Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1883 — LOST IN A MARSH. [ARTICLE]

LOST IN A MARSH.

According to the official figures : the average republican majority in Pennsylvania is 18,503. Work on the Washington monument was stopped for the winter last Saturday. If is now 410 feet high, seventy feet having been added duiing the present ,year. Its total height, when completed, is to be 550 feet. The highest artificial structure in the world. ~—■'* The Hon. Daniel Webster Voor bees once referred to the National debt as “that huge monument which our sons and their children will forever have to carry.” Now the Democrats are in full mourning because “that huge monument” is being paid oft’ too fast. It is hard to p’ease some people.—[lnter Ocean.

The majority for Mr. Carr, Itopubliean, as Secretary of State, is 18,217; Alfred C. Chapin, Democrat, for Comptroller, a majority of 16,320, while R. A. Maxwell, Democrat, for Treasurer, has a majority of 16,981, and Dennis O’Brien, 'for Attorney-general, a majority of 13.Q50, Mr. Sweet, the Democratic candidate for State Engineer, has a majority of 20,067. Counting Mr. Carr’s majority as nothing, the average Democratic majority on the five offices is 9,286. Governor Cleveland’s majority was nearly 200,000. The Democrats achieved a great victory in New 7 York State.-[lndianapolis Journal. ■ , . —o, . J Seargeant Mason has ge-ae to his reward; in other words, has gone home to enjoy, with Betty and the baby, the fine property which was given him as a reward for having gained a good deal of notoriety a real or pretended —probably pretended—attempt upon the life of a man whom it was his sworn duty to defend. President Arthur pardoned Mason last Saturday, and on Monday he was discharged from the state prison at Albany. Mason was sentenced, by a court martial, to eight years imprisonment, of winch time he has served two years. '

The following in regard to the murder of J. P. Mathews at Hazelhurst, Miss., is from the Vicksburg Post, itself a Bourbon paper of the rankest kind. . The free ballot and a fair count does not seem to be the motto of the Copiah < 'ounty Democracy. In an attempt to cast his vote at Hazelhurat “Prent” Matthews received a charge of twentyfaw, 'killing him instantly. He went to the polls singlehand and alone, and in the attempt to exercise his privilege of American citizenship was shot down like a dog. This is the worst murder that has occured la Mississippi since the Chisholm killing. It will injure the good name and prosperity of the State. Every bullet that was shot into Matthews will be worth thousands of voters to the Republicans, because it will be said, and it can not Jje denied, that he was killed on account of his politics by intolerant Democracts. The attempt made by the Nelliiig mob' to justify their highhanded proceeding under the pretense that Judge Ward was opposed to capital punishment and intended in case of a plea of guilty, to sentence Nelling to the penitentiary for life, is one of the wickedest and basest features of the whole afiair. Judge Ward is not opposed to capital punishment, nnd never gave any person grounds for believing that lie was. He had been led, liy Nelling’s statements, to believe that he intended plpad guilty, and it a fact well known that the Judge had fully determined, in that case to inflict the death penalty at the curliest date the law would allow.

A Duck-Hunter’s Adventure In the Swamps o£the Kankakee. *. t Chicngo Tribune. - , - 7 Last week a young Chicagoan became bewildered and lost his way in the Kankakee marshes. This is what he says on the subject: “I started into the marsh, wading, from Knox, Ind., just after they found the dead body of that man leaning on his gun, face down, in the mnd. I’ve hunted a gOod deal, and I didn’t think I couldget lost. When I went in I took my bearings carefully. I struck some good shooting, and it was dark before I knew it. I started home in what 1 thought to be the right direction, picking my way carefully and looking out for mudholes. By and by I struck a path and stopped out briskly, thinking I was all right. I walked for an hour or two and began to feel tired, being loaded with a gun, a dozen mallard, and incumbered with heavy lubber boots. All of a sudden it hashed across me that I had passed a certain musk-rat house before, and that 1 was walking in a circle. I tell you my blood was curdled in my body. It was about 8 o’clock and freez-

ing cold. IJ knew it was sure death to stay in the marsh all night. I dropped a wad-box in the path and kept on, trying to keep my courage up. By and by, after I had walked perhaps twenty minutes, there lay the wad-box in the path. L thought 'of the dead man found the day before. lam a cool hand generally, and thought my staying powers were first-class, but I tell you the knowledge that I was lost -in the marsh, and in all probability beyond the reach of aid, paralyzed me completely—took every particle of grit out of me. I just began to ‘holler’ for all I was worth, and to shoot my gun. Fortunately, I had plenty of shells, and I shot my gun every few minutes and yelled till my voice gave out. Just as I was giving up hope —-I had only three more shells—l heard a faint hello. I yelled again, and fired both barrels, one after the other. By and by I saw the glimmer of a lantern. Pretty soon an old, gray-bearded man appeared. ‘Well, what’s the matter with you?’ said he. ‘I want to get out of this’, said I. ‘I can’t say I blame you much’, said be. He showed me the path, and I tell you it wasn’t forty feet from where I had been standing. I had been walking in a circle for over two hours. If he- had demanded it I would have signed a contract to give him ell I had or expected to make in the next year to get out of that marsh. The old man was a queer old chap. When I left him 1 offered him a good sized bill. ‘No, sir,’ said he, gravely. ‘lt’s all right, and I don’t want nothin;’ but es I was you I’d say my prayers to night, it ain’t twice a year that a man is within bearin’ distance of the place you wasinwhenlheard ye yellin’ at this time o’ night.’ I’m free to confess I followed the old man’s advice, and, if I am not mistaken, I don’t wade into the Kankakee marshes to any great extent hereafter.”