Connecticut western news., 1879-06-04
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

H1 OOy O"OANO yO&rS Ot ago COALAAV- ted suicide in the Philadelphia House of Refuge. His name was Henry Ackley, | and last November he was found drift ing about the streets and sent to the in- | stitution. A short time ago he attempted to escape, and was punished by solitary confinement. The cell in which he was placed was on the upper or third-story tier of the north wing. The apartment was utterly destitute of furniture of any kind, not having even cot or seat. Into this room, the door of which was then closed on the prisoner, the light IS admitted through piece of cast-iron three feet high and about six inches wide, closely fitting the window, and which is perforated by a number of small holes each about fourth of an inch in diameter. In fact the cell is so dark that, even with the sunlight stream ing against the iron shutter it would be difficult to read at the door. The boy took this punishment seriously at heart. and finding that he would be kept iu the cell for some time he hanged himself with a suspender. He is believed to have been made insane by the confine- ment.
 The figures of the estimates of the comparative costs of the several routes proposed for ship canal to unite the Atlantic ald. Pacific are given: The subcommittee on the cost of the work reported that the Tehuantepec project would cost $40, ,OOO, ,OOO without includ- ing the cost of terminal ports ; Nicara- gua, 928, ,500,000; the Panama, 943,- GOO, ,000, exclusive of indemnity to the railway company San Bias, 952, ,0O0,- GOO, and the Atrato Nipipl route, e44,- coo. GOO. The calculation is made that 7,250, ,000 tonnage would pass through the ship canal in a year. Suppose the canal should cost $2OO, GOO, ,OOO, the in- terest at six per cent. on the capital would be $12,COO,OO0 This would amount to about $1.75 ton toll for shipping to pass through, without reck oning the cost of management. A sail ing vessel of LOGO tons would have to pay $1, 750, pretty heavy item, and a steamship of 5000 tons would have to pay $5, 250. It is believed that the Pan- anna route will be selected.
 The land in Ireland is cultivated by 600, GOO tenants, who occupy an average of thirty-two acres each. There are 16,000 landlords, of whom 1922 own two-t thirds of the whole country. MT. Gladstone says that the question of con- verting the disafected Irish tenant into an owner rises into the higher region oi politics and of moral and social order, and goes to the root of how to banish Irish discontent.
 A touching incident is narrated oi the recent visit of ex-Secretary McCul' loch to Harvard University. While engaged one evening in conversation with several visitors, Oliver Wendell Holmes. now nearly seventy years old, related his earliest impressions of liar. yard University. He was eight years old, he said, when 8 young student oi rare ability and superb physique was suddenly removed by death. He was SC popular in the college that his class. mates erected memorial tablet to his memory, with suitable Latin inscrip- ton upon it. And that tablet still stands in the old b-i1ding, where 50 many men were graduated who have since become distinguished in American annals. "He was an Eastern man" added MT. Holmes, "and though was mere child, I have never forgotten the impression that this young gentleman's death made upon my youthful mind" MT. McCulloch, who had manifested great interest in the narrative, suddenly asked his name, and upon being told that his name was Mo. Culloch, he responded with much feel. inc. "That was my brother" MT. Mo. Culloch subsequently visited the spot and examined the now time.worn tablet which the hands of strangers had erected to the memory of 8 much loved son and brother.
 Among the most noteworthy of the recent mementoes of the war is the memorial obe1isk erected at Salisbury, N O., to mark the burial-place of the Northern soldiers who perished in the adjacent prison-pen during the last years of the great conflict. It has been esti mated that the IS trenches contain nc fewer than II, 700 men, buried promis cuously, without the possibility of iden' ti6cation, from which circumstance this battle-ground is known as the Cemetery of the Unknown Dead" It lies about half mile from the Town of Salisbury on slepiug ground, and has an extent of about seven acres, surrounded by { massive stone wall. The cemetery prop CT covers two acres, the other five being laid out as lawn, and planted witt trees. A neat lodge has been erected 8 the main entrance, over which the na tional colors are daily displayed in fine weather. The monument itself, plail obelisk of New Hamps hire granite, B feet 10 inches in height, is from design by MT. Augustus Van Clehf, of Nev York, and was erected at cost of $10, GOO. The unknown names of the deat are poetically symbolized by a veilet | shield sword and ho1mat tvpifv th,