The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1880-12-09
EDITORIAL NoIEs.

Something novel in the way o
a cause for suicide was developed il
North Carolina, where a Young lad,
hanged herself through mOrtifica
ton at the defeat of her father fo
the legislature.
| -Vennor. of Canada. and Tice. D
ST. Louis, who are proprietOrs o
private weather factories. hav,
agreed upon the prediction tina
there will be snow in December
January and February. The Syra
cuse Standard processes a reasonable
degree of thankiulmess that the tive
savants did not designate June, Jul,
and August for the visitation.
Mr.. Abbey has determined e
run the gauntlet of public opinion
and risk the production of the "Pas
sion Play" even should ne incur {
heavy loss by so doing. 1t is under
stood that his programme is TO invite
a number of the leading opponents
of the play to attend its first prcsen-
tation, in order To test thereby tho
temper of the public. This is both
shrewd and sensible, and probably
the best way of reaching Il settle
ment of this much debated question
that could be devised
For injuries inflicted on pas
senger, and caused by the breaking
down of a Pullman sleeping berth,
the United States Supreme Court
decides the railroad company and
not the sleeping car company is LA
bic to the injured man. The reason
ing is cogent, and makes clear the
law in that particular class of cases.
The passengers robbed recently on
a Pullman car while en- route for
Washington will doubtless want to
know which of the two companies
concerned is responsible for allow
ing thief to go through the car
and rob the sleeping passengers of
$1,000.
This is the coolest November in
the memory of the oldest settler in
Colorado. On the 14th the mercury
went as low as 26 degrees below
zero. The report of the United
States signal service shows the min
imum thermometer to have been I3
degrees below, and the maximum
for twenty-four hours z degrees
above. At 9 o'clock in the morning
on the 18th the mercury indicated
Is degrees below. The sun was out
in all its splendor during the entire
day, and not welt of cloud was to
be seen. AT 8 o'clock the mercury
had dropped Is degrees below. And
this 20 xuhot hoe uaoIa Nouan,ho, -,
Texas especially severe. Our north
ers come direct from Colorado.
The traffic returns OF the Suez
Canal Company for October show
the receipts to have been $685., 900,
against $439, 919 in the same month
of 1879. In the first ten months of
the year the increase is from 1885,
059 TO $685. $50. The tonnage at
the end of September amounted to
3,288,851 tons, and as the traffic is
most active during the last three
months of the year, it is believed
that the tonnage by the end of De-
cember will easily exceed 100000
tons. NJ. de Lesseps, in his argu-
ment for the canal in 1855, wrote :
sit might be argued without exag-
geration that almost the whole of
the freight to the East will take the
route of the canal" The estimates.
however, were not based upon thai
presumption, and de Lesseps pre-
sumed that but half the shipping
would pass through the Isthmus.
He therefore estimated the amount
of tolls to be earned on 100000
tons. The London Economist says i:
1.-THE canal has only been open ten
years, and his estimate is already eX-
ceeded by a third. These results
should inspire confidence in his esti-
mates of the future of the Panama
shin canal"
"A Fort Wayne, Indiana, engi-
neer, Mr.. Fontaine, has invented a
locomotive which, it is claimed, can
attain higher rate of speed in pull
ing passenger trains than is ordina-
rily practicable, and be equally ser
viceable in pulling heavy freight
trains. In the Fontaine engine the
power is applied by single piston
rod on each side, running from the
cylinder to n large driye-whcel To-
OatC0 dUO1 llC hlINCl. uplgCl
drive-wheel is of the same diameter
as the lower, but it bears upon a
flange several inches smaller Than
the lower driver, and thus brings
into play the principle of large and
small pulleys. in the driving of or
binary machinery. The application
of power to a wheel bearing upon
another wheel gives an immense adj
vantage over the application to a
wheel on dead level and with the
weight of standard locomotive on
its axle. Another advantage lies in
the fact that the locomotive has no
dead-ccnters, for the lower driver
acts as a huge balance wheel, by its
momentum carrying the upper
wheel past the points i'll its motion
where power is lost. A the first
trial of the engine, the Fort Wayne
NetcS reports that it displayed a
speed of seventy-five miles an hour.
"A dispatch from Chicago, dated
November 18th, says: "The police
of this city arc looking for an es-
capped convict from the Missouri PEN
itentiary, whose history has the
tinge of fiction. The last name he
had when arrested at st. Louis, in
1879, was Rev. CASTOR Won Hoog-
land. His first appearance in Amer
lea was in 1850. He was born in
Denhelder, Holland. In 1870 he was
arrested in France and sentenced to
two years imprisonment at Savoy.
He escaped and came to New Or
leans, where he appeared as Wis
count Alphonsus de Gartere. In
1877 ne went to Galveston, Tex
as, where he charmed the pop
ulace as an eloquent Catholic
priest, under the name of Rev. f.
De Georterez; in March he installed
himself as chancellor OF Galveston,
and travelled over the state. He
came into Illinois as Father De-
Rouge, and once showed up as Barren
De Alonzo. In the autumn of the
same year he went to Europe, and
reveled in Belgium as Alfred De-
Rohan, coadjutor of the archbishop
of San Francisco. Returning to
America he fieeced the people oil
Troy, New York, as Rev. Herbert
Sweeny. In the winter he went to
Sayannah,as. Rev. Baron DeLemoral
in 1873 he turned up as deacon
in Montreal, Canada; in 1879 he was
in Omaha as Father Stanislus; then
he drifted TO Texas again: then he
came up into Arkansas and Mem
phis. hle speaks English. German,
French and Spanish flnently. He is
finished in his address; and plays