The Portland daily press., 1874-02-25
News and Other Items.

| MIR. Gerritt Smith has given, free of cOndi
tions, the sum of $4,000 for the benefit of
Hamilton College, of which he is graduate.
| Mrs. Gen. Sherman is very much opposed to
round dances, and does not permit her daught-
ers to indulge in them.
The Duchess of Geneva lies in precarious
health at Utica, and is attended with great
anxiety and medical care. She is the eighth OF
her line, and worth $40, 000-a high price for a
cow.
The diamond fever in South Africa is rapidly
| giving way to what is almost as bad, the gold
fever. The value of the gold fields lately dis
| covered is still matter of uncertainty, and it
requires stout heart ana good constitution
to reach them
The miners of Railroad Mining District in
California have passed resolutions denouncing
United States Senator Sargent for his efforts to
procure legislation ruinous to the interest of
or linary miners and prospectors, and burned
him in effigy.
According to the statement of the engrossing
clerks of the House, the costly comma which
PIT foreign fruits on the free list, and made the
Treasury lose about 100000 of revenue. was
put in by mistake by the Senate clerk. and wos
not inserted in the enrolled act in the State De-
partment
The telegraph recently reported that young
lady, after listening to sermon on future pun
ishment from Mr. Talmage Of Brooklyn, faint
ed, was carried from the church, and died in
few minutes 1t is now stated that the lady
died on her way to church, land did not hear Mr.
Ta'mage at all. She was not a young lady,
but was nearly seventy years of age.
An important session of the Dominion Board
of Trade convened at Ottawa Tuesday. Among
the topics set down in the official programme of
he meeting for consideration are reciprocity
with the United States, the best and most prac-
tical method of constructing Pacific Railway
enlargement of the Canadian canals, and the
construction of dry dock at Quebec.
Congressman R. B. Elliot (colored) of South
Carolina. whose eloquence electrified the House
few weeks ago, made speech to his country
men at Columbia recently, and improved the
occasion by giving them some excellent advice
He told them that they were responsible for
the thieves who had plunged the State into
bankruptcy, since they had elected them to
Office. Their only safety, he said, was in i'm
mediate and thorough efforts of reform
The cause for the recent assault on Rev.
Luther F. Beecher, at Nyack, N. Y, is said to
have been an act of impudence on his part in
| kissing Yrs Vessels against her will, while
| calling at her house. The lady and her hus-
band were highly indignant, and the gentleman
| determined that his punishment should be
open and conspicuous. Beecher is a teacher in
a school attended by young ladies of the first
| families.
The Turkish government has decided upon
two important reforms first, to abolish the
internal customs duties; and second, to supply
all deficiencies in the Budgets of coming years
by increased taxation instead of by the custom
airy expedent of raising new loans. The first
named measure is expected to have great influ-
ence in stimulating the internal commerce of
the country.
fine distinction was that the preacher of
the Richmond First Baptist church made: 'sMy
brudders," said he, ''when you was all slaves,
| dar might ha' been sense for cuttin' slice off
! the marsr's bacon, or hookln' handful O. corn
meal, or robbing de hen roost; for you all work
hard den, my brudders, and you earn it, you
earn it, my brudders and sisters, But now you
is all free men, dar amt no 'scuse whatever,
you's all on yer own 'sponsibility.''