Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1873 — Page 1

m BEMELM UNION. Published Every Thursdayby HORACE E. JAMS, JOSHUA HEALEY, Office, in Bpitler’s Building, Opposite the Court House. Subscription, Si.OO a Year, in Advance. JOB WORK Of every kind executed to order In good stylo and at . low rates.

r —*■" Miscellaneous Heading. SHUT THE 1)0011. Goophey Oobdon Gustavos Gorix— / No doubt you have heard the name heforo— Was a boy who never would shut a door 1, The wind-might whistle, the wind might roar, And teethbfe aehlug and throats he sore. But still he never would shut the door. His father ’would beg, his mother Implore, “Godfrey Gordon GnstavusGore, We really dowlsli you would shut the door!" Their hands they wrung, their hair they tore, But Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore Was deaf as the buoy out St the Nore. When-he walked forth tho folks would roar, “Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore, Why don’t you think to shut the door?” They rigged out a shutter with sail and oar Aud threatened topack off Gustavus Gore On a voyage of penance to Singapore. But he begged for mercy, and said,“No morel Pray do not send mo to Singapore On a shutter, aud then 1 will shut the door!" “You will!” said his parents; “then keep onshore! But mtrd you do! For the piague is sore Of a follow that will never shut the door, Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore!" —Good Things, ''WnEN lAM BEAD AND BURIED." ► i. When I am dead and buried, then There will be mounting among men. 1 hear one musing on tny dust: “How hard he fought to win his crust.” And one, “He was too sensitive In this cold-winters! world to live.” ——■———; — - Another..weeping. r> Ah.4u>w lew _ __ So gentle-hearted and so 'true ” “I met him only ones, and yet .. ■ I think Ihever shall forget The strange sad look in nls young eyes,” One other says, and then with wise And solemn-shaking head—“No doubt The hot heart hhrnt that stall frame out.” .ir. Good friends, a discount on your grief I A little present help were worth More than a sorrow-stricken earth Whonlambnta withered leaf. ;■ . An outstretched hand were better to mo Than your glib graveyard sympathy. You neod net W(SBp for, Bndtigh for, arid sa’intmc After you've starved me—driven me dead. Bay] do you hear? What I want is bread! . , Scribner's Monthly.

Birds Acquiring New and Brutal Habits.

Prop. Samuel Lockwood gives an investing account of that beautiful bird »nown as the golden robin, or Baltimore” oriole, in connection with the common bumble bees. Last June largo numbers of these bees were found under the liorseehestnut trees, then in full bloom, in the campus of Rutgers College, every one of them decapitated, and the heads lying around with the "bodies; and it further appears that every one of the headless bees was a stingless male. The Professor worked out the case with much patient perseverance, and fouud to his surprise that this wholesale slaughter was the work of four orioles. Another fact which astonished him was, that the bodies of these insects were empty, the viscera having been drawn out at the ring-like opening where the head had been neatly snipped by the birds. The process was to catch the bees while hovering at the ball-like opening of the flowers. After severing the head, they extracted the viscera for the sake of thehbney-sac. Several very interesting considerations are brought out in the course of the article—such as the acquired taste; the birds had found out that honey was nice. Was it not singular, too, that they bad learned that it could be got in such a manner? And there was also the curious fact that the bird confined its marauding to tho white-headed bees, the stingless males—thus carrying on his terrible -work with impunity, aud almost! wantonness, as it contented itself with simply the honey-bearing ’ sac. Prof. Lockwood also notes a curious change of habit in tho king-bird. Speaking of the wonderfully plucky manner of this courageous little bird in attacking 9 and other large birds, as securing t#6 general admiration, he says that for himself that admiration has gone down to zero, as he has noticed that the bird has not any true knightly qualities, but can do some very mean things. The Professor then instances a case in which a pair of robins had built a nest in a tree so near by that the process could be watched from tbehouse. A pairof kingbirds kept all the time near, and watched progress with genuine royal indolence/ and, when all was finished, impudence took possession*. Tkcnghtful owners made but a feeble effort to resist this invasion. _ The .king-birds retained possession until their'yonng were raised. Morc than a year ago, Prof. Lockwood likewise called attention to the fact that the great batcher-bird, or northern shrike, Contrary to all precedent, hid begun to visit in winter the cities where the European sparrows have become naturalized. The bird in summer collects grasshoppers, small lizards, etc., and impales them on the spines of the locust or other tteeS, jesting them at its leisure. He noices the I case in which a shrike in its ■ winter visit gibbeted a sparrow in the city by putting its neck in the erdteh of a small branch of a larch, Rndthon, having knockedin the top of its head, the bird extracted its victim’s brains.

Mr. Colfax and His Neighbors.

Tins reception of Mr. Colfax by his old friends, neighbors and political supporters shows the advantage of an honorable reputation. Poe, twenty years he has stood before his countrymen with an unblemished fame as a citizen, a politician, • a parent, relative and friend. Ills regu lar and unspotted life, his temperance and moderation, his freedom from all those errors that so often taint the politician’s career, his labors In the cause of virtue and good morals, will now be remembered and beeome the more conspicuous in the midst of the abuse of the envious and the clamorous virulence of the corrupt. Nothing, indeed, so excites the envy of the vicious as the possession of an unblemished fame; and the rash haste with which several of the opposition journals have ventured to impute to Mr. Qoifax their Own chief failings, will serve only to expose them more plainly to the people. Falsehood, avarice, indifference to moral laws, he has never exhibited. His whole political coarse has been marked by truthfulness and consistency, by singular moderation in his conduct toward his opponents, by a firm adherence to Republican principles; and as he labored for the preservation of his country in those sad hours when they who now assail him were plotting its destruction, so he haajshared In all the triumphs of freedom, and has been one of thqse whom his countrymen delight to honor. It was charged against Alexander Hamilton that he had created the national

THE RENSSELAER UNION.

VOL. V.

debt that he and his friends might grow rich from the plunder of the public. He replied by exposing his own poverty. The charge against Mr. Colfax is that he accepted shares in a fraudulent company, received considerable dividends, and'denied that he ever accepted them. The charge of having purchased some of the stock at the solicitation of Ames, who was then believed to be a man of integrity as well as wealth, Mr. Colfax admits, but states that he soon returned it/ having discovered the character of the company, with the loss of what he had already paid. Since that time he has never owned any of the stock, nor received anything from it. But Ames, who at first stated that Mr. Colfax had never received a dividend, and confirmed his statement, now at a second < \ “rirrir.rged him with gross deception, and alleged that he paid him a check for $1,200 in 1808. He produced a check drawn to the order of 8. C. for that amount, and, we believe, a memorandum from his note book, Mr. Colfax denied at once that he had ever seen the check before. His opponents examined his bank account, and finding there a deposit of $1,200 in June, 1868, brought the fact forward as a proof of his having received and made use of the $1,200 check. - And Mr. Colfax then proves by credible-witnesses that he had received about that time $1,200 from different sources, which he had deposited and used. The cashier upon whom Ames’s check was drawn adds an impression that Ames drew the money for it himself. Thus the .accusation against Mr. Colfax’s integrity and truthfulness rests solely upon the testlmony of Anres,- Avho has made two different statements about the transaction directly opposed to each other, and Who could be accepted as a trustworthy witness neither in the judg ment of history nor of law. No one would trust the memory or the fidelity of a man who upon oath gives two versions of the same occurrence directly at variance. No reliance, therefore, can be placed upon the account of Ames, and, except his own testimony, there is not a tracc of evidence to confirm his story—no receipt, no certificate, no indorsement, “The testimony against a public official," said Jefferson, “should be affirmative”; but neither affirmative nor negative proof exists against Mr. Colfax. liis only opposing witness contradicts himself, and proves his own falseness. Whether a person in office is permitted to bny or even hold stock in which the Government may be interested is a question easily answered. No official should make any use of the opportunities of his position at the expense of the public. Hamilton, in the case we have noticed, would not allow any of his relatives, or even his friends, tq buy government stock. He held SBOO worth, which he had long owned, unsold until he left office. The stock which Mr. Colfax had bought he at once abandoned when he found that it might expose him to dishonorable influences or bring him into conflict with the Government. lie saw he had been led Into error, aud at once gave up the slock, at a considerable loss to himself. His fault was venial; he strove at once to repair it. To. the charge of haying made money at the public loss he replies byjjxhibiting, like Hamilton, the moderation dOti a own fortune, and the honorable sources from whence it came. It is not unreasonable, therefore, that the” people of Indiana should welcome their eminent statesman with new zeal while ids enemies strive to cover his fame with calumny, and destroy the well earned reputation of a laborious life. Nothing would gratify his assailants more than to reduce Mr. Colfax to a level with themselves. Had he betrayed the principles of freedom, entered into treasonable combinations, striven to undo the honorable progress of the past, qptd throw the nation back into anarchy and despair, no whisper of disapprobation would have escaped from the men who now assail him; ho might have been their favorite leader. His chief crime is that he was true to tlit! Interests of freedom in the recent campaign. The highest proof of his rectitude and. honesty for posterity will probably be the characters of his chief assailants; from his more honorable opponents he is receiving a thorough vindication. And it is certain that no reputation will pass to future years more spotless or enviable thi«n than that of Schuyler Colfax. — Harper's Weekly.

Capture of a Strange Beast in the Middle Pacific.

While the steamship Nevada was about eighty miles off' one of the minor isles of Micronasia, on its way up from Australia to this port, at about six o’clock in the morning, a strange animal of a dark figure was observed to light on the highest peak of the forward mast. tracted by its peculiar appearance, the officer of the deck, Mr. Burnt, the second mate, offered one" of the sailors a small bonus to secure it. The man clambered up the mast with a heavy cloth in his hand, and, after a slight struggle in which he was severely bitten on the hand, it was secured. Bringing it to the deck, on examination the beast proved to be a fine specimen of a species of the vampire tribe. This animal closely resembles the terrodactyl of the antediluvian ages. In appearance it is like a huge bat, on hasty examination. It is in the t head of the animal, however, that the main distinction is found. That of the present one is a perfect counterpart of the black and tan terrier dog. Its teeth are over half an inch in length, and are called in constant requisition to discountenance all attempts at familiarity. When flying, the wings of this illomened beast stretch, from tip to tip, at least five times the diameter of the body. It is of a deep jet black color, tho body being covered with a heavy fur. It is' very savage, being constantly on the alert to attack any person approaching it. Whether this animal is a full and perfect vampire, whose feats of lulling man to sleep with the waving, fan motions of its wing, while sucking in the victim’s very, heart blood, is yet a question, for, as yet, it has not been examined by any scientific man. Its appearance is, however enough to suggest the truth of such a horrible surmise. Be it as it may, the little Micronasian island has always borne a weird and frightful reputation among the native inhabitants of the adjoining ones. Strange stories of cannibalism, tales of savage idolatrous practices, poison valleys, etc., are constantly connected in their minds with its name, and in the small patter of being possessed of blood-imbibingWamplres in addition to all the other horrors, few of them would think the matter extraordinary or the least doubtful. —Frnncheo AUa. —The l\ii Set Shimium is the name of a spicy little Japanese paper started in London. It isstrictly a family journal.

RENSSELAER, JASPER COUNTY, INDIANA, APRIL 3, 1873.

General News Summary.

CONGRESS. SENATE—EXTRA SESSION March 20.— The discussion of the Caldwell case was continued, and some personal debate was indulged id between Messrs. Conkling and Schurz. Mr. Hamilton, of Maryland, argued that the Senate could not go behind the election of ft Senator and Inquire into the conduct and motives of members composing the Legislature. He could not vote to declare the seat of Caldwell vacant, but there was no 'doubt as to the power to expel a Senator who had passed beyond the control of the Legislature He could not compromise with fraud, and while he sympathized with the person on whom he was called to pass judgment ho could not escapo condemning the act of the Senator from Kansas in the most solemn form. March 21. —Resolutions wereoffered — providing that two bound copies of the Congressional Record for the session be furnished each -Senator; directing the Finance Committee to Inquire what measures can be adopted to gtye the country a currency convertible Into gold.. ..Mr. Ferry (Connecticut) offered an amendment to the pending resolution declaring that Mr. Caldwell was not duly elected,so that the resolution should read: “That Alexander Caldwell bo and he Is hereby expelled from the Senate of the United States."... .In the debate on the Caldwell case. Messrs. Frelinghuysen, Howe and Stewart thought Mr. Caldwell had been duly and legally elected, and that the Senate had no right to declare the election void; Mr. Morrill (Maine) said he ahould vote for the resolution of the Committee because he believed it would be a wholesome exercise of the power and duty devolved upon the Senate. March 22.—The Caldwell case was further considered, and Mr. f erry (Michigan) offered an amendment “That Alexander Caldwell be, and hels hereby, declared to have been elected Senator of the United States by the Legislature of Kansas." The discussion was participated in hv Messrs. Ferry (Connecticut), Alcorn and Ferry (Michigan). ... .. .■ , . _ March 24.—The Vice-President laid before the Senate a letter from Alexander Caldwell, announcing that he had resigned his seat as Senator from Kansas. This letter was accompanied by a note from Governor Osborne, of Kansas (then In Washington), acknowledging the receipt of Mr. Caldwell’s resignation. Mr. Morton then said It was not competent to expel a man who was riot a Senator/or to declare his seatva cant; therefore he considered his duties aßChairm»n of the Committee on Hiectiohs at an end, in to far as Mr. Caldwell’s case was concerned.... .The Gtaytoneaee was taken up, by a vote of 33 to 14. and the report of the Committee was read ...A resolution was adopted ordering ten copies of the Congressional Record for the Vlce Bresldent and each Senator, five for each member of the House, and 300 copies to be sold at cost.... Resolutions were offered—lnstructing the Committee on Transportation routes to the seaboard to inquire and report at the next session as to the nature and extent of the obligations of the railway companies as to the postal service, and what additional legislation is necessary to guard against interruption of the postal service; congratulating Spain on the abolition of “slavery in Porto RieOj March2s.—The resolution congratu ating Spain on the passage of the Porto Rico Emancipation bill was passed unanimously, and a resolution was also adopted requesting the President to communicate the resolution to the Government of Spain.... The Vice-President appointed Mr Bo.Atwell to supply the vacancies in the Committees on Privileges and Elections and on Public Lands.... The Committee on Privileges aud Elections, to whom was referred the memorial of thirty-seven members of the Missouri Legislature, In regard to the election of Louis V. Bogy to the Senate of the United States, marie a report to the effect that “It Is not the province of the fCommittee upon this reference to -inquire whether the judgment pronounced by the House of Representatives of the Missouri Legislature upon tho evidence was correct, but they express an opinion that tho evidence is not of a character to require of the Senate an Investigniion." The Committee was unanimously discharged from further consideration of the subject. . . A resolution was agreed to- 33 to 6—declaring that the.charges against Senatojr CJayton, of. Arkansas, were not sustained. The resolutions relating to the case of Mr. Patterson were debated. THE OLD WORLD. The Cabinet crisis in England was terminated on tho 30th, by the announcement of Mr. Gladstone in the House of Commons that, the’Opposltion having refused to form a new Government, he and his colleagues would resume their offices. Gladstone added that the Queen had given him permission to read an extract from the statement he had made to, her Majesty. -It was to the effect that did net suppose that the efforts of the gentlemen of the Opposition to defeat the Government were made with the deliberate Intention of refusing to organize a cabinet, if it should bo required of them, but the summary refusal given when the occasion arose he considered not fully in accord with the exigencies of the case, nor with parliamentary usage. The Premier’s statement was frequently interrupted by applause, which was warm and long continued at the close. Disraeli explained the course he had thought proper to pursue since the beginnlfig of the crisis. lie confessed that the difference between himself and the Irish Catholics were insurmountable. A new Cabinet would require until Easter to get into working order. Even then it would have to deal with the financial estimates made by its predecessor,

and would probably be outvoted every night In Parliament. A dissolution of the House had been suggested. But why dissolve the Bitting? On the Opposition benches, he heard, his friends had difficulty In forming a policy on so short notice, and It was not to be expected that they could appeal to the country without a policy on questions mote Important than that of the Irish University bill. All things considered, he had felt it his duty to decline the responsibility of organizing a new government. The Queen herself had suggested a dissolution of Parliament. He had. declined to advise such a step, and staled to Her Majesty that tn his opinion there was no adequate reason for tho Government to resign, and that It might return to office without the slightest loss of honor and to the greatest possible convenience of the public interests. DisraclFtlosed with the remark, that possibly Some of his supporters in the House might be dissatisfied, to which there were lond cries of “No! No!” In the House of Lords Bari Granville announced the decision of the Government in a speech differing but little from that of Gladstone. The Duke of Richmond also defended the conduct of the leaders of the Opposition in the crisis. The French Government has issued an order prohibiting the exportation of war material from that country to Spain. Madrid advices of the 23d announce the passage by the Spanish Assembly, by a unanimous vote, of a bill for the immediate emancipation of the slaves in Porto Rico. The bill declares that the Republic of Spain will preserve tho Integrity Of the Spanish Dominions, and provides that the emancipated slaves in Porto Bi6o shall enjoy all political rights accorded to a citizen of Spain. The announcement of the passage of the bill was received with great enthusiasm in the Assembly. 7 A Paris dispatch of the 23d announces that the French and German Governments have exchanged ratifications of the treaty for the evacuation of France. The Potto Rico emancipation bIU provides that slavery shall be abolished. Immediately upon its passage. .The emancipated slaves will, however, be obliged to serve three years

OUR COUNTRY AND OUR UNION.

with their present masters or other residents on the island, bnt will enjoy political rights of Spanish citizens after five years have elapsed. The indemnity to be paid to the slave-owners is to be charged exclusively to the account of the Porto Rico budget. The Spanish Cortes voted a dissolution immediately after the passage of the bill. Dispatches from Madrid say it is reported there that Bismarck refuses to advise a recognition of the Spanish Republic, declaring that it dees not represent the true will of the Assembly, which yielded to the pressure of the masses in proclaiming it. It is also rumored that the Russian and Austrian Governments have intimated that they withhold a recognition on similar grounds. A Berlin dispatch, 25th, says that a squadron of German vessels haß heen ordered to cruise in Spanish waters. THE NEW WORLD. A Gold closed in New York on the 25th at 115X0115 k Z A man named George MacDonald, supposed to be the chief operator in the recent Bank of England forgeries, was arrested on the steamer Thuringia on its arrival at New York on the 20th. About SIO,OOO in gold and a quantity of diamonds were found in his possession. He protested his innocence. * Lieutenant Frederick Grant, son of the President, has been assigned to duty on General Sheridan’s staff, at Chicago. The Massachusetts House of Representatives refused, on the 19th, by a vote of 49 to 167, to rescind the resolution censuring Mr, Sumner passed by the last Legislature. On the 21st, William Foster, the car-hook murderer of Mr. Putnam, was hanged in New York City, in the presence of about three hundred spectators. In Boston, on the same day, James McElhany was executed for the murder of his wile. There were about four hundred spectators present. The Bull’s Head Bank of New York City has failed, and it is stated that large defalcations have been discovered eu the part of some of its officers. It was a State institution, and carried a large amount, of deposits, especially from butchers and drovers. A dispatch from St. Louis, 20th, says: “The strike on the St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern Railway is practically ended. Everything has been quiet to-day, and trains have run without molestation. The Company has now over fifty new engineers, and freight trains will resume running to-mor row. Abont forty strikers, and those en gaged in obstructing the road, destroying property, and interfering with trains, are now in Jail at different points, and are tobe prosecuted to the utmost extent of the law.” * Local option elections were held throughout Pennsylvania on the 21st. By these elections each ward or township in the State settles for itself whether it willlicense liquor selling. The larger towns, like Pittsburgh, and the mining and manufacturing districts, are shown by the returns to have given heavy majorities for licensing. The country districts vote the other way. Another mysterious murder has occurred in Brooklyn. Charles Goodrich, a wealthy resident of that city, was found dead on the morning of the 21st, in the basement of aresidence where he was in the habit of sleeping alone. Three pistol shot wounds were in his head, two of- the bullets being imbedded in the brain. It was thought that some thief was aware of the fact that Goodrich was in the habit of sleeping in this house alone, and supposed that he carried considerable money about him, and that he had broken into the basement, and on Goodrich’s coming down stairs had waylaid, murdered and robbed him. The Wisconsin Legislature adjourned sine die on the 20th. Governor Bagley, of Michigan, has appointed Mrs. Harriet A. Tenny, State Librarian, and Samuel H. Bow, State Commissioner of Insurance. Near Wickenberg, Arizona, March 11th, the Apaches murdered Augustus Bwain and James McDonald. Their bodies were horribly mutilated. Swain was one of tho first settlers, and for a long time a Government guide.

According to the complete returns of the New Hampshire election, Straw’s majority is 272, the vote being—Btraw, 34,010; Weston, 81,981; Blackmer, 1,059; Mason, 698. The ‘Republicans have four of the five Councillors, nine of the twelve Senators, and a maiority of about 53 in the House. Two of the * * ip*wr> three Congressmen are Republicans. In the case of the murder of Albert Goetz, in Chicago, the Coroner’s Jury brought In s verdict charging Joseph Tanscy with having committed the crime, and holding Lnke Healey, Patrick Nolasg John Sheridan and Fatrick Kearney as “accessories after the fact.” The Erie Railway freight and passenger buildings at Long Dock, Jersey City, together with their contents, were burned on the 21st. The loss is estimated at about $500,000. Rock Island, 111., has been designated under the act of Congress, as the location of the national military prison, and the Secretary of War has appointed a Commission to determine upon the site and plans. A report was current in New York on the 22d that Foster took poison the night beore his execution, and was under its Influence at the time of being hung. A Tombs physician says he would have died of the/ poison had hts execution been delayed until. ten o'clock. A Manchester (N. H.) dispatch of the 22d says the friends of Hon. B. N. Bell, the Democratic candidate for Congress in the Second District, claimed that he was elected by a majority of four votes. The Secretary of War has officially promulgated a law of great importance to soldiers, approved on the last day of the last session. It provides that the Secretary of War may issue duplicate discharge papers In all cases of loss, but such duplicate may not be accepted as a voucher for payment of any claim against the United States or as evidence in any other case. General Spinner, on the 23d, entered upon the thirteenth year of hie service as Treasurer of the United States. The Treasury Department In Washington has commenced preparing for the payment of the bounties under the recent law equalizing and extending them. „ The Legislature of, Missouri, on the 24th, adjourned until thfc first Wednesday in January next. ” The deficiency In the assets of the suspended Bull’s Head Bank of New York City is ascertained to be 1257,000. Lieutenant-Governor Milton a Pettit, of Wisconsin, died at his residence at Kenosha,

on the pight of the 23d, aged forty-eight years. In the Senate, on the 24th, there was quite a lengthy debate upon the question of reconsidering the confirmation of Mr. Casey as Collector at New Orleans. The motion to reconsider was, after considerable opposition, finally laid on the table by a vote of 25 to 23. The confirmation in the first Distance was by a vote of 23 to 15. Senator Caldwell has resigned his seat in the United States Senate. He placed' his resignation in the hands of Governor Osborne (then in Washington), on the 24th, and sent a letter to the Vice-President, announcing what he had done. The Secretary of the Treasury has issued and directed a rigid enforcement of the regulation which require* the Treasurer and Assistant Treasurers and depositaries of the United Statas to refuse the payment of all official checks of United States disbursing officers if presented more than four month* after their Issue, and all treasury drafts and disbursing officers' checks presented more than three years after their issue. All checks, the payment of which has thus been refused, will have to be forwarded to the Secretary of the Treasury, the former for examination and verification with the drawers’ accounts, and the latter for a statement of new accounts. Advices from the Modoc country state that Generals Canby and Gillem have had a talk with Captain Jack, which amounted to very little, Jack merely asking an amnesty, and to be permitted to stay at Lost River. The troops have gone int;o camp on the east of TuleLak*. - '“l -. to kill Clarence J. Lockwood, in a boardinghouse in Madison street, in New York City, on the 20th of January last, has been found guilty and sentenced to ten years in ' the State’s prison, with hard labor. A dispatch from Nashville, Tenn., says that on the night of the 24th, a widow woman, named Hansden, sixty years old, living nine miles north of that city, was taken out of bed by unknown parties, and carried to a common gallows erected for dressing hogs, and hung until she was dead. It is supposed from tracks discovered that two men committed the deed. The cause of the outrage is unknown. William L. Langston, a son of the old lady who, with the little girl, Mary Easter, Who was living with her, was found murdered in her bed recently, near Paradise, Coles County, 111., has confessed to the killing of both parties, and accuses his wife as an accessory. Langston is now in jail awaiting trial. Three children—a daughter and son of Mr. Shortgen, and a son of Mr. Wodel, the eldest being eleven years of age—were burned to death by a prairie fire which occurred on the farm of Mr. Shortgen, near Reed’s Landing, Minn., on the 24tt. f Floyd Graham, of Brazil, Clay County, Ind., has been arrested on a charge of passing counterfeit - greenbacks. It is said that he is an old offender. He was taken to the jkil at Indianapolis. The store of Farwell & Co., at Frederick, 111., was entered by burglars on the night of the 21st, the clerk drugged^and the safe blown open and robbed of $1,600 in money. The robbers escaped." The mill of the American Powder Company, at Acton, Mass., blew up on the 24th, killing two workmen and injuring three others. A Louisville (Ky,) telegram of the 24th says the suit of William M. Lent against Philip Arnold and Robert 81ack, for $350,000, been dismissed in the tftiited States Court, by the consent of this parties. The suit grew out of the notorious California diamond swindle. The dismissal was the result of a compromise, Arnold paying Lent $150,000 cash, and each party paying his own costs. The money was paid General John M. Harlan, Lent’s attorney, in greenbacks.

The Poodle.

BY JOSH BILLINGS.

The poodle iz a small dog, 'with sore eyes, and hid amungst a good deal of promiskuss hair. They are sumtimes white for color, and their hair iz (angled all over them, like the hed ov a yung darkey. They are kept az pets, and, like all offier pets, are az stubborn az a setting hen. A poodle iz a woman’s pet, and that “makes them kind ov sakred, for whatever a woman luvs she worships. I huv seen poodles that i almost wanted tew swop places with, but the owners ov them didn't akt to me az tho they wanted tow trade for enny thing. Thare iz but phew things on the face ov this earth more utterly worthless than a poodle, and yet i am glad thare iz poodles, for if thare wazn’t thare iz some people who wouldn’t hav enny objekt in living, and have nothing tew lnv. Thare iz nothing in this world made in vain, and poodles are good for fleqs. Fleas are also good for poodles, for they keep their minds employed scratching, and almost everybody else’s, too, about the house. I never knew a man tew keep a poodle. Man’s natur iz too koarse for poodles. A poodle would soon fade and and die if a man waz tew nuss him. I don’t except enny poodle, but if enny boddy duzgivme one he must make up hiz mind tetf be tied onto a long stick every Saturday, and be used for washing the windows on the outside. This kind ov nussing would probably make the poodle mad, and probably he would quit, but i kant help it. If i have got tew keep a poodle, he haz got tew help wash the windows every Saturday. lam solid on this pint.— Jv. Y. Weekly. —Dr. Carr, of California, gives it as his belief that every collar of gold that has been produced in that State has cost from a dollar to a dollar and a half. He assumes that 50,000 people are engaged in gold mining in the State. Estimating wages $2.50 per day, and the number of working days at 300, the wages ot the miners would amount to $37,500,000. But the gold product for 1872 was only $20,000,000. From this it follows that every dollar rained in 1872 cost one dollar and sev-en-eighths. Allowing for the interest on capital invested, the estimate of cost would be raised tt> two dollars for every dollar of gold produced. , —The boot and shoe manufacturers of San Francisco have made over 7,000 kangaroo hides into boots and shoes for the young men of that city. For dress boot! they are said tp excel "those made oi patent leather. . »

CURRENT ITEMS.

A man who fired the prairie has just been mulcted at Nebraska City In S4TO damages. A Connecticut fanner has named a prize rooster Robinson, because Robinson Crusoe. Thb Oneida Indians of Wisconsin have a brass band, black their boots, wear blue neckties and read the story papers. A Philadelphia judge decides that stealing a girl’s photograph from her album is as Dad as stealing a horse from a bam. Kate Okay, of Kansas City, married her lover half an hour before he left her for the penitentiary to serve out a long sentence. > Newbcbtpokt, Mass., has passed an ordinance forbiddtng. qjgan-grindera to play longer than ten minutes on any block. Thb Government has established an observatory at Fort Garry, Manitoba, which is as nearly as possible the central spot ol the American Continent. Thebe is an orange tree at Ban Gabriel, Los Angeles County, Cal., supposed to be eighty years old, which is said to have yieded in one season 6,200 oranges. The Chinese companies at San Francisco are now making preparations to accommodate an extensive immigration. The next steamer will bring 1,200. The people of Southern Oregon—and, indeed, of the entire State—are in a pjjoper frame of mind to attend a goodsized Modoc funeral with cheerful alac~ritjßr=fort6»id (•<?»'.) Bert MTmLf ntlre sophomore class was suspended from Dartmouth College, recently, for disorderly conduct in the chapel, whereupon the members hired a big team and took a sleigh ride. The Great Eastern is now taking on board the cable which she is to lay between Land’s End and New York. She is expected to leave her moorings at Sheerness in May or June. Two newspapers, a small red shawl and a pair of stockings were dropped on the streot, the other day, by a bustling New Orleans lady. The articles were found and handed back to her by a small boy. Not to be behind hand, Muncy, Pa., produces a ghost in the shape of a beautiful young lady, who goes from house to house, never speaking to anyone, and only murmuring, “I cannot find it —I cannot find it.” A woman who, with her husband, was waiting for the train at Camden, outside Baltimore, recently, having taken passage to Detroit, unexpectedly gave birth to a child, which the husband named Camdenline. The Supfeme Court of California has decided that a man convicted of murder, at Sacramento, recently, is entitled to a new trial, for the reason that a juryman slept, say thirty winks or thereabouts, during the summing up of the counsel for the prisoner. Conbad Lutz, a German printer in the Burlington (Iowa) Hawk-Eye office, has received notice from Wertemberg that he has been drafted into _tbe army over there. Inasmuch as he left Fatherland when he was two years old, he sends back his regrets. The cltrk of Kenton County, Kentucky, recently issued a license for the marriage of William Henry Thompson, aged nineteen, and Mrs. Mary Brown, aged forty five. It being the bride’s third venture. This one ought to last Mary as long as she lives. : —frf Herman Elewanger, whose wife and child were killed by the falling of John Bell & Co.’s store at Dubuque, lowa, in May last, has entered suit in the mm of $25,000 each against the lessees and owners of the building. A Lexington (Ky.) paper tells of a novel runaway match recently accomplished in that vicinity—a father eloping with the elder of two sisters; End his son with the younger, both proceeding by the same train to Jefferson, Ind., where the double marriage was consummated. e Two young ladies of Rochester, N. Y., sisters, named Cordelia and Emma Bull, volunteered to nurse the families of some neighbors during an attack of a contagious disease. Both took it and died, and they were buried in a common grave, leaving behind them the fragrance of a noble deed. Sabah Walker, seventy-three years of age, reached Lowell the other day after a twenty-mile walk, in search of work in the mills. She stated that her object was to lay up a little money against the day when old age would render her unable to perform hard labor.

A Berkshire County, Mass., clergyman recently received a donation to eke out his salary, and the parishioners not having compared notes, by a singular coincidence all decided upon potatoes; and in they came of all kinds and colors, till the worthy parson’s stoek of tubers was increased about 360 bushels. The Rochester Democrat states that the great flshist, Seth Green, has shipped to Sir Edward Tnornton, British Minister at Washington, twenty black bass, which are to be sent to England. The fish were placed in two twelve gallon cans. They were sent in accordance with instructions from the Fish Commissioners of the State. Ax amusing scene was created in the Treasury a few days ago by the presentation of a protest against the United States for non-payment (in gold) of a SIOO legal tender, which its owner had presented at the Sub Treasury in New York and asked for the specie thereon. Being refused, it was sent to Washington in due form, through a notary. A Fairfield, lowa, mother learned of her daughter’s contemplated eiopment, and on the night appointed tor the flight she put some laudanum in the girl’s tea. The latter fell asleep and did not wake up until next morning, and in the meantime Romeo got tired waiting and went home disgusted. He goes with another girl now. Mr. L. B. Leach, of the firm of Trout & Leach, Wannego, Kansas, predicted several years ago that his death would occur in the year 1873. Last fall be bad his grave dug and walled up; about three months ago 8§ stated that he would die" in March, and had bis coffin and shroud made and his tombstone engraved, with name, month of March and year, but the day left blank. On Monday, the 10th of March, he died. The latest “family” which has undertaken measures to secure a fortune by inheritance in England IS the Chace family, in Fall River, Mass., and a mighty significant name it is. Some of the claimants are named James and some I John, but singularly enough not one of

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NO. 28.

them is called Wildgoose. However, the family has held the usual meeting and appointed the usual committee, and, we suppose, will have the usual luck of always being very near to handling the money and never grasping it.— York Tribune. Some one says that humps are going out of fashion. Don’t believe it, because Washington ladies are expected to know what is fashionable, and you could rest a sack of flour on the hump you witness on the unfortunate here. They seemed very funny when they first appeared, and there was an involuntary titter among thoiio who saw them. Now, no lady can do without one, and they add so much totbe comeliness of the human form the gentl>> men would hardly know what was the matter if a lady appealed without Keg hump. —Washington Chronicle. Scene in a Cleveland street car: Enter lady with a pet poodle. Conductor politely informs her that no dogs are permitted in-the car. Lady quietly takes her seat and says nothing. Conductor again approaches, and informs her with considerable determination that nnless she deposits her dog on the roadway he will not be responsible for any broken bonea. Lady arises calmly from her seat, draws a revolver from her pocket, and taking deliberate aim at the conductor says: “Unless you drive on without molesting my dog, I’ll make you eat this straw.” Conductor subsides, and the lady with her poodle pfbceed quietly to their destination. Bland Bullard, a young man ot Lebanon County, Ky., committed Buicide three months ago, and three day* before that upon which he was to have been married. He now makes frequent visits to the paternal mansion, apparently for the purpose of annoying his father, Who had opposed his marriage. He comes at night, and brines with him a light, bv which he is distinguished and recognized. He familiarly opens the door, proceeds to his old room, and while there employe himself in examining his trunk: Being spoken to he answers not, but he attempts to molest no one. Some think he is an impostor trying to drive the unhappy father to dispose of his farm at a sacrifice, others persist that be is a true specter. * A woman’s determination to part her hair at the side broke up a wedding at Bangor, Me., last week. The company had all assembled, the clergyman was in his place, and the groom proceeded up stairs to escort his chosen one to tbe altar. The lady was splendidly dressed, but in arranging her hair had adopted the “new style.” To this the young man objected in the most decided terms, saying that it looked too brazen and “fast that the hair of a bride should be parted modestly in the middle. A sharp war of words followed, which resulted in a declaration on the part of the angry youth that he had taken a firm stand; that the hair must be undressed or he would never look upon it again. To this the girl replied that he might leave as soon as he pleased, and leave he did, much to the disgust of the people who came to partake of the wedding-supper and were turned out of the house without it. The tender, loving wife of a citizen of Hartford, Conn., recently decided to give her husband a present—just for asurprise, you know—and that she might keep her secret and puzzle him, she thought she would send it by express. So she went to work, did this tender, loving wife, and bought a little box, and some gunpowder, matches and sandpaper. These she put in the box, aad with her own tender, loving hands so arranged them that when the box was opened, the match would be scratched against the sandpaper with the result that may be imagined. This offering of wifely affection was duly sent and duly delivered; but somehow it happened that the infernal machine didn’t work, and the female is trying to think, in the solitude of her present abode, what was the matter with it. > : - r - -

Among the illusions swept away by modern science was the pleasant fancy that the moon was a habitable globe, like the earth, its surface diversified with seas, lakes, continents and islands, and varied forms of vegetation. Theologians and savans gravely discussed the probabilities of its being inhabited by a race of sentient beings with forms and faculties like our own, and even propounded schemes for opening communication with them, in case they existed. One of these was to construct on the broad highlands of Asia a series of geometrical figures on a scale so gigantic as to be visible from our planetary neighbor, on the supposition that the moon people would recognize the object, and immediately construct simitar figures in reply. Extravagant and absurd as it may appear in the light of modern knowledge, the establishment of this Terrestrial and Lunar Signal Service Bureau was treated as a feasible scheme, although practical difficulties, which so often keep men from making fools of themselves, stood in the way of actual experiment; but the discussion was kept up at intervals, until it was discovered that if there were people in the moon, they must be able to live without breathing, or eating, or drinking. Then it ceased. There can be no life without air. Beautiful to the eye of the distant observer, the moon is a sepulchral orb—a world of death and silence. No vegetation clothes its vast plains of stony desolation, traversed by monstrous crevasses, broken by enormoos peaks that rise like gigantic tombstones into space; no lovely forms of cloud float in tha blackness of its sky. There daytime is only night lighted by a rayless sun. There ia no rosy dawn in the morning, no twilight in the evening. The nights are pitch dark. In daytime the solar beams sra lost against the jagged ridges, the sharp points of the rocks, or the steep sides of profound abysses, and the eye sees only grotesques shapes relieved against fantastic shadows black as ink, with none of that pleasant gradation and diffusion of light, noneof the subtle blending of light and shadow which make the charm of a terrestial landscape. A faint conception of the horrors of a lunar day may be formed from an illustration representing a landscape taken in the moon In the center of the mountainous region of Aristarchus. Then is no color, nothing but deaa white and black. The rocks reflect passively the light of the sun; the craters and abysses remain wrapped in shade; fantastic peaks rise like phantoms in their glacial cemetery; the Stars appdir Itt» spots in the blackness of space, moon is a dead world; she has no atmosphere.and AM,” **&& Oam*t> in Harper' t Monthly.

The Airless Moon.