Morning journal and courier., 1882-11-17

The communication by the Governor of Nlr- ginia of the death sentence of Mary Booth to imprisonment for life will be generally ap- proved. Tho criminal who poisoned two persons, is but fourteen years old.
 One of the questions put to the candidates at recent examination for the civil service held in Toronto was: "A man left T2O, ,OOO by his will, the sum to be divided between his two sons, one of whom was to receive $1 1000 more than the other" The question was ''too hard" for the applicants. Every one of them answered that the one son was to receive $11, ,OOO and the other $9, 900.
 According to tho Official Gazette of tho in the six months ending June 30, 1882, no less than 161 patents for car couplers for rail- road use, and in the batch of patents an- nounced allowed the 7th of November the crop for one wesk-there were twenty two more car couplers, and it wasn't partic- ularly good week fer car couplers either.
 George c. Gorham announces that he will be 8 candidate for secretary of the Senate after March 4. It is said in Washington that he is the only Republican for whom Senators Malone and Riddleberger, of Virginia, will vote. This is due to his being the recog nized administration candidate, and for the aid the National Republican, of which Cor ham is editor, has given tho Readjusters in the Virginia campaign. Mir. Gorham was secretary for years before the Democrats got possession of the Senate four years ago. At $hn n~f~ s., kL1 h> made effort to be reinstated, but David Davis opposition and the disincIination of certain Republican Senators to vote for him prevented it.
 A Texas land owner has recently disposed of part of his real satisfactorily 4, SOC, 900 acres-to an English land company, whose idea is speculation. This is a territory near ly as large the State of Massachusetts, five times as large as Rhode Island, third larger than Connecticut, and nearly four times as large as Delaware. While most of the land is far out in western and northwest CTS Texas, some of the sections lie in the old counties and adjacent to railroads in opera ton. The purchasers intend to sell alternate plots to European immigrants before they leave home, and thus equipped with POO and 500 acres, they will go direct to their posses sions. While making improvements they will be adding to the value of the reserved tracts.
 There are some persistent Democrats in Pennsylvania. Twenty-six years ago, when James Buchanan was elected President, Mrs. Egle, of Harrisburg, put bottle of wine aside in her cellar and said 1t should not be opened until Pennsylvania had elected Dem ocratic Governor. Last Sunday the bottle was opened and drunk with much enthusi asm. And sixteen years ago, when Hester Clymer was defeated as the Democratic can- didate for Governor of Pennsylvania Dr. Jacob H. Scheetz, of Pottstown, made a VOW that he would not chew any more tobacco until the Democrats succeeded in electing. their candidate. It was a good resolve, and bTavely has he kept it. But last Wednesday bought the weed by the pound and had it cut into plugs. Since then he has been trying to make up for lost time.
 One of the incidents of the recent cam paign in New York was the publication of a ringing appeal from General Spinner, s'the watchdog of the treasury" urging RepubI cans to vote tho State ticket. It now seems that General Spinner was urged to ''coms te the rescue" but declared that he could nav