The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-01-15
ABOUT PEOPLE AND THINGS.

LUCY HOOPER says that Mile. Weoer, the
lately-crowned queen Of the Partisan stage. is
marvelously like Rachel.
The steam power of the world says the Sci
entiic American Quoting Sir Lyon Playfair)
has risen during the last twenty years from IL
million to 20 million horsepower or I52 per
cent
THE health of ex-vice- president William A.
wheeler, who had not been well for some time
Is now better than it has been for several years.
The people OF Malone, N. Y, where he lives, say
that he is quite his old self again.
LADY MAGDALEN YoRKE, when she was mar
ried to Sir Richard Buckley. in England the
other day, was clad in a gown of white satin
trimmed with swans down. So, too, the brides
maids wore satin and swans down.
RUMoRs lately current named Prof. John M.
Coulter, of Wabash College, as DR.. Asa Gray's
immediate successor at Harvard, but President
Eliot says there is no foundation for them. DR..
Gray will not resign, it is hoped, for yet many
year.
Mrs. MARY How1TT, at eighty-three years of
age, is in the enjoyment of good health and still
engaged in literary work, being regular con-
tributor to the well-known English periodical.
Good Words. She resides at Meran, Austria. in
beautiful old manse, which bears the name of
Marion's Rest"
ANTON RUBINsTEIN who has been passing
Christmas at Prague. has finished a new ballet
entitled "The Grape Wine, which is shortly to
be produced at Vienna 1t consists of a baccha-
naian dance by twenty-one representatives of
different wines, each Of whom begins by escaping
from wine cask
Ex-PREsIDENT ARTHUR, his little daughter
Nellie, and his sister, Mrs. Haight, are to be
seen every Sunday morning in their pew in the
Church of the Heavenly Rest, on Fifth avenue.
near Forty-fifth street Dr. and Mrs. Egbert
Guernsey and Miss Florence Guernsey are also
members of this church.
The startling information has again been given
forth that perpetual motion has been discovered.
A man in Youngstown, o., has secured letters
Of course, If perpetual motion is ever discovered,
1t will be in Ohio, and the invention is always
accomplished by crank.
ONE Of the new Congressman from New York
State, when asked at the Capitol, the other day.
to vote for bill, astounded the man who was
elecrioneering for the measure with the novel
answer, Il shall take pleasure in asking the
opinion of my legal adviser at Albany as to the
bill, and will act upon what he says.'
THE senators of the Nation sit at desks older
than the honorable graybeards themselves The
desks are made of mahogany, and, though made
seventy-fve years ago, they are as sound as a
dolar-a great deal sounder than Bland dollar.
Once statesman from Colorado made his
mark in the Senate" by scraping his desk with
solitaire diamond. Captain Bassett outwitted
Mr.. Tabor, however, by plugging up the holes
so deftly that no trace Of them remains.
HUXLEY and Tyndall," says the manager of
literary syndicate, Twill never write anything
for publication unless they have something to
say. l have tried them many time, and with
good offers of money, too, but always unsuccess-
fully. They care too much for their fame. But
when they have anything to say, they are ready
to say it, and to charge for it too"
The German Emperor William and the I'm
perial Princess pay the full tariff all private
and government railways. whether it is for sin
gle tickets OF special trains, with the exception
OF the line between Cassel and Frankfort, on
which the Emperor and the Empress travel free
of charge Prince Bismarck paid for all his rail
way tickets until 1870, when the Society of Ger
man Railway Administrations presented him
with saloon carriage, in which he travels free
on all lines belonging to the society, as well as
on all government railway lines.
ONE of the heroes of the Franco German war
has just died, General Bonnemains. who COM
manded the Cuirassiers in the famous cavalry
charge at Reichshofen. The feat of arms by
which he stayed the advance of the Germans
while his men fell in scores around him under
the murderous fire, until MacMahon had got
clear away from Woerth and Froeschwiller, is
commemorated on many a canvas and in song;
and to this day the appearance of Curassier regi-
ment at review is always greeted with frantic
plaudits General Bonnemains was seventy -one
years of age.
VICTOR HUGos masterpiece. Marion De-
lorme," recently produced at the Porte St
Martin, with Nine. Bernhardt as the heroine
was written in eleven days. The 600 lines which
make up the fourth act were struck off in TWEEN
ty-four hours, during which period the poet took
neither food nor Sleep Jules Janin, who was
the critic of the Debats. chroncled its success in
a notice of six lines and when. four days later,
he gave long and enthusiastic review of the
play the names of the chief actors not
even mentioned, so different in those days was
the relative Importance of the play and the
players.
THE Rev. Samuel Francis Smith, author of
our national hymn, my country, tits of thee, is
resident of Newton Center, Mass. He is seven
ry-seven years of age, but appears to be much
younger man. He has large, full head of HAIR,
keen gray eyes, and beard almost entirely
white. He has given up literary work, but has
an extensive correspondence Oliver Wendell
Holmes, in his poem entitled "The Boys" sings
of him as follows:
"And there's nice fellow Of excellent pith;
Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith;
But he shouted song for the brave and the free,
just read on his medal, My country, of thee Z"
BERRY, the English hangman, is tall, re-
spectable-lookng man, with the appearance of a
mechanic. He was shoemaker by trade, but
does not work now, as the cxecutioner is well
paid. He gets $50 head or, when there are
more than one. $50 for the first $25 for the sec
ond, and $50 for the third, with all his expenses
paid. The first essential is nerve. and Berry has
nerve. Binns. who preceded him. was a brag-
CART, and liked publicity. He would smoke his
pipe outside half an hour before an execution,
and drink and had an active tongue. Now the
executioneer is obliged to sleep in jail the night
before hanging Calcraft, who was hangman
for many years, was also a shoemaker, and,
like Berry quiet, retiring man.
LORD RONALD COVER in pleasant letter
from Pera where he has been staying for some
time, and which he compares to Cleopatra on