Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 April 1873 — General News Summary. [ARTICLE]

General News Summary.

CONGRESS. SENATE—EXTRA SESSION Marcii 26.— Mr. Carpenter was chosen President pro tern., daring the absence <ft the VicePresident. .. .Resolutions were adopted—instructing the Committee on Transportation to report at the next session at to tho extent of the obligation of the railway companies with regard to the postal service, and what additional legislation is necessary to protect the service against interruption by hostile action of the companies; instructing tho Secretary of the Treasury and Interior to transmit to the Senate information as to the amount of hands issued by the Central Pacific Railway, forming the first mortgage on its property; relating to ex-Senator Patterson’s defense in the Crodit-Mobilier matter, with an amendment ordering it to be filed and printed with the report of the committee; authorizing tho Committee on Transportation to sit during recess, to investigate and report npon the subject o transportation between the interior and seaboard.... The Committee on Privileges and Elections, heretofore instructed to Inquire into the most practicable mode of electing the President and Vice-President, were given leave to hold their sessions in Washington or elsewhere... .Messrs. Mitchell and Davis were added to the Select Committee' on Transportation ... A resolntion was unanimously adopted tendering the thanks of the Senate to the Vice President for the ability, courtesy and impartiality manifested by him as presiding officer, and then the Senate adjourned sine die. I yi THE OLD WORLD. Tho Lord Mayor of London gave a grand banquet at the Mansion House on the 26th, at which two hundred guests were present, including the Mayors of a number of English towns,members of the Cabinet, and Foreign Ambassadors at London. Glandstonc, In some remarks made in reply to a toast, said the Ministry had had a fall and & recovery and were ashamed of neither. Though they had failed to give Ireland a national university, history would prove that the principle was indestructible. Count Von Bernstorff,German Ambassador to Great Britain, died on the 26th. The veteran historian of France, Amadie Simon Dominique Thierry, died at Paris on the 26th, aged 76 years. A dispatch from Paris says that judgment had been rendered in the Memphis & El Paso Railroad case. The defendants are pronounced guilty of swindling, and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. Gen. Fremont is condemned in contumaciam to five years’ confinement. The other defendants who were present were arrested as they were leaving court. The Republic" was declared for by a meeting of English workingmen held at Sheffield, a few days ago. M. Felix Pyat, an ex-Communist, has been sentenced to death by a court-martial sitting; at Versailles. Advices from Barcelona, in Spain, show that the partisans of Don Carlos in that vicinity are rapidly gaining strength. They recently captured the town of Berga, a place of considerable importance from a strategic point of view, taking about live hundred prisoners. At other places in that neighborhood they are reported to have gained some advantages. According to a Loudon telegram of the 28th, a severe fight had occurred in Spain, in which tho Carlists were victorious. The Government troops retreated to Granollers de Vails, much demoralized, where they were captured by Saballs. The small garrison also surrendered. Senor Olozaga has resigned as Spanish Minister at Paris, because he disapproved of the insufficiently conservative policy pursued by the Spanish Government. Spanish advices of the 31st announce the burning by the Carlists of the captured town of Berga, who before applying the torch saturated a number of buildings with petroleum. The town contained a hospital and several convents, and had over 6,000 population. Tbe news created great excitement in Barcelona, and reprisals Were threatened against tho clergy and known Carlist sympathizers. Ten thousand armed* citizens maintain order in the city of Malaga, but refuse to admit regular troops or government customs officers, nor will they allow vessels conveying soldiers to other points to remain in the port. They provide for thqir expenses by taxing the wealthy residents. Tbe Marquis Dechasseloup' Lambat, an eminent French statesman, is dead. He was 68 years of age. Mrs. James Gordon Bennett died on tho 81st at Koenigstein, in Saxony. The populace of Barcelona, Spain, enraged at the burning of Berga, and similar acts of the Carlists,- have attacked several Catholic churches, doing considerable damage. M. Grevy, bn the 2d, resigned tlie Presidency of tlie French Assembly, was again reelected by a vote 349 against ,281, but it was thought would peremptorily decline to accept tlie position. JjttE NEW WOULD. Gold closed In New York on the 2d at U7#@U In the great sir-million suit brought in the name of the People of the State of New York against Tweed, Connolly, Ingersoll and others, to recover the $6,000,000 taken from New York County by what are known as the audit frauds, Justice Hardin decided on the demurrer of Ingersoll that the people of the State have no right of action against IngersolL He based his objection on the broad ground, fatal, if sustained, to the whole suit, that' the County and not the State are the real parties in-interest within the meaning of the Code. Governor Austin, of Minnesota, has accepted the resignation of State Treasurer Seegor, who was'under impeachment by the Legislature for alleged financial irregularities. Wra. M. Tweed has resigned his seat in the New York State Senate. President Grant will hereafter, while Congress is not in session, receive callers on other than official business on Mondays, • Wednesdays and Thursdays, from eleven to one o’clock. The Pennsylvania Legislature has passed, and the Governor has signed, a bill appropriating $1,000,000 for the celebration of the National Centennial, July 4, 1876, at Philadelphia. ■ The Hon. W. P. Sprague, member of Congress from the Fifteenth District of Ohio, has published a card saying that he voted against the Ipcrease-of-Salary bID, and will either return the money to the United States Treasury, or nse it for the relief of the taxpayers of his district. The Hon. James Dixon, formerly United States Senator from Connecticut, died of heart disease, at his residence, in" Hartford, On thbSTtb, aged ss, . Tha Democratic an.} liberal Republic Mi

Convention of Michigan met at Jackson on the 27th and nominated’: For Judge of the Supreme Court, J. P. Christian, present Incumbent; for Kegcntof the State University, Duane Doty, of Detroit. The Massachusetts Senato on the 27th rejected all amendments, and accepted, by a vote of twenty-seven to four, the adverse report of the Committee on the petition of John G. Whittier and others, for annulling or roscinding the Sumner resolutions passed last session. The House had already taken the same action. Out of the three hundred Postmasters whose terms of office expired on March 1, 1873, all but twelve have been renominated by the President. These will be reappointed by the President, and acted upon by the Senate next winter. Oakes Ames has written to the AttorneyGeneral that the Credit-Mobiller Company does not intend to give up its books to tbe United States,.but-.will offer them for inspection. He questions Kelley’s right to give away stock he did not own, and he has asked his lawyers whether Kelley’s disclaimer does not entitle him (Ames) to hold it for the Credit-Mobllier Company. John Thempson Mason, Secretary of State of Maryland, died suddenly at Elkton, Md., on the 28th. Judge Brady, of New York, on the 28th decided to admit George Francis Train in SI,OOO bail, but the prisoner declined to furnish it, and he was thereupon remanded to the Tombs. Near Detroit, Mich., recently, while Mr. and Mrs. Henry Peters were absent from home over night, their bouse was burned to tho ground with all its contents, and three of their children perished in the flames. Their eldest girl barely escaped with her life. An accident occurred on the Renssalaer & Saratoga Railroad near Shusham Station, Vt., on the nigh t of the 30th,caused by a passenger train running off an embankment, by which Fred. Downs, conductor, and Patrick Monahan,:ffireman, were instantly killed. Tho cars were badly wrecked, and nearly all the passengers were more or less injured, though, it was thought, none fatally. The baggage car took fire, and the through mails were about half burned up. On the morning of the 30th, a train on the Great Western Railway was thrown from the track, by a broken rail, about thirty-five nules from Detroit, Mich, The sleeping-car was turned over, and two ladies were thrown against the stove and severely burned. Two children Were also badly burned, and one was likely to car took fire and was destroyed. The other cars were thrown from the track, and all the passengers more or less bruised. A comparison of the receipts of internal revenue for six months ending January 31, 1873, and January 31,1873, shows an increase in the latter onspiritsof $2,617,902; fermented liquors, $690,234; penalties, $68,512. / A New York dispatch of the 31st Bays the Poetmaßter-General considered the recent postal car difficulties settled until the next Congress, the Railroad Companies having announced an intention to continue for the present the running of shell cars on their roads. Announcement was made in New York on the 31st that George William Curtis had resigned from the Advisory Civil Service Board, and his resignation had been accepted. George Bryan, a negro, was hanged by a mob at Chillicothe, 0., a few nights ago, for an attempted outrage on a highly respectable white lady living about twenty miles from that place. By the falling of a platform in the interior of the new oh the corner of Washington and State streets, Chicago, on the 81st, Philip Minsen and William Bro9B were precipitated to the ground, a distance "TsUbne hundred and ten feet, and were, fatally injured. Two others, a man and a boy, were seriously hurt. Judge Anthony Thornton, of the Supreme Court of Illinois, has resigned. His resignation is accepted, and the election to fill the vacancy has been ordered for June 2. Gen. Canby telegraphedrio Gen. Sherman on the 31st that the Commission to the Modocs worked well. He was of the opinion that the Modocs were more subdued' and more amenable to reasoning than at the previons interview.' ' . Sarah Bell was burned to death at Nashville, Tenn., a few evenings sgo, by the explosion of a lighted lamp, into which she was attempting to pour oil. Cerebro-spinal meningitis is prevailing to an alarming extent in some localities in Kentucky. The steamship Atlantic, of the White Star line, Captain Williams, from Liverpool, March 20, for New York, running short of coal on the 31st, made for Halifax. When about twenty miles from that port, off Cape Prospect, at 2:80 o’clock on the morning of the Ist, she ran ashore on Meagher’s Rock, becoming a total wreck. Bhe had on board over 1,000 men, women and children, of whom only 250 succeeded in landing. The remainder,, including all the women and children, were lost. The Captain and third , officer were saved. The first ogjcer was drowned. The following acconnt of the disaster is given by the third 1 officer, Brady. He says; The Atlantic left Liverpool on the 20th of March with upward of 900 steerage passengers and about 50 -cabin passengers. The steamer experienced boisterous weather during the passage, but all went Well nntil noon on Monday the 31st, when the supply of co® became needy and the Captain determined to put into Halifax. The position was then Judged to be Sombro light, bearing N. N. W., 39 mlle3. At about midnight the Captain went into his chart room, leaving orders to be called if there fir&s any change in the vessel’s position. Brady, went to bed about the same time as the Captain. The next thing that he remembers is that he was thrown out of his bunk, and he heard the ship strike several times. He then rnshed- on deck, and found the Captaiu. and officers there, and the deck fullof passengers. He got an oar, and commenced to clear away a boat. The captain and other bffleers were busy doing tbo same thing. Brady got one boat out and put two women In it. A number of men attempted to get Into it, and abont a dozen succeeded. Just at this moment the steamer fell over on her beam ends and sank. Only one boat bad been out, and that was carried down by the steamer, and all on it were lost. Brady scrambled Into the mizzen rigging, which was' above'water, and seeing that he could do nothing there, he then went forward and removed the h alii aids,' being assisted by QuartermastersHpe&rman and Owen, Brady then took tbe halliard;, and all three swam to the rocki » h 4 then » line was named

ashore and a number of passengers landed by It. A number had got on the roek, but the tide was rising, and their position was no better than on the vessel. Just then fishermen on the shore came out in boats. Those on the rock and a large number from the rigging were taken off. Brady remained at the scene till noon, when all who were alive on board had been taken from the wreck except the chief officer, Mr. Frith, who was in the rigging shouting for help. Brady says he tried to get a crew to go to the rescue of Frith, but the sea was so heavy that nobody would volunteer. Altogether about 250 persons were saved, including Capt. Williams, the fourth Officer, Mr. Brown, and_ several of the engineers and sailors. Not a single woman or child was saved, most of them, as well as hundreds of men, being drowned in their berths. Gn the first receipt of the news of the disaster, a Cunard and government steamer started from Halifax to the assistance of the Atlantic, but too late, >it was feared, to do any good, as the vessel and cargo were a total wreck. All tlie people saved from the wreck, with the exception of Brady, were taken to Prospect, where the fishermen gave them aU the attention they possibly could. The body of the brother of Senator Fork, of Kansas, was found recently in the woods, two miles west of Osage Mission. He had been shot and his body concealed in same thick bushes. This makes seven persons missing and supposed to have been murdered between Osage Mission and Independence within the past six months. Intelligence has-been received of the murder in-cold blood, by Cherokee Indians, of Mr. Doming and three other Government surveyors, one hundred and twenty miles southwest of Arkansas City. The men had gone one mile and a half from camp, and their bodies were found by their comrades buried in the sand. Two others of the same party and a provision train had not been heard from for some time, and fears were entertained for their safety. The foUowlng statement shows the condition of the public debt April 1: Six per cent, bonds $1,334,741,860 Five per cent, bonds 414,667,300 Total coin bonds. $1,749,809,160 Lawful money debt..... $15,398,000 Matured debt 3,023,080 Legal-tender notes 358,591,734 Certificates of deposit. 91,450,000 Fractional currency. 45,169,874 Coin certificates.. ....... ::z1a.141,000 Interest 32,365,519 Total debt $2,952,377,867 Cash In TreasuryCoin 69,537,376 Currency.., 2,653,840 Special deposits held for redemption of certificates of deposit as provided by law 91,450,000 Total In Treasury $ 96,641,217 Debt, less cash in Treasury $ 2,165,738,441 Decrease during the month 1,644,068 Bonds Issued to the Pacific Bailroad Companies, interest payable In lawful money, principal outstanding.. .$ 54,628,512 Interest accrued and not yet paid 909,852 Interest paid by United States - .... $ 18,509,280 Interest repaid by transportation of malls, etc 4,185,407 Balance of interest paid by tbc United States $ 14,328,873 The Illinois Senate has passed a bill fixing the legal rate of interest at 6 per cent.; allowing 10 per cent, to be taken under written contract; and punishing any one who charges higher rates by making him forfeit all his interest. The bill making women eligible as school officers has passed both branches of the Legislature. By a vote of nearly two to one, the Ohio Senate has refused to abolish capital punishment. A terrific tornado visited Canton, Miss., on the 28th ull., unroofing and tearing_down buildings, and injuring many persons. The damage to the town of Canton was estimated at SIOO,OOO.- Much injury was dono in the surrounding country. The town of Franklin, Tcnn., has also suffered severely from a similar visitation. Captain Williams, of the lost steamship Atlantic, states that the number of passengers on the ill-fated vessel was about as follows: cabhi> 33; steerage, 800; besides the officers and crew, numbe-ring 143—making a total of 970 souls on board. ■ lie puts tlie number lost at- 546. The names of tlie cabin passengers lost are as follows: Cyrus M. Fisher and wife, Vermont ; Miss Brpdieand Miss Barker,Chicago; J.H. Price,lsl Broadway,New York; Mr. Kruger, 54 Exchange Place, New York; Albert Sumner, San Francisco; Henry T. Hewitt, of W. J. Best & Co,, 448 Broome street, New York;'Mr. Merritt and wife, New York; Miss Scryinser and Miss Merritt, New York; Mr. J. Davidson and daughter; London; W. B. Wellington, Mr. Street, wife, son and daughter, Nevada. Atiout seventy of the crew were lost, and the > same number saved. Four hundred and thirteen steerage passengers were saved, which is about one-half of the number tlijf were on board. A special dispatch from Halifax says: “Of the thousand souls on board the Atlantic when she struck, most of them were at rest. Those wjio could made the utmost speed to get cm deck. Hundreds of steerage passengers, and many of the less vigorous in the saloon, were unable to do so, as the water poured in immediately. Those who succeeded hi gaining the deck mostly took to the rigging. Tlie pa ee igers agree the terrible scene Capt. Williams acted like a hero. It was utterly impossible to save any of the ladies, although strenuous exertions were made to do so.” The Indiana State Temperance Convention assembled at Indianapolis on the 2d, and was largely attended. After an organization was effected, a general discussion ensued as to the best method of enforcing the new Temperance law. A series of resolutions was reported. The municipal electioq. in St. Louis on the Ist resnl.teck in the success of the Democratic ticket by. an average majority of 4,000. Of the fifteen Alderman elected, nine are Democrats. ' The farmers of Illinois metJn State Convention at Springfield on the 2d. - The attendance was very large, seventy-three counties being represented by tWo hundred and ninety-one delegates. D. W. Dame, of Carroll County, was chosen permanent President. A resolution was adopted condemning the action of the representatives hi Congress, for their action in voting foi the bill increasing—salaries, and the President of the United States for signing the same. -A series of resolutions was reported and adopted declaring that the safety of the republican institutions demands that chartered monopolies be regulated by lair; that ihe railroads stiould !«: made public highways, open to general j traffic and reasonable rates, and connecting with each other throughout tbo State; sustaining tlawe who refuse to pay more than the Segalfma, and urging the BWto M sustain

their defense; that no public officer should accept passes, and to do so should be made a misdemeanor, etc. A Washington speciul of the 2d says one of the reasons given by Mr. Curtis for his resignation from the Civil-Service Board is that he regarded several important appointments recently made os a virtual abandonment of civilservice reform. The difference with Mr. Curtis arose over the appointment of the Surveyor jrfClustoms at New York, to which position he had recommended Mr. Benedict, a deputy. Tlie Liberal Democratic ticket wus siected in Madison, Wis., on the Ist. A Trenton, N. J., dispatch oMlie 2d says the Governor hud signed the Anti-Monopoly Railroad bill passed by the Legislature, and that flags were flying in honor of the release of New Jersey from railroad monopoly.