The Portland daily press., 1874-12-04
News and Other Items.

California will produce 100000 gallons of
wine this year. 30 leA oiHt a..e
Rev. John s. Glendenning has been acquitted
by the New jersey Presbytery of all the charges
against him. .I ..f Y
Indications are that the question of holding
constitutional convention voted on at the re.
cent election in Missouri, is decided in the neg
ative by eight votes.
The Hartford fern," SO called, is now sold
all over the country. Its growth is confined to
the valley of the Connecticut, and so valuable
has it become that it is now protected by law.
Henry H. Dean, soldier of the British
army who served under Wellington at Water
loo, died at Prospect Hill, Wisconsin, on Nov.
%. at the age of 95 years. He had lived in this
country about 40 years. 1 lgaU.s t
Mr.. Plimsoll has received a handsomely and
extensively framed address from the Seamen's
Union of Victoria, Australia, in acknowledge
ment of his efforts in behalf seamen in gen.
eral.
The Duchess of Edinburgh was recently pre-
sented with splendidly-bound copy of the
Holy Scriptures in imperial quarto, inclosed in
a beautiful oakeu casket. The volume was the
gift of more than 5000 subscribers, maidens of
the United Kingdom, and was presented by
deputation Of Is ladies. u-1 tl9L atc TO- .f
Prof. Dana of Yale College has been making
geological examination in the region of the
great swamp on the Housatonic Railroad in
Connecticut, where he found traces of the great
glacier which geologists believe passed over
New England on its way from Canada to the
ocean. Several rocks uncovered for the new
read showed distinct scratches.
Russia proposes to 60 into the compulsory
education business, and in the wholesale way
too At present not more than one-half of the
children in st. Petersburg attend school, and
that city has been selected as the first place in
which the experiment shall be tried. Conse-
quently, under direction of the minister of
national education, 157 school edifices are to be
erected, in which children of both sexes from
eight to twelve years of age, shall be taught
reading, writing, the first four rules of arith-
metic and the Scriptures.
According to the Providence Journal, Rhode
Island town has hit upon novel plan of dis
posing of orphan children. A boy and girl,
homeless and friendless, recently came before
the Overseers of the Poor of the town to be
taken care Of, when the latter told the boy to
go into an adjoining room and take five cent
nickel from the pocket of man sleeping there,
and sent the girl to another room to take
piece of money FROM a woman's pocket. The
children obeyed, and were Immediately arrested
for petit larceny and sent to the Reform
School. H 4 -
1t appears that the arrangements for the sale
OF Forney's newspaper to Mcclure will not be
carried out. The announcement of the sale
cauSed mnch a1arp, ~, contain poIitirians and
numerous cable dispatches were sent to Forney
urging him not to consummate the agreement
and offering pecuniary assistance, to which
pressure Forney finally yielded. The capital
raised for the purchase of the Press will be
devoted by Col. Mcclure to establishing new
independent daily, which will make its first
appearance on the 1st of January. 1t will fol-
low the course in politics and journalistic
enterprise marked out for the Press in case the
transfer of that paper had been effected.