Michigan State News

The prospect of a bouncing peach erop is excellent at South Haven and Sangatuck, In niany places in the interior of the state the fruit buds have had the lif e frozen out of them. A Calhoun county schoolma'am, who wields the birch and ferule at Clarence, ought to be tolerably woll acquainted with her pupils, nine of whom are her own brothers and sisters. Their ages range from 5 to 20 years. The spring erop of brook trout is being planted in various Michigan streams, about 40,000 having been placed in the vicinity of Marshall alone. The small boy keeps an eye on the operation. A. P. Coddington, a Tecumseh farmer, has a pair of twin lambs that weighed fifty-three pounds when 29 days old. They were of the ShropsMre breed and bouncers, too. Detroit is spreading herself and proposes to plant nearly 3,000,000 in public improvements during 1888. This is leap year in more ways than one. Battle Creek has a real estáte agent who has both eyes on the main chance. When the uiimarried young man applies f or city lots, the agent ropes him in even if he has to throw in a good-looking, willing-to-be-married girl, to clinch the bargain. The Estey Manufacturing company, of Owosso, is doing what it can to aid the Pacific coast boom by shipping f urniture to faroff California. A miner named Michael Carney was cremated by the burnttig of a building belonging to the Winthrop Mining company, at Marquette. A Grand Rapids woman was brought before the pólice of that city on a charge of walloping her husband. But when the dispenser of justiee took in the situation, and saw the meek little báybeforehim, that even an ordinary mouse would likely frighten out of her wits, he bade her go home and cook the grub, and she went. A Chelsea divine startled his hearers on a recent Sunday by the declaration that his pulpit wasn't the proper place for indiscriminate advertising, and that henceforth night cap, sunflovver and necktie socials would not je announced therei'rom. Muskegon Methodists have dedieated a new 831,000 church that will seat STO people. The sawdust city sinners ought to be well cared for. An Ionia farmer has $4,925 invested in two cows. No wonder that some people can't afford to eat gilt-edge butter. Montcalm county still has plenty of pine to keep her thirty saw-mills a humming. The f risky and impetuous bomb won't al■vrays bear too close an inspection. A Morenci jouth began an investigation of a dynamite package, but the thing flared up and now the boy is minus two hands. The next military state encampment will be held at Hackinac in July or August, and the state military board is preparing for the coming campaign by laying in an ampie supply of overcoats. ïfeal Scott, the East Saugatuck man convicted of criminal assault upon an 8-year-old child, will be allowed to work for the state at the Jackson prison for the next eight years. Muskegon "is a brick" in the line of new industries, having jusfc started a new brick and tile company with 15,000 capital. The Walled Lake Pickle company will salt down 1,000 acres of cucumbers the coming season. It's evident that colic isn't to be confined to the babies for some yet. A Lake City chap had a corn on a big toe that carné uninvited. But the pesky thing wouldif t go, and so he applied kerosene and then a match. The result was instantaneous, and the profanity that followed was suflicient to üluininate the whole of Missaukee county. One of the oldest of Michigan Masons was the late Chalmcey Chapin, of Howell. Away back in 18Ü he sat in a lodge with Gen. Lafayette. 'Tis claimed that rats are so numerous and familiar at Marquette that on every cold night they assist the people in occupying their beds. Upper península girls must be braver than their sisters of less rigorous climes. Depew and the Vanderbilts took a squint at this state one day last week, and yet, strange though it may appear, Michigan people have enough left for another warm meal. Michigan drivers of fast horses will hold a seanee at Jackson some time in July. The flyers will be exercised for three or four days and some spry records will doubtless be made. A Houghton man has been married for the sixth time, and is not discouraged yet, although four of his former wives are now living. He is bound to be suited, even if he has to fight it out on that Une for the rest of his natural life. Ordinary folks pay 10 to 18 cents for the beef they consume, and, as a rule, it requires a good set of teeth and lots of "jaw" to manipúlate it, when cooked. But a Jackson man bas contracted to furnish the penitentiary boardei-s at a fraction less than 5 cents per pound, and beef of best quality, too. Some people will probably wonder how in the world the state ever obtained anything it buys at a less figure than that paid by the individual. A Clinton citizen has obtained a patent on a machine for hanging wall paper. The idea may be a good one, but we'll be hanged if we know where the money is coming f rom with which to buy the paper. The political club has been brought out froni its place o' hiding in many towns, and is being polished in readiness to bring down the choicest apples of office, when they shall be ripe unto the harvest, next autumn. Many Michigan people who invested in California real estáte booms, will be back by and by, provided they can realize enough f rom their investments to make the return trip. A Jackson Himter bas 171 traps ready to surprise the unsuspecting game that may pass their way. On a recent trip the ownerfound a coon, five mink, five perfumers (polecats), and 105 tnuskrats imprisoned, which sort o indieates that game is not scarce in that section, and that the traps attend strictly to business. A Jackson manufacturing concern has contracted for the services of ISOconviets for the next teil years at 52 cents per day. And the state funvishes grub and lodging in all cases. Of Michigan 10,000,000 broad acres, more than ono-half of them has not a tree from wbich the robin can'carol its song, and still the destruction oí our foresta goes steadily on. Nearly oue-twelítb of the whole area is mainly dovoted to the production of cattails, cranberries, imd the festíve rattlegnake. Morend bas a lady resident in the person of Mrs. Freelove Barnes, who is the widovr of a solilier of the revolutionary war. She was 18 when she married, while her husbaud was 54, and she still enjoys excellent health at the age of 90 years. The managers of the Kalamazoo ladies' seminary object to the frequent serenades indulged m by the Ccleryville chaps. But ths gii-ls haven't objeeted- not oue of 'em, Qrayling will have its first nip at a murder trial in May next, when Dan Mahoney will face tue music for the killing of Foreman Grund, of a Louis Sands' lumber camp. Horac White, the Cbeboygan chap whc o.'saulted Mrs. Miller of that place, appealed to the supreme eourt to save hini froin a flf teen year's job at Jackson must go, neverthetess, as that tribunal has decided againsí him. William Fox, an employé of the Bangoi furnace, had his right leg mangled by the hoisting engme the other day, necessitating the amputation of the disabled member. A too intímate acquaintance with Clinton corn juice prematurely wafted a citizen of that burg to the evergreen shore, and a local saloonist was ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction to console the widow with a cash payment of $4,000. But the vender of wet goods didn't enjoy the prospect of Buch a depletion of his loóse change, and so skipped out for the wild west, lea ving a note for his wife to the effect thathe had gone forever. Á Frenen portrait painter named Arno, who gobbled $30 and a number of watches from his landlady and her guests, at Cadilac, will sketch a blacksmith's forge at the Jackson prison for a year to come. W. P. Chaffee, who died at Adrián the other day at the age of 96 years, leaves a widow of the same age. 'Tis said that Gen. Alger owns 100 square miles of the choicest pine lands to be f ound in the Alpena región. And yet soms folks intímate that the general wouldn't object to being president of the whole country. "William Johnson, a Hancock man, got stuck in a snowbank the other day right on a railway track, when a passing train scooped him out, leaving his mangled remains and $2,000 life insurance for his family. 'Tis claimed for the Rev. Washington Gardner, who was recently elected commander of the Michigan G. A. R. , that before he had reached the age of 19 "he had marched over 5,000 miles with a gun on his shoulder." And yet no one would think of calling him a tramp. The Lenawee county horticultural society recently celebrated its thirty-seventh annual anniversary, and is still as bright and vigorOus as when a youngster in its teens.