The Portland daily press., 1867-10-07
Varieties.


The Gregorian Chants-sung in unison
are finding great favor in many churches,
though ten years ago they were almost un-
known in this country. Congregations like
them, but choir singers usually detest them.
The Oaks Colliery, where the recent hor-
rible explosion occurred, is being explored by
men in diving armor. They work in the dark,
as the gases are too strong to admit of light.
There are now two hundred and eighty-six
dead bodies in it. Sixty-one bodies of the
victims have been recovered.
1t has been observed that as civilization
creeps westward on the Plains, the Buffalo
grass" reeedes eorreSpondingly. Within the
last few years it has disappeared entirely from
Eastern Kansas and Nebraska.
"A dancer once said to Socrates, "You can
not stand on one leg so long as can" "True,"
replied the philosopher, "but goose can."
Speaking of George Ill, Erskine remark
ed that what we call firmness in king we
call obstinacy in donkey.
About one-half of the best choir singers
in New York are professional minstrels.
Trained to a great precision, by the musical
exigeneies of burnt cork, they are usually
good and effective in church music,
"A new grass III ehO OOuth-
ern States. 1t appears 10 be a dwarf clover,
is very thick set, covering the earth with
beautiful carpet of green. 1t is much relished
by cattle, and is complete exterminator of
Bermuda, joint, sedge, and other grasses. In
Middle Georgia it is very abundant, and is at
tracing much attention.
The baby, says somebody, is only an ami
NAL, and so the child should be; and its devo-
ton, ON the whole, should be to its body.
Whenever you see smart children, or studious
children, or pious children, be sure that some-
thing is wrong, and do not weep if they die
early; they would grow up spindling and
weedy. Look out for, and hold fast by, good
rollicking baby, that does not care snap for
its mind, its soul, or it's clothes, but has a
keen sense of the necessity of frequent din
ners and long maps, and is a true Sybarite, and
is not ashamed of it.
"A Paris writer describes the dress of an
English marchioness at late ball. and says it
was a pointed belt with two shoulder straps
the belt made to take the place of corsage and
leaving the entire shoulders, and indeed the
whole body and arms exposed, save where the
two tiny crimson bands, which served as
sleeves, passed over the shoulder The skirt
gold, and the jupon which was worn with it
was OF the richest point d'Alencon.
"A New York paper says several years ago
there was in country town near that city a
signboard bearing the words: "a Yankee by
7: ade, and Works at It." A good many are
working at that thriving and ingenious trade
-~-A ST. Petersburgh correspondent of the
Pail Mall Gazette remarks that the American
fotilla, under Admiral Farragut has left
at last, after its officers had been received with
honors greater than any which Russia ever
| paid before to the subjects Of foreign power,
and finds something very absurd in the fact.
/ The rat is one of the pests which come
with civilization. There were no rats in Cali
forDia before the gold discoveries. Then-in
1S49-they were imported by sea in the rats
worst shape, that of the brown OF Norwegian
variety. Few of the interior towns were visit
ed until 1852. Now they infest all parts of the
State. In 1850 there were no rats in New Mex
leo, and it used to be speculation how long
| the adobe houses would resist their gnawing
| teeth, whenever they should see fit to establish
themselves in that country. 1t is said that the
rat was unknown before the Christian era, and
that his first appearance in Europe was long
after in the Middle Ages
| "A party consisting of men, women and
children. to the number of two hundred and
fifty, will leave Boston this month to settle
near Netawaka, on the Kickapoo Reservation,
in Kansas, ON the line of the Central Branch
Union Pacific Railroad, and are made up of
farmers and mechanics. They are to be thor
oughly equipped with everything necessary to
successfully carry out New England ideas in
the great West.
1T is said that the Rev. DIR. Cuyler denies
that he was lever such an ass" as to allow him
self to be photographed in the act of prayer.
We are happy to hear it for his sake.
"A well-knOwn minister of New York, re-
pudiates the received theory that they have
music in heaven, He declares that his choir
has given him so much trouble on earth, that
the idea of music in the world to come is who'll
ly repugnant to his ideas of eternal peace and
rest.
Master Coker, the once celebrated boy So
prano, sailed last week to reside in England.
His voice has completely gone.
"A Newfoundland dog has made his way on
foot and alone from Omaha, Nebraska, to Hud-
son, Lenawee county, Michigan, where he
popped down at Mr.. Joseph Pixley's door,
completely exhausted and almost famished.
The dog has been taken twice by his master to
Omaha, and was sold there to milk dealer.
He had been some months on the route home.
"A frantic newspaper writer declares that
the Tycoon of Japan intends conquering Cali
fornia, and for that purpose made the purchase
of the ram Stonewall.
The general impression that Mohamme-
dan women never 90 abroad is mistake
They are met in every street and bazaar, but
are always veiled. 1t is noticeable that the
prettier the face the thinner the veil
In 1882 society Of seven young men was
formed in Cincinnati. They agreed to have
memorial dinner every year. In 1858 the last
one celebrated the anniversary with six empty
chairs around him. He is still living
The Kentucky girl who has been asleep
for eighteen years is to be exhibited at county
| fair along with the big pumpkin and the calf
| with two heads.
| The Partisan modistes threaten a return
| to full crinoline, and in solemn leading arti-
| Gle Of a serious fashionable newspaper, it is
| stated without reserve "that short dresses will
be worn only by young girlsP
| The recent disturbances among the Salt
Lake Mormons regarded in England
whence many converts have come as premon-
itory indications of general breakup in
Brigham Young's Dynasty" The Pail Mail
Gazette, after arguing that the Mormon syA
tenn contains the seeds of its own dIssolu"on'
affrms that the "same generation which mas
seen the growth of the most startling rehsious
| imposture of modern days is about 70 WITNESS
| its COLLAPSE and utter abolition
| S;r Mases Montefore has returned to Eng
i ~
,ond rom his philanthropic errand to Rouma-
iaii' star an absence of eight weeks during
nc 'l''ioh time he has been entirely successful in
| tha merciful object of his jOurney-the mitiga-
ton of the prosecutions of the Jews in Rou-
mania.
"A letter from Kessuth has been published
at Turin, in which he declares that he will
never enter into any relations with RUSSIA
1.-THE exeeutioner OF Hungary and Poland, and
the eternal enemy of freedom"
-A"Conference ofschoolmasters" has lately
taken place in Hungary. 1t was grand affair
ito ,oe,nbers mounting up to the number Of
A oOo. Only think of 1000 wielders Of the birch
and ferule in one batchl Testing apart, their
business was ofa serious and important ma
ture, and they appear to have transacted is
with some success. The principal point that
came before them was the interference of the
I'm,