Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1868 — A Yankee Community on a Lonely Island. [ARTICLE]

A Yankee Community on a Lonely Island.

From an article in the London Athoneum on the recent voyage of t’rinco Alfred in the frigate Galatea, we extract the following account of a curious little community dwelling iu mid-ocean: Ou quitting Bio, the romance of the voyage began by a call at Tristan d’Acunha, the largest rock in a lonely group of islets in the great waters —a gronp which is said to be further away from other settlements than any other land in the world. Here is a prime fact for romance. Oue of the three rocks is called Inaccessible, a second Nightingale, aud the third Tristau. The nearest (mot on which men livje ia.St. Heleßfct and thaf ffwarfislet i* a tritie of 1,200 miles to the north. A little story, something like that of the Pine Islanders, like that of the Pitcairn Islanders, lends charm to this lonely group. During the early days of Napoleon's captivity in St. Helena, a few sappers and guards were thrown upon Tristan, who dug a dicth, raised a battery, threw up log huts nud cleared a patch of soil. When they hud been a year on their lonely station, they were fetched away, no one knew why. A‘corporal, named Glass, got leavo to stay behind, and keep the placa. •for the British Crown. Three Yankees had been there betoro, one of whom, a man named Jonathan Lambert, had taken posession of the islet, not for the Great Republic, but for Jonathan

Lambert himself, who was declared by Jonathan, m a regular proclatlial ion, to bo sovereign owner and prince of the then lonely rocks. Jonathan*being gone. Glass took np his scepter, and persuaded two fellows to stay aud share his empire. Happily, Glurs had a wile, a Creole woman, and two children, so that human interests came into play at once. The littlo party, after making Glass Governor of the island, fell on the soil, part of which, Lambert bad cleared, and, harvested vast quantities of potatoes. Now and then a stray seaman joined tlie colony, and two women Came among them from the distant cape. Seven years .after Glass and his folks were left Alone, the. colony had grown into twenty-two men and three women. Glass told-the Captain of H. M. 8., the Berwick, that “they only required a few more women to moke tho place an earthly paradise.” Glass is now dead, and his little colony exists without either go vornment or governor; the men growing potatoes and making shoes, and the women, strange to say wearing erinoliues. A The Prince went on shore and visited the shanties of those curious people, to whom the chaplain offered his services in baptizing all the youngstsrs and marrying all the stray couples who might feel virtuously inclined and ready for the yoke. The youngsters caiue up in troops to. be baptized; but when tho .reverend gentleman mentioned marriage, tbe maidens were coy and the bachelors Blow- to appear. Perhaps they did not like marrying in - the Prince’s presence. Mr:' Miller gave them two hours to consider liis proposition, and lingered iff vain. As he says, with much professional regret, thero were seven girls on the istund old enough to marry, and seven young men, all ol whom were “eligible” for the. sacrifice, yet the two hours slipped away without bringing tho young men and blushing girls to tho altar of Hymen. Tho Prince could not wait; and the British chaplain, though burning with zeal to bind ' these benighted swains and nymphs iu holy umtrhnony. liad to push off for Galatea, leaving them as wild in morals and free in life ns they had been before liis advent. Who will not sympathize in such a ease of clerical distress ?

Messrs. Lawrence A Co., of Boston, recovered in tliu Superior Court us Norwich, v <;t., hist week, u verdict of *12,613 damages aud eojijS agniiist the Providence aud Stoningten Railroad Gompany for the loss of thirty .three links of domestic goods shipped hy thi' plaintiffs oyer defendants' road to Groton, and thence to be tak. n by boats to Mew York. The plaintiffs founded the migU'ct of the defendants to have boats of snffioietit oapneity to carry forward all the freight sent, over the road frbm Boston to Groton, by mean* of winch the tbirty-thrse bales wore detained in the defend sat*' ststfow St Proton and burned. —ins’, b. Palmar, of the firm of .Palmer end Phillips. auctioneers iu Tluladciplus, committed suicide Fiidsy morning .by taking Isudanum. No cause assigned.

Killing a Muniercr In Tuxuh—Desperate (kuiduet of Uie Con*let’s Wife. (From tlia Woro (Texas) Register.! Yesterday Hlmriffi W. H. Morris and W F. Corley, of this city, returned from a cruise after C. h'. Mernman, tho lgan who uiunlowl ia cold blood Mr. W. A. OPm. SonV'fh this oily, during the last snmmcr. It seems thrtt tbe Sheriff had been using his abilities as A’detective in- tbe effort to work ng tUfl cna* rtewcesslally, and thnt abonl on* week ago he obtained satisfactory information ns to> Murrimau's place of concealment I *

The sheriff took with him Mr. Corley only, and proceeded cautiously to tho northwest corner of Hood county, where, after five consecutive nights’ trial, they found their man, and by good arrangement succeeded in effecting bis capture. When arrested, and all hope was lost of escape, Merriman appealed to his captors to blow his braius out on the spot; that he had sworn never to return to Waco, a prisoner. The Sheriff and gunTd placed the prisoner in n wagon with his heroic wife, and the party moved on toward the town of Meridian, in Bosguo oonnty, and proceeded to within three miles of said town, at a point of tho road close t. a thicket, when sn'ddenly Merriman sprang ont from tho wagon, his hands having b«sn untied by his wife, and made for the brush When he 101 l the wagon tho little wife, though bnt a frail creature, took hold violently of the driver of the wagon and placed him horx da combat; but, poor woman, her faithful assistance was of no avail, for Sheriff Morris and two'guardß wero close behind. Tlie order to halt was not obeyed by the fugitive, and several shots were fired at him, none of which are known to have taken effect. He was pursued into the thicket, shots tiring in rapid succession. .Soen the firing ceased, and the officers of tho law returned to the wagon and reported to the distressed wife that her “husband bad escaped—the gallows.” Merriman was known to be a bloodthirsty man, and had ho lived would doubtless have carried into execution liis determination—as voluntarily expressed to the Sheriff—to kill two other gentlemen of our city.

--In the Christian Temperance Convention in Boston, on the 3.1, opinions were expressed by some of tlie lending speakers that all christianß should withdraw from fellowship with those ministers of churches that favored the use of intoxicating .drinks. Resolutions ..were adopted recommending the general' circulation of pledges and the railing n t