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About The Albany register. (Albany, Or.) 1868-18?? | View Entire Issue (April 20, 1877)
t3 fc CbLtSUKD EVERY FItlDAY, BY " OOIL.. VAN CLEVE, iRTHE EEOISTEE BUILDIH Q-, Corner Ferry and First Streets. TKRMS-IN AIVANCE. Cft copy, one year.. .' 2 SO One copy, six months... ' T 5 clubs of twenty, each copy .. 2 00 Slnirle conies .. Ten cents. Stthsrrlliers outside of 1.1 nn county will be fimnred 30 ecnts extra 2 70 for the year as tfcar U the amount of postatfo per annum which we are required to pay on each paper tailed by us. AffCMts far 'he Itcirlster. Tbe following named pentlemen arc author ised to receive and receipt for subscriptions tthe Rkui.stkh In the localities mentioned : Messrs. Kirk & Huine. Brownsville. Bobert tilass Crawfordsvllle. VT. P. Smith Halsey. O. P. Tompkins Hnrrisbun? Sk. H. Clau'-iliton ..Lclmnon. A. Wheeler & Co Shedd. Messrs. Smith A Brasfleld Junction City. J. B. Irvine Scio. Thos. H. Kei-nolds Salem. FRIDAY APRIL 20, 1877. FATE'S CHOICE. There were just one hundred and throe of as as we matched out of the little inland village that morning, drums beating, flags Hying, and men shouting and women weeping a farewell. It was May, 1861, and we were going to the "front." A month later, when the roll was called on the heights of Georgetown, there were only an even hundred in Company G. Death had claimed the three even before they had snuffed war's powder-breath. And a month later still the roll was called on the morning of Manassas. Foot-sore, hungry, excited, and anxious, the men answered "aye" and "aye," and there were ninety-seven responses, making jnst a hundred with the three company officers. Would we right? I raw our captain looking down the line. There were printers, lawyers, mechanics, students, farmers, and day laborers in Company G, and not a man knew what grim war was. Down across the meadow, tip along the edge of the wood, and there we vested and waited uutil the fight opened waited half an hour longer than that, sod then came the order to move. It was like a dress parade as we moved by the left flank, down across the old past . ore, and into the edge of the blue cloud of powder smoke floating on the morn ing air. Only the men's faces were white and their eyes anxious as they caught the roar of small arms and felt the ground tremble under the discharge of the heavy cannon which were throw nng shot and shell into the hillside above OS. Down went a company to the edge of the forest, spread out like a fan, and the skirmishers were hidden by smoke. The rattle of musketry increased ; they bad found targets for their bullets. Standing in line, we looked down into the smoke cloud, trembled a little, and then came the order to go forward. March! march! and then the smoke hid us, and we struck the Confederate line of battle thrown out in front of an earthwork. Crash ! crack ! roar ! The line wav ered, fell back, sprang forward with a cheer, and we were all there all but those dead or wounded. It was like a wild dream. Forward retreat for- ward now at the earthwork, now burled back by the sheet of flame, and finally driven back to stay. A thous and men had been fighting three thous and, and there could be but one result. The roll was called at Arlington Heights, and seventy-four men respond ed seventy-four from ninety-seven twenty-three of the rank and file cf Company G left dead along the little creek which meanders past banks of willows, over beds of travel, and around gray old trees which have felt the blasts of half a century. We had no wounded all dead all lying under the smoke stained leaves of the dark forest. It was sad, and yet glorious. There would be thirteen widows in the little hamlet, and ten sons and brothers would be wept for, bat we had been tried in the balance, and Company G had made the whole regiment famous. Winter came, and war was chained for awhile. When the south wind blew the frost away, and war shook off its lashings, there were but seventy men to answer roll-call. With muffled drums and arms reversed we had fol lowed the others to their last sleep, and they cared not, whether it was war or peace. The peninsula campaign was not for us, but the thunder of Jackson's cannon, as he swept down on to Manas, sas, a second time, called us out. lie was tne can, we tne gram it was no longer a battle, but a slaughter. In the cray of morning his columns came feel ing through the woods and over the fields to find us. We heard him cora ' ing. There was a weak brigade to op pose ten thousand "Confederate muskets, but it we could bold him one hour more, help would come. Company G went groping through the woods that morning to meet death. There .were but sixty-eight of us then, and it was a poor, thm skirmish line wbicn crept un der the trees and frightened away the birds just singing their morning songs. We crouched down beside a fence, and eaw a heavv line of rrrav cominer over the hill and half way across the open field, and then. Death took command. We stassered their line, and as it bent , back and twisted about, like a huge ; csrpent, in his death straggles, we ebeered until the forest leaves danced ' and quivered. The line straightened, and with answering cheer it came for ward five hundred mnsfcets to sixty eigbr. - And yet we bold oor own, ana let them come, and men fought hand-to-band over the fence, with clubbed - rauskets and blood-stained bayonets. !Each rail had its stain of blood ; each t corner had its burden f dead and wounded. They hulled us back, and tLea tLe great battle opened all around "US,. ' I was first sergeant then, and when we fell back I was in command. Along the fence, where death had struck them down, lay captain, both lieutenants, and thirteen of the rank and file sixteen out of sixty-eight. The fifty-two re treated behind the line of battle, joining our regiment, and again and again be fore nightfall we gave Jackson's veter ans shot fur shot. It was to be, and when night fell the brave fifty-two were living and unharmed. After Manassas they filled us up to eighty-five, but somehow we went on counting fifty-two, and felt as it the strangers were inu uders. My commis sion as captain came one day, and the two lieutenants were men who had bravely won their shoulder-straps. At Sharpsburg we numbered forty, nine forty-nine old veterans I mean. rri . i . - - ...... iue outer inree naa Deen killed on picket. As' we deployed to the left of the pike, and filed across the fields, I wondered if the new men would do us credit. We were eighty strong as company, and e ver thirty of the men had never been under fire. Lee's artil lery was pounding at our columns halt an hour beforw our brigade got the or der to move. Meadows, fields, groves, knolls, fences, and a creek and we knew that Lee was standing on the de fensive and had a strong position. When the work came I could see that some of the new men trembled, but the old forty-nine took up their knapsacks and fell into line as if we were breaking camp. Down across the fields we went, following the double line of skirmishers, and at last we struck the enemy. II o had a fence, a long ditch, and a line of willows, and he did not yield until we crushed him by weight of numbers. As he retired we followed, men failing dead every moment. Unknowu to us a weak three thousaud were piercing Lee's line. He saw his danger, and a battery wheeled into, tne gap, opened on us. and the led and centre of our brigade swung back under the fearful rain of grapeshot and shell. The right caught the order to retreat, and to go forward. Some tell back; others leaped the ditch with a wild cheer, and charged the battery. Company G led. Halt way to the guns we left the recruits behind, and only the torty-nine kept on. Mere could pause and retreat from that char-re, and no one would call them cowards. The smoke and the flame hid us for a moment, and then we reached the guns, leaped over them, crawled under them, 6hot, stabbed, shouted and hur rahed. The whole battery was ; ours ! We seized the guns to drag them off, when a heavy line of. battle came down through the gap, closed it up, and men fought hand-to-hand over the cannon, over the caissons, over the great heaps of dead on the grass. Less than three hundred Federals were fighting five thousand Confederates ! It could not last long. After a moment we were driven back, over the ditch beyond the fence, into the Federal line of battle. "Pretty hot in there, Captain!" shouted a brigadier as the torn and mangled remnant halted to reform. "Pretty hot 1" My God ! it was the work of fiends and devils! Forty-nine of the bronzed old fighters in Company G had dashed at the cano.i ; only twenty-four came back ! Twenty-five were lying dead under the guns, heaped up so that they blocked the heavy wheels. The recruits were there to answer "aye" at the next roll-call. No one thought ill of them ; men cannot turn to devils at once. We still had a strong company stronger than some, but we went on counting twenty-four counting only thoso who would stand until touched by the flame of death. Both lieutenants were gone, aud they gave me men from the ranks. We looked down upon the placid river from the north bank in front of Fredericksburg, and when the blue col umn crossed we were near the front. We were still twenty-four. Death had taken some ot the new men, but the old ones had been spared. On through the enrious old town up throngh the valley behind it, and then the hue of battle followed the line ot skirmishers on the low stone walls behind which Lee's vet erans were panting for the word to fire. 1 heir sheets ot flame almost scorched our faces. The battle line melted, doubled, twisted, and then we fell back, the living leaping over heaps ot dead. r orwara again, back again, and then the walls were hidden from sight by the piles ot dead dressed in blue, and we did not charge again. Six of the twenty-four were left close to the walls, and eleven of the new men never answered roll-call again. It was not war, it was not murder it was butchery. But no one murmured. The order had come to charge, and we had charged, though every soldier knew that lie was charging into the open jaws ot destruction. Not a 6oldier in Company G.had been wounded ; not ono of those who fell back to the river's bank could show a snatch from bullet or bayonet. It had been thus ever since our first battle. There was nothing to report under bead of "wounded" And "mioclnr. n .s, Oil the names ot those who had heard their last roll-call went down under the head ing oi -Killed in action." When they fought it was to the death. After Fredericksburg more recruits came aown to us. YVe received them Kinaiv, dui we Kept on counting eigh teen, just as if company (i would be wiped out when the last old veteran went. And they said that my com pan v was rated, utner companies had been decimated, and other companies could show long lists ot "captured" and "wounded," but no otlier company in . t 1 J - . a nr. - ... J tne ongaue usu soaerea HKe lj. Then came Gettysburg. The eighteen old veterans were mere, and the com pany numbered . sixty-eight with the new men. Other divisions were held in reserve, or escaped the hottest ot the fight, but ours was to beat , back the fiercest charge of the bloody war the charge against Round Top. Somehow Company G was at the front again, and as the fierce yells ot tne comma Uonfed e rates were heard above the mighty roar of the cannon, 1 looked down the line, Some of the new men were looking this way and that, as it seeking cover, . but the old veterans peered coolly through tho smoke, and waited with levelled muskets to catch the first glimpse ot gray uniforms. On across the fields came the charging, cheering host, up the steep hillside, and then a sheet of flame leaped out and withered them. The gray line was absorbed in that flame ot death just as water dissolves salt. But a second line sprang at us, and a third and fourth, and then they were at the guns which we were supporting. Some ono gave an order. No one exactly understool it, but all rnshed for the guns. Shrieks, groans, shots, shouts, aud then the line of gray pushed back the line of blue. They were all around us front, right, left and men neither asked nor gave quarter. Back, back, went the line of blue, and Round Top, the key of Gettysburg, was won for the Confederates. But only for a moment. A double line ot blue pushed its way up through the smoke, hurled itself forward, and Hound Top was won again. And how won ! Men slipped and fell on the bloody grass, heaps ot dead were piled up like logs, aud the shrieks and groans of tho wounded were awful to hear. , And when Lee faced Southward, fighting as he marched, I called the roll again. None wounded, none missing, but upon the crest of Hound Top wo left ten old veterans aud . fourteen new men. Ten out ot eighteen, twenty-tour out ot sixty-eight ! The blood-thirsty fiend who wields the sword of war should have been satisfied with that. Sixteen more widows back in the little country village, more orphans, more sobs and tears. Not one of the living could show a wound, but each one of us would have rejoiced at the loss ot an arm at 6ome grevious wound which would have made the surgeons shake the'T heads a?id look serious. : ' Only eight left ! Only eight men of the one hundred and three who marched out of the hamlet that May morning ! The new men had fought well, and we respected them, but we went on count ing eight. Three held commissions the other five were sergeants not enough to officer the company ! j In the dusk of evening Stonewall Jackson came down through the forests and thickets beyond the Rappahannock, and struck the federal camps and opened the battle of the Wilderness. The eight old veterans ot Company G were there, and the new men made up a band of forty strong. As we heard the crash of musketry over on the left, our poor skeleton brigade, numbering twenty-three hundred instead ot four thousand, fell into line and pushed on through the stunted pines after a line of skirmishers. Company G was on the left of the skirmish line, and we found the enemy first a heavy line ot gray coming through the wilderness at a half run. Down we knelt among the vines and bushes, and our tire checked them. They fired a few wild shots, retreated a little, and then we leaped up and drove them a band ot forty drove a double line of skirmishers, supported by a line of battle ! History has not told it to the world, but blood was left on the vines and corpses on the ground to prove it. They were feeling over strange ground, after a foe whose strength was not known, and that was the reason of our success, we pushed them oack to the line of battle, attacked that, and then we were tossed back, torn and bleeding, almost blotted out of existence as a com pany. Ot the eight old veterans six were lying dead under the trees ; of the new men twenty-five answered roll-call after the Wilderness. Was that war or slaughter? A captain and a second lieutenant Only were left to represent the one hundred and three. The end was not yet, the end was coming. I here were no new recruits tor my company, but we marched to ward Richmond numbering twenty- seven. Has the country torgotten tne fierce conflict at Petersburg? As we fell into line to make twenty-seven more in the brigade, I saw the lieutenant look ing at me. Poor fellow ! there was no need tor him to speak. W onld this fight wipe out the old compauy eulirely, or would one be spared? And which one? He had a wife I had none. I hoped he might live to call the roll after the battle was over, and that death would have taken me. The line quivered as they felt the or der coming, aud ' then it dashed at an earthwork, went forward with the same old cheer which had been its own ever since its bronzed veterans heard the whistle of bullets. But it was too much for us. They had forgotten how weak we were, and some one had blun dered. The lines withered . before the storm of shot ; we fell back : were charged in turn, and I went . down among the heaps of dead and wounded. The roar of battle died awav in a mo ment ; daylight changed ..to darkness, and when I opened my eyes again the surgeon stood over me, and my left arm gone. There was no one to call tne rou.. The stark, stiff form ot the lieutenant had been given to earth, and the seven men who represented Company G looked to themselves. Fate had a choice who should be taken and who left, and death passes me by. I alone of tho one hun dred and three veterans returned to the country village to tell them how this one aud that one died; to hear the sobs of widow and orphan, until my heart ached. Sometimes in my day reveries or night dreams I call the roll again, and shadowy forms stand in line, and ghostly voices answer "aye" and "aye," until I start up with a sob in my throat at the remembrance ot those who sleep in the trenches beside the Potomac, 'neath the shadow of Round Top, along the Rappahannock, and down among the dark thickets - of the Wilderness, sleeping there, never to know war again. "Oh, mamma, if I only could have one of those new style ot dresses made to button down the back from the neck to the heels." "Well, my daughter, you can." What! lean?" ''Yes, dear." "Button clear down ?" "Certainly, my darling." "With smoke pearl buttons?" " Yes.pet." "And galioon trimmings ?" l es, dearest." "Ob, mamma P They ha "A SAM Or AGJiTf." Conpedrit X Roads, Wicii is is the State uv Kentucky, March 3, 1877. Hayes is electid, there ain't no doubt uv that. We hev heerd uv it and are shoor uv it. Bascom hez given me notis that ther ain't no more hkker for me onless I pay fur it, wich is holler mockery, and he hez commenced to foreclose on half the farms in the visini ty. Pollock, Big'jler and the niggers are joobilant, and Bascom hez com menced makin advances to tl.em. Pre cisely in proporshun ez he cools to me he warms to them. Men worship the risin, never the set tin sun. It is well I yoost to do the same thing myself! I shan't hev eny more at this bar, but he can't rob me uv the drinks I hev had, and that is some comfort. We held a meeting uv hoomiliashnn andc anguish at the meetin-house last nite. I am not a man given to cnsin, for I never knowd that cussin even a mule eyer made it go, onless the cus sin wuz reinforced with a club. Swear in and club, in ekal proporshun, hez hed effect on a mule, but I hev alluz had more faith in the club than in the cussin. The cussin may possibly inspire the club and thus be indirectly benefi shul. Nevertheless I did recite this sam in agony. Ill the dust ot hoomiliashun are we. Ashes we throw upon our heads by the scuttletull. IIau -cloth we wear next to our skin, figgeratively. Hair-cloth we would wear next to our skin actooal ly, ef wo could get any one to trust us tor a supply. Wood that goin about nearly nakid wuz a proper mode uv expressin greef, fur then we cood go into the deepest kind uv mournin without changm our costoora. There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four, which I'm blest et I know : Wat the Dimocrasy wanted uv a High Jint Commission at all. Why it didn't hev a Diraocratic High Jint ef it hed to hev one. Why it didn't bust the concern afore it wnz everlastinly too late when it found it wuzn't a Dimocrat High Jint. Why we wnz cust with men in the leadership wich hedn't ennnin enuff to win by strategy, or courage enuff to take by force. The Conies are but a feeble folk. We are Conies ef ther ever wuz sich. Cussid be Morton, cussid be Blaine, cussid be Sherman, cussid be Edmund, cussid be Davis, and espeshly cussid be Bradley. Fur he wnz the eighth man, and he coodeut rise above partisanship fur enutt to vote with Field and Clifford. We elected Davis, which gave them a majority in the high jint, and it's a toss-up whether he don't support Hayes after all. We hed the game in our own hands, fur we hed stolen four aces. But they rung in a cold deck on us, and held a strate flush when it came to show down, and they raked down the pot. Uv wat avale wuz the byin uv the St. Loois Conveiislinu ? Wat good the bull dozm Looseaner ? Uv wat yoose wuz the rifle-club up South Kerliny, and wat good did it do to colonize lnjeany ? The ants are a people not strong, but yet they prepare their meat in the Sum mer. We prepared our meat last Summer, but it spued in cunn. Four years uv Hayes, four years uv waitin and longin. Our smoke-house is busted, and our hams is not. There will be niggers in the post- offises, and the faithful will stand out side and gnash their teeth. For three things Dimocrasy is dis quieted, and tour which nearly killed it. Tilden, Hewitt, Pelton and Fields. When I think uv the idiocy of these men which we trusted, and into whose hands we gave ourselves, I HI my voice and howl, with King Lemyoel s moth er, "Give not your strength to old wim men." Young ones take away strength, but it returneth ; old ones destroy by their counsel, and it is irretreevable. Ef they'd hed as much sense as they bed money we'd never been made Ne- buckhednezzers uv, aud bio turned out to grass in this way. That aushent Asyrian mite hev liked it, fur ther wuz no Basoom'sin Babylon fur him to refresh himself in, but we don t. Wats the yoose uv hold in the keerds ef vou don't dare to bet on em? We stand over the carcass uv reform and weep ; me, and Morrissey, and Cro nin,and Wood ; and our teers drain our systems. " " Tho Dimocratio camp is damp with teers. and we hev not the wherwithall to replace the moischer that goes from us. Tilden despares uv purity in the gov ernment, aud will go back to railroad wreck in. ; Morrissey sez the government may keep on bein corrupt fur all he keers he is com to his faro nanus. Field sez ther ain't no hope uv puri fyin the government, and be will go back to detendm thecves. I wood hev saved the country, butez the country didn't want to be saved it mav be tothered. To Noo York will I go, and I will set up my tabernacle there. - Ez long ez ther , is whisky ther will be Dimocrisy, and I shall flourish among the faithful. I will rent me a bar-room, and will wear a plug hat, and be a statesman and bev politikle inflooence in the Sixth Ward. I will be a captain of fitly, and get to be a alderman. I will go to the legislachur, and wil do for the State what the nashun retoos- ed. ' The stun which the fed rel builders reiected will become the bed uv the State corner. . - Bascom remarkt that the prospeck uv my lecvcu the Corners mitigated w somewhat his greef at tbe the defeet uv Tilden. "Ther is no evil." be sed "that hezn't some good in it.' Petroleum V . Nasby, Ex-Reformer. THE EABTII DBTISO CP. One ot the most enrious and we be lieve well substantiated inferences drawn by those geologists who have devoted at tention to the chemical metamorphosis, which me rocks composing the crust ot the earth are subjected to. savs the Po lytechnic Heview, is the conclusion that the earth is gradually losing its water. or dryii g up. It is generally assumed that the evap oration of the water from the surfaces ot our oceans, lakes, rivers, etc , is practi cally balanced by the various forms ot precipitation, rain, snow, hail, etc.. from the clouds, by which it finds its way again to the earth. This is strict iy true in the sense that not a particle of water passes beyond the limits of our atmos phere, and all thai finds its way into the atinocphere by evaporation, sooner or la ter is returned again. Nevertheless, the water supply ot the earth is slowly but steadily diminishing. It is not destroy ed, but is so modified as to be no longer available tor the sustenance ot animal or vegetable life : since it is absorbed and bound up in the rocks. This disap pearance ot water is to be accounted for partly by mechanical absorption, partly by the hydration (or binding ot water), which is generally one of the phenome na attending the superficial weathering of the rocks, and partly by the crystali- zation and recrystauzation of the con stituents of many of the rocks, and the extensive chemical changes going on at unknown depths within the bowels of the earth, as manifested in the phenom enon of volcanoes. In the course of time, though, happily many ages from the present, the combined result ot these several causes of desiccation mu?tbethe complete absorption ot all the water, and its disappearance from the surface ot the earth, i The estimate has been made that about one-seventeenth of the original quantity of wa'er the earth was provid ed with has already been bom d up in rocks or absorbed beyond the possible reach of the organisms living upon her surface. j THE ILLINOIS STATE BOUSE. The new Capitol at Springfield, Illi- nois, is one ot the finest in the country, The dimensions of the edifice on the ground are 359 feet front aud 267 feet deep, with three porticoes in addition, which are 24 feet wide by 94 feet long, The porticoes are ornamented with ten columns each. The structure is about three times as large as the Four Courts, or twice as large as the Lindell Hotel at St. Louis. The dome is 361 feet from I the ground. ! It can be seen at a distance of twelve miles with a glass, and is 74 ! feet higher than the dome on the fa-; tional Capitol at Washington, or twice J as high as the St Louis Court Jloiise dome, and,! it is believed, rans the ! third highest in the world, lhe gen-j eral design ot the budding is classic aud Corinthian in the main, with some orig inal details ad renaissance character istics. The j materials are of the most expensive kind. Costly marble of a va riety ot color have been freely used, and produce a wounderful and grand eflect. The Senate Chamber and House of Rep resentatives it is claimed, are the best lighted and ventilated rooms of the kind in the country. Mr. Cochrane, archi tect, the Capitol Commissioners, a id peo ple ot Springfield believe they have the grandest Capitol building in the United States, not even excepting the National Capitol, and that it cost one-third less than any building ot the kind, material, and pro)ortions erected within the last ten years, i The expenditures so far have been $3,500,000, and $500,000 more are required to complete the edi fice. The present Legislature occupies it for the first time. Philadelphia Press. I ; The blue glass mania has reached its climax in the Fad case of a Chicago man. He went into an optician's and bought a pair of bine goggles to wear on his eyes. He dropped into a hat store and ordered a little round piece of glass put in the top of his hat in place ot the usual tin ventilator. He then partook of a dinner ot bluefish at a restaurant with a blue skylight, dipped his fingers into a blue finger-bowl and refused to drink anything uutil the waiter hunted him up a mug with a blue glass bottom. The day was now spent, and going home in a blue light street car, the blue glass man meeting his children at the door, refused to kiss any but those having blue eyes, sat down in a blue chair to read the blue laws ot Connecticut, and got in such a fit of the blues that he took some blue ink, aud, writing in his will that at his death the g'ass in his coffin should be blue glass and his monu ment be made of blue granite, he grabb ed a revolver aud blew: out his brains. When trade grew slack and notes fell due the merchant's face giew long and blue. His dreams were troubled through the night, with sheriff's bailiffs all in sight. At last his wife nuto him said: "Hiso np at once get out of bed ; and get your paper, ink aud pen, and say these words! unto all men: 'My goods I wish to sell to you, aud to your wives and daughters, too ; my prices are io very low, that all will buy before they go.' " He did as his wile advised, and in the papers advertised. Crowds came and bought ot all he had ; his notes were paid, his dreams were glad ; and he will tell yon to this day how well did printer's ink repay. He told us, with a knowing wink, bow be was saved by printer's ink. Lor.gtehW received $3,000 tor his "Hanging of the Crane," while tho high est price paid in this country for hang ing a man is twenty-five dollars. The Maine Legislature is inconsibtent. It makes pool-selling a misdemeanor, and also punishes those who get np church lotteries, grab-bags, etc.. absm or IB PBESIDEISTS. General Grant is ' one ot the three Presidents of the United States who have passed their fiftieth birthday in the Executive office, the other two be ing Mr. Polk, who . entered the office about seven months before be was fifty years old, and General Pierce, who be came President in his forty-ninth year. General Washington . was in his fifty eighth year when he became President; John Adams was in' his sixty-second Jefferson in his fifty-eighth ; Madison in his fifty-eighth ; Monroe in his fifty ninth ; John Quincy Adams in his fifty eighth : General Jackson in his sixty second ; Van Buren in his fifty-fifth ; General Harrison in his sixty ninth ; Tyler in his fifty-scood ; General Tay lor in his sixty-fifth ; Lincoln in bis fif ty third, and Johnson in his fifty-seventh year. General Harrison was the oldest man ever elected to the Presiden cy, and General Grant is the youngest. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and John Quincy Adams were in their fifty eighth years when they entered the Presidency ; and Mr. Monroe completed his titty-ninth year only fifty-five days after he became President, and Johnson was in his tifiy-sixth year when he suc ceeded President Lincoln. Fo ir Pres -dent's went out of office in their sixty sixth year, namely, Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, and Madron, Presi dent Jackson was the oldest of all our retiring Presidents, as he went? out of office only eleven days before the com pletion of his seventieth year. Mr. Buchanan left the office fiity days be fore he became seventy' years old. The President who lived longest was John Adams, who died in his ninety-fifth year. The next oldest was Madison, who died in his eighty-sixth year. Jef ferson died in his' eighty-fourth year ; John Quincy Adams in his eighty, first year ; Van Bnren in his eightieth year ; General JacKson in his seventy-ninth year. The youngest retiring President was General Pierce, who went ont ot office not quite four months alter he had completed his fifty-second year. Mr. Polk retired in his fifty-fourth year, and died a little more than three months la ter, at the age of fitry-tliree years, sev en months, and thirteen days, the youngest of all our Presidents in death. SECRECY OF ASIATICS. Asiatics are noted for their cunring and secrecy. It would seem as if nature in her usual compensating style, had en. dowed them with superior skill in the art ot finessing, to make np toj their physical weakness, and lack of stoady, open courage. A fact which occurred before the outbreak ot the Sepoy rebel- lion in India shows the extraordinary art ot keeping a secret by the natives, For twelve months previous to ti e mutii y, lotus leaves and lotus cakes were daily distributed among thousands of the natives of that vast country. The leaf meant silence, and was given to the civilians; the cake meant war, and was handed to soldiers, For three hundred and sixty-five days this distribution went on. Hundreds of thousands were in the secret, and tnougni tne nay mr redeeming India had come. Officers and private house servants in English families, and confi dei.tial clerks in English counting-rooms, men and women in the cities aud in the villages, rich and poor, high and low caste, had, by tasting the leaf or the cake, sworn secrecy or revenge. Yet not one Englishman, among the thous. ands ot residents and soldiers, was told, or even suspected the fact. A conspiracy in Europe, if a hundred men are enlisted in it, is sure to be dis covered by the police. But here was a c nspiracy in which hundreds of thous ands were engaged, and which extend ed over thousands ot square mi'es, and yet there was not found in it one trait or, or t-ven a careless word dropper. So well was the secret kept that the breaking out of the rebellion was to the English as a clap of thunder in a cloud less sky. A Talking M achixe. The Marquis ot Salisbury and Mr. Farjeon have, recognized the merit ot tho writing ma chine, but we should like to have Mr. Carlyle's opinion on the newly invented talking machine. We hear that after thirty years, which the historian of the Great Frederick will .probably think might havo been better employed, a clever gentleman has succeeded in pro ducing an apparatus consisting ot a table with pedals, an organ, bellows, aud a key-board. In the center is an elaborate arrangement, representing the human lungs, larynx, glottis and tongue. At the conclusion of the exhibition in the Grand hotel, Paris, it spoke "a piece," as follows : " I was born iu America.' I can speak all languages, and I am very pleased to see you... I thank you for your visit.". There is already too much talk In the world, but yet this ma chine might be made nsetul. ii would. for instance, be iiivalub'e at railway sta tions where porters roar out the name ot the place so loud and nniuteUigib'e. A good talking machine would be a vast improvement on the inarticulate poller. Iron Age. The St. Helena Star tells a story of a wonderful Popo valley dog. The owner keit sheep, and tho dog herded them. Finally the sheep were sold to a Berryessa man, (an adjacent valley some ten miles away). The owner and the dog delivered the sheep, an J returned home. Soon after the man missed his dog, and searched for bim in vain. He was a valuable dog,- and his loss was duly mourned for a oup!e of days ; when, behold, up he came from Berry essa way with the whole band of sheep, which he had brought safely borne again. Too smart, by half. In a case recently decided by the Su preme Court, it was held that school elections must be conducted in all re spects as prescribed by the Code for other elections. The poles must be open and remain open as the law directs. , In case of an election to authorize the levy ot a tax, it is necessary that every require ment must be observed in conducting tbe election and also in tho levy of as sessment and equalization of the tax. - Sir Wm. Thompson, also, than whora no one is more capable ot expressing an opinion, decides in favor of the earth: solidity. He tells Lus in his address it, the Physical section at Glasgow, that the conclusion -concerning the sol idity of the earth originally arrived at ,, by Hopkins is borne out by a more rig orous mathematical treatment than that physicist was able to apply f so that thff idea of geologists, who were in the hab it of explaining underground heat, an cient upheavals, or modern volcanoe bvthe existence of a comparatively thin solid shell resting on a thin liquid mass must now be given np as untenable.-" Professor lioscoe. , No one can tell who' is- President cf Mexico, and none of the Mexicans seenr to care. What they want is fun. Providence hens are killing them selves off in the effort to furnish Rhode Island with goose eggs. Toughened glass is coming into gener al use, aud saloon-keepers won't get pay for so many tumbler. Hayes made a short address at the National Deaf Mule College on the 12th. JOT3 PRINTING. OB PRIM HAVtSa PURCHASED THE Et. tensive Job Printing Establishment of the 'State Rights Democrat," and th "Albany Eegister, w are prepared t execute ia first-claas style, I'ROJI PTLT A BEASOXABX.Tr AH kbids of BOOK&JOB II If Hi I POSTERS A iD PROGRAMMES OT Every Descriptions BILL-HEADS AND STATEMENTS, JBills of Fare. LETTER HEADS VBZEF AND LEGAL ULAN1SS, Cards of all Kinds and Colors, Circulars, IatpItIe(o Blank. Check, Receipts, Mortgages, and Deeds, MANSFIELD & MONTEITH. Ijitesl nnd Most Reliable In formation Rltout the BLACK IIIULS, Not-lliem Wyoininw and tho (treat Indian War win aiwavs no lound in thm Oldest ; Laraesr. ;hnre Cheyenne in THO v x.. v, j y Mniacmi jiirs.wi Wi and BEST PA. 13 lack w- Established In 1367. Tmily month 10 a year. Week g&i Hills mo. 1 6 mo. 1.50 1 year. sinixie copy, iu cis. -H. Glarkk, lMibHsner, Cheyenne, Wro. 9nl5w4 FOR SALE ! . AVERT DESIRABLE hnslnesffl lot. (VtxIQO feet on the corner of Second and Washington streets, Albany. Also. Kngtne, Boiler and Ma chinery, tonetner wit h a lot of furniture, lad ders, wheelbarrows, harrows. Ac, Ac, all to b sold off cheap for cah. In consctinence of rw. moral on account of sickness. Knqnlre oietho; premises of TOT.NAM CO. Albany, Jan. 19, 1877-nl7 OREGON SOLID FOR SHEMRILL ' S ; CULTIVATOR AND . . ; ;y All Important Farts made cf XZClf, aal Durable as Zroa can to. Adjustable to any revxlrel - EtjtSj Trtiilo la. motion, . . XTever Clogs or Choices on etubUt c? "TrasliT" CroxuLd. Arranged for two. three or four horses abrtujit Lightest Draft Machine in use. , , Covers and cuts all the ground. Broadcast Seeder will bow mil SUranta er grratu, wet or dry. EVERY BIACIIIXE RANTED , I ask every farmer to examine my Sed.--r n.A Cultivator before purchasing an KiuiU'iii i.. chine. For further particulars add rsw JAMES SIIEREIIXX Ilnrrlsbiirsr, rr:j -j. February" 9, 1U77-20V9 . "