Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1879 — Page 4

ODDS AND ENDS.

Americans eat more potatoes than any other nation on earth. Albion, N. Y., has a prospect of a colored theological seminary. A Boston belle has two French snails for pets. They live on clover and lettuce. Beer haw supplemented wine on the tables of some of the best Vienna hotels. V * An inmate of the Widows' Home, Allegheny, Pa., is known to be 112 years old. . Germany has just discovered a buried forest in her midst, supposed to be 10,000 years old. The work of assassination is going right on in West Virginia. Tennesse, Kentucky and Texas. The skeleton of a child was recently found in a chimney in London in paper dated three years ago. The choir of one of the colored Catholic churches in Washington fe considered the best at the capital. The armory of New York’s Seventh Regiment will be completed in November. The total cost will l*e $250,000. j . He who makes a wayside tree grow where none grew before furnishes shade and consolation for a tramp with a sun burned chin. l ' Kit Carson, a son of the famous scout, and a very witty and intelligent gerson, it is reported, is making temperance speeches. Mr. J«»seph .Sei.igman, the eminent banker of New' York, began life paiutng canal boats for the late Asa Packer, at the rate of fifty cents a day. j ~

Prince Leopold wishes to marry the Princess Marie of Hanover, to whom his brother, the Duke of Con naught, unsuccessfully proposed. It was recently stated in a Liverpool court that nearly all'“teetotalers” thereabouts indulged in port wine, regarding it as a harmless beverage. During 1878, the American Bible JSociety mode 1,286,958 Bibles, and during the sixty-three years of its existence the society has issued 36,052,160 copies, A North Greenwich (Conu.) hen recently deserted her nest of eggs after setting two weeks, when a cat immediately took possession, and hatched five chickens. A New York letter-writer says: “I saw a man the other day, who a year ago bought $2 worth of cigars daily to giveaway; his lunch now costs him fifteen.cents a day, A Picture has been put on exhibition in Paris, and is to be shown in all the principal ei ties Of Europe, representing the Exhibition of 1878. It covers about 3,000 meters of canvass. Forty-five years ago Paul Dillingham, ex-Governor of Vermont, took a boy into his service to do chores for his board, and allowed him to use his library and attend the - district school. He Is now fifty-five years old and he occupies a seat in the United States Senate. His name is Matt. H. Carpenter.

The distinction Is finely made. An exchange says: “An American gulps down a glass of lager as if he believed his stomach on fire, and a prize depended on a speedy extinguishment. A German lifts the sparkling amber to his lijisand sips as though afraid to impose a too great burden upon so good a friend as his stomach.” - . The Prince of Wales was so tickledwith the rifle shooting of Dr. Carver, the American, before his august presence recently, that he sent him a letter, of compliment, accompanied by a gold horse-shoe scarf-pin, studded with »diamonds, ami having in the center the Prince’s feathers, with minute, colored precious stones in the band of the coronet. • L Americans can sepd wheat to Eur gland and sell it at a profit for less than 4 costs the English to grow it. This fact and several similar oues mean that there is aclyange in store for landed proprietors jin that country. A writer in Macmillan’s Magazine insists that every owner of laud sliall become an absolute freeholder, and that game shall be extirpated as vermin. A. if. Grimke, a colored lawyer of Boston, was united in marriage a few days ago to Sarah E. Stanley, a daughter of a Wisconsin Eoiscopal clergyman of Caucasian blood. Mr. Grimke was a slave in South Carolina, but received a free education since the war, and is a man of the finest literary tastes and qualifications. The happy

couple are assured of the warm friendship of a large circle of friends in the very best ranks of Boston society. A tree 325 feet high, in the neighborhood of Stockton, Cal., has hitherto enjoyed the reputation of being the tallest in the world; hut an official of the Forrest Department in Victoria, Australia, lately measured a fallen eucalyptus in Gippsland, which was 1435 feet long. Another tree of the same species in the Dhndenong district of Victoria, still standing, is estimated at 450 feet. In a dream last week a Middletown (Conn.) man passed through a trial for murder which seemingly lasted three weeks, in which a great many witnesses were examined and eloquent pleas hours long delivered. At last he was convicted and sentenced. While

on the scaffold, protesting his innocence to the last, the trap was sprung; hut the rope broke and he fan away. He was pursued by the people and the police, but he eluded them until nightfall, when he ventured to visit his home. There he found his wife attacked by a gang of ruffians. He killed j' one of them and drove the rest away. Then he awoke and discovered he had been through these terrible ordeals, all this suffering and anguish, and the three weeks’ trial, while sleeping only three minutes. It is stated as a singular fact that not %

one of the Imperial Napoleons has died in France, or on French soil. Napoleon L, the founder of the family, died a prisoner on the British Island of St. Helena, In the South Atlantic Ocean; his son, Napoleon 11., died in Austria; his nephew, Napoleon ITL, died an exile in England;- and now. his grand nephew, the young man whom the French Imperialists have hoped would one day rule France as Napoleon TV., has met his fate at the oint of Zul u spears in Bouth-Africa.

NEWS NOTES.

There are 45,000 suits pending in the United States Courts of the Union. The prospects are favorable for an immense sugar crop in the Island of Jamaica, but the condition of the coffee crop is not so promising. * The recent revolution in Panama cost exactly $6,000; nobody was killed, and everybody is forgiven. In the first week in June, snow to the depth of two inchesj fell in the northern counties of England. The President has withdrawn the nomination of Secretary McCreary as the successor of Judge Dillon. It is said that in one locality in Spain the masons wet their mortar with wfne, because it is not so scarce as water. ' Kentucky, California, Maine, Ohio, Maryland, Massachusetts. Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersy, .New \ork, Pennsylvania, Virginia and W iseonsin, hold State elections this summer and fall. k V A terrible tragedy Is reported from Holyoke, Massachusetts, where a man named Kemmler, because he did not like his wife, deliberately shot his three little girls dead, and claims that he did right in doing so. A sharp paragraphist says: “England has succeeded in beating Parole by loading him down, and she might, perhaps, beat Haulan if she forced him to row with Senator David Davis in the shell as coxswain.” Madison Square Garden, in New York city, is to be lighted by eleCtricty at a cost of one-third to one-fourth of tne present cost of gas, and with three to four times greater illuminating power than by gaslight Weston’s walk of 'SO miles brings him $2,000 of the gate money. $2,500 won from Lord Astley And the champion belt The “blarsted” Britishers are great blowers about athletic sports, but exceedingly penurious (contributors of gate money. The National Congress of Prance, which has met at Versailles since tne establishment of the Republic, has voted to make Paris again the seat of national government, anil henceforth the Congress will hold its sessions In the latter city. I The motion for a new trial ip the case of Guetig, the Indijanapdlis I murderer, has been overruled, and Tie is sentenced to be hanged on Friday, September 19th, the first anniversary of the brutal assination, of his victim, Mary McGlew.

Mrs. Holland, a yoi ng bride from Belgium, on a wedding topr round the world, went out with h?r husband for a stroll among the little islands at the head of Niagara, a day or two ago, and falling into the swift current was swept over the falls. Hon. Henry W. Blair, tlie iww United States Senate* from N«*nr Hampshire, is 45 years «f age. M* tm a lawyer, was Lieu ten ant 4 iiksid mt ffmr Fifteenth New Haiupdhtre nwgii At during the war, has Issju a both Houses of the IA-gialalure, aad has served two terms as a member of Congress. - *] ; On Thanksgiving Day in 18G7, Weeton arrived in Chicago from Portland, Maine, having accomplished a walk of 1,200 miles in twenty-six days. This feat of footing created a great sensation. At this time tfhe sensation of two continents is the walk by the same person of 550 miles in six days.

The murderer of Mm. Hull, of New York City, has been fopnd and arrested. He Is a negro named Chrastone Cox, who has been employed as a waiter in the neighborhood of tjie Hull residence. He pawned some jewelry belonging to the deceased, in Boston, which was sent to New' York and led to his arrest. , The business meij of Indianapolis have organized an association for the purpose of securing favorable railroad rates in order to induce the people far and wide to visit apd trade in that city. One of the first of the association was the Appointment of a committee to make as|kngements for the celebration of fourth of July, on a grand scale. The revolutionary movement in Mexico is headed by Gen. Negrette, an old hand at the business, and there is some probability that the Diaz administration will be overthrown. The revolutionists appear to be the Bourbons of Mexico, their chief cause of complaint being the encouragement recently given to foreign capital and enterprise. The projector of civil engineering feats, Ferdinand del*^ps, states that the first sod of the Panama Canid will be turned January 1, 1880, and that with 40,000 navvies, including seme Chinese, and 15,000 Brazilian negroes, the work can be completed in eight years. j .

By the death of the Prince Imperial of France, Prince Victor, the son of Prince Napoleon Jerome (nicknamed “Plon-Plon,”) becomes the heir-ap-parent to the throne, in the event of the restoration of the Empire. He is a lad of 17 years. His mother »»the Princess Clothilde, daughter Of the late Victor Emmauel, of Italy. The old chimney of the house in which Washington was bora, on the estate of “Wakefield!” in Westmoreland county, Virginia, is still standing —all that is left to mark the spot, the tablet erected by Parke Curtus In 1816 having erumbled to pieces. It»is sug-

geatod that an enduring monument be placed upon the spot. The Governments of England and France have formally demanded the abdication of the Khedive of Egypt. The bankrupt condition of his Government is the occasion, and both Germany and Austria threaten to join England and France in their demand for his abdication, if he does not at onoe pay the floating indebtness. The Sultan of Turkey, who lifcp a nominal protectorate over Egypt, is yet to be heard from. . \

At the burial of the late Bar on Lionel de Rothschild, his kinsmen who were present each threw three spadefuls of earth into the grave, the eldest son leading in the ceremony. While the body was being lowered into the grave they united in repeating the words: “May he come to his appointed place in peace,” and as they were leaving they each plucked a lew blades of grass, saying: “And they shall blossom forth from the ruins like the dust of the earth.” Serious apprehensions have been aroused by warlike symptoms among the Northern Cheyennes and other tribes in the vicinity of Fort Reno, Indian Territory. Ten companies of troops have just arrived at the fort, to be in readiness to, deal vigorously with the threatening redskins. The number of the hostiles who are ready for the war-path is between 2,000 and 3,000. Their cause of anger is the fact that the government has refused them permission to leave their reservation for a hunting raid northward. | On last Sunday, during a Bohemian dance and picnic In a grove near Chicago, a fight occurred between a member of an armed company of sharpshooters and a visitor. The latter was badly used up and ejected from the grounds. A mob outside took up his quarrel and assailed the picnicers with sticks and stones. The sharp-shooters formed, and charged upon the crowd with fixed bayonets, subsequently firing several rounds, by which several persons were wounded, some of them, perhaps, fatally. The .sharp-shooters were arrested by the police force and taken to prison.

STATE ITEMS.

Flux has been fatally prevalent at Orleans. Center Lake, Steuben county, has been stocked with eels. A Steuben county hen recently hatched twelve chickens from eleven eggs. A tidal WAVE of horse-stealing has recently been sweeping over Eastern Indiana. The Merediths recently sold SIO,OOO w'orth of short horn cat tle, at Cambridge City. A large number of pleasure seekers, have taken summer quarters at Lake Maxinkuckee. - A recent enumeration show’s the population of Richmond and its suburbs to be 14,679. The wool clip of the State, this year, is large, but it should be doubled as speedily a»possible. In gradiug a street in Auburn, the bones of the first white man buried in DeKalb county were unearthed. Five persons were killed by lightning in Washington county, during the mouth ending about June 20th. A Kokomo grocer wasallow’ed SI,OOO fcw supplies to the poor of Center town■hip, at the June session of the County State Senator Reeve is the owner of two fine farms in Marshall county, which are cultivated under his direction.

A brother of ex-President Fillmore, was one of”the speakers at the recent old settlers’ meeting in uiG range county. Mary MungoaN, aged 15, committed suicide the other day, at Richmond, because she heard her lover was about to leave her. The press and people of Warsaw, are very anxious to build up the reputation of that place as a picnic and summer resort. George Rettig, of Peru, is preparing to engage extensively in the business of raising fine horses at his farm in Fulton county. The safe of the Treasurer of Kulton county has been secured against a plain danger, by the attachment of a time lock, at a cost of S3OO. The Board of Trustees of Moore’s Hill College have secured an endowment of $20,000 for that institution, which places it on a permanent basis. -

The Rock pert Gazette says that the acreage of tobacco in Spencer county will not be so large as usual, owing to the scarcity of plants, which the farmers say were destroyed by bugs. JAmes Maloy’s famous running mare, “Maid of Richmond,” died, the other day, at Renssalaer, of lung fever. She was one of the best young racers in the State, and w'as valued at $2,000. •A i.ate decision of the Supreme court, allowing County Treasurers five per cent, for certain delinquent collections, is putting considerable sums into the pockets of those officials that they scarcely expected to get. Mrs. Fannie Whitman, aged 90, and one of the pioneers of Sullivan county, died last week from the bursting of a blood vessel, brought on by violent coughing. gjhe was wellknown and highly esteemed. J ames Tuterow,of Brown township, Hancock county, thought to scare his brother, who was riding a horse, by shooting over the horse. His aim was admirable, as he shot the horse in the stomach, killing it almost instantly. An enterprising citizen of Argos has' fitted up a w'ugon with which he propose* to travel about tl e country, and engage in the business of greasing harness. If he has the requisite quantity of cheek, he oan make even that business pay.

A boy in Crawford oounty, married when he was seventeen, and was a father at eighteen. He lately married a second wife, and now, at the age of eighty, is happy with a second cnild. There is sixty-two years difference between the ages of the two children. Jlarry Young, a piano tuner and teacher, attempted to commit an outrage on the person of two of his girl pupils, aged respectfully nine and ten years, at Bourbon, the other day. It js to be regretted that the facts were not made known until the villain had

escaped. M. M. Moody, of Delaware county, found a land terrapin on the county farm in 1868 with “E. H. 1849” inscribed upon its back. Mr. Moody carved his own initials, “M. M. M.” 1868,” on the tellow,” and let it go. Last Saturday week, Mr. Moody found the identical terrapin upon the same farm, with both inscriptions still readable. It has been thirty years since the first inscription was carved. Recently, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Boub, of Versailles, Had their youngest child, aged about one and a half years, rather seriously scalded, by falling into a pot of soup Mrs. Boub had prepared for dinner. She had very carelessly placed the pot on the floor, and the child sat dowii in it. The Valparaiso Normal students are equal to' any emergency. One went fishing recently, and, as it happened, the owner of the pond came along and commanded a cessation of his sport. The young man looked at the austere farmer, and said “take your fish, I was only trying to drown this worm.” Plymouth Republicam : The fastest time ever made by a railroad in America, was made we believe by the fast train which passed through here on the P., F. & C. railroad, Wednesday of last week. It ran from Chicago to Ft. Wayne, one hundred and forty-nine miles, in one hundred and forty-five minutes.

James McDonough, of Anderson, has in his possession a chicken with four legs. It was hatched about a week ago. Two of the legs are in the position occupied by legs upon fowls, while the other two protrude from the place where the tail is expected to grow' upon good healthy chickens. It is living, but will hardly survive the hot season There is growing in Wayne county a colossal grapevinte so large in its proportions that a brief description of it will prove interesting. It x is growing upon the farm of Mr. John Copeland, near Hagerstown, Wayne county. A few feet above the ground it measures forty-two iuches in circumference. This large trunk grows upward thirty feet, and separates into two branches, each of which is eight inches in diameter. The vine has spread itself over the tops of two large beech trees which stand near, and during the grape season the trees are overloaded with the fruit. A fabulous number of bushels of grapes are said to hang on the tops of the trees, seventy feet above ground, quite out of the reach of the fruit gatherers, who, no doubt, pronounce them “sour,” as they hang so tempting beyond his reach. Mrs. Eliza Mendenhall, of Winchester, Randolph county, nas been in poor health for the past twenty years, contending all that time that a snake or something of that kind in her stomach w’as the cause of * her miseries, for which she was hooted at a great deal by her parents and other friends. About two w'eeks ago she took to her bed on account of it, complaining of the most nauseating taste arising from her stomach which almost stifled her. Her mother placed an electro magnetic plaster on the affected part, giving her a powerful emetic at the same time, which resulted in her vomiting up something about six inches in length in an advanced state of decomposition, with the head of a lizard and a body resembling that of a snake. Becoming deathly sick, she fell back completely exhausted, but* was soon revived and has been steadily improving ever since, feeling better than for the past fifteen years.

What It Meant.

The trouble at the recent commencement exercises did not occur in vain if it shall prove the means of infusing into the public mind a better and more correct idea of the true functions and limitations of our free school system. During the past few years there has been too much of a tendency, all over the country, to forget that these schools are common schools; that they are so in name, and should be actually such. Everywhere the tendency has been to make the schools ornamental; to neglect the primary and rudimentary departments for the purpose of enlarging and extending the upper grades. School boards have added to the course of study the languages and the higher mathematics ana the fine arts, and have paid high prices for instructors in those branches while cramping the primary and intermediate grades. This tendency has not failed to excite widespread attention, and proyoke general discussion. It is believed now that a reaction has set in, and that a movement is on foot which will result in confining our schools to their proper limits. In Fort Wayne the high school is a thing of the past, having been superseded by a central grammar school, and the same change has been made in many other cities. Less attention is given than formerly to the teaching of purely ornamental branches and more care is given to the primary and intermediate departments. It is recognized that these schools are common schools; that they are maintained for the use and benefit of the poor people of the county; and that they do not afford any proper field for costly display of any kind. In our common school commencement exercises, rich dressing and costly floral tributes are equally out of place. Let the rich have these things, if they desire, at their private institutions; but in our common schools it is merit alone that wins; the poorest scholar is on a plane of ah! solute equality with the richest, and the latter must not be allowed, by the expenditure of money, to affect a superiority which does not exist. Any display at the Central Grammar School commencements is out of order. It is

a fact that young women of superior capacity and scholarship, having earned a diploma, have refused to graduate because unable to purchase a dress equal to those to be worn by her classmates. it is a burning shame. Hie school board, in prohibiting the giving of floral tributes at the commencement exercises, did so, we doubt not, because they hold the same views that we have advanced in this article, and which must, we feel sure, jbe heartily .endorsed by every true friend of, the common. school system.—[Ft. Wayne Sentinel.

A Dinner as Peter the Great Gave It.

At one of the grand dinners given by the Czar, a huge pie was placed in the center of the gentlemen's table, out of which, when the startled carver broke the crust, a beautiful dwarf lady, in purls naturalibus, all except a headdress, stepped, proposed in a set speech and drank in a glass of wine the health of the company, and then retired into her snug retreat and was carried from the table. A man dwarf was substituted at the ladies’ table. Did not Peter say he could reform his people, but not himself? A dinner party at the Czar’s must indeed have been a sight not conceivable out of Bedlam, and could only have been planned in the maddest brain on earth, if a manuscript among the Sloane papers in the British Museum is believable. Such practical jokes! such wild, grotesque gamboling! the frolics of leviathan! the laughter of Titan, as frightful in his fun as in his fury! There was accommodation at the Czar’s table for about a hundred; but the grim humorist always issued invitations to twice or thrice that number, and left his guests to elbow, jostle and fight for chairs and places, and retain them against all comers and claimants if they could. Not unfrequently a free fight was extemporized and nosea- tapped, and even the sacred portions of Ambassadors have been profanely touched and trifled with. The Czarsat at the head of the table, a broad grin on his face, rolling the spectacle like a sweet morsel under his tonge. The guests are so closely packed that feeding room is not £o tbe thought of, and ribs are often blackened and almost driven in by active and vigorous elbows, provoking fierce recriminations and quarrels. The kitcheri-is so near to the dining hall that there floats through the latter a fragrance of onions, garlic and trainoil, mellowed and tempered by the more delicious aroma of the roast. The more knowing and initiated guests wave away soups and such like edibles, and manifested a special appetite for tongues, hams and viands that cannot be tampered with, or made the vehicle of practical joking, for as often as not it happens that a bunch of dead mice will be drawn out of the soup or discovered snugly imbedded in a dish of green peas; and sometimes, when his guests have well partaken of certain pastries, the Czar will courteously inquire if the, cat, wolf, raven or other unclean animal proved a savory or delicious morsel, with what result let the imaginative guess. The approach to a a regular Donnybrook was hastened on by liberal supplies of brandies, strong ales and winds so adroitly served out as to expedite the grand climacteric of drunkenness.—[Belgfavia.

The Ruin an Extravagant Woman Wrought.

We are apt to think, and other nations are of our opinion, that reckless extravagance is well-nigh monopolized by American wives. This is far from true as is shown by facts that have been disclosed in connection with the Lonsdales i who recently became so embarrassed - financially that the Earl, the head of the house of Lorther, has been compelled to sell his great collection in London. He has been married barely nine months (his wife was Lady Glady Herbert, a very tall, dark, Jewish type of beauty, often called the Gipsy), and has lived at such a rate, his bride assisting him very actively, as to be on the border of bankruptcy. She has been noted for her eager persuit of pleasure since her entry into society, and she met Lord Lonsdale while she was conspicuously radiant at the heigh t es a London season. They seemed to be fond of one another—in a well regulated way, of course—and after their union they scattered gold lavishly all over Europe. Balls, dinners, yachts, races, hunting, succeeded in unbroken succession. She wanted everything, and he bought her everything. The Old World was ransacked for curious, luxurious objects of art, and an income of £16,000 was not sufficient for their purchases. Her diamonds cost her £200,000, and her furniture, pictures, marbles, and the like, more than £300,000 in seven months; and yet she was not content. They appeared ot have loved the great world and its resplendent . gawds more than they loved one another before their honeymoon was fairly over) While he was yachting in the Eastern Mediterranean she was dancing at Monte Carlo. He dined late and long at the Maison Ddree, when she captured young noblemen and watched tne stars from the cliffs of Sorrento. She is 23, ana he 31, but both have lived long enough and fast enough to feel weary, jaded, and old. She is the daughter of Sydney Herbert of fair renown and Crimean fame, and the sister of the Earl of Pembroke; and the rapid pace at which she and her titled husband haVe gone has set the tongues of Tyburnia and Belgravia wagging and drawing morals from matrimonial indifference and wild extravagance. The men say he has ruined her; the women declare she has ruined him. Probably they are both fight.

The Great Leveller.

How things do change. Year by year a man grows old. So do his clothes. Since last I visited Osceola, Time has been very busy. I suppose he would have been just as busy air ihe same if I had never left Osceola. Ido not know just what he has been doing, but I know he has been busy. Time is a great leveller. All the same as a dirt scoop or a road plow. Time levels everything except a man’s back. He humps that up. And I don’t see whv either. It doesn’t appear to make the back any stronger, and it certainly doesn’t make it any prettier. But I suppose Time knows his business. There has been a great deal of change in Osceola. But the last circus took considerable of it away. It took away all of it the boys could get hold of anyhow.—[Burlington Hawkeye.

A Georgia Snake Story.

On Tuesday morning Mr. Jesse New was looking for his turkeys and found them in a ditch. He started to drive them home and discovered an enormous rattlesnake in the ditch with them. He immediately got his gun and shot the snake twice and then had to call Mingo Glaze, a colored man, for assistance in killing it. He cut the snake open afterward and found inside of it three turkeys and a chicken. He says the snake was eight or niLo feet long and about two feet in circumference. It had twelve rattles, which we liave in the office. It was an ugly customer, and Jesse says that he now intends leaving Georgia, for when he finds such snakes two hundred yards of his house he does not believe it healthy for himself.—[Amerieus (Ga.) Republican.

Losses in War

It was one of the dreams of the friends of peace thirty years ago that the vast improvements making even then in machines for the slaying of men would soon make war a game so deadly that kings and nations would cease to play at it. The dream was a delusion. Improvements in arms encourage instead of discouraging warfare, as they are followed invariably by a decrease in slaughter. It is not necessary to go back to the battles of antiquity when the fighting was hand to hand and no quarter was shown except with an eye to profit; to themereiless and brutal days of Cannse, when 40,000 out of 80,000 Romans fell; of Zama and Metaurus, when the Carthaginian armies were destroyed;' of Hastings, when the victorious Normans lest 10,000 men out of 60,000, or of Cressy, when 30,000 out of 100,000 French soldiers were slain. Consider the work of the old smonth-bore, muz-zle-loading musket, used in the great wars of Mai bo rough, Frederick and Napoleon, in conjunction with smoothbore artillery. If we leave out of account such battles as Vitoria, Ross bach or Leuthen, which was speedily decided by tactical skill or obvious and overwhelming superority in numbers at Zorndorf of 32,00 u Russians 11.385 were killed or wounded, and 21,531 of 50,000 Russians, or 35 and 43 per cent. At Austeriitz the loss was 13£ per cent, of the force engaged: at Jena, 17; at Prague, 17J; at Friedland, 21 ;i at Waterloo (of the English), nearly the same; at Marengo, 23J; at Borodina, 32; at Eylanand Salamanca, > nearly 34 j. According to the figures given by Col. cooke, the average loss in these ten great battles was as nearly as may be 25 per cent of the forces engaged. After the Crimean war the rifle came into vogue. The Italian war of 1859 was fought with it, and the Austrians used It at Koniggratz, where the Prussians employed tne breech-loader. At Magenta less than 9 per cent of the men engaged were killed and wounded: at Solferino the percentage was almost precisely the same, and yet these were pre-eminently “soldiers’ battles,” decided by “hatmnei-and-tongs” fighting. At Koniggratz the combat lasted nme hours, and the total loss, with rifles on one side and breech-loaders on the other, was not quite 7 per cent. After this the breechloader came into use everywhere and the French brought out their mitrailleuses. The breech-loader was three times as accurate in fire as the old Brown Bess, eight tiuies more rapid and seven times longer in range, not to mention the fact that it prevented excited men from performing ■ such feats as ramming home cartridge ballforemost and sending down a dozen more on top of that under the belief that all thirteen had been fired at the enemy—yet what was the result in the war of 1879? Taking the battles fought while France had any army, we find that at Woerth the loss was 13J per cent., at Spicheren. 11 J, at Gravelytte pot quite nine, at Sedan less than eight, and the bloody field of Mars-la-Tour something under sixteen. In other words we have the table:

Per Cent.. Killed In the days of sword, bow and spear 2? Killed in the days of smooth-bores.. 22 Killed in the days of rides and breech-loaders 8 to 10 When we come to look into the matter in detail the figures are quite as instructive. We hear much about the frightful effect of modern artillery, especially when massed, yet in the total German loss in killed and wounded in 1870-71, of 18,241 killed only 695 were slain by shells, and of 70,636 wounded only 4,389 were hit by these missiles. The sabre is about as grand—or as contemptible—a fraud. With swords and the butt-ends of muskets, which always plays so terrible a part in romantic histories, there were only six Germans killed and 242 wounded in the whole war, though it was a war full of brilliant cavalry charges by ‘the cuira; siers and dragoons, while the lance and bayonet killed no more than 189 men and wounded no more than 574. In other words, of 100 men killed outright or dying of wounds received in battle one is killed by a blow, cut or thrust, and three are slain by shell or cannon-ball. The effect of bayonet and cavalry charges and artillery fire, therefore, may be set down as chiefly moral. a Of course there is an explanation of all this. .The increased power of modern weapons has been met And in a great measure neutralized by the loose order of fighting; the modern soldier, too, is taught not to stand up boldly and face his foe but to crouch down and avail himself of all possible shelter. It is at least an open question whether there is not a slow but steady decadence going on in the warlike qualities of all modem civilized nations, and whether, now that individuality is allowed to assert itself in the extended order of fighting, the military machine of civilization lias not been weakened. Already a German author has recorded the fact that an army nowadays loses its best men first, because the bravest work furthest ahead in the skirmish line. The tendency has been so uniorm in one direction that it looks very much as if we should yet come to inventing arms Qf precision so deadly that the rate of mortality in a pitched bat tle would be a good deal less than a city in a sickly season. While on land a new and loose order of fighting has been introduced offering a difficult target, and the soldier has been impressed with a sense of danger, thought to shun it and allowed some option in doing so, the improvement of weapons in naval fighting has done away with naval engagements. Since the Kearsage sank the Alabama, and the Kaiser at Lissa rammed the Re d’ltalia, and sank the Palestro, there has not been even a skirmish between the fleets of any of the great naval powers, though Russia and Turkey, and France and Germany have been at war, and we may rest assured that after the engagement of Iquique, in which all the Peruvian and Chilian vessels concerned seem to have gone down, commanders everywhere will be confirmed in their caution.

It might be thought that with accurate arms in the hands of trained soldiers a considerable percentage of hits might be made, but incomplete as are the statistics on this point they show that fewer bullets now have their billets than ever before. At Spicheren the Germans hit one French soldier for every 279 catridges expended, and at Woerth 146 of every 147 bullets fired were throw n away. The Russian figuresvfor the late war are not regarded as over-accurate, being suspiciously small, yet they represent sixty-six rounds fired for one man hit. l But we have a more striking set of figures from Zuzuland. The Zulus are described as fighting with great ferocity and boldness, scorning concealment, coming on in dense masses and charging up to the muzzles of the English rifles. > The English troops are splendidly armed, having guns, rockets and Gatlings, as well as their rifles, and in the engagements where they have proved victorious they have largely increased their enemies’ losses by cutting them down with cavalry or spearing them after they have been repulsed. Yetat Ginghilova 5,000 men poured ceaseless volleys into the Zulus for an hour and a •

half at from thirty to 600 yards-ranee and killed 1,000 of them; that is, it would take one soldier seven hours and a half steady work with a MarsiniHenry to pot one Zulu! And atßorke’s Drift, where the Zulus came so close th * l 'they were blown to pieces, bayonetted or clubbed, 130 men firing for twelve hours only ‘‘mowed down” 500 of their savage foes. Arms of precision even against an enemy who comes on In solid array and to close quarter are u <seems, nearly so deadly as the old Tower musket and round bullet with which men fired slowly, it is true, but not for that the less surely, ana - relied more on thqir aim than on their arms for the work. k •

An Eventful Career.

The . town of Graham, ift Young county, Tex As., is named after a man who, though no longer young in years, is still so in both physical and mental vigor, and whose name and posterity may well be perpetuated in the beautiful region which has been selected for the town site. Dr. Christopher Graham was born near Danville, Ken-: tucky, October 10, 1787, and was descended from Irish parents. He grew up with but limited education in that then new country. He served in the war of 1812-’ls. He descended the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans several times before the days of steamboats. He was a proficient hunter and excellent in athletic sports and manly courage. As a marksman and hunter he had but few equals in the early days of the present century in Kentucky, then famous for riflemen and hunters. After serving through the war with England he,returned to Kentucky, but not to remain long in the s prospects of peace. In the year 1817, when the expedition of General Mina was preparing to invade Mexico through Texas, in order to overthrow the Spanish po Dr. Graham left Kentucky with &he afterwards famous Texas patriot and hero, Colonel Milam, Ben Sanders, Wm. Baylor, Charles Mitchell and others, and joined the force of Mina at San Antonio, -Graham, however soon became dissatisfied with the manner In which the war was conducted, and returned, thus escaping the tragic fate of some of those who him. He returned to Kentucky, studied medicine and, it is said, was the first M. D. graduated at Transylvania University.! He came back to Texas in 1822, and was with Stephen F. Austin in the City of Mexico when the latter went to secure a confirmation of his colonization contract. Going back to Kentucky, lie commenced the praetiee of medicine, and built up-the now famous watering place, Harrodsburg Springs, which property he in 1852 to the United States for a military asylum, receiving the sum of SIOO,OOO for the same. Again he returned to Texas and accompanied Colonel Gray in his reconnoisance for a line of railroad on the thirty-second parallel. The Doctor, however, left the surveying party at El Paso and proceeded through Mexico to the Pacific at Mazatlan, and from thence to San Francisco by sea, suffering many perils aud hardships both by land and water. Thence returning to Kentucky, he inaugurated a system of improvements on a grand seafo on Rockcastle river. Although now in the ninety-second year of his ago, he is still In possession of his faculties, and occasionally contributes articles of a practical and scientific character to the Louisville press, showing no diminution of liis intellectual powers. —[Galveston News.

Wonders of the American Continent.

The greatest cataract in the world is the falls of Niagara, where the water from the great upper, lakes forms a river three-fourtlis of a mile in width, and then being suddenly contracted, plunges-over the jocks in twd volumes to the depth of 175 feet. The greatest cave in the world is the -Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, where aiiy one can take a voyage on a subterranean rivet and catch fish ; without eyes. The greatest river in the world is” the Mississippi, 4,000 miles long. The largest valley of the world is the valley of the Mississippi. It contains 5,000,000 square miles, add is one of the most fertile regions of the globe. The greatest city park in the world is in Pniladeipliia. It contains 2,700 acres. Tne greatest grain port in the world is hicago. The largest lake in the world is Lake Superior, which is truly an inland sea, being 430 miles long and 1,000 feet deep. The longest railroad at present is the Pacific railroad, over 3,000 miles in length. The greatest mass of solid iron in the world is the Pilot Knob of Missouri. It is 250 feet high and two miles in circuit. The best specimen of Grecian architecture in the World is the Girard College for orphans, Philadelphia. The largest aqueduct in the world is the Croton aqueduct, New York. Its length is forty and a half miles, and its cost $12,5000,000. The largest deposit of anthracite coal in the world are in Pennsylvania, the mines of whiqh supply the market with millions of tons annually and appear to be inexhanstable.—[Coal Trade Journal.

Giving Words a Twist.

An old-fashioned citizen objects to the new-fangled twist whieh many school teachers are endeavoring to impart to the pronunciation of certain words. He says it is -“agin natur ami sense.” Hear him: “My youngest darter said to me, the other day: ‘Pa, is Bostong as large as Philadelphia?’’ ‘Boston, my child,’ said I—‘B-o-s-t-o-n is not.’ Then I laughed. ‘What are youloffing at, pa?’ said she. Then I began to rile right up. Says I: ‘Sarev, who told you to call it Bostong, and who taught you to say loss for laughing?’ ‘My schulemoster,’ says she. Then I heaved out a w ord that they don’t teach children in school, and began to cross-examine her. ‘Why, sir,’ —and here the old gentleman began to w’ipe up the oozings from his corrugated brow, ‘why, sir, she called Baltimore Baltmore; half as though it was hos; and went over a string of words that would have made an old-time teacher boom around a school house with a rattan ill a manner not appreciated in these days of fancy kinks. The members of the Board of Education can talk till the crack of doom, and no doubt they will, but they couldn’t beat it into my head, or any other fellow’s who went to school forty years ago, that Boston is Bostong, or laugh is lot. 1 * Having said this, and punched a score of imaginary holes in the floor with his cane, the outraged father braced up his ' collar and climbed down the stairs again.”

An Alphabetical Snake.

We dc not like to tell snake stories; they are dangerous applications to one’s .reputation. But Mr. James Ingram, of this country, sends us it specimen of a snake—a kind we never saw before * peculiar that we are compelled to t .kc notice of it." The snake is thirty-oue and three-quarter inches in length, of a trim, slim shape, and is strangely marked, having all the letters of the alphabet in plain characters upon its back in large capitals. No one to whom it has been shown knows any name for it, or ever saw one like it.—[Crawfordsville (Ga.) Democrat. T \ « . .. ; v ! - - : ■