The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1891-03-10
Compiled for the Sunday Morning BazoO.
FUGITIVEFACTS.
Concerning Odd Affairs and
Characters i'm Early Ameri-
can History.

Some humble StatlStlcldn naS
taken the pains to count the number
of speeches made in the constitutional
convention which met in 1881. Of
these there are put down to GOuver-
neur Morris 173; to James Wilson
1853 to James Madison 161 to Sher-
man 1873; to Mason 1856; aud to FL
bridge Gerry 1l9.
Benjamin Frankiin's popularity
in France was immense. A distin.
guished historian says that it was not
surpassed by that of Voltsire,, nor
equalled by that of Napoleon. When
Franklin walked in the street of
Paris, the people followed him in
crowds. Rude copies of his face hung
in the windows of every print-phop
and over the fireplace of very many
fashions. Men of science did him
honor an 1 womes of the world wrote
him sonnets.
-Apropos of the free coinage ques-
ton, it may be well to remember that,
fifty years ago the silver pieces which
passed from hand to hand under the
name of small change, were largely
made up of foreign coins. They bal
been in circulation long before the
war for independence, hal seen much
service, and were none the better for
the wear and tear they had sustained.
The two commonest were the eighth
and sixteenth of the Spanish milled
dollar, and these, taking the country
through, passed under seven names.
For instance. in Pennsylvania, it was
the ftp, in Louisiana the people
called it the picayune. Some shilling
pieces and some sixpence pieces We're
to be found in circulation down even
to,the civil war. In 1880 only the small
change was of foreign coinage. In
LISA the entire coin of the land, ex.
cept coppers, was TIE produce OF
foreign minis. English guineas,
crowns, shillings aud pence were still
paid over the counters.
For more than fifty years after the
close of the Revolutionary war there
was in Connecticut an underground
prison which surpassed in horrors the
Black Hole of Calcutta. This den,
known as the Newgate prison, was in
an old worked-out copper mine in the
ShiIls near CRANKY. The only en-
trance to it Was by means of ladder
down a shaft which led TO caverns
underground. There, in little pens
of wood, from thirty to one hundred
lculprits were immured. their feet
made fast to iron bars, and their
necks chained to beams in the roof.
The darkness was intense the caves
reeked with filth; vermin abOunded
In the dampness and filth the cloth
ing Of the prisoners grew mOuldy and
70 ted away, and their limbs became
stiff with rheumatism. The Newgate
prison was perhaps the worst in the
country, yet in every county were
iiai's not much better. into such pits
and dungeons all classes and both
sexes were Unfortunately thrust.
Alexander Hamilton was proba
bly, the most brilliant man known tn
American history. French and Scotch
blood was evenly mixed in his veins,
and he was born within fifteen degree:
of the equator. He was skillful
officer, a brilliant pamphleteer, al
active political leader, an impressive
d chatter, wise statesman, an able
financier, a polite j economist of rare
sagacity. Since the time of William
of Orange the world had rarely seen
an instance Of so mature MIND in SC
young lad. At seventeen he was al
ready renowned through the cOlOnie:
as political writer, and saw with de
light bis anonymous pamphlet atirib
uted to the mature hands of Clinton
and Jay. AT twenty-three it wa;
proposed to send him to the French
curt with Lafayette, to negotiate g
new loan. He was captain of artillery
and aide-de-camp to Washington wher
but mere lad. At the close of the
war he was sent to congress, became
an authority on army matters and wal
On the committee to model the peace
est :blishment AS a lawyer he WA
E well-nigh peerless.
The first scheme for a national cap
ital or Federal town" as some called
t it, seems rather ridiculous in these
: days of opulence and magnif,ence
) Commissioners were appointed to Sc
) lect a tract Of land not more thar
r three nor less than tSO mills square
on the banks Of the Delaware, pur
chase it and there lay out Fedora
city. The structures, which they
were charged to erect ia an elegant
| manner, were house for congress
1 c,,.tol,lo I,,1J,r,, Co. fha