The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-01-08
NEWS AND NOTES.

The Chinese are no more welcome
in Java than in many other countries.
They introduce the consumption of
opium, to the impoverishment of the
poorer classes. Chinese money-lending
also works untold misc # among the
poor, who have to pay such high interest
that ruin and misery befall most of them
when they once take to borrowing, and
this results in an increase of crime.
"A journal special from Augusta, Me.
says Labor Commissioner Matthews has
completed the compilation of abandoned
farm statistics in the State, and the re-
suits are exceedingly interesting. The
number of abandoned farms reported
aggregates 1910. The total acreage of
these farms is 254,5l3 and their valuation
for taxation is 81 ,24S, 100. The assessors
do not as rule, give any reasons why
these farms were abandoned.
The United States Supreme Court
has decided that one clause of the Ed
munds Anti Polygamy act is unconsti-
tutiOnal. 1t is that portion which per-
mits pOlygamous wife to testify against
hor husband for the purpose of proving
the marriage pOlygamous. The court
reaffirms the old doctrine of common law
that wife cannot testify against her
husband.
This from the Charleston Ne,us and
Courier Dem is refreshingly frank and
significant: 1--WE would suggest that.
even if the Force bill be passed, the
electoral vote of South Carolina can be
preserved to the Democratic party by a
simple amendment of the election law
and that Gov. Tillman cannot do wiser
thing than to send a message to the gen
eral assembly recommending that the
polling place for presidential electors be
separated from the congressional polling
place, and that ballot box be provided
for presidential electors at the polling
place for State and county officers. 1t
is entirely within the power of the gen
eral assembly to so amend the election
law as to remove the danger of sacrificing
the electoral vote of South Carolina in
1892. South Carolina Democrats do not
deny that in froo aud fair vuCe their
State would be Republican,; they leave
the lying to their superseryiceable allies
in the North.
The fact that more than three hun
dred of the abandoned farms of New
Hampshire have been taken up within a
year throws perceptible damper over
the noisy free trade talk about the de-
cadence of New England.
For nausea lay little pounded ice
on the back of the neck.
Use soft water AMI few drops of
turpentine and a little sugar with your
stove polish.
The old highway system has long
since demonstrated its inherent weak
ness. The Highway Surveyor is not in a
position to force his neighbOrs to render
such service for days work as he would
expect of any one of them if in his EN-
plOy upon his farm, and the result is that
each farmer, with his hired help, vies
with every other farmer, and his hired
help is doing as little as possible. The
day is spent in neighbOrly conversation,
a few stones are picked out of the road "a
few loads of dirt are carted on, and at
night every man is credited with full
days work, allowance is made for cattle
that have been idle half the time, for
carts that have been used but little and
for plows that perhaps have not been
used at all. As rule, this farce is en-
acted one day toward the end of spring
and one day during the fall and the
roads are left to themselves through all
the other months. OF course, the results
are not satisfactory. -MdRcheSter Union.
Fort Payne stock has sold for almost
nothing during the past week and let
ter has been sent to each stakeholder
urging that he come to the rescue of the
at once. 1t looks now as if the
investors in that enterprise
would receive for Christmas present
hole just the size of their investment
Clipper.
The Democrats are making a great
noise about what it has cost to run John
|. Davenport's election bureau for ten
years. But the real occasion of their
Dutcry is not its cost, but the fact that it
prevents them from committing great
frauds in New York city.
Cold water may be drank freely
N all fevers except when the fever
S connected with lung troubles, and
N such case it might chill the patient.