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: ** * • llWWolPW J. VAN SLYKE, E«tor and Publ!»her. I |FCHENEY, *• ILLINOIS. IT is said that Hon. W. \5(. Astor, late United States Minister td\ Borne, "has written a novel of Italian life in the middle ages, which is shortly to be printed by Scribner's Sons. The story' wag accepted by the firm before the name of the writer was known to them.. " ; A COLTJMAUS, (Ohio) carpenter, while at work on a school-house, fell down the chimney, seventy-five feet high, breaking both of his legs. He was rescued by cutting a hole in the chim­ ney at the bottom large enough to prill bim through. Contact with the walls in his descent saved his life. I "Two of tbe toes of my buried leg overlap each other and pain me dread­ fully," said the wife of Jacob Berean, of Moriboro, Mas,3. The leg had been amputed and buried one month. The husband, unknown to the wife, had the leg exhumed and toes straightened out, and she said she knew by the relief that followed the exaot moment the act was ^ performed. . ' ^ "WILLIAM EI.AVOOD, a noted New York gentlemanly burglar, was recently dis- 3 • covered eating soap. " His fellow-pris­ oners soy lie has eaten two rakea a day for a month in order to reduced his £. weight and give him a consumptive ap- I pearance. When searched tobacco was v found in his armpits. Physicians say this will reduce weight. El wood is awaiting trial for the burglary, and for shooting a policeman. I. TITF-SIS died in Walllng-ford, Con­ necticut, lately, a spinster,, who re­ mained one on account of a curious pre-nuptial quarrel. The day had been fixed for her vedding, and she and her intended husband Vegan to put put down carpets in the bouse they were to occupy. She wanted them laid one way, he another. They quarrelled and separated. He died shortly afterward, and the lady never married. A MAN who used to preach the gos­ pel in tbe settlements has written to a friend in Eureka, Nevada, that lie1 is running a bar in Uleda, Montana, and that his partner is Vaughn, an old-timer from California, who used to deal faro tn Colorado, and was sent to the peni- tentfary for. burglary. "He is a good gambling man," declare* bis ex-clerical • partner in a burst of admiration, and adds by way of a personal vindication : "Selling whisky pays better than preaching, and beside? it is no harder •work." .There are seven sisters in New York who possess 608 inches of raven black faair, and a statistician recently com­ puted that ' their combined hair, if placed in single Btrauds, would reach over 100 miles. They put their hair in eilk bags at night to prevent it from tangling. The father of these girls, Xtev- Fletcher Sutherland liai been pas­ tor of the Methodist churches in Gene- aeo, Lyous, and Lockport, New York, . and is the only survivor of President Buchanan's inaugural dinner, given at the National Hotel in Wash'ngtou, at which Homo forty gues s wore pois- oned. - " AMONG the young men of title and fortune who may be said to be coming on for tbe next London season U Sir Henry Alfred Doughty Ticliborce who will in May next le of age. The youth­ ful Baronet is now in his twentieth year, bavin? been born in May, 18!>(>. The necessity of defending his property against the celebrated Tichborne claimhht has entailed upon his trustees the enormous expenditure of £120,000. His estates ore in Hampshire, Lincoln­ shire, Dorsetshire, and Buckingham­ shire, and represent between 11,000 and 12,000 Acres. There are, in addition. London properties, bringing up the gross rent-roll to £28,000. THE anglers in Northern wateip have laid aside their rods and reels until the •oft winds of Spring open the dogw ood blossoms. But the genuine angler during the winter months always car­ ries in his side pocket a sinker or a fly #to remind him of past delights and joys to come. One of the beauties of fish­ ing is ils pleasant memories; a mean man may fish to kill time, but he never loves the sport. \N hen the grandest ' newb that was ever sent to the world was ready to bo heaalded, neither jpriesls, nor doctors, nor lawyers, nor statesmen, nor merchants, nor editors Tflbre chosen to repeat the "glad tid­ ings," but humbiefishermen of Galilee. THE S n Francisco Society of Lady Artists is having a great time. It doesn't know wheti.er to call itself "lady" ar­ tists or "women* artists. It has long been a local habit to take matrimonial squabbles and all matters requiring peculiar finesse and exauisite blandish­ ment to General Barnes. Accordingly, f one of the ladies thought qhe would do a clever thing and get the General to settle the vexed question of names. So she stated *he case to him. After ma- _ ture deliberation.partly over tbe matter "in hand, and partly over a complicated shot at billiards, the General rendered his decision: "Avoid both names," said he. "Whf not be original and euphon­ ious, and call yourselves the San Fran­ cisco Society of She Painters?" There was a rustle of stylish petticoats and a sudden chilling vacancy in the apart- &ent IT takes very LIT tie sometimes to sep­ arate tw o loving hear a and make them meet thereafter as strangers. Recently . in France a young artist was about to be married to the girl of his c- oioe, but begged her for bis sake to abandon the use of a bustle, as the sight of one gave him a pain. Instantly her warm French blood began to boil, and throw­ ing her bcautilul he.*d proudly back, •he cave him to understand, ia atone of voice that made him wish he had be­ longed to another generation, fliat where she went her bustle would fol­ low close behind, wedding or no wed­ ding. He also had blood that would boil an egg, and he plainly in­ formed her that, since she preferred her bustle to him, she could marry it, and he wonld hunt up some female who would dispense with that ajipend- Age and give him the preference. NEAR Chehalis, in Washington Ter­ ritory, last October, two boys, John Browning and Ben Prindle. figured in a bear fight. The boys were out for birds, and while passing through a dense thicket, heard a fierce growl--a growl which made their blood curdle and their ha'r to stand on end. The boys soon discovered that they were surrounded l>y bears, and that, though well armed, it was barely possible for them to escape. A monster black made a pass at Prindle, who instantly pulled both triggprs, but the gun kicked and knocked him heels over head, with bruin in pursuit. Brown­ ing, seeing the plight his companion was in, took deadly aim and sent a bul­ let crashing through old bruin's brain. Two others attacked the boys, but,. DISASTERS Of THE YEAR. 'An Appalling Catalogue of Accidents Involving Loss of Human v 1 Life. i • . » «»«. . v; Wn --i r !•' * Cyclones, ^hlfnTredli ̂ Mine Explosions, Railway Collisions, Fires. Etc. The year has been dreadfully prolific of disas­ ter® fay land and writer, involving an appalling destruction of life. Storms, floods, fires, earth­ quakes, plagues, explosions, railway collisions, etc., have played havoc with life and property in every quarter of the globe. The most re­ markable of the disasters of the year are re­ viewed below: JANUARY. Stock by the thousands reported dying of hun­ ger in the ranges of Montana. Shocks of earth­ quake in Spain created intense panic ; a number of towns and villages were completely destroy­ ed, and the surviving inhabitants' deserted them. Losses from fires in the United States and Canada during 1SS4 were placed at S112.000,- 000--over $15,000,000 in excess of the annual av­ erage for nine years; loss during December, lti84. *11.000,000. The bodies of fourteen meu were found along a railroad grade between Val­ entine and Gordon City. Neb., who perished ill a blizzard. Many lives, with a number of vessels, were lost in a great storm which swept the British coast. A cyclone whose roar could be heard for miles swept through Georgia and Alabama, carrying awav buildings and fences. Twenty-eight men buried alive by an explosion of tire-damp in the great coal mine at l.ievin au Pas de Calais, France ; all killed. Burning of the infirmary for male patie.n s of the lunatic VOUnQT Browninir shot them both innt ! asylum at Kankakee, III.; saxenteen of the in-young drowning BUOt mem DOin, JUS( c1!rai)lo minutes cremated. Twentv-eisht lives as one of them was preparing to make a meal of Prindle. Three shots in rapid succession killed three bears and saved two boys. So relates the local chronicler. THE participants in " Japanesewed- dings," a form of entertainment very popular at church socials in towns where tho appearance of the "Mikado" has suggested the idea,,are experienc­ ing considerable embarrassment in New York, and elsewhere, over the fear that they are actually married, after all. The marriages were in­ tended, of course, to be mock affairs, but the ceremonies having been per­ form id, in some cases, by clergymen or other authorized persons, a not un­ reasonable suspicion has gained ground that the Japanese unions aro suffi­ ciently American to be legaj^ In one instance mentioned, whero tho young man and woman who kindly^ person­ ated Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum for the benefit of their non-theater-going neighbors, had each formed previous 'matrimonial engagement*, great con-' fusion and dismay exists. It is prob­ ably the wisest and safest plan for those desirous of witnessing the join­ ing of two Japanese hearts to go to a professional show, where there ia.no danger that the performance is any­ thing but "play acting." THE birth of a huge iceberg, a phe­ nomenon that has been teen only once or twice by a European, and to a cer­ tain extent has rema ned a matter of theory, was observed by the Danish ex­ plorers on the east coast o£ Greenland last summer. The lergs are formed by breaking off from the end of gla­ ciers extending from tho perpetual ice of the unexplored interior to the coast and into the sea. The water buoys up the sea end of the glacier until it breaks by its own weight with a noise that sounds like loud thunder miles away. The commotion of the wafer, as tlie icoberg turns over and over in the effort to attain its balance, is felt to a great distance along the coast. The natives regard it as the work of the .evil spirits, and believe that to look upon the glacier in its throes is death. The Danish officers, when ob­ serving the breaking off of the end of the great glacier Puissortok through their telescopes, were roughly ordered by the Esquimau escQrt, usually sub­ missive enough, to follow their example 'ftpd turn their backs on the interesting scene. They had happily completed their observations, and avoided an em­ barrassing conflict with their crew by a seeming compliance with the order. Georgia's Picturesque Ruin. A more romantic spot than the ruins of Cooper's iron works, cannot be found in Georgia. Great rocks rise up in rugged grandeur, bearing on their sides clambering vines and ripening berries, growing up through decaying floors. An ancient mill stands on the river's bank and the water goes bounding over the old rock dam. It is a place where civilization and the busy hum of machinery, and of humah voice has given place again to nature. Far up the mountain side is a little plateau, where onco lived, in a little rock house, an early pioneer. It is with much difficulty that the place is reached, but when once there the scenes that meets the eye is grand and picturesque beyond description. To sit there and watch an autumn sun­ set is bettter thun to b9 in the vine- clad hills of Italy. Looking out from under the muscabine vine that has climbed up and arched the doorway of tho scene down the rivor, was too grand for a poor, weak pen like mine. The old "king of day" was almost ; touching the treetops in the western ! horizon. A halo of golden glory | flooded the world. The white clouds ! that lav off toward the South seemed to ! be catching on lire. The river, under i the touch of the sun, seemed to be ris­ ing to meet the violet-tinted sky. The hills'were gloriously radiant under tbe l>ewitching touch of that grand light. The old Blue liidge Mountains tow­ ered up far back in the east, and their steru faces reemed almost to smile as the sun kissed their brows. From the South there came the softest tonch of evening air, bearing on its boson the last sweet essence of summer. From •far below there ro e the low musical murmur of the river as it splashed over rocks i.nd dimpled in the zephyr-like breath of tho air. Above us the sad pines pently swayed in the breeze and gave out a sweet, soft song that spoke of peace and rest. It was good to be thei e. Tho sacred stillness of the plaoe was elevating, purifying, ennobling!-- Carternvill- (Ga.) Advertiser. A Good Suzgestion. "You seem to be serious this morn­ ing, Colonel," said one Missouri gen- yeman lo another. "Yes, Major.-1 am puzzled to know what to do." The merchant with whom 1 have been dealing has been dunning me every day for the past week. I be­ lieve I'll step around and shoot him." "Don't do that, Colonel. You might have to pay a fiue Keep on trading with him, and if he don't starve to death, he will kill himself."--tiifUf-gs. lost by the Kinking of the Hritish packet Admiral Moorsom. which collided with tbe ship Hun tec Anna near Holyhead. Wales. Knormous snow- slide in the Alpine foothills of hwitsrerland and Tiedmont, crushii g two \1:lages, with a loss of over forty lives and the injurv. of nearlv one hundred persons. Tho 15av State Sugar Kerfner v burned%t Boston ; loss, il.oo i.tHM. Hiuuing of the steamer i-t. John--a very large and tine ves­ sel--at her pier in New Yurk ; she otitinnllv c.^st $500,000. An a*alanclie at Melvnlles, in the French Alps, e rushes a church anil buries a con­ gregation in tho snow; twentv workmen in a marble quarry near by also buried. Some deaths, much suffering ai;d man v wrecks reported among the fishing fleets on tbe Newfoundland coast, caused by a cold gale I oss of tho Ameri­ can schooner Arcana in tho Bay of Fundy, with Capt. Holmes and eight men. Forty passengers lilled by tho wreck of a train at a bridge near Sydney, N. S. \Y. Total loss by fire in the I'tiittnl Sftttos ard Canada during Jitnuurt, $s,r>oe>,000-- more than SI,000,000-al>ove average January loss in nine years. FKBUIAHY. Fire at Marquette. Mich., destroyed 9250,000 worth of proj^rty. 1 oss of over $1 .'imp.noo incur­ red bv the burning of a marble Imild.ng in Bar­ clay street, New York. The village of Buttle I.ake, Minn., almost swept out of existence by a conflagration. Fire,in Gold and Sprnce strte s. New York, destroyed property valued at 8230,- 000. Steel works at Nashua, N. H., suffered a loss of £100,000 by the burning of plate and bar mills. By a collision of freight trains on a bridge at New Brunswick, N. J., an oil tank exploded, and tho burning fluid spread to two manufactories, several dwellings, and a stable full of horses ; four jiersona perished in the flumes, and the money loss reached £1,000,-' 000. Powder works near Canton, China, ex­ ploded, killing 250 employes. By the fall of a scaffold on the Susquehanna bridge at Havre de Grace, five workmen fell through the iee into tbe river, fifty feet below, and two drowned. Thirteen miners killed by a colliery explosion at New Glasgow, N. S. Twenty-eight insane in­ mates of the comity almshouse in West Phil­ adelphia cremated in the destruction of that institution. The town of Altu, Utah, swept by « heavy avalanche of snow, and three-fourths ot the buildings destroyed; eighteen liveB lost. Seventeen lives (nine of them civilians) lost and much damage done ut Gibraltar. Spain, by the explosion of a powder magazine, l'ottsville. Pa., had a S100.000 conflagration. The entire business jiortion of Bisbee, Arizona, was reduced to aslios; loss £100,000. Several manufactories at Lynn, Mass., were swept away, causing a loss of 8100,000. Explosion of gas in a Wilksbarre mine caused death of twelve men and serious burning of ten others. Of the Canadian voy­ agers who took (ren. Wolseley's boat up the Nile ten were drowned, two died from fever, and two were killed on the railway in Egypt. Fire destroyed the Grannis Block, Chicago, in which were three banks, a loss of MOO,000 being in­ curred ; four large business structures corner of Second and Chestnut, streets, Philadelphia--loss S&'jaooo; Jos. H. Brown's grocery house at Fort Worth, Texas--loss §100,000; the Le Hoy Pine Company at Troy, N. Y'.--loss £00,000. Five per­ sons lost their lives in a collision on the Virginia Midland Hail rood at Four Mile, Va.*; the contents of the express safe, £259,000, were destroyed, also more valuable mail matter than was ever before known ; the fire was so intense as to melt the gold and silver in transit. Fire destroyed the Marvin Safe Company's factory at New York, valued at £230,000. John A. King's residence in Philadelphia took fire before the occupants had risen from their couches, and out of the family of eight perrons but three escaped alive. Ten business buildings at New Britain, Conn., valued with contents at £2tK»,(X)0, were burned : one man lost his life. Citizens and live stock were rej>orted starving in McDowell Coun: ty, W.Va., a region 100 miles from any railroad, on account of failure of crops last summer. An Illinois Central train consumed 108 hours in making the trip from Bloouiington to Kanka- kee--8(i miles--owing to the snow blockade. The steamer Allegheny, from Cardiff for Ceylon, was lost with her crew of thirty persons. Flames swept awav the National Theater at Washing­ ton ; loss $200,000. During February the fire loss reached £10,000,000. A terrific hurricane on the east coast of MiulagasefPr sunk au American bark and two French staamers ; seventeen i(er­ gons perished. MARCH. Fire-damp iii the- Usworth' Colliery, at ITs- worth, F.ngland, caused an explosion and the loss of forty-eight lives. From a coal mine in Austrian Silesia in which au explosion occurred, l&i corpses were taken. Of 220 miners employed in a colliery at Camphaiiseii, Klienish Prussia, all wore either ciushed t'o death or asphyxiated by an explosion of lire-damp except thirty. The Langham Hotel at Chicago was destroyed by fire, causing the loss of five lives. Tw He miners 1ob» their lives by a terrible explosion in a coal mine at McAllister. Indian Territory. AI'KIL. While workmen were bracing tip the yielding foundations of eight five-storv tenements in New Y'ork City the entire structure fell, bury ing about fifty workmen in the ruins ; the contractor fled to cscape lynching. Trumps who had been driven away from Senator Stanford's Vina (Cal l ranch returned ami tired his stables, 111 horses and mules being burned to death! A volcanic eruption causing the death of 100 per­ sons occurred on the Island of .lava. Vicksburp. Miss., was visited by a destructive fire w liieh caused the loss of forty Lives; thirty-tw o of the victims were buried one day ; the telegraph gave only the briefest mention of the disaster. An avalanche in Iceland swept-fifteen dwellings, with their inhabitants, into the sea. and twenty- four persons drowned. Aggregate losses by fire in tho United States and Canada in April, £7.750.000; for the first four months of 1S85, S$,V250,l)i.0~at the rate of over £105,000,000 for the vear. MAY. A Portsmouth (Pa.) dispatch dated the 1st inst. announced : "The plague here i# increas­ ing in horror daily ; fourteen funerals yesterday ; 1.700 persons now under medical treatment, and physicians exhau itcd with their labors." Au attempt to raise a five-story factory in Brooklyn, N. Y'.. resulted in the collapse of the building ; hundreds of men, women, and girls were em­ ployed therein, some thirty of whom lost their lives; pecuniary damage. S;HK),000. Five children of Heiiry I.ewiston, . a far­ mer near Owatonna, Minn., were burn­ ed to death. A terrific snowstorm prevailed throughout Austria and Hungary on the 17th and IHtli of May; many persons were frozen to death and crops generally were destroyed. Eight women and girls employed, in a Cincin­ nati printing-house, during a fire, leaped from the fifth-story windows, and all were killed ; nine corpses were found on the upper floor; es­ cape by stairways was cut off. ami telegraph wires prevented the placing of ladders by the firemen. During a dense fog. the steamship City of Rome crashed into the French bark George Johns, off Newfoundland, twenty-two of the bark's crew perishing. A rain-storm del­ uged the valley of the Brazos River, Texas, re­ sulting in immense damage; at Waco 11 Si inches of water fell in five hours ; the losses ex­ ceeded £'20,000,000. Losses by fire in the United States and Canada in May, £8,750,000. jtsk The Vale of Caahmere, in India, was visited by a disastrous earthquake, Serinagnr, one of the capitals, being nearly destroyed, ami,tho j soldiers' barracks raze^l to the ground ; 5<J sol diers wore killed and over 100 wounded ; the Mo- hammedau mosque at Sapur. 20 miles north of I Serinugur, was demolished and 4tK) persons killed. A village of 400 houses in Northern Hungary was destroyed by an incendiary fire, rendering 1,000 persons destitute; tho enraged populace discovered the culprit and roasted him tO death over a bonfire. An explosion in the Philadelphia Colliery, near Dur­ ham, England, caused the death of 22 men and boys. Tho French war-sliip Renard, with a crew of 127, foundered in the Red Sea. Nearly 200 lives were lost by the bursting of a watersi>out in the mountains near the dividing line between the Mexican States of Guanajuato and Jalisco. By tho fall of a crowded stairway in the Court House in Thiers. France, 25 persons were killed and 163 injured. Twenty lives were lost and over 5J persons were severely injured by a destructive f-tcrm which visited the western and ncrthern portions of Iowa ; the loss to property was $70J,000. As a result of the earthquakes in Cashmt re, India, 3,081 perpons lost their lives, 70,001 houses were laid in ruins, and 73,000 animals perishtd. In a single day 238 deaths from cholera were re­ ported in Spain, with 401 new cases. A terrible explosion occurred at the Pendlebury colliery, near Manchester. England, and of the 349 miners employtd therein 160 perished. Cholera report# Spain for une Oajr sbcw Slfi death* and 719 Ijew cases. The fire losses in U»i# country dtdN.t, big tl»e first six months of 188Samoanted fa 130,750,000. JCLT. Floods in China caused great loss of life and enormous destruction of property. Toyama, Japan, vas visited by a conflagration wnicll de­ stroyed 5,917 houses. Stoughton, Wis., suffered 4 loss of $650,000 by fire; about one-third of the tobacco crop of the State was consumed. The steam-yacht Minnie Cook was capsized on Lake SIinnetonka during a storm, and ten persons, in­ cluding ex-Mayor Rand, of Minneapolis, bis •wife and two sons, were drowned. Fire at Washington. 1>. C., destroyed the presses and composing and editorial rooms of the Poit, iiatiinial Iic};uhiitYin, Critic, and Sund/ii/ Gazette: loss ?15 I,0I 0. A lifeboat which started from Yar­ mouth. England, to the relief cf a brig in dis­ tress sank before reaching its destination, and eight of its crew were drowned. Thirteen persons were killed and 22 injured by lightning durirg a storm at Torre Cajetani, Italy. Total losses bv fire in this country during the month of Julv estimated lit to,000,000. AUGUST. Halt a mile along the water-front of Toronto, occupied by boat houses, lumber yards, Eleva­ tors, etc., was destroyed by fire; scores of ves­ sels were burned; the ioss of property was placed at £1,000,000. A great earthquake in the region of Tashlcend. in Asiatic Turkey, swal­ lowed up portions of villages and cities, killing many people. A grftst flood devastated the province of Canton. China, causing the death of 10,000 people and the destruction of many vil­ lages. An explosion of gas at the Mocanaqua (l'a.t ctjal mines caused tbe death of twenty men and boys. The little town of Norwood, St. Law­ rence County, N. Y'.. w as visited by a terrific storm of only three minutes' duration ; but dur­ ing that time eight persons were killed and the place almost wiped out of existence. The Amer­ ican barks Napoleon and Gazelle were lost in the ice in the Northern Pacific, and twenty-two persons perished. The British snip Haddington­ shire was wrecked in the Pacific Ocean, in the vacinity of San Francisco; eighteen of the crew perished. The German corvette Augusta and a crew of 238 ottietrs and sailors were iost in a cy­ clone in the Red Sea, »Tl»e Scotch steam-dreilge Beaufort, with a crew of twelve persons, was lost in a hurricane off the Bermudas; officers and men are said .to have been drunk. A steamer carrying pilgrims was wrecked in the Gulf of Aden100 lives lost. A month yf chol­ era cost Spain greater loss in money and life than a war of n year's duration calling till her able-bodied men into the field ; over 70.000 peo­ ple-died in August. Charleston, S. C.. was visit­ ed bv a cyolone, which unroofed one-fourth of the buildings in the city and destroyed a vast amount of property, the aggregate loss being es­ timated at £1,000,(XX); great havic was also caused along the entire South Atlantic coast. Three pilot l>oats hailing from Beaufort, S. C., were wrecked in a hurricane, fourteen lives be­ ing lost. The losses by fire in the United States and Canada during August reached £5,500,000, the average for the month named forten years being S7.000.000; for eight mouths of 1885 the fire w aste footed up 365.500.000. SEPTKMUKB. Ship-yards at Barrow-in-Furness, England, burned, causing a loss of SI,<100,000, and depriviug two thousand men of employment. Near Copenhagen the British steamer~Auckland fume in collision with the German gunboat Blitz and was sent to the bottom, i illy two of the Auckland's crew of seventeen being rescped. In a collision between tho steamers Dreuda and Dolphin, off the southeast coast ot England, seventeen of the crew and passengers of the latter were lost. Prairie fires destroyed over a million dollars'worth of crops and "other prop­ erty in Dakota; a solid stretch of over 100 miles along the line of the Northern Pacific was burned. People to the number of 30,000 assem­ bled in front of Mme. Christine Nilsson's hotel at Stockholm, Sweden, to hear her sing from the balcony, and in the crush that ensued seventeen persons perished; twenty-nine others were se­ riously iniured. Disastrous floods, covering an area of 3.500 square miles, occurred in the presidency of Bengal, British India, causing immense damage to property and loss of life; 3;K) persons were drowned, A great tire visited Iquique, Peru, destroying over £2,000.000 worth of property. The fire losses for September in the United States and Canada were computed at £0.525,000--83,700,000 less than during the cor- rcstKinding month of 1884. OCTOKKK. A railway accident In Greece caused the death or injury of between forty and sixty iiersons. Ijondon had a £15,000,000 conflagration ; a block of thirteen eight-story business buildings was consumed in Aldersgate. Floods in the valleys of Switzerland destroyed a large amount 'of i>roperty, and caused the loss of a number of ives. Cholera in Tonqnin carried off 3,000 Frenchmen in nine months. Deaths in Mon­ treal for five days, from small-pox, numbered 1,370; on one street in Ste. Cunegonde there was a case to every house. At Perigeux, France, the Oliancelado quarries fell in, destroying a village, and killing many people. During a storm on the Labrador coast, 70 vessels were wrecked and 300 lives lost; 2,000 ship­ wrecked persons on tho shore were rendered destitute. A rainstorm of eighteen hours' du­ ration caused Hoods in the Shenandoah Valley, Va., more watet falling than in the two previout years. The losses by tire during October, in the United States and Canada, reached 85,750,000-- iiliout ¥2,250,000 less than the average for October in the past ten years. The U/S. Consul at Palermo reported 2.000 deaths in that city front cholera up to October 12, and stated that over 00,000 persons fled from tho epidemic. „ NOVEMBKK. A cyclone at Dangerfleld, Tex., killed a colored family of six persons. Nearly a score of persons were "killed and forty or fifty seriously injured near Selma, Ala., by a destructive cyclone. The fron steamer Algoma, belonging to the Canadian Pacific Road, struck a reef off Port Arthur, Lake Superior, in a dense fog, and went down ; 45 of the passengers were lost, and 14 of the crew saved. Flames in Galveston. Texas, destroyed 100 houses, mostly resiliences, the losses being £2,500,000. A cyclone in the Philippine Islands destroyed 8,000 buildings and killed many peo­ ple. A cyclone in the Oressa, Moorshedabad and Huihlca districtsof India desolated vast ex­ tents of country, submerged 150 villages, and destroyed 5,000 lives.^ A remarkable tiddl wave along the Atlanticpwtfst on the 24th caused great damage on the New England seaboard as well as in New York harbor and on the New Jersey coast,; u submarine earthquake was believed to have caused the sudden rise. The loss by fire in the United States and Canada during Novem­ ber was placed at $7,500,000, and for tho eleven months, to Dec. 1, the loss footed up £85,000,000. DECEMBER. Fire consumed the Barnum Wire Works at De­ troit, valued at £277,OoO. and employing '200 men. An earthquake ravaged four )H>pulous towns of Algeria, killing 32 persons, among them several Euro;>eaus. '1 hrough the failure of a grip on a cable trpin on the East ltiver Bridge, at New York, two cars slipped back down tho curve ut the Brookl>u end, crashing intj) another train; five persons received serious injuries ; the bridge officials rei>ort that the cable road lias carried 38,50^,000 passengers without losing a life; Brooklyn people to the number of l«i,000 an hour are transiK.rted t ) New York during the morning hours on week (lavs. The Pennsylvania Com­ pany paid 820,308 "to William Fitz Simmons, one of its former engineers, who was crippled for life in a collision caused by a train-dispatcher's blunder. Two men en laged in the construction of the new Croton aqueduct, at Merritt's Corners, N. Y., were killed, making thirty-ei^bt who have lost their liv« s in connect o:i with this work. Nc ar Atlan a, (ia.. a collision occurred between trains of the Georgia Pacific nud East Tennes­ see Loads, on i high trestle; twelve persons were killed and three others received fatal mjti- rit s. Flumes originating on the dock at Jack­ sonville, FIA.. destroyed a number of business houses, valued at £450,000. A cyclone at Aspin- wull sunk fifteen vessels, with their crews. Are (lie Sexes riiaiiuriu^ ? It is rather amusing to note just now that the fashionable world displays a tendency decidedly the reverse of that •which obtained a few years ago. Once, writes a New York correspondent, it was proper for men to cultivate a mar­ tial bearing. They held their heads in the air, took manly strides, held their shoulders back, and were brisk and talkativ^. The proper tilings for girls at that time was the drooping and wil­ lowy article. It hadn't much appetite, and it cultivated the habit of dropping its lids over it? large blue eyes. All this is very bad form now. Men should droop a little, carry themselves care­ lessly, and bend their head a trifle forward. Their clothes should not tit too snugly, their trousers must be •WIMINAL RECORD. A Recapitulation of Some of the Hotel Deeds of Darkness Committed T " Daring the Yes# ^ytiktftgs, Murders, and Otitrf A«!» tf Lawlessness--Execntions of the Year. The criminal record for the year is a dark and bloody one, and a full review of the multitudin­ ous murders, lynchings and legal hangings that have occurred would require half a dozen issues of this pajier. We note only a fev^..9£ the most sensational-events of this character' * JAMARY. Geo. Travis hanged at WelIsboro,""Pa.. for the murder of Ma't'ia hy!\ia; Travis cremated the corpse to conceal ihe ciime. Wright I*>iov swi ng off at San Francisco for the murder of Nicholas Skerrett, and Wm. F. H nry served in lik_' m:iiiii( r at A1 on. 111., for the murder of two colored fiitnls. Thomas J. Chapman a farm hnnd. hanged at Char'esti n. 111., for th< nmrJer »f Nicholas Hub^art, a farmer, in {?epi« liiber, 1N84. Chi-.s. .1 H)geis. j e.iit ntiary wnr.ien, hi n;;:>d at Portland, ( rogon, for the iinmltr of atioiher prison -official. I.afayette Melton, who lour years before wi«s captain of a band of Ku Klux that lmirden d Franklin Hale for betray­ ing their set r.»ts, paid the penalty on the gal­ lows a* Coming, Ark. FKKKI'ARY. Flijah Wet s \ agt d 7.">. r.r.ested in Haroy County, W est Virginia, confessed that he mur- deied twelve persi ns i riir to or during the war; he was ihe lotu'e: of a band of robbers who ravaged that section. * John 1.. .luck and Carter B Page fought a dvel in a street at Portsmouth. ^ a.; nine shots excht U'Jied, Page being mortally wounded find Jack escaj inc :n urv ; meeting oc­ casioned by alleged 1 reach of social courtesy. Three men C( n ir.ed in the jail at Audubon, Iown, chart ed with murderii g an old man named Hiiam Jellerson, were lynched by a ir.oj; two cf the men wore shot in their cell*, and tho remaining one, wh<y was a son o.' the murdered man, was hanged. Ben Hiwk:n», a colojel mur­ derer. t.iken irom jail and riddled with bul­ lets by a m<>l> at Frankl.n, Texas. Wayne PoweisandGe r_;e Gibroii, who killed William (libson for $12 and a suit of clothes, hanged at Kstillvillo, Va. A butchcr at Uii raltar, Spain, believed to be m-ano. murders the Vicar Gen­ eral of the d cce e n the ratlicdral. Taou as Morris, a n gro, charged with asia iltiiig a l.t le ttirl-c f 1?, was left c1 angling to a trie at Scliuleii- 'h r i, Tex. A Ceorg'a tie;ro attc mptc d to i>ois( n aa cn'ire family, ). »' lug as an excuse ihut "dere was to » many wh t > folks in de w rid. an 1 dut it was ;imi to ) elli'it of someoi'dem." It jins- dcrf mid Kuei h'er. amir, his a. who a'teni) ted the life of the G< r.iii n Empcr.ir and ot; er royal t er onages at h ' Niedt rwald celebi at on. be­ lli ai'el ut Halle. Ii;ge Parker and Hi,sh .1 elm- son. n< gro s. were 1 a:u ed at little Ho k f ir the p>i rder < f ,1< h i C. Wall, a white num. l-.i 'hard Trenkc at 'Philadelphia, for 'ho murder of Augusta Ziinm. his paran o.ir. Dr. I.. N. Hercli hiinced at HoVi bivsbuig Pa; uxoricide, .lames W. Murray suite r.'d deiith at Portland, Ore., for th > muiderof Alfred \'ei!k>. George Schneider eomiettd of iuuid >r in the first degree at HitfiY- ilion. O.. for l illiii 'J! and rol.b ng his own motlw r. Sanford .lackson hinged at Sclma. Ala., forth? mi r.ler of llufus Gill.; both negroes. Franklin .T. Moses, i f South Carolina, on be n » sentenced to the Poston Ho.ise of Correction, argued that tne penty n iture of his ciime showed his mind hod given way under his troub'e*. Bob Johns >11, a lie^ro boy, assassinat'd a citi/.en at Princ e oil, W. Va., ami wa-s tied to a tree i net rlelcllecl with bullets. Pal>e Fllison, colored, was hanged by a mob at Sholbyvillo, Tenn., for assaulting a white lady. Mrs. Mack, who was once sentenced to the Wisconsin State Prison for life for iimr- dt rin^ her husband in Pock County, in whence case the jury dm reed on a second trial, check­ mated the prosecution bv marrying its chief witness, and was released on her own bond. In the Distric t Cour.,. Chicago, after a trisl lasting ftftee n dtiis, .1. C. Ma.'kiu. W. J. Gallagher, and Arthur Gleason were comicted for perpetrating election frauds, mi 1 Henry liiohl was acquitted ; mo ions for new trials were entered, and the first-named t.vo were held in S^O.OOO each-- Gleason in Sl'V'HK'. '1 hree unsuccessful attempts were made at Fxeter, Fugland. to hang John Jjee, who killed a woman near Torquay because /She refused to marry him ; the machinery of the gal'ows was swollen from moisture, anil the trap refused to work ; the execution was post­ poned. Tho cases against Frank James, the Missouri bandit, we're dismissed at Booueville, on motion of the Prosecuting Attorney. Min­ nesota adc pted a new ]>enal code restoring the death penalty fcr murder in the flr.it degree. MARCH. Dr. Albert G. F. Goerson, who poisoned his wife five years before, was hanged at Philadel­ phia. I<ee Slatter (coloredI was taken from jail ut Monroe, N. C.. by u mob and hanged. Fifty citizens of Fairfield, Neb., captured and hanged Mrs. Taylor and her brother to a bridge on sus­ picion of complicity in the murder of a farmer named Hoberts. Wm. Neal, the third and last of tho gang who murdered two girls and a boy and bumecl their Imdies at Ashlnnd, Ky., iii 1881, was hanged at Grayson, Kv. George House, a negro, outraged a farmer's wife near Vienna. Gfl'.. and then cut her throat; he was captured, mutilated by a mob, and hanged naked to a tree. APK1L. Nelson Edwards, a New York dentist, spent two days in killing himself with a razor; his throat and l ody were horribly gashed. Richard Fraser was hanged at Charleston, S. C., for the murder of Jack Gethers, and Columbus Cran- ford was swung off at Yorkville. in the same State, for takin; the life of Kllison Sanders ; all four were people of color. Geo. A. Mills, u wife- murderer, expiated his crime in the jail-yard at Brooklyn. N. Y. An extremely sensational mur­ der e xcited St. Louis ; crowded into a trunk in the Southern Hotel was found the partially de- comi>osed corpse of a man known as Arthur Preller, of London. Eng., with a note placed on the body reading ; "So perish all traitors to the great cause ;" on the breast of fhe dead man w as a cross cut with a knife ; Preller was believed to have been chloroformed and murdered by a companion named H. Lenox Maxwell, M. D. ; both parties were dandified. Englishmen. Tho people of Union City. Tenn'., took from tlif> Sher­ iff and hanged a negro boy named l'ierson, and Ward, a white man, members of a desperate band of robbers. At a farm-house ill Holt Coun­ ty, Missouri, Wm. Clark shot Mrs. Harding and lier son and daughter on account of a bastardy suit, anil then killed himself. A party of lynch­ ers from Blunt and Harold, Dakota, forced the jail at Pierre, and hanged James H. Bell, the murderer of Forest G. Small to tlie flag-staff of the Court House ; Bell and Small were rival law­ yers. Tliof. Sanicm. who two years previously murdered Mrs. Ford, his landlady, and a man and a child.Was hanged at Laconia, N. H. Near Ijewiston, Idaho, the bodies of Peter Brazil and James Flynn, stock ranchers, were found near each other, w ith pistols and clubs by their sides., The Abbe Gannahut was gnillotined at Paris for the murder of Mine. Ballerioli. A shocking tragc;dy was rc>i>orted from Concordia, O. ; a Ger­ man named Adoipli Hess beheaded his child with an ax. b?at his wife to death with the same Weapon, and then hanged himself. MAY. George Mack, a colored murderer, was taken from officers.near South Bend, Kan., and, with a rope about his neck, was drugged by a,giillop- ing horse into town, where he was suspended to an awning in front of a billiard saloon, the scene of tlie murder. A passenger train on the L.. N. A. & C. li. R. stopped fc r water at Har- rodsburg, Ind., w here it was boarded by an un­ known man, armt'd with a hickory club; he en­ tered, the baggage-car, fractured the skull of tho express messenger, snatched a revolver from him, and then compiled the baggugeliian to open tho safe, from which he took about S3,000; the n he shot tho^"baggageman in the head, and escaped from the train as it slacked up at Bloouiington. W. H. L. Maxwell, the murderer Of C. A. Preller at the Southern Hotel. St. fjOUis, was arrested at Auckland, New .Zealand, nn landing at tlint port. At Benito, New Mexico. Martin Nelson,,an insane man, killed Dr. Wm. H. Flynn and "then shot dead M. S. Mayburrv, his wife and threhchildren, and also a neighbor; a guard of citizens, surrounded the house, but were surprised by Nelson, who shot one of the party, and was then himself dispatched. Six thousand people flocked to Morganlield, Ky.. to witness the execution of Moses Cuton, who had beaten his wife unmercifully and then hanged her ; Caton s crime, for inhuman and diabolical rrue,lty. surpassed anything ever heard of in the criminal history of "Kentucky. In a dispute over cards at Walthourville. Ga., five m»;.roes were killed and four wounded ; a flat-car stand­ ing on a side-track was the scene of thetfagedy ; • 3 , , . ,, •• tho parties were mill hi nis, and hod jest b?en very wide and always freshly ironed, paid off. Mrs. pfaat% of Lei it:, Pa , t ok her - • • • • . . . . . . - . . . . t h e m reams brought help, and thieeof them w ere rescued, but the inotner and two others were drowned. Andrew J. Johnton, a noted outlaw of Bell Oohnty. Kentucky, lay in wait behind a build­ ing in Pimn ilje ar d kill ;d Thomas N.ipier and Jcsiah Hoskii s and his daughter us they were re­ turning fvo:n church. Ch< si jy Chambers was ar- resti d ut B!<x>iiungton,Ii d.,i lid identified as the p Tson who robbed 111; e vpress car on the night of April '27, and shot Buggagemaster Webber and .. . . - , . I Express Agent Datis. Charles Henry Rugg, a til.lt are cut away in front, ^ray trou- | ngero, whomurdered JVIrs. Lvdia Maybeeandher eer.s, white over-gaiters, and varnished daughter Annie at Oyster hay. L. I., two years boots. Add a pair of- brick-colored previously, _ wa8_ lian«ed_ at_ Hjmter .^lonrt. 80 that the seams will show, as thev do »ve Children to a p n l, and a'ter kissing in trousers that have just come from threvv the,n mto lh ) wnU<r • the r s 'r the tailor. From a glance at five hun­ dred men it will appear that all of them have copied from the same model. Few of them wear side whiskers now, and nearly all are content with a simple mustache. They wear high hats with two-inc h bands about them, black coats gloves, a buckhorn stick, and a red tie, and you have what would appear to be absolutely correct in New l'ork at this particular time of the year. It is rather difficult to gain this information, for no man seems to care for any other man, and all eyes are turned on the women. They walk like so many dashing dragroons, with their chins high in the air, their big i&ye? open to the full limits of the law, and their magnificent shoulders and busts incased in tailor-made jackets. They stare at the men with superb indiffer­ ence, and walk about as if the world owed them homage and must render ^t in spite of everything. Goodwin Jackson (colored) suffered the death penalty at Clarendon, Ark., for the murder of Sandy Redmond with a fence-rail; Jackson pro­ tested that he was unlawfully executed, as he did not mean to kill Redmond. JLINE. A deadly fend In Knott County, Ky., between i two rival families named Jones and Hall, result- i ed in tho killing of nine persons within three weeks. Five negroes, one of them a woman, j convicted for outraging and murdering a white . woman, were hanged bv a mob at Elkhart, Tex. | Mrs. Lucille Yseult Dudley, who made an un­ successful attempt to . kill the dynamiter { O'Donovan Rossa, was acquitted by a New York 1 jury on the ground of insanity. Andre J. Du- rnont (colored), at one time Naval Officer at New Orleans, suicided because of domestic troubles. JIXY. Tramps stole the clothing of an unknown man j who was bathing in the Missouri River at Omaha; he remained in the water all day, and when lie came out at nightfall he waa found to ] be insane, and died a few hours later. VkVilliat* Matthews eloped with the wife of JaiiiesiSecrist, of Comanche County, Texas, and when He after­ ward called upon Mr. Secrist for thllajjy'a per­ sonal effects that gentleman shot ntm dead. Joseph Taylor was hanged at Philadelphia for the murder of a penitentiary keeper;. Taylor be- f.;a'i his criminal career at the age of li years by stabbing a companion, and during the ten vears preceding his death had stabbed or shot forty-five jersons. Thomas K. Brantly, of Bainbridge, Ga., arres'el for brutally ill-treat­ ing his -wife, w as taken from jail by his neigh­ bors and hanged t.) a troe. In Anderson County, Kentucky, three brothers named Hawkins were shot by Hoia?e Mullins, whom they had called to act'oun* tor alleged slander of their sister; two of the brothers w ere killed ; one was badly hurt; Mullins escaped unhurt. Valentine Wag­ ner was ti e first criminal hanged under the new law in Ohio, by which execmii us are to take place in the penitentiary befoie sunrise, in pres­ ence of but few witnesses; Wagner killed hit brother-in-law two years previously. AUGUST. A triple execution occurred at Fayetteville, N. C., two white and one colored man being hanged. Maxwell, the alleged murderer of C. Arthur Preller, whose body was found in a trunk at a St. Louis hotel in April last, arrived at San Francisco from New Zealand in tho custody of officers. Pedro Prestan, the leader of the revo- ' lutionists of Panama, who se\eral months be­ fore fired and destroyed the city of Aspinwall, having been duly tried and convicted, was hanged Aug. lis. A1 Lcckie whomurdereu eight persons and then attempted to commit suicide, was taken from jail at Blanco, Tex., and hanged by a mob; Lockie made a confession, saying that he would have killed more people bad his am­ munition not given out. ' - SEPTEMBER. Chinese miners who had been imported by the Union Pacific Railway Company were driven from the pits at Rock Springs, Wyoming, by a force of armed white men. the Chinese fleeing to tlie hills for safety; fifteen of the fugitives were shot dead by the mob, and many wounded; thirty-four bodies were recovered, besides many more buried in the debris of burned houses. A mob visited the l'ike County Jail at Murfrees- boro. Ark., and made an attempt to shoot the two Polk boys, confined' for murder, but not being able to get within range hauled a load of wood to the jail, piled it around the iron cell, saturat­ ed the wood with coal oil, and roasted both prisoners alive, nothing standing but the brick walls; the Polks murdered a peddler in 1884, and had several trials. Near Gainsville, Texas, detectives surprised and killed the two Lee brothers, who were regarded as the most daring roadmen that had ever infesteel Indian Territory, and for whose capture, dead or alive, a reward of S-7,000 had l>een offered ; perhaps no band of outlaws in the United States ever did such bloody work in so brief a period as the Lee gang; within two years from May 1. 1885, forty-two human lives were taken "by this bloody band of cattle and horse thieves. Nicholas Snowden, colored, confined in jail at Ellicott City. Mel., on a charge of assaulting a child, was taken out and banged by men of his own race. A remarkable tragedy occurred at iiiiitown, Pa.; Mrs. Thomas V. Thompson, indignant be­ cause her husband would not accede to her re- epiest to turn his aged parents into the street murdered him and subseepiently killed herself. It was estimated that over twenty-four thousand Christians were murdered in the outbreaks near •. Anam. Four negroes, one of them a woman, who were accused of several murders, were taken fi;om jail and hanged by a mob in Chatham County, North Carolina. ( OCTOIIKB. After mum?ring his mistress, a retired British artilleryman living at Tangier, Morocco, ran amuck iu the streets, stabbing many persons, two of them fatally ; he was finally captured and lodged in jail. During the execution of John W. Coffee, a double murderer, at Crawfordsville, Ind., the rope broke twice,, but on the third endeavor the victim was "worked off" satisfactorilv. Frederick Grenbr was hanged at Columbus, ()., for the murder of his sweetdeart; he stepped on the scaffold with a smile, arraved as if attend­ ing an evening party, and smoking a cigar. At Iucliauapolis the brother of a whito girl, who had been criminally assaulted by a negro, shot the assailant in the court room. A mob at Mur- frecsbetro. Ark., set fire to the wooden jail in which one Churchill, a murderer, was confined; he appeared at a grated window, and piteously begged the mob to shoot him, but the flames soon reduced the victim and the building to ashes. Near Sturrucca, Pa.. John Howell, a farmer, shot his four children, varying in age from three to eleven vears, and theii killed him­ self. A man named Brandt, at Waco, Nel>., be­ coming irritated by. a lad of 18, flung him into a thrashing machine, where his head was in­ stantly torn from his body. George Miller was the first murderer legally hanged in Dakota; he was suspended at Grand Folks, and life was not pronounced extinct until after tho expira­ tion of 23minutes; he had killed the wife and son of Rev. C. H. Snell, on a farm near Inkster. Ferdinand Word, the financial sharp of the late flrm of 'Grant A- Ward, was convicted of larceny and sentenced to ten years in the State prison at hard labor. NOVKMIIKR. A colored lad at ltluffton, Ga., was tried by a lynch court for stealing a pair of boots; having been convicted he was given one hundred lashes, his step-father swinging the whip. Cy­ rus W. Yancles, of H:. Paul, Minn., committed suicide partiv because he dreaded the responsi­ bility of settling up an estate giving him half a million. A party of four girls and two boys went into the woods of Webster County, Kentucky, to gather nuts; they were assaulted by tramps, who nearly killed the lads and bore the young ladies to a thicket and murdered tliem all; citizens who turned out in search identified and killed two of the tramps. At Fannin, Clay County, Texas, a lad of thirteen years, named Valentino Sanford, killed his mother with a ritle; he confessed having intended to murder hiB father, sell the planta­ tions and organize a band of stage robbers. In the Criminal Court at I guidon a verdict of crim­ inal assault upon Eliza Armstrong was rendered against Thomas Stead, editor of the Pall Mall and he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment. In the Criminal Court at Otta­ wa, Ontario, a gang of five ruffians were sen­ tenced to impris onment for life for a brutal as­ sault on Miss Truman, a lady of good family, who was promenading with her lover when seized by the villains. Fred Townsend, aged 13, killed Willie McCallister, aged 5. at Troy, N. Y., by burying him up t.i the neck iu a bank of soft white clay, where the child lingered twenty hours before death relieved him. Three Ital­ ians were hanged at Chicago for the murger of a fellow-countryman; the victim was getting a free shave at the room of one of the culprits, and while his face was covered with lather a rope was passed over his heud ; the guilty trio pulled tbe cord, while an accessory guarded the door: SbtO was the incentive. Eight of the Indians who were concerned in Kiel's Canadian rebellion were hanged at Battleford, Northwest Territory. The hangman at Norwich, England, severed the head from the body of Robert Good- ale us though it bad been done with a razor; many spectators sickened at the sight; the drop was, six feet, and "the weight used was flftoen stone. DKCKMHEK. William Btevans, of Detroit, confessed the murder of his affianced. Bertha Duckwitz, say­ ing that he drew a razor across her throat only in a playful spirit. Joseph O. Roles, a noted Democratic politician of Boston, killed himself because of disappointment iu regard to a deputy revenue collei torship. The College of the Propaganda at Rome announced that up to November 1, in Cochin China, 'J4,00J Christians wore massacred. 10 convents destroyed, and '*2.5 churches burned. Sam Wilson, a negro, mur­ dered Celia Perryman and her two c hildren at Laurel, Miss.,, and attempted to burn the lKxlies by firing the dwelling; he was-" speedily cap­ tured and lynched. A family named Knoeh at Detroit, consisting of husband, wife, ami two children, murdered and cremated. War broke out between the villages of Ko and Jn, province of Kwong Tung, China, resulting in the exter­ mination of nearly all the inhabitants; some 400 people were burned alive in one of the sa­ cred temples ; not a house in either hamlet was left standing. Reading for Culture. The busy professional man, to whom culture is all-important, is often pain­ fully conscious of the truth. He has little leisure, yet he must read. The field of literature is wide, and inter­ sected by many paths, each of which has manifold fascinations. The news­ paper And the review, authors modern and aticient, books useful and books fashionable, books of professional and books of general interest, all invite his attention and suggest their rival claims. But tbe thing is impossible; he has not even time to investigate their claims, to arbitrate on the several courses pre­ sented to him; he too often gives up in despair of finding just that course of faithful and serviceable reading which he especially needs. Out of this dilem­ ma there is but one safe way of escape. Without hesitation, without compro­ mise, he must resolutely choose the best books, and read them only. Classic authors, and none others, should form his library, should keep him daily com­ pany, should be at his side, on his table, in his pocket, ready for a few moments or half-hours of pause or in­ terval which the course of daily &ity affords him. At morning < dawn, at noondav rest, at evening twilight, at the little breaks in the labors of the day, or at the well-earned leisure at its close, comes the best friend, a book, to yield its willing treasures at his call. WE are a rushing people in Amerioa. In no other country on the face of the globe can a man climb on to a high stool in a railroad restaurant and de­ vour ninety-three cents worth of prov- in six and a quarter wia«ta% Illinois state xew& --Gerhardt Bode* WM tcflled by at Danville. ; --D- A. Brennahon, an ironworker (f Pittsburgh, was killed by the cars at Wau- kegan. --The War Department has decided to ^ ignore the construction of a pier into T Michigan by the Illinois Central Road at Chicago, j * --Geor ̂ e Rhoemaker was found dead in •i hotel in Muttoon. No friends claimed the remiins and tlicy were buried in pot­ ter's field. ? --Barton W. Spears, 'One of the ' uc.w.«paper publishers of Chicago, ended his day* in tbe Cook Coanty Insane Asylum, aged 'J5 year-*. --A new^ raiirond from Belleville f§ Litchfield, A distance of fifty miles, find to connect with the Wabash Line, i» to tfe A speedily constructed. > --An infirm woman * fiR was held m * $100 bail by the United States Commis­ sioner at Ceniralia for writing obscene let­ ters to her son's prospective wife. --The attempt of Gilbert D. Millspaag^ of Michigan, to obtain title to certain lattfta on which the town of Pullman is built waa fiowned down by Judge Gresham.^ --The outbreak of the epizooty at Chi­ cago, has caused an outbreak of people also. Speak of it as the epizootic. • The : latter is au adjective.--Indianapolis Jomr~ nal. ---S. S Goklberg has been arrested bf * the postal authorities at Chicago for usiag ' the mails to.defraud those who answered his advertisement to secure positions us de* tectives. . , --Dr. Thomas Pumleigfc, * promiueut citizen of Dundee, Kane County, died u»tj suddenly, aged 92 years. He hael beett a? resident of Kane County for the List snafsa-- five years. " ' --Irad Abdill, erf Danville, was^buncoetl" *, out of S2,500 by a pair of crooks, oue Of whom said he was a son of the president of the bank from which Mr. Abdill drew , the money. 5 --In a drunken row at Kenny a fewdajft/'/ ago George Hitter struck Marion Hnfface a blow upon the head with a rock. The latter died. The murderer fled and has not been arrested. H --The Secretary wof State at Springfield • ' has issued papers of incorporation to • railway company which proposes to build t from Chicago to Batavia, by way of Oak / Park and Maywood. -For persecuting a yotrag woman . means of obscene letters, Mrs. Mary Wil­ liams, aged 00, and Mrs. Mary Cooper, agotl 20. wo 10 fined $100 each in the United States Court rfl Springfield. - Mr. F. H. Winston, of Chieago. tb* Minister to Persia, is said to ln- desirous of making a record and increasing tho com­ mercial relations between the Uuited Stittaav , and the dominions of the Shah. , £:-'-0-^ --The n^wly built Epiphany Chutefi. " Chicago, on the corner of Ashland nvenoe -- and Adams street, was dedicated by a ser­ mon by Bishop McLareu, who inveighed strongly against ritualistic practices. j --Secretary Bayard has received from" A. Consnl Piatt money and deed* taken from the body of Patrick Carroll, who died in tl«> hospital at Cork last'July. The ical-extaite \ involved is located in Macon County, III. &S a - T. F. Mills, a Washington sculptor, has petitioned the Senate for $17,500 for making a plaster cast of the face of Gene- eral Rawlins, by order of General Meigs, and preparing plans for a bronzu equestrian statue. . ? f sw ' --Dr. Kate I. Graves addressed til* Woman's Physiological Institute, Chicago, on the subject eif "Tobacco Effects." Slio said that tobacco contained three virulent poisons, of which there was enough iu one cigar to kill two men. Tho smoker was not ** instantly affected, but related doses under- . mined the constitution. Among other things, she said, tobacco has a dclctciiontt effect on the blood, affected the heart's action, caused dyspepsia, smoker'tf soro throat, bronchitis, and even paralysis. - There are over eighty diseases which mi: ^>e due to the weed. The Doctor advised every marriageable laily to ignore the at- teution of even- smoker, as a smoker coaltl not be a perfect gentleman. --The twenty-eighth annual report of the Chicago Belief and Aid Society shows that out of 15,312 persons wbp have applied for help it has assisted C.915, tho remainder, over one-half, net being deemed worthy of assistance. The total receipts for the year are $52,0G4 and disbursements $38, IS), leaving the society with a surplus of with jivhich to enter upon the work of sui- other your. Much of the relief has been accomplished through tho machinery <?t . charitable institutions aud hospitals. The work of discriminating between the deserv­ ing aud undeserving poor has been so suc­ cessful. owing to long experience, that thft, society now claims Chieago has fewer tM$-» ;> gars than almost any other city. --Chicago Journal: While "our" Phil Armotft' has l»een under Chicago, Milwau­ kee & St. Paul stock ant boomed it to the astonishment of Wall street, it now ap- •' pears that John K. Hoxie, of Chicago, taw been lifting Texas and Pacific secuiities so rapidly that "Wash" Conner has visited "Cattle Hoxie" on behalf of Mr. Gould and himself. Mr. Hoxie's nephew is First Vice President and the Manager "of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. It is reported that as fast as Gould dropped Texas and Pacific, Mr. Hoxie, of the Stock Yards, picked them up, hence the Conner consul- tation. Verily tbe time approaches when . Chicago will fix the prices of railroad curities as well as of grain and pork, ~ ^ ' --A dispatch from Chester says: "To- morrow morning John F. Burrell, the de- fe faulting Grand Secretary of the Masottl? Grand Lodge of Illinois, will doff his striped suit and gj forth a free man, having served his term of imprisonment. He was sent here from Maeoupia County Circuit Court, April 18, 1883, under a five-years Sentence, which would ha«* expired January 10,1887, had not Governor Oglesby interposed Executive clemency and commuted the sentence. Burrell was convicted of appropriating funds of the. _ Grand Lodge, how much was never stated V by the craft, but it is thought to have ran up into „tho thousands. He has always -- maintained his innocence of any intentional <* wrong, but has declined to make any *tut|R?^•;#- rneut that would bct^tit jkjjpm 'If ^ . jX " ' £'•- te its