The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 18??-1882, 1881-09-02
Current TOpicc

new pension act to pension all soldiers
who were i'm rebel prisons for any
length of time and suffered the
horrors of AndersOnville, Belle Isle
and Salisbury. The commissioner be
lieves that many more men lost their
usefulness by prison md starvation
than by wounds in battle. An inquiry
is being made to determine approx
mately the names such an act would
add to the pension rolls.
Mr.. Gladstone's scheme for refunding
the English national debt is thus de-
scribed by the Pail Mall Gazette: "Ter-
minable annuities amounting to GO, 3,6l7,-
600, and expiring in 1885, are at pres
ent payable to the National Debt Com
missioners. For e2,000,000 of these
aDnuities having only four years more
to run, the Chancellor of the EXchequer
proposes to substitute an annuity of
nearly e460,000, which will continue
to be payable for twenty-five years. BY
this transaction the Commissioners
will receive pecuniary equivalent for
the annuities they now hold, and by
the saving of the present annual charge
of f1'540,000, M. Gladstone will be
enabled to cancel stock to the amount
of sixty millions" -.
| A place has been found for the in
tended monument OF Lord BeacOnsfield
in Westminster Abbey, against the
southwest pier of the crossing, which
is one of the most important siteyin the
building, and Immediately opposite the
statue of one OfHom greatest men. The
transepts of this church arenOw so full
of monuments that they look like col
lections sof statuary. Additions are
much to be deprecated. Nothing
could be more desirable than the remOv-
al Of most of the efligies of modern
statesmen and heroes to the houses of
Parliament, where they would not be
out of keeping with the architecture,
and would not injure or obscure, but
rather enrich, the building. If there
is not room, glass roof thrown oyer
one of the interior courts of Sir G. Bar
ry's great building would, at but small
cost, form a very noble gallery OF me-
mortal sculptures of portraits and allie
gories referring to our departed wOr-
thies of statecraft, economical science,
and war. --4 s
A writer in st. Louis proposes to
laying, under government auspices of
telegraphic cable along the bel of the
Mississippi River from st. aul 10 New
Orleans, some two. thousand miles.
Such cable, he says, "woull be like
the great nerve in the spinal column;
it would quicken commerce, and unite
the commercial interests of the whole
valley" The scheme is further elabor-
ated by the suggestion that in time it
would probably be practicable TO light
the river at every landing by means of
an electric current sent alcng one of
the cables wires, thus making il easy
to increase the speed of steamboats,.
and lessening the risks ID be covered
by insurance. "With a cable" he says,
continually transmitting the location
of the floating commerce, and night
turned into day by electricity, the ia
vorable results to river trade could not
even be cenjectured."
The Zealandia, a,fromAustralia and the
Sandwich islands, brings news that the
| flow OF lava from the volcano continues
to threaten Hilo, advancing more than
mile in the three days from June Goth
to the 28th inclusive, and on July 14th
moving Is to 20 feet per hour, water
| Offering no obstruction to its course, it
part of the time running six feet under
the water and maintaining white
heat.
There have been brisk political times
in the Cherokee Nation. The election
of district officers and Representatives
to the National Council was held on
August 2, in accordance with the proc
lamation of the principal chief, ID. W..
Bushyhead, which set forth that the
election must be conducted according
to law, and not otherwise" The Cher
okee Advocate, printed partly in Eng
lish and partly with the looking
types invented to fit the Cherokee Ian
guage, called in the approved manner
upon all male members of the Nation
oyer eighteen years Of age to do their
duty at the polls. The same paper
printed lists of candidates i'm the various
districts, and these show All interesting
mingling of ordinary names with those
which to Eastern ears would seem ex-
traordinary. Thus Coifey Black Bird
was candidate for District Judge, and
OH the same ticket Young Duck was
running for Councillor. Two names
on the opposing ticket were Ger-ter-ner
Vann and Te-ke-no-he-le, candidates
for Councillor and Representative to
the Grand Council respectively. In
another district Kee Kee Gunter ran
for Sheriff, Chez Chez was candidate
for the Senate, and the names of Creek
Sam and Hop Starr stood together as
candidates for the Council. The prin-
ciple of local self-government seems tC
be in favor there, for the names of can
didates for the National Council are al
the foot of the printed tickets, those of
all the local candidates preceding
them. .,
The sheriff of Lebanon, Indiana, evi
IDENTIFY does not believe in squanderine
the peoples money. Two men convic
ted of horse-stealing were put in his
care to be delivered at the State-prison
in Michigan City. Deemiugit umeces
sary to pay three fares, he handcuffet
the convicts together, put them aboard
the train, and forwarded the handcufl
key by express to the warden of th'
prison. They arrived promptly, ant
were locked up for five years. Tht
conductor Of the train explained thi'
circumstance by saying that the con
victs showed no disposition to escape
and as they had money with which Il
pay their way, he could not put then