480 
JULY 28 
THE RURAL 
Mms of % Wttk. 
HOME NEWS. 
• Saturday, July 21, 1883. 
Just at noon, Washington time, last Thursday 
the telegraphers employed by the various tele¬ 
graph companies throughout the country, 
struck for higher wages, shorter hours of 
work and fairer treatment for women em¬ 
ployed in telegraphy. The strike is confined 
to the members of the “ Brotherhood ” of tele¬ 
graphers and others connected with the busi¬ 
ness. Generally the “lines men” join the op¬ 
erators. The membership of the Brotherhood 
is put at 12,000, and over 7,000 are on “strike.” 
Never was a strike made by a more intelligent, 
hard-working deserving class of men. That 
huge monopolv, the Western Union Telegraph 
Company, whose lines bind the whole country 
in a net, is the chief opponent, and oppressor 
of the operatives. Twice within a twelve, 
month,it has cut down their scanty wages, while 
large dividends have been paid on its stock 
which has been watered over and over again. 
The capital stock of this company is now $80,- 
000,000. bv far the greater part of which is 
‘water." that is, presents of “scrip dividends, 
etc,' - made by the members of the company to 
themselves at various times. Interest must be 
paid yearly on this “water” just as well as on 
genuine paid-up capital, and to do this em¬ 
ploy^ are put on starvation wages. Tele¬ 
graph exports declare that the entire “plant” 
of the company could be duplicated today for 
from $20,000,000 to $25,000,000; yet to pay big 
interest on 880.000.000—the “watered” capital 
—the public have to pay exorbitant rates and 
the employes scrimp on miserable wages. 
Both sides seem determined to bold out, 
and it is yet too early to predict the issue, 
but our good wishes go with the men not 
the monopoly. 
During the six months ending July 1, there 
were 2,500 miles of railroad built in the United 
States. The amount built during the same 
period last year was 4,990 miles. The esti¬ 
mated number of miles to be built this year is 
8,050 miles...The Mississippi River Im¬ 
provement Conference, in session in St. Louis, 
has called a River Convention, to be held 
somewhere in the Mississippi River Valley' not 
later than November 20. Onh r such candi¬ 
dates for Congress are to receive support as 
are emphatically in favor of river improve¬ 
ment..Charles B. Dye, the geologist, 
died at his home on Mt. Harrison, Wednesday 
morning. His carefully-classified collection 
of geological specimens from the Cincinnati 
basin is probably the most complete for any 
one district in the world. Seventeen thousand 
pounds of this collection are now in the Har¬ 
vard Museum.Four harvesters, who 
had just been paid off, boarded a freight train 
at Whitehall, Ill., to steal a Tide, At the 
same station four tramps boarded the train, 
to all appearances for the same purpose, but 
after starting they drew revolvers and made 
the harvesters give up their money. Then 
they drove them off the train, and in jumping 
one of the harvesters was killed..., ....Gen¬ 
eral Toro Thumb died iD Middleboro. Mass., 
Sunday, of apoplexy. He was m his 46th 
year. He joined Barnum in 1852, and was 
married in 1863.....The National Nail Associ¬ 
ation voted in Pittsburg the other day to sus¬ 
pend manufacture for one month beginning 
on Monday last. Their purpose is to prevent 
any depression in prices-A bark laden with 
rags has arrived off New Haven from Egypt. 
The officers say there was no cholera at Alex¬ 
andria wheu they sailed, but they will not be 
allowed to uuload or communicate with peo¬ 
ple on shore.The franchise for the ex¬ 
press business of the Northern Pacific Railroad 
has been purchased by Eastern capitalists who 
have organized the Northern Pacific Express 
Company with a capital of $10,(100,000. 
Vanderbilt is in earnest about building a 
South Pennsylvania Trunk Line. The char¬ 
ter for such a road has been in the Vanderbilt 
family for 20 years. The survey is being made 
and a syndicate formed.The semi-cen¬ 
tennial anniversary of the incorporation of 
Chicago as a village will occur August 10,... 
_Iu the action of tbe Erie Railroad against 
James McHenry. Judge Cox. in the United 
States Circuit Court in New York, Tuesday, 
denied the motion of the defendant for a new 
trial. The action was tried in New' York 
City last April, resulting iu a verdict for the 
plaintiff of $1,486,000.. 
Senator Jones, of Florida, a native of Ire¬ 
land, who has just returned from a visit to his 
birth-place, said to a repoi’ter ; “Whi^ I en¬ 
joyed my visit to the Old Country, I could not 
live there again. That is the country of the 
past—this is the country of the future.”. 
Robert L. Ream, father of Vinnie Ream 
Hoxie, the sculptor, has been appointed special 
agent of the General Land Office, to investig¬ 
ate fraudulent land entries.The National 
Soldiers’ Re-union at Columbus, Ohio, on 
July 27, promises to be a grand affair. In the 
parade there will be representatives of every 
war in America since 1776.The Presi¬ 
dent and Secretary Lincoln expect to take a 
trip to Yellowstone Park about. August 1, 
under the escort of General Sberiilan.The 
Philadelphia Commercial Exchange has passed 
resolutions calling on Congress to redeem the 
trade dollar at par or legalize the issue of that 
coin.The Government Immigration 
Agent at Quebec states that the Irish assisted 
to Canada this season are not paupers, and 
none of them have ever been in the poor- 
house .Liquor licenses in St. Louis have 
been pushed up to $1,000 for the miscellaneous 
drunkery, and $250 for the beer shop.A 
State University is projected iu Milwaukee, 
with academies in different cities of the State 
as feeders. Towards the endowment of these 
latter, $600,000 have been subscribed. 
There was a slight frost in Davenport, Iowa, 
Wednesday morning, but it did no damage.,, 
.... Generals Sherman aud Terry and Chief 
Justice Waite are having a business-pleasure 
trip in the Wost, and on going from Living¬ 
stone, Montana, to the Yellowstone, the other 
day, the Chief Justice w'as thrown from his 
horse and seriously, though not dangerously, 
hurt.The Mormon Bishop Knudson. of 
Wintah County, has been arrested for placing 
dynamite under the bed in which two of his 
wives were lying and blowing them up. The 
women were seriously injured, and the furni¬ 
ture of the room was torn to pieces. There are 
threats of lynchiug the Bishop....Oklahoma 
Payne and his followers assert that they will 
enter the Indian Territory before the end of 
the week iu spite of all opposition.Swain 
the man who was arrested for stealing the 
ledger that is so important, in the trial of ex- 
Treasurer Polk of Tennessee, says that he took 
it at the instigation of Polk, and that he re¬ 
ceived $175 for the deed. 
Villages and farm buildings knocked to pieces 
and filling the air with flying shingles and 
clapboards; church steeples takiDg flight on 
the wings of a tornado; deluges of rain, turn¬ 
ing dusty brooks into roaring torrents before 
which bridges and culverts go down like card- 
houses; thunder clouds sending their bolts 
right and left into trees, barns, houses and 
camp meetings, regardless of consequences, 
like British ironclads bombarding some poor 
beggar of a foreign town; cellars flooded; 
grain fields washed out—such are among the 
storm calamities of which we hear now almost 
every day. These an* bonanza days for 
weather prophets; why are Wiggins and the 
others silent?.The manufacture of ban¬ 
gles in imitation of gold and silver coins is to 
be suppressed at once.Secretary Teller 
says he proposes to decide whether the South¬ 
ern Pacific Road shall be allowed to absorb 
the Texas Pacific land grant after his return 
to Washington in September......... Ericsson 
has invented a new torpedo boat which is said 
to be the most destructive of auy ever built.. 
It fires a shot under the water, and is reported 
to be capable of destroying with absolute cer¬ 
tainty the largest and stoutest ironclad ever 
built. A specimen, appropriately called the 
Destroyer, lies in the harbor here now for ex¬ 
perimental purposes.The new high li¬ 
cense liquor law in Ohio will yield nearly $2,- 
000,000 to the State in its first year. It is 
thought that there will be a falling off in this 
revenue, as many of the groggeries caunot 
stand the tax, and thousands of small dealers 
will be driven out of the business.Thurs¬ 
day afternoon the employes in the Bessemer 
Steel Works in South Chicago presented a de¬ 
mand to the company for a change from 
work by the day to work by the ton. Tbe 
company refused the demand, and 2,000 men 
struck. The officers claim that the advance 
asked by tbe men is about 100 per cent. 
Hanlan defeated Ross by nearly a quarter of 
a mile in a four-mile boat race neat' Ogdens- 
burg, N. Y., last Wednesday,... McKee 
Rankin, the actor, was partner in a stock 
farm with Jerry Dunn, the Chicago gambler 
who killed Jimmy Elliott. Rankin has been 
assaulting a Chicagoan who commented on 
the relationship.... 
The immigration for the last fiscal year falls 
a little short of 600.000, against nearly 800,- 
000 in 1882 and 670,000 in 1881. With the ex¬ 
ception of those two years, this is the highest 
immigration ever received in one year. The 
highest point touched before the depression 
was 460,000 in 1873 and the lowest during that 
period was in 1878 when it ran down to 138,- 
000...The last United States census act 
holds out an offer to pay half the expense of 
a census in 1885,upon the same schedules,with 
any States which may like to go Into it. It 
requires additional legislation to make the 
appropriation, it seems, but it is calculated 
that the share of tbe cost to be paid by New 
York would be $90,000, Pennsylvania $60,000, 
Ohio $65,000, Hlinois, 365,0000, Massachusetts, 
$30,000. If haste is not made, the volumes 
of the present full Census will not be out be- 
I fore the next one is due.The new de¬ 
partment of the Indiana University at Bloom¬ 
ington, including the laboratory, the library, 
with 1,500 volumes, and the museum, contain¬ 
ing the famous Owen collection aud Dr. Jor¬ 
dan’s collection of fishes, has been burned; 
loss $400,000. The fire was caused by light¬ 
ning striking a telephone.The Penn¬ 
sylvania Legislature talks about adjourning 
without passing any re-districting bill at all, 
and the Senate has fixed next Tuesday as the 
day. Tt has also refused to appoint a new com¬ 
mittee to confer with the House conference 
committee on the subject. But it seems alto¬ 
gether likely that Gov. Pattison would, in the 
event of a failure to re-district, immediately 
call another special session, and repeat his 
lecture about neglect of plain duty.......... 
Preparations are being made for the com¬ 
mencement of civil suits against Star Route 
contractors to recover money drawn from 
the Treasury on fraudulent representations 
for postal service under expediting orders. 
In the Hill investigation the testimony related 
to the charge that all government slate roofs 
were required to be laid with a patent fasten¬ 
ing.Major McKenzie’s estimates for im¬ 
provements on the Uppor Mississippi River ask 
for $100,000 between 8t. Paul aud Des Moines 
Rapids and $500,000 between Des Moines and 
the Illinois River.... 
- • 
AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
Saturday, July 21, 1883. 
The Louisville and Nashville Railroad Com¬ 
pany had one hundred carloads of Georgia 
watermelons in their Cincinnati yards Tues¬ 
day afternoon, aud sixty.' carloads more were 
expected in the evening. On Saturday the 
Southern brought in nearly a hundred cal's. A 
train load of melons has been sent to Buffalo 
to supply the Saengerfest.The descend¬ 
ants of oue of Lafayette’s Aide-de-camps are 
about to bring suit for tbe possession of 200,000 
acres of valuable land in the Kanawha 
Valley.There are one hundred applica¬ 
tions for space at the coming Cincinnati Ex¬ 
position more than there were at the same 
time last year....Thoro will be a slim 
crop of hops in Canada. The high prices 
caused a large acreage to be put out, but a 
green fly has ruined the prospect. 
Cotton-worms have appeared in the South. 
The planters are uneasy... 
Within four years 9,500 acres of laud at and 
near Oharlemont, Va., on the James River 
have been sold to farmers from the North and 
West. The largest purchases have been plots 
of 300 acres, aud the smallest 20. The new 
settlers express themselves as delighted with 
their new possessions...President Nathan 
Appleton of the Newport Society for the Pro¬ 
tection of Animals congratulates the members 
that they “ have made the absurd and often 
cruel check rein unfashionable, and that, as a 
result of this, it is fast, being discarded from 
the necks of horses, not only those used for 
pleasure and show, but also the poor beasts of 
burden ”.A cablegram yesterday says : 
—“The harvest in Prussia promises well 
especially in the northeastern provinces. It 
will be less in Pomerania aud Brandenburg- 
Wheat in the former is below the average. In 
.Schleswig-Holstein, Westphalia, and Rheinish 
Prussia drought has done much damage. 
Fruit, beet roots, and potatoes are everywhere 
good”... .Four fanners were arrested Thursday 
near Newry, Ireland, for beating nearly to 
death a man who took a farm from which the 
previous tenant had been evicted. 
The largest sheep ranche in the world is the 
oue in Dimmit and Weber Counties, Texas, 
where 300,000 sheep nre pastured on 300,000 
acres of land .The Sanford, Fla., 
Journal says that pineapples arc grown on 
Belair grove, three ond a half miles from San. 
ford, to weigh over twelve pounds and sell for 
$2 each.Over 400,000 head of cattle are 
now grazing in the valley tributary to Miles 
City, M. T.. and nearly every day tbe number 
is being increased by truin-loads from the 
East.A second shipment of American 
Merinos passed through Chicago Thursday de¬ 
stined for Australia. This shipment of 124 
animals—116 rams aud eight ewes—compose 
as fine a lot as could be selected from the 
flocks of Vermont and Western New York.... 
An importation of forty-three head of Red 
Polled cattle from Norfolk aud Suffolk, Eng¬ 
land, has arrived aud is now iu quarantine 
near Boston. Messrs. Geldard & Busk, of 
Salisbury, England, are the importers. The 
entire lot will probably La* sold in Chicago in 
September. A State convention of 
veterinary surgeons was held at Burling¬ 
ton, la., the 17th inst. to organize a State 
association uud perfect measures for protec¬ 
tion by law. Live-stock breeders are largely 
*ute rested in this movement, for it means for 
them Immunity and protection from the vast 
array of quacks and pretenders traveling 
about as veterinary surgeons. 
The Atlantic aud Gulf Coast Canal and Oke- 
ehobee Land and Drainage Company, com. 
posed mainly of Philadelphia capitalists, has 
received from the State of Florida an install¬ 
ment award of 535,385 acres of land located 
in the southern portion of the peninsula for 
reclamation operations in that State. This 
company has reclaimed nearly 1,500,000 acres 
of sugar land iu Florida, and work is still 
being vigorously pushed forward. 
........ Tin* foreman of Fowler Bros., Chicago, 
testified, in the lard investigation that is going 
on there, that tallow and beef bones were 
mixed with hog’s fat and put into rendering 
tanks and the product put in tierces aud 
labeled “ prime steam.” He knew this posi¬ 
tively, because he had entire charge of the 
rendering. Thousands of tierces of this stuff 
were put on the market.For the year 
ending June 30.1883, the California exports of 
wheat were 14,600,000 centals, and of flour 
1,100,000 barrels—In all, equivalent to 29,282, 
000 bushels of wheat.The free cnual in 
New York has given a great impetus to that 
mode of transporta tion. The tonnage cleared 
during the first week in July amounted to 
172.612 tons, against 143,565 tons for corres¬ 
ponding week last year, a gain of 29,047 tons 
or over 20 per cent. The flour, corn, wheat 
and other vegetable food carried amounted 
to 48,990 tons, against 22,681 tons last year. 
.Tomatoes, not many generations ago, 
were considered poisonous. Last Fall there 
were 52,322,052 cans of tomatoes put up by the 
canning establishments of the United States... 
The Mark Lane Express of the 16th, in its re¬ 
view of the British grain trade the last week, 
says: Heavy thunder-storms and chilly nigfcts 
have lieen unfavorable for the crops. Native 
wheats are generally firmer and dearer. Flour 
is dull. Foreign wheats are unimproved, ex¬ 
cept fine white, which was firmer, owing 
to scarcity.Stock is suffering in 
Western Texas for want of water.A 
Dodge City (Kas.) firm are driving a herd of 
6,000 cattle to their Montana ranch. 
About 100,000 sheep have been driven from 
Eastern Oregon into Montana this season 
... A Miles City (M, T.) firm has just import¬ 
ed two car-loads of blooded cattle from Scot¬ 
land......... 
Thousands of hogs have died with cholera iu 
Obion County, Tenn., within the past two 
weeks.A silk factory is being erected 
in the vicinity of Mandeville, Ga. The build¬ 
ing will stand in tbe middle of an old field 
surrounded by thousands of growing mul¬ 
berry trees........ Tbe berry shipper of G ads- 
den, in West, Tennessee, netted over $40,000 on 
their strawberry crop for the seasou just 
closed. Chattanooga claims net receipts of 
over $80,000 on the same crop........ .Horace 
Greeley’s farm at Chappaqua, N. Y., will be 
sold at auction September 8, to settle the 
estate. -..Michigan is puzzled because im¬ 
migrants pass it by for the Far West when so 
much good laud in old sections is still unoc¬ 
cupied aud for sale at. low figures. Only about 
7,000,000 of the 37,000,000 acres of laud in the 
State are improved. 
. ■ ♦♦•- 
FOREIGN NEWS. 
Saturday. July 21. 1883. 
The cholera has virulently attacked Cairo. 
Yesterday there were 140 deaths acknowl¬ 
edged: the actual number must have been 
much larger. The police are doing their best 
to prevent a correct account, going so far as 
to arrest women bemoaning in tbe streets their 
loss of husbands, children, etc. The country 
appeal's to have been culpably adapted for the 
reception and spread of the plague. Since 
the late war all sanitary precautions appear 
to have been neglected. The country is 
checkered with canals for irrigating purposes. 
After the recent battles the many feeders 
were chocked with dead bodies of men and 
horses, and no attempt has been made to clear 
out the putrid mass. Bodies were buried un¬ 
der a thin layer of light sand, nrd soon 
became exposed, spreading stench and 
disease all around. For economy’s sake the 
water iu the leading canals was shut off from 
the smaller ones, greatly damaging agricul¬ 
ture, and forcing the peasant ry to drink putrid 
water. All the garbage and the dead bodies 
of animals not eatable, find their way into the 
Nile and the canals from all the adjacent 
country so that the odor can be smelled miles 
off’. Even now when the plague is striking 
right and left in half a dozen of the chief 
towns and a score or more of the largo vil¬ 
lages, to say nothing of country places, the 
simplest sanitary arrangements are neglected. 
The funeral system is most obnoxious. The 
corpses, encased in very slight coffins, are 
carried through the crowded streets on men’s 
shoulders. The clothes of persons dy i ug in the 
hospitals are often stripped off and taken for 
wearing purposes by relatives. Twenty-nine 
deaths from cholera occurred yesterday at 
Mansurah, 24 at Bamanoud, 28 at Ghizeh, 44 
at Chirbin and three at Damietta. There 
were 16 deaths from the disease at Menzalob 
on Tuesday, All agree that unless the 
