Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 December 1884 — An Unfeeling Father. [ARTICLE]

An Unfeeling Father.

A large number of immigiants from France to Southern California by way of New Orleans is reported. They are mainly experienced wine-growers. The immigration to Southern California from all sources is reportedly the immigration Commissioners of that State at 700 or 800 a week.

Wilkie Collins wrote a letter to Lotta while she was in England complimenting her and saying he wondered why peoplelaaghed at her representation of the little starved child, the “Marchioness,” tearing and swollowing food like a ravenous animal. The great novelist said it made him cry.

It is noted among the pecul'arities of the Philadelphia city directory that a man named Shahks teaches dancing, one Drinkwater inconsistently keeps a liquor salooD, Black is a coal merchant, one Saylor is a mariner, Painter is an artist, Law practices his name, Birch teaches school, and Lamb sells beef. Bismarck has not yet gained the highest honor the Kaiser can bestow. There is another German order of merit, founded in 1866, of w hich the badge is a star bearing the portrait of Frederick the Great. Those only who are privileged to wear it are Kaiser Wilhelm; “Unser Fritz,” Prince Frederick Charles, and “Moltke, the Silent.” Mme. Lvdia Pashkoff, the traveler, says in her “Notes on China Women” that those selected for the imperial harem are not subjected to the barbar-feet-cramping process. They are the daughters of Tartar officers, and do all they can to avoid being selected for the palace at Pekin, inasmuch as the life there is tolerably dull. Terrapin was introduced into England by Wormley, the deceased Washington caterer, while steward to Reverdy Johnson when the latter was Minister to England. Poker was afterward introduced by Minister Schenck. No wonder Englishmen try to recover the money they have lost through indulgence in these expensive luxuries by marrying rich American girls.

Gen. Robert Toombs has been talking about bis old associates. Of Gen. Joe Johnston he said: “Johnston would have been the most successful general of the late war if he had been let alone. Jeff Davis was continually moving h : m from one place to another.” Referring to Jefferson Uavis, Toombs said: “t‘e is contumacious and Incompatible, and a man of diminutive information.”

It is said that the sand used in the manufacture of mirrors is now used by a Paris company to make white bricks and blocks, said not to be injured by frosts, rain, etc., and to bo very light, the specific gravity being only 1.50 to 1.80 of cloy bricks. The sand is first strongly pressed by hydraulic power, and then baked in ovens at a very high temperature. The brick are almost pure silica.

Notice posted by a Deadwood husband in the postoffice: “My wife Sarah has Shot my ranche When I didn’t Doo a thing Too hur an’ I want it distintlv Understood that any man That takes her in an' keers for her on my account Will get himself pumped so Full of lead that Sum tenderfoot will locate him for a mineraF'clame. A word to the wise is sufficient, an* orter work on fools. P. Smith.”

Tunnel 5,000 feet long, that was constructed at least 900 years befoie Christian era, has been discovered on the island of Samos. It is mentioned by Herodotus, and was excavated to supply the old seaport with drinking water. It is completely preserved, and contains water tubes of about twentyfive centimetres in diameter, each one provided witli a lateral aperture for cleansing purposes.

A schoolmaster in lowa called his prettiest pupil to bis desk and asked her if she would marry him. She replied promptly that she would not. “If you were the last man on earth, and I was 40, instead of 16," she added. .“I wouldn’t take you.” Resuming his character of pedagogue, he decided that her language was disrespectful, and ferruled the hand which he could not get matrimonially. The girl now sues him for damages.

The Mudir of Dongola, in the Soudan, is a Blight, delicate man, with a pale, pensive face, lighted up by two large black, luminous eyes, which seem to be always looking in space, and from between which projects a preternaturally large nose, hooked like a vulture's f , beak. The effect of his extreme piety onltbe Mussulman population is very marked, and has enabled hhn to maintain himself in power almost within armstroke of the Mahdi He is only visible for a short time each day before public prayers. There are about 90,000 dwelling houses in Paris. A recent municipal law ordains that henceforth no flats shall he less than 8 feet high; that in the streets,2s feet wide the height of the houses must not exceed 50 feet, in streets between 25 and 32 feet w ido the

height must not exceed 50 feet,in streets between 32 and 65 feet the height must not exceed 60 feet, in streets above G 5 feet wide the house* must not exceed 65 feet, and no buildings are to haVe more than three stories, all included.

A temperance lecturer in London has given recently some curious statistics in regard to the amount expended in intoxicating iiqHflr. He estimated the annual average thus spent in the last ten years at $720,000,000. This gives an expenditure of $60,000,000 every month, of $15,000,000 every week, jpd of $25 every second, day and night There was 3,508,480 letters in the Bible, and if $205 was place on every letter this would represent the annual expenditure. The grain consumed by the brpwers and distillers is sufficient to provide four loaves of bread per week to every family in the United Kingdom. These certainly are starting facts.

The French Moniteur Universel, after remarking that the United States is the home of eccentricity, says that no church, bells are rung by hand in New York. “The Angelus is sounded by steam; night and morning the machine operates with the regularity of a clock for five minutes.” Another interesting pieee of information from the same trustworthy source is that when money is needed for a charity the eomeliest and most proper young ladies in a town ascend a platform, where the passers by may kiss them at asl a head. No one, however, must take more than ten kisses for his sl. “Even the busiest men of business snatch time to perform this act of gallant charity.”

A large number of married couples living in Rio de Sul, Brazil, awoke lately to find that their marriages had “been illegal. They were mostly German Protestants, and in the absence of clerics of their denominations they had resorted to ciyic marriages upon the assurance of an officer of the city that he could perform the ceremony legally. Meanwhile there is still an absence of proper clergymen- to perform the functions. The Catholic clergy will do nothing for them, nor does the government in any way intimate that it will relieve their distress. If only some of the philanthropic missionary societies would send out a parson, here is a chance for him to do good and pay his way in doing it.

The Countess of Walewska, once maid of honor to the Empress Eugenie, says the San Francisco Argonaut, anticipated Whistler’s “harmonies” in her dress, which was always black, and she believed that color showed off the beautiful white of her neck and shoulders anti the carnation of her cheeks. One day, owing to an accident at a hunt, this lovely and ingenious lady of honor was forced to keep her bed, but she received her friends all the same, and astonished them somewhat by wearing a loose poplum robe of black foulard silk, which covered her neck and arms, and pillow cases and sheets also of the same fabric. The coverlet was of a pale pink brocade, bordered with swan’s down.

A Sooth American traveler has discovered near the River Dramanta a little stream issuing from a hard metamorphic rock that washot and sticky. It is like a stream of thick petroleum. While engaged in examining this natural curiosity he came upon two small birds canght in the sticky substance at the edge of the stream; they were still alive, but upon releasing them both the feathers and the skin came off where they came in contact with the bituminous matter, so that he had to kill them to put an end to their sufferings. No doubt they had been taken in by the appearance of water which the stream presented and had alighted to drink, when they discovered their mistake too late. \ -

Speaking of the opening of tliq quail season in California, the San Francisco Bulletin says: “They are now so abundant that they throng the roadways. While rewards are offered by farmers in southern counties for killing this bird, which destroys much grain, the Alameda and Contra Co3ta farmers say the quail is useful to them. It attacks their grain only as a last resort, and chiefly subsists on insects. Their destruction of ants is of incalculable importance. The quail’s great foe is the wildcat. The latter animal is prolific in the counties named. A quail nesting will cover from fifteen to twenty eggs, and nearly every egg will hatch, 'they nest once a year, and during those periods the male is a most pugnacious defender of the mother and yoong. A man may almost strike him with a club. The wily wildcat, as large as four ordinary cats, will stretch himself out and put out his tongue; the male quail will approach and peck it, whereat the cat seizes his toothsome P«y.”

A bevy of girls were looking at a bridal trossean. “How exquisite!” “How lovely!” “How supremely sweet!” etc., ad nauseam, were the exclamations made. “You ought to be extremely bappy, Clara,” said one pf the girls to the bride elect. “I suppose I ought,” said Clara, discontentedly, “but papa won’t bring a newspaper reporter to look at them.” Chorus “What a shame \”-«~New York Sun.