Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1890 — THE NEWS OF THE WEEK [ARTICLE]

THE NEWS OF THE WEEK

Will not some humaaitarian offer a series of cash prizes of great value to the congressmen who introduce the fewest Dills? The story of Cinderella' and her slipper is known to be old, but who would believe that it is so old as to have been a chestnut in the time of the youthful days of the first historian? The great mass of Americans, loyal, earnest, intelligent, law-abiding, are men who earn their bread, by the sweat of their brow. They are farmers, handicraftsmen, or unskilled laborers.

This country has been extremely liberal in the matter of pensions. As a generous friend of the soldier and of his widow and his orphan, the American republic is indisputably first among the nations of the world. Names are merely nominal. Brussels sprouts are not eaten in Brussels. Brussels carpets are made in Glasgow, and Axminsters in Wilkm. Copenhagen watches are made in Switzerland, and Paris hats in Danbury. The prince of Wales’ life is declared to be in danger. He may not live as long as his regal mother. He is not an old man, but he has enlarged the aperture in the hour-glass and the sands have run rapidly. And the question arises, Who will be his successor? /-j ■ : ■>

The statement that there is nothing new under the sun has been 60 often repeated that the expression itself is a chestnut The stories which amuse the children and maturer generation of to-day were not composed nor constructed yesterday. They are only edited. Under the new order of things in the Agricultural department of the country successful efforts are being made to more fully develop Western resources than were ever made before. The department accepts no man’s conclusions. It makes its own experiments And reaches its own conclusions. The increase of population in Chicago is enormous. The character of that population is vastly diversified, for all Europe and part of Asia contribute to the mass. Thousands of its people are non-English speaking and tens of thousands of them have vague ideas of the rights of citizenship.

Moses Harms, of Charette Post, G. A. R., of Warrensburg, N. Y,, is sup* posed to be the oldest Grand Army man in the state. Harris is eightyfour years old. He has seen twenty years of army life, and fought in four wars—Black Hawk, Semiuole, Mexican and the war of the rebellion. The Jews are said to be rapidly increasing in numbers, wealth and influence in New York. Four new synagogues were recently opened within the space of ten days, and the city now has forty-seven of these places of worship, which is a larger number than can be found in any other city in the world. Ah American spent two years in Belgium and never saw an umbrella or a water-proof of any sort When it rains in that country the people either remain under cover until the storm is over or go out to get soaked. As a rule a rainy day has no effect on the people, though they do shelter their horses, Boston has become civilized. It is too literary: The Hubbites yearn sor 1 the flesh-pots of Egypt They are tired of beans and brown bread. Theyj are weary of being prim. Nothing! demonstrates this so effectually as the founding of an organization known as ••The Wharf Rats.” The membership is made up of the greatest swe Us in town. I The old story which Sidney Smith tells of an Irishman looking over his shoulder while he was composing a letter, of his writing “I would say more but an impudent fellow stands here .reading every word,” and of the Irishman exclaiming, “Ye lie, I haven’t read a word,” is said to be several hundred years older than the New Testament. j „■ Within the memory of the older generation twelve hours was a day’s labor. There was a time when fourteen hours was insisted upon. The proposition to drop from twelve to ten Was urged by the employed and resisted by employers as a dangerous proceeding, productive of great loss, and certain to revolutionize the industries and all society. ; An eminent scientist has evolved tbe theory that water as an element to extinguish fires in large and high buildings is a failure. Ho claims that when combustion evolves a certain intense degree of heat the water thrown upon the flames emits a powerful volume ol hydrogen which burns with frightful fury. This scientist sets up the theory that these fires must be treated in a different manner, and expresses the belief that gas will be the successful weapon with which to fight fire at corns future day.

DOMESTIC. The debt of New York City is 198,663, 078. • The cases againstthe New York boodlers have been abandoned. Johnston Calhoun, a wife whipper of Hawksville, Pa., was _‘‘regulated” by a mob. Laura Pressman has sued five Kansa City gamblers for $22,000 lost by her husband. Tbe G. A. R. will allow colored ex-sol- 1 diers to establish posts in Louisiana and Mississippi. Three hundred inmates .of- Idle Reform School at Eldora, la., have been closed Ur diphtheria, and about 150 cases exist at Fort Dodge. . , The widow of Jefferson Davis, with the assistance of a couple of capable men, will prepare his biography from his private papers. The Democrats elected their ticket at Jackson, Miss., and there was no trouble, as had been expected. The ndgroes did not vote. ...\ Mayor Haft, of Boston, was sworn * into office Monday. For the first time in many years the city government is Republican in all its branches. Mrs. Stotler, a missionary from Knoxville, Tenn., while a guest of the Crawford House, Cincinnati, was chloroformed and robbed Of $345. —-

Many farms in southern Illinois are almost submerged with water. Thousands of bushels of corn in that part of the State remain ungathered. The French-Canadian Catholics of Mass achusetts are opposed to the declaration against secret societies promulgated by the recent Catholic Congress. Olaf Johnson was killed and his wife fatally injured at Hartiand, Wis., Wednesday, while crossing the railroad track in front of a passenger train. Mary Brice, with ten children and SBO, landed in New York Thursday. They all want to go to Los Angeles, Cal., but that is net money enough. The husband and sire of the family is there. The steamer Lake Superior at Boston from Liverpool, brings thirty-nine shires and Cleveland bay horses, consigned to Illinois, where they will be used for breeding purposes. Tbe animals were all landed in good condition, notwithstanding a tempestuous voyage.

Mrs. Hannah B. Southworth, who on Nov. 22 killed Stephen B. Pettus on Yuston street, New York, as announced in these columns, died in the Tombs at New York Tuesday. Pettus had wronged her and refused to marry her. She has been seriously ill ever since the day of the murder. Several Delaware capitalists have organized acompany with $1,250,000 capital, all paid in, to build an industrial city at Piedmont, Ala., with Preston Lea, of Wilmington, Del., President. Two hundred thous and dollars worth of town lots were sold within an hour from the beginning of the sale on Saturday. In the little German settlement, Waltham, Minn., there are twenty-nine cases of trichinosis. A few days before Christmas a man named Schick slaughtered four hogs. A dinner was given to which thirtythree people were invited. Now all but four of the guests are prostrated, and the local physician pronounces the disease trichinosis. A ten-year-old son of Mr. Schick has died, and it is feared that several of the guests will not recover. The Globe’s Ottawa special says: A copy of the proposed extradition treaty betwehn the TThitedStates and Great Britain has been received by the Minister of Justice. The scope of the proposed treaty is very wide, in contrast with the treaty of 1842, which contains only four offenses. If the pending treaty is adopted, legislation by the Dominion Parliament will be nec essary to bring Canada under its provis ions.

Over one handred gentlem en assembled at the Parker House, Boston, Wednesday night, when the Butler Club enjoyed its annual dinner and celebrated the victory of New Orleans. General Butler and Corporal Tanner were the especial guests of the evening. The speech-making was in that free and independent vein for which these gatherings are noted, and tne speeches occasioned great merriment and applause. Hon. N. A. Plimpton presided, and after the health of General Jackson had been drunk standing, General Butler was presented as the first speaker. After extolling Andrew Jackson’s virtues, the General said, “Another thing 1 reverence Jackson for i» that he was the original, persistent-and conquering enemy of mugwumpery.” General Butler called the Australian ballot the most complete and perfect system for defrauding the poor, ignorant and laboring men of their votes that ever was invented. Under this system, if every Irish woman keeps on producing four children to every Yankee woman’s one, the city of Boston will still re main Republican in the lower branch of its legislature. What do you suppose will he the result of the Australian ballot iu the South! It will put the government absolutely in the hands of the white men Without perad venture.

INFLUENZA NOTES, Philadelphia had three deaths. The Countess Fleury died from it. The prince of Thura and Sax is dead. Secy. Windom and Congressman Gibson hava it. Judge Endlin of Berks county, Pa., had to be sworn in bed. * Boston’s death rate Monday was the highest ever known.- ~y. .. ..., At Manchester, N. H., three deaths have occurred from la grippe. Abating at Paris and Berlin, but spreading in Bavaria and Saxony. - Cincinnati’s academy of medicine voted that there hadn’t been a case there. Nearly one hundred cases of the “la grippe” have developed in Goshen within the past few days, and physicians are pros periog. State Representative Frank Knapp, of Defiance, Ohio, died early Thursday morning of pneumonia, brought on by an attack of la grippe. The police forces of London, New York and Philadelphia are badly crippled. New

YoTfcoopawho are caught out of bed must go to work. | There were 471 deaths in Brooklyn dur- ; lngthe past week, an. increase of 111 oyer the previous week. At Rochester, N. Y., four deaths were reported during Tuesday Wednesday from pneumonia, and in each case the ill- , ness had resulted from the Russian influenza. M. Pasteur, when asked, Wednesday what he considered the best remedy for the grippe, remarked : “Let men and women both quit smoking tobacco and smoke camphor instead, and they will probably escape the pest.” Prince George, the second son, and Princess Victoria, the second daughter of the Prince and Princess of Wales, have been attacked with influenza. The epidemic in London is decreasing, but is ex tending in the provinces. The dowager Empress Augusta died at Berlin Tuesday of influenza. The dowager Empress Augusta was married to the late Etoperior William June 11,1829. She was the daughter of Charles Frederick. Grand Duke of Weimar.—Her two children were Prince Frederick William,whose death from a cancerous growth in the throat followed soon after his accession to the throne, and Princess Louise Mary, wife of Frederick William, Grand Duke of Baden. She is grandmother of the present German Emperior, William 11.

When the New York death figures came in at noon, Wednesday, the doctors of the hea.th board acknowledged that they were alarmed. When Dr. Nagle scanned the death certificates he found that two deaths, both of men of over forty years of age, were due directly to the grip; fourteen to the grip complicated with other complaints, one of the victims being a child] thirty-five to bronchitis; sixty-pne to pneumonia, caused or aggravated by the grip, and forty-four to consumption. The other ninety-two deaths were due to the various complaints which usually figure in the daily record. The deaths from la grippe and its allies was 50 per cent, greater than at any time since the malady reached our shores. The undertakers are worked to the extent of their facilities, and many funerals are still delayed beyond the advertised hour because of the demand for hearses. FOREIGN. The difficulty between England and Portugal has reached peaceful settlement. The National Zeitung, in order to settle a dispute that has arisen at Berlin, publishes certificates of the birth of Emin Pasha and of his confirmation in the Protesvant Church, The year’s emigration is 65,000 from Ireland and 254,000 from the whole of Great Britain. There is a large falling off in the movement to the United States, Canada and Australia, and an increase in the emi gration to other places.