Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1879 — NEWS NOTES. [ARTICLE]

NEWS NOTES.

The Southern cotton crop this year is estimated at 6,250,000 bales. The Louisville reception to General Grant, rivaled that of Chicago. The members of the House of Congress have raised over SSOO for the sufferers in Ireland. The Pope has sent dispatches to the Bishops of Chili and Peru, recommending them to use their influence in favor of peace. The Senate Finance Committee has voted to postpone the consideration of all currency measures until after the holiday recess. General Grant expresses the opinion that the proceeds of all remaining public lands should be devoted to educational purposes. The big pile of gold in the Treasury is an awful temptation to the Brigadiers. They would be glad to spend a few tons of it in mud walls or canals, oi kindred enterprises.

A fight is being made in Cleveland over the taxation of church property. The valuation of such property $4,000,000, and would yield the city a revenr.t of SIOO,OOO ‘A bill has been drawn, to be prepresented to Congress, for the charter of a company to build an inter-oceanic canal, and will be submitted to Gen. Grant in Philadelphi, where the parties interested go to consult him. Count Bismarck favors a reduction of the standing armies by the Great Powers of Europe, as a remedy for the prevailing financial depression and misery among the people. But such a reduction is possible only by joint agreement between the several Powers. The number of foreign immigrants landed at New York during the month of November, was 14,600, being nearly 9,000 more than for the same month last year. The namber landed since Januaiy 1, was 125,000, being nearly 50,000 more than for the corresponding time last year.

Rumors of the proposed abdication of the Czar of Russia again prevail. The present Emperor is regarded as half insane on account of constant ap prehensions as to the safety of his life. Oh Friday of last week the snowbanks in Dakota and Northern Minnesota were from six to a dozen feet high, and at Fargo some of the houses were oovered over. At Manitoba the thermometer was 86° below aero. Th* brandy crop of France for 1879, is an entire failure, but enteiprising dealers are supplying the deficiency with an article made out of beets, own,

wtDoy ptfiiipa for soiproent to too markets ov too world. at the tkms the other day to reported to have been a snrnwss Manv of the ladies walced up to the poßa “like little men,” and deposited their ballots for school trustees, which are the only officers they are as yet permitted to vote for. A from Washington states that the President will tender to Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, a seat on the bench of the United States Supreme Court whenever the resignation of Judge Hunt, of New York, shall create a vacancy. Judge Hunt’s health has been quite feeble for some time past, and his resignation at an early date may be expected. Advices freyn Japan state that M. Fujita, the latgest contractor in the country, M. Nakano, one of the lint merchants, and sixty of their principal friends, have been arrested for having caused to be produced in Germany forged Treasury bonds to the value of about 16,000,000 fiance, which they managed in such.a way that they were put in circulation by the Treasury it-, sell The discovery of this fket produced a crisis unexampled in Yokohama. A terrible panic on the Bourse ensued, and the most scandalous scenes took (dace.

A cablegram reports that the supply of sugars at Loudon £is estimated to be over a quarto of a million tons short of that of last season. The stock of ooffee at the leading European ports is estimated at nineteen thousand tons less than at this tune last year. The figures denote that a boom in sugar and ooffee is among the possibilities. The Pension bill recently passed by the House of Congress appropriates •$32,404,000, an increase over the last appropriation of $8,008,000. The whole number of pensioners now on the rolls to 242,766, a net increase of 18,757 in the last year. Of the whole number of pensioners, 11,721 are surviving soldiers of the war of 1812, and 21.194 are the widows of deceased soldiers of the same war.

The suffering among the poorer classes in France seems to be as great as that among the same classes in Great Britain. This to shown by the fact that Lapere, the Minister of the Interior, has been compelled to apply to the Chambers of Deputies for a grant of five million francs for the relief of the most destitute. The grant was made by an almost undhimous vote, all parties acknowledging its necessity and joining in supporting it. A joint resolution has been introduced in Congress, proposing two amendments to the Constitution, one providing that the general appropriation bills shall contain nothing but the ordinary expenses of the different departments and interest on the public debt, and that all other appropriations shall be made by bills containing only items relating to the subject matter of the bill. The other gives the President the power to veto one or more items in a bill and approve the rest Cable dispatches signify that the Vrtic&n to ready to call quits with the Belgian government on the controversy as to clerical domination of the public schools. The latest instructions to the Papal Nuncio gat Brussels are to the effect that the differences are to be considered at an end it the Belgian Cabinet will consent to so treat the matter. The palpable import of it to that the Vatican to not dtoj>osed to press a conflict which to against the spirit ot the age, and in which, inevitably, the church must be worsted.

Australian forests have been most recklessly wasted through the rivalry of saw-mill owners who have not hesitated to burn large districts, or to cut down, and leave upon the ground to rot, many more trees than their competitors could use while the timber was in good condition. The authorities have been covering the mountain sides with State nurseries, whence trees are transplanted while young to other parts of the country. As a remarkable incident it is stated that American forest trees thrive better there than those indigenous to the soil. The cultivation and protection of timber is regarded as so important in Australia that now a college has been established in which young men will be especially trained in woodcraft, forestry and agricultural chemistry. The medical gentlemen whcm the Government sent last July to Cuba to study yellow fever in all of Its phases have retnrned and reported. They go not enter into the question as to whether there is any hope of ever eradicating the disease from the island, or of so confining it as that other lands shall notsulferby importation. They give positive assurance, however, that unaoclimated persons are liable to contract yellow fever at any season of the year, and in any hamlet, town or city in Cuba. They believe that the germs of the disease are scattered thickly all over the island, and that wherever any considerable new foreign population is concentrated, there the scourge will rage violently.

The case [of Mapstrick vs. Ramge and others, lately decided by the Nebraska Supreme Court, constitutes a noteworthy episode ih the judicial history of labor strikes. Eighteen jour-’ ney tailors were in the employ of the plaintiff, and, conspiring to force him to pay them higher wagee, they simultaneously abandoned their work and returned it to him in an unfinished stata. He was unable to procure the labor necessary to complete the unfinished work according to his contracts with customers, and subsequently brought suit against his late employee. The Court held that he oould maintrin his action, not only for direct damages, bat also for the general injury to the character of his house for punctuality.' * /IVm