Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1883 — OUR MENAGERIE. [ARTICLE]

OUR MENAGERIE.

Newman (Ga) Herald: Mr. John B. Goodwyn brought to our office some black duckBggs. Careless of George Washington’s hatchet-lesson, he asserts that his ducks have been in the habit of laying colored eggs for several years; some of them are black, some drab and some pale blue. The ducks have not yet attained to perfection in the coloring art, as the colors are easily rubbed’ off. In Paducah, Ky., the other day, two sparrows got into a fight and tried to drown each other in a stream flowing down a street gutter. After a long and desperate struggle one got the other’s head under and kept it there until life was extinct A large number of birds gathered around the victor and chattered to it as it sat on a limb rearranging its toilet The fight was witnessed by more than one hundred people. We have in Cartersville. Ga. (rays a correspondent), a cow who lost her calf some months since, and it seems that she does not like the idea of being childless, consequently she has, unfortunately for her owner, taken under her wing of adoption an animal in the shape of a goat aged 6 months, raised up motherless, and from appearances it seems that the cow is in full. sympathy with the poor little motherless goat, and permits it to follow her around and partake of the lacteal fluid fresh from the teats. She caresses it by licking it with her tongue with as much care and tenderness as if it were her own, and one of the most prominent features about the goat is, that if any one try to separate it from its adopted mother It will bleat as if io were crying after its mother. Charlotte (N. C.) Observer: Jake Barringer, a tenant who was plowing on Mr. John Wadsworth’s farm recently, turned up with the plow-share one of those curiosities—a iointed snake. The reptile was about a yard In length, and was put together in four sections. The darky did not know what sort of a snake it was when it first turned up, and hit it with a stick to kill it At the first blow * the snake fell all to pieces, the head going one way and the tail part another, and the two body pieces jumped off in different directions. The amazed darky resumed his plowing, went to the end of the furrow, and on his return was surprised to see the snake all together again except the tailpiece, and, watching a few minutes, saw the tall coming up to join the body, taking sharp, quick little jerks. It came nearer and nearer until within a few inches of the three-fourths snake, when it gave a sudden jump and hitched on in its pro| er place, with a fuss resembling the popping of a cap. The darky knocked it to pieces several times, and each time it came together again. He carried his amusement a little too far, however, in throwing the tall part of th® snake across the creek, just to see, a? he said, “how k ng It would take it ro catch up,” but it never caught up. The snake with its three joints was carried to the house, and th? tail is no doubt still going about th® woods hunting for a snake to hitch onto.

Thb French manufacturers last year made $6,000,000 worth of umbrellas. 'Turkey is their best foreign customer. Czab Alkxandeb has appointed a commission to examine and revise the atrocious laws in reference to the Jews. 4 —.— Thb number of breach of promise suits recorded in the newspapers is startling. Cupid must be rather more fickle than usual In Cincinnati, says the Electrician, the telephone has achieved a wide de* gree of usefulness, 130 villages having been brought within speaking distance of the city. At a wood-cutting contest in McKean county, Pa., a few days ago, two women won the first prize for cross-cut sawing. There are probably few divorces in Pennsylvania. A great deal can be overlooked in a wife who can saw all the wood. A tbaveleb in Mexico told Gath , that the country did not present a promising outlook for investments. The prevalence of soldiers to keep order and the fact that everybody went armed indicated a militant state of society not suited to attract capital.

Ex-Shnator Tabor was interviewed a by a reporter as he passed? through Kansas City the other day. “I sometimes think,” said the illustrious statesman, pathetically, “that no man in this country has beeh abused and lied about as I have. I don’t call myself a great man; all I claim is the right to be let alone. I never saw the like of some of these newspaper men. They say ‘ good morning,’or ‘good evening’ to a man, or perhaps pass a dozen words with him, and then go away and write a column of stuff about him, telling how much he pays for his night-shirts, and all that sort of thing. lam out of politics, and will have nothing more to do with that sort of thing. lam married”—the reporter had ’heard some rumors to that effect—“and am going home to attend to business.” A correspondent at East St. Louis, Hl., writes: A woman, the wife of a prominent railroad man, living on Collinsville avenue, in the Fourth ward, in this city, is strangely and disagreeably afflicted. Several weeks ago she had the misfortune to be bitten by a dog, and, though the bite was not a bad one, it drew the'blood, and she had the dog killed. The wound healed all right, but the effects have not disappeared. Whenever cloudy weafher prevails or it is raining the woman is in great misery. At such times she is very nervous,-and cannot remain in the house or sleep at night, as she has to be constantly moving about. She talks hysterically, and imagines that she is being pursued by dogs intent upon biting her, and conducts herself as if warding them off or trying to get out of their way. She tries to get her mind off the subject, but she cannot, and will burst into tears and cry piteously. When the weather is clear and fine, she is not troubled in this manner at all, but she can tell when cloudy or wet weather is approaching, as these unpleasant symptoms begin to develop.

One of the latest books upon Amerysa which have been placed before the credulous British reading public—“A Scamper Through America”—gives an interesting description of “the Hoffman House Hotel, which boasts the finest drinking bar in the world, of which the proprietor is the notorious Fiske, who got off so easily with a brief incarceration for shooting Mr. Seward on the staircase of the Fifth Avenue Hotel.” The scamperer seems to have confounded this well-known tragedy with the unfortunate affair between William A. Beach and Prof. Theodore J. Tilden. It is, however, to be feared that the scamperer made his studies of American life and manners exclusively in house-hotels and other places of entertainment, for he says: “You would as soon give Gloucester, Leicester, etc., the sound of all their letters as you would most of the United States cities. You say Washn’n, Bos’sn, Balt’mor > Nu Orl’ns, and so forth.” The scamperer might have added that people in the United States frequently fail to sound all the letters in “truly rural,” “National Intelbgencer,” and other words of the sort, but it is only when they are drunk. The idea that John Howard Paghh

was a victim of nature’s retributive justice will probably be a new one to a majority of readers. Yet it appears to be sincerely entertained by the Rev. E. H. of Shepton Mallet, England, the clergyman at whose suggestion and through whose efforts, while he Was acting as British Chaplain at Tunis, the stained-glass window in memory of Payne was placed in the English church there. In a sermon preached by him recently in his parish church at Sbepton Mallet, he referred as follows to the dead poet: “Poor man, it was from the aching void in his heart that he sang, ‘There’s no place like home.’ Though he lived in a ‘palace* he was homeless. Though he ‘roamed amid pleasures,* he was an unhappy man. Those who knew him well have told me that in spite of his fine poetic instincts it was a pain to converse with him, he was so misanthropic. And why? In his youth he disregarded the voice of God and nature. ‘lt is not good for man to be alone;’ and in his old age he found that, left alone, the Garden of Eden is but a barren wilderness to dwell in. Having failed to make a home for another, by just, retributive nature he was deprived of home himself.”

An Oswego reporter, while in Gilbert’s Mills the other day, encountered a boy named Melvin Carey, who is an oddity in his way. Melvin is 13 years old, and to all appearance bright and intelligent His organs of speech are all right and he is able to talk fluently,. but in spite of this fact he has not spoken to any person except members of his own family and his schoolmaster during his life. He is not sullen in any way, and plays about with other children in perfect harmony, but never says anything to them. When he wishes to call the attention of any of his playmates, he does it by catching him by the arm and making gestures. When he was sent to school he adopted the same tactics with his teacher, and refused to say a word, but by the liberal use of a stout rod the teacher persuaded him to speak. When our reporter saw him he was standing by the roadside, whistling to a couple of girls that were passing. When addressed, and asked the direction of a certain person he apparently did not hear the question, and turned his back upon the speaker, and would pay no attention to repeated questions. Afterward he w,as seen in the bam on his father’s farm, pitching hay, and was again asked a question, but rewarded the questioner with the same vacant stare, and went on with his work, apparently oblivious to the presence of any other person. Afterward he was heard in conversation with his brother, when he spoke in a sharp, quick voice, and without the slightest impediment iirtris speech, but he did not know that' any one outside the family was listening. The moment he observed that there were other listeners he became silent and would not say another word. It is certainly a most remarkable case, and one not easy of explanation. He is industrious, and when at school seems to delight in the society of his young companions, but is resolute in his refusal to open his lips except when he' comes before the teacher, when he recites his lessons and answers when he is spoken to. There is no explanation of his remarkable conduct.