Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1882-11-22
Notes on Current Events.

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900 majority, the measure seeming t.
share the general revulsion of feelin:
in the West against prohibition, 70
while every Pr6hibitionist is not ii
favor of female suffrage, every support
er of the last is a Proh;bitionist. Or
egon votes next on this change and il
well-nigh certain to vote the proposed
amendment down. Since this exten
sion Of the suffrage came to be talkeC
about in the chilly light of day, it ha:
not the ghost of show
There are in the United States sc
establishments engaged in the manu-
facture of petroleum, having a capital
of $27, ,395, TAG, and employing about
10000 persons at a total yearly wages
list of 81, 4,381,5 In the census year
the number OF gallons of crude oil used
was 731, 533, 127, valued st SIG, ,340,-
581; the total value of raw material,
including fuel, chemicals, barrels, etc,
was $34, 900, 10l; the total value ofthe
manufactured products was S43, 1885,
21S OF Illuminating oil the make was
ii l,002, ,249 barrels, worth $26, 1889, ,6l3.
1t is the oil, and not the facts, that is
to be made light of.
1t is known that Postmaster-G Gener-
al Howe favors postal telegraphy and
postal savings-banks. He is quoted
as saying that the Post-Office Depart
ment has "at present a monopoly of
all the slow methods of transmitting
letters, while corporations enjoy the
exclusive privilege of sending by the
rapid system messages and business
communications. In my opinion the
Post Office Department ought to be
equipped with every facility for postal
telegraphy. The Government can do
it cheaper than companies, and certain
ly with the same promptness. lie
will urge the matter on Congress IN
his report. He suggests, in regard to
reduction of postage, that instead of
a two-cent letter rate the government
try tie experiment of selling stamped
envelops in place of stamps, for the
present rates. This is a new idea, but
we doubt if it would meet the public
demand for cheap postage.
The Iowa Prohibitory amend ment
has been pronounced null by district
court in the State because as finally
passed by the House the words cor to
be used" were omitted in the phrase
"keep for sale as a beverage or to be
used" The provisions in regard to
the journals of the two chambers, the
passage of bills and the passage of
constitutional amendments for sub
to the people, are the familiar
clauses on the subject repeated in near
" all of our State constitutions. The
Courts in Illinois, the Circuit there and
the Supreme Court at Washington
have all held, as have Eastern Courts,
that the journals of the Legislature
can be used to show that bill was
passed or was not passed as to make
it law, although the Courts have, in
New York State, declined to hear
proof that the journals were inaccu-
rate. The real point that goes up for
final decision in Iowa is whether
verbal change in passage vitiate the
Slight changes, it has
been held, do not In addition, the
yeas aud nays on the amendment |
were never entered on the journal of
the Legislature. This is to the full as
serious as the other, and may alone be
enough to upset the amendment.
The change of values in the city of
New York is suggested by the recent |
sale of the old Postoffiee site in Nassau
steet to an insurance company for
$3.50, 900 The Dutch Reformed Con-
sistory bought the cite in 1871, or q
century and a half before. for less than
So, ,O00 The bell presented to the
church the same year now hangs in
tie tower of the Collegiate church at
Fifth Avenue and Forty Eighth street
The old church building that is now
being pulled down has had an unusual
history, serving during the Reyolu-
tion as British riding shoool, and fr
many years as postoffice for the me-
tropolis It will now give place to
another of those great ten-story struc-
lures that stretch skyward and make
lower New York picturesque to the in
conner on the bay.
The account given in report re-
Gently received in Washington from
Lieut. Ray, commanding the signal
service station at Point Barrow, Alas
ka, of the loss of the steamer North
Star on the 9Th of July last, illustrates
the terrible power of the ice pack in the
Arctic seps, and the suddenness with
which it sometimes closes upon ship
with irresistible force. The North
Star had approached the station within
about three miles, and then the ice
closed upon her, and she could get no
further She lay there whole day
apparently in no special danger, al
though she could not move. Sudden
ly, says Lieut.. Ray, 1--WE heard great
shout raised by the crew, and we could
also hear her timbers breaking. In
twenty minutes she was out sight"
Lieut.. Ray at once went off to the as
sistance of the sunken vessels crew, AT
in number, who had got out up
on the ice, and where all saved. But
for the fact that the accident happened
so close to shore, and within sight and
hearing of the signal service station,
the loss of the North Star might have
furnished another terrible story Arctic
disaster