St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-07-06

temperature, promptly fined the legal
light and temporarily eclipsed his radi-
ance by sending him to Jail for ten days.
In the other, jury which had been
locked up to bring them to an agree
ment got tired of confinement, and, to
use very expressive phrase, "put up a
job" on his honor by sealing up Sham
verdict and giving it to the clerk of the
court who then let them go. The judge
was what might be called "hOpping
mad, and, sending out his minions,
dragged the culprits before the bar OF
outraged justice, where they, together
with the hapless officer who let them &C
free, received a stern rebuke and were
given their choice of. fine or imprison-
ment. 1 think this is the first instance
of the kind recorded in this city.
The death of Mr.. Robert Dale Owen,
which took place at his retired home on
Lake George, brings freshly to mind
the main incidents of strange and
eventful life. Mr.. Owen is, perhaps
most generally remembered by his con-
nectiOn with the "Katie King" affair
and exposure in l874-undoubtedly the
most remarkable spiritualistic episode
on record. Shortly after this exposure,
which put him in an unfavorable light
Mr.. Owen went to an insane asylum
not, however, Oh that account, if his
friends are to be believed. Mr.. Owen
inherited socialistic and even communis-
tic tendencies from his father, wealthy
Scotchman, who, getting thoroughly
into his head tine crotchet that all wealth
and rank should be abolished, came over
to this country and spent his fortune in
unsuccessful attempts to carry his ideas
into practical effect. The best known
of these efforts, and the one where
Robert Dale Owen, then a young man
of 25, first came into >nOtice, was the
colony he founded at New Harmony,
Ind, where the enthusiastic Owen
senior, had bought 900 acres of land
and a thousand dwellings. The expert
ment was a failure, as were subsequent
attempts in the same direction. Robert
Dale Owens marriage was as peculiar
as the rest of his life. No ceremony
was ever performed, both he aud his
wife insisting that it was senseless and
unnecessary. They merely drew up
and signed an agreement regarding theiI
union. The marriage was, however, ii
happy one and endured for nearly forty
years, when Mrs. Owen died, to the
great grief of her husband.
In view of the recent terrible fires in
New England and Canada, and on gen
eral principles the insurance men have
just closed a manful struggle against
the permission of tire-crackers and fire
works generally ON Wednesday next
but the small boy, planting himself
squarely upon the traditions of a cen
fury, has successfully defed them and
put them utterly to rout. Perhaps
Mayor Ely, when he put his signature
to the ordinance permitting the use OF
these obnoxious articles, remembered
the immense access of patriotism which
together with burned fingers and :
blackened face, resulted to himself in
his own early years from the indulgence
of the festive tire-cracker and its big
brother the "dOuble- header" and wa,
unwilling that the rising generation
should be deprived of such an incentive
to the preservation of national indie
pendence. Let things remain as they
are and there breathes not the caitif
boy who would shrink from shedding
his last drop of blood in his viens in de,
| ICHsC vi lIOSC
our annual bang. But once let the fire
cracker be thrust into ignominious exile
then stand from under! The repub,
lican form of government without fire
crackers would be to the small boy ever
as champagne from which all fizz has
heen extracted. He would droop anG
pine, and the American eagle might bt
nay, doubtless would be, dragged
through the mire at the tyrant's chariot
wheel; nor would the S. B. raise &;
finger in its behalf or even care a las
years peg-top for the whole catastrophe
So let us retain the little red scourge 10y
all means in spite of the published sta
tistics which show fire loss of 500 fol
every dollars worth of fire. crackers i'm
ported into this country.
Our Columbia College Boat Club ha
crossed oars with the formidable Har
wards, and, although the blue and whit,
fought nobly, Cambridge has snatcheo
the honOrs from New York, to hold TO
a year at least. RADIX.