Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1893 — A Unique Offering. [ARTICLE]

A Unique Offering.

' If you are not fond of gum, “lick” the envelope and it will “get there just the same.” M. Eiffel is to bridge the Neva at St. Petersburg with a structure to cost 114,000,000. ' Thb Pope, the Kaiser and Presi-dent-elect Cleveland lead the world as recipients of advice on the proper manner of conducting their affairs. A Rochester man claims to have invented a self-patching jacket and trousers for small boys, and wants to pose as a great public benefactor. Rev. Sam Small has retired from the ministry and re-entered journalism as an editor of the Atlanta Constitution, believing that he can find a larger audience and do more good in that field. £ A scientist asserts that “it takes 5,232 bees to weigh a pound.” When a single well-organized bee. feels well and comes with his sticker end he has convinced many a fellow that he weighed over a pound.

Forty-four electoral colleges formally cast their ballots at the van ous capitals on the 9th of January, and Congress will complete the programme by counting them at Washington on the 9th of February. Av actress attempted to slash the throat of a theatrical manager with a razor recently, but his life was saved by his fur overcoat collar. The reason for the theatrical fur collar has always been a mystery, but is now apparent. A Rochester, N. Y., hatter, who presented President Cleveland with his inauguration hat eight years ago, has secured a huge advertisement from the daily press without cost to himself by presenting the Presidentelect with a similar tile to be worn on the 4th of March. The enterprising hatter of Rochester can learn our advertising rates on application. Local option in Massachusetts is being carried to a greater degree of severity than has ever obtained in any other section of the country whore that method of regulating the liquor traffic has been tried. As the law now stands, each town votes whether it will have license or not, but Boston proposes that hereafter each ward in the city shall decide for itselfonthesame-point.

Lottie Fowler, a Boston medium, has had a seance in which she obtained a lengthy interview with Jay Gould. Many people will be glad to know that Jay has seen the error of his ways, and is now prepared to admit that he pursued the Almighty dollar rather too vigorously for the good of his own soul and other people, but he is now bending the energies of his great intellect towards more benign objects and expresses a hope that all will yet be well with him. Official figures recently issued show that during the calendar year 1892 the loss of property from fire in the United States and Canada aggregated $132,704,700. This is $5,000,000 less than during the year proceeding, but more than $25,000,000 in excess of the total loss in 1890. These figures would be startling, were it not that the people of this country, had, through unfortunate experience become used to contemplating large figures in this connectton. It is an extent of loss that would be considered impossible in any European country outside of Russia, thoroughly equipped and efficient fire departments as constitute the oride of many cities in the United States. The death of Rutherford B. Hayes» leaves Grover Cleveland in sole possession of the uncertain honors attaching to the position of an ox-Presi-dent, and that distinguished individual will resign them to Benjamin Harrison on the 4lh of March, when be will for the second time be insulated as the Chief Magistrate of the Great Rcp.ibhc. It has been said that J ‘Republics are ungrateful,” and this proverb is givon additional emphasis by the fact that we now .have, and in the near future are likely to have, but one living exPresident, tor whom our laws make BO provision by way of honor, rank or pecuniary reward. It is an open question whether the country is a gainer by this povsimony. True, the government wiH survive, and those, who from time to time may succeed to the offlow will ba amply able- to

administer its affairs, but tht United States might in many probable instances be largely the gainei by making some provision for tht future of ex-Presidents, whereby we might profit by their experience anc at the same time preserve and add tothe dignity of tho retired ruler or the greatest nation on the earth. Ballooning was invented more than one hundred years ago by Montgolfier, a Frenchman. There were then great expectations of its development. Thirty-three years agc John Wise with three companions sailed from St. Louis, Mo., to Henderson, N.Y, a distance of 1,150 miles, in less than twenty hours. Several air ships were on the stocks last year, but none were launched. Now comes a St. Louis man seeking capital to build another. There does not seem to be much progress in the art of aerial naviganion. All the air ships have thus far proven worthless, while the balloon has often proved of great value. It may be that the Frenchman who is now building a rigid baloon will arrive at better results than have yet been attained in this branch of Science, from which so much has been looked for and so little of practical benefit obtained.

The most reliable reports from the San Juan country, seem to indicate that gold in considerable quantities has been found in that region, but not sufficient to justify the expectations of the horde of miners that have flocked to the fields. To the traveler and student, however, it seems that the country affords great inducements for further exploration. It seems to have been a favorite resort for the cliff-dwellers, or other races of a pre-historic age. A large stone fort has been already discovered, and the hand-holes cut in the rocks to reach it are still visible. There is every evidence that the desert waste was at one time a thickly populated settlement, but no one has as yet offered a satisfactory solution of the problem as to how these people obtained sustenance surrounded as they were for long distances by nothing but sand and rocks. Thf. government of the United States year after year, at great expense, stocks our streams and lakes from hatcheries, and yet in all the States the most wanton vandalism and waste prevails, and any attempt to enforce the statutes for the preservation of the finny denizens of our waters is met with the most determined opposition on the part of large numbers of people, and public opinion in the localities where such laws are needed is such as to render them a dead letter in the majority of cases. An Indiana judge has recently decided in cases brought before him by the Indiana State Fish Commissioner. that the possession of a seine is no evidence that the possessor intends to use it for unlawful purposes, and as a result of this technicality a large number of prosecutions have been dismissed, while the “outraged” offenders have now combined to keep the hook and line anglers off their lands, and are backed by the approval of their communities. A fish cannot swim a mile in Lake Erie without running into some kind of a trap, and tho hoggishness of the market fishermen in those waters can scarcely find an equal. Oregon is doing the same kind of porcine work on the Columbia and Willamette rivers. What is needed is a stringent, sweeping law that would stop all net fishing for five years, and let the fish have a start. Added to this must come a more rational way of thinking on the part of large numbers of people, who must be made to see their great wrong in seeking a trivial present gain, and a few hours sport, at the expense of the utter annihilation of so important a source of food supply.

Harper's Bazar. The patience and skill shown by native artificers in foreign islands in the construction, so to speak, of certain feather cloaks, of whfch it is said but three are in existence, and these destined only for royal shoulders, have often been matters of surprise. But now a far western sister will present at the great coming Exposition an opera cloak made of carefully selected prairie-chicken plumage, using only certain (Jelicate feathers, of which only five or six can be furnished by one bird; these are sewed upon a foundation one by one, so nicely overlapping as to present a singularly rich surface. This remarkable shoulder wrap will be about five feet in length, and is to be bordobed with South Dakota otter fur. This piece of home-made handicraft will, it is said, represent ten years of unflagging industry. Don’t have money transactions with your friends if you can avoid thorn. All of us know how other people should spend their money. ■ ■