Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 April 1883 — Digging His Own Grave. [ARTICLE]

Digging His Own Grave.

Herman Hllden, the Milwaukee boy who shot hie step father dead and tried to kill his mother, was acquitted. The jury found that he was crazy when he committed the murder, but that he is sane enough now. There is altogether too much of that kind of insanity going on. A hungry little girl was begging in Dee Moines. A man dropped a five-cent piece into her hand. A tramp came along, told the child he had eaten nothing for a Week, and SO impressed her with his greater distress that she forgot her own, and gave him the coin. Then he went to the nearest groggery and bought a glass of whisky. The climax of the story is a tremendous whipping given to the tramp by the original donor of the nickel. Indiana comes to the front as the producer of more wheat to the square mile than any other State. The big figures ' for the big wheat States are as follows: Bosh, of Square Bush, to wheat miles. sq. ml. Indiana 45,4*1,800 85,810 1,205 Ohio 45,453,600 40,790 1,115 Illinois 52,302,900 56 0(0 933 Minnesota 37,030,500 79,025 368 California 34,566,6(0 165,183 22 The coal indusiries of the United States now represent an annnual production of about 80,000,000 tons. About *hree-fifths of this is anthracite and five-eights bituminous. A very small quahtity of anthracite comes from Rhode Island; otherwise it is found exclusively in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania also produces enough of the bitaminous product to entitle her to the reputation of furnishing threefifths of all the coal used in this country. Ohio follows next with 9,000,000 tons oi so. Illinois ranks third and Maryland fourth. When the southern and eastern parts of Ohio are honeycombed with railroads, a state of things which is fast being brought about, the showing of the Buckeye State will be even better.

Outside of Maine it is probable that no prohibitory amendments will pass the State Legislatures this year. The general drift of legislation on the temperance question appears to be towards high license laws. Such restrictions on the liquor traffic, find much favor in Ohio; Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and Missouri. The latter State has, in fact, passed a law imposing a heavy tax upon the sale of intoxicants, and it has been signed by the Governor. A similar measure would have gone through the Illinois Legislature had not its opponents delayed it. It has now passed to a first reading. As prohibition has failed in so many cases, the publib will watch with much interest this latest effort tcf' deal with a troublesome question.—N. Y Tribune. ' London recently took down her Hyde Park statue to Wellington and found that the interior of the marble arch on which it Btood was absolutely honey - oomed with makeshift apartments, which were occupied by a colony consisting of nearly twenty persons, including the janitor ana his family, half a dozen police constables, and a medical student. This calls to the memory of the London Telegraph the fact that when the old palaoe a Somerset House was pulled down to make room for a new pile of Government offices it was found that a prolific colony of beggars and oripples had for many years been tranquilly |<juatting in tue apartments formerly tenanted by the maids of honor; that a gang of coiners plied their trade in one of the kitohens; and that the oellars dose to the river had long been utilized as a storehouse for stolen goods by a confederacy of longshoremen.

Thb White House undergoes a good many interesting changes in the matter of guests—that is, of private guests. The parsons have always had free tickets to the White House tables, but the character of the other guests has changed frequently according to the tastes of the occupants. Now the parsons seem to be supplante > as regular diners by the actors. The President acknowledges the influence of the ohurch by keeping a whitechoker person somewhere about the premises, but the praotioe of keeping vacant chairs at the table for stray parsons —a practice which was pretty well observed in Grant’s time, and which was a a regular thing under Hayes—has been abandoned. Instead of denominational suppers we have suppers with Charles Wyndham and his pretty actresses. We came near to a supper with Patti, and Rhea expresses her delight at White House honors. The fact seems to be that the handsome President has an eye for pretty girls who have had boarding sohool sentiment taken out of them on the stage —roticking beauties who can be ohucked under the chin without expecting a marriage proposition in oonsequence. He is the first President to reoognize dramatic

talent if we except Lincoln’s unhappy experience with Falstaff Haokett—Milwaukee Sentinel. Thebe seems to be somethin jin the air and life of Germany extraordinarily favorable to the digestion. Bismarck has thriven on mixtures of champagne and porter, washing down meals at the description of which the American trembles, but he does no more than the other most famous ruler of his country,Frederick the Great Here is what Dr. Zimmermann saw him devour when a septuagenarian invalid. “A very large quantity of sonp, of the strongest and most highly spiced ingredients, yet, spiced as it already was, he added to each plate of it a large spoonful of powdered ginger ani mace; then a good piece of boeuf a la Russe-beef steeped in half a pint of brandy. Next he took a great quantity of an Italian dish, half Indian corn, half Parmesan cheese; to this the juice of garlic is added, and the whole is baked in butter until there arises a hard rind as thick as a finger. This, one of the King's most darling dishes, is called Polenta. At last, the King having expressed his satisfaction at the excellent appetite which the dandelion gave him, closed the soene with a whole plateful of eel pie, so hot and fiery it seemed as if it had been baked in hell! At other times he would eat a large quantity of ohilling and unwholesome fruits, especially melons, and then again a Vast number of sweetmeats.” It was not many years since Russia was regarded as the granary of Europe, but of late years the United States and India have to a great extent become the sources of supplies. This has resulted in the change in the cultivation of the soil by which freed labor was substituted for that of serfs, but owing to a number of circumstances of which the usurer and the land laws play an important part the new method is less efficient than the old; and. second,from a change in the manner of marketing the grain. Formerly Russia wheat was held in very high estimation, and at the different markets quantities of wheat whose excellence was guaranteed by a knowledge of its source could always be had. Now, as a rule, cultivators are in financial (traits, and mortgage their crops 4° speculators, who do not hesitate to mix a high grade with a low grade and export it as all high grade; wheat. These dishonest methods have become so general as seriously to affect the foreign demand for Russian cereals, and a system of government inspection is proposed as an extreme remedy for the sitnasion. Were as effective a system of grai n inspection as exists in this country adodted we may well fear the results of Russian oompetdtian; and if our export of cereal products is diminished how can we hope to maintain the favorable “balance?” "

Pains have been taken in Philadelphia to ascertain what proportion of the young men who are learning trades are native Americans. The result shows that in but two of the trades do American apprentices predominate—in the machine shops and printing offices. In nearly all the trades the German apprentices were found to be much in the preponderance. They are learning to be weavers, or turners, or furnituremakers just as their ancestors have done before them for generations back in the Fatherland. But while the foreign-bom apprentices are deserving of the hearty commendation they are receiving for their willingness to learn trades, and to acquire by slow stages and persistent endeavors a comfortable home, there is a word that should be said for the boys who have been bom on this side and taught by word and example that great opportunities await them. The two trades which the American-born boys in Philadelphia seek to learn in numbers greater than can be accommodated are not of the dilletante order, but quite the reverse. Why are they chosen? Because they are trades that offer scope for a higher order of intelligence than is found in a tannery or a tinshop, or in the making of clothing or shoes. The printer or machinist may not receive any higher wages than the tanner, but they live in a larger world. It is the American boy,it appears, who disoems this fact, and writers who do not see in this discernment something for praise are lacking in the brightness which is his characteristic.

Fayetteville, N. 0., special: This quiet little town, the scene last week of bo much excitement on the occasion of Senator David Da\is’ nuptials, to-day had a sensation of another kind. John Tvler, an old grave-digger, was this morning engaged in his gloomy work. He hod reached the depth of over seven feet, and it is supposed was stooping down when the side of the exoavationcaved in aod fell on him, and, being old and feeble, it is supposed he must have been unable t • move after falling on his face. The earth and rocks covered him +o a depth of three feet When he was discovered life had been extinct for some hours. He had dug his own grave and buried himself. I