The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1864-12-26
ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.


u The Copmissioner of Pensions decides
that assiatant psymasters are not in the military
service q the meaning Of the law, and therefore
ara NOT entitled to pensions.
rwActing Master Chas. Thatcher of Maine,
cossnanding the Gazelle, attached to the Missis-
dppi Squadron, was murdered by guerrillas re-
Gently.
RA slight FIRE occurred in the War Depart
ment Friday afternoon, caused by defective
Hue. TWAS extinguished before serioas damage
was done. ia f9R4H# q Is 1873 I'll
- The Printers Union in st. Louis has come
to grief. The printers tried strike there and
met with no better success than they did in other
places. 81 'les s ass soira
The Virginia Legislature has raised the
pay OF its members to forty dollars per day, and
the Governors to fifteen thousand dollars per
annum. .ss - s.
- tender hearted widower tainted at the
funeral OF his third beloved. s'What shall we
DO with him 7" asked a PEI picked friend of his.
- Let him alone" said waggish bystander;
he'll soon rewive.'' .ssa
ETwo printers belonging to the Richmond
Dispatch, who tried to escape to our lines and
were caught, are now on trial, and if convicted
win be shot, although belonging neither to the
army nor navy. ef.. b @si
- Only five Revolutionary pensioners are
supposed to be living. Three of them enlisted
in New England, ard one of them, William
Hutchings, now one hundred years old, resides
In Penobscot, Hancock County.
81 Major Dearbon Of Portsmouth, N. H.,
sent message to the City Council last Thursday,
vetoing bill for payment of bounties to volun-
teers, but the bill was declared by President
Hackett, to have become Law by delay in receipt
Of the Mayors communication.
~ The Secretary Of the Treasury has re-
ceived an anonymous letter containing draft
for one hundred and fifty-two dollars and sew
enty-6ve cents, which amount the writer says
was overpaid to him and therefore honestly dae
the Government.
80 Tom Thumbs exhibitions in England did
not succeed to his satisfaction, ON account ofthe
rivalry in public favor Of fat boy, ten years
old and weighing $50 pounds. Tom gave up the
competition with such an ungraceful pheno me
non. and went to France in disgust Is s.ds .51.i
EGeorge W. Bickford of Lewiston, Of Co.
K 10Th Maine regiment, formerly q compositor
in the Journal Office, died in LIST Div. 18th Army
Corps Hospital, near Newtown, Va, on the 18th
Of Dec, aged about II. His disease was chronic
diarrhea n iiqafa8 aHA ofas
T The Lewiston Journal says the whole
amount of Internal Revenue tax assessed to the
Androscoggin Mills since the Excise Law went
into effect from Sept /, 1862, to Dec l., 1851
9th months) is $ls7, i72.22. The Co Is tax for
October last was 81, 6o6.iO and for November
i $2o, TOT. o5. .sr.4s.s. s.ss.,-.ses g.
The Washington correspondent of the
Boston advertiser says Secretary Fessenden, all
reports to the contrary notwithstanding, has
not made any recommendation for change Of
tariff, and neither the finance nor the ways and
means committee have taken action upon the
subject.
ETA new American singer, Miss Brand,
styling herself s'the Nightingale of New Or
leans, = has, made her appearance in England.
She processes to have spent three years in caring
for the rebel prisonersin New Orleans. and to
lhave been finally expelled by General Candy.
On this basis she expects to get up a reputation
as amartyr.
10 ~ MI CoDuen, IN MS rec6nV sPeooH ~ nocu-
dale, dwelt forcibly upon the fact that the
Rebels have made no explicit declaration Of their
grievances. "Why,'' said Mr.. Golden, sis
there no such declaration? Because they have
butethe grievance that they want to consolidate.
perpetuate aud extend Slavery and they cannot
do ito N0A4AEfN 2XH ~
81 A story is told in the French papers of q
merry pyrotechnist, who, finding he was abou
to die, caused his workmen to make number
Of candles, which would burn short way al
usual, and then burst into brilliant corrusca-
tons. These candles were given to the priests
who, at the funeral services, were to sing Gre.
gorian chants around the corpse; and while
engaged in this solemns act, the fireworks went
of, to the great CONSERVATION Of the ecclesias-
tics.
Passports. As the Federal Government i.
compelled to adopt this system to protect its
people against raiders, the Montreal Hitnes.
asks ''if it is not necessary that their Govern
ment adopt the same system to prevent antici-
pated Fenian invasions Of their territory. 2 The
same journal says, ~rhe opinion Of all good
men whom We have heard speak on the subject,
il that the money given up to the raiders by the
Chief Of Police should at once be paid back by
-FOUR city whose official had charge Of il. az