Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1873 — CURRENT ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT ITEMS.

A quilting party is now styled a “piece” jubilee? ..The New York Bar Association lias over six hundred members. A convict at Elmira dug his way out of jail with a tablespoon last week. The Rhode Island Medical Society has determined to admit women to full membership.,. , A PEB[NiBYLVA!ffA Woman challenges any hian in her county to a wrestling match for the championship. Two boys, the oldest fifteen, stole a Georgia locomotive, the other daly ? and run it fifty miles. Immense white sunshades-—small circus tents, iii fact—are the correct thijig for fashionable demoiselles who intend to visit the seaside this season. Thomas L. Freeman, who has served five years of a nineteen years’ sentence for murder iu the Tennessee State prison, has just been proved wholly innocent of the crime whereof lie was accused. The fashion papers say the Rutabagas —beg pardon-, we hiean the Rabagas—is the popular bonnet this season. You will know it when you see it, for the rim turns up all around like a sailor hat. : _ Henry O. Pratt, M. C. elect, of lowa, left his native village (Foxcroft, Me.,) fourteen years ago as an ox-teamster, and having never seen his parents since, nonreturns to visit them, a member of Congress. Alrs. TaylOr, of St. Louis, - lias obtained a judgment of $5,000 against the Iron Mountain road for the killing of her Innhand, who was a switchman, and was crushed to death while coupling two cars that were not properly constructed. Two Lynn boys, just in their teens, a few days since stole a sloop at that place, and set sail fog Florida, where an uncle of one of them resides; but their visions of orange-groves were cut short by the boatgrounding in Lynn harbor, The handsomest dressed woman ill New York just now is the wife of a street con’tractor. Her dresses are made in Paris, and the custom-house duties on them are sufficient to buy an entire Outfit for any ordinary woman. A matrimonial engagement was effected by Atlantic cable last week. The lady was in London and Romeo was iii New York. “ Will you have mecost four dollars, gold, exclusive of address; and “Yes," cost one dollar. Cheap at half the price. ! —“ : —— A Vermont widower, aged seventy-six, who has buried two wives, has just married his first love, a widow, whom untoward circumstances prevented liis marrying in his youth. He has lived a widower thirty years; she a widow less than twelve months. -

Thaddeus Stevens’ Caledonia (Pa.) Iron Works, with 14,000 acres ot land, are to he sold, and the proceeds given to erect, establish and endow a House of Refuge in Lancaster, for the relief of homeless, indigent orphans who have lost either parent. . ■ An attempt is shortly to he made to cross the Pacific, from San Francisco to Japan, in a small sloop, thirty feet long. She. is named the Dolphin, and will carry a cfew of three men in addition to the captain. The object is to hunt sea-otter, which are stated to be very plentiful on the Japanese coast. - There is a family living- on -Michigan avenue, Chicago, the members of which have a common birthday. The father is forty-five, the-mother forty-two, and they have three children, aged three, seven and thirteen. Each one’s birthday is the 15th of April; - - - - The most fashionable entertainments are now lighted by wax candles, their lights being more “becoming” to feminine complexions than the glare of gas. It is a sad fact that to many frequenters thereof utter darkness would be the most becoming thing imaginable. In Bedford County, Pa., recently, a spigot worked out of a whisky barrel during the night, and several gallons of the liquor ran out on the floor of the cellar where the barrels where stored. The following morning a number of rats were found lying in the liquor in a complete stale ot intoxication. Two Kilbourne City (Wis.) boys who had been reading- Ledger stories, stole a skiff, filled it with provisions, blankets, kettles, axes, etc., and started down the Wisconsin River to seek their fortune; Tliey were arrested at Portage, and sentenced to the State Reform School until they are twenty-one years old. Scene in a Horse-Car.—Car stops: smiling young lady enters: every seat full. An old gentleman rises at the opposite end. “O, don’t rise," said the lovely girl. “I can just as well stand.” “I don’t care whether you sit or stand,’’-lie replied, "Fni going to get out.” Two respectable young men have just been found guilty by the Criminal Court at Murfreesboro, Tenn , under an indictment for disturbing public worship, and fined S2O and costs each, amounting teT about $75. Their offense was whispering to young ladies in church.

The sons arid daughters of Portsmouth,. New Hampshire, resident in different parts of the country, are bidden to come home on the approaching Fottrth of July, to celebrate that National Festival by a grand reunion. In 1833, in response to a like invitation, they eante flocking front all directions, ana the event was one of never-to-be-forgottenenjoyment. - ; A convention of the Congressmen of the Mississippi Valley is ' proposed, to meet in St. Louis. The object is to consult together respecting, measures directly of great commercial importance to that section, and indirectly to the entire country, and to consumers everywhere, . Some pestilential fellow in Trov. N-Y.,-ltas been misdirecting his'inventive faculties by putting into the toy-shops of that city a-patetifliean-slinger. The beans are hurled, with great violence, so much so that they crash through plate-glass windows ynfh as much ease as pistol bullets, arid citizens walk the streets with fear anti trembling. But the small boys are jubilant. »

This is a Pennsylvania core doctor's prescription: “Wachvure foot apd wen wipt Dry Crape the Korn around the tope, intell you sec-proper. Then apley amonv and water mixt half onz spirits’ nmony and same as w atur .and put in the mark of the pinn.” Three celebrated philologists are now struggling with this mystery. A few weeks ago Mr. Frederick 1 KaMvflekeh, of Holland, read .in a Herman newspaper that ex-Mayor Kalbfleiseh, of Brooklyn, was seriously ill. The exMayor was Frederick’s brother, and this announcement was the first intimation he

had had of his whereabouts since Mr. Kalbfleisch emigrated from Holland, fifty years ago. Quite a sociable family. The great Chicago fire is not yet altogether a thing of the past, as only, the other day—being something over a year and a half since tlie little blaze referred to came off—two gentlemen while passing along by tlie ruins of the Catholic Brothers’ school, had their attention .attracted by the escape of shioke, and, out of curiosity, they * instituted an investigation. After making an excavation a small pile of glowing coals was reached, and, when the air came in contact with it, a vigorous flame burst forth. The discoverers resolved upon making the fact memorable, and accordingly, obtaining some potatoes, roasted them by tlie lire, ate a lunch, then lit some cigars at the blaze, covered the live coals over with brick, and departed. California lizards arc said to be becoming alarmingly abundant of late, some of them being very deadly. A new specimen, undefined as yet, has been sent to the Smithsonian Institute for inspection. It is straw-colored, heavily built, in length about ten inches; head scarlet and black; tail very short; and thick, yellow ribbed with black. Good specimens weigh a pound. The tongue is forked, like that of a serpent, and the fangs are very long and thick. They are courageous fellows, never running from man, and when suddenly conic upon will hand themselves in a semicircle, give vent to a loud, angry liisS; ana bid defiance to tlie Intruder. Should a person approach near enough, they will give an active spring upward and strike the fangs sharply and deeply. Tliey are the very Modoes among reptiles.