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About The Albany register. (Albany, Or.) 1868-18?? | View Entire Issue (Jan. 5, 1877)
. . . " ' r . . . rVBLDSHK CVKRT TRIDAt, BY COLL. VAlSf CLEVIS X THE KEGISTEB BVILDIHG, Cornrr Ferry ami First Streets . TERMS-IS ; ADVASCK. Cse cory. oicyor 2 !0 On cony, ix mnnrhs I "i0 "I o flni4 f i wciity, vli copy- $2 00 S.ntrtc royi's..." Ten cents. Snljst-riJM'r on:silo of T.inn county will le rliaryr-9 ;il'inis ;xtra - 2 7i for the year as llmt is the amount of postage per annum which wo are ivnuived to pay on cHth paper tu;tih'(l hy us. Amhi for the Itcjflstcr. The followina; namcrt srcntlemcn rc nut hor icil to itMO'ivu ami reo-iot lor subscriptions to tnv kkmistkk in the locuiitics luontioneu Mc-wrs. Kirk A Hume.. Itohort Mii W. P.. Smith t. P. Tninnkinn M. H. inv;hun .. ... A. Whw-li'V A Vi Miw. sinilh A Hrastielit. J. B. Irvino TV.cn. Tf. licynoltls .llrownsville.- . .CrAwforrtsville. Halsey. Harrisburg Ichanon. , Shertd. lunct ion City. Poio. .Stili'in. TIe whole city is in mourning, and a general gloom overspreads it. T snw the tmdics at the Morgue, and where ihcfe was enough left of one to show any tl ing, it was noticeable that they all died with their bands before their faces, as it in effort to ward ot the fate that was overtaking them. A more ghastly sight a move absolute nightmare than "the smoking Tuins of the 'theatre and the Morgue presented human eyes never rested upon, Qf course the people are nervous now about their theatres, and are investigat ing. Out ot the ten or a dozen princi pal plaees in the city only one or two are found to have even decei:t means ot escape in case of tire. The others are, like the one destroyed, the most deadly traps, and citizens shudder as they think that for years they have been risking the Iives'of their families in places most liable of all to fire, and m wlucl tire isi . , 1 t . . avian ! magnificent paper, and it it can be kept steady in its present course, as the rep resentative ot the advanced thought of the city and country, it will come ortt all right. Bat who can tell ? Who knows whoso money is behind it, and everybody knows what power . money has. And speaking of newspapers :.t is a mistake to suppose that a newspaper in New York is a gold mine. The IleraUl, the Post, the Commercial tdvertiser, and the .'Sun are making money. The IVorld has always sunk money, the Times makes something, but more by its real estate than the pa per; the Tribune is holding about even, and with the rest it is a struggle with mortgages. It cost a million of dollars to establish the Times, and the amount sunk to establish new papers here is fearful. -fashions. Odd, comfortable-looking Ion rags. box, FRIDAY . .-TANUAUY 5, 1S77. only possible when performances are r sacques, shaped loosely to the body and taking place, ana wiucn nave no es i covering almost the entire dress, are capes. The attendance at the theatres ; Worn by girls in thir teens as a sehool has fallen oft tearfully since tne nre, wrftp- the material dark gray undressed bo light till the doth. The newest bonnets have high something like j peaked crowns with hardly any brim, a rft'JS VEW" YORK LETTER. Til IS 'il'ftOOKI.YV HOn ROE POLTTtCAt OUKE1.EY FASHTOXS THE COJIP- and it will continue to public is assured of safety in case ot accident, l no unio ; fuj pleating of velvet and lace taking law, which prescribes the quantity a'11' its place. 1 he trimming now, as ever, quality of exits from all p a es wherein i niakes the bonnet, Broad scam of silk masses ot people congregate, will proD- j or velvet must be laid in many told ably be e acted tor New York this j about the crown, full plumes and bows eofleii the outline, or the high bonnets together Xbw York, Doc. 8, 1ST8. tiis: th.u;eiv at tub broolyx tiie- ATliK. - T.avt Tuesday night, the Brooklyn Theatre was burned, during the pro gress of a play, and over three hundred jeiple lost their lives. It seems incred ible that so many could die in so short a time, but the ghastly fact cannot be deniod. The Theatre is a building one !undrcd and fifty feet deep, by 70-wide, in the centre ot a block, with a passage leading from Washington Street, per !aps 20 feet wide. The stago is 50 teet deep, the lobby in front is twenty 5 leaving on the ground , floor '80 feet, which ise3a.rJdT Above this ground """Tiuor, the 1'arquette, is a gallery, the Dress Circle, which extends over the Parquette ci haps thirty feet, and above that the Gallery proper. The entrance U tho Dress Circle and the Gallery is from the lobby outside, being simply a stair-case. The Dress Circle and Gal- lory people go np one flight and diverge at a landing oue night up. The stage is filled with the most in flammable material imaginable. The "llics are short curtains ot canvas painted in oi', to represent skies or clouds or what may be required, mount ed on the lightest pine wood, and the "wings" and the "fiats" arealso painted cauvas, on the lightest possible frames, and it must be taken into account that almost the entire space back of the cur- tain, except that shown to the people when it is raised, is filled with scenery of di llercnt plays, stacked up, which makes the "behind the scenes" ot a theatre a magazine ot combustibles, al most as dangerous as a powder house. The play was the "Two Orphans," and - the scene was a boat-house. In this scene there are not only the wings rep. resenting the sides ot a house, but the cei'ing is represented, which is also painted canvas. The theatre was filled with a delighted audience, iy some accident one ot the flies was blown against a gas jet, and one ot the em ployees attempted to cut it loose. It tell, all in a blaze upon the ceiling of the scene below, and in an instant that was in a blaze. The actors on the stage saw it, but hoped it would be extinguished and went on with their parts, but it had too much head-way. I In a moment the painted canvas was on 1 fire, the affrighted audience rose, and a wild rush at the doors commenced. AH order was at an end, the only thing tor every one was to jet put ot the hell tkat was raging. The people in the crowded1 gallery precipitated themselves . down the tortuous passage, and at the lauding met the equally wild crowd from the dress cire'e, and thetwo mass es became wedged in, so that passage was impossible, and there was a dead lock which human strength was impos sible to breatc. All this was the work of a minute. In the meantime, the stage was a lurid furnace, the oil and the light wood ot the wings and stage sets belching out? great volumes of - smoker and tlame, "filling-the : theatre r and to add to the certainty of doom, the ceiling of the building was made of a sort ot pasteboard, which was as com- bwstible as the canvas, and the flames ran along that like powder, making a furnace right above the heads of those in the gallery. And all this time the only exit from the- dress circle and the gallery was blocked by the two masses that had met at the landing common to Iioth, and escape was impossible. The J ' fire leaped from one part of the build ' ing.to another, the wooden seats caught and blazed; the unfortunate, wedged in ' and helpless, fell, suftocated by the smoke aud roasted by the fire. . The supports were barued off," and finally the mass tell, with probably three hun dred and fifty burned. men and women in its terrible embrace. The sight the next morning was hor rible and sickening. Where the gal leries fell hundreds of bodies burned aDd eeJtrrcd beyond identification were found, and all throusfi the debris, cov ered with burned timbers masses of . and the fearful remnants of a- c?t: "ration, were bodies in every pos ll!3 farm ot disfiguration. There were j joces of bodies, leg, arms, trunks r . ah 7i-ther the most frightful sight prob- &! ,' fiver .-witnessed by human eyes, " .".- ,VPr tiarcntd trritisr to identify winter. The churches of the city are jnst as badly provided with exits, but are t,e poorest looking looking things as they are never crowded, and as there . imaginable. The new bonnets for chil dren are dark brown or prune-colored is an entire absence of anything inflam mable (except in the discourses), it doesn't matter. Yet a fire in a crowd ed chinch would be a verv serious mat ter. POI.ITICAT.. Hayes is certainly elected, and the people breathe freer. The relief from the chance that the general government would be delivered over to the unre pentant rebels of the Sonth and the l ing Lguesof the .North, is immense, 'and will be followed by an ionnediate revival ol business. The democratic place hunters here in Xew York are terribly demoralized and disgruntled, and are as venomous as rattlesnakes. They want to bite something, and they don't care much what. .They talk ot war and bloodshed, and 'rivers of blood. and are generally gory. , I was amused at the New York Hotel last night. A prominent Southern' colonel (the New York is a Southern headquarters here) was conversing with a prominent New York democrat. "I suppose wo are going to be counted out," sighed the New Yorker. "I suppose so," was the reply of the Southerner. "But, Col onel, are we going to submit?" "I guess we are," was the quiet reply. "Never! The South will never sub-1 mit: nor had she ought to. The South i will raise the standard of revolt against this usurpation, and the democracy of j t,iat instead of declaring the bets friends searching for. the re the North will rally to their aid, and " ".No it won't do anything of the kind " was the Colonel's reply. "Judge, once before thq democracy of the South revolted on just such prom ises. In 1861 I revolted and I did it liecause you wrote me, and I have your letter yet, that the democracy of the North would stand by us, and you 1 remember it well assured me in a let ter that if Massachusetts troops under took to go through New York they would have to march over your body j to cross to Jersey City. They did pass through the city, and if they all tramped over your body you are a tough one. At times I thought there was over a million of 'em. I think I saw your name as a Yice President of a war meeting -I know you sent substitutes to fight against us every time you were drafted. No, judge, it you want any war yon didn't see any ot it and don't understand it yo?t raise the standard of revolt, and we will help you. As for me I have had enough ot it ; I can live under Hayes -he is a pretty good man 1 know he is a mighty good soldier, 'cause I tried him a good many times. If you want war you are en tirely welcome to start it I have had enough of it, I thank you." The Southern men are more reason able than the N ew N ew democrats, and are much less inflammatory in their talk.' What the hotspurs may do in the south, of course no one can tell, but the class that come here are anything but fire-eaters. Hayes is elected he will be inaugurated, and he will give the country so good a government that a year from now people will wonder that Tauy one wanted any one else. And the democracy, after .they tiave had their bluster, will acquiesce, like little men. GKEELBT. Monday last a monument to the memory of Horace Greeley was erected over his grave in Greenwood Cemetery. A. very large number of distinguished men were present to do honor to the great journalist. - If in singular,though, howflittlo of a man's work survives him. Horace Greeley controlled a pa per which, at one time, was the most influential in the country. He was one of the principal founders ot the Repub lican party, one of the chief promoters or the temperance cause, and the head and tront ot all scheme of philanthrcpy and progress. Age brought disappoint ment ; disappointment soured him : an ambition, which a busy life bad kept in subjection, a sorted itself when he had . .. . ., . : , . not ine strengtn vo Keep n- unuer, oau men played with him, and he fell. His paper got into other keeping, and des- pite the enoris oi tnose sun connecieu with it who loved the old man and would' have been loyal, to , his memory it was turned into devious paths. It was almost everything for several years that Horace Greeley would, not have had it, aud only within a year has got back into its oW moorings- And Gree ley himself died poor. His paper was supposed to have been making millions, but when he, the corner-stone of the fabric, crumbled out, it was found to be as empty as an egg-shell. lie had bnt little, his partners went into bankrupt cy, and the property, heavily mortgaged, passed into other hands, t And its his tory -since has been one- ot financial trouble, though its- management have m&da a'spleudid fight against the mis- velvet, iu the high shape, without any brim except a pleating of puk raveled on the edge, and lace frill beneath, which gives the breadth ot an ordinary brim. 1 1 e most elegant hats are; deej maroon velvet, trimmed with roses shading from pink to crimson, and loops of dark crimson ribbon. The; light scarlet, often called cardinal, looks vul gar ni the extreme, THE COMPTnOLLERSIIIP, John Kelly, ( Boss Kelly), has been appointed Comptroller in place ot An drew II. Green, and was Dromptly con. firmed by the Democratic Aldermen Kelly is the head ot that association ot thieves, Tammany, and is also it the gin-mill faction. He is a more danger ous man - than lweed, because, while just as unscrupulous, he is a morcj able man, and has the giii-mills in better training. This action of the Mayor is a complete surrender of the city to its worst elements. 1 lie strikers are in ecstacy, and good men mourn. TIIK BETS. John Morrissev h:is declared all bets j on the Presidency otF, and is returning j the money he holds a million and a j half to "the rightful owners. What the others will do no one knows. There is a fear on the part of betters 'off," off.. They Pietro. and then nailed all up in a starch- "This is the drug store," he said, as he placed it on the counter, "and you hall have an explanation ot tne nre. It is now noon ; come here at i o clock this evening." 1 went away and almost torgot mm until evening. When I reached his shop he was in good spirits and his face wore a bland smile. "Put your hand on the box," he said. I obeyed, and to my great surprise found it wari'rl almost hot. "You wilkhave to wait an hour," he continued as we Eat down; "combus tion has already commenced." feo it had. I here was a smell ot burning cotton and heated wood, and within fifteen minutes after my arrival smoke poured from the box and was noon followed by flames. I could but take his word that lie had not meddled with the boxf and each little jet of flame leaping from the box was a theory in itself to support the main theory. Y ou may receive it as a fact that, when oil and "shavings and rags come together, a fire will result,"' he said. Had I not allowed the box to stand here in the draft the flames would have consumed it two hours ago." Within the next week we repeated the same experiment, with the same re sult, and we produced spontaneous com bustion with oi'ed shavings a'one aud then with oiled rags. Since that time I have witnessed three fires iu buildings which originated from oiled rags. Two ot these were in paint stores, where the rags had been ihrowu in a heap en the floor, aud the third was in a grocery store, where oil had accidentally been spilled on a heap of paper rags. The shop or factory or store which does not provide an iron chest for its greasy rags will sooner or later sutler from tire. One day, not long after our first ex periments, I met Old Spon on the street and we walked, together. We passed by an old house which had just been converted into a store-room tor the re ception ot pajer rags, and a large lot was just then being taken in. The old man looked into the building, then care fully noted the ' windows, and as we walked on he said : "They are building a bonfire there !'' "How ?" I asked. "Kvery pane of glass is in place, the doors shut tightly, and there is no es cape for the heat engendered by the rags," he replied. "If - they do not se- they will take arc all shaky. SOHE EAPEKI-'XEXTS WITH BY M. QUAD. I knew him for months and months, aud yet I did not know his name. I called him "Spon," and he anfewered to it as readily as he would have; answered to any other. He was small ot stature, locks were bent with age, aud his scanty as white as snow Most men took him to be i a beggar or some old man waitingto die. When I came to know him I found that he had a litt'e old shop on a quiet street, and that he had not a relation ou earth. I cannpt name the shop. It jwas not a tailor-shop, or a shoe-shop, or a juuk shop, and yet it was all threie, aud he kept herbs and medicines betides. No one liked him, and yet a'l respected him. He was reserved, andiyet he was free to answer questions. Ie gave his history to all honest inquirers, and yet they really learned nothing about him. Such was my strange old man. One night a fire broke out iu a building de signed for a drug store. The store ivas furnished with walnut shelving and counters, and pine ceiling. Everything had been oiled and some of it varnished, and the store would have been occupied in another week. The fire was under good headway when discovered, and the whole interior was burned out. "What caused it?" I asked a fireman after the flames had been extinguished. "Some one set tire to it," he replied. "If you say that, you lie !" cried a strange voice, and we looked up aud found my strange old man. That was my introduction. 1 laughed at mm, but he maintained such a serious look that my curiosity was aroused and I inquired ; "Why do you say that?" "Come with me," he answered, and he would not let go my arm until stood at the door of his little old shop. We went in and sat down, and presently he commenced ''It was neither accident nor incendia-' rism. There was no stove there to drop a spark, and doors and windows were locked' against incendiaries. It , was simply a case of spontaneous combus tion. The light, dry woods were soak ed with oil, the floor covered with rags aud shavings, and not even a pane of glass out to ventilate the room." T , " . I . l was no oeuever in spontaneous combustion, and 1 made light ot his remarks.: 'Come here to-morrow and I will convince you, no answered, ana alter some further discussson 1 went away He bad spoken of spontaneous combus tion : I named him "Spon." Ho was old; I called him "Old Spon." Old Spon was a character tor a sketch , and hoping to find him full ot anecdote and adventure, and smiling at the ab surdity of hia theory, I called at hw shop the next day as requested. He was readv for me. and he took up the subiect at once. "I am coins to reproduce that drug store," he said, pointing around the room. "Here is a box, shavings, oil and rags. Let me prove to you that it does not need nre to make nre. lie bad some fine walnut and pine board cure ventilation, the building will burn within a week I" He was right. On the thitd night after that a close, sultry night the old house was discovered to be oti fire. The firemen gathered so promptly that the building was not greatly damaged, aud they called it an incendiary tire. O'd Spon was on hand and we found the identical sack in which the combus tion occurred- a sack containing sever al pieces ot o'd silk, and a quantity of paper and many pieces ot old cotton. The flame had run up the side of the house and shown itself before half the sack was consumed, and we could trace it as easily as any one may trace the course ot a highway. About a mouth a!ter this, I had busi ness iu a large picture frame lactory. I met Old Spon at the corner, and while I was in the factory oflice the old man went "mousing" through the vari ous departments. Returning, he said to the superintendent : "It you men are not morecaroful you wilt luifn (it 1 izvr amr rloTr tl ill v v iivr cwnav vimj . little, and a forked tongue of flame leaped out aud the box burned ! We had indeed spontaneous combustion by shutting oft ventilation. (The woolen and the velvet had engendered the heat, the silk had acted as a telegraph wire for it, and the cotton, old and soft as down, had struck the spark. A lot of paper rags huug in a tight closet, or piled up in a stove where there is no ventilation, will sooner or later start a fire.' There are dealers who know this, and would as soon think of throwing a lighted match into cotton batting as of closing the storage-room against ventilation. The lower sash of at least one window should be taken out during the summer, and it would be better to leave an opposite one raised a tew inches, so as to" secure a 6lrong draught. A few months since some oiled rags in the basement of a Detroit picture store took fire on a hot Sunday morning and called out the tire depart ment, although one of the basement windows was open tor ventilation. It was through this window that the smoke poured and gave the alarm. At the Detroit House of Correction, in December, 1S70, one of the prisoners employed in the chair-hnishmg room, piled up a bundle of oiled rags in a cor ner as the bell rang for the close of working hours, and at 8 o'clock, only two hours afier, the shop was fired by spontaneous combustion and Beveral thousand dollars worth of damage done, 1 he room was close, contained many chairs iust finished, and as soon as the rags were piled and packed together the foundation was laid tor a destructive conflagration. " About two years ago, one winter evening, the watchman at the Michigan Central IJailroad car shops, located short distance below the company's pas senger depot in the city of Detroit, passed through the pattern and wood shed and found everything afe ard qni et. Fficen minutes later he was alarm ed by the smell of smuke, and while mouuting the stairs leading to the sec ond story ot the shop, the flames burst out in one end and the entire shop was destroyed within an hour. A pattern maker had used some oil and a rag just before six o'clock to oil a pattern just finished, and le had probab'y thrown the rag among the shavings. There was no stove in that end of the shop, smoking was prohibited, and no oue had a doubt that the conflagration was brought about through the medium ot that oiled rag. But spontaneous combustion does not depend upon the presence ot oiled rags and shavings, 't hree or four years ago at seven o'clock in the evening, the front windows, sash, glass and blinds, of a Detroit dry gooes store were blowu out into the rtieet with a noi.se like the rumble ot thunder, and the store was ablaze in an instant. The porter left an hour before the explosion, and a pokceman tried the ditors not ten min utes previously. 1 he g;is had a;l been turned off, the steam pipes were ncarly cold, and there was no light around the store. There was no smell of gas. no oil nor fluids inside, it was a wonder to must minds how the fire caught. The hoiihO had an immense stock of drj goods, and when closed for the night the store was like a dry kiln. The heat thrown out by the goods was like gas, and finally became powerful enough to force its way out. A gas-lamp was turning in front, aud when the hot air struck this the fire traveled back into DeatUs of a Year. 'How why?" asked the official. In England, in 1874, 1,313 persons were killed by horse conveyances ; tram cars killed 62, omnibuses only 55 per. sons. xy cabs bl persons were Kwiea, and by carriages 82, and this limitation ot the numbers is noted as implying great skill on the part of th drivers in streets often crowded. There were 294 deaths from injuries in coal mines, and 118 from injuries connected with cop per, tin, iron and other mines. Deaths by poisoning increased to 461, about oue third of them being ascertained sui cides. There were 25 boys and men, nearly all following out-door occupa tions were killed by lightning. Sun stroke was fatal to 90 persons, and 124 deaths were ascribed to gelatio and ex posure to cold. A girl only fourteen years old, the daughter of a laborer, died in childbirth, i here was a death from the bite ot a fox, from the bitaof a rat, from the scratch ot a cat, from the bite of a leech, from the sting ot a hor net, and two from the stings ot wasps. Hearthex disking Ckuei.ty. The evidence in the case of John aud Mag gie McCarty, charged with the murder of their foster child, George Woodard, at Bay City, Michigan, shows that once the woman put a red-hot iron in the child's mouth and held his lips lightly against it. Again she held him head foremost down a well. She also fre quently placed his fingers in the hinge crack of the door and shut the door against them, and at times put them through the clothes wringer. Mie was also in the habit of striking him on the head with a huge piece ot wood. The woman Feems to have little anxiety about the situation, and sings in her cell for a long time. Do you ever read the newspapers ? No. Have you any opinion about any thing ? No. Do you know your left hand from your right ? No. Do you consider yourself a species of born idiot? Yes. 'Ihen you are fit fir a juryman. Swear him the store like a flash of lightning. The Old Spon led us to the room where the oil-finished frames were being fin ished up. It was a small, close room the floor was spattered with oil ; scores of oiled frames were hanging on the walls ; there was a bushel or more ot oilod rags on the floor and benches. " V e never have a stove here, even in winter, ' said the f uierintendent, as he looked around. "Each oue of those rags is a stove," replied the old man. " i lie windows are up now and the hot air has a chance to escape, but put them do a ii and spon taneous combustion will lire the factory within six hours." The superintendent smiled comtcmpl- uously as he turned to mo, aud on the way out he wanted to know if my old friend was not an escaped lunatic. To follow this cae through, I will add that one cold day in October, the employees of the finishing room put down the windows and left them down when they : went home at six o'clock. At ten o'clock in the evening, an alarm of fire was turned in from the factory, aud the flames created damage to the amount ot 3,000 before being conquer ed. One could trace the origin of the fire directly ! to the finishing room That room ; was all ablaze before any other portion of the factory was touched. The cynical superintendent- became a believer in spontaneous combustion, and the oiled rags are now thrown into an iron box for the night. A case in which spontaneous combus tion could bo ; more clearly traced soon occurred. A; woman uVed a pieco ot old cotton and some linseed oil to brighten up the table of ber sewing machine 1 hrough her carelessness . the rag after wards tonud its wav into the basket of soiled clothes, which was kept in a close closet. That night, within six hours after placing the rag in the closet, the house became tilled with smoke and an investigation j proved that the clothes basket was oni fire. Old Spon was delighted when he heard of the incident. This made the third case of spontaneous combustion from oiled rags, and he was prepared to prove that rags alone would ignite un der certain - conditions. He went , to a pa per. dealer's and selected several pounds of rags, some flannel, some cot ton, some silk and a few bits of velvet, as a family might make up a rag bag in the course of three months. These rags were placed in a soap-box. which bad been provided, with a glass end, and the box was placed in the window where it had the full strength 61 the sun, very same thing occurred soon after at another store on another street, and the circumstances pointed so strongly to spontaneous combustion as the agent that each lire was recorded under that head in the record book of the fire de partment. My old friend made another experi ment. Procuring a boltla of . liquid "warranted to remove grease, printer's ink, etc.," from any sort ot fabric, he exhausted the contents by pouring them over cotton rags aud pieces ot worsted dress goods and bits of woolen. These pieces were placed in a box, as ladies would hang their dresses in a closet, and m Jes than five hours the box was ou hie. I he liquid cor. tamed turpentine, aud perhaps benzine, which was almost as dangerous as gunpowder. Bits of cloth saturated with liquid no doubt ofi.cn find their way into paper rag sacks, and in time they are almost certain to become the agents of a disas trous conflagration. It is c'aimed and denied with equal vehemence that steam pipes are and are not the agents of conflagrations. My old friend and I have made more thau a score of tf experiments, with varying success. here steam pipes ran along a well ventilated room we have placed bits of cotton and paper on them and left them there for weeks, to lift them up unscorched by the contact. Again, where the pipes ran along a oncic wan, unbroken by windows for a long distance and where the room was close, we nave snorched nine blocks as b ack as tar in , two days. We have never succeeaea in producing actual fire, but have heat ed the blocks to such a degree that thov onuld not Ix? held in the hand. In a tactorv where there is much dust and . ... ... i nnor vent ilation, a bit oi iron can oe made so hot by leaving' it on a steam nina a. w hile that it will start a tire amonor shavings or rags if knocked oft. Steam heating is doubtless the safest method ot warming factories, stores and dwellings, but it has its dangers unless vnnM'ation is provided tor. mere is warmth and heat there, and it is warmth and heat" that paves the way for a blaze. Tho thoughtlessness ot an em ploye in dropping an oily rag or a hand ful ot shavings upon steam-pipes or in close proximity, may not burn the build- ing to-morrow, but a conflagration will sooner or later come. Gor oyv at this Wrong Station. The death of one ot the oldest resi dents of Brookfiuld recalls an incident in her career which happened some fif teeu years ago. She was a going to Saofbrd to visit a daughter, and took her seat in the cars for the first and only time in her lite. During the ride an accident oc curred whereby the car iu which she was sealed was thrown down an em bankment and demolished. Crawling out from beneath the debris she spied a man who was held down iu a silting posture by his legs being fastened. "Is this Santord, she anxiously en quired. . The man was from Boston. lie was in considerable pain, but he did not lose sight of the tact that he was from Boston ; so he said : "N, this is a ca'astrophc" "Oh"' ejaculated the old lady, "then I hadn't ougl.ter got oil" here !" This was so evident as to make a re ply unnecessary. STOKY OF A Si F.XUAEWK5iT HISU. Some time ago a wealthy and other- wise attractive youne Keutiemau vt Washington, says the Cumberlaud(Md.) Neics, was engaged to be married to ft beautiful belle of Morgantown. W. V., aud a brilliant "society wedding" was looked forward to by the friends of both parties, particularly the young lady in. timates o the prospectiver bride. But the course ot this love was true w wm proverb about true love in genera!, antl a month ago the engagement was brok en off how or why does not concern - m mm lit this story though tne whole anair may possibly be rudely dragged ; before th public by unfeeling lawyers ; and for no fault unless carelessness is a crime ef either ot the parties, ot course, the encasreracut was broken, the youns lady quickly sent back the ring, and the quickest way sne coma mini, vi was by mail ; so by mail it went that is, it started from Morgantc wn, but never reached Washington. The gen tleman made no inquiries about it, and, but for a train of events that couldn't possibly have been arranged by chance, might have gone on thinking that his former fiance was mercenary enough to- nold ou to the magnificent rang that had been a token of her loyalty to him. But t he mysterious destiny which shape our ends ordered it otherwise.! A tew weeks ago one of the Morgatt- town young lady's friends saw the ring on tho Land of a lady in the same town, who was not acquainted with' the oru named, and consequently did 'not know the ring or its history. Investigation' was at" once .begun,, and a lew dayi time and very little trouble traced the ring to a clerk in the Fairmouiit post office, who, it is alleged, had; stolen it from the mail, loaned it to a gentleman friend at Morgantown, W. jVa., who had made it to io duty as an engage ment ring for his fiance in Morgantown. The Fairmount postollice clerk was ar rested by .Government official attd will be tried hi the United States District Court at Parksburg some time during the mouth. . j To the t rial of tho jiostoffTce clerk will probably bo summoned the young lady who "sent back" the ring, and possibly all parties connected with it includiug the Morgantown gentleman and his fiance. Should . the question., of the ownership of the ring come up, it will prove a knotty one. . To -whom does or did the ring belong at the timo ot Us loss ? 1 he case will be an inter esting one at all events, and highly so if it should be necessary to legally prove the ownership ot the alleged ttoleu projierty. During a thunder-storm a gentleman takes a hack down the Champs Elysees towards the Faubourg St. Germain, lie noticed that at every flash of light ning tho driver piously makes the sign of the cross, and says : "I observe that you cross yourself, you do well," "Oh, yes, it is always well where there arc so many trees, but once we get into the street I don't care a curse." The Boy of the Pkutoh. "My-. eon," said a father to his hojeful wii, "you did not saw any wood for the kitchen stove yesterday as I told yon to, you left the back gate open and let the cow get out, you cut oil" fifteen fbet from the clothes line to make a lasso, you tuned Mr. Uobiiisou's pet uog and lamed it, you put a hard shell turtle ii the hitcd girl's bed, you lied a strange, dog to Mr; Jacobson's dior-bcU, andj painted red and green stripes on ha. legs of old Mrs. 1 'olaby V. w Iiite pony and hung your sifter's bustle out in the front window. N. w, what can I, what can I do for such conduct?" "Are all the counties heard fivm ?" anked the c.md dats? .The father replied ktemly, "No trifling, fir ; no, I have yet several rcwrts to receive from ; others of the neighbors." "Then," replied the boy, "you will not be justified in proceeding to extreme measures until' the official count is in." Shortly iterwardt tho election was thrown into "the House, and tjetore halt the votes were mivas ed it was evident, fkoia Vlie peculiar in tonation of the applain-e, that the boy was bad 'y beaten. - - j shavings, and some bits of dry. He poured- boiled linseed oil and a. lit- fortunes that enveloped them.. It i& a tie varnish on those, some more ou the in two hours the glass began to grow dim, and. in three hours the glass was smoking. Wo waited another ihour, and then trie old man made an air-bole n the top of the box, raised tbc glass a "ou see,v said uncle Job, "my wife's a cur'ous woman. She scrimped, and saved, and almost starved all ot us. With- to get the parlor furnished nice, and now sno won t let one and hain't even had ot us go into it, the blinds of it opeu for a mouth. She is a cur'o as woman.' An old woman, has a narrow 'escape from being run over by a hearse. I am not at all superstitious, she said to her rescuer, "but , it always seemed to me that it would be unlucky to be killed by a hearse." Do I believe in second love? Humph! If a man buys a pound ot sugar, isn't it sweet r ind wum mat s gone don't he want another pound ; and j isn't that sweet too? Troth, Murphy, I believe in second lovel" New York city claims to eat seventy millions of eggs per year. No wonder the hens feel as if they were being round into the dust by the tyrant's heel. A Harrisburg man fell forty leet, struck a joist with, his stomach and was all right next day. lliose 1 ennsylva nians have good digestion and strong stomachs.. A. Portland woman run her husband in debt $1,800 before a siogle bill was presented for jiayment, and she is now called a great financier. Col. Segar was elected to Congress in Virginia. He will probably be the champion of the tobacco interests. The Philadelphia Times says that Bessie Turner is a waiter in a New York restnrant. Libel suit, ot course. There is a county in Virginia having neither lawyer, dcetor or book agent, and it is always good weather around there. '-.- The Vermont Legislature U cutting down State salaries to a point which makes it no object for a . man to hold office. :: ;- -'' There Is no reaon why politicians shouldnH shako hands and love one another. "A prudent man," says a witty Frcuchman, "is like a pin ; his head prevents him from going too far." Always ready to take tho stump The dentist. It is a pointed fact that Germany makes the best needles. Somebody lias lost as much as ten dollars on this election, Voto early and work hard fur tho suc cess of the ticket four years from now. A carpenter who was always prog nosticating evil to himself, was. one day upon tl.c roof of a five-story building upon which the rain had fallen. The roof being slippery, he lost hii footing, and as he-was 'descending towards the caves, he cxv&iined, j "just as I told you !." Catching however, on an iron epout, he licked fY iii shoes, and re gained a place of safety; when he thus delivered himself : j"I knowed it; there's a pair ot shoes gone,1 The latest London industiy is th col lection of oleaginous deposits in the mihj of the Ttatnex. It is quite profitable, the mud-gatherers making; three shil lings and1 sixpence Small globes made a day of cork out of it. and lined with hair are planted1 in the mud atlaw tide and the fatty substances, in the wa ter adhere to them. J'This miscellaneous grease is manufactured into, fresh butter tot tho Loudon market. ; An agent for the jiale off mo fcowf-e, hold article attempted to mount th steps of a house recently, but a do came around the comer and ti V half yard of elolh from the back of his coat. The man was sliding out when thaown, cr of the house canie and asked: "Did, doze dog bide you ? H6 didn't Liu, me, but he ruined my coat," was the rwpij. -Jiy gooii rrem, excuse dog it he didn't, bido you. lis it! Cl 029 young dog now, but py und py U t,ui take holt ot - some agonts und rr.t Cor pones ride oua ot them. He I.; : coat now but ho shall soon do let a a A locomotive engineer who 1 been discharged j for some c?." vent to liis epite'erniiiehtiy c:.?. tiopt American, Lumor. He was alxuit timo he left the c anynuw, lor the sako of h "there was nothing left of tho but two streaks ipf rut and. l! way" : V3 : x' f r i:k:id, brothers for brothers. t - . - -