Van Buren Democrat

Bonaparte, Iowa

January 19, 1870

Volume 1; Number 1 [first issue]

8 Pages
more info
Pages
1 & 2 Pages 3
& 4 Pages 5
& 6 Pages 7
& 8

page 1

HOME NEWS AND GOSSIP.

DES MOINES VALLEY

Its Early Settlement – Keokuk – The “Half Breed” Tract, Etc., Etc.

MESSRS. EDITORS - - I have had quite a pleasant interview with My esteemed friend, Dr. Roger Cresap, who is the oldest settler of the Des Moines valley above Farmington, and who was an early settler at the foot of the rapids where Keokuk is now situated.

The doctor can give information regarding the early settlement of this country that will certainly add material!y [sic] to the interest of THE DEMOCRAT. I have just procured from him some facts relating to the early history of this section for the publication in another paper, which I hereby furnish your journal.

He was born in Allegheny county, Md., September 20th, 1809. He lived in Virginia a short time; went to Tennessee in 1828; went to Chattanooga for a short time; went from there to Northern Alabama. From there he came to the foot of the Des Moines rapids, Wisconsin territory, where Keokuk is now situated. He landed there about the 1st of April, 1833. He was then on his way to Galena. His, as well as six other steamboats were delayed, to light over the rapids.

The delay gave him an opportunity to talk with some of the people who lived at that point.

Dr. Samuel C. Muir had lived there; was a well educated gentleman and a noted physician, a graduate of Edenburgh, and was a surgeon in the United States army. Dr. Muir died a short time before Dr. Cresap’s arrival. Several of the inhabitants advised and importuned him to locate there and take the place of Dr. Muir who was the only physician there. He concluded to do so.

He rented a cabin from a Mr. Neddy. John Gaines, Isaac. R. Camp, Moses Stilwell, Joshua Palon, and Paul Bissette each had houses of moderate dimensions. Madame St. Amant and her son-in-law, William McBride, lived in a log house about one mile above the landing, and near to a pretty, clear spring, that gushed from a ledge of rocks on the bank.

These were all the buildings he remembers, except the principal structure, which was one story high and contained six rooms. It was the business house of this section of county – or rather it became so after the fur company left it. A store and tavern were established in it. The rooms were used for merchandising, drinking, fiddling, fighting, dancing, and sleeping in, and much of the time, in the various departments, quite a brisk business was done in that establishment, which gained for it a wide-spread notoriety, and it was dignified notoriously by the appellation of “Rat Row.”

Money was tolerably plenty, and Rat Row was really the treasury department of this section. The general banking business of the “Row” was transacted between the hours of supper and breakfast.

While he lived there he noticed many hard cases and some quite depressed character. He left there in 1834 and came to this point, where he made his home, and has continuously resided on this quarter section, on a part of which is situated the town of Bonaparte.

Since he moved to this point he has made many visits to Keokuk, and has watched with lively interest the growth of that place.

The city of Keokuk is well situated, but it is on what is called the “half breed tract,” and that tract was cursed by “midnight decree” concocted on the 8th day of May, 1841, by a band of land sharks, and signed by Judge Charles Mason, about twelve o’clock in the night, which decree was, from its date, branded with fraud and infamy by nearly every man who had knowledge of the history of the case.

The decree title being the only one, legally recognized, to any lots or lands in that 119,000 acres, has been, and now is, a serious taint on the titles, and a ruinous clog on the improvement and prosperity of the city of Keokuk, as well as to the towns and lands of the notorious “half-breed tract.”

Here we have good titles, a remarkable healthy region surrounded by a very productive agricultural country, abounding in stone coal, find building rock, and good groves of timber, which with our water power and railroad facilities, gives us encouragement to hope that our village will grow to be a town, and, it may be, not very long hence, a city.

From the foregoing scraps, you can already see, that you may extract from the doctor considerable information to make your new paper interesting. M.

MOUNT STERLING.

One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars’
Worth of Stock Sold in 12 Months –
Town Gossip, Etc., Etc.

[From our Special Correspondent]

According to promise, I send you the and doings of this locality. We have been, until recently, cut off from the north side of the Des Moines and the “rest of mankind,” for a want of firmness in the ice; but we are somewhat like the boy whose mother would not give him a piece of bread and butter; he reminded her that the paw-paw season was not far distant, when he would be able to procure his own rations. So we console ourselves with the reflection that your place -------------------------- we shall have a railroad to Farmington – and, of course, a bridge at that place, so it will matter not with us whether the river is on the rampage and full of floating ice, or otherwise behaving itself unseemly.

We have has some big hog-weighings here in the last six weeks. Several thousand have been weighed for Messrs. Robb, Alcorn, Thorp, Blackledge, and Davis, and, I am informed by those professing to be posted, that over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars have been paid in this village. For stock delivered and weighed within the last twelve months.

Our sensation item is this: Some few months since, the wife of David M., whose age is seventy and three, darned up the old man’s socks, placed his things where he might find them with a little trouble, and, without one accusing thought of dereliction on the part of David, reminded him of the sublime sentiments of the poetry of “John Anderson my Jo John,” bowed her head reverently to the royal decree that all must die, and David was alone in the world – a widower. Now, the name of said David is a patriarchal one, and for aught we know to the contrary, his mother may have given him that particular name out of pure respect for that ancient celebrity. Yet, we hardly think she did, for there are many things in the history of the great giant killer that a woman of refined feelings could not help but condemn: such as looking over the fence into other people’s gardens; putting other women’s husbands into the hottest of the fight to make them widows; and, in fact and deed, all through his life he showed a want of just consideration for the sex. And if he lived in this sorosis age, he would be voted a residence in Calmuck Tartary. Now we could always find much to admire in a woman calling her son Joseph. Moral sentiment, the beauty of the name, the high consideration in which he held the sex, the grandeur of his career as a patriarchal ruler all prompt them to do so; and to-day we do not understand why there are not fewer children called David and more named Joseph.

Our man, David M., after the decease of his wife ___ youth, was thrown into the company of the wicked and ungodly, and while he was trying to keep up the family alter as he was want, they derided him muchly, laughed and made wry faces when he was calling down a blessing on the provender, and when he undertook to pray that they would not kneel down, but behaved themselves indecoriously [sic]

Now, David M., in nationality, belongs to the great sauerkraut family, and he got his Dutch up, and said: “I will have no more of this. My house always has been one of thanksgiving and prayer, and so it will remain until my days are numbered.I will un-domiciliate these [ungodly?] cusses, and domiciliate myself again. I will get a wife and run my chebang on the family plan, and that of the gospel dispensation,” So he gathered up his staff, and his horses and buggy, and went around and called a convention of his friends and advised with them, and the conclusion was that he must have a fraugh, and they, numerous of them: “Wilt thou be a wife unto the man David?” and one of them wilte___ to do. And they informed David __ of the result of their going round and he was greatly pleased, and he told all of them to call at his house on the following Sunday and he would have a table of viands spread, and the Rev. R. on hand, and they should see that is not often witnessed: an old man of seventy-three united in holy wedlock to a blooming widow of forty-eight.

And Sunday came ___ friends and the [line unreadable due to fold] took the trembling hand of the bridegroom and placed it in that of the blushing bride , and said, “Those whom God has joined together let no man put asunder”; and the guests went for the viands, and the preacher went home, and the bride and bridegroom remained to take unto themselves new hopes and fears, cares and responsibilities; and David is now enjoying the otium cum degnitate of age, and is as “happy as a big sunflower” S.

THE NEW BRIDGE.

Flattering Prospects of Its Early Construction

A company has been formed at this place, having for its object, the construction of a new bridge across the Des Moines river at this point. At a meeting held a few evenings since, at Entler’s hall, articles of incorporation were adopted, and a committee appointed to receive subscriptions. Several thousand dollars were raised on the evening of the meeting, and the committee report that they have every prospect of securing the requisite amount of stock before spring.

The structure is to be built of iron substantially supported by a sufficient number of stone piers, and its estimated cost is a trifle over $35,000.

The capital stock of the company is $40,000, which may be increased to $60,000, in shares of $50 each, thus enabling all, even those possessed of moderate means, to become stockholders.

Our citizens are fully alive to the importance of this matter, and are moving with perfect harmony of action towards completion of the work, which will be a credit to their enterprise and beneficial to their interests. It is scarcely necessary that we should urge upon every citizen of Bonaparte and the surrounding country his duty in this matter, for it seems that every man who has ever given the subject a thought, realizes the necessity and importance of having a bridge at Bonaparte. The fact that there is no bridge across the river from the mouth of the Des Moines to Eddyville; that at different times of the year its condition renders it impassable; that a substantial bridge at this point would open up a large and important channel of communication with the south side of the river, and thus draw to our town a large share of the trade which, under existing circumstances, goes to Alexandria and other points on the Mississippi; and that we are abundantly able to accomplish such a work, all seem to us to be matters well understood. Added to this, we know of no better plan to invest money than in stock of this kind.

There is no record of any bridge across the river that did not pay. The Eddyville bridge long ago paid the cost of construction, and its stock is now at a premium. The shares of stock are so small that they are within the reach of all, and, therefore, no excuse save a want of public spirit and indifference to self interest can with propriety be offered.

The board of supervisors at their recent meeting, granted a charter or license to the company, and the project is now on a complete legal basis.

The work will be commenced as soon as practicable, and will be pushed forward to a speedy completion. In the meantime, we shall keep our readers fully posted as to the progress of events as they transpire.

HORSES STOLEN.

The Thief Suddenly Discovers that “Distance Lends Enchantments," Etc. On Saturday, the 8th instant, ‘Squire Leach received a telegram from an officer at Farmington, directing him to arrest one John Rhodes, for the offense of stealing a span of valuable horses from some parties residing near Lawrence of this county. These horses, it seems, were taken from their owners some two years ago, and conveyed to that bourne to which all Iowa horse thieves resort – Missouri. At the time, due but unsuccessful search was made for them, and it was not until recently that any information could be obtained as to their whereabouts. Mr. James Bailey, of this place, recently went into our neighboring state on business and near Smithton, he found the missing horses, and speedily conveyed the information to the authorities. Rhodes had, by some method known to himself, got wind of the fact that he was wanted, and, “folding his tent like an Arab”, silently rode away in time to prevent any disagreeable consequences that might ensue to him from the course of events then about to transpire. He, it seems, had “been there” before, and would be well satisfied, no doubt, to allow the place which knew him once to know him no more forever.

STREET BRAWLERS.

MESSRS. EDITORS: I take the privilege of making a few suggestions to some of the heads of families living in Bonaparte. I have been observing the conduct of some of the rising generation, and think that the parents of many of our youth are accountable, to a great extent, for their actions. The manner in which they spend their Sundays is a shame to an community pretending to live in a Christian and civilized land. One cannot pass along the streets without having his ears saluted with language that should make the most degraded creature blush with shame. I have known several instances where strangers visiting our town have been shamefully insulted by some of our boys.

Every one is aware that such things speak very badly for any place. If they would try to keep them out of the streets on Sunday, it would add much to our little town. Should some of them go on as they have started, who can say what will be their end? I think I see an untimely grave for some of them, should they go on in the way they are now doing. I hope our citizens will soon see the propriety of an incorporation act. But enough for once. More anon.

MAD WILD.

SHALL WE HAVE A BRIDGE?

We are pleased to say to those interested in the bridge enterprise, that we have not stopped soliciting, and are now more encourage than at any one time to believe that it will be a success. This dull session enforces our arguments. Our faith in the "true grit" of Bonaparte, when it is fully awakened to the necessity of action, is unbounded. It is the "pull all together" than wins, remember!

COM.
Bonaparte, Jan. 18, 1870

HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY.

We are collecting the materials for a history of Van Buren county, which we intend publishing for the benefit of readers of THE DEMOCRAT. These articles will appear in our columns, from time to time, as they are written, and will be full and complete in every respect. We intend making a personal tour of the county, for the purpose of obtaining information on this subject, and will consider ourselves greatly indebted to our old friends, the early settlers of this county, for such information as they may be able to give us. These articles cannot fail to prove interesting, as they will contain, not only a general history of each township, but all the leading incidents in connection therewith, together with biographical sketches of the principal early settlers, etc.

We hope to be able to commence publication of these sketches in our next issue, and trust that they will prove highly interesting to our many readers.

page 2

"PROTECTION."

The Burden Upon Our Farmers.

It is hinted by an exchange that the tariff question is to assume unusual importance during the present session of Congress. It is high time that it ceased to be a "question," and that some man of brains were informing that learned body that there is something wrong, and that the thing called "protection" is no protection at all. The president has come to the conclusion, we are told, that our farmers should be released from some of their burdens. This is a very sensible conclusion, for the agricultural interest is the basis of all of our industry. High duties on imports have reduced the price of everything the farmer has to sell, and increase the price of everything he has to buy. If such duties have secured high wages to mechanical labor, as is claimed; large profits to capital, and all that; the farmer has been temporarily burden, and deceived by the promise that it would build up a "home market."

Taxation by tariff adds to the cost of articles of universal use, and thus imposes a tax upon the people, not in proportion to their wealth, but bearing per capita upon all classes. The farming class pays by far the largest proportion of all such taxes, because it is by far the most numerous. After the war there was an opportunity for the reduction of taxes. Congress proceeded to remove taxes from almost all branches of industry, and increased the tariff duties. It thus remove the burdens from other interests; gave to some, extraordinary favors, and increase the load of the farmers. The process is still in vogue. When the speakers of the late campaign proclaimed that all taxes upon industry had been removed, we applauded the sentiment, because we did not pause to explain, that by "industry" was meant only mechanical and manufacturing labor.

So long as we continued to tax by duties on imports, so long, indeed, as taxes are levied at all, farmers will pay a much larger share of them, than any other class.

The farmer gets nothing for his crops above the cost of protection. He fails to get first cost for either his wheat, corn, or potatoes. He tells you that it does not pay to race week--that it cost more to realize crops than the market will return. If he has clothing, machinery, or comforts to buy, his crops are consumed in the purchase. If his crops fail to pay the cost of production, he pays dearly for his clothing. If it does not pay to race week, the salty bias cost four times the cost of production. This is "protection." Since the repeal of the last protective tariff in August, 1846, the majority of American laborers have never been in so poor a condition. Unless some of these burdens are removed from the farmer, ruin will come upon the entire commercial and industrial system. Who has been whispering this astounding fact in the ear of the president, it is impossible to conjecture. He may have heard that not long since, an agricultural society in Illinois decided that wheat was an unprofitable crop; that the whole farming interest is in debt; that while prices of crops are falling, higher duties are proposed in order to raise the price of iron.

The farmer knows that he can grow enough to eat. Satisfied that it does not pay, he will stop producing. He will then have no use for hired labor. He will stop buying, stop paying his debts, because he will have no money. The country merchant will consequently sell little and collect nothing. The city merchant, unable to collect from his country customers, will cease to patronize manufacturers and importers. Shops and factories will close and the artificial wages enjoyed by the working man at the expense of the farmer, will stop. In the meantime, the farmer having grown enough to eat, sits quietly upon his farm, until prices are adjusted. When the agricultural interest throw off the load born so long impatiently, the merchant and manufacturer may look elsewhere for his customers. If this does not bring about a business crisis, nothing can.

BUTLERIAN AMNESTY.
From The Constitution.

A short time since, Horace Greeley made a sensible and good-tempered appealed to Ben Butler to become the champion of a measure to grant general amnesty to those who were engaged in the recent rebellion. Mr. Greeley gave his reasons for preferring that Butler should be the leader of such a movement. Butler responded to Greeley's appeal, by a course, ill-natured personal assault upon Greeley, through the public press, which was a perfect feast to the malignants of the radical party. But not content, with his assault upon Mr. Greeley in person, he has followed it up by submitting a project of amnesty, which is peculiarly Butlerian in character. It provides that all persons seeking relief from political disabilities shall make application to that effect to the federal judge of the district in which he resides, and that notice thereof shall be given for the purpose of giving anyone who may choose to do so, an opportunity to contest the application. If the application is successful, the judge is to issue to the party a certificate restoring him to his political rights. Aside from the objection that this process is in direct opposition to the mode of relief prescribed by the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution, it is utterly impracticable in detail. How long does Mr. Butler, or anyone else with ordinary powers of comprehension, suppose it would take to remove the political disabilities of the two or three hundred thousand disfranchised white people of the South, by the slow, troublesome and expensive mode which he prescribes. Most of them would be dead and in their graves before they could, by any possibility, be restored to the rights of citizenship. Old Ben Butler in this displays his usual humanity and statesmanship. Unfortunately for the country, it is also the ____ ___ity and statesmanship of a large proportion of Congress and the radical party.

METHODIST BOOK SWINDLE.

Some time since a swindle to the extent of several hundred thousand dollars was perpetrated upon the Methodist denomination by the managers of their book and tract concern in New York. The affair has elicited considerable comment from both the religious and secular press. We clip the following sarcastic and biting review of the transcription from the New York Mercury:

The Methodist book concern affairs seem to have roused the sleepy virtuous indignation of the secular press. It seems to think that filching from the treasury of the Lord is a sin worthy of doubled-distilled damnation, and that by peculating from the contribution-box of the faithful is worthy of punishment exceeding that to be found in the most horribly imaginative hell with all of the Calvinistic improvements. The censors of the press, as they rub together their spotless hands in agony because of such wickedness in holy places, forget what religious book-concerns, bible-houses, tract-societies, and printing-offices are instituted for. They seem to ignore the fact that it is quite possible for the office-holders and employees of the book-concern to view the Methodist church as a very necessary institution, affording, as it does, poor man of pious proclivities positions to which are attached reasonably good salaries. The employees of such concerns may also be convinced in their own minds that if, owing to the penurious prejudices of the faithful, the institution does not afford a large enough share of the bread that perisheth -- together with beef, broadcloth, and pecket-money -- then it is the business of the humble laborers in that department of the vineyard to make (as worldlings would say) the thing pay. Of course it would not do to get up a vulgar strike: neither would it be suitable to allow the hard-working members of the Methodist, who from their property and the wants of their families snatch much-needed mites, wherewith to enable the managers of book-concerns to fly the Gospel, to know that there were gentlemen, very elegant-looking, well-dressed gentleman, who tithed the donations several times over. It would not do to let it appear to Jones, the back woods-tailor, and Hodges, the rural carpenter, and Mudge, the village blacksmith, that their hard-won, self-denying alms furnish purple and fine linen to city swells instead of clothing the sun broiled African with flannel underclothes, and serving up at the breakfast table of the cannibal religious literature that will make him forget the toughness of his missionary steak. Hodges, Jones, and Mudge, if made aware of such appropriating of their donations, would keep the money to help their own, not too well clad and fed families.

So what can be done? People in Methodist concerns must live, even if the benighted African should have to wait a year or two for his enlightenment. The only thing is to manage it so the employees are paid, well-paid, and the people none the wiser. Some may call this deceit; some coarse people may even term at dishonesty. Stuff! It is __ly strategy. Strategy without which patriots could not afford to serve the state, nor benevolent old gentleman act as trustees of savings banks, disinterested capitalists spend their time and experience for the benefit of moneyed corporations, and so forth.

Shall the children of light be more foolish than the children of the world? Assuredly not.

No real harm was done. A few most respectable persons, of good connections and first-class associations, had a good living; for which doubtless they raise their voices to heaven in grateful acknowledgment every morning and evening, extra on class nights, and double-extra on Sundays. The broiling African did not miss his overcoat, the cannibal felt not the want of his tract, and heathendom, foreign and domestic, lived as jollily as ever in intellectual darkness, unaware that Methodism's calcium light had been paid for to illuminate their procession through life to eternity.

Then why the fuss? Simply because somebody in the name of honesty wishes to make mischief. At least such as doubtless the view of the enterprising men who make the book-concern pay themselves.

People who are ready to join in the cry of "stop thief," should recollect that there are many ways of making a living, and that business should never be interfered with.

GAME LAW.

For the benefit of the many Nimrods of Van Buren County, who are usually so actively engaged in their vocation, at this season of the year, we publish the following items concerning the Iowa game law:

____________ shall be unlawful for anyone, except on his own premises, and for his own exclusive use, to kill, trap, or ensnare any wild deer, elk, or fawn, prairie hen or chicken, between the first day of January, and the first day of August in each year; and anyone woodcock between the first day of January in July in each year; any quail, ruffled grouse, or pheasant, between the fifteenth day of December and the twelfth day of September, or any wild Turkey between the first day of February and the first day of September: Provided, That, except on his own premises, it shall be unlawful for any person to net, ensnare, or trap any of said game, except in the month of December: and Provided, further, That, except on his own premises, it shall be unlawful for any person to ensnare, net, or trap any quail at anytime of the year prior to the first of December, 1872.

Sec. 2. It shall be unlawful for any person to buy or sell any of the above-mentioned animals or birds which shall have been trapped, and snared, or killed between the days above mentioned.

Section third imposes a fine of fifteen dollars for each deer, font, or elk, and three dollars for each bird of game above mentioned thus killed, trapped, ensnared, bought, sold, or held in possession."

WOMEN'S RIGHTS--WHERE THEY ASSUME THEM.

We clipped the following items from a Chicago paper, in reference to women suffrage. It will be seen that many of the countries of the old world are far in advance of hours on the subject:

In Manchester, England, eight women, whose names were, by accident, left on the registry, voted at the last election. Eight others, freeholders, voted in southeast Lancashire. In Ashford, East Kent, fifteen out of thirty-five who were registered recorded their votes. In Finsbury, the same number also went to the polls. In Dublin, one woman, and in London three women voted.

In Canada, as in several of our own states, women are allowed to vote and serve as school trustees.

In Pitcairn's Island, which is inhabited by mutineers of the Royal Bounty, the government, which is based on a written constitution, is shared on equal terms by men and women alike.

Ladies of the formerly occupied seats in the House of Lords, where they were entitled, as peeresses is in their own right, or when their lords were dead and their sons in their non-age. They also hold the office of high sheriff, which must be held by one possessed of the electoral qualifications and other dignities.

It has been stated that the late investigations tend to show that the parliaments were originally founded on the idea of universal suffrage, the manifestation of which was the showing of hands.

In the British Australasian colony of Australia, women universally assumed the right to vote, some four years ago, having found that the law had, probably inadvertently, been so framed as to permit them. It works admirably, according to all reports.

In Sweden, chiefly through the exertions of Frederica Bremmer, an indirect right of voting was, in 1862, allowed to all women possessing specified property qualifications.

By the Italian code, a widow or wife, separated from her husband, who pays taxes, is allowed to vote through such child or other relative as she may designate.

In Holland, widows and single women possessed of property, are allowed to vote on all questions of taxation, etc., likely to affect its value.

In 1867, Moravia granted the franchise to all widows who pay taxes.

In Austria, women can vote as nobles; in their corporate capacity, as nuns and tax-payers.

In Hungary, up to 1841, widows and single women who were landed proprietors possess the right to vote. They were deprived of it by the revolutionary government, and they are now petitioning the government, in large numbers, for the restoration of this right.

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The Council Bluffs Nonpariel [Nonpareil] of the 11th gives the following details of a little romance which lately occurred in this state:

About three years ago, a woman named Williamson left her husband in Chicago, and came to this state with a man named Saunders, bringing with her one child. They went to Keokuk, and shortly after removed to Des Moines; thence to Council Bluffs. The man was a plumber and gas-fitter, and, finding no employment at his trade, went up the river on a Montana boat, and last summer was killed by the Indians in that territory. During his absence, he punctually remitted money, but his death terminated this source of subsistance, and, for the balance of the period, her situation was embarrassing. After making various vain attempts to obtain employment, she sat down and wrote a penitent letter to the wronged husband, who came at once and claimed his own. It appears that, before Williamson married her, she questioned her face to Saunders, but that hurdle objections had been interposed and thwarted their honest and virtuous intentions. She has promised again to be a good little wife of Williamson, and he believes what she says.

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The following letter written by Thomas Jefferson during his presidency has recently come to light, and may be read with profit by our present chief magistrate:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 1803. DEAR SIR: Monsr. d' Yrujo, the Spanish minister here, has been so kind as to spare me 200 bottles of champagne, part of a larger parcel imported for his own use, and consequently privileged from duty; but it would be improper for me to take the benefit of that. I must, therefore, asked a favor of you to take the proper measures for paying the duty, for which purpose I enclose you a bank check for 22 1/2 dollars, the amount of it. If it could be done without mentioning my name, it would avoid ill-intended observations, as in some such way as this, "by duty paid on a part of such a parcel of wines not entitled to privilege," or in any other way you please. The wine was imported into Philadelphia, probably about last spring. Except assurances of my great esteem and respect. TH. JEFFERSON. Gen. Muhlenberg.

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A Shower of Spiders

An extraordinary phenomenon was recently witnessed in Carlisle, England, consisting of a shower of what may be described as small spiders, resembling the ant in form, but of a much smaller dimension. They were of dark mahogany color and bright surface, and came down in countless numbers in the forenoon. Spinning upon an extensive scale was instantly commenced, and in a wonderful short time the railings in front of houses and all similar projections were festooned with glittering lines of Web arranged all horizontally and of many yards in length, and without the transverse lines usually seen upon spiders webs. The threads appeared whiter and more visible than the ordinary spiders' web and were evidently very glutinous, for the work of capture immediately began, and innumerable tiny insects forthwith fell prey to the invaders.

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American rocking chairs are among the social improvements in Italy.

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NOW IS THE TIME

FOR THE

Van Buren Democrat

ONE OF THE

Largest and Best Papers:

SOUTHERN IOWA,

AND ONLY

Democratic Paper

VAN BUREN COUNTY.

---------------

Two Dollars per Year in Advance. One dollar for six months.

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