Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1883 — A Confusing Run on the Rail. [ARTICLE]

A Confusing Run on the Rail.

George Augustus Sala advises every one "who doesn’t want to have the cholera to keep his temper. Badtempered folks are always the first to go. A Jersey City physician is reported to have successfully tried a new cftre for hydrophobia. It is a kind of woorara, used for a long time by the natives of Demarara for the cure of snake bites. It has several ingredients, but its composition is as yet a secret. Here is a pointer for the lawyers: The Missouri Supreme Court lays down the conditions which must concur to protect the title of a purchase! 1 upon a sale made by the vendor with a fraudulent intent. He must buy wit'hout notice of the bad intent on the part of the vendor; he must be a purchaser for a valuable consideration, and he must have paid the money before he had notice of the fraud. A curious test of the relative value of beer and water as beverages is about to be made in England. Farmer Thomas has bet $250 that he can do more and better work in the harvest field, supported by his favorite ale, than can his neighbor Richards, whose drink is oatmeal and water. The contest is exciting much interest in England, many Londoners are to be present, and the Temperance Alliance has engaged an artist to picture the scene. “Uncle Ned” Roach, of Florence, N. Y., took unto himself a sixth bride. “Uncle Ned’s” hair has been thoroughly •whitened by the suns of 85 summers, and his head is bending low by the weight of those years. Yet he feels the want of a congenial spirit to continue on in the march of time, and has married Aunt Mary Quinn, of Rochester, who lias lived long enough to count off 70 years on the calendar of time. They were married at , St. Mary’s Church, in Florence, by the pastor. _• ( - Kirkland Fitch, who broke the bank at Warren, Ohio, has made the statement that he felt there was a sure fortune in Government bonds. He shared this wise belief with Vanderbilt, Rothschild, and other investors. Not having their capital, however, he took $60,000 of his employers’ money and bought the edge, or margin, of $500,000 in bonds. An unhappy fluctuation of the market trimmed this margin neatly off in one day, and left him well along in the career of a defaulter, which he then pursued until the lank went under. Mr. Fitch is now in jail. In Alabama convicts are employed in the coal-mines, and the report of the State Health Officer shows that during six months the death-rate among them has, in one of the mines, reached 87 per 1,000, all negroes, and in another 150 per 1,000 for five months, which is equivalent to 360 per 1,000 per annum? “That is to say,” the officer, remarks, “if the same death-rate was kept up they wonk! all die in less than three years.” The quarters are imperfectly ventilated and much over-crowded, the clothing and bedding are extremely filthy, the means for ablution are inadequate, and the cooking asrangehients deficient. The value of property destroyed by fire in the United States and Canadas every year is nearly*equal to the sum paid every year for foreign sugar. In 1882 the destruction by fire wass9o,llo,964, and the amount paid by the people of the United States only for foreign sugar was $94,523,797.29. In 1881 the destruction by fire in the United States and Canadas was $89,518; 300, and the amount paid by the United States only for foreign sugar was $89,811,785.25. In eight years we have burned up $672,226,999 worth of property in the United States and Canadas, and have-sent out of the country’ a rather larger amount in purchase of sugar. The semi-annual statements of the. savings banks of the State of New York have just been made public. The total number of open accounts in the State is 1,119,512, of which New York city furnishes 593.170, or a little more-than one-half. The total amount due to depositors in the whole State is reported at $420,831,007, of which the New York banks report $231,525,352. This would make an •average amount of $376 to each account in the State, and a somewhat larger one, $390, to each account in the city. There is also reported a “surplus” of $62,114,693 in the State, and $36,310,142 in the city. The surplus in the State now amounts to $57 on each account, and in the city s6l, or from 15 to 16 per cent. An upright Indianian, on returning home from a visit to the home of his fathers and mothers—m Kentucky, says he saw 117 snakes about the size of a lead pencil playing on a smooth bit of sand bar at the mouth of a run that

empties fato Brownell’s creek near his farm. They were gamboling on the sand after the fashion of lambs or kittens. Sometimes they would wrap themselves into a half as large as Lis two fists and would go rolling arpund until it would tumble into the water, then the little wigglers would unwrap themselves and scamper out onto the land again. Three of them were killed by being squeezed to death in the balls, and finally they got to fighting, whereupon their mother, who was lying on a log watching their sport, came down and stopped the row. When he went near where she was to get a better look at the young racers, the mother opened her mouth and they all rushed down her throat and she chased him “home. , The shrinkage in the price of railroad stocks diiring the last year has been enormous, as the appended table of the shares of twenty leading companies will show, the figures, for convenience, being in round numbers: Am't Stock. Shrinkage. N. X. Central & H.. .. $89,000,000 $21,360,(0) - Lake Shore 50,010,000 8,000,0K1 Michigan Central 18,000,000 3,960,000 Canada Southern.... 15,000,000 3,4 >O,OOO Western Union.... 80,000,000 13,600,000 Erie, 85,000. OOp 12,670,000 Northwestern 48,000,0(0 15,720,000 St. Paul 47,000,000 13,000,000 Union Pacific 60,000,000 20 v ooMea Central Pacific. 59,000,000 M. K. <t T.. iiRR.... 46,0(0,000 >1,660,00 Texas Pacific 32,000.000 9,600,900 W., St. L. <tP 50,0 )0,000 16,910,01X1 Jersev Centra1........ 18,000,000 2,880,000 Del.. Lack. ~<fc W.. 26,000,000 7,800,000 Missouri Pacific... 30,000,000 5,700,000 Northern Pacific...' 90,000,000 15,880,000 Oregon 40,000,000 15,600,000 ■ Louisville & Nash 25,000,000 13;750;000 Denver & Rio G... .... ... 33,000,000 14,850;000 Here is an apparent shrinkage of $244,470,000, which has fallen to the lot of the holders of stocks, whose market value was $961,000,000 a year a ?o- _ - A correspondent of the Plymouth (England) Morning News, telegraphing from Madeira, reports a lamentable occurrence on the Mayumba river, not far from Ponta Negro, by which two officers of her Majesty’s, gunboat Stork and a civilian lost their lives. The Stork, which is commanded by Lieutenant and Commander Arthur Blennerhasset, and which arrived on the west coast of Africa a few months since, had been ordered out to St. Paul de Luanda, and on her way thither she called in at the ; place mentioned. The officers met ; with a cordial reception from Mr. ; Prenslau, factory agent, under whose I auspices a sporting trip in the Mayumba seems to have been arranged. It appears that Mr. Prenslau, Lieut. Blennerhasset, Lieut. Henry Leeke and Mr. Robert Anderson, surgeon of the Stork, were together in a boat when they were attacked by a hippopatamus. The animal, probably wounded, and ; thus infuriated, made a ferocious and : determined onslaught on the boat, and all the efforts of the occupants to beat it off were unavailing. The struggle was a fierce one, and the end the boat was swamped and capsized, and all the occupants were thrown struggling into the water. With great difficulty Lieut. Blennerhasset was saved, but Lieut. Leeke, Dr. Anderson, and Mr. Prenslau were all three drowned.

“Was I ever in San Francisco?” said Dooflicker, in response to Theophilus’ question. “Was I? Well, Eve been there more times than you’ve got hairs on your head.” “Well, say, paw, did you ever count the trains you met on the road between Omaha and San Francisco ?” “Of course I have, Theophilus; I used to run an engine between Omaha and ’Frisco. “Then maybe you can help me out on this lesson.” Theophilus laid aside his slate and said his teacher had given him this problem to solve: Suppose there is one train each way every day—one train leaves Omaha each noon and one leaves San FranciscP each noon. It takes five days to make the trip. How many trains does each train meet?” “Pshaw, Theophilus, I’m ashamed of you. You. ought to solve so simple a problem in a twinkling. If I had never run a train on that road I would know how many trains any one of them would meet. Of course, if it took five days to go from Omaha to San Francisco, and there was only one train a day leaving San Francisco for Omaha, it stands to reason that the westward-bound train would meet five trains comiiig east. ” then, paw, I can’t figure it that way. I make it ten. ” “You can’t? Well, you’re a stupid dolt, Theophilus. If it wasn’t as plain as the nose of your face, I could prove it by my own experience. J?ow, it used to take just five days and one hour to, make the run from Omaha to San Francisco, and there was one train a day each way. When I was half on hour out of Omaha I used to meet Bill Sheffield’s train. Then the next day I met Bob Santley’s, the next, J ack Moseley’s, the next, Jiifi Baker’s, and the next, just before I got to ’Frisco, Dan Hackney’s. That’s every train I met —just five, you see.” “But, paw, just as you left Omaha, you met the train that left San Francisco five days before, didn’t you?” “Yes, of course.” “Well, when you had gone half tl.»e distance, hadn't you met the fixe trains that left San Francisco before you left Omaha? What became of the other five that left San Francisco while you were on the road ?” Dooflicker thought he heard the tele-phone-bell ring and went in to see what was wanted.— Chicago Herald. To BE poor, and to seem poor, is a certain method never to rise. *'