The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-05-20
the Hon. Mellen Chamberlain of Boston

the Hon. Mellen Chamberlain OF Boston,
class of 1874.
LARGE numbers of the seventeen-year To-
Gusts have been found close to the surface of
the ground in the vicinity of Bridgeport,
Illinois.
THE surplus held by the banks belonging
to the New York Clearing House Associa-
ton amounts to 800 ,300,700, the highest
figure ever reached.
THE Massachusetts supreme court has de-
cided that special acts of the legislature per-
hitting towns to pay bounties to soldiers
are unconstitutional.
THE New York legislature adjourned sine
die last week Friday, at noon, but an extra
session was at once ordered to make pro-
vision for taking the census.
THE president declines to accept the invi-
tations to be present at the Bunker Hill cee-
bration at Boston, June 18th, and at Har-
ward College commencement.
A wATERsPoUT descended upon ravine
near Kearney, Neb., on Friday night, wash
ing family of emigrants named Scott from
their wagon and drowning two children.
The trial at Portsmouth, n. H., of w. f.
Osgood of Lyme, charged with counterfeit
ing, resulted in his conviction and sentence
to three years imprisonment and $500 fine.
THE sentry on II. NJ. S. Garnet at the
time Paul Boyton attached his dummy tor
pedo to that vessel in New York Harbor has
been sentenced 10 lO1uy-JWO udyS COnHne-
ment.
SOMERSET village, Que, was destroyed by
fire on Saturday night, about one hundred
houses being burned, including the church,
the presbytery, the foundry and the cheese
factory.
AN unknown disease is prevailing in some
of the upper counties of Virginia among
stock. AT least twenty-five per cent of all
the cattle and sheep have died. The loss to
farmers is incalculable.
A CALL has been issued for a reunion and
encampment of representative organiza-
tons of soldiers of the United States, to
take place at Paramount Park Philadelphia,
from June 2Sth to July 9th.
IT is stated that the different roads and
car companies reaching New Orleans, who
are interested in the reopening of the New
Orleans exposition next year, are to sub
scribe S100,000 to further that object.
IT is expected that the Bartholdi statue
will reach New York this week. 1t will
take three months to complete the pedestal
for the monster 1ambeau, and $4,000 are
yet to be raised to defray the expense.
OVER 400 persons have been inoculated
with cholera microbes by DR.. Ferran in the
province of Valencia, Spain, as preventive
of the disease. The new system is said to
be entirely successful and the epidemic is
disappearing.
A TERRIBLE disease prevails all through the
Seware Valley, New York. The throat first
swells, the tongue is then paralyzed, the
patient cannot eat, and subsequently he be-
comes double-sighted. No one has recovered
from the disease which is very contagious
The nitro-glycerine building and eight
others, constituting a part of the Somerset
PENN Chemical Works, were blown to
atoms by an explosion of nitro-glycerne and
dynamite one night last week. One of the
propretors of the establishment was killed.
THE delay of the postofce department in
awarding the contract for postage stamps
for four years from July |, the bids for
which were opened April 90, is caused by
question of the legality of the lowest bid
on one of the processes of manufacture, that
of doing the work of hand presses with
steam attachments.
The Minneapolis Touring mills are begin
ming to shut down for lack of orders. Two
of them, with an aggregate daily capacity of
two thousand barrels, closed last week
Thursday, and others are expected to follow
this week. Millers say they are piling up
the flour, but at the present prices they are
absolutely unable to dispose of it.
A CYCLONE passed through Rocks county
Kansas, on the afternoon of the 10Th, start
ing near the line between Osborne and
Rocks counties, at the southwest corner CT
Medicine township, and following wes-
terly course, dealing death and destruction
throughout the pathway of its entire course.
Nearly fifty persons were injured.
The German steamer Messina, from the
Mediterranean ports for Hamburg, collided
last week Friday with the British steamer
Numeda from London for New York, and
was sunk. The latter vessel was badly in
jured and has put into Cowes, where the
crew of the Messna were landed. Ten
members of the latter's crew were drowned.
The entomologist of the agricultural de-
partment says the country will soon be Wis
tied by two great broods of locusts of the
seventeen and thirteen years varieties.
| This will be the first time in two hundred
twenty-one years that they have appeared
in conjunction. They will not prove greatly
destructive, and the injury they will infict
will probably be confined to fruit trees.
WHILE forty convicts were employed on a
farm in Brazos county, Texas, a mob sur
rounded them and their guards and de-
manded the release of the convicts. A des-
| perate struggle ensued, resulting in the
release of the convcts and, it is reported, in
fatally wounding several persons. The
outrage is due to hue and cry against the
employment of convict labor outside of the
penitentiaries.
A TREATY of peace and an alliance was
entered into between Honduras, San Saliva
| dor, Costa Rica and Nicaragua on April II.
General amnestry has been granted to all
involved in the late revolution Zaldivar
exacts war indemnity of S10,000,000 from
| Guatemala. He favors the ACKNOWLEDGMENT
of Guatemala in order to equalize her
strength and wealth with the other Genital
American states.
IT ought to be generally known that a
mans hat will serve in most cases as a tenn
porary life-preserver to those in danger OF
drowning. When person finds himself in
the water he should lay hold of his hat be.
tween his hands, keeping the crown close
under his chin and the mouth of the hat
under water. The quantity of air contained
in the cavity of the hat will keep the head
above water for a long time-sometimes fol
several hours.
THE extent to which the banana, cocoanut
and other fruits have become identified with
the happiness of Young and Old America is
incidentally shown by the following figures
In two days there arrived recently at Boston
from the Mediterranean, three steamers
whose united cargoes amounted TO ovel
10000 packages of box fruit In addition tC
this, a steamer brought from Baracon 0,00(
and schooner $500 punches of bananas ant
10000 cocoanuts.
THE supreme lodge of the Knights O
Honor met again at st. Louis last weel
Wednesday. The grand secretary's report
shows that there were on January LIST 2, so
working lodges in the country, with a tota
membership of 12S,S4S. Since then twenty
five new lodges have been added, and ther'
has been a net gain of $3.50 members, max
ing present memberhip of 13l Jos. During
1884, twenty assessments were called
which yielded an aggregate of amount o.
S2,709,56l, and the number of deaths wa
400 The supreme treasurer presented
financial statement, which shows that sine