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U\\t Jlkienri) flmnfeafe J. VAN SLYXB- PUBLISHER. McHESBY, ILLINOIS. A Cli lMFiUS EASCA.U extraord inary Confession o f * Bank-Lock Expert . [Northampton (Mass.) Cor. Boston Journal.] The trial of Scott and Dunlap, the supposed robbers of the Northampton National Bank in this town on the 26th of January, 1876, by which operation the large sum 0^1,000,000 or $1,250,- €00 in cash, bonds, and other securities was realized, haa stirred up this com- munity as no other circumstance has done since the Mill river flood in 1874. The facts of the robbery are already pretty well known--the entering of Cash- ier Whittlesey's house at midnight by a gang of five masked men ; the binding of himself and family and the tortures and threats by which the combinations of the bank locks were forced from him; the successful plunder of the bank and the escape of the robbers; their subsequent capture and the confession of their ac- complice, EdBon. As was anticipated, the chief point of interest has been the testimony of Edson, the bank-lock expert, and the accomplice and abettor before the act of the thieves who actually committed the robbery. This man is a curious psychological puzzle, and grows more unfathomable and mysterious the more one seeks to sound him. In the most natural and nonchalant manner of which it is pos- sible to conceive, he gave evidence which, if produced by another person, would have branded him with a disgmce com- pared to which that attaching to Scott and Dunlap had appeared scarcely worth . mentioning. No report of this trial which I have yet seen has half exposed the singularity of Edson's confession. 1 say " confession" advisedly, for such it was; though it served its intended pur- pose of damaging Dunlap and Scott, it also and in a still greater degree reflected upon the narrator himself, so that at the close of his testimony the audience was pretty equally divided into two parties --the one holding that Edson was a worthy object of philanthrophic interest, in that he had found out the truth of the aphorism that " an honest confession is good for the soul," and had acted ac- cordingly, the other maintaining that no man in his senses would ever dream of besmirching himself unless he had some deep and sinister motive to subserve, and that thus he was either a lunatic or had still wickeder schemes in prospect. Passing over the details of his pre- liminary efforts, which include the ex- amination and subsequent attempts at robbery of no less than ten banks in various parts of the country from Nan- tucket to Kentucky, I come at once to the history of his connection with the Northampton bank robbery, where his noblest triumph was achieved. Acting as trusted agent for Herring & Co., safe manufacturers of New York, and being at the same time partner on equal footing in a conspiracy with 8 opium-habit cure.' One of the most prominent of these is an Indiana adver- tiser. Suspecting Ms method of cure, I sent to him and procured several bottles of his ' opium antidote." Upon examin- ing them ohemically, I ascertained that each bottle (corresponding to its num- ber) contained a decreasing amount of morphine; hence he cures by my method. But* the patient can just as well cure himself, thus avoiding an enormous price for morphine, that he can purchase in New York of the wholesale druggist at one-twentieth the amount." How Mr. Fly Takes a Wash. The toilet of the fly is as carefully at- tended to as that of the most frivolous of human insects. With a contempt for the looking glas&--an article which he re- serves for the most ignoble uses--he brushes himself up and wabbles bis little round head, chuck full of vanity, wher- ever he happens to be. Sometimes, after a long day of dissipation and flirt- ing, with his six small legs and little round body all soiled with, sirup and butter and cream, he passes out of the dining-room and wings bis way to the clean white cord along which the morn- ing-glories climb, and in this retired spot, heedless of the crafty spider that is practicing gymnastics a few feet above him, he proceeds to purify and sweeten himself for the refreshing repose and soft dreams of the balmy summer night, so necessary to one who is expected to be early at breakfast I t is a wonderfid toilet. Besting himself on his front and middle legs, he throws his hind legs rap- idly over his body, binding down his frail wings for an instant with the pres- sure, then raking them over with a back- ward motion, which he repeats until they are bright and clear. Then he pushes the two legs along his body under the wings, giving that queer structure a thorough currying, every now and then throwing the legs out and rubbing them together to remove what he has collected from his corporal surface. Next he goes to work upon his van. Besting on his hind legs and middle legs, he raises his two forelegs and begins a vigorous scrap- ing of his head and shoulders, using his proboscis every little while to push the accumulation from his limbs. At times he is so energetic that it seems as if he were trying to pull his head off, but no fly ever committed suicide. Some of his motions very much resemble those of pussy at her toilet. I t is plain, even to the naked eye, that he does his work thoroughly, for when he has finished he looks like a new fly, so clean and neat has he made himself within a few min- utes. The white cord is defiled, but Floppy is himself again, and he bids the morning-glories a very good evening.-- Louisville Courier-Journal. ROBESPIERRE. Scott, Dunlap, and Conners to rob any and all banks which Edson's expert skill might suggest as open to burglarious attacks, he came to the Northampton Bank in August, 1875, examined the new doors which he had placed in the vault on the previous month, found that the keys worked hard, took them to New York to be altered, gave duplicates to his accomplices and returned the origi- nals to the bank officers. The robbery would doubtless have been committed at about this time had not the bank changed its dials and keys, a proceeding which put a stop to operations for the time be- ing. In November Edson came again to the bank, secured the keys under pre- tense of filing them, made an impres- sion of them in wax which Scott had given to him, and was again prepared for action. His crowning feat of audaci- ty was perpetrated upon Mr. Warriner, the Vice President of the bank, with whom he took tea at this time. I t was, of course, of great consequence to the burglars that they should be obliged to invade as few houses as possible in their attempts to gain a knowledge of the com- binations necessary to iinlock the vari- ous doors of the bank, and to narrow down the possession of these secrets to the fewest number of persons was one object of Edson's visit. He/found that Mr. Whittlesey had all the combinations except that to the inner vault door, which was intrusted to a young clerk, and he therefore so strongly urged upon Mr. Warriner the danger likely to be in- curred by intrusting a mere boy with such a secret that Mr. Warriner became quite alarmed, and on the following day told Edson that he had followed his suggestion, changed the combination, and given it to Mr. Whittlesey. I t can easily be imagined that Mr. Edson re- turned to New York in a state of great mental exhilaration at having so success- fully pulled the wool over Mr. Warri- ner's eyes. The bank was soon after- ward robbed, and Edson, the still un- suspected agent and trusted expert, was on hand again within twenty-four hours to examine the work which had been rendered possible of accomplishment only through his own profound rascality. Mr. Edson must have been lamentably destitute of humor if he failed to take in at once the ridiculous side of his posi- tion. All this, and much more, he told to the jury, as free from shame as he was from exultation, and in appearance as careless as he was in reality guarded. The wholesale vilification which he heaped upon his own character equally surprised both defense and prosecution, though tho latter must have been in some degree prepared for it. To the defense, however, it came like a bolt from a clear sky. They had apparently sheltered themselves under the belief that Edson would try to save as much of his own character as possible--as, in- deed, would be expected--and that then, by showing up the blackness of his life to the jury, they could materially weaken his testimony. As Edson was particeps crinnnis in this action, the law requires some corroborative evi- dence of his statements, and this has been furnished in a very extraordinary manner. . Curing the Opium Habit. A New York physician cures the opium habit on the "tapering-off" plan. He writes to the Sun : " There are several ' doctors' who advertise extensively their Died for England. This is the great Turkish cemetery of Scutari. I t is said that the entire pop- ulation of Constantinople does not ex- ceed a twentieth part of the dead that sleep under those cypresses. I t is a wilderness of trees set so close together that their branches are matted overhead, and scarcely a ray of sunlight penetrates them. * * * Not far away is another burial-ground, vastly different in all particulars. I t is open to the sunshine, a green lawn sloping to the sea, and planted with roses and willows and the yew. The white stones ghsten among the foliage; everything is as trim and tidy and decent-looking as one wishes it to be. There are costly tombs and modest ones, and in the center is a memorial column with sculptured angels supporting it; but there is a billowy waste of green mounds with no stones to tell their tale, and there sleep 8,000 nameless dead who died for England. There are rows of graves with simple headstones on which are recorded a few lines full of agony. You read again and again these inscriptions in memory of young officers, with ages ranging from 18 to 28 years, who bravely fell at this or that battle, or wasted in the hospital, or who died at sea. These stones are usually "erected by his comrades," and they all lie within sight of that hospital, now a barrack, where Florence Nightingale did her labor of love. The afternoon sleeps on that hallowed slope; the waves sing be- low it. The islands hang like clouds upon the face Of fchk waters, and Stam- boul unveils her splendor, which is mir- rored in the tranquil sea. Turning from all this sensuous beauty, my eye falls upon a toiitary slab. I t bears in bold relief an inscription that takes me by storm. I think of the flower of En- gland, young, brave, impetuous, hurled upon the fire of the enemy and ignomin- iously sacrificed, and I read again that last appeal of one of those ill-fated lads, and I believe that such a prayer will not pass unheeded--it only is this : " I am thine--save me !"--Constantinople Cor. San Francisco Chronicle. A Sketch from French Blstory. [From the Louisville Courier-Journal.] The scenes in the French Chamber of Deputies, a few days ago, when the lead- ers of the Left were denouncing the dis- missal of Jules Simon and the revolu- tionary tendencies of MaoMahon, are quite suggestive of the dramatic occur- rences in the Assembly of 1791. The fiery speech of Gambetta, at the conclu- sion of which he fainted in the tribune, has been compared by the Bonapartist organs to the scene of the ninth Thermi- dor, in which Bobespierre figured so prominently, but Gambetta is a different Frenchman from Bobespierre, and his emotion was not the outcome of circum- stances like those which environed the French tyrant. The famous debate which sealed the doom of Bobespierre was one of the most dramatic occurrences of the stormy period of the First Bepublic. Lavallee, in his history of the French factions, sketches the most feverish scene as fol- lows : " Hardly had Tallien finished when Bobespierre darted to the tribune. At the same moment twenty members rushed toward it. Instantly the whole Mount- ain arose, and cries of * Down with Robespierre--down with the tyrant!' resounded on every side. Tadier, Aniar, Bourdon de l*Oise, Lecointre de Ver- sailles, Collot d'Herbois, Leonard Bour- don, Javogne Legendre, even Billaud de Varennes, roused from his profound dis- simulation by a dexterous appeal from Tallien, spoke in succession. Oh, what crimes, what hateful intrigues, what bloody oppression, what unheard-of in- trigues were brought to light on that terrible morning! During more than two hours Bobespierre was absolutely in convulsions; all the movements of his frame expressed the rage which devoured him. A hundred times did he demand permission to speak, and could not obtain i t He clung to the stair of the tribune, and would not be torn from it, and in this position the speakers, who followed each other in rapid succession, seemed so many divin- ities launching themselves at his head, and the countless details of his atrocities streamed upon him like a rain of fire. His strength at last gave way. He sought on every seat a resting-place, and everywhere met with a repulse. He was pursued from place to place with bitter reproaches. When he seemed nearly fainting, one said to him, * You are choked with the blood of Danton / ' * Wretch, touch not that bench,' said another, * for there sat Verginaux !' He advanced to the galleries, and, raising his arms towards those who filled them, exclaimed : ' Will you abandon me, will you suffer me to perish, me your cham- pion ?' All were silent, and those very men who were posted, there bj ' himself, terrified at so unexpected a "scene, re- mained motionless at his appeal. Bobes- pierre, sinking with exhaustion, suc- ceeded once more in reaching the tribune. Thuriot was President. Bobespierre exclaimed to him, * Presi- dent of assassins, for the last time I ask to speak!' At this moment a general cry bursts forth, ' The decree of accusa- tion to the vote.' The President put the question, and not a single Deputy kept his seat." Thus ended the reign of the blood stainM tyrant. When Gambetta fainted the other day at the tribune, cer|am enemies, recalling the soene, shouteip " You are choked with the blood of Danton!" Others cried: " You are choked with the beer you drank at Bar- bou's." The spirit of the Republicans in France during the last two months pre- sents a great contrast to the sanguinary patriotism of the First Bepublic. Fac- tions then disposed of each officer at the guillotine. Power was a license to slaughter those who interfered with you in opinion. To-day, Frenchmen are perhaps quite as impulsive, but the turbulence, brutal enthusiasm, and practical ignorance of the old days have, to a great extent, passed away, and re- flection has taken the place of mutual slaughter. A dreadful reveildu peuple, like that which followed the fall of Bobespierre, is hardly possible France to*day. field, and it turned out to be almost 800 bushels instead of 400, yielding almost forty bushels to the acre. Mr. Long in- forms us that there are a number of fields of wheat in his region which am 2uite as heavy, or heavier than his.-- >agfym {Ohio) Democrat. |X.; How to Catch Trwrt^Sg _ Douglas Frazar, in Harper'ii' Wfga<-' zine for August, gives instructions how to fish for trout: Always fish down a stream. In fishing up stream the bait is continually coming home to one's feet after every cast, and the nearer it ap- proaches the person, the less chance of a bite. I t is best to wade in the bed of the stream, as by this means one can keep* the bait in the water for long dis- tances without making a cast Give up up all idea of using artificial flies; there is usually no chance to cast them, and very few fish' will rise to them. Use a light jointed pole, not over twelve feet in length, with delicate running gear and small, compact reel; small hooks, gauged on silkworm gut. Put no lead on your line, as it kills the artistic and natural motion of your bait. Use angle worms, and these may be much improved by being kept a few days on clean moss in an uncovered, large-mouthed bottle. In baiting the point of your hook it had better not be eovered. Take a worm by the middle and pierce the hook through a small portion, say half an inch; then put on another in the same way at the same time. There is a great science in baiting, and it chiefly rests in the skill of having the worms lively, and with the extremities left dangling. When you have a bite, do not pull at all, but strike your fish, as it is called. This is done by a motion of the wrist, sharp, short, abrupt; not a jerk, a motion which is commenced sharply, but ends almost in- stantly and abruptly. Be in no hurry to land him; you can do it at your leis- ure, stepping back to a sure foundation before raising your fish gently from the water. The great mistake made by those who do not understand this sport is to pull the moment they have a bite. The result usually is to see the trout wind himself round about some limb overhead, or, if he fail to be hooked, which is often the case in pulling, to see the bait and hook in the same position. Bemember that trout are very suy, and, once having disturbed them, it is useless to fish for them. Of course every fish- erman will differ* with Mr. Frasar on more or less of these points. in How Prairie-Dogs tiet Water. I t has always been a subject of curi- osity aind inquiry as to how and where prairie-dogs, living on the prairie far away from any river or stream, obtain their water. Mr. F. Leech, formerly of Mercer county, Pa., now of Ogalalla, Neb,, and a frontiersman of experience, assures me that the dogs dig their own wells, each vilhyre having one with a concealed opening. I t matters not how far down the water may be, the dogs will keep on digging until they reach it. He knows of one such well 200 feet deep, I and having a circular staircase leading down to it. Every time a dog wants a drink he has to descend this staircase, which, considering the distance, is no mean task. In digging for water the animals display as much pluck as in re- sisting the efforts of the settlers to expel them from the land of their progenitors. --Nebraska Cor. Chicago Journal. Honesty Preolainied. The last number of the Paris Droit contains five official notices of probity, the names and addresses of the honest folk thus commended being given in f ulL A workman had picked up a gold watch and handed it to a policeman, who managed to discover its owner and re- turn it to him; a brakeman had acted similarly with a valuable gold medal; a photographer who found an $80 pin had sought out the owner and returned it to him ; a railway porter had turned over to the mairie a $1,000 package of checks payable to order, and a house-servant had restored a pocket-book containing $2,000 to its owner. In all these cases a reward was declined. *"-??- PerioBals. Murphy, the temperance agitator, is in Chicago. Gen. Sherman will remain in the West until fail. Barnum is in Eu- rope. Bob Ingcrsoll is having a livelv time in San Francisco, lecturing against Christianity and being answered by the clergymen. Prof. Bell, the telephone inventor, is to be married soon, and after- ward will go to Europe. Brick Pomeroy is lecturing in Texas. Gen. McClellan has gone to Maine for a vacation. Mrs. H. B. Stowe will summer at Bye beach. William Lloyd Garrison is made much of in London. Gen. Comly's little daughter is dead, and his wife is very ill in Washington. Secretary Schurz has moved to Edgewood, the former residence of Chief Justice Chase. Dr. W. W. Patton, of Chicago, will enter on the duties of President of Howard University, Washington, in Sep- tember. Edwin Booth may de- cide to rest next season. Senator Hill, A. S. Abell, of the Baltimore Sun, and ex-Gov. Walker, of Virginia, are at White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. The Rev. Bobert Laird Collier has gone to Europe. Jubal Early has been trying to cure his rheumatism at Hot Springs, Ark. Ex-Gov. Chamberlain will spend the remainder of the summer at West Brookrield, Mass. Orpheus C. Kerr is still failing in health. Gen. Butler has gone on a sea voyage for pleasure. Gen. Hooker is at Martha's Vineyard. Stew- art L. Woodford was lionized on the Fourth at Senator Lamar's home, in Mis- sissippi. John E. Owens is very ill at bis residence at Towsontown, Md. Jef- ferson Davis has been engaged to lecture in Atlanta next fall. Ex-Senator Bout- well is at Hampton beach, N. H. Large Wheat Yield. A farmer named Long, who resides several miles south of this city, began to harvest»his wheat, a twenty-acre field of nice grain. Being in want of cash, he shelled some of the grain and took a sample of it to a miller and asked what he woul'l give for his crop per sample. He struck a bargain at $1.65 per bushel. On mquiring how much his crop would yield, Mr. Long said it ought to be fully 400 bushels. But he was most agreeably astonished when the threshing was com- pleted, and the grain measured in the Gambling on the Weather. They have no pools in Ajmer, India, neither any laws prohibiting pool-sell- ing, neither any horse-races, regattas, base-ball matches nor Presidential elec- tions whereon to bet. Therefore the residents bet on the weather, first con- sulting certain local seers of great re- pute for their weather wisdom. After the "straight tip" has been purchased from one of the prophets, the buyer commences bellowing that he will take or lay certain odds about the fall of rain within a given time. The ordinary quo- tations are sixteen to one against heavy rain coming down within twenty-four hours, eight to one against a bight shower happening, and longer odds in both1 cases as the time is reduced. When the weather happens to be exceptionally variable, the whole street becomes blocked by an excited throng of gam- blers. As the hour approaches for the majority of the bets to be decided the more nervous gamblers are heard offer- ing their chances of winning at a heavy discount. This allows the weather prophets an opportunity of "hedging" at considerable advantage, and it fre- quently happens that the book of an old seer will show a certainty of gain whether rain falls or not. With "Old Proba- bilities" over there, how the man who read the weather reports at Calcutta or Bombay and his agent at Ajmer could scoop in the unwary natives 1 Trials of Newspaper Men. One of the greatest trials of the news- paper profession is that its members are compelled to see more of the shams of the world than any other profession. Through every newspaper office, day after day, go all the weaknesses of the world; all the vanities that want to be puffed; all the revenges that want to be *er.-;od; all the mistakes that want to be corrected; all the dull speakers who want to be thought eloquent; all the meanness that wants to get its wares noticed gratis in the editorial columns, in order to save the tax of the advertising columns; all the men who want to be set right who were never right; all the crack-brained Ehilosophers with stories as long as their air, and as gloomy as their finger-nails in mourning because bereft of soap--all the bores who come to slay Ave minutes, but talk five hours. Through the editorial and reportorial rooms all the follies and shams of the world are seen day after day, and the temptation is to believe in neither God, man nor woman. I t is no surprise to me that in this profession there are some skeptical men; I only wonder that jour- nalists believe anything.--De Witt Tal- mage. ' A White Army. An English correspondent with the Russian army invading Bulgaria says : " The white caps showed in a dense mass among the willow trees of the Argis; it was as if a mighty host was pouring through the little plain, so far stretched the concourse of stalwart sol- diers. This army is a white army now, white to the last shred, save facings and boots. Officers and men wear a loose white canvas blouse, which is the per- fection of a campaigning garment for warm weather. The white of it is not so pronounced as to dazzle in the e unsbine, nor do the dust of the roads and the stains of the bivouac foul it into absolute dingineas. I t can be washed and dried in an hour." The Devil to Pay. This phrase, doubtless, originated in a printing office on some Saturday night's settlement of weekly wages. " John ," says the publisher to the bookkeeper, * * how stands the cash ace aunt ?" " Small balance on hand, sir." "Let 's see," rejoined the publisher, "how far that will go toward satisfying the hands. John began to figure arithmetically; so much due to Potkins, so much toTypus^ so much to Grabble, and so on, through a dozen dittos. The publisher stands aghast. "There is not money enough by a jug ful l" " No, sir; and besides there is the devil to pay!" ILLINOIS ITEMS*. STKKKT lamps have been erected in Shelbyville. THE total assessment of fl«wfr»fnrtp county is $21,736,359. THEY talk of building a $25,000 hotel OKi the Waterloo fair grounds. . I N Chicago, last week, a woman named Mrs, Paulina Harris, 22 years of age, was literally scared to death by sneak- thieves. T H E eighth annual convention of the United States Bailroad Mutual Life In- surance Association was held at Chicagc last week. AT Pulaski, recently, a negro named Posey shot and robbed a white man named C. Moore. The latter is still alive. The nssrso e*tt*-»r*«d= A TRAIN on the Wabash railroad, at Decatur, struck William Nicholson, who, for some unknown reason, did not step off the track, and killed him instantly. W H . BYAN, of Chicago, was found dead in his bed at the Occidental Hotel, in Quinoy, last week. The Coroner's jury state that his death was caused by paralysis of the heart DURING the forty-six years of the ex- istence of Shurtleff College, at Upper Alton, 3,000 students have received in- struction, and of this number 500 have entered the ministry. A MAN named DeWolf, residing at Port Byron, fell from the barge of the steamer Artemus, near Port Byron, re- cently, and was drowned. DeWolf was about 25 years old. Gov. CtmiiOic has commissioned the following officers: Maj. G. S. Dana, Springfield, Assistant Inspector Second Brigade; William A. Lorimer, Colonel and Aid on Governor's staff. THE miners' strike at Braidwood, after nearly four months' duration, remains as at the beginning. The miners are still firm and confident of success. Negro miners are arriving almost daily from the South. Between 300 and 400 are already there. Several hundred more are ex- pected soon. * SUPERINTENDENT ETTKB decides in a case brought before him that, under the School law, a school Treasurer cannot legally pay an order issued by School Directors to pay a teacher when the teacher's certificate has been revoked and notice thereof given them. Wmii COUNTY contains 500,482 acres improved land, at an assessed value of nearly $10,000,000. Acres of wheat, 2,730; acres of corn, 143,032 ; acres of oats, 80,749; acres of other field pro- ducts and meadows, 150,000; acres of orchards, 25,000. ATTORNEY GENERAL EDSALL has, in re- sponse to a request of the Governor, rendered an opinion on the question whether it is the duty of the Governor to appoint Police Commissioners for the city of East St. Louis under the Metro- politan Police act of 1867. He decides negatively. A MAN named Frank Treeptow, sup- posed to be a German, fell between the cars of a stock freight near Atlanta, on the Chicago and Alton, last week, and was cut to pieces by the wheels. He was one of three who were beating their way from Springfield to Bloomington, and who had been employed as a workman on the State House dome. A boy who saw him fall between the cars says he and his companions were drunk. A FREIGHT train on the Southwestern road, at Summit, ran into a team a few days ago, consisting of an old man driv- ing a mule hitched to a light wagon. The mule had just crossed the track and stopped suddenly, when the cow-catcher struck the wagon and knocked it to splinters, without injury to the animal. The driver, an old German, who could not speak English, was thrown upon the engine, where he lay until the train could be stopped. When relieved from his perilous position he was insensible, and was found to have sustained severe in- juries. He soon became conscious so as to speak feebly, but it is probable he will die. FOR some time past quantities of goods, such as tea, tobacco, potatoes, boots, etc., have been stolen from the cars on the Chicago and Alton railroad in Joliet. These robberies have, in the aggregate, amounted to a large sum, and efforts to ferret out the thieves have at last proved successful, and & regular- ly organised gang of young thieves, boys from 12 to 20 years of age, broken up. Six cf the gang, named WilUam Willets, John Nolan, Frank Maroney, William Maroney, William Donally, and Thomas Campbell were arrested, and on examination bound over to the Circuit Court in the sum of $500 each. Three other members of the mob are still at large, but they are known, and warrants have been issued for their arrest. THE Board of Railroad and Warehouse commissioners has adopted an amendment to Rule 6 of the grain-inspection code. The amendment affects barley inspection and adds two grades, viz.: " Extra No. 3 barley shall include slightly shrunken and otherwise slightly damaged bailey not good enough for No. 2. Feed barley shall include all barley which is damp, musty, or from any cause badly damagec* or unfit for malting purposes, or which is mixed with other grain," The Chi- cago Board of Trade requested the Com- missioners to change the rule regarding wheat inspection, representing that spring wheat t is now commanding a higher price than fall wheat, and by mix- ing spring and fall the owners were en- abled to have all graded as spring. The board considered the increased quota- tions of spring as indicative of a corner, and refused to make the change re- quested. _______ Insurance R e p o r t of Aud i to r Need le* . The second part of the Auditor's in- surance report, covering life and acci- dent insurance matters, is just printed. There are thirty-eight life and two acci- dent insurance companies doing business in this State. Six life and one accident insurance companies which were authorized to do business in this State last year have not complied with the insurance laws of Uli nois for the current year, viz.: „. , , $ „ ___r pany was placed in the hands of a re- ceiver on the 25th day of May, 1877, ap- Slioation having been made by toe uditorin pursuance of the provisions of " An act in regard to the <bj_K>lot_on of insurance companies," approved Feb. 17, 1874. Samuel D. Ward, 158 LaSalie street, Chicago, was appointed receiver by the Hon. E. S. Williams, Judge Cir- cuit Court of Cook county. The Chicago Life Insurance Company, having been found insolvent, was placed in the hands of a receiver on the 17th day of July ; application being made to the Circuit Court of Cook county, as in case of the Republic Life Insurance Company, George M. Bogue, of Chicago, was appointed receiver by the Hon. £ . S. Williams, Judge. The statements of three companies U K pe&i in this report ~hich ~crs net in the last report, viz.: The Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Sacra- mento, Cal ; the Provident Savings Life Assurance Society, of New York; and the Vermont Life Insurance Company, of Burlington, V t Comparison of the grand aggregates of life business done in the State of |J3^ linois in the years 1875 and 1876: Number of policies issued in 1875 »,«§» Number of policies toned la 1876. Difference Amount insured in 187-.... Amount insured in 1878.... Premiums received in 1875. Premiums received in 18T6; Iiosses paid in 1875.....,.», Losses paid in 1876 7,3*4 . . 17,(i44,17V. *w: «,» . $3,557,7» 3,086,881 $1,090,033 1,593,214 4TM18 Interesting Will Case DecMett® JohnD. Lewis, head of the dry-goods firm of Lewis, Haviland & Co., of New York, while riding in Central Park, a year ago, was killed. He left a will be- queathing $15,000 to different parties, and directed that the income of his estate, about $250,000 in unincumbered real estate, be paid to Miss Lizzie Barton Taylor until she was lawfully married. If she had any children the estate was to go to them, and if not married or with- out children when she died5 she was to be buried in the same grave with the testator, and that the estate be expended in decorating the grave. I t was suspect- ed that Lewis had negro blood in bis veins, and the will was contestel by Henry Lewis and Mary Smith, brother and sister, and both fall negroes and claiming to be half-brother and half-sis- ter of the deceased. On trial it was proven that LewiB was the son of a Vir- ginia slave woman and a Canadian, the mother having fled to Canada during the existence of slavery in the United States. Judge Barrett, of the New York Su- preme Court, has just given his decision in the case. He sweeps away all the provisions of the will excepting that giv- ing Miss Taylor the income of the estate until she is lawfully married, and, whether she has children or not, the es- tate then goes to Lewis and his sister, Aldine's Sweet Home. As I spoke, Aldine came down the stair and stood in blushing radiance on the lowest step; for I had started back with a cry of surprise--though always beautiful, she had never appeared so be- wilderingly lovely. Aldine stood in a pretty attitude, one dainty dimpled hand, with its rosy finger tips, drawing aside her dress, the other holding gloves scarcely less white than they. Her hair rippled in golden waves of graded lets down her back, and rose in a. fit Amowtf Name. Aaaeta. <tf Policies. Republic, Illinois $1^1,710.58 f10,409,574 Chicago, Illinois 875,72t>._2 3,417,612 Atlttntic Mutual, New York 1,281.9U8.58 6,86t>,716 Continental, Now York.. . 6,25>9,484.»8 51,012,234 Life Association of America 3,043,638.00 SM3***** New Jersev Mutual, New Jersey 1,808,881.99 19.021.1W Hartford Accident, Con- „ __,. . necticut ai9.513.53 3,19_,000 J The Bepublic l i t e Insuranoe Corn- June rose and a spray of green U being the only ornament. One white shoulder rose, like Venus, from a sea of fleecy drapery. Her eyes, of the dark- est, deepest blue, flashed a sunny smile at me, and her tiny foot with its mii$i slipper peeped coquettishly from be- neath a bewildering toilet of tulle, silk and rosebuds. She seemed to float in the air, and I involuntarily put out my hands to stay her flight. But no ! there she stood--and all at once her rosy mouth opened, disclosing a set of pearly teeth, and, in a voice as clear and sweet as the tinkle of silver bells, she mur- mured : " Oh, Jack, I do hope they'll l_t»v*»-lobster salad 1"--Graphic, A BUnd Shipbuilder, A letter from Bristol, B. L . to the Boston Post says: " I t is here that the beautiful sailboats, the swift steam launches and the flying catamarans coro shaped for future triumphs. And the outside world would soaroe believe me when I say that much of the skill which fashions these Bwiit-snilmg craft, that awake the admiration of competitors, is due to the active brain and willing hands of one whose eyes are forever Bealed to the light of heaven, and who, sinoe earlv childhood, has never looked upon the blue water, where he loves to spend his leisure hours. Strange thai this sightless man has a mind so eon lightened and senses so aacslt that he can enter a lumber yard, paM Ilia hand over the dead wood, nniV Jjinasiniiiillji rapping it with his knuolJEis, T-is ear close to the object, tell its filjIierfeotionBi more correctly than many Ditto, having eyes, see not as Ibis n-Ml whom the world calls blind." 1*001. The wool clip of the United States fa 1876 was about 200,000,000 pounds; o England, Ireland and Scotland, abov 162,000,000, mostly combing; of th continent of Europe, about 463,000,000 of Australasia, about 350,000,000; o Buenos Ayres and Biver La Plata,fabotfl 207,000,000 pounds. These are thsj principal wool-growing countries of th* world, and produce 1,382,000,000 out d the estimated 1,419,000,000 produced oi the entire globe. The selling va lued the total clip would probably aggregaj $450,000,000. Out of l,419,000,0d pounds of wool (the estimated clip there would be fully a loss of 567,008 000 pounds in scouring, making the n f l yield of dean wool about 852,000,0fJ pounds. O F the Generals commanding t U three columns into which the Bussia army in Asia is divided, two--name! Gen. Loris-Melikoff, commanding t! Alexandropol Corps, and Gen. Tergj kassoff, the chief of the Erivan CorpsL are Armenians; the third, Gen. Bewd commanding the Aciu-Unk Corps, is German. A iiirmE colored girl blown froji bridge at Milledgeville, Ga., descend sixty feet in perfect safety, her ftanuj acting as a parachute, $ http://ai9.513.53