Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1872 — Page 1

THE RENffIJH MON. Published Every Thursday by JOB ACE E. JAMS, JOSHUA HEALEY, rBOPKIETORS. i Office, In Bpitler’s Building, Opposite the Court Houso. Subscript ion, 02,00 a Year, In Advance. JOB wouk Or every kind executed to order in good style and at low rates.

Miscellaneous Heading. AN INTRUDER. BY HIRAM RICH. Bat,y has been licre, it seems, Baby Annie on the wing-^ In my little library, Plundering and reveling. Annie dear, the darling witch—- ' r See how innocent she looks - But she has a world of wiles When she gets among my books. Half the time I own she seems Less a being than a star ; Then again I cry, "My books; Annie; what a ro tie you arel” —— “ No, no—’’ papa erics in vain; Down the dainty volumes come; Papa, here you aro no king, I am queen in baby-dom. Stately Johnson lies in grief Under laughing Kabelais; Emerson is lliit for once; Heine’s thumbing Thackeray. Whittier, O poet rare 1 Then hast many pages less. But if all were gone but one, That would hold and charm or blcs». Baby with the double crown, And the laughter-haunted eyes, Papa’s sanctum, volume-strewn, Its to theu u Paradise I I forgive thee when I feel Breath and lips upon me pressed, Sweet as any alien air, Blown from harbors of the blest. “ Papa," something whispers me, “ Belter every laden shelf Emptied by her baby bands Than the house ali to thyself.” - — -Scribner's Monthly.,

ANTS.

I met to day two straggling streams of workers moving along a liill-side path, one to, the other fro—black-bodied, six-legged,-with a mo9t determined aspect, and an almost forbidding look (I forgot . to mention that there was a magnifying glass mmy hand). Apparently each and all were much pressed for time ; they hurried along singly, none speaking to his neighbor, each seeming intent on his own object, though the result was to be common; each bearing his own burden, not often helpful to others, self-concen-trated, eager, hitter, obstinate, self-willed, narrow, conscientious, ambitious. 1 fol lowed them till I reached a disturbed anthillock, which had been lately overthrown, and where the possessors were repairing their home with the most vehement industry. Who directs them? Each seemed to be going on his own hook, minding his own business, hardly conscious of the existence of any thing but himself—“frightfully in earnest,” as Disraeli once said of Gladstone. Yet the work was all in common. The community of goods, indeed, seemed absolute. No one had any personal property whatever: house, stores, egirs, everything belonged to all. No one interfered with the rest; there was apparently no chief, overlooker, or di rector ; yet the work went on apace— Ik*?-,repairing and building up of the city “with neatness and dispatch.” Some'seized a peHctoToafth, or a stone, and dragged it backward up the steep incline, using their hind legs to cling on to rough places, while they hauled away at a weight,greater far than that of their own hodieC Some hoisted aloft in their front arms, as it were, a stick, or piece of grass, twice or even thrice their own length, and moved forward bearing it in the air. Each addition' was placed in what each considered the best place; but the'general form of the dome grew in a curiously regular diminishing curve, as if each boro the architect’s elevation in his pocket. Some of the workers were making desperate efforts to move heavy (to them) beams of wood; but, after superhuman exertions gave up the attempt when cloarly beyond their strength. If a thing, however, was anyways within the abounds of possibility, it was wondrous with what obstinate pertinacity they would return, e. g., to a pellet winch had rolled away from them, even to the bottom of the hillock, again and again, and begin once more to haul it up; tugging, lifting it over stones and under sticks, tumbling over, with their burden on the other side of an obstacle which they hnd scaled, and lying for a few seconds quite exhausted, yet never leaving hold of their burden, andsetting off again undauntedly as soon as they recovered breath. Occasionally two or more were helping at a task; but they generally scemca to prefer working alone.

The ant-hill was on a steep, rocky, wooded hill-side, jitnk with spikes of heather, feathered with bracken, which hung over the nest, while tall mountain grasses, with bright, glazed red-and amber stalks, sprang up through the moving mound of life. The August sun shone on tho pleasant spot; while through the white stems of the birch I Could catch sight of the river running ait tho bottom of tho deep valley; find the sound of the dashing water almong the stones far away came up with ai soft murmur to my mountain perch. There was a “susurro” of wind among tho trees, the twitter of, the autumn note of a bird, and the buzz and hum of insect life hovered round; but the ants were all silent; and the sort of low hiss which arose from the collected workers resembled the noise of a London street more than any other form of speech. The rest of the world seemed wrapped in a sort of lazy content in the soft, sunny weather; but the ants did not soem to be enjoying life any more than the men whom one meets hurrying, along the Strand. < < jr Probably the appreciation -of a beautiful view is not facilitated by crawling over grass and sand, with one’s head close to the ground! Besides, the faculty of admiring scenery is not only the distinctive quality of man, but is confined to a very small educated,scct!onof them; and I doubt whether the ants are ever likely to be educated into, lovers of the picturesque; they are too hard-headed, busi-ness-like a people. lam sure they keep their account-books admirably, and have always a balance at their banker’s, and that their stores are all labeled, and always to be found at onoe on the . right shelves. •- There is, however, a softer side to their characters: they are warm friends and allies, and assiduous nurses, carrying out the eggs of the cummunity on fine days to warm and comfort the unborn children, not their own, but the nation’s; and, if you try to take an egg away, the guardian will be cut to pieces rather than §ive up his charge to the foe. He is enuring, brave, bold, enterprising; faithful to his friends, cruel to his enemies. His muscular power ir astonishing. He is said to be the strongest being of his sizo alive. And as to his mind, M. Qugtrefagcs, an eminent French natural-

THE RENSSELAER UNION.

YOL. Y.

ist, after saying that instinct is more developed among insects than in any other creatures, adds that ants stand highest in this respect, “ possessing qualities which sgem to resemble those which education, perhaps, masks among men.” The distinction between intelligence and instinct, as shown aniongst them, is difficult indeed to define. On one occasion he watched them dragging the wing of a cockchafer into their nest. The opening was too small; and the workers pulled down part of the wall. Some pushed at it from without, some dragged it from within. Still the magnificent beam, which was probably intended to make a whole ceiling, could not be got in : they left it, increased the size of the opening; and the wing was at last swallowed up, though probably half a dozen interior partitions must have been thrown down before it reached its proper place; after tiffs the door was built up again. Among monkeys, “nearest in structure to man, no fact has been observed marking deliberation and judgment in common to such a degree.” It is baffling to think how entirely we are outside such intelligent and advanced organizations as these. We cannot guess at their thoughts and feelings: their external habits are even unintelligible t» us. We seem not to have a point whereat to touch. To-day they were quite unconscious of my existence; perhaps I was too big to be seen; they took no more notice of me than of a stone as long as I remained still; and stung me when I 'interrupted their business, it was my finger, not me, which they attacked. A short-sighted man, however, the other day, who approached his face too near to a nest, was spit or shot at (whatever be the engine used to eject the formic acid) for his pains; and was obliged to draw hack his eyes precipitately from the sharp, stinging volley. They understand each other, it is said, by means of the antennae. No doubt, touch, when sufficiently cultivated, even in man, is an extraordinary medium of communication! as was seen in Laura Bridgeinan, the blind, deaf mute; but one would like to understand the ant’s finger alphabet.

The hand in man is considered a miracle of art; but the ant seems to use his six feet indifferently, as prehensile organs, to hold, to pull, to lift, to drag, to cling. The keenness of their smell appears to be marvelous, so that not so much as a cockroach can die in the cßrner of a dark room bat the enterprising portion of the race living in India, who eat everything and go everywhere, contrive to find it out and carry it away. But to us the most extraordinary of their qualities is the power of seif-sacri-fice,tire almost moral elevation, -whereby the good of the individual is up to that of thiffcommunity. A line of ants ou their travels were once seen trying to pass a little stream, which proved too rapid for them to cross. At last they hooked themselves on eacli to each, and thus gradually made a chaifi, which was carried bbliquely to the other shore by the current. Many were drowned and lost in the process; the foremost of the band were often baffled, and knocked about in the rushing water; but the floating hiidge was at last complete; and the rest of the army marched in safety upon the bodies of their self-sacrificing fellows. Could any so-called reasoning men have done better, or as well? Our pontoons are not made of living men. In India, the precautions taken against their voracity are mary and ingenious; but the man is almost always baffled by the insect. Wood, paper, cloth, provisions, everything but metal, is com sumed; oven the legs of tables are hollowed out, ami left standing as empty shells, which give way at a touch. In one case, some preserves had been put in a elbset, ieolatod from the wall, with feet set in basins of water. The ants, however, were not to be so outwitted; they crawled up to the ceiling, and let themselves down, each ant hanging on to the one abovp him, till the last link touched the goal, when a stream of hungry applicants ran down, and made short work of the coveted treasure. Did those who thus profited give any of tlie food to the self-sacrificing members of the living chain, I woutler? And what reward did the patriot receive who held on to the ceiling, and bore the weight of the rope of ants? "No wonder that the emmet has been held up as a model of wisdom and industry sffffee men have "made Morals” at alt ; that Solomon declares the ants to be #a people not strong, but exceedingly wise,” who "prepare t.hcir meat in the summer;” that Milton talks With respect of “the parsimonious emmet, provident of future —

“In small room,large heart enclosed." But the highest praise he has received is from Mr. Darwin, who says that “the size of the brain is closely connected with higher mental powers; and the cerebral ganglia of ants is of extraordinary comparative dimensions. Still, cubic contents are no accurate gauge: there may be extraordinary mental activity with extremely small absolute mass of nervous matter.’’ It seems as if the fineness of the quality was more important even than its quantity. “The wonderfully diversified instincts, mental powers, and affections of ants, exist with cerebral ganglia not so large as the quarter of a small pin’s head.” A son of Mr. Darwin succeeded in tho anatomy of an ant’s brain; and his father observes, “It is one of the most? marvelous atoms of matter in the world—more so even than the -brain of man." Yet such is the prodigal wealth of nature that millions on -millions of these “marvelous atoms” come into the world every summer, with apparently no other end than to be eaten and crushed, and to die in a , hundred different ways, after their few days of life. Their use in the world, as far as we can fathom it, is as scavengers; but, if we had been born ants, we should probably consider this a wretchedly perfunctory account of the be all and end all of our existence. The ant may hot be able to see very far; bat one has a painful perception that our own vision is relatively not much less narrow.—-Good Words. —Chan Lai Sun, the Chinese Imperial ■Commissioner of Education,, and his wife were admitted to the South Church, at Springfield, Mass., by letters from one of the mission churches in China. —The Babcock farm, a tract of about 40 acres, on Park river, just outside of Hartford, lias been selected as the pew site for Trinity College. f —An enterprising Albany (N.Y. jliquor dealer hired two camels from a circus to draw wines and liquors during the horse epidemic. ' 1

RENSSELAER, JASPER COUNTY, INDIANA, DECEMBER 5, 1872.

General News Summary.

THE OLD WORLD. The police force of London recently engaged in a general movement for an increase of pay, and serious inconvenience grew out of the strike. The postmen joined the movement on the 20th, and a public meetihg was called for the 24th. The French Assembly has passed the trial by jury bill —461 to 178. The bill.legalizing the marriage to a deceased wife’s sister has passed the Legislature of Victoria, Australia. Emigration from Italy to the United States has inereasedTo such. an~cxlehf that the attention of the Government has been called to it. At a meeting of the Deputies of the Left Center, of the French Assembly, on the 21st, a report was unanimously adopted, containing, among others, propositions for the prolongation of President Theirs’ term of office to four years; the nomination of a Vice-Pres-ident, and the creation of a second Chamber. The members of the extreme Left indorsed the declaration of Gambctta that the dissolution of the National Assembly was. the sole remedy for existing difficulties. President Thiers told several of his friends who called upon him, on the 22d, that he would make all reasonable concessions to secure harmony in the Government*; but that it was impossible for him to relinquish his well-known convictions. It was known in Paris on the 23d that President Thiers Indorsed the plan proposed by the Committee of the Left Center for- the formation of a second Chamber of the National Legislature. lie also favored some definite settlement of the relations between the Legislative and Executive Departments of the Government.. Paris dispatches of the 25th state that the political situation was gloomy, and it was unlikely that the differences between the pro.iHant. and t.he Assembly could be arranged. The Right Wing of the National Asscmbly’had selected General Changarnicr for President, should Thiers resign. The majority report of the Committee bn the Address was read in the French Assembly on the 26th. It insisted on' the establishment of a responsible Ministry as a means of fighting Radicalism. A motion to postpone its consideration to the 28th was carried—3s‘i to 332—and this result was regarded as a favorable indication for the Government. - . . , .

TUE NEW WOULD. Gold closed In New York on the 26th at 112%@113. A Washington telegram of the 21st announces that the President’s message would not be printed in advance of itp transmission to Congress. The President has appointed G. W. hairman Postmaster at Philadelphia, vice H. H. Bingham, resigned. From the official statement of shipments of wool to Boston, and of sales made there, it is estimated in New York, that not more than 2,000,000 pounds were lost by the great fire. ... Stanley, Dr. Livingstone’s finder, reached New York on the 20th, from Europe. A New York dispatch of the 20th says the Health Department officers, after examining the poultry markets and stores,reported that they found no diseased fowls, and no evidence of the prevalence of the reported malady-, * ■— Leading members of Henry Ward Beecher’s church have published an announcement that no' one connected with that church has taken any part in the proceedings against the notorious women, Woodhull and Claflin, and will not do so for thepresent. It was privately intimated on the 21st that the affidavits of all the slandered parties have been-made, and would be ready when wanted. A change of venue has been granted in the cases of Chris topherßaffertykndAndrew J. Perteet, the two Chicago murderers. The new trials will take place in Lake County for Rafferty, and Will County for Perteet. The Chicago papers of the 21st report the horse disease as having run its course in the city, and the horses were nearly all well or rapidly recovering. The Society of the! Army of the Cumberland held its sixth annual reunion, at Dayton, 0., on the 20th. Twenty-one buildTngs, consfltutingalarge part of the business section of Galva, 111., were destroyed by lire on the morning of the 21st. Thirty-five business firms were burnt out, and thirteen families rendered homeless. Total loss about $100,000; insurance about $40,000. The Democratic members of the Indiana Legislature on the 2lst nominated James D. Williams, State Senator from Knox Counter, as a Candidate for United States Senator.

Stanton, the man with tho alleged $350,000 ruby, arrived at Denver from Arizona on the 20th, and freely exhibited the gem, which is very bcautifu}, though jewelers are in doubt as to its being anything more than a garnet, lie also shows what he calls a $15,000 diamond. ” The total vote in Virginia for President was 184,005, Grant’s majority is 1,900. Of the nine members of Congress elect, four are Republicans and five Democrats. President Grant is said to be strongly in favor of paying the same salaries to women as to men for similar work in the Departments. The Hon.. William Gaston, Mayor of Boston, was nominated by tho Democrataon the 33d for re-election. Some three hundred negroes have recently arrived In NeW' York, from Savannah, en rmete for Liberia. They are the first of som» : 3,000 who intend to emigrate. Jay Gould, ex-Prosident of the Erie Rail way, was arrested in New York on the 23d, at the suit of P. H. Weston, the present 'President of the c ompany. The warrant was based on an affidavit which charges Jay Gould with wrongfully taking to his own use, while in control of the Erie Railroad, $9,500,000 of money belonging to the Erie stockholders Mrs. Laura Fair was announced to lecture in San Francisco on the £veniDg of the 21st, but a large gathering of people in front of her residence and in the,vicinity of the hall Where the lecture was to be delivered made sueh threatening demonstrations that the notorious woman was advised by the Chief of Police of the danger which would attend her should she attempt to keep her appointment, jpd she remained in her rooms, in company with a "few friends. The crowd hooted and yelled, and men tried to force their way np stairs, but were driven back. The people of San Francisco are much incensed at her proposition to give public lectures.

OTJR COUNTRY AND OUR UNION.

Ahe official returns of the vote in Ohio Jbw: Grant, 281,852; Greeley, 244,321; rarck, 2,10(5; O’Conor, 1,163; scattering, 162, The total vote cast was 529,598. Grant’s majority over Greeley is 37,531. A sub-committee appointed by the Committee of Fifteen in Chicago to Inquire into the causes of crime made a report in which they state that, in their opinion, there is no cause.aside from the evil predisposition which many criminals receive with their blood, or from their early associations, which so directly excites to crime as the indulgence in intoxicating drink. Widespread statistics are cited to support their conclusion that the crimes of » people are Inproportion to their facilities for becoming intoxicated, and they assert that, if the liquor traffic were properly regulated, there would .be a. diminution of nearly one hundred per cent, in the number of crimes. At tlie annual session, in St. Lonis, on the 21st, of the American Woman Suffrage Association, the following officers were chosen for the ensuing year: President, Colonel T. W. Ifigginson; Vice-Presidents, Julia Ward Howe, Hon. Henry Wilson, General Wm. Curtis, Wm. L. Garrison, Mary A. Livermore, Mrs. W. T. Mrs. Langley, Mrs. Cutter; Secretary, Mary B. Blackwell; Treasurer, John K. Wcldman; Chairman Executive Committee, Lucy Stone. Among the resolutions adopted was one calling upon Congress to enact a law establishing woman suffrage in the District of Columbia, and the Territory, and also for the admission of women to positions under the Government, with equal pay for equal work; also, to submit a sixteenth Constitutional amendment to States abolishing political distinctions of sex. The Memphis Industrial Exposition, which closed on the 22d, is said to have been a decided success, financially and otherwise.

President Grant has directed the issue of a pardon to Reuben J. Young, of Alabama, eonvieted in May, 1572, of being, implicated In theKu-Klux conspiracy, ar.d sentenced to be imprisoned for ten years and to pay a fine of SI,OOO. The Commission to investigate the outrages onthe Rio Grande border have completed their report, which is very long. The Commissioners confined their investigation to the distance of 500 miles, from the mouth of the Rio Grande to Rio Grande City, estimating that the Americans included within the limit have by Mexican raids suffered to the extent of $30,000,000, to say nothing of the murders' committed by Mexicans. They think that if they had continued their investigation as far as El Paso it wohld have been discovered that the total losses, including those caused by Indian raids, would have increased the sum total to $100,000,000. They Urge protection to the people on the border by an increase of cavalry, otherwise a predatory war will result. The Revenue Marine report, commenting upon Civil Service competitive examinations in that service, says that whatever the result in other branches of the, service, this competitive examination has been attended by the best results. It has given the service . the best corps of junior officers it ever possessed, and has inspired among them a vigorous competition in pursuit of professional attainments. The National Board of Underwriters, recently in session in New York, has resolved unanimously to charge an advance of 50 per cent, upon all Mansard roofs, except those constructed of fire-proof material. Colonel Blood Was again arrested on the 22d, in a civil suit brought by and in default of SB,OOO bail lodged in Ludlow street prison. He Rad just given bail in another suit when arrested. * Mrs. Putnam, wife of the victim of Foster, the New York car-hook murderer, has been awarded $5,000 damages in her suit against the street railroad company, one of whose cars was the scene of the assault, and whose employes, she claimed, should have protected Mr. Putnam. Roberts’ glycerine magazine, at Scrub Grass, Pa., exploded on the23d, killing Harry J. Wolfe, telegrapher, anflß- A. Wright*, torpedo agent. Only the fragments of their bodies were recovered. It was recently stated at the Police Headquarters in New York that since the middle of October thirteen persons had been reported missing, and no trace of them could be found. The official' returns of the vote in New York for Presidential Electors show the following result: Grant and Wilson, 440,629; Greeley and Brown, 382,279; O’Conor, 1,454; Temperance candidate, 201. Total, 824,563. Grant’s majority over Greeley 58,350; over all, 56,695. At Princeton, ind., on the 22d, Thomas Camp was hanged for the murder of JohnR. Bildersback.

A sensation has been caused in San Francisco by a report that Mrs. Fair had entered into a plot, previous ,to her second trial, with a restaurant waiter named Frank for the poisoning of Judge Dwindle and the opposing counsel. The recent report that a number of workmen were snowbound at the western end of the Winona & St. Peter Railroad, in Minnesota, and were in danger of starvation, proves to have been greatly exaggerated. Later news is to the effect that an abundance of supplies were within reach, and no. special distress was anticipated. x There was a destructive fire IQ.Milledgeville, Ua., on the 23d, which destroyed the hotel block, containing several stores and residences. The official count of votes in Tennessee show; Greeley, 94,319; Grant, 85,(533. Greeley’s majority, 8,586. Brown, for Governor, i 97,600; Freeman, 83,889; Brown’s majority, 13,811. Maynard for Congress, 80,835; Cheatham, 65,578; Johnson, 37,900; Maynard’s majority over Cheatham, 15,347; over Johnson, 42,925. The gratifying news is received that another of the boats In which the passengers and crew of the burned steamer Missouri embarked was saved, and that several persons who have been counted among the lost have reached Nassau in safety. The telegraphic account of their experience at sea states that several of those who left the burning vessel in this boat became crazed by their terrible privations and jumped over; board. - - ’ The West Virginia Legislature has elected D. D. Johnson, of Tyler, President of the Senate, and William W. Miller, of Wheeling, Speaker of the House. Tfie President has appointed Albert W: Walne as Pension Agent at Des Moines, lowa. .... On the 23d, according to a London dispatch received at the British Embassy in Washington, the British flag, which, since the Ashbgrton Treaty of 1846, had waved

jointly with our own over the island of San Jnqn, was hauled down, in deference to the decision of King William. The United States authorities arc now in sole possession of the Island. yj’ l ■■ A report was started in New York on the 25th that the Hon. Rorace Greeley had become insane and been confined in a lunatic asylum. This report was subsequently contradicted. It seems he was suffering, to some extent from nervous prostration caused by the loss of nearly all sleep almost' continually for over a month during his’ wife’s illness. A dispatch from Whltclaw Reid on the evening of the 25th states that the of Mr. * Greeley’s being ’’lnsane was without any foundation whatever, that his complaints were of a negative nature, and that he would be able to resume his editorial duties in a short time. ’ Meara, who attempted to assassinate exAlderman McMullen, of Philadelphia, has been sentenced to six years and nine months imprisonment, and to pay a find of SI,OOO. A suit has been instituted by the Erie Railway Company against Daniel Drew, to recover $5,000,000, alleged to have been embezzled by him while Treasurer of the Company in 1868, by the sale of fifty thousand shares of watered stock. The following States chose Greeley electors : Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Georgia and Maryland. The remaining States voted for Grant. The Electoral College stands: For Grant, 301; Greeley, 65. The official majority for Grant in Wisconsin is 18,493. The Democratic majority in Missouri, on' Governor, is 35,443. On the other State officers the majority is considerably larger.

The horse disease in Cincinnati was said to bg,,abating on the 25th, and many horses were being brought out on the streets. William Pitt Kellogg has been elected Governor of Louisiana by a majority of 12,761. The rest of the Republican State ticket is also elected, and the Republicans have a majority in the new Legislature. Hart, Republican, is reported to have a majority of over 2,000, for Governor of Florida, over Bloxham. Two men were killed and fifteen by a railroad collision near Wilmington, Del., a few nights ago. Brigadier-General Irvin McDowell has been appointed to succeed .the late General Meade. General McDowell has been assigned to the command of the Department of the South. Major-General Hancock is assigned to the Department of the East, of Which General Meade was in command. Hon. Charles Sumner arrived at New York on the 26th, from Europe. At Yonkers, N. Y., on the 25th, four -youths, whose ages ranged from sixteen, to twenty-one years, being out for sport, encounteredfour cans of nitro glycerine, which had been deposited in an excavation two feet.deep, on the line of the newly-con-structed portion of, the New York <fc Boston Railroad. Two of the young men wanted to see what effect an explosion would have, and so dropped a large stone upon tic cans, The tremendous explosion which followed was heard for miles, and shook the houses in the vicinity. Two of the party weye horribly mutilated, their limbs being blown' in all directions, and their remains were scarcely recgnizablc. The other two were frightfully wounded, but might recover. The Northwestern “corner” culminated in NewTork on the 26th, when the stock declined, and was offered at 100, with 85** bid. It was believed the clique had taken in cash between $3,500,000, and $5,000,000, and that one or two millions of difference remain to be adjusted by the Courts. A New York dispatch of the 26th says: “A number of reporters yesterday visited several intimate friend* of Mr. Greeley, both in this city and Westchester County, where Mr. Greeley is, and all represent that that gentleman is simply suffering from ill health, owing to an attack of nervous prostration.” A San Francisco dispatch of the. 26th says voluminous reports by Messrs. King, Colton, Bost and Fry, on the alleged diamond fields, had been submitted to the trustees, who had resolved that it was due to the public to expose the fraud upon them and the stockholders. No more stock would be issued or transferred, and the corporation would be dissolved as soon as practicable. The Indiana Legislature voted for United States Senator on the 26th. The ballot stood: For O. P. Morton, 81; for J. D, Williains, Democrat, 62. Morton’s majority, 19: - The Bouth Carolina Legislature assembled at Columbus on the 26tb. Lee (colored>was elected Speaker of the House.

The African Slave Trade.

General Kiukitam, the English director of the army of the King of Abyssynia, has supplied to the London Daily Telegraph some valuable information respecting the traffic in slaves still carried on between the interior of Africa and the Turkish Empire. He says: , The Abyssinian Envoy estimates the number of slaves annually carried off from Africa to the Arab and Turkish markets at 80,000 to 90,900, These unhappy beings are taken away at ages ranging from seven or eight to sixteen years, older men and ''women being found more troublesome than valuable to the dealer They are brought down from the Centre of the continent and the j£gion of the White Nile to Kassaja, and are hurried on to the slave market at Metemmch, to be resold for shipment to Jcdda. Foreign Consuls at Khartoum check, so far as they possibly can, the passage of slaves down the Nile, while Sir Samuel Baker’s expedition has done much also to increase the difficulties which beset the transit of slaves across that route. The Shankelto country and that of Woolah Gallas are favorite grounds for thtr and infamous practice ofthe traffickers in human beings, these provinces being close to Bogos, through which, since the annexation by the Khedive, slaves can be safely passed to Massowah, thence to be shipped for the Arabian coast. Shankelto is a district bordering on Abyssinia proper, and is inhabited by a wandering tribe resembling Gypsies, who are regarded as the Abyssinia. Shankelto, according to (Skieral Kirkham, belongs of right to Abyssinia, and about eighteen months ago Prince Kassai had occasion to send down thither one of his Generals with a large force, completely'to devastate the country for the murders that were frequently done there on his merchants an,d priests—there being churches there for the baptism of the people. The following is the fashion in which the slave dealers capture their victims: They go into a village, take- with them silks, or beads, or bits of tin, and ornaments. They exchange these things for slaves, or whatever they can get. The merchants send the slaves quietly away

without much trouble, and eventually they are trained as Mussulmans. They are taken through Bogos to Massowah, and they are sent thence to Jedda,whence they are sent to Turkey by land. As for price, if a female be of copper oolor, and good features, she will bring as much as $l4O, or about £2B that is, at the market in Metemmeth. which is a wholesale market. The retail price is according to the state of the market to which they are first taken. When sold in the second market they vary in price. If a man took a fancy to a female slave, he would perhaps give SIOO more than another man. The Sbankeltos and Oallas are much sought after for their beauty, and for their superiority to the other tribes. A strong boy will sell for S9O or SIOO. The girls fetch more because they are wanted for the harem. Traders will take away girls when they can get them. When a chief makes war on another, he makes it an object to carry ofl as many girls as he can. He plunders the villages and carries off the younger natives and sells them, retaining the older ones to work as his slaves. These people are subject to the Abyssinian King, when he finds it necessary to chastise them for misdeeds; but, of course, when his troops leave, they are theirown masters again. These things occur in a part of Abyssinia which the King claims, but not among his Christian subjects. When asked if he believed that all the 80,000 or 90,000 annual captives were in the war and sold by the Chiefs who captured them to the traders, General Kirkham, in substance, answered: “You must understand that after Mr. Stanley returned from the discovery of Livingstonet%e brought much to light concerning the slave trade of East Africa. Dr. Livingstone had also informed the Foreign Office as to the slave trade going on in the interior. Her Majesty’s gunboats kept so close a watch that it was impossible to get slaves down to the coast direct; so they took them through to Bogos At the interview between the Sultan and Ismail Pasha, when the latter was made Khedive, an understanding was, I believe, come to respecting the slave trade. The Mussulmans of Turkey and Egypt smust hare a supply of slaves to do their work—for the real Turks will not do any menial service. These 80,000 or 90,000 slaves are imported and brought up to the Mohammedan faith, and employed m doing the dirty work. The slaves that are not taken in war are bartered for with peasants, who will steal and sell them. Suppose you are a slave merchant, and I know where there are three or four goodlooking girls—l steal them and sell them to you. One man, who may have children of his own, will go and steal the children of another person, as many as he may get. The trader has attendants with him, and mules and camels, and he knows how to get slaves and carry them off. The law is so strict that any man, whether a Christian or Mohammedan, found in Abyssinia selling a slave is hanged on the first tree, without judge or jury. Whoever catches him hangs him up, and there is ne more about it; and there he hangs until he falls away, piece by piece. So long as Bogcs was in the power of the King of Abyssinia they could not go that way. If they were stopped there they would have to take another and a dangerous road across the wilderness. They are cheeked, on the one hand, by the British guriboats ofl Zanzibar, and would be checked, on the other, in Bogos.”' »

If a slave-driver takes slaves from one village and carries them through another, the inhabitants- of the second village have generally no chance to rescue them, because the leader’s attendants are numerous and well-armed. A single leader will buy, according to his means, from fifty to sixty slaves, and bring them through the country in that way. They do not bring down many at once for fear a white man should see them and give information against them, and then they would be stopped—because Ismail Pasha has ordered ostensibly that the slave trade shall be put down. General Kirkham is unreservedly of the opinion that the Khedive secretly favors the slave trade, while outwardly disavowing it. The slaves are brought down to tne coast from the Woo lah Gallas country and the White Nile—about forty-eight or fifty days’ journey from the coast. The better portion are treated very well on the way by the slavedealers, because they will fetch a better price. If the slave is of the Nubian race, he has to do all the dirty work for the others; he is considered of an inferior class, and does not fetch so much as the copper-colored. The Nubians are a flatnosed, thick-lipped,and curly.haired people. Strong Nubian girls, for servants, bring more than the boys. The Gallas are of a reddish, copper color, some of them remarkable for beauty of form; and they fetch a very high price, when taken to Turkey, for the harem. These girls are taken so young that they hardly know their original country, and adopt the Mussulman faith. As to language, says General Kirkham, the trader speaks a kind of gibberish which the people understand. “Of course, he knows the country well. No trader from England could go through there. There are, I suppose, about ten language# in these countries, all mixed up together. The King of Abyssinia speaks five. Girls and boys, when they are taken away, do not offer to make any resistance; they do not know anything about it. There are no traditions in their villages as to children being taken off by slave dealers, or as to the inducements held out to them that they will be taken to a fine country where they can live at ease. Suppose I am one-of their own countrymens probably I have an enemy who has two or three children. Igo quietly and take these children and sell them to thte slave-dealer, and he sends them away; the children are lost, and there is no more about it. There is great jealousy and suspicion between household and household; and it is thus that these feuds and thefts arise.” General Kirkham expresses a hope that the publication of these facts, confirming those made by Livingstone, Baker, ana Stanley, may more urgently than ever direct public attention to the iniquitous Nile slave-trade.

—Mr. Blackmore, author of “Lorna Darne" and the “Maid of Sker,” two of the most successful of English romances, is a market gardener, and William Morris, the poet, is an upholsterer. —One of the buildings on Otis street, ) Boston, destroyed by the late great fire, was owned by Christine Nilsson, and was valued, according, to the assessor’s records, at ffil.OOO. * . —The wife of Jack Grant, Representative from Polk County in the Oregon Legislature, last yeauApt and trapped 358 squirrels. a?

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NO. 11.

A TiTUBviLLB (Pa.) paper gives the following particulars ot the recent audacipug robbery in that place : Titusville is in a great excitement today over a daring robbery which was perpetrated here last night. While the family of John Watson, residing on the hill opposite the old Hmkly refinery, were at supper, a party of men, numbering five, entered the house, and approaching Mr. Watson with pistols in hand and masks on their faces, demanded his money. They cautioned tho family not to make the least noise, telling them that it was their money they wanted, and that alimußtrobmTtrtobfrbottndaßd gagged, and that if they made the least resistance they would call In the balance of the gang, who were guarding the entrance outside. They proceeded to handcuff the family, applying leg-irons to the men— John Watscn and Archibald Stewart—the latter the son-in-law of the former, at the same time gagging them, and then tying the entire family together. They next ordered Watson to open his safe. The latter replied, “My money is all in Warren, deposited with my brother.” They replied, “We know whom you refer to, but your money is in the house, and we must have it. thereupon, with the muzzle of a huge revolver placed against his ear, opened the safe and something like $2,000, were abstracted. After ihe safe had been robbed the family were tied in a long row and compelled to follow the thieves down into the cellar, then up through every room in the house, and at the peril of their lives information as to where valuables were kept was demanded and given. After a thorough search tho family were conducted back to the diningroom. Mrs. Watson, Susan Stewart and Archibald Stewart were placed on a lounge, blindfolded, ironed and gagged and tied to the stove in such a manner that if they moved the stove would tip over upon them. The fiends then left the house, having remained about an hour and a half, while the balance—nine in all—were standing watch on the outside. In the hurry to depart the lighted lamp was upset and tho house set on fire. The robbers then returned, and, taking clothes from the wardrobes, threw them on the burning portion of the dwelling,and with the utmost difficulty succeeded in extinguishing the flames. Mr. Watson was severely burned, but the robbers made no endeavor to pull him from the flames. Jaqxes Stewart, a member of the lamiiy, arrived home after midnight and found the family in a sorry plight. The irons on Watson cut him to the bone, and he was bleeding profusely. Those orrateother members of the family were painful, and w ere taken off only by severing them with a file. The thieves had handcufls for every member of the house and their pockets filled with handkerchiefs. They had also a plentiful supply of leg irons. The police were notified, and at three o’clock this morning all the hotels in the place were searched and the town scoured, but no arrests have so far been made. The villians have so effectually done their work as to give no clue to their whereabouts. The greatest excitement exists in the oil regions over this devilish outrage. It is very evident that the party were aware that Watson had money in his house, as he had neglected to deposit a sum, the exact amount of which he does not know. None of the family were severely injured except Mr. Watson, whose feet and hands were dreadfully burned by the upsetting of a lamp. ,

How a Young Lady Saved Her Life on a Railroad Trestle.

A short distance this side of Union, on the Union & Titusville Railroad, there is a very long and very high trestle, and one upon which nobody ventures who is at all inclined to be light-headed. Immemediately this side of the trestle, there is a slight curve in the road, so that a person walking on it cannot be seen by the engineer of an approaching train until it is nearly upon him. On Friday last, as Wm. Toles, engineer, came around the curve at a good rate of speed, he was horrified to discover a lady about the middle of the trestle, and hardly a train’s length ahead of him. Quick as thought, although his hair was making frantic efforts to lift his bat off, “Billy” whistled down brakes gave her sand, and threw back the rowrsing lever, while at the same time he knew that it was an utter impossibility to check the heavy train before the victim would be overtaken and crushed to death, and with fixed eyes he awaited the catastrophe. The lady heard the warning whistle, and turning her head saw the iron monster almost upon her. Escape seemed impossible; to remain was certain death, to jump to the ground beneath, a distance of thirty or forty feet, equally certain death, and to attempt to run ahead and escape, was out of the question. Unlike ten thousand ladies, out of ten thousand and one, she did not scream or faint or indulge in any nonsense of any kind,, but, realizing the situation in an instant, and taking the chances all in, she proceeded to an action, which saved her life in a manner that would have been an honor to the coolness and presence of mind 6t an old campaigner or a life-long frontiersman. About thirty inenes below the ends of the ties, and immediately under the stringer which supports them, there is a joist five inches wide running from one support of tho trestle to another, and to this the clearheaded girl resorted for safety. Stepping to the end of the ties she swung herself down to the narrow thread with all the apparent ease of a'gymnast, and with her arms clasped around it, stretched herself at full length along it as the train thundered by almost over her: Assoonasthe engineer saw her action he threw off hia brakes and put on steam, hurried past as soon as possible, when she nimbly sprang to the track again and pursued her journey as though nothing haa happened. But every woman who had a husband or sweetheart on that train has cause to be jealous of that brave young lady.— Tito* vUle (Pa.) Herald.

—The members of the present Senior class of Dartmouth College have given fBOO worth of books to the society libraries. —Mrs. Scott-Biddons, having recovered from her recent illness, has begun her season of dramatic readings, { ' '>i ■ - . —James Russell Lowell has settled down in the Latin Quarter, Fans, where he intends to spend the coming winter. <■» —A box of books was recently received at the Kansas Blind Asylum—a gift of tq« late Charles Dickens,

The Titusville Robbery.