The Portland daily press., 1875-11-12
News and Other Items.

TIE government awarded half million Of
gold yesterday at from 114.4S to 1l451.
1t will oe the fashion this winter to use can.
dies at parties instead of gas.
Bismarck believes that military men make
the best foreign ambassadors.
Mr.. B. Aisee keeps drinking saloon and
KATE & Dorgz harmoniously conduct grocery
in New York.
james III. Cole was killed in Cincinnati bar
room by a negro named Duncan during q
quarrel.
Mr.. Thomas Winlus of Baltimore, is hayiu g
built for his private residence the largest organ
in America. 1t will he heard mile distant.
The name of the Rev. Leonard Woolsey Ba-
con of New Haven, stands at the head of the
columns Of the Geneva (Switzerlandj Chronicle
as editor-in-chief,
1t is reported from Paris that work on the
projected tunnel between England and France
will shortly begin. Experimental borings will
be made, and If these result satisfactorily the
main work will be at ones proceeded with on
the French side.
A letter from Stanley, the OK plorer, has been
received, dated April 70 and IA. Colonel de
Bedford the messenger who took these letters
from King Mezas Court at Ugaui!a, was at.
tackled and massacred with thirty of his soldiers
by the Karis. Four Of his soldiers escaped,
and carried the blood-stainsd letters to point
whence they were sent down the White Nile to
Khartoum.
A clergyman of experience in the rural dis.
tficts was last year offered 5000 a year, house
rent. and donation patty every fall, to fill the
pulpit OF suburban town, but demurred, ON
the ground that it was not enough He was
then asked to come on his own terms, and he
agreed to occupy it if they would givs him
$500 year and have no donation party.-Chi-
cago Tribune.
Three very young boys named Pepin were
arrested at Yamaska, Quebec, few weeks ago,
for piiing logs on the ralrosd "to see the cars
jump" the cars dumping" and killing some
twenty people. On account of their tender
years they were held irresponsible and were
discharged. Now they have been arrested
again foriattempting to repeat the experiment
happily this time without success.
Assistant Attorney General Spence, of the
Postoffice Department, has decided that it is
proper to exclude from the mails postal cards
containing offensive expressions and allega
tions cal culated and intended to wound the
feelings of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher
The latter appealed to the Postoffice Depart
ment for protection against indignities through
the medium:of postal cards sent through the
mails.
The shipments of wheat and grain from
Portland, Oregon, during the month of Septem-
Der, amounted to $4,000 bushels. Oregon
promises to become the leading wheat export
Ing saate of tho Union. The advantage 1t en-.
joys over California is in the Columbia river,
penetrating to its wheat regions and affording
cheap transportation to the seaboard. Vessels
ascend that river 100 miles, and load there d.
rectly for the European ports
One of the best little pieces in DR.. Hayes
recent Cooper Institute lecture was his descrip-
ton of breakfast he took with Mr.. Gladstone
in an Icelandic farm house, wherein the two
sat on opposite sides of big wash-basin, filled
with a white and horribly sour substance call
ed askea," and each took alternate dips at it
with horn spoons. Mr.. Gladstone did rot
seem to relish it much, and held back till he
saw how rapidly it was disappearing on the
other side, when he went in and did manfuliy.
1t is reported in New York that the Span
iards in Cuba are almost in a starving condi-
tion. The planters can no longer pay taxes,
tor their expenses exceed the proceeds of their
small crops, and many would willingly aban.
don their estates, but:they are not allowed to
10 SO. Vaimaseda can neither pay the troops
nor iced them, and the cities OF the island are
so overcrowded with persons driven in from
the country that famine: stares them In the
face.
Church property is taxed in California, and
this exception to the general rule among the
states was brought about by the heather. 1t
was found that the Chinese awaited themselves
of the exemption of church property to evade
taxation on their joss houses, which are very
numerous, and mainly merely opium-smoking
resorts; and to prevent this it was found nec-
essary to make general the taxation of all real
estate used for religious purposes