The Portland daily press., 1868-01-27
Varieties.

On Wednesday last there was brought ont
at New York theatre, new play based on
the Pickwick Papers, and prepared by Mr..
Augustin DAILY. The piece is comprised in
four acts, introduces thirty-four characters
and reyiyes several of the principal scenes of
the weii-known humorous narrative. The pa
pers do not praise it enthusiastically. -
Sham ineerschaum is made of potatoes
subjected to the action of sulphuric acid
Gail Hamilton asks: at men are so bad
that they cannot be trusted to vote ,eith wo-
men, is it beyond question that they ought to
be trusted to vote for women?"
During the recent restoration of n cburcI,
in Brighton, occupied by the advanced Ritu-
alists, one of the workmen employed, ascend.
ing the pulpit, exclaimed, 81 publish the bans
OF matrimony between this church and the
Church of Rome" "And l." said another art
isan, turning toward the first speaker, forbid
the bans" "On what ground?" inquired he
OF the pulpit. Zoos the parties is too near
akin" was the reply.
| "A good old woman was asked. upon her
death-bed, if she was comfortable in her mind.
Very lar from it, she answered. "Then you
said. I'll my Father chooses to put me to bed
in the dark, j can trust him; it will be all
right in the morning." l .- a
| Two college presidents in the West are
vindictively determined to destroy Free-AIa-
sonry. Rev. Mr.. Blanchard, of Galesburg, Ill.,,
lately prevailed upon conference of minis
ters to pass resolution condemnatory of Sc
cret societies; and now Rev. Mr.. Finney, of
Oberlin, Ohio, has secured the exclusion of
Masons from the fellowship of the Congrega-
tional churches Cf that town. The grounds of
this exclusion are that Mason Cannot, in
the nature of the case, give the requisite evil
dence of present piety." There is no doubt
that these two ministers mean well but they
are "out of their latitude"
Il -Hepworth Dixon's second work ON Amer
lea, Spiritual Wives" is announced in Lon
don.
Universal grief win follow the announce
ment from Nassau, N. p, that the commerce
of that port is rapidly declining. The author
tiles OF the eisland and the inhabitants made a
good thing during the war by making the har-
Dor the headquarters of the blockade-running
business, and it is now too bad that any por-
tion OF their earnings in that honorable occu-
patton should slip away from them.
\ Among the many hits evoked by the
horse-fiesh eating mania in London, is one
which announces dinner of donkey's meat
and gives the following as the reply to an in
vitation to partake:
Dear R.: must decline dining with you,
lest should be considered edible.
4 Yours ever, W. b
The Evening Post says: "There is no sui
ficient foundation for the report that Mr.. Ed.
win Booth is to lease Pixies Opera House at
the end of the present operatic season. We
sincerely wish there were, although the audi
torium of the Opera House is rather too large
for dramatic purposes. All New York, how
ever, is longing to see Mr.. Booth once more on
the stage here, and the young ladies are sin a
state of mind about it."
1t is suggested that Tram probably insti-
gated the man Gee to report him as Fenian
Organizer.
1t is discovered by French experimenter
that electricity will not pass through an abso-
lutte vacuum, and from this fact it is inferred
that the earth's atmosphere extends much
further from the surface than is generally sup
posed.
The T. F. VS. are aghast at the discovery
that the ancestor of Henry A. Wise was sold
for one hundred pounds of tobacco to pay his
passage money to America. The bill of sale is
preserved in private library in Washington.
The day after Christmas in England is
termed Boxing Day, not because on that day
the populace indulge to an unusual extent in
practising the cart of box" or for any other
purely pugilistic reason, but because the day
is celebrated by bestowing on servants the sea-
sonable holiday gifts known as Christmas
Boxes.
Two boys of Woodford, VT, went out
bear-hunting the other day, and killed whole
family, one ursa major and two yearlings,
with gun and axe for weapons The old one
was notorious sheep-stealer, and had lost one
foot in trap years ago.
"A Louisville paper says the girls of the
Blue Grass region consider il a breach of hos
ptality to refuse an offer of marriage. 1t in
stances the case of young lady who was en-
gagged to fifty officers, from Second Lieutenant
to Brigadier, while Gilmore was in those parts,
and who finally married farmer.
The Nation, the temperance organ in Boz
ton, copies into its editorial columns testmo-
mails in favor of the Nation, another paper
published in New York. Those familiar with
both journals will appreciate the richness of
the ioke-if it be one.
The Richmond (Va.) Register, the new
Republican paper, and one of the ablest in the
South. thus closes a recent article on the pro-
nosed substitution of white laborers for black
in that State: "We cannot do without our ne
gro laborers, and no foreign importations can
fiji their places so satisfactorily. We want no
French or Italian cooks to take the place of
Aunt Sary, to spoil our broth. w are used to
her style of cooking, and have no desire TO
make any change. The negro we must have
with us always, and it is the part of wisdom to
accept his services with good grace. We
trust we shall hear no more nonsense about
colonization
The Halifax IN. S.) Reporter puts the eli
max on its argument against annexation to
the United States rs follows. If it is true we
are to be ptied for our misfortunes: at is to
become familiar not only with the Internal
revenue tax on tobacco and cigars, out on al
most everything and at rates so enormous as
to fill the land with groaning snch. as the Is
r,elites groaned under when they had to make
br;cks with straw. 1t is to be bound under the
.ostr;ctions of a tariff ten times more opposed
70 tbe free trade policy of Nova Scotia-aye
twenty times more than the tariff we now have
1t is to belong to country so smitten with the
plague of war and political strife and depreei-
ated currency that business has become pros.
trate and an army of 10000 laborers out of EN-
ploy clamor Tor food in one single city"
To illustrate the destitution prevailing IN
Mssissippi,a a local paper reports that seven
teen cotton planters, who wished to be present
at an exhibition of tableaux vivans and had
no money, applied for places on the pro-
gramme, so as to work their way,