Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1886 — Page 7

The Republican. RENSSELAER. INDIANA. W. E. MARSHALL. ~ - - Pubmshd.

Edwin and Matthew Arnold are no relation whatever to each other, and are much annoyed at being so often mistaken for each other. In plain language, the two men detest each other. Matthew calls Edwin a poetaster and Philistine. Edwin styles Matthew an egotist and pedagogue.

<, A Syracuse paper mentions a remarkable historical fact, to the effect that Commodore Vanderbilt once shook hands with an engineer on the New York Central road, and remarked: “I am not ashamed to shake hands with such a man as you are.” For the benefit of generations yet unborn it is to be regretted that no report was made of what the engineer said.

A Kensington firm sends out a circular offering titles and decorations at low prices and on the installment pay plan. Pijipal decorations are the cheapest, and Austrian the dearest. The plices range from $4,500 for a barony to $15,000 for a dukedom. Our Detroit electric light men find little inducement to make such purchases; the returns are not as good as those from Aidermen.

Venerable mail-carriers seem to be not altogether uncommon in Sullivan County, New York, where Fredrick Richards, who is 92 years old, and who carried the mail on a fifteen-mile trip for sixty years, recently gave up his route, and it was taken by Adam Linklepaugh, 82 years old, who is now carrying the mail there. Richards has twin sisters, Mrs. Betsey Brazee, and Mrs. Catharine Ryder, both living at Richmondville, Schoharie County, New York, at the age of 90 years.

Mr. Garrett, of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, has good looks, good health, good digestion, one hundred pairs of trousers, a million-dollar dwelling, a big railroad and telegraph line, and several millions of dollars. Still he is not happy. His neighbor on Mount Vernon place, Baltimore, with whom a lawsuit is pending over some trifling obstruction, threatens, if he loses it, 4o turn his elegant house and grounds into a colored orphan asylum. And his name is Jones.; Such is the Irony of fate.

A cobrespondent of the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal tells of * remarkable result of the use of steam as a disinfectant of ships. The vessel io be treated was made tight fore and aft, and the steam turned on for the requisite time. The hold was found to be in good condition after the cleansing, and the disinfectants entered the cabin. But here they discovered that the fine furniture and cabinet work had fallen apart and lay in a comprehensive heap on the floor . The steam had melted the glue.

George Bancroft, the historian, delivered his eulogy of Abraham Lincoln before Congress and the officers of the national government just twenty years ago. Congress adopted a joint resolution of thanks to Mr. Bancroft, copied almost ""Verbatim from that passed when John Quincy Adams delivered the oration on Lafayette. When the addrsss was printed Mr. Bancroft insisted on having the title page state that it had been delivered before “the Congress of America,” instead of “the Congress of the United States of America.”

A correspondent of the New York Journal of Commerce calls attention to the effect of the laws of some Northern States prohibiting the killing qf bobolinks. This bird breed in the Northern States, and in the fall migrate southward. Known as the reed bird in Pennsylvania and the rice bird at the South, the bobolink is a great and highly-prized article of food, is hunted by sportsmen, killed in thousands, plenty in the markets. Thus he is protected at the North for the benefit of the Middle and Southern States. The same is true of woodcock.

Wonderfully sweet and fresh is the description in Mr. Tennyson’s new volume of poor Molly Magee, whose lover, Danny O’Boon, strayed into a bog one night and was not heard of for forty years when his body was fished out of the bog unchanged by its long soaking: •Oeh, Molly Magee, wid the red o’the rose an' the 1 white o’ the May, An’ yer hair as black as the night an' yer eyes as bright as the <’ay; Achora! yer lasts little whisper was sweet as the lilt of a bird; Acushla f ye set mo heart batin' tn music wid “ ivery word. An'sorra the queen wid her • scepter in such an illegant lian’; An’ the fall of yer fcot in the dance was as light as snow on the lan’.”

In receiving visitors the President has peculiar habits in the management, of his arms and hands. When he is pleased or contented to listen, he holds his hands about six inches apart, with the back part of his hand against his coat The fingers generally are quiet; but if they begin to work or contract, he is growing tired.' Then he will shift from one foot to the other. If the man bores bin) the arms gradually come forward. The move is gradual; but if tljo infliction continues the hands fall Jo the side—thumbs in. If still the visiter persists in staying, the arms go out

and the thumbs beat against his side. Then is the time for disappearing. The new Tay bridge, to take the place of the one where the great horror occurred, when completed will be rather more than two miles long, its cost between £600,000 and £700,000, and some 21,000 tons of new ironwork will be used in addition to the sidegirders of the old bridge. The eightyfive openings which form the total length will increase in span from fiftysix feet near the shore to 245 feet at the center of the bridge, which will be some seve’nty-six feet above the water. Another curious piece of information is that if the 3,500,000 rivets which will be used in the work were laid lengthwise they would cross the broad river more than 100 times.

Crater Lake is thus described in a petition that is being numerously signed in Oregon to make a national reservation of the wonder: “The surface of the lake is 6,200 feet above sea level,and it is aboutjeight miles long and six miles wide. It contains a circular island 600 feet high, on which is found an extinct crater which is ninety feet deep and 475 feet in diameter. In another portion of the lake is found a conical-shaped rock, which is perpendicular, and rises to an altitude of 2,200 feet above the water's surface. Other rocks of remarkable form and elevation towor high above the lake. The lake walls are nearly perpendicular, and vary in altitude from 1,000 to 2,000 feet.” . •

The London Athenaeum states that the story of Goldsmith’s arrest by his landlady and Johnson’s sale of the “Vicar of Wakefield” are in danger. It is impossible that this account, received from Johnson himself, should not be substantially true; yet, in his introduction to Mr. Stock’s new sac-simile of the first edition, Mr. Austin Dobson shows that it will have to be reconciled with certain inconvenient facts. He holds that the book, as early as the 28th of October, 1762, became rhe property of three persons, one of whom was Benjamin Collins, the Salisbury printer. This exonerates Mrs. Fleming, Goldsmith’s. Islington landlady, from her traditional asperity, as Goldsmith, at that date, had not gone to Islington; and it fixes some time anterior to October, 1762, for the composition of the book, which was a point hitherto in some obscurity.

There are forty-five men in Congress, only one of whom is a Senator; who are 40 years of age or less. Thb youngest Representative is Mr. La Follett, of Wisconsin, aged 28. Just above him in age is Mr. Ward, of Chicago, who is 29. ' Mcßae, of Arkansas, is 34. Hopkins, of Illinois, is 39. Thomas, of Illinois, is the same. Four Indiana members are under 40. Taulbee, cda .Kentucky, is 34. McAdoo, of New Jersey, is 32. Belmont, of New York, is 34. Pulitzer, of New York, is 38. Blanchard of Louisiana, Maybury of Michigan, Tarney of Michigan, Nelson of Minnesota, Laird of Nebraska, Stabluecker of New York, Reid of North Carolina, Hemphill of South Carolina, and Taylor of Tennessee are 36. The youngest Senator is Kenna, of West Virginia, 37. Next is Riddleberger, of Virginia, 41, and the third is Aldrich, of Rhode Island, 44. The two oldest men in Congress are Senators Morrill and Payne, born in 1810. Mr. Waite, of Connecticutt, was born in 1811, and is the oldest Representative. Mr. Eddridge, of Michigan, was born in 1813, Singleton of Mississippi and Kelley of Pennsylvania in 1814, Senator Sawyer of Wisconsin and Mr. Plumb of Illinois in 1816.

Experiments lately made in London to determine the number of animal organisms in the drinking-water used in that city have produced interesting, not to say alarming, results. It was learned that in water taken from the Thames River no less than 1.500 microorganisms existed to the cubic centimetre. The West Middlesex water contains not quite so much animal life. That taken from chalk wells is worse. It is not assured that these micro-or-ganisips are fatal, but there is at least a suspicion in the case. The inference is that the fewer the organisms the less chance there is that some of them arc of a dangerous type. When they rise above a certain number there is a possibility that some of them are the veritable germs of zymotic disease. Two methods of testing water are now applied —one the detection of organisms by the use of gelatine and a process of “cultivation,” the other by determining hoiv much oxygen the water will consume. The oxygen test is considered a particularly good one, as animal life’ requires oxygen while vegetable matter yields up that gas. The examinations made are at least interesting, and it is perhaps in this field that we shall find some day the source of many dreaded diseases.

The Gulf Stream.

•Some fresh information about-the Gulf Stream is given by a Boston scientist. It is a stream of warm bine water hot more than fifty fathoms deep, and it flows due east at a rate that would take it to England withinloo days. Oft Cape Hatteras thia north* ward-flowing stream is in the form of a fan, its three warm bands spreading out over the Atlantic surface an aggtega’e breadth of 167 miles, while two cooler bands of an aggregate breadth of fifty-two miles are interposed between them. y- '■ <>. • 'I. ' ‘

CONGRESSIONAL TALK.

Interesting Debate in the House On the Hoar Bill Passed r ~T~ by the Senate. - rhe Silver Question iA" the Senate — Messrs. Brown and Maxey Favor Coinage. Presidential Succession. Mr. Caldwell, of Tennessee, called up the Hoar Presidential-succession bill in the House, snd stated that in reporting this neasure, had not dealt with indifference or disrespect with other propositions before it. There were many measures proposed that would more properly meet all possible or imaginary oxigensies thon the one nOw reported, but they nil required a constitutional amendment before they could become laws, and” ’ a constitutional amendment involved a delay which would ill accord with the reasonable anxiety which the great body of the people felt. There were many exigencies which the pending measure did not cover, but the present exigency it completely covered. It was a temporary bridge thrown across a chasm in order to meet public demand, and would be followed in due time by an enduring structure over which a loiig line of Republican-Democratic Presidents might march in unbroken succession. Mr. Cooper, of Ohio, who prepared the minority report, protested against the general principle of the bill—against the idea of vesting in the person who occupied the Presidential chair the power to perpetual® the succession, by naming his successor. He was profoundly doubtful of the constitutionality of a provision which would vest the Presidency upon a man appointed by an outgoing administration. He befieved it to be in violation, not only of the spirit and letter of the Constitution, but of the spirit out of which the Constitution rose; and was unwise legislation, because it tended to widen the space between the President and the people. If there were,defects in the present law they should be remedied by carefully considered legislation. What was worth while for the American Congress to do, was worth doing well. He could see uo exigency which required red-hot haste in passing this measure. Mr. Eden, of Illinois, defended the bill against Adverse criticism, and pointed out wherein it was an improvement over the existing law. The presept measure would preserve the country fronranarchy in oases of trouble arising in the matter of the Presidential succession. Mr. McKinley, of Ohio, gave notice of a substitute which he would offer for the bill. This substitute preserves the law of 1792, with the addition of a provision that for the purpose of having a Speaker of the House of Representatives continually in office Congress shall convene on the 4th of March next succeeding the ejections of Representatives of Congress; and whenever a vacancy exists either in the office of President pro tern of the Senate or the Speaker of the House the President shall convene the House in which the vacancy exists for the purpose of electing a presiding officer. Mr. Potets, of Kansas, regarded the pending measure as unconstitutional, inexpedient', and impotent. But for these faults it was a pretty J fair bill. He asserted that Congress had no power to enact a law which violated the intent of the Constitution, and which in effect declared an appointive officer should act as President. It was a flagrant usurpation of the power vested in the people. The best on the subject, in his opinion, was the bill introduced in 1867. providing for the meeting of Congress on the 4th of March each alternate year. That would amply provide against any break in the line of succession. Mr. Seney, of Ohio, believed that the Presidential succession under existing law was at best doubtful and uncertain. He earnestly advocated the passage of tlfe pending measure,, maintaining that it would remove many dan-' gers from the path of the Presidential succession. v, Mr. Bowell, of Illinois, characterized the bill as a crude one, and suggested that if the presiding officer of the Senate was of the same party as the Executive there would not be the haste to amend a law which had stood for nine-ty-four years. The strongest objection to the bill, in his opinion, was that it permitted the party in power to perpetuate that power for an indefinite number of years, as admitted by the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Caldwell). Never before had the American people beenpresented with such a temptation to crime, such a temptation to anarchy, such a temptation to revolution.

The Dollar of the Fathers. In the Senate Mr. Brown called up Mr. Beck’s silver resolutien and addressed the Senate on it. The officers of the Treasury, he said, should treat all public creditors alike ; if they paid the bondholders in gold iWoue, they should pay the' laborer in gold alone. As to the accumulation of silver dollars in the Treasury, Mr. Brown insisted that it was the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to ; pay them out to the public creditors whenever 1 anything was due, and if that did not dispose of them, he should call in enough bonds' on which' the people are paying interest to absorb the silver dollars, and so stop the interest payments. If the public creditors were paid 30,000,000 or -40,0tM),Q00 of silver doilars their endeavor would be to keep up the value of silver; if paid in gold alone their endeavor would be to depreciate the value of silver—to make it represent less property. If it were said that it was not honest'to pay them in silver, on the ground that the silver dollar was not an honest dollar, Mr. Brown would reply tin t it was always honest to pay a debt in the very currency which the creditor, by his contract, had agreed to take. The creditors had secured several successive changes in the contract, and the contract as it now stands, was that the bondholders should be paid in gold dollars or silver dollars, at the convenience of the Treasury. Tnough they had thus agreed to take payment in either gold or silver, they were being paid in gold alone; while everybody else was paid in silver. Tliis was neither fair dealing nor common honesty. Mr. Brown advocated the Issuance of silver to represent the silver in the Treasury. Every surplus gold and silver dollar, he said, net part of the necessary Treasury reserve, should be put into circulation by a gold or silyer certificate. Instead of having too much much silver coin, business would be much improved if we he,d more of it in circulation in the form of paper certificates. If the national banks attempt to practically demonetize silver.said Mr. Brown in conclusion,'and if the officials who now represent the people in the different departments of the Government will not take the matter in hand, then the people, at their recurring ‘ elections, should take it in hand and fill all the departments of Government with men who will apply the corrective and forfeit the charters of such banks as abuse their privileges. Mr. Maxey followed on the same subject. He said the raid on silver was a European raid, and if successful would inflict incalculable injury on the United States. The bugbear of silver, so terrifying to the European moneychangers, had no , terror for the American people. The people of the South were not grievously burdened with silver 4 or anv other money, but if they should by chance find themselves hampered by a great weight, of silver they could exchange it for paper certificates, which, when based on coin, dollar for dollar, were better than coin for active use. Mr. Maxey expressed himself as utterly opposed to an irredeemable paper currency, and declared a fluctuating currency inconsistent with healthy trade, while a sound currency, based on the precious metals and convertible into coin, was a blessing to civilization.. The silver advocates, he contended; repelled the .imputation that they wanted to. take any advantage of their creditors by paying a dollar debt with an 80-cent ‘ dollar. A fouler lie had never been uttered against a brave and industrious people. The people knew that the fall of silver was the result of' a conspiracy of combined capital to destroy silver as a money metal; and the gamblers were but reaping the fruits of their own folly. The suspension of silver Coinage was but another name for the total stoppage of the coinage, and such suspension or stoppage would be fraught with most serious consequences, to the people. What we needed in our dealings with the bondholders, Mr. Maxey insisted, was a strong, vigorous enforcement of the contract made with them.

Miss-Cleveland always speaks other brother as “ the President.” Alphonse Daudet is getting ready to write a life of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Bar Association of New York recommend to the Legislature of that State the passage of a mamage-license law. William McCoy died at Nashville, Tenn., at the age of 105 years. His wife survives him, at the age of 99 Danbury, Conn., malms one-fourth of all the hats wdrn in the Ignited States. It turns out hourly on an average 1,313 hats. Prince Bismarck is the first Protestant that has ever received the decoration of the Order of Christ. The badge is worth £6OO.

The Lily.

The Lily, or fleur-de-lis, has Jong been regarded as the flower emblematic of France. From the of the Merovingian dynasty it has been employed. among signs of royalty. The great seals of Frederic Barbarossa, of Edward the Confessor, and other monarchs, show the fleur-de-lis either on the point of the scepter or on the crown; many noble families of France, Germany, and Italy bear it on their signet. Louis VIL, le Jeune. appears to have been the first King of France who placed it in his arms, and irom that time it became the hereditary armorial bearing of the Capets. Innumerable fleur-de-lis covered the royal vestments and the orillamme or banner. Philippe 111. reduced the number to three, to suit the triangular shape of the shield. ” Guillim’s Display of Heraldry, folio edition, date 1724, is a quaint old book, reprinted and revised from former editions. He has something to remark on every flower used in heraldry, but not always anything that is interesting save to students of that particular science. Of the Lily he has somewhat to say; the Rose and the Lily are the flowers most often borne in coats of arms. Guillim savs:

“Of all other the fleur-de-lis is of most esteem, having been from the first bearing the charge of a regal Escutcheon, originally borne by the Kings of France; through Tract of Time hath made the bearing of them more vulgar; even as purple was in ancient Times a Wearing only for Princes, which now hath lost that Prerogative through Custom.” At the time of the first Restoration, that of Louis XVIII., in 1814, certain citizens of Paris were called the Chev-liers-de-Lis, and carried a small silver lily on a white button, hanging from the buttonhole. This was not an Order of knighthood, but a mark of fervent royalists. Every one holding any office under the restored monarchy was at first compelled to wear the lily, but when the early excitement wore off the sign of it disappeared, after an existence of only two years. The flame Susan or Shushan, signifies in Hebrew-, Lily. In Longfellow’s little poem called Flower-de-Luch, he addresses the “beautiful lily.” the “Iris, fair among the fairest,” as “dwelling by still rivers,” as “borne to the purple,” and as “winged with the celestial azure.” It is also called asphodel; in his LotusEaster, Tennyson says that the happy dead In Elysian valleys dwell. Resting weary limbs at lest on beds of asphodel.”

Owl Hunting.

will be news to many people that can see by daylight, but it is a fact, nevertheless. I believe, writes a New York Times correspondent, that the screech-owl, the long-eared owl, and the one or two other species are the only members of the family that are blinded by the sunlight. The others, among them the hoot-owl, the snowyowl, the hawk-owl, and the short-eared owl, are all sharp-sighted, both by day and night When you know how to hunt owls it will be no trouble for you to find them, for they are found everywhere. For instance, the short-eared owl is a great mouse hunter in wheat stubble. He is among the first of the family of winter owls that come down from the North to forage in this latitude. Of all owls, he gives the most sport to the hunter. There is a piece of wheat Stubble beyond this old clearing. lam almost certain to flush a flock or two Of these birds there, for they frequently hunt in flocks. If you would like to ■mjoy a new sensation in hunting, walk nlong with me and help me beat the Stubble.” The field was but a short distance away. The owl hunters stationed one of us on one side of the stubble and the other one on another side, with directions to “keep a sharp eye out, as we would be surprised to see how a Short - eared owl flushed.’’ The hunter; with his gun ready, walked slowly about in the stubble. Presently three large birds rose from the ground a good gunshot from him. As white and silent as ghosts, and as swift as a shadow, they glide away a few feet over the stubble. The owl hunter fired and one of the birds fell. We did not get a shot at either, although near enough, so quickly had the strange birds appeared out of the stubble and quickly flashed out of view. This was indeed” a sensation in hunting, and plainly and exciting bne too.

Fessenden and Clifford.

An elderly citizen of Portland, Maine, remembers an interesting hearing in the Municipal Court in the year 1855, when Neal .Dow was prosecuted for violating the Maine Liquor law. Some of Mr. Dow’s tenants had been selling liquors, and he was prosecuted for letting his buildings to them. Henry Carter was the ffudge who heard the complaint. Nathan Clifford, afterward Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, appeared for the prosecution and William Pitt Fessen len for the defense. It was claimed in defense that the prosecution was malicious, and Mr. Fessenden worried his antagonist unmercifully. The situation was the more interesting because .Fessenden had just been elected to the United States Senate over Clifford. “I suppose,” said Clifford, witheringly, after one of Fessenden’s tart rejoinders—“l suppose these are Senatorial manners.” “At any rate,” answered Fessenden, “they are better than would-be Senatorial manners.”

The Retort Courteous.

Blifkins felt focetipus the other morning, so when he met his neighbor Smith on the street talking with the new minister he gave his salutation: “Say, Smith, wnen did you get out?” “Get out from where?” grunted Smith. . . “The house pf correction, of course; ha! ha 1 ha!” chirruped Blifkins. “Well, they let me out just as soon as I finished whitewashing your cell,” grpwled Smith, and Blifkins went round the corner. — Bopton Post. i 11 ' ’yThe Island of Jersey, the home of the famous breed of cattle bearing that name, contains only 26,000 acres and yet it supports 60,000 people and 2,000 head of cattle. f .

TEUTONIC CUPIDITY.

Germany Seizes Upon the Samoan Islands and Annexes Them to Her Empire. Arbitary Action of Bismarck’s Consul— American and British Consuls Protest. [London dispatch.] Intelligence has been received here that Germany has seized the Islands of Samoa in the Pacific Ocean. The King and his chiefs were insulted, and finally fled, A force of marines were landed from the German war ship Albatross. The German Consul then hauled down the Samoan flag and ran up the German colors in its stead. The Samoans threaten to make war on the Germans. The American and British Consuls protested against the action of the Germans. In February, 1885,. the announcement was made that Germany had annexed these islands, and that its action was in pursuance of a secret agreement between the Governments of Germany and England. The officials at the Colonial Office in London said that they believed that the agitation of the Australians was only temporary, and that there was a growing feeling both in Australia and England that Germany would be a good neighbor, and that it was wise to give Germany an interest in the Pacific Islands to offset the aggressions of France. Strangely enough the dispatch announcing the annexation said that Germany’s proceedings were “despite the protests of the English and American Consuls.” ' -4 ■■ This seizure touches England more nearly than any other power, because the Samoan* are distant only 400 miles from the British Fiji Islands, and contain two of the safest and best harbors in the Pacific. The islands are nine in number, have an area of about 1,400 square miles, and a population of nearly 50,000. The largest island is Upola; area, 335 square miles; population, 17,000. On this island is Apia, the capital of the group, residence of the King and foreign consuls, and principal commercial town in the kingdom.’ The sr» : l is rich and the surface densely wooded. The products comprise cocoanut-oil, arrowroot, cotton, castor beans, ginger, coffee, tortoise shell, and vegetables. The commerce of the island is mostly controlled by a single Hamburg house, and the protection of that solitary German trading establishment furnishes to the Berlin island-grabber a pretext for the theft of a whole Polynesian kingdom. The inhabitants are superior in bodily and mental endowments to those of other parts of Polynesia, They are Christians and mostly Ptabyterians. The country has bepd undffifthe protection of the United States. /- )

SILVER IN THE SENATE.

Mr. Pugh, of Alabama, Speaks in Favor of the Dollar of the Daddies. [Associated Press Report] Mr. Pugh called up Mr. Beck’s silver resolution, and addressed the Senate on it With the aid of all the learning in the world, Mr. Pugh said, the greatest statesmen in the world were still grappling with the money question at precisely the same point at which they began to grapple with it. So far as the United States were concerned, there had never been a time when our paper and metallic currency had been so sound and healthy as it was to-day. This condition of affair’s, and the premium on our bonds constituted a grim satir e on the prophecies of the opponents of the legislation hitherto enacted by Congress on fire money question. Nothing more was to be desired, Mr. Pugh thought, than that the banks, bankers and Federal Treasury should stand aside and allow the Gresham law to have full and free operation on our silver currency. He had much confidence in the practical ideas, sound judgment, and integrity of President Cleveland and his devotion to constitutional principles. But many Democrats would differ with the President on the money question and on details affecting the tariff. These questions were so far-reaching and complicated in their operation as not to be capable of a final solution satisfactory to all honest inquirers. He (Mr. Pugh) bad given the President’s message much consideration, bnt was constrained to differ with him in regard to money. Mr. Pugh quoted figures from the New York Clearing House to show that only about 3| per cent, of the clearing house transactions were represented by cash, the remainder being made up principally by cheeks. Congress was confronted, he said, with an official announcement that our business relations had reached a crisis in which we must suspend the coinage of silver if we would secure an international ratio between gold?and silver. The real point involved, Mr. Pugh believed, not the suspension, but the total stoppage of silver coinage, and if silver coinage were suspended now, it would be a blow that would directly and speedily tend to the consummation of an organized conspiracy of capitalists to secure absolute control of our currency and the regulation of the volume and consequent purchasing power. Mr. Pugh believed he spoke for the Southern people when he said that three-fourths of them would to-day,,, if opportunity were given, vote against the proposition to suspend silver coinage. Thg petitions that came to Congress favoring suspension w.£te all on printed blanks, and signed mainly by bankers. Mr. Rugh criticised the arguments of the Secretary of the Treasury and of the President. Hg.inquired whether we were to take the mere diction of the President on this matter, and insisted that the executive officers were under obligation to enforce the lbws of Congress. Why had those laws been hourly violated? Had Congress abdicated its powers to the Executive Department of the Government? The national banks which Were fiscal agents of the Government, should not, Mr. Pugh thought, have been allowed to become members of a clearing house that discredited the silver certificates of the Government. The national banks had evaded the law of Congress by agreeing that they would not offer silver eer- J tificates to the clearing houses, and, therefore, none Rad been actually refused by the clearing house. A New Y<#k newspaper, he said, had squarely identified the invasion. The Czar of Russia derives an income of $10,000,000 from his personal estate. The Australian harvest is over. Ninety thousand tons of wheat will be available for export. , In New York City within the last twenty years there have been thirty-nine deaths from hydrophobia. Mr. Matthew Arnold has been spending some weeks in Berlin, studying the educational system of Germany. Willjam Dickey, fife “Father, of tha House” ig the Maine Legislature, was a member of the same body forty-four years ago.

THE FAR WEST.

Dome Fortune Point, the There is perhaps no place in America that offers to the energetic, industrious man a more sure reward for his labor than the country that has so recently sprung into prominence, and whole unparalleled resources have been quite unknown until within the last few months. There is a reason why the general world has not known of its existence, although it lies within a few days’ travel of populous centers of civilization. We speak of the country lying in Northwestern Nebraska and Southwestern Dakota, and it has seemed as though that rich and fertile farming section was to remain undeveloped on account of its geographical position and the difficulty with which travelers reached it. It has been known for years that the fertility of the North Platte country in Nebraska was unequaled by any soil in the world, and men who have had the moral courage to take their chances have availed themselves of the opportunity of a profitable investment, and have secured homes by homestead right and purchase, until nearly all the land lying near the railroads has been taken possession of by actual settlers, and, as a result, we see Northeastern Nebraska one of the most prosperous sections in the West. But lying just beyond is a country more fertile and possessing more natural advantages, fed by mountain streams, and rich with mineral deposits. The Black Hills country, now for the first time thrown open to the world by the extension of railway enterprise, has by its entire isolation from civilization existed in the minds of many people only as a myth. The death of the brave Custer, which occurred Some distanee from there, brought that country into public notice, aud the agitation of those times resulted in the opening of the Hills to white settlement, but their extreme distance rendered it impossible for any but the most brave and adventurous to go there. All this has been changed, however, with the coming of the locomotive, and the Black Hills region to-day, without question, constitutes the richest district for its area in the world. Its gold, silver, tin, mica, iron, coal oil, its timber, its mountains of marble, and gypsum, show it to be the most prolific in resources of any section of country on this continent. Lying toward the western limit of the more thickly populated portion of Nebraska is the town of Valentin#, and seventy-five miles further west you reach what is known as the Antelope country,and beyond this it is simply magnificent,' both in appearance, topography, and richness; and that condition obtains almost entirely to the State line between Nebraska and Wyoming, as does also a similar condition northward from the Dakota line to Rapid City and vicinity.

A false idea has gained some credence that this portion of Dakota and Nebraska was only fit for grazing purposes, bnt this is a great mistake, for some of the finest wheat and oats ever grown in the States has been harvested in the immediate vicinity of what is now known as Buffalo Gap. There seems to be no limit to the depth or richness of the soil, and, besides this, the face of the country is beautiful, being just rolling enough to be picturesque, yet little of it that is not tillable. It has been quite reliably reported that during this year the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad Company and the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad, both being under control of the Northwestern Railway, will extend their line to Fort Fetterman, Wyoming Territory. Another extension will be made from Buffalo Gap to Rapid City, a distance of fifty miles, as will also a line be built from Fremont to Lincoln, a distance of nearly fifty miles. Still another branch will be constructed, starting westward from Scribner, in nearly a direct line, some sixty miles. It is possible, however, that the last named route may bear slightly to the northwest, the geographical surface of the country being more favorable to its construction. Too much praise cannot be awarded to the enterprise of these railway companies, in thus taking the risk of exploring a hitherto unsettled country, and to their exertion alone can be attributed the brilliant prospect now opened to those who wish to avail themsel yes of an opportunity to make a substantial start in life. ‘ It is not out of place in this connection to give a brief description of Buffalo Gap and Rapid City, the two most important towns lying upon this railway line now pushing its way where others dared not go, Buffalo Gap is a village of 800 population, and lies midway between Chadron and Rapid City, fifty miles distant from each. The site upon which the city is situated is a beautiful second bottom, far above high water, three miles from the Gap proper, and at the base of beautiful hills which ate about 1,800 feet high, while the far-reaching valley of the Beaver, touching the Cheyenne, and the Cheyenne River valley are plainly visible in the distance. It has a fine agricultural country around it, the stock ranges of the Cheyenne River tributary to it, and plenty of fine timber within hauling distance. On the 10th of December of last year the railway was finished to the Gap, and it is reliably estimated that fully 140 houses were erected in the incredibly short space of ten days after the arrival of the first railway coach. Buffalo Gap is at the present time the terminus of the railway line, but the proposed route lies northward to Rapid City, which is the county seat of Pennington County, and its location is as beautiful as could ..be imagined. Lying on the banks of Rapid Creek, a clear, swift stream, it is surrounded by fertile valleys and picturesque hills, with the mountains ana forests of the great mining region but a few miles away. The country tributary to Rapid City contains varied and inexhaustible wealth, and the farming country is, without exception,-as rich as any in. Central Dakota. The .forests contain their stdrbsof timber, and so great is the supply ofpine that it is, estimated that the timber will n<?t,.bfe exhausted in half a century, and thai lumber for export will shortly be made an important industry. The quarrying of building, fgone, sandstone and Blate will soon be begun, and already Eastern capitalists are purchasing land with a view of working the quarries. Although Rapid City has been a frontier town, society is in a state of the most refined culture, and its educational facilities are of the best. Large and commodious school buildings have been erected, and beautiful churches give evidence of a high state of intellectual advancement and cultivation. Already the tide of emigration has set in, and as soon as the frost leaves the ground in the spring active operations will be begun by the railroad company in the extension of their lines, and a new country will be opened up to settlers. Regarding the relative merits of the two cities, Buffalo Gap and Rapid City, each has advantages not possessed by the other, and it only remains to determine which df these two ambitious cities will be' the metropolis of Western Dakota. T