The Lake County star., 1876-07-27
MINOR TOPICS.

The New York courts hold that the
sender of postal card is responsible for
any chance publication of its contents,
Notwithstanding post-ofice employees
are forbidden to communicate the con-
tents of such card. A libel, therefore,
written on postal card is actionable,
they hold, if it accidentally falls into the
hands of any person other than the one
addressed.
JAPANESE lacquer is said to be sub.
stance extracted from tree. 1t grows
in the north of Japan, and the gum is
prepared and sent to all parts of the
country. 1t is rank poison while soft.
Many people cannot endure the smell,
or pass workshop without suffering. A
great deal of skill is required in making
the gum harden and set. When set it is
waterproof and perfectly harmless; it
stands heat, and is tough and hard.
Wood, leather, metal, and paper fabrics
take lacquer easily.
The people of Colorado, having &C
cepted the constitution recently pre-
pared for them, only two or three minor
acts remain to introduce her into the
sisterhood of States. There will then be
six States west of the Missouri River,
Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado,
Nebraska, and Kansas, all of them hav-
ing population of only 1,22O,9l7, or
about the same as the State of Virginia.
Truly Congress has been generous in ad.
mitting these States in the Union 80 far
as their population is concerned.
Mr.. CoRvIN, of London, in his valu-
able pamphlet on hydrophobia, indorses
the theory of DR.. Thompson, according
to which it is vulgar error that patients
in hydrophobia are mad. They are not
mad there is no such thing as madness
connected with the disease. The Duke
of Richmond, who, while Governor Gen
eral of Canada was bitten by rabid fox,
and suffered from the most violent par
oxysms, which ended in death, had suffi-
cient fortitude and selfcontrol in the in
tervals to give all necessary directions
for the conduct of all public business
and the settlemet of his own private
business.
A REDUCTION of wages has not been
confined to the laboriDg classes of this
country. The Lancashire operatives have
just been cut down ten per cent, and the
miners in the Wegan and Ty yldersley dis
tricts fifteen per cent. The time, also, of
the Lancashire workmen has been re-
duced one-third-to four days a week.
A falling demand is the cause of these
reductions, yet it is very doubtful, even
at these low rates, if the quantity for
merly produced can be reached. The
cost of labor is 30 much lower on the con-
tinent that the trade of England is slip
ping away from her with but faint hope
of recovery.
The shocking reports we had short
time ago about the cruelty of the Turks
in Bulgaria, are confirmed by more re-
cent advices from the regions they are
ravaging. According to Bulgarian let
ters. not less than. $4,000 people of all
ages and both sexes were butchered by
their irregular troops in the operations
of last month, and scores of towns were
burned after all their inhabitants had
been put TO the sword. A correspondent
of the London News asserts that many
women were burned alive, while the
younger ones were carried off to worse
fate. In this war the Turk is appearing
in all his historical ferocity.
Mr.. WIN. E. BAKER, of Boston, the &C.
centric owner of the Centennial"
pigpen which the Washington Light In
fantry Of Charleston, South Carolina, good |
naturedly assisted him in dedicating
when they visited the Bunker Hill Gen.
tennial celebration last year, has re-
ceived Confederate cannon from that
organization in recognition of his treat
ment of them during their visit. Mr..
Baker has sent an invitation to the COM
pany to visit him this summer, with
their wives, at his farm at Wellesley,
Massachusetts,. A party of fifty have
accepted the invitation, and the arrange
ments for the reception have been placed
in the hands of a committee headed by
Governor Rice. Mr.. Baker is to bear all
the expenses.
NORTHERN California is not yet rid of
the desperadoes of mining days. Certain
counties are now infested with defiant |
gangs of robbers, who have of late been |
indulging in more than their usual
activity in crime. Twice within month
have stages been robbed, and a store and |
station on the line broken open by two
rascals, who escaped, but were afterward
Overtaken by the Sheriff of the county,
and in the conflict ensuing one of the |
robbers was killed, while the other made
off to be rearrested and to escape second |
time. A correspondent of the Boston
Aduertiser says that news of this kind
passes from mouth to mouth hostlers
tell il to drivers at the stations, and
drivers pass it on to postmasters at the
wilderness offices, while the passengers,
gradually worked up to pitch of appre-
hension by this continual gossip of high
way robbery, are ready (or unready) for
any adventure. 1t ranks well up in the