The Portland daily press., 1874-12-25
news and Other Items.

fying that half the town was regularly drunk
by 12 O clock every night. (
The steel rails for the Canadian Paeihcrall-
road have been contracted for to be delivered
at Victoria, Vancouver Island, and work will
be commenced at Esquimalt and Naniamo ear
ly in the spring.
Says Mr.. Beecher in the Ohtistiah Union,
speaking of the Tilton suit: Finally, there ooM
be no COMPROMISE. No suggestion of the kind
has been accepted since the commencement OF
the snit and none will be accepted to its end.
MANY well-meant land some ill-meant) propo-
sitions npon this subject have been made to
the defense, and occasional inquiries arise con-
cerning it. Let it suffice, once for all, that
there never has been, and never will be, any
disposition on the part of the defense to settle,
OF harmonize, or compromise, on any basis ex-
cent the unequivocal retraction of the false
charge which constitutes the foundation of the
suit, 1t is well known that the defendant has
been no party, directly or indirectly, to any ar
rangements made in other cases; and it any
rumor of compromise in the principal case is
ever started, the public may safely impute Its
origin to an enemy.
In Paris the Empress of Russia was the good
fairy. Driving one morning in the Paris
streets, the imperial carriage was stopped at a
corner by the funeral of very poor person, IN
which a young girl was the deepest mourner
With her sympathies excited the Empress
caused inquiries toHbe made, and became SO
much interested as to take the girl into her
service and the latter left Paris with Her MAJ
esty.
The case of Benom Howard, the rich match
manufacturer who was convicted in the Uni
ted States Circuit Court of counterfeiting IN
ternal revenue stamps to put upon his matches,
and who has Just been released on pardon, COST
the Government over $4,000. Howard is
Quaker. and was born in New Hampshire.
One of the reasons advanced for his pardon,
was his patrotic services in the rebellion. he
raised battalion in Iowa at his own expense.
He also gave literally to the support OF the
families of twelve of his fellow townsmen who
went to the war, and pensioned the widows
and orphans.
On the Fourth Avenue horse cars, New
York, violence and robbery are now OF nightly
occurrence. The residents on the line OF the
road have had public meeting, and threaten
that if the city does not protect them, they
Will pTOleCG bll6luoCiNCo. Inv PAoH ~ oFS~N'
tion is this Everything is safe till the cars
sweep by the Grand Central depot. Above
this the localities are very elegant, but the pop
ulation is scarce. The time selected is night,
when the theatres break up, and ladies are
loaded with Jewels. Four burly fellows, two
back and two front, throw off the conductor
and any gentlemen AwhO may be on the plat
form, rush into the rs.-seize lady round the
neck, strip her of watch jewels and money;
each desperate selecting victim. The work
is done in flash, the parties disappear, and
the police are no wiser for their movements.
This is an exact description of what took
place on a Madison avenue car one night this
week.
Hammond, the revivalist, is having very
bad time of it in Illinois. Most of the news
papers and majority of the people regard him
as fraud, and even the clergy are "going back
on him. minister at Galesburg, ILL.,, devoted
sermon last Sunday, to scathing review of
him, taking for his text the verse from Mat
thew: "Woe unto you, Scribes, Pharsees, hypo-
critics, for ye compass sea and land to make one
proselyte; and, when he is made, ye make him
two-fold more the child of hell than your
selves"
DR.. Livingstone, in his journal, which has
just been given to the public in England, tells
how in Africa he passed woman tied by the
neck to a tree and dead. The people of the
country explained that she had been unable to
keep up with the other slaves in a gang, and
her master had determined that she should not
become the property of any one else if she re-
covered after resting for time. DIR. Living
stone said he met others who had been killed
in like manner
TheIhighest figures reached by the commerce
between this country and the Sandwich Islands
were the imports of 1873, which amounted to
81 ,316, ,27O, the exports for the same year being
1891, asa The imports have exceeded the ex-
ports every year from 1868 to 1873 inclusive. the
greatest amount of exports having been 81 ,037,-
445 in 1871, the excess of imports in that year
having been little over ri$1O0,OOO. In the six
years alluded to there has been scarcely any
noticeable change in the statistics of this COM
merce.
The French authorities have put a tariff on
water from Loudes. which is imported in
large quantities. The importers say it is sim
ply pure water. The government says if it
cures it is a medicine.