Connecticut western news., 1879-09-24
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

in Lancaster county, Pa. It was gen. orally believed that they had consider able sum of money hidden away in their home, and at night, in the absence of the old man, number of disguised men came to the house and kicked in one of the rear doors. Mrs. Nagle was sitting in rocking g-chair in the sitting room, reading her Bible, when the masked men entered. They threw her on the floor, bound and gagged her, and ran- sacked the house. All the carpets were torn up. No money was found. They then threatened to kill her if she did not tell where the money was hid. The gag was taken from her mouth, and pistol was pointed at her head; but she was so frightened that she could hardly speak. She said that there was no money in the house, and she closed her eyes, expecting to be killed. The rob- bers again ransacked the house and vent away. When the old man arrived he found his wife nearly dead with fright and injuries. At last accounts she was in danger of dying from nervous prostration, and at times she is out of her mind. Some jewelry and silverware, were carried off.
 In 1847, at Democratic convention in Syracuse, there was serious difficulty between the Barnburners and Hunk CTS. John Van Buren, then Attorney General of the State, stood in one corner of the room, his arms folded across his breast, enjoying the fun. He had just been expelled from the convention on the alleged ground that he carried his district convention by the aid of roughs. In debating MT. Van Buren's right to seat, MT. Peckham had bitterly denounced the violence by which the Prince got to Syracuse, and declared that as the law officer of the State he ought father to have commanded the mob at the district convention to disperse. While Peck ham was straining his voice to make the chairman hear motion, Van Buren mounted seat, and putting his hands to his mouth, in the form of a trumpet, shouted in those shrill, clarion tones, once so familiar in New York, GAS law officer of this State, I command this mob to disperser' This witty retort brought down the house on all sides.
 The grand annual pilgrimage to Mecca has been attended with unusual perils. Yearly, after the Ramazdn, the pious Mussulmans of Asia rendezvous at Damascus and those of Africa at Cairo, whence they proceed to the Holy City. The Surreh Emineh, charged by the Sultan to lead to the Prophets tomb the sacred mules laden with the gold embroidered curtains, the imperial let ter and the rich presents intended for the sanctuary, heads the procession, which is 10000 strong. Asmaller num- Der of Hadjis there could not be, be- cause it is written in the decrees of heaven that so many pilgrims shall an- nually travel to the shrine, and if there were any fears of ''shortage" angels would miraculously make up the num- Der. The Bedouins of Northern Arabia worry and plunder the pilgrims so that the Porte always sends an escort with the caravan. This year the robbers are 50 impudent that for the first time the pilgrims will travel under the protection of artillery, battery of guns and two battalions of troops forming the escort.
 The English and French papers are just now as quarrelsome as an American Congress during g hot political dis cussion. It seems that the laws of mar riage in France are not satisfactory to those of Englishmen who have pretty daughters and large fortune. A great many gentlemen with large titles and small incomes have crossed the Channel from France and incontinently fallen in love with certain English damsels who have no titles but who are quite ready to furnish the means of supporting one. When the happy couple go to house. keeping in Paris, however, it is discov- cred that in a French court of law the English marriage ceremony is null and void. The difficulty is, that when the couple cease to be happy the law declares that they have never been coupled at all, and an opportunity is thus offered to the light hearted husband who is tired of his wife's face. and also spent her for tune, to think seriously of getting some other daughter of some other rich faith CT. So the newspapers are calling each other hard names. The remedy, how ever, is easily found, provided you wish to find it. If our own girls would be 8 little less anxious to marry title, and would more carefully scan the man be- hind it, the bitterness of after lifo might be avoided. It were better not to marry at all, aye, to become that most dreaded of all beings-an old maid-than to wed a man because he is count and wake up after few months and find that he is of no account.
 An, if one could go "behind the scenes" in life, he would see many startling incidents. Harry Richmond never played Grimwig in "Our Candi- date better than at the Park Theater, Brooklyn, on Saturday night. He en- tered fully into the fun of the part, and kept the audience and even the people on the stage laug ghlng uproariously. His spirits were at high tide and the merest nothings in his lines were full of wit and provocative of laughter. There was change in store for him, and the buoyant spirit was to become weeping and sorrowful one. At half-past eight o'clock Col. Sim received telegram from Philadelphia asking him to tell