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KNOXVILLE JOURNAL.
KNOXVILLE, GEORGIA.
It is estimated that $250,000 worth of
grain was raised on the unused portion
of public roads in Iowa last season.
The sum of $400,000 was recently
offered for the well-known English
medical journal, the Lancet, which was
founded in 1823 by Doctor Wakely. The
offer was declined, the paper not being
for sale.
_
Three physicians have left Paris for
" Australia, taking with them germs of
chicken cholera. The Australians are
about to adopt Pasteur’s plan of de¬
stroying their raobits, in the face of
very strong opposition.
In the office of the Recorder of Deeds,
Philadelphia, is preserved a justice’s
docket over 100 years old. One of the
entries in the volume is as follows:
“Commonwealth agt. Stej hen Blunt,
July 24, 1778. Charged of drinking
Damnation to General Washington and
all his army. Defendant held in £200.”
The Reverend A. J. Swartz, of Chi¬
cago, a believer in metaphysical healing,
says that a letter was recently sent by a
family in New Zealand describing the
symptoms of a friend in this country who
was sick with diphtheria. So graphically
was the epistle written that its recipients
in New Zealand at once became ill from
diphtheria.
Old Fhilip Winebiddle, the founder of
the Winebiddle Estate in East Liberty,
Penn., bought 100 acres of land where
the City of Erie now stands sixty years
ago and paid $300 for it. Almost be¬
fore the ink -was dry on the papers he
made up his mind that he had been
swindled, but thirty years later the land
could not be bought for $2,000,000, and
it is now worth $3,000,000.
A correspodent, writing from Havana,
says that ne never saw a people so clean
in regard to their dress. A Cuban stev¬
edore will load molasses on a vessel for
a week and one can hardly find a spot
upon the white suit when Saturday night
comes. The clerks in Havanna look as
if they had just stepped out of band
boxes. They are usually dressed in pat¬
ent leather gaiters, silk stockings and
linen trousers and shirts that are spot¬
lessly white.
According to United States Consul,
Smithers, our Chinese brethren have
recently been playing some sad tricks
upon the barbarian merchants of the
West. Camels’ hair and wool received
in London fromTientsin have been loaded
with sand to the extent of one-third
of their weight; hides have been gener¬
ally woimy, and many shipments of
straw braids have been a total loss, ow¬
ing to damp straw and inferior dyes.
Many of these Chinese commodities are
now coming to this country.
In the case of the death of the Em¬
peror William a custom which has hith¬
erto attended the decease of Prussian
monarchs has been omitted. According
to this old ceremonial, as soon as the
King is dead the Alinisters of the Crown,
foreign Ministers, and the Court in gen¬
eral visit the palace in full dress. The
first rooms on entering are found brill
iantly lighted, but gradually as they
progress the light becomes dimmer and
dimmer, until finally the throne room,
almost in darkness, is reached. Wax
work figures deeply veiled in black are
grouped about the throne to represent
the chief members of the new court, and
all dignitaries pass solemnly before
them, bowiDglowand going out back¬
ward.
CONVICTS’ SIGNALS.
A SYSTEM. OF TELEGRAPHING
IN VOGUE IN ALL PRISONS.
Commnnication in Spite of the
Closest Surveilance—Prison¬
ers Keeping Each Other
Fully Informed.
Incidents that must necessarily follow
from intercommunication often happen
in penitentaries where the rules arc rigid
and surveillance so close that a convict
is never from under the eye of a guard
or taskmaster, says the Indianapolis
Journal. No matter to what extreme
the rule prohibitingconversation between
the convicts may be enforced, they find
some means by which to inform them¬
selves of what is going on or what is to
occur. But, more than this, a convict
may conceive the idea of escape or re¬
volt, and for him to communicate it to
one,he wishes to have as an accomplice
is not difficult. They bring others into
the plot or plan until twenty or thirty
know it, details for the carrying out of
which each is assigned his particular
part. This necessitates a thorough ex¬
planation of minutiae and calls for a sys¬
tem --------------------- of communication for which a limited
use of signs would not answer.
Penitentiary officials have tried again
and. again, to obtain even a clue to the
system, but they are no nearer a solution
than when they first began there to investigate is
the matter. They know a sys¬
tem, and that it rests on signs, but
whether on those made with fingers, eyes
and lips, or the bringing into play of
other together, features, or whether it depends on
all they do not know. Prison¬
ers, to curry favor with the officials,
often tell them what they have learned
from other convicts. They go to especial
trouble at times in exposing plots, and
are ready to reveal everything learned except the
means by which they the facts.
No convict which has yet given the slightest
suggestion the would lead has to defied the dis¬
covery of secret that the
shrewdest detectives. “I have seen,”
said an ex-prison official, “two convicts,
six feet apart facing each other. They
did not utter a word, nor could I discern
the slightest movement of the lips or
eyes, yet 1 knew they were communicat¬
ing other something. for minute They gazed before at 1 had each
a or two a
chance to interfere, but I am satisfied
that one told the other all he wished to
tell. Three or four of them will be
standing around a stove, or together in
other places of the prison, and yet with
sufficient distance between them to lead
one to think that they have nothing in
common,and while there is not the least
sign of conversation observable,they their are
talking to each ofherdn own way.”
Attorney-General Miehener, of Indi
ana, relates an instance or two showing
the perfection to which the convicts have
carried their system of conveying infer
mation among themselves. On his first
visit to Jeffersonville Prison to look into
the matter of Jack Howard’s shortcom
ings as warden of the Southern prison,he
was afternoonf sitting in the office of the prison one
when the deputy warden or
some other subordinate asked him if he
did not wish to go through the shops. It
was but, something the he invitation,they did not expect passed to do,
accepting
through the inner gates, crossing the
first cell-rooms, out into the courtyard
and across that directly to the shoe'fac
tory. They were not three minutes in
going, they reached nor did the thev stop anywhere until
factory. The Attorney
General had gone hut a few feet into the
room with the prison officers when a con
vict stepped up. and, asking the latter if
he could speak to the gentleman with
him, said, on permission being given
him: “You are the Attorney-General:”
“Yes,” was the only reply r of that
0 fl* cer
“Your name is Miehener?”
“Yes; but how do you know that? I
have never seen you before.”
“That is true, nor did lever see you
until now, although then I am from Shelby
County.” He went on to tell who
he was, where he lived in the-county,and
what he had done to bring him into the
penitentiary. But the convict gave the
Attorney-General further he cause for
wonder by telling him that knew of
his reaching the city the day before, how
many visits he had made to the prison,
and for what purpose.
Leaving ,the shoe factory the Attorney
General and prison officer went into an¬
other intervening room, separated and from with the neither first by
an room, of
which could any person in the third have
direct communication. Here Mr. Mich-
ener was told approached about by what another the first convict, had
iWio him
done, except he asked him to see the
Governor in his behalf. Going to the
foundry, which is a considerable distance
from the shoe factory, the third convict
came up to the Attorney General the in¬
stant he entered the room. This man
had the identity of the visitor and the
cause of his coming to Jeffersonville as
accurately as the other two. He also
wanted a pardon. On the way to another
building the prison official said to Mr.
Miehener: “livery convict who eared to
know had all information about who you
are and why you have come within a few
minutes after you came Inside of the
prison door. The convicts have no
privilege of writing or speaking to each
other, but so perfect is their system of
communicating with each they other that in
forming plans leaders, to escape and can agree
on time, methods singals.
But there is always some convict who,
though not in the plot, learns all about
it, and tells the details to the officers.
Investigation incidents always brings to light
their enough being to formed convince us that
Warden plans are constantly.”
Patton not long ago had oc¬
casion to order the punishment of a con¬
vict for the infraction of the rules. The
convict, without the knowledge of his
fellow's, was taken to a distant part of the
prison where there was not a sign of
anyone took place, being near enough three to learn what
But minutes after
ward every convict of the many hundred
there knew not only the punishment, and
the kind, orders but why, aud by whom, and at
whose it was inflicted. An ex
prison official said recently: “Not long
ago reached I took the a convict prison to Michigan City.
I about eight o’clock
in the evening, after all the convicts had
been locked up in their cells. No one
knew in charge of my being that time there of but night. the officer I did
at
not stay longer lhan five minutes, but,
turning over my prisoner, went to down the
hotel and to bed. When I came
to breakfast-the next morning there was
a messenger from the prison stating that
such and such a convict wanted to see
me. A half dozen in all wished to have
me come out to them. How they knew
I was there nobody knows. Prison offi¬
cials are constantly seeing the effects of
communication among tiie convicts, but
cannot detect tbe system.”
The Chancellor’s Promise Fulfilled.
There are several , very excellent ,, , stones , .
eonceraing Lord Chancellor Elaon.
™< e , for instance, the story of Miss
Bridge s morning call upon him. There
a PP ea [ ed before him a pretty young girl,
>?. rustic ln her attlre ’ but
ough y in command , of , her wits. “My
dear - sald the Chancellor, rising and
bo ' vl “S '’ eI * courteously, “who are
0 1
“Lord , Eldon’’said , „ .. the ., blushing ,, , . in
truder . > “I.am Bessie Bridge, of Woelby,
aud P. a P a las sent me T ° vol ! of a
-
promise which , you made to him when I
)vas a little baby and you were a guest
“ h “ house 011 \ ho occasion of your first
election iis member of Parliament for
A dear young lady A in
terposed . the Chancellor,, try mg to recall
bo le bad P, ed » ( ' d himself.
™ ' e 9 ’ T .? rd Lldon ’ a _ \ ou
were said standing t over my cradle when papa
to you: ‘Mr. Scott promise me
that lf ever you are Lord Chancellor,
wh en m y ldt le F‘ rl ls “P°“ r clergyman’s
wife,you , will . give , her husband a living,’
and J ou answered. Mr. Bridge, my
. not worth half but I
P rom) ? e is a crown,
» IV0 ^to f you, wishing it were worth
m0 J e ‘,
Lcthusiastically . ,. ,, „ the Chancellor „ ex
claimed: . “lou are quite right ; I admit
the obligation;1 remember all about it;”
and then, after a pause, archly surveying
the damsel, whose graces were the re
verse of matronly, lie added:“But surely
the tune for keeping my promise is not
yet arrived. You cannot be any one’s
wife at present.
for moment Miss Bessie . ent
a was si
and then, with a fiush and a ripple of
laughter she somebody’s replied: “Ao, but I do so
wish to be wife. I amea
S a ge f l t0 a young clergyman, and there’s
. Herefordshire, old
? Lome mn S which PI has recently fallen near vacant, my
and if you will give it to Alfred, why,
fj en . Lord Eldon, we shall marry before
d '° f. nd <A year. Her Alfred got
tbe “ vln ff Neto York Press.
It is said that the Czarina of Russia,
although employing a houseful of
seamstresses,makes nearly all the clothing
for her youngest children and also takes
their new hats to pieces her and trims them
over according to own taste.
-CURIOUS FACTS.
Coaches were first used in England ill
City Park, Philadelphia, is the larges I
in the world.
water The is latest discovery for burns. is that seltze;]
a cuve
ivarius The highest violin is recorded said to be price $8,000. for a St rad]
Zalediscoffokenonisehi is the name oil
a man who is working in the Schuylkill
coal regions.
The longest suspension bridge in the
■world is at Freibourg; then come those I
at Pesth and Bourdeaux.
It is 1085 years since the death of St
Patrick, the renowned apostle of the
Christian faith in Ireland.
An ancient Japanese coat of mail was
recently Victoria, unearthed British Columbia. in the vicinity of I
chois A Montreal arrested butcher and fined named $100 Desmar-*| recent- ]
was
ly for kissing a woman against her will. 1
He decided to go to jail rather than pay
the fine.
The venerable American Philosophical
the Society, chair of in Philadelphia, which Thomas still JeOersonsat possesses ]
when pendenee. he wrote the Declaration of Inde- I
In an appeal from a justice’s court in
Ohio the lawyer couldn’t find any par¬
ticular technicality, and sc he based the
appeal on the ground that court was not a
opened with prayer.
theater The mascot walked black cat of the a Washington during j
out on stage 1
a performance the other night and took
a good look at the President, who sat •
in a box with a party.
There is a legend current among thes
peasants life of Kaiser of Bavaria AVilhelm that the" long f
was due Imperial! to aj
mysterious philter of which His
Majesty alone possessed the secret.
Robert McCrone, of Thompsonville,
Conn., is the most consistent vegetarian
in the Nutmeg State. He has eaten no
animal food tor over forty years. He is
now sixty-five and in perfect health.
Vienna must be a jolly place to live in.
On one Saturday night, in a single dis- I
triv t of the city, 340 public balls were
held, and there are about twenty such 1
districts included in that gay metropo
lis.
Some Florida cabbages measure five
feet across the top and weigh twenty-five
pounds, so the Florida papers say. They
also tell of a potato twenty-seven pounds ||
in pounds. weight and a turnip weighing ten
A new rule for removing a cinder ia
the eye is given by an engineer. It is:
“Let the in jured eye alone and rub the
other one, and the cinder will be out ia
two minutes.” It is a simple remedy
and-wortli trying.
An English judge recently commuted
the sentence of a prisoner to -five years’
imprisonment months’ imprisonment at hard labor instead of
six and two flog¬
gings. He merciful. thought the former sentence
was more
The Alexandran era fixes the creation 1
at 5503 B. C. This computation con¬
tinued till A. D. 285, but the following
year teu years were subtracted, and 5787
became 5777. This coincided with the
Mundane era of Antioch.
Bob aud Ben Day, of Conyers, Ga.,
have trapped sixty-four beavers and four
otters on Georgia streams during the last
three months, besides a number of smaller
animals. They will realize $400 from
the furs which the animals yielded.
Mrs. Nancy Miller, who died at Cum¬
berland, Aid., recently, at the age of 108
years, remembered well the day she saw
General George Washington review his
troops at Fort Cumberland on October
19, reminiscences 1794, and had many interesting Ameri
to tell of the first
can President.
discovered At Birmingham, Ala., in Doetor back Jones
a racoon a yard of a
drug store and took a novel method of
capturing and it. chloroform. He procured Standing a fishpole, a
sponge at a
distance he lowered the sponge to the
nose of the sleeping animal and held it
there fearing until the coon was stupefied. he Then
that he might bo bitten, ar¬
ranged a lasso and caught the coon with¬
out difficulty.
The Difference.
For a man he tries
And he toilSand sighs
To be very wise
And witty;
But a dear little dame
Has If she enough wins the of fame
name
Of pretty.
—Newark Journal.