Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1886 — A Woman at the Bottom of It. [ARTICLE]

A Woman at the Bottom of It.

The debt of France now equals $6,000,000,000. Clemenceau (maintains that it must be abolished, and its amount shows clearly it will bo abolished, “liecause the French can neither pay principal nor interest.” There are only four’ students this year in the school for agriculture and horticulture connected with Harvard College. The instructors are so numerous that there is one for each pupil, and a few left oyer even then. The instruction is given by lectures and recitations and by practical exercises in the green-housea, fields and laboratories. Gen. Sigel, the newly-appointed pension agent at New York, was visited by tw6 Germans the other day who insisted on receiving government pensions. Being asked if they were veterans. they said they were —they served under Von Moltke in the Franco-Ger-man war. They asserted* vehemently that he had the power, as pension agent, to give his fellow countrymen pensions. At Budapesth, Hungary, the Austrian Government has a model dairy school, where from ten thousand to fifteen thousand quarts Of niilk are daily manipulated- It has also opened an official wine cellar where farmers can store their vintages if of a salable quality; have it prepared, classified and sold under the guarantee of the state seal, as of a certain quality, and at a proportionate price.

“I ske it stated,” says Mr. Laboucliere. “that while Englishmen drink th e times as much tea as coffee, Americans drink eight times as much coffee as tea. This in a great measure is due to the coffee that is sold in the United States being less adulterated than ours, To a certain extent it may also be accounted for by the fact that Americans are richer than we are, for there are a good many more cups in a shilling’s worth of tea than in a shilling’s worth of coffee. ”

In one of his letters to his sister, just published,' Benjamin Disraeli wrote, anent a party at Bulwer’s: “I- was introduced, ‘by particular desire,’ to Mrs. Wyndham Lewis, a pretty little „Avoman, a flirt, and a rattle; indeed, gifted with a volubility I should think unequaled, and of which I can convey no idea. She told me she ‘liked silent, melancholy men.’ 1 I answered ‘that I had no doubt of it.'” And yet in a few years Mrs. Lewis and Mr. Disraeli “were married and lived happily ever after,” as the story books sav.,

A rechntly-makbied electrician who lives near Sacramento, Cal., has devised a scheme for protecting his wife from the annoyance of tramps. The vagrants invariably sought the kitchen via a rear stairway, so the electrician detached the four bottom steps from the others and attached a powerful battery to them. A wire from the b'attery ran info the kitchen, and when a tramp is seen approaching all that is necessary is to touch a spring at the proper moment, and the seeker after provender is thrown nearly over the back fence.

A young woman of Columbus, Georgia, about to visit the generating station of the electric light company, was told to leave her watch at home, lest it be magnetized by the strong electric current. s>he did so, but complained afterward that her watch would not keep good time. She sent it to a jeweler, but he reported that it was not magnetized and kept good tiine. Still, whenever she carried it her time was too slow, although when she left it in her room it ran correctlV. A gentleman who knew of the circumstances suggested to the young lady that she wear another pair of cossets when next she carried the watch. She did so, and had no further trouble with the watch. The steel springs in her corset had been magnetized.

The term lady has so fallen into doubtful repute by indiscriminate application to all sorts of people, reputable and disreputable, of high and of low degree, to the ignorant, ! the wulgar, and the coarse, as well as to their betters, that we manifestly need a substitute for a word which has been dragged into such evil usage. Perhaps no better word can be found than the half obsolete term gentlewoman, about which lingers so dainty and thoroughbred a flavor. We have no other substantive in the language which expresses so perfectly the characteristics which were once comprehended by the title of lady; and the word, though somewhat long, is well adapted to ordinary use, people already being familiar with the masculine form. ■'' - y

A becent writer in the Atlanta Con- ~ tells tkis unique story of Tiger Tail, the Seminole chief: “A sewing machine agent drifted into his dominion one day and set up a machine in Tiger ~ Tail's tent The old chief, with great deliberation, watched him .put jt through its paces. C. He then arose, brushed the agent to one side, and, seating himself, adjusted his feet in the treadle. He started the wheel and

found that he could make it go. He sewed up one piece of cldtli and down another, and then gravely and critically examined his work. At last he appeared to be satisfied that it was all right. Ho then turned qnietly to his wives, who had ■watched the proceedings with interest, and kicked them one after the other out of his tent. ”

It is reported in court circles at St. Petersburg that a formal sejmration will shortly take place between the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess Serge, whose ■ eighteen months’ , married life been i prolific in squabblings and misunderstandings. They would have been separated nearly a year ago if the Emperor and Empress had not then interfered to avert the scandal. The Grand Duchess is the second daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse, and the Queen will be exceedingly wroth at this termination of her granddaughter's married life. The Princess Elizabeth of Hesse was so sick of the sordid dog-hole economies of Darmstadt that she resolved to marry a wealthy husband, and she refused two highly eligible German princes only because of the inadequacy of their means. One of them has since married the richest fQyal heiress in Europe.

There sits in Congress (says the Baltimore Sun) a man who once ran against Grover Cleveland for the post of Sheriff of Erie County, New York, and, although beaten by him at the time, he filled his unexpired term and is now a member of Congress. The member is John B. Weber, of Buffalo. He is a small man, with a pleasant face, and quick, active step and manner. He is a Republican, but that does not prevent him from being on godd terms with President Cleveland. Soon after Mr. Weber came here this winter he called at the White House, and jokingly remarked to Mr. Cleveland: “You see lam following you. First you beat me for Sheriff; I fell into your shoes when you became Mayor. Lookout; perhaps the same good luck may follow me now that I- am here with you in Washington.” The President smiled and said: “I am watching you, never fear.”

A Kentucky farmer moving to Kansas chartered a box-car, into which he put eight horses, with his two sons and a dog to look after them. The boys had comfortable quarters in one end of the car, and as there was plenty of room, the thrifty old farmer put in two bee-hives. As they Were jolting along the bees got warmed up, and came out to inquire what it all meant. The response of the boys and the dog was as lively as possible. All made for ’the door, the boys yelling to stop the train and fighting the bees with their bats. The dog was first out, yelping and howling, and the others, canie tumbling after. By the time the conductor got the train stopped, and help arrived, the’ bees were out in full force and furiously mad. It was only after a pitched battle that the hives were removed and the horses sayed. Some of the bees got into the passenger coaches, where they made things lively and warm for the passengers, but after a hard fight they were vanquished.

Col. Bob Ingersoll (says a writer in the New York Time*)- entertained two or three friends at his home on Fifth Avenue, and not unnaturally, perliiips;’ - somebody drifted the conversation over toward religion, and one man was rather aggressive .in his condemnation, of all heresy. This prompted Col. Ingersoll to tell a story. “My views regarding religion are not generally unhe said; “I am credited with a good many ideas that I have never entertained. lam very ipuch like an old Indian of whom I have heard. An enter-, prising missionary with the tribe was bent upon the conversion of this particular savage. One day out on the plains the good man plied his subject vigorously, till finaNy the red man, pick- ■ ing up a stick, bent down and drew a small ‘That’s what Indian know,’ he said. Then he drew a larger circle round the first, and, pointing to it, said: ‘That’s what white man know; but outside of that Indian know-much as white man—know nothing.’ The Indian’s doctrine is my doctrine,” ended the orator.

W.e all know the story of the Turkish Gadi who held that there, was always a woman at the bottom of every trouble. On one occasion there appeared before him one of his officers, who stated that a certain man had fallen out of a window and killed himself, “ Where is the woman?” asked the Cadi. “It was a man, Your Sublime Highness,” responded the officer. “Where is the ■woman?” repeated the Cadi. “It was a man, Your Ecstatic Nobleness,” humbly reiterated th? officer. “Where is the woman?” fiercely demanded the Cadi. "I tell you it was a man who killed himself, Your Effulgent . Radiance," roared theofficer. Then an explanation followed, wlien it turned out that the man was leaning out of his window to look at a woman, a few doors off, when he lost his balance and fell to the ground. “Ah!" cried the Cadi, triumphantly, “I knew there was a woman at the bottom of it*, there always is.”— Texas Siftings. The oldest editor in Connecticut it A. E. Burr, of Times, who has been at the head bf that papei 47 years, before which he was on the Cour ant. s