Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1894 — Highway Strategy. [ARTICLE]

Highway Strategy.

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.

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" * .....