The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-04-06
VarietieS.

ar1et1eS.
During three years there were reported I'm
the Union army but one hundred and fortv-
three bayonet wounds and one hundred and
five sabre cuts.
Traces Of large ancient town near Cas-
tranova, in Sicily, high up on the plateau of
the Cassera Mountains have been discovered,
and excavations are to be set on foot without
delay.
six Austrian mobiles have resigned their
seats in the Upper House of the Imperial Par
lament, through disgust at the democratic
tendencies of the recent governmental
changes.
The authorities in the Island of Cuba are
at present engaged in obtaining register of
slaves, as preliminary to fixing the indemni-
W TO be paid to their owners when emancipa-
tion snail be declared. All slaves not regis
tered within given time will be regarded as
and declared to be free.
"A new gunpowder, called the "Schultze
powder, lately invented by a German artil-
lery ofncer OF that name, is being at present
tested by the French War Department 1t
entirely white, and projects shot with equal
force by use of but half the quantity of the
present powder. 1t has the further advantage
OF neither leaving residue of burnt powder
IN the gun, nor even soiling it, 1t makes but
little smoke, and rebounds very slightly. 1t
also heats the gun less than common gunpow-
| der
The Lisbon journals record the death in
that city of mau named Jose Santereno, ct
the age of one hundred and thirteen. He was
born in 1755, the year of the great earthquake,
which destroyed large portion of the Portu-'
guese capital. ra
There are now forty-four postoffices IN the
State Of New York, under the charge and con-
troll OF women regularly appointed as post
masters. 1t is often the practice, when a man
who has held that office dies, to leave the place
in charge of his wife or daughter. We have
not heard that women do not perform their
duties quite as well as men.-Women are also
s,o, c,---~-s.aay employed in telegraph off,
ees throughout the country.
Luck has turned at last in favor of the
Arehduke Henry of Austria, who is in dis
grace for having married an actress. Through
the personal Intervention of the Empress of
Austria, the Archduke has been permitted to
return to Vienna with his bride, the Emperor
having recognized the marriage, and promis-
ing to confer the rank of baroness on his wife,
who will probably be received at Court.
The double anniversary OF the birth of
King Victor Emmanuel, born in 1920, and
that of the hereditary Prince, born in 1874,
/ was celebrated at Milan on the 14th of March,
| by solemn Te Deum chanted in the Cathe-
dral, and by military ceremony of unusual
brilliancy .r.
| COL Foster of Chicago has submitted to
the academy of natural sciences of that city
| new theory of the formation of the great
western prairies. 1t has been supposed that
these immense plains were once the beds Of
lakes, or at least swamps or marshy lands,
and that the absence of trees was caused by
the prairie fires; but Colonel Foster under
takes to show that it is rather the want Of
moisture which has prevented the trees from
| growing. The northern portion OF the basin
of the Mississippi, according to him, is depriv-
ed OF the rain which arises from the oceans on
each side of the continent, by the interposi-
tion of the Allegheny and Rocky mountain
ranges, and thus the treeless prairies of Illi-
nois degenerate, as we go still further west, in
to desert plains. ar
The French papers speak OF an enormous
salmon which the Rhine fishermen have sent
to Paris. 1t is said to be about nine feet long,
about $50 pounds in weight, and to have been
purchased by the keeper OF a restaurant for
e44 1t is pity that the whereabouts of this
fish is not mentioned, so that coroner's jury
might be called in to witness the body.
"A Newburg paper says that one minister
in that place recently said to another; II came
near selling my boots to-day" The other
marveled, and made the brief but sage re-
mark: "AhP' Then seeing that further COM
ment was expected, he asked "How was that?"
Then parson No. sprung his trap: "Ol had
them half soled." Parson No. 2 is not expect
ed to recover.
Admiral Farragut is being feasted and
feted everywhere that he visits. The Ameri-
can residents of Naples gave party in his
honor on the 18th ult., and collation. was
partaken of at the foot of Mt. Vesuvius. The
company numbered two hundred, and was
composed entirely of citizens of the United
States. The veteran sailor was treated with
an inspection of the ruins OF Pompeii and an
excavation was specially made in his honor on
Wednesday, 18th ult. Admiral Provana en-
tertained Admiral Farragut and his staff at
a dinner, for which there were thirty-one COW
ers laid. 1t is described as a very pleasant af-
fair.
The Chicago Post wonders if Forney
knows that the double leads in his letters are
not the only heavy features which distinguish
them.
|, AT a full conference of priests, presided
over by the Archbishop of Paris, it has been
, decided that every confessor has the right to
, REQUIRE his penitent to condemn the liberty OF
the press and of religion in accordance with
the teachings of the famous Encyclical and
Syllabus of 1864. If this were carried strictly
out, there would be perpetual war between the
church and laity. The Archbishop Of Paris
has passed for "liberal," but he annotresist
the pressure put upon him from Rome, and in
these resolutions he breaks violently from the
French civil law and sets himself above the
constitution and the executive.
The most impressive of professional signs
has probably been devised by corn trimmer
of Marseilles, in France. He displays an I'M
mense picture over his door, in which the En-
press Euqenie is seated in state upon a throne,
in repal robes presenting pretty 1901, npon
-, o,sbion. TO the operator, and hold
- hand a bank note for hve hundred
- rbe Emperor stands solemnly at her
=, f,u Uniform, and wearing the grand
1so 9'ul' Of the legion of honor. The high dig
',:tar;es of the court stand around with imper-
turbable gravity, and holy father, in clerical
robes raises his fearful eyes upwards and joins
his hands in supphcation that the ordeal may
be happily passed.
Mr.. Bonner now owns Dexter, the Auburn
Horse, Peerless Young Pocahontas, Lazy
Palmer, Flatbush Maid, and Lantern.
st. Albans, VT, claims to be the butter
metropolis of the United States. 1t furnispeS
nearly three millions last year,