The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-09-09
THE PR ESS,
MONDAY MORNING, SEPT. 0, 1879.
Gossip and Gleanings.

MONDAY MORNING, SEPT. 0, 1879.
Gossip and GIeanings.
Florida is lovely but insdious cline. 1t
is gorgeous in its flowers, profuse in it fruits
and doubly gorgeous in its insects and rep
! tiles, but it is not altogether healthy. Sud-
den deaths are too frequent. At Gainesville,
in that delusive State, recently, Mrs. Smith
was shot through the head while watching
with sick friend, an d the friend died before
morning. 1t is said that the bullet was
meant for another woman, but it matters
little. A region where one is likely to re-
ceive bullet in his brain in the still hours of
night is not healthy enough for an earthly
paradise.
Iowa has Frenchman who speaks seven
languages, his wife five and his son three,
making fifteen languages in the family.
OF miserly man who died of softening of
the brain, local paper said, "His head gave
ened, but his heart couldn't"
What are you drawing. Anna?' ''Fse
making your pictur'." So the gentleman sat
very still, and she worked away very earnest
ly for while. Then she stopped, compared
her work with the original, and shook her
little head. 81 don't like it much,' she said.
nm
''Tain't great deal like you. Idess I'll put
a tail to it and call it dog.''
SoJourner Truth has been lecturing to the
negroes of Jackson, Michigan, on political
topics. She is unreservedly in favor of Grant
and Wilson.
The New York Times complains that the
butcher-birds have been attracted to that
city in order to prey upon the English spar
rows imported few years ago to destroy the
caterpillars which consumed the foliage of the
trees. The next question that arises, says
the Times, is what animal can be imported to
destroy the butcher-birds?
The duke of Monte-ferme, 1eutenant-col-
onel of hussars, has married Miss de Faun
of Alsace, who was his nurse when he was
wounded at the battle of Gravelotte. Eight
months of kind nursing was thus rewarded
by the title of duchesse.
An Eastern lady recently wrote to promi-
nent citizen of Denver, requesting to know
whether that city was good place to open
''knight skool." The gentleman replied
''not for those persons who spell God with a
little OR elephant with two f's." The
school-marm took the hint
Jerseyman from one of the mosquito
districts is said to have applied for patent
for cast-iron counterpanes, the metal being
hardened by new process so as to be almost
insect proof
An English gentleman, an amateur fori-
culturist, has succeeded in raising purely
new species Of geranium. II may not prove
as valuable as the celebrated black tulip of
tulipomania days, yet he estimates its worth
at $1,000, and hopes to make that sum out of
it. The whole plant is pure white-stem,
leaves and flowers. 1t looks like wax, and is
brightly transparent. Never was anything of
the kind known among forculturists, and
there will doubtless be great demand for it,
if the owner is fortunate enough to propo-
gate it.
traveller in Normandy thinks that the
famous statue of the Virgin, said to have
fallen from the skies, which is worshipped by
the population, as work of art does not
speak well for celestial sculpture.
An Edglish sparrow in Kentucky, got
wound up in huge spiders web, the other
day, and would doubtless have been devour-
ed piecemeal by the proprietor had it not been
discovered and released.
An old Italian proverb says, ''See Naples
and die" An American traveller, writing
from thence, quotes this proverb, but adds,
Il didn't quite die, but did very nearly, the
smell was so terrible"
Disciples of E. Burke, ESQ.,, are respectfully
informed that the age of chivalry is not gone
The other day a crowd collected before the
Mint Saloon, Commercial street, San Francis
co, to watch the motions of demented wo-
man who walked up and down in a nervous
way, and might have been walking still had
not Judge Dwinelle ascertained that she wish
ed to go home, offered her his arm, and es-
corted her thither.
DIR. Ayers of Cheever Colony, Kan. "was
seriously injured by a well caving in on him.
Served him right He should attended to
the sick, and let the well alone.
The weather is peculiar in st. Louis. They
say: at was cold enough last night for an UNI
brella.' I
The Provicetown Adrocate says fifteen
gunners to one bird is the proportion of
sportsmen to feathered bipeds on the mead
Ows.
The manufacture of cigars gives employ
ment to large number of penitentiary con-
victs in Illinois and most travellers will agree
that people who make such cigars as are
ordinarily, sold in Illinois ought to be in the
penitentiary.
One hundred pounds of opium to the acre
ofpoppies can be produced in California
Pawnbrokers sometimes prefer customers
without any redeeming qualities.
A sentimental reporter says, "Autumn'.
breath blows away the froth of fashion from
the watering places"