Newspaper Page Text
w. F. SMITH. Publisher.
VOLUME IX.
NEWS GLEANINGS.
Bees sell in South Florida for $2 a
swarm.
Pulaski, Tenn., has contracted to have
its streets lighted with gas.
Mississippi will spend $50,000 for the
encouragement of immigration.
Florida’s cotton crop of 1881 was nine
ty per cent, of the crop of 1880.
The demand for Florida Oranges this
year has exceeded any previous year.
The Alice iron furnace at Birming
ham, Ala., cleared $12,0(0 in January.
New Orleans pays $1 25 a pound for
a certain brand of Massachusetts butter.
The value of railroad property in
Georgia increased during 1881, $2,250,-
000.
Large numbers of deer aud other ru
minant wild animals have been drowned
in the overflow of streams in Mississippi
county, Ark.
A Green county (Ga.) farmer put a
flock of nineteen geese in his nine acre
cotton field, and they kept it clean of
worms without injuring the cotton.
After three attempts Mechanicsville
has voted to be annexed to Knoxville,
which will swell that city’s population
3,000 and give it 12,940 inhabitants.
Sometime since tho Chattanooga City
Council passed an ordinance appointing
two men in each ward to kill'out the
English sparrows. It has developed
that the law is unconstitutional.
The Galveston News thinks the cen
sus reports overestimate the acreage of
merchantable pine timber in the South
at least thirty-five per cent. Not sulH
cient allowance is made in the reports
for swamp, river, barren and denuded
acres, or for the hammock and other
lands covered with a different growth.
W. H. Durham died in Harris coun
ty, Georgia, last week of a wound re
ceived at the battle of Chancellorsville,
eighteen years ago. He was shot in the
hip, the bullet, it was thought lodging
in a bone. A post mortem examination
was made and the ball was found in the
small of the back, lodged against the
backbone.
Atlanta Constitution : There could be
no greater success in any venture than
our Exposition. It was gotten up in a
year, challenged the admiration of the
world by its completeness and magni
tude, and upon its heels will follow a
cotton factory stocked at $400,000,
which will spin and weave cotton of the
next crop.
Prof. N. T. Lupton, of Vanderbuilt
University, is now engaged, at the sug
gestion of Commissioner Hawkins in
making an analysis of soils from differ
ent sections of Tennessee, taking the
virgin soil and specimen soils from ex
hausted fields. This analysis is being
made in order to discover what elements
have been lost in exhausted grounds.
New Virginia Industries: A chair
factory has been started in Culpeper, a
"oolen mill at Gordonsville, a cotton
factory at Danville, anew cotton fac
tory at Norfolk, a paper-bag factory in
Lynchburg, a straw bat factory in
Richmond, a sassafras oil distillery at
Charlottesville and an extensive wheat
fan factory is to be started in Staunton
Some months ago a party near Green*
ttlle, Miss., sued out an injunction
against his neighbor, restraining him
from sowing Johnson grass seed, the pe
titioner alleging the grass would spread
over the adjacent country and destroy
the land for cultivation. The Chan
wry Court granted the injunction. The
case was then carried up to the Supreme
Court of the State and the injunction
w &s dissolved.
Two clergyman of Fauquier, Virginia
*ent into court with their dis ute as to
the ownership of as3 calf. Each own
cd a cow, which he claimed, was the
toother of the calf. The Justice went
*ith the jury and litigants to a pasture,
the two cows were let loose for
the youngster to choose between, and
the question was so quickly and unmis
takably settled by the brutes that the
jury gave a verdict without further hes
itation. •
At Centerville, Ark., where there is
Do Bergh society, a wager was made
w to the endurance of a certain tough
®ule. The trial drew a crowd, and the
netting was heavy. The tread-mill of a
was used, the mule
fastened in it and compelled to
without rest. Whcncve he was
nclj- *d to stop he was goaded to keep
kuii hiqviog. He aas not allowed food
or water, three days the beast
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Dented to Industrial Inter st, the DifFu ionol Truth, the Establishment of Justice, and the Preservation of a People’s Government
walked, and when he finally fell down
it was to die.
Trank Mills, colored, lost his life un
der peculiar circumstances at Columbus,
Ga., while sacking bran. The bran was
banked many thousand of pounds on
the upper floor, and passed to the work
ers on the lower floor through a passage
or pipe, which criated a funnel shaped
depression in the erreat bank above. A
sack dropped into the depression, and
the negro, in trying to get it out, was
drawn into the whirlpool of bran.
When discovered only his hand could
Ire seen. Four men failed to pull him
out, and when the bran was removed he
v.as dead from suft'oeation.
The Law of Lost Property.
What onght the finder of a lost article
to do? Most people will give a ready
answer. He should do his best to dis
cover the owner and restore the lost
property to him. But this standard of
moral duty being imperfectly recognized
by the law, it will be interesting to
review the decisions on this subject.
1. The fiuder need not take charge of
the lost property. There is no legal
duty on him to do it but if he does
take it into his possession, he then be
comes a depository, and is bound to keep
it for the owner and restore it to him
when known. How long he must keep
it, or what efforts he should make to find
’lie owner, have not been laid down.
2. If the fiuder does not restore the
property upon discovering the owner,
does he commit theft ? This depends ou
whether he knew, or had reasonable
means of knowing, who the owner was
at the time of finding. It has been held
that the finder of a poekefcbook, having
the owner’s name legibly written on it,
is a thief if he conceals and appropriates
the money; but if there is nothing to
indicate the owner, he does not become
a thief in law by so doing.
3. The owner may at any time reclaim
his property, and if the finder refuses to
give it up, can recover it or the value of
it from him. But as against any one but
the owner the finder’s title is good.
4. When is a tiling to be considered
as lost ? It has been said in several cases
that money or other property laid down
and forgotten is not lost in the legal sense
of the word. The proprietor of the shop,
or bank, or place where it is left is the
proper person to take charge of it, and
those who pick up the property have no
right to keep it. On the other hand, it
has been held that where a conductor
found money in a railway car, whose
owner could not be ascertained, he had
a good title to the money.
5. Is the findei entitled to be paid for
his trouble and expense ? He need not
take charge of it, and it seems that if he
does so he must look only to the grat
itude aud good feeling of the owner for
reward.
6. What if a reward be offered ? There
is no doubt that any one who, seeing the
offer, sets to work to find the property,
will, if he succeed, be entitled to the
reward, and may eveu retain the prop
erty till it be paid. But if he already
has the missing article in his possession
when the reward is offered, or has with
held the property in the expectation
that a reward would bo offered, the rule
is the opposite.
A gentleman contributes to Nature
the following account of his experience
in India bearing upon the question
whether ants produce sounds or not:
“ Whilst lying awake early one morning
before the servants were stirring, when
camped in the Deccan, at the present
small station of Chota or Chick-Soogoor,
on the G. I. P. Railway, during the win
ter 1868-69, I heard a sound repeated at
intervals of about a second. It sounded
as though the wall of the tent was being
struck by a light fringe along one side;
but noticing that the air was perfectly
still, I listened for some minutes wonder
ing what it was and trying to fix the lo
cality. I got out of bed cautiously and
looked out; the whole of one side of the
tent, for a height of two feet, was covered
with white ants so thickly, that at the first
glance I thought the wall was covered
with a gray-reddish mud to this height."
The noise "ceased suddenly as soon as the
ants seemed to become aware of the
w riter’s presence, and in a few minutes
they had all disappeared. The impres
sion produced was that they had all been
striking the tent wall at the same time
with their headß.
Sumner’s Practice.
Near the close of Sumner’s career
“Apphia Howard” said to him in his
Washington home :
“What are you doing here without
Congress ? ”
“Did you never see,” he asked,
“when a train of cars is standing in a
station, a man go around striking each
wheel and every part of the machinery
that has been under any strain ? He is
testiug it. I am doing this,” he con
tinued, “with my speeches. lam go
ing over them sentence by sentence,
and testing each, to see if there is one
that gives an uncertain sound.”
In the presence of Herbert Spencer,
a little boy said: “ What an awful lot
of crows! ” The philosopher corrected
the youth by saying: “I have yet to
learn, little master, that there is any
thing to inspire awe in such a bird as
the crow.” For onoe the author of first
principles had met his match. The boy
replied: “ But I didn’t say there was.
I didn’t say, ‘What a lot of awful
crows!* but, ‘What an awful lot uf
crows! ’ ” Sound for the boy.
INDIAN SPRINGS, GEORGIA.
TOPICS OF THE DAY.
Omo is legislating against bucket
shops.
Indiana has a Greenback State ticket
in the field.
The Cold Water Party has been having
the bulge on this country.
Deaths from scarlet lever in New York
City average about 100 a week.
Search for the Jeannette’s missing
third boat has aotively begun.
The present prospects of the peach
crop in Southern Indiana are excellent.
The high waters carried off about
$15,000 worth of distillery cattle at
Louisville.
Congressmen are required to write
aud not “stamp” their franks on free
mail matter.
In spite of the weather and water,
New Orleans, as usual, made Mardi-
Gras a success.
About the only hope now is, that the
heat of the coming summer will not be
oppressive. Ice will be a luxury.
The Directors of the New York, New
Haven and Harford Railroad refuse to
allow religious services on their road.
By a new fast mail services all points
in Florida will be reached twenty-four to
thirty-six hours sooner than heretofore.
On February 17 the visible supply of
cotton in the United States was 1,442,123
bales, against 1,156,000 bales same time
last year.
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific
Railroad Company has taken a moral fit
and now discharge all employes who are
iuiown to gamble.
Blackfeet and other Indians in
Northwestern Territory are at it again,
“killing whisky traders and other
Americans,” and committing other
depredations.
It ib estimated that the high waters
in the Mississippi Valley ha3 deprived
from 50,000 to 75,000 men of the means
of subsistence. This means destitution
to 200,000 souls.
Of eigrty-fouk bills passed by the
Kentucky House, seventy-five of them
have been to incorporate turnpike com
panies. Kentucky is determined to have
respectable highways.
Dr. Bliss’ bill for services rendered
during the illness of Garfield has been
cut down to one-fifth the amount he
asked, which was $50,000. St.ll he gets
a pretty good round sum.
Herbert Spencer, the London Tele
graph says, is coming to America during
the present year, but he will refuse all
proposals to lecture. The object of his
visit is to see the country and people.
The Mexican National Bank has opened
for business, and already has large sums
of money on deposit. The Mexican
Government has made a deposit toward
paying installments on the American
debt.
The prospect for farming in the Mis
sissippi Valley the present season is very
sickly indeed. It is conjectured that
the waters will not have receded suffi
cient for practical purposes before the
middle of April.
The editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer
created a sensation a few days ago by
contributing $250 in hard cash to the
Harrison revival meetings. The con
gregation thereupon united in prayer
for the salvation of that editor’s soul.
The death ot Soteldo, the Washington
journalist, who was shot in the Republi
can office, is add tional evidenoe that
when an editor does try to be honest,
somebody comes along and kills him.
Editors better keep in the old rut and
avoid trouble.
President Arthur has rented a cot
tage on Cedar avenue, Dong Branch,
where he goes the coming summer. This
is announced long ip advance so that
young ladies who are well matured will
know in time where they are going Jo
spend the hot months.
There seems to be no question now
as t destitution among the people of
Eastern Arkansas and Northern Louis
iana, although their poverty was denied
a short time ago. The appeal to Con
gress for aid is sufficient guarantee that
they are in pretty bad shape.
The Chicago Board of Trade, after
the maimer of the New York Produce
Exchange is making war on the bucket
shops. The Board of Trade quotations
are the basis upon which the bucket
shops do business, and without them
their occupation will be gone.
The architecture of Oscar Wilde’s
oalves are said to be absolutely monoto
nous, and not a bit soulful in their ex
pression. Oscar oughtn’t to button his
breeches so tight around the knee.
That’s just about what it is that makes
his lower extremities wear such a bony
look.
It is plain that Bradlaugh cannot se
cure his seat in the British House of
Commons. He refused to swear when
he could, and now that he wants to take
the oath, he can’t, and the members. of
that body have bounced him by an over
whelming vote. It seems that some
times it is “ too late to mend.”
The New York Herald makes the
statement that Mme. Nilsson has oried
so much over the insanity of Jier hus
band that her sight has become greatly
impaired, and she is now obliged to wear
glasses. That the unfortunate man is
now dead, it is to be hoped that Christine
will look at the matter from a philosoph
ical standpoint
It seems that so far as Prof. Jackson
is himself concerned, the question is not
yet settled as to what caused the explo
sion in his laboratory at Chester, Pa.,
by which seventeen persons were blown
to atoms. The business was that of
manufacturing sky rockets and such
tilings. It is rather strange what it was
that could have exploded.
A queer suit has just been decided in
New York. A boy of twelve picked up a
revolver from an open drawer, and play
fully pointed it at a tutor, who gave him
lessons at his home. The pistol went
off, the tutor was not dangerously hurt,
but confined to his bed for a month.
The court held his father guilty of
negligence in leaving the pistol around
loose, and a jury gave the plaintiff SSOO.
Gen. Brady’s paper, the Washington
Critic, continues to defend the Star
Route Ring, in face of the indictments
found against the members of that
clique. It says : “ The manipulators of
this wholesale blackmailing scheme
stand out in their true colors as liars,
slanderers, and blood-suckers; to be
known henceforth by the whole world as
such, that they may be shunned and
avoided by honest men.’’ Just so.
A man calling himself the second
Christ, at Fort Smith, Arkansas, an
nounced that he would walk across the
Arkansas River at a certain hour. When
the hour arrived an immense assemblage
had collected to witness the perform
ance, but the second Christ came not,
and there was great disappointment
among the people—not that they ex
pected to see a miracle performed, but
they were alltired mad at being beaten
out of seeing a crank drowned.
That popular humorist, Mr. W. J.
Lampton, whose witticisms gave the
Steubenville Herald a national leputa
tion, has been called to the position of
city editor of the Louisville Courier-
Journal. Although the Courier-Journal
is widely known among those who write
their editorials with a pair of scissors,
the addition of Mr. Lampton to the
helm will help the old ship out wonder
fully and she will come in with a better
cargo than ever. Boys, get your scissors
ready!
Great bodies move slowly, and that is
why the New York Board of Aldermen
only last week adopted resolutions tend
ering the thanks of the city to Mr. Wil
liam H. Vanderbilt for his munificence
in defraying the entire cost of removing
the Alexandrian obelisk from Egypt to
its site in Central Park, a year or so ago.
The fact of the matter is, the Board of
Aldermen wanted to see how they would
enjoy having such a thing around before
they were willing to bubble over with
thank3. They hadn’t forgotten it, of
course not.
Thebe is a theory that the destruction
of forests lessens the rainfall and has a
tendency to produce drouth. That
theory has stood without contradiction
since the beginning of the drouth of
1881 up until the present time. What
the advocates of that theory have to say
now has not yet been announced. Per
haps the absence of forests also is pro
ductive of great rainfalls ; at all events,
the cutting away of forests helps to ac
celerate the rushing of waters to their
terminus and that means inundation to
all sections bordering their course.
In the British House’of Commons the
other day Chaplin stated that all the evi
dence before the Royal Commission
tended to show that the United States
had reached the acme of agricultural
prosperity and the worst, therefore, had
been seen of foreign competition. Well,
that’s all Chaplin knows about it. The
United States hasn’t fairly got started in
the agricultural business vet. Twenty
five years from now’ we will begin to
show Englaud what we can do in the
way of “hogs and hominy” and as for
flour, we expect to be the world’s
market.
The Paris correspondent of the New
Orleans Picayune tells the story of the
French financial panic in the following
concise words: “While the following
figures are deceptive, for the securities
will rise again and the majority of the
shareholders are not speculators, and
have not sold, still these figures servo to
show the enormous depreciation of favor
ite shares of speoulation, and the con
sequent losses of speculators. The
shares of the Union Generate are worth
$60,000,000 less than they were on the
10th of January; those of the Suez
Canal $110,000,000 less than they were
worth on the 3d of January ; the Tim
bale, $24,000,000; the Public Funds,
$60,000,000. The total depreciation of
securities of all sorts on the Bourse since
the 3d of January is set down at $1,000,-
000,000 ; ill other words, is equal to the
war indemnity paid Germany in 1871.”
Choosing a Profession.
A question which becomes more im
portant every year is that which concerns
the education of young men for the pro
fessions. When it is finally solved, and
set at rest, a great good will have been
done to tho publio, and many youths
will be kept from feeling in their man
hood the heartburnings and the sense of
failure in their lives from which so many
are now suffering. It is useless to dis
guise the fact that the dignity of manual
labor, guided by the intelligence of
special learning, is not generally be
lieved in. An excuse for this lack of
faith is drawn from the argument that
as mechanical trades are so subdivided
now that a young man after learning one
branch rarely is given the opportunity
to learn another, and that, having but
little need to use his brain in his work,
he usually becomes a sort of animated
machine. But is there a controlling
reason why a mechanic should thus lose
his pow er—assuming, of course, that he
has started w T ith a fair supply of intelli
gence and energy ? That there is not is
shown by the fact that some men with
no other opportunities than their fellows,
by using their eyes and wits, learn every
branch of their trades, and thereby pro
cure commanding positions. For in
stance in the pressroom of a newspaper
of this city there is one man who not
only can manage a complicated press,
but can take it apart and put it together,
and repair it if it gets out of order. Yet
he has had no special advantages over
the men whom he directs as a foreman.
He has looked and learned, and he is
now highly paid for the trouble he took
to inform liimself. It seems wrong,
then, to assert that an energetic, intelli
gent boy will have no chance to rise in a
trade. The thing to ascertain in the be
ginning is the trade for which he is nat
urally fitted. This is hard to ascertain,
and most parents do not make the at
tempt. They put their boys into any
clerical position that is open to them, or
they decide long in advance that the
youths shall be clergymen, physicians, or
lawyers. In this way many men have,
been put into professions for which they
have no aptitude, and so struggle on and
fall. The question which arises is:
Could not this evil be overcome by mak
ing it less easy to become a professional
man? Would not many fathers and
mothers in moderate circumstances
pause and reflect if they knew it would
cost much time and money to make doc
tors, or lawyers, or clergymen of their
sons ? But, leaving this question one
side, is it right that any ordinary man
may obtain permission to practice upon
the public health or the public rights
after nominally studying medicine or
law for two years? Asa matter of fact
students do not attend the medical or
law schools for half that period. Earn
est physicians and lawyers who love their
professions. think profoundly upon this
question, and are of the opinion that not
only should the periods of study be
longer, but that no man should be ad
mitted to study unless he has had a col
legiate education, or, lacking that, is
able to pass an examination so as to
show that he has a good foundation for
special learning. Ignoramuses would
not then be so common in the profes
sions. If only fit persons are given the
right of way into the professions the un
fit will find places suited to them, for
fond and poor parents will be forced to
study the characteristics of their chil
dren before marking out careers for
them.— N. Y. Times .
Our Army from 1789 to 1881.
The following exhibits the strength of
the regular army of the United States
from 1789 to 1861, as fixed by acts of
Congress. The figures are fixed for the
aggregate of officers and men:
Strength of
Year. Array.
1789—One regiment infantry, one battery ar
tillery....? .! 840
1792—Indian border wars 5,120
1794—Peace establishment 3,629
(801 5,144
1807 3^2 ' B
1812— War with Great Britain 11,831
1817- establishment 9,9®)
1822-1832—Peace establishment 6,184
1*33-1837 —I eace establishment 7,168
1838-1842—Florida war 12,539
1813- Peace establishment 8,*13
1847—Mexican war 17,812
1818— Mexican war 30.890
1849-1855—Peace establishment 10,320
1856-1861—Peace establishment 12,931
SUBSCRIPTION--51.50.
NUMBER 2S’.
HUMORS OF THE DAY.
Sings the dear little gas meter: * * Men
may come and men may go, but I go on
forever. ”
If the good die young, how do you
account for the bald-headed editors.—
Modern Argo.
Most great singers are accused of tak
ing some slight stimulant, but few know
how much it takes to prime a donna.
Mary had a little “ lam ”
And laid it on John’s ear,
Because she heard him call the " maid,”
’Mongst other things, “ My dear.”
Church choirs seldom harmonize alto
gether, and tlieir debates often baritone
of contention which i3 de-bass-sing.
Oh, it is treble 1
Wf. ark told that the ancient Egypt
ians honored a cat w’hen dead. The
ancient Egyptians knew when a cat was
most to be honored.
“ There is no accounting for tastes.”
Nonsense ! What is the work of a book
keeper in an eating house but account
ing for tastes ?— Boston 'Transcript.
“Syracuse has a female architect.”
Norristown hasn’t a female architect,
but she has more than one designing
woman. — Norristown Herald.
A Chicago girl has sued a man rot
SIO,OOO for Imaging her twice. The
man who would ling a girl only twice de
serves to be mulcted heavy d:unages.
—Norristown Herald.
There are three prominent phases of a
young woman’s life, all visibly con
nected : Asa baby, she is lugged ; Asa
young woman, she is hugged ; as a wife,
she is humbugged.
“Have you ever been whipped by
your teacher before ?” he was asked by
his pa. And then the good little boy wdic*
never told a lie said : “No sir,” and as
he went out he finished tho sentence by
remarking “But I’ve been whipped be
hind.”
Extract from a young lady’s letter :
“And, do you know, Maud and I ore
quite sure Captain Popple had taken too
much champagne at the ball, for he took
out his watch and looked hard at the
back of it and then muttered : * Blesh
my shoul! I hadn’t any idea it was that
time o’ night.’ ”
“Your arguments are sound, my sou,
and delivered with force,” said the
clergyman to his boy, who had been
banging at away at his drum for an hour
or more; “but we Lave heard quite
enough on that head.” The boy stop
ped at once, with the aid of his mother
and hired girl.
“When I grow up I’ll be a man, won’t
I?” asked a little Austin boy of his
mother. “Yes, my son, but if you want
to be a man you must be industrious at
school, and learn how to behave your
self.” “ Why, mamma, do the lazy boys
turn out to be women when they grow
up?"
A Detroit girl has sued a man for
SI,OOO damages for hugging her twice.
That is too confounded high. But we
suppose while ho was about it lie could
have hugged her teu thousand times and
it wouldn’t have cost any more. Michi
gan men always let up to quick. — Peek's
Sun.
A little rascal: A boy who liad been
watching through the keyhole the antics
of a couple of lovers, ran down into the
kitchen to announce his discovery to liis
mother. “Oh, it’s such fun!” he ex
claimed. “What’s such fan?” gravely
asked the old lady. “Why, to see sister
Mollie and Mr. Fipps play lunatic
asylum.”— Brooklyn Eagle.
Natural history for little ones: This
is a mule. He may look amiable, but
he isn’t. He differs from the condor of
the Andes. The condor soars; the mule
sours. That speck on the sky yonder is
the man w r lio attempted to climb the
mule’s back by catching hold of his tail.
When he comes down he will tell you
that the best way to mount a mule is to
drop on him from the limb of a tree.—
Chicaao Tribune.
A Letter in Blood.
A bank-note bearing a message writ
ten with blood was paid into a mer
chant’s office at Liverpool, England,
some years ago. The cashier, wliUe hold
it up to the light to test its genuineness,
noticed some faint marks upon it, which
proved to be words scrawled in blood
between the printed lines and upon the
blank margin of the note. Extraordin
ary pains were taken to decipher these
almost obliterated characters, and the
following sentence was made out: “If
this note should fall into the hands of
John Dean, of Long Hill, near Carlisle,
he will learn hereby his brother is lan
guishing a -prisoner in Algiers.” Mr.
Dean was promptly communicated with,
and he applied to the British Govern
ment for assistance to obtain his brother’s
release from captivity. The prisoner,
who had traced the above sentence upon
the note with a splinter of wood dipped
in his own blood, had been a slave to
theDey or Mohammedan ruler of Algiers
for eleven years, when his strange mis
sive first attracted attention in a Liver
pool counting-house. His family ami
friends had long believed him dead. Ho
was released and brought home to En
gland, where, however, he did not long
survive, his constitution having been ir
reparably injured by exposure, priva
tions, and forced labor in the Dey’e gal
leys.
A Tennessee man had a dog that he
would gladly have sold for fifteen cents.
And yet he‘ paid $lO fine for walloping
a loafer who kicked the dog, and swore
if it was to happen over he’d do it again.
Enquirer: “How canyon feel sure
that when you come to die, that you’ll
go to heaven ?” Bea murderer. They
all seem to possessthat feeling when they
come to be hung.