Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1885 — A Late Discovery. [ARTICLE]

A Late Discovery.

S HoBT-3ioaTEDNESB, according to a recent paper by Mr. R. B. Carter, F. R. C. S-f has come into existence within historic time, and into prevalence almost within living memory, while it now affects at least ten per cent of England’s population. It is essentially a defect—bordering on 'disease—of civilisation. A Paris company is making white bricks of a very handsome appearance from the pure silica used in the manufacture of plate glass. They are lighter in weight than clay bricks, but are not porus, being subject to hydraulic pressure before the final baking process to which they aire subjected. Changes of climate have no effect on them. It was a chance remark that lead Henry Bessemer to his method of improving gun metal. After many experiments, and being sneered at as an enthusiast, iron that cost $35 a ton was turned into steel worth from $250 to S3OO. In fourteen years his experimental works, having returned fiftyseven fold, was sold for twenty-four times the subscribed capital, and his manufacture is estimated to be worth SIOO,OO©jQOO yearly. In spite of the annual Expenditure of over $730,000 tor.repairs and the building of new jails, Russia is much exercised how to find room for the evergrowing number of prisoners, who amounted in 1882 to 95,509, and in 1883 to 97,339. In Siberia great suffering is caused by ithe want of accommodation for 12,000 convicts distributed over the minino districts, especially as the enormous number of exiles crowd the houses «f correction. A New York critic says Miss Edith M. Thofaaas’ “song is a mesh of sweet growths, an arbor over which vines are luxuriously trailing, a little hill upon which her genius is standing tip-toe, and fluttering its wings.” Now, says the Norristovm Herald, if it were also a garden in which roses were blooming, and potatoes and turnips and cabbages and onions and other marketable vegetables were growing, her “song” would be in general demand at so much per bushel. Prof. E. C. Marshall : I have had occasion lately to read up in French everything that I could find on the subject of bridges. I discover that the French have more suspension bridges than any nation on the globe. Their engineers are putting up suspension bridges everywhero, and at least one of the structures approximates to the size of the Broklyn bridge. So numerous are such bridges in France that it is impossible to secure an accurate list of them on this side of tho water. Proff.shor Felix Adler: Man is brave, that is, he can overcome obstacles, woman is fair. “None but the brave deserve the fair,” and none but the fair deserve the brave. The woman who possesses, neither beauty of form and feature, nor beauty of character, is unsexed. We judge man by what he does, and woman by what she is. Only of late has it been admitted that woman has intellect, and is not merely a creature of sentiment. Man’s intellect is fitted for generalization, woman’s specialization. Before George Eliot’s real name was disclosed to tho public, Thackeray thought that her books were not written by a woman. Mrs. Oliphant was sure they were not written by a woman: Mrs. Carlyle conceived this writer to be a “man of middle age, with a wife, from w hom he got those beautiful feminine touches in his book, a good many children, and a dog that he has ns much fondness for as I have for my little Nero." Bat Dickens said: “If thoy originated with no woman, I believe that no man ever before had the fixfc of making himself mentally so like a woman since the world began.” Prof. Simon Newcomb, in reviewing the performances of tho “Georgia Won-' der Girl,” Miss Lula Hurst, in the current number of Science, says her success affords a striking example of the unreliability of human testimony respecting the phenomena of force and action. He points out that her manifestations were purely physical, and the resut es force being exerted under favorable conditions. Though ordinary observers were mystified, the 'character of the performance, according to Prof. Newcomb, was absurdly simple, and illustrates the credulity of believers in the movements of chairs, tables, and pianos without human agency. Of the gifts received by the University of Virginia since its establishment in 1819, amounting to $719,700, $653,600 has been contributed since the war. This total of $719,700 is exclusive of the gifts constituting part of the fixed endowment of the University yielding revenne which amounts to $282,600, all of which, except $2,600, has been also given since the war. Since the organization of the University, Virginia has become the dispenser of liberal education to the South and West. It has to-day more of its’ alumni in the Senate of the United States than hsa

■ ■ ■■■■ ■ ■»*■■ any other eollege in the Ution. About two hnndred of its almuni occupy professorial chairs, while many {others are conducting first-class accademies. s A Mormon Bishop told a friends of the writer of this, a few days ago, that he had suffered with the blue£ all day because of something one of his daughters had said to him. When asked to explain, he said: “You know my daughter Mary, the eldest child of my second wife. She is about the age of Lizzie, who is the daughter of my first wife. Well, this morning I was going with Mary over to Lizzie’s mother’s when she suddenly said: ‘Father, I wish I was Lizzie.’ I asked her why and reminded her that she was quite as bright find pretty as Lizzie. ‘lt is not that,* she said; ‘Lizzie's mother is yonr first wife.’ We did not speak again all the ways and I have had the bines ever since.” This is a true story all but the names.— Salt Lake City Tribune. Detroit Christian Advocate: The lates craze and nuisance, following in the wake ol the roller rink, is “progressive euchre,” which is defined as a card party at a private house, at which the ordinary game of euchre is played for prizes furnished by the hostess of the evening. “Progressive,” indeed—in the direction of the pit, whence it was inspired. It is gambling pure and simple-playing cards for a stake—introduced into the social circle with the attempt to make it respectable. It is astonishing that anyone who pretends to be a Christian should indulge in it or countenance it Besides being unchristian and thoroughly demoralizing in its effects, it is in plain violation of the statute laws of Michigan, which forbid playing with cards for money or any valuable, article whatsoever, under penalty of fine and imprisonment. Among the many monuments to Washington is one which every visitor to the Cape Verd Isles will remember as one of the most colossal and marvelous freaks of natural sculpture in existence. Along the further side of the harbor of San Vicente (the principal town) rises a bold ridge of dark-gray volcanic rock, the crest of which forms an esact likeness of Washington, lying face upward as if in sleep or death. The lfero’s large, bold features, the backward wave of the hair, the sweep of liis massive shoulders, and the very frill of his shirt are all produced on a gigantic Scale with a fidelity worthy of the stalactite formations of the Adelsberg Grotto of the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. This strange monument, sharply outlined against the deep, rich blue of the tropical sky, is one of tha first objects that meet one’s eye on approaching the island, and presents, with the boundless Ocean for its appropriate background, a tableau of such overpowering magnificence as might well drive any sculpture to despair. Rev, Dr. Irenasus Prime, of New York, has given woman’s suffrage a slap in the face, his objection ibo it beTng that held by so many/that it must serve to weaken the home circle. Says Dr. Prime, the subject under discussion being the marked increase in the number of divorces: “Woman’srights and the destruction of the old idea that the family had a head are doing much to uproot and sever the old marriage relations. It is impossible for a family to be run by a committee of two. If you are going to have committee rule, one must have the casting vote; and if not, there is endless dispute, and separation isinevitable. The only end of the struggle between the man and the wife is to get a divorce. These heresies of legislation in regard to woman’s suffrage and women's rights to property, independent of their husbands, are striking at the root of the divine revelation established in Eden. They destroy the family relation.” Dr, Prime undoubtedly has the Scriptures on his side, which favor the supremacy of the tyrant man in the family kingdom.l

I met him on Canal street, New Orleans, or, rather, he came up to me as I was leaning against a door-post, and asked: “Be yen from Illanoy?” “N o —Michigan." “That’s too bad. I wanted to find somebody from Illanoy.” “Broke? 1 ' “No, not yet. See here, I’m pizenly bothered." ‘.‘Well?” “Well, I’ve bin a hired man in Illanoy for the list thirteen years, gettin’ about sl6 a. month and board. I’ve alias looked xipbn board as wuth about a dollar a week, but ” " .■. „ “Well?” “I just kinder filled up back here at the restaurant-—just about half a square meal—just ’nuff to pitch hay or hoe corn on for an hour, and what dye ’spose the figger was?” Oh, about 70 cents. “Seventy pumpkins 1 It was $1.30 or Fm a sinner- Say 1” “Yes.” “That’s $3.90 a day for fodder, or about SIOO a month, A hundred a month is SI2OO a year. Thirteen times that is about $15,000. “Yes." “Say, 111 be gosh-baiked and forever stepped on if I haven't been one o' these darned aristocrats—a bloated bondholder—a gosh-fired monopolist all these thirteen years without knowing itl Tucked away $15,000 worth of fodder! Woosh! but I want to meet somebody from Illanoy and pint the finger of financial , independence at him.”— Quad. s _ _ Rios with the spoils of titte —the sword of Bunker Hill. 1 *