Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1871 — CURRENT ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT ITEMS.

Maiwk hea thia aeaaon built fire thouml nil n. Wbich la the smallest bridge in the world bskjgaof the none. A c© UM wjjl not latoxlcate, yet is indkattvooF mtoxicalkm—Air cup. A Califobnian recovered the use of a paralyzed arm by being thrown from a home. » s A colomhi boy in Trimble County, Kentucky, has killed thirty-one eagles in his life-time. Thuuc were two regularly established balloon companies in Faria during the late ■iegrn Why is geology considered a deep ** acienoer" Because it penetrates into the earth. Why are black eyes called piercing? Because they can look daggers when they like.’ Thk beat birth-day gift for your wife is a policy on year life in the Washington Lire, of New York. Governor of Maine has recently appointed his predecessor in office a Justice of the Peace. A chime of bells tn Milwaukee is inscribed: “In memory of Minnie J. Hodges—weight 724 pounds. A resident of Connecticut boasts that ' for eighty-four consecutive years he has eaten his Thanksgiving dinner in the same house. Mb SchExcs being afraid of WS sickness, the Boston Port ntteiw&iiim that “ he may avoid it by ‘ throwing up ’ his commission before he sails." r« rates of the Mutual Life, of Chicago, are as low as those of other good companies; yet it gives its members the 'advantage of Western rates of interest. A Texas paper reports that, since September last, 119,000 ]>eople, with 1,664 wagons, have emigrated from Tennessee and Georgia into the Lone Star State. Dr. Brown Sf.quard says that he believes the time will come when physicians will be called, not for the purpose of mak- ' ing sick people well, but to teach them how not to be sick. It is said by those who profess to know, that there never was a better prospect for a good wheat crop in Kansas than the coming season. The peach crop also promises to be large. They had a snow squall in Vermont the other (toy, which was accompanied by thunder and lightning, a horse being struck by the latter. 3 A religious society in Aberdeen, Scotland, recently * discussed the question whether reading the almanac on Sunday is consistent with Christian duty. Several persons in Titusville, Penn , have been poisoned, none fatally, by drinking water from a well in which a small quantity of white lead had fallen. Dr. W. 11. Neville, a young physician in Philadelphia, who was recently honorably acquitted of a charge of infanticide, had lain in prison three months. Of five little girls who broke through the ice at Portsmouth, N. IL, one day lately, four were insensible when rescued, but all were restored. Am unmarried friend declared the other day, with an expression of countenance almost lugubrious, ‘‘l never cared a farthing about getting married, until 1 attended an old bachelor’s funeral.” A bemefactor of the human raee has nvented, in London, a “ digitarium,”—a mall dumb piano, upon which pupils can learn the whole art and mystery ot piano and organ playing, without making any noise. Fovr married women of Podbizca, in Bohemia, were convicted, in December last, of having poisoned their husbands at a party which one of them had given for that purpose. They were sentenced to penal service for life. A little Boston girl joyfully assured her mother the other day that she had found out where they made horses—“ she had seen a man in a shop just finishing one of them, for he was nailing on his last foot.’’ Dr. Bhtden, of the India Sanitary Com mission, has recently written his annual report on the spread of the cholera in that country. The report concludes with the opinion that this plague cannot be prevented, and that no human efforts can stay its progress. A Michigan court has decided that a physician is not warrantor or insurer of a case, and he is not to be tried for the result of his remedies. His only contract and duty is to treat the case with reasonable diligence and skill. It is estimated that five millions of dollars are annually spent upon the poor in goes to impostors In London, thirty-five millions are yearly expended, and the amount is annually increasing. On Saturday, January 2, the little daughter of Captain Ely Sperry, of Woodbury, Conn., and his son, 10 years old, died of scarlet fever. On Thursday, February 2. his wife died suddenly of heart disease. He had one little son left, a boy of 4 years, but on Friday, February 3, he, too, fell & victim to the fever. The Troy (N. Y.) is responsible for the statement that a couple were married the other day, at Plainfield, Otsego County, partook of their wedding dinner in Winfield, Herkimer County, took tea in Bridgewater, Oneida County, and wereall the time under the same roof. The house stands “ across the lines.” In the case of Elizabeth R. Coffey, against the Home Life Insurance.. Company, which suit was brought in the Superior Court of New York City on a policy for <5,000 on the life of the plaintiff’s husband, and which the company refused to pay, on the ground of alleged suicide, the jury have rendered a verdict for the plaintiff for the foil amount. A disconsolate citizen of New Orleans put the following question to one of the papers published there: “Mr Edyter— That what I wish to ask you is whether strychnine, what the police gives to dogs won't pizen the human being after Bassingers has been fried. Please put in the paper how this is, for if fried strychnine is pizen, I go agin sassingers. Yours, till ptooned.” A resident of Taunton, Mass., has obtained his ice for summer use, for several winters past, in the following manner: Procuring about fifty empty flour barrels, at a cost of twenty cents each, he gradually pours in water, until each contains a solid mass of ice. The barrels are then put away in his cellar, and entirely covered with sawdust As ice is required a barrel is tapped. According to the London Medical Times, the action of cold on a weak heart not unfrequeutly produces death. It caused the death of Lord Bentnick, which occurred suddenly a short time since,- and numbers of bld people are said to have died during the recent twelve days* frost in England, from the effect of cold on an enfeebled heart “ Never halloo until you are out of the woods,” saith a homely Western proverb. Carl Brendel, a Liepsic student, had never heard of it; and after passing through eeven battles and numerous skirmishes in France without a scratch, he was recently writing triumphantly to his sister of his untouched escape from the repulse of £ sortie made by the Parisians, when the gun which a comrade was cleaning, went off, accidentally, and the bullet striking Qkdtatte killed iikn.

A romantic story comes from the African diamond field*. A tweet-looking Keranna girl went to a young Englishman’s claim and began hunting for diamonds. He was too gallant to drive away a #rl, and when she picked Up a beauty of fl gem he promptly offered his hand in marriage, and tows he will introduce his wife to his genteel English family as an African Princess. As a gentleman wu walking the Afreets of Washington the other night, he was accosted by three rufflaos who pretended to be drunk, and asked him the time of night. “ I will tell yon,” said he in his blandest tones. Placing his hands in one of his pockets as if.to draw out his time niece, and drawing forth a revolver instead, he presented the latter and very coolly remarked : “It’s going to strike three!”The ruffians vanished <mt of sight in an instant. The Arts says that water kept in “ silver ” ice pitchers, from a number of families, was examined. Some showed the presence of lead in considerable quantity, in others no trace was discernable. The different length of time which it was contained in the pitchers accounting for the difference, the main conclusion being, that metallic vessels ought to be abandoned for the use of drinking water, as long ns we have glass and china at our command. To Clean a Shot Gun.—A writer in the Hural N<u> Yorker Bays: “I take the barrels otl from the stock; then take vinegai enc'.«gh so fill the barrels, and heat it boiling hot; pour it into the barrels, and let it stand until it*slops foaming over at the muzzle, letting some run through the tubes; then take the cleaning rod and rub the inside of the barrels; then take water, hot enough to warm the barrels, and rinse out until the water is perfectly clear; then, wi ( th the cleaning rod, wipe the gun out perfectly dry, after which put a little sweet oil on a bit of cloth, and rub on the barrels, both on the inside and outside, and your gun is clean. The vinegar removes all stain and smut, and the water and oil prevent it from rusting, or hurting the gun in any way.” The Decatur (Ill.) Magnet of a recent date says: “Some four or five weeks since, a little son, 5 years old, of Mr. Black, a salesman in J. Ullrich & Co.’s grocery, got a grain of pop-corn in his windpq>e, and it was found impossible to remove it by ordinary means. A doctor was called in, and, after performing a slight operation, pronounced the obstacle removed. The little fellow continued to complain,'however, and, on Monday last, while engaged in nursing the baby, he put the infant quickly down, and, placing his hand suddenly on his side, ran to his mother and exclaimed, ‘ Mother, kies me— I’m going to die,’ and was a corpse three minutes afterward,” If we wish to succeed in life we must learn to take men as they are, and not as they ought to be; making them better if We can, but at the same time remembering their infirmities. We have to deal, not with the ideal man of dreaming poets, but with the real men of every-day life, men precisely like ourselves. This fact of common aims, ambitions and infirmities ought to create constant sympathy and forbearance. While every man has his own burden to bear, he may at the same time in some way help another to bear his peculiar burden, and he himself helped in turn. God has mysteriously linked all men together by this curious fact of mutual dependence; and this wonderful possibility of mutual help. . The number of bones broken in the English lunatic asylum has given occasion for a curious scientific inquiry, and it is now ascertained that the ribs of crazy folk are more brittle than the ribs of the sane. Dr. lleardon instituted an examination of the bones of twenty patients who died in the Carmarthen County Asylum. In nine of these cases “ the very framework of the chest was found to be in an abnormal and diseased state." In two instances the breast bone broke in removing it, and generally the bones were no stronger than stout cardboard. In one case the surface bone was so spongy and soft that it was easily crumbled up between the fingers. Some of the ribs were easily cut with a common there being, through the. action of the diseased brain, a wasting away of the phosphates. It,. is stated, on what is claimed to lie reliable authority, that there is a child in Bristol, now four years of age, that is a habitual smoker, and, incredible as it may seem, who has been addicted to the habit for three years and nine months. When the little fellow was only three months old he held out his little hands and cried for his father’s pipe. The stem of the pipe was held to its mouth, when it took a few whiffs of the smoke and was made sick for a few minutes. The baby was, as we learn, afflicted with asthma, which was greatly relieved by the tobacco-smoke, and no bad effect from the child’s smoking has ever been observed, except in the first trial as mentioned above, and he has smoked almost daily ever since. He usually uses a pipe filled with common smoking tobacco, but will puff away at a cigar equal to any older inveterate smoker. Residents of Bristol who has often seen the youthful smoker “blowing a quiet cloud, vouch for the truth of this singular story. Our western cotemporaries frequently print astonishing narratives of precocious children, but we doubt their ability to trot out anything that will “lay over” this scion of antiquated Bristol. If they can we shall be pleased to hear it.— Proeidence (11. I.) Journal.