Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1893 — PEOPLE [ARTICLE]

PEOPLE

A' i.rf v.i touas i» reported from Maine. Is it possible that the Maine liquor law is a failure? The tall lighthouse on Lon# Island, near Shinnecock Bay, was recently struck by lightning, and the keeper's rooms were badly demoralized. ; : ■ " -T7'

New York City is continually agitated over the alleged pollution of its Croton water supply, and the leading journals wage a vigorous crusade against the evil.

Frenchmen, having become tired of fighting duels that result in the destruction of gun-powder only, ex - cept where an occasional bystander stops a bullet, by accident, are now talking of a resumption of work on the Panama canthe coming winter, and recent dispatches state that there is already 50,000,000 francs subscribed for that purpose.

The New York Tribune defies the Colorado silver agitators who have been proposing to fight till blood shall rise to the horses bridles, and asserts that New York State tJO»ld place in the field and maintain more armed men than all the silverproducing States combined. This information is no doubt correct but entirely unnecessary. There, is no probability that there will be a civil war in this country again.

The Choctaw Nation in the Indian Territory have a very simple way of dispensing justice when it becomes necessary to execute the death pen alty! Two men hold the criminal’s hands, while the sheriff, charged with the duty of executioner, knee s five paces in front, aims a rifle, at a bit of white paper pinned over the victim’s heart, and shoots him dead without further ceremony. All things considered, tho proceeding is

an improvement on the usual hanging, accompanied, as it often is, with bungling machinery and spectacles of the most revolting cruelty and horror. Mr. C. W. Harrington writes to the New York Sun from Olivet, Carrpll county, Arkansas, stating that there are thousands and perhaps millions of acres of good land subject to entry under the homestead act in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri within 150 miles of St. Louis. He urges people desiring comfortable homes and independent incomes to investigate the healthful and undeveloped country so long neglected and so easily accessible. Lands through the southern tier of Missouri counties are rated at from $2.50 to $7 per acre in settled communities much nearer to markets than the homestead lands, and can be bought on favorable terms. There is a government land office at Harrison r Ark. -----—- ■ * 1 rThe modern innovation of Safety Deposit vaults in our large cities is believed to be very largely responsible for the financial stringency which has gradually throttled the current of business transactions. These Safety Deposits, containing private apartments which any one can rent, afford a secure hiding place for untold wealth that not only escapes the assessor, and thereby fails to contribute its due proportion to the support of the government and the maintuinance of civilized society that rendered its accumulation possible, but currency in large sums is thus withdrawn from the channels of commerce and thus inflicts a two-fold injury to the community that protects and Cherishes the fortunate owners. The Safety Deposit is in some respects a financial heaven, for treasure placed within its ponderous and protecting walls is in a refuge where “neither moth nor rust corrupt nor thieves (and bank cashiers) break through and steal.’ 1 I Cabi e dispatches from Paris state that riots in that city have largely been caused by the excessive heat, and that all of the historic outbreaks of the past have occurred during extremely heated terms. The high temperature, it is alleged, drives the lower classes to a desperate frenzy that is unknown when the thermometer acts in a reasonable manner. The populace confined to the squalor of heated streets, without possible relief, become temporarily madmen to wliom consequences—life or death-—are of little moment, and they fight and kill from sheer wantonness —without reason and with no real grievance that is within the power of humcr. authority to remedy or set right. Country people will find it difficult to believe this, but fttdfaf.of ounAmorlcau <*s* who

end the streets like so many ovens for weeks at a time,, that leave people limp, panting, damp, unpleasant" wrecks of their former selves, can realize that a very slight increase o' misery, squalor and discomfor’ temporarily turn them from peaceable citizens into flamingincen diaries or organized mobs. Lightning rod peddlers continu; to make forays upon the rural popu lation in various parts of the country, and continue to call down upon their class the maledictions of numerous victims of their treacherous wiles r - There seems to be no safeguard from the ravages of these pestiferous vermin except to submit to an attack, pay the bill and acquire the rod and the experience necessary to insure immunity from future attacks. Like victims of smallpox and some other diseases, persons seldom sutler a second attack, one siege being an effective prophylactic for all time. Our advice, therefore, would be to all householders in the unprotected districts to buy a lightning rod at once, on the best possible terms, for if it is not. a safeguard against the thunderbolts of heaven, it will at least act as a protection against the emissaries of the lower regions in the guise of rod peddlers, who annually prowl about, seeking whom they may devour. Investigations conducted by a correspondent of the Chicago Inter Ocean seem to establish the innocence of Seay J. Miller, the negro lynched at Bard well, Ky., for the outrage and murder of the Ray sisters near that place on the sth of July. The lynching was accompanied by extreme brutality, Miller being hung to a telegraph pole by a log chain, after being elevated on a forked stick, and then let fall to break his neck, which was done at the first drop. The crazy mob fired numberless shots into the insensible body, and the toes were cut off, after which the body was burned on a pile of timber collected for that purpose. All efforts to induce Miller to confess failed, and it is the solemn belief of many of the best eitizens of Bardw r ell that an innocent man was sacrificed to appease the infuriated mob that demanded a sacrifice for the atrocious crime that had been committed in their midst. Such occurrences are not calculated to give thinking people an increased respect for American civilization, Savages could do no worse, Lynch law is. fast becoming a reproach to American society, and is indefensible even in the most aggravated cases, where the guilt of the criminal is already established beyond a doubt.

Justice Field is the only supreme justice remaining who sat in the famous electoral commission. o' *s> Prof. C. K. Jenness, of the Lei and Stanford University, the sociologist,• in order to more thoroughly familiarize himself with tramp life, dressed himself as a tramp and lived among the profession. He was, however, q uickly- detected hnxT forced out of the ranks of the fraternity. The oldest officer in the French army is General Mellinet; he is ninety-five years of age. The officers of the garrison of Nantes, where he resides, visited him the other day in a body, and gave him an ovation. He received the grand cross of the Legion of Honor after the battle of Magenta.

Mr. Selons, the famous traveler, said in a peeent lecture that during his twenty years’ traveling in South Africa with a few unarmed followers he was only once attacked by the na tives. This was in. 1888, when in the dead of night an attack was made on his camp by the Mashukulumbwe. who were incited to the * attack by some rebel Barotse.

President Cleveland's new catboat will be finished for him before long, and will be sent to Buzzard’s Bay, where the President is eagerly awaiting it. The new catboat will be finished in quartered oak throughout. There will be plenty of brass trimmings, and everything will bt bright and attractive, yet very practical and serviceable. There will be a small cabin. The length of the bout over ail will be 18 feet 6 inches. Its water line will be l4feet 4 inches, and it will have a beam of 8 feet 6 inches. Its rigging will be that of the ideal catboat type. The mast will be Its feet high. The boom will be 20 feet long, and the gaff 12 feet, whir-’- will allow 27 feet for the outsid( Ic gth.

Tlfci heroic conduct of a young negro named Basil Lockwood, the day of the Ford Theater disaster, has been remembered by the gift tQ him of a handsome watch, suitably inscribed. This man, passing along at the moment of the horror, ran and brought a ladder, and, climbing up, held the ladder horizontally for persons to escape out of the windows of the ruined building. The ladder being too short, Lockwood, who is a powerful man,’ fastened his feet in it by some means and bore on the strength of his legs the weight of several persons, who one by one crawled out of the window upon the