Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1885 — GENERAL. [ARTICLE]

GENERAL.

The Burlington IJaickeye prints an interview with Hon. James Harlan, presiding Judge of the Court of Alabama Claims, relative to the recent decision of the First Comptroller of the Treasury disallowing all the minor expenses of the court. Judge Harlan says that the Comptroller’s decision is not only in conflict with the acts of Coqgress creating the court and prescribing its duties and with all precedents in that and other courts, but that it will, if sustained, result in necessarily prolonging the work of the court and increasing the aggregate expense. ... .English capitalists will build a railway from Winnipeg to Hudson’s Bay if it can be done for $25,000 per mile. Engineers are now making surveys and estimates. Advices from Panama state that .the notorious Don Pedro Prestan, who ordered Colon set on fire, was executed in Aspinwall. in accordance with the sentence passed upon him by the court-martial. Up to h s list moment Prestan had a pft'iest by his side. When upon the scaffbld he spoke a few words, calling upon the Colombians to believe him innocent of such an atrocious crime.... The losses by fire in the United Stales and Canada during August. reached $5,500,000, the average for the month named for ten years being $7,000,000. For eight months of this year the fire waste foots up $65,500,000... .The New England Homestead announces that the onion crop of the country will be short, but that prices will be more remunerative than for two years past. ....Riel and Dumont, the rebel leaders, were toasted at a reeent banquet in Ontario, given in honor of an officer of the Sixty-fifth Regiment. “The business failures in the United States and Canada during the past week numbered 180, against 196 for the corresponding week of 1884. Bradsti'eet’a, in its weekly review of the trade outlook, says:

The general business situation as reported by wire to Brudstreel’s continues quite as favorable as last week. The greatest activity is mainly confined to print cloths, oleached cottons. wool, and boots and shoes, ,but the feature of the week is found in the improvement noted in Eastern iron markets. The inquiry for pig-iron has increased, and one sale at New York is noted of 7,000 tons of forge at sls, for which $14.5)) had been offered. While none in the trade admits the likelihood of a boom, all appear satisfied that there is a better business in sight. Dealers in Scotch pig have advanced prices 50 cents per ten, and orders have been cabled in, some instances for shipment to ihis port. Steel rails for moderatesized lots may be had at S2B and $2.8.50, while smaller quantities command S2O. No large orders extending in delivery beyond Jan. 1 will be taken at these figures. These are very encouraging features. Scotch pig at Glasgow, is Si pence and 1 shilling higher, with some speculative buying. The movement of wool at all seaboard markets has been liberal. Prices are firm and gradually advancing. The six weeks' gain is sustained, ah I production is in excess of that at the like period last vear. The movement of dry goods from agents and job'bers' hands at the East has been free, and previous advances are fully sustained. August - sales of dry goods at Boston are heavier than those in that month of IKB4. The movement of general merchandise, affected as it is in the lines noted, is regarded as seasonably active. Cotton mills at Utica, N. Y., which have been idle for a month, have resumed operations with one thousand hands.,,. Colonel W. P. Rend, a large coal operator, who has just returned to Chicago from the Hocking Valley, says the advance demanded by the coal miners in that region on the Ist of September has been generally conceded, and that operations will immediately be resumed in most of the mines! He expresses the opinion that unless wages are speedily raised throughout the coal-produc-ing districts of the country there will be strikes, lockouts, and serious labor disturbances! The oatlooktor an early rerival in the coal industry he pronounces very hopeful.