Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1868 — Starvation at Selkirk Settlement-The Grasshopper Invasion. [ARTICLE]

Starvation at Selkirk Settlement-The Grasshopper Invasion.

(From tbs St. Paul Ptsm.] ; AM public attuatinn has n-cemily been directed to the destitute u/ul almost starv ing condition of a riortion of the inhabitants of the Selkirk Settlement. every item ot news from there possesses more ox less evouiag foi!, gentlemen arrived from the Settlement, who left there qn the third of the month. They are Thomas Banrt, Roderick Roes, A. McKav and John Southerland. These gentlemen ftriiy confirm the reports which have previously been made of the condition of the inhabitants of that Settlement. The hunters returned from the chase without a mouthful of meat, the buffalo having abandoned their usual haunts. Many of them are preparing to go out again and follow the game to the remote retreats where they are now finding shelter. These hunters will be absent during the .winter, and will subsist upon what they take in the chase. 1 The destitute that remain nt home will number several thousand, for whom provision must be hmde by charitable contributions, or they will Perish bv starvation. The Catholic bishap is already providing for many of those wls> are under ’. is S pj. ritual supervision, and he will give aid’ to them from time to time, an their necessities may require. The grasshopper invasion seems to have been very remarkable in some of its features. They came out of the ground where they hatched, in perfect multitudes, and covered the whole face of the country. _ They seemed to advance iu masses some- , times several inches deep, and where a house or fence obstructed their progress, they would pile up in heaps to the depth of more than a foot, They were all the time preying upon one another, end the living would soon consume the dead, except the shelly portion and the legs. These lay about the houses so thickly and the stench from their decaying remains was so offensive that men had to turn ont with shovels and wheelbarrows in some instances and thus carry them away from the immediate vicinity of dwellings. Fields, gardens—everything, was consumed by them until parts of the country was left a desolate, waste. Our informant thinks that no vestage of this plague remains to hatch out another crop next year. Food for the starving will only bfi required to assist them through the long and severe winter, and then seed to plant crops in the spring, and, if no other misfortune falls up>n them, they will lie self-sustaining thereafter. These gentlemen brought Jowil IVtrain Qf Red. St. Cloud to carry back supplies for themselves and the community to which they belong. _ A Double Winpfaij.—The Rochester (N. Y.) Express says: "Mr. Cunningham bus received the cash ava Is of anolAergrent estate, which fell to him in the oXd-etwm-try. This latcsLwiudfall is said to amount to tlie large sum of six millions throe hundred and sixty thousand and fifty-three dollars in gold. He had previously received) from a similar source, seven millions bine hundred and twenty-four dollars, which, with interest and premium on gold, aggregates him nearly nineteen million dollare. Th A BHuter states that the inheritor of fthis immense wealth “has not a friend in the world, neither does he of business to any one, but figures very sharp. He is soon to start on a year’s voyage for his health. He is single, not engaged, and is one of the finest young n.ea- in our and.” o - ‘ —An apparatus usedJjo hoist bricksand mortar at the building corner of Cambria street and Broadway, New York, fell Saturday evening, iu eoiwwpieuee us a tackle block becoming unhooked, and killed Jas. Todon and T. Shay, both laborers. A boy standing on the walk was also struck by a falling brick and badly injured.