r^gflaiBdealrt FOR FREE COINAGE. I. VAN SLYKE, Editor antf FttUisiMr. •toHENRY, ILLINOIS. ; & - • EtiEcnnciTY is now employed in T&ris as a cure for drunkenness. It •Is not the Jersey lightning sort. THB Kodak has not beGn prohibited Russia. Snap shots at the Czar, though, are not .popular--with him. PRAYER is so mighty an instrument "that no one ever thoroughly mastered All the keys; they sweep along the in finite scale of man?s wants, and of •God's goodness. > Jk PHILADELPHIA clubman 5s ready to feet that he can eat fifty reed-birds at a sitting. Here is an opportunity to get rid of the pestiferous fiuglish sparrow in large quantities.4 MEDICINE has been tdeflned to be the art or science tctf amusing a sick man with frivoloue^peculations about bis disorder, and of tampering ingen iously till nature veither Jails or cures ./ A cftrfao recently born in "#at>ash, Ind., has four grandparents and seven great-grandparents. Just think of the mixture ot medicines that child will have to swallow the first time it litters a croupy cough! IN the rush for free land# tit the Indian Territory two negroes were killed in a fight, a woman who started ahead of time was shot and two men were drowned in crossing the Cimar ron River. Of course the people who were killed in the rush secured per manent homesteads. ^ ^OCCASIONALLY a man is found who *£m improve on the stories of history and romance. For instance, a Geor gia judge has just re-enacted the lit tle Maud Muller episode, but with this difference, that he ended by mar- tying the maiden, whom he-will send to school to be educated. THE Minneapolis Board of Trade lias formally rejected St. Paul's prop osition to take action looking to the union of the two cities. When Min neapolis ge£s a good ready St. Paul tnay be annexed, but the bigger and more rapid twin prefers to trot iosin- «ie harness just now. * " , 4 THE local toir^jperf<M^8;-tfi^6^'tt8ev. ful work and the pity is that there is not more and that there work isn't still further extended. Besides being valuable as exhibitions, they could readily become occasions for sale and exchange on a large scale and take on -a genuine immediate business import ance. • THE country should prepare itself for a fresh inundation <^f jokes--not ah inundation of fresh jokes--about the easy continuous movement of the female jaw. A woman in Augusta, <3aM dislocated her jaw last week while yawning--at her husband's long stories, most likely--and al though the jaw has been replaced, she has been forbidden to talk for sev eral days. IT was rumored that Captain Anson at the end of the base ball seasop would go on the. stage in a comedy on base ball. But no comedy, with its fun and gayety, would do for Old Anse just now. With the pennant in the hands of the Bostons he is in no mood for funny business, and if he goes on the stage at all it must be as the hero in a tragedy in Which he can relieve his feelings by killing off all the characters in the play. NECESSITY is the mother of in dention," and she is a most prolific old matron, too; but there is one case in history where the tables were turned on her. That was when the Ohio school teacher, Prof. Bell, evolved the perfect telephone first and then created the necessity by demon strating what it could do. There is no doubt that humanity would have continued to progress, both mentally and materially, had the telephone never been heard of, but now that we have it we find it right handy at times. Then, again, there are times when the situation is different. THE W. C. T. U. is making efforts to pursuade Dr. Keeley to give his formula to the world for the good of besotted mankind. But the doctor is not a philanthropist of sufficient magnitude to do anything so utterly unbusinesslike as that. He is cur ing drunkenness to make money and he is rapidly accomplishing his ob ject. He is ready at the regular jprices to give the world his medicine, 4wt he will never give it his formula. BOULASTGKK should have followed , the example of the classic .suicides, and killed himself before his dis graces; but, as the saying is, better late than never. , France should be grateful to him for taking himself off before he became the cause of : further mischief. How fortunate it would be for all peoples if disap pointed or defeated ambition would thus remove itself from the scene of its failure, and allay the thousand heart llurnings and bitterness which «uch relics of the past excite •' WHEN- the other ministers .©f Grand ; Rapids aske«J Rev. Dr. Charles Fluhrer to meet with them to pass resolutions against opening the World's Fair on Sunday, they did not know that Dr. Fluhrer was in favor of its being kept open -on that day. He made them an eloquent speech which he is capable of doing, on the advantages of having all museums; art galleries and libraries opened to the public on Sunday, and then with drew in order to allow the slated ar rangement to go through in peace. Iw view of the fact that there never was such a thing as a petrified human body, and thathuman flesh can not be petrified, it would be interest ing to know the names of those ' 'ex perts from all over the country" who, according to Buffalo dispatches, have examined the "petrified body of a woman" now on exhibition in that city and "pronounced it one of the most marvelous specimens of pet rifaction of the human form extant." If the editors of this star-spangled country would haul down their ency clopedias and read up on the subject of adipocere, there wouldn't be so much unconscious humor in the pa pers which print Buffalo ne^»^. Now that the making of rain storms has come to be a regular trade, it will, of course, be taken up by the novelists, and it will be, of course, treated differently by the different schools. The romanticists will have fell tempests concocted to sweep down in black and thunder-rent night upon the plains to destroy the band of desperadoes which is rushing to de vastate the life of the heroine by car rying her off to the arms #f the vil lain whom she abhors, and to murder at her feet the hero, the only man she has, may, can, might, eould, would or should ever love, and whom she adores with consuming passion. The realist, on the contrary, will have a gentle shower drawn from Heaven by the malicious influence of some woman who is "real mad" that the girl in the next street has a new hat. The state of the hat aforesaid after it has been exposed to the shower will furnish material for one chapter, and the talk over the possibilities of its recon struction will do for two or three more. A PAPER published in the North west contains a long article advising the farmers to make their own grades of wheat by sorting and cleaning lie- fore .sending the grain to market. The advice is no doubt valuable, but to a city man may look very much like the recommendation once given to a lot of mice to "bell the cat." It would be a grand thing to do if it could be, done at all. "Clean, height wheat from which all dirt and grains of inferior quality had been removed would reach the highest grade and command the highest prices,"and the inspector is quoted as saying that if the farmer w-|Uld only effect the separation the inferior qualities could then be sold by sample for what they will bring, and not be subjected to the dangerous ordeal of grading. This is true enough, and probably it is also true that a little more care on the part of some fanners or their help would result in keeping out of the gralt/a considerable quantity of dirt that now finds its way there. But when they have to hire a thresh ing machine, the operator of which is in a hurry to get through so as to be able to fill another engagement, it might be found hard to follow the advice to sort out parcels grown on different patches of ground, or even to prevent the passing of much dirt through the machine. At the same time it may be admitted that the presence of dirt, smut, etc., in the gram offered for sale by the farmer is the one great excuse which a conT scienceless buyer has for deducting so much from the going price as to make the seller feel he is very unjustly <j$alj^with. r ^ Od<l NhiTlns Habits. AlBoston barber tells a rep6*fe* for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat that of men who shave themselves not more than one in fifty can use the razor with both hands, and he adds some curious facts about the shaving hab its of different people. I know a wealthy Back Bay man who shaves himself standing in a cor ner of the room and facing the wall. He was a poor country boy and like most boys bought a razor on the sly. There was no looking-glass in his chamber, and rather than let his folks know what he was about, he faced the wall and scraped awav by the sense of feeling. Once accus tomed to ttate method he never needed a glass. ^ I know an old farmer who shaved himself sitting on a milking stool and looking at liis reflection in a bucket of water. That was what he did as a boy, and he said that he couldn'tf shave standing up. CliMapMk* btudira,.^ , Some of the oldest human beings on this continent inhabit the islands of the Chesapeake. Spesetia island, usually pronunced Spesootha, is far up the bay, and serves chieflv as a landing place for gunners. Further down are Wye and Kent islands, long settled and highly cultivated, the former once the home of the Paca family, the sobject of many romantic traditions. Still further south is the archipelago called Tangir sound. Hereabouts the coast is lined with a multitude of small islands inhabited l»y a hardy race of amphibians whose lives are given up to the business and pleasure of fishing. These islands are the scenes of the famous oyster wars, and the islanders have much the same attitude toward the oyster laws that mountain moonshiners have toward excise legislation. • • * A Frftiik Admission. "Sambo, where did all those chicken feathers on your coat come from?" "Dunno, Massa, but 1 hah my spishuos--dat measly niggah Sam Johnsing I jest traded coats wif am none tob good."--Epoch. HOW HOUSE 'WILL OR GANIZE, Some MeKlnley Bill PritM--A PutrBl- Tided Affatnst Itself-- Hired W«epenXot Vanted-Ihe Rich Hut Pivj- Hattnr rritw tor r«nnew,K>c. Stand Firm for Sound Currency. It Is a moral certainty that the Demo cratic House of Representatives will be organised next December in the interest of free coinage. No man can be elected Speaker without the support of the free coinage element, and that element is aggressive and will sea that its support is used to promote the intero?t% of the free coinage caus.\ The House of Rep resentatives of the Fifty-second Con gress will, by its votes, make the Demo cratic national platform of 1602. llie convention's platform committee will build upon the conduct oi the House. The Democratic party, therefore, is cer tain to go tu the country next year as the advocate of free coinage. They may profess to double the question if Mr. Cleveland is thdir nominee by some such plank as the silver plank in the New York Democratic platform of this year; hut Republicans will see that their hypocrisy is exposed. The Democratic party is the party of reckless tinkering with the currency laVs, as it is the party of reckless tinkering with the tariff laws. It is the enemy of business se curity and of the permanence of legisla tion that is working we.l Such being the case, what is the duty of Republicans? They are not the ene mies of the silver industries of the country. It was a Congress Republican in both branches that increased the minimum purchase of sliver for currency purposes from $2,000,000 a m nth to f4,500,000 in round numbers. But the Republican party has always been the party of a safe, healthy and sound cur rency, and it cannot and will not beany- thing else now. It is in favor of bring Ing about the free coinage of silver just as soon as that can be done with the co operation of other nations, so far as that co-operation is necessary to pre vent those dangerous changes which foreign influences can work in the char acter of our currency. But it is clear enough from the present attitude of for eign nations that the free coinage pro gramme, as the Western Democrats pro pose it, tends to bring about those dangerous changes instead of prevent ing them. The Democrats admit this, for they are continually calling the attention of the advocates of an international ratio to tbe fact that Europe is shying off. Well, why is Europe shying; o.f? Be cause of this very programme- of inde pendent free coinage. We have over 8400,000,0C0 of silver coined now at a ratio that Europe regrets, and not until Europe knows that we will coin no more at that ratio will Europe even negotiate With us. Before she agrees with us site wants a guarantee that we will recoin that silver ourselves, and not dump it on her. Europe's draught on U3 for gold last spring, says the New York Press, was largely due to distrust of our tendencies in silver legislation. Greater distrust will mean greater draughts on Us and a greater anxiety to get our gold. The result of reducing our gold currency and increasing our currency of silver by coining more dollars of the present standard will inevitably be an accommo dation of prices to the increased cur rency, both as to quantity and as to quality. Everything that the wage- worker buys will go up in price, but his wages will not go up in priie, for when he agrees to work for $2 a day, or $12 a week, he agrees to work for so many legal tender dollars' "Legal tender" means a kind of dollar--any kind of dollar--which he is obliged to take in pay if it is offered him. It is against the traditions and against (he principles of the Republican party to consent to any cheating, fluctuating. Speculative currency. The time has come for the Republican party to formu late a plan for th; solutio.i of the free coinage problem in a way that will be just to the wage-workers and to the people at large as w^l as to the silver interests. If such a plan is made the Republican silver proposition in the Fifty-second Congress this winter, and if it contem plates a guarantee that the present volume of coined silver will be taken care of at home in the event of Repub lican success, such a guarantee as will tend to make Europe favor the Repub lican party's proposition for an inter national ratio, then, with th ' assurances of that favor, so essential for a perma nent and sound solution < f the currency question, we can go to the country next year as the bulwarks and champions of honest money and good money. There is Republican victory in 1892 in a courageous, aggressive, positive, hon est treatment of the silver question. We cannot afford to be mere'y a party of negation. If there Is any demand on the part of any considerable number of American citizens for the settlement of a question we. cannot afford merely to object to the Democratic settlement pro posed, however bad It may be. We must meet it with somethln^definita and positive. • \ Bettor Prloes for Farmers. The farmers hava better prices this year, But why? is juires the New York Tribune. One reason is that the home demand for all farm products has in creased, because more laborers are em ployed on this side instea 1 of in Europe. Here they consume American food; there they consume largely the products of foreign farms. This movement of works and workers to the United States in consequence of the new duties cn imported goods has been going on for a year, and scarcely a week has passed In which there has not been recorded the transfer of one or more important es tablishments to this country. This week the item of interest is that new works ara about to be established in Massachusetts, probaby near Worces ter, by T. B. Crosley & Co., owners of the Fort Vale Mills, at. Stirling, Scot land, who have exported to this country an enormous quantity of woolen goods, but find their markets cut short by the new tariff. It is not yet stated how ex tensive the works 0.1 this side are to be or how many hands they will, employ,s but the magnitude of the trade of that firm with this country gives reason for believing that the establishment will bo one of the first importance. It has been usual in such cases for foreign firms contemplating a change of location to begin with a moderate plant, in order to ascertain practically how the manufac ture and the trade are affected, and afterward to extend their plant on this side as they iind an adequate market for goods. But since the new tariff was adopted it has been a noticeable feature that firms whose trade with this country has been cut off or threatened have started here with the intention of sup-^ plying from American mills the entire demand formerly met by their works abroad. Last week it was announced that the purchase of property and the establish ment of works near Manchester, Conn., was contemplated by a French woolen manufacturing firm now located near Paris. In like manner works for the manufacture of plushes, of cutlery, of tin plates, of cotton ties and many other products have been recently removed or are now in the process of removal to this country. In the aggregate these trans fers within the past year have brought hands, who wiliheiftafter oonsmne, the product* of American farms and Ameri can artisans. As the£ come here to do wprk whieh%as not previously done by operatives of this country, but in foreign establishments e elusiveiy, there results no decrease whatever in the demand for American labor. But their own con sumption of all other articles except those they produce must be sup plied by American industry, and thus the demand for such products ard for American labor »s greatly increased. Every thousand hands thus trans ferred from other countries to this soon demand and receive the American rate of wages, which is at least d- uble that paid abroad for ths same work. In stead of spending $300,000 a year for the support of families in the purchase of English, French, and German products, these thousand workers spend $600,000 a year in the purchase of American prod ucts, and thus give additional employ ment to nearly a thousand more Amerk cans in ra sing food for them, building houses for them, and providing thei* with furniture, clothing, sh es, implc ments, and all the things needful for th? more comfortable life that is possible i» this country. In many cases the hands arriving from abroad are skilled an# able to support families, and bring their families with them, so that four or fiv* additional consumers of American prod ucts come for every hand employed in the new Industries. To produce th* articles required for the support of such a family the labor of nearly another family is employed. The home marke* is enlarged, not temporarily or spas modically, or until trade relations or laws or tieatie* may be changed, but for all time to come. Btomted McKlalcy PlieM. The Democratic free trade liardHbN# lost their occupation. A year ago the. very air was laden with the cries o# "higher prices." To hear the Demo cratic campaign orators and to read their campaign newspapers was to hea? fantastic tales of pricos all going sky* ward. They predicted then that within six months everything that the laboring men buy would be selling for two of three prices. What has happened? Just the opposite of that which was pre* dieted. Prices were never lower than now. An Iowa paper has been running a standing offer of $5 for any and every article that can be cited by Democrats that is higher to-day than it was before the McKinley law went Into effect Not one Democrat has been ab'e to make the $5. Another prints the fol lowing t»ble of pr.ces this year and last, and dares Democrats to contradict a sing e item; ouonn. Flat.... RoU*i:......... Hign colors.... Heather, new.. Cumberland Renfrew novelties. Wh.t,tendon Beatty Norintuidie........ Chesappalm Carolina..., Mt. Pleasant Caledonia p aids... Western Manohenter Fen wick. Hartel Allen's Fancy... Pacific Pacific satins =EEff JA*. • . in;' nnm, « J* w •a Berlin solid 3....'. 6 Merrimaok DurnieU . 8% .'/'£$• m American Indigo €% ; " Even in Dakota prices have gone down. At Watertown the following quotations are published: . yw, £>• ' Price* Prloes •W JO .85 .&> •s .95 MS .10 1.0U Wire nails,,*.* 8pade 1.00 Tea kettle., 60 Foorteen-quart dlibpw.....,.«... .60 Galvanised pall.. ,15 Joint stove pipe. (.8J Fourteen-quart tin pail.............^.50 Twelve-<ujart tin palL. 40 Three-quart tin pail .25 Two-quart tin pall 90 Milk pans, per down. 1.80 Tin cup 05 It is in this way that the McKinley bill has affected prices! Blessings on the blessed McKinley tariff law! The Rich Must Par. CoL W. P. Hepburn served his country in an Iowa ca . airy regiment He Is at present Solicitor of the United States Treasury. It is his special business to help see that the Treasury is not wrong ed out of money by the rich importers. The f ollowing is cited by the Cedar Rap ids Republican to show how faithfully Colonel Hepburn is doing his duty. Millionaire Vanderbilt bought a steam yacht in Oreat Britain. It is an iron ar ticle of iron manufacture, and is dutiable under the law. He must pay 45 per cent, duty on it. This he declines to do, and is resorting to legal quibbles to avert the payment of duty. The Colonel volun teers the opinion that Mr. Vanderbilt has no more right to import a yacht than a pen-knife without paying duty. "He will have to comply with the law." The Republican says: "Gov. Boles at Tipton tried to make his Cedar County hearers believe that the sugar is 'some cheaper,' the people (who are finding It much cheaper) under our 'odious,' •in famous,' and 'damnable' protective-tariff law, have to pay enough more on other articles they buy to more than make up for the saving on sugar. Since the Gov ernment cannot name, much less ex hibit, any article of general use among the poor that is higher in price than it was a year ago, and sinc^the Governor insists that 'the tariff is a tax and the consumer pays the tax,' a horrible sus picion must arise in men's minds that that man McKinley, with that man Gear and those other fellows on the Ways and Means Committee, co-operatfag with those co-conspirators of the Senate, Messrs. Allison and Aldrlch, must have so arranged their infernal machine for raising necessary revenue as to place the burden of taxation mainly upon those rich Americans who can't find what they want ip this country and have to Import everything from abroad. * Two Tariff Picture* Na t '•:> , Everybody eats salt I%1857 a barrel of salt cost 92.3a Last year it cost 81.65. Under the McKinley law the purchaser pays SL 38. NO. 2. In 1857 ifa» American worklngman paid for bis overalls an average price of SL20. In 1890, the last year of the tariff of 1883, he paid 79 cents In 1891 the "McKinley prices" for over alls are 70 cents. * It Grows and Growt Some people, even some Republicans, think that the Republican party is not so strong as it once was. The fact is, the army of Republicanism has been steadily growing all the time, and never was so strong as it is now. See how its vote has grown. Here is the vote of the country from 185tf to 1888 for the Be- publican ticket: Fremont IW§ 1.S41.848 .Lincoln 1MJ 1,866,452 Unooin 1644 LktSlOSft Grant .1868 4<U9^3S G. ant ....1871 8^07,189 Hayes 1876 4,033,T68 Garfield .>.....1880 4,454,416 Blaine UM aaiaiao BETTER NOT TO THINK. How Farmer l.aria Save Thexnuelveea DMI ' WT Worry. A sturdy chunk of a boy was plow ing in a field over in Jersey a few days ago. The sunwas blistering hot. A lean man sat on a fence, in the shade of a maple tree, calmly looking at the boy. His trousers were in his boots and his chip hat was turned up behind. Another man, apparently a stranger, was passing by and Stopped and leaned on the fence near the uian with the chip hat. "That must be hot and tiresome work, such weather as this," remarked the stranger, referring to the plow ing. "Yes." replied the Other, "but the boy don't mind It They're all alike, for that matter." "Who are all aliie?" asked the stanger. "Farm hands," said the man on the fence, "and it's a good thing for the farmer they are all alike." The man watched the boy as he Jerked the heavy plow around at the end of the furrow and started back across the field to make another one. "It's a good thing, I tell you," the man on the fence went on. "It's a good thing for the independent farmer that his hired help has never got into the habit of stopping to think." "Ah," said the stranger.' "How's that?" "How's thai?" exclaimed the man on the fence. "Well, sir, it's some thing like this. Take that boy, for instance. He'll answer for 'em all. Last week by the way, he left a farmer he was working for, because the farmer required him to walk five miles on an errand. The boy said he wouldn't work for any man who wanted him to do work that would tire a horse out, and so he left and went to work for the man who owns this farm. Now, for instance, he went to plowing in that field early this morning. By 6 o'clock to-night, if the harness holds out and the plow don't break, he'll have close on to an acre and a half of ground turned over. Yes, just about, for he's turning a good nine-inch furrow slice. "Well, now, he's walking along there like a machine, and just as like as not is wondering how any man could be so hard on a boy as to expect him to walk five miles on an errand with the thermometer in the eighties. Now, suppose that by some sudden inspiration he should look back ovfer the ground he has plowed to-day and should stop to think a minute. And then suppose he took to counting those furrows and then took to pacing out the length of 'em. What would he learn? Why, he'd learn that each one of those furrows was 210 feet long, and that before he got his day's work done he would have to go -back and forth over that field 420 times. When that fact had worked its way under his .hat, suppose he should be moved to pick up a flat stone and do a little ciphering on it, admitting that he knowsliow to cipher, for the sake of argument. Then what would he find? He would see set before him, in figures that wouldn't lie, the to him rather astounding fact that, in slouching along after that plow across the field these 420 times, he would walk about as near to sixteen miles and a half as multiplication and division could bring it, with the sun cutting into him for all it was worth, just like it's doing now, to say noth ing of the wear and tear on his lungs howling at the horses, as you hear him now, and the not altogether mod erate exercise he gets by jerking that plow around 840 separate and distinct times. "Now, then, if he should by any miracle be led to thus unravel the mystery of a real honest day's plow ing, do you suppose that when he quit at night he'd jog along home as chip per as a cricket, put up and care for his horses, milk half a dozen cows and do a lot of other chores about the house, all for $10 a month and board, and go to bed feeling thankful that he had such a nice easy place, and wasn't workintr for a man who ex pected him to walk five miles in the blading sun? Do you suppose he would? Not much he wouldn't! Not much! "Consequently, 1 say that it's a good thing for the independent faritt- er that his hired help haven't the habfjt of stopping to think. If they had their number would have to be doubled, and wages would go up to at least $12 a month. It's funny that some one doesn't give the hired help a hint or two, ain't it? I'm sure that boy yonder would be thankful for a little figuring on his case." The man on the fence took off his hat and fanned himself with it, and looked as if he felt sorry for the poor plow-boy. "Why don't you quietly give him the tip on it yourself?" asked the strange n b The man on the fence put on his hat and felt for his tobacco-box. "Well," said he, "to lie consistent, I can't. I'm the independent farmer he's working for."--New York World. Tke Mariner's Compact. Did the Chinese invent the marin er's compass, and did we in our turn copy it froni them? Both assertions have been made and both have been denied. It is idle to pretend, as the Chinese do from a vague reference in one of their authors, that the instru ment was known to them 5,000 years ago. But an interesting research which appears in a Shanghai joiy;nal make it clear that four centuries be fore the Christian era the needle was used as an implement for drawing astrological charts and fixing "lucky places" for tombs, and that four cen turies later it was employed by navi gators, these navigators being well acquainted with the fact that the needle did not point to the true North, and that the "variation" is Changeable from year to year. But it is as idle to credit Marco Polo with introducing it into Europe as it is to credit Europe, as some prophets of our own nation have done, with its independent Invention. For it ap pears from certain Arabic writers that the old Arab traders to China heard first of it there, and that from them the Mediterranean nations adopted it. But as the Arabs had used the Western notation, the Chi nese twenty-four points were not com municated. The original form of the compass was a needle stuck through a hit Af tVAnH ovwl flnaitnff nn The pivot was picked up by the Jap anese from their Portuguese visitors, and from them the Chinese copied this improvement. ; . Aunt Uollj'a Cheat. Many years ago one of the oldest houses in the town of I) was left vacant by the death of its soul occu pant, a little old lady whom every one called Aunt Dolly. The house was in a bad condition, and since the heir did not care to make the neces sary repairs, the sign, "For Sale or To Let" hung in the window for more than six years. At last a new factory was built in the town, a de mand for dwelling places sprang up, and the old house was rented. Before the month was gone the German family who had moved in suddenly moved out again, declaring that they couldn't stand the ghosts. People laughed, but when family after family moved out of the house, each insisting that strange and unac countable sounds were heard there, always ;t night, it came to be gener ally admitted that something must be wrong. For a long time the house stood empty again, and the children, going back and forth to school, would look mysteriously and talk about Aunt Dolly's ghost, it's big red eyes, and the terrible noises it made. These noises were always heard in the back kitchen, which opened di rectly out of doors. At last the owner of the house determined to find out whether there was any founda tion for the current reports. He took his gun and sat uoon the stairs lead ing out of the kitchen to watch for the ghost. About 12 o'clock the back door, which hung loose upon its hinges, creaked ominously, opened with a slam and the ghost slowly walked into the kitchen. The man started a little, but composed himself to watch the proceedings. The ghost stood still a moment, then shaking itself once or twice, and giving its head a toss, it walked across the room and putting its head down in a corner, took a drink from the old open well, fed by a spring very near the surface, which the man remembered to be there when he was a boy. He had fallen into it once, and had been rescued by Aunt Dolly, whose reputed giiost was now leisure ly refreshing itself. Then the ghost gave a cough which made the windows rattle dubiously. The man laughed softly to himself, and waited. Suddenly, probably aware for the first time that a mortal was sharing its nightly virgil. the ghost put one foot on the stair and waited to be spoken to; for ghosts never speak except in answer to a question. The man seized the , hair which grew down over the ghost's forehead, and while he led the disturber of honest folks' slumber out of the back door and across the pasture to his own estate, he talked to it as proba bly no ghost was ever talked to be fore. 1 "So you're the sperrit, air you, you miserable old nag? And all these years you've ben a-disturbin' people an' a-taken money out o' my pocket, an' all jest because old Aunt Dolly learnt you the trick o' comin' into the kitchin an' glttin' a drink when you was thirsty. An' this's the way you take advantage 0'me when you're put in the barn cellar all to your self. An' here you've been a kittin' off every night, and gittin' homo afore anybody suspected you'd a-gone. You're a pretty nag, aint you, now?" The horse, as soon as the story be came known, was renamed Aunt Dolly's Ghost. The house was re paired, and no difficulty in nypLti^yj it was afterwards experienced. ^ r J. AROUND A GREAH BRIEF COMPILATION OP NOIS NEWS. Il-U- A JaokMMvine SeaaaUoa -Failure mt «A Old Bocic Iiland Cloth iny Mjr j Vounjf MM Accidentally Killed to # Shooting Gallery--Cairo Flra. ' *-M A Mnrdermto Lorcr. AT Springfield, John Menke, s younff< man living in St Louis, attempted to murder his pretty consin, Miss SfpW* Broecker, and to commit suicide, but be : •> was unsuccessful. He bad been v«rf " " devoted to Miss Broec ker, and detef*'-'. V'M{ mined to make her his wife, but she IHM . refused consent, both because of their relationship and because she was en» gaged to another man He came front ' i St. Louis, resolved to secure her con- •" *\ sent to their marriage or to kill her. As she still declined to yield to hi# < portunlties he shot her in the head I then fired another bullet iutobteowA head- Both bullets took the same course^ and neither wound will prove fatal very serious- Menke is in jail, and givw no indication of regretting what he has done. THE London Clothing Company, th# t best known clothing hdiise in Roclc Island, went into the hands of th# Sheriff on the strength of a confession |M of judgment by G. Joseph and E. X. Leveen, the proprieto*s. ^ FIRE destroyed throe residences In thi 1 central part of Cairo, entailing a loss of $10,000, wi;n insurance amounting t^k 1 less than Sfi.oeo. A woman sprang front ? the second story of one of the building* ;/ > and was seriously injured. ' 1 PROFESSIONAL swindlers worked th# three-shell game at a circus at Carlisle^., -- / Clinton County, several days ago. ' large number of farmers were taken ifc . ti/', for sums ranging from $5 to S250. Th^ , * !. swindlers secured about $2,000 and mad#* their escape. BF.RT AMSPKX, an assistant at m Lltchiield shooting-gallery, while a*» y'-i tempting to extract a snpposed worth-., less cartridge from a riie, discharge^' ' the weapon', the ba'l lodging in the brain of a young man named Davis, who died " in a few moments. JACKSONVILLE society is all torn B# ' :%s over the marriage of Mamie Gregory t# John P. Andrews of Grand Kapids* Mich. It transpires that Andrews hat a wife in an asylum at Detroit, and tw# children. Andrews has skipped, and hit deluded second wife is penniless la Paris, France. AT Farmer City, at the reunion of th# State Association of ex-Prisoners of W**£; the following officers were elected: Pres* *: Fall Stylet for Trampa. -? ^ The sparrow policeman over in Madison Square was giving some body a terrible fanning. The whacks echoed through the heavy night air with a muffled emphasis that made them audible a block away, and a couple of indignant citizens who heard them rushed across the street to the rescue of the assaulted one. They found the policeman putting up his club and looking regretfully after a tattered figure that was making a record for a 500-yard dash in the darkness. "Were you trying to kiH that man?" queried the first of the disap pointed rescurers. "Kill him? Not much," answered the gentleman in gray. "I'll bet he didn't feel my club once, although I gave it to him pretty hot. The cool weather's sending all the tramps back to town again, and this square is filled with 'em every night. They sleep on the benches and give us no end of trouble to get 'em out. They're a pretty foxy lot, too. Mast of 'em wear enough paper wrapped around 'em under their clothes to start a mill. They're all padded out with pasteboard and old newspapers, and you couldn't make'em feel if you hit 'em with an ax. And when the real cold weather comes around this paper keeps 'em good and warm, too. I tell you what, tramps these days are about twice as fly as the ordinary citizen." Then he departed upon a still hunt for another. -- [Commercial Adver tiser. • • .r Sky Color Variations. A» Interesting paper detailing ob servations on the variation of the in tensity of the blueness of the sky was recently read before the Academie des Sciences, Paris. The observations were made at Montpelier, France, and may be summarized as follows: The sky is bluest in the months of Decem ber, January, March, and September, and least blue in February, Jul}-, August, and November. Speaking in general terms the sky is deepest blue in winter, palest blue in summer and of intermediate depth of color in spring and autumn. With regard to each day, the sky is. bluest in the morning and palest during thehottest hours. Toward evening the blue in tensifies again, but does not equal that of the morning. AH Vndor-WaUr Gun. . A gun to fire under water has been invented and one for the United States ship Destroyer is in course of construction at Bethlehem, Pa. The experimental gun is to be thirty-five feet long, and will throw a projectile twenty-five feet in length, containing 400 pounds of nitroglycerine, 1,000 | scar'et fever, 10: nervous and digeittff# f/vnf f fll«AauA« UU Hvc* -- ident, Gen. C. W. Pavey, of Springfield^ Vice President, W C. McMussay, of '1 Farmer City; Secretary. DL James Lit* 'Vt ,i tie. of Gibson City. Newman was chose»i--^'§t:-C^ for the next annual meeting. • „ 4^ •_£ THE Mississippi Valley Manufacture ,. ers' Mutual Insurance Company has re»C V; » tired from business and is succeeded bjK , . " ff the Northwestern Fire Insurance Com* >4 pany, of Rock Island. All the policies . will be settled in full. The capital V j stock of the new company will be M00,- ^ ̂ 000, and the present shareholders of th#. 33. old company will control most of th# 8<°ek • 'fei Trk recent failure of tfce Order of th# » r 1 Annual Friend, a so called benevolent organization that agreed to pay §100 u| » 1 f ono year, for abont 5?50, that was to ^ have been paid in, canght exactly fifty 1# , > - Mascoutah people to the extent ot #5,000. The .lodge was organized her# ^ - J last December. Since that time the as»\ • - S? sessments have come in thick and heavy. The losers are generally hard-working Qi i 1 men who have families to support. . TIIRRE were three accidents at Fay* '. *< • etteville about tbe same time and of 4 simitar kind Charles Schmidt, a car* penfcer, fell from a high scaffold, sustain* ing injuries that caused his death. A. •",? " Louis Krhardt, a prominent farmer, fell.. . •Vf " :f. from the separator of a wheat thrasher*. ^1 ,f| breaking two ribs and sustaining pro#* > ably fatal Injuries. Louis Frekin fell \ *J from a ladder, bieaking three ribs aiul also sustaining Internal injuries that*: may cause his death. '1 ~ - V- . A CIBCCLAR was issued from Sprlng%:^::':.:^|i|ji|! field to the bankers ot Illinois by a num- v# ber of well-known bankers, who say ^ 3 v i that "desiring to promote a better ac- , quaintance among the fraternity in th# *%' '"j State, as well as to offer opportunities ^ for the discussion of questions of interest - ^ arising from time to time," they tnvitd ' Hp ",1 the bankers of the State to meet at tho V-4 " 1 State House for the purpose of organic- ' * in? a State Association of Bankers, if M such an organization be deemed ad vis- ab'e. ^ THE other night the JacksonVIII# , '4 watchman at the Jacksonville South-' eastern line rouudhouse saw one of their large locomotives cross the turn-table, glide out uppn the ma n track, and start" «•'%!' ' , down the road in the direction of Plsgak " k ^ On it went faster and faster without • ? conductor or orders The agent &% . Pisgah was wired to have the main „* "1 track at that place c!eared, and a north- - ' j bound freight had just been side-tracked when the headlight of the wild engine 1 came into view within a hundred feet of. the station, when it came to a standstill ^ Members of the freight train came near t & the engine when it stopped but saw no> v- \ one leave it. The men at the round- ', : >* house in Jacksonville saw no stranger about the place, yet when the runaway c J engine WJS boarded the cab was found- V % t o b e v a c a n t T h e t h r o t t l e w a s c l o s e d , ; ^ and the machinery was in perfect order. i'S j? The circumstance afforded n ateriai for . >*3 • ii much discussion and 10 >m for many con- *4 4 jectures. There are railroad men who - f| have heard of engines being run by su pernatural agencies, and they are not prepared to say that a living being made j this trip. - & BUUULABS carried away 93,500 of th#-*/ money of Justice of the Peace Meredith • _ ^ Duncan, of New Memph's. ,.'J A COROSER'S jury at Gr enviaw found - ^ Benjamin F. Ross guilty of fatally * % shooting City Marshal John A Stone. " / ^j| • T. R. MILLIGEX, who represented -YIK himself to be an agent of the United, ' 'Md States Insurance Com any, is in jail at Matteson on the charge of obtaining "If " money by false pretenses. , TUB work of grading for the exten- , ' > sion of the Pawnee Kaiiroad from the >" V intersection of the Jacksonville South- . '-"j eastern, between Divernon and Gleaaria, - _./J to Auburn ha* begun It is expected to "' have the road iu operation within sixty " . • days. THE Secretary of State is sending out Jt illustrated descriptions of the English - Ifh, sparrow, preparatory to the war of ex- ^ JX termination that is expected to begin against it cn the 1st of December next, x under the law passed by the last !eg.s- *,;$ lature offering a bounty of 2 cents a head for all sparrows killed after that SEVERAL country postmasters went to / Springfield to attend a conventtoa. '!!? They could find none. A short time since tt\e publisher of a postoftiee month- ly wrote asking for available quarters ! for such a meeting. It is supposed that , •, ^ he called" the gathering, but failed to arrange further plans. Dk. WILLIAM TOMI.INSOX, of the Chi cago Health Department, issued a state ment of the deaths in Chicago for a re cent week. The total number it 397. By violence, 24; in public tut!tattoos, 35. From different diseas s: Diphtheria. 30; typhoid fever, 33; pneumoniae ill <; v.; '!•.'4&V '.ri