The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-04
ABOUT PEOPLE AND THINGS.

THE Hon. J. B. Grinnell, for whom the town of
Grinnel, Ia, was named, recently said: In Grinnell
there are no saloons, and no one has been sent to Jail,
to the poor-house, Or to the penitentiary for twenty
~fveyears. We can stand a cyclone occasionally if you
will keep whisky away from u.s."
THE latest story told by New York's great story
teller, Bill Travers: He was met at the club by a
friend who said: Poor old Blank has gone to the
silent majority. He must have been very rich. Do
you know how much he leftY' The reply came like a
shot: Every d-d-damn cent he had"
FREDERICK DOUGLASS, in spite of his age, walks
about Washington as briskly as a boy. He weighs
more than two hundred pounds, his hair is white, and
his health is perfect. He lives in the old manor house
of Van Hook. who so hated negroes that whenever he
sold land he stipulated with the purchaser that no col
ored person ever should become owner of it.
CAMPENCON, the celebrated French physiologist,
states in the Paris papers that the daughters of Erin
have, of all women, the most beautiful hands. Next
to the Irish girls the daughters of Poland deserve the
palm. English girls have hands too feshy and plump,
Americans too long and narrow, the Germans too
short and the palms too broad. There are more beau
tiful hands in France and Italy than in Spain.
The Medical Times and Gazette having recently re-
ferred to the value of adder's poison as a curative
agent in ~lockjaw, DIR. Richard Heale calls attention to
the fact that in 1874 there were 1,43S persons ex-
pOSeu TO yelOW FEVER VINO were 1nOculate0 with at
tenuated adder venom, not one of whom died, al
though seven were attacked with the disease. The &C.
count of the matter, written by a nephew of Baron
Humboldt, appeared in the Medical Digest.
On the authority of a lady in Washington, Mr.. J.
R. Randall relates the following: "a rich master
machinist every now and then fancies he is a boiler
and about to burst. He throws himself prone upon
the floor and insists upon his family drenching him
with cold water. They always so humor him. When
about half drowned his right senses return, and, to
all intents and purposes, for weeks at a time, he is a
sober, clear-headed, money-making, business man."
FATHER STEPHAN, the famous Catholic missionary.
who is now in Washington, has had a life full of
romance and adventure. For a long time Sitting Bull
was under his charge. He was a classmate of the
Able Liszt, He served through the late war on the
Union side, and was the companion and friend of the
heroic Pal Thomas" He is the trusted counsellor
of all the Northwestern Indians, and is said to have
more influence over them than any orher white man.
GENEVA dentist has invented a new and ingenious
process of tooth drawing. A square of India rubber,
pierced with a central hole, is pushed over the tooth
till the upper part of the root is reached. The India
rubber gradually contracts, pulls on the root, and the
offending tooth is finally enucleated, without causing
the patient any pain whatever. Four or five days are
required to complete the operation. Very little bleed
ing and a slight swelling of the gum are the only in
convenience experienced.
ARTHUR HUGH CLoUGH was once the guest of a
lady lion hunter, whose social triumphs were greater
than her scholarship. He endured with equanimity
all evening her u~nvarying mispronunciation of his
name in introductions, she calling him Mr.. Glow, "
and when the time for leaving came he babe her good
night with elegant courtesy and left the drawing-room,
closing the door behind him. A moment later he re-
opened the door, thrust in his head, cried with en-
.mt = Tul ~ .Du nn
amid shouts of laughter from the rest of the company.
Miss PHELPS, in her recent work on after life, says
one of the ladies employed in a Philadelphia library,
often sees Benjamin Franklin sitting at the table
reading. On one occasion, she said, he came in with
his arms full of books. She moved to make room for
him, but, incumbered as she was with pals and
brushes, she was not quick enough, and he, in his
ghostly near-sightedness or impotence, pushed against
her with unghostly violence and nearly tumbled over,
so she said. Her shoulder ached from the blow for
days afterward, and all her life through, in damp
weather, the pain would return to the exact spot
which had been struck. For the truth of this story
she and het mother solemnly answered.
BOSTON COURIER: Everybody has heard of Mr..
Tom Appleton's clever and severe query to well
known Boston society woman who was arrayed in a
dress astonishingly decolette. Who undressed you,
Mrs. ca" and the fellow to his cool remark was
uttered at a fancy-dfeSs party on New lear $ nlght.
A young lady was dressed in a marvellous dress of
green and red, in which the imaginative eyes were sup
posed to discover some remote resemblance to lettuce
and lobster. What do you represent, Miss M.F' a
gentleman inquired, as they took their places in the
set. Don't you see!" she returned, laughing. I'm
a salad. ''Ohl' was her partners retort, while he
flashed a quick eye over the liberal exposure of her per-
son, but haven't you forgotten to put ON the
d~ressing9'
AN industrious English writer computes that Mr..
Barry Sullivan on the stage has committed 1000
murders, and has himself been killed 5000 times.
Nj. Henry Irving's record is not quite so full of blood,
but even he has taken Is, 900 lives, and on 1000 oc-
casions has been violently done to death in the full
glare of the f~ootlights. Mrs. Bancroft has been foul
" betrayed or abducted 8, 200 times; Mr.. Henry Ne
vile has 8, 100 times been ruined in consequence of
the treachery of his friends; Miss Ida Cavendish has
been betrayed, deserted or abducted 5, 600 times, and
is still suffering similar misfortunes; Mrs. Kendall has
been 1000 times deserted or betrayed, and has like
wise been otherwise badly treated LOO times; Mr..
Kendall has 900 times fallen dead suddenly; and Mr..
John Claypool has nobly befriended 1, 800 miserable
and deserted women, and has been married to about
half of them. AS for Mr.. Charles Wyndham, he has
been divorced from ., 300 wives, and is now contin-
uing his disgraceful and heartless conduct.
A CURIOUS case, showing the uncertainty of evil
denee, is given by the Utica Herald in an article justi-
flying some of Governor Cleveland's pardons. Z. L.
Hay, of Cortland county, was convicted several years
ago of an assault on a little girl The child swore
that her assailant wore sandy whiskers. At the trial,
several months a~fterward, ~neighbors contradicted
each other about Hays beard, some swearing that at
the time of the crime his face was smooth, and others
that he wore sandy whiskers. He was convicted, as it
did not occurto any one to examine his beard, i he
had any, or wait for it to grow. For eight years in
prison his face had been kept smooth, but at last the
Governor privately gave an order exempting Hay from
the razor. The result is that he has grown a beard of
"a pronounced black" as certified by the chaplain.
Other evidence has since been brought to light show
ing that no has been unjustly imprisoned, and Cover
nor Cleveland has pardoned him, thus saving him