Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1879 — FERSONAL AND LITERARY. [ARTICLE]

FERSONAL AND LITERARY.

—Herr Moritz Buseh, the Boswell ol Bismarck, was, so it Is said, the minister of a German church in the United States belween..ls4B and 1866. —“Billy” Ballou, a well-known Pacific Coast character, who was once a friend of Mark Twain, and is written abont in “ Roughing It,” died in a hospital in Washington Territory recently. —Miss Helen M. McDonald argued her own oa.se about an infringement of her patent for an improved dress protoctor in the United States Court in Boston, the othor day, Gen. Butler being one of the opposing counsel. —Mrs. Lockwood, the ftmale lawyer of the District of Colombia, whom Jndge Magruder is reported to have characterized as a wandering woman, forbidding her to speak in his court, intends to test her right to practice in all the courts of Maryland. The Federal Courts of that State new recognize that right. —The Bayard family of Delaware has a.some what, remarkable record of political service. The present Senator entered the Senate in 1869. His father was his immediate predecessor, and occupied the same seat for eight years. His grandfather occupied it for thirteen years, and an uncle was also for 'many years a member of the same body.

—Gen. Fremont is making an exceedingly good Governor of Arizona Territory. He keeps aloof from political influences and attends carefully to business. Mrs. Fremont is taking a deep interest in the cause of popular education, and often visits the public schools and entertains the pupils with accounts of her travels in the Old World.— Chicago Tribune. —A high officer of Massachusetts, conversant with affairs fit the Concord Prison, says that Jesse Pomeroy, the boy-murderer, is losing his mind and failing in health. He says also that remarkable tales have been told of Pomeroy’s mental acuteness and thirst for knowledge, but the truth is that the boy-muraerer is shallow-brained though cunning.— N. Y. Evening Post. —The oldest bank Director in Boston Is Jeffrey Richardson, Esq., who iq over ninety years of age and still active. He has been a Director in the Suffolk Bank for more than fifty years. He is the surviving member of,the ancient firm of Richardson Brothers, Central Wharf, where the old weather-beaten sign of the firm, which has withstood the storms of sixty winters, still hangs in its original place. —Mrs. Elizabeth Child, one of the oldest residents of Boston, died in that city, a few days sinoo, at the age of ninety-seven years three months and twenty-five clays. She remembered seeing Gen. Washington when she was twelve years old. She had lived all her life within two hundred yards of the Elace of her death, and although she ad traveled extensively in New England she had never been in a railroad car. —Tho female correspondent (at Washington) of the,Cincinnati Commercial has a grievance against Representative Charier Foster. She writes: “ Mr. Foster has an honest face, but his breeding needs mending sorely. Any man who passes me with 4 a nudge’ of his Read, without so much as lifting his hand to his hat, never after returns to my memory as a gentleman, notwithstanding his services on the Militafy Committee.” —Ben Wade was the most original presiding officer of the United States Senate. It is related that, one warm spring day, when he occupied the chair, and ms colleague was absent, dinnertime drew nigh and he wanted to leave. Garrett Davis, of Kentucky, had the floor, and at last Mr. Wade could stand it no longer. Giving a rap with his gavel, he said: “ The Senator from Kentucky will suspend his remarks for a moment. The Senator from Ohio moves that the Senate do now adjourn. Those in favor will say aye—contraryminded, no - and the Senate stands adjourned until to-morrow at twelve o’clock.” The presiding officer was the only Senator from Ohio present, and he not only put his own motion, but cast the only vote on it and then, announced the result.^ N. Y. Evening Post.