Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1889 — Page 6

J&e |RepiiMicau, Gxo. E. Marshall, Publisher. RENSSELAER, . INDIANA

STREET GAMBLERS.

Money Burled Out of the Way 01 the Police. The tricks of the street arabs whc chuck dice on the street corners and under the shades of the trees in Savan-1 nah are various, but the police gol onto one of their shrewd devices, which they will be very apt to drop hereafter, says the News. A mounted policefnan rode down oe a group of the colored crap-shooters, and they fled precipitately, leaving the dice on the ground. The officer was unable to catch the young gamblers, and when be dismounted and saw ths dice on the ground he wondered whj it was there was no money there too, as the youngsters had been so suddenly surprised that they hid no more time to gather up their stakes than they had to save the dice. The policeman began to inspect the ground narrowly and found that the gamblers had each carefully covered their money with sand. Holes of uniform depth had been dug in the sand, in which pennies andjiickels were deposited, several ol which he found. To thus conceal the money was not only for the purpose o. ■preventing its use in evidence against them for gambling, but also to avoid the loss of the money when a raid was made on them.

It is almost impossible for the police to break up street gambling, and arrests are difficult, for the offenders are always on the alert for the police, and have pickets out to give the signal on the appearance of an officer in the neighborhood, It is rarely that the young gamblers are caught, except by descents made upon them by officers in citizens’ dress, or when, by concert ol action.twoor more policemen approach from opposite directions, and theti sometimes two or three out of half a dozen or more are marched off to the barracks. But the young criminals are loyal to each other and do not betray those who escape. And how they are able to disappear so suddenly is a puzzle, for the ground seems to open and •wallows them up. The street gambling is’principally confined to the street peddlers, who, after the day’s stock in trade is disposed of, or, nearly so, meet by accident or; rrangement wherever there is enough sh ide to shield there heads from the sun. At first there may be only two or three, but the number is augmented, and sometimes as high as fifteen or twenty are in the group, and the one pair of dice is enough for lOC crap-shooters, every one of whom can have a go, while side bets are the biggest part of the game. A short sentence on the chain-gang usually follows the conviction of the street crap-shooter, but if the penalty were double the love of gambling is so deep-seated it would not break up the vice.

Tipsy Timothy Tipp.

Timothy Tipp went up to town, And through the streets went up and down, New clothes and himself to vapor; And while in the town he was merry and Riad, When he got home he wag awfully mad, For his name was not in the paper. The next time he went—it has been said— Drunk he got and the town painted red, . And cut up many a eaper. —— His spree made him sour and fearfully sad, But what made h m eternally, all-fired mad, Was to see his name in the paper.

An Epicure on Indigestion.

“That pet American ailment, indigestion,” remarked an epicure oi some local celebrity, to the Chicago Journal, “is not so much the result ol h faulty selection of things to eat as of an injudicious arrangement of the •rder of their consumption. The method of the ordinary American, in eating a dinner at a hotel or restaurant by himself, is if he is a man of any appetite, simply suicidal. He orders everything he wantsatonce.anditfr brought to him ;.t once. He has, let us say, two kinds of meat and three or four of veget bles, with ail the condiments and seasonings thrown in. The plates are arranged around him. He starts in, and until he has finished the articles of diet are pitched into him helter-skelter, as though he were a threshing maching or clothes-wringer. Every vegetable or relish that might otherwise be harmless to him, is, under this condition of things utterly horrible. Take cucumbers, tor example, a luxury of which very few physicians approve. Suppose those cucumbers go eddying into the diner’s stomach as a part of a mass or hotch-potch of which a slice of beef, half a potato, a mouthful of whitefish and an inch or so of pie form the leading features. Wnat sort of a deithpill is that to sling into a decent man’s insides? No, sir, let your food be graded to suit your digestion and all will be well. Swallow your soup leisurely, then your fish and meat; after that take a five-minute rest and a cigarette, and then make your lettuce and cucumbers and si iced tomatoes into a salad, with plenty of oil, and con•ume it slowly and appreciatively. Top that off with a mouthful or two of hot coffee and a sip of curacoa, and I’ll give you a dollar for every minute of indigestion you endure as the consequence. The average man’s stomach is not a mule, to be driven and bullied into submission; it is a pet that should be coaxed and coddled to do its prettiest”

Carlyle and Cromwell.

The principal task of Mr. Carlyle was to rescue Cromwell from the discoloration of time and the confusion of tongues. After that Mr. Carlyle did very little that will stand the test of time. He wrote an account of the French Revolution almost as fantastic as that event itself. His incapacity to appreciate Washington, his ecstacy over Frederick the Great and his ancestors, and, finally, his tyranny over his own wife, sit down as a man who began with promise and ended with a sour atom ch. Too much literature is net wholesome. —Gath.

THE GREAT HEATER.

“God Shall Wips Away All Tears from Thdh Eyes.” Dr Talmage Again Teaches His Flock from the Flatform of the Academy of Music—The Eloquent »ivine>--A Statement as to Finances. _ Before beginning his sermon on Sunday, in the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Rev. i T. De Witt Talmage said that a mistaken ’ notion was abroad that the insurance on his destroyed church was enough to rebuild. Dr. Talmage’s text was: “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” Rev. vii, 17. He said: Riding across a western prairie, wild flowers up to the hub of the carriage wheel, and while a long distance from any shelter, i there came a sudden shower, and while the rain was falling in torrents, the sun was shining as btightly as 1 ever saw it shine; and I thought, what a beautiful spectacle this is! So the tears of the Bible are not midnight storm, but rain on pansied prairies in God’s sweet and gold-

en sunlight. 'You remember that bottle which David labeled as containing tears, and Mary’s tears, and Paul’s tears, and Christ’s tears, and the harvest of joy that is to spring from the sowing of tears. God mixes them. God rounds them. God shows them where to fall. God exhales them. A census is taken of them, and there is a record as to the moment when they are born, and as to the place of their grave. Tears of bad men are not kept. Alexander, in his sorrow, had the hair clipped from his horses and mules, and made a great ado about his grief; but in all the vases of heaven there is not one of Alexander's tears. I speak of the tears of the good. Alas I me! they are falling all the time. In summer, .YOU sometimes hear the growling thunder, and you see there is a storm miles away; but you know from the drift of the clouds that it will not oome anywhere near you. So,

though it may be all bright around about us, there is a shower of trouble somewhere all the time. Tears I Tears! What is the use of them anyhow? Why not substitute laughter ? Why not make this a world where all the people are well and eternal strangers to pain and aches ' W hat is the use of an eastern storm when we might have a perpetual nor’wester ? W by, when a family .is put together, not have them all stay, or if they must be transplanted to make other homes, then have them all live ? the family record telling a story of marriages and births, but of no deaths. W hy not have the harvest chase each other without fatiguing toil' Why the hard pillow, the hard crust, the hard struggle ' It is easy enough to explain a smile, or a success, or a congratulation; but, come now, and bring all your dictionaries and all your philosophies and all your religions, and help me explain a tear. A chemist will tell you that it is made up of salt and lime and other component parts; but he misses the chief ingredients—the acid of a soured life, the viperine sting of a bitter memory, the fragments of a broken heart. I will tell you what a tear is; it is agony in solution. ’ Here me, then, while I discourse to you of the uses of trouble. First It is the design of trouble to keep this world from being too attractive. Something must be done to make us willing to quit existence. If it were not for trouble this world would be a good enough heaven for me. You and I would be willing to take a lease of this life for a hundred million years if there were no trouble. The earth cushioned and upholstered and pillared and chandeliered with such expense, no story of other worlds could enchant us. We would say: “Let well enough alone. If you want to die and have your body disintegrated in the dust, and your soul go out on a celestial adventure, then you can go; but this world is good enough for me.” You might as well go to a man Who has just entered the Louvre at Faria, .and tell -him to hasten off to the picture galleries of Venice br Florence. “W hy,-” he would say, “what is the use of my going there? There are Rembrandts and Rubens and Raphaels here that 1 haven't looked at yet” No man wants to go out of this world, or out of any house, until he has a better house. To cure this wisn to stiy here, God must somehow create a disgust for our surroundings. How shall he do it? He cannot afford to deface his horizon, or to tear off a fiery panel from the sunset, or to subtract an anther from the water lily, or to banish the pungent aroma from the mignonette, or to drag the robes of the morning in mire. You cannot expect a Christopher W ren to mar his own St. Paul’s cathedral,or a Michael Angelo to dash out his own “Last Judgment,” or a Handel to discord his -*lsrael-inEygpt;” and you cannot expect God to spoil the architecture and music of his own world. How then are we to be made willing to leave? Here is where trouble comes in. After a man has had a good deal of trouble, he says : “Well, lam ready to go. If there is a house somewhere whose roof doesn’t leak, I would like to live there. If there is an atmosphere somewhere that does not distress the lungs, I would like to breathe it. if there is a society somewhere where there is no tittletattle, I would like to live there. If there is a home circle somewhere where I can find my lost friends, I would like to go there.” He used to read the first part of the Bible chiefly, now he reals the last part of the Bible chiefly. Why has he changed Genesis for Revelation? Ah ! he used to ba anxious chiefly to know how this world was made, and all about its geological construction. Now he is chiefly anxious to know how the next world was made, and how it looks, and who lives there, and how they dress. He reads Revelation ten times now where he reads Genesis once. The old story, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” does not thrill him as much as the other story, “I saw a new heaven and a newearth,” The old man’s hand trembles

as he turns over this apocalyptic leaf, and he has, to take out his handkerchief to wipe his spectacles. That book of Revelation is a prospectus now of the country into which ho is to soon immigrate; the country in which he has lots already ipid out, and avenues opened, and trees planted, and mansions built Ihe thought of that blessed place comes over me mightily, and I declare that if this house wore a great ship, and you all were passengers on board it, and one hand could launch that ship into the glories of heaven, I should be tempted to take the responsibility and launch you all into glory with one stroke, holding on to the side of the boat until I could get in myself. And yet there are people here to whom this world Is brighter than heaven. Well, dear sou's, 1 do not blamjyox It is natural. But after a while you will be ready to go. It was not until Job had been worn out With beruaVeihents and carbuncles and a pest of a wife that he wanted to see Gol. It was not until the prodigal got tired of living among th > hogs that he wanted to go to his Father's house It is the ministry of trouble to make this world worth less and heaven worth more. Again, it is the use of trouble to make us feel our complete dependence upon God. King Alpbonso said that if he had been

proasut at the creation he could have made a better world than thia. What a pity he waa not present! Ido not know what God will do when some men die. Men think they can do anything until God shows them they cap do nothing at aIL We lay our great plans and we like to execute them. H God comesYanfi takes us down. As Prometheus was assaulted bv his enemy, when the lance struck him it opened a great swelling that had threatened his death, and he got well. So it Is the arrow of trouble that lets out great swellings of pride. We never feel our dependence upon God until we get trouble. I was riding with my little child along the toad, and she asked if she might drive I said, “Certainly;” I handed over the reins to her, and I had to admire the glee with which she drove. But after a while we met a team and we had to turn out. The road was narrow, and it was sheer down on both sides. She handed the reins over to me, and said: “I think you had better take charge of the horse.” So we are all children; and on this road of life we like to drive. It gives one such an appearance of superiority and power. It looks big. But after a while we meet some obstacle, and we have to turn out, and the road is narrow, and it is sheer down on both sides; and then we are willing that God should take the reins and drive. Ah! my friends, we get upset so often because we do not hand over the reins soon enough.

Once, on the Cincinnati express train, going at forty miles the hour, and the train jumped the track, and we were near a chasm eighty feet deep; and the men who, a few minutes before had been swearing and blaspheming God, -began to pnii and jerk at the bell rope, and got up on the basks of the seats and cried out, “O God, save us!” There was another time, about eight hundred miles out at sea, on a foundering steamer, after the last lifeboat had been split finer than kindling wood. They prayed then. Why is it you so often hear peo pie, in reciting the last experience Of soma friend, say: “He made the most beautiful prayer I ever heard?” What makes it beautiful? It is the earnestness- ofit Oh, 1 tell you a man is in earnest when his stripped and naked soul wades out in the soundless,shoreless, bottomless ocean of eternity. It is trouble, my friends, that makes us feel our dependence upon God. We do not know our own weakness or God’s strength until the last plank breaks. It is contemptible in us when there is nothing else .to take hold of, that we catch hold of God only. A man is unfortunate in business. He has to raise a great deal of money, and raise it quickly. He borrows on word and note all he can borrow. After a while he puts a mortgage on his house. Then he puts a second mortgage on his house. Then he puts a lien on his furniture. Then he makes over his life insurance. Then he assigns all his property. Then he goes to his father-in-law and asks for help! Well, having failed everywhere, -completely failed, he gets down on his knees and says: “O Lord, I have tried everybody and everything, now help me Out of this financial trouble.” He makes God the last resort instead of the first resort. There are men who have paid ten cents on a dollar who could have paid a hundred cents on a dollar if they had gone to God in time. Why, you do not know who the Lord is. He is not an autocrat seated far up in a palace, from which he emerges once a year, preceded by heralds swinging swords to clear the way. No. But a father willing, at our call, to stand by us in every crisis and predicament of life. I tell you what some of you business men make me think of. A young man goes off from home to earn his fortune. He goes with his mother's consent and benediction. She has large weilth; but he wants to make his own fortune. He goes far awa>’' falls sick, gets out of money. He sends for the hotel keeper where he is staying, asking for lenience, and the answer he gets is: “If yott don’t pay up Saturday night you’ll be removed to the hospital” The young man sends to a comrade in the sama building. Nohelp. He writas to a banker who was a friend of his deceased father. No relief. He writes to an old schoolmate, but gets no help. Saturday night comes, and he is moved tq the hospital. Getting there, he is frenzied with grief; and he borrows a sheet of paper and a postage stamp, and he sits down, and he writes home, saying: “Dear mother, I am sick unto death. Come.” It is ten minutes of 10 o’clock when she gets the letter. At 10 o’clock the train starts. She is five minutes from the depot. She gets there in time to have five minutes to spare. She wonders why a train that can go thirty miles ■an hour cannot go sixty miles an hour. She rushes into the hospital. She says: “My son, what does all this mean? Why didn’t you send"for me? You sent to everybody but me. You knew I could and would help you. Is this the reward I get for my kindness to you always?” She bundles him up,takes him home, and gets him well very soon. Now, some of you treat God just as that young man treated his mother. When you get into a financial perplexity, you call on the banker, you call on your creditors, you call on your lawyer for legal counsel; you , call upon everybody, and when you cannot get any help, then you go to God. You say: “O Lord, I come to Thee. Help me now out of my perplexity.” And the Lord comes, though it is the eleventh hour. He sayst “Why did you not send for me before? As one whom his mothercomforteth, so will I comfort you.” It is to throw us back- upon an all comforting God that we have this ministry of tears. Again, it is the use of trouble to capacitate us for the office of sympathy. The priests, under the old dispensation, were set apart by having water sprinkled on their hands, feet and head; and by the sprinkling of tears people are now set apart to the office of sympathy. When we are in prosperity we like to have a great many young people around us, and we laugh when they laugh, and we romn when they romp, and we sing when they sing; but when we have trouble we like plenty of old folks around. Why? They know how to talk. Take an aged mother, >0 years of age, and she is almost omnipotent in comfort. Why! She has been through it all At 7 o’clock in the morning she goes over Io comfort a young mother who has just lost her babe. Grandmother knows all about that trouble. Fifty years ago she felt it. At 12 o’clock of that day she goes over to comfort a widowed soul She knows all about that. She has been walking In that dark valley twenty years. At 4 o’clock in the afternoon some one knocks at the door wanting bread. She knows all about that. Two or three times in her life she has came to her last loaf. At 10 o’clock that night she goes over to sit uff With some one severely, sick. She knows all about it She knows all about fevers and pleurisies and broken bones. She has been doctoring all her life, spreading piasters, and pouring out bitter drops, and shaking up hot pillows, and contriving things to tempt a poor apetite. Doctors Abernethy and Rush andHosackundliarvoy were great doctors,’ but the greatest doctor the world ever saw is an old Christian worn m. Dear me! Do we not remember her about the room when we were sick in our boyhood? Was there any one who could ever so touch a sore without hurtinr it? And when she lifted her spectacles against her wrinkled forehead, so she could look closer at the wound, it was three fourths healed. And when the Lord took her homo.

although you may have been men and women 30, 40, ,50 years of age, you lay on the coffin lid and sobbed as though you were omy sor 10 years of age. O man, praise God if you have in your memory the picture of an honest, sympathetic, kind, • self sacri-ficing,Christ-like mother. Qh, it takes these people who have had trouble to comfort others in trouble. W here did Paul get the ink with which to write his comforting epistle! Where did David get the lillt tO' write his comforting Psalms! Where did John get the ink to write his comforting Revalation? They got it out of their own tears. When a man has gone through the curriculum, and has taken a course of dungeons and imprisonments and shiprecks, he is qualified for the work of sympathy, , W hen I began to preach, my sermons on the subject of trouble were all poetic and in semi-blank verse; but God knocked the , blank verse out of me long ago, and I have? found out that I cannot comfort people except as I myself have been troubled. God make me the son of consolation to the people. _ I would rather be the means of soothing one perturbed spirit to-day, than to pl.ay a tune that would set all the sons of mirth reeling in the dance. lam an herb doctor. I put into the caldron the root out of dry ground ,i without form or comeliness. Then I put in ! the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley. Then I put into the caldron some of the leaves from the Tree of Life, and the Branch that was thrown into the wilderness Marah. Then 1 pour in the tears of Bethany and Gol-; goths;then I stir them up. Then I kindle under the caldron a fire made out of the I

wood of the cross, and one drop of that ■ portion will cure the worst sickness that ever afflicted a human soul. Mary and Martha shall receive their Lazarus from the tomb. The damsel shall rise. And on the darkness shall break the morning, and God Will wipe all tears from their eyes. You know on a well spread table the food becomes more delicate at the last. I have fed you to-day with the bread of consolation. Let the table now be cleared, and let us set on the chalice of heaven. Let the King’s cup bearers come in. Good morning, Heaven! “Oh,” says some critic in the audience, “the Bible contradicts itself. It intimates again and again that there are to be no tears in heaven, and if there be no tears iu heaven how is it possible that God will wipe any away?” I answer, have you never seen a child crying one moment and laughing the next; and while she was laughing, you sawjthe tears still on her face? And perhaps you stopped her in the very midst of her resumed glee, and wiped off those delayed tears. So, I think, after the heavenly raptures have come upon us, there may be the mark of some earthly grief, and while those tears are glittering in the light of the jasper sea, God will wipe them away. How Well he can do that. So, when the soul comes up into heaven out of the wounds of this life, it will not stop to look for Paul, or Moses, or David or John. These did very well once, but now the soul shall rush past crying : “Where is Jesus ?” “Where is Jesus 1” Dear Lord, what a magnificent thing to die if thou shalt thus wipe away our tears. Methink it will take us some time to get used to heaven ; the fruits of God without one speck ; the fresh pastures without one nettle ; the orchestra without one snapped string ; the river of gladness without one torn bank ; the solferinos and the saffron of sunrise and sunset swallowed up in the eternal day that beams from God’s countenance I

Why should I wish to linger in the wild. When thou art waiting, Father, to receive thy child ? Have you any appreciation of the good and glorious times your friends are having in heaven! How different it. is when they get news there ot a Christian’s death from what it is here. It fs the difference between embarkation and coming into port. Everything depends upon which side of the river you stand when you hear of a Christian's death. If you stand on this side of theriver you mourn that they go. If you stand on the other side of the river you rejoice that they come. Ob, the difference between a funeral on earth and a jubilee in heaven—between requiem here and triumphal march there—parting here and reunion there. Together! Have you thought of it! They are together. Not one of your departed friends in one land and another in another land but together, indifferent rooms of the same house —the house of many mansions. Together! I never apppreciated that through! so much Us when we laid away in her last slumber my sister Sarah. Standing there in the village cemetery, I looked around and said; “There is father, there is mother, there is grandfather, there is grandmother, there are whole circles of kindred:” and I thought to myself, “Together in the grave—together in glory.”. I am so impressed with the thought that I do not think it is any fanaticism when some one is going from this worid to the next if you make them the bearer of dispatches to your friends who are gone, saying: “Give m.v love to my parents, give my love to my children, give my love to my old comrades who are in glory, and tell them I am trying to fight the good fight of faith, and I will join them after awhde.” I believe the message will be delivered; and 1 believe it will increase the gladness of those who are before the throne. Together are they, all their tears gone. No trouble getting good society for them. All kings, queens, princesses. In 1751 there was a bid odered in the English parliament proposing to change the almanac so that the Ist of March should come immediately after the 18th of February. But, oh, what a glorious change in the calendar when all the years of your earthly existence are swallowed up in the eternal year of God! My friends, take this good cheer home with you. These tears of bereavement that course your cheek i, and of persecution, and of trial, are not always to be there. The motherly hand of God will wipe them all away. U hat is the use, on the way to such a consummation—what is the uses of fretting about anything?. Oh, What an exhilaration it ought to be in Christ an work! See you the pinnacles against the sky? It is the city of our God, and we are approaching it Oh, let us be busy in the few days that shall remain for us. The Saxons and the Britons went out to battle. The Saxons were all armed. The Britons had no arms at all; and yet history tolls us the Britons got the victory. V» h.y! They went into battle shouting threo times, "Hallelujah!” and at the third shout of “Hallelujah,” their enemies fled panic struck; and so the Britons got the victory. And, my friends, if we could only appreciate the glories that "are to come, we would be so filled with enthusiasm that no power of earth or hell coutd stand before us; and at our first shout the opposing forces would begin to tremble, and at our second shoot they would begin to fall back, and at our third shout they wo old be routed forever. There is no power on earth or in hell that could stand before three sudh‘ volleys of hallelujah. I put this balsam on the wounds of your heart, llejotce at the thought of what your departed friends h ive got nd of, and that you have a prospect of so making your own escape. Bear cheerfully tne ministry of tears, and exult at tnp thought that soon it is to be ended. —'there weshnll marchnpthehewrenlystreet. And ground our arms at Jesus' feet.

BIG HANDS AT CARDS.

Some of the Curious Stories Brought Out by Old Players. Cards have peculiar freaks on many occasions, says -the Philadelphia Record, and the story of the remarkable whist hands held at a table in the Hamilton club recently, when each player held a full suit, would seem incredible were it not for the well-known reputation and standing of the four gentlemen. The cards had been thor-} oughly shuffled, but thirteen diamonds, went to the dealer, and each of the , other players held thirteen cards of one stilt. In connection with whist a funny incident happened about a year ago to a well-known gentleman in this city who is a worshipper of Hoyle. He delights in telling hrs friends that on one particular occasion he held the thirteen trumps and yet only took one trick. His opponent to his left led a deuce, his partner played the ace, and, when it came to his turn he promptly trumped. His partner, disgusted at such a play, threw his hand out of the window and ended the game. Roland Reed, the popular actor, is also the hero of many wonderful poker stories. He is fond of telling how on one occasion on a railway train, with four playing, he won several hundred

dollars with four aces against four jacks and a pat flush. On another occasion at Boston, with Charley Reed, Fred Hawley and Allen Dale in the game, there were three pat flushes to sweeten the pot before the Craw, and a quiet individual in the corner, who had staid in out of sheer desperation with a pair of deuces, eventually corraled the wealth by drawing two more. The late John T. Raymond, who was an enthusiast in all games of chance, was playing in a small town in the far west about ten years ago when poker was a craze. He whiled away the afternoon by having a small game of unlimited with a gambler who was noted for his skill and pluck. After playing without incident for hours John suddenly struck four acesand his opponent four kings. After staking all he was worth Raymond excused himself to his friend, rushed across to the bank, and, showing his hand to the cashier, who was also a great poker player, said excitedly, “How much shall I stake?” “Here, take $20,003,” said the cashier (who is doubtless now in Canada). John did so, rushed back, and soon afterward ’divided $15,000 winnings with his friend. After such monster hands as these a return to a lower level will perhaps be refreshing. Bluffing is considered an art in poker, and has won many thou? sands of dollars. In 1861 Cornelius Vanderbilt sat down to a game ol “freeze-out” with a well-known gambler, who had only SBOO. After a few; hands Vanderbilt raised the pot $2,000. “You can not do it, ” said the gambler, nervously, “I only, have $600.” “Well, S6OO I go you,” replied the millionaire. “I see you,’’ said the gambler. Vanderbilt had a pair of duces and his opponent a pair-of trays. And last, but certainly not least, in a well-known gambling house in Twentyseventh street, New York, two hands are nailed up over the mantels. They are the six, seven, eight, nine, and ten of diamonds, and the same in spades. These two hands came together and caused the division of a small fortune between the holders.

Decimal Coinage in England.

During the last few years renewed attention h ;s been directed in England to the decimal system of coinage and weights pfid measures. the adoption of which was strongly urged in that counts ry nearly four decades ago. The change from the present to the decimal system would undoubtedly be a desirable one in the abstract, for the reason, among others, that most of the nations of the world have adopted decimal systems, and this fact was recognized by a parliamentary committee appointed to consider the question as far back as 1363. The movement in favor of the adoption of the system has not; however, gained much in force until quite recently. The English are a conservative people, and there are undoubted difficulties to be met in making the change. The use of a decimal system of weights and measures has been made permissive in Engl nd, but no general disposition to take advantage of the permission has been shown. The question has, however, been brought prominently before the public of late, and there are signs that the movement in favor of the adoption of the decimal system will be pushed. Among the indications of this kind is the formation of a decimal association, whose object it is to secure the adoption of a decimal system of notations in money, weights and measures.

The Chestnut Crop.

“Those we get here,” said a commission merchant, “are the Virginia nuts; they are the finest and largest of all, though possibly the ones grown in New Hampshire and porthern Massachusetts have an even sweeter flavor. The latter, however, are smaller. The great chestnut-producing area of j Virginia includes portions of Rappahannock, Green, Nelson, Madison, and I Amherst counties, up to the foothills pn the south side of the Blue Ridge. The nuts are mostly picked by children, from whom they-are bought by j the country grocers and traders, who i in turn sell them to the wholesale men Jike ourselves, on commission or otherwise. Enormous quantities of them pre sent to Norfolk, where they are passed over long sieves, with small poles at the beginning and bigger ones : farther on, by which they are assorted 'according to size, to be subsequently 1 scaled in price accordingly, for sale to the jobber. who sells by the bag to the retailer.—Washington Star.

Home Early—in the Morning.

Mrs. Sade.ve: “Aren’t you ashamed, George, to spend your time in gambling and come home at this late hour of the night? What Will the neighbors think? 1 ’ Mr. Sadeye: “I couldn’t help it. dear; I went broke, and there was no use staying out any longer.’’--Mun-sey’s Weekly.

DESTITUTION IN DAKOTA.

I A startling report of the destitution ex isting in the Dakotas was telegraphed Tuesday. In substance, it says the suffering and destitution ft much greater than has yet been reported. The report continues: “Ramsey county has a population of about 7,000 people. Of these about 6,000 are engaged in farming. The frost of last year cutoff the crops generally, and the farmers were obliged to mortgage their farms for feed, provisions, clothing, etc.,, to carry them through last winter. This spring personal property, such as stock., machinery, etc., was mortgaged for seed and funds to put in the crop. There has. been continued drought throughout the entire season, and the crops have been almost a total failure. The borrowed funds are entirely exhausted as well as the credit of a large number of these people 1 and I find in Ramsey county alone that, there are from 200 to 500 families, farmers generally, that are entirely destitute. In.' Nelson and Walsh counties there is also great destitution and suffering, and there are probably in this district of North Dakota not less than 1,000 families who are nearly or entirely destitute.” A large district in. South Dakota is reported in like condition. A general call for aid has been sent out. .

FIENDS IN HUMAN FORM.

Singular and Barbarous Duel Fought by a Wealthy Mexican Cattleman and an Indian. The particulars of a singular duel recently fought in Taos county, New Mexico, have just come to light. An Indian and Juan Verega, a wealthy Mexican cattleman, repaired to a sp/t about six miles, from the to wn of Taos, just at the break of day, to “settle” an old grudge. The weapons were butcher knives, and, by the method of fighting agreed upon, each man was to submit his hand to bis opponent and have one finger cut off, the cutting to be done alternately, and the man who first evinced signs of pain to be stabbed to the heart. The Indian, by toss, secured the first cut, and, deliberately taking the band of his enemy, with a quick stroke, severed: his forefinger. The Mexican never utter ed a sound. The Indian reached out his hand, and off came his thumb. This continued in silence until the cattleman had lost four fingers and the Indian four also. When the Indian reached for his foe’s left hand, the latter’s second, becoming scared at the fearful flow of blood, sent a bullet through the Indian’s heart. The affair is one of the most inhuman ever heard of in any land, and all parties to it will be prosecuted.lt is thought the cattleman will die.

SPARKS OF HUMOR.

The tailor? frequently has pressing business on hand. There is one good thing about a pig. He noses business. The tramp who begs for a drink naturally puts on a rye face. History of a strike in the coal regions: Mine, miner, minus. Texas Siftings; A colicky baby at night is athletic. It can raise the house. Man will give ten words to the , ex* pression of his joy, and fifty to lament his sorrows. The Western—railroads -have now made a sweeping reduction in the, rates for broom corn. In former times it took ten mills to make one cent. Now it takes hundreds, of pounds to make one mill. It is instinct that prompts a girl who knows nothing of the world to ■ ask to drive when you strike a lonely road. It is the man .who takes but one trip a year who passes down the main ‘street of a town with the largest valise in his hand.- —- It is estimated that some women carry forty or fifty miles of hair about their heads. Forty or fifty'mileswithout a switch is a good long distance or an air line.

Not Altogether Happy.

Miss Gushing: “You ere a widower, are you not, Mr. Newman?” Mr. Newman (of Salt Lake City): “Only' partially, Miss Gushing. Three of my wives are still living.”—Time.

THE MARKETS.

Indianapolis, Oct. 28, 1889. GRAIN. Wheat. | Corn. Corn. Rye. Indianapolis.. 2 r’d 76 IwV% 2 w 21% 18 r’d 78 2ye 8 % Chicago... 2 r’d 80 31 19 Cincinnati 2 r’d 77 84 21% 45 St. L0ui5....2 r’d 76 28 17% 87% New York 2 r’d 82% 39% 25% Baltimore fO% 40% 28 |57 Philadelphia. 2 r’d 82 41% 27%Clover Toledo— 80 74 21% 3(0 Detroit.l wh 79 84 22 ~ Minneapolis ; 77% „ Liverpool ’ LIVB STOCK. Cattls-Export grade 5......... [email protected] Good to choice shippers Common to medium shippers.... 2.65(a>3.10 Stockers, 500 to 850 1b•.... Good to choice heifers2.2s(cc2.6o Common to medium heifers.. . 1.50(ef9.C0 1 Good to choice c0w52.00.»)2.40 Fair to medium cows 1.00@1.~5 Hoes—Heavy.. 8.70(§4.10 Light,4.00(34.15 Mixed4.00(44.10 Heavy r0ugh53.25®3.50 Shkep—Good to choice 4.10(54.40 Fair to medium Common. [email protected]’~ Lambs, good to choice Common to medium..3.50(45.50 Bucks, per head2.00(43.50 —— MISCELL AN BOUS. I Indianapolis I Chl<‘-gn Cliinnaiti. Pork...—’ 10 ?a 10 au 11 10 Lard™ 6 12 6 10 6 c Ribs 5 2» s in 4 c boos BUTrsa, rouLrar. Egg5.............19c t Hens W 8..... 6% Butter, creamery24c | Boosters 8c