The Local news. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1861-1862, 1862-01-20
GENERAL NEWS.


ted at Washington. The entire purchase
arms abroad amounts to near three hundred
thousand stand. The arms ought to be good
as the highest price was paid, averaging, i
is said. $l6 gun-making about five mil
lions of dollars worth.
Gen. Buckner's household effects wer,
sold at public auction at Louisville, Ky., las
week, to satisfy the demands of the city tai
collection. The auctioneer sold out Buck
ner's oak bookcases. desk, tables, arm chairs
chamber furniture, and other articles, anG
stopped when the amount of the tax had beer
realized.
A military prison, somewhat similar t
Warren, Boston harbor, has been opened il
California.
The whaling feet of New London, Conn.
has been reduced from thirty.seven vessels
to twenty vessels.
Cambridge Observatory has done great
business in comet catching, having discover
cd twenty in sixteen years. Prof: Bond first
saw seven or eight Of them, and the Tuttles
Charles and Horace-the remainder. The
Newburyport Herald thinks the younger
futile seems to have power to call them up
1t any time, when he has nothing else to do.
The citizens of St. Louis have all been
classified, AID their names registered in four
classes-those who are out and out for the
Union, those who are for it with reserve
ton, those who are sscessionists, those who
keep still and say nothing.
Out of the $4,000 words or so in the Eng
lish tongue, it has been found that an Eng
lish peasant only uses 800. An ordinarily
educated man is supposed to use 5000 or
1000, while a great orator reaches 1000.
The Old Testament contains 5,642 different
words. and the works of Shakespeare about
15,OOO,. those of Milton about 5000.
The Washington correspondent of the
Philadelphia News. speaking Of the late re-
ported affair about the Mansion House Hos
pital in Alexandria says :-"Col. A. G.
Freese and Capt. A. r. White, who minute
ly investigated the matter, report they found
a coil of safety fuse had been laid from Cam
Ell on street to an unoccupied store under the
hospital, which contained large amouneof
inAammable matter. The report has been
laid before the War Department. 1t is be.
lieved that the secessionists who linger
around Alexandria, under the pretence of Fl
being Union men, will yet succeed in their
determination to burn down the town.
There has been heard nothing of this Man
sion House affair here in Alexandria, since s
the first mention of it, when the particulars
were given in the Local News ,
The Philadelphia News, speaking of the
schemes for contscatiOn of property in the
portions of the Southern States occupied by q
he U. 5. army. says, If any one be in
loubt az to the policy of confscation, he t
should be exceedingly cautious about adopt. I
ny it, when he knows that the most deter {
mined enemies of the u S. government urge /
t." s#a=zsf I
Captains McHenry and Chapman, of the |
sd Pennsylvania regiment, who had been p
'uo0uo VI iuiAouSu, IC'uIhcu vi SATURDAY .
light to Alexandria. land having become in
oxicated, they commenced quarreling in the p
treet, near the Office of Gen. Montgomery, t.
rho coming out, endeavored to quell the dis !;
urbance, when Chapman fired two ineffec- !.
ual shots at him with pistol. The guard h
7as summoned, and arrested the offenders, c.
nd placed them in irons. The facts of this U
ase will be found among our local items. 81
We hearof the resignation Of a number Il
suffers in the army, in consequence of the "
ontemplated enactment of the law reduc- te
ng their profits. The decrease of 81 900 81
,onth to about two hundred, has staggered d
number Of them, and they are preparing g
D hurdle off the moment their regiments o.
re paid off. D
The Jayhawkers have penetrated Nebras- o
a, and are committing all sorts of depreda- l.
ons upon the inhabitants. Governor Saun- OF
ers has issued proclamation ordering
hem off g
The N. Y. Evening Post does not like the
cessation of hostlities" resolutions re- lie
IrtroIncoJ int tho M