Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1889 — WASHINGTON NOTES. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON NOTES.

Judge Cooley, of the Interstate Commerce Commission, has been prostrated by overwork. Superintendent Porter, of the census, has had a conference with the special agents in charge of the collection of statistics of cotton, wool, and worsted,and silks, and mixed textiles. The desire is to secure a better classification and a more complete collection of such statistics. The list Of manufactories in the United States is complete now, and show a total of 5,218. The most noticeable thing about the figures is the increase in tho number of mills in the South. They have more than doubled since 1880. Another notable thing is that, where there were 1,000 cotton-mills in the United States iu 1880, 1,477 have already been reported. The annual report of the Pension Bureau was maae public Saturday. There were at? the close of the year 489,729 pensioners. There were added to the rolls during the year names of 51,921 new pensioners, and the names of 1,754, whose pensions have been previously dropped, were resbored to the rolls, making an aggregate ofl 53,675 pensioners added during the year. Sixteen thousand five hundred and seven pensioners were dropped from the rolls for various causes, leaving a net increase to the rolls of 37,168 names. The average annual value of each pension at the close of the year is shown to have been $131.18. The aggregate annual value of pensions is $64,246,552.36. Tho amount paid for pensions during the year was $88,275,113.28. The total amount disbursed by the agents for all purposes was $89,131'968.44; amount paid as fees to attorneys, $1,363,583.47. There was a disbursement of $14,515.72 for the payment of the arrears of pensions in cases where the original pension was granted prior to Jan. 25,1879, and the date of commencement of pension was subsequent to discharge or death. In the aggregate, 1,248,146 pension claims have been filed since .1861, and that in the same period 789,121 have been allowed. The amount disbursed on account of pehsions since 1881 has been $1,052,218,413.17. The issue of certificates during the year shows a grand total of 145,298. Of this number 51,921 were original certificates. The report shows that at the close of the year there Were pending and un allowed 479,000 claims of all classes. Immediately upon his return to China, Mr. Koo, of the Chinese Legation at Washington, will be married to a yoUng woman whom he has never seen, but whomhis parents have selected for him. One of the remarkable features of the marriage ceremony of that country is that the bride and bridegroom are forced to sit back to back for three or four hours in solemn silence on a board table, during which strange programme the woman is so heavily veiled that oven tho most ardent gaze of her legal partner would fail to distinguish her features. At the conclusion of the curiously Intricate ceremonies the crowning stroke is tho spiriting away of the bride by her relatives, who for days thereafter keep her in the closest seclusion away from her husband. He during that period can neither see nor speak to her. Tho controversy over the dismissal of Tanner as Commissioner of Pensions is causing a war of words between that gentleman and others which is growing constantly in virulence. The latest is the making public, Saturday, of a letter written by Secretary Noble, July 24, in which the position of the administration and the . relation the commissionership bears to the jurisdiction of the Interior Department. This will be followed very soon by the entire report of the board appointed to investigate Tanner’s administration. ■- I In an address before the Boys and Girls’ National Home Association at Washington, Friday, Mr. Alexander Hogeland, President of the association, made the startling statement thht there were 60,(XX) boy trains In-Aho.United States. He advocated the establishment of a resintration system by which boy tramps might bo found and sent to farmers who were willing to emp'oy them.