Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1873 — CURRENT ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT ITEMS.

A asouc wheat field on a California farm contains 38,000 acres. Skk, in anoihet column, the advertisement headed "I will help any man." The times are affecting the poor IndiAn. He complains that none but bald-headed emigrants go West. Ocean steamers charge two dollars per head to bring babies this way, but let them go to Europe for nothing. A Zanesville (0.) woman has a treasure of a husband who has Airnished her with material for seventeen suits as damages against as many different bar-keepers. A dog was recently taken from Cedar Falls, lowa, to a town in Kansas, but not liking the country, it made the return trip alone, a distance of 700 miles. The wife of a Louisville lawyer made a bustle of some important legal documents, and court had to adjourn until she could go home and return them in proper shape. Portland, Oregon, lately expressed two babes a distance of several hundred miles, with regular express tags about their necks, and marked C. O. D. They reached their end without trouble. The discovery of a new volcano neAr the town of Morlege, on the Gulf of Californla, Is announced. Within an area of six hundred feet there are twenty ventholes, from which smoke is emitted. The mortuary statistics of New York City show that within the last twenty years over 6,000 persons have been drowned in its adjacent waters. Hence a Lifesaving Society has been organized, with Theo. Dwight as President. A sword belonging to General Meade, presented to him by the United States for his services in Mexico, was picked up by a Confederate at Charlottesville, Ya., during the war, and word has just been sent to the family of the late General that it is at their disposal. Intelligence has come to us from the Pacific coast that the experiment made by Seth Green in transplanting the shad of the Hudson to the Pacific waters has been successful, and the shad of the Hudson taken to the Sacramento have been caught in the Bay of San Francisco of a size for the table". A Buffalo miser, named Thomas B. Newman, aged seventy-three, reputed to be worth a quarter of a million dollars, and owner of some of the most valuable real estate in that city, died in the city hospital recently, whither he had been removed a few days previous,, from a hovel which he had occupied for thirty-seven years. He had no relatives in that city. The Holt County (Mo.) Sentinel says that a Miss Stiles, daughter of C. F. Stiles, was buried at Ross Grove recently, with the full honors of the Patrons of Husbandly. Her dying request was to be buried by the Patrons, of whom she was a member in very high standing. Three of the Granges participated in the burial ceremonies. The scene was one of deep mourning and one long to be remembered. William Stokes, late a ship boy on the British, scientific exploring ship Challenger, who was killed by a falling block when off Porto Rico, was buried in the deepest grave on record. Ilis bodv. wrapped in a shotted hammock, was dropped in water close upon four miles deep, wherein Mont Blanc, standing upon another peak of equal height, would barely appear above the surface. This is-the latest information we have from the Modoc country: “The warrior stood among the rocks, whence all but him had fled; he was the last of the Modocs that roamed the lava bed. The shot fell fast, he would not go—the warrior knew no fear; eight hundred of the avenging foe assailed him front and rear. Only one boon that Ingin craved—he spurned to sue for quarter—the crowning curse he might be saved, of interviewing by a reporter.” The nephew of the late Tliaddeus Stevens having failed to comply with the conditions of his will relative to abstaining from the use of intoxicating drinks, the executors are about to apply the residue of his estate, estimated variously from $50,000 to SIOO,OOO, to the founding of the Orphan Home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, designed by him in case of such"failure. The will provides that no preference shall be shown in respect of race, religion or color in admission or treatment, and that all the inmates shall wear the same style of dress and eat at the same table. The New Orleans Times relates the following extraordinary instance of resuscitation which-happened in that city not long since: “A child of three years old died early in the morning, and was duly laid out for interment; a competent physician certified to the decease, and the friends of the family assembled to solemnize the funeral. Late in the afternoon, the body having been coffined, and the funeral carriages waiting at the door, a thunder storm arose. It will be remembered that there were some unusually violent reverberations during the brief term of .its prevalence. Simultaneously w ith one of the most deafening of these claps, tlie” child recovered its animation and resumed all the functions of existence. It is now permanently recovered. There is no doubt of the facts in this case,” . : :

A reporter of the Detroit Press and a policeman, each armed cap-a-pie, sat up one night recently in a haunted house in that city to interview a ghost (or ghostess) which, according to all accounts had been perambulating around in an uncanny sort of manner, slamming doors, sobbing like a child, and occasionally shrieking like all possessed. The various performances all came off at advertised, causing the reportorial hair -‘to stand on end like quills upon the fretful porcu—pine,” while the valiant “cop'’ handled his revolver nervously and entreated his companion “not to be afeard.” The result of their investigation was the discover}- of the fact that old Boreas was at the bottom of the mysterious demonstrations—an open bung-hole of a barrel in the attic furnishing the vocal part of the entertainment, while a broken pane of glass let in a gust which closed the door without the aid of human hands. A Totching Incident.—A short time since, in this city, a brilliant and much-, admired lady, who had been suffering for some time with a trouble of the eyes, was Jed to fear a speedy change for the worse, and immediately consulted her physician. An examination discovered a sudden and fatal falling in of the optic nerve, and the information was imparted as gently *as possible, that the patient could not retain her sight than a few days at most, and was liable to be totally deprived of it at any inpment. The afflicted mother returned to her home, quietly made such-ar-rangements as would occur to one about to commence so dark a journey of life, and then had her two little children, attired in their brightest and sweetest costumes, brought before her; and so, with their little laces lifted to hers, and tears gathering for some great misfortune that they hardly realized, the light faded out of the mother’s eyes, leaving an ineffaceable picture of those dearest to her on earth—a memory of bright faces that will console her in many a dark hour. — Covington (Eg.) Journal. i The Hartford (Conn.) Times says that Conductor Bradley, of that pity, who was killed, with others, by a recent railroad accident on the Hartford & Waterbury Bead, was on a “caboose” car at the time the train reached the broken rail. The instant he felt the shock, he knew the car was off the track, and sprang for a brake. It was his last act. In the next instant he was killed by the crash; and his skull was broken. When picked up a part of

his brain was visible, oozing out; but the true and faithful conductor was able to speak. And these were the words he uttered—the last he ever spoke:; ■ “Pvt mil the signal* for the, other train!" The lightning-like suddenness of the crash, though it deprived him of all conscidSsness of everything happening subsequent to the instant when he jumped to seize the brake, did not blot out of his vivid memory the sensation he had at that moment of fate. There was the sense of impending danger, and of the necessity of instant action to avert it. That consciousness remained, during the ensuing few minutes in which the crash had come, and the faithful conductor had met his fate. Captured by a Photograph.— During the time qf the Paris Exhibition a Brooklyn photographer sent over to the Exhibition a number of photographs as types of female beauty. Among them was a photograph of Kate Louise Parks, for many years noted in parts of Brooklyn for her beauty. Her father, Wm. Parks, is very wealthy. Count Daniel Deßois Montgallie saw the Brooklyn belle’s portrait at the Paris Exposition, and. was at once smitten. A vear or two afterward Miss Parks went to Paris. At a court reception to which she obtained admittance Count Debois Montgallie saw her, recognized the original of the photograph, told her of the circumstance, and protested his love. She reciprocated it, and all looked lovely. On returning to this country she informed her father of her love for the French count. The cruel “parient” who cared little for titles, frowned on the projected alliance, and refused to give his consent. She, however, kept up a secret eorrespogdence with her admirer. A short time ago he came over to this country and tried in person to move the girl’s father to relent. It was in vaiD r however—Not -to -be thwarsed the lovers proceeded one evening to the residence of Bishop Laughlin, ot Brooklyn, and were married in the presence of the French Consul. The happy pair left for Europe the iollowing day. The Davenport (Iowa) Gazette tells a story of a young widow residing in Princeton "township, near that city, who after a brief acquaintance had become engaged to be married to a gentleman residing in California. January last was the month set for the marriage. One night early in December, the widow was disturbed by a dream. She thought her husband appeared to her, looked intently into her eyes for a moment, and then,lift ing hi s fin ger, said: “Postpone your marriage!” and disappeared. In three nights thereafter the vision again appeared to her, repeating the same warning. The second night after this last appearance, while her brother was occupying a bed in a room adjoining hers, the door being open between, the husband again appeared as she was sleeping, and again uttered liis warning. The same night, too. the vision appeared to the mother of the widow, and said: “Have Sarah’s marriage postponed!” There was no use trying to shake off the influences of these visions—and the result was that the widow did write to her betrothed, and asked him to postpone his coming until spring. The denouement is to the effect that a short time since the family received a San Francisco paper, containing a marked account of the arrest for robbery of this same lover of the widow’s, and his incarceration in jail for want of bail. Furthermore, it spoke of the fellow’s wife, and children as deserving of the sympathy and assistance of the charitable!