Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1894 — Page 2

Gkar E. Marshall, Editor. . ■' - - - - . ' * —>—-—*— RENSSELAER - INDIANA

r A*mij«k witness shall not be unpunished and ho that speaketh lies shall not escape.” New Yobk sharpers have recently been caught in “milking’' the lines of the Western Union Telegraph Company. Three men were secured and their outfit captured. The apparatus employed by the thieves was of the most approved pattern. The Indianapolis Board of Public Safety recently held a competitive examination to ascertain the' fitness of men who desired to be appointed on the police force. One applicant, in response to the question. “What, are the four most important railroads entering Indianapolis?” answeredh “The Big Four. ” Ho was not far wrong, but that was not the correct answer. Great is the Big Four. The Vanderbilt special “flyer” returning eastward, bearing Cornelius Vanderbilt, Chauncey Depew and President John Newell, recently, over the Lake Shore road, made some phenomenal runs. From Cleveland to Erie, ninety-live and one-half miles, the lime was ninety-five minutes, which included a four-minute stop at Ashtabula. -Several runs were made that averaged seventy miles an hour.

Evidently women, when they receive all the rights accorded to mar., will not bo slow in appropriating his privileges also. Out West the la lies have been voting and getting elected to office for some time, and at last a lady defaulter has come to the front at Ft. Scott, Kun., with a shortage of $1,300 in her accounts as City Treasurer. The fair sex will undoubtedly get their hands ip, in the course of time, and be able to make a better showing than this. If female defaulters can not secure more than §1,300 at a time, then are woman suffrage and woman’s rights a delusion and a snare.

“Fly” gamblers are now proposing to resist prosecutions, under the statutes forbidding games of chance, with the allegation that their schemes are not games of chance because they do not give their victims any chance whatever to win. It is generally about that way. Men who are foolish enough to play against a professional sport ought to know, and generally do know, that they are certain to lose. Such gambling is an infatuation oii the part of the deluded victim that is hard to account for on any ground other than that of incipient insanity.

Presibfa’t Palmek; of the World's Fair Commission, has been laboring French exhibitors who desire pay so r the damage done to their exhibits br the fire at Jackson Park. All right thinking people will surely second the efforts of Mr. Palmer with their passive support at least. The United States can not afford to ignore these claims for damages from any nation, much less from France, to whom we are indebted in so maffy ways. It will be, a National disgrace if the French claim is not settled tp the satisfaction of the exhibitors and of the French peoblc as well. .The exposition habit might well be said to be epidemic among the nations of the ’world. Two great exhibitions ar? now in progress—at Antwerp pnd San Francisco. Others are projected infall parts of the world, for dates extending oyer many years. Even far-off Japanlias joined the procession and will hold an international aggregation at Hiogo, the ancient capital of the empire, next year. Japan is said to be making wonderful progress in manufactures and fine arts, and is even now competing in the markets of the world with civilized nations for trade in .fire arms, cannon and many other products of her artisans. John 801 l generally knows “where he is at," but when he does not he proceeds to find out in short order regardless of expense. The movements of Russian troops in Asia has aroused the English government to a realization that events might arise making it highly desirable to mobilize English red-coats in a defense of British rights in Asia, and as an experiment, a few weeks ago, a special military train loaded with arms and army supplies was despatched from Halifax to Esquimault. B. C., with instructions to stop for nothing but water and to change engines. The trip was mode in five days. In this connection it may be stated that English troops have been rushing westward from Halifax through

Maine for several months. These movements-are said to be all in the line of experiments by the British government, In the event of trouble between England and Russia, it is probable that the United States, as a neutral power, would decl in e to allow troops of either power te enter our territory. The soda now begins to fizz and lemonade is flowin’, the price of ice cream hasn’t riz and beer is still a goi-n’ about the same with froth and gas—they only charge five cents a glass—the festive pop can now be had from over temperance counters, and roasted peanuts good and bad absorb the small boy’s coppers. The garden sass will soon be ripe, spring chickens are a-hatching, in myriad barn lots all the day the dominickers scratching, and turkeys for Thanksgiving’s feast aloft will soon be roosting, the wheat will soon be going East, though prices need a boosting —for these and others that we know praise Him from whom all favors flow.

The Indianapolis police enjoy a “pic-nic” almost every Sunday as a result of their positive orders to close the saloons. The groggeries arc successfully “tied up” in a majority of cases, owing to the Vigilance of the officers, but as might be expected it is “their busy day” for the blue coats. As a variation, toughs broke into a Washington -street-saloon-last-Sunday,—that had closed in accordance with the regulations— isl daylight and feloniously abstracted a large quantity of “jag compeller,” which they proceeded to assimilate. The minions of the law finally- run them down only to find the vags in a comatose condition. While trying to arrest them the officers were, set upon by hoodlums and a general melee resulted which finally ended in a victory for the police.

Michael Callahan, drunk and hilarious, achieved a local fame, and a fine, at Jackson Park, the other day. quite as sensational as many of the incidents studiously devised by the directors to advertise the World's Fair. In the absence of the “hostler” Callahan secured control of a switch engine standing on the Illinois Central tracks near the Terminal station, and at once started on a journey regardless of consequences. Opening the throttle wide the mad engineer sped southward. The switchman at 71st street, seeing that something was wrong, threw open a switch and the “wild” engine was derailed and finally brought up with the wheels buried in the sand. The engine was not seriously damaged. Callahan was indignant and said: “I would not have hurt anything. -They interfered with a man’s pleasure and if the engine is harmed it is their own fault.” Callahan was held for trial in the Hyde Park police court.

Adulteration is the rule of the time. Purity in merchandise or men will soon be"the exception. We~ have glucose sugar, wooden paste diamonds, oroide gold, nickle silver, pea coffee, cotton silk, shoddy wool, “adulterated” Calvinists and so on down the list, ad infinitum. Now we are to have marble mad« out of limestone by artificial process, so perfect that experts will hardly be able to detect the fraud. A man can have nd pleasure hereafter in contemplating his own tombstone—before or after death—and can have no assurance that the first hard winter will not crack and tumble it down upon his defenseless remains. Science is progressing, and if the process continues, it seems likely that things will ere long be in such a state of uncertainty that the rules and land marks that havd served as guides and finger boards on life’s pathway for the present and past generations wiil have to be discarded in all thing?, both for time and eternity.

Highway Strategy.

Chfcapo Trftiune. “I don’t want nothin’ to eat, ma'am,” said the tramp, “but would you mind tellin’ me who lives next door south?” “A family .named Higgins," replied the woman of the house. “Do you know anything about ’em?” “No; they’ve only lived here a little while. They came from Kansas City.” “That'll do, ma’am. Thanky.” A few moments later he appeared at the kitchen door of the Higgins mansion. “I don’t suppose you want to be bothered by beggars, ma’am,” he said to the woman who came to the door in response to his knock, “but I ain’t no perfeshioual. I’m a pore man that’s been try in’ fur ten years to make a livin’ in St. Louis, and I've had to ,give it up. The town’s too dead. I’m makin’my way now to Kansas City, where a man’s got some chance, and if you can give me a cold bite and a kind word 11l ba eversotnuch —” “Why, certainly, certainly! Come right in. It won’t take five minutes to fry you a slice of nice ham, and I’ll put the coffe pot on right away. Ten years in St. Louis I Well I well I" * .....

TOPICS OF THESE TIMES.

MORAL DEPRAVITY. The developments in the Breckim ridge case at Washington, the plea of guilty by Theodore P. Haughey, and the trial of the wreckers of the Indianapolis National Bank, are enough to shake the confidence of the most determined optimist in the inherent honor and virtue of his fellow meh. In the first case we have an example of self-confessed depravity on the part of one who for a lifetime had stood before the country as a living example of all that was honorable, high-minded, chivalrous and eloquent—a religious teacher of great ability and power,—a man whom presbyteries delighted to honor, and political opponents even sought that they "might swell the chorus of approbation that was wont to greet his public appearance in any part of the country. Again we have the pitiful confession of Theodore P. Haughey —who for thirty years stood as a tower of strength in financial circles in the Hoosier capital, who also was conspicuous because of his religious and apparently upright life, and by reason of his position as treasurer of a great benevolent society, an “Israelite indeed in whom there was no guile” —that he is “guilty as charged,” appearing at the bar of justice and throwing himself upon the mercy of the court, willing to suffer the penalty of his monstrous crime, while his co-conspirators—men who for years sustained an unblemished reputation as philanthropic citizens—scions of an honorable name—more brazen, stand a trial that from day to day develops a scheme of premeditated fraud and utterly heartless robbery of innocent depositors —helpless widows and hundreds of dependent children —that has been seldom equalled in the annals of criminal jurisprudence. All of these men satisfied every test that is generally applied to those who desire the public confidence —the most desperate outlaw and the most depraved libertine have not fallen lower. Whom can we trust in the future? By what tests shall we judge men who desire our confidence; or whom, in the course of everyday business and social life it becomes necessary to associate with? Apparently new rules must be devised—the old ones have proved such utter failures.

THE PERUVIAN CRISIS.

The Republic of Peru is struggling with a new crisis. Just how those South American governments would get along without a crisis is hard to understand. No sooner is an old crisis worn and threadbare than a new one is procured —very much like a man discarding an old suit of clothes for new garments. In the same fashion, their crisis is uncomfortable till the new is worn off.and there is considerable commotion on account of it. The present situation is alleged to be dangerous. The President, Mr. Bermudez, died March 31. According to the constitution the First Vice-President should discharge the executive's duties until a successor to the President is elected. Failure on the part of the F. V. P. to act throws the responsibility on the Second V. P. The F. V. P., instead of taking the reins of government, took refuge on a British gunboat in the harbor of Callao, and requested those of his friends who favored his election to the Presidency to take no part in the election. The Second V. P. accordingly assumed the executive functions. It is now feared that the Second V. Pr will usurp the Presidential office whether he is elected in August or not. He is an avowed candidate. If npt elected, and he attempts usurpation, the partisans of the First V. P. will attempt revolution. In the meantime war with Chili is threatened, and altogether the crisis is grave enough to call for the most patriotic devotion on the part of Peruvians and the situation seems to demand a leader of nerve who is willing to sacrifice his personal ambitions for his country’s welfare.

VANISHING WEALTH.

The improvidence of mankind, and the almost universal determination to at once realize and enjoy to the utmost limit all and every possibility of the flitting hour, is largely responsible for the vast majority of the woes of mankind to-day. Individual thrift and National financial methods cannot overcome the evils brought about by the wasteful customs and wicked prodigality of the past in dealing with the bounteous stores that nature bestowed upon >ur favored land. Forest and stream md lake and plain, and all the coves and inlets that adorn like glittering jewels all our endless shores, have from history’s dawn teemed with a wealth of life that needed but a prulont hand to yet endure and bless

the favored sons of men whom fate . .. had kindly placed within their charmed domain—whose only need was to grasp the stores so lavishly bestowed. Within the memory of men yet young the woods a»d streams-of our own great State afforded a generous livelihood to all who cared to use the gifts that nature gave,' yet to-day the cry goes up that even the wilds of the Kankakee no longer afford satisfactory “sport,” while from the famous fishing grounds of Connecticut where baked shad and Puritan religion are joint traditions and a memory of the nation’s birth, and from the far-ofl deeps of the mighty Columbia, where salmon surged toward the shores in myriads of fins that boundless avarice never dreamed could be exhausted by the most reckless methods—comes the word that even they have at last begun to succumt to the war of extermination that for a generation has been waged upon them.' Greed for ready gold, and lax enforcement of every law that has been passed to preserve for Our own citizens and their posterity a faint vestige and reminder of the storied wealth, that was their rightful heritage, that has been ruthlessly squandered, tell the tale of,a hope that has vanished, and only serve tc emphasize the hackneyed truth: “Take this maxim to your heart Take, oh hold it last; The mill will nover grind With the water that has passed. ’’

A REMINISCENCE.

The venerable Catholic priest whe gained a National prominence as the spiritual adviser of Mrs. Surratt, who was executed for complicity in President Lincoln’s assassination, died last week. He was known ai Father Walter and had been a priest at Washington for forty years. If connection with his death it has beer recalled that the good man was possessed of a secret which was believed to be of great importance, but which he steadfastly refused tc reveal. Father Walter always maintained that Mrs. Surratt was innocent, and at the last moment made frantic efforts to see the PreSide.nl and Secretary Stanton, stating thal he had information of great value'tc impart. As he had importuned both officials for mercy for Mrs. Surratl so frequently he was refused admittance until after the execution, when word was sent him that Mr. Stanton was ready to receive the information. Father Walter replied that it was too late , and never went near the White House or War Department again.

Hominy and Happiness.

j Washington Post. I “Behold the average colored lab- , on a Southern plantation,” said 1 the Hon. P. B. Winston, of Minne- ' sota and Virginia. “How fat and | sleek he looks; how his shining eyes ; and smooth ebony skin reveals the ; robust physical man. He is a type I of perfect health, and to what does ihe owe his suburb condition? I’ll j tell you in twcr'WOTds’- =r corn "breacE" t There is the grandest food product ih th'g~frorld, and all honor to the ! noble American who is trying to i teach the old world people the vari- | ous delicious uses of Corn, and the many palatable ways it can be prepared* for the table. j “If it were not for corn, I don’t know how many of the poor people I of Virginia, white and black, would i exist. It is in reality the mainstay of life in many localities of the old i State. But to really love corn bread ; I think one must be used to it from childhood. Southern-born men of the old regime commenced gnawing on corn ‘pones’ when they were babies. As they grew older the pone accompanied them on every hunting and fishing expedition, and so, when maturity was* reached, corn in some

form or other was wanted at the table three times a day. This fact will, I think, militate against any extensive use of the cereal as food among the people of Europe 4 —they haven’t been used to it. It has always puzzled me that our own people, outside of the South, fail to appreciate the glories of maize. In the great corn-growing States of the West its use is very limited, and the Eastern mind, so far as corn is concerned, is a howling wilderness.”

Not a Grammarian.

Was.hir.gtßn Post. A certain Western Senator—whose name is not necessary for this story—had an apt illustration on his lip? the other day, and he would have given the Senate the benefit of it if he ho had not noticed Mr. Bland sitting on the Democratic side of the chamber. The Senator had been criticising the language of the seigniorage bill. Mr. Bland is the author of that bill and is from Missouri. “I wanted to tell the Senate,”,said this Western Senator, “of the story of two men who were discussing an article one of them had read. After one,man had criticised it pretty freely, he turned to the other and said: 'Are you a grammarian ?3 “ ‘Heavens, no,” was the reply. ‘I am a Missourian!' “I think that story would have been appropriate to the Bland bill,” said the Senator, but I really did not like to get it off while Mr. Bland was within the sound of my voice.”

WRESTLING JACOB.

His Supernatural Struggle Typi • cal of Life’s Conflict. An Eloquent Discourse—The Non-Essen-tials of Religion—Dr. Talmage’s Sermon.' At the Brooklyn Tabernacle, Sunday. Dr. Talmage preached on the spiritual conflicts of life, taking for his text. Genesis xxxii, 24-26: “And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of day. And when he saw' that he prevailed not against him he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And 4 he said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me.” He said: —You see in the first place that God allows good people sometimes to get into a terrible struggle. Jacob was a good man, but here is left alone in the midnight to wrestle with a tre - mendous influence by the brook Jabbok. For Joseph, Pit; for Daniel, a wild beast den; for David, dethronement and exile; for John the Baptist, a wilderness diet and the executioner’s ax; for Peter, a prison; for Paul, shipwreck; for John, desolate Patmos; for Vashti, most insulting cruelty; for Josephine, banishment; for Mrs. Sigourney, the agony of a drunkard's wife; for John Wesley, stones hurled by an infuriated mob; for Catherine, the Scotch girl, the drowning surges of the sea; for Mr. Burns, the buffeting of the Montreal populacur for John Brown, of Edinburgh, the pistol shot of Lord Claverhousc; for Hugh McKatl; the" scaffold; for Latiiner. the stake; for Christ, the cross. _ . . f will go further and say that every- Christian has his struggle. This man had his combat in Wall

street; this one on Broad street; this one on Fulton street; this one on Chestnut street; this one on. State street; this one on Lombard streeff; this one on the bourgc. With financial misfortune you have the midnight.jgrpsttei Redhot disasters-, have dropped into your store from loft to cellar. What you bought you could not sell. Whom you trusted fled. The help you expected would not come. Some giant panic, with long arms and grip like death, took hold of you in. an awful wrestle, from which you have not yet escaped, and it is uncertain whether it will throw you or you will throw it. From a wrestle with habit I have seen men fall back defeated. Calling for no help, but relying on their own resolutions, they have come into the struggle, and for a time it seemed , as if they were getting the upper hand of their habit, but that habit rallied again its infernal power and lifted a soul from its standing and with a force borrowed from the pit, hurled it into utter darkness. But thank God, I have often seen a better termination than that. I have seen men prepare themselves for such wrestling. They laid hold of God’s help as they went into combat. The giant habit, regaled by the cup of many temptations, came out strong and defiant. They clinched. There were the writhings and distortions of a fearful struggle. But the old giant began to waver, and at last, in the midnight alone,-with none but God to witness, by the —brook—Jabbo-ky-the giant fell, and the triumphant wrestfcrdjTOfcV-'ttTO' darkness with the ory, “Thanks be unto God, who givetli us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” There is a widow’s heart, that first was desolate by bereavement, and since by the anxieties and trials that came in the support of a family. It is a sad thing to see a man contending for a livelihood under disadvantages, but to see a delicate woman, with helpless little ones at her back, fighting the giants of poverty and sorrow, is more affecting. It was a humble home, and passersby knew not that within those four walls were displays of courage more admirable than that of Hannibal crossing the Alps, or the pass of Thermopylae, or Balaklava, where, “into the jaws of death rode the six hundred.”

Some one said to a very poor woman, “How is it that in such distress you keep cheerful?"' She said: “1 do it by what I call cross prayers. When I had my rent to pay, and nothing to pay it with, I used to sit down and cry. But now Ido not get discouraged. If Igo along the street 1 say, ‘The Lord help me.’ I then go on until I come to another crossing, and again I say, ’The Lord help me.’ And so I utter a prayer at every crossing, and since I have got into the habit pf saying these ‘cross prayers,’ I have been able to keep up my courage.” When David was fleeing through the wilderness, pursued by his own son, he was being prepared to become the sweet singer of Israel. The pit and the dungeon were the best schools at which Joseph ever graduated. The hurricane that upset the tent and killed Job’s children prepared the man of Uz to write the magnificent poem that has astounded the ages. There is no way to get the wheat out of the straw but to thrash it. There is no way to purify the gold but to burn it. Look at the people who have always had it their own way. They are proud, discontented, useless and unhappy. If you want to find cheerful folks go among those who have been purified bv the fire. It is prosperity that kills and trouble that saves. While the Israelites were on the mareh amid greht privations and hardships they behaVed well, After awhile they prayed for meat, and the sky dark-

ened with a great flock of quails, and these quails fell m large multituccs all about them, and the Israelites ate and stuffed themselves until they died. Oh, my friends, it is not hardship or trial or starvation that in jures the soul, but abundant supply. .. not the vulture of trouble that eats up the Christian's life. It is the q uails. It is the quails. You will yet find out that your midnight wrestle bv the brook jabbock is with an angel of God come down.to bless and save you. Learn/ again, that while our wrestling with trouble may be triumphant we must expect that it will leave its mark upon us. Jacob prevailed, but the angel touched him, and his thigh bone sprang from its socket, and the good man went limping on his way. We must carry through this world the mark of th® combat. What ploughed those premature wrinkles in your face? What whitened your hair before it wastime for frost? What silenced forever so much of the hilarity of your household? Ah, it is because the angel of trouble, hath touched you that you go limping on jjour way. You need not be surprised that those who have passed through the fire do not feel as gay as once they did. Again we may take the idea of the text and announce the approach of the day-dawn. No one was ever more glad to see the morning than was Jacob after that night of gle. It is appreciate for philanthropists and Christians to cry out with this angel of the text, “The day breaketh.” The worlds prospects are brightening. The church of Christ is rising up inits strength o go forth ’ ’fair as the moon, clc ar as the sun and terrible as an army with banners. •’ Clap your hands, all ye people, the day breaketh. The bigotries of the earth are perishing. The time was when we were told that if we wanted to get to heaven we must be, immersed or sprinkled, or we must believe in the perseverence of the saints, or in falling away from grace, or a liturgy, or they must be Calvinists or Arminians in order te| reach heaven. We have all come to confess now that these, are non-essen-3 tials in religion. t (During my vacation, one summer, I was in a Presbyterian audience, and it was sacramental day, and with grateful heart I received the holy communion. On the next Sabbath I was in a Methodist church and sat at a love feast. On the following Sabbath I was in an Episcopalian church and "knelt at the altar and received the consecrated bread. I do not know which service I enjoyed the most. “I believe in the communion of saintsand in the life everlasting.” As I look upon this audience I see many who have passed through waves of trouble that came up higher than their girdle. In Go’d’s name I proclaim cessation of hostilities. You shall not go always saddened and broken-hearted.’ God will bring your dead to life, God will stanch the heart’s bleeding. I know He will. Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities you. The pains of earth will end. The tomb will burst;. . The dead will rise. The—morning star trembles on a brightening sky. The gates of the east begin to swing open. The day breaketh. Luther and Melancthon were tallying together gloomily about the prospects of the church! TheytebultU

no hope of deliverance. After awhile Luther got up and said 'jot "STelancthon: “Come, Philip, let us sing the forty-sixth psalm of David: ‘God is our refuge and--strength, a very present help in trouble. There - fore will not we fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake -with the swelling thereof. Selah. ’ ” ———- Death to many—nay to all —is a struggle and a wrestle. We have many friends that it will be hard to leave. I care not. how bright of r future hope is. It is a bitter thing to look on this fair world and know that we shall never again see its blossoming spring, its falling fruits, its sparkling streams, and to say farewell to those with whom we played in childhood or counseled in manhood. In that night, like Jacob, we may have to wrestle, but God will not leave us unblessed. It shall not be told.in heaven that ady ing soul cried unto God for help, but was not delivered. The lattice may be turned to ke-p out the sun, or a book set to dim the light of the midnight taper, or the room may be filled with the cries of orphanagy and widowhood, or the church of Christ may mourn over our going, but if Jesus calls all is well. The strong wrestiing by the brook will cease, the hour of death’s night will pass along, 1 o’clock in the morning, 2 o’clock in the morning, 4 o'clock in the morning—the day breaketh. So I would have it when I die. I am in no haste to bo gone. I have no grudge against this world. The only fault I have to find with the world is that it treats me too well. But when the time comes to go I trust to be readv, my worldly affairs ail settled. If I have wronged others I want to be sure of their forgiveness. In that last wrestlings my arm enfeebled with sickness and my head faint, I want Jesus beside me. If there be hands on this side of the flood stretched out to hold me back, I want the heavenly hands stretched out to draw me forward. Then, O Jesus, help me on and help me up. Unfearing, undoubting, may I step right out into the light and be able to look back to my kindred and friends who would detain me here, exclaiming, “Let me go; let me go: the day breaketh!”