Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1883 — CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. [ARTICLE]

CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS.

Among the measures introduced in the Senate on the 4th inst. was one of Mr. Ingalls’'to remove certain limitations in the arrears of pensions act. Mr. Beck presented a bill for the removal of all disabilities imposed by the fourteenth amendment, and Mr. Edmunds one to provide for the further protection of colored citizens. Mr. Sherman introduced a bill to give national banks a circulation equal to 90 per cent, of the market value of their bond deposits. Mr. Edmunds presented an act for the construction of four trunk lines of postal telegraph radiating from Washington. Mr. Blair offered a bill for a bureau of labor statistics and to make eight hours a day's work. Mr. Logan handed in an act to appropriate $50,000,000 for the education of children, and another to provide pensions for Union prisoners in the late war. Mr. Van Wyck introduced a bill to force railroad corporations to pay within sixty days the cost of surveying lands to which they are entitled, and Mr. Slater another to repeal the Northern Pacific land grants Mr. Sewell reintroduced the bill for the relief of Fitz John Porter. The President’s message'was.read. The Republican Senators held a caucus, after adjournment, and decidedto await the arrival of Senator Anthony, who has been on a sick-bed, before electing a new set of officers. In the House of Representatives the delegates from the Territories were sworn in. A resolution was adopted that the Committee on Elections report whether Manning or Chalmers is entitled to be sworn as a member from Mississippi. Some debate took place on the contest between Mavo and Garrison, from the First district of Virginia. The President’s message was delivered and read to the House. Mb. Butler Introduced a bill in the Senate, at its session on the Sth inst., to repeal the internal revenue laws and abolish the system. Mr. Hoar presented a joint resolution of the Legislature of Massachusetts in opposition to convict labor on public works. Mr. Cullom presented a measure to place the legislative power of Utah in the hands of the Governor and a Legislative Council appointed by the President. Mr. Walker introduced a bill to indemnify Arkansas for swamp lands sold by the United States since 1857. Mr. Logan handed in a bounty laud bill affecting every honorably-discharged soldier or sailor of the late war. Mr. Blair introduced a joint resolution for a constitutional amendment to prohibit the manufacture or sale of liquors. Mr. Morgan offered a resolution for a military academy west of the Mississippl,"to educate Indians fori he army. Mr. Hoar introduced a bill providing for the use of a patented ballot-box and counting device, in the House of Representatives Mr. Randall raised objections to a deficiency appropriation of $20,000 for printing the Supreme Court records. The death of Thomas H. Herndon, of Alabama, was announced. and an adjournment was taken. The Senate was in session less than two hours on the 6th inst., and accomplished very little in the way of legislation. Petitions were presented from the Legislature of Nebraska to so amend the law as to force railroads to take out patents on their land grants, and from the * Astoria Chamber of Commerce to forfeit lands granted to the Oregon Central railroad. Mr. Garland introduced a bill to release the Memphis and Little Rock road from conditions which unjustly affected it, and to adjust differences on account of .customs duties on iron. Mr. Cameron*presented a measure to restore to the market certain lands in Minnesota and Wisconsin reserved for dams and reservoirs, Mr. Groome handed in an act to construct the Maryland and Delaware free ship canal as a means of defense. Mr. Lapham proposed an amendment to the Constitution giving women the right of suffrage. The House was in session but a few minutes, and accomplished nothing. Both houses adjourned over to the 10th.

THE EAST. At Philadelphia the semi-centenary of the organization of the American Antitlavery society was celebrated. Job Purvis, one of the original members, opened the meeting, and John G. Whittier, Wendell Phillips, Oliver Wendell Holmes, the GarriParker and Pillsbury, and others sent letters... .Some grocers’ clerks in New York formed an Organization |o rob their employers, each member being required to obtain $125 per month and deposit it with the' secretary. James Nutt, the youth who killed t£e villain Dukes, was arraigned fortrial at Uniontown, Pa, The town was thronged with people. Senator Voorhees, with four other eminent lawyers, appeared for the defense. Eighty jurors were summoned, but only three were found competent to serve in this trial. Thereupon the defense prayed for a change of venue, and the case was transferred to the City of Pittsburgh. It seems that the people of Uniontown have taken sides in the matter, many being as bitter against Nutt as the majority ..JSSjearncst.in his and typhoid fever prevail in Yale College, two students having died of the latter malady. The faculty are unaware of the causes for this visitation, the sewerage and drainage being perfect.... Six mills at Fall River, Maas., have been swindled out of $30,000 on bogus bills of lading on Joseph Lohnstein, of Sherman, Texas. A New Bedford (Mass.) organ company is being investigated for making flimsy instruments, and, by means of circulars, selling them at exorbitant prices. It is claimed they made a profit of $200,000 the past year... .The committee engaged in soliciting subscriptions toward a pedestal for the Bartholdi statue at New York has secured Oversloo,ooo. The excise law was rigidly enforced throughout New York City Sunday.... Recent false Statements tn regard to Mrs. Theodore Tilton have developed the facts that she lives with her children in a family in one of the best streets in Brooklyn, receives $1,200 per annum from Mr. Tilton, and devotes her time and talents to the study and teaching of music. 1 THE WEST. Prof. Mitchell, organist of the M. EL Church at Canton, Ohio, has been discharged from that position for taking a wotpan of ill-repute to an entertainment Frank James was arraigned at Kansas City fartfee Blue Cut train robbery. His trial is •St for Jan. 14, and his ball was fixed at In the United States Court at Jeffereon City, Mo., an Important verdict was rendered in an insurance case. The plaintiff's house, ifisured against fire and lightning, was destroyed by a cyclone. He . brought Suit to recover, maintaining that electricity waff the potent power in cyclones. The de-

fonse asserted that wind was the destructive agent, and both parties placed meteorologists on the stand to prove their claims. The jury found for the insurance company, thus ignoring the electricity theory in cyclones, -ft Rewards amounting to $5,000 have been offered for the detection of the murderers of Jacob Crouch and other members of his family, near Jackson, aMich.... .Soft enow falling for twelve hours at Denver, Col., adhered to the wires, causing them to assume the' dimensions of cables. A windstorm sprung up, when hundreds of poles gave way under their great weight, blocking a dozen squares and severing outside communication. The storm also impeded railway business, and the damage is heavy....’. Several horse-thieves were recently lynched in Brown county, Neb.... The Police Commissioners who have been* on trial at St. Louis charged with conspiracy were acquitted last week. ; W. C. Chamberlain, of Cleveland, Ohio, father of the beauty now attracting so, much attention in Europe, threatens to prosecute photographers, either at home or abroad, who. will sell pictures of daughter without permission. A dispatch from Duluth gives a letter from a man who claims to have been a passenger on the wrecked steamer Manistee. He states that all the life-boats but one were swept away in the storm. Nine persons floated about in small boats for thiee days, and three of them landed at Houghton. Capt. McKay relhsed to leave his ship, and went down in her off Eagle Harbor, A man named John W. Hunter, alias John W. Russel, was arrested at Peoria last week in connection with the Zora Burns murder, taken to Lincoln, 111., and confined in jail. He was at one time in the employ of Carpenter, for whom Zora Burns also worked. Hunter baa been in Lincoln for several days recShtly, and acted somewhat peculiarly. A party of seven desperadoes rode into the town of Bisbee, Arizona. Five of them dismounted, entered the store of J. A, Castanada, deliberately shot J. C. Tappienier, an assayer, and E. T. Smith, a ranchman, who were in the store at the time, took $1,200 out of the cash-box, and mortally wounded Mrs. Roberts, a boarding-house keeper, and A. Notley, a lumberman, who were attracted to the scene of the murder by the report of the rifle-shots. . The murderers then deliberately rode 0ff...... From his quiet home in St. Louis Gen, Sherman sends out a denial of the story that -he predicted an armed contest between capital and labor. The grizzled veteran, losing sight of the weekly Ilst of .failures, expresses the opinion that at no period has the country enjoyed a larger measure of prosperity. THE SOUTH, * Bobbers attempted to wreck and plunder a train on the Memphis and Little Rock railroad. The scene of attack was twenty-five miles west of Memphis. The train officials made a prompt defense with firearms, and the robbers, after shooting at the engineer, fled info the tall timber....A Danville (Va.) dispatch says the grand jury of the hustings court, charged by Judge Blackwell with investigating the circumstances of the election riot of Nov. 3, after a session of nearly two days, reported they had fio presentments to make. It is stated in a dispatch from St. Louis that prominent parties in Texas will soon bring suit in the Court of Claims at Washington to recover the value of slaves emancipated during the late War. Theaction will be based chiefly on certain clauses in the State constitution, which were approved and indorsed by Congress.at the time of annexation, and which, it is claimed, make the Government of the United States liable for slave property. The plaintiff in the case was a strong and very pronounced Union man during the war, and the proposed action is indorsed and will be pushed by some of the best lawyers in Texas.... Three negro children were burned to death in Columbia county, Ga. , The parents went to church and looked the children in a cabin. Mrs. Laura. Riall, the Baltimore woman who killed her two children and then cut her own throat, thereafter refused to take all nourishment and has died of starvation.... An earthquake lasting forty-eight seconds was experienced at Rouenden Springs, Ark. It broke stoves and crockery and loosened rocks in the railway cuts. F. A. Deering, Postmaster at Morgantown, W. Va., undertook to carry to his house a tin box containing $340, but a thief grabbed it on a dark roadway and disappeared.... James M. Underwood was hanged at Dardanelle, Ark., for the murder of a planter named Robert J. Pendergrass, in September, 1883. About 3,000 people witnessed the execution. Underwood confessed the crime. He showed considerable courage, meeting bis death bravely... .Four Mexican 'murderers were taken from jail at Fort Davis, Tex., and lynched. A dispatch from Austin, Tex., referring to the recent report that a suit is soon to be brought in the United States Court of Claims to recover the value of slaves emancipated during the war says: “Gov. Ireland, Attorney General Templeton, and several prominent lawyers consulted by the reporter scout the idea that Texas has any more claim on the Federal Government than any other Southern State. They consider the scheme a very foolish one, and that if anybody is engaged in it, which is regarded as doubtful, it is for political purposes.” WASHINGTON. Cnddr““'’Kffi submitted his report of his operations among the Apache Indians during the last year. He says that the Apaches had not only the best of reasons Tor complaining, but had displayed remarkable forbearance in remaining, as they had been plundered of the supplies provided by the Government, and speak with bitterness of nearly all their agents. To avoid the crowding at the agencies the General allowed the different bands to settle anywhere within the reservation, and they have thus raised the heaviest crop of corn in their history. Publio sentiment on the frontier does not consider the killing of an Indian as murder, and this feeling, added to the efforts of certain of the frontier newspapers, the General considersYesponsible for much of the trouble. To disarm the Apaches, the veteran fighter believes, is almost impossible, but a severalty of land-holdings is not only possible but desirable, and the ballot is said to be the necessary sequence of even partial civilization .... A strong lobby will spend the winter at Washington for the purpose of putting dampers on all projects for postal telegraphy. A delegation of Congressmen visited President Arthur and asked that the good' offices of the State department should be used to secure for O’Donnell, the slayer of Carey, a reprieve of sixty days, in order that further testimony might be adduced in behalf of the condemned man. The President promised that a cable message should be sent to Lowell at London. The dispatch was accordingly sent within a few hours after the interview. Representative Anderson, of Kansas, is about to revive his postal telegraph bill in Congress. It provides for a line of wires from Bangor to St. Paul, from New York to Topeka, and from' Baltimore to San Antonio, which will cost about $403 per mile to erect.... Senator Ingalls will introduce a bill in the Senate, the purpose of which will be to prevent fraudulent entries on the public lands. Representative Converse, of Ohio, will Introduce a measure in the House providing for the restoration of the duty on wool as it existetpprevious to the tariff legislation Of the last Congress. He expects the measure to pass. POLITICAL* ~~ The Virginia Legislature met at Richmond last week, both houses electing Democratic officers. Gov. Cameron's message makes suggestions on the State debt.

and says the honor 1 of the State demands a sedrch Ing investigation of the Danville riot, that the offenders may be punished. A resolution was offered in. the Senate asking for the resignation of United States Senator Mahonc. , ' Capt. C. E. Grant, a Republican, was discharged from the postoffice of the National House of Representatives to make room for a Democratic applicant, but was promptly reinstated on the discovery being made that he was a maimed Union soldier. R. A. Phinney, t’resident of the Workingmen’s association of Lynn, Mass., whQ has always been an enthusiastic supporter of Ben Butler, has issued an appeal to workingmen-throughout tfie country to organize. Icall a national convention, and make a nomination for President. GENERAL. Fire losses: A dozen stores at Chillicothe, Mo., loss $20,000; Hiller’s sausage factory, Milwaukee, Wis., loss $15,000; a business block at Burlington, lowa, loss $40,000: the steamer, Fred. Derby, Jacksonville, Fla., loss $60,000; two stores at Milan Junction, Texas, loss $15,000; the postoflice and other buildings, at Walshville, 111., Joes $50,000; Watson, Obert & Co.’s general store, Bancroft, Mich., loss $15,000; the steam barge Minnie, Fort Howard, Wis,, loss, $15,000; the Sentinel office and twenty-one other structures at Lynchburg, Tenn., loss, $35,000; several shops and residences at Nashville, Tenn., loss, $40,000; Sinclair’s woolen-mill, Salem, Ind., loss, $75,000; a flaxseed oil mill at Tippecanoe, Ohio, loss, $40,000; three stores at Paris, Tenn., loss, $35,000. Failures : Sigismund Vogel, clothing, Mobile, liabilities, $40,000; Sclatin & Proctor, grain merchants, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. liabilities, $800,000; S. M. Meyerberg & Co., silk manufacturers, New York, liabilities, $250,000; • John Sullivan, wholesale grocer, Ingram, Kitchen & Williams, military goods, Chicago; Henry Tucker, clothing, Oshkosh, Wis.; Jacob Kohn, dry goods, Mattoon, 111.; A. B. Kuepp, general store, Cantonville, Wis.; G. A. Pfeiffer & Co., dry goods. Rochester, Ind M liabilities $15,000; Rosenberg & Stein, clothing. New York, liabilities $105,000; George D. Emery, extensive dealer in mahogany, Chelsea, Mass.; R. Spandon, clothing, Mansfield, Ohio; John Paret & Co., clothing. New York; Morgan Morgan, Jr., silverware, New York. Financial embarrassments: Levy Brothers, wholesale clothing, New York city, liabilities $2,475,000, assets $1,712,000; William Tp Addis, lumber, Boyne, Mich., liabilities, $75,000; A, K. Stephens, dry goods, Saginaw, Mich.; M. Hammer, clothing, Mattoon, 111., liabilities $25,000; Miller & Umbenstock, printers, Chicago, liabilities $20,000; Arrington Brothers, boots and shoes, Boston, liabilities $27,000; S. Jppes & Co., New York, manufacturers of hangings; Haswell & Co., wholesale drugs, Montreal; the Dover Silk Company, Paterson, N.J., liabilities $102,000; Herman Renburg, dry goods, Chicago, liabilities $13,000; Badzinski Brothers, jewelry, Chicago, liabilities $15,000; W. H. Stewart, dry goods,- Davebport, lowa. —The failures throughout the country and Canada, last week, rose to the extreme number of 307, the largest weekly figure since the rush to get under cover before the repeal of the Bankruptcy law, and three times as great a number as was usual two years ago.

Flames destroyed the First Presbyterian church at Kalamazoo, Mich., worth $20,000; Howell & Co-’s drug-house at Montreal, valued at $40,000; the iron foundry of Harrison Loring, at Boston, causing a loss of $30,000; the valuable Corry block, at Corry, Mass., worth $50,000: the extensive packinghouse of T. M. Sinclair, at Cedar Rapids, lowa, entailing a loss of $100,000; the business portion of Williamson, N. C.j causing a heavy loss; the Adams Chilled Plow works, at Plymouth, Inc}-; a brick-making establishmentworth SIO,OOO, at New Richmond, Ohio. It is rumored that Sidney Dillon will resign the Presidency of the Union - Pacific Railway company, and that Charles Francis Adams, Jr., will take his place. By the report of Mr. Sackville West, British Minister at Washington, it appears that 64,000 Canadians settled in the United States year. This is a pretty big exodus, and is causing no little uneasiness in Canada The Government of British'-Col-lumbia is about to legislate against Chinese immigration. The Proviricial Secretary says there are 3,000 destitute Celestials on the mainland who can only subsist by crime. FOREIGN. Edward Wolf, a Socialist, was arrested at London for having infernal machines and explosives in his residence, with which, it is alleged, he intended to destroy .the German Embassy. Among his documents was a threatening letter to Count Von Munster, the German Embassador.... The Nihilist organ states polftica( prlsoners in the Peter and Paul fortress, both’ men and women, are driven to insanity by barbarous treatment, and often kill themselves... .The Chinese Ambassador at Paris informed the British Foreign Secretary that war between France and China is certain. Admiral Peng Yu Lin has informed foreigners at Canton that war with Fraface is imminent, and warns neutral nations to observe treaties and rules for international law. Peng Yu Lin is preparing for the defense of Canton.... At; a meeting of the Irish National league in Dublin, Mr. Biggar characterized John O’Connor Power as the James Carey of Irish politics For abuse press* Editoi- Phillips, at Berlin, challenged Dr. Stoecker, the anti-Jew agitator, to a duel. Stoecker declined because he is a clergymanßefore a Birmingham audience, the Marquis of Lome lauded Canada, saying that it possessed a salubrious climate, and was not afflicted with fevers so common in the United States. At Wolverhampton Mr. Chamberlain made a speech maintaining it was the duty of the Liberal party to remove the causes of Irish discontent, ancLdenouncing the/'shame, fraud and transparent imposture” of Irish representation in Parliament. Kalborn, the informer in the plot to destroy the German embassy at London by an explosion, detailed thecaseat an examination. The five persons engaged in it. among whom was a police officer, had the sole object in view of obtaining a had planned to throw the onus of the affair upon an innocent German. One of the conspirators remarked that the greater the number of persons killed, the higher would be the reward.... China declines to modify its claim in regard to Tonquin, and prefers to fight rather than surrender the provinces. Admiral Courbet telegraphs from Hanoi that he is still preparing for war.... Many ship-builders on the Clyde have notified their workmen that wages will be reduced at the beginning of the year. ....A great fire ruined the Legislative chambers in Brussels. Several firemen were injured, and many invaluable public records were destroyed... .Mr. Gladstone is criticised by his followers for putting off the MunicipalReform bill. A Russian Nihilist, now imprisoned in the fortress of Saints Peter and Paul, writes to a Vienna journal detailing the horrors that surround Mm. The letter, wMch the writer states is written with his blood, says he is sick, but is not allowed to see a physician, that he has no occupation and is left with inefficient food to slowly rot away. Many prisoners have been horribly beaten and rendered insane by numerous cruelties. Madame Terentriva was recently outraged and poisoned, and Madame Jakemova constantly watches by her infant lest the rats which infest the cells should devour it. The women, as a rule, are subjected to infinitely worse treatment than the menA duel took place in Rome between members of the Chamber of Deputies named Lovito and Nicotera, in which both wire seriously wounded. Wolff, the dynamiter, with three fellow-miserables, put up a scheme to blow up the German embassy, in London, and

then, following the tactics pursued by his comrades, tried to sell his information for what it would bring, but fell a victim to the “ early-birdfulness ” of his co-consptrators, and got jailed, while they possibiyjgot rewarded. It now transpires that this Wolff was one of the rogues who some time ago. tried to blow up the gambling hell at Monaco The hill tribes of Egypt, near Suaklin, attacked and cut to pieces a force of 500 black troops and 200 Bashi-Bazouks. Only fifty men escaped, half of whom were officers....’ The publication of the Franco-Chinese correspondence has damaged M. Ferry, it is thought, and in the event of an open war it is given out’that Prance will not be allowed to make anything like an effective blockade Of Chinese ports.