The Daily Astorian., November 18, 1877, Image 3

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Miscellaneous Items.
The cigar-makers of Pittsburgh are
about to organize a union.
Sherman is receiving cotton at the
rate of one thousand bales per week.
The debt of the State of Virginia is
$33,199,325, exclusive of sinking and
literary funds.
The taxable value of property in
Texas is now $350,000,000 against $250,
000,000 last year.
The long strike in the iron ship-building
trade on the Clyde is estimated to
have cost the workmen between $350,000
and $400,000 in wages lost since April.
The amount estimated for carrying in
land mails the coming liscal year is
20,889,270, an increase over the esti
mate for the current year of $2,030,297.
Two railroad rioters who pleaded guilty
to burning the Lebanon (Pa.) Valley
bridge, have been sentenced to five years
imprisonment and to pay a fine of $1,000
ach.
It is estimated that over 150,000 per
sons in this country are engaged in keep
ing bees. This includes farmers and
others who make the production of honey
a portion of their occupation.
T. J. Arnold, Chief Engineer of the
California Board of State Harbor Com
missioners, is in Baltimore, for the pur
pose of studying a system of harbor im
provements, construction of piers, etc.
He has conferred with engineers of New
York, Philadelphia, Boston and Portland
Me-) on the subject. '.
The Montreal Journal of' Commerce says
a valuable discovery of silver has been
made at St. George, N. B., on an island in
the river. Some United States cit:z ;ns
secured the property, and have taken out
about two tons of ore,each barrel of which
is said to be worth $500. The people of St.
George are getting excited over the dis
covery, and the neighboring country is
thoroughly searched for the precious
metal.
TnE quantity of coal raised from the
mines of Great Britain reached 100,000,
000 tons in a yar, for the first time in
18GG. In 187G it amounted to 134,12o,lGG
tons, namely,115. 334,359 tons in England
and "Wales, 1S,GG5,612 tons in Scotland,
and 125,195 tons in Ireland. Durham,
the greatest coal field, keeps its lead, its
year's product now approaching 2G,000,
000 tons. Wales produced above 19,
000,000 tons.
The merchants who lost property by
the Pittsburgh riot in July, are strongly
inclined to hold the Pennsylvania Com
pany responsible for the losses; the
.railroad company hold the city of Pitts
burgh, or the county of Allegheny, re
sponsible, and the latter are disposed to
bold the State of Pennsylvania responsi
ble at least for part of the damage, hold
ing that undue and illegal interference on
the part of the State authorities infuriated
the j)opulace and precipitated the devas
tation. It is a curious mixture of ques
tions, which it will tako years to unravel.
From statistics recently published by
Norwegian authorities we learn that the
number of horses per 1,000 inhabitants
is, in the United States, 297; Russia, 225;
Denmark, 179; Sweden, 1G3; Austro
Hungary, 98; Great Britain and Ireland,
55; Norway, 84; Germany, S2; France,
70. The number of horned cattle per
1,000 inhabitants is, Denmark, G87;
Great Britain, 300. The number of sheep
in Spain, 1,348; in Great Britain, 9G9;
in Belgium, 112. The number of goats
in Greece, 913; in Great Britain, 8. The
number of swine in the United States,
(571; in Great Britain. 112; in Greece, 38.
A Real Evangeline.
The story of Evangeline is repeated
with wonderful fidelity in all its details
in the experience of a young French girl,
a resident of Marseilles. She was en
gaged to a sailor to whom she "was to be
married on his return from a voyage to
New York. He did not return, and after
-a year she got a berth as stewardess's as
sistant on one of the Havre steamers, to
come here in search of him. On the pas
sage a rich American lady became inter
ested in her story and resolved to hel p
her find out her lover. In New York
she learned that he had gone to Canada.
For months she travelled about the Do
minion, sometimes close on his track and
-again losing every clue as to his where
abouts. She returned to New York, and
one day while standing at a Broadway
crossing waiting her turn to get across,
she saw the object of her long search on
the other side. She shrieked his name
and ran into the middle of the street, but
a policeman caught her and saved her
from the wheels of the string of vehicles.
"Angel of God there was none," and she
never again saw the Gabriel she had so
long sought and nearly found. She
learned then that he had sailed for San
Francisco, and so went overland to Cali
fornia to meet him. Arrived on the Pa
cific coast, she found that her lover had
fallen overboard just outside the Heads
and been drowned. Meanwhile the body
of a young man dressed in sailor's clothes
was cast ashore on the beach, carried to
the coroner's office and, not being identi
fied, was interred in the public cemetery.
A water-sodden pocket-book was taken
from the dead man, which contained only
a few letters written in French and unad
dressed. The girl, hearing of this, went
to the coroner's office and found that the
letters were hers. The waves had tardily
and partially recompensed her devoted
search, and she was able to find the grave
of her lover.
Alwats win fools first. They talk
much; and what they have once uttered
they will stick to; whereas there is al
ways time, up to the last moment, to
bring before a wise man arguments
which may entirely chaDge his opinion.
Helps.
Sayings Banks Wrecks.
The New York Times gives a list of
eighteen local savings banks "which have
gone into insolvency since 1871. These
eighteen banks had some 40,000 de
positors, whose aggregate deposits
amounted to nearly $9,000,000. These
deposits, however, were not a total loss.
The Guardian, which, owed 1,000 de
positors $560,000, has paid 95 cents on
the dollar, and promises the other 5 per
cent, before long. The Bowling Green
failed for $450,000, and has paid 35 per
cent. The National failed for $100,000,
and has since paid 100 per cent. The
Market failed for a round million, and
has paid 38 per cent. The Mechanics'
and Traders' owed depositors $1,454,000
when it closed its doors, and has since
paid 65 per cent. The Security has paid
57J per cent, on a debt of $300,000.
The Central Park went down under a
debt of $40,000, and has as yet declared
no dividend. The People's has paid 333
per cent, on a debt of $195,000; Mutual
Benefit, 50 per cent, on $450,000; Ger
man Up-town, 80 per cent, on $220,436;
Abington Square, 15 per cent, on $87,
997; Bend Street, 65 percent, on $1,788,
660; New Amsterdam, 65 per cent, on
$510,000. The German, of Morrisania,
with a debt of. $230,000; the Clinton,
with a debt of $8S,000, and the Clair
mont, with a debt of $100,000, have as
yet declared no dividends, but the first
is expected to pay 75 per cent., the sec
ond 25 per cent., and the third 60 per
cent. The Central Park and Abington
Square are not expected to do anything
for creditors. The failure of these in
stitutions is attributed mainly to two
causes shrinkage in values, and frauds
on the part of managers. For the lat
ter, no one has been punished, though
indictments have been found in some
cases.
The Grain Markets of Europe.
A dispatch from the "United States
minister to Greece to the State Depart
ment asserts that the United States can
now and henceforth control, to a large
extent, the grain markets of Europe.
He says Russia has been our only com
petitor in this trade. "Under the most
favorable circumstances for Russia (as
has been so clearly demonstrated in the
report sent by the Odessa conimittoe on
trade and manufactures, to the Council
for Trade and Manufactures at St. Peters
burg), the United States has had the ad
vantage of that great cereal producing
country. Our machinery, railroad sys
tem, elevators, and simple customs regu
lations combined, have enabled us to
place our grain on shipboard fifteen per
cent, less than can be done in the ports
of Russia. The gigantic war in which
the nation is now engaged certainly can
not lessen those advantages. With such
an outlook, it is not too much to assert
that with reasonable effort on our part
we can control the English, French, and
Italian markets. Anticipating the future
course of this trade, British capitalists
are now building six uf the largest
sized iron vessels for the transportation
of breadstuffs from our shores on Eng
lish account. "We should not only strain
every nerve to meet the increased de
mand of Europe for breadstuffs, but we
should also supply shi2s to carry the
same.
Poisonous Weli Water. The dan
ger incurred by drinking water from
highly respected old wells, whose reputa
tion for purity raises them above the
reach of suspicion, becomes more evi
dent each day. Outbreaks of fever are
continually being traced to well water
which from contamination has become a
poisonous fluid, bringing disease and
often death to those who drink it. The
latest case of this description has just
occurred at Galashiels, where there has
been an alarming outbreak of typhoid
fever, which, according to the British
Hectical Journal, is believed to have orig
inated in a public well in the market
place, from wThence a large number of
the public obtain their supply of water.
The result of analysis that have been
made of the water of this and other wells
in the neighborhood shows that the wa
ter in the well in question contains or
ganic matter in considerable quantity.
Under these circumstances the well has
been closed against public use. It is to
be regretted that the analysis was not
made and the well closed before instead
of after the outbreak of fever. The mere
fact of a well being largely used by the
public is quite sufficient reason for the
sanitary authorities of the district in
which the well is situated to keep a
watchful eye on its waters. The princi
ple of "leaving well alone" is about the
most dangerous that can be adopted as
regards these old parochial abominations.
Pall Mall Gazette.
Things We Like to See. A real lady
who can carry a parcel; a father at a place
of amusement with his children; a young
man with a clear eye, and a fresh, virtu
ous, unhackneyed face; a shop girl neat
ly dressed, and without sham ornament
ation; a miin of business going home at
night with a boquet for his wife; a shop
keeper, civil to and patient with a poor
woman who, with a baby across her arm,
ventures to buy a one shilling article; a
dressmaker who is scientific enough to
perfect a "fit" and yet leave your breath
ing apparatus in Curistian working-condition;
a shop that is not an "emporium";
a milliner who didn't come from Paris;
a jolly domestic who likes the family; a
bride with her pet, small house; a young
father with his first boy.
A clergyman who was annoyed by the
squeaking shoes of his parishioners re
marked that some people had "too much
music in their soles."
"The Opinm Fiend."
Charles Tyler, known to the New York
police as the "Opiu Fiend," is in the
Tombs of that city for stealing surgical
instruments and cases of morpkia from
physicians. The instruments, he sayi,
he took to sell that he might procure
morphia. To a reporter who "visited him
he said :
"My right name is Henry L. Sanford.
I was born in the District of Columbia,
and am twenty-eight years old. My
mother was a Tyler, of Virginia, but my
father was a northern man. They are
both dead. I have brothers and a sister,
though they cast me off long ago on ac
count of my habit of taking morphine.
At twenty I graduated from the college
of pharmacy in Chicago. I started out
as a physician, but before long I became
addicted to drinking whisky. I found
that the habit was injurious to my busi
ness; besides, as in all cases, after awhile
the whisky failed to give me the satisfac
tion it did at first. It was" then I began
to take morphine. That had a splendid
effect on me, made me lively and ambi
tious, and gave me an amount of happi
ness I cannot express to you. It trans
formed me at once. I became strong and
independent. Nothing was too hard for
me to undertake. I speculated and made
lots of money. At the end of two years
my suffering began. 1 had to be con
stantly under the influence of the drug.
I had married and lost my wife, and this
made it necessary for me to take stronger
doses until my mind became impaired.
I was put into a lunatic asylum in Mas
sachusetts, and the doctors said they had
never heard of any one who took so much
morphine. I was allowed to leave this
institution partially cured. I again be
gan taking the drug, and. soon averaged
forty-five grains a day. If I only had
about thirty grains now it would make
me so lively I could dance all around the
room. The doctor gives me twenty
grains morning and night, but that's only
enough to keep me alive. I take it by
injection. Long ago it failed to have any
effect on me when taken through the
mouth."
Here he bared his left arm and showed
the reporter the effect of these injections.
They were made by a hypodermic syringe,
and from their frequenoy his arms, from
the shoulders down to the wrists, were
one surface of scars, and the skin was of
a bluish tint. Many of these punctures
were not healed, but Sanford declared he
was totally devoid of all feeling. One
might bore into his flesh with a red-hot
iron, he said, and he would not feel it,
and as a proof of this he showed scars on
his legs, some as large as a silver half
dollar, and told how he got them. It
appears that adversity in its fullest meas
ure came upon him. He lost his hypo
dermic syringe and so procured a com
mon syringe. This he could not insert
into the flesh without first cutting a hole.
He used to take a razor and cut a dash in his
thigh and then with a pair of scissors bore
a hole into the flesh, into which he would
insert the syringe and inject the mor
phine. All the fleshy parts of his body
which he could conveniently get at
nave been cut and punctured over and
over again.
"During the last two years," said San
ford, "I have taken over sixty grains of
morphine a day,and I have often taken over
a drachm in one day. One drachm of
morphine is equal to more than five hun
dred grains of opium."
Being asked to explain his present pre
dicament, Sanford said that when he lost
every means of making money he sold
everything he had, from time to time, to
procure morphine. When everything
was gone he profited a while on credit
with druggists and dealers with whom
he had acquaintance. When this means
of getting the drug was denied him he
stole what he could, and with the pro
ceeds got what he wanted.
"Knowing the ways of doctors and the
value of their instruments," said he, "I
devoted myself to this special way of
raising the wind. Of course I got caught.
When I want morphine I will do any
thing to procure it. I would sell my own
father in a minute if I could get enough
for one dose. When the desire comes on
me I would not exchange the morphine
for heaven. Give me the dose and then
hang me if you like. I don't care what
they do with me after I hive got the
morphine." Philadelphia Bulletin.
A Good One. During the first year
of the war, says a Vermont paper, when
change was scarce and some large firms
were issuing currency of their own, a
farmer went to a store in a neighboring
town and bought some goods, and gave
the merchant a five-dollar bill, of which
he wanted seventy-five cents back. The
merchant counted it out and handed it
over to the farmer; who looked at it a
moment and inquired : "What's this?"
"It's my currency," said the merchant.
"Wal, 'taint good for nothin' where I
live," said the farmer.
"Very well," replied the merchant,
"keep it until you get a dollar's worth,
and bring it to my store, and I will give
you a dollar bill for it."
The farmer pocketed the change and
parted. A few weeks after he went into
the same store and bought goods to the
amount of one dollar, and after paying
over the identical seventy-five cents he
took out a handful of pumpkin-seeds
and counted out twenty-five of them and
passed them over to the merchant.
"Why," said the merchant, "what's
this?"
"Wal," said the farmer, "this is my cur
rency, and when you get a dollar's worth
bring it to my place and I will give you
a dollar for it." Wooxsockst Patriot.
It is a sad moment for a bachelor when
he finds his hair is so thin that he is una
ble to hold a pen over his ear.
Arctie Explorations.
The reports of another projected Arc
tic expedition turns our attention to the
intense interest which has so long attached
to the frozen regions of the north. Since
the Icelandic rovers found the rich fish
eries of New Foundland and the Green
land coast, since the expedition of the
Cabots demonstrated that if the much
coveted Northwest passage to India
should be discovered, it would be all but
useless to commerce, those frozen regions
have witnessed the enterprise, and often
the fate, of the boldest navigators of al
most every succeeding generation. The
Cabots in 1497 set out in the hope of find
ing a direct passage to Cathay and India,
but succeeding in reaching only 67 deg.
30 min. north, the mere margin of the
great ice-bound north, while in 1,500 the
brothers Cortereal met with nothing but
disaster in their voyage to 60 deg. north.
In 1553 Sir Hugh Willoughby, with his
crew, was sacrificed to the desire of find
ing a passage on the north of Europe.
Then Martin Frobisher discovered the
entrance to Hudson's bay, and first gave
a scientific interest to the expeditions.
Davis followed. Barentz lost his life,
and Hudson reported that a passage to In
dia through that region was impossible.
But in his last expedition, from which
he never returned, the discovery of Hud
son Bay again raised the hopes of the
traders, and explorations received a new
impulse. Without pausing to mention
numerous minor expeditions, we may no
tice Baffin, who for fifty years was unex
celled by subsequent explorers, and the
sledge expedition of Von Wrangell and
Anjou, unexpectedly checked by an open
sea, at nearly 71 deg. north latitude.
Notwithstanding the offer of a large re
ward to the discoverer of a passage to
India, offered in 1743, the expeditions
soon were largely undertaken in the in
terests of science, and efforts to reach the"
pole succeeded search for a commercial
highway. Captain Phipps, Captain Cook,
Mackenzie, failed to penetrate farther
than Hudson had gone. In 1818 the ex
peditions under Captains Ross and Bu
chan, the one aiming at a passage to the
west and the other to the pole, Ret out
and. were followed by expeditions under
Parry and Franklin, who had served as
lieutenants on the previous ones, all alike
fruitless. Four simultaneous efforts were
made in 1824, and in 1827, Captain
Parry reached 82 deg. 45 min. north,
where he despaired of reaching the pole.
In 1829 Captain Ross succeeded in locat
ing the Magnetic pole, and when we come
to the last expedition of Sir John Frank
lin, 1845, a survey of the entire northern
coast of America had been accom
plished. Then followed numerous ex
peditions in search of Sir John Frank
lin, and again others for exploration, the
most important being the Polaris expedi
tion iroin our own country.
Looking over the accounts of hardships
and privations endured by these men, the
number of expeditions in which the bold
leaders have lost their lives, it would
seem that men would long since have
been discouraged in spite of the greatest
importance of the results to be attained,
and when we add that men concede that
no practical commercial interest can at
tach to the efforts, surprise becomes
amazement on hearing of the elaborate
preparations now making for another at
tempt to baffle the efforts of nature to
seal a portion f this world from our in
vestigation. Glory cannot urge men to
an undertaking which the masses decry
as lacking in practical utility, and still
we find men willing to leave their homes
for a winter on the bleak coasts of the
far north that they may be inured and
acclimated, prepared to meet the greater
hardships of next spring's northward
voyage. Their devotion and enterprise
command the admiration and praise of
all intelligent people, and the care mani
fested in the preparations gives hope that
a favorable summer will bring valuable
additions to scientific knowledge. SawJc-
qje.
An Old Fort. In Florida the old
fort formerly called St. Marks, but since
the purchase from Spain, Fort Marion, is
constructed of coquina stone. The fol
lowing is an interesting description of it:
This fort is over a century old, having
been built in 1756. It cost immense
sums of money, and is strong enough to
have withstood, in its time, several for
midable sieges. It is probably the most
stupendous, and certainly the most inter
esting piece of masonry in the United
States. It contains dungeons which are
said to have witnessed scenes of inquisi
torial atrocity, and whose floors have
been stained by the bloody tyrannies of
a dark and cruel age. There are also a
chapel and numerous guard-rooms for the
accommodation of soldiers within its
massive walls. The whole is surrounded
by a moat, which was formerly crossed
by two ancient drawbridges. Modelled
after the old feudal forms of defence, each
bastion is crowned by a turret for senti
nels, and has an air of antiquity bordering
on the romantic, as well as being exceed
ingly picturesque. Over the main entrance
is engraved,in solid rock,the arms of Spain
and an inscription in Spanish, which in
forms the stranger that the fortress was
finished in 1756, when Ferdinand VI.
ruled the dominions of the mother
country. Don Alonzo Fernandos de
Herida was governor and command er-in-
chier, and the engineer ot construction
was Don Pedro de Brazassy Garay. It is
said that, in 1819, when Florida was pur
chased by the United States, many of the
old. Spanish records, that alone could shed
light upon the obscurity of the early his
tory of this region, were conveyed in se
crecy away to Cuba.
Eisht girls in Macon, Ga., the other
day, graduated in gowns of their own
make, and then put .in type fieir "compositions."
A Ship's Crew Poisoned.
On the arrival at Southampton of a.
Scotch seaman named Wm. Inman, an
extraordinary story of poisoning at sea.
has been revealed. It is alleged that
while the bark Grown Prince commanded
by Capt. Robert Cochrane, and belonging
to St. John, New Brunswick, was on a.
voyage in November last from the Peru
vian coast to Falmouth, the food supplied
to the crew was unfit for use; that, in
consequence, the whole of the forecastle
hands, fourteen in number, became ill,.,
and that six of the sailors died. The?
Grown Prince arrived with a fresh crew
in the Clyde a few days ago, and after
communication "with the marine authori
ities, the Captain -has been committed
pending inquiry, ''Inman states that the
vessel left Pabelion de Pica, in the South
of Peru, on October 4th last, bound
home, the crew all told numbering
twenty-one. OnNovember 19th,when off
Cape Horn,a new cask of pork was taken
out. On the 20th, part of it was boiled
into soup, of which the fourteen forecas
tle hands partook on the 21st, and on the
following day the whole became ill, vom
iting and showing other signs of extreme
illness. On the 24th ten of the men were
completely prostrated, and next day all
the fourteen were down, except Inman,
who, though very ill, was able to assist
the officer to shorten sail. Dunng the
next fortnight, the ship lying under the
two lower topsails, the sufferings or the
men were fearful. Inman could not sleep
at night owing to the intense pain, and
his head often swelled to a great size.
His limbs were so weak that he could
scarcely crawl along the deck. At the
end of the fortnight, three of the crew,
Tom Beaufort, a Londoner, Andrew An
derson, a Swede, and William Williams,
a Polander, went mad, and ran about the
deck quite delirious. This so frightened
the captain, whom Inman describes as a
cautious seaman and a kindhearted man,
that he tried to make for the Falkland
Island, distant 200 miles. Port Stanley,
the principal harbor in the Falkland
Islands, was reached on December 7th.
As the anchor was let go, the Polander
Williams died in horrible agony. The
day after the Swede died, and two days
later the Londoner succumbed to his suf
ferings. A week after the remainder of
the crew had gone to the hospital at Port
Stanley,an Irishman named Sullivan, and
a Dutchman died. On January 12th,
Harris Edwards, a native of Margate,
shared the same fate. The doctor stated
that they had all been poisoned by pu
trid pork. On April 2d last Inman left
Port Stanley for Montevideo, accompan
ied by two shipmates, John Aird, of Wa
terford, and Alexander Buckley, an Eng
lishman. Subsequently they sailed on
board the royal mail steamer Tagus and
have arrived safely at Southampton.
When they quitted Port Stanley four of
their comrades were still in the hospital.
Inman is unable to walk without the aid
of a staff, and does not expect to be fit
for work for several months.
The Remorse of Murderers.
A young man named Morgan is report
ed to have died recently in Orange
county of remorse. He killed a young
man with whom he had been drinking,
and was convicted of manslaughter. The
sentence of the court was very light
only four months in the Penitentiary.
But it seems his conscience imposed a
severer penalty, and finally worried hira.
to death. '
The effects of remorse have undoubt
edly proved fatal in other cases than this;
and yet our observation has led us
to believe that it is not true as
a universal rule that persons convicted
of murder experience any feeling of re
morse whatever. However strange it
may sepm, we are of the opinion that as a
general thing they are much more anxious
about their escape from the gallows than
from any other consequences of their
crime.
So it is with duellists, who are, in one
sense and strictly speaking, murderers
We well remember the case of William .
Graves. He was a popular lawyer, who
was elected a Representative in Congress
from Louisville, Kentucky. From having
been the bearer of a challenge for a
friend he became involved himself in a
duel with Jonathan Ciliey, a Representa
tive from Maine. They fought with
rifles, and at the second shot Ciliey was
killed. Graves retired into private, life,
and died a few years later. It was said
that he died of grief; but a friend who
conversed with him during his illness on
the subject of the duel, told us that Mr.
Graves said that he had never experi
enced the least feeling of remorse about
the matter for a single moment.
Those who die of remorse for such an
act are not very apt to commit the act.
N. Y. Ledger.
Shadows. Not a hearthstone shall
you find on which some shadow has not
fallen or is about to fall. You will prob
ably find that there are few households
who do not cherish some sorrow not
known to the world; who have not some
trial which is not their peculiar messen
ger, and which they do not talk about,
except among themselves; some hope
that has been blasted ; some expectation
dashed down ; some wrong, real or sup
posed, which some member of the house
hold has suffered; trembling anxieties,
lest that other member should not suc
ceed; trials from the peculiar tempera
ment of somebody in the house, or some
environment that touches it sharply from.
without; some thorn in the flesh; some
physical disability that cripples our en
ergies when you want to use them the
most; some spot in the house where death,
has left his track, or painful listenings
to hear his stealthy footsteps coming on.
Kindness gives birth to kindness.
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