The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-03-22
LOCAL BREVITIES.

The decis On Of the Federal Court at
Nashville declaring the act Of the Tennes.
see Legislature organizing a railroad COM
mission unconstitutional, is of much i'm
portance, and the railroad companies have
reason to congratulate themselves upon
their victory. Judge Baxter took the view
that railroad corporations whose lines pass
through various states, cannot legally be
subjected to the fuctuating and variant de.
Examinations Of frequent jures sitting TO
decide questions of damage; nor can they
properly be subjected to the caprices of a
railroad commission armed with authority
to investigate railroad tariffs and fix
charges. He held that the commission law
conficted with the State Constitution,
which forbids discrimination in favor Of in
divilaals, and with the Fourteenth Amend
ment to the Constitution, in that it denied
the equal protection of the law to railroad
corporations. The Fourteenth Amend.
meDt, he held, was designed to prevent
determinations against persons or property
by injurious legislation or otherwise; i'm.
posing burdens on one class which are not
imposed on another. Under the Tennessee
law, the railroads would practically fall
under tine management Of the commission,
AMI eventually railroad property "would
become the prey Of spoilsmen and an ire
sponsbIe ollgsrchy.' Judge Hammond's
opinion was, in the main, that State power
only reaches railroads lying within the
State, or to shipments beginning and end
ing ln.rthe State. Under these decisions
the Tennessee Railroad Commissioners
have been subjected TO a restrsining order,
and the case will be reached at the Apri!
term of the court, when an appeal will
doubtless be taken to the Federal Supreme
| Court. If the Nashville decision is su.-
tanned, the dogma Of plenary State egis.a-
tive power will be undermined and the du
ties Of railroad commissic ners will be very
apprecabIy curtaiIed
An unusually bold robbery was at
tempted early yesterday morning, at the
residence Of Mr. Charles Lame, on Tenth
street: and one that was attended by Incl
dents of a more than ordinarily startling
nature. Mrs. Lame has been sick for
some time, so sick that it was necessary
some one should sit up with her every
| night. Mrs. Ford was on watch Thursday
night, aud early yesterday morning she
was aroused by noise in an adjoining
room, which she thought was made by a
cat. She procured stout stick and went
out in search of the cat, but found instead
| a man at work at the door Of a cabinet in
the room where Mr.. Lame lay asleep. IT,
stead of giving the alarm, as almost any
one else would have done, she cautiously
made toward the intruder aud dealt him
blow on the head but the man turned
quickly, grasped her by the throat, drag
ged her to the adjoining room land there,
while she held him by the long whiskers,
he bore here down, placing bis knee upon
her chest, took the stick away from her and
had Just loosened her grasp
from his wh+skers when Mr..
Lame appeared upon the scene,
which caused the rascal to fee. Investiga-
ton showed that the man had gained en-
trance by means of the front window, and
had then opened the front door to permit
of an easy exit. A sheet was spread upon
the floor in the parlor, and upon it were
collection of siverware, and severa!
quilts and fine blankets-all ready to be
tied up The thief was evidently looking
for more valuables when interrupted in his
work. and made good his escape. The
stick used by Mrs. Ford was bloody, but
whether the blood came from the burglars
head or from Mrs. Ford's nose, which was
also bleeding, is somewhat doubtful. A
reasonable theory is that the man, in grasp
ing at Mrs. Ford's throat, struck her on
the nose causing it to bleed, and then with
his bloody hands wrested the stick from
her grasp, leaving marks of blood on the
stick. Mrs Ford is Frustrated with nervous
excitement, and what is believed to be an
injury of The lungs caused by the pressure
of the villains knee.
TITLE TO LAND.
Having ascertained the exact boundaries