NEWS OF THE WEER — Henry Bender and Truman Ormsbee met and quarrelled in a house of ill- fame in Harrisburg, on the 23d. Both were drunk, and, after leaving the den, they again met at the Cumberland Val- ley Railroad depot. Here the fight was renewed, and the couple rolled on the railroad tracks where they were struck by a shifting engine. Both were se- verely injured, Bender, perhaps, tatally. Ormsbee 1s said to be a resident of Philadelphia. James Rowell shot and killed Georg Metcalf in a street quar- rel at Houston, Texas. on the 22d, --John Robinson, 25 years of age, an English swimmer, on the 23d, swam the Hudson river, from Nyack to Tar- rytown, about three miles, in one hour and thirty-six minutes. He swam against time, $500, 1t is sald, having been staked on a limit of one hour and forty-five minutes. —The Mail prihting office, at Toron- ©, was damaged by fire on the 22d 0 the extent of about $30,000, The fire started on the first floor, oc- supied by Alexander & Cable, litho- graphers, and spread to the Mail edi- iorfal and composing rooms. Thomas carroll, watchman, was badly burned while trying to extinguish the flames. ~The house of a man named Shipe, pear Sunbury, Penna., was struck by lightning on the 234 and two children were injured, one dangerously, — William Alexander, for eight years assorting mail clerk at the Post office at Louisville, was arrested on the 231 for robbing the mails. He was caught with decoy money packages, —Complaint was made to diana Board In- 22d the of Health on the and that people who own dogs and cats refuse to keep their domestic animals at home, thereby spreading the contagion. The authorities seek the aid of the law to destroy the disease-distributing felines and canines or to enforce their re- straint,” —Several large barns and a number of shedsat Brighton, one of the suburbs of Boston, were bummed on the 21st. Incendiarisn 1s suspected. The total loss is estimated at $50,000, Two warehouses at Superior, Minne- sota, were burned on the 21st, ILoss, $20,000. The Union Depot at Cisco, Texas, was burned on the 21st. Loss, $40,000, The large fertilizer works of Wright and Craighill, at Lynchburg, were burned early on the 22d. —James Harlow was on the 24th, lodged in jail at Harrisonburg, ginia, charged with the murder of his little step-daughter by brutally beating her and then cutting her throat, At El Paso, Texas, on the 23d, Louis Trip at Crossville, then committed suicide, shot and killed Alexander Irving in the presence of two neighbors, Crenshaw surrendered. He said “that it was customary for Irving and himself to greet each other by snapping their re. volvers, and that he snapped his think- ing it was empty.” Near Thomas- ville, Ga., on the 22d, Frank Cole- man, a farmer, becoming enraged at his wife, felled her with a hoe, and then got a razor and cut her throat. At Springfield, Missouri, on the 24th, John Russell, in a (it of insanity, attempted to kill his wife and child by cutting alarm, and when the neighbors arrived al the house, they found the would-be murderer on the floor with a bullet in his brain. The woman and child may recover. At Carrollton, Kentucky, on the 24th, Wilham Whitehead fatally shot Laura Harwood, and then killed himself, They had agreed to die to- gether because their parents opposed their marriaze, There was great destruc- vegetation, windows on the 23d. tion of and horses were killed by falling trees, —GCieneral Miles telegraphs Calabassas, Anzona, under date of the 224 instaut, as follows: “Two small bands have broken from Geronimo's camp and gone north and committed some depredations, Three men killed and one boy captured. Troops are in pursuit, and others are in advance to intercept if possible, Their efforts, I think, will be to leave their wounded and get Agency Indians to join them. Have directed Lieut. Colonel Wade, commanding Fort Apache, and Capt, Pierce, San Carlos, to prevent it. Captain Lawton has followed main camp with great persistency over the worst country in this whole mountain region, and is camped on trail to- night.” — Near Pittsburg, Penna., on the 234, the infant of Michael Feehan was taken to a neighbor's house to be chris. tened. During the absence of the par- ents the three other children got hold of the oll can, poured oil in the gate and set themselves on fire, Two of them were burned to death, the other is not expected to recover. ~Policeman Gehlert, his wife and daughter and one of his sons were made dangerously ill on the 23d at Cleveland by Jolson which had been put in their cof “Investigation showed thata 1 quantity of rat poison had been put in the coffee-pot on the stove and the can of milk outside the door. The kitchen door had been forced open to et at the coffee-pot. The eldest son id not get up to breakfast and so escaped, There is no clue to the per- petrator of the deed.” -A fire at Wausau, Wisconsin, on the 25th, swept the Plumer and Stewart lumber yards and buildings, the Lake Shore and Western depot property and ust of the village of caus. the loss estimated at $200,000, A fire at the Star Oil Company's works, at Erle, Penna., on the 24th, caused a 108s of $60,000." The Chief of the Fire t and two of the men were terribly burned. ~At Hannibal, near Oswego, New York, early on the the store of George Leonard was and set on fire. The fire spread to adjoiting hulld- ings, causing a total loss of $10 000, -A freight train ran into a drove of cattle near Slater, Missouri, on the 23d killing three of the ammals. The en- gine and ten cars were thrown from the track and the fireman was killed, Two other train hands were danger- ously injured, — Snow fell on the 25th at Kane and Clarendon, in the western section of Pennsylvania, there being ‘‘quite a storm’ at the latter place, — While an Odd Fellows’ excursion train was entering Brampton, Onta- rio, on a steep grade, on the 24th, the rear car became detached, The engineer not knowing what had hap- pened stopped the train and the de- tached car ran into it with great foroe, The car contained forty per- sons, all of whom were Injured, though none dangerously. —A telegram from Pittsburg says the new Edgar natural gas well, set on fire by lightning on the 224, is still burning, the flames reaching into the alr nearly 200 feet. No attempt has yet been made to extinguish the burning gas, and 1t is probable that it will be left to blow and burn for sev- eral days, The Duff well, in Mur- raysville, also fired by lightning on the same day, is still burning, —Three men were injured by a pow der explosion at the Soddy Mines, near Chattanooga, on the 24th, and all of them have since died. One hundred kegs of powder being taken on a car to the mines were exploded by a spark from the engine, —The house and barn of David shelter from the storm, was drowned, Whittaker had his jaw broken by fall- —A large six-story brick aod stone building, at the corner of rireet and Wabash avenue in was destroyed by fire on the 26th, occupants were Belford, Clarke & Co,, & Donohue Hennebury, bookbinders; R, A. ing Company. The losses are as fol- lows: Building, owned by J Q. Adams, $100,000; insurance, $33,500. Clarke & Co., publishers, loss $300,000; nebury, loss §250, 000; insurances $180, - insurance, $35,000, aggregate $25,000 Four firemen were injured, one dangerously. Cecil Marriage, Chief Engineer of and his cousin, Hattie Marriage, were ing of the reported action ture of the renegade Apaches dead or alive, partment. There are no fundsavallable ered civilized warfare even against bloodthirsty savages.’ left Blackfoot, Idaho, on the 26th, with sentenced to the ITouse of Correction, at Detroit. six others, three perhaps fatally, turning from the post-office to her home was met by a negro, who, because she scalp. After lying for some time by who pronounced her -— It is reported that the Gracd Jury ments against a number of Anarchists, Samuel Fielding, Michael Schwab and Hermann Schnawble. It was agreed to withhold the indictments and return no true bills till all the the cases have been disposed of. ~-Wayne Anderson, a wealthy far mer, was found murdered on the 23d near Mountain Grove, Missouri. Dur- ing the Coroner’s inquest on the 25th, two of the murdered man’s sons, Edward and Henry Anderson and a companion named Ewing Landers, confessed the crime, The confessions were identical, except that the brothers accused each other of the actual shoot- ing. --A house of evil repute near Rhine- lander, Wisconsin, was burned on the 25th, and four of its inmates, two men and two women, perished mn the flames, One man escaped from the bullding, but is fatally burned. —In the U. 8, Circuit Court, at Bos- ton on the 27th, John Gomez, convict. ed of bringing more passengers from the Cape de Verde Islands in the schoo. ner Bird, than allowed by law, was 1000 and costs, amounting in all to ut $1300, and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment in the jail at New Bedford. The schooner has been l1belled by the government and will be sold to pay the flne and costs imposed. The trustees of the estate of Arch- bishop Purcell, in Cincinnati, having begun suit against the bondsmen of ex- Assignee Manning for $300,000 the amount alleged to have been embezzled by Mannix. Ex-Governor Hoadley is one of the bondsmen, ~John C. Henning was hanged on the 27th at Crawfordville, Indiana, for the murder of Mrs. Lottie Volmer in October last. She was a widow, and broke off her engagement to Henning because of his drunkenness, ~The local election in Richmond, Yirginia, on the 27th, resulted in the cho the oa depoudent Ratorm ticket,” supported Republicans and working men, , oh a ~—A building of the United States Dynamite Works, two and a half miles from Tom's River, New Jersey. blew up on the 27th, Two en were killed—— Atwood Hyers, of Tom’s River, and John Graham, from West Chester county, New York, The building con- tained 200 pounds of dynamite, and the vibration caused by the explosion was felt throughout Ocean county. Plas- tering was shaken from buildings in Tom’s River village, window glass was broken at Forked River, thirteen miles distant, and doors were forced open by the concussion at Waretown, seventeen miles away, BEN ATE. In U. 8. Senate on the 24th, a num- ber of private pension bills were dis- posed of. Mr. Gibson spoke at length on the subject of open executive ses- sions, the Bankruptey and District Ap- propriation bills having been temporarily laid aside to enable lim to do so. The subject was also discussed by Messrs, Hoar, Platt and Teller, The Bank- ruptey bill was then considered, Pend- Ing the discussion the Senate ad journed, In the United States Senate on the 25th, the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Land Forfeiture bill was passed as it was reported, It forfeits all lands ex- cept the right of way adjacent and co- terminous with the incompleted por- tion of theroad. On motion of Mr. Sewell, the Senate then took up the bill | heretofore reported by him from the | Pensions law by inereasing the pensions | of soldiers and sailors who lost one foot or ore hand in the service, £30 a month to those who lost an arm above above the knee, $45 a | month to those who lost an arm at the hip joint. Mr, Miller offered an amendment extending the provisions of the bill so as to in- | clude among the $45 a month pensioners the cases of men whose legs had been as limb, the Lo artificial 50 amended the bill passed, The con- ference report on the Urgent Deliclency bill was agreed to. After an Execu- tive session the Senate adjourned, In the U. 8, Senate on the 26th, the bill for the taxation of railroad grant lands was taken up and discussed, but Mr, | Sherman explained that the bill was | simply intended to explain the meaning | of the existing law relating to Chinese immigration, After some debate the measure was postponed and the Sanate | adjourned. In the U, 8, Senate on the 27th, the bill “restoring to the United States cer- ern Pacific Raliroad Company” discussed during the morning hour. Mr. Miller submitted the conference | report on the bill “abolishing certain | fees,” ete. In connection with Ameri- can shipping. This is the bill contain. ing the Frye amendment, authonzing the President to deny, by proclamation, | to vessels of foreign countries such privileges as are denied to American | vessels in such foreign countries, The | Adjourned Was | HOUSE In the House on the 24th, Mr. Ding- | ley, of Maine, from the Shipping Com- | mitte, reported back the Shipping bill, | with a recommendation that certain of | the Senate amendments be concurred | in and others non-concurred in. Agreed | to. A number of bills were introduced under the call of States and referred, | Jiand, of | the proceeds te be applied to the pay. | Mr. Tucker, of Virginia, from the Committee on the | proposing a Copstitutional amendment | on the subject of polygamy. It was | Adjourned. | In the House on the 25th, the Senate bill for a Staten Island bridge was re- Mr, Springer, from the Coms- Constitution and State Government. Also, adversely the Senate bill for the | admission of the State of Dakota and | for the organization of the Territory of Lincoln. The Mexican Treaty bill was reported adversely from the Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Hewitt presenting a minority report. The con- ference report on the Urgent Deficiency bill was agreed to. The Oleomargarine bill was discussed in Committee of the Whole, general debate on the bill being continued in evening session, The House, on the 26th, went iuto Committee of the Whole on the Oleo- margarine bill, and general debate was closed. On motion of Mr, Breck- enridge, of Kentucky, an amendment was adopted—65 to 43—to {he section defining ‘‘butter,’”’ so as to exclude from that definition that produce of milk or cream when additional color ing matter is used. Mr, Hammond offered an amendment making it un- lawful for any merchant or shop keeper in the District of Columbia or the Territories to sell oleomargarine without labelling it in a conspicuous manner, and requiring hotel, restaurant and boarding-house keepers who use oleomargarine to place in their dining rooms a placard bearing the word ‘this house uses oleomargarine,’” a to have the same words printed on the bill of fare. Agreed to, 92 to 85, Ad- journed, In the House on the 27th, the report of the Conference Committee on the Shipping bill was presented, and, after some debate, agreed to without a divi- sion. Mr. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, from the Ways und Means Committee, reported a bill providing that manufac. tured tobacco, snuff and cigars may be removed for export to a foreign country without payment of tax, under such regulations as the Commissioner of In- ternal Revenue shall prescribe. The bill also repeals Section 3151 of the Re- vised Statutes authorizing the appoint- ment of one or more tors of Sigats in each collection di t, to re- ve as compensation such fees from manufacturers as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue may prescribe, The Oleomargarine bill was taken up, but, owing to the “‘fihb " tactics of the members to Bs pogo hak an todo i House adjourned, When You are Sad. When you are sad, I ask no moro The lavish rights 1 claimed before, When sunrise glittered on the seas, And dancing to the woolng breeze, The laughing ripples kissed the shore, The morning glow of love is o'er, Oh. rosy dreams we dreamt of yord I do but ask the least of these, when you are sad, Let the fresh darling yon adore, With joy’s light footstep cross the floor; But hear the last of all my pleas, And shut for all but me the door, When you are sate. IROL ARC ITI A REVENGEFUL HAND, I was at one time police magistrate in Ajacclo, a little white city, which sleeps at the edge of an admirable gulf, shut in by lofty mountains, The cases I had to investigate or prosecute there, were mostly cases of vendetta. In Corsica there are all sorts of vendetta, superb and dramatic as possible, some ferocious, some heroic, XY ou can study there the finest themes of vengeance possible to dream about; hatreds that are centuries old, for a moment, but never totally extinguished, abominable ruses, | murder that have the extent of massa- | cres, and sometimes of a character | For | two years | was always hearing about that terrible Liki blood-money, and about Corsican prejudice which compels one to revenge an injury on the person who inflicted it, upon his descendants and upon saw old men, children, and remote cousins murdered; and my of all such | stories, Well, one day his relatives, 1 head was full I was told that an | years in advance a little country house | gulf, He had brought with him a! French servant, whom he hired at Mar- | In a short time everybody was talk- ing about this strange person, who lived | by himself, never leaving his house He never spoke | to anybody and never went to the city; | but every morning he used to practice All kinds of stories began to circulate | im. Some sald he was a very his country for political reasons; others himself | terri- | Various peculiarly horrible | in connec- | ble crime. circumstances were related tion with the legend. In my quality as police magistrate 1 some particulars about the man; but I found it impossible to get any informa- He called himself Sir John YW I contented myself, therefore, with having a close watch set over him; but none of my men could find anything very suspicious in his actions- After a time, as the queer rumors about him continued, and increased, | and bedame general, I resolved to see | the stranger myself; and I made a! the neighborhood of his place. I had It came at last in the shape of | a partridge, which I brought down | under the very nose of my Englishman, My dog brought it to me; but, taking | the bird In wy hand, I went to Sir | and a red beard—very tail, indeed, and also very broad-—a sort of placid and petite Hercules, He had nothing of the oxdinary British stiffuess about him, and he thanked me warmly for my courtesy in the peculiarly accented French of our cousins across the chan pel. During the following month we had five or or six meetings and brief conversations, One evening al last, as I was passing by his gate, I saw him in his garden, bestraddling a chair and smoking a pipe. I saluted him, and he invited me in to take a glass of ale, I was only too glad to accept, He received me with all the minute English courtesy possible, and spoke warmly of France and Corsica, declar- ing that he loved the country and the gulf shore. He persistently said cotte when he ought to have said ce. Then, with the greatest precaution, I began to question him—disguising my object under the mask of a warm per- sonal interest—about his life and pro- jects. He replied without the least embarrassment, and told me that he had traveled a great deal—in Africa, in India, in America. He added, laugh- ing, in bad French; “Adventures? —-yes; I have had plenty of adventures, Ohl yes!’’ I turned the conversation upon hunt. ing, and he began to give me the most curious facts about hippopotamus hunt ing and tiger hunting and elephant hunting and even gorilla hunting. I said; “Bat all those are terribly animals,’ He smiled and said: “Ohl no--the worst of all is man.” Then he burst into a laugh—a big, hearty, self-satisfied English laugh, and observed: “I've done a good deal of man-hunting, too, in my time,’ Then he began to talk about weapons, and invited me into a room to show me bis firearms, and explain the differenc in their mechanism, His parlor was all hung in black-- black silk embroidered In gold, Huge bright yellow flowers blossomed all over the sable texture, shining like fire, ‘“That,” he observed, *‘‘is Japanese work.” But in the centre of the largest panel there was a strange thing which caught my eye—a black object relieved against a square of red velvet. I approached it; it was a band—a man’s hand. Not a skeleton hand, all white and clean, but a hand black and desiccated —with the yellow nails, the naked muscles, and traces of blood— blood like a scab ~upon the bones at the point where they had been severed, as with the blow of an ax, about the middle of the fore- arm, Round the wrist an enormous chain of iron had been riven about the foul relic; and this chain fastened the hand to the wall by a great ring, solid enough to hold an elephant in leash, I asked, **What is that?’ The Englishman tranquilly answered: “That was part of my best enemy, It is from America. It was cut off with a sabre, and the skin removed with a sharp stone, after which it was was a good thing for me, I tell you.” to a colossus, The tendons, still held in thelr and there by strips of skin. was, that hand was somethi places here BAVAgEe Vengeance, I said: ~“That man must have The Englishman answered gently: “Oh hy he. I put to hold it.’ I thought he was joking. the chain is no use now. hand can’t get away.”’ Sir John Rowell gravely answered: this chain on the I glanced quickly at his face, think- ing to make a stupid joke!’ jut his face remained impenetrable, tranquil and good natured. I turned Le conversation to another subject,” and began to look at the rifles, Meanwhile I observed that attacken. afterward. Then 1 did not go any more. People had become accustomed indifferent to the rest of the world. * * - . A whole year passed, Then, my servant woke me up with the news that Sir John dered during the night. Half an hour later I entered the Eng- I first him; but the man subse- The real murderer was never known. The first sight that met my eves on en- His vest was torn, one shirt-sleeve, had taken place. to death! His blackened and swollen face, frigutfully distorted, wore an expression of hideous fear; between his clenched teeth was a bit of something or other, which I could not tell the nature of at first; and his throat pierced with five wounds that seemed to have been made by points of iron, was covered with blood. A doctor joined us. He examined the marks of the fingers in the flesh for a long time, and then ultered these strange words: “Why, the man looks as if he had been strangled by a skeleton!” I felt a creeping sensation; and invol- untarily lifted my eyes to the wall—to the place where the horrible flayed hand used to be. It was no longer there. The chain—broken-—was dang- ling from the ring. Then 1 bent over the dead man, and between his clenched teeth I found one of the fingers of the vanished hand, severed, or rather sawed off by the teeth, about the middle of the second joint, Then we proceeded to take testi. mony. We could not find out any. thing at all. No door had been broken in, no windo'y, no partition. Even the two watch dogs had never been awakened, The testimony of the servant was, in owe mysterious way, at the sawe time if the murder, Sir John used to go to bed very late, and always locked himsel? in carefully. He never slept without having pistols 1 Lis reach. Often, in the night, he used to shout out very loud, as if he were quarreling with somebody, That night, by some singular chance, he bad made no noise at all: and the valet had only found that Sir John was murdered when he went to open the windows next morn'ng., Ile did not know whom to suspect, 1 commupicated all the I possessed concerning other magistrates and and the most rigorous search was in all farts of the whatever was discovered, information 3 Lo the officials; ade Ce ’ island, Nothing Now, on\ night, three montis after the crime, I had a hideous nightmare, I thought I saw the hand —the horrible hand—runniug like a scorpion or a spi- der along the curtains and up and down the walls of my room. ‘Three times I woke up; three times I went to sleep again; three times | saw ghastly thing running all over my room, and using its fingers like 55 many legs. Next day they brought the hand itself, saying they who had bee: we never could find the The Index {i That is my story, Rowell, family. shuddered visibly, But that is no ending be able to sleep to- The magistrate smiled “Oh, as for my opinion I merely suppose that the proprietor of that hand was not I must acknowledge, never been able to surmise course, a sort of vende! One of the wome: it could never be!" The police judge, observed; “I told 3 my explanation w ns The Toad as a Singer The humble toad, dingy, warty skin, sluggish movements and nerally unattractive appearance, was Writes 1 persecution. maligned Lim Some obe ilfe a little bead, his Later, since studied him as a most of noxious in- serving poet brightened his by noting the jewe! in his painstaking naturalists lave his habits and described industrious destroyer the gar pays len and lawn, where he amply the his w glad 'y protecti for which men give him, It is mot generally kn that he has no mean His song is fully equ surpasses in power the frog, to whom h aril but pleasant notes credited. He wn to the pub- vocal powers, 1 melody and f his cousin, not un- usually ns music he “‘peepers’’ have it consists in sung their opening chorus. | of a prolonged, rather monot onous, but not unmusical trili on a high key, which resembles somewhat the shorter, note of the tree-toad, | so-called; tree-frog, or, be more exact, { hyla is the proper name of the latter, | pitch of the song of individual toads, | When about t@perform, he first inflates | the skin or membrane beneath his chin until it is distended like a large bubble, and then elevating his head, sends forth his inviting cry, usually responded to by some near or distant fellow. The sound, which is mostly heard in the evening, penetrates to a long dis- tance. It is heard most frequently about mating time, in spring, although occasionally throughout the summer, | especially before rain. The margin of | a shallow pond 18 the most favorable | locality to find these performers, The writer recently saw dozens of them swimming about, singing, challenging, sporting and quarreling in a little pool on a warm evening, and spent a pleas. ant half hour in watching thelr clumsy frolics, A Mysterious Congressman, oe Mr. Mills is one of the mysteries of Congress. ITe is never seen or heard of in social circles, and disappears from the public the moment the house adjourns, He is a very reticent man, and has noth. ing to say about his past, present or future. Henevereven contributed any facts about his own life to the Congres. sional directory; neither the date nor place of his birth, nor his whereabouts in the interesting period between 1860 and 1865 are on record. At a guess Mr, Mills is abont 54 years of age, Heo is of rather slight figure and has gray hair and moustache and twinkling blue eyes. Mr. Carlisle who is a pret. ty good judge of men, has a singularly high opinion of Mr, Mills, and has al. ways recognized him as one of the lead- ars of the southern wing of the party. 3
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers