Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1891 — THE NEWS OF THE WEEK. [ARTICLE]

THE NEWS OF THE WEEK.

ThosK who have watched the experiments o? bombarding tbeheaven s with dynamite to make rain have about reached tjie conclusion that they are not successful. Oxi result of the spread of the Mohammedan religion in Africa is to make tribes that formerly d isposed es their captives by cannibalism save them and sell them for slaves. Among the exhibits at the Frye burg. Me., fair last week were .*. plough that has been in use for 115 years, and a picture frame*,! in a board cut from a nine log 120 years •go. * A family living near Augusta Me., Lave as a pot a tame crow, which accompanies them whenever they go to the city on Sundays or market days, flying above and a lit tie in advance of the horses, Quf.en Victoria is said to rule a realm embracing 367,000,000 subjects. This is a greater people than ever before sat under the the shadow of one throne. Rule Is the diplomatic and conventional way of putting it. r

It has been proposed, on account of the scarcity of black walnut, to •übstitute for it the black gum which grows so plentifully throughout the Southern States. It can bo stained •o that an expert can hardly detect the difference between the woods. Mining is carried on in a very primitive way on the island of Madagascar. The natives work twelve and fourteen hours a day, and receive from six to ten cents a day. To an agent for a mining drill, who explained the amount of labor it might save, the superintendent said that he could get a Whole gang of’ men to work a lifetime for the money the drill would cost. Mr. C. G. Lelanp told the recent Polk Lore Congress in London he had interviewed at least a hundred old gypsy fortune tellers, and had discovered that they knew’ nothing whatever about the art of palmistry. He said they learned by long experience to be shrewd judges of character, and that while pretending to look at hands they were in reality inspecting foces to find out the characteristics of the people. Many a gypsy, he said, who has acquired fame as a fortune teller is merely a good reader of physiognomy. • -i,.', 1.1 i i

Two sailing ships recently lay in the Mersey that had left Liverpool on the same day last, year, and after voyages of nearly 30,000 miles for each returned to port at Liverpool side by side. They left on October 5 for Astoria, Ore., and arrived there on March 1 or 2, having been in company with each other for a large portion of the voyage. They were in sight for forty days Both captains had their wives on board, and during the forty days of proximity one of the Captains and his wife enjoyed a Sunday dinner on the other vessel, <he compliment being returned on ■the following Sunday by the other {Captain. Both vessels left Astoria ton April 8* but this time one sailed for Dunkirk and the other for Havre. ''They left these ports at nearly the ‘same time, and entered the Mersey within hailing distance after a voyage of 342 days. Dr. Walker, a physician of Edinburgh, has published his observations ~ou the study of medicine in American colleges. He criticises the shortness of the course. which. |While- nominally three years, is re. duced to twoyears by the custom of accepting a year with a medical practitioner as equivalent td! a year's study in college. The entrance examinations he condemns as being farcical. The average age of medical students in America is five years older than that of Scottish students, which is beneficial in an orderly tense and as promoting harder work —and yet he thinks the professional attainments of American students are less than those of Scottish dents. With all this. Dr. Walker, if he will look over the list, will discover that American physicians have reached success and fame quite as great as those of any other nation, and have made as many valuable disooverjes in the art of healing as the most renowned of Europeans. In our best medical colleges a -higher standard of examination of students .now prevails, and the course has been lengthened to sot r years.

“Tonv” Hart, the actor, ts dead. ACLinarmsn shota policeman and two other men in San Francisco, Saturday.' San Francisco wants the national Democratic and Republican conventions next year. , ---- --- • Mrs. Jefferson Davis has decided to have the remains of her husband interred In Holly wood Cemetery, Richmond, Va. . .A drunken father near Lexington, Va., on the 4th in a fit of anger placed his babe on a red-hot stoveand deliberately roasted it to death. Oliver Pelky, an expert diver, was drowned at Alpena, Mich. A hole in bis armor caused the water to rush in and smotherhtnf. E. J. Sutton lighted a cigar and thenshot himself in Kansas City, the burning c’gar still remaining in his mouth when he was found dead. An awful mining disaster occurred near Butte. Mont., on the 4th. a cage in which the miners were being lowered failing to the depths below and killing nineteen of them.

Commander-in-chief Palmer of the Grand Army of the Republic, has issued an order asking comrades not to participa • in any demonstration whert the confederate flag is displayed. At the meeting of the trades and labor assembly at Chicago a committee was ap pointed to co-oporate with other organized labor bodies to circulate petitions and agitate for the release of Oscar Neelie, the Anarchist. Hon. Gorham G. Gilman, of Boston, has received another decoration from Hawaiian royalty from Qtieen Lillittokalani, the order of the*Crown of Hawaii of the grade of Knight Commander. The late King presented Mr. Gilman with the decorations of Kalkaua and of Kapiolania. Miss Margaret Matthews, formerly a student at Lindenwood Seminary at St. Charles, Mo., and well known in St. Louis society circles, died at the latter place Friday from the effects of a large dose of morphine, taken with sulcidanntenf/The cause was unreturned affect ion from the man she loved. William Gasch, an Inmate of the insane asylum at Logansport, escaped and committed suicide by throwing himself under a railway train. He had threatened to end his life in this manner. Gasch belonged in Wabash county, and he is the man who murdered Dr. Reed, a fellow-patient, in July last, by beating him to death during the absence of an attendant. The New York Chamber of Commerce appointed a committee of five, including ex-Mayor Hew itt and Carl Schurz, tourge upon Congress such modification of the act of July 14,1891; a- will suspend the.further purchase of silver and any additional coinage Of the same until an international agreement is arrived at between the United States and other commercial nations of the world. President Harbison yyas also petitioned to call, the attention of Congress to the subject in his next message. The San Francisco Chronicle says that there.w-ill probably be a lockout of hrewers in a short, time, affecting 4,000 men. The brewers claim they cannot pay the present prices demanded by the Brewery Workmen’s Union, and their plan is to discharge all t he union men now in the brewertCs~ahdreplaeetlif'mby non-union men simultaneously In every brewery in the State. Ten of the largest breweries on the coast are controlled by an English syndicate which has combined with outside breweries to reduce Hira Lai Kumar, of Calcutta, spoke on

the opium traffic in India in the Mallison-1 avenue Episcopal Church, »New York Sunday night. He charged tho English government with encouraging the con-: sumpt ion of opium omohg its subjects in : India for the sake of revenue. In order to ; encourage and stimulate the cultivation ' of the poppy plant upward of five million acres of the best lands of India, he said, is devoted to its cultivation, and the annual average production is ten million pounds, which is consumed in - India. China and .Burmah. The government of Indite in fact, is the sole manufacturer and wholesale trader in the baneful drug. The vie' of opium-smoking, he declared, was ii - creasing to an alarming extent in India j Concluding, be said that merely 4 'for the I gre?dof gain the people of the Unitid Kingdom have sacrificed every principle of morality. The unmitigated misery and distress produced by the spread qt, opium tells heavily on the peoplejif Jrulia. In spite of a drizzling rain -fully two thousand people participated fit t’lie demonstration and memorial. Sunday, in Chi- i cigo, in honor of Parsons, Spies, Engel.; Fischer and Ling, the Anarchists who suffered deal Ir four years ago. There was • street parade, with red flags furled and ' draped in mourning, followed by speech ’ making at Waldheim Cemetery over the graves of the dead Anarchists. Addresses ■ were made by Henry Weisman. Morris' Schultz and H.. Mikelander, and they! were all of the most revolutionary character. T)ie dead men were extolled as; martyrs of the labor gravFSAvmffcbVered with flowers. Eight-' ?en societies were represented, every one of which brought its floral offerings. One of these was a scaffold of roses, with the legend in German: ' Though Dead They Still Live. Long Live Anarchy.'' Mrs. Lucy Parson's bouse was decorated with -rape. Early in the day a red flag floated over the roof, but the police went to the house and took down the flag before it had '.eeutong in position.