Connecticut western news., 1879-05-07
NOTES AND COMMENTS.


 burg that we have by cable. Multi tudes of people, whole families at time, are arrested daily; there are few pedes- trians or carriages in the streets cov- cred prison vans, with an officer behind the driver, are hurrying along; an end less line of porters acting as watchmen are to be seen they sit at every door, armed with stout sticks, and Cossacks gallop around cracking their whips. It is a reign of terror in St. Petersburg.
 -Three sailors in New York were un- lucky enough to see man killed on shipboard. For this certainly not very heinous offence they were deprived of their liberty since Feb. 15-for thirty six days in Ludlow street jail. Now 1t turns out that the man was killed in self-defence, and the sailors are let go. Next time killing is going on in their vicinity they will probably shut their eyes or look the other way.
 The custom of shaving the sbeard was enforced by Alexander of Macedon, not for the sake of fashion, but for practical end. He knew that the sol diers of India, when they encountered their foes, had the habit of grasping them by the beard, and so he ordered his soldiers to shave. Afterward shay ing was practiced in the Macedonian army, and then among Greek citizens The Romans initiated the Greeks in the practice, as they did in many other things, and spread it to the different European nations yet barbaric. In the Middle Ages, at the time of the Renais- sance, shaving was introduced, and the habit was retained, though classicism gave place to romanticism, and that, in ! it's turn, was replaced by realism. The beard was a source of trouble to Peter the Great, who, simultaneously with the | introduction of his great reforms in Rus l sia, tried to induce his people to initiate the shaving nations. This innovation was resisted by his subjects with the ut most persistence, and they preferred to pay heavy fine rather than suffer dis fgurement, as they believed, of the image of God. To the Russians of olden times the beard was symbol of liberty. In several countries of Vest ern Europe and in the United States the beard was restored to honor only about twenty years ago, but even yet the ma jority of men respect the custom intro duced by Alexander the Great.
 Cincinnati has had queer case of matrimonial engagement and disengage- ment, with some very novel accompani- ments. According to newspaper re- ports, John Gibson, proprietor of the Gibson House, wooed and won young not very young-woman named Bunce. At least she consented with alacrity to
 be his wife, and he was on the point of forming @ connubial partnership with
 her when his parents interposed ob-
 jections to the match. He yielded to
 them, and withdrew from the proposed
 alliance, notwithstanding he admitted his own views of, and feelings toward,
 her to be unchanged. This caused nc little surprise among his acquaintances, because he is not, as might be surmised
 in the first bloom of youth or under the
 ordinary restraint of leading strings. Or the contrary, he is past forty-fve, big burly, rudy-complexioned fellow, whom , no one judging from his appearance l would suspect of being a calf. But it il . supposed that, though nominally il
 business, he has no money of his own his father having all the property, ant 2 that he is, therefore very submissive t. :, the will of the governor. However thi
 may be, the junior Gibson refused t. e keep his part of the agreement; bu - Miss Bunce held him to it, and b . secured release only by giving he . $50, 1000, in five notes of hand for $10, ,00 | each. After this he renewed his court l. ship, and persuaded her to surrende , the notes, which she, in the innocenc ,s and affection of her heart, did withou 70 hesitation. Then he deserted her, an Q she has brought suit for damages d sustaining her case by reciting tn
 story, which. is very strange, if true. s. Soon after the Presidential electio y in 1876 Baker Reed of Vanport, Pa i- betted twenty-five dollars to ten dolla Il that Tilden was elected President. Dal V- iel Barndollar put up the money, T. ly Davy acting as stakeholder. After Pre- ye ident Hayes inauguration the mono ry was paid over to Barndollar. Reed the ut entered suit against Daly to recover u on amount, and the case came up in loc is court recently. A law of Pennsylvan ly punishes betters by decreeing that u is stakes shall be handed over to the DO ed directors of the county where the bettil lp takes place, but if two years elapse aft SC the betting the money goes to the wi
 ner in the absence of a suit by the DO h. directors. In this instance the t, nd years had passed, and the defendal in- Barndollar, was allowed to keep Ter money.
 tly A private letter to a member of he New York Legislature thus describes er- night session of the Texas Assembly ho In the Speakers chair sits what loo 'us like man; you can't just make ( in- what it is, as most of the honorable gt 'ul tlemen are very busily engaged in smt lily ing, and the smoke from so many pil
 hangs like cloud over their heads
 very typical, as all the speeches het
 also ended in smoke. Every memI her had lighted tallow candle sticking by his desk. Whether this is part of his outfit of every member I cannot say, rse l suppose it is, for each one, on the