The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1863-11-21
ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.

20 The State Educational Convention as
sembles at Bath on Monday afternoon next.
1yfGen, Sickles says there will soon be
one hundred thousand African soldiers in the
Union army.
lrThe railroad bridges across the Temple
stream, near the Depot at Pennington, and at
Wilton were carried away in the late freshet.
gr The I'd Maine battery has been re-
lieved Of its position in front of the army and
has gone to Washington.
nb"S. w. C.'s" article on flax as a sub
stitute for cotton, was published on the first
page of the Press of the 18th inst, and pa
pers sent to him as ordered.
10 The trains are interrupted by the
freshet on the Androscoggin Railroad above
Livermore Falls, but will be all right again in
less than week.
1B- Senator Sprague and wife, of Rhode
Island, arrived home at Providence on Wednes-
day, and were welcomed by a salvo of artil-
lery.
sBCol Chamberlain, commanding the Sd
brigade, 1st division, 9th corps, had his horse
shot under him at the late battle of Kappa
hammock Station.
sB-Mr. John Rich, of Fa-mngdale, who
cut his throat while in a fit of insanity, was
graduate of Bowdoin College of the class of
1861 He was preparing for the ministry of
the Episcopal Church.
syrThe Skowhegan Clarion says the re-
cent freshet was the heaviest on the Kennebec
that has been known for several years. Some
damage was done to futile, Kidder & Cos
flour mill.
IF Office seeking in Washington is to be
rather expensive business the coming winter,
as hotel keepers there now charge transient
customers four dollars day, without even
the guaranty of "roast beef
vThe recent heavy rains caused very
high freshets in both the Saco and Andres
coggin rivers. At Brunswick the Falls were
completely flowed out, and the water is said
to have been higher than at any time since
1927.
IrA Chattanooga letter says there are at
Whiteside in that vicinity, several excellent
coal mines, which are shortly to be worked on
Government account. The seam crops out
perhaps five hundred feet above the valley and
is from four to eight feet thick.
sBThe Aroostook Times learns that many
of the men who skedaddled across the line
into Canada are becoming tired of their self
ban a,,I tn 81.
grace" would be glad to enlist in the voun-
teer service.
sEAs a military maxim, says President
Lincoln, secure efficiency, by limiting the
privileges of rank; exclude lavoritism, by
giving the power of selection to boards of COM
petent officers totally independent of party
politics.
sFOne Of the best and most substantial
buildings in Bath has been erected the past
season on the site of the old Universalist
Church, Front street, by Oliver Moses, Esq.
1t is three stores, of brick, mastic and iron
front, and is to be mainly used for the whole
sale and retail dry goods trade.
sBIf the Boston journal knew ho,r little
Importance is attached, in this state, to its Au-
gusta Correspondents prophecies and wisdom
in relation to the organization of the Legisla-
ture, and the election of State officers, perhaps
it would not provoke so much laughter as it
now does by publishing such silly nonsense.
pThe people of New York are going to
have a fair in aid Of the Sanitary Commission,
to commence on the 22d of February, 1864;
and they are determined that it shall exceed
everything Of the kind that shall precede it.
The rivalry is one of the most lauduble de-
scription.
s- Full and complete arrangements are
now made to raise 1881 volunteers in this
State by the 9Th of January. Each town
knows precisely what it has to do, and what
it ,ciH hare to do if it does not raise the vol
unteers. The business of the next six weeks
should be to fill up our quota and thereby send
to the front a sufficient force to crush out this
rebellion at once.
rAt meeting of the Stockholders of
the Somerset and Kennebec Railroad at Au-
gusta on Saturday last to see if they would
ratily the lease of the road for 20 years made
by the Directors, lively discussion was had,
and the meeting adjourned for two weeks.
The Clarion thinks little extra effort on the
part Of the Stockholders in attending this
meeting will defeat the lease of the Road.
aVA letter from gentleman engaged in
taking the vote Of the Missouri soldiers at
Chattanooga, on last election day, says the
voting was done under the fire of the enemys
guns. As the men gathered together and de-
posted their ballots the rebel shells were ex-
ploding all about them. Three hundred and
twenty-seven of them cast their votes, and
every one of them voted the radical ticket
" The Oxford Democrat says that two
prisoners sentenced at the late term OF the
Court held in that county put in the plea of
intoxcation, in mitigation of their crime.
Judge Appleton said the plea OF intoxication
was no excuse for the commission of an Of
fence; and added, that from one end of the
State to the other he found that the use
ofintoxicating liquors was the cause of nine
tenths of all the crime committed.
e-The New York Evening Post says:
"Let the tax of one dollar and ten cents per
ton, which is now imposed by our tariff on
bituminous coal, and of sivty cents per ton