Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1877 — What the Legislature is Doing. [ARTICLE]

What the Legislature is Doing.

topiwTof tegislation are necessarily lea* awnerona than the bills. By » atnpid waht *f boainoss economy, moat of the loading subjects of legislation are nttaoked at random by bills in both houses almost identicai in their provisions, and even in tbe name house if one member has a bill directed to the same subject as another which haa already been offered, he can not withhold his own.bill to save needless waste of time. There seems to ba an idea of glory in offering a bill which the average legislator aspire? to in the same spirit as the Indian warrior aspires to return from tbe fight with a soalp dangling at his belt A great part of the time is occupied in tinkering tbe oivil code to suit the notions ol the lawyers about their practice in the courts. Mihy bills are of this class. Local legislation has been principally conSi ad to legalizing acts to help out under# and mistakes of town and city officers. Several cases of this sort have been relieved. Bills in both houses relating to divoroe laws and Abe property rights of women have been presented. Some railroad legislation is on the track to bring the management of these in stiluuona to time, and bills are on the calendar to repeal and prevent all further authority for aiding these and other corporate institutions with fund* raised by taxation. The last and most ponderous bill on the subject of railroad* is by Senator Dvkeraan, of Cans county, which is a complete code in detfil of railroad legislation, comprising over two huudred section. It is not practicable to attempt an abstract of its provisions. If tbe existing liqnor law is not disturbed it will not be for lack of propositions, as a dozen liquor bills of various sorts are in hand. Another heavy bill is one on insurance covering the entire field of legislation on that subject, being the law approved by the national convention of insurance superintendents at New York in 1875. It contains seventy-two sections and would fill a volume. The most notable move for retrenchment in expenses of the legislature is the house bill of Mr. Thompson of Howard. It fixes tbe per diem of members at (5 for » regular session of sixty-one days, and allows them $5 for each twenty-five miles traveled in going and comiug. The secretary of the senate shaU receive $2,000 for the session; assistant secretary, $1,500 ; door keeper, $1,400. The clerk of the house shall receive $2,000; assistant clerk, $1,500; door-keeper, $1,200; pages, $2 per day; the members to receive twen-ty-five cents daily for stationery. No additional compensation to be allowed, and the clerks and doorkeepers to hire all their own help at their own expense. A disposition to thoroughly examine into the management and expenses of all institutions supported by the state, educational, benevolent and penal, has been shown by numerous bill; and resolutions in both houses. Two prominent prison bills are before the senate, one radically modify in ig the present system, oy Winterbotham, the other superseding it by an entirely new 8ys 7 tem, by Baxter. One bill and several resolutions have been presented which will bring forward for action the question of building a new state bouse. There is r s house bill, No. 250, whioh provides toy taxation of church property—lndianapolis Sun. - 0?r neighbor, Mr. James W. MoEwen, has disposed of the ConxtUationalist to Messrs Kitt and Fawcett, and will shortly remove to Rensselaer, where he will start a democratic paper. Mr. McEwen located here in 1859, and during a residence of eighteen years in this place has proved himself a sober, pWaightforward and law-abiding citizen. A 8 a competitor, we have always fpund hup courteous, fairminded and affable, and although of -opposite political complexions, our relations have always been of tbe most friendly nature.'. We regret bis departure and wish him punch success in his new location, llis successors, Mr. A. J. Kitt, of the Remington Betorcl, and Mr. 1). A. Fawcett, of Delphi, are both youn£ men, and practical printers. We bay* not the pleasure ot an intimate acquaintance with either pf them; but hope soon to know them to our mutual pleasure and advantage. They take possession of the office to-morrow, and will impediately move it into the second ptory of Reynolds* Block, corner and adjoining rooms. —Moniicetlo iTT* Cl Coroner Ynyst, of White .county, thinks he is in luck. He bolds a piize ticket in a lottery for f 1,050 ctit.vf wbich he expecis to realize #250, or about one-fourth of its

In tbe case of Hattie E. Hoagland against the Pennsylvania railroad company for $25,000 damages olairaed for injuries done Mrs. Hoagland while a passenger on the p. F. W. A C. R, H. on Dec. 15th, 1870, D»e matter was continued by agreement of Geo. W. Beeman for the plaintiff add Judge Brekenridge for tbe company. We learn that the above attorneys will soon meet in tbe city of Valparaiso to make an agreed statement of facts upon which the case will be tried. The faots, as we are informed are that Mrs. Hoagland took passage on the express train from Chioago to Plymouth in this state, on the 15th of December, 1878. After the train had passed Valparaiso the employees of the company oaused to be announced in tue cars that the next station would be Plymouth, and that about the time the train reached Hamlet in this bounty the conductor took up the station check from Mrs. Hoagland, and informed her that the next station will be “your stopping place”—Plymouth. The train moved on toward Plymouth to a station called Grovertown and stopped, whereupon Mrs. Hoagland relying on what she had been told took her departure from the train and was assisted bv a brakeman to the ground. The train moved on and left her there alone, remote from any habitation. Mrs. Hoagland wandered up and down tbe traokfor about two hours in search of a habitation, and all the time a perfect cyclone was coming from the northwest, with the thermometer at 11 or 12 degrees below zero. When a habitation was reached she was almost frozen, and it was only her pluck, and the fear of dying alone on the traek of the road that enabled her to reach a place of safety at all. This case will raise a great many fine points, which tbe lawvers will class as “corners.” —Knox Ledger. The new Republican, at Warsaw, Mr. Q. A. Hossler, proprietor, is a beautiful paper of 8-column folio size, edited with ability, and worthy oi patronage ample to pay expenses. A thief detective association has been organized at Valparaiso.