Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 July 1893 — PEOPLR. [ARTICLE]

PEOPLR.

Mrs. Ellen RusseiFfimmsuu wa? awarded a medal at- the Mediumbias Historical Exposition at Madrid for her archaeological books, “Indian Myths,” and “Masks, Heads and Faces. ” -; - A Montreal citizen has succeeded in getting his hired girl fined and imprisoned for deserting his service without notice. The fine was 5 cents and the term of imprisonment five minutes. John Hays Hammond, the noted California miner and manager of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan silver minaa at Coruf d’Alene, Idaho has gone to Johannesburg. South Africa, to take charge of the eight great gold mines of the Barnat brothers. There are already many Californians in South Africa, and generally doing well. , ! . Baron Alphonse Rothschild, of Paris, has now only one eye. In the course.of a hunt which he gave on his estate in France, last fall, one of his guests accidently ■ shot him in the eye. Although the best special ists in Europe tried to save the organ, it was found impossible. The eye was taken out a few days ago. It was feared that the sight of the other eye would be impaired. Admiral Sir John Tryon passed his youth at Bulwich, in Northamptonshire, where the Tryons have lived since the days of James I. Sir George’s father was a typical squire of the old school, and a famous horseman. His mother, a sister of the first baron Kesteven, greatly influenced the character of her boys, entering into all their pursuits and being no ordinary hostess. Fond of horses and dogs and and of sports. George Tryon and his brother were leaders of the young men in the county, and their subsequent success has been watched with keen interest by rustics of Northlamptonshire. ’ Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, who succeeds the ill-fated Vice Admiral Tryon as commander inchief of the queen’s Mediterranean squadron, has been in the royal navy for forty-three years. Both his grandfather and his uncle were admirals before him. Dr. Nansen’s, the artic explorer, theory is that if he can drift to the i pole, he can get out of his ship and , walk back at any stage of the game w'hen he feels tired. Artic explorai tion is now practically without what w r as its greatest terror —scurvy. Nansen is going into a healthy country. If there is enough ice to sink ' his ship, there will be something for him to stand on anyway. The chief engineer of the A ustrian State railways, Henry Graf, is in Washington. He has come to Amer- ; ica to make a special study of Amer- ! ican railway systems. He is a young man still in hil twenties, fie has i official letters to many high officials !on American railways. Herr Graf i considers American jines more sol- ! idly built than those of Europe, and time made much faster; while the j European excel in ths matter of precautions against accidents. • D. C. Gilman, President of the i Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, has presented, in behalf the trustees of the university, to the American Bible Society, a facsimile of the Chaldean flood tablet, recently reconstructed by Professor Haupt. ! The tablet is a plaster cast from a modern reproduction in clay of the so-called Izdubar or Gilamesh legends, commonly known under the name of the Babylonian nimrod epic. It contains the cuneiform text of the Chaldean account of the deluge, as restored by Prof. Paul fiaupt. The I text is based on thirteen fragments, which were found duripg the British excavations in the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris, and are now preserved in the department of oriental antiquities at the British Museum, London. The casts have been finished in colored plaster, so as to give them the appearance of a real cuneiform clay tablet. The tablet contains, in six columns, 331 .lines of cuneiform writing. . The only sign of great age in Marshal MacMahon, who recently celebrated his eighty-sixth birthday, is his lack of teeth. When A. molar passqs the time of its usefulness the ex-President accepts its loss philosophically, and refuses to call on the dentist to repair the damage. He attributes his green old age tb temperate Irish ancestors (the Marshal’s name is Patrick) and to the absence I in his own character of malice and i ambition. I Horace M. Haynes, of Charlotte, ! Me., who is now seventy-three years ■of age, was the driver of the baj rouehe drawn 6y eighj black horses ?which conveyed. Presideili Tyler I from Boston to the great Bunker : Hill celebration, June IT,'. 1843. ; Haynes remembered that it rained, but President Tyler stood bareheaded in the carriage, bowing right and left to the crowds of cheering people who threw bouquets into the carriage until it could literally hold j no more. The Oaks, the famous old couni ry ; seat in Surrey, England,! was j recently offered for sale and bought •in by the owner on the failure to ! realize any adequate price. General Burgoyne, the warrior of Saratoga, sold the Oaks to his fatherdn-law, Ix>rd Derby, and it was under one of his successors that the place gave • the names to the famous races, th* Derby and the Oaks. The interior of the great house is fiulsbed is carved oak, and the 181 acres of oaks ' which surround it include the avenue of stately trees from which the estate was named.