Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1873 — CURRENT ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT ITEMS.

Pennsylvania proposes a constitutional amendment making voting compulsory. The agitation for the abolishment of the franking privilege began twenty-five years ago. A nimble woman, 137 years old, does housework and runs on errands for a living, in Los Nietos, Cal. Springfield and Jefferson City, Mo., two of the best paying post-offices out of St. Louis, have postmistresses. The largest native pearl in this country was recently found in a Wabash River muscle shell. " ’• An American conductor is “knocking down" a competence on the new railroadthat runs from Jaffa to Jerusalem. A Champaign (Ill.) lady writes to the editor pf the Chicago Tribune that she desires to dispose of herself by lottery. The Powers Coal Company, at Youngstown, Ohio, are employing colored miners in place of those now on a strike. A Chicagoan has invented a plan todo away with the spark, smoke and cinder nuisance on railroad trains. An importation of Asiatic quail, for acclimatization, has been made at San Francisco. It is said to be strong on the wing, and to afford good sport. A Philadelphia court lately fined a juror SIOO for disclosing the contents of a sealed verdict before it had been read in court. The oldest inhabitant has taken up his residence in Hagerstown, Wayne County, Ind. He is now 108. Anthracite coal of good quality is reported to have been found in New Mexico, twenty-seven miles from Santa Fe, and near to rich mines of lead ore. Philadelphia papers, having slain the steam-whistle monster, have buckled on their armor against the ringing of church bells on the Sabbath. A Terre Haute man who was-di-vorced thirteen years ago, recently married his former wife in Indianapolis. Both remained single during their separation.' ~ ~ 7 Tub Lockport (N. Y.) Circuit Court calendar contains 600 cases against the New York Central Railroad for overcharge of fares. And the suits are all two years old. “I now pronounce you man and —hand over the ten dollars before I go ” any further;" is the way the Connecticut clergymen have qf securing their fee. The bell used on the first steamboat that ever sailed on Lake Superior—the Julia Palmer—is doing |ervice in a modest house. Wcpiette. Dr. Peters Clinton, of New York, has discovered a new planet of the tenths magnitude, in declination north 9 degrees, 16 minutes, right ascension, 15 degrees and 38 minutes. Tee Supervisors of Plymouth County, lowa, offer a reward of $1,500 for the discovery of coal mines in that county, which they believe will be found with this inducement to prospectors. The St.~PaUl & Sioux City Railroad Company propose, the coming summer, to build a line of road from some point in Minnesota to Fort Dodge, to reach the coal mines at the latter place. An ingenious Yankee proposes to warm Boston on the plan of building enormous furnaces somewhere under the pavements, and conducting steam through the streets by means of iron mains. A religious maniac, by the name of James A. Soper, who called himself Jesus Christ, and who. defied arrest, was shot and killed recently by a street mob in : Salsbury, Charlton County, Mo'. ; The newspaper reports of 1 Captain Jack’s fight with.regular troops confirm the statement that the Mqdocs fought ' naked. The regulars were ‘riot to that manner of fighting born. The man wjio returned bis neighbor’s borrowed umbrella was seen, a day or so ago, walking- in ..company w ith the: young lady who passed a looking glass I without taking a peep. It is believed : they are engaged. 1