Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1893 — INDUSTRIAL FOLKS GOSSIP. [ARTICLE]

INDUSTRIAL FOLKS GOSSIP.

An Indianapolis merchant tailoring establishment located in the heart of the city on Washington stJreet, following the recently established precedent, last week closed its doors and displayed the following notice: “Closed for a few days. Gone to the World’s Fair. Open next week.” Ex-President Harrison is said to have regained his vigor to a remarkable degree during his summer vacation at Cape May. The cares of office and great bereavement had made sad inroads on his sturdy frame, but people without regard to party will be pleased to learn that he has recovered from the depression they induced. Admirers of the purely fictitious writings of the versatile-author known to the world as “Jules Verne” will be surprised, as a rule, to be told that the title is only a pen name. This celebrated novelist is a Pole and his real name is Olchekitz. His home is in Amiens, but he lives on his!yacht the greater part of the time and does nearly all of his.literary work on the vessel.

A gang of outlaw’s “held up” a Missouri Pacific express train last week, but failed to realize sufficient funds to compensate for the risk. If they would only “hold up” George Francis Train a boon would be conferred on humanity. The financial result would be the same, but the gang would attain greater fame and notoriety than by their expeditions in the “wild and wooly west.” Congressmen now while away the weary hours of the silver debate by quoting poetry to illustrate and enforce their personal ideas. The country at large is not disposed to bear with such foolishness with any degree of equanimity. “There is a time for all things” is a part of holy write. The country surely has a right to expect earnest and prompt action of its chosen servants in the great crisis now upon ’us

Edison has given up electrical pursuits for a time and is devoting his attention to metallurgy. Finding sapphires very expensive and hard to obtain and having use for a great many in the manufacture of phonographs he analyzed the jewels and discovered their chemical composition, and now manufactures all the sapphires used in his factories. He also states that he can make rubies at $5 a pound that far excel the genuine. Alcoholic drinks are not considered essential by Arctic explorers, and recent adventurers who have departed for the region of the midnight sun have seen fit to go without the customary rations of wines and liquors heretofore considered indispensable by sailors in all climates. Jack Tar and his grog have in the past adorned many a tale of the sea, but if this innovation should become a permanent fashion, story writers will be compelled to invent some other “fillin’’for the thrilling pages of maritime fiction. The world moves and the sea, evidently, will be compelled to keep up with the procession or get spilled into space.

The hoisting of the great bronze crowning figure. “Indiana,” to the summit of the Soldiers Monument, last week, was an event of. interest at the Hoosier capital and in all the surrounding country-*-wherever there was a spy-glass or. teleocope in the neighborhood,- where an unobstructed view of the shaft was obtainable. Thousands of people watched tfre tedious process for days, fully expecting to see something “drop,” but science and elbow grease overcame all difficulties, and the copper-hued goddess now stands in majesty gazing .toward the bloody fields where fell the martyrs of the great cause o! human liberty in whose memory this greatest monument of its kind in all the world has been constructed. When all the embellishments shall have been added, and the last stroke of the chisel and flap of trowel shall have sunk into everlasting silence, and puny mortals shall have abandoned the task to Father Time to finish in his own inimitable way in tones of gray, this work of art will become an object lesson of patriotism and an inspiration to all that is grand and noble in man. There is no denying, however, that, when the great task is completed and “Indiana” stands-serene amid the storms and clouds, calmly looking toward the graves of her fallen sons, unchanged and unchanging through the ages yet to be, that the citizen of Hoop Pole township

when he goes upto thq “Legislator, ” is bound to be sadly puzzled as to how she ever attained her sublime and altitudinous elevation.

The New York Sun wants Chicago to exchange its name because foreigners can not pronounce the Indian noun that serves as a cognomen for the most remarkable city iris the world, and desires to substitute the simple syllable “Go.” instead. To an observer in this latitude it would seem a matter of small importance whether foreigners could pronounce the name or not. There are too many of them “getting there” under the present arranged en t. The name “Chicago” is derived from the Indian noun “Chee-ca-qua,” which means a strong onion, and some people don't like onions. There are no indications, however, that the name will be changed, nor is it probable that we will become involved in foreign difficulties because of the struggle of the representatives of various nationalities with the aboriginal title of the World's Fair City.

The noted bandit, Chris Evans, now in jail at Fresno, Cal., has developed Into a philosopher, and devotes his time to promulgating abstruse theories which he backs up with scriptural quotations, to which he can readily refer, being well read in Biblical lone, He is authority for the statement that no man in health and in his right mind ever killed himself between 1 o’clock a. m. and daybreak., And he avers that it is a physical impossibility for him to do so, for the reason that all men are arrant cowards at that period. If a man desires to do anything desperate between 1 a. m. and daylight he mustr stimulate with whisky or other intoxicating liquors. To confirm his theory he quotes from the fourth chapter of Job: “In thought from the visions of the night when deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up; it stood still but I could not discern the form thereof ; an image was before mine eyes, there was silence.” Some people do not believe in such things, he avers, but long observation and experience, both with Indians and civilized men, at that hour have convinced him that there is something supernatural in the hour that rules and guides the courage and destiny of men, and that they cannot avqad the irresistible influence that pervades nature •without a resort to stimulation, and that takes them practically out of their right mind aud normal condition. and proves his theory’ that men and animals are by nature cowardly in the latter part of the night. There is as much difference in the courage of men at different hours-as there is in the courage of bees.

England uses Norway ice. Tea is dr-ied.by_electricity. Prussia yields half our zinc. gun. There are 51.000 breweries. Canada has ninety-four daily newspapers. Gloves arc made of rat skin. Krupp has a 150-ton hammer. There are electric drawbridges. There qre women piano tuners. Soap is made from cottonseed oil. England drinks American rum. A device makes sunbeams audible. Uncle Sam has 9,000,000 farmers. Food costs $13,700,000,000 a year. Galvanized iron is not galvanized. France uses Irish horses for cavalry. California's mines cover 220 miles. India has 27,000,000 acres of wheat. Prussia uses American hickory wood. Mark Antony sells papers in New’ York. Paper stockings gain favor in Germany. : Brazil raises 80 per cent, of the I coffee. Union Pacific crosses nine mountain ranges. Canada supplies our lead pencil plumbago. Zanzibar yields 500,000 pounds of ivory yearly. Battle Creek is the “Philadelphia of Michigan.’’ Electricity travels about 90,000 miles a second faster than light. The lead mines of Spain have been worked ever since the beginning of history. . - Great Britain annually produces about 000,000 ounces of silver from lead ores. Copper is believed to be the metal earliest known to man and first used in the arts. A Seattle saloon keeper has a carbonic acid gas machine for pumping ale and beer. Tanning is done in this country Tn about one-quarter the time usually allowed in Europe. In boring the Mont Cenis and St. Gothard tunnels ordinary means were first used, then steam power; finally compressed air.