Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1877 — The Power of Conscience. [ARTICLE]

The Power of Conscience.

A touching incident illustrating the power of conscience, even in the most hardened criminal, recently occurred in Washington. At dusk, a well-dressed stranger rapped at the door of one of the houses, and, on being admitted, said to the proprietor: "You do not, sir, recognize my face. ’Tis well. Listen. Your pocket was picked about twelve months since’” “ It was, and I lost $12.62.” “ I was the thief. . Nay, sir, spare Kr reproaches. For seventeen days I not tasted food, and my wife and eleven small children lay at home on their miserable pallets, crying with hunger and cold. The money I stole from you then, sir, saved them; for, with part of it I bought coal, with part of it bread, and the remaining portion of it I played upon the eight, coppering the king, and called the turn till it ran up to fifty dollars; but pardon me for intruding the details of m. humble business upon your attention. I became an altered man, and determined to reform and lead another life. I am now well employed, and night and morning’my wife and children bless your name, though they, innocent ones, do not know that I stole the money. I have long since sought you, but was unable to find yon; 'but, fortunately, my friend and benefactor, I recognized you on the street-car yesterday; 1 followed you home and learned your name, and to-night I have come to restore to yon the money of which I robbed you.” So saying, the penitent gave the kind fentleman a twenty-dollar bill, received 7.85 change, blessed his benefactor warmly, and left the house. Next morning the old man found that the bill was a counterfeit, and the thief had, on leaving the house, taken the old man’s hat ana umbrella. Capt. J. W. Hall, who has just prepared the marine statistics of 1876, places the number of lake disasters at 639; valuation of the property lost, $1,173,260; the losses of timber rafts on the lakes amount to about SIOI,OOO. The greatest losses during any month were in September, amounting to $273,138. The number of disasters this year is 417 less than in 1875. The total number of deaths, either on board ship or on shore, among seamen is 155, of which number 30 were vesselowners ; 14 were lost by foundered vessels; 97*were drovimed; 28 died on shore; 13 were killed accidentally; 2 were murdered ; 2 committed suicide, and 1 Was found dead. The new tonnage amounts to 7,461 tons, a falling off from 1875 of 11,517 tons. The lost tonnage amounts to 9,990 tons, an excess oyer the new tonnage of 1,530 tons. Financially, the season of 1876 is the worst on record. ■ Great progress has been made in the use of iron for building purposes. One of the most remarkable iron structures recently erected is the church spire of the cathedral at Rouen, France, which is 493 feet high. _ Of the thirty-one persona condemned to death in France during 1875, but one had received a good school education. Only four could write, and the remaining twen-ty-six were illiterate.