The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-12-02
WEDNESDAY, December :, 1896
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Fx-G Governor John Young Brown, of
Kentucky, was elected to Congress in
1858 several weeks before he had reached
the required age. He became eligible
ten days before the Congress to which he
was elected convened.
The 9th of December will mark the
fiffieth anniversary Of the entrance into
Journalism of Col A. X Mcclure, the
editor of the Philadelphia Times, and his
fellow workers on the press of Philadel-
phia propose to commemorate it by
banquet at the Hotel Walton, which
promises to be memorable event.
Mrs Cleveland is studying French. She
is taking three lessons a week of an
hours duration each. Her professor,
who is one of the well-known teachers of
the capital, says his distinguished pupil
shows unusual aptitude for the French
speech, and has already acquired con-
siderable knowledge Of the language.
Orrin Bryant, a Buffalo machinist, has
invented a machine which will, he and
several capitalists believe, do for the
cast-iron industry what the linotype has
done for printing. 1t not only turns out
molds of intricate form all ready to re-
ceiye the molten metal, producing them
much faster than they can be made by
hand, but it does the work better as re-
CARDS both accuracy and finish.
The Salvation Army is to patrol the
streets of London in which drunken per-
sons are mostly found. Ambulances
painted white and red are to be driven by
one girl. accompanied by two Others
who are to be entrusted with the convey
ance of the drunken to a Salvation shell
ter 1t is dangerous, for some of the
girls may be foolish enough to marry
those drunken fellows to save them.
President Halstead. of the National Elk
change Bank. of New York, lost two
$4,000 certificates, which were found
by Alexander Simon, who returned them.
Mr. Halstead was deeply moved by the
honesty of the man, and, having in mind
that tie holidays were near, he sat down
and wrote Simon, not check for $780,
but a complimentary letter, telling the
poor man that honesty would be it's own
reward.
John Brown invented the steel railway
buffer. For years he was unable to get
any of the railway companies to take up
the idea. Then Welsh railway adopted
his buffer, and, when the London and
Northwestern Railway Company saw
how serviceable it was, it sent an order,
which itself was fortune. He became
a very rich man. Some years afterward
he improved the iron plates for ship
sides. and was made Sir John Brown.
Mr.. E. p Hauser, Populist member Of
the Legislature from Lenoir county,
writes to the Progressive Farmer: Il say
to you and all the people of the State, I'm
not pledged to vote for a Sound money
man for the United States Senate; but on
the contrary, | did pledge to the people
of my county, if elected, that / would not
vote for any man who was a goldbug for
United States Senator. | stand there
yet, and when Gabriel blows his horn,
Hauser, of Lenoir, will be found voting
for a United States Senator who will
pledge himself to do all he can to give US
free silver at Is to /.
Patriotic North Carolinians are inter-
Roanoke Island, one of the famous spots
in North Carolina history. The monu
ment erected and the other work done,
have resulted chiefly from the unselfsh la
bors OF the late able and scholarly Prof.
Edward Graham Dawes, the first presi
dent of the Roanoke Colony Memorial
Association, and his thoroughly patriotic
and we'll informed surviving brother, the
esteemed and most worthy Maj. Graham
Dawes, Of Newbern, now the active, eff
eient president There ought to be as
much interest gathering around old Fort
Raleigh for North Carolnians as centres
at Plymouth Rock for the descendants of
Massachusetts pilgrims Wilmington
Messenger.
We regret very much to find in our Re
publican exchanges deprecatory illusions
to the "sagebrush States" and pocket
boroughs" They seem to forget that
these States were made when the Repub-
lican party needed votes in the United
States Senate, and the gentlemen who
thus effected the free coinage of
United States Senators all thought
it very funny and proper while
the work was in progress. Fur
thermore, the same newspapers that
now make complaint bad no trouble IN
finding excuses for splitting up the Terri
tories and grinding out new States How
ever, we are compelled to acknowledge
that it is not always pleasant to have
such fowls come home for roosting pur-
poses-W Washington Post.