Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1873 — CURRENT ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT ITEMS.

Oil has been struck in boring a well in Jonesboro, Ala. Days of graceon commercial paper are abolished in“ ’CallTornia' since January 1. Thirty tons of English walnuts were raised in Los Angeles last year. What an obstinate creature’s a mule. How peculiar, that woman, the pridp* of creation, is Mulicr! When the enterprising butcher’s assistant “set up on his own hoqfc’j did he find a comfortable seat? The maple-sugar interest of \ ermont now exceeds in magnitude the wool interest, which was "for a tong time so pro m - inent. , At Cass River Bridge, Mich., there is a child with thirteen toes on one foot, and six on the other. Its father has six toes on both feet. An intelligent gravestone-cutter in Detroit keeps ready-made gravestones with the name Smith cut thereon. Tennessee hires out convicts to work on railroads, which looks like offering a premium for them to make tracks. Popoff is the unpleasantly suggestive name of one of the leading physicians of St. Petersburg. - A Columbus (O.) bootblack, having amassed a competence in his profession, has purchased a hand organ and retired to enjoy life. John Jones, of Keokuk, smoked the rats from between some false floors, and burned his house down. He made it hot for the rats, though. A young lady;livingatGlen Rock, Neb., born of white parents, and of delicate complexion, has, since recovery from sickness of a strange nature, turned as black as any Ethiopian.

A bobton ■manufacturer advertises a patent shoe that will prevent horses from “balling.” Spicer says this is not anew idea, as Mrs. 8. has used a shoe often to ■top the young Spicers’ bawling. Two men recently: skated from Sioux City, lowa, to Omaha, Neb., a distance of about 200 miles. A statistician has discovered that a man sentenced for twenty years to a New York prison has nine ctiances out of ten of being pardoned out in five years. A farmerin Eagle County, Neb., lately cut a cottonwood tree, a twelve foot Jog from which made 108 feet of lumber. Eight years ago he planted the seed from which that tree sprang. Ar pork auctions in the season of epizootics it is hinted that animals unfit for ham were brought to the hammer: which, however, placed them meas'ly within the reach of the poorer classes. There were two astonished families at Bangor, Maine, on Thanksgiving morning. The milkman delivered a can of pure milk to one and pure water to the other, by reason of a mistake in filling the cans. Mm. Partington has so often seen the heading ; ministerial crisis in Spain,” that she has concluded that preachers are getting thinned out in that country. An old lady of Plymouth, Mass., after kindling her Are a few mornings since, had a hunt for her cat, whose cries could be plainly heard, and at last found her shut in the stove oven, rapidly dancing from one pair of feet to another. A late inspection of the theaters of the city of New York; by the Fire Marshal, snowed that but a few, of them, were in anything like an unsafe condition, and in the cases of those few, orders, were given and carried out for the requisite nre precautions. ~ - Oub song-writers are improving, a late ballad being entitled, “Do not Slam the Gate, Harry,” and a still later commencing, with the touching words : X 4, “ Take off your boots at the porth, Jim, For tk« old man don’t sleep very sound ’’

At Des Moines, lowa, a hew porkpacking building was dedicated with a ball. The programme provided for the “Short Rib” polka, “Clear Side” quadrille, “Cumberland Middle” waltz, -!'Mess.Pork’l wtoumenne, —“Long Clear” Lancers, and other favorite figures. A new feature of social entertainments this winter will be “pound parties.” They derive this name from the circumstance that each person invited ls requested to furnish a pound of pastry, confectionery, .fruit, or other edibles for . the table, and thus an elegant supper is provided. The parties are given at private residences. A benevolent St. Louis man secured the Christmas benedictions of the newsboys by giving each of them a new cap. The.prond.and happy recipients rushed headlong to the nearest pawnshop and “spouted” the new head gear for. money to buy matinee tickets to the variety .jfliqW, ?•. ■ ‘ 1 ■ ...... P. B. Cornwall, agent of the Black Diamond and Bellingham Bay Coal Mining Companies, was recently the recipient of a beautiful white dear, siy months old, from a friend residing jn the Puget Sound country, and now has the animal in course of domestication. In form the animal resembles. closely the common American deer, having rather a long head and sharp muzzle, large and lustrous eyes, and long, slender legs, though there is grace and finish in the shape of the limbs that one seldom sees among the ordinary dger.— San. Nratwiscss Bulletin. Mrs. Partington is still bothered with this Mobile credit business, and can’t see how it should be so much sought after, unless it is much better than that of .some Westcrncitiesinwhichtlre late- Mr. P., as she feelingly remarked, “went in deeper, poor soul! than he ever got out." Here she heaved- a -sigh-,—and wiped her specks, as well as the feature to which they owed their support, and continued, calmly, that Mobile bonds ought to be good maturities, she -was surei for they had the famous Garde. Mobile there all the time, sleeping on their arms at night and legs in the daytime, for the protection of public and private probity: and now emancipation has got rid of so many of their bonds, why they Shouldn't pay the rest and say no more about it, she could not see for the 1 ife<of her. And here she dropped her ‘ l ridi,q|,l e, ” and subsided......... —The Brooklyn Tabernacle, Mr. Talmage, pastor, was the victim of an inggnioiqs system of robbery. For some time the trustees were mortifiecTaT the disappearance of money, in sums varying from $25 to SIOO, from the collection boxes. These boxes, eighteen innumber, were placed in receptacles, or “pigeonholes,” made for the purpose in the front of the pastor’s platform. Tire “pigeonholes” extend through the platform nearly three feet, or the length of a box and handle. A few Sundays ago one of the deacons, who was sitting in front es the platform, made a remarkable discovery. The collection had been taken up, and the boxes returned to their places. The deacon’s eye happened to be resting upon the “pigeon-holes," when he was startled by the sudden disappearance of one of the handles,, which had protruded a little from the hole. lie rubbed his eyes, but kept them fixed on the place. another handle disappeared, and then a third. This little incident necessitated the services of police detectives, who, after a couple of weeks, discovered the robber, who had been accustomed to. crawl under the . platform through the organ-room, remove the back part of the pigeon holes, and empty the boxes.