OUR STREETS are in an awful muddy condition. Yesterday several teams were stalled on Fourth street between Iowa and Le Claire. This thoroughfare should be placed in better condition.
WEATHER. – Yesterday was a repetition of its predecessors, a cloudy, rainy, muddy, disagreeable day. Such weather will greatly retard agricultural operations, while it has a depressing effect on all kinds of business.
WANTED. – By a gentleman and his wife, a bed-room and sitting room, furnished, and board in a small, quiet family – one where there are no other boarders preferred. Address box 429, post-office, giving name and residence.
RAILROAD SHIPMENTS. – The shipments by railroad for the two weeks ending April 5th were as follows: 390 bls. Flour; 2,000 bu. Wheat; 3,000 bu. Barley; 430 sacks malt; 90 bls. Meal; 400 bu. potatoes; 320 lbs. butter; 122 sacks onions, 2,630 lbs. tallow; 3,600 lbs. packed meat; 51 head of cattle.
NO HOUSES FOR SALE. – During the last week a gentleman has advertised in our paper wishing to purchase a dwelling house in our city within certain bounds, embracing about a mile square. In that time he has but two houses offered him, which after thorough canvass he finds to be all that are for sale in that district. This is shown that our citizens are generally contented and not disposed to sell their property.
NO DISPATCHES. – The delightfully humid atmosphere we have been enjoying ever since election day, has had a disastrous effect on telegraphic dispatches, which is not at all surprising when we remember how often the same phenomenon has befallen us whenever there has been important news expected theretofore. But what little we got yesterday was good – couldn’t be improved. Squeeze that much out again today, if you please, Mr. Operator.
THE SCHOOL BOARD hold their regular meeting next Saturday. The old law is still in force, and will continue so till the 10th of May. A recent circular from the Secretary of the Board of Education reminds the School directors that moneys belonging to the teachers’ fund, whether derived from the annual apportionment or the district school tax, is not to be divided among the sub-districts, but becomes the common fund of the district township, to be applied by the Board of Directors in such manner as they may deem proper for the payment of teachers’ wages.
VOCAL CONCERTS. – Every Morning we are treated to a concert of vocal music. Not that which comes from the human voice attuned to melody and regulated by the musical scale. Nor that which springs from the throat of some encaged bird, as it warbles its notes through the bars of its prison. But the glad songs of a hundred feathered songsters, free as the air they breathe, leaping from branch to branch of the trees and making the whole neighborhood vocal with their sweet sounds. Yesterday among the number appeared one which a read plume on his head! He was king of the choristers, and all seemed to pay him deference. Plant shade trees around your dwellings if you would wish to have birds visit you and regale you with their matin songs.
IMPROVEMENTS. Mr. L. S. Ordway, who recently opened the boot and shoe store in Le Claire row, has much improved the appearance of his place of business by building a couple of show windows, which when lighted at night, exhibit quite a contrast with the former appearance of that store, which has been for a long time unoccupied. Warwick’s barber shop has also put on a new external appearance, a new and very pretty show window having been inserted there, which Mr. Warwick has fitted with a number of articles in his line of business. A shingle roof is going on the brick block on Brady street, near Fourth. One or two other buildings are being covered in the same way. Flat roofs seem to be at a discount in this vicinity, those removed being all of that kind.
TEACHERS’ EXAMINATION. – At the teachers’ examination held on the 29th ult., there were 55 applicants. Of this number, 3 received first grade certificates, 7 second grade, 15 third grade, and 20 fourth grade; while 10 were rejected altogether. The County superintendent has raised the standard for the lower grades. The percentage of correct answers to questions proposed is not as follows: first grade, 90; second grade, 80; third grade 70; fourth, 60. The superintendent informs us that many of the candidates exhibited an astonishing amount of ignorance for persons thinking themselves competent to teach others. The penmanship in many cases was execrable. The orthography was very faulty. Of fifteen words, one applicant only spelt two right. Many were wrong in the majority of cases. The word ‘psychology’ was a desperate puzzle, the initial p being left out by many; one spells it ‘sichologa;’ vacillation, pneumatics and others were also desperately handled. The word ‘beaux,’ singularly enough, was always spelt right by the ladies. Omnipotent is made to mean ‘not present,’ ‘high,’ ‘all seeing.’ In geography the most blunders occurred. Labrador and Cuba Island were respectively sad to be the first land discovered by Columbus. The points of the compass were sadly mixed up in many craniums. The revolution of the earth from north to south was said to cause the change in seasons; so was the ‘tipping of the earth from north to south, and south to north!’ These may be considered specimens of the brilliant answers to the questions propounded given by many of the applicants. Some of them, it is evident, think that almost any body can teach school, but Mr. Gorton’s way of treating them is likely to dispel the idea, and at the same give our schools better teachers.
IOWA COLLEGE. – This institution, formerly located in this city, but not established at Grinnell, Iowa, notwithstanding the hard times, is in successful operation. The faculty is composed of L. F. Parker, Prof. of Ancient Languages; Rev. C. B. Smith, Prof. of Rhetoric and English Literature; and Rev. J. A. Reed, principal of Prep. And English departments. The number of pupils last session was about 100, of whom 35 were females. The terms of tuition are, for common English branches $4.00 per term; higher English branches or classics, $5.00; College department, $7.00. Good board can be had at from $1.50 to $1.75 per week. The summer term commences May 14th.
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SUPREME COURT.
(APRIL TERM)
CALEB BALDWIN, Chief Justice.
G. G. WRIGHT, Associate Justice.
R. P. LOWE, Associate Justice.
LEWIS KENSEY, Clerk.
TUESDAY, April 8.
750. I. M. Thrift v. Geo. B. Richman, appt.; Boone Co. Affirmed.
821. John R. Cook et al., appts., V Woodbury County et al.; Woodford Co. Affirmed.
886. LeGrand Byington v. H. Woods et al.; Johnson Co. Reversed.
865. Wm G. Loring et al. v. Thos. C. Bennett, appt. Affirmed.
870. Culbertson and Reno v. Saml. Lucky et al., appts.; Washington Co. Reversed.
887. LeGrand Byington, appt., v. John F. Hanson; Johnson Co. Affirmed.
Court adjourned till. Wednesday morning.
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, April 9, 1862, p. 1
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