Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1883 — Page 3

WF fir 1 ’ • >-• '"T*™ dreams. ■ A dream flaw out of the ivory gate . And came to me when night was late. My lore drew near .with the proud aad eyes And the fathomless look of soft surprise. I sleep in peace through the ew mTn er night As I dreamed of her eyes and their depth of light. A dream came out from the gate of horn And flew to me at early morn. I ran to the stable and saddled my steed. We rushed through the dawn at a headlong ■Peed, Wheel reached my love the sun shone bright, And I found her dead in the morning light, —Temple Bar,

CATCHING A SHARK.

How a 1,6000-Pounder Wm Landed—Following the Ship for Nearly a Week, From the American Angler. In the summer of 1882, being then 'twenty-eight years of age, strong healthy, and full of hope, I found myself, in company with 183 other adventurous spirits, a passenger on the good ship Revenue Captain Seth Crowell, of Cape Cod, master,.from New York, bound for Australia. Our passengers were a splendid lot of fellows, hailing mostly from Upper Canada, Quebec and Nova Scotia, with some •four or five from New York and Brooklyn. With the exception of two benedicts who had their families with them, every man of us was under thirty years of age Even our captain as fine a specimen of an American sailor as ever trod a deck, had 'not reached his third decade. We sailed east around the Cape of Good Hope; and when I say that our passage -extended to ten days without a sight of land, except the Island of St. Paul, seen at a distance, you may form some idea of the shifts and expedients we ware put to in order to pass the time, and the “fun and the deviltry and • diversion” thence arising. We exhausted every kill-time device known to weary and impatient marines. We read every scrap of printed paper to be found so many times over that we were all crammed with literature to the lips. We told stories, played euchre, whist, cribbage, old sledge, and every other game known to Hoyle; got up concerts and glee clubs; pitched quoits, with ropes instead of iron; indulged in private theatricals: shot at floating marks caught dolphins, porpoises, flying-fish, gulls, albatross, and Mother Carey’s -chickens; worked up the position and progress of the ship each day, and carried on a daily paper until it died out of want of mental pabulum; and then, with the distant gold fields still far beyond our ■eager and expectant gaze, we sighed for new delights. One day we found ourselves becalmed in the Indian ocean, south latitude 23 degrees, east longitude 80 degrees, within the tropic of Capricorn, between the island of Madagascar and the Australian coast. For nearly a week a monstrous shark, with his two attendant pilot fish, had been following us, much to the annoyance of the old salts, whose superstitious fears pointed > some ill co While the ship one day lay languidly heaving upon the slight swell of the calm, but ever-reetless ocean, the old man-eater displayed his huge bulk close to the port side, and there remained, evidently waiting for the usual contents of the cook’s garbage bucket we had never yet caught a shark, and I asked the captain’s permission to take this fellow, it was readily granted, and we proceeded at once to business. Borrowing a shark hook, bent upon about two feet of chain, from the first mate, we tied a strong line to the chain, put upon the hook .a chunk of pork, and threw it overboard. After a moment’s inspection the monster slewed lazily over on his side and took the bate. Two of us had hold of the line, and by a strong jerk we fastened him securly. Then we got a whale harpoon and drove it well into his shoulder. Next we took a stout rope, made a running bowline at one end passed the loop over and around the hook and harpoon lines, pulled the shark’s head a little out of water, and jammed the bowline firmly about him behind the first fin. Then we ran the rope through a block at the end of the main yard; fifty willing hands seized it and ran aft, and his sharkship was speedily on board. All this time, to the utter confusion of my preconceived ideas, the fish made no resistance whatever, but so soon as he reached the deck there was the mischief to pay. He flopped und jumped and plunged about in a terrific manner, opening and closing his fearful jaws in a vicious and highly suggestive style. There was on board a spaniel dog, which, on seeing the unusual commotion, ran up to the prize, barking furiously. He was just in time to receive a violent blow from the tail of the fish, which sent him heels over head clean across the deck, where he brought up howling against the bulwarks. The owner of the dog, a little . French Canadian, now seized a handspike and dealt the savage monster several heavy blows near the tail, and afterwards Chopped that powerful member off, This put a stop to his acrobatic feats and he lay as quiet as a log. It was ' Jarq r s xwitnen of tbe great

blue or white shark. He measured a trifle over fourteen feet in length; greatest girth, seven and a half feet; supposed weight, 1,500 or IfiOO pounds. Great curiosity was manifested by all hands as to the contents of his stomach, and upon opening this we found—oh horrors!—the leg of a sailor——’s overalls, and not a thing beside! I got as my own share the dressed backbone of the creature, which I used as d walking stick and afterward sold to a squatter in the interior for £2. We found the strong, musty smell ao offensive that we speedily threw the carcass overboard, when it was quite pitiful to see the bereaved pilot-fish swimming about it in a dazed and wondering manner. These looked very much like striped bass, and seemed to be about six or eight pounds in weight They followed the remains of their deceased patron down into the depths and finally disappeared.

Some Liars.

THE FISH LIAR Ranks first on the list He goes fishing about once in five years, and spends the rest of the time in lying about what occurred. He caught a bass weighing fourteen pounds, but the hook broke and let him escape. He had a bite from a pickerel four feet long, but he stubbed his toe and couldn’t pull up at the proper moment He began fishing with minnows for bait, but the fish bit so greedily that he finally tied a horn button to the hook and pulled ’em out as fast as he could drop the line. He caught an even tubful, but while he was eating the wharf gave away and let the tub and fish into the water. The fish liar can be fonnd •sitting on the counter at the grocery of an evening, all wound up and ready to begin business, and nothing lets the sunshine into hie life so quick as to get hold of some one who will gasp out occasionally, “My stars! but is that possible?'’ THE HORSE LIAR. Stands second on the list He ie a man who has had a horse which could go in 2:20. He hasn’t sot him now, but that doesn’t make any difference. He has driven that horse in a race with - an express train, and taken first money. And he also had a running horse which once made a dash of twenty-five miles on a bet of $5,000. He hasn’t the horse or the money at the present time, but he can give you the names of a dozen leading bank Presidents and Chief Justices who saw that dash. The horse liar doesn’t stop at lying about his own horses, but he is ready to put in his best licks on horses he never saw. He is in the confidence of the owners of all the celebrated equines. In his opinion such a track is short and such a track is long. He doesn’t believe that Barns was ever much of a horse, and he feels that he could drive Goldsmith Maid three seconds faster than she ever recorded. He is the identical man who first saw speed in Flora Temple,and if he had wanted to be mean about it he could have bought her for $lO and an old plow and made $5,000 out of the trade. He knows all about spavins, ring-bones,poll-evil, pink-eye and glanders, and he has a sure cure for each one. His seat is on the head of the second cracker barrel from the stove each evening through the winter, and when he can 'oonie across some one who has invested sls and a cross-cut saw in an old plug of a horse to use in a cider-mill he is in his glory. He knows all about that horse; been an awful good stepper; saw him run away once and killed two women; Rarey tried to tame him but had to give it up; reckon he could go out now and give most of the boys the dust. And so on until the grocer rubs his sleepy eyes, and regretfully says: “Gome, you liars; it’s time to look up and him!”

Religious Notes.

There are 1,000,000 Moslems in Syria and Palestine. Mr. Spurgeon has received 91,600 as royalty on the sale in America of “The Treasury of David.” To Jan. 15 the Wesleyan Thanksgiving fund amounted to: subscribed. 91.518 975; of this amount 91,442,905 had been paid. After holding the pastorate of the First Congregational Church at Hadley, Mass, for thirty-five years, the Rev. Dr. Rowland Ayres has resigned. The Rev. F. F. Emerson has resigned the pastorate of the First Congregational Church Amherst to accept a call from the United Congregational Church of Newport. The New Hebrides are being slowly won from the savage heathenism by the Presbyterian missionaries. A new station has just been established on the Island of Spi, which has about 10,000 inhabitants. The Rev. George Allen, of Worcester, Mass., celebrates *his ninety-first birthday on Thursday. He is said to be the oldest man in Worcester, the oldest clergyman in the State, and the oldest survivor of the Tale class of 1818. The Rev. Mr. Kalloch,of Ban Francisco, rented his Metropolitan Baptist Temple to Messrs. Mace and Slade for an evening •xhiWtion the exercises were preceded

by nacrod music. Perhaps that end ot the country 'is free, after all. ■ noMli ■ Prof. Hirman F. Reed, of Philadelphia, says the Bible is the most dram atto honk m the world, uot even excepting Shakespeare’s plays, and argues that the same care and art required in reading Shakespeare should be applied to the reading of the Bible. The Indian Witness says that a recent procession of the Salvation Army in Lahore was a mile long, and the crowd, either in the procession or on its flanks, was estimated at from 15,000 to 20,000 persons. The only persons who misbehaved were Europeans. Bishop Doane, of Albany, has made a plan to build a grand cathedral in the city and he has collected $44,000 with which to begin the work. The site has been selected and the ground hks been paid for. The cathedral is to seat 2,000 people, and will have cost when completed about $300,000.

The Grand Duke’s Tallow Candle.

London Telegraph. Among many amusing anecdotes of the Russian Imperial family related in the late Karl Bender's Memoirs, is the following highly characteristic story of the eccentric Grand' Duke Constantine, Ozar Alexander’s eldest uncle: While residing at Warsaw, Constantine gave a splendid banquet to a number of the great Polish nobles, to each of whom, at the conclusion of the feast, an ordinary tallow candle was served on a plate by the attendant lacqueys. As soon as all his guests were supplied with these peculiarly appetizing objects, the Grand Duke, who had given orders that an imitation candle, admirably executed in marchpane, should be placed upon his plate, rose from the seat and exclaimed: “Gentlemen, let us eat, to the honor of Russia, the favorite national comestible of my country. Look at me.. This is the way to do it.’’ So saying, he threw back his head, opened his mouth’ wide, and inserted herein two inches or so of the dainty in question. As he closed his teeth, however, the expression of his countenance suffered an extraordinary change. One of the noblemen, sitting in his immediate vicinity, had contrived to substitute his own genuine tallow candle for the marchpane ' imitation set before the Grand Duke, who, not choosing to betray himsal I to his guests, found himself condemned to chew at least one copi ms mouthful of good Russian tallow as an example to all the victims of the detestable jest, none of whom, of course, dared to abstain from doing as the terrible Constantine did. It is needless to say that dexterous appropriator of the marchpane candle, while devouring that toothsome article with a joyful heart, baffled suspisicion by the most hideous visual contortions expressive of loathing and nausea.

General Gresham.

Wasihngton Special Cin. Enquirer. Judge Walter QGresham took the oath of office, and at once assumed the duties thereof. He was presented to the heads of’the several divisions, and subsequently received many callers. Judge Gresham made a decided impression upon his subordinates in the office, and will, no doubt, be Postmaster-General in fact as well as in name. The oath of office was administered by Judge Lawrenson, who has sworn in the last twenty postmasters, beginning with Cave Johnson in 1845. He has alsoeerved under twenty-seven heads of the department. Judge Lawrenson related an incident of the administration of James Monroe, told him by Mr. Joseph Burrows, of this city. “One morning Postmaster-General Meigs called me,and,handing me a letter, said: ‘Mr. Burrows, please take this letter up to the President; it is my resignation.’ I was greatly surprised at this,but proceeded on his errand. At the White House I found President Monroe in a pleasant mood,and handed him the letter. The President read it, and then said: ‘Mr. Burrows, please return this letter to the Postmaster-general with my compliments and tell him when I want his resignation I will send for it.’ I then returned with the message?’

Indiana Crops.

The Indiana Farmer, in view of the failure of the Bureau of Statistics or State Board of AgricuVure, has collated information from every county in Indiana relative to the condition of the crops during the month of March. It makes ;the following average: Per rent. Wheat, acres 100 “ condition - 78 Bye, condition ....... 85 Barley* rendition.., 81 Clover, condition 91 Timothy, condition, , 95 Honea, condition , 100 Cattle, condition .. 99 Sheep, condition.... . 97 Hogs, condition ; 98 Peach buds alive M Apple buds a1xv0........«•»••••.... .m...... 88 Wheat in producers’ hands 17 Wages of farm hands per month sl7 The large flouring mill of Dye A McKinsey, at Colfax, was burned to the ground last Tuesday night, involving a loss of SIO,OOO. Insurance for half its vslue.

GENERAL MISCELLANY.

Johnß. Gough estimates that he has lectured before 8,500,000 people. Walking from his home to the London docks, an aggregate of miles* man has collected 600,000 cigar ends in seven years. , 4 . ./t-X The widow of the late Captain DeLong of arctic fame, is 28 years old, petite, has light brown hair, hazel eyes, and i»a very pretty woman. The 333 d anniversary of the founding of the city of Bata Fe, N. M., will be celebrated in July next Santa Fe is the oldest An-erioan town in existence. A Russian Princess at a recent ball given in Nice wore a drees made entirely of peacock’s feathers. Heads of the birds, with eyes made of garnets, were used in the looping. The orator remarked: “What has this country to expect after the Forty-seventh Congress?” and a hoarse whisper from the gallery responded, “The forty-eighth.” A New Hampshire wildcat sprang from a tree at a boy and landed in a kettle of bailing sap. The boyeays the way that cat looked back at him aa she started off almost melted his heart. While overwork was the main cause of Secretary Folger’s illness, no doubt the defective ventilation of the Treasury building had something to do with it. The air in the long corridors is said to be offensive and poisonous. Ventilation is a matter of first importance in the construction of public buildings and yet, curiously, it is the thing that in nine cases out of ten receives the least attention. Of the 260,000 Indians in the United States, about 160,000 in the West, Northwest and Southwest require more or less military surveillance. One-fourth of them —or 50,000 in round numbers—are adults capable of bearing arms, but there are seldom more than from 100 to 1,000 Indians on the war-path. Yet we have on the border a force of 17,500 men -for purposes of repression and suppression. Prominent public men of France have lately expressed the opinion that the French Government is in no danger from Oricanists, Legitimists or Anarchists. Affairs are rnnning smoothly, despite the efforts of a small set of malcontents to put obstructions in the way and smash the Republic. Reports lately eent out from Paris about the designs and the doing of Communists seem to have been largely sensational.

How Good Country Roads Pay.

Amerioau Agriculturist. Very few persons take a correct view of the actual profit to farmers of good roads, or of how much they can afford to pay for them. Our daily telegrams from the W est supply one bint. All along in Autumn, and not unfrequently during the Winter, we can read between the lines of these dispatches that business is brisk, the markets active, everybody cheerful and hopeful in all departments of trade, manufactures, agriculture, etc., or the reverse of all this, according to the state of the country roadg generally. It is a fact that in some years, for months together, the whole traffic of the country, and the activity and prosperity of all classes, are largely diminished, and the losses incurred amount to very many millions of doh lars, because the condition of the roads stops general intercourse, and practically prevents the marketing of grain and other crops at the proper season. Another view. Take, for illustration say the 700,000 farms in Illinois, lowa and Indiana. Suppose that, on the average, frem one-half of them thare are ten Iqads of grain and other products to be hauled to a market, and of fuel to be brought back, a distance of ten miles on the average—we include only half the farms. Call the cost per load only $2 for man, team and wear of vehicles, when the wagoning is good. If the prairie and other roads are soft, wet and miry, only half a load can be taken—often the team can barely draw the empty wagon. If from the condition of the roads the number of loads must be aggregate increased cost amounts to $7,000,000 —or enough to make fourteen thousand miles of good roads at an outlay of SSOO on each mile.

’Another illustration. Take a township of the regular size, six miles square. A road along each section, or square mile, east and west, or north or south, Would require 36 miles. Suppose the town voted to expend 9200 per mile on these roads, and that this sum would make them fairly available at all seasons. This, if paid down, would amount to 97,200, dr 81J4 cents per acre for the township. Will anyone question that with good roads, available at all seasons for marketing and bringing home fuel, for town and church going and other travel, all the land in the region would be worth at least 91 more on the acre, or three tunerthe assessment? On a farm of 100 acres, the tax would be 98125—n0t a third of the cost of an extra horse, to say nothing of his keeping. In fact, would It not pay well to expend96oo per mile on all the leading roads,amounting to 91 per acre? The interest on this would be tut 96 or 87 per annum for

each 100 acres, and who would not pay that to have good roads always?

Scheme of Creation.

Every being exists not only for himself, but form* necessarily a portion of a great whole, of which the plan and the idea go infinitely beyond it, and in which it is destined to play a part. It in thus that inorganic nature exists not only for itself but to serve as a basis for the life of the plant and the animal; and in their service it performs functions of a kind greatly superior to those assigned to it by the laws which are purely physical andehemieal. In the same manner all nature, our globe, admirable as is its arrangement, is not the final end of creation; but it iajfoe condition of the existence of man. It serves as an instrument by which his education is accomplished, and performs in his service functions more exalted and more noble than its own nature, and for which it was made. It is, then, the superior being that solicits, so to speak, the creation of the inferior being, and associates it to his own functions; and it ie correct to say that inorganic nature is made for organised nature, and the whole globe for man, as both are made for God, the origin and end of all things.

A Man Who Never Drinks Water.

Crittenden (Ky.) Press, A gentleman of this town having recently made a trip through Webster county tells us of a man he met who has never taken a drink of water, though now thirty-five years of age. Hie name is Thos. Lawton, and he is a kinsman of Mr. W. 0. Carnahan, of this place, and Mr. Carnahan youohes for the truth of the statement that he never drank water. Mr Lawton says he has no detire whatever for the purest beverage know to creation; either has he any inclination to partake of it in any of the adulterated forms. He has had i aging fevers and shaking chills, but nothing in his oomppsition calls for a drink. He drinks milk for its nourishing virtues, and coffee as a preventive tor painter’s colic, for he is a painter by trade. He once drank some mineral water, taking it as a tonic, but the fluid was so repugnant to tyis taste that he did not remain long 1 at -she springs. His diet consists chiefly of fruits and vegetables; meat he never eats. He has a sister who drinks but little water.

Swinburne Mistaken for an Idiot

Chicago Tribune. Wilde told an interesting story of Swinburne. He is a famous swimmer, and delights in the water as Byron did. One morning he went bathing at the Isle of Man, where he stopped at the swam directly to the east, the glorious sun in his face. After swimming an hour he suddenly came to his senses,and found himself very tired and nearly out of sight of the island. He turned about and was almost in despair of reaching land, when a fishing smack was hauled to, and he was pulled aboard, breathing hard. He jumped up on the prow, swung his arms to keep the blood in circulation, and broke out into a declamatory recitation of the “Ajax” of Sophocles, in the original Greek. As the fishermen turned landward with their naked passenger he hurled the tragedy at them with all his force of elocution and gesticulation. They stared at him and were awe-struck. When they had gained the pier the master of the boat recovered voice, shouting to those on shore, “Here we come agin, and we’ve fetched a jibberin' idjit for yous

“Say, Queen, Give Me a Bun.”

Lady Mandeville, arevery one knows, was the beautiful Miss Yznaga, who created a sensation in London and other foreign cities as the famous American beaqty. She has two twin girls who 'are pa much alike as Girofle and Girofla, and have to wear different colored ribbons in order that they may be distinguished apart. On one occasion, the Queen desiring to see Lord Mandeville’s twins, arianged that they should be brought to Windsor Castle. The children were, told to be very respectful, to bow low, and kiss the Queen’s hand, and were thought to be proficient in their lesson. But the little lassies were not awed by the presence of royalty—what four-year old is?— and as they were presented one rnshed to tbe Queen, put her arms around her neck and gave her a hearty hug and a kiss. The story goes that the child stood beside Queen Victoria, and, pulling at her dress, said: “Say, Queen, won’t you give me a bun?” Victoria was delighted and enjoyed the acene more than those who had spent their time in training the little minxes. .

The Iron Horse in Africa.

The first locomotive has just appeared at Senegambia, where the first mile and a half of a French railway between Senegal and the Niger, was opened in December. \ It is reported that important documents have been found implicating members of Parliament in the dynamite explosions. Threats of destroying the public buildings have been renewed, and England with other parts of Europe is in a turmoil.