Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 May 1893 — PEOPLE. [ARTICLE]

PEOPLE.

It is too bad —also too late to be helped—but it is now authoritatively stated that a portion of the money with which the Dutch paid the Indians for Manhattan Island was counterfeit. >. ■ Two Memphis editors have for sometimebeen neglecting their business and furnishing rivals with much reading matter by bellicose manifestoes and bloodthirsty threats against their own peace and safety. Such men are unfit for the newspaper profession, whose business it is to •chronicle and not to commit sensational erimes. Mr. Gladstone is said to be shrinking in stature perceptibly, so much so as to excite general comment. That he has retained his physical vigor to such an advanced age is remarkable, and the fact that old age is beginning to make serious inroads oa his stalwart frame ought uot to surprise anyone. In the natural course of events his phenomenal career must soon "terminate. Paderwski, the celebrated Polish pianist, closed his engagement in this country at Chicago, and sailed for England on the 6th inst. His American tour began in New York in January and although his time was not entirely occupied, the gross receipts were SIBO,OOO. Perhaps no musician ever met with so generous a reception. The women of New York became with him, and shed tears “by the barrel’’ over his departure.

A wealthy merchant of St, Louis takes great delight in disguising himself and marching with the Salvation Army. The Caps and tightfitting uniform are so different from his customary costume, that, with the addition of a pair of side-whisk-ers, he has no difficulty in marching past his most intimate friends with out being recognized. His only object in marching is for amusement, and he takes no interest in the religious side of the Salvation Army movement. The Empress of Austria suffers terribly from insomnia, and walks thirty miles a day in the hope of obtaining relief, but in vain. She obtains upon an average only three hours of broken sleep nightly, and it is feared that she will become utterly worn out. She firmly refuses to take opiates, and her physicians still hope that she will be restored to health. She travels restlessly from place to place and is now in Switzerland. It is doubtful if she ever again permanently resides in Vienna.

The progress of naval architecture is one of the wonders of the century. The new Cunarder. Campania, which arrived at New York, last week, on her maiden trip, is a giantess among a mighty race of ocean liners. She is 620 feet long, and carries a crew of 415 men. Her smoke-stacks would serve as streetcar tunnels if necessary, for they are nineteen feet in diameter. The fittings and machinery of the vessel are marvels of elegance and efficiency. An ingenious or ingenuous office seeker recently sent President Cleveland a $lO bill to ' pay for any time that might be lost in considering his application. The letter was referred to Private Secretary Thurber, who was at first inclined to be indignant at the apparent attempt at bribery, but investigation convinced him that the applicant was “very green,” but perfectly sincere, and he returned the money to the sender with a little advice as to the proper way to apply for positions under this administrasion.

“Similla sinqilibus curantur,” is an axiom with a certain school of medicine, but the rule that like cures like is not often applied to remove other evils that afflict humanity. A business man of Cincinnati, however, succeeded to his entire satisfaction when he forced an amateur piano-player, who made life a burden in his neighborhood, to move by applying a sort of counter-irritant in the shape of a boy with a handorgan, whom he employed by the day to play at an open window close to the objectionable musician. The pianist stood it two days and then moved; ->■- The largest newspaper ever published was the edition of the New York Sunday World, of the 7th inst. It contained 100 pages, and was a wonderful example of what can be accomplished by the system and appliances now in use in the “art preservative". It contained an almost

inexhaustible fund of literature and information, the most notable fea-ture-being" a poem written expressly for the edition by Sir Edwin Arnold, entitled the “Tenth Muse.” An edition of 362,000 copies was exhausted on the day of publication, -and a special edition was printed, 10,000 of which were engaged in advance. ■ .. - Flatobooen Ms its name. Flatobogen is coming to the World’s Fair in a man-of-war and will be guarded day and night by soldiers while it remains in Chicago! Flatobogen is a book from the Royal Library of Copenhagen. It was begun in 1370 and finished in 1380, by two monks named Magnus Thorhallson and Yon Thordason, of Fla toe, Iceland. One chapter deals with the story of Erick the Red, and Lief the Happy, the two navigators who discovered this continent in the year 1000. This is taking the wind out dfSIMF sails of Columbus, in whose honor the Exposition is being conducted. Still it is not likely that Chris, will get out an injunction to prevent the exhibition of documentary proof that he was only a second-hand discoverer after all.

Ex-Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, is violently opposed to the annexation of Hawaii. The Senator, who has been spending the winter in southern California, in the course of an interview at San Francisco, recently, said: “I do not believe in annexing the islands, and then in a few years give them two United States Senators, the positions to be filled by whoever has the money to bid for them. Besides, I am opposed to giving the islands, with their small and scattered population, as much representation in the Senate as one of the heavy populated States. This is what annexation would mean, and I am against it. Let the United States protect the islands, and then let them have a republican form of government, or put the Queen back on the throne. Anything, so the islands are not annexed.” Great men in all countries have had their family troubles and domestic scandals, and a high official or social position seems to be no safeguard against the annoyances that afflict the common herd. Few men of great national reputations have, however, been so sorely tried by the outrageous conduct of their own progeny as has Sig. Crispi, the ex-prime minister of Italy, who has recently been forced, as a matter of protection, to have his own son arrested and placed in a house of cor*1 ® rection because of his debauchery, and a very unpleasant habit he had formed of purloining his father’s private papers and selling them to his political enemies. The affair has created a great commotion in government circles, and many important letters from Garabaldi and other Italian notables have found their way into a public notice for which they were never intended. Efforts have been made to secure the return of the documents but without success.

Archbishop Corrigan celebrated the twentieth anniversary of his consecration as a bishop last Wednesday. He was one of five brothers. Three went into the priesthood. His only sister became a nun. Professor Pickering, of Harvard, sailed the other day from Valparaiso for Europe. He goes to confer with scientific men in regard to results obtained from the observations of the recent solar eclipse. □ Last Sunday Rev. Dr. David H. Greer, of St. Bartholomew’s, New York, told his congregation that he wanted a collection of SBO,OOO for church improvements. In the four and one-half years of his pastorate St. Bartholomew’s have paid out $1,035,000 for charity and expenses, and this from voluntary contributions.

W. D. Howells denies the report that he is going abroad for a few years. Mr. Howells says that he finds an abundance of charming characters in American life, in whom he is chiefly interested, and about whom to write; and that he has no need to go abroad to study European models. The election of ex President Harrison to the office of commander of the Ohio Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion is thought to mean that he will, after all. succeed the late ex-President Hayes as commander-in-chief of the order Some months ago a State commandery failed to elect him as commander, an act which delayed his election to the higher office. This office has been vacant since Mr. Hayes' death. W. C. Lane, who has been chosen librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, was graduated from Harvard College in the class of 1881. He then went into the university library and was a few years ago apjiointed assistant librarian. Mr. Lane was last year president of the Massachusetts Literary Club, is secretary of the Phi Beta Kappa, and of the Dante Society, and treasurer of the publication section of the American Library Association.