The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-09-05
THE PRESS,
FRIDAY MORNING, SEPT. 5. 1873
Gossip and Gleanings.

FRIDAY MORNING, SEPT. 5. 1873
Gossip and Gleanings.
Yourg Tennyson also writes poetry. Bet
ter quit unless he can beat the old man.
Some ladies now wear their club stick sun
shades stuck in their waist-belts like dagger
A Bridgeport minister uses postal cards to
invite delinquent church members to prayer
meeting.
Skirts are now worn close to the figure, and
devoid of all funess. Overskirts are ruled
out, as the new trimming Stimulates them.
A bore is man who spends so much time
talking about himself that you can't talk about
yourself.
Watered sash ribbons are now very fashion,
able. They are tied on the sides in large bows,
oftentimes held by buckle.
bury says he has but poor idea Of the free
dom Of a country that has to get its weather
from the government.
Tommy rather got the better of the teach
er last term by declining to spell perpendicu-
larity.-on the ground that he had been
taught by his excellent mother to avoid hard
words as he would blows or any other out
rage to another.
A BIRD SONG.
IT'S year almost that have not seen her;
On, last summer, green things were greener,
Brambles fewer, the blue skies bluerl
It's well-nigh summer, for there's swallow;
Come one swallow. his mate will follow,
Inc bird-race quicken and wheel and thicken.
Oh, happy swallow whose mate will follow
Oer hight Ger hollow I'd be a swallow
10 build, this weather, one nest together.
-Cartstina Roseth.
The Irish potato is the subject of long
article in Connecticut paper. "They are
large and fair are told and when you boil
them 'they burst their jackets and overflow in
cataracts of vegetable snowfakes." That is
nnmistakable poetry; and we read with a
shock, directly after the expression, that they
cost but one dollar bushel.
An attempt is to he made, so says the
Athen9un, to revive that most interesting
game ofcards, ,Ombre. tits famous in our seven
teenth ard eighteenth century literature, and
is declared to be much betterg game than Bez-
ique. A well-known Spanish scholar is pre-
pairing a short treatise on the game, and next
Of excitment and interest among card-players.
Watermelons seem to have peculiar effect
in Lexington, Ky. A party of gentlemen there
were lately feasting on that unsubstantial vi
and when, as they aver, a.large knife, with
which the vegetable had been cut, rose up on
the point, turned a summersault, and began
dancing about on the table. We cannot ac-
count for this strange phenomenon, unless,
as we suspect, there were 'spirits present"
Unassisted watermelons could never produce
such an effect.
Inquirer wants to know why IN. B."
should signify stake notice. Well, it's a
long story, but we will try to explain it brief
ly. IN. B." is but an unauthorized con-
traction of "end bee,'' or the end of bee
whence the sting proceeds. Now, in good
old times when they lived on locusts and wild
honey, they had to look out sharp for the
bees lest they should be stung by what has
since been called their Cuisines end" Thus
it happened that the people began to warn
each other of the end of the bees, which
might alight unknown, and the cry of ''end
bee'' soon became signal for all to take no
tice. Since that time the cry has been util-
lied to call attention to any matter requiring
immediate notice. But although it has been
thus perverted from its original design, and
the two words of the cry are now indicated
by two letters only, it has become 50 useful
that no one wishes to see it dropped from the
language. P. S.-N. B, also stands for ''New
Bedford