Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1870 — CURRENT ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT ITEMS.

The rite of suffrage—Voting. ; The best waiting-maids—Elderly ft“males unmarried. ’ A little child in Fonffdu Lac.Wls., recently fell, bit its tongue?-and bled to death. The labor* of tha Mormon preachers In Long Island have resulted in sixty converts. The man who was hemmed in by a 'crowd, has been troubled wltb a stltoh in ; his side ever since. You may sometimes stir a Arc with an Unbrella, but you can never keep the rain off with a poker. The divorces in Ohio last year numl bered 1,008- one divorce to each twentyfour marriages in the State. Management 1s better than stupidity. A policy in the Washington is better tli&n the promises of relatives. A New Orleans letter-carrlor boosts of having walked 100,000 miles during his Official career of'eight years. There is a rumor afloat in London that Queen Victoria intends to marry a prince of the house of Schleswig Holstein. A new parasol with the handle on one side, so as to give tbe holder the full benefit of the shade, has been introduced. A young lady being asked by a rich old bachelor, “if not yourself, who wotldyou rather be?" replied sweetly and modestly, *• yours truly.” The Russian government has announced that women will hereafter be admitted to thedical schools and to medical practice. A. F. Willmabtii, Vice-President of the Home, of New York, is a policy holder, stock holder and director of the Washingtor .Life. The New York Evening Pott says that tho answer to the question, “ What ‘is a house without a baby?” is “Well, comparatively quiet” A female writer says that young ladies should have some aim in life. Almost every one does. She gets a beau, then she aims to got married. If you want to cure a scolding Arifo never fail to laugh at her with all your might until she ceases— then kiss her. Sure cure and no quack medicine. A girl of sixteen, near Montreal, recently took arsenic to .whiten htr ottoplexion. None could question her success, as she lay in her coffin the following day. Since its organization the American Colonization Society has received from ail sources the sum ol $2,320,711.22, and has colonized in Liberia 18,000 persona. An ex-soldier in Sacramento has been charged f 100 in gold by a San Francisco claim agent for collecting back pay due him amounting to SIOO in currency. An English collier kept a keg of powder under his bed, and the other day went after some, smoking a pipe. When he went out-he took the roof along with him. A child of Rev. J. Marks, of Marshall, Wis., one day recently swallowed a bean, which lodged in Ills windpipe and caused death in about twenty minutes. The Presidents of various benevolent associations in San Francisco have come to the conclusion that the free soup system leads to indolence, pauperism, and vice.

Pauls consumes 298,000,000 francs’ worth of wine, and yet only 112,000,000 francs is the value that enters the city trom ontside. Hence, 90,000,000 francs’ worth must be manufactured there. Three children of Mrs. Perry, of High Forest, Minn., were poisoned the other day by eating what they supposed were artichokes, and one of them, a little girl, died from the effects. An Englishman having paid an Irish shoeblack with rudeness, was thus accosted by the “dirty urchin”: “My honey, all the polish you have is upon your boots, and I guv you that!” The Peoria (Ill.) Transcript says two men in that city have been experimenting upon a perpetual motion machine —one for twenty and another for twenty five years. The toughest chicken story comes all the way from North Carolina: “ Weldon has a hen which has laid twenty-seven eggs, is now trying to hatch twenty-seven chickens from them, and leaves her nest every day to deposit an egg in another nest.”

At Elyria, Ohio, a few days ago, a little girl six years old found a paper of strychnine which had been purchased to destroy rats, and with childlike curiosity, touched her tongue to it. In a few minutes she was seized with convulsions, and died in less than an hour afterwards. On the evening of April Ist two Bowdoin College students, with blackened faces and shabby clothes, 'went through college with a subscription paper, stating that they were trying to obtain the wherewithal to return South. Quite a sum of money was subscribed before it was discovered to be an “ April fool.”

A lady residing in Charleston, Mass., who has Suffered lately from an inflamed neck, has been told by her physicians that it is caused by insects called borers, inhabiting the Hindoo bark braid of her chignon. She has cast away her chignon and has had her head shaved, fearing some of the insects had taEeh up their abode in her natural back hair. “Dyspepsia cured for $2” is the cheer-, ing announcement of an advertisement emanating frpm that city of ideas, Boston. The cure is indicated in two little wood cuts, giving a life-like representation of a wood-saw and saw-horse. This treatment is recommended to be taken once or twice per day—“ sure eve guaranteed or money refunded”

' In Charlottesville, Va., the other day, upon the return home of a party of young ladies and gentlemen, who had been practicing at a target with pistols, one of them, Miss Eveline Goodloe, laughingly pointed a pistol at herself, and was making home playful remark, when the pistol exploded accidentally, the hall passing directly through her heart, causing instant death. The Normal Musical Academy of the Northwest holds an Institute course of two weeks in the Lecture Hall of Crosby’s Opera House, Chicago, commencing . iusp 23d, .1870, with the following pow etful combination of teachers: H. R. Palmer, Carlo Bassini, Hans Belatka, Robert Goldbeht,'Dudley; Buck, and E. J 5. WhiAemore. A' Very interesting •'programme of each day’s exercises sent to any one addressing H. R. Palmer,' Principal, 15 Crosby’s Opera House, Chicago. BenjasSn Franklin being in company once with three gardeners who were notorious liars, and wanting to experiment a little in human nature, promised to reward the one who should tell him the. greatest lie. The first said that he never' naa told a lie; the second averred that he could not tell one; the third candidate, however, proved himself th«f best adept in the art, and obtained the prize, for he assured the philosopher that both his competitors had just told him the truth! The fire which nearly destroyed the town of Medina, Ohio, resulted from a jollification held by a number 6f Colored boys in a barber sljop, Some of the party had gone home, but one or two were left in the shop in adrnnken sleep. One, who was dozing with his head on his arm on the table, chanced to knock off the kerosene lamp, which broke, scattered the oil on the floor, and in a moment the room was ablaze. The flames continued to spread, until the greater part of the town was in ashes. ~

A farmer named ,Chllson, living near Qlrard, Ohio, thinking to rid hit oornfield of a troublesome ground hog, managed to administer to the quadruped a doae of strychnlqa wbiqh killed him nearly instantly. The carcase was suspended to a tree, wheie-tbe crows soon espied, the sa-, vory bit and proceeded to appease their appetites. After partaking of the meal, the crowa would fly a short distance as if in agony, and AH dead to the ground. The bones, being thoroughly stripped of the flesh, remained exposed to the bleaching influence of aunsnlne, rain and fVoat, for nearly two years, when, falling to the ground, a highly-prized dog masticated parts of them, and died ten minutes afterwards. A graceful story is told or Lamartine. One day a penniless man of letters called upon him, and, informing him of his needy situation, requested the loan of a considerable sum of money. Lamartine, who was much moved by the recital, opened a drawer and gave him the amount, lie then conducted his unfortunate visitor to tbe vestibule. The season was autumn, and as Lamartine opened the street door, tbe unfortunate author shivered in his shabby coat. A sudden idea struck Lamartine, and calling out “ Monsieur, you are forgetting your overcoat,” he quickly took down an overcoat that was hanging in the passage, and assisted his needy vistor to'put it on with so much dexterity and grace, that the poor man, quite overcome, did not know how to refuse a gift which was so delicately offered to him.