Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-05-30

| A young woman in Milwaukee was recently
beset by three highway robbers of her own sex
the oldest not over fourteen, who despoiled hei
| OF valuable necklace and gold cross and de-
| camped.
Gen. J. S. Williams, prominent confederate
general during the war, has been for some years
working on his farm at Mt. Sterling, KY, large
force of negroes, who heretofore gave him con.
siderable trouble. This year he has built a
school house on the place. hired a colored
teacher and has Sabbath school there every
Sunday, and occasional service by a regular min
lister; and now everything is peaceful and
happy.
Some settlers, aggrieved by the dam on Port
age creek, Mich, which raised the water of
Portage lake some feet above Lake Michigan.
recently dug small ditch between the two lakes,
when the water rushed through, making chan.
mel for itself 400 feet wide and 30 deep, making
one of the best harbors on the coast, and proba-
bly, changing the entire commercial condition of
that section.
The misunderstanding of the great public
schools in England are very valuable. Elton is
worth about $50 900, with a large residence;
Harrow, the same; Rugby, about $40, 900. In
former days head-masters usually became bish-
ops, but they are not so certain of mitres now.
DR.. Waugh, the head-master of Harrow-now
what is called master of the Temple" the cele-
brated round church of the Knights Templars
attached to the Inns of Court-has twice said
ll0lo epiScOpdri. A rare instance.
shrub known by the name of balata, which
abounds in Guinea, affords juice which is
found to be superior, for many purposes to gutta-
| percha, and of peculiar value as an insulating
material for enveloping Geographic wires The
milk or juice coagulates quickly when exposed
TO the air, and almost instantaneously when pre-
| cipltated by alcohol, which also dissolves the
resin of the balata juice 1t is believed by those
who have investigated its nature and properties
| that almost all the articles now manufactured
| from gutta-percha can be made with the sap of
TINS Guinea plant, and it has the advantage of
being without any disagreeable smell. When
worked up it becomes as supple as cloth, and
more flexible than gutta-percha, and it appears
| to possess equal strength and durability.
A letter published in the Tribune from gem
| tleman in Sing Sing, N. Y, to friend in New
| York city, discloses the inquistion which con
| victs in the former placeha 10 undergo. This
| is what he says: The authorities take small
| cord, slip-noose it round the thumbs of pris.
oner, and then draw him up by the cord one foot
| from the floor, and let him hang there until he
faints. They have a convict now under punish.
ment whose keeper has hung him up in this way
three times, and says that the convict begs that
| he will not kill him. He lets him hang an hour
| and ten minutes. have been told chat the doc
tor says that if he had been left hanging five
minutes longer he would have been a dead man
Alter being taken down the prisoner is put in q
dark CELL in which planks are laid on the flags
with holes bored in them and pins driven in
| which stick up about three inches. The prison
er has to stand on these pins in his stockings
or lie down upon them.