Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1885 — The Consumption of Chocolate. [ARTICLE]

The Consumption of Chocolate.

As Indiana man baa patented a model for a straw house. The walls are to bo made of bales of straw or nav, and then plastered and bolted down. It is said to be preferable to brick and aa endurable. ■' A Brooklyn woman-has established a legal precedent by gaining a verdict for damages to property by the running of a steam motor in its vicinity. This is said to be the first case of that kind in the city of churches, and a large number of suits are liable to follow. The caterer justifies the use of the French bill of iare by English-speaking people by the crushing assertion that the majority of those who are capable of appreciating the dishes themselves are also able jfco understand the language adopted for their names. In other words, the man who thought he liked potato will find it more toothsome as a pomme de terre. The old injunction should be changed from “live and learn” to “learn French and enjoy living.”

There were 121 bank failures in the United States last year. Of this number eleven were National, seventy-sev-en private, twenty-two State and eleven savings banks. Nineteon of these failures are traceable to the fraud of bank officers, twenty-five of them resulted from unfortunate operations in stocks, disconnected from the element of fraud, and sixty-seven, or more than one-half of them, were due, either directly or indirectly, to some form of speculation.

“I was going down the street,” said Willie Smith to Justice Foot in a Chicago police court, “when a dog Tan at me, caught me by the leg, and tore my pants: I kicked the dog, and this man hit me and knocked file down.” “Your honor,” said Albert Stotzenback, the accused, “that was not my dog, it was a ‘bum’ dog that hangs around saloons on 3d avenue. He followed me on the street, and when the boy kicked him I hit him.” “According to your own story you think more of a ‘bum’ dog than you do of a human being. I’ll fine you $25 and costs.”

Lulu Hurst, the magnetic, has reached home after her winter campaign, and tells a Georgia newspaper man that she has seen all the reporters in the country since she left,and “they’re awful nice and kind." Any ambitions Indianapolis scribe who may hope from this remark that, perhaps, he made an impression upon her electric heart, will he chilled by her further comment that New York reporters in particular are “mighty nice ypung men,” but that of all places she has seen she would prefer to live in California. Evidently the “nicest” reporter is in the far, far West

“Thebe is an air of romance,” says the Boston Transcript, “about the Christian name of the young widow who has undertaken to avenge on O’Donovan Bossa the deeds of the London dynamiters. The name Yseult recalls the story of the guilty passion which gave to Biohard Wagner a theme for his music drama, ‘Tristan and Isolde,’ Yseult being but another spelling of the heroine's name, and the one that is adopted by the French. Ysolde and Ysonde are two other fashions of orthography followed by various reciters of the romance, and possibly there are a dozen other ways of spelling the name of the Irish princess."

Chicago Current: The recent decision of the Supreme Court of the Territory of .Utah, that Clawson must stay in jail, and the introduction in the North Carolina Legislature of a bill for an act making it a felony to teach the doctrine of polygamy, are evidences that the tide is against polygamy, and that Mormonism may at least be confined to the Territories —if the people act promptly enough. Some others of the Southern States should follow example of the North Carolinians. Meanwhile the Salt Lake Tribune never misses a day in the good fight against the monstrous evil. A Mexican hegira is still barely possible.

Of the'll,Boß marriages in New York city in 1884, ten were of colored men to white women, and one of a colored woman to a white man; Two men married for the fifth time, three men and two women for the fourth, 100 men and forty one women for the third, and 1,645 widowers and 1,270 widows of ...the first time remarried. Eleven bridegroom arid one bride were between 70 and6o years of age, sixteen bridegrooms and two brides between 65 and 70, and 59 bridegrooms and six brides between 60 and 66. The number of men who married under 20 was 218; that of women 2,919. The number of men who married between 20 and 25 years of age was 4,173; of women, 6,031; 3,795 men and 2,170 women married between 25 and 30 years of age.

Thrice votes closed all the saloons in an Arkansas County. A contemporary gives the details: "There is a statute that at each State election in Arkansas the question of license shall be submitted to the ballot If a majority of the voters bo not for licenses, than it is tw-

lawful for the county court to grant them. At the last election the question was overlooked inadvertently- It was takhn for granted, that by common consent license would be voted. The returns sh< wed three ballots in the county against license and none for. Thuff the anomaly of. three votes closing all the saloons in the county for two years is presented. There were thirty saloons m Hot Springs, which paid a revenue of $32,000 to the county and city. The matter was taken before the courts, but the saloon-keepers were defeated, and they must suspend business for the next two years.”

A visitor to the top of Monnt "Washington concludes that the weather is really cold up there. He was convinced by a walk along the railroad with wind-blowing at the rate of seventy miles an hour and the thermometer twenty degrees below zero. The temperature does not get lower than in many other places, but the wind blows with greater velocity, it is said, than at any other known spot in the world, and this makes the cold unbearable. A velocity of 180 miles an hour has been attained, while at Pike’s Peak, 8,000 feet higher, the greatest is 100 miles, and in New York forty-five miles is a heavy gale. Of course, the air has less power as the * density increases, but even with this reduction the cold is so intense that if any one covers every part of the body, leaving only the eyes exposed, these are soon coated with frost, which closes the lids and olten makes it almost impossible to see. The moisture of the breath freezes under the coverings of the face, and a frost bite is the consequence.

S. P. public"' 'printer and manager of the Government office in Washington, has made a report to Congress, giving the particulars of the doings of the concern for the last year. It is a ponderous pamphlet, showing a very liberal use of “printer’s ink” by the wise men of the two Houses of Congress. The cost of the work completed during the year for the Senate was $149,144, and for the House $276,477. The office employs on an average 2,500 men, whose pay-roll amounts for the year to $1,7G7,3G2, or $5,646.52 per day. The estimate for the year 1885 is $2,675,000. Of course to the large sums for printing completed for the Senate and House must be added the work done on the census reports and other large, orders in process of completion heretofore ordered, thus requiring the large amout of money last given. A very satisfactory account is given of the sanitary condition of this immense establishment. Mr. Hounds says: “Congress made a special appropriation. for this importont work, and I have to report a radical improvement for the better during the last year. There has been a marked decrease both in the sick-roll and the death rate among the employes, and the entire force feel gratified at the change and as a consequence prepared to render much more efficient service.

Chicago Current: If civilization must confront dynamite, why not do it with a better face? So far the claims of the criminals who wreak their small vengeancer have been rid culously greater than their achievements. They have said they would “blow up” Parliament ; they have ended with heaving a couple of torpedoes or cannon-fire-crackers, which tore a hole in a wooden floor and wounded a dozen people, some of whom actually carried the bl .zing contrivances, and yet escaped death. The big stained windows have been broken as ruthlessly as any c owd of small boys might have broken them. The damage is far less than attended the first “great explosion" in 1883, at the Government buildings, not far away. Men are handling dynamite all over the world; more workmen are accidentally killed by its agency each year than have ever been wounded through all the scheming of the assassins. The sensation caused in Ihe public mind by the explosions is out of all keeping with their consequence. As a fact, the dynamiters have failed. The world is not at their mercy; their dream is at an end. They probably know it, and are more unhappy than the most unthinking of their hoped-for victims. A sharp watch for dynamite* throwers, together with the failure of dynamite as a destructive agent, will soon lower the business below vitriolcasting. The moment the people look at the matter practically, that moment the villains’ occupation will be gone, for, when stripped of its fright and horror, no act of vandalism is more senseless and impotent

in 1879 25,000 bags of cocoa beans were imported into this country. Last year the number reached 55,000. The use of chocolate in confectionery is very extensive, and as a beverage it is gaining oh tea and coffee. We made last year 1.500,000 pounds, and use a ton of sugar a day. TJhe best cocoa beans come from Venezuela and Mexico, the cheapest from Ban Domingo. Only the finest sugars, mostly Havanas, can be used, as they must be ground. Most of the machinery is imported, though we have in use many improvements on the French models. The present tariff discriminates against American chocolates by taring sugar 2 cents a pound, and while foreign chocolates are admitted with only 2 cents a pound duty we have to pay 16 cents to enter French markets. —New York Tribune, v ' VT