The Portland daily press., 1868-03-30
Varieties.

which will require twenty-seven thousand
cords of stone and cost three million dollars.
There is on the way to this country a full
size copy of the "Apollo Belvidere," cut in
marble 1t is seven and a half feet high, and
will be, 1T is believed, the only exact copy in
marble of that celebrated statue in America.
Work on the Manassas GAP Railroad.
which was suspended during the winter. ia
again resumed, leaving hopes that the road
will be finished to Mount Jackson by the first
Of May, and to Harrisburg by October.
"A place called Helltown, in Florida, be-
fore the war, and inhabited by lawless char.
acters, is now called Gordon, and the seat OF
law order and civilization, under its Yankee
| settlers.
An English patent has just been granted
to DIR. Parkes for the process of manufactur-
ing from certain fibrous vegetable and oleagin-
GUS materials, a remarkable substance which
in raw state closely resembles vulcanized In
dla rubber. 1t permits Of being made sufa-
GENTLY soft and plastic to be moulded into dies
or moulds, taking the most delicate impress
slons, down to lines of microscopic minute
ness. When hardened, it is impervious to
moisture, takes high polish, and resists the
action OF weak acids. 1t can be made into thin
sheets, and serves for veneering, covering and
ornamenting walls and numerous similar pur-
poses. The substance. further when mixed
with coloring matter, forms perfect limitations
OF leather, ivory, tortoise shell, malachite, and
other substances.
"A Western clergyman advocating obstina-
cy for the right, illustrated it by naming dra-
con who, when a member of the church, at
the suggestion of the pastor, prayed that the
Lord would either take away their deacon's
obstinate nature, or else take him to heaven,
because they could not get along with him on
earth, rose promptly up in his place and said,
Brethren, won't gol'
The directors of the Suez canal are push
ing that enterprise with great vigor, and de-
clare that it will be finished next year, Last
January 1877 barges of merchandise passed
through it from one sea to the other, and the
receipts in 1867 amounted to 1,292, ,s22 francs.
The English Abyssinisn expedition gives the
canal good deal of business.
The lap of luxury-a cat enjoying her
milk.
An early spring-jumping out Of bed at
five o'clock in the morning
The total eclipse of the sun which is to
take place on the 18th of August next will
present such long duration of darkness that
astronomers are anticipating it with unusual
interest. From near Alden, the central line of
the eclipse extends to the southern coast OF
New Guinea, crossing Hindoostan, the
Bay of Bengal, the Malayan peninsula and
the Gulf OF Siam on the way; and at certain
places on this line the duration of total dark
ness will be G degrees 40 minutes. English
and French astronomers are making prepara-
tions for observations in the track of the
eclipse.
-"Historicus" is getting severely handled
by some of the English papers, who accuse
him of being pretentous fellow; one of his
opponents tells him "to remember that his op-
ponents are vertebrate animals" and "that his
manner 10 them would be offensive from God
Almighty to black beetle
AN establishment called the "Central Park
Garden" designed to be as close a copy of tho
famous Jdrdin Mabille in Paris as our Ameri-
can projudices will tolerate, is soon TO be OPEN
ed in New York. where the con-cdn, with all
its accompanying rites will be celebrated
nightly. Truly, we are progressive people
in some directions.
DIR. Busby, whose figure was beneath the
common size, was one day accosted in public
ccffee-room by an Irish baronet of colossal
stature, with, "May I pass to my seat, Gil
ant?" When the Doctor, politely making
way, replied, "Pass, o PigmyP 80, sir" said
the baronet, "my expression alluded to the
size of your intellect" sand my expression,
sir" said the Doctor, "to the size Of yours"
ANY one who may have chanced to see an
old copy of Webster's spelling g-book, and re-
members the grim portrait that used to adorn
it will appreciate an anecdote told in the At
lantic Molthly for April. tits said that Will
lam Cobbett bequeathed to Noah Webster the
sum of fifteen dollars "to enable him to pro-
cure a new engraved likeness of himself for
the book, that children may no longer be
frightened from their studies" 1t is an odd
coincidence that time and the editors have not
only effaced Mr.. Webster's original features
from the outside of his Spelling Book, but al
so from the inside of his Dictionary.
-on the first anniversary of the birth of
young gentleman in Ludlow, Vermont, recent
ly, his mother invited all the youngsters un-
der one year old, with their mothers, to BAN
quet. The attendance was large, and the af-
fair harmonious, though squally at times.
The Portsmouth Chronicle says that
Mrs. Thaxter the author of "The Wreck Of
the Pocahontas" in the Atlantic Monthly,
was formerly Miss Celia Laighton, of Apple
dore, Isle of Shoals. She is a cousin of AL
bert Laighton, q Portsmouth poet of some To-
cal fame,
Hartford is called the "City of Stub-taiied
Churches. There are more unfinished church
spires than in any place Of its size in the
country.
A remarkable mirage was observed in
Green Bay, Wisconsin, the other day; objects
several miles distant were brought so near
as to seem only few rods from the persons
who observed them.
Chicago is o wonderful place. Babies are
no longer born there, if we may credit the
announcement in local paper, that "duripg
February 229 young gentlemen and 324 young
ladies were born in this city"
in January last, Mr.. Maynard, while
crossing the ice to Quebec, broke through and
lost his portmanteau containing S104o in sill
yer. 1t hts been recovered by party of men
who searched for it foI a month and restored
it to Mr.. Maynrrd, who gave the salvors one
half the money.
Some Californians started the following:
A noted trout fisher died in Alameda county,
not long ago. Fishing was the one idea of his
existence. His last words were characteristic.
81 say, Brown, I'm going to peg out sure I've
flrted my last fish; but bury my tackle with
me-who knows but they bite in Jordau?"
The latest fashion in earrings in Paris Is
little globules of rock-crystal, filed with wa
ter and miniature sea fishes and mollusks.
Another suggestion is to make ear-drops OF
gold cages, with brilliantly -colored birds with
in-size and weight not taken into considera-
ton, so long as the fashion holds. Some OF
the John street jewellers have already intro
duced gold flower baskets. Bugs and snakes
have long been "the style" for personal adorn-
ment. What next?
Father Hue, the famous Catholic explorer
of the interior of China, relates that on one of
his long journeys among that strange people
his caravan embraced an unusual number of
lckasses among the donkeys employed as Car
riers of the expedition; that these fellows at
every resting place kept up such an intolera-
BILE biaying, especially towards the morning,
as to render sleep impossible to the Able;
that at last he complained of this to the mas
ter OF the donkeys, who instantly replied that
his gracious highness should be no more dis
turbed by this braying; that, sure enough
quiet night with its refreshing sleep followed
and tnat on inquiring into the cause IN 'ne
morning he was pointed to the noisy IAcA"ssos'