Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1893 — Fishing By Electric Light. [ARTICLE]

Fishing By Electric Light.

A light trust is forming, bu there is no cause for uneasiness. Th, * combination will not endeavor t< shut off the sunlight, the intentioi only beinj? to corner The “penny in the slot” machines in New York are said to be the most depraved lot of counterfeit coin cir~Wlatbrs in evil' lias assumed dangerous proportions and Cashier Muhleman of the Sub-Treas-ury has warned the public to be on their guard. English capitalists know a good tiling when they see it if American people do not. It is stated that they are investing heavily in all classes of American securities at this juncture. and are eager to take advantage of the low prices that have for sometime prevailed in the stockmarkets. ~ One result of the prevailing hard times in the United States has been a decided falling off in the tide of immigration to our shores, a result longed for and seemingly unattainable. This is a consummation that is not likely to cause general mourning throughout the land, but rather . thanksgiving that the clouds are not without a silver lining. It has been suggested that the financial excitement of the past few weeks is not a panic at all, but rather a sort of brokers’ clearance sale —a “bargain day,” so to speak —to clear up odds and ends that have been aecumlating for years, after the fashion of city merchants who mark their hosier}’ “Fast Black Sox —Former price 50c; To-day 19c.”

Senator John Sherman thinks the business outlook is good. This may be true, but what people are especially anxious for at this juncture is not an outlook, but actual results of a beneficient character. However, it is well to “live in hope if we die in despair.” If the “outlook” is regarded as good by such able financiers as John Sherman, we may “get there” by and by. Experiments are being made with a portion of the convicts of the Clinton, (N. Y.,) State Prison as road makers. The State Engineer reports that the results are satisfactory in every way. Only a small per centage of convicts received at State prisons are fitted for such work, but the expense of guarding those who are is light while they are at work on the highways, and “their employment in this manner promises to be profitable to the commonwealth. The French people are very vivacious and energetic, and their extreme nervousness and excitability would lead to the conclusion that they are a short-lived people. Such, however, does not seem to be the ease, if such conspicuous examples as De Lesscps and Sir Edward Blount may be taken as representatives of the race. More than fifty years ago Sir Edward Blountstarted the first train on the oldest railway in France —the line between Paris and Havre. A. week ago. he as president of the road, inaugurated a new fast train on the same route that now makes the tri]) in three hours and a half.

Maj. Pangborn. president, of the Associated American Exhibitors, had a tilt at the Exposition Commissioners, the other day. The Director General and all his chiefs were present. Maj. P. had many grievances.. He charged the commissioners with making an architectural picture and not a World’s Fair, classed the Midway Plaisance as a “Conglam oration of fakes,” the dancing girls in the streets of Cairo sis “the scum of the brothels of the Orient,” accused restaurant owners with employing a gang of thieves as waiters, and cited several cases of extortion and robbery practiced on himself and others. The moral of all this is: “Keep your eyes very wide open when you go to the Fair.” People who long for notoriety have strange methods, frequently. of attaining their desires. Rev. John T. James, of Loudon, county. Va., however, recently struck out in a new direction, and stands before the world in the white light of fame, as the only man who ever smashed a display of Irish whisky at the World’s Fair. Rev. Mr. James has a unique record for eccentricity extending over a long life, and might well be termed the Prince of Cranks,” having been an accomplished scholar, m'mbder of the Methodist, church of superior’ d^atorof

gambler of unusual depravity, and finally a reformed man who has walked in the st raight and narrow way for years, only to add another phase to his checkered story by a criminal action that may land him in prison. One of the most dangerous and notable phases of modern life is the extreme carelessness of mobs in the matter of identification. The fury of an angry concourse of people only needsan apparent victim of suspicious circumstances to arouse it to deadly action. With an undoubted increase in the-criminal tendencies of- a certain class r and this fatal tendency to summarily avenge the outrage and murder of numerous victims, life can hardly be said to be as secure as in the past. All law-abiding citizens owe it to themselves and the country to discountenance mob law on all occasions. Our only hope of safety is in legal revenge for infractions of the code. , The “job” of the President of the United States is not a bed of roses. There is a very large amount of downright hard work in connection with its honors, dignities and emoluments. Besides the duties which by law are made incumbent on a President. he is frequently called upon to actas arbitrator between foreign countries, and is compelled to listen to vexatious complications of no possible interest to his own country, just now President Cleveland would appear to have quite enough to attend to without acting as a referee for foreign nations, yet Brazil and Argentine are anxiously awaiting his decision in what is known as the “Misoiies case,” a matter that has nearly precipitated war between those two countries many times in the past few years. Mr. Cleveland’s responsibility is very serious in this case, and he must strive while harassed by the silver and tariff questions, office seekers and mugwumps, to render a decision equitable and just to all parties concerned.

Recent investigations give reasons for the belief that the desert lying between the Nile and the Red Sea was in past ages a pleasant laud of forests and all green and living things. Various places in the arid waste have from time immemorial borne Arabic names signifying various kinds of green herbage, most of them referring to trees or groves, although the country is entirely destitute of every species of vegetation. Rain is unknown as a result of the lack of trees. It is thought that the trees and grass were destroyed by untold generations of Arabs and Jheir camels, whose voracious appetites are won t to feed on all green things, after the manner of the billy-goat. The same desolating process is taking place in Russia to-day. Forests are being destroyed, and as a result in vast regions there is hardly a tree to be seen, the streams are drying up. and fierce storms, piercingly cold in winter, scorchingly hot in summer. sweep with full fury over the plains, withering the corn and bearing with them drifts of sand that will ere long turn the fertile soil into permanent deserts.

New York Telegram. The success which attended the use of the electric light fishing off the California coast last year, has led to the devising of various improved apparatus .for that purpose. One of these consists of a large iron frame interlaced with netting.which can be opened and closed at the will of the operator. An electric light encased in a lantern is lowered into the net, the electricity being furnished by a moter in the bow of the boat. As the boat moves along the network is thrown open, and the bright light of the lamp, which is seen at a great distance in the clear water, arouses the curiosity of the fish, which readily swim into the. trap. This is the modern variant of the old method of destroying the fish from a canoe by torchlight.