The National tribune., 1886-02-11
PERSONAL.
Incidents, Accidents and Happenings Where Conn
raies are Concerned.

Incidents, Accidents and Happenings Where Com.
raGes Concerned.
Zabna Ellis OF the Sixth Auditors Office was
stricken with paralysis few days ago. Mr. Ellis
has been in the Sixth Auditors Office is years and
Is Il years of age. He has been notified that so
days leave would be allowed him. but that he
will have to furnish a substitute after that time
lie IS an ex-Union soldier, taking four sons with
him when he joined the army.
DIR. James L. Farley. wellknown eloeutionist
of Brooklyn and Surgeon of the 18th " Y, became
insane last week and was taken to the FIatbush
Asylum. His case was pronounced hopeless, and
ne was placed in the incurable ward. lie has for
some time been suffering from brain trouble but
his friends thought it was caused by too much de-
yotion to literary work. DIR. Farley served in the
18th y. Y. during the war; his appointment as As
sistant Surgeon being dated April 10 1851 He was
made Surgeon on Jan. q, 1862. and honorably dis
charged on june TO- 1853. In the following year he
went again to the front Surgeon of his old regi-
ment and at the close of the struggle was breveted
Lieutenant Colonel of volunteers for heroic con-
duct. He has been Surgeon of the 18th ever since
with the rank OF Major.
Col Gilbert A. Pierce, Governor of Dakota. has
been in Washington for several days. Col. Pierce
served through the in an Indiana regiment and
was for many years managing editor of the Chicago
Inter Ocean, He Is versatile and brilliant Journal
politics.
Gen. John Newton, the old commander of the
First Corps and now Chief of Engineers and in the
prime of his vigor and usefulness, is one of the
busiest and most important men in Washington.
All the work the Government is doing the rivers
and harborS, involving an expenditure of from
Sl000O000 TO $40 900 year, is directly under his
supervision aud CONTROL and he gives careful per-
sona attention to every portion of it, from the SUBJ
marine tunneling and blasting in New York harbor
and the letting of the Mississippi, to the scoopin
out of some little creek which a Congressman is
endeavoring to have made into a navigabe river.
Senators and Representatives, hrong his Office daily
and find him with accurate history at his finger
ends of all the various Improvements in their States
and Districts-the plans adopted, the amount of
money appropriated, expended and unexpended,
the condition of the work at all points with COM
prehensiye ideas to what should and should not
be done iii the future. No man in the Governments
employ carries a more voluminous burden of de-
tails his mind does it with more ease and
grace. The Popular Science Monthly for February,
contains a very interesting article from his pen
=" The Improvement of East River and Hell Gate"
The departure of the Rev. Spruille Burford, the
brilliant and popular rector of st. Marks Church,
Grand Rapids Mich, for broader field of labor in
New York, recalls yeritable romance of the war.
AT the battle OF Lavergue, Tenn, 500 Michigan en-
L.
OF Grand Rapids, wthstood a force many times ts
numbers under Gen. Joseph Wheeler. Gen.
Wheeler sent up an Orderly to demand the surren-
der of the handful of brave Wolverines Col. Innes
sent back the since historic answer, I'VE don't
surrender much" And they did not surrender to
any extent, but held out to the end. When SprulIe
Burford, Confederate officer who after the war
threw OFT the gray and assumed ecclesiastical robes
came from New Orleans to Grand Rapids, he found
in tho 4 fbaS
OF Layergne, Gen. Innes. 1t was many months
however, before InneS discovered that the dashng
clergyman, of whom the congregation growing
proud, the Orderly to whom he had returned
the celebrated answer The discovery of the fact
was the cementing Of an ardent friendship.
James A. Beers, serving life sentence in Auburn
IN " prison, is applicant for pension. He
was sentenced from Cattaraugus County on April
%, 1854, for murder in the second degree. Pen
sion Examiner visited him last week, and says it Is
probable that his application will be favorably
passed upOn.