GHOSTLY GRIEVANCES
The Hobgoblins Make Merry in a Deserted House.
The city is infested with Ghosts
It is an unpleasant admission to make, especially as the
ghosts which are now with us are not so entirely harmless in their
manifestations as such visitors are generally supposed to be. Friday last, Mr.
James Fealty commenced moving his household goods into a dwelling, No. 228 North
Seventh street. The house was left alone during the night, and when he again
visited it, the next day, he was surprised to find that the house had been on
fire, a large hole having been burned through the floor in one of the bedrooms,
and the coals had dropped through into the cellar. One of the partitions was
also badly burned and everything indicated that a fire of no inconsiderable
dimensions had been in progress and had been by some means extinguished. He
visited the neighbors, supposing of course that some of them had been in and put
out the blaze, but was astonished to learn that none of them knew anything about
the affair, and that they were as much in the dark as he was regarding the
origin and suppression of the fire. There was no fire in the building on the
previous day, and no indications that any one had been in the house or that any
water had been used in extinguishing the flames. It seems hardly possible that
the fire could have died out of itself, especially after burning a hole to the
cellar, from which it would seem that it ought to receive a strong current of
air, and as there is no other way of accounting for the truly singular
circumstances attending the affair, we have no other resource than to attribute
it to ghosts.
ASHES TO ASHES.
Cremation of the Remains of the Late Flint Hills.
Monday afternoon the hull of the old Flint Hills was
burned at its moorings, on the Illinois bank, opposite the city, and all that
now remains of this far-famed ferry is a pile of ashes, destined soon to be
scattered to the four corners of the earth, and a few fragments of old iron to
be collected up and hauled away to the founderies to be remodeled into other but
probably not more useful designs. The history of Flint Hills is almost identical
with the history of Burlington, and her name is familiar to thousands who have
crossed the river at this place, seeking homes upon the broad and fertile
prairies of our own State, or destined to points even further west.
The Flint Hills was built in Cincinnati, in the winter of
1854-5, being contracted by the People's Ferry Company. One of the
builders was the same Mr. Morton who is now building the new ferry for the
Burlington and Henderson County Ferry Company. The new ferry was completed early
in the spring of 1855, and started for this place with a load of furniture and
assorted merchandise, making a successful and profitable trip. Arriving here,
she was at once put in active opposition to the Joe Gales, the ferry of the
opposition company, but after running only about six weeks, was laid up, it
being found that she was not paying running expenses. Shortly after this she as
sold to the Burlington Ferry Company, which run both ferries for a time, but
finally disposed of the Joe Gales, she being entirely too large to be handled
with any profit, and the Flint Hills continued in service, passing from time to
time, into the possession of different owners, down to the time when she sunk at
our landing, last spring, and retired forever from active participation in the
toils and triumphs of an existence frought with the dangers of the briny deep,
Western Patents.
The following Western Patents were issued from the United
States Patent Office, for the week ending January 5, 1874, as reported for the
HAWK-EYE from the Western patent office agency, by W.B. Richards, solicitor of
patents, Galesburg, Illinois.
IOWA.
Corn planter- H. Bagley, Mechanicsville.
Washing and wringing machine- F.M. Campbell, St. Louis.
Sewing machine caster- J.H. Plank, Bloomfield.
Barred stock fence- F.T. Wilson and E.J. Bartlett, Ames.
Hat racks- R.R. Dorr, Burlington.
Horse shoeing apparatus- C. Schnoor, Davenport.