The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-08-11
FACTS AND COMMENTS.

FACTS AND COMMENTS.
M. Munkacsy, the Hungarian painter,
has just declined to take less than $780,
600 for his new picture of "Christ be-
fore Plate" 1t is not so long ago that
this brilliant and now wealthy artist
was cabinet-maker's apprentice, and
was thankful to earn small sums in his
leisure hours by painting flowers upon
the furniture of the peasant farmers of
his native town, taking his commissions
from them as he stood in the market
place with his masters wares. A chance
talk with two art students, who stood
with him under gateway during
heavy shower, first opened to him the
way to a regular academical education.
eff it were only possible" Mrs. Gar
field said, "for my husband and me to
go around and see all these dear people
who have been so grateful in their re-
membrance for us here of late days,
would be so happy; and know he would,
too. Iwant to thank them-to tell them
all how kindly 1 feel toward them for
what they have said to me. I never
could understand anything about poll
tics and if liked a person it made no
difference whether they were Republi-
cans or Democrats; and now l have
grown to think that there is not much
difference between the two great parties,
for one says Just as kind words in our
present affiiction as the other. 1t makes
me feel like forming an opinion as to
what would do were women permitted to
vote as we'll as men. I believe I would
get two tickets, fold them together so
as to look like one, and drop them back
in the ballot-box."
Lieutenant Governor Tabor, of Col
orado. owns from four to eight millions,
all acquired within four years. But his
sudden wealth was preceded by eighteen
years of poverty, deprivation and strug-
gle for himself and his wife. They
went West from Maine during the Pixies
Peak excitement, spent all their money,
found no gold, and thereafter roughed
it in border settlements, working for
small wages at first, and afterward keep
ing stores in mining camps. In 1877
he bought in Denver 50, 800 worth of
goods for Leadville store, and tried to
induce the firm to take hslf OF the Little
Pittsburg claim in payment. but they
preferred to take his note. That mine
yielded him $150,000 in three months,
and eventually $1,300,000. The orig
inal cost was grub stakes" for the two
prospectors, the bargain being that he
should have half of whatever they dis
covered on the trip.
4 wealthy landowner at Gonesse,
France, has founded upon his estate a
private asylum for superannuated ami
mails, which, except for his protection,
would perish of neglect. Many of the
inmates of this strange establishment
have attained extraordinary ages; in
deed, the figures representing the num-
| Der of their years, which their bene-
factor carefully records, severely tax
credulity. The patriarch of the family
is mule in his seventy-third year; next
come COW thhty-six years old, a pig
Of twenty-seven, and goat OF eighteen
summers. In the quarters assigned to
fowls the visitor is introduced to q
goose in its thirty y-eighth year, whose
paunch touches the ground and whose
feet are disfgured by countless warts.
In the sviary are a sparrow in his
thirty-second year, and bullfnch re-
puted to be twenty-eight years old.
Young and frolicsome creatures need
not apply for admittance to this asylum,
for only the aged are received.
A curious provision of the criminal
| code Of Germany, for which there is no
analogy in English or American legisla-
| ton, makes deliberate homicide, where
it is perpetrated at the request OF the
victim, a lesser grade of crime than
murder, and places it within the dis
cretion of the court to impose as low q
sentence as three years imprisonment
for the offense. Under this law mil
ler's apprentice of Berlin has just been
sentenced for cutting his wife's throat.
He was out of work and money, and he
and his wife formed the resolution to
commit suicide by taking poison. His
wife, however, drained the cup contain
ing the mixture alone, leaving none for
him, and after a while begged him to
kill her at once, to put an end to the
suffering that ensued. He complied
with her request by making several
gashes in her throat. This state of facts
was deemed sufficient to warrant a SEN
tence OF only four years Imprisonment.
The Atlanta Industrial exposition, to
open October 5, promises to be great
success. The entries already number
over 100, representing all branches OF
industry and production. Foreign ex-
hibits are being offered freely, and two
steamers are under charter to sail from
Liverpool for Savannah with goods fo1
the exhibition, while other exhibits will
follow either in specially chartered yes
sells or by the regular channels of com
merce. Some of the machinery and
processes to be exhibited will be of ar
unusually interesting character, anG
ONE will be entirely new development
of industry. The exhibition of cottor
and silk fabrics will be especially
attractive. The associated railroads O
the South will make a Representative
display of woods, soils and minerals from
all sections of the Southern States, ant
the eplanters of the Mississippi valley viii
make a typical exhibition of sugar
cotton and tobacco. The last will b,
seen in all stages of growth and manu-
facture, from the springing plant to tn
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