Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1868 — Odd Yankees. [ARTICLE]

Odd Yankees.

BY JAMES PARTON’. A cunaus thing about New Eng-; land is the variety of eccentric char-1 actors to be i’ouml tliei’e. In almost | every town there is a farmer or me- ■ chani’e who has addicted himself to soine'kind of knowledge very remote from iiis occupation. Here you will find ts shceinaker, in a little simp (whielilie locks when he goes to dinner or t-> ths pust-iilliei,.uiu.’h C< the in?->in\ idi-mm ' f cu-tcßie.’s'i, who ■ has attaint ii v'Oleiiri-ty hs a--botanist. 1 111 another village there may by a ’.vi.cvl wright ivLu.would .sei! his best coat lor a rare shell; end, not far elf, a farmer, who is a pretty good go-1-o’gist, and’is forever peeking s way at b’.-t innocent rocks. Again you' will leu 1 a :nac];in;stwhu iaeiiamoia.-.1, of »-i;.rge ji.iiw/’ c 0;,;..: of standard | works, and r.doiocs in the possession ci rariti'.s in I;!-, ratpre which ’ not re:; !. 1 kn»v, an excellent steel-1 ; late c!'gr:-,>..-r, who. besides being a i I-ÜBivere;;l er'.tic, m pai-iieiihrly e -mi- j ■ vit:bed that the-en!ire railroad sys- 1 ! tela of the world is wrong, —t-n-s, 1 I rails, driying-wbee’s,axles, oii-box-t-s, ! everything,—and 'employs his leisure 'in inventing .better devices. Then I there arc people who have odd ‘ . schemes ofbcnornience, such aw that; oi tire jilassaclmsettS' —farmer v-. .;o - wept ta.Palestine to teach the Uri- j ciitals the true system <-f j in:d was two years in finding out ti’.p.t they wouldn’t learn it. There* are morose men and families who neither visit nor are. vuihol; and .-tilerygis, .occasionally, a downright miser, of - the nueiuiit type, suOhm.wwe rcadtrrin old magazines and anecdote books. There are men, too, of an extreme eccentricity .of opinion. I think there arc l W ffostm) about a dbien as - complete, immovable, if nut- malignhiit, TTijries, asrcan be found this side’d? Vonstahundple;—iticn who plume themselves Upon haling every, thing that makes the glory of their age and country. And, speaking of Boston,—solid, sensible Boston, — wiiat -other eity ever feat so eccentric as .the production of these twin incongruities, George Francis Train and the Count Johannes Atlantic Monthly , January. A Havana letter says that a gignntic insurrection exist->>n that island, and that it is supported and eountenanced by tbg great rilasS of the native population, the exception being insignificant ip point es numbers; and that it has had mauy enebuntfcrs iyitlj pie Spanish troops, "In whieh its supporters inflicted (piitb as much iif not more , damage than tiiey sufßred. The best informed uiuopg tho disinterested and unprejudioed a rq ahwady beginning to calculate on. itsnitiniafe success, which shitll leave the Vulfans tree and independent. ‘ , A contract* iWiD’oid bridge apro»s the Mississippi river at Keokuk has been closed with the Keystone Bridge Company atPiltß» bui-g.for one rnillibri dollars. The bridge is to be of iron, like the one at Dubuque, and is to be commenced in the spring and epmuluted wilffiu titTyW. r ■: 1 ? A young lady biiviirg bought a pair !of ihocs a number too anudl sent them to a second hand store to have them sold; whereupon the Teutonic slidp-keeper advertis; ed them in his w indow-as follow s) f*For *|l*!-ea fight lady’s shoes.'' Thp; skeletons of of piartyrs ofinO wall abolittlieprlsop ships, werujdbMKvyervd in- excavating a drain at the New York city Navv Thrd oh Ftiday, and 1 ments have been ma’de for their in» 1 terflieflt, '*'l'" *’ • . .' r a