The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-02-20
VARI ETlES.


lamp provided with continuous match, con-
tanned inside the lamp, by which it may be
lighted by touching thimble piece without,
is a good specimen of Yankee labor saving. A
sell acting coffee pot which blowsa steam whis-
ie wnen the coffee is properly cooked, for the
oenent or Ignorant Bridgets, is another remark
o triumph of genius which will set the
,..N.. 10 laughing. Some enterpris-
nu"iauai sends a miscellaneous collec-
M VI unioreilas, parasols and canes! A pa
on. ooai seuttle is onits way to Paris, and elose
N - '"ree boards Of horse shoes From
oosa' Iehn., there comes curiously
oon,''uo'eu CLOCK made to wind itself up and
run oy atmospheric pressure. This timepieee
TO be Kept in constant motion by the var;,-
uon of the atmospheric pressure, which will
act as an agent to wind the same. A douob-
kneadlng machine, for family use it is presnm-
ed will excite some admiration among bouse-
wives when it gets into operation.
The researches Of M Dupont in the caverns
and quaternary deposits along the course ofthe
river Loire, in France, have been attended
| with considerable success Fourteen caves
were discovered; in one of which, the Chaleux
Cave, about thirty thousand flint implements
have been exhumed, together with plentiful as
semblage Of the bones of the reindeer goat, OK,
| horse, boar, brown bear, fox, badger polecat,
hare and water rat. Most of these animals are
supposed to have served as food for man.
Smith asked Jones what the high price of
butter was owing to. "A considerable part of
it is owing to my grocer" said Jones, "for it
its two months since have paid him."
The magnesium light has for some time been
applied to photographing places where the
light of day cannot penetrate, such as the inte-
rior of the Pyramids, sc. The director of the
| Polytechnic School OF hArs has Just taken
| by this means some very successful sketches of
the ancient tOmbs in the cry t Of the Domin-
| lean church in that city.
"A letter from Flore re 9 VS. that the ex-
Grand Duke of Tuscany has claimed objects
estimated at fifty millions of francs Amongst
| them are the plate found in the Pitt Palace,
all the furniture of his various residences three
pictures by Raphael, and an infnity of objects
| of art. A special commission has been named
to consider these demands
| Alas for our illusions! One of those terri
BILE Gradgrinds who are always grubbing up the
| green, howery turf of history and romance in
| search of "facts," has discovered that William
| Tell is only myth, and that his story is no
more than feeble copy of one which has been
repeated regarding men of many lands remote
from each other during the past eight centu-
ries or more. One Mr. Barring s. Gould, M.
| A" undertakes to show that the same story as
Tells was current far antecedent to the date
| of the popular one, and thereon rests a theory
| OF his own that Tell Is not historical charac-
ter. Another of these matter-of-fact fellows
has just given damaging blow to the story Of
Pocahontas What are they likely to leave
| us? May We still be allowed to believe in Ju-
Illus Caesar, the Black Prince and Joan of Arc;
| in Christopher Columbus Sultan Saladin and
| Martin Luther?
An indianapolis dispatch says well au-
thenticated case of spontaneous combustion
occurred in Columbus, forty miles south
Of that city, on Friday morning Andrew
Nolte, a German, very incorporate in his hab-
it's was found dead in his shop, his lips entire
ly burned away, leaving a ghastly hole, his
tongue charred to crisp. His nose was also
burned, as it by coming out of his nostrils, and
his clothes were still burning when found. No
other part of the body save the air passages
was burned. Physicians who examined the
body pronounce it clear case of spontaneous
combustion. 1t is supposed that the fire was
communicated by attempting to light cigar.
The following exact copy of a business let
| ter, received by a Detroit commercial house.
| shows that there are geniuses in private life
who can surpass the best efforts of Ward, Bill
lings and Nasty, at bad spelling:
| the
| LAKE PoRr Jan 1866
| Mr--sir doc send you twenty Wone dollars
| and % sents Witch doc think dus settle CUP
| mi a cont With you if are rite and Pleas send
nla a ra lRnf in. uhnrf Ns,xxo
some more of your Work as soon as it dus Lii.
vele CUP tits quite dull at Present yours
The SchteSUische Zeitung records curious
accident Occasioned by the explosion of frozen
| nitro-glycerine This substance freezes at
about forty degrees Fahrenheit, and when in
the solid state explodes merely by being rub
bed, on which account it is impossible to reduce
it to smaller pieces by crushing or striking it.
| An unfortunate man, one "Schachtmeister'
Krause, who tried this experimenr ON a frozen
mass, weighing six or eight pounds, was hurl-
ed by the explosion to great height iuto the air,
| and then thrown into a shaft from fifty 70 six
| ty feet in depth. ...
The island of Cephalonia, on which, accor-
| ding to late dispatches, terrible earthquake
has occurred, destroying every town, is the
largest of the Ionian group, on the west coast
miles, and the latest census fixed he number
ofinhabitants at 62,197. The island since the
days of antiquity has been at various times y
der the control of the Greeks, Macedonians,
Romans, Venetians, Turks and French and is
now one of the Seven Islands under the pro-
| lection of Great Britain. Cephalonia has a
very considerable current trade with the United
States, nearly all of that fruit that is imported
coming from this island.
| -Galgnoni says: "The railway round Par
| is ON the left bank of the Seine is completed.
several experimental trains have traversed 1t.
| This portion connects the goods stations of all
the great lines out of Paris without any
break. The part just completed is about eight
miles in length, extending from Auteuil to
Ivry. There are stations at Vaugirard, Mont
rouge, La Glaciere, and the Maison Blanche.
| Amongst the most remarkable works is the
viaduct across the Seine between the Pont du
Jour and the Quai de Gravel. The whole will
| be opened for public traffic in a few days"
| Tho skeletons of a horse and its rider and
a long rust-eaten lance lying close by have
| just been discovered in the midst of tuft of
| bushes of Extraordinary thickness in the forest
| OF Cinglais, near Caen, France. An examina-
| ton has led to the conclusion that the remains
| are those of Cossack and his steed. The
| supposition is that the animal, wounded. fell
with its rider into the thicket, which lies low
and that they were unable to extricate them
| selves.
The following advertisement appears in n
Rouen journal; "a European celebrity,
Manuel Donate, chorographic artist on one or
two legs, 30 years of age, possessing modest
fortune, and good education and a mild dispo-
sition, would like to marry a lady also possess
ing a fortune
The keeper of wine-shop at Pantin, near
Paris has just committed suicide with char
coal, from grief at the loss ofa sum Of money
in business His infant son. who slept in the
same room, was found dead in his arms Inc
man had short time previouaiy proposed 10
his wife to put an end to their lives 'ose'nei'
to which she refused to consent
A wealthy farmers daughter IN oolumoi-
ana county, Ohio went out 10 h,iiA COW
Sn ss,,nS lover, to whose aspirations her
s',sor s was opposed, waiting for her with ahorse
-, In a twinkle she sat beside him,
Al. driven to the residence Of magistrate
sass IL the Pennsylvania line, where the twain
~ made one flesh. When she returned home
the father was wondering why Mary was so