Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1870 — CURRENT ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT ITEMS.

London hasYßl,ooo paupers. The belle of Oroville, Cal, is a printer girl. Young men in China are expected to marry at twenty. A woman in Hudson, N. Y., has beenarrested 956 times. Garibaldi uses “ alas!” 506 times in 100 pages of bis novel A Pennsylvanian has recently served out a sentence of one hour in jail The Delaware river has this year washed away a graveyard at New Castle. A Philadelphia man died the other day whose life was insured for SIBI,OOO. Three hundred and fifty locomotives have been ordered in England for Russian railways.

Tub heat in Natal, Africa, VU so great in January that oxen dropped dead at their work. It is stated that a thousand Chinese cigar makers are to be brought to New York City from San Francisco. None of the Judges of the United States Supreme Bench are less than fifty-three years old. Thirty thousand natlvei are said to have perished from cholera, in Zanzibar, during six weeks last year. There are a thousand insane people in Texas, while the State lupatlc asylum has accommodations for but sixty. A oentlbman at Machias, Me., ovter 70 years old, fays that “ for 40 years he has never been without crying childrenin his houae.’* _ _ 1 • Jfc The King of Prussia has iwllshed a long standing Hanoverian law, which forbade the opening qf theatres on, the eve of Bunday s and fete days. g

England uses 2,000 tons of beeswax per annum, valued at orer <2,000,(00. One European palace Vsaid to mum 10,000 candles niglitly. A silk flag, 30 by 20 feet, manufactured from cocoong raised in California, has been presented to the GoWrnor for the new Capitnl of that State. There is a bank in Thomaston, Me., a majoriiy of the shares of which are owned by women, and in the choice of officers, recently, their vote elected the entire board of directors. During the soup dispensation in Boston, covering a period of sixty-three days, 31,490 families, comprising 103,605 persons, patronized the liberal kettles of the city at the Station-Houses. If no tidings are received of the City of Boston, she will be the fourth steamer that has vanish^* 1 with all on board. The others are the 1 r -.ident, City of Glasgow, and the Pacific. A gentleman residing in New York city is having made in Europe a set of lace Curtains for his Murray Hill mansion, upon which are to be worked the portraits and monograms of himself and family. , An old lady of Stamford, Conn., while going dawn stairs recently with a lighted candle, fell and set fire to her dress and house. Iler charred remains were found in the ashes. She wa? eighty-three years old. A Colorado romance: Seven miners, exploring the mountains, found an enormous chunk of gold. .'They fought for its possession till all were killed but one. It was too heavy for him to carry off - , so he sat down beside it and starved to death.

The story that a young woman of Fort Edward, N. Y., had become an heiress to <19,000,000 was started by a youth who pretended to be her brother. He borrowed several thousand dollars on the strength of the report and of his relationship. The number of sea going monitors belonging to the United States navy is eleven, costing <14,184,000; harbor and river monitors nine, costing <8,870,000; then there are eight harbor and river monitors, costing <11,621,000; total cost in round numbers, <34,685,000. A who had murdered a private soldier under his command, was sentenced to death by a court martial, at Nismes, in Southern France, and shot in the presence of a large crowd, twentyfour hours afterward. He himself commanded "Fire!” San Jose, Cal., has a curiosity in the shape of a chicken, which came into the world with three bodies and five- legs. The bodies are joined together at the back, and two of them have perfectly limbs. It lived but a short time after being hatched ...-. Through some strangeJ(eak, %Pcnn. sylvania woman, while iway from home, sent signed will* a fictitious name to her son, saving that she was dead, and he must come for the Body. He made arrangements for the funeral, weWt roundrher alive, and brought her back. Mourning was changed to joy, all present screaming, dancing, crying and laughing in concert The grave was filled up and the undertaker dismissed, and there was a flood of indignation pouted out against the wicked perpetrator of the terribis joke, the woman herself referring to the heartless transaction with tears id her eyes. ' -‘ ’ -'• * « t 4 In Roumania, persons sentenced to death are laid flat on their backs on a bench; their hands, feet, and breast are securely fastened to it, and the executioner then draws from his belt a smalt khife with a very sharp blade, and euts the throat of the struggling criminal. Semetimes, when the latter belongs to a deserving family, the executioner, before cutting his throat, knocks him on forehead w’ith a wooden club, so as to st un him. Criminals who commit offences of less importance are more or less severely cudgeled. Women are whipped with a birch rod, and, if they are habitual thieves, they are, besides, branded on the right shoulder with a red-hot- iron. A very peculiar punishment is inflicted on adulterers and adulteresses; They are put into a pillory for three hours, and two holes are then cut in their noses. The man s hair is shaven- off, and the is branded on her left breast.