Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1879 — NEWS NOTES. [ARTICLE]

NEWS NOTES.

I Pope Leo opposes civil marriages. Congress has passed a bill abolishing the custom’s duty tax on quinine. Th,e crops in all parts of France have been seriously injured by rains. The Knox county wheat crop aver ages twenty-five busies to the acre. Ex-Empress Eugenia is said to be dying of grief for the loss of her son. The second Chinaman was made an American citizen at Chicago, a few days ago. Secretary Sherman' will make several speeches in Maine during the month of July. Computing on’tbe; liasis of a new City Directory just isiued. the population of Chicago is about 537,000. Gold has been discovered ou Shefford Mountain, in Canada, in large quantities, causing excitement. Daniel O’Leary gained about $9,000 by his victory ill the recent sev-enty-five hour walk With Crossland. Kentucky racing men dropped about $40,000 on Kentucky horses at the races at Chicago, last Wednesday. Archbishop Pubcell expects to aise SIOO,OOO in NJejvj York city to aid in the relief of his financial embarrassments. Gen. Ben. Harrison declines kis appointment by the President as a member of the Mississippi Levee Commission. , .j " According to his present traveling programme, General Grant will' arrive at San Francisco on the 10th of September. A rill continuing the pension of Gen. James Shields to bis widow and children, has been passed by the House of Congress. Several Indian trilies express a willingness to go on a new reservation, and many Indians will occupy lands under the new Homestead Law.

Tj*k health of the Emperor* of Germany is reported to bo in a most critical state. He is sunject to prolonged faintingfits, and may go off any hour. Cety.wa.yo has sent messengers to the British commanded to treat for peace. The British have increased their demands, and the prospects for peace are not encouraging. The Land Office at Washington reports more sales of public lands during the last four months than had been made in any previous year. The office force is kept busy night and day. Swarms of grasshoppers are reported to have invaded Dakota Territory aud portions of Southwestern Minnesota and Northwestern lowa, doing great damage to the wheat and other crops. It is said that several of the old Bonapartist Generals will refuse to take the new oath of allegiauce to the Republic of France, which refusal will compel them to retire from the array. The balance of trade in favor of the United States for the eleven months of the current fiscal year ending May 31st, was $258,000,000, an increase of $12,000,000 over the corresponding period of 1877-78. A clause iu the constitution of the c Ohio Liquor Dealers’ Association provides that any member who shall sell liquor to a minor or habitual drunkard or drunken person, shall be expelled from the Association. It is said that a friend of Weston won $150,t00 by his victory, and, in accordance with an agreement previously made, Weston will get half of the amount. If this be true, Weston gained SBO,OOO by his great triumph. Dr. Georok Macdonald, the preacher and novelist, is said to have contrived a public exhibition of “Pilgrim’s Progress,” in which he personates Christrian, and other members of his numeriAte family the other characters.

A convention between Germany and the Vatican is said to be in negotiation. The German Government is to nominate the Bishops, subject to the approval of the Pope, and the Bishops will nominate the priests, subject to the approval of the government. The Louisiana Constitutional Convention has adopted a clause limiting the State tax to five mills on the dollar. This sum will barely meet the ordinary expenses of the State, leaving nothing for the payment of interest on the State debt, to say nothing of providing for the payment of the principal. The Internal Revenue receipts of the government for the fiscal year ended June 30th, were about $3,600,000 greater than the previous year, notwithstanding the heavy reduction of tax on tobacco. It is thought that this

increase is an unmistakable proof of the improvement of the business condition of the country. The late Ebon C. Ingereoll held the same peculiar views as his eloquent brother Bob, who delivered a funeral oration at the former’s grave. The Ingereoll conducted the services at the funeral of their t father in the same way, Colonel Bob making the address. The body was interred in the garden and a flower-bed was made on the grave.

Stqck-ra ISKHB report terrible 'ravages among the young Digs by hog cholera, in southern Wisconsin and Jo Daviess county. 111. A Galena dispatch says that hundreds are dying, and' the disease not only spreads from drove to drove, but is always attended with fatal results. The disease has raged for some months in Grant, lowa and Lafayette counties, Wis., Jo Daviess county, 111., and Dubuque county, lowa. The loss thereby is simply incalculable. Some farmers have been ruined, and others are much discouraged. France is now said to be the richest country in the world. England’s wealth aggregates, exclusive Jof public highways, $42,500,000,0*10. Recent estimates place France ahead in the matter of wealth. Her private property, real and personal, is set down at $43,110,000,000, and her navy, palaces public buildings and other public property, excepting highways, at $1,475,000,000, making $44,585,600,000. Acoordino to the American Ex porter the exports from the United States for the first ten months of the fiscal year show an* increase in merchandise of over $21,000,000, compared with the corresponding period of last year. The increased exports of live cattle and hogs amount to $5,000,000; flour, $3,000,000, and wheat $30,000,000. Barley exports have decreased $2,000,000, and Indian corn $8,000,000. The exports of manufactured goods generally show an increase. The balance of trade in our favor (specie excluded) for the past ten months ja $14,401,536. * Pittsburg is one of fie blackest of cities by reason of the smoke from its manufactories; but a plan is being tested that promises to make it clean. The proposition is to-wash the smoke, and the way of doing it is thus described: “The washing is done by passing the smoke through the spray caused by paddle-wheels revolving in a tank of water holding soda ash in solution. The tank and wheels are placed in the flue, between the furnace and the chimney, and, the wheels being made revolve in the direction of the chimney, the draught is increased.” The smoke, after being thus treated, will not soil a white handkerchief.

In 1878, one Collier, of Calloway county, Missouri, ran for the office of Probate Judge as a ‘’Reformer,” and was elected, having pledged himself that he would receive only half the salagjipprovided by the taw for the incumbent of that office. The Attorney General of Missouri, resisted his induction into office on the ground that be had secured his election by bribery, and the Supreme Court has sustained the objection by declaring the election of Collier null and void, and the office tho wich he was elected, vacant. Professor Swing characterises the habit of haring two sermons a week as “horrible,” and thinks that there should be a “song service at night.”! If a night-sermon is insisted on, then he sajs: “Let that sermon be awful thin. Just openly avow its thinness. Let it be known that it will be a sermonetta or a sermonilla. Let the -people learn to build up the home*charm[and joys each Sunday night, and if they will not dp this, why thep let that enslaved pastor of such a flock move out aud away as the negro of old fled from the cotton field. An intellectual man dare not quit producing, and creating, and reshaping; he 'dare not make use of his old manuscripts but neither dares he make a mere guiena fowl of himself and gabble incessantly from morning till night all around the Lord’s house.” l