Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 March 1888 — Life in Libby. [ARTICLE]

Life in Libby.

Tnic proepsct of ths passage in the French Chamber of the btU to furnish a ■mall loan to the Panama Canml scheme •ppsara to behcpdess. The measure asks for less than f 5.000.000, the Govern • ment to simp y authorial the raising of this sum on a lottery loan. But even this measure of relief is not likely to be granted. Of course, when the French Gtovernment refaeee each support as ia. asked, the canal project, will collapse. Wehn it comes io "going for ’ an object, the average Ohioan is comprehensive and in partial. Even the new'spap*.r men are built tbe same way. A lot of them have jitsl fceld a meeting at ColhrSbUS and have drarwn t:jr-a billj which baa been presented to ttie Legislature, to compel the insurance organizatione doing business in Ohio to advertise their annual statement in two p-pira in every town and city in the State. No unfair discrimination isshowri in this endeavor to make the companies render tribute, and fire, life, mariue, ac cident, casualty, p’ate-giass, livestock and tornado organizations are all invited to walk to the newspaper office and settle. Tbe life companies are summoned, like the rest, in a lump, and the standard institutions, aa well as the industrial and assessment association, are included in the provisions of the bill Tray, Blanche and Sweetheart; there is noescspe for any of theni. Tbe total cost of thisenforced advertising to Ohio policy hoi tiers, it ia said, will be over $350,000 a year. The only reasonable way to square the thing would seem to be for the insurance companies to rush through a bill forcing the newspaper pioprietors to'take out policies of all kinds, whether necessary or not.

From the story of the celebrated escape fron\ Libby ia the March Century we quote to following: “At night the six large lofts pressnted strange war pictures, over which a single tallow candle wept copious and greasy tears that ran down over the petrified loaf of cornbread, Borden's condensed milk can, or bottle in which it was set, and where it struggled on until ‘taps,’ when the guards, with unconscious irony, shouted, ‘Lights!’ at which signal it usually disappeared amid a shower of boots and such other missiles as were at hand. The eleepers covered the six floors,lying n ranks, head to head and foot to foot, like prostrate lines of battle. For the general good, and to preserve something like military precision, these ranks (especially when cold weather compelled them to lie close for better warmth) were subdivided into .convenient squads under charge of a ‘captain,’ who was invested with authority to see that every man lay ‘spoon fashion.’ “No consideration of personal convenience was permitted to interfere with the general comfort of the ‘squad.’ Thus, when the hard floor could no longer he endured on the right side,— especially by the thin men, —the captain gave the command, ‘Attention, Squad Number Four! Prepare to spoon! One—two—spoon!’ And the whole squad Hooped over on the left side.”