Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1891 — FIVE MILES OF PETITION. [ARTICLE]

FIVE MILES OF PETITION.

A Historical Document to Be Presented to the Czar. There will be aboard one of the outgoing European steamships from New York, next week, a document that is destined to live in history. It is the petition of the United States to Alexander 111, Czar of Russia, asking him to mitigate the severity of the punishment meted out to the political prisoners of his country. It contains several millions of signatures, and if put together would be live and one-third miles In length. It will be shipped In ten anormous chests, and will fin a space 34 feet long and broad and six feet In height. The name of the American who goes with t to present it to the Czar Is suppressed for the time being, but it Is stated that he is a Journalist and diplomata of international reputation. All portions of the -ountry are represented among the signers. The Western States have an enorneus contingent, but it is an interesting act that the autographs of Russians and Poles are conspicuous only by their absence. Prominent men in every business and profession are here represented, and here and there are such names as James Russell Lowell, John G. Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Julia Ward Howe and ex-Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin. Secretary Proctor Is not having things all his own way in his Vermont Senatorial race. Unexpected opposition has arisen which has made it necessary for the Secretary to bestir himself,