Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1876-01-14
THE NEWS IN BRIEF.

Heavy SHOWS have fallen in The south of
France.
Coy. Tilden denies Stokes's application
for pardon, and he will have TO stay at
Sing Sing until Septem ber. Poor fellow
The Moody and Sankey meetings in
Philadelphia have cost $4,000, and the re-
ceipts have only reached sl4,9l7. Contri-
buttons are called for.
"A notable feature of New Years in
Chicago, and indeed in all tho large cities,
wac the general absence of wine from the
parlors and dining-rooms.
"A Windham N. II. boy bed to death the
other day from striking his noseon the ice,
on which he fell while skating.
The broken direct cable has been re-
paired, and is in working order again.
Some idea OF the accuracy with which the
electricians can calculate the locality of a
break may be gathered from the fact that
the first graphing brought up the Irish
end of the cable within II miles of the
break. Whether the fracture was caused
by accident or design was not determined.
There was an outrageously bungling
execution at Winnipeg, Manitoba, Satur-
day, at the hanging ofAngus Melver for the
murder of George Atkinson and the at
tempted murder of Baptiste Cbsrette. The
knot slipped under the chin of the victim,
the neck was unbroken, and death resulted
from strangulation, only alter four min
utes of terrible struggling.
The pinch of hard times at Montreal is
not confined, any more than elsewhere, TO
the classes that work on the railroad. A
terrible case came to light, Saturday, in
fashionable looking house Oh Victoria
street, where a family who have known
what ii is TO have an abundance of this
worlds goods wero found suffering in
proud silence from lack of food and fuel
The famous Singer will case has been
decided by the New York courts in favor
OF Mrs. Isabella Eugene Singer.
An autograph letter of Benjamin Frank
lin, written twenty-one years before the
Declaration of Independence, has been dis
covered in New York, aud will he exhib-
tied at the Philadelphia Exposition.
Among the changes wrought during the
century or our history just closing was the
setting up of stoves in the meeting houses,
and having fires in them on Sunday.
Many of the people gave the innovation
cold reception and hot opposition, the
result of the contest being warm churches
at the present day.
Charles II. Beckwith, confidential
clerk Of b. F. Rabbit, the soap manufac-
turer OF New York, has been arrested for
eMbezzling a large sum OF money from
his employer, and held to answer. His
crime extends over period of some five
years, and defalcations to the amount of
100000 have already been established
against Kim. 1t is expected they will
reach $500, 900. The prisoner was commit
ted 10 answer without bail.
The Scientific American recommends
the substitution of electricity for the gal
lows as means Of public execution. A
rifle bullet, which traverses the brain in
the thousandth part of a second leaves the
face placid, but the electric shock is incon-
ceivably quicker. A powerful Ruhmkoff
coil, and heavy battery, would kill a
condemned criminal with a suddenness
that would leave him not thousandth
part of a second for knowledge, and it is
Farther suggested that this death, through
its very mystery, would he greater ter
ror TO evil doors than the mode at present
in use.