respect are to be subject to a fine of $5 for each dog omitted from the list. Persons failing to list their dogs for taxation are, upon conviction, subject to a fine of SIOO for each offense. The owners of a single male dog are to pay $1 a year,s2 for each additional dog and for each female dog $2. Any person owning or harboring a dog known to have propensities for killing or maiming sheep is made subject to a fine} of SSO, and the law authorizes any one to kill mad dogs oh sight For the mischievous or wanton injury, or the stealing of a dog, which has been duly Jisted for taxation, and which is not kqojyn to be a sheep-killing dog,the punistynqp.t is fixed at a fine not exceeding S2OO, with imprisonment for not more than thirty days. The money received from the dog tax is to be kept permanently in the county Treasury and to be know as the “dog fund.” From it all dam- - ages for the killing and maiming of sheep are to be paid, and the balance, if any, to he tuition fund.

The Indiana legislature passed the bill amending section 34 of the act providing for a general system of common schools, and scetion 4,425 of the Revised Statutes of 1881. It reads as follows: “The county superintendent shall examine all applicants for license as teachers for the common schools of the State by a series of written or printed questions, requiring answers in writing, and in addition to the said questions and answers in writing, questions may be asked and answered orally, and if from the ratio of correct answers and other f vidences disclosed by the examination the applicant is found to possess a knowledge that is sufficient, in the estimation of the county superintendent, to enable said applicant successfully to teach in the common schools of the State, orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, English grammar, physiology and the history of the United States, and to govern such schools, said county superintendent shall license said applicant for the term of six months, twelve months, twenty-four months or thirty-six months, according to the ratio of correct answers, and other evidences of qualifications, given upon said examii ation, the standard of which shall be fixed by the couhty euperinten dent; and in examining persons for positions to teach in graded schools in cities and towns the county superintendent may take into consideration the special fitness of such applicant to perform the services required of them, and shall make, on the license issued to such applicant, a statement of the kind of work for which they are especially qualified; and all applicants before being licensed shall produce to the county superintendecdent the proper trustees’ certificate, or other satisfactory evidences of good moral character; provided, that a six months’ license shall be regarded as a trial license, and that no person who hereafter receives a six months’ license in any county shall be again thereafter licensed in said county unless he obtains a grade which shall entitle him to receive at least a twelve months’ provided that any poa<n now pocaeesinga twenty-four months’ license, whose next consecutive license shall be for the term of thir-ty-six months, or any person who shall hereafter receive two licenses in succession each for thirtysix months, may receive, at the expiration of such several licenses, a license for the term of eight years, upon such an examination held by the county superintendent as may be presented by the State Board of Education,and such license shall stand only upon the approval of the State Board of Education, and shall be styled a professional license, and shall entitle the holder to , teach in any of the schools of the State.*’ There is no emergency clause to the bill