Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1876 — PERSONAL AND LITERARY. [ARTICLE]

PERSONAL AND LITERARY.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson makes almost as much from his apple orchard as he does from his books. —Mr. Disraeli’s new title—Earl of Beaconsfield—is pronounced Bek-ontjleld, says the London Examiner. —Mr. John Tyler, Jr., a son of ExPresident Tyler, has become a minister in Uie Methodist Episcopal Church South. —Miss Catharine Beecher is the only unmarried member of her family, and she escaped matrimony by the drowning of her betrothed. —Mr. B&ilev, the Danbuiy wit, made a speech at a soldiers’ reunion the other evening, in which he remarked that “ the few remaining members must lie like blazes when telling of their deeds upon the gery battle-fields.” —Miss Clara Louise Kellogg is said to have asked at the Commencement of the Maine Agricultural College if beet vines required to be trimmed in the spring. She explained that her education had been chiefly musical or she would not have troubled any one with the inquiry. —Gen. Garfield, of Ohio, notes an interesting fact in connection with the district he represents in Congress. During the past fifty-four years the district has been represented by but four members, and fifty years of that time have been divided between three members—Whittlesey, Glddlngs and Garfield. —lt will be news surprising to many to learn that the brave Gen. Custer was of foreign birth. He was bom In Ispringen, near Pforsheim, in Baden, Germany, ana emigrated when a child with his parents, who settled in New Romely, Harrison County, Ohio. Formerly his name was written “ Custar;” since his return from a trip to Germany, however, he appears to have written “ Custer,” his original family name, however, being Kuester. —Orpheus C. Kerr’s alimentaphobia is exciting much wonder. Says the New York Express: “It is just five weeks today since he has eaten anything, and his condition has excited the curiosity of his medical attendant and friends. During the five weeks which terminates to-day, he has taken each day perhaps a spoonful of green peas, or a tablespoonful of milk punch, or a mouthful of icecream, or a cup of coffee, but no two things on the same day. He has performed his literary labors almost all the time since this strange repugnance to foad has visited him.” —Alfred Johnson, the Dane, who lately accomplished the feat of crossing the ocean In a doiy twenty feet long, nearly lost his life in the attempt. On the 2d of August he encountered a heavy gale and unshipped his mast. His boat, getting broadside to, was capsized by a heavy sea. He crawled upon the bottom ana remained there twenty minutes, when another wave struck the boat in such a manner that he was enabled to right her. But his provisions were spoiled, and thenceforward he had a hard time of it. When asked if he would like to repeat the voyage, Johnson replied that “ he thought he had had about enough of it.”