OCR Text |
Show SHORT ITEMS. CAN A WIFE RUN A HUSBAND IN DEBT?-The British House of Lords has just rendered a decision which is of interest to married women, married men, and shopkeepers who trust the former with the expectation of getting their pay from the latter. Heretofore it has been the popular belief, if not the legal doctrine, that for necessaries or goods suitable to the wife's station in life, the husband could be held responsible. But the House of Lords says where a husband makes his wife an allowance and expressly forbids her to run up accounts in his name he cannot be made liable for any goods she may obtain by drawing upon his credit; and that unless the seller can show that special authority has been conferred by the husband upon the wife, the seller cannot recover judgment. It was admitted in the case that the goods for which the action was brought were suitable to the wife's condition in life and that the plaintiff had received no notice not to give her credit; but the Court indicated that the plaintiff might have protected himself by making inquiry of the husband, and that having failed to do this he had not exercised the due care and caution which would entitle him to recover. <br><br> PERSONS about visiting New York this season will find it to their advantage to wear the outfit recently adopted by a citizen of the Town of Blaine, in the State of Maine. He wore four pairs of stockings, a pair of moccasins, two pairs of drawers, a pair of thick trousers, two undershirts, three outside woolen shirts, dress coat, waistcoat, two overcoats, rubber coat, a newspaper across his lungs, two scarfs and two pairs of mittens. We commend this apparel to New York visitors, because it is a papal offense to be seen in a frozen condition within the corporate limits of that city. A woman was this week found on the streets nearly dead with the cold, taken to a police station, where she was thawed out and a physician called to attend her. For this weather, she was next morning promptly fined a dollar. <br><br> JOHN AND DANIEL Miller, twin brothers, were born in Adams county, Pa, in 1816, and four years later their mother, being a poor widow, sent them into separate counties to live among friends. This was the last they ever saw or heard of each other until a few days ago, when John who is a toll-gate keeper, went out of his house to collect toll of an old man who was passing through the gate. A bystander remarked that the two men looked enough alike to be twins, and inquiries resulted in showing that the traveler was, indeed, the toll-gate keeper's brother. He had lived all his life not far away, but had no knowledge of his brother's existence. <br><br> ALTHOUGH BRAZILLIAN COFFEE made about one half of the quantity produced in the world, it seems to be held of so little account in the markets that, to insure a sale, it has to be labeled as Java, Puerto Rico, Ceylon or Mocha. In the country there are no fewer than 530,000,000 plants, covering 1,000,000 acres, and yielding a crop of 200,000 tons, of which 50,000 tons are retained for home consumption. <br><br> THE United States now stands first in the list of countries from which purchases are made by the French. Five years ago we stood sixth in the list. The figures are $37,000,000 in 1875, against $143,000,000 last year. At the same time, our purchases from France are only $2,000,000 greater than in 1875. The French government proposes to put a tariff on some American imports. Petroleum is already enormously taxed. <br><br> THE LATE Lucretia Mott's birthday was remembered in Philadelphia, Monday evening, a large number of persons assembling and recounting their impressions of her noble character, and narrating little anecdotes concerning her. The Rev C.G. Ames related how once after he had made an address in public she criticized adversely some of his statements or views. Kindly Mr. Mott said to him, "If she thinks thee wrong thee better think it all over again." <br><br> THE PHILADELPHIA Bulletin claims it as fact, and proves it by figures, that the actual increase of population, in ten years, as shown by the census of 1880, is larger in Pennsylvania than in any other State, although the rate of increase is larger in some of the younger States of the west. The increase in that State is about 760,000, while in New York it is only 700,000, in Ohio 511,000, in Texas 756,000, in Illinois 511,000,and so on down to lower figures in other States. <br><br> GENERAL Sherman said in Boston the other day that this country had annexed all of Mexico that he wished to see it possess, the true doctrines of the two lands begin to build up distinct nationalities by mutual help. He added that there is in the valley of the Red river of the North fertile land enough for the production of all the wheat now harvested in the United States, and until that territory is all accepted, three or four generations hence, no more should be added to the national domains. THE LONDON Times, commenting on the increase in the population of the United States, as shown by the recent census, says: Those eleven and a half millions of people are not a poor, indigent and untaught mass, [?] we would be produced in any European State by as great and rapid accession of population. They are well fed, clothed, well-to-do, and, as a rule, well educated. There is room to spare for them all, and for as many more during the next ten years. We cannot but look with some envy on a nation whose easy lot it is to gather up the good things which fortune casts to us. <br><br> THE QUESTION of tattooing (not branding) has been revived in the British army to prevent the re-enlistment of bad characters. Some time ago, when deserters? were 5000 a year (one artillery men had enlisted and sold his kit eleven times in two years before he was detected), Sir James L. Alexander submitted to the Honor Guards a small instrument, with a spring to tattoo instantaneously, and with hardly any pain, a man above the left wrist. India ink rubbed on the punctures left the impression of a neat, small queen's crown in blue, the size of a sixpence, and indelible. |