General News

On Saturday nigbt, about ten o'clock, a party of six or eight masked men called at the cabin of au oíd negro named Abe Wotten, living in the ninth district, cight miles from Manchester,CofEee county,Tenn.,and demanded udmittance,which being ref used,they set fire to the cabin in two or three places. Finding that he and hia f amily, a wife and four children, would be burned if they remained4 the old man ruahed out and wan aeized by the maskers, carried 100 yards or so, and shot to death. In the meantime the wife and children huddled together near the dead body of the huaband and father to remain till morning. Itev. Sidney M. Stray, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Kast Lake George, N. Y.t while exhibiting a revolver to his wife, diacharged it, wounding her. Thinking he had thus accidcntally killed his wife, he placed the revolver to hia own hcad and fired. His wounds are not thought serious. Governor Kobinson, of New York, haa preBented to the Senate formal charges against Smyth, the State Superintendent of Insurance and recommends his removal. A premature explosión of nitro-glycerine at the Dutch Gap, Jumen Ui ver, Va., killed M. C. Haggerty, Government contractor for widening and utherwise improving Dutch Ciap, and one negro. It is reperted that Elias Hal ' body was blown into the river and is not ; 0 . recovered. The Central Iron Works, Brooklyn, owned by Howell, Saxton & Co., burned Wednesday night. Lors, $100,000; insurance, $20,000. The widow and daughter of Bayard Taylor have arrived frorn Germany. Vicar-General Martin Kundig died at the See House, Milwaukee, Thursday morning. Heart diseace ír suppoBed to have been the cause. Although there is no Bemi-official basis for the announceraent, there is reason to believe that the President's message to Congress will be brief, and connned to the subjects for which it will be convened; and that he will at the inatance of the Secretary of the Treasury, ask that the measures be adopted for an increase of revenue, it having been decreased to the extent of ten million dollars by the pauw age of the tobáceo bilí. The Secretary said that but for this be weuld have twenty-eif;ht million dollars surplus revenue with which to pay the arrears of pensionB receutly authorized by Congress, The Mystic Valley Bailroad Company was organized some time since to build a narrow gauge road from Boston to connect with the towns lving along the MyBtic Valley to the north of the city. But 11 miles of the road have been built thus far, and this was charged at $28,000 per mile on the books of the corporation; though it waa known that the expenditures for every purpose had not exceeded $60,000. This lead to an examination by the railroad commisioners, and as the result they have called upon the Attorney General to take action in the matter. In a letter to him they stated that an examination of the books of the company shows an apparent discrepancy between the amounts received and paid out o $85,000 The burning of a slaughter house and othe buildings at Cedar Rapids, la,, Friday, causee the loss of $75,000 v.vrth of property. Fort Buford advices say that two detach ments have been sent from Fort Keogh to the Yellowstone country to intercept the rest of renegade Cheyennes. The chances of success are good, as the Indians cannot cross the river on acconnt f the high water. Klilm Burritt died Friday night at his resi dence in New Britain. Smitb, the agent of the Western Union Telegraph Company at Topeka, Ks., who has been held in custody as a contumacious witness be fore the Legislature, was liberated Friday by a unanimous vote of the House. James K. Keene, of New York, the well known stock and grain operator, states that his name was forged last Thursday, to a halfrate telegraphic message to J. K. Fisher & Co., grain brokers oí Chicago, directing them to sell 3,000,000 bushels of wheat on Mr. Keene's account. This caused a decline in wheat at Chicago from 96 to 93. Keene knew nothiiijr of the transaction until Friday afternoon, and repudiates the entire sale, which compels the repurchase by FiBher & Co. of the amount sold on his account. Keene says he had no intensión of making any sales of grain at present, and certainly not at 93 cents per bushel. The message was sent through the Atlantic and Pacific Company, and, Keene Btates, was evidently the work of an agent in New York of Chicago parties. Steps have been taken to discover the author of the telegram. Keene says that suspicions are strong against persons short of provisions, who hoped by this means to depress the market and cover shorts. A large reward will be immediately offered by Keene for the discovery of the forger and his associates. The original cepy of the dispatch is now in Keene's posseBsion. The new House will contain 133 new men - 72 Republicana and 61 Demócrata. Ex-Senator Patterson has received a letter from the attorney general of South Carolina, granting him a full pardon and oblivion of any indictment pending against him in that s ate. The scoretary of the treasury has issued a circular announcing that the treasurer oL the Jnited States and the assistant treasurers at .ialtimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, New Means, New York, Philadelphia, 8t. Louis and San Francisco, will sell at par for lawful money, certificates of deposit of denominaions of $10, bearing interest at four per cent., convertible at any time into four per cent )onds, according to an act passed at the late session of congress. They will be ready for delivery on the lst of April, at which date they win begin to Dear interest, payable upon the conversión of the certificates into four per cent. bonds. The floor in Mechamos' Hall at North Berwick, Me., gave away Monday forenoon during town meeting, precipitating nearly 50 persona to the floor below. At the time of the accident there were about 500 in the hall, and 150 persons precipitated to the floor below. The recovery of John Nealy, Henry Skidder, Chas Packer and Keuben Chadbourne is doubtful. Public sentiment is bitter against the builders of the hall, which it is claimed was built in a criminally careless mauner. Three Ruita were brought against Archbishop Purcell at Cincinnati, Monday, the principal one by the Jefferson National Bank of Steubenville, Ohio, for $3,400. At their instance a writ of attachment was issued covering St. Peter s cathedral, corner of Eighth and Plum; St. Patrick's church, corner Third and Mili streets, and other property. The appraised value of the real estáte covered is $250,000. The bond of the Lrchbishop's asaignee has been fixed at $500,)00, ot' which arnount it is understood Mr. Mannix, the assignee, has secured four-fifths. Kev John Weiss, Unitarian, Boston, dird unday after a prolonged illness, of a pulmonary complaint. öunday morning, a fire broke out in East St. Louis which destroyed $10,000 worth of jroperty and five persons are supposed to have erished in the flamea. One woman leaped rom a window and was fatally injured. The Brooklyn Presbytery has decided to try )r. Talmage on the following charges, prcented by the committee appointed at a preious session : Deceit and falsehood in statements regarding his withdrawal from the editorship of the Chnstian at Work; in stating that sittings in the Tabernacle were f ree; in accusing J. W. Hathaway of dishonest prastices and then denying it; of falsehood in collecting subscriptions for payment of the church debt; of deceit in the difficulty concerning the organist of the Tabernacle and of stating that he was to be arraigned for heterodoxy, when he knew that such was not the case. Archbishop Purcell has received from Cardinal McCloskey assurances of assistance from all the Catholic cong gations in the country. At a conference heT'i recently between the Cardinal and the Archbishops of Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore, it is decided that the case of the Archbishop of Cincinnati should be given preference over all uthers. ThO matter will be brought before the bishops of the country lmmediately. Plans will be promulgated after Kastcr and be presented to the different cngregations through the priests. At a meeting of the Philadelphia Iron Merhants' Association, Tuesday, the prices of all escriptions of merchant iron were advanced per cent. At the second balloting for Mayor at Eockland, Me., Monday, there was no choice; 1,420 votes were cast, of which Lovejoy, Republican, received 580, Hall, Greenbacker, 516, and Jregory, Democrat, 324. A party of 34 New York street boys was tarted Tuesday afternoon for homes on farms in Kansas, by Whit 'aw Ueid, who used thus a ortion of a fund of $1,000 given him by a stranger from the interior of New England for any charitable use he might select. Mr. Keitl also sent west six destitute families, numbering in all 42 souls. These families mostly intended, also, to begin life again on farms.