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

She Iftc; lilwlMW' 3. VAN STIYKE, POTI-ISHBL McHENRY, ILLINOIS. AQRICULTD BA.L AND DOMESTIC. "My Home, I Love Thee!" There 1M A spot of earth supremely blest, . A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest, Where man, creation's tyrant, casts aside His sword and scepter, pageantry and pride, While iu his softened looks benignly blend The sire, the son, the husband, brother, friend; Here woman reigns ; the mother, daughter, wife, Strews with fresh flowers the narrow way of life ! In the clear heaven of her delightful eye An angel-guard of loves and graces lie; Around her knees domestic duties meet, And fireside pleasures gambol at her feet. Where shall that land, that spot of earth be fonnd? Art thou a man? a patriot? look around; Ana thou shalt find; howe'er thy footsteps roam, That land tAy country, and that spot thy home! --James Montgomery. . Around the Farm. CORN should not follow buckwheat. IT is estimated that the people of Ne­ braska planted 13,000,000 trees last year. SAMUBZI WILSON, of Knox County, Ma, raised 2,380 bushels of oorn from thirty-three acres. A WIUTF.R in the Country Gentleman states that the presence of black walnvit trees in an orchard is sure to kill apple trees. The effect of a small walnut tree on a large apple tree is small at first, but it will show itself after a little and death will bo the result. AFTER filing a saw, place it on a level board and pass a whetstone over the side of the teeth until all the wire edge is off them. This will make the saw cut true and smooth, and will remain sharp longer. The saw must be set true with a saw set.--Scientific American. THOMAS MEEHAN lays down the fol­ lowing rule: The proper distance to sow or plant anything is so that the roots of the plants, whatever they are, should about touch each other when mature. Thus a wheat plant requires for its best development to be about four to six inches from another plant, to have for its own self to occupy about sixteen to thirty-six square inches of surface. IT is a well-known fact that clover has the singular property of being able to extract from the atmosphere, without the aid of manure or stimulants, nitro­ gen sufficient for its own proper growth and nourishment. The straw and roots of the clover contain a large amount of nitrogen, and these, when plowed down, are therefore as valuable, to the next crop sown as a copious supply of guano. A CBUMPLY horn is a good indication in a cow, a full eye another. Her head should be small and short. Avoid a Roman nose, which indicates thin milk and little of it. See that she is dished in the face--sunk between the eves. Notice that she is what stock men call "a good handler," skin soft and loose like the skin on a dog, deep from the loin to the udder, and a very slim tail. A cow with these marks never fails to be a good milker. CHIOKBN CHOLERA.--A rythmic lady correspondent of the Indiana Farmer disposes of the chicken cholera after this fashion: To farmers all who read this sheet I send them now a new recipe. It tells them if they chicken cbotora <«4, \ They will do well to bear in mind That charcoal mixed with onions well wai clear the flock of cholera's spell. For forty hens, chop well four quarts . Of onions fine and turn them out Just where the flock will surely go, And pure, clean water give them, too. Take coals on fire and drown them out, Then on the ground spread tbem about Put oats on top, feed once a week, And fiee from cholera you will keep. The onions heal the sick and sore, And oats and coal forbid it evermore. We are not without hope that the rem­ edy is better than the poetry. TRUE GRIT.--There is a lady in Ful­ ton County, living near the city of At­ lanta, who is running a farm herself; her husband is a Granger, having been an invalid for a long time, and, conse­ quently, unable to assist her. She has made tins year, with one horse, 450 bushels of corn, two bales of cotton, 300 bushels of turnips, 90 gallons of syrup and a large crop of sweet and Irish po­ tatoes. She has a fine garden, from which she sells vegetables to the citizens of Atlanta; she sells butter and milk, makes her own fertilizers at home and buys everything for cash. She says that any man who lives on a farm, and buys baoon and corn to feed his family, ought to be chopped up and fed to pigs.-- Georgia Grange. THE following directions are given for taking the rust off a plowshare : Take a quart of water and pour slowly into half a pint of sulphuric acid. The mix­ ture will become warm from chemical action ; put it on the iron and let it re­ main there until it evaporates. Then wash it again. The object of this is to give the acid time to dissolve the rust. Now wash with water, and you will see where the worst spots are. Apply some more acid, and rub on those spots with a brick. The acid and the scouring will remove most of the rust. Then wash the mold-board thoroughly with water to remove"the acid, and rub it Brush it over with petroleum or other oil and let it be till spring. * As MANY accidents happen from care­ lessness in handling teams, I have re­ solved upon the following as the safest way to handle horses - while hitching them to a wagon: 'Always get the lines undone, and in shape to pick them up any time before hooking the tugs. Some people put up the neck-yoke the first thing, and then hook the tugs be­ fore taking down the lines. Then if the team starts they have no control over them whatever. In unhitching, the tugs should be unhooked the first thing. Never throw the lines off, one each side of the team, as you would have no con­ trol of them. Let them lay in the wagon till you do them up, when everything will be safe. A little thought in regard to such things might save a sad accident sometimes.-- Western Rural. Hume we start again on the round of the new year. Well begun is half done, they say. Let us try it. There is no one thing that makes the right spirit in a town like the prompt payment of all those little bills. Pay as you go, and if you can't do that square up the figures anyhow. That is something toward it. There is a heap of waste when you have a sloven to take care of stock. Feed right and liberally, but don't let any of the fodder go to waste. Sheep like to be free to go in when it storms or stay out. Give them a chance to stay in if they want to and they do all the bet­ ter for it. If clear and cold they will choose to stay out in the open air. Don't crowd them. Give them a variety of food. They like it. Give pure water and time to drink it. Colts must have a warm place, good hay and some grain. Hens pay better for their cost than any other farm stock if they are treated right. Give them an airy, dry and warm place where they can haVe the sun and be free from cold, damp drafts of air. They need variety about as much as sheep.--Old Farmers' Almanac. SMOKING IN THE BARN.--" No smok­ ing " is posted in most decent factories --it ought, to be posted in every barn. There is not much difference between having a horse-thief around the stables, and a cleaning off horses with a pipe in his mouth ; and there is no hired! man much meaner than the one who, when his employer comes round, slips his pipe into his pocket or holds his hand over it as if it were a little bird. All such fellows should be paid off, or started off, and kept off. As for the farmer himself going into the barn with a pipe in his mouth, no complaint can be made ; but if his establishment burns up nobody should cry unless it be the wife and children. Lightning and in­ cendiaries, and spontaneous combustion combined, do not cause as many barns to be burned as the pipe ; and generally at least one good horse goes also. It would be much better if the smoker could go up with the smoke, and have smoke enough for once.---Micawber, in New York Tribune. About the House. A PLEASING PICTURE.--Take a pretty, showy picture from any paper, maga­ zine, or book ; cut the form all out, and then cut a piece of thick black cloth in a circular or oblong shape ; lay your pic­ ture in the center (the cloth must be larger than the picture of course), and the whole on a piece of white paper the size of your glass, and you have a very showy picture. IT is said that water lilies may be raised about one's house by the follow­ ing method : Sink in the ground the half of an oak cask, and cover the bot­ tom with peat and swamp mud, and theu fill with water. Dig the lily roots early in the spring, and place tliem in the earth at the bottom of the tub. A gentleman who has tried the ex­ periment has a number of lilies in bloom. BROOMS AND SWEEPING.--If brooms wet in boiling suds once a week, THE PRESIDENCY. Democratic Probabilities Canvamd. The " Six Spectators" who sent to the Boston Journal from Washington an es­ timate of-Hhe Republican Presidential, prospects, have supplemented that ar­ ticle with a summary of the Democratic field. They find that Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont incline toward Gov. Tilden. Massachusetts is unde­ cided, but may present Gov. Gaston or John Quincy Adams for the second place. Connecticut would like to pre­ sent Senator English or Senator Eaton. New York will present Gov. Tilden, and will sustain him to the bitter end. " We discover no organized opposition to him, and we assume that he will have the unanimous vote tof the State." New Jersey thinks some of naming Senator Randolph, but is strongly in favor of Tilden. Pennsylvania and Maryland are undecided, although the latter leans tow­ ard Senator Bayard. Deleware will pre­ sent Senator Bayard, and if he ha* a strong support in the South, the New England States will be likely to take him up. Senator Tliurman is likely to di­ vide the Ohio delegation, and Hendricks will have a united Indiana delegation, backed by the support of a majority of the Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Min­ nesota, Iowa, and Missouri delegates. In summing up the " Spectators" say : " Gov. Hendricks seems to have the best chance for the nomination because he can best compromise the radical differ, ences which divide the Democratic party- If Ohio could unite upon Senator Thur- man he would stand about an equal chance. Either of tjiem could obtain more votes in the Convention, from the North and South together, than any other candidate above named. Senator Bayard appears to stand third on the list of probabilities. If well supported at first, he will receive a large support in the South, many scattering votes in the bottles will be set free to gladden the eyes of future generations. He should have bottled himself up and go$e with them. Future generations might per­ haps * ' • • - - - or gtuierauous uugui. ptur­ ps take him for Abraham, TRaftc, Jacob, even Noah, himself. 25^ Encotirage Your Country Newspapers. Assist by kind words, prompt settle- ment oi oills and encouragement to en­ terprise, the editors of all papers whioh are helping to- herald improvements, great or small. There never was a news­ paper, no matter how small or what its price, that was not worth more than the price asked for it. As light is to time, to growth and ripening of fruit, so is the press to thought and to progress. Some men are too poor to take a paper. No man is rich enough to do without one, and more if he can obtain them. Food for the stomach, food for the brain, are alike necessary to perfect growth. The editor who is encouraged will be a better editor next year than this, unless he be a snarling, selfish, growling, egotistical old bundle of cross-grained antagonisms, begotten in spite and at natural enmity with all the honest world. , But sucn abnormal monstrosities are few. The ordinary editor isa man of brain, thought, power, intelligence. A student of life. A thinker. A sympathizer with his fel­ low-men if they will permit him to grow to them. In all the Western and Southern countay, especially, industry is plowing for enterprise to plant. Hereabouts are hundreds of newspapers--lamps in the hands of genius to light the people on to the- way to better and more beautiful homes. Why not give them all a New Year's gift? Why not settle, up with them--pay all you owe--pass receipts and begin the New Year aright? That is the way to help men who help others. That is the way to make your home pa- ILLINOIS nm . - . per better. That is the way to crowd West, jand divide the Pacific Coast States | your village ahead. That is the way to i.i, m-ij. tit- -- -1-3- ii~i. an8^n aiwfty8 needed, but never they will become very tough, will not cut the carpet, last much longer, and always sweep like a new broom. A very dusty carpet may be cleaned by setting a pail of cold water out by the door ; wet the broom in it, knock it to get out all the^ ilTnnd srer«(>t> o. vnrrl or so, then wash ***"r * --x" ~ - » _ the broom again as before, and sweep again, being careful to shake all the drops off the broom, and not sweep far at a time. The water may need to be changed once or twice if the carpet is very dusty. Snow sprinkled over a car­ pet and swept off before it has time to melt and dissolve, is also nice for reno­ vating a soiled carpet. Moistened In­ dian meal is used with good effect by some housekeepers.--Health Reformer. with Gov. Tilden. We conclude that Gov. Tilden cannot be nominated, since if he should receive a majority of the votes he would be defeated by the two- thirds rule. The bitter opposition to him in the West and South on the finance question, and because of the dic­ tatorial manners of his supporters, ren­ der it almost certaii. that lie cannot re­ ceive two-thirds of the Convention. Giv­ ing him the whole of New England, New York, New Jersey, and all of the Pacific Coast States, he would have still less than one-third of the Convention. By combining with the Southern States, it might be possible to obtain a majority, but the chances are against even this, and we cannot find the least justification for hope that he could obtain two-thirds, owing to the uncompromising hostility, which would not cease even with his nomination. A Cat's Knonntar with a Turtle. An Indianapolis Maltese cat got to playing with a turtle, and tumbled and tortured the poor thing in the most cruel manner; but at length pussy met with a decided reverse. The Neivs says: '4 The turtle, by a lucky snap of its jaws, closed upon the tail of the cat, and clung there with the tenacity of a bull pup, while the Maltose, with a horrid yowl and arched spine, danced the liveliest kind of a minuet. The tuil swelled to abnor­ mal size, the turtle couldn't let go if he wanted to, and for a few seconds there was a revolution of cat and turtle, and turtle and cat, with ' m-e-o-w-s' and 'spitz-spitz-fitz-fitz,' until the specta­ tors were fain to believe that instead of one turtle and one cat therS were six or eight thousand cats. Finally the Mal­ tese was released, and some hours later was seen gravely examining her caudal extremity and evidently wondering ' How was this anyhow' and it was no­ ticeable that when the turtle retraced its steps to the aquarium he had exclusive right of way so far as the cat was con­ cerned. AT one of the stations on the Harlem Railroad, a day or two ago, a very large man failed to secure a ticket before en­ tering the cars. Refusing to pay the additional charge levied by the company or to leave the train, the conductor, aided by two brakemen, undertook to assist him to the door. The passenger offered no resistance, but the three, with their combined efforts, were unable to move him. He finally told the con­ ductor that he had earned his money, and handed over five cents, which was the amount asked. IT really looks as if the shipment of American be©!' from this country to England is an established business. The Nevada, Wyoming and Dakota, of the Williams & Guion line, have been sup­ plied with refrigerators, and two others are being furnished in Liverpool. The refrigerators are 40 feet long, 28 feet wide, and 9 feet in height. At one side is an ice house, holding forty tons. A blower, run by a steam engine, keeps a current of oold air from the ice-box on the meat. " WHAT are these convicts lounging around here for ?" inquired a visitor to a New York State Prison the other day, noticing several men not at work. "Oh," was the keeper's reply, "they've struck !" This thought leads the New xuia x riuft/ic, which tells the story, to review at large the mismanagement of the New York prisons, and conclude that if its convicts do not "strike," it is not because they don't have their own way in running the institutions. THE original grave of Gen. Anthony Way ne is believed to have been discov­ ered on Garrison Hill, in Erie, Pa. The remains were removed by his grandson, Col. Isaac Wayne, in 1809, to Waynes- borough, Franklin County. The old grave is to be fenced iu and suitably marked. tiov. Hayes' Candidacy for the Republican Nomination--The Sherman Letter. [Washington Cor, Chicago Inter Oeettn l It is becoming very apparent that the Sherman letter was the bugle-call for a very active and well-managed move­ ment in favor of Hayes as a Presidential candidate, and it appears that all men­ tion of Hayes was kept out of the recent Republican Committee by a general un­ derstanding that he should not be pre­ sented as a candidate unless the conven­ tion was located in Ohio. The conven­ tion was carried there through the influ­ ence of Messrs. Morton's and Bristow's, supporters, but has been the means of bringing out a formidable rival. There are now i^ Washington a large number of prominent Ohioans who are carrying on simultaneously and systematically a very active canvass among those who are not supposed as yet to have made any advances with any of the proposed candi­ dates, and from tlie fact that they spring up everywhere like mushrooms, it is the opinion that the Shennan letter was only waited for as a signal for the Hayes campaign to begin. A rumor is afloat that Blaine is to be cajoled into submit­ ting to a nomination as Vice-President on the Hayes ticket, on the ground that such a combination would be invincible; but Mr. Blaine's friends say he will play second fiddle to no one. The Morton party are very much disturbed, and scarcely see where the new movement is going to leave them. Be- CALIFORNIA has upward of 46,000,000 acres of unsurveyed land, 15,000,000 of which could scarcely be sold for #1.20 per acre. Charles O'Conor's Remarkable caverjr. Inquiry in regard to the illness of Charles O'Conor was made on Saturday at Fort Washington, by a reporter of the Evening Post. A great change for the better was announced, Mr."O'Conor himself sending word tnat he considered all danger past, and that he was improv­ ing rapidly. * * * The history of Mr. O'Conbr's sick­ ness makes this great improvement ap­ pear as remarkable as it is gratifying. He has suffered from general debility since about the first of last August* but did not become seriously ill until Thanksgiving Day, the 25th of Novem­ ber. He was out riding the day before. On the 25th he did not leave his bed, and for a week after he lay at the point of death. His condition was so critical during this time that Mr. McCracken did not dare to leave the house for even a few minutes, lest Mr. O'Conor should die in his absence. For several weeks after this the physicians had no hope of his recovery. He had been visited daily by Dr. Keyes till within the last fortnight. Dr. Van Buren and Dr. Alonzo Clark have also been con­ sulted. Mr. O'Conor's trouble was an almost total lack of ability to digest food, and consequent great prostration. His mipd was clear at all times, and he did not suffer from pain. For about four weeks he was unable to retain any food that he swallowed, though he ate only such things as the pulp of pears and a little voaSu spreau with augur.Ai oue iitiie the pulp of two pears was his sole food for two or three diys. He constantly refused to take stimulants, and appeared to be sustained by natural vitality alone.--New York Evening Pott. AN eccentric Englishman, fearing that the attacks of certain scientific men upon the Mosaic account of the creation will result in the total disappearance from literature of the Book of Genesis, has freighted a vessel with 10,000 tightly- corked bottles, each containing the story of the Garden of Eden, and sent them to the arctic regions. There the bottles are to be embedded in the snow, where it is supposed they will remain until the gradual shifting of the earth's axis shall bring about a climatic change, and the properly appreciated, country editor. We have been there and know all about it. We know how good a man feels to be spoken kindly to--encouraged and made strong in his good intentions. Kind words did the business. It "would be a good idea fcr every editor to prepare a rousing New Year's paper--an address, so to speak, to tell therein how much his place had grown --who were ahead and who ought to be dead. To give a resume of yearly busi­ ness, successes, enterprises, etc., of the village ; to tell in a general and special way how everybody from the cradle- maker to the grave-digger had got along during the past year ; to tell who had succeeded, who had kept honest and who had turned up as tramps or thieves. Then it would be just the thing for every resident of the place to buy from ten to a hundred copies of such a New Year's address and send them far and wide, to every friend, relative or acquaintance, that the ones who received such papers would know of the place where the senders lived. How such addresses would call the boys from the sleepy East to the live, rattling, growing West. How suSh a disposition to foster enter­ prise would encourage the country edi­ tor, no matter what liis politics. One reason why so many editors con­ sume their energies in the scramble for county printing and patronage is because that they are not half so well supported by bttsrhiees men, farmers and the floi* eral public as they should be. They like to live. They must live by'some means. Too many of them have «o moral help, no sentiment of assistance about them. They are expected to live, but God only knows now. They open offices, but patronage is slow to come in. So they go out to hunt for it. Then their papers suffer and the sciss<' l are left in charge. They jisit stores, mills and offices for items or news and busi­ ness, but do not find profit. Then they call into the saloon, join hands with lawyers, set up a little ring and dabble in local plunders, when they started out to be journalists. Talk of what the papers owe the public! The public owe the papers quite as much.--Porno- roy's Democrat. Experiences In Battle. I believe no two good soldiers will widely disagree as to their sensations during a battle. I take it to be a piece of bravado in a man to assert that he had no fear daring the progress of a long and severe engagement. A battle is a veritable hell upon earth ; not to be in serious apprehension while it lasts is to be either drunk, crazy or insensible. The highest type of bravery is that of the man who realizes the full extent of the peril, but sticks resolutely to his duty. It was my experience, and that of all those about me, repeated a dozen times, that shell-firing is not ordinarily nearly so demoralizing as that of musk­ etry. It is not often that shells are thrown so that their fragments scatter death and wounds, and their loud hum­ ming overhead does not cause that nerv­ ous tingling which always follows the sharp zip of the rifle-bullet The pecu­ liar cutting of the air made by half -a dozen of these at once is apt to give the soldier the idea that the whole air is filled with them, and that he is certain to be struck with one of them. All, I believe, will agree as to the sensation first caused by the impact of a bullet. It is a stunning, numbing feeling, which for a time overpowers the local pain of the wound. In my own experience a single buckshot near the hip knocked me flat, and for two days after gave me such acute pains and such muscular dis­ turbance from knee to shoulder that I could not stand erect. Soldiers have frequently been prostrated by spent balls. A curious effect of shell wounds is that they do not bleed ; the hot frag­ ment sears the torn blood -Vflggfilg Qftfj stops the effusion. A Minnie ball ex­ tracted from the human body presents a remarkable eight, I have seen them where the resistance of the flesh had turned back the pointed end on all sides with such regularity that the ball resem­ bled a saucer or a flower.--New York Times. BOABD IN FATAII. ---A letter from Fayal, one of the Azore islands, holds out this incentive to immigration: Here yoa get a bottle of wine for six cents, a meal for eight cents, board by the day twenty-five cents, while fifty cents will buy as much as five dollars in the States. DECATUR is said to be the muddiest town in Illinois. EAST ST. LOUIS is improving very fast in the matter of public works. JAMES H. WOLF, as Secretary of the Macoupin Agricultural Society, has re­ signed. DECATUR is agitating the street pave­ ment question, and confesses to having the muddiest streets of any city in the State. THE number of cars which crossed the railroad bridge at Quincy in 1875 Was 46,319, of which 36,679 were loaded and 9;622 empty.' IN the vicinity of Pekin there is an un­ usual and alarming amount of sickness. The complaints are generally throat af­ fections and fever. THE Illinois Glass Company, at Alton, have been laying out the ground plans for the erection of extensive glass works in that city. THE depot of the Illinois and Midland Railroad at Decatur was recently sold on a judgment. It was bid in by the Re­ ceiver at $1,200. "" AT . Cairo, from Jain. 16 to the 24th, eight days, there had fallen 10 04-100 inches of rain, which is believed to be the greatest rainfall in the Mississippi Valley. IT is understood that Mr. George Scroggs, editor of the Champaign Ga­ zette, will be a candidate for the office of Secretary of State before the coming Republican Convention. AT a late session of the Bureau Coun­ ty Circuit Court the witnesses in a trial for selling whisky were advised by tele­ graph by the defendant to keep away, which they did. Judge Leland, in con­ sequence, sent the witnesses and the de­ fendant to jail for thirty and sixty days. CAPT. PAUL BOYT«N, the famous aquatic performer, one day last week ac­ complished the gnat feat of swimming from Alton to St. Louis, a distance of 25 miles, in his patent armor. He started from Alton at 6 o'clock in the morning and reached St. Louis at 3.20 in the af­ ternoon. An excursion party from Alton followed to witness his feats in the water, and great enthusiasm was excited. SOME time ago the Secretary of tho State Agricultural Board, at SpringSeld, sent a circular to each County Agricul­ tural Society in the Shxte, urging them to collect and forward specimens of the products of the county, to be exhibited at the Centennial Exposition. Many of the societies have responded, but others have failed to do so. He is now prepar­ ing a circular, which will b^ sent to those which have not responded, urging upon them the necessity of speedy action in the matter.* A FARMER named Patrick Gartland and his wife Margaret were found frozen to death a few miles from Rockford last Saturday morning. It appears that they started home Friday night intoxicated, and becoming quarrelsome in their cups, Patrick is supposed to have knocked his wife out of the wagon. On arriving home he was too drunk to go to the house, and was found the next morning frozen to death near the hog-pen. His wife was discovered a mile from the farm, lying in the road, her face frozen hard in the mud. A little son about 11 years of age discovered both the bodies. THE Chicago letter carriers, number­ ing nearly 200, have organized them­ selves into the Letter Carriers' Relief Fund Association. The Association is worthy of support, and in tnis connec­ tion we are glad to be able to an­ nounce that Messrs. J. H. Wood & Co. (ever in the lead in acts of charity) have tendered the Association a series of ben­ efits at their theater, the Museum, to consist of twelve performances in the lecture room of the Museum, afternoon and evening, commencing Jan. 31 and ending Feb. 5, one-half of the proceeds of all tickets sold by carriers going to the Association. A ticket to any one of these entertainments admits the holder to the Museum also. A DISPATCH from Carbondale informs us that a letter written by Marshall T. Crain, tho executed assassin, to Allen Baker, who is now serving a term in the State Penitentiary at Joliet, for complic­ ity in the killing df Georgo W. Sisney, last summer, has been published. This letter may lead to a reprieve of Baker for a new trial, he having been sworn falsely against by Crain, one of the lead­ ing prosecuting witnesses in the Bul- liner- Baker trial at Murphysboro last October. Crain lfed endeavored to Bcreen his own guilt and swore falsely against Baker in order to make his own conviction more insecure. Public opin­ ion was strong against Baker last fall, but now, as the truth is being gotten at, it is turning in Baker's favor. The let­ ter was written by Crain a few days after his last attempt to escape from the Ma­ rion jail. A SHOCKING murder was committed at Rapids City, Rtfck Island County, on Thursday night of last week, Feter Nelson being found near his house early next morning, by a party of miners, with a deep hole in his temple and his throat cut from ear to ear. It having been known that Nelson was jealous of his wife, who is twenty years his junior, the j woman was at once arrested. She made a fuH confession at the Coroner's in­ quest, stating that her husband had treated her so brutally of late that she did not care what sue did. She arose at 2 p. m., seized a hatchet and struck the sleeping man several blows with the blunt side on the head, and then turning the edge cut his throat. After this she partially dressed Nelson and carried him sixty or seventy yards from the house to the roadside. She is now confined in jail at Rock Island and will await trial at the May term 01 the Circuit Court. ONE of the most adroit methods of swindling insurance companies came to light recently in this city, says a Rock- ford dispatch. A man whose real name is Thomas Washburne, but who has Soon after a large number of applies- , tions came to hand, and with them the notes, for which Morse received his commissions. These papers were all forged. Washburne operated with suc­ cess in La Salle, Steiling, and other places, but is now in jail at Rockford awaiting trial, and the prospect is thai he will serve a term in the penitentiary. , A DECISION has been filed by the Illi­ nois Supreme Court which practically knocks tfie bottom out of the system of option contracts in Board of Trade trans­ actions. The case decided grew out of the famous wheat "corner" of August, 1872, and was on appeal from the Circuit Court of Cook County, which gave judg­ ment for Culbertson, Blair & Co. in an suit against John B. Lyon to recover a option contract. The Supreme Court considers the question whether the rale of the Board of Trade relative to the en­ forcement of such contracts is contrary to tho laws of the land and opposed to public policy, and the affirmative is held, the Court ruling that the contracts are not bona fide transactions, but mere wagers on the price of grain on a given day-- in short, a gambling transaction, and hence unlawful. Tho practice of mak­ ing these pretended purchases and sales, but in effect nothing but wagers, is con* denrned as illegal and injurious, and one which requires to be suppressed. The judgment of the Court below is there­ fore reversed, and the cause remanded. AN exciting scene took place at a Spiritualist mass meeting at Brown's Hall, in Rockford, last Sunday night. The vocal speaking and character read­ ing by E. V. Wilson, of Chicago, had concluded, and the grand fire test by the Chicago Fire Queen, Mrs. Snydam, had commenced. Having bathed herself in fire while under spirit influence she sat down amid the applause of the immense audience that crowded every portion of the hall. Dr. J. Phillips, of Belvidere, then arose and said he would repeat the test without any influenoe whatsoever. This the Doctor did amid the cheers of the skeptics and the hisses of the Spirit­ ualists. Then Mr. James Chalmers, of Rockford, arose and did likewise. Dr. Dunn, of this city, who claims to be a Spiritualist of the better sort, offered 810 to the Fire Queen if she would hold her thumb in the flame of a lamp for forty seconds. A number of others made the same offer, but the abashed "Fire Queen" would uot accept. Then ensued a metaphorical Donnybrook, such as is rarely witnessed in a public hail, and in which a large number took part. LAST week we published a short ac­ count of the execution of Marshall Crain, the Williamson County outlaw, in which we mentioned the fact that he mid a poem he had composed for the occasion. It contained twenty-four stanzas, of which the following are specimens, copied with exactness from, the original manuscript: _ When arrested then. 1 was took By Frank Lowe you 110 him well Then for a reward he did look Which he would get if i did tall R« Then for a witness i was sent A gainst two men you all no To Joliet alien ort not a weat John Bulliner i thought or to go To the Marion jail i was took And their we stay for a while Then for my trial i did not look ' Then an affldavid i did file. Though god and chrint are in my creed And life or death forever This may l>e mine the sinful greed That through iU oouqueat uever I will uot then of creeds make bOMt Which ever lip may fashion Nor let my soul be torn and tost By fierce polemic pashion Enough that i this faith maintain Which (Jo<l within me teaches Which conquers self through Christ Mid p^t. The life eternal reaches. THE average courtship uses up about 25 barrels of kerosene. Talne of Trees in Towns. Mr. Griffiths, the Medical Officer of Health for Sheffield, England, in his report upon the sanitary condition of that town during 1874, makes the following remarks in reference to street trees: " ' ' In the formation of new streets, and on the eve of the contemplated widen­ ing and alteration of old ones, it is to be hoped that an effort may be made to pro­ vide for the planting and establishment of trees wherever practicable. The pleasing appearance of verdure in Sum­ mer, and the agreeableness of the shade afforded by the foliage to pedestrians, are benefits to the inhabitants well worth the effort and the cost. Whoever has visited the boulevards of continental towns, or even the squares of London, ran testify to the advantages of verdure as offering pleasure to the eye and grati­ fication to the mind. . Moreover, from a sanitary point of view, the benefits are of incalculable value. It has been asserted that the ag­ gregate surfaces of the leaves of well- grown elm, lime and sycamore trees, with their 6,000,000 to 7,000,000 leaves, is equal to about 200,000 square feet, or about five acres ; and these are almost constantly absorbing and digesting the carbonic acid and various exhalations given off by the putrefaction of animal and vegetable matter, and, as if grateful for such support, return into the air pure oxygen, which reinvigorates and renews animal life. Trees thus remove poison from our mids ̂and to be with­ out them is an oversight. Trees 6**ii be had which will exist, with suitable air tention, in any part of the city. Why not, with all the above facts before US, have them and try them} passed at different places under the assumed name of W. H. Tooker, E. Dif- fany, E. D. Morse, and others, was ar­ rested at Wenona, Iowa, by Detective W. D. Staflin, for swindling the Rock­ ford and other insurance companies His manner of procedure was as follows: On the 19 th of November the Secretary of the Rockford received a nicely-written letter from Sterling from a Mr. E. D. Morse, applying for an agency. The reference being good he was appointed. A Domestic Hint. The following directions for washing merinos, lamb's wool, and silk under­ clothing, may be useful: Use one pound of dissolved soap in four gallons of warm water, in which well rinse the articles to be washed, drawing them repeatedly through the hand; wring them m dry (to UV/OOlkCiU IfV AVUAVVV «UV f «. them again briskly in clean lukewarm water ; wring and stretch them to their proper shape, and dry in the open air, if possible. The only effects of rubbing are ito shrink and destroy the material; it should therefore never be resorted to. The material used in manufacturing silk underwear being an animal product, it is absolutely necessary that nothing but the best quality of soap and warm water should be used. Ail kinds of washing compounds destroy the nature of the material, giving the fabric the appeNP* ance of poor cotton. y A PENNSYLVANIA man named his first three boys America, United States, and Christopher Columbus, and a new comer he has called Centennial.