The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-01-15
PERSONAL AND NOTABLE.

The State Prison Inspectors will meet at the
State prison today to transact routine business.
John P. Feeney, President of the Board of Po-
lice Commissioners, wore a sprig of lilac in the
button hole of his coat Monday. He said he had
picked it from a bush in his yard in the morning.
John keenan,, father of Court Officer Henry
Clay keenan,, is one Of the Oldest residents of
Hudson City. From 1916 to 1855 he was County
Clerk of Passaic county. In the latter year he
removed to Jersey City Heights, and assumed
the position of superintendent of w. o. Davy's
Oakland mills, on Laidlaw avenue, and held it
continuously until within a year when the
feebleness of old age compelled him to retire.
Mr.. keenan, is eighty-four years old, but for
thirty-four years he trudged to and from his
place of business, and was as active as most
men of many younger years. He knew all the
former residents Of the Hudson City section,
and in his younger days he took an active inter
est in all matters of public interest. His wife
died about two years ago at the advanced age of
eighty-two years. and her death was a severe
blow to him.. He went to the polls en- Election
day and voted, but since then he has been con-
fined to his home at No. s01 Baldwin avenue,
calmly awaiting the termination of his life
journey.
Theodore A. Havemeyer, the New York sugar
king, who own hundreds Of acres of land in
Bergen county, has recently taken $50 Italian
laborers and 100 horses ana carts to Ramseys to
convert his possessions into a public park.
The special election held in Burlington on Sat
urday to settle the Postmestership contest still
leaves the matter in doubt. OF the s6s votes
cast ex.Sheriff Hays received 1877 and Tax Col
Ioo+ou Mount cavaptv- thraa v0taq (1apto;, pf;i
lips, Hays opponent, remained out of the con-
test altogether and claims the election has by no
means settled the fight
DR.. Alexander Grogan, of Carlton Hill, West
Rutherford, has Just received by mail from his
brother in Mirzapore, in the northwestern part
of India, a plant about q foot long. 1t is now
withered and apparently dead. 1t belongs to a
| species indigenous to the tolrld plains of
Hindustan, and a few months it was regarded
with awe and reverence, not unmingled, per-
haps, with disgust, by the natives. 1t is an
electrical plant, and has, when in full bloom, a
current of electricity passing through it so
powerful that q strong man touching it is stag
gered by the shock. Birds coming in contact
with it are killed at once, but they usually give
it q wide berth. Insects are slain by thousands
on its leaves, and four-footed creatures rarely
go near it. 1t is electrified only when the sun is
high. Its power wanes with the closing day,
and at night the force of its current is not
perceptible. During the rainy season, too, 1t is
almost inert. DIR. Grogan will try to revive it,
but be has not much hope Of success.
MIR. Frederick S. Fish. of Newark, ex-candi-
date for Governor and Surrogate, mas gone
West on a business tour, and may go as far as
California.
The Essex Terra Gotta Lumber Company has
organized with a capital of $3.50, 900 TO build a
factory on the bank OF the Passaic in Newark.
The Ferroats. of Bonhamton, who were impli-
Gated in the disappearance Of Mamie Hughes,