AMERICAN ITEMS.

Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 866, 6 May 1871, Page 2

AMERICAN ITEMS.

The Fenian Brotherhood has issued a circular calling a meeting during the ensuing month, for the purpose of electing a successor to John Savage, the late President of the Brotherhood. When Mrs Edward .T. Doolittle, of New Haven, was preparing for her husband's funeral, she told the undertaker that he might as well prepare for her burial one week from that day, as it would then take place. She -was in apparent good health as ever, but she dropped and died and was buried as she had prophesied. This is another sad warning to people who are always prophesying. A New Orleans merchant, who failed to receive a case of dress-patterns consigned to him, made diligent inquiry, and finally, by means of the receipts given by an undertaker, ascertained that it had been received by him and carefully buried with funeral honors, he supposing the box contained the mortal remains of a man who had died in another State, and which he was notified would come by the same train. . The following incident is related by the White Pine News of March 2nd:— "A , couple of individuals, who have been reading their bibles oftener of late than usual, concluded to try the experiment on some "Heathen Chinee'- that was so successfully tried with the foxes a great many years ago. They sailed into Chinatown last night, where a big crowd was collected around the gambling tables, and tying several of the long cues of th© Chinamen together, hung a. pack of fire crackers on their tied-np "tails," then fired the bunch with a cigar and slipped out. We have read descriptions of Bedlam and other nice places, but that gambling-house could discount the whole of them ftfr a short while last night." Those persons who take pleasure in comparing the condition of different countries, may be interested by the following statement of the number of farms throughout the United States, taken from the returns of the late census : — Beginning with the smallest, there are 52,642 farms of three acres and under ten acreß; 157,810 of ten acres and under twenty acres ; 612,245 of twenty acreß and under fifty acres; 669,668 of fifty acres and under one hundred acres ; 486,249 of one hundred acres and under five hundred acres ; 20,289 of five hundred acres and under one thousand acres ; and 5,348 of one thousand acres and upward. The total number of farms is 1,942,241. No tunnels will be required on the entire route of the Northern Pacific Railroad ; nor will there be any snow sheds. The first division of the road from Duluth, at the head of Lake Superior, to the Bed River, 223 miles, will be finished in a short time. The cost of this division is estimated at 6,000, 000d015. All the money has been raised, and will be paid as fast as the work is done. The company own about 50,000,000 acres of the best unimproved land on the continent. It is not the intention to issue any stock at present, but to build the road from the proceeds of bonds secured by the land grant. Estimating the land to be worth 2dol an acre, that alone represents 100,000,000d0l — a sum sufficient to build the whole road. Thus, in this instance, the Government turns over to a railroad company assets sufficient to build the railroad, and then allows the corporators, consisting of a score of shrewd men, to own the entire property. Is it any wonder that the land grant mania raged furiously in Congress during the present session ? The terminus at Duluth is a fortunate one for the speculators in town lots. But Lake Superior is not navigable more than six months out of the twelve. It is reported that Governor Smith, of Vermont, acting for the Trustees of the Vermont Central Railroad, has bought all the boats and other property of the Northern Transportation Company, running from Ogdenaburg.on Lake Ontario to Duluth at the head of

Lake Superior; and that all these facilities are to be marshalled in the interest of the Northern Pacific Railroad. All these movements indicate a purpose to make a direct connection with Boston, in which city a large interest in the railroad is concentrated. The great chain of lakes will constitute a summer route. But what is to be done in the winter, when these lakes are all frozen up 1 Work on the western end of the road will be commenced at Puget Sound early in the spring. Next summer two great railroads across the continent will be in process of construction. The concessions to the Southern Pacific are not so favorable as to the Northern line — at least the lands are not so valuable outside of Texas. But even in this case, the grants are sufficient to insure the construction of the road ; and to make a great many persons desirous to have an opportunity to share in the profits of the enterprise. In the exact centre of the Niagara suspension bridge is a mark familiarly known by the habitues of that neighborhood as the "deadline," across which to certain unfortunates, it is almost sure danger to pass. This line is supposed to divide the jurisdiction of the United States from that of the Dominion of Canada. Although, in reality, the bridge itself is neutral ground, yet custom's law gives the line imaginary dangerous qualities. | On the bridge, at almost any time, men ' may be seen loitering — to all appearance being common tourists, or, perhaps, dwellers in the vicinity of the structure. These individuals, if they are closely watched, it will be seen, do not cross the entire length of the bridge, but stop at or about the "dead line," and converse with others, a little distance off, on the other side. The men are debtors of either country, who through immediate necessities or the dread of sheriffs officers, have been obliged to step across into the friendly other side and await a settlement with their creditors, or for " something to turn up." On Sundays, when civil law for debt is void, these gentry make a point of visiting their late country, and many are the tricks played to keep them there till the arrival of the Monday. If a quarrel can be picked with them at all, it is done by some bully hired for the purpose, and then both are arrested and locked up for a hearing. If he drives out some distance into the country, his horse is lamed, his waggon linch-pin removed, or his harness cut. Oftentimes an unlucky wight is thus entrapped, but generally, if liquor is avoided, the debtor manages to escape the pitfalls placed for him to walk into. As a consequence he gets careless, and is more easily caught. He will cross the " dead line," and walk boldly up to the other end of the bridge, confident that he can retrace his steps in time to avoid capture.