The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1869-07-31
Late American Miscellany.

salary to live in Paris.
The South Carolina Legislature promises to give
lands on easy terms to settlers. in order to attract
immigration.
Gambling houses in New Orleans pay a yearly
license of $1,000.
During the week ending May 81. more than
5000 Scandinavian immigrants arrived at Chicago.
Sun spots may now be seen through smoked
glass.
Grant has made a thousand appointments. The
number of disappointments is set down at one
hundred thousand.
The new Masonic Temple in Baltimore is nearly
completed, ut an expense OF about S5o0,0OO. and
will be occupied at once.
Eastern capitalists have sent to San Francisco
about four million dollars, and propose soon to
follow their treasure to that city and invest it.
A sugar and corn plantation of one hundred
and seventy acres. in Louisiana. nearly equally
divided between the two crops, returned a profit
last year of S25.660.
a lady Struggled a vote into the ballot box at a
recent election in Newton. Iowa. and as the judge
could not tell what kind of a vote she cast it was
counted with the legal ballots.
Law libraries in kentucky do not last long. In
one county it is frequently found necessary to re-
place volumes worn out by the attorneys who use
them in pounding each others heads.
In the case of Miss Amanda Craig. of Cincin-
natl. VS.. L. z. Sprague, of Chicago, for breach of
promise of marriage, which has been on trial at
Wheaton. H.. for several days past, the jury rem
dered a verdict for the plaintiff awarding her the
sum of 500 600, the amount claimed by her for
damages.
A continuance by which the true magnetic line
will be indicated in every latitude, uninfnenced
by local causes, and prevent or obviate the varia-
ton of the compass, has been devised at Graft
Reiuet, South Africa. The inventor will GO to
England TO secure the patent.
A bright-eyed little fellow in one of the private
schools in BROOKLYN administered a sharp rebuke
IN his teacher the other 0aV. HAVING Snpllpd a
word. his instructor said: Are you willing to
bet you are right, Bennie?" The little boy looked
up with surprise. and replled: 81 know it's right,
Miss ". but / never bet"
Vast ruins have been discovered in the Zulu
country in South Africa-Obelisks with colossal
carvings, terraces, and halls OF hewn stone. or cut
out of the solid rock. The natives regard them
with mysterious awe, and keep strangers from
them, for fear that If they are approached no rain
will fall for three years. Who'll tell us of their
builders?
Helena. Montana. was lately the scene of a large
confagration, and water being scarce. barrels of
wbiskey and other liquors were used to eXtinguish
the flames and much to the discredit OF the liquor
it was efectual.
A Norfolk, Virginia, inventor has built what he
calls a g recuperating velocipede," which he conf
IDENTIFY expects will supersede all others.
1t is stated that the New York clairvoya1tsa and
fortune tellers have among their best patrons
credulOus Stockholders and gamblers.
A Chicago paper has only one fear on the sub
tCt VI SuiCu&O . ccSOuIh tc CitJ vi III ~
So long as railroads and steamboats, are the means
of communication it is all right. but if balloons
become the medium of travel there is danger for
Chicago. Hence the balloon theory is deprecated
as unwise and unnatural.
A volcano in active eruption has been observed
on one of the islands recently discovered in the
Pacific ocean. and known as Smiths Islands. The
roaring of the internal fires is said to be fearful.
and a dense mass of smoke and steam is continue
ally ascending from the island.
The railroad bridge over the Missouri river at
st. Charles. Mo-, is progressing as rapidly as a
work of such great magnitude could be expected
to progress. But it is hardly probable that it will
be 6nished this season, as there is still a vast
amount of labor to be performed upon it.
The Harpers have published the second and
third volumes of Albert Barnes Notes. Critical.
Explanatory and Practical, on the Book of Psalms.
completing the work. The last volume ends with
an eloquent retrospect by the author of the labors
as q commentator which have occupied him daily
for forty years, and which his failing eyesight now
compels him to terminate.
Attorney General Hoar has rendered "a decision
relative to the trial of citizens of Texas by military
commissions: He holds that such trial is author
lied by the Reconstruction acts of Congress, which
has power. not only to declare war, but to declare
when war is ended. Texas is declared to be still
in a state of war. and the trial. which resulted in
the conviction of a white man named Weaver, of
the murder of a freedman, is in full accordance
with the law, and there exists no obstacle to the
execution of the sentence.
Mr.. H.. E.. Medbury, living near San Francisco,
uttCl EO,OUO III "
property, became insane and was sent to a private
mad house. After remaining there some ten days,
a Captain Pephey an acquaintance of Medbury
took him out of the house and brought about a
marriage between him and Miss Eliza Daley, sister
in-aw of the captain. Three weeks afterwar
Medbury was ~recommitted for insanity-his wife of
course being ia the enjoyment of his property. a
brother of the insane man, however. has made his
appearance. and has instituted a suit to dissolve
the marriage.
President Grant made a mistake in appointing
Mr.. Borie of Philadelphia, Secretary of the Navy.
So far as appears to the public that gentleman has
not a single qualification for the place. He is a
retired merchant. a wealthy citizen. and a pleasant
but in6rm old gentleman. He has turned over the
duties of his department to Admiral Porter, who
by his arbitrary rulings and orders, in the name of
the Secretary, is producing the greatest dissatisfac-
ton among naval officers. Mr.. Borie has neither
the health. the experience, nor the peculiar knOwl-
edge to fit him for the place he has unwisely &C
cepted.
POLITICAL. FEELING IN CANADA-GROwTH OF An
NEXATIoN SENTIMENTs.-A Montreal letter says
1.-THE desire of the people of the new dominion to
cut loose from their dependence upon the mother
country has received a powerful impetus from one
or two recent events, and whatever course may
finally be adopted there can be little doubt that a
great political change of some sort is not far dis
tant.
Several private meetings of influential persons
have recently been held here for the purpose of
considering the question of a change in the form of
government. and the general dissatisfaction with
the present state Of things is more openly expressed.
The newspapers are at last beginning to meet the
question face to face, and are giving utterance to
the sentiments which have long been widely diff
fused among the people. although few have had
courage to express it publicly. There is a party
in favor of independence. bnt a larger party. be-
lieve. aims at annexation with the United States,
and will soon make itself prominent.
The acquisition of the Hudson Bay Territory has
given additional force to the arguments of the an
nexationists. and it is felt that such a magnificent
domain as the New Dominion now promises to be
ought no longer to be dwarfed and kept down by
dependence on a transatlantic government.
The proposal that Great Britain shall surrender
her British North American possessions as a set-of
against the alabama claims has created a deep SEN
sation in certain circles. and not a few regard it
with decided favor. Senator Summers speech is
copied in full. by both the English and French
journals, and is of course the cause of much dis
cussion.
SPEECH BY THE BRITISH MINISTER AT BosToN-A
correspondent of the New York Tribune gives the
following report of n banquet in Boston to the