The Black Hills

An Associated Press telegram from Red Cloud Agency, dated Sept. 29, says: The Commissioners met the Indians in oouncil on Tuesday. Tkree hundred chiefs were present. Red Cloud, chief of the Ogallalas, on behalf of tho Indians, said lie feit better than lieretofore. He said he considered the Hills more valuable in the precious metáis than the entire wealth of the ITnited States. He proposed to ask a largo sum for them, the principal to be put at interest, and hom the latter to derive sufficient to keep ilie Sioux nation. In addition, he wanted Qrant to furniskannuallyeachhead of an Indian family six yoke of oxen, a wagon, a span of horses, harness, a buil, cow, sow, boar, sheep, ranw, chickens, and other domestic fowls, coffee, tea, sugar, side meat, rice, cracked corn, beans, dried apples, and a host of other articles. He enumerated also houses and furniture, tho same as white men. He said the government was trying to make a white man out of him, and he wantod to indulge the white man. He wanted a saw-mill for every tribe of the Sioux c:on; tne removal ot troops trom poses adjaoent to agencies; and the right of appointiug Indian agenta, employés and traders. Ho was emphatic in his demand for Catliolio clergy f or special instructora. He said God bad given liis people the Black Hills, so they might all subsist from their wealth. He was opposed to any roads to the Black Hills except the one made by Custer from Bismarck, which ho, dosignated as the thief's road. He wantod all half-breeds and white men married to squaws treated the same as Indians. He described the limita of the Black Hills, which he wished to sell, and v.'rts emphatically opposed to disposing cf the Big Hom and Powder River country. He was followed by Lone Horn, Chief cf the Arapahoes, in a speech similar in tone to Red Cloud's. He inaisted on the removal of agents and employés, and putting in men acceptable to the Indians. He said all the Indians had put thoir heads together in opinión. He wanted Catholic missionaries as instmetors. He demanded that the boundary line of the reservation be extended to the Middle Platte river, in Nebraska. He wanted the survey átopped. Other chit-fs followed, all in the same Btrain. The result of Wcdnesday's proceedings consisted in a recapitulation of Tuesday's exorbitant demands for aduitional possessions and ammunition. One of the chiefs asked $70,000,000 for the Black Hills, part payment in cash, t'ie remainder at interest, the prooeeds from the latter to purchase such articles as the Indians require. Each of the speakers to-day demanded Catholic instructors. Ked Cloud, in his speech, said six generations of Indians had passed away. The only conditions on which the Sioux Nation will sell the Hills, would be a guarantee that Grant would provide for the Indians for six succeeding generations. An Indian generatioñ is 100 years. The Commissioners to-day met the Indians again, and submitted a treaty. They oftered to lease the country for a term of years, agreeing to pay therefor tLe sum of $400,000 por annum, the United States reseiving the right to terrninate the license at any time by giving two years' notice. Or, if the Sioux prefer it, the Commissioners proposed that the United States purchase the Hill3 outright, pay ing therefor SC, 000, 000 in fifteen annual installments. Spotted Tail and Ked Oiouil expressed ;::uch surprise at the small amount offered for the Black Hills, and said they would have to caJl a council of the Indians, and could give no answer for two days. The Commissioners have eome to the conclusión that it is impossible to make a t.caty in the present temper of the Indians. A Monkey Stops a líailroaU Train. Wc learn from our genial frifflid, Conductor ís. K. Slawson, of the Savamiah and Charleston railroad, that n day or two sincc, the train coming to this city wafl stopped by a monkey while in rapid mction. It seems that the train was b ling along at the rate of 25 miles an hour, when suddenly "down brakes " were sounded, the engine bell ringing vigorously at tlie same time, and the locomotivo carne to a stop as the brakemen sprang to their posts. The conductor was rather nrystitied, and at once proceeded to investígate the matter. It was diBCOvered that a monkey, which was ccnñned in the baggage car, had broken and web anmfúiig himself swinging en the bell-ro23e, and the engineei was thus signaled to stop. The explanation cf the sudden stoppage oocaeioned much I diversión among tbe passengers, and the I moukev bocame quite a hero. - íavannah (Ga.) News. A Select Tea-Party. A singular and unpleasant coiDcidence recenth' oceurred on a Isiie steamor. Rev. B Fletcher, formerly of Ncwburyport, ;.iH.ss., but now Consul at Oporto, Portugal, widely kuown asa lecturerand t.j' nthor oí' a popular work on Brazil, in his weddiug tour witli his new wife, while his devorced wii'e was also o. . h;r wedding tour witli her new Imaband, Mr. Bouson, the artist, and her hter, Miss Pletoher. Mr. Fletcher's flrst wii'e was a daughtex of Dr. Muían, of Genoa, md beeame enuiíored of Mr. Benson while he was an inmate of her I httsband'a boase at Newburyport - Mr. Fletcher being a patrón of artists - and panied him on his sketelúng ex cure,i(;i:R, to tho great scandal of the neighberhood, till the matter carné to be : djvoroe .!:■■ obtained, fv marriftge rekitions eutored iuto a'l around. A Baltimokk man has just presented tho poet Longfellow with two canes, The Huntiugton Bank Robbers. A Lexington (Ky.) correspondent of tlie Chicago Times says : Tho exciteraont is still high through this part of the Süito over tlie Huntington, W. Va., bank robbcry. The idontiücntion of one of the gang as the notorious MoDaniels, a Missouri desperado, has been f ully verillcd, and t]i; conclusión aocepted by the Louisville detectives, who were certain at iirst that tho dead man was Jessie James. The report whidh ftrst went Etbroad, that tho robbery had been committed by the James and Youngers, of Missouri, haviug been thus partially disproven, a great deal of interest is telt as to who the other members of the gang are. The robbery was done exaetly like similar aiïairs which have occurred in Kentucky, Missouri and Iowa, and a little light upon this transaction might settle bevond reasonable doubt the identity of these bold night-riders. There are two or three of the old Quaatrell band living near Lexiugton, one of whom yonr col-respondent met to-day and obtained some interesting information from. My informant says the four men who did the Huntington business are old hands at that kind of work, but little known to the public. They have done their work quietly for years, letting the James and Youngers get the credit for their deeds, and themselves enjoying the gains. The four men who robbed the Huntington bank, this man aflirms, were Thomson McDaniels, now dead, Clell Miller, Jack Kean and Calvin Carter. The man now in custody in Fentress county is one of the robbers, and when idiinli'lied will be found to be eitheï Miller, Koa.n or Carter. Miller, he says he thinks, is supposed to bc one of tho men who robbed the banK a' Corydon, Iowa. When this bank robbery began, he was arrested in Missouri, taken to Corydon, and had a preliminary trial, which resulted in his release in some way. These four men, Miller, McDamels, Carter and Kean were uuder Jim Read, the Texaa desperado, and constitutod tho band wlio robbed the El Paso stage between Austin and San Antonio in April, 187-1. Read was afterward killed by Sheriff Murria, iii Texas, but the reniainiug members of his party wore never made known until now. Jack Kean, wlio is pretty likely to be in the Fentress county prison, was at Munoie along with the McDamels boys and Clell Miiler. These four men were also at the Gad's Hill robbery. They have a score of confederates living aiong the Texas and Missouri border, and have hitherto found no difficulty in reaching cover after one of their dai-ing exploits. This is the information the ex-gerilla placed your correspondent in possossion of, after a strict pledge of secreoy as to the source of the news. He is a respectable farmer here, and does not countenance the deeds of violence of his old companions, but hears at frequent intervals of their doings and whereabouts. Frightful Plague in Fiji. Further iuformation from Fiji conveys still darker accounts of the plague wliich has reoently passed over the new colony. A resident of long standing, writing to i Victorian eontemporary, says: "The death rato ia not yet made up, but the probability is that 40,000 Fijians died during the fonr months' plague. The native popuiatiou of Fiji ia now about one-third only of' wliat it was when I landed here twenty-flve years ago. " The accounts given of the magnitude of the disaster are less harrowing tlian those of the sufferings of the victima. "Very few died of the measles, the majority dying of subsequent disease in the forrn of dysentery, congestión of the lungs, etc. Want of nourishment or starvation carried off thousands." We are told that " all work was suspended for two I months. Yon could pass through whole towns wil hout meeting any oue in the streets, which were soon completely covered with grass. Entering a house you would find men, women and children, all lying down indiscriminately, some just attacked, some still in agony, and others dying. Some who were strong enough attempted suicide, and not always unsuccessfully. " We are further told that "as the scourge became more permanent four or five were buried together in one grave, and generally without religieus service. In some cases the dead were buried under the earthen floors of the houses, in others just outside the house. The burials were hurried, and the probability is that some were buried alive. In many instances the husband, wife and children, all died. In one village all the women died, and in auother all the men." It is interesting to read of the difl'erent mental effects produced by tlie torture of disease. It is not surprising to find that "some made fruitless appeals to their ancient god. Some inland tribes, who had only recently embrivced Christianity, considered that the disease was conveyed by their religious teachers, and they dismissed them and then abandoned their new religión. Among these some were for killing the teacher's Avife and child, whose hvisband and father had died of the plague, to stop infection." But while some in their distress feil back on their former superKtitions, the greater nuniber are said to have borne their calamity with fortitude, and to have suffored and died under the influence of anity. - Sidnry {Australia) Herald. Human Saliva Produces Deadly Eftects on Poisonous Reptiles, The Marietta (Georgia) Journal was told by a gentleman tlie otlier day tli.it human spittle was as deadly to poisonous snake.s as their bites wore deadly to man. He says tbat while picking np a bundie of straw and trasli under liis arm, while cleaning a field, a ground rattlesuake, íour feet long, crawled out from it and fell to tlie ground at his feet. He at once placed his heel upon tlie head of the snake and spit in its mouth. Shortly afterward tlie snake sliowed syrnptoms of inactivity and aiokened, and he picked it up by its tail and earried it to the liouse and showeil it to his wife, telling her he had spit in its ïnouth and that it was poisoned. At the expiration of fifteen minutos the snake was dead. To further experiment, he catno across a blowing adder snake, wliich ejected from its mouth a yellowish liquid. He caught it and spit in its mouth, and it died. He caught anolher blowing, and it refused to open ite mouth. He Rpit upon a stiek and rabbed the ppittle upon the adder's nose, and it died. Afterward he camc across a black snake, regarded as not poisouous, and ho canght it and spit in its mouth. Instead, of the spittle killing the black snake as it did the poisonous reptiles, it only made it stupidly sick, from which it recovered. Thiá conclusively shows tliat poisonous snakes have as much to fear from the spittle of man as man has to fear from their bites. Had Been Arouutt. At the City Hall market yesterday whilo a lady was purcliasing a whitefish a man about lifty years oíd, and a stranger to her, approached and remarked: "Missus, I have travoled over Europa, Asiu, África and the Holy Liind. I have vifwcd the pyramids, sailed on the Nile, and lished in the Tiber. Permit me to oil'er you a word oí advice: Don't cook thiit fish with the acales on." " I didn't mean to, sir," she indignante ly replied. " Very wel!, Miasus, I have crossed the AtJautic fourteen timen ; ascended the Andes ; Bailed up the Missouri and ilown the Mississippi, nr.d tramped across the Great Sahara Desert. Let me say one wórd more : Out the head off before you oeoJi il [" " l)o you thiuk l'ni a lieáthen!" alte retorted. " 1 guess 1 know liow to cook añsh!" " You inay, luaditm - you i::ay. I have soldiered for Queen Victoria, lought for Únele Saín, drawn a pension, kept a postoffice, learned to flddle, and was never sued iíi my life. I brg your pardon, madam, bnt let me advise yon not to eat the bonen of that lish. Bomo folks eat bones and all, but they sooner or later come to some disreputable end!" " I'Jl thank you to mimi your owu business!" she said, as she pieked up the fish. " I have traveled over the smootli prairies," he replied, with the gratest politeness, ' ' climbed the Rooky Mountains, killed lndians, fought grizzlies, suffered and starved and perished, and I leave you with the kindest and most eamest wishes for your future welfare. Also, cut off the tail before cooking !"