Highland Park Public Library Local Newspapers Site

McHenry Plaindealer (McHenry, IL), 15 Nov 1876, p. 3

The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

'. Safe'*,.V.. ......:r-rfe ** ' *"»• * ceinr off*- * Mr . • • easiest way to eradicate the worst weeds ®Uf epRC||fnn) (isb^jDM^tcnttiBg off .^^fadrtifr' «WStS , dultV- Jatholic J. YA.N HLfXJii pvaunm. MoHENBT, ILLINOIS. 1 '* s Aiilait ULTU B A L AN II DOMESTIC. The 014 Farm-Oat*. - The «M farm-gate hangs Ragging down, On rusty hinged, bent and brown; Its iatota is gone, and here aud there It BLOWS rude traces of repair. Tbe old farm-gate has seen, each yea*,' '* "• . Tuf btopnom bloom and disappear; The bright green leaves of Spring unfold, And tarn to Autumn's red and gold. The children have npon it clang, . And, in and out, with raptore swung, When their yonng hearts were good and pam- When hope was fair and faith was sure. Beside that gate have lovers true, Told the story always new; Have made their vows, have dreamed of bow, And sealed each promise with a klaa. The old farm-gate wag opened wide To welcome home the new-made bride, When lilacs bloomed, and !ocusta fair, Wfth their sweet fragrance filled the air. Thot gate, with rusty weight aad chain, Has closed upon the solemn train lhat kore her lifeless form away, Upon a dreary Aatumn-day. . The lichens gray and mosses green Upon its rotting poets art* seen; Initials, carved with youthful sklQ, Long years ago, arc on it still. Vet dear to me above »"•! things, By reason of the thoughte it brings, Is that old gater now sagging down, . On rusty ttitigec. bent and brown, ^ --XwyeiU J. Ball. Around the Farm. IN Oxford, Conn., dmring the past year, and mostly since the 10th of April, 160 sheep have been killed by dogs, for 150 of which the town has paid $735.50. BYB STRAW, says the Springfield Re­ publican f lias lately gone up from $12 to $18 and $20 a ton, and a party is buy­ ing and bailing it in Hampshire county for shipment to the Boston stables. IT is probably true that the feed stored over the stables may absorb more or less of the odors escaping from the manure, but this is an evd that may be prevented by a well-devised arrange ment of flues. IT is profitable to plant trees in groves and to make woods in this State, not only for the future timber* but to enrich the soil with their leaves, or to use their leaves for manure for other land or gar­ dens, as well as for shelter against high winds.--California Horticulturist. CoidJMAK, MATHBS & FOTJTOK, of Tefits, own a little farm divided as fol­ lows : Big pasture, 110,000 acres; Rin- con pasture, 15,000 acres; shipping pas­ ture, 3,000 acres; Brasada pasture, 45,000 acres; Nueces pasture, 15,000 acres; Henry's Bend pasture, 17s 000 acres; Wm. Qninn pasture, 4,428 acres. THB olive oil which is imported from France to this country is genuine peanut oil. Heavy frosts for a few suc­ cessive years have killed the greatest number of olive trees in the south of France and in Italy, |and the enterprising Frenchmen now fabricate olive oil from peanuts. We are under the impression that in our|climate, where the peanut grows luxuriantly with comparatively little labor, an oil press would not only be a remunerative business, but a benefit to the whole farming population.--Quincy Journal. A C«KNEOTIOOT poultry-raiser writes to an exchange : " Perhaps some of your readers who raise fowls will be inter­ ested in my experiment tried lasl season on a chicken with the g*pes. I gave it about a quarter of a teaspoonful of kero­ sene, Mid as it seemed better for a day or two I repeated the dose, giving nearly one-half a teaspoonful for the second time. The chicken was about the size of a robin at the time, but is now full- own, weighing several pounds. I cured ohickens affected with a disease we thought cholera by giving powdered alum dissolved in water." HOPS are considered valuable as a fertilizer, but when used fresh from the brewery they ferment quickly, generat­ ing almost as much heat as fresh horse manure. The gardeners about New York use hop® for their hot-beds, also for banking them up 011 the outside in cold weather, mulching for small tender plants, and for composting with other less-heating kinds of fertilizers. But before hops can be absorbed by plants as a fertilizer they must become soluble in water, the same as any other kind of manure. Consequently, the more thor­ oughly decomposed before applying the sooner will they be used by the growing plants. Still,, the hops mixed in the soil may have a mechanical or chemical influence highly beneficial independent of their manorial value.--Moore's Rttral. M. DSFAT has discovered a prepara­ tion by means of whioh sandcracks or fractures in hoof or horn may be durably cemented up. Even pieces of iron can be securely joined together by its means. The only precaution necessary for its successful application is the careful re­ moval of all grease by spirits of sal-am­ moniac, sulphide of carbon, or ether. M. Defay makes no secret of its com­ position, which is as follows : Take one part of coarsely-powdered gum-om- moniacum and two parts of gutta percha, in pieces the size of a hazel-nut. Put them in a tin-lined ves­ sel, over a slow fire, and stir constantly unti^ thoroughly mixed. Before the thick resinous mass gets cold, mold it into sticks like sealing-wax. The ce­ ment will keep for years, and, when re­ quired for use, it is only necessary to cut off a sufficient quantity and remelt it immediately before application. THB London Garden remarks: "The I only remedy for weeds is a prompt de­ struction in a young state. Weeds are easily eradicated if never allowed to ad­ vance beyond the seed-leaf. Once let their roots run deep and wide, and their [ tops rise high, and then the weeds are I masters in the garden. It provokes one v to see the complacency with which some cultivators allow weeds to establish themselves in flower-beds or borders, or on roads or walks, and their subsequent futile efforts to subjugate them. Prompt destruction will ultimately vanquish the very worst of them. Plantains, grass, thistles, and docks are perhaps the most difficult to eradicate. Bv.t if, by any neglect, these have gained a strong footing in any garden constant behead­ ing alone will destroy them. No plant can live long if never allowed to form , leaves or stems, and the shortest, sorest, Abeot the House. *- DOUGHXUTS.--One pint of sour cream, three eggs, two cups of sugar, one tea­ spoonful of soda. Mix quite stiff. STUFFING FOB POULTRY OBFISH.--One cup of bread crumbs, one egg, one tea- cupful of mashed potatoes, butter size of an egg, savory, sage, pepper and salt. The above, with the addition of a chopped onion, is excellent for goosej duck, or wild meat of any kind. SCOTCH CAKES.--Into two quarts of flour rnh a tablespoosfu! of butter, stir in a cup and a half of milk, a cup of yeast, two eggs, and half a teaspoonful of salt. Let this rise over night. In Che morning roll out and make into small, thin biscuit, let them rise and bake quickly. Dip each biscuit in melt­ ed butter before putting it in the pan, and they will readily part from each oth­ er when baked. SUBSTITUTE FOR A CORKSCREW.--A substitute for a corkscrew may be thus made : Stick two forks vertically into a cork on opposite Bides, not too near the edge. Bun the blade of a knife through, the two and give a twist. Another way to uncork a bottle is to fill the hollow at the bottom of the bottle with a hankerchief or towel; grasp the neck with one hand, and strike firmly and steadily with the other upon 'the handkerchief. PUT a handful ef loaf sugar to boil with a gill of water in a saucepan; when it boils add the rinds of three oranges minced finely or out into very narrow strips. Let the whole boil five minutes, add a wine-glass of brandy, and pour the sirup (hot) over half a dozen whole oranges, peel«d and cored--or cut up into any form you like. The oranges should be left in a basin with the sirup till quite oold, and then piled up on a dish and served. They look and eat extremely nioe. FIRST-RATE COFFEE.--Take a ooffee- cup of the best Java coffee, browned to the color of chocolate (not scorched), ground not too fine, and mix with it half an egg. Put this iiito a ooffee-pot or boiler (which is as clean as the cup you drink from), and pour over it one quart of boiling water, stirring as you put the water in; boil slowly for fifteen minutes; then stand the boiier On the back of the range for ten minutes to settle; turn all the coffee off from the grounds at onoe into an urn or coffee-pot that can stand upon the stove to keep hot. Coffee loses its flavor by standing on the grounds longer than half an hour, and should be very hot to be good. Put into the cup a teaspoonful of " American condensed milk " and some boiled' milk, and turn the coffee into it. No French coffee is any better. A TERRIBLE DEATH. Dying ot Thirst on the Colorado Desert. The San Diego (Cal.) World, in a re­ cent issue, says : " From Mr. Oassem Hirche, of San Louis Obispo, who has been prospecting through Arizona, Sonora and New Mexico, and who ar­ rived here yesterday evening, on his re­ turn home, we learn some particulars in regard to the man Henry Smith, who perished on the Colorado desert some sixty days ago. Mr. Hirche, in com­ pany witn some other gentlemen,««»»» up with the unfortunate man some two hours before he breathed his last. He was perfectly sane up to the last moment, and told his story as b&et he could. Not­ withstanding the disconnected way in which it was told, Mr. Hirche, was en­ abled to learn that the deceased's name was Henry Smith, and that he was on his way from California to Arizona ; that he had wandered from the main road and got lost, and had been without water ninety-six hours, and that during the last twelve hours his life was sustained by catching and drinking his own as well as the urine of his two burros. After he became too weak to do thin any longer, in his desperate condition he took a razor, out his arm and drank his own blood, and finally his tongue became so wollen that he could not breathe free­ ly. He took toe razor and cut his throat on each side of the wind-pipe, thus pjfording a means of gei&ng breath. He had on his person four Mexican dol­ lars and five of Sanrita placer gold dust He had also with him two burros, sad­ dle and blankets. The money found on his person was paid out for his burial xpenses. While rolling in the sand he had lost his pocket-book, containing $20 in greenbacks. He said that he had formerly lived in St. Louis, Mo., and that he had a sister living there now, and said that her name was Miss Sarah Smith ; that she hud been married, but was divorced, had taken her maiden name, and that she lived on Carondelet avenue, near the arsenal, and requested she be informed of his sad end. He picked out his burial place, gave direc­ tions as to how he should be buried, which were followed. Deceased said he was 28 years of age, born on the 19th of April, 1848, and died on the 7th of September, 1876. There was a man trav­ eling with Mr. Smith, but he would not give his name other than John, and said he had been in Mexico some time, and did not want them to know who he was. tagainst notice tfallory. ^page of •wjtock of tao prices, kfsirable, giving stock of ^Tailors, trtir new geie mean naiisli any- fail to pje Block, fyiCock of stods and tirfiey are *®^hey are everv UK8 OF THB WKKK. •MwrwtBiiw1 wii *7*5™,"° '™,h ln the T' w the man who shipped that ' %toga trunk with its terrible con- doubtless the suggestion came lomassen's maohine. ^t in or 8®i«renad- ^hur&day htf finitely annir next m1slature. f®y were tr» iyj treated •iriJP in a bytimable ™*It was a teJ P'e«>- A Straggle with an Eagle. Mr. John F. Carpenter, station agent at Ashton, was out duck hunting near here recently, when he saw a very large bird flying over the tree tops, about 200 yards high. He fired, and brought it down. He ran to pick it up, and found it lying on its back, alive, and with bill and talons open, ready for a fight. Mr. Carpenter attempted to take it by the feet; but the bird fastened its claws into his hands, and he was imprisoned by a wounded black American eagle. There was a severe tussle for a few minutes ; bilt the man conquered, though hii hands were very badly scratched in the fight. The eagle's, wings were injured, but it is thought they are not broken, and that it will live.--Providence Jour­ nal. MRS. BURNHAM, of Atlanta, visited the Centennial Exhibition, and there met a man who said that he was Col. Delong, of Boston, and very wealthy. On the second day of their acquaintance they were married, and on the third day the bride was looking for her husband and $1,300 which had disappeared with him. Tip Smith has been converted the powerful exhortations ©f McLean That the "cornf! 11 eery 111 an near the Depot ever ds shadow dance That Char tiiuies to driuk sedletz water. That the leader of the Band wtaistl his sleep and calls it snoring That the editor of this ̂ paper has fa heir to $128,000 .That the iniyi from Woodstock came o*er bm his niece, Lady William Bus- Tuesdav night to see hi? cousin! "• Cook,_of Holkliam, Lord Lau- That "Joe" weighed.34 pounds at lime of his birth... That Sh baby is now, ten years old....... that he was the man who diseove LIFE IN INDIA. hunt-Riding and Its Pleasures. ext day I landed at the City of shortly afterward had an se with the Marquis of Hastings, or General and Commander-in- 7°bf India, to whom I brought let- man the babes in the woods. and Lord Holland. These Jme in good stead, for there hap- to be a vacancy on his personal which I was immediately ap- The following week I acoom- .Tl>at|Lord Hastings to his country Tilden pole is to belong to the Jtepparrackpore to take my turn of lk*>,s If 11.T* I* We dined at afternoon. After dinner two Us, each drawn by four white Til it-jcame to the door. On one side elected..... the Doctor will donate that powder if he don't have to use That Jiin, the Butcher is flgui|^nged seven^ elephants, gaudily on the expense of a grand revival through Gage-town . .That *Ch John" gave everybody |5 oa his visit here.........That t;hei* Will inofe lies reported soon. lined, especially one destined to .lie -4 Lord Sanib," which bore of bahadur (general), and had Y more gaudy than its fellows." >rd from the mahout the baha- it on all fours to receive its load, [r was placed against its side ; PETERSON'S MAGAZINE for Decent RATINGS ascended and bade comes to us, in advance of all etl with iucreased reading o|atter, beautiful steel engravings, a dos size colored fashion-plate^ about wood-cuts, paterns, &c., and a colored pattern in Berlin work than most "eromos," and alone the wbnoiisilwi Wkti - £*^a®^ rived at which it was set to explode, the hour-hand would press firmly against Q^e Pennsylvania railroad officials professed yesterday to have obtained no clue that would lead to the detection of the author of the plot. They have so far offered no reward for the arrest of the person who sent from Philadelphia to New York the trunk in which the in­ fernal machine was placed. They em­ ployed a number of detectives to work up the case, both at Philadelphia and ew York, but they do not seem very confident, as the case presents almost insurmountable difficulties. The im- meuhe amount of baggage received at Philadelphia each day almost precludes the possibility of placing the hour or time of reception of the trunk. The machine by which the contents of the trunk was fired off was on exhibition yesterday at the office of the train-master, Mr. Watts, in the Pennsylvania railroad depot at Jersey City. During the day, a large number of visitors called at the office to examine it. It is a simple af­ fair, rough in detail, but very well cal­ culated to accomplish all that was de­ sired. The clpck used resembles one of the small Connecticut clocks of Seth Thomas' make, and is about five inches square. The glass face and minute- hand had been removed. On the front face just above the dial-plate was fast­ ened a single-barreled pistol, nearly six inches in length, with a three-inch bar­ rel. It is of a very small caliber, and was loaded with a small oopper cartridge, filled, as it is supposed, with a blank charge of powder. It was fastened to the clock a by long screw running through the hole by which the wooden butt- plates are attached to the pistol. The left-side butt-plate was removed so as to make it lie flat to the dock face. It was further fastened by a small pieoe of wood screwed to the clock, which pressed against the barrel near the muzzle. Just above the figure 12 on the dial- plate was a small wooden lever, working loosely on a screw. This was fastened in such a manner that when the hour ar o exp firmlj the lever, turning it so that it struck the hair trigger of the pistol. The Whole machine was then screwed to the bottom of the trunk, with the pistol pointing up­ ward. The trunk was filled with gun­ powder, straw, cotton saturated with some explosive, and a bottle supposed to oontain dynamite. Soon after the train left Philadelphia one of the em­ ployes in the baggage-car noticed some­ thing leaking from the trunk, which on examination proved to be gunpowder. As there was smoking going on in the car, the trunk was put on the top of the baggage, and this fortunate discovery and fclie fact that the contents did not ex­ plode account for the Blight damage done. The most probable theory ad­ vanced is that the clock was set to ex­ plode at the hour wheu the train arrived in Jersey City, and during the removal of the baggage in the depot, when a large number of persons would be gath­ ered around. The fact that the train was behind time, and was about due at New York when the explosion occurred, helps bear out the theory. About haif an hour after the train reached Jersey City, a large man with a heavy black mustache made a namber of inquiries at the depot in relation to the matter, aud asked anxiously where Silpatb, the baggage-master on the train, was, and departed to visit him at his residence in Wayne street, Jersey City, but did not appear there. Yes­ terday the company's detectives were searching for him on suspicion that he might know something about the trunk or its owner, bmt no traces oi him could be fonnd. Of course this explosion recalls the contrivance by which Thomas sen in­ tended to blow up the Mosel in mid- ocean, now nearly a year ago, in order to secure the insurance upon certain bogus packages of goods which he had shipped upon that vessel. Thomas sen's infernal machine, which exploded prema­ turely on the wharf at Bremerhaven, was, it will be remembered, of a differ­ ent construction suited to the use of dynamite as an explosive. The clock­ work was provided with a pegged wheel, was so set that, at such hour as the dial and set to indioate, the pegs released a heavy hammer which fell upon a fulmi­ nate cartridge imbedded in the dyna­ mite with which the case was filled. Thomassen, as appeared from the exami­ nation of some effects of his found at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, had deliberated several methods of accomplishing his plan, one of them requiring the use of submarine fuse, a coil of which was found in one of his trunks. The explo­ sion of Friday also, happily, differed from that at Bremerhaven, in that it was not accompanied by the loss of life,, while some 160 deaths followed the other. Whatever may have been the me self beside him. My first ride t altogether agreeable. The ral movement of the animal in too much resembled that of a a heavy swell. I remember ck with the beauty of an air- hich formed a succession of fes- ver our heads. The elephant ered to gather it for me. The manner in which it separated the tender parasite from the tree with its trunk could not have beeQ outdone by the most delicate of human fingers. One evening my attention was arrested by the behavior of the elephant that was to cany the Governor General. It would not stand still for a moment, but kept constantly shaking the little orna­ mental bells of its hawdan-cloth. On inquiry I found that, the " bahadur" being indisposed, this animal supplied its place, and that its contortions arose from the pleasure it felt at the gaudi- ness of its apparel. When I approached the conoeited beast it was making a noise with its trunk like the purring of a cat. I used greatly to enjoy these elephantine rides. It was gratifying to a youngster to be on terms of familiar intercourse with a man who, as a sol­ dier, orator, or statesman, has been be­ fore the world for nearly half a century. On public occasions Lord Hastings was the most stately of human beings ; you then saw only the haughty ruler over a hundred and odd millions of fellow- creatures ; but tete-ivtete in a howdah he was totally different, would talk free­ ly on all subjects, and make no secret of his disputes with the East India Di rectors, who were everything in his eyes but his" much approved and esteemed good masters." But the subject that most interested me was his military life, beginning from 1773, when, as Francis Bawdon, Captain of grenadiers, he had two bullets through his cap at the bat­ tle of Bunker Hill, up to 1817, when bv strategically concentrating the armies of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, on a given spot «n a given day, he annihi­ lated the Pindarrees and wholly sub­ verted the power of the Mahrattas. There was one subject in which the General and his aid-de-camp took a common interest--we were both enthu­ siastic admirers of Shakespeare. As we were tolerably well up in our. au­ thor, we used to recite to each other our favorite passages, and occasionally with such emphasis thac I often wondered what the mahout must have thought of our seeming altercations. Like Horaoe Walpole, Lord Hastings was a stout apologist for Bichard III., and differed from the view that his favorite bard has taken of his character. He contended that Bichard was to be judged by the moral standard of the age in which he lived, and not by ours ; that his hu­ manity was on a par with that of Ed­ ward IV., and that in his short reign of King he did much to mitigate the tyr- anioal measures of his elder brother. I was amused to hear him defend Rich­ ard for cutting oil the head of his an­ cestor--the Lord Hastings of that day. He thought that self-preservation fully warranted the deed.--Lord Albemarle b Recollections. Remarkable Escape from Death, The genius which is supposed to pre­ side over the lives of drunken men, says the Los Angeles (Cal.) Herald, inter­ posed to prevent a shocking accident at the depot last Saturday. For some time before the departure of the San Ber­ nardino train, J. North was disporting himself about the depot in a maudlin state of intoxication. When the train started, he attempted to get aboard, but missed his hold and fell between the car and the depot platform.' The space here intervening is only about eighteen inches wide, and North, being extreme­ ly obese, failed to go through to terra firma, where in all probability he would have fallen beneath the wheels and met a terrible death. The car being in mo­ tion on one side and the platform sta­ tionary on the other, the man went roll­ ing along in obedience to the principles of friction, much after the fashion of a flour barrel or a rolling-pin. Strange as it may seem, when extricated he was sound of wind, limb and body, and al­ most sob«r. A gun which he held in his hand was broken. It was a close pinch for a fat man, and we would not advise anybody else, drunk or sober, to try it The Pistol. A recent dispatch from Philadelphia says: " Early this morning William 35. Hastings, who is supposed to be a resi­ dent of Jackson Court House, Jackson county, Ohio, committed suicide by shooting himself in the forehead at League island. The body was taken to the Morguer and on making an examina­ tion,a note Was found in one of his pock­ ets, which read as follows: " ' My watch give to Ike; live on and prosper. This terrible mystery will never be brought to light. I hope to God you may live to see the day the truth is not known, and I am helpless.' " There was neither signature nor ad­ dress to the letter; consequently no clew can be obtained as to the circumstances leading to the act." POLAR RESEARCH. Vallare ef the last Arctle Bxpedttai*. The British Arctic expedition has re­ turned, having failed, as has every other of the numerous expeditions that*within the past two centuries have been sent out to make the long-sought northwest pas­ sage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The vessels that went out upon t.hiw ex­ pedition--the Alert and the Discovery were by all- odds the staunchest and best equipped that ever sailed for the Arctic seas on a voyage of discovery. Both were steamers of the most approved model, and equipped with powerful engines so as not to be dependent upon contingen­ cies of wind and tide. They are fitted out with every contrivance that inge­ nuity and experience could suggest and money buy to provide for the comfort and safety of those on board. Beeides being loaded down with supplies, they were accompanied by a third ship with a full cargo of supplies, which was dis­ charged at Disco, where a depot was established. The expedition was under command of Capt. Nares, one of the best officers in the British navy, and an experienced Arctic navigator. The crews were selected from among a large num­ ber of men who had sailed the Arctic seas, and back of all was the British Government ready to do aU that could be done to insure the success of the ex­ pedition it sent out. The expedition sailed from Ports­ mouth on the 29th of May, 1875, with the expectation that during the summer of|that year the Alert and her consort could steam to the pole. But with all the resources at his command and con­ centrating these upon one vessel, the Alert, Capt. Nares found it impossible to penetrate further north than the 82d parallel. From ttiere a detachment was dispatched northward over the ioe by sledges. But such were the obstacles encountered that in seventy days they succeeded in penetrating one degree and twenty minutes further northward, though traveling 200 miles to accom­ plish it, when they reached 83 deg. 20 min. north, and were within 400 miles of the pole. They found ioe 150 feet thick ; the temperature for a fortnight was 59 below ; once it fell to 104 below the freezing point, being the most in­ tense oold over experienced by human beings--at least by any who survived to report the fact. There were times when the sledge party could not advance one mile per day through the towering walls formed by the lapping of the great ioe-ledges. The sufferings of thw party were intense. Peterson, the interpreter, died from frost­ bite. Three others died on the pledging expedition, and the sur­ vivors who reached the ship, after ter rible suffering, returned only to report the impossibility of reaching the pole or of working the northwest passage. The expedition settles that there is no open Polar sea, that President Land, laid down ii* the maps of Capt Hall, does not exist, and that the northwest passage does not exist The expedition passed beyond the verge of animal life. In those icy soli­ tudes was neither bird nor beast; not even the Polar bear, nor the Arctic fox, nor the seal, were to be found, while while they were far beyond any tribe of the Esquimaux. Yet there were discov­ ered ooal fields, showing indubitably that in the vast oycles of the past, f o many ages ago that tbe imagination can soaree comprehend it, the temperature was warm enough, from the earth's in­ ternal fires, for centuries upon centu­ ries' growth of the ferns, which in other great cycles were transformed into the coal. The chief result of the expedition, however, is to demonstrate that the open Polar sea, and the Polar continent, and the northwest passage are myths; and that the periling of life in bootless Arctic explorations should oease. BOTCHING THE AWARDS. reports, and thy awards are to go on, signed by Director General Goshorn and Secretary Campbell instead of by the>- Jodgflfc "7- r ill Sorts. fashionable this foil. Bed- is the American System a Failure ?--Secret Action ot the Centennial Commission-- No Signatures of Judges to the Reports. [Philadelphia Cor. New York Tribune,] The pith of the system of awards has been punched ont by tho action of a rump of the Centennial Commission in secret session, so that little more than an empty and valueless form is left. This may seem like a strong statement, but it is borne out by all the facts the public can get at. For six weeks a small frao tion of the Commission, clothed with all the powers of the whole body, has been tinkering with the reports of the judges in the interest of unsuccessful exhibit­ ors, and with the aid of a newly consti­ tuted group of Judges on Appeals is preparing a supplementary list of awards, Now a good d«sal can be said in favor of making some additional awards. Among tens of thousands of articles it is prob­ able that some may have been over­ looked, and some palpable errors may have been inadvertently oommitted by the judges. Rightly constituted, a Board of Appeal Judges would seem to be a proper adjunct to a system of deal­ ing out honors at a great exhibition. The fault of tUe Commission is that, in order to give the reports of these judges the same weight as those of the regular judges, and to cover up their own tink­ ering with the regular reports, they have at one blow broken up the v hole carefully-devised and admirable system of signed reports, bearing the names and resting uoon the responsibility of the judges making them. The very meat and marrow of the system adopted for the Centennial was that in case of each award the examining judge should make a written report stating the merits of the article for which it was recommended; that he should affix his signature to the report, and that the other judges of the same group should add theirs as approving it. Successful exliibitors were to be furnished with copies of these reports, with liberty to publish them. The reports, signed in most cases by experts of established reputa­ tion, were to be the real prizes, not the trumpery copper medals and paper di­ plomas. After the Commission began to change some of the reports at the instance of exhibitors, it was seen that it would not do to send out these doctored docu­ ments, to be disavowed perhaps by the judges whoso names were affixed; nor could the signatures of the regular group judges be placed to supplementary awards which they had no hand in making; so it was determined to change the whole system. The signatures are, therefore, to be suppressed on all the RED is headed girls, now's your chanoe! A ST. LOUTS paper speaks of a "mad dog owned by Mr. Henry Opperman." Bead aiaything continuously," says Dr. Johnson, "and you wiU be learned." g _ THE London Sunday Society has ex­ pressed itself in favor of opening edu­ cational institutions and mnmnmn oa the Sabbath. IT is not generally known Maj. Andre's re maims were taken from America and interred in Westminster Abbey in 1821. A PHYSICIAN in Jacksonville, Ga., stabbed an antagonist in a fight with knives, and then saved his life by dress­ ing the wound. A NEGRO slumbering on the sunny side of a haystack, in Whitefield county, Ga.„ the other day, was mistaken for *a bear by a couple of colored men, and filled with buckshot TWEVTY years ag9 an AHgusta(Me.) man invested the sum of $80 in Wis­ consin lands. On Tuesday morning he received by mail, for the same property, a check for $1,800. TMS new bug that eats carpets is an eighth of an inch long, is shaped like an egg, and is covered with fine bristles. Nothing pleases him better than to get into a suit of woolen clothe?. THE Bishop of Manchester recently remarked that Lord Bacon was rigM whsn he said that a little science might make a man an atheist but a larger knowledge of it brought man baok to God. A bridal party, oh the way from church in Florissant Mo., was saluted by the discharge of firearms, after the old German custom. One wian used a revolver recklessly, and sent a bullet through the bridegroom's leg. THE fast train, called the Great West­ ern Flying Dutchman, over the Bristol (England) railway, was lately noticed to emit streams of sparks from the wheels, and it was necessary to stop it for a while, until things got oooled off. A BINGHAMTON man is suing for a di­ vorce from his wife on the plea that has a glass-eye that is always open nights, and the "aspect makes him nervous," He coaxed her to close it with red seal" ing-wax, but that only increased his terror. A PORTLAND money-lenderjhas come to grief, and deservedly. He procured and loaned a man $3,915 and got in return 'notes and a mortgage for $4,400 on five years at 8 per cent, and $107 besides in cash. A jury has found him indebted to the needy borrower in the sum of $1,188. Such a verdict is worth more than a dozen usury laws. GEN. TCHBRNAYBFF, commanding the Servian forces, telegraphed lately to London that, on retaking a position he had lost, he found a number of Servian prisoners nailed to the earth by stakesj, the feet and part of the bodies burned to a cinder, the ears cut off, the entrails displayed, and the faces distorted by agony. These atrocities were oommitted by regular troops. DURING the last twenty years tho British Government has added 573 ships to the navy by building, and has pur­ chased 44 more. It has sold 110, broken up 125, and 31 have been lost The number of Gatling guns in use is rapidly increasing. The large ironclads are now all armed with them, and several have lately been sent to Malta for the Mediter­ ranean fleet A CLERGYMAN in Quebec recently seized a bride as security for the non­ payment of his fee. It was in vain that the husband called him the par Bonifica­ tion of meanness, and spoke about the difficulty attending the progress of a rioh man toward the new Jerusalem ; the parson held to his bond. The bride­ groom had to give security for fl.2§ ere he could bear his bride to poverty aad bliss. TNDHR THB P.0SB. I ain oold and I am light Ai^the fleecy, floating snows. . If a thorn ran tkraugfa my heart >:>• t • ' You would only »ee tho rose. Fickle, shallow, thoughtless, gsyt And you truly think mo BO? • ~ You may view the oceaa'8 foam. But ite depihii lie far below. Come and stand by Hie awhile, Where no other friend has been; I will open wide my heart-- I will show you all within. What!--you start and turn away, And the tears begin to fall ? Ah! my heart I--you thought it gay? It is broken--that la all. --fromScribner. A SOLANO county (OaL) man beat L** wife so unmercifully that she died within week. When the funeral passed through Knoxville, the husband wm in a saloon shaking dice, and took off his hat and hurrahed. Early the next morning the brute was discovered lying in Knox­ ville creek, nearly dead, with boulders piled on top of him. A good Samaritan released the wretch, but it is thought the people will make it very warm for him if he remains in that neighborhood A Custom-House Fiend. Vivier, the ecoentric Frenchman who has made it the business of his life to worry the custom-house inspectors of all European oountries, has returned to France. His wont formerly was to pack a huge trunk full of trowsers straps, such as are worn with gaiters, using hy­ draulic pressure if it were necessary to cram five bushels into a three-bushel space ; then to lure the inspector to open it as a suspicious package, when natur­ ally the contents were overset, and the whole force of the custom house was occupied for hours in putting them baok. A powerful Jack-in-the-box was another device of his that was very successful. His latest performance at Boulogne is thus recounted : "M. Vivier placed his valise and traveling-sack on the oounter. ' What is in this traveling sack f' ' Two rattlesnakes,' said M. Vivier, meekly. The inspector jumped back and said it was unnecessary to open it 'And in this valise ?' ' Three more rattlesnakes,' softly responded M. Vivier. The in­ spector knitted his brows for a moment, consulted a tariff, and replied in an aw­ ful voice, * That makes five rattlesnakes there is no duty on rattlesnakes unless j there are six or more. Pass the gentie- ! man's luggage!'" .

Powered by / Alimenté par VITA Toolkit
Privacy Policy