Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1869 — CURRENT ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT ITEMS.

Wilmington, N. C., has a co operative store. It cost $1,535,004.54 to take the last census. Philadelphia has an estimated population of 785,000 souls. The ties that connect business men with the public—advertise. St. Louis is to have a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Tliere arc eighty registered newspapers published in New Zealand. A Chinese school in San Francisco has 120 pupils that learn very rapidly. Fifteen hundred dogs were executed last season under the Cleveland dog ordinance. The British 64-gun frigate Augusta, sunk in the Delaware in 1777, has recently been raised in a state of good preservation. The books of the Freedmen’s Savings Bank, in Washington, show a deposit in the institution amounting to nearly sl,340,000. The largest hotel in the country is now being built in New York, at a cost of sl,600,000. It will contain six hundred and thirty rooms. General Jordan, writing from Cuba, says that full 30,000 Cuban ladies were living on the island, with little food, and no shelter but the forest. Three thousand tons of coal are used each day in the gas works of London. The aggregate consumption per year is 10,000,000 cubic feet. The death of Rear Admiral Stewart leaves Rear Admiral Shubrick the oldest officer in either branch of the service, having entered in 1806. The recent fair of the American Institute in New York was a financial success. The gross receipts amounted to $50,200, the net profits to $21,000. A writer in Blackwood sets out the theory that earthquakes and volcanoes are electricity in the earth, and really nothing but thunder-storms going on beneath. The records of the United States Assessors’ offices of the several districts in Illinois show that there are upward of five thousand practicing physicians in the State. “ Ugenie” was one of the welcoming inscriptions that met the eye of the Empress on her recent entrance to a European city, which had indulged in triumphal arches, etc., in her honor. There are in British India 19,000 schools, attended by 600,000 native children. The yield of cotton in that country this year is estimated at $125,000,000 against $28,000,000 in 1861. A suit lor divorce has lately been successful in the Bath courts, in which the parties separated are seventy years old, have lived together forty-seven years, and are the parents of twenty-four children. At a French wedding, the other day, the ceremony was, celebrated first at the Maine, secondly at the American Legation, thirdly at the American church, fourthly at the Madeleine. What divorce court could break this fourfold tie ? The Mayor of New Orleans has issued a proclamation prescribing the weight and price of bread sold by bakers, as well as the quality of flour from which it shall be made. He decrees that 64 ounces of bread shall be sold for 30 cents, and smaller loaves at a corresponding rate. The Marietta (Ohio) Register says that a resident of that city, in boring an oil well on Duck Creek, near Newburg, drew out sound butternuts from fourteen feet below the surface, and one hundred ami ninety feet down obtained two pieces of slate which had on them beautiful impressions of fern leaves. At Oakland, Ind., the other day, a little girl, named Jenkins, whose clothes had taken fire, ran out of doors tearing them from her body, but unable to get them all off fell upon her knees with her face between her hands, and was found in this position by her parents on their return, burned to death. Private letters report that Senator Grimes, of lowa, is not improved in health by his summer sojourn in Europe. The second paralytic stroke was not so severe as the first, but it left him in a feeble condition. At last accounts he was getting ready for an extended trip on the Mediterranean. It was not stated when he thinks of returning to the United States. s, -

A singular accident is reported in London. A tailor, while pressing a coat, knelt on a needle accidentally left in the garment. It erAered the knee, and broke in two pieces, one of which remained in the liipb. He seems not to have taken any alarm at the occurrence, and went about his work as usual; but in a few days violent inflammation set in, followed by erysipelas, and his death was the result. The New York Times, commenting on the recent rude conduct of the young men, medical students at the clinical lectures of the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia says: “The 250 medical students in Philadelphia taunt, hiss and jeer at the twenty-five young ladies from the Women’s Medical College who attended the clinical lectures at the Pennsylvania Hospital. And there isn’t one gentleman among the 250 to protest against it.” A short time ago a close-fisted farmer on the Bandy river, in Maine, died, after devising $1 to his only son. The old gentleman was duly buried in the venerable churchyard, which suffered a terrible washing away by the late flood, and a short time ago his body was found opposite the son’s place, having been brought down the river a long distance. When the tender-hearted son was informed of the fact, he made the touching remark: “ Probably come back after that dollar!” A youno man and his intended presented themselves before the city clerk of Davenport, lowa, the other day, fora marriage license. It was found that the intending bridegroom was under age, and had neither parents nor guardian. In order to make the proceedings regular, the lady suggested that she herself should be appointed guardian. As she was over eighteen, she was eligible, was duly appointed as guardian, and then gave her consent that her ward should marry herself. - \ T The private life of Graves, who killed Cilley in the duel, has hitherto been shrouded in mystery from which the veil has just been lifted. Th|e last two years of his life, Graves, it seems, lived the victim of remorse and the. most terrible of horrors. For two years he passed sleepless nights in lighted rooms, with friends whom he would not permit to leave his presence. A writer to lhe Portland Arfus says that Grays* consumed the hotm of nlghilawdkteitoandfra la«mai

tears, and uttering wild exclamations. . “ At length, worn out with mental anguish, grief unmitigated and wasted watchfulness, the unhappy man expired. Thus was avenged the death of the murdered Cilley.” - A short time ago the manufacturers of lighting gas were puzzled to know how to dispose of the villainous coal tar left in the retorts. It defiled the air and corrupted the waters. A more useless, nauseous substance was hardly known to exist Chemistry came to the rescue, and to-day not less than 86 marketable articles are produced from this black, vile, sticky slkne—solvents, ells, salts, colors, flavors You cat a bit of delicious confectionery, happily unconscious that the exquisite taste which you enjoy so keenly comes from coal tar—you buy at the druggist’s a tiny phial of what is labeled “ Otto of Roses,” little dreaming that the delicate perfume is wafted, not from “ the fields of Araby,” but from ths nasty gas retort, Letters received by members George Peabody’s family up to somMrre days before his death, state that he was happy and resigned, and, indeed, very cheerfill. He had said for a score of years, ** I have prayed daily to God to spare my life to carry out the work I was endeavoring in my teeble way to accomplish, and He has done it,” Mr. Peabody leaves an only brother, Jeremiah D. Peabody, now living on a farm near Zanesville, Ohio, where he has resided for some forty years. George H. Peabody, of the firm of Jenkins, Vaile & Peabody, and Arthur J. Peabody, of the firm or Charles Scribner & Co., are his only nephews or relatives in New York city. Mr. Peabody left an immense fortune to his relatives, for beyond, it is said, the amount going the rounds of the papers. An officer started from Utica for Binghamton the other day, taking with him a man afflicted to some extent with delirium tremens, whom it was his duty to lodge in the Insane Asylum. The pair got as far as Syracuse, aud there they both became drunk. Then the officer finished his journey alone, and, going in a drunken condition into the presence of the authorities of the asylum, exhibited his papers, and was immediately given a room. After a while he awoke to find himself a regularly entered Inmate of the institution, and it was only after a long process of explanation that he could convince his new keepers that he had made a mistake and delivered the wrong man, but he finally did it, and was allowed to return to Utica. What became of the chap who escaped in Syracuse had not been learned. * W $ : An Economical Stockholder. A Rood story is told of a gay and festive stockholder, who visited Portland, Me., from “away downeert,” on the recent occasion of an annual meeting and a fine dinner at the Keanarge. He must have bMU one of those conscientious men who insist on good dividends. He didn’t dine at the Kearsarge, bernue he hadn't got bis gold "divvy.” So, withall the importance becoming bis position, he took a dignified stroll into an oyster saloon: “ Say. mister, what do you aak for an oyuterF “ One cont apiece was the reply. “Iguess as how I’ll have one,” said the stockholder. The bivalve was duly opened upon a ptate, and be was invited to “ pitch in." " Say. mister, is this all there is for a cent?" ** Yes.” “ Can’t you afford to give us another t How d’ye take ill” ' - “ Well, some swallow it whole, and some cut it np into hash. A good many ways. Yon pay your money and take your choice. “ It won't hurt a fellow, will it, though F " Oh, no.” So stockholder ” went for it,” and in about two minutes the good thing whs out of sight, with four large soda crackers to keep it company. "Nobody hurt.” “ Say, mister, don’t care if I do have another oyster. Do you take any less where a fellow eats two!” ——-«— “ No.” •• Wcli.don’t mind. I'll have another.” Oyster No. 2 was disposed of, and with it eight of the aforesaid cracker*. Stockholder shelled out the two cents, and was about to depart, feeling greatly refreshed, when be was advised to keep bis money as he might need it to get home with, and he was welcome to the oysters. Ho took the two cents, the most thankful creature ever seen in those parts, and departed. It is not repotted -whetherbe arrived safely at home, nor whetberhe got hia gold dividends. But ha's one of 'em. —Estimating the present crop of cotton at two million six hundred thousand bales, and the price at twenty-five cents, the clear profits of the cotton States cannot be less tlian one hundred and eleven million of dollars. And when we remember that this clear capital is realized from a single staple to which are to be added other valuable crops of sugar, tobacco, ytee, wheat and corn, we snail find that thia people are digging solid wealth out of the soil and laying it up more rapidly than any people in the world. — Mobile Register, November S.