The Portland daily press., 1869-02-04
Varieties.

The vessel which is to convey NJ. Gustave
Lambert and his corps of scientific explorers
to the North Pole has been purchased and the
deed of assignment to NJ. Lambert drawn up
by the syndicate of the shipping agents of
Havre. 1t has been christened the Boreal.
Punch remarks that the English Pitch is
to be lowered to the French standard, but
'never shall the English Tar bow before the
standard of France
In a recent English election bribery case
the evid dence proved that tie candidate for
Parliament had only been "imprudently char
table" and he was acquitted.
10 There is large colony Of beavers on the
Appomattox river, Virginia, just above Batter
sea Dam. They have cut down great quanti-
ties of shrubbery and young trees and eaten
off the slim and tender branches.
Several German ladies Of literary ability,
who sympathze with the movement for wom-
EMS suffrage, contemplate founding German
organ, agitating that question.
The Vienna journals state that at mask
ed ball recently held at the Colysee of that
city, two masks, representing Counts de Bis
marck and de Buest, promenaded arm .in-arm
through the reomsl The spectacle caused
such loud manifestations that the police inter-
vened, and ungraeiously invited the two pseu-
do Ministers to nights lodging in the lock-
| up. 4.
The New York Nation says that "the rea-
son why the whiskey ring is so powerful is,
that they have applied brains to the business
| of stealing and swindling, and good people
have opposed to them nothing but rhetoric"
| AN ingenious chap wants to contract to
keep the Hudson river from freezing by sink
ing artesian wells along its channel.
-'POund Parties" are the latest Boston no.
tion. Those invited are expected to contrib
ute one pound at least of something to eat. r
"A Kentucky farmer is exhibiting an egg
| in the shape of a dumb-bell, laid by one of his
| eccentric hens. r. .s.a-.r ...#.rI 7l -eI. t .
/ The Duke of Sake Coburg Gotha, who is
his own opera manager, has lately disbanded
his corps de ballet The Duke is an enlighten-
| ed and accomplished patron of all the arts
/ Perhaps he feels that when the ballet, which
in the days of Tagion, Fanny Ellsler, Carlot-
| ia Grisi and Lucille GRAIN was really the poet
| ry of motion, has sunk to the can-can, it is
| time to let it go. Ha 3 sT4H .it tt
"A German artist in London has published
a series of remarkable illustrations of Shaks-
peare's "Midsummer-Nights Dream" These
illustrations, twenty-four in number, are Sill
houettes-that is, black on tinted ground,
the expression being gained in the profiles aud
outlines. The Pail Mall Gazette says: 'It is
quite wonderful, what delicacy of suggestion
and pictorial charm the artist has given to
these dead black surfaces, the bounding Ines
of which are the only means he had for con-
veying his thoughts"
4 A T. ranrpSenfS Death
on a velocipede, going his rounds with note
book in the cemetery OF lSoo' .
"A correspondent wants to know if rail-
road director was ever known to have been
| hurt by a smash-up a H'F.
"A Homeopathic horse doctor" has his
| sign out in Baltimore. sf
| "A Charleston paper says the new South
| Carolina Constitution contains a plank from
Massachusetts, one from Ohio, several from
Vermont, and a broad beam from Africa.
-Mademoiselle Marie de Gentelles has re-
Gently published work rebuking ladies for
| their too great extravaganza in dress, and has
been rewarded by an autograph letter from
the Pope, in which His Holiness greatly COM
mends his dear daughter in Christ for her
| good work. -
! -Fire-damp in mines, it is stated, can 10
completely destroyed by means OF strong
electric current passed through wire oo"pos-
ed of alternate sections of copper anu soiu'
soldered together, the short section .. nue.
gold wire being surrounded by flour OF sui
nhnr which ;gnites easily. The electric cur
rent eauses the gold to become red hot, setting
fire 10 the sulphur, which burns out any nox-
ious gases. The mine is in this way purified
heGore the miners descend. .H
"A curious ecclesiastical case is now before
the Superior Court in Hartford, Ct., involving
the relations of pastor and people Rev. Dam
iel Gibbs was engaged for stipulated services
and salary over parish in Gilead, and after
disastrous ministry Of less than year, was
dismissed by a consolation of churches. ne
refuses to accept the result, on the ground 'na'
the consolation had no right to invahuA'e 'ne
contract between him and the ehurcn' ana
that the contract having been broken Dy the
church his salary was justly due him. He has
accordingly brought this suit to recover.