The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-10-09
THE PR ESS.
WEDNESDAY MORNING, OCT. 8, ,7s.
Gossip and Gleanings.

New Jersey is great State for conversions.
Just now she is converting her cranberries
into whiskey.
John Smith died of acute lightning at Will
mington, Ill.
There has been greater falling off in the
apple crop this season than before for many
years. 1t is accounted for by the fact that
there are so many more apples to fall off.
The. Nashville Union acknowledges the
kindness of visitor who has amiably left
some fruit, flowers and young alligator in
the office. Pity title sing! What charm
ing editorial pet!
The proposition to indict and try the Laura
Fair jury for malicious idiocy meets with
great favor in California. A much better
plan, involving the gradual extinction of the
married members, would be to compel them
to take turns boarding Mrs Fair in their fam
lilies.
In South Bend, Ind, they use small pack
ages of quinine for change. AS everybody
takes it, they look upon it the same as legal
tender, and it passes off without difficulty
contemporary speaks OF "a man with
one eye named Robert Welch," but he does
not tell what his other eye was named.
The Feeje cannibals call aroasted man s'long
pig" One of the chiefs has helped eat 900
of these ''long pigs.'' a
One effect of the present dearness of coal is
to bring sailing vessels into greater demand,
and if high prices continue to rule any length
OF time thereSult must be advantageous to
ship owners in this country.
They are arranging a hothouse for forcing
their wits at girls boarding school in E,
and hope to raise some fall conundrums.
A Peoria man named John Frost, is sus-
pected of the murder of a father, mother and
nine children, named M'Skeatre, who were
lately found dead there one morning, recently
The alligators in Central Park are accused
of leering lovingly at the .colored babies which
are taken to see them.
A pupil in one of the public schools recent
ly revised an old saying found in, his gram
mer as follows: sit is better to give than to
receive-a good licking"
'See Naples and die," says proud old
Italian proverb. II didn't quite die,'' COM
mented profane American: ''but did very
nearly. The smell was awful''
Is insanity a necessary condition of being
able to speak the German language? Proba-
ly not; but there is said to be girl in. Madi-
son, Wisconsin, who lately lost her reaso D,
and with it her knowledge of English, but at
the same time she acquired miraculous
command of German which she had never
learned or heard spoken to any extent. Phi
losophsrs are called upon to explain this
phenomenon. five were aphilosepher we
should say that it is probably lie.
The Taunton Gazette says that Tophet is
in Fall River. The Fall River News seems to
believe that its own place may be purgatory,
but the lowest Hindoo hell would be a para
disc compared with Taunton.
The Pennsylvania oil producers talk of
shutting down for season. Don't do it.
People won't use kerosene to light their fires
If there is scant supply, and that creates a
famine in the most prolific source of news
paper items.
Spinks' butcher says that his steaks can't
be beat. Mrs. Spinks says she beats them
half an hour and that is not enough
peace at Yorkville, Tenn, if they have to
fight for it. A gentleman named Starkey
was promptly shot on the spot for disturbing
a meeting there.
1t is suggested that the Englisman who has
tanned wasp might try his hand on a mos
quito, and two to one is offered on the mos
quito.
IL D"hoeu y, eHC SOOu uOyS WuO uTOp Out vi
chestnut trees invariably strike on their heads,
while the bad boys as invariably fall on their
feet. The Ne,cs thinks that the Legislature
ought to look into this.
A paper in Kingston, N, Y, has subscr-
Der i'll Yokohama, Japan, and is now Dragging
about its extensive circulation.
Some one has defined polite society as be-
II ng place where manners pass for too much
| and morals for too little.
A gifted indianapolis editor speaks of ''an
argus-nosed policeman
A real case of Othello and Desdemona is
reported from Albany. A colored man in
the employ of wealthy farmer who had one
fair daughter and no more, won that fair
daughters heart by telling her of the dangers
he had passedin his redemption from slavery,
his services as a body servant in Sherman's
army in its march to the sea, and all the
''battles, sieges, fortunes" that he had un-
dergone. The story of the dusky Moor so
captivated the gentle maiden's heart that she
eloped and married him without her fathers
knowledge and consent, and that rustic Bra
bantio cursed furiously but too late, and was
fain to content himself by making his will at
once and cutting off his daughter without a