Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1874 — Bravery Rewarded. [ARTICLE]

Bravery Rewarded.

A Brussels correspondent of the London Timet describes as follows the distribution of State rewards of “ acts of courage, devotion and humanity:” “ The first to be honored was a little fellow twelve years of age, whose achievement brought tears into the eyes of the Queen and Princess. It seemed*, from the account read to the audience, that three children, of whom the boy was the eldest, were playing in the room by themselves when the little sister puled over a paraffine lamp and set herself on fire. The brave little fellow, fearless of burns, did the best he could to extinguish the flames, and was so horribly burnt himself that he was three months ill and will bear the marks of his achievement to the grave. The sister died; but the boy’s act was recognized by his being awarded the medal of the first class—a large gold medal surmounted with the royal crown, The second Was a boy who rescued a child from the broken ice in a canal last winter, and the gold medal was also given to this little hero. The third was a nun, who had rescued, at the risk of her life, an infant from a burning house. After the boys and the nun came two members of the Chamber of Representatives—M. d’Andrimont, the Deputy of Liege, and the,, Comte de Borchgrave d’Aliena, Deputy of Topgres and Burgomaster •f Marlinne. M. d’Andrimont saved the lives of two bathers on two different cessions. The Comte exposed his life on two occasions in preventing pubhc calamities at two fires. The two Deputies were rewarded, amid the cheers of the assemblage, by the Civic Cross of the second class. The two members of the Belgian Parliament were followed by two workmen, one of whom, a slater, Wagemans, had rnshed into a house to rescue a sick woman and was assisted by a printer named Dacos. Both men were much burnt, and the slater had the firstclass medal awarded, the other the second. Then came Col. Poiters, of the Garde Civique of Molembeck St. Jean, who plunged into the water in his clothes to save a man who had fallen inta a canal. The Colonel was awarded the first-class medal. Among the other heroes in civil life decorated for saving life were a student aged sixteen, who received the first-class medal for saving a man from drowning; the Abbot Thorn an, of Ostend, who received the same for a like act of devotion; a religieuee named Justine Morelle, for saving a child carried fiway by a current; and officers and pilots of Antwerp were rewarded, their acts of devotion being in ' connection with the fire of the paraffineloaded American ship Westmoreland. On one if the brave fellows being called it was announced that he had met his death by drowning in the River Scheldt. There were many other presentations of a like character.”

A California man has discovered a spring, the water of which possesses the peculiar property of taking grease-spots out of the finest fabric without altering the color in the least, and also of removing freckles from the face. The owner’s intention is to bottle the water and sell it. . ' A New Yoke family containing four daughters came near starving to death recently because the cook left and none of the girls even knew how to make tea.