Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1890 — THE HEWS OF THE WEEK [ARTICLE]

THE HEWS OF THE WEEK

IT rs said that a curious shrinkage of the lakes, seas and rivers of the world is going on. Itis reported that Henry M. Stanley is to be married in June to Miss Dorothey Tennant, of London. We hope it is true, and that Mr, Stanley wiH now settle down and quit gadding about. An official estimate sets down the number of wolves in Russia at 170,000; it is further stated that the loss caused by the destruction of sheep and swine by wolves is so great that it can not be even approximately estimated. It rs said the law regulating ohild labor in the factories of New York, is generally observed. The law prohibit the employment of children under twelve years of age, and limits the labor of all minors to sixty hours each week. The measure was not intended as a hardship upon employers.

J. Bryan Grimes, of Pitt county, N. C., had planted thirty-five acres in Irish potatoes, and one night when he thought there was going to be fro6t to kill his potatoes, which were twelve Inches high, he built log heaps about his field and kept them burning during the night, and next morning his potatoes were untouched by the frost. A colored man named Joseph Saunders was employed to dig a well for a farmer near Augusta, Me. The farmer beat him down to half wages, but after going ten feet down the digger struok a jug with $750 in gold in it and took a skip. The farmer then dug twentytwo feet more, nearly broke his back, and didn’t hit anything but stones. Detroit Free Press. Barbarism is doomed. A recent battle between the French and Dahomians in Africa, resulted in the complete overthrow of the Dahomians, with a loss of 1,500 lives. The French loss was fifteen killed and seventy-two wounded. The power of civilization over barbarism is nowhere better illustrated than in the armies of civilization as against those of barbarism.

It is putting an explorer to a crucial test to take his book back to the people he describes and translate it for their benefit. That is what has been done with the description by an Englishman of the cannibal feasts and other remarkable practices of savages on an island near New Guinea. Sir William McGregor could not find any evidences of cannibal feasts. A few months ago he translated the earlier visitor’s description, and read it to the natives in their own tongue. Some of them, he 6ays, roared with laughter. Others^took the matter very seriously, and said the language was bitter and the story false. If this sort of thing is kept up it will be severe on that class of travellers who are bound to tell a good story any way, even if they have to evolve it from their inner consciousness.

The first presentation of the Passion Play at Oberaumergan, Prussia, was given recently, and will be repeated at intervals until September. The 4,000 seats of the theater were filled and several more thousands were finable to obtain admission. The centre of attraction was Josef Maier's rendition of Christ, Never before has the play attracted so large a multitude (from all quarters of the globe. This is due to the fact that the Bavarian government haß absolutely forbidden any performance after this year, because the ecclesiastical authorities and *ll decent people have come to regard the affair as a desecration of religion. The last performance of the play look place in 1880, when there crowded to this remote village a sensation-seeking laudience from all parts of the earth. Li railroad has since been constructed to the place, and the people that are now there are of the same class that visited there ten years ago. The origin of the play, the last relic of the mystery dramas of the middle ages, dates back to 1633, when a pestilence fell upon the district, and the inhabitants vowed that at its stay they would act the play decendially. This resolve was kept, and only once—in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian war was the representation discontinued. It was. however, repeated in 1871, ostensibly as a thanksgiving for the peace, and in 1880 it drew to Qber-Ammegau the greatest multitude of sight-seerers ithat ever collected in the place, greatly to the scandal of European Christian society. Great but unavailing efforts were made this year to induce the authorities to interdict it. Over 500 (actors take part in the drama, and nine [hours will be consumed in each production. •

Seven thousand New York cloak makers are locked out. The Vermont Republicans nominated Carrol S. Paige for Governor. Washington ice dealers have combined and raised the price to one cent a pound. A general strike of switchmen for higher wages was inaugurated at Cleveland on the 16th. A legislative committee reports favea--ably a proposition to remove the Louisiana capital to New Orleans. The Cincinnati carpenters’ strike is extending to the other building trades, and many mou are work. The Farmers's Alliance of Miiinesota has decided to contest the State and Con: gressional elections this fall. 4^ —<= Charles F. Pustner, of Troy, 0., being threatened with total blindness, escaped that fate by committing suicide. Fire at the Cincinnati Rak Leather Company’s tannery, Cincinnati, caused damage to the amount of SIOO,OOO. Mrs. Sylvester Bowman, residing near Whltesville, Muhlenburgcounty, Ky., was struck by lightning and instantly killed. Peter Jackson made practical use of his muscle at San Francisco, whipping a dozen toughs who assaulted him on the street.

The Millers’ National Association, in session in Minneapolis, unanimously indorsed the Butterworth anti-option bill. The Park National Bank, Chicago, closed its doors od the 20th. No reason is given for the failure. It did not do a very large business. Rev. M. Lockwood, pastor of the First Baptist Church, of Cincinnati, has been nominated by the Prohibitionists for Secretary of State. A freight train fell over a precipice on the Western North Carolina Road, thirtytwo miles from Asheville, and three trainmen were killed. The safe of Lewis M. Bliler, bookmaker at Kansas City, was cracked by burglars who secured $2,000 in cash, SBOO worth of diamonds and about S3OO in notes. The Masonic Temple of Chicago will erect an eighteen-story building, to cost $2,000,000. Its height from the street level will be 240 feet. Commencement exercises at Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Mich., Monday, were marked by the absence of a graduating class, owing to suspensions having been made for hazing. If New York failes to raise the money for the Grant monument by Sept. 1, a number of ex-confederates propose to raise the amount by subscriptions, exclusively from southerners.

A near 'Wilkesbarre, Pa., punished his eleven-year-old son by tying him to a cross and allowing him to remain for seven hours. The child is not expected to live and the father is under arrest, j Owing to the refusal of the Democratic State Convention of Maine to adopt a license plank in the platform, there is a threatened revolt, and a call for a convention of all those believing in local option and license. The New England Baptist Missionary Society rejected resolutions on temperance that contained quotations from Ingersoll. A resolution was adopted denouncing the clergy as largely Responsible for the 6ppression of. the colored man. A Belgian iron firm has offered tosupply the structural iron for the Court House at Minneapolis 25 per cent, cheaper than could be furnished by Pittsburg manufacturers. This firm has already secured contracts at Houston and Austin, Tex.

A conference of the Finance Ministers of the various German States will shortly be held for the purpose ref discussing and agreeing upon the means of defraying the military expenses of their respective governments, as well as the contribution of each State to the maintenance of the Imperial military establishment. - While fifteen young ladies from the Schuylkill Seminary, at Fredericksburg > Pa., were on their way to the railroau station, at Jamestown, in a coach drawn by four horses, the animals became unmanageable and suddenly plunged down a twenty foot embankment, the coach and its occupants fal 1 ing on top of the animals. All the ladies were more or less seriously injured, and the coachman badly trampled. A tornado passed near Cornell, 111., in the afternoon of the 20th, wrecking everything in its pathway. Several persons were fatally injured. A cloud hurst at Bloomington did heavy damage. Northeastern Kansas was also the scene of an electrical storm, and the damage was great. Four persons were killed near Dixon, 111. Charles Morrison was struck by lightning and killed near Shoals, Ind . At Mt. Carmel, 111., it.was one.,of the severest rain storms ever seen in that town. A scandal is rumored in connection with the location of ’lie World's Fair. Mr. Leland, who owns property abutting, .and w’.o is opposed to the Fair beiug held in Lake Front Park, says he was offered $1,000,000 to withhold his objection, but h e refuses to state who made the offer. Riparian right to the locality in dispute has qong been a bone of contention. It is believed the offered bribe was made by one of the narJes at interest, with a view of such action as would more clearly establish his claim.

The most destructive wreck, both in life and property, known to thp history of the Western North Carolina Railroad, occurred at Melrc*>© Station, thirty two miles from Asheville, on the 17th. From the apex of Saluda mountain to Melrose, a distance of more than three miles, there is a fall of fully 600 4 aet. This fact has made the railroad authorities especially careful at this pointr,rend an engine is kept constantly there to help all trains up and down the mountain. The track was very wet when a coc. train started down, and soon after beginning the dec.ent it became evident tuat the twelve loaded cars were too much fir both engines to hold with all brakes ,e*> and the speed gradually quickened under the heavy pressure until a speed of sevc .Ay-five miles an hour was reached, when the trftcus spread and the entire outfit plunged headlong down the [mountain ilh a herrVble crash, burying beneath the cross-ties and earth the brave .. iws woo had stood to their posts. The ■■•s* to the company in engines and cars

alone will snob $75,000. Both engineers and firemen were killed and the conductor, brakemen and flagmen dangerously injured.