Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 May 1874 — CURRENT ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT ITEMS.

Gold arrows in the feminine ears are something new. When a Jerseyman dies of applejack the papers call it appleplexy. Kerosene oil will remove rust from knives. Emery paper Is also good. A ghost that haunted a Massachusetts house has been effectually exorcised by means of rat poison. Three Shakeresses at Tyringham, N. H. have fallen from grace by takiifg to themselves husbands. A reporter, in depicting a wreck at sea, says that “ no less than thirteen unfortunates hit the dust.” A Keokuk poet says he “lies enfolded in his mother’s arms, all wrapt in early childhood’s spotless charms.” A machine in the Winnipiseogee mills at Franklin, N. H., runs off thirty-five miles of newspaper a day. Buttoned shoes with patent leather tips and scalloped ankle tops may be considered now the most fashionable. There is more shipbuilding going on at the present time on the Connecticut River than in any previous year since 1861. A Mcbcatine (Iowa) dog committed suicide by hanging himself between two pickets on the garden fence the other day. A little girl of Reading, who saw her mother take medicine, gave some to the baby. The corpse was covered with flowers. An editor has placed over his marriage notice a ent representing a trap sprung, with this motto: “ The trap down—another ninny caught.” An old man in Kenosha, Wis., has ruined his health sitting up in a cold room next to where his daughter and a young man weje jparking. A Memphis man sat in the gas works an hour a day for 142 successive days before anyone told him that he couldn’t cure ague by inhaling gas. Maine is going to sell all the public lands to which the State has an unquestioned title—about 100,000 acres—in September, and close up the business of the laqd office. A Dutchman in San Francisco, in trying to reach the ferry-boat fell into the water. His first exclamation on being hauled out was: “Good gracious, let’s have a bridge!" A Chicago pork-packer whose pew-rent was raised to $25 exclaimed: “Great Csesar! here’s a nice state of affairs—the Gospel going up. and pork going down. What’s to become of us?” Robert DoW, es Salisbury, N. H., awoke his wife the other morning and remarked to her that he thought he was dying. Soon after he became unconscious and died in a few hours. A correspondent wants to know our opinion concerning the disposition of the dead. As far as we are acquainted with them the dead seem to be or a quiet disposition.—St. Louis Democrat. As a rule our leaders of fashion are dressing very plainly this season—a fact to be hailed with satisfaction and delight. It has come to this that a lady is known by her costume. — N. 7. Graphic. In Armenia, N. Y-, there is an old-fash-ioned house, now nearly a century old, which contains twenty-eight room# exclusive of closets, and has seven brick fire-places, three brick ovens, and six outside doors. A party of men have purchased 1,600 acres of land in Wisconsin for the exclusive purpose of raising muskrats. Last year they captured 4,000 of the animals, and anticipate a take of 6,000 this year. The skins sell at thirty cents each. A Gkobgia paper says: “Every village and borough in the State is projecting the erection of factories of various kinds. We never knew a period in the history of Georgia when so much money was pat into manufacturing business as at present” The Supreme Court at Providence, R. I. has awarded Emilie E. Brown $10,500 against the city for injuries received in 1872 from a blast fired in a street, the employes of the city having failed to warn her until it was too late. Virginia is rapidly becoming a wineproducing country. Vineyards are being established in the vicinity of Richmond? and the profits are said to be great, while the quality is reported to be very much like the imported claret, Madeira and white wines The papers are opening a crusade against the large class of persons who go cousining. Many a hardened housekeeper has said: “We are often visited by persons to whom we are under no obligations—persons who want to go somewhere.” Maria F. Grosvenob sued the United Society of Believers, a body of Shakers living in Harvard, in the Supreme Court at Boston recently, asking $15,000 damages, charging that she, having joined the society m 1810, was expelled in 1865. The defense was that she promulgated heresies and that she went away voluntarily. Judge Kndieott rendered a verdict for the defendants. A curious story is told in a Natchez, paper about H. Polkenhome, Sr n of that place, who, while walking out on a warm day, felt something burning him In the side. His clothes were on fire, and on examination he found that his eyeglasses in his waistcoat pocket had caused the mischief. The sun’s rays penetrating through this garment to the lenses had horned a hole through the pocket and scorched bia under-garments,