Newspaper Page Text
TIMELY TOPICS.
Botton’s swimming olothea are a SUO-
06S8. The only difficulty is that they
cost about as much aa a trip to Europe
by stumer, so that nobody will want to
puddle across, after a!L
The jtfruie Sioux have commenced
hostilities in Nebraska. They attacked
the MgJ<Nrsqn"the Niobrara river, and
a large war party are now on their way
toward the Ponca Indian agency.
Troops are in pursuit. ,
The design for the new postal card
has been agreed upon, and is now being
engraved at the printing bureau of the
treasury department. It is very plain,
and will differ from the card now in ubo,
in that the border is left off, and it is to
be made of better material.
war teasels are now in process of con
struction. ;
Th> Galveston News thinks alligator
skins should begin to figure among
Texan exports. Florida and t<ouiaian*
contrive to eatch and skin 20,000 alliga
tors a year, and the News is satisfied
that the Texan crop is folly as great as
both of those states. The skins are
exported to England and France, but
chiefly to the latter, country, which fur
nishes the best tanners in the world.
The question of taxing the property
of masonio and other lodges has been
sprung in Georgia as well as Ohio.
The state comptroller is of opinion that
it hinges on the question whether such
bodies are charitable institutions within
the meaning of the code of Georgia.
A letter from Sir Edward Thornton,
British minister at Washington, to a
gentleman in Indiana, is said to contain
a prophecy that the governments of
England and the United States will
eventually be alike in their main fea
tures, that of England becoming assim
ilated to ours.
Kura Kalakapa has consented to
send his feather ooat to the Philadelphia
oentenniaL His coat or eloak is over
one hundred years old, and the feathers
are of a bright golden color. Doubtless
they will have a fine display of old
clothes at Philadelphia if this thing
keeps on.
The star of Don Oarlos seems to be
in the ascendant. He is accredited
with several recent and important vic
tories. There are also rumors of dis
satisfaction with the rule of King Al-
phonso, and the prediction is ventured
that another revolution will soon fol
low.
The court of appeals of Maryland re-
cently decided, in the oase of a man who
killed himself and who had his life in
sured, that when the act of self-destruo-
tion is done during insanity it is death
by accident, and the insurance company
is bound to pay the amonnt of t£e pol
icy, when insanity, temporary or other
wise, is proven.
Since the terrible Holyoke (Mass.)
church burning, a bill has been intro-
duoed into the Gonneoticut legislature
providing that the doors of all churches
and pnblio places of assembly Bhall
open outwardly. This is a wise meas
ure. In ease of a panic there would,
with outward opening doors, be no
chance for the ohoking of the vestibules.
A reward of $6,000 has been offered
by General Spinner for the recovery of
the stolen $47,600 package. The five-
hundred-dollar bills are about one.fifth
of tbs whole amount of five-Jmndred-
dollar notes in circulation, and the de
partment has no record of the numbers
of the stolen bills, which will jgive the
thief a better opportunity to escape
detection. .
The Prussian government is making
great efforts to seenre an efficient navy,
and expects in two years to have one
which will be a fair match for the navies
of the lesser powers. During this
month a large frigate is to be launched,
and the whole German squadron will
assemble at Wilhelmshaven. Fifteen
The postmaster general has been
aroused, by the sharp comments of . the
press and the complaints of the public,
to the consideration of the iniquitous
imposition which a blundering senator
, caused to be levied upon the people.
He has expressed hiB purpose of calling
the attention of congress, in December
next, to the law which governs the
postage upon transient papers, with the
view of securing a modification of the
rates.
After expending $1,300,000 in fruit
less efforts to discover a process for
utilising silk rags, Mr. Lister, a wealthy
English manufacturer, has succeeded in
converting such refuse into the finest
velvet. He now carries on this indus
try in an establishment which employs
some 4,000 workmen, and hundreds of
travelers are also employed whose sole
basiness is to bny the silk waste, and
this they do in all parts of the globe.
The faotory is said to have cost nearly
$3,000,000.
The annual reports on India, issued
from the India Office, states that a
great quantity of cotton is now worked
up in Indio. The report speaks of
eighteen steam-spinning and weaving
mills at work in the Bombay Presi
dency alone, employing 4,500 looms,
405,000 spindles, and 10,000 hands,
turning out daily 100,000 pounds of
yarn. The weekly consumption of
cotton is described as 1,500 bales, and
likely to increase largely. There are
also many cotton manufactories iu
other parts of India.
At a convention of ear builders held
in New Tork, last week, it was shown
that the proportion of foul air in the
ordinary railroad car is greater than
in a crowded church or theater. Muc
discussion ensued, and it seemed gene
rally agreed on that none of the man
ifold devices for ventilation hitherto
se d, will meet the oase. Several
spoke hopefully of the Tobin system,
now being applied to public halls in
England, which introduces fresh air
by means of pipes rising through the
floor and terminating above the heads
of the auditory. The theory is that
currents thus introduced are
thrown upward like so many jets of
water, and are distributed without
draft or discomfort in a sort of at
mospheric spra
Keceot experiments tend to show
hat forests increase atmospheric humid
ity by the action of their roots rather
than by any attraction exerted on rain
clouds. The moisture, in other words,
comes from below, and not from above.
The roots seem to serve os outlets
through which water drawn from the
earth is conducted to the leaves and
passes thence into the atmosphere. An
oak tree, experimented npon by Prof,
Pettenkofer, was estimated to have
between seven and eight hundred thou
sand leaves, and the total amonnt of
evaporation in a year was computed to
be eight and one-third times more than
that of the rainfall on an area equal to
that covered by the tree, the moisture
exhaled by theJeavea being equal to
some two hundred and eleven inches,
while that from the rainfall was but
twenty-five inches,
m wswapw - e
Napoleons Second Marriage.
, 4 WtUer reviewing Lanfrey’s “His-
toire de Napoleon L” says : The cir-
divorce of
Josephine and her husband's marriage
with Xarie Lottiee ate detailed at con
siderable length by the author. On the
23th of Deoember, 1809, before the
Metropolitan Tribunal bad confirmed
the dissolution of the religious marriage
with Josephine, Caulaincourt, the
French Ambassador at St. Petersburg,
. opened negotiations for the hand of the
: Gruzin Duchess Arne, sister of the Cy*n\
1 A project Of convention between the
two powers in respect of the affairs of
Poland was then under discussion. Its
principal articles were: 1. A reciprocal
engagement not to suffer the re-estab
lishment of the kingdom of Poland. 2.
The suppression of the names “Poland"
and “Polish” in all public and private
documents. 3. The suppression of the
old orders of Polish chivalry, and of all
autonomy of the duohy of Warsaw,
Alexander, the sincerity of whose ad
miration for Napoleon is questioned by
M. Lanfrey, was adverse to the match,
but would probably have consented to
it as the price of the French adhesion
to the project of convention. He there
fore returned a courteous answer to
Canlainconrt’s proposal, professing,
nevertheless, that the decision did not
rest with him alone, a ukase of the Em
peror Paul, his father, havirg, left to
the empress mother the disposal of her
daughters in marriage. He wonld en
deavor, however, to obtain her consent.
A fortnight later the ambassador re
ceived instructions to demand a cate
gorical answer from the czar in ten
days. The reason of this singular ulti
matum-unexampled in the annals of
official courtship—was that Napoleon
had already ehanged his mind. He had
no liking for the Polish convention,
which would have deprived him of a
useful weapon against Russia; more
over, the grand duchess was but six
teen, and her relations asked for a delay
of one or two years. Napoleon, with
his habitual impatienoe, would not
hear of this condition, and Austria hav
ing spontaneously suggested an alliance
between the courts of Vienna and the
Toileries, the marriage with the Arch
duchess Maria Louisa had been vir
tually deoided upon before an answer
from St. Petersburg could possibly
have arrived. It is fortunate that the
invention of the electrio telegraph and
the steam-engine was postponed till
after the fall of a man who would have
made such terrible use of them. Even
the sncceses of Wellington might have
been arrested could the Emperor have
communicated daily and hourly with
his lieutenants.
Very Neatly and Aptly Put.
The Phiiadelphe Times, commenting
upon the celerity with which the peo
ple of the northwest betook themselves
to fasting and praying, because of the
grasshopper visitation, pertinently
says:
It would be better, however, if the
people would make some effort to find
out and to respect the laws which,
whether we call them laws of God or
laws of nature, do not rule and govern
on this earth, before habitual contempt
for them has broupht disaster. We cut
down alt the trees in the land, then,
when we are consequently scourged
with alternate drouth and flood, we
think we are doing a rather commend
able thing if we aik Providence to in
terpose in our bebalf. We build tinder-
box houses and rotten reservoirs, and
when they barn down or ourst, as they
must, ana we find ourselves destitute,
we piouslyeonseiit to appoint a day of
prayer. We have killed off all the
wild fowls from the western prairies,
the most effective enemy that nature
E rovidea for grasshoppers and potato
ngs, and when the insects increase,
Atui we find we cannot do what the
...... PACTS AND FANCIES,
—After » bulk of .England' dark
serves for forty years he gets $120 per
month. : r . - Jr-
—A husband at Cairo refused to let
his wife throw dioe, and Anna Dickinson
rose at midnight and left the town.
—Tbe gibbet is a species of flattery
to the human race. Three or four per
sons are hnng from time to time for sake
of making the rest believe they are vir
tuous.—iSanial Dubay.
—Whatever our place allotted to ns
by Providence, that, for us, ib the post
of honor and duty. God estimates us,
not by ths position we are in, but by
the way in which we fill it.—2^ Ed
wards.
—Trichinae have lately been found for
the fitst time in the flesh of a wild boar,
killed in the Hartz mountains, Ger
many. Hitherto this parasite has beep
supposed to be confined to the domesti
cated animal.
—The average American boy will
make a great fuss and complain bitterly
that it will spoil bis clothes, if asked to
bring in an armful of wood for his
mother; but give him a gun, and he
will crawl half a mile on his stomach,
through a ditch with four inches of
water in it, to get a shot at some ducks.
—A London journal complains that
“low, dirty, blear-eyed, beery news-
venders run after us in the streets to
sell Moody and Sankey lives and hymn
books, insulting their superiors with
such questions as these : ‘ Haven’t yet
got a soul to save ? Don’t yer want to
find Jesus ?’ And all they want to find
is the penny profit." V;
—A man bought a horse. It was the
first one he ever owned. He saw in ft
newspaper that a side window in a stable
makes a horse’s eye weak on that side;
a window in front hurts his eyes by the
glare; a window behind makes him
squint-eyed; a window on a diagonal
line makes him shy when he travels; a
table without a window mokes him
s lmd. He sold the horse.
—In one place we read that Julia
Ward Howe says women need rest, and
in another it is asserted that sixty-
thousand women are exhibiting their
spring bonnets on Chestnut street,
Philadelphia. Such contradictions as
this are always turning up just as tbe
searcher after truth has come to a eon
elusion, and he has to begin all over
again.
—The people of Greece have raised
by private subscription a considerable
sum for the ereetion of a monument in
honor of Loql Byron, as a recognition
of his services in the cause of .Greek
liberation. It will be placed at Mis-
solonghi, where Byron died, and where,
out of his own means, he almost wholly
fed, clothed and armed the garrison
during the seige which made .them
famous.
—The sale of soda water is falling off
all over the country, and oostly foun
tains, manufactured in the eastern cities
for from $800 to $2,500, would be dead
stock in the drug stores but for the sale
of mineral waters. If lager beer were
to be had in the private cafes and
bought for ladies, it would finish the
soda altogether. Thousands of men,
now, are in the habit of sending bottled
lager home to their wiveB, particularly
nursing wives, whereas, a glass of beer
from the keg is equal in freshness to a
gross of bottles. Tartaric acid is the
principal and generally the only adul
teration of beer. . -
Glad Tidings for the Slaves of
King Alcohol.—How many a manly
form is palsied; how many a noble
mind is destroyed ; how many a price
less soul lost through the curse ef
strong drink ! To the despairing victims
of the Satanic tyrant, Alcohol, whose
shattered nerves, and trembling limbB,
and racking headaches, seem to find no
birds did, we begin to talk of the mvs- relief except in the renewed use of the
tenons dispensation ©f Providence, "or fatal poison winch brings Him every
of nature’s inscrutable ways. Let us
go down on our hne>s. by all means ;
we have sins enough and follies enough
to repent. But let us not suppose that
the stupid carelessness which has char
acterized every step of civilization on
this magnificent continent can fail to
bring its punishment.”
—Washing the trunks or limbs of
fruit trees with the following prepara
tion will exclude all kinds of borers or
prevent their entrance : One part I fis
green, two parts whale oil soap, six
parts water.
fatal poison whinb brings ilium
day miuie? to their miserable cad, wc
announce glad tidings of great joy! Dr.
Walker’s Vinegar Bitters contain not
a single drop of Alcohol in any form,
but are a sovereign remedy for the ills
of drunkenness. They restore tone and
strength to the system, and entirely
eradicate the pernicious appetite for
liquor. Try a few bottles of Vinegar Bit
ters, and you will never crave strong
spirits again, but find your health re
paired, your mind restored, and be once
more a man in the best sense. Health
is cheap when Vinegar Bitters are $1
a’bottle,