Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1883 — South American Woods. [ARTICLE]

South American Woods.

Apbopos of the delicate term “remove, ” for murder, which the Inviricibles have brought into vogue, the correspondent of the London journal remarks that Cardinal Wiseman once, protesting vigordhsly against infanticide for child-murder and similar euphemisms, said: “I shall, not be surprised if we ultimately come to 4 uxoricide’ for a brutal wife murder.

< Dynamite is about to be thrown into the shade. An ingenious citizen of Paris, the appropriate home of such discoveries, has produced a new compound which he calls panclastite, consisting of hypoazotic acid, which is one of the numerous compounds of oxygen and azote, or nitrogen, mixed either with essence of petroleum or sulphuret of carbon. The degree "of explosive force is said to depend upon which of the last named ingredients is used.

The Vassar girls’ Jare protesting against the marking system of their college. They insist that's childish’ system of “honors” is absurd in view of the agitation for the higher education of women. The motives for study induced by the system they believe to be especially unworthy for- the graduates of Vassar, who are expected to go into the world as exponents of the higher education. Looking at the very sensible things which their protest says, the conclusion must be made that it is time to s op circulating the silly old jokes about the chewing-gum of Vassar, and to acknowledge that the students there are very earnest and womanly young women.

In France the snail is considered more toothsome than the oyster. The best ones are raised in Burgundy, where they grow double the size of the large garden-snails of of this country. Some of them are fully as large as an ordinary oyster. Snail raising has become quite a profitable business, and is increasing yearly. They are kept in a damp place and fed on peppermint and such things as they like best, until they seal themselves up in their shells for the winter, when they are ready for the market. Nature has furnished snails with extraordinary powers of reproduction, each individual being both male and female, and the outlay in snail farming is represented only By the time and trouble spent in collecting them and keeping them from straying.

A Chicago reporter, wishing to learn the facts in regard to certain gossip about a lady in that city, called on another, a neighbor, in the evening, and was met at the door by the little daughter, who said, in answer to his question, “Mamma’s gone to bed, but if you’re a newspaper reporter you can come tight in. ” He not only went right in, but went right up to the lady’s bedchamber, where, says the brazen-faced reporter, “mamma was twisted up like an interrogation point, with her toes peeping out from under a crimson cornterpane, and her head and arm hanging over the edge of a brass bedstead. Mamma : was a trifle surprised when the young girl entered, urging the reporter to ‘come on.’” She was surprised enough to say: “Well, this is typical of Chicago journalism, I must say.”

A Georgia picnic last week was largely attended, but when the parties returned home two couples were miss* ' ing. Simultaneously there appeared at a hotel in Albany two strange couples who seemed to have something important on hand. They got the hotel-keep-er to procure for them marriage licenses for W. L. Simpson and Miss A. Collier and James Gliz and Miss E. Lundy. A preacher arrived, but-* here a hitch occurred. One of the ladies wanted to back out, and the parties kept the par*

lor door locked for five hours, trying to settle the point. At 10 o’clock at night the door was thrown open and the preacher admitted, when the' ceremony was performed. The brides retired to ■one room and the grooms to another for the night. They returned home to Terrell county, where the fatted calf . was killed and all forgiven. They all belong to the upper tendom.

A Connecticut man has a very novel plan for a public echibition. It was he whose robbery, several months ago, in a Hester street groggery, led to a wellremembered tragedy. He entered the worst drinking-place in the whole Street. Shrewd Yankee though he was, he laid down a S2O bill in payment for 4i &-cent dnnk. His expectation of get-

ting the change was hot realized. The bartender first laughed at him, and then swore, the gang of men and women gibed and threatened, and he felt glad to get out of the place with his life. He appealed to the police, and Roundsman Delaney returned with him and a warrant. A drunken slugger, who was in the place. sleeping off the effects of a night’s debauch, fired upon the officer, wounding him seriously, and was himself shot dead. That event made the saloon infamous, and consequently it would have become prosperous, had not the police obdurately closed the pldce. 44 The Connecticut man proposes to get his $19.95 ba6k, and more too,” says the Boston Herald. “He is having a panorama painted of scenes in Hester street and its. vicinity, showing the vile resorts which have been described by newspapers throughout the country, and as to which, he calculates, a good deal of interest exists. He will lecture on the pictures, detailing his own lively experience, after the fashion of daring explorers who have survived the hardships and dangers of travel in some wild country. He will introduce some vivid descriptive matter from the reports of city missionaries, police officers and members of the Excise Board, and will, altogether, make such a popular exhibit of New York vice as will make country people’s eyes stick out.”

The Dukes-Nutt tragedy recttlls a tragic romance that occurred in Kentucky forty years ago. Col. Sharpe, the United States District Attorney at Frankfort, became engaged to a Miss Cook, daughter of a widow residing four miles from Bowling Green. After a time .he became suspicious of the girl’s purity, telling his friends that he had heard that Miss Cook had yielded to a vile passion for a negro. The engagement was broken off, and in a short time Miss Cook heard •of the cause. Her resentment grew into bitter hatred for Sharpe, and shame caused her entire seclusion from society. A young man named Beauchamp, who greatly admired Miss Cftok for her beauty and spirit, contrived, after various ruses, to see the young lady, and proposed to her. She accepted him on the condi-

tion that he would take the life of her traducer. Beauchamp readily consented, and in a few days took a walk in company with Sharpe to a secluded spot. Then, giving him a pistol, Beauchamp warned., Sharpe to defend himself. The Colonel refused, and, declaring he would kill him at the first opportunity, Beauchamp retired. One night, disguised as a negro, the lover went to the residence of Sharpe, whom he stabbed to the heart and fled. He was suspected of the crime, and pursued to the house of Miss Cook, where, after a desperate fight, in which several of the Sheriff’s deputies were wounded, Beauchamp and Miss Cook wete arrested. Henry Clay and Amos Kendall were engaged in the case as counsel. But before the trial was finished poison was smuggled into the cells of the prisoners, of which they partook. Miss Cook died from the effects of her dose, but Beauchamp recovered. It was but a few days afterward, however, that, securing a knife, he fatally stabbed, himself. The case had a national notoriety at the. time. .

South America is rich in woods for engineering purposes. The yandubay is exceedingly hard and durable;.the couroupay is also very hard and rich in tannin. The quebracho is, however, more interesting than any, and grows abundantly in the forests of La Plata and Brazil. It resembles oak in the. trunk, and is used for railway Sleepers, telegraph poles, piles, and so on. It is heavier than water, its specific gravity varying between 1.203 to 1,333. The color at first is reddish, like mahogany, but grows darker with time. Beinr rich in tannin it is employed for tanning leather in Brazil, aiid has recently been introduced for that purpose into France. A mixture of one-third ol powdered quebracho and two-thirds of ordinary tan gives good results.