Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1889 — The Vatican and spam. [ARTICLE]

The Vatican and spam.

Th* White H*rt,;of Southwark, one of England’s most famous inns, whose his tory goes back five centuries, is being pulled down. It has been associated with Jack Cade and Mr. Pickwick Shakespeare makes Cade **y T in “Henry YL”: “Will you needs be hanged with your pardons about vour necks ? Hath my sword, therefore, broke through London gates, that you should leave me at the White Hart in Southwark?” Then in "The Chronicles of the Grey Friars” it is recorded that “at the Whyt Harte, in Southwarke, one Hawaydyne, of Sent Martyns was beheddya” in 1450. But more interesting than these events was the fact that here Mr. Pickwick met flm Weller, the White Hart ooots. Thb food consumed on one of the large steamships. from New York to Liverpool was as follows: Nine thousand five hundred pounds of beef, 4,000 pounds of mutton, 90Q pounds of lamb, 266 pounds of veal, 15C pounds of pork, 140 pounds of pickled legs of pork, 600 pounds of corned tongues, 700 pounds of corned beef, 2,000 pounds of fresh fish, 50 pounds of calves’ feet, 17 pouads of calves’ heads, 450 fowls, 240 spring chickens, 120 ducks, 50 turkeys, 50 ceese, 800 squabs, 300 tins of sardines, 300 plovers, 175 pounds of sausages, 1,200 pounds of bam, 500 pounds of bacon, 10,000 eggs, 2,000 quarts of milk, 700 ponnds of butter, 410 pounds of coffee, 87 pounds of tea, 900 pounds of sugar, 100 pounds of rice, 200 pounds of barley, 100 jars of jam and jelly, 50 bottles of pickles, 500*bottles of sauces, 10 barrels of apples, 14 boxes of lemons 18 boxes of oranges, 6 tons of potatoes, 24 barrels of flour. Bomb visitors were going through one of the public schools. The teacher of. one of the classes stood up the pupils to show off in a recitation in history. It was a rapid cross fire of question and answer about the dates of battles in the Revolutionary war, and the visitors listened with interest and in silence. The last query put by the teacher was addressed to an intelligent, bright-faced little girl in a blue dress. The teacher asked: “When was the battle of Yorktown, .Susie?” “17JJ1,” promptly replied Susie. Then one of the visitors put a query to Susie. It was: “And what was the battle about, and where was it fought?” “I don’t know, ma’am. We won’t have that in our lessdn till next year,” responded Susie promptly and unabashed, and as if it were not fair to expect a little girl like her to know more than the dates of battles. Thißisa sample of the instruction in history given in the New York pnblic school system.

There have been several reports ol late from Rome that the pope has decided in certain eventualities to seek a place of refuge in Spain. This determination is supposed to have been reached, or announced to the cardinals, in a secret consistory recently held, * the first meeting of the kind convoked by Leo XIII. during his pontificate. From the view-point of political expediency it seems plain enough that Spain is the only European country in which the Prelacy could, with a due regard to the existing situation, elect to JSx its seat. Germany and Austria are barred, because they are the te-»>>bound allies of Italy, from whose encroachments, according to the hypothesis which we are discussing, the pope will feel himself constrained to seek deliverance. Quite as impossible would It be to look for an asylum in France, so long as the control of her governin' nt is shared by moderates of the Ferry type and the followers of Clemenceau who clamor for an absolute divorce of bhurch and state. The suggestion of Malta is equally absurd. Neither would England give up the fortified island which commands the central portion of the Mediterranean, nor could the pope accept it at the hands of a Protestant power. There remain Spain and Portugal, and hesitation in a choice between these two is inconceivable. We may add that it must be no Blight recommendation in the eyes of the Vatican that during the last seventy years the Spanish monarchy has remained outside the main current of European politics. Under the present regime, Spain has but little sympathy with France, and Bismarck has failed to use her as one of the pawns upon his choss board.—New Fork Sun.