The Northern Pacific farmer., 1883-03-15
Choice Gatherings.

One of the pastors of church at Indi.
annapolis, Ind, hires one of thu public
halls of the city for his Sunday evening
services, because he believes that many
people will attend services in a publ,
hall who will not attend church. So fal
the experiment has been successful.
The Boston Post bas this curious state
ment: ''The death penalty was abolished
in Maine by legislature majority o
whose members we're Universalists anC
Unitarians. There is some chance fol
it's restoration by the present legislature
in which the Universalists and Unitari
ans are in minority"
Miss Ada Leigh writes the London
Times that in the past four years one
hundred and ninety-eight French BOYS
and forty French girls have taken theil
own lives. Ofthese 200 were over twelve
years ofage, twenty-one between twelve
and ten, four over ten years, six below
nine, and one only seven.
Last November, an English artist,
named George Packer, VINO oi'nprudently
went alone on an excursion from Naples
to Mount Vesuvius, was seized by bri.
gands and held for ransom in the sum
of $500 francs, Information of his pre-
dicament was conveyed to his friends,
and after q few days the money was
paid and he was liberated. One of the
most remarkable things about the affair
was the fact that the bandits received
the ransomer under the walls of the Cas-
Naples, and conducted him to a cave q
couple of hundred feet away, which was
their rendezvous, and where the artist
was found. His adventure threw him
into fever.
+ A notable blast was discharged Janu-
uary II at the limestone quarry Of the
G:endon Iron Company, Easton, Penn,
displacing, it is estimated, 130, 900 tons
of rock. The blast was made in hill
$50 feet high and very steep. Three
tunnels, about 100 feet apart, were RUN
into the hill northward, and two smaller
six chambers at the ends of the tunnels
were placed $4,000 pounds of Judson's
powder, having it was. estimated, the
Vending force Of 36 800 pounds of COM
mon powder. The blast was fred by
electricity. 1t was the heaviest ever
made in that part of the country. and
one of the heaviest recorded.
A fire in q coal mine four, miles from
Pottsville, Pa, has been burning for near
ly fifty years, and is likely to continue
for decades to come. The mine was epen-
ed in 1885, developing seam between
thirty and forty feet thick. It was then
customary, in midwinter, to build large
fire at the mouth ola drift to prevent
the accumulation of ice therein. One
Saturday night the fire was left as usual.
Monday morning disclosed to operators
and miners the result of their folly. The
timbers Of the drift had ignited, and the
flames had been communicated to the
coal. The place was abandoned, and all
efforts to quench the fire, which annual
" grew more intense, ended. The de-
vouring element held undisturbed sway
and turned the mountain into burning
mass. .,<.s = sgzs l. ssf5.. - : & 2"S "
The San francisco Stock Report can
not see why the idle officers Of the army
on the Pacific Coast cannot be used to
peer into the mysteries Of Alaska and
find out what it really is good for
There are, !: !: says, scores Of capable
United States Army Engineers as good