The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-12-15

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1920 to a committee for this purpose.
The carrier pigeon that is valued at
$500 must be fine bird. Xet there are
several such on exhibition at the pigeon
and poultry show recently opened at
the Crystal palace, London. Some of
these birds are said to have found their
way from Rome to Antwerp, distance
! of about 700 miles, in two or three DAYS,
stopping, too, on the way to gather food.
They have an original way in Veniee
of protesting against bad tenor. A
gentleman in the parterre of the Teatro
Malibran recently opened his umbrella
and held it toward the stage, evidently
to keep Off the shower of false notes.
The auditorium at once became forest
of open umbrellas. The tenor fed, the
curtain fell, and art was avenged.
The supreme tribunal of Mexico has
Just given remarkable decision. They
have determined that certain slaves
were entitled to their freedom twenty
years ago, and that the owners of a
mine in which they have been worked
for those twenty years must pay them
wages for all that time. This decision
indicates the growing liberal sentiment
Of the people of Mexico.
The famous big trees of California,
$50 to 400 feet high and proportionately
thick, are on public land, subject to
entry at $1.25 an acre, and may be
bought up and destroyed by whoever
wishes to make such use of them. The
bark has already been peeled from the
butt of one for Snowman, who sets it
up at fairs rs an exhibition, and another
has been cut down in order to make o
dancing platform of the stump.
Some curious verdicts have lately
been noticed in the courts of this coun-
try. Not the least singular is that re-
Gently reported in Philadelphia court,
where woman secured verdict OF
| $4,000 from street railway line for the
loss of hand by an accident to the car
in which she was riding, while few
days before, in the same court, verdict
of only $4,000 was given in favor of a
boy who had both legs cut off in an
other street-car accident.
There is no department OF the Fed.
eral government where, from the nature
of the business, there are such opportu-
mites for frauds as in the pension
bureau. There are already 100000
names registered of pensioners. There
are 100, 200 other applicants whose cases
have not been decided, and new cases
| are cop,l-lgr in ~ the rate of 100 day
1t would be naturally supposed that as
time passes the number of pensioners
would be decreased by death, but such
is not the case. The estimated expend-
itures in 1882 for pensions is eetimat ed
at SS8 600, 900, and it is supposed that
between $40, 1000, 900 and $40, 100000 of
this amount will be on fraudulent
claims.
1t is now nearly seventeen years
since the postal money-order system
went into operation in the United
States, and the results prove the system
| to be great convenience to the people,
while yielding revenue to the govern
| ment beyond the cost of doing the bust,
ness. Daring the last fiscal year more
thar seven millions of money-ordCrs
were issued. The fees received for
| these orders amounted to S917, ,09I,
against S659, 516 as the cost of transmits.
sion, showing a net profit to the govern.
ment on the business to the amount of
$257,575. The amount of money sent
in this way exceeded eight hundred
million of dollars. The system has
been extended to the postal service be-
tween the United States and several
of the countries of Europe.
A little gill only fourteen years of
age, named Margaret Messenger, has
been convicted and sentenced to death
at the Cumberland assizes in England,
for the murder OF baby whose nurse
she was The jury found her guilty and
also although, being at the time
under the age of fourteen, she was,
prima facie, incapable of crime-she
was precocious enough to have crimi-
nal intent. There is on record in Eng
land an example of boy aged eight
years being hanged for burning barn
in Berkshire. A boy OF ten, convicted
of numbering his bedfellew, was unan-
imously pronounced by the judges as a
! piOPCi cupJOSp VI OoPieul puIlouncub,
and does not appear to have been re-
prieved. These cases happened long
before the secretary of state was in the
habit of interfering in cases of murder
as he does at present and it is proba-
BILE that this young girl may have her
punishment commuted to imprisonment
for life.
A singular occurrence took place at
the Alexandra Park races in England re.
Gently. A betting man known as
"Hoppy," because he is lame, attempted
to leave the grounds without paying
those who had made wagers with him
His movements being understood, cry
of "Welsher !" was raised, and several
thousand persons quickly assembled
The man was attacked in furious man
ner, and his clothes for the most par
were torn off The noise soon attracted
number of policemen, who Tough
their way through the mob and sur
rounded "Hoppy," who, but for tn,
timely assistance rendered, would hav,
been most seriously injured, if no
killed. He had conducted his bettipl
transactions from a wagonette, an(
when he was taken away by the police
considerable crowd remained behind
A call was made for paper, and show
ers of newspapers, race cards, letters
, books, etc., came from the multitude il
resnonaa In n few seconds the vahicl