Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1904 — AR THE WEEKLY HISTORIAN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE WEEKLY HISTORIAN

One Hundred Years Ago. Arrangements were made for the establishment of a French army in Alsace and also In Hanover. As a testlmonlaj of the country’s high esteem for Lieut. Decatur’s gallant conduct In taking the frigate Philadelphia a commission as captain in the navy was Issued to him. The Secretary of the Navy ordered all officers at Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York to close their recruiting offices and report at once to their respective ships. The American minister to France was in England in pursuit of agricultural Information; also, some said, with the view to obtaining a loan for the purchase of Florida. Seventy-five Years Ago.' Seven steamboats began the navigation of Lake Erie. Roman Catholics in ths country celebrated with much joy the passage of the Catholic relief bill by the British Parliament. Trial by jury in civil actions was introduced in Australia. Gold was discovered in Burke County, N. 0. Quicksilver was also found. Fifty Years Ago. The new treaty of alliance between England, France and Turkey was signed at St Cloud. The allied powers declared Greece in a state of blockade. The first railroad was inaugurated in Sardinia, running between Turin and Susa. The king and queen and a great concourse of people participated in the ceremonies. One division of the French army left Malta in order to occupy Athens. Forty Years Ago. J. Howard, Jr., a Brooklyn (N. Y.) newspaper man, was arrested and confined at Fort Lafayette, charged with the authorship of the famous “bogus proclamation” calling for troops. John W. W. Andrews, leader of the anti-draft riots ih New York, was sentenced to Sing Sing prison. The women of Chicago met to organize a dress reform movement, the object of which was to taboo Imported fabrics, and thus keep money in this country. The Union army had advanced fifteen miles beyond Spottsylvania courthouse in its movement on Richmond. The British steamer Young Republic, captured while trying to run the coast blockade, was taken into the port at Boston. Thirty Years Ago. After a long trial on the charge of heresy, of which he was not convictbed, David Swing withdrew from the Chicago Presbytery. Ten thousand members of the Dunkard sect met in conference at Girard, 111. The Episcopal convention In Philadelphia passed a resolution opposing the introduction of a Romanizing ritual In church services. The marriage of Nellie Grant, daughter of President Grant, to Algernon Charles Frederick Sartoris took place in the White House at Washington, D. C. Bishop Cannon, Mormon delegate in the House of Representatives from Utah, declined to testify before the House Election Committee in regard to family affairs. A national civil rights bill was passed in the United States Senate. Twenty Years Ago. Lightning set fire to a Philadelphia oil refinery and 28,000 barrels of oil burned. Gen. Butler, at Lowell, Mass., accepted the nomination for President by the National Anti-Monopoly party. The Methodist General Conference at Philadelphia adopted a resolution opposed to licensing women to preach. Gen. John C. Black, at Danville, 111., announced his candidacy for Governor as leader of the antl-Harrison faction of Illinois Democrats. Ten Years Ago. - Gov. Altgeld ordered several companies of State Militia to La Salle, 111., to suppress miners’ strike riots, following an attack by 1,500 strikers on a coal shaft The bursting of an Alleghany mountain reservoir near Altoona, Pa., and the overflowing of water of a number of rivers laid Central Pennsylvania uni der a flood, with loss of life aud props •rty.