Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1893 — A Picture from Barbadoes. [ARTICLE]

A Picture from Barbadoes.

Egos are now quoted on the Baltimore market by the pound, and the day when the fruit of the Bantam will realize as much cash for the chicken fancier as the product of the Shanghai hen has gone by in the Monumental City.

Bandits three bold and free sailed into a gambling house at Cour d’ Alene, Idaho, one night recently, held up the crowd, swept the tables and drawers clean of cash, backed out gracefully and got away ’ with the swag unharmed. Robbery is getting to be a fine art in these. United States.

The portable property of the Prospect street Methodist Episcopal Church, of Indianapolis, was recently sold at constable’s sale. The property consisted of, carpet; desks, a cabinet organ and a number of chairs. The congregation had “staved off” the execution a number of times, hoping to be able to pay the debt, but could not do so.

It is estimated that 20,000,000 people have been made happy by passing through the gates of Jackson Park into the fairyland beyond, but the latest statistics show that at least 1,430,000,000 unfortunate mortals failed to avail themselves of the greatest privilege ever offered to mankind. There is a “heap" of nursing in this world.

The brick and mortar battleship Illinois which has cruised off the coast of Cook county for several months in all the panoply of war and red pa:nt will continue on that station for some time, to come, provided the rampant anarchists who seem bent on murder and destruction in that locality do not blow it up with dynamite, Congress having presented the same to the city of Chicago.

Congressman Cooper, of Indiana, has introduced a bill to tax greenbacks. The bill states that greenbacks are no longer in general circulation, but are held and used to cheat the assessor. These statements are probably true, but there is the further probability that the bill will be held unconstitutional by the Su preme Court, even if it should receive the sanction of both Houses and the signature of the President.

Indianapolis merchants, both wholesale and retail, are “squealing” about the drain that has been made on their trade and anticipated traffic, as well as on their collections, by the World’s Fair. Careful estimates show that during the last ninety days an average of one thousand persons have daily gone from that city and the territory that draws its supplies from there, to Chicago. Estimating an average expenditure of S2O for each person, this has made a drain on Indianapolis of $20,000 a day. Summed up it has been a very expensive experiment for the Hoosier capital.

It is stated as a fact that the hard times have affected the undertakers of the country worse than almost any other line of trade. Not only are funerals conducted, on the average, in a less expensive manner, but fewer people die in a panic year than 'in prosperous times. This fact has 'been established by statistics. The mortality during the last year has been remarkably light, from Maine to California. Traveling men who sell embalming compounds, burglarjproof grave vaults, and funeral accessories of all kinds have scarcely sold enough to pay expenses. People generally shonld be able to see in this pleasant state of affairs some more of the “silver lining” to the dark clouds of financial adversity that have for some time afflicted us. The government of Nicaragua has adopted a “Know Nothing” policy that would have delighted the most selfish reformer of ante-bellum days. In fact, the authorities of that diminutive power believe in “a government of Nicaraguans, by Nicaraguans, for Nicaraguans,” in the fullest sense of that overworked quotation. Foreigners of all nationalities are subjected to specifically heavy taxes, and under existing statutes can be compelled to loan the government money on its own terms if it can be proven that they are possessed of superfluous wealth that can be readily converted into cash to meet the government needs. Evidently immigration is considered very undesirable in that country, and emigrants who are well informed will no doubt cheerfully acquiesce in the exclusion policy that prevails and give the country a very

wide berth. This is a “wide, - wide world," and it is altogether unnecessary for civilized people to go where their presence is considered detrimental to the interests of the State and country to such an extent as herein indicated.

The magnificent benefaction embodied in the conditional gift of $1,000,000 by Marshall Field for the founding of the Columbian Museum, at Chicago, practically insures the preservation of the most remarkable features of the architectural grandeur that has delighted the millions of World’s Fair visitors, for an indefinite period, and also insures the founding, extension and perpetua tion of an. institution whose influence will be an enduring monument to the memory of .. the great merchant princq for all time to come. The conditions imposed Krp thait an - other half million dollars be added to the gift by other citizens of Chicago, and that $2,000,000 of tb<J stock of the World’s Fair be assigned t the trustees of -the proposed museum. George M. Pullman has already offered $160,000 of the amount desired, and the indications are tha the conditions will be easily complied with, and the enterprise is al ready spoken of as an assured fact. This mode of disposing of their surplus wealth by Chicago nabobs iscertainly an improvement over th> proposed movement to raise a heavy purse for the impoverished Duke o> Veragua. '

The American navy now has in the water and rapidly approaching completion three Of the most powerful battleships in the world, the Oregon being the last vessel to be launched. The cost will perhap: reach $10,000,000, while the fitting up and batteries will be extra. The armored belts of these vessels extend three feet above the water and four and one-half feet below, being eighteen inches thick, and extend ing along three-fourths of the length of the length of the ship. Above the belt armor the vessels are protected by five inches of steel. A heavy, curved, protected deck slopes so as to reach four and one-half feet below the water-line, covering the machinery and magazine, and the side armor is backed up by six inches of wood, an inch and a half of steel and a coal belt ten feet thick. Each of these vessels can throw at a single discharge of its batteries 6,80(1 pounds of projectiles. Each carries four thirtcen-inch guns in turrets, eight eight-inch guns on the superstructure, and four six-inch guns. All the ordnance is of the most approved and modern pattern, and is wonderfully effective at distances of from one to two miles.

“I was writing, this morning, about six o’clock; and although the sun was not quite up, the pervaden t light that never quite leaves Barbadoes was reflected back from sea to desk, through breadfPuit and cocoa-nut-palms, as soft as from a sunset cloud,” William F. Hutchinson, M. D., tells us in the November New Peterson. “My thermometer marked 77 degrees, and the sweetness of the was not yet gone. Perfumes of awaking rose and jasmin mingled with dying odors of la bonita del noche, the lady of the night; and day - sounds of birds and men were usurping the nightfrog’s song, whose musical double note still vibrated through the air. Peace and life reigned around, and as the pure warm salt air filled farthest group of lungcells, sending blood clear to the tips of one’s toes, life was very well worth living at almost any cost, and this lovely island seemed more attractive thanever.”