The Portland daily press., 1868-12-31
Varieties.


"A country woman living near Montreal,
started few days ago to walk to that city for
the purpose of having her infant baptized.
When she arrived in town the babe was found
to he frozen to death.
The manuscript of a new French diction-
ary designed to supersede all others, is in the
printers hands.
"A New Orleans paper quotes burglary in
that city rather sitter, with tendency to
more extensive operations,
Paul de Kock lately sought an audience
of Napoleon to offer to dedicate his new Hogsl
to him, but the Emperor would not see the
novelist.
-Workmen on the dam at Sauk Rapids
Minnesota, recently found embedded below
the upper stratum Of rock, seven feet below
the surface, the remains OF a human being,
petrifed, measuring ten feet nine and half
inches in length. A large fat limestone rock
covered the grave in which the giant was
buried, evidently by human hands. The local
paper thinks that if further search is made 1t
win be found that sauk Rapids is an "ants-
diluviah graveyard"
There are many letters written by Presi-
dent Lincoln, which are carefully preserved by
those who now hold them. There is one in
the hands of mechanic of Washington, which
its owner prizes as highly as any state paper
bearing the same signature. This mechanic
held the place of carpenter at the White
House. Young Tad Lincoln was quite ge-
MUS in his way, and very fond of the use of
tools. One day, being in great need of q
piece OF board, which he did not believe the
carpenter would give him, and having some
knowledge of the influence of his fathers
name, he went for an order. Mr.. Lincoln
heard Tad's plans of the work he was engaged
upon and the necessity for board to complete
it, and then wrote on a scrap of paper:
If you have piece of board to spare, please
let Tad have il. A. LINCOLN
Thus armed, Tad got the board, and the car
penter an order with which he now refuses to
part.
"A Harrisburg landlord has sent in a bill
to young man for the injury done to the
house by that young mans father, in availing
himself of one of its apartments to shoot
himself in.
The unusual warmth of the past fall and
early winter, in Montana, has brought myriads
of young grasshoppers into premature exist
ence. The cold weather will destroy them, Of
course, and the farmers expect to be free from
their depredations next season.
/. Napoleon has met with an accident"
One of his horses was taken with the staggers
while he was out driving.
San Francisco has law against the pret-
ty-waiter-girl saloon system. A recent de-
cision in court so construes the statute that
girls may be engaged "to play ON the piano or
sing" thus rendering it dead letter.
The N Y. Commercial learns on "unques-
tionable authority" that the Grand Army of
the Fenian Brotherhood are about to intro
duce Chinese gongs, the more effectually TO
drown the roars of the British lion.
The Montpensier faction in Spain imputed
the recent uprising at Cadiz to the influence Of
agents of the United States.
"A jury in Sheffield, England, recently
brought in verdict of "guilty, but recon.
mended to mercy because the evidence was un-
satisfactory"
"A Boston correspondent, apparently rath-
er disgusted with the "star" system of theat-
rical management, tells this good story:
At Booths last performance of Hamlet /
met a man of honest looks and quite unfop-
pish dress, who said he came from Attleboro,
"where they make jewelry." He asked me il
had ever been at the theatre before, and in
formed me in the same breath that he hadn't.
He had "come down" to a horse race at River
side Park, but hearing that Hamlet was going
to be played, he forgot his bets and his favor
ite horses and lhad come to see that. "For"
said he, "its my opinion that Shakespeare
wrote the best things eUer lcds lorote and Ham
let's the best Of him. But" he continued, II
never was so disappointed. Seems to me they
don't any of 'em know anything about It ex-
ceptin that dark, tall fellow there, and he
thinks sight more of himself than ne does OF
Shakespeare"
Mexico is establishing naval schools, and
discussing the question of amnesty to those
who sided with Maximian in the late war.
stockholm, not Paris, is the most immoral
capital in the world. 1t has twice as many
prostitutes in proportion to its population as
any other large city, and the number of ille-
gitimate births is enormous. The crime of
infanticide is however, rare, only three women
having been convicted OF it in 1867.
The battle ground of Spottsy lvania is now
overgrown with rough underbrush and scrub
pine, which is fast covering the marks of war.
The long succession of earthworks from
which Grants army forced Gen. Lee, hardly
800 feet apart, are nearly obliterated.
Henry Baird school director at East Chi
ma, St. Clair county, Mich, has made himself
name in history, by paying Miss Anna Calcott,
a school teacher whom he lately engaged, $50
a month, the highest wages ever paid by that
district to a man teacher. Mr.. Baird, in his
simplicity, declares that, in regard to wages,
he canLot see why a woman should not receive
a mans wages if she does mans work.
"a young fellow at Newark, N. j., who was
married a few months since, attempted sui
eide by laudanum on Saturday, giving as
reason that he had lately been severely whip
ped by his wife for getting drunk.
While the st. Paul Mimi common coun-
ell were discussing the extravaganza of buy
ing a steam fire engine, the other evening"
enough property was destroyed for IRE to pay
for several of the best model.