Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 April 1905 — THE WEEKLY HISTORIAN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE WEEKLY HISTORIAN

One Hundred Years Ago. Over 100 persons lost their live* by the great flood of the river Tiber. The United States, frigate Essex,' Commodore Barron, arrived at Triest. German journals announced the march of 150,000 Prussians to the frontiers of Europe. Algerian pirates captured a Portuguese frigate with 100 meu, carrying them all into slavery. In Asia a Spanish ship with valuable cargo and $280,000 in gold was captured by a British privateer aud sent to Falmouth. Seventy-five Years Ago. Several towns were destroyed by an earthquake in South America. Navigation in the Black Sea was opened to American vessels. The standing army of the United States numbered but 6,000 men. The bill for a national road from Buffalo to New Orleans was rejected in the house by 88 to 105. In New England the right of suffrage was granted to every male inhabitant of 21 years, except paupers and persons excused from paying taxes at their own request. fifty Years Ago. A free state convention drew up the Topeka constitution. A pro-slavery legislature was organized in Kansas. A cloud passed over New York City which caused a darkness equal to night. A new running record for a mile was set by Henry Perritt on the Metairie course at New Orleans in 1:42. A mob in Platte County, Missouri, ordered that no person belonging to the Northern Methodist Church should preach in that county under penalty of tar and feathers or hemp rope. forty Years Ago. President Lincoln was shot by Wilkes Booth in Ford's Theater, Washington, D. C. Secretary Sew r ard was attacked at home and wounded. President Lincoln the next day died from the wound inflicted by Booth. Andrew Johnson was sworn iu as President. A convention was reached between General Shermau and General Johnson (Confederate) for the surrender of the latter's army, but was disavowed later by the government. Investigation in Washington by military and civil authorities fixed the identity of the murderer of President Lincoln as J. Wilkes Booth. Thirty Years Ago. Two aeronauts were suffocated aud a third nearly perished in an ascent of 26,000 feet in Paris by balloon. A plan of putting iron gunboats in the Itliiue to offset a similar proposed plan by France was announced by Germany. Emperor William of Germany signed the hill withdrawing the rights enjoyed by the Catholic church. A propapal newspaper iu Berlin was suppressed. The British House of Commons rejected a petition to dismiss from the bench the judges who had presided iu the Tichborne case, on the grounds of partiality, and to impeach the speaker for similar reasons. Twenty Years Ago. A mob at Pierre, Dal;., lynched a white murderer on a flagpole iu front of the courthouse. The body of C. Arthur Preller, of London, slain by Maxwell, was found In a trunk in a St. Louis hotel. The presence of the Prlheess of Wales alone prevented violence to the Prince from a mob in the streets of Cork, through which the royal party passed. Ten Years Ago. Joseph B. Greenhut was deposed from the presidency of the whisky trust after he had refused to resign. The body of Blanche Larnont was found in the belfry of the Emanuel Baptist Church in San Francisco, in the library of which the body of Minnie Williams had been found on the previous day. San Francisco police believed (hey had fixed the murder of Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams on Theodore Durant, and formally charged him with the crime, for which he later was hanged. John M. Palmer and friends in Chicago organized the Honest MoneyLeague, to oppose tlie free silver movement of Governor Altgeld, Nicaragua’s attempt to evade the payment of debts to England nearly involved the United States in a contest with Britain.