Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1870 — CURRENT ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT ITEMS.

San Francisco claims a population of 272,000. e Half of the colored population tn Pennsylvania reside in Philadelphia. Tn® new Philadelphia Directory has 2,222 Smiths, of whom 222 are widows. The Kennebec river has tarnished nearly 300,000 tons of ice the past season. A Pittsburgh girl killed herself a few days ago, by “ jumping the rope ” two hundred times in rapid succession. The value of Methodist Church property in New York is $1,090,500—an increase of $568,000 in three years. • It is reported that ex-Presidcnt Johnson is about to go to Europe, intending to be absent six months. A Califohbia farmer gets as much for five dozen eggs as a Minnesota former does for five bushels of wheat. The Boston Five Cents Savings Bank has accounts with 54,734 depositors, and the amount of deposits is $8,749,000. ■' Of ten persons in Damariscotta, Me., who have lately had the measles, six have gone blind, and four more are in quick consumption. Huntington county, Pa., has gencr ously increased the School Superintendent’s salary fifty cents a year, making it SBOO 50

The estimated number of members of the Masonic Order in the United States and British America is 468,455. A Connecticut man has worn the same hat to church for forty years. It has been in style seven times during that period. During a recent trial in the Isis of Man the jury were addressed by counsel and Judge tor a period of twenty-nine hours and fifty-five minutes. A few days ago a little girl in Ithica just before she died exclaimed: “ Papa, take hold of my hand and help me across.” Her father died two months before. A cow was killed the other day, near Troy, N. Y., by swallowing four dozen shingle nails, which were among chaff on which she was fed. A Livereool society for aiding fallen women has taken in over a thousand, unfortunates during its existence, of whom nearly half have been restored to their friends, and others permanently reformed. Prof. Morse, the telegraphic inventor, is now nearly 80 years old, and it it proposed to present him with a national testimonial. The telegraphic operators are at the head of the scheme. Florence Nightingale writes to the New York Prison Association advising them to turn their jails into' workhouses where prisoners can pay their own expenses and for property stolen. In a Connecticut town, the other day, as the pastor of a church was walking up the aisle, a good brother- came out of a, pew and accosted the good man, to in-, quire “if he didn’t want some good yel-' ler butter.” * A,man at Omaha attempted to ride 100 miles in five hours, a few days ago, using twenty-five horses. He foiled to procure, the proper number of horsey, but rode miles in two hours and twentysix minuWs. "" ~ ? A st6ry that the ornaments of George Peabody’s tomb—being golden—had been stolen, is denied by a relative of Mr. P. He says that “ the ornaments are brass and plated iron,” and therefore offer “no inducement to thieves.” , . The Oil City (Pa.) Timet says: “ Six men have dieu in Oil Creek in the last six weeks from excessive drinking, and at least six more will' die from the same cause in the next six weeks. The tan-gle-foot sold here may be slow, but it Is mighty sure.”

In 1850, a young man living in Rutland, Vt, discovered a supply of stone adapted to the manufacture of slate pencils. He bought the land on which the quarry stood for |IOO. At present, this quarry, together with the buildings erected thereon, is valued at $300,000. The Coroner’s investigation of the suicide of a farmer in England, showed that his fields had been so overrun by the game rabbits of his lordly neighbor that his crops were entirely destroyed, year after year. The misfortune drove him into “ temporary insanity.” The floor at the entrance of a small church in Springfield, Ohio, gave way on Sunday, while the building was crowded with persons attending a funeral. A panic ensued, and the people rushed for the doors, the stoves were overthrown, and several persons were thrown down and trampled upon. Some young men of Defiance, Ohio, have formed an association for the preventionvof the use of tobacco. They pay an initiation fee of $5, and 70 cents per week as dues, which is to be loaned out on interest to the members of the association. The penalty of violating the rules is expulsion, forfeiture of all money, and exposure. # The tunnel through Mount Cenis is advancing at a rapid rate. The length of the galleries now open exceeds eleven thousand two hundred yards. Only fifteen hundred yards of rock remain to be perforated, so that it may be reasonably expected That this gigantic undertaking will be terminated in the course of the present year.

A Judge in Mecklenburg, whose casting vote brought about sentence of death against a man who Was beheaded by virtue of that sentence, committed suicide the other day by blowing out his braiua. It had been definitely ascertained that the poor fellow had bsen perfectly guiltless of the charge preferred against him. A pooh young man has been kept four years and a half in the Massachusetts State Prison for a crime of which he had no knowledge, yet he was convicted upon what appeared to be the clearest evidence. His innocence was discovered by the confession of the real culprit, who found his way to the same prison for some other offense. Westerly, Conn., is the place where “two Sundays come together.” Nearly half the population are Seventh Day Baptists, and on Saturday half of the mills, Shop* and other places of business are closed, and half of the churches are filled with worshipers, who on Sunday resume theirsecnlar occupations, while their neighbors take religion and resit. ,- Theodore Tilton, editor New York Truicpen&nt, publishes a card i requesting everybody in the United States who a friendly interestin woman s enfranchiSem&t ’"to forward iminedtatelyfpoet paid) to his address, Box 2787 N. Y. city. his or her name and address; and suggesting that ‘‘three thousand American newspapers’’ will please copy. * The lays of Chi»a "W ©a-’q

« years ago, and have undergone but little change. One of them requires that all persons must truthfully represent their profession, and that generation after generation they must not change or alter it Another exempts all literary and religious institutions from taxation, and another provides that the possessor of land shall cultivate it under pain of forfeiture. New Havbn papers commend the fidelity and thoughtfulness of a Mr. Dommond, a railroad-switchman, who, at the time of the explosion of the boiler in a chair factory in that city, while conscious of the fact that bis loved wife and daughter were lying crushed under the ruins, dispatched a trusty messenger to flag the approaching express train, then due, and thus prevented what In all probability would have been another appalling car lamlty. A farmer in Buckinghamshire, who is a weekly visitor to the Aylesbury Market, married one of two sisters who were joint lessees of a farm, and for upward <f twenty years was obliged to give an account to his wife of the weekly transactions and expenses to market, even te a glass of ale and three half-pence for the turnpike. A short time ago the wife died, and within the same month the sister died also, when the farmer, who could neither read nor write, called in a neighbor to look through two boxes belonging to the deceased sisters. To hia surprise, upward of £2/00 were discovered in them, in a great number of small and dirty packages. A ludicrous story of an abortive duel appearsjin the Paris Gazette de» Tribunaux. - Two boys, aged respectively 11 and 14, met upon the field of honor, when the affair was summarily decided, before an exchange of shots, by a kick administered to each by a gamdkeeper. The duelists had quarreled at play, and to decide their differences had stolen a pair of pistols, bought a cracker from which they emptied the guppower, and melted a brace of bullets in mofilds of nut shells, from metal obtained from a pewter spoon. The President of the Police Court said that the keeper had done quite right in treating as young vagabonds, and, as, they Were not known to the police, he handed them to their parents