Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 August 1873 — Railroad Prospects of Jasper County. [ARTICLE]

Railroad Prospects of Jasper County.

FtSvnd N. C. Weathers sends us a sample of Sumner county, Kansas, salt, “made by. evaporation—pounds of pure salt from a gallon of water’’—which is very white, clean and nice. . .. The latest instance of editorial misappropriation is in a recent issue of the Crown Point Register, where a section of the report of Assistant State Geologist John Collett, concerning the bog iron ore deposit of Jasper comity is made to apply to the marsh lands of a man up in Lake county. Among the inscriptions on the Grange banners we have printed this week past are the following, which seem to have slight political significance: “Opposed to the salary grab.” “Politicians beware, Farmers are uniting,” ' “Politicians to the rear; Farmers to the front.” “We mean business.” “We will protect ourselves.” The imports at Michigan City for the month of July were nearly double those for the same month ot last year, and include 8,000,000 feet of lumber, 5,437,000 shingles, I, lath, 280,000 feet .of square umber, 90,000 headings and staves, 1,554 tuns of iron ore and 600 tons of coal. Ninety-two vessels arrived in port during the month. The Francesville Local Topic mourns over the carelessness, negligence and general inefficiency manifested by the Executive Committee of the Prairie Farmer’s Agricultural Society, this season, and says “There is a spirit of jealousy, disaffection and downright ugliness attempting to raise its head, which we hope will be crushed by our people most promptly.” The figure-head of the Laporte Herald last week was the cut of a “Heathen Chinee” lying flat on his belly, smoking opium. Scattered about him promiscuously were bis pipe, opium box, lamp and probe, the paraphernalia from which he derives pleasure and * dissipation. Below this “figure-head” is a four column advertisement of an opium-habit cure establishment of that city. The Francesville Local Topic says they recently enjoyed a visit from 11. E. James, of The Rensselaer Union, who “was in capital good spirits, notwithstanding he wore a depressed look.” It was the old clothes we wore that made us look so. After harvest, when the “boys” renew their subscriptions, we will get a suit of new store clothes and not look sc depressed. We notice that our Republican contemporaries have had a good deal to say about the "Congressional salary grab,” but “nary a word” about the “Legislative salary grab” of last winter. Strike those fellows a little who promised so much in the way of State reform and then went and increased their pay from 85 to $8 per diem, and we will then begin to think you are honest in your advocacy of reform.— Oxford Tribune. Lraio 1 It kind ,pf seems to us that the Triiioie makes, or has made, some pretensions to being a Republican paper, and might lead out in the striking business “if you are honest in your advocacy of reform.” Try it just a little for experiment, Brother Tribune. •_ ... ;—— Packard,, the poor Congressman, ' recently had §26 refunded to him by the city of Laporte for overpaid taxes. The assessor had reported him with $1,500 on hand when he only had sls. Aou see when the assessor was around the General had invested his back pay and had not yet received hi* ■ allowance for that quarter. The pay for a member of Congress is now about S2O a day, $625 a month, $1,875 a quarter, payable monthly and no work to do from April to the last of December. Poor creatures like Packard find it more blessed to receive than to give—taxes. * The editor of the Remington Journal is Superintendent of Public Instruction of Jasper county; week before last he visited Chicago and publishes in his “organ” that “in the breweries we found out why corn is low, they now make beer out of dead flies.” It is possible he visited those breweries to obtain suggestions relative to the proper management of public schools, and to secure teachers possessed with necessary qualifications to instruct the youth of this county; but be this as it may, breweries would seem to be an attractive place of resort for this of the temperance cause when he I is away from home. / ’

The Union in alisencc of better authority, seems confident the journal is about tockiee out, all based upon the statement of a journeyman “tramp.” The joke of the matter is, tha;t nobody got an ocular glimpse of the tramp, but the Union men. When the desire is paramount, nearly any kind of evidence will do. Brethren, don't waste time in any such foolishness.— When it all;turns out to be a joke it makes a “feller’.’ feel bad. Besides indulgence prone to earttfly things, has a tendency to increase the prostration. Nor is this all; if there should be any reputation for veracity nt stake, it might be soiled. The Journal lives and will continue to live, notwithstading secret interviews between the Union men and tramping jeers. Its old subscription is mainly renewed, with a list of new subscribers, and all things prosperous. --Remington Journal. • If in the above reference is made to The Rensselaer Union our neighbor is lying —under a mistake. We-ncver said a syllable of what it alleges. The whole thing, from beginning to end, is false and without foundation. There is plenty of room in Jasper county for both the Journal and The Union to live, to labor anil to prosper; there is not the least occasion for jealousy, and with us none whatever exists. We are most happy to learn that Our sister paper is thriving, and we sincerely hope its enterprising proprietors may grow wealthy out of the income their office brings and soon be able to marry, establish themselves in homes where luxuries abound and commence fulfilling the destiny for which th?y were born. Be virt nous, gen tiemen, pay your whiskey bills, don’t be jealous, don’t fib about your neighbors, attend strictly to business and you will thrive and be happy, we hope. But what, in goodness do you mean by “tramping jeers?”

From what information we can obtain the prospects of the Continental railroad are under a shadow. Work will probably not be resumed upon it this fall, if ever—possibly never, under the present management. The tax that was raised in Jasper county to aid this project is likely to be forfeited, and at the September or December sessions of the Board of Commissioners they will issue an order either converting it into general county fund as so much credit to tax-payers on future levies, or what now appears to be more likely, return it to the parties from whom it was collected. So far as relates to the other railroads projected through our county, the situation seems to be about as follows: The Indianapolis, Delphi and Chicago people are still calling public attention to their scheme —making public speeches and publishing articles advertising the advantages which would accrue in case their road is ever built—but as yet they have not succeeded in obtaining money to commence work with. As yet their project does not appear to have assumed a tangible form; there is plenty of talking being done, but no work. — The cific people are making no noise; seem to be doing nothing at all; we pan learn nothing about them; they owe quite a large sum for work already done, and do not appear to be making any endeavor to settle their bills. To make use of a common expression, they seem to be “dead in the,shell.” The Wabash and Lake Michigan people, if our surmise is correct, have some land in Warren county on which they hope there is coal, which they are endeavoring to advertise and sell by projecting a sort of stubtailed railroad. But they have no money either to build their road or to develop their mines sufficiently to ascertain if they contain coal of good quality or in paying quantity. One or two obscure newspapers seem to be doing a little gratuitous advertising for the President of this railroad company and his unsur-veyed land, but this seems to be about the extent of the work done. In summing up, we conclude that the railroad prospects for Jasper county this year are not at all favorable.