Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1858-03-31

REPUBLICAN CONFERENCE.-The learn that
the conference of delegates from the State com
mittees of the Republican party Of the United
States, held at Washington on the Oath, was a
very harmonious and satisfactory affair. All the
free States were represented, and one or two
slave States. and the utmost confidence was felt
and expressed that The campaign of 1850 would
result in a complete national triumph Of the Re-
publican cause and party. The State of Wiscou-
sin, we are glad to sec, was represented at the
conference by Jared Benson, Esq, formerly of
this city, but more recently of Anoka, Wis Mr.
B. is Chairman of the Republican State Commit
tee in that thriving State, and we congratulate
our Republican friends out there, upon their good
fortune in securing for this important position
such an estimable citizen and ndefatigable work.
er for the truth and right.
The ATLANTIC CABLE. - Four hundred
miles Of cable have been ordered. to replace
the $50 lost last Fall, aud it is intended to add
500 miles more. The ships will be loaded
and proceed to mid-ocean by the middle of
June, at which time it is said, there are five
or six days during which gale on the At
lante was seldom or never known to occur
The line will be joined and laid from the CEN
tire Of the ocean, the Niagara taking her end
of the cable TO Ireland, and the Agamemnon
conveying hers to America. On this occasion
the cable will not be piled away in one huge
mass, but will be distributed equally in the
fore, midship, and after parts of the vessel,
in coils of five hundred miles each. 1t is to
be hoped that if after several hundred miles
of the cable are sunk, it is found impossible
to transmit teegraphlc signals through it, the
cable will not be accidentally broken and left
at the bottom. The ships are provided with
machinery for raising and coiling the cable,
and it will be worth saving, even if it is de-
monstrated that telegraph across the Allan
tic is an iInpossibihty.
The London Times, abiding to the difficult
ty of sending telegraphic signals through a
long circuit, states that Mr.. Whitehouse, the
electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Compa-
ny, has been experimenting through twenty
two hundred miles of cable all winter, and
has SO improved his apparatus, that five words
per minute can now be sent through the ca
bic, and he hopes soon to be able to transmit
eight words per minute This is very slow
rate of transmission. When the cable comes
to be sunk, it will be exposed to another and
greater source of retardaton, and the Times
may well say that it will require three or
four cables to do the telegraphic business
across the Atlantic. If it works at all, many
scientific men will be happily disappointed.
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MURDER IN PORTSMOUTH, We learn from
the Portsmouth IN. HI Chronicle that
shocking murder occurred in that city on
Sunday Clast) evening, under the following
circumstances. 1t appears that Daniel Il.
Spinney and his wife had taken tea at the
house of Nelson n, Downing, who is q con
sin to Mrs. Spinney, at Christian Shore.
Early in the evening difficulty arose be-
tween the two men, in which Downing, who
had been drinking, was the agg1essor, and in
which he was overpowered. Spinnev with his
wife then left the house, amid the threats of
Downing that he would shoot them, They
started for their home, on White. Road by
way of the depot, and Downing was seen to
leave his house with gun for tho Greek, via
Jericho Road. Soon after eight clock. when
Mr.. Spinney and his wife were opening the
door Of their house, a gun was fred from the
opposite side Of the road, and Mr.. Spinney
Immediately exclaimed ~ am shot; nv
God he has shot Sarah" Mrs. Spinney fell
dead instantly, buck shot having entered
her brain. MIR. Spinney was shot through the
arm. Downing Immediately fled to the
woods, but returned home little before mid
night and was arrested and lodged in Jail
He did not seem to be aware of what he had
done-at any rate, nothing was said respect
ing the murder, by him or the officers. He
said he had shot at Spinney, and hoped he
should have another chance. Downing is
about 40 years old, has wife and six chill
| dren, and is said to be peaceabie man when
not under the influence of liquor
/