CLOCKS. – Another installment of clocks just received and for sale low for cash, at Billons, No. 10 Le Claire Row.
FIRE DEPARTMENT. – From the report of the chief engineer, presented to the council on Wednesday, we learn that the whole number of members is 123, divided as follows: Fire King Engine Co., No 1, 26; Rescue Fire Engine and Hose Co., No. 2, 50; Pioneer Hook & Ladder Co., No. 1, 56.
DOGS. – The Senate of the Wisconsin legislature have passed a bill rating all canines at $100 each for taxation. At this rate the richest quarter of our city would be that portion know as “the patch.” Some families there would find themselves suddenly possessed of hundreds of dollars, when they formerly supposed themselves not to be worth as many cents.
STAY LAWS. – A fellow citizen favors us this morning with his views in respect to the Appraisement Law now in force in our State. He have already expressed our opinion in regard to this enactment. Our friend is a practical man and understands the operations of this law. He expresses his ideas pretty forcibly, and it will do four out legislators to consider his suggestions.
THE ROCK ISLAND ELECTION on Tuesday passed off quietly. About 350 votes were cast. Mayor Bailey Davenport was re-elected without opposition. The aldermen elected are: J. Chamberlin, 1st ward; M. B. Clark, 2d ward; H. A. J. McDonald, 3d ward; John Holt, 4th ward. All except Capt. Holt are re-elected. Ald. McDonald was the only one who had opposition; he was elected by 104 votes to 101 for David Cookle. Party lines were not drawn in the contest at all.
A LIBELOUS STATEMENT. – In the same issue in which the Rock Isalnd Argus advises its cotemporaries to consult its columns if they would always get reliable news of that town, it says, that “one-half the energy and intellect of Rock Island is wasted in saloons.” We were aware of a great preponderance of grog shops in the town opposite this, but were not aware that the patronage of these establishments was so general among its citizens, nor are we yet, as we don’t believe the statement. The Argus has become so accustomed to misrepresent its neighbors that it cannot spare even its own citizens. It is said to be “a foul bird that defiles its own nest.”
A BELEAGUERED CITY. – That’s been our fix for nearly a week. To be sure, no foreign or traitor foe, with bristling bayonets and shotted guns, ready to deal death on our heads, hems us in, and threatens our conquest; but an insidious worker, noiselessly and irresistibly advancing, has surrounded us with breastworks, embankments and walls of multitudinous crystalline particles. For three days of this week communication with the rural districts was about as frequent as the visits of a Southern darkey to the school-house; and the country people were becoming desperately hard up for news, and town folks began to scent afar off shortness of fodder. Yesterday, however, a few farmers broke the blockade, and forced their way into town with their teams. They were mostly from the neighborhood of the ‘Summit,” where some thirty farmers clubbed together and extricated themselves from the wilderness of snow. The river roads, both east and west, have been in quite good condition for several miles out. One man yesterday morning, who lives about eight miles out on the Hickory Grove road and walked into town, says that two sleighs that passed his house at 1 o’clock Wednesday afternoon, hadn’t reached town when he arrived yesterday morning. Such an accumulation of snow of course prevents much enjoyment of it in the shape of sleigh riding, but we have had our share of that this winter, and can dispense with it if the clerk of the weather will hurry up the opening of the river.
NEW TELEGRAPHIC ARRANGEMENT. – It will be seen, on reference to our telegraph columns, that the Associated Press has made a new and excellent arrangement for supplying Western papers with the latest news, and that too of a character which we most need, as for instance news immediately form our own troops in the field – an arrangement which would have been of great benefit at the time of the Fort Donelson battle. By this plan we be enabled to place before our readers every morning all the Chicago papers of the same date contain, except their specials, but including those of the papers of the evening before. The latest special dispatches of the Chicago morning report, and if of sufficient importance will be published in extras, as heretofore.
M. & M. R. R. – the trains on this road are approaching to regularity again. The western train arrived on time last night, and brought us a mail from Des Moines – the first this week. The train which left here Wednesday afternoon, when forty-five miles out, overtook the one that started the day before, to which the mail matter was transferred, and the other train returned to town. Mr. Remington, mail agent on the latter, informs us that they went down on the branch, and got within three miles of an upward bound train, fast in the snow-drift: and there was another train behind that, which was also unable to move on. The Davenport train forced its way through snow piled up high as the top of the cars, and it was almost impossible to see any distance ahead. The road is open from Muscatine to Washington, and the cars are running regularly.
LENT. – This ancient religious season began last Wednesday – Ash Wednesday – and continues forty days, exclusive of Sunday, and will therefore terminate April 19th, the day before Easter Sunday. – Trinity Church, during the season, will be open for divine service every Wednesday morning at half past ten, and every Friday afternoon at 4 o’clock.
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, March 7, 1862, p. 1
