Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1873 — CURRENT ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT ITEMS.

Salmon arc appearing in the Ohio River. •JPri neb have been raised In Barton, Wis., this season. An Adrian, M ichigau, fanner sold his load of wool, a few days ago, for $1,500. The colored school population in Washington is 8,532. The water in Lake Champlain is lower than for twenty-one years before. The bones of a mastodon have been exhumed near Baxter’s Prairie, Mich. The Cincinnati Industrial Exposition was attended this year by 507,(>58,.per80n5. The six chief offices of the Erie Railway divide SBO,OOO salary per annum. Du Quoin, 111., recently, the sum of 10,Q00 was paid out for castor-beans in one dayri The proceeds of the taxes upon carriages and horses in England amount to nearly £BOO,OOO per annum. It is said that about 10,000 Swiss annually’ go forth Into the world as waiters a.nl as ladies’ maids.

The epizootic haS'flnally reached British Columbia. It will probably cross the straits from Alaska and attack the Russian equines. Fifty vessels laden with grain, valued at $3,500,000, have been dispatched this year from California for Europe, and a dozen more are taking cargo. The Union Pacific Railroad is building a snow plow to be driven by five locomotives. They expect it to go through drifts twenty feet deep. The oldest lunatic asylum in America is at Williamsburg, Ya. It was opened October 12, 1773. " There is but one institution of the kind in Europe older than The partial clean-up of a flume at Cherokee, Cal., a few days ago, yielded gold which, when run into a brick, weighed 142 pounds avoirdupois, worth about $42,000. Up to September 24, 805,280 tons of ore had been shipped from Escanaba, Mich., and 6,442 tons of pig-iron. From Marquelee the shipments of ore amounted to 411,483 tons, and of pig-iron to' 18,023 tons. A youth, four years old, and his young sister, saw a rat hasten into a hole in the barn floor. Said he, “Sis, the Bible says, ‘Watch and pray.’—You-pray.wliilel watch the hole, and I’ll swat him acrost the snoot when he comes out.” The report of the Michigan State Salt Inspector, for August, shows that 148,384 barrels, were manufactured during the month, being the largest yield for one month in the history of salt manufacture in Michigan. The newjlasonic Temple at Philadelphia was recently dedicated, with much ceremony. The temple, which was five years building, is the largest,costliest,arid most magnificent structure consecrated to Masonry, in the world. A man who was discovered asleep among a lot of tombstones in a stonecutter’s yard, said, on being awakened, he had come in to buy a monument for himself, and, having picked out one, made up his mind he would try it one night before purchasing. ~ “How now?” a friend said to Jones, finding him looking unusually .cheerful and sprightly, notwithstanding the fact that he had been up pretty- nearly all night. “You don’t seem to be affected by the crisis.” And Jpnes merely remarked, “No such thing. It’s a boy.” L. Miss Rye has gone into the business of furnishing English women with employment in this country. Is it possible that she is a daughter of Old Rye, who is so well known in this country? If so, the less the women have to do with her the better. Ajti.ication.— A Connecticut boy insisted on knowing what was meant by the slang phrase “a gone sucker,” and was overheard praying soon after, on being sent off to bed: “God bless papa and mamma and baby, but I’ve been such a bad boy I rather guess I’m a gone sucker!” Continued heavy rains have damaged the cotton crop throughout the entire lower Rio Grande Valley, The worms have appeared on a number of plantations in this vicinity, doing much damage. The low lands are Covered with several inches of waler, stopping the work of gathering the crop. ■ Of the 956 cotton manufactories in.the United States, 191 are in Massachusetts, 139 in Rhode Island, 138 in Pennsylvania, 111 in Connecticut, and 81 in New York, aggregating 667, or more than two-two-thirds of.the entire whole. New Jeri sey has 27, New Hampshire 36, Maine 29', Mary land 22, North .Carolina 23, Georgia 34, and Tennessee 23. The original document has just bceir discovered among some old files at the Treasury Department to which Marquis JlcLa. Fayette,.made over to some Baltiinore merchants his fortune in France, to secure them for a loan to organize troops in defense of tiic United States. The contract is signed and in part drafted Tn L:iFavctte’s .own hand, and bears date July 1, 1781.