Connecticut western news., 1878-02-28
GENERAL ITEMS.

London is blind man, only thirty-two years of age.
 A bill poster in an Ohio town cov- cred the tombstones in graveyard with circus cuts.
 Some enemy of the widow Stanfell, in Loundes, Ga., set fire to her house. She and her three children perished.
 A whale took the cable of the schoon- CT Crowell, on the Banks, and lowed the vessel long distance before it broke adrift.
 A bill to abolish actions for breach of promise of marriage has been intro duced into the English House of Com mons.
 | An Englishman has invented tree felling machine, which, worked by three men, will do as much as twenty four men with axes.
 An innocent man who for forty years has been held as convict in England, has just been discovered to be innocent and liberated.
 The Russian Minister of Traffic has directed the railroad companies to em- ploy Turkish prisoners in clearing snow from the tracks.
 The population of Rome, which was in 1867, 215, ,573, rose last year to 280,- 564. From :, 1000 to 5000 soldiers were included in each enumeration.
 A bill before the Legislature of Ohio proposes tax of a mill on the dol lar to raise fund for bounties for the killing of hawks, rats, and mice.
 The State Fencibles of Philadelphia wanted to go to Paris during the Exhi- bition, but France refuses to allow any armed body of men to come into her territory.
 The Trustees of Provincetown, Mass. have made up their minds that they will have no moro profanity in the streets, and have ordered rigid enforcement of the law on that subject.
 Three men in masks so frightened some young girls in Albany a few nights ago, that they ran away, one of them so eagerly that she fell and broke both the bones of her right leg.
 Virginia once had native African for Governor. Alexander Spottswood, who filled the chair in 17O0, was born in Tangier, while his father, British off Ger, was there on duty.
 Since the burning of the Brooklyn Theater, thirty-six fire escapes have been invented. Eleven of these proved worth less, and at the testing of each of the others somebody was either killed or hurt.
 They are trying to suppress quacks by statute in Illinois, Wisconsin, Min ing mainly upon boards of examiners to decide who are competent to practice medicine.
 The cry of fire which caused the fatal panic in circus at Calais, on Feb. 3, IS believed to have been started as a practical joke. Ten persons were crushed to death by the crowd. There was no fire or other danger.
 A curious proposal is made by the ScientifC American. It is that ex- h1b1tions should be held of the head and hand work of the children of the coun- try, or of different States, the best work to be rewarded with prizes.
 Nearly $2,O0O,OOO are invested in this country alone in the making of 8 sort of butter from the fat of beeves. It is sold under the name of oleomargarine. In Europe its manufacture and con- sumption are much greater than in America.
 The Chinese in Carson, Nev., had a ball. Tip Yong was the belle. At mid night two Chinamen entered the hall, seized her, and carried her off. An Song started to rescue her, and was in stantly killed by pistol shot. The belle has not been found.
 For thirty years Cup to 1863 the Constitution of Mississippi provided that no person who den1ed the existence of Q future state of reward or punishment, should hold any office in the civil depart partment of the State. It is proposed to restore the clause.
 When an estate is sold in Ireland the Irish Board of Works is empowered to advance 8 certain sum to help per son who has been tenant on the estate to purchase hls farm, the money being a first charge on the land sold. Lately. when an estate was sold ln Tyrone, n,v> sixths of it were bought by former tenants.
 A farmer in Upper Providence, Pa., tells story of his COW going at the same hour every day to the same spot in a meadow not far from the house. One day he watched her, and saw @ huge black snake, its mouth on one of the ami, malls teats, milking her. He killed the snake, when the COW soon discontinued her visits to the meadow. MT. James Merck, while searching for gold in his mine, near Gainesville, , Ga, found nugget weighing twenty three pennyweights. It was not pure gold, but, on being melted, turned out eighteen pennyweights of solid gold MT. Merck is not working this mine reg. ularly, but when he wants little cash and other sources fail to respond, he goes to his diggings and scratches around , until he finds enough to supply his i'm , mediate wants.
 At Bodie, Cal, the other day, two 5 men named Brasian and Blair became ) involved in difficulty and drew thei