The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-04-29
THE PRE- S .
TUESDAY MORNING. APRIL 90. 1878.
Gossip and Gleanings.

Gossip and Gleanings.
Color, d linen is coming in vogue again
among young ladies for collars and cuffs.
According to Cretan correspondent OF
the Lecaat 7!mes,an antique statue of Venus
had been found near the village of Inis.
The season is approaching when drinking
men, as well as drowning men, will catch at
straws.-Ne,9 York Graphic.
A man in the st. Louis Custom House was,
lately frightened at night by voice Calming.
to be Lafayettes father. Lafayette proved.
to be one Of the messengers. -..
It is pleasing to know that the most of the
muskrats that built slight houses last fall
thereby Turing the weatherwise to go 'short''i
on coal, are being found frozen to death.
A correspondent wishes to be informed II
astronomers have foretold the transit Of We
nus by guess-work. Not at all; they node it
in tie most positive manner.
The word "city'' has a totally different
meaning in the Old World than in the New.
In England it means place that is or has
been the see of bishop. Liverpool the
largest seaport of England, is not city.
oregon Is putting on airs about the Puget
Sound clans, that weigh from one pound to
two pounds apiece. Who wants clans as big
as that, anyway? The idea of saying ''We
had clam for breakfastr' -,, III rs -
| Our reporter in passing through Nelson
street, Monday, was surprised to see middle
aged man dart out OF door way and woman
| soon appear with broom, and shrilly ex-
claim: Don't you come back to this house
jackass. s."-Ddnbury News. , nIt'b
A North Bit feat sits upon its hind SQUAT
tiers and barks like dog. The family
wouldn't take So, 900 for that cat, though the
neighbors, who are supposed to be in con-
spiracy to "Bear'' the market, have sgnifed
their Willingness to part with it for SLID
Peoria Gazette.
There is great mania for sculpture just
now among ladies who have nothing else to
attend to. 1t naturally strikes one that the wo-
man we so often hear about, but seldom see
she who isa model for her sex-would be use
full under the circumstances.
We met Miss. Kitty---at a ball recently.
After talking about the balloon ascension, the
weather, and other things, we asked rather
abruptly, "Where is your mother?" "Oh,' ;
said the sweet damsel, 81 have left her at
home. generally do when come to ball."
What is home without mother?
There is in this city an old Englishman
who reads all the plays of Shakespeare
through every year and takes exactly the
year to do it. He has done so for thirty seven
years, and has never been able to find the
passage, ''Uharge, Chester, charge! On,
Stanley, onr' which he says, was in Shakes
peare owned by him when boy, but muse
have been expunged since.
The contaminating effect of aeeds often
lies less in the commission thar in the con-
sequent adjustment of our desires-the en-
lstment of our selfintersst on the side of
falsity; as, on the othes hand. the purifying
influence of public confession springs from
the fact that by II the hope in lies is forever
swept away, ard the soul RECEIVERS the noble
attitude OF simplicity.
Here's another illustration of the dangers
attending the use of tobacco. On train be-
tween Pautucket and Taunton, one evening,
brakeman threw quid of the vile weed at
an express agent, and the latter resented the
affront by shooting q baggage master. This
is a case of the Indirect effects Of tobacco, to
be sure, but so far as the baggage master Is
concerned there seems to be no doubt that ii
is highly injurious.
Hero is q new story OF Charles Dickens:
An Oxford undergraduate, with the natural
modesty Of the race, sent to the editor of
Household Words, at the end of the Crinean
War, copy Of verses on the return of the
Guards, with this note: "Sir: Understanding
that you insert rhymes in your serial. send
you some" To which Dickens answered:
"Sir: We don't insert rhymes without rea.
son."
Why viii these scientific men frighten us
so? They are continually trying to bully us
with a comet. or tho conjunction of half
dozen planets or some other horrid thing
that does not give us a ghost of chance.
Now Prof. Winchell says that the earth Is
continually cooling and, in doing so, it is alb
sorbng water, and in time its thirsty crust
will not only drink up the ocean but even the
atmosphere, and then the dry and shrivelled
old globe will go meanderipg through space
without living thing on its surface. And
the sarcastic professor calls this kind of talk
"recreations in popular science."-N. Y.
Mail.
DR.. Robert Knox, the great teacher of anat-
omy, began QUE of his lectures in this way:
Gentlemen, there are no text books / can
recommend. i wrote one myself, but it Is
poor stuff l can't recommend it. The man
who knows most about subject writes
worst upon it. If you want a good text book
on any subject, recommend me to the man
who knows nothing earthly about the subject.
The result is that we have no good text hook
on anatomy. We will have one soon, how
ever; Professor Monro is going to write one''
This Professor Monro was so lazy that he was
in the shabit of using his grandfather's lee
lures, written more than bundled years be-
fore his day, and students were electrified by
hearing him lin L 20 and 183O) drawl out,
when was in Padua in 1884," This was
the signal for fun, and showers of peas de-
scended on Monro's head, who could never
understand what it was all about.
Novel Beading.
In novels the most serious questions are