The Portland daily press., 1869-08-09
Gossip and Gleanings.


--Aclergyman was preparing his discourse for
Sunday, stopping occasionally to review what
he had written, and to erase that which he was
disposed to disapprove, when he was accosted
by bis little son, who had numbered but Eve
summers, Father, does God tell you what to
preach?" Certainly, my child" "Then,
what makes you scratch it out?'
AN old ailor set the people of COburg, P
O., to dragging their harbor, firing columbiads
and practicing all the arts, used to bring
drowned men to light, by throwing his hat into
the water and then giving series of"bubbling
groans," etc., from a safe retreat near By. He
didn't tell of his little joke till he was good
ways out of town.
Upon his return from Long Branch to
Washington President Grant walked to We'll
cker's for his breakfast, and Peter met him
with his usual promptness, asking what no
would have. The President said he wished
private room and his breakfast at the earliest
moment. Pete said he could have no private
room; there was the restaurant, and anything
he might order would be served there, where
upon the President walked out A gentleman
sitting by, who heard the refusal with some as
constituent, at once asked Pete if he knew who
that wasl Peter said he didn't. "Why, that's
President Grant" aWell,' said Peter, "if be
had rolled up in his chariot, like gentleman.
he might have had private II ON; but how
the d--l was to know but what he was
shoemaker, with his best clothes on and could
not pay for roomY
"A vulgar woman at Congress Hall, Sarato-
ga, appeared at table Sunday, with SO many
rings on her fingers that she could scarcely
take her knife and fork in her large hands.
Another at Union, wears jewelry amounting
to $1,000. sia salI tsf
Tho New Bedford Mercury reports that a
gentleman of that city, whose house had been
infested with rats, recently wrote touching
note to the animals, requesting them as
special favor to himself and wife to vacate the
premises, put the missiye in an envelope, ad-
dressed to the Rat Family and placed it in
rat hole. Not a rat has showed whiskeror tail,
squeaked, or been heard trotting behind wall
or ceiling since that letter was holedY'
The Detroit Tribune advises Andrew
johnson, instead of writing his biography, to
write his epitaph and get under IL.
Man masses this life in reasoning on the
mast in ,complaiuing OF the present, and in
trembling for the future. ~ fa1l3 1H
"a According to the statistics of 1865 there are
IN Europe 166, 800 deaf and dumb, 219 600 blind.
ao5 $50 insane and imbecile persons. Insanity
is most frequent in the northwest of Europe,
and toward the southeast gradually decreases.
Climate, nationality, and even religion, appear
to exert an influence upon some Of these dis
eases. Cold, damp and mist appear to in
crease diseases Of the mind much more than
great heat. The only country which rivals
the North in such diseases is Switzerland.
with its comparatively cold Alpine region.
Illinois municipalities are burdened with
railroad debts amounting to forty millions of
dollars, and sixty millions more are pledged
conditioned on the building Of the roads.
-Commodore vanderbilt's daughter en-
ploys portion of her time in Saratoga in in
structing her little daughter how to darn
stockings l.aailt rlL
-One of those dictionary dispensers, New
York reporter, says there were at the Long
Branch ball, sbeauty marketable and merry
beauty matronly and mild, beauty infantile
and peachy, and sublime with age and decora-
tions. The dark sumptuousness OF israel
from the Continental, the sunny celebrity Oh
the United States, the vocal queen Of tne Man
sion the aueen of the brunettes,' and Una her
self In spotless white, from the Metropolitan