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mflealcx J. VA» SLYKE. Editor and Pabliahsr. McBENRY, ILLINOIS BLANCHE EL BRUCE, ex-Kegister of Ike Treasury, intends to reside in the future at his old home in Mississippi. A WILKSBARBE, Pennsylvania, woman fell off a chair and broke three ribs and a collar-bone while trying to hang a neighbor's cat for eating her chickens. THE "John Brown Scaffold Com­ pany" has been organized in Charles- town, "West Virginia, where John Brown was executed. The company has a capital of $1,200, and will manu­ facture relics from the lumber used in making the scaffold on which Brown was hung. The wood is now contained in the poarch of a dwelling at Charles- town, which has been purchased by the projector of the company. WHEN Mr. Fawcett, tlie late Post­ master General, of England, returned to health after lying for a time at •death's door, he stated that his illness had at least freed him from the fear of •death. In the most serious part of his trouble he felt no anxiety, and did not fear, as he had in health, that the end would be preceded by great pain, or a severe struggle. He felt that his heart would slowly, and without hi& knowl­ edge, cease to beat. was a large slump on the way to the school-house, and Sam would take his position behind that, and as his father went past would gradually circle around it in such a way as to keep out of sight Finally his father and the teacher Baid it was of no use to try to teach Sam anything, because he was determined not to learn. But I never gave up. He was always a great boy for history, and could never get tired of that kind of reading, but he hadn't any use for school-houses and text-books." BEM1X1SCENCES OF PUBLIC MEN. BY BEN: PKRLEY POORK. THE United States is the greatest coffee-consuming country on the globe, -our imports last year amountiug to 520,957,000 pounds, worth $46,906,000. Of this supply Brazil sent us nearly two-thirds, a large share of the remain­ ing third coming from the Central American States. Becently Mexico has been bidding with increased re­ sults for the American coffee trade, and the subjects of Dom Pedro .are begin­ ning to look upon it with jealousy. DB. J. L. BLAIB, of New Haven, has constructed an astronomical clock which shows the earth, moon and minor planets in motion about the sun; the minutes, hours, days, weeks, and months of the year; Mercury revolving about the sun, and its superior and in­ ferior conjunction with Venus and the earth; also, when it is the evening and the morning star. Venus is shown in its orbits in the same way. The clock gives the whole system of tides, all the phases of the moon, solar, and sidereal time, periodical and synodical time, and the earth's pasage through the con­ stellations of the zodiac. OF the late Robert Treat Paine, the Boston Advertiser says: "When near­ ly 80 years old, and not in strong health, he made a solitary journey to California on the occasion of the eclipse of 1880. He left the train on a lonely prairie, where the station was the only building, and where no man or beast was to be seen. The total eclipse was to last only thirty-seven seconds, and, in his anxiety to secure a correct observation of tho moment when the sun reappeared, he deprived himself of the satisfaction, after bis long journey, of viewing the eclipse as a spectacle, that he might attend more closely to the beats of his chronome­ ter." ' IN Yonkers, N. Y., the other day a man was arrested for "refusing to dis­ perse." That was the charge on the court docket, and he was the only man complained of. He was standing on the &idewalk with paper and pencil re­ cording the names of persons who went into a factory to work. He was not a riotous mob, and when ordered to dis­ perse didn't know how. Besides he claimed the right to stand on the side­ walk by himself, in nobody's way, and follow his literary pursuit Nobody had any right to know what he was writing, either. But a policeman took him in for "refusing to disperse," and the lawyers had fun over the case and the Yonkers Judge decided that as it was impossible for one man to disperse without racking his physioal system the case of this one-man mob would be dismissed. SENATOR EVARTS has given a law of etiquet to autograph-hunters. He says: If stamped and addressed envelops and a card are inclosed it is a rule that the request shall be heeded--from patri­ otic motives--because it gives the Gov­ ernment 2 cent in postage. If one is obliged to go to the trouble of writing both autograph and address, to furnish envelope, card, and stamp, it is not cus­ tomary for such requests to be accom­ panied merely by an inclosure of loose stamps. A poet of my acquaintance once told me that his autograph re­ quests supplied him with stamps for all correspondence. Autograph - seekers probably found that loose stamps were appropriated without compunction, for they have changed the custom. I do not receive a great many such re quests now. They come in great numbers af­ ter making an important speech. THE mother of Mark Twain, who is 82 years of age, and living at Keokuk, Iowa, has recently been interviewed: "Sam was always a kind-hearted boy," said Mrs. Clemens, "but he was a very wild and mischievous one, and do what we would, we could never make him go to school. This used to trouble his father dreadfully, and we were con­ vinced that he would never amount to as much in the world as his brothers, because he was not near so steady and sober minded' as they were." "I sup­ pose, Mrs. Clemens, that your son in his boyhood days somewhat resembled his own Tom Sawyer, and that a fel­ low-feeling is what made him so kind to the many hair-breadth escapes of that celebrated youth ?" "Ah, no," re­ plied the old lady with a merry twinkle in her eye, "he was more like Huckle­ berry Finn than Tom Sawyer. Often his father would start him off to school, and in a little while would follow him ';§§t;wcerta»-: PHILATELISTS may well be discour­ aged when it comes to making a com­ plete collection of revenue stamps. First, because of the difficulty of com­ ing upon stamps of the largest size, which are valued at $5,000 each. The only way that these stamps can be had •4s to get them from packages upon which they have been nsed, and even obtained in that way the possessor cannot rest in peace, for it is unlawful to have such stamps in one's possession. In fact, it is said by the authorities that nearly all the smokers in the land might be arrested and imprisoned for having failed to destroy from their cigar boxes the stamps that paid duty on their contents. It is not enough that the stamps are canceled; they must be de­ stroyed beyond the possibility of being used again. Stamp maniaos would better leave this branch of the art severely alone. MERIWEATHEB, Georgia, furnishes a good mule story. Four brothers named Byrd, all fine judge3 of animals, and on£yof them the cutest man at a horse trade in that region, were attending a picnic, when they en­ countered a young man whom they judged to bea greeny, who had a good looking mule for sale. The animal was looked over by the party, and pro­ nounced O. K, and Jim Byrd proposed to swap with the verdant stranger. This was soon effected, and Jim was so pleased with his trade that he insisted that there should be no rueing or de­ mand to swap back. This was readily agreed to. Next morning Jim's little boy came running in from the lot, shouting, "Pa, pa, that old mule you got yesterday is blind in both eyes, and can't hear a bit" A close examination proved the truth of Ihe boy's statement Jim paid $10 to get his horse back again. OF a population of 8,000 in Ply­ mouth, Pennsylvania, about one-third have suffered from typhoid fever and many more with malerial poison. The origin of the epidemic is clear--ignor­ ance, filth, and water pollution. The town is situated on the alluvial soil of hills sloping toward the Susquehanna. The water supply is from reservoirs made by damming a brook running through the town. There are a num­ ber of these reservoirs, one above the other, from which water is distributed by pipes to most of the town. There is no sewerage system, and the water used for domestic purposes finds its way through the soil to the river. The water of the reservoirs has been an­ alyzed by Prot R G. Kedzie, of the Michigan State Agricultural College, who reports it* to be the worst city drinking water he ever examined. Post-mortem examinations by Dr. E. O. Shakspeare, of Philadelphia, es­ tablish the fact that the disease is typi­ cal typhoid. The first case was in the person of a citizen just returned from Philadelphia with the disease, and ly­ ing sick in a house some forty feet above the banks of the brook, between the third and fourth reservoirs. The excreta from this patient were carried in March, by the rains and melting snows, into the brook, thence to the reservoirs, and widely distributed through the drinking water. Such an epidemio would have been impossible had the town been clean. The water was foul, the town ripe for the disease. The seed was planted, and the harvest of death followed. This was not a dis­ pensation of Providence, but of ignor­ ance. Doubtless as foul conditions ex­ ist in many localities that have hereto­ fore miraculously escaped. The mira­ cle will cease upon the establishment of the first case. The Modern Shakespeare. "Dids't hear the temperance advocate last night, Henrico?" "Aye, good lady, that I did!" "And dids't thou note the glimmer of his noBe ?" "Such was me privilege, Andromeda. A sun that glowed as ruddily as that would be adjudged prophetic of a drought; I would not thus accuse this nasal orb." "ls't then indigenous to such as he-- this crimson focus i' the frontal disc?" "I hear 'tis native to the soil, me love, and if it be, it should our jibes escape, for knowest not the poet's statement that there is divinity which shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we will;' and if't be so we cannot criticize this salient end, e'en tho' it be indeed conspicu­ ous." "Rough-hue them seems a pat ex­ pression, boy. it fits the subject of dis­ cussion welL But tell me, pray, doth nasal attribute, such as arraigned the lecturer last night always bespeak the fact that such as he know best the ills whereof they do exclaim ?" "It doth give color to the hint, i' faith, tho' oftentimes it may dissemble truth. The nose, an't please thee, is a talesman strange. From pulpit its irradiant glow may mean the fiery ef­ flux of the kindled soul; in forum its effulgence may express the well-read jurist coming" to the front; in female feature it may advertise the blash that elsewhere powder has forbade, but in the politician, gentle one, the rich car­ nation of a nasal bulb is but the sym­ bol of the auctioneer--who so doth wear it 'twill be found for sale."--Yon­ kers Gazette. " Mystified Him. Mrs. Blank--Do you know a London lawyer named De Legal? the papers say he is very noted. Mr. Blank--(A noted lawyer him­ self)--"Oh, ves, I've heard of him. What about him?" "They have cabled to this country that he has fled from London with $500,000 which he got from a client." • "Well, I don't see why a lawyer can't do as he pleases with bis own retain* ing Call. Percy Bysshe Shelley Pinchbaok, a colored man, who was elected to the United States Senate in 1873, and again in 1874, but who was not admitted to a Beat in that body, had a "strange, event­ ful history." The story goes that he began business in his upward career as a cabin boy on a Mississippi steamer, from which humble place he raised him­ self to the dignity of stewart, where he acquired much of the polite bearing that then distinguished him. On leav­ ing the river, according to a New Or- lerns correspondent of the Chicago Times, he secured employment as a servant in a gambling house. He next, according to the same authority, be­ came interested as a proprietor in cer­ tain gambling houses. This was be­ fore the war. The rows between the other proprietors and patrons and Pinch, as he was called was frequent, and in one of these he stabbed a rela­ tive, for which he was sent to the work­ house, where he was living when Gen. Butler arrived in New Orleans. Being liberated after the entrance of the Union forces Pinchback became Cap­ tain of a company of colored troops; but though he may have fought nobly no record of his achievements has been made public. He was a member of the convention called to form a new constitution for Louisiana, and at the election of officers under this constitution he ran for the Senate and was defeated, according to the returns made to the military au­ thorities. His was not the soul to sub­ mit to defeat, however, so he claimed his seat just as if he had received a ma­ jority of votes, and as his friends had control of the Senate he was admitted as a member in defiance of tho returns and the decision of the commanding general of the military district# to whom the returns were made by order of Congress. On tho death of Oscar J. Dunn he was made Lieutenant Govern­ or by the influence of Warmotli, whom he deserted when he found it would pay him better to do so. Being illegal­ ly'made acting Governor, after his term of oflice as Lieutenat Governor had expired, by the intervention of United States troops, he availed him­ self of the power with which he was temporarily clothed to have himself elected to the United States Senate, having been previously counted in as a Representative. Mrs. Grant had l&r first reception on Saturday afternoon, the 10th of Janua­ ry, 1875, and a bitter cold afternoon it was. President Grant was also there, looking as though it was all a great bore to him, and as soon as an oppor­ tunity presented he quietly slipped out, leaving Gen. Babcock to do the honors. The duty of supplying his place in con­ versation was not an arduous one, for he seldom talked with any one. Mrs. Grant was becomingly dressed in dark sage silk. Mrs. Fred Grant wore an exquisite pink, silk, trimmed with the same material, and a profusion of rare lace at the neck. Her hair was pretti­ ly arranged with pink and white feath­ ers. Mrs. Fred seemed to have already won a great many admirers, and it was not surprising, being very charming and bright in conversation, together with refined and graceful manners. Secretary and Mrs. Robeson were among the visitors, and were holding a court of their own among the thousand and one warm admirers of the Secrotary and his genial lady. In fact, the hon­ ors seemed equally divided between the former and Mrs. Fish, who was seen in conversatioa with her numer­ ous friends standing just in the rear of Mrs. Grant Secretary and Mrs. Bel­ knap were also among the guests. Mrs. Belknap wore a handsome walking suit and white bonnet, with a profusion of long ends to the ribbon, which was of white satin. Sir Edward Thornton passed among the crowd chatting so­ cially with various guest". Attorney General Williams was present during the last of the reception, but many missed his agreeable lady. Speaker Blaine was among the guests, as well as many other members. The first re­ ception proved to be altogether more agreeable than most such gatherings, as the crowd was not so great as usual, there being very few present except those in the room in which Mrs. Grant was receiving. The Supreme Court rendered an im­ portant decision early in January, 18C4, in the case of Lamden P. Milligan, on a certificate of division of opinion be­ tween the Judges of the Circuit Court of the United States for the district of Indiana, and also the dissenting opin­ ion of the minority of the bench. There was no difference of opinion as in the essential facts in the case of Milligan-- namely, that no authority existed in in the State of Indiana for his trial bv military commission, and that he was entitled to the discharge prayed for in his petition, his case coming within the strict letter of the law of Congress, passed in 1863, authorizing the suspen­ sion of the writ of habeas corjnis. Both opinions agreed as to that, and the language of the dissenting opinion was rather more emphatic than that of the minority. The point of difference in the two opinions turned upon tbe power of Con­ gress to authorize military commis­ sions. The minority of the bench dis­ sented from the obvious deduction from the argument of the majority that the Constitution gave Congress no power in war to authorize military commis­ sions in States where the authority and action of the established courts was un­ impeded. The minority agreed that no department of the Government pos­ sessed any power not given it by the Constitution, but held that as the Con­ stitution not only authorized, Congress to raise, support, and govern armies, but to declare war, it implied the exer­ cise of power to provide by law for car­ rying it on and prosecuting it energet­ ically ; and though it could not apply the laws of war where no war existed or had been declared, yet when the na­ tion was involved in war, and invaded, or threatened with invasion, it was within the power of Congress to de­ termine in what States danger existed sufficiently imminent to authorize the establishment of military tribunals for the trial of crimes and offences against the discipline and security of the army, or against the public safety. In the opinion of the minority, the sweepiug denial of the power of Congress, in times of great public peril, to resort to extraordinary means of averting or overcoming it, was calculated "to crip­ ple the constitutional power of the Government, and to augment the pub­ lic dangers in times of terrorism and rebellion." Sly* is Not Likely to Forgive Him. We went out in the country the other evening to preach. We stopped at the house of a brother for supper, and were most graciously entertained, the ladies of the house making themselves specially entertaining and devoting themselves ardently to the promotion •iiSiftf' advance of the the church, and fflHiiik lb# sillteea. The members of t£M§paally' eame after­ ward and took thelfiintB with the rest of the congregation,' without our ob­ serving their entrance. Alter the ser­ mon we undertook to play the agreea­ ble, and began to shake hands with the saints, and chat around to the best of our poor ability. Presently we found a strikingly good-looking sister in front of us, and, holding out our hand, ex­ pressed a wish to form her acquaint­ ance. A vicious titter rattled through the crowd, and the sister looked a little scornful. We asked what it all meant, and to our undoing found ^ that the lady in question was the ono who gave us our supper. We spent a gocd part of the night trying to explain l>ow it happened, but we cannot say4that our transgression will ever be forgiven. --Richmond Religious Herald. HI Finding One's Way on the l'rairies. To find the way for yourself to a new ranch across the prairie, or to drive anywhere after dark, is a feat only at­ tempted by the unwary. "Love will find out a way" through bolts, and bars, and parental interdiction; but love itself would be baffled on the prai­ rie, yhere the whole universe stretches in endless invitation, and where there is absolutely "nothing to hinder" from going in any direction that you please. "Foller a Kind of a blind trail, one mile east and two miles south," is the kind of direction usually given in the vernac­ ular; and so closely does one cultivate the pwers of observation in a country where a bush may be a feature of the landscape, and ft tall sunflower a land­ mark, that I am tempted to copy verba­ tim the written direction sent by a friend by which we were to find our way to her hospitable home: "Cross the river at the Howards'; turn to the right, and follow a d m trail till you come to the ploughed ground, which you follow till you come to the top of the hill. Follow the road on the west Bide of a corn field, and then a dim trail across the prairie to a wire fence. After you leave the wire fence, go up a little hill and down a little hill, then up another till you reach a road leading to the right, which angles across a section and leads "into a road going south to Dr. Read's farm house with a wall of sod about it Through his door-yard, and then through some oorn. Leave the road after driving through the corn, and angle to tho right to the corner of an­ other cornfield. Take the road to the west of this corn, and go south, up a hill, then turn to the right and follow a plain road west; afterward south, past Mr. Devor's homestead, a far me house on the right with a stone house unroofed. South, past a cornfield and ploughed land on the right. The road turns to the right, toward the west, for a little way, then south, then a short distance east, and you reach the guide- post, which is near a thrifty-looking farm owned by Mr. Kryant; a farm house, corn field, wheat stacks, and melon patch. At the guide-post take the road going south, with a corn field on the right, till you come to two roads. Follow the right-hand road (a dim trail at first) down the hill, past some hay-stacks, to the Osage-oranpo hedge. Follow that to the creek crossing, then through the grove of sunflowers to a t od house. Go through the corn directly west, following the creek to the crossing near our house." The distance was sixteen miles, but we took the letter with us, and found the way without the slightest difficulty, though a little puzzled at first by find­ ing that "at the Howards'" meant anywhere within thiee miles of the Howards'.--Alice Wellington Rollins, in Harper's Magazine. Took Hfe'n with <}uinla. Old Pete, a worthless darkey, who ekes out an existence by fiddling at dances whenever his services are re­ quired, entered Dr. Feesick's drug store one evening, just as a patient was taking a dose which looked suspicious­ ly like ppirits fermenti. Pete doffed his remnant of a hat and respectfully waited till the doctor had waited on his customer, who, smacking his lips, left. Pete approached the doctor confiden­ tially, and whispered: "Boss, I'd like awful well to have a dram of dat ar spirits." "Why," said the doctor, "you are mistaken, i can't sell you any liquor." "Oh," said Pete, "I don't want ter pay fer hit" "Well, that's worse yet," smilingly replied the doctor; "but I'll tell you, that gentleman who was in here just now took a little whisky with quinia in it." "Quinia! Wat's dat?" "Why, that's a medicine, good for a cold." "Dat's it, dat's jist what I wants hit fer. I've got to play all night nt a dance five miles fum here, and hit's awful cold out dar." "Well, all right," said the doctor, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, "I'll fix you up a dose," and then he 'proceeded to compound the follow dia­ bolical mixture: Quinine, 20 grains; red pepper, 30 grains; aloes, 30 grains; whisky, 9 s., which Pete drank down with a gulp, and started back with eyes bulging out and uh-huhing with mouth wide open, finally asked the doctor: "Is--er--is de gemmans very sick what takes dat ar doste ?" The doctor, almost bursting, replied: "Certainly." Pete shuffled out, and when he got to the door, turned around and said, with much emphasis: "Well, boss, I beliobes yer."--Texas Si/tings* A Heroine in a Fix. In an illusCation of the care taken by some authors over their works, we may quote an anecdote relating to the late G. P. R. James, whose novels at one time had a very large circulation. "I found him," one of his friends says, "dolefully seated over a manuscript. He was not writing, but he was gazing at it in melancholy despair. I thought he was ill, and asked him whether this was the case. 'No,' he replied; he was physically well. What, then, was the matter with him ? I anxiously in­ quired. 'It's my heroine,' he replied; 'I've got her in such a fix that I cannot extricate her without a slight violation of the rules of propriety.' 'Then let her be improper, and don't let us be late for the train,' I flippantly said. 'My dear friend,' he replied, 'do you want to ruin me? Are you not aware that I live by never allowing my hero­ ines to do anything to which the most stringent mamma might object? If once the slightest doubts were raised about my novels being sound reading for the most innocent school-room girls, my occupation would be gone.' And so we missed the train; but the heroine emerged from the pages of the novel a model of all the heroine ought to be under difficult circumstances."-- All the Year Round. EVERT moment in life is the seed of a FhnaMpfciat Stew rofstai Agmrt, ttife- » IMalojral Paper Daring ttie Ww --Barbleire, Hi* Right-Band Man, ail Officer in the Rebel Armjr and a Tlllfler or Loyal Men. [Philadelphia special to Chicago Trlbnne.1 Col. A. Wilson Norris, an ex-Union soldier, who was twice promoted dur­ ing the war for gallantry under fire, was recently displaced as Pension Agent at Philadelphia by W. H. H. J)avis, a Democrat. Davis' first act after as­ suming the duties of his office was the removal of three Republican ex-soldier clerks and the appointment of Demo­ crats in their stead. The. first place was given to a man named Joseph Bar- biere, who was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Confederate army during the late civil war, and was known throughout Tennessee and Georgia as a rabid and persistent advocate of the right of the Southern States to secede and become an independent nation. He was also a most bitter and vindictive assailant of Lincoln and Stanton and other leading public men of the North who upheld the Government and the cause of the Union during the memora­ ble struggle. These facts in connection with Barbiero are not obtained at second-hand. They are to be found in a book written by him and printed by Gen. Davis himself in® Doylestown, in the year 18(58. It is a volume of nearly 400 pages, filled with the most venom­ ous abuse of the North, of Northern public men, Northern institutions, and Abolitionists that ever appeared, per­ haps, from a Southern source. In this book Barbiere eulogizes Jefferson Davis as "our late beloved chief." He defends Wirz, the author of the Andersonville atrocities, as "the murdered Wirz, who was more sinned against thau sinning." He assails the late Wendell Phillips, of Massachusetts, the great Abolition leader, as "that dirty dog and fanatic, Wendell Phillips, the negro-thief and slanderer of Southern people." He at­ tacks Secretary Stanton as "that arch military fiend of the War Department of tlie United States," who "has placed himself in a position to be shot at," and of whom "it is but fair we should make a target" Again, he pays his respects to Stanton as "that miscreant at Wash­ ington, that party ghoul, Edwin M. Stanton." He calls Lincoln a "political scavenger," who "was fleeter than the ostrich (in passing through Balti­ more. )" Mr. Davis was himself publisher of the Doylestown Democrat during the war, and the office of the paper was once sacked and the publication sus­ pended on account of the rabid rebel sentiments which the editor expressed. The removal of Col. Norris naturally occasions bitter feeling among the ex- soldiers of Pennsylvania, although Davs is personally of high standing. Even the women of the North come in for their share of abuse from the rank secession pen of Pension Agent Davis' new clerk. He calls Harriet Beeclier Stowe (Henry Ward Beecher's sister) "the fanatical and heartless Harriet Beecher Stowe." He designates Anna Dickinson as "the strong-minded, ugly, weak-lieaded Anna Dickinson." Here is an extract from the book tc show Pension Clerk Barbiere's estimate Of President Lincoln: "He has brains; so has a hog. These ignorant fanatics worship a man, and that man Abraham Lincoln I" Here is what he says about the Puri­ tans and the Yankees: "The settler on Plymouth Rock is a fit descendant of the English politician, for, while their forefathers were mur­ dering East Indians, they were imitat­ ing them in, destroying aborigines oi America, despoiling them of their lands Mid seducing their women, and the negro is now meeting with the fate of the Indian. The murderer and de- spoiler--who is he ? The author of the war--who is he? You, the mean, whining, prying, hypocritical, white- livered, negro-stealing, fanatical Yan­ kee, a fit shoat of the round-headed English politician, that sang psalms and cut throats, and who would enchain the world and make it bow the knee in homage to tho British lion and Yankee eagle." All through his book Barbiere seems to take pains to show that he has turned his back on tho Union forever, and that he wants to see the republican form of government broken up. Such is the man whom the maimed Union soldiers of this city will now meet when they go to draw their pension! ! the: Bright Republican Prospects in Ohio. One of the most prominent Republi­ cans of Ohio, who is here, says this as to the prospects of the campaign and the Republican programme in the State: "We shall win this fall, but we shall not win on the basis talked about outside of the State. We are not go­ ing to elect our Governor because of any special Republican dissatisfaction with the Cleveland administration. On the contrary, the Republicans aro bet­ ter pleased with the administration than the Democrats are. The cam­ paign will be fought almost on State issues, and the Republicans will suc­ ceed on account of the dissatisfaction which prevails with Republicans and decent Democrats alike at the proceed­ ings of the coal-oil Legislature."-- Washington dispatch. Commissioner Black's Disability. It"#hould not be forgotten that Gen­ eral Black, Commissioner of Pensions, is a "physical wreck," according to his own application for a pension. His left arm is "shortened and shrunk," and is "permanently disabled." Tlie other arm is even in a worse condition --so the papers on file state. And yet General Black, for a "physical wreck," with useless arms, manages to sign a good many papers, not a few of which put out of office men who fought for the Union as bravely as he did. After all, we wonder was General Black placed in the Pension Ofiice as an ex­ ample or a warning?--New York Trib­ une. POLITICAL history reveals nothing more sneakingly infamous than Mr. Vilas' "confidential" scheme to stab Re­ publican postmasters in the back in the dark. Neither is there any parallel to the complete collapse of this wind-bag statesman, who has been traveling in swelling importance upon one "oration" be delivered years ago, with General Grant for its theme and inspiration. The records will be searched in vain for another thing that William F. Vilas ever did cr said above mediocre. His speech at the Chicago convention was as insipid as stale beer, and his address of notification to the candidates as stilted, unnatural, and tawdry as the commonest bit of' commencement rhetoric. Except Secretary Bayard, there is not a smaller or more paltry man in public life than the Postmaster General. The other members of the Cabinet tower like giants above these paltry pygmies.--Indianapolis Jour' nal. first appeals of one nation to ajtoftwr, as if they formed one com­ monwealth, was in the twelfth century, and in the thirteenth century we find the good king, St Louis, of France, chosen arbitrator between Henry UL, of England, and his Barons. IN the middle ages, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the eleventh century, there may be said to have been no international law, or only a confu­ sion of customs, some of which had been influenced by principles of equi­ ty, while others rested on barbarism. Locis XI., of France, claimed all shipwrecked goods as legal property of the crown; the only exceptions being in favor of the Dutch and Flemings, and of the Hanseatic League. The or­ dinance of 1543 is said to be the first legal evidence of a reform of this prac­ tice in France; by this act, the wrecked persons were permitted to claim theif property within a year. C AKRONADES were much used during the war of 1812*15 on the ocean. They are a kind of short iron cannon which is attached to its carriage by a joint and bolt underneath the piece, instead of trunnions. It is only in this respect that the carronades difier from other heavy guns and howitzers. The name is derived from Carron, a village in Stillingshire, Scotland, where the gun was tirBt made. IN Maryland, in early times, a box#>f forty pounds of tobacco was levied upon every taxable inhabitant for the pay of the preacher's salary. This was col­ lected by the Sheriff, who charged 4 per cent, for his services, and also de­ ducted from tho total collected 1,000 pounds per annum for the payment of the parish clerk. By the laws of Vir­ ginia every clergymen received annual­ ly 1 ,500 pounds of tobacco and sixteen barrels of flour. THK term broken heart, as commonly applied to death from excessive grief, is not a vulgar error, but may arise from violent muscular exercise or strong mental emotions. This aflection was, it is believed, first described by Harvey; but since his day several cases have been observed. Morgagni has re­ corded a few examples: Among them that of George IL, of England, who died suddenly of this disease in 1760, and, what is very curious, Morgagni himself fell a victim to the same mal­ ady. IN January, 1778, while the channel in the river Delaware was nearly free ot ice, some Whigs of Bordentown, New Jersey, sent floating down the stream some torpedoes in the form of kegs filled with gunpower, and arranged with machinery so that on rubbing against an object they would explode. It was hoped that some of these torpedoes might touch a British war vessel, ex plode and sink her. One of them, touching a piece of floating ice, flew up and created intense alarm. For twen­ ty-four hours afterwards not a thing was feen floating on the bosom of the river without being fired at by a British musket or cannon. Francis Hopkins, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, wrote a satirical poem on this subject called "The Battle of the Kegs." Judge Black's Early Studies. In the volume of "Recollections of Judge Jere S. Black," written by his son, Hon. Chauncey F. Black, the fol­ lowing is given in regard to the early studies of the distinguished lawyer: "The boy was especially fond of Latin olassics, and at 15 or thereabouts was a clever Horatian. He had committed the text verbatim; had translated it into English prose, and then turned the whole into English verse of his »wn. To the day of his death he re­ membered literally all three--the Latin, the English prose, and the* Eng­ lish verse--though neither had ever been written, and he amused many a leisure moment by comparing his child­ ish version with the numerous pub­ lished translations of his favorite. This, Uowever, was, as his father intimated, but the play of a still undisciplined but oxtraordinary vigorous intellect. He pursued with even greater assiduity the •studies for which he had less taste, and In which he then felt the greatest dread of finding himself deficient when he should oome to that man's work of making an honest living, which he knew, from his father's circumstances, he must soon take up. He subjected avery learned man, priest, or layman who came his way to a catechism of his own devising, and thus cleared up the doubts and difficulties which occasional­ ly arose in the course of his self-guided Btudies. It is not, therefore, surpris­ ing that when, at the age of 17, he rode to the country town on horseback with his father and was entered a student of law in the office of Chauncey Forward he was found a fair scholar, well equipped for the profession. His seri­ ous mind, with its mighty and eager grasp, seized and assimilated every­ thing within reach. He had read every book in his father's house--aDd that was a store by no means inconsiderable for the time and place--and also every one that could be fished from the shelves and closets of the better furn­ ished house of his grandfather, Patrick Sullivan, in Elk Lick township, where, in childhood and boyhood, he had fre­ quently spent many weeks at a time. While a student at Somerset he ac­ quired French enough to read and write it with some facility from a French­ man who taught in that and the neigh­ boring counties as he happened to be favored with a class." A Spiritualistic Story. Mr. Greville, the late clerk of tho privy council, was persuaded, when he was over 60 years of age, to attend a spiritualistic seance. Foster, the pre­ siding medium, was in great form, and the revelations were astonishing. 'Gre­ ville sat silently, and his aged, wizened face was as emotionless as a mask. Suddenly the medium grew excited, and said to the old gentleman: "A female form is bending over you. Oh! the extraordinary likeness!" Greville sighed. "She lifts her hands to bless yon." . Greville sighed again. "It is your mother." , 1'Ah, poor thing," said Grevilfe "l am glad." "She smiles. She says all is well with her." Greville sighed again, and said; *X am delighted." "She says she will see you soon. Ton are old, and you must meet her before long." Then Greville quietly observed: "That's very true. I'm going to tea with her at 5 o'clock this evening." Tableau. His mother was then, though DO years old, hale and vigorous. --Glasgow Herald. A MANUFACTURER of glass eyes saya that his products are now so skilfully made as to defy detection. Even tho wearers of the glass eyes can't see through the deception. J] •--The First Brigade of the St will go into camp for seven days, Aug. 9. --The loss by the water-spout Of the £fh inst, near Bloomington, is now estimated at over $250,000. --Henry Staas. fifteen years old. was ar- " rested for placing obstructions on the tacit of the St Paul Boad, near Freeport. --Col. Dominick AVelter. Inspector and Secretary of the Chicago Police Depart­ ment, died at Tiffin, Ohio, of heart dis­ ease., --A revolver was accidentally discharge ̂̂ in a gun-shop at Bloomington, the bullet ,|V probably fatally wounding B. F. Kerr,a ' prominent farmer. * s --Captain Harry Bnrrcr Springsteto, - said to be well known in Chicago, COOK mitted suicide in New Orleans by taking morphine. Disappointment in love led to the rash act. --The commission to locate the Soldiers and Sailors' Home met at Springfield and elected Col. W. W. Berry, of Adams County, President. The commission ad­ journed until Aug. 4. --Ri chard Benning was found dead in his wheat-field near Quincy, with four bullet-holes in his head. It is snppoeed he was shot by a man who has held a grudge against him for some time. --John Barry, of Hunter Township. Ed­ gar County, died on the 4th inst., at the advanced age of one hundred and seventeen years. He walked over xa mile the last Presidential election to vote. ' v i Vi "While Walter Both, a lad of sixtepi* was bathing in the lake at Chicago, ha climbed on a pier, and, jumping into the water, struck his abdomen upon a pro­ jecting spike, inflicting a dangerous wound. --A sensation was caused at Joliet by Miss Ida Slillwell's attempt to elope with a painter named Clark. The girl jumped from a two-story window of her parents' dwelling and joined her lover at the rail­ way depot but her father's appearance with an officer prevented her flight Recently Miss Stillwell had become a member of the Salvation Army, and at its meetings had he'd converse wi'.h Clirk, in opposition tdt her parents'wishes. --The Brooklyn directory contains 162,- 934 names, and, based on a ratio of 4 37-100 inhabitants for each name, the population is given as 712,022. But this ratio is alto­ gether too high. The ratio by which the Chicago directory makers give this city a popu'atiou of 700,000 is 3J. On the same ratio the population of Brooklyn would be about 570,000. Chicigo has easily passed Brooklyn, with Philadelphia only a short distance in advance, and New York to over­ haul and pass later on.--Chicago Times. --Governor Oglesby has appointed the Board of Commissioners to locate the Illi­ nois Soldiers and Sailors' Home. The fol­ lowing comprises the list: Colonel W. W. Berry, Quincy, Adams County; General Martin B. M. Wallace. Chicago; Captain H. M. Hall, Olney, Richland County; Frederick O. White, Aurora, Kane County; Colonel Monroe Crawford, Jonesboro, Union County; Colonel Henry T. Noble, Dixon, Lee County; and Francis E. Bryant, Bement, Piatt County, Of th ̂above three are Democrats, viz.. General Wallace, Col­ onel Crawford, and Mr. Bryant The other four members are Republicans. --Four members of Arthur's' Cabinet met at the Grand Pacific, Chicago, and went in to dine together. Two of the num­ ber--Judge Gresham and Frank Hatton-- have since become residents of Chicago, with Robert T. Lincoln, who was one of the party. The fourth was Senator H. M. Teller, of Colorado, who left in the evening for Whiteside County, to visit his aged mother for a week or more. In Mr. Lincoln's appeoranoe there has been so much change during tho four years he has been away that he would scarcely be recognized by his old friends. He has grown somewhat heavier, and he wears no beard beyond a heavy mustache. The members of the ex-President's offioial family seemed to heartily enjoy the re­ union which had been given them by a chance meeting at a hotel an thousand miles from the scene of their labors to­ gether. --There is a diversity of opinion among the /Chicago street-car conductors and drivers in regard to the settlement of their difficulties by the discharge of four men. To some the causes for their discbarge seem insufficient John Goodwin, a Hal- street conductor, they pay, was discharged because he would not take a Jew peddler, with a huge sack, upon his already over* crowded car. They think that, in con­ sideration of Goodwin's excellent record, which was admitted by President Jones, this offense should be overlooked. An­ other man named Reynolds, 9 Milwaukee avenue driver, was dismissed because he neglected to stop his ear until it had passed another oar, which had stopped to let off a passenger. A majority of the men whq> were seen say that no action will be by the men, as they had agreed to abide by Mr. Jones' decision. At the same time they all express a feeling of disap- poioiment that the whole sixteen woe not reinstated. --At La Harpe, while Albert fom stork and wife were at church, their fifteen- year-old boy, Chesley, met with a shock­ ing and fatal accident The boy Chesley and some youngei*children were left at home, some two or three miles from town. Some neighbors' boys came along with a little toy cannon, which they proceeded to load and fire. It did not go off as soon as they desired, and Chesley got down to blow the fire, which caused it to explode, burning his eyes and face fearfully. One eye vus entirely destroyed, and the other nearly so. His cries aroused his grand­ mother up-stairs. She came down and had him wash his face. He then said he could see a little. ̂ He then went around the house and came in at a back door. Imme- diutely another explosion was heard, and when his grandmother came to him she found that Chesley had shot himself through the heart with a revolver that was kept in the house. The parents on their return from church were nearly distracted to find their boy dead. It is generally supposed that the explosion of the cannon so crazed the boy that he did not know what he was about. PHILIP BOUKKE MABSTOX, the poe^ fe now entirely blind. ;•"i •i taS - , -V.. ' 4