Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1870 — CURRENT ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT ITEMS.

An unpopular “Ism” with everybody —The rheumatism. People who are behind the times should be fed on ketchup. The current expenses of the Mexican Government are double its income. Somebody states that >90,000,000 have been snnK in journalistic enterprises in New York. Premiums received in cash and policies paid in cash by the Washington Life. Umbrullas with Windows are the latest invention. The windows make the umbrella lighter. , A World’s Congress of chess-players has been called at Baden Baden on the 19lh of July. Here comes a “brewery on foot”—is said when the king of Wurtemburg is seen walking out. The knife with which a Japanese performs the hari-kari must be buried with him, or he is refused at the gates of Paradise. Im the height of prosperity expect adversity, and fortify yourself against its evils by insuring your life in the Washington Life. A St. Louis dealer advertises that his “ trade mark ” is, that a boy five years old can buy of him as cheap as a man of mature age. The Quincy Herald ta.ye that a late ■conflagration in that city had its origin in an ash barrel, and that incendiarism had nothing to do with it. A Belgian peddler was dered in Bruges, and as a r§Sßfflpj-nseto his wife, the gover%jg C f£^7g ranted her a permit in London recently on telegraphy, messages were sent to Teheran, in Persia, a distance of 3,700 miles, and answers were received in thirty seconds. “New York papers please copy. Of such is the kingdom of heaven,” is the quotation attached to an obituary notice in one of the Birkshire, Mass., papers. In Eureka, Humboldt county, California, a pew has been reserved for President Grant, once a resident of the place, and an inscription posted to that effect.- ■ A man in Augusta, Ga., on recovering a lost >2,000 by means of an honest little boy, tendered the finder twenty five cents as a reward. The boy replied that he would prefer the simple approval of his conscience. ~ Rev. J. M, Woodman, of Chico, Cal., believes that next year there will be a famine, coming after seven years of plenty, and is building large granaries so as to store up the abundant harvest of the coming season. The Hartford Timet has an obituary of a dog who suicided in that city the other day. He had been at play with other dogs, and deliberately walked into the basin in the State House yard and held his head under water until life was extinct. A suggestion is made by an English druggist in relation to the dispensing of poisonous substances. He proposes that in addition to the word “ poison," the labels should have printed on their margins the appropriate antidote for each class of poisons. “ iMMAGiNAsnuN, tew mutch indulged in,” says Josh Billings, “ soon is tortured into reality; this is one fchy good hdss thieves are made; a man leans over a fence all day and imagines the hose belongs to hiih, and sure enuff, the first dark night, the hess does.” The whole amount contributed last year by Christians of every name for the spread of the Gospel among heathen nations, is estimated at $5,000,000, while the war system of Christendom alone cost for the same period >2,000,000,000, or four hundred times as much. A man by the name of Williams, residing at Bristol, Ind., punished his son for chewing tobacco, by making him stay out and chop wood until 9 o’clock at night, then took soft soap and washed his mouth until it was raw, after which he crammed it full of pepper. Rev. J. Arnold, a superanuated preacher of the New York Central. Conference, at its recent session, reported himself 93 years old. He had been a Christian sev-ty-four years, and a minister sixty yearn Bev. G. Harris, of the same Conference, is the-only survive! of the body at its organization in 1810.

Fortyobb years was the good old age of a horse which died recently in Ulster county, N. Y. Of him his disconsolate late owner says, that he would take down the bars with his teeth when he wanted to get out of a lot; and when he wanted a shoe put on, he would go down to the blacksmith shop and wait there Until it waspflt on, and then return to the stable.; Tex Commissioner of Internal Revenue decides that persons who sell a mixture of sods water, etc, with wine and other spirits, are to be regarded as liquor dealers. “The claim, ’’ he says, “that th? spirits are used simply for flavoring might perhaps be supported by facts in a few cases, but generally, if not universally, the wine, etc, is quite a prominent part of the beverage.” The Hartford Bailer Inspection and Insurance Company, .during the month of Marco, examined 784 boilers, add' 482 defects, 00 dangerous. The most numerous and dangerous defects were fractures, burned plate* and incruotatiops. Bteaju gauge* were often outof order, and many leakyb«i*ers Were found, made so by “ blowing down” and immediately filling with cold water.

Geohob W. Rust, for several years past the Financial and Commercial editor of The Chicago Tbnes baa resigned his position on that Journal, and will commence the publication of a new Democratic weekly, with a Sunday edition for city circulation. The first number will make its appearance about June let. If the enterprise meets with suitable encouragement from the Democracy of the North-’ west, it will probably prove the stepping stone to a daily. At the seat of the Earl of Chichester (Eng.) a curious sight was recently available. A hen had been in the habit of laying her eggs la a dog kennel. She wanted to set, and was shut up. Meantime six poppies were bon in the kennel. When the hen was let loose she proceeded to the kennel and took charge of the pops as a mother would do with her chickens. She covered- them with her wings, and scratched about to team them to feed. She called them and the puppies would follow, and when any one offered to touch them she showed fight. A eeabtlxsb robbery was committed a few days ago in Paris on a young gentleman afflicted with the small pox To induce perspiration, his nurse had covend him with extra blankets and retired for a short time. A very respectably dressed man entered the chamber, begged of thd' invalid not to disturb himself, but simply indicate where were his money and jewels —“ don’t cry out, or I open ail the windows, which will be certain death.” The robber took away watch, rings, pins, and much cash, wishing his victim improved health, but not a too speedy recovery.