Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 January 1886 — Working Up a Lively Trade. [ARTICLE]

Working Up a Lively Trade.

Ordinary army signaling. Dr waving flags or torches, can transmit only ten words or so a minute, spelled ont by letters; bnt an adaptation of the Morse telegraphic alphabet, now generally employed, has more than doubled this rate of speed. yPeter McGeoch, the,groat stock and grain operator of Milwaukee, is a burly, big-bOned and broad-shouldered Scotchman, who did not come over till he was 20 years old. He formerly worked on his father’s farm at Waterloo, lowa, and having the best head in the family, hanlod the wheat to market and did the selling. Charles H. Tweed, who died at Pittsburgh, had peculiar views. Among other things in his will he said: “No flowers at the funeral, crape on the door, or monument or stone to mark the grave. The first is cheap respect, the second heathenish, *nd the last I cannot afford. What money there is must be devoted to useful purposes.” Mr. VandehiHlt will be much missed at the Metropolitan Opera-House, in which ho took much more than the -mere interest of a stockholder. At the benefit performance giveD to Mr. Henry E. Abbey, at the Metropolitan, Mr. Vanderbilt sent a check for $4,000 for the use of his box. He had also, it ,is said, assisted Mr. Abbey at other times, though to what extent and on what occasions are not made known.

Mr. Buskin is certainly frank, whatever else he may be. In the fifth installment of his autobiography—a chapter which he calls “Parnassus pnd Plynlimnj-on”—he tells ns that he did not like his cousin, Margaret, though she was clever and witty, because she had a twisted spine, and adds: “I never liked invalids, and don’t to this day; and Margaret used to wehr her hair in ringlets, which I couldn’t abide the sight of.” At the time of the great railroad strike in 1877 Mr. Yanderbilt made a plain business statement to the emyloyes on his roads, and then ordered the regular 10 per cent, reduction. Of the 12,000 employes only 500 expressed dissatisfaction. They protected the property, and August 1 the millionaire manager sent a gratuity of SIOO,OOO for pro rata distribution among them, with the announcement. “Your pay will be increased the moment the business of the country will justify it.”

The following elevating figures in tho report of the Secretary of the Senate are for the benefit of the country’s taxpayers. It is a leaf from the expense account: lease Ajiolliuaris water ...... $7.50 1 ease Apollinaris water 11.00 233 pounds granulated sugar 19.00 1 box lemons i 4.00 4 dozen ginger ale 5.40 On the opposite page are the items: 100 three-grain quinine pills $ 3.00 1 gallon bay rum.... 3.50 1 pound of Glauber salts f 05 gallon caster oil .....A.... 1.00 1 pound A10e5................. 40 Impound sulphur 10 3 barrels soft soap. :.. 13,50 On the next page is another item for three more barrels of soft soap, while the items 200 quinine pills appear frequently through the report.

A case of petrification is reported from the town of Topsfield, Mass. The sexton has been engaged in removing" nodies from an old part of the cemetery to the new,'and the body of Israel Gallop was removed in the ordinary way, but it was found impossible to raise the body of his wile, who was buried by his side, and a plank was put down on an inclined plane, and the coffin in this way was drawn to the surface. A hasty examination showed that the body, which had been buried thirty years, had become petrified, the eyes and a portion of the nose only -howing signs of decay, the rest, even to the folds of her robe, being changed to stone. The Shermans live in a very comfortable house on K street, Washington City. The house is furnished throughout plainly and substantially, without any Attempt at decorative display. Upon the walls are a number of pictures painted by Mrs. Sherman. She has had a fairly good training as artist. Sha has copied a number of ioted pictures. Some of the best of ahese copies hang in the Senator’s house. Mrs. Sherman is tall, precise in her manners, plain in her looks, but thoroughly experienced in Washington social ways. She is very much like her husband in that she is reserved and angular. The two have never had any children. Miss Lizzie Sherman, their niece, and the daughter of Judge Sherman, of Ohio, was nearly adopted by. the Senator. After she became a young lady she spent all of her winters with the Senator and his wife. Don Camron, who subsequently married her. met her at the Sherman house. ; They have another niece now living with them, it is understood, they have formally adopted. 1 Thn survival' of Mrs. Hendricks suggests the fact that nearly all the prominent actors 4a the late war, whether soldiers or statesmen, before their wives. Mr. Hendricks was one of the members of the Senate from

1563 to 1869. His * two great Democratic compeers during the latter part qJ . his term, Messrs. Thurman and Bayard, are both living, and so are their wives. Mr. Lincoln’s wife lived twelve or fifteen years after his dramatic death in April 18(55, and died at aer old home in Spiingtield, Illinois, the more unfortunate, perhaps, for being so long a widow. The wife of Mr. Lincoln’s great Democratic opponent in Illinois and competitor for the Presidency in 1860, Stephen A. Douglas, is living with her second husband. Mr. Douglas died at the opening of the war. The wife of John C. Breckinridge, another candidate for the Presidency in 1860, and still later a leading General in the Confederate army, is still living at the old family home in Lexington, Kentucky. Gen. Breckinridge himself died twelve years ago. Gens. McClellan and Grant, the first and last commanders of the Army of the Potomac, have but recently died, both leaving widows. Gen. Lee’s wife, though a confirmed invalid during the entire war, survived her husband a short time. Mrs. Stonewall Jackson i 8 still living. So is Mrs. Gen. Thomas and Mrs. Gen. Custer. Mrs. Andrew Johnson was confined to her bed during most of the time her husband was President, and was for several years after; but she was the last to die. The tragic story of who was a leader in the House of Eepresentatives during the war, is still fresh in the minds of everybody. His widow is a comparatively young woman and lives in Ohio. Gens. Sherman and Hancock married before the war, and their wives are still with them. Gen. Sheridan was the last of the war heroes to marry. He looks to be 60 and is not far from that, but his wife is both a young and beautiful woman.

A desperate battle occurred recently between a Black Hawk stallion and a mountain lion in Wyoming Territory. The stallion wa3 owned by Charles H. Ferguson, a well-known hunter, camped on the banks of a tributary of the Wind Eiver. He had selected a small bunch of cottonwoods as his temporary home. These gave him both shelter and firewood. A little distance from the camp, there stood an enormous cottonwood, apart from all other, beneath which was picketed the stallion. •At night, Ferguson was aroused from a sound sleep by a neigh from the stallion. The sound seemed to be one of rage rather than alarm., and hastily arising, Ferguson issued from his tent and looked in the direction of his horse. The animal was standing in the full light of a bright moon and seemed to be intently regarding an object in the branbhes of the tree. As Ferguson’s gaze followed that of his horse, the branches were violently agitated, a wild yell was heard, a dark object hurled itself through the air, and the horse had an enormous mountain lion for a rider. The horse sprang madly in the air, uttering a scream little inferior to that of the lion in shrillness and savagery. Though he returned to the ground with a tremendous concussion, he failed to shake the lion from his firm position. Dark spots of blood now appeared on the stallion’s shoulders and neck. The lion was tearing his way to the jugular. The horse apparently realizing his full danger, sprang straight into the thick tangle of boughs. The lion was torn from his bloody seat and cast backwark with great violence. The >• stallion passed through and turned to confront his foe in the open space beyond. The lion speedily recovered himself and sprang once more into the branches, and thence made another leap toward the horse; hut he missed his aim. The lion began a series of circles nearer and nearer to the horse, and finally made another leap. With the rapidity of thought the stallion changed front, and his hind feet, heavily shod, struck his assailant full in the breast. The stricken animal rolled over and over, giving vent to yells of pain and rage. Once more he made an attack. This time the animal rushed to death. The heels of the powerful steed were planted fairly between the green eyes, and the mountain lion’s skull Was crushed. It had been fractured from side to side. A few convulsive struggles,. a stiffening of the powerful limbs in death, and the stallion s'tood victor over the corpse of the lion. Ferguson took the skin of the lion home as a trophy.

“See that chap there?” remarked the cop on the corner. The reporter saw him. “That ’ere chap ’is making good money buying things. He does nothing but buy. Never sells. He is workin’ for a gang of fakirs. He makes tne rounds of a dozen or fifteen of them and watches his chance to do ’em some good. S’posin’ a fakir has around him a little crowd. He talks, .an’ the fellers jist listen. The more he talks an’ talks the more they listen, but that is all they do. Then the Chappie there steps up. He’s been listenin’ too, ye see, but he does something else. He takes the patent lamp-chimney cleaner or whatever yon call it, in his two hands an’ looks it over. Then lie says it’s a good thing, buys one and marches off. Fellers are like sheep—thevTl all jump if the bell-wether will only git herself over the bars. For a few minutes the fakir has a lively trade, ye same chappie buying suthin’ of some other fakir on a corner.”— Chicago Herald » Improve your mind and your mind will improve you.