Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1870 — CURRENT ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT ITEMS.

France has fifty newspapers. Damaged Garments—Libel suits. Do a LITTLE well and you do much. A Revolver well known before Colt’* —Tbs Barth. The Great Senses Taker—Brandy and water. A Boston lady’s pins, when she Is fully dressed, nuipber three hundred. A policy Issued by the Washington in 1861, for SIO,OOO, in 1866 had Increased to $11,152.70. The hoarding of coin by all classes in Central Europe is one of the marked events of the war. A little child died of hydrophobia recently, in Sheffield, England, from the bite of a donkey. Tbere is wealth enough in Boston to give, on an equal division, every man, woman and child SB,OOO each. A gentleman of Oswego, being saved from drowning, the other day, rewarded hit preserver with a flve-cent piece. The best birthday gift for your wife is a policy on your life in the Washington Luo, of New York. Douglas Jbrbold once said to a very thin man, “Sir, you are like a pin, but without the head or the point” It is reported that the New York Tribune is having Mr. Greeley’s old editorial manuscripts engraved as maps of the seat of war. • A provincial paper concludes a long obituiry with the following strange notification : “Several deaths are unavoidably deferred.”

Prussian recruits are all marked with indelible ink, so that they may be identified when they are brought home. A man in Bratt'.eboro, Vt., was recently fined (51 for intoxication and profanity, and the man who sold him the liquor paid a fine of (66. The ayerage pries of meat in Russia is about five cents a pound. Two hundred thousand tons of tallow aro yearly made there. Of the 220 convicts In the Alabama State Penitentiary, all except thirty-five are employed Throughout the State building railroads. A thirteen year old rattlesnake, 4 feet 3 inches long, was recently killed at Colchester, Conn., by a man aged 75 years. The snake measured 7 inches “ round the waist." A census taker in a town in Minnesota, at the solicitation of the people, wailed four hours before closing his lists for the birth of a babe. The census of the village was thereby increased from 429 to 430. For traveling on another man’s free pass on the Lebanon Valley, Pa., railroad, Lewis Snyder has been arrested and held in (3,000 bail to answer the charge of fraudulently uttering a railroad pass. At Oswego, a drunken man laid down to sleep, and was covered with several loads of hay, by a farmer who was building a stack. The hay smelled so bad the stock wouldn’t eat it, when it was moved and the sleeper found. Mr. Hart, who died a few days ago, in St. Louis, was worth one hundred thousand dollars, all of which was made in the oyster trade. His friends say that, fifteen years ago he began trade by purchasing two cans of oysters on credit. It is stated that during the last four teen years the New York and New Haven Railroad Company have carried over the line of their road more than twenty million passengers, without the loss of life or limb to a single passenger on their cars.

A Paris bookseller having applied to a Berlin publisher of lithographic prints for a great number of copies of the portraits of the more illustrious Prussian Generals, received the reply: “There are no copies left; we send you the originals." A horse in Willingford, Conn., the other day, while attempting to bite a fly on the ankle of one of his rear legs, drew the hoof into his mouth in such a manner that several hours were required to extricate it . In Elmira, the other day, a young lady was discovered who helped her mother at the housework. Within two weeks she had a dozen desirable offers of marriage, one of which she accepted. Elmira girls are all taking to helping their mothers. The London Times, feeling the pressure of the competition which has lately sprung up in journalism, has determined to recoive subscribers who may desire to get the paper by mail. During the last half century it has refused to take subscriptions. An Atlanta stove dealer offers a (75 stove to the young lady between thirteen and eighteen years of age, who shall, during the Georgia State Fair, best illustrate her knowledge of the use of such articles by cooking a dinner for six persons on the fair grounds. An insane man in Indiana, on his way to the asylum, attempted suicide by cutting his throat. Fatal consequences were prevented by the physicians, and the result is that the man has since been perfectly sane.;

A Vermont jury, trying an action where the plaintiff claimed damages against a neighbor for a bite by the latter’s dog, brought in the following verdict: “Twenty-live dollars damage to the plaintiff if nothing happens to him; and SSOO if lie has the hydrophobia.” A little girl being sent to the store to purchase s me dye stuff, and forgetting the name of the article, said to the clerk, “J ohn, what do folks dye with?” “Die with Y Why, cholera, sometimes,” replied John.- “Well,l believe that’s the name, I want three cents’ worth.” Eaton Rapids has a magnetic spring so charged with electricity that a man, after drinking a quantity of the water, went into a blacksmith shop, and, while talking with the blacksmith, sat down on the anvil. When he got up, the anvil stuck fast to him, and he had to, have it amputated.

An inventor, named Joel Strong, has just been before the courts of Cincinnati on a commission de lunatico, granted at the instance of his wife, who states that he claims to have invented a broom for sweeping the entire globe, through the a d of seven devils, by whom he believes himself to be lossessed.

A man recently paid tor an advertisement in the Springfield, 111., Register, offering a reward for the loss of his pocketbook and money. He had the same morning, for safety, transferred the pocket-book from his pocket to his trunk, Jut had forgotten the circumstance until after he had advertised his supposed loss. “Why, Bill, what’s the matter with youY You look down in the mouth.” “Well, Peter, I dare say, if you’d been through what I have, you’d look bad too.” “ What’s the matter Y” “ Well, you know Sarah Snivels, don’t you, Peter ?” “ Yes.” “ I discarded her last night.” “ You did! What for?’ “Well Issi tell you. She said ehe wouldn’t marry me, and I’d discard any girl that would treat me in that manner.” * + At the recent typist (ling match at Toledo, between Wall, of To ledo, and Barber, of Cincinnati, the trial commenced at 2 o’clock p. in., with nonpareil type. Wall set 4,288 ® mß ha two hours and forty minutes, while Barber set 4,064 ems. Commencing again at 8 o clock, with brevier type, during pne

hour Wall set 1,600 ems, and Barber 1,468 ems. Wall was declared iflnner by 416 •mi. Said Lady Franklin to Mrs. Grant, " Sir John Is older than I, and I am near my end. He could not have lived In those frigid regions until now. , The mystlo Northwest Passage will be his monument. Everywhere, during my American tour, your people have showered me with kindness, and I will return to old England, like Lafayette, with recollections only of s nation's benedictions.” A Boston clergyman who Is fond of dogs, bought a couple of pups of rare breed, while on a visit to New York, and left them with a dog-fancier to train. Or returning home one day, he fonnd his wife, abetted by her mother, about to quit his house and apply for a divorce, on the basis of the following telegram from the dcg-fancier. which had come for him a few hours before: “The little darlings are doing welL and looking lovely. Send money for their board.” Four men have lately been driving quite a profitable trade in horse-flesh throughout the State of Ohio. Two of them go in advance with a horse and Sy, sell the horse, purchase a less y one, and start for the next town. On the following day, the other two arrive in hot haste, inquire for the two that have left, learn that they had sold a horse, claim it as theirs, gain possession of the animal, and start off to practice the same swindle elsewhere.

A thief was once collared by a gentleman, who found him in the back draw-ing-room ; and Buttons went at once for a policeman. “ You ought to be grateful to me,” said the prig, “instead of nnging on to me like this ’ere. I only come in to tell you the front dooy was hopen, and I was afeared you’d git robbed.” “ Excellent reasoning, indeed, my friend,” said the householder, “ but on wrong premises, I fancy.” .. .. ... 1'". . •.. . . L . As Mr. Barrett, of Providence, R. 1., a 'laboring man, was walking the street, he saw what looked like an old piece of leather or boot, and he gave it a turn with his foot; it proved to be a pocketbook containing, greenbacks and other papers to the value of three thousand dollars. He ascertained the owner’s name bj the papers, and consulted the City Directory, found where the owner resided, and returned it to him. The owner was very thankful; he told Mr. Barrett he was an honest man, and God would reward him for his honesty. Abernbthy being called to a patient who fancied himself very ill, told him ingeniously what he thought, and declined prescribing, thinking it unnecessary. ‘ Now you are here,” said-the patient, “ I shall be obliged to you, Mr. Abernethy, if you will tell me how I must live —what I may eat, and what not.” “My directions as to that point,” said the physician, who abominated this sort of question, will be few and simple. You must not eat the poker, shovel nor tongs, for they are hard of ; nor the bellows, because they arß windy; but anything else you please.” An ingenious resident of Allandale, Canada, who had a valuable horse stolen from his stable some weeks since, recently advertised for 20,000 horse* for the Prussian army. He stated in the advertisement that no stolen horses would be purchased, and at the same time gave a minute description of the animal he had lost. In a few days he received a telegram from Bradford, and on going there found his steed in possession of a gentloman named Wilson. The thief was arrested on the same day, and the buying for the Prussians was immediately discontinued.