The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-02-04
CURRENT AFFAIRS.

Alhio tiJihS w AAithC pCttS'AO -
each other.
Four hundred soldiers have been sen
from the Mexican Capital to reinforc'
the Mexican troops on the Rio Grande
; The whisky developments in the Chi
: csco courts are becoming exceedingly
and painfully angular for the dealers il
the " crooked"
IT is stated that the European Gov
ernments have reserved their replies tC
the American note on the Spanish Cuban
question until they have exchanged their
views.
The Panama Railroad is il o bad con-
dition financially, and is to be investi-
gated by the Colombian Government.
The sum of $500,000 will be required to
put it in good running order.
The Supreme Court of Tennessee has
solemnly decided in a case under the In
solvency act that an ass is horse, and
Judge Guild follows up the decision by
declaring that blackboard is cart
within the meaning of the statute.
COUNT ANDEAssY, the Austrian Prime
Minister, recently had narrow escape
from assassination by former Govern
ment employe who had been dismissed
for embezzlement and refused reinstate-
ment The attempt failed, the Minister
receiving only a slight wound in the
face, and the would-be assassin was an
rested.
ONE of the loveliest islands of the East
has just suffered tremendous misfor-
tune. An enormous landslip of earth
and rocks occurred near ST. Denis, in the
Island of Reunion, over an extent OF two
kilometers, which buried no fewer than
sixty-two persons under a mass OF ruin
fifty metres in depth, and of course de-
stroyed everything within its range.
FLooD & O'BRIEN, successors to the
dead Ralston as San Francisco's money
kings, are going to advertise themselves
and the bonanza mines by sending the
product of the consolidated Virginia and
California mines for the month of May
next, to the Centennial Exhibition. 1t
will amount to $10,0 900 in ore and $50
tons in gold and silver bullion, and Is
cars will lie required to carry the pre-
cious load.
CINCINNATI is going to have carni-
val, in emulation of the Southern cities.
The arrangements for Mardi Gras are
nearly completed, and among other comic
representations will be seventeen designs
to illustrate important events in Ameri-
can history. There will also be the grass
hopper plague, the great musical prodi-
gies, and the ancient and modern sewing
machines contrasted, while the King of
the Carnival will ride in fastastic con-
veyance to be called the Bears Head.
A YEARS trial of compulsory education
in New York has given 9)rima -tacie
proof of its possibility and its value.
Curiously enough, it has been most sue
cessful in the most difficult place, the
metropolis. In the rural districts, a
disgusting apathy has prevailed, which
has prevented the children of the very
poor or of criminals from gaining the
knowledge without which they are
doomed to extreme poverty, or crime, or
both. In the city, however, good work
has been done. Within the twelvemonth
5000 children have been rescued from
vagrancy. In January, 1875, the aver
age attendance at the public schools was
90, $50. Now it is 100,9l4.
THE Washington correspondent of the
New York Tribune telegraphs that Jour
nal "The President is understood to
have had some conversation within a
few days with certain members of the
| Committee on Naval Affairs of one of the
Houses, during which he took occasion
to say that it was his greatest ambition
and the subject of his constant care and
| thought to retire from Office in 1877,
without having had during his term of
President any trouble with foreign Gov
ernments, and especially any trouble
where the services of the army or navy
were necessary. He was satisfied that
his remaining months of official life pre-
sented a peaceful promise.
THAT British trade, which has been
for ages the source and the measure of
British power, has fallen into decline,
is fact recognized in some sadly por-
tentous phrases of a speech delivered
before the Sheffield Chamber of Com
merce, the other day, by its President,
whose means of information assure the
correctness of his judgment. English
manufacturers, he said, no longer COM
mand the markets of the United States,
aud Americans and Germans, with i'm
proved machinery producing articles
equal to the best hand made fabrics of
Sheffield and Birmingham, are pushing
the latter into corner. 1t is an newt.
able law of nature that things go down
hill with ever-increasing velocity.
J Britannia rules the waves only by the
poetic license of the song book now,
and her sailors who once held undisput
ed sovereignty of the seas find it more
than match for their nautical skill to
keep their clumsy ironclad ships out Of
each others way. Her armies sixty ode
, years ago arbitrated the destinies of the
: continent and to-day a single corps O
, the monstrous levies of the great powers
would overmatch her whole force. He
manufacturers less than generation age
/ almost monopolized the markets of boil
, hemispheres but their glory has de
parted, too. A hundred years hence
7 perhaps, some Yankee Gibbon will writ
) the first volume of the decline and fal
3 of the British Empire; and centur
v later, Macaulay may send along his Ne,
9 Zealander to explore the ruins of Lon
, don for memorials of Britain's departe
3 greatness.
L