fS'jtttJS of il)t Week. 
HOME NEWS. 
Saturday. April 29,1882. 
Death op Emerson:— Ralph Waldo Emer¬ 
son, the poet and philsopher Is dead I Sur¬ 
rounded by the members of his family he 
passed away at 9 o’clock p. M. on the 26th inst. 
at his home in Concord, Mass. In that bril¬ 
liant galaxy of New England writers, Emer¬ 
son shone most brightly, and behind him he 
leaves no one who can take up his mantle. 
But a few days ago Longfellow died, and it 
was at his funeral that Emerson contracted 
a cold which resulted in acute pneumonia 
and death. His passing away was painless 
and, like the closing of a Summer’s day, his 
last declining hours were calm and peaceful. 
His burial place will be with Hawthorne in 
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery near his old home. 
Emerson was born in Boston May 25th, 1803 
and was graduated from Harvard in 1821. 
In 1829 he was ordained as a minister of the 
Second Unitarian church, Boston. He resigned 
in 1832 and shortly after speuta 3 r ear in Eu¬ 
rope. Returning ho began his career as a 
lecturer, and essayist. From 1840 to 1844 
he was associated with Channing, Parker, 
Ripley and others as contributor to The Dial, 
a quarterly periodical of which he was editor 
for two years. In 1846 his first volume of 
poems was published and in 184S he delivered a 
course of lectures in England and Scotland. 
He was a prolific writer, his essays dealing 
largely with the philospbic, yet there are 
few aspects of life which his keen vision did 
not penetrate, and the influence of his writ¬ 
ings, especially on the development of intel¬ 
lectual life in America, would alone give him 
a lasting name. 
Reduced Postage:— Our national legisla¬ 
tors are again considering the advisability of 
reducing letter postage to two cents per half 
ounce, with one cent for each additional half 
ounce. Mr. Anderson of Kansas who intro¬ 
duced the bill, gives some very interesting 
statistics concerning the effect on the revenues 
of previous reductions in postage. The postal 
regulations in force in 1845 were: “single 
6heet” letter, under 30 miles, 6 cents; over 30 
and under* 80 miles, 10 cents; over SO and under 
150 miles, 12}-$ cents; over 150 and under 400 
miles 1 8% cents; over 4,000 miles, 25 cents, and 
the postal revenue for that year was $4,2S9,- 
841. Then a reduction was made to a rate of 
five cents for distances not exceeding 300 
miles and 10 cents for distances exceeding 300 
miles. The revenues fell off only 19 per cent, 
the first year and eight per cent, the second 
year, while, the third year the revenue was 
$81,230 greater than ever before. In 1845 the 
300-mile limit was extended to 3,000 miles, and 
the postage was made three cents for each 
half ounce if prepaid, or five cents if not pre¬ 
paid for 3,000 miles or less. The revenues fell 
off temporarily, but in 1859, notwithstanding 
another reduction in 1855 the postal revenue 
was $1,742,513 more than in 1852, at which 
time the increase was $6,925,971 over that of 
1845. This is a question in which all are in¬ 
terested much more than in political 44 squab¬ 
bles,” and we hope the proposed reduction will 
become a fact. 
The death of Charles R. Darwin, the emi- 
ent scientist, is announced. Though not an 
American his name is, perhaps, as well known 
here as in his native land. He was boro at 
Shrewsbury, England, Feb. 12, 1809 and was 
educated at Edinburgh University and Christ’s 
College, Cambridge. He is best known as the 
author of the scientific doctrines of “ The Ori¬ 
gin of Species,” “ The Survival of the Fittest” 
and “ The Evolution Theory.” He also wrote 
extensively on geological and botanical sub¬ 
jects. His work on the 41 Origin of Species” 
passed through several English editions and 
was translated into French, German, Italian 
and Russian. His recent essay on the 4 4 Form¬ 
ation of Mold by the Earthworms" was much 
discussed by the American press. 
A statement just completed by the Post 
Office Department shows that up to April 22, 
1882, there were 45,000 post offices in the Uni¬ 
ted States. This includes an increase with the 
past mouth of 250 offices, fully 50 per cent, of 
which is in the southern State*. 
Twenty States will choose governors next 
Fall, a number of Representatives are to be 
elected and legislatures chosen that will se¬ 
lect twenty United States Senators. 
O. B. Potter is clearing away the ruins of 
the burned building at Beekman Street and 
Park Row this city the scene of the recent 
fire preparatory to the erection of a new 
building. It will be ten stories in hight and 
of brick. It will have three iron elevators, 
and even the window casings will be iron. 
The cost will be about $750,090, It is expect¬ 
ed to be finished in one year. The ground 
floor will be devoted to stores and the rest to 
offices. 
The Senate has passed the Mississippi River 
Improvement bill as reported from the com¬ 
mittee; all of the amendments having been 
withdrawn. It directs the Secretary of War, 
with the advice and under the direction of the 
Mississippi River Commission, to expend 
$6,000,000 ($5,000,000 on the Mississippi and 
$1,000,000 on the Missouri) in deepening the 
channels and improving the navigation of 
these rivers iu accordance with plans recom¬ 
mend by the Commission. 
In answ'er to letters from all parts of the 
United States, asking for the signification of 
the recent aurora, Professor Vennor, the 
Canadian weather prophet, says: 4 ‘The ap¬ 
proaching Summer will be cold and wet over 
a very considerable portion of country of 
the South and West.” He would not be sur¬ 
prised should each month for the remainder of 
the year bring frosts. In past years, brilliant 
auroras at this time in April at Toronto, New 
York and more southern points have almost 
invariably been succeeded by cold and wet 
Summers. 
Mrs. Scoville states that she intends to pre¬ 
pare a petition to the President for commuta¬ 
tion of Guiteau’s sentence to imprisonment for 
life, and travel around the country lecturing 
and circulating the petition for signatures. 
The number of bills and joint resolutions 
introduced thus far in the Forty-seventh Con 
gress is 7,915. The House Committees have 
made 6,069 reports; the Senate Committees, 
450. The work done in the preparation of a 
majority of the reports has been thrown 
away, for the reports will never be acted 
upon. 
A gold lode has been discovered in Lassen 
County, California, which is reported to yield 
an average of $150 in gold per ton the entire 
width of the vein—six to eight feet. A shaft 
has been sunk 260 feet, which shows the ore 
to improve with depth. A lot of about 200 
tons of the richest selected ore has been ex¬ 
tracted and is said to average $800 per ton. 
The property has just been sold for $1,500,000. 
Frau Friederick-Materna, one of the greatest 
of dramatic singers and pre-eminent as an 
interpreter of Wagnerian music, arrived in 
New York Saturday, from Vienna. After 
fulfilling her engagement at the coming May 
music festival, she will return to Vienna, 
where she has a re-engagement for five years 
at the Imperial opera house. It is also defini¬ 
tely settled that Patti will sing in opera in the 
United States next season. The price is $4,400 
anight. Whew!! 
A bill has been introduced into the State 
Senate for an improved system of towage on 
the Erie Canal, which authorizes the Albany, 
Syracuse and Bnffaio Railroad Company to 
try the experiment of locomotive steam tow¬ 
age of canal-boats by constructing a railroad 
on 10 miles of the berme bank of the canal. 
The road is to be built under the supervision 
of the Superintendent of Public Works, and 
the builders enter into a bond of $100,000 to 
restore the berme bank to its original con¬ 
dition in case the experiment should not prove 
successful. 
The movement in Cambridge for a memorial 
of Longfellow in the open space opposite the 
historic house in which he lived has taken 
shape. The work of deciding upon the nature 
of the memorial is left to a committee consist¬ 
ing of Prof. Charles Eliot Norton, Henry Van 
Brunt, W, P. P. Longfellow, the nephew of 
the poet; Prof. Asa Gray, and Prof, John 
Trowbridge. It is most likely that a statue 
of Longfellow will be decided upon as the 
fittest memorial. Under the plan adopted for 
forwarding the work, an Executive Committee 
will hold the property in trust until it may 
seem best for the permanent care of the estate 
to transfer it to the city of Cambridge or to 
Harvax*d University. The payment of $1 
will constitute any man, woman, or child an 
honorary member of the association, which it 
is expected will include in its membership 
those in every part of Europe and America. 
A convention of colored men from every 
part of the State met at Macon, Ga., this 
week to discuss matters political and general. 
There were 246 delegates, and nearly the 
whole of the first session was taken up in 
electing a chairman. 
Eau Claire, Wis., lost sixty-three residences 
and stores recently by fire, communicated by 
sparks from a river steamer. The loss is 
$250,000^ half of which is insured. 
Out of over 3,000 saloons in Cincinnati 450 
were reported as paying no attention to the 
Sunday liquor law. Warrants will be issued 
and litigation commenced at once. All the 
hill-top resorts were open, selling beer and 
wines. The Ohio liquor sellers yesterday 
formed a 44 State Protective Association.” 
Miss Mina Powers, of Palmyra, N. Y., has 
been an invalid many years. She is a be¬ 
liever in prayer, and recently she asked her 
fellow church members to hold a prayer¬ 
meeting for her recovery. At tea time on the 
evening when the meeting was appointed she 
was so feeble that her mother haa to feed her 
with a spoon as she lay in bed. At 10 o’clock 
that night she announced that she was well. 
The next day she arose, has had good health 
since, and is now seen going about like other 
people. 
Thirty three missionaries have been sent out 
by the Mormon Conference recently held in 
Ogden City, Utah. Twenty-two missionaries 
are going to Europe to labor in Great Britain, 
Denmark and Switzerland, and the remainder 
will go to points in the South and East of the 
United States. These thirty-three are the 
advance guard of about two hundred who are 
soon to start on a similar mission. 
Five heavily armed men derailed the bag¬ 
gage and express cars of the east-bound At¬ 
chison, Topeka and Santa Fe train, near Lin- 
con, N, M., recently, for the purpose of rob¬ 
bing it of $200,000 in silver from Arizona 
mines for New York, but got into the baggage 
instead of the express car, and before they 
could rectif 3 * their mistake they were driven 
off. The fireman was killed and the engineer 
and express messenger badly hurt. 
The Massachusetts Senate has passed a bill 
forbidding the granting of a liquor license to 
any establishment within 400 feet of a school- 
house on the same street. 
A party of nearly forty young men, sons of 
gentlemen residing in all parts of England, 
left Bristol the other day for New York, on 
their way to Minnesota, where they are to be 
placed as pupils with well-known American 
farmers. They ; re under the charge of the 
Rev. G. Pridbam, Vicar of West Carptree, 
who has been induced to promote this emigra¬ 
tion by the success which has followed a simi¬ 
lar placing out of several of his own relatives. 
The opening of the canal has caused a per¬ 
ceptible revival of transportation business. 
A statement showing the total quantity, in 
tons, of articles cleared on the canals from 
New York during the first 11 days of this sea¬ 
son contains the following figures: Barley, 4,- 
305; barley-malt, 1,403; com, 20,261; lumber, 
41,533; sugar, 513; flour, 283; wheat, 15,101: 
iron ore, 4,921; rye, 8,322; oats, 693; peas and 
beans, 1,696; pig iron, 1,602: domestic salt, 3,- 
383; foreign salt, 253; railroad iron, 1,015; stone, 
lime, and clay r , 14.929; anthracite coal, 19,962; 
bituminous coal, 6,089. The total amount re¬ 
ceived for tolls during the 11 days was $19,- 
688.39. 
Mr. William Crump, who was appointed 
steward at the White House by President 
Hayes, and who was one of the attendants 
upon President Garfield, has resigned on 
account of ill-health, and proposes to make a 
trip to Liverpool. His resignation will take 
effect upon the appointment of his successor, 
who has not yet been selected. 
“ How Well Yon are Looking.” 
44 Every one I meet says, ‘ How well you 
are lookiug.’ I tell them it is the Compound 
Oxygen rebuilding me, * * * I can scarcely 
believe myself to be the same miserable wo¬ 
man I once was.” Treatise on “ Compound 
Oxygen” sent.free. Drs. Starkey & Palen, 
Philadelphia, Pa.— Adv. 
AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
Saturday, April 29,1882. 
The following epitomes of crop reports are 
the condensed, compressed, concentrated es¬ 
sence of a large number of carefully prepared 
reports sent to this city, and embracing about 
1,500 points in all the States and all the Ter¬ 
ritories which have any agriculture worth 
mentioning. 
The following items of agricultural interest 
are briefly condensed from telegrams received 
here within the last 48 hours :— Portland, 
Me. Hay and potatoes will yield largely. 
Cold weather has kept back the sowing of 
oats and wheat. Concord, N. H. Sea¬ 
son backward. Large crops of hay and po¬ 
tatoes expected. Probably an increased acre¬ 
age of wheat. Rutland, V t. A proba¬ 
ble increase in grass, potatoes, oats and corn. 
Dairying increasing. A decrease of one- 
third in maple-sugar crop. Boston, 
Mass. A slight increase in hay, potatoes and 
tobacco. Dairying extending. Little doing 
in wool; holders firmer. Growers show a 
tendency to exact high prices for new clip. 
Shearing now going on in Ky., and Texas. 
Foreign advices not noteworthy. Prov 
idence, R. I. Increased acreage under corn 
and potatoes. Grass good. Labor scarce.... 
....Hartford, Conn., A large acreage will 
be under potatoes. 44 Trucking,” dairying and 
orcharding tre leading to small grain crops. 
.Albany, N. Y. Winter wheat a short 
crop. An increase in oats, barley and dairy¬ 
ing. Hops injured 10 per cent. Peaches a 
failure along the Hudson. Other fruits, ex¬ 
cept cherries, promise well.... Trenton, N. J. 
Hay and clover injured. A light increase in 
wheat, rye, oats and corn, and a decrease in 
tobacco. Fruit good.. ..Philadelphia, Pa. 
A large acreage under corn, oats, potatoes 
and tobacco. Wheat likely to be short. Poor 
wools weak; choice lots steady. Dairy pro¬ 
ducts active. Potatoes higl er. Grain slightly 
lower, except oats, which have risen 2@3c. 
No export trade in gi*ain— ..Wilmington, 
Del. Farm work very backward. Corn and 
wheat an average acreage. Peach and small 
fruit crops badly damaged.... Cincinnati, O. 
Wheat has declined, advanced, and declined 
again, selling for $1.39 on Thursday. Corn, 
lc. higher. Oats 5c. lower. Hogs a. shade 
higher. Despite increased acreage, injury 
to Winter wheat will prevent more than aver¬ 
age crop. Increase under oats and potatoes. 
Meadows injured. Dairy and fruit industries 
prosperous. Indianatolis, Ind. Weather 
quite cool. Short wheat crop expected from 
Winter damage. Barley injured. Increase 
of com and oats. Fruits, except apples, small 
yield....C hicago, Ill., Grain unsettled. Corn 
Sca le, lower than a week ago. Winter wheat 
will be an average crop. A large crop of 
corn is promised. Increase of rye and oats. 
.Detroit, Mich., Gratifying reports 
of grain and fruit crops. Cold snap did little 
or no harm. Wheat, oats, corn, i r ye and bar¬ 
ley about usual acreage. Forest firescleared 
much land; sufferers plentifully supplied with 
seed. Astonishingly large amount of wheat 
moving in interior, judging from quality it is 
mostly gleanings. Milwaukee, Wis. 
Season backward. Prices of wheat } 4 @% c. 
lower. Corn lower. State losing ground as 
a wheat producer. Barley the main crop this 
year—very large acreage. Stock-raising at¬ 
tracting much attention...._ Minneapolis, 
Minn. Cold weather with rains retarding 
seeding low* lands. Seeding begun in Red 
River Valley, but with good w >ather it won’t 
end before May 15. Increase of 15 per cent in 
wheat and 5 per cent in corn and amber-cane. 
Very little old w-heat moving. Immigrants 
from East and South arriving in large num- 
hers, but suffering greatly from lack of trans¬ 
portation over Northwestern railroads.... 
... .Fargo, Dak. There will be an increase 
of 25 per cent, in u-heat and oats. Seeding 
being rapidly pushed. Oats and barley won’t 
be sowed till wheat is all in. A largo acreage 
of barley. A large increase in flax. Many 
lowlands still too wet for seeding. Daven¬ 
port, la. Wheat will be about an average 
yield; but it is yielding to corn, oats, barley, 
flax and hay, which promise large returns. 
Cattle and hog raising attracting much atten¬ 
tion... .Omaha, Neb. Increase of corn acre¬ 
age estimated at 50 per cent. Small grains in 
good condition on larger acreage. Hogs and 
cattle have wintered w’ell. St. Louis 
Mo. Large demand for horses and mules; 
supply poor—ad vance, $5 per head, Hogs have 
advanced 5010c. and cattle 10(«; 15c. per hun¬ 
dredweight on insufficient supply. Tobacco 
plants not doing well. Winter w*heat unu¬ 
sually advanced, with much larger acreage- 
in goal condition. Oats, corn and potatoes 
never more promising. Topeka, Kan. 
Outlook for all grass never better. Increase 
of SO to 100 per cent, in acreage of wheat, corn 
and rye. Sheep raising increasing greatly_ 
_Baltimore, Md. Weather cool. Very 
little doing in grain or provitions. Receipts 
of butter small; demand good. Corn and 
w heat will be large crops. Tobacco about an 
average. Fruit little damaged by frosts. 
Season expected to be as fruitful us 1830_ 
... .Richmond, Va. Tobacco very promising. 
Winter wheat and oats about the samcaslast 
3 *ear. Corn acreage smaller. Fruits consid¬ 
erably damaged. Labor scarce.... Wheel¬ 
ing, W. Va. Winter wheat with same acre¬ 
age will give double the yield of ’81. Incresse 
of corn and oats. Fruits considerably dam¬ 
aged. Louisville, Ky, Larger acre¬ 
age of Winter wheat in good condition. In¬ 
crease in corn and oats. Tobacco as usual. 
A fair crop of peaches. Nashville, 
Tenn. Larger acreage of cotton. Writer 
wheat endangered by fly and rust. Fruit 
outlook good. Grass above an average_ 
Little ROOK, Ark. A ver 3 * large increase in 
wheat will soon be harvested. Large in¬ 
crease in corn and oats. Cotton-planting 
goiug on—possibly a slight decrease of acreage. 
_Austin, Tex. Wheat a larger yield than 
last year. Corn and oats look w'ell on larger 
acreage. Cotton fine. Stock-raising prosper¬ 
ous. New Orleans, La. Very many 
planters and small farmers can’t pa}’ indebted¬ 
ness, and are, therefore, hampered for supplies 
both in the overflowed region and to a less 
extent elsewhere. Cotton planting greatly 
behindhand. Nearlv usual acreage will be 
put in. Sugar cane, except on overflowed 
places, is generally in good order, w ith usual 
acreage. Increase of corn. VICksburg, 
Miss. Cotton yield expected to equal that of 
1881: seven-eighths of overflowed district will 
be planted. Corn and Oats unusually fine on 
larger acreage. Mobile, Ala. Decrease 
iu cotton acreage, but average crop expected. 
Increase in oats and corn...... Jacksonville, 
FJa. Larger use of fertilizers expected to in¬ 
crease cotton yield 10 to 15 per cent. Good 
crops of oats and corn expected. At¬ 
lanta, Ga. Weather favorable to agricul¬ 
ture. A slight decrease in cotton acreage, 
with large increase in area of food crops, 
principally corn and oats. Rice and sugar¬ 
cane about an average. Charleston, 
S. C. Cotton fine on slightly smaller acreage. 
Very large acreage of wheat and oats. Rice 
won’t be over half a crop. Wilmington, 
