Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1871 — CURRENT ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT ITEMS.

Will Shirk, of Newcastle, Ind., has whittled out a wooden clock with a penknife. ' Every member ofthe Mutual Life, of Chicago, is equally interested in its success. The water from the salt well at Terre Haute, Ind., will completely dissolve a tin cup in twenty-four hours. A dromedary race lately took place at Cairo, Egypt, the winner making a mile in 1:43. Dividends are applied to keep the policy in force in the Washington Life, of New York. Dodge clubs are becoming fashionable in our large cities. The members dodge their creditors. John Brennan, a conductor on the Sandusky & Dayton road, has traveled 870,480 miles in the past 18 years. The inhabitants of Alaska don’t think much of ornamenting their walls, but they’re very proud of their sealing. A letter for Thomas Whockendemoffeschauferponsky is advertised as being in the postoffice at Nashua, N. H. In 45 years .the Western Pennsylvania prison has contained 3,920 prisoners, 216 of whom were taken from it only to be executed. The engine which drew the unfortunate New Hamburg train has been four times thrown from the track into the river. A man and wife in Allentown, Pa., recently became insane—she from religious excitement, and he from consequent grief. A man died at St. Louis recently, and in his will, after stating that he “ never forgot a favor,” left SI,OOO to an individual who ten years before ran away with his wife. At New Bedford, Mass., a lady advertisesto give instruction in cooking, announcing attention is given to bread and pure, good yeast.” At WaMßry, Conn., recently, a number of phWgraphs of a burning building were taken at midnight, when the Hames were fiercest, by the use of the magnesium light. Tte laboring classes of Massachusetts have laid up against a rainy day, in the savings banks, the sum of one hundred and forty millions of dollars. The coinage of twenty thousand and twenty-seven dollars’ worth of gold bars results in a loss by “tolerance and abrasion” of a little over sixty-four dollars. Two S2O bills of the old Beverly (Mass.) Bank, of the issue of 1829, and looking almost as good as new, were recently presented for redemption at the Beverly National Bank. In ten years 163,411 Philadelphians have died. There were in the city 172,615 births and 62,824 marriages during the samelime. Three sets of triplets and 140 twins are reported. Some philosopher has struck the following brilliant idea; he says: How wonderful are the laws governing human existence! Were it not for tight lacing all civilized nations would be overrun with women. A box of prize candy was analyzed in this city some time ago, and found to contain a sufficient amount of poison to kill a child three months old. But the people must be poisoned, you know.— Lafayette (Ind.) Courier. A couple were married the other day in Plainfield, Otsego County, N. Y., partook of their wedding dinner in Winfield, Herkimer County, took tea in Bridgewater, Oneida County, and were all the time under the same roof. The house stands “across the lines.”

Tub New York Herald says: “ There are now seventy-two Postmistresses in the United States who receive salaries of 11,000 and upward, besides women in minor Post Offices. The Postmistress at Louisville, Ky.. receives |4,000; at Rich mond, Va., <4,0G0; al Bpringfield, Ohio, >B,OOO. A live cat was found in the mail bag at a town in Maine one day lately. The postmaster made diligent search through all the United States postage laws to ascertain the amount of postage on the animal, but'' found nothing touching the case. A New Hampshire man, when asked to give his consent to the marriage of «his daughter, turned with a beaming countenance to the applicant and answered frankly: “ Yes, yes; and don’t you know some likely young man who will take the other T" The Public Health Committee of the city of Dublin recently analyzed 123 different kinds of confectionery, mostly colored, with startling results Lead, mercury, arsenic, Prussian blu.e, cochineal, and other poisons, were found among the ingredientsof the'colored samples; and plaster of Paris and insoluble white clay into the uncolored preparations. \ The other night, two countrymen went into the telegraph office at Aroostook, Maine, for the purpose of sending a dispatch. The message was taken by the operator, and the pair proceeded down stairs. They had just reached the sidewalk, when the gong at the “Snell

House ” was sounded fortes. Whereupon, one of the pair went Into the air several feet, exclaiming, “ By Jerusalem, there It goes, Jim!" Probably the most effective method yet tried for breaking up the latterly prevalent practice of “raising” checks, by which so many bunks have been victimized, is that adopted by some of the financial firms in Boston. Colored paper of very distinct shades is Used; aud the amount of a check, within certain limits —as, for example, SIOO or loss, $5 oor less, SI,OOO or lees, and soon—is indicated by the color of the paper on which it is written. A young man Oswego, who started to attend a masquerade party the other other eveuing, attired and accoutered as lie supposes Satan usually is, unhappily entered the wrong house, to the consternation of the inmates. The old gentleman, father of the family, especially, was greatly alarmed, and, with a wild shriek, “ Maria, save the children t” he made his exit through tlie rear door, closely followed by Maria and all their little ones. Heaven.—Henry Ward Beecher says: “ When I think of Heaven, I do not think of angels standing like wax candles, in 1 ng altar rows, singing hymns of praise; (think of saintly life, of angelic life, thesweetest, the gayest, the most joyous, the fullest of every mood of fancy and goodness. I think of beings that carry light in the eye, and joy in the heart, and ecstacy in every touch.” The Boston Poet says: “Greeley is taking pains to brand as lies some of the stories about his chirography Next he’ll probably deny that when Senator Revels wrote him, asking about the best mode of cultivating Strawberries, he advised him to plant them with his corn, ‘ dropping two or three strawberry seeds in each hill, and -letting the vines climb up on the cornstalks. In this way they need no poling, and fruit can be shaken off in the fall and pickled for winter use." An impudent fellow who insulted three young girls in Philadelphia, a few evenings ago, was attacked by them, thrown into a snow-bank, pounded, scratched, bitten, mauled and kicked, ana finally rolled over and over in a pool of slush. Meanwhile he cried lustily for assistance, and a passing physician came to his relief, thinking some one was being murdered; but one of the girls explained matters, while the other two continued the righteous battle, and he refused to interfere. The scientific expedition at the summit of Mount Washington will remain until May (six months) and one, at least, of its members still longer, to make investigations among the early plants of the mountain region. The report of the expedition will be published in the early part of the summer, and its appearance will be looked for with great interest, as it will contain many important scientific facts. The United States Signal Service will probably make Mount Washington a permanent point of observation in consequence of its system of storm reports. Our Neighbor’s Good Name.—Anybody can soil the reputation of any individual, however pure and chase, by uttering a suspicion that his enemies will believe and his friends never heard of. A puff o>the idle wind can take a million of the seeds of a thistle and do a work of mischief which the husbandman must labor long to undo, the floating particles being too fine to be seen, and too light to be stopped. Such arc the seedaof slander, so early sown, so difficult to be gathered up, and yet so pernicious in their fruits. The slanderer knows that many a wind will catch up the plague and become poisoned by his insinuations, without ever seeking the antidote. No reputation «an refute a sneer, nor any human skill prevent mischief. Guano Used of Old.—Ths Charleston (8. U.) Wews quotes from a work written by Edmund Burke, and published in 1757, to show that guano was at that time largely used in many parts of Spanish South America. It seems that at that time it was extensively employed to manure land that was planted with pepper, and was also used on soil where grain and fruits were raised. The author of the book referred to expresses surprise that “the small Island of Iquiqua, pot above two miles in circumference, could supply such immense quantities; and yet, after supplying twelve ship loads annually for a century to go to distant ports, and a vast quantity for the use of the neighborhood, it cannot be observed that it is in the least diminished, or that the height® of Jhe island is at all lessened-”