Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1871 — CURRENT ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT ITEMS.

New Name for Tight Boots— Corn cribs. The rates of the Washington Life are the same as other good companies. Auerbach is not embarrassed with richness. We would like to know who is. Premiums, policies and dividends are paid in cash, in the Mutual Life, of Chicago. When a pickpocket pulls at your watch, tell him plainly that you have no time to spare. A lady advertises herself in a morning paper as a teacher for “ persons of newly acquired wealth and deficient education.” There are 6,000,000 cotton spindles now in operation in the United States, of which over 2,000,000 are running on cloths for printing, and produce 450,000,000 yards per annum. The Rural New Yorker estimates the number of sheep in California at 4,000,000 and the number at the close of 1871 at 5,000,000. The wool clip for the present year is estimated at 25,000,000 pounds. A Boston frog eater recently brought home a bag full of tree toads under the supposition that they were frogs, and was greatly disgusted on discovering the fact after he had disposed of a dozen or so. Yo Cemeteries. —A lady was looking at the beautiful chromo of “ The Birthplace of Whittier,” when a bystander remarked that it was painted by Thomas Hill. “Oh, yes,” replied she; “I think he must be a great artist. He painted the Yo Cemeteries!’’ — A Local Report of the Period.— “ Mr. Collins, of Hartford, bought a ferocious watch dog. Mr. Collins came home late that night. His wife says that his trowsers can’t be mended. The dog’s skin is for sale cheap. Mr. Collins hopes to be able to sit down in a few weeks.” A month before he died, Charles Dickens destroyed all the letters that had been written him during his life, believing, he said, that they had been written for him privately, not for public inspection, and that after his death he could not be certain of their privacy being respected. As Mr. Edward Merrill, of East Lynn, Mass., was quietly enjoying a pork-stew, at his own table, his teeth encountered some infrangible object therein. The object was ejected and examined. It proved to be a small diamond, oval-shaped and handsome, supposed to have got into the salt somehow or other. A Montreal young man has written to the papers that he thinks it should be provided that an action for breach of promise of marriage should not h« unless the betrothal had been formally acknowledged by the passing of a gift between the two parties, in the presence of two or more witnesses. A lady requests the Washington Chronicle to advertise for “150 young men of all shapes and sizes, from the tall dandy, with hair enough on his upper lip to stuff a barber’s cushion, down to the little howlegged, freckled faced, carrot-headed upstart, to form a gaping crowd to stand at the doorways when evening assemblies are dismissed, to stare at the ladies and make remarks about tbeir person and dress.” The Van Wert (O.) Bulletin chronicles two cases of injury by falling down stairs, both the result of wearing high heeled slippers. The first case was that of Miss Florence Baker, who fell while carrying a lamp and some glass tumblers down stairs. She broke her collar-bone and sustained other injuries. The other was that of Mrs. Davis Johnson, who fell down stairs with a child in her arms, and was severely bruised, though the child was not injured. The “kangaroo droop,” now “fashionable, ” is thus described in a New York letter: To make thing perfect, a glove with three or four buttons is selected, so that the wrist may be as long and as small as possible. The wrist of the left hand, and also that of the right hand, if not engaged with an Alpine panisol, is brought close to the breast, and then the hand is permitted to fall palm downward, as if all muscular action was lost This is the present attitude of locomotion by the descendants of the kangaroo, and it suggests the loveliest helplessness imaginable, besides proving respectfulness to the deceased progenitors. Tub Road to Success. —Fortune, success, fame, position, are never gained but by determinedly, bravely sticking and living to a thing till it is fairly accomplished. In short, you must carry a thing through, if you want to be anybody or anything. No matter if it does cost you the pleasure, the-society, the thousand yearly gratifications ol life. No matter for these. Stick to the thing and carry it through. Believe you were made tor the matter, and that no one else can do it Pat forth your whole energies. Be awake, electrify yourself, and go forth to the task. Only once learn to carry a thing through in all its completeness and proportion, and you will become a hero. You will think better of yourself; others will think better of you. The world, in its very heart, admires the stern, determined doer. It sees in him its best sight, its brightest object, its richest treasure. Drive right along, then, in whatever you undertake. Consider yourself amply sufficient for the deed. You’ll be successful. The Liberal Christian has the following anecdote from a gentleman who was an eye-witness of the circumstances narrated : The thermometer often stands for days at from 108 to 117 degrees to the Red Sea, and when the vessel is with the wind and traveling at about the speed Of the air, the lack of any breeze or ventilation makes life on the steamer almost insupportable. On this occason four men and two women among the passengers were so overcome with the heat that the ship’s doctor reported that they must die if the ship's course was not changed, and a breeze created by traveling against the wted. The captain very reluctantly, and m due fear of the company’s order, yielded to the cry of humanity, and steamed one hundred miles back on his course. He thus relives (probably) of sit passengers. The government fined the company (who ex-