The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-11-22
News and Other Items.

West Virginia editor tries TO settle the
election with 80 ROSTERS, all in a row.
In New York paper is an advertisement for
bar-keeper who can be recommended by his
pastor.
Fashionable weddings in England close with
a shower of white satin shoes and rice thrown
after the departing bridal couple, and New
Workers initiate the custom, az usual
An Arizona mao was bitten by q tarantnla,
and his friends saved his life by keeping him
drunk for six days. Now there are not enough
taraptulas in the territory to supply the mar
ket.
The flower trade of Kew York has grown
amazingly during the last few years. A prom
inent florist statas that in the past 20 years he
has cut 1SOO, 900 voets, 100000 tea roses, l.
250 GOO tube-roses, and has made 912, 900 button
hole bouquets. The floral displays at fu nerals
and weddings are growing costlier every year.
Even the Shakers. are breaking away from
their adhesion to cid customs. Many of the
men openly favor boards, and the women show
disposition to modify their primness Of dress.
The Socialist say $ that they are likely soon to
| give up most of their oddities, but not their
cardinal principles of celib lcy and communism
| of property.
The Berlin correspondent of the London Post
| writes, Nov. 16, that Prince Bismarck Is ex-
| pected to return to Berlin in few days. The
| story told in what purported to be London
| despatch TO the New York Graphic of Nov A,
| about Prince Bismarck's health, in which it
| was said his nervous system was seriously i'm
| paired, and that his physicians feared soften
/ ;po Of fha hrain of ia q m nj fabrication
! The following story is current in some Eng
lish papers: Recently Mr.. Disraeli, the prime
minister, was asked how clergymen dangerous
| to the church should be disposed of. make
ecclesiastical dignitaiies of them," was the
/ reply. "Bishops, if possible. Look" said he,
sat Bishop Temple. When he was plain DR..
Temple he was a model of heterodoxy. Now
that he is Bishop Temple, there is no more
harmlessly orthodox man in the church,"
Father Chinquy, the Protestant convert from
| Roman Catholicism, who Is 50 earnestly hated
in Canada by his farmer religious associates,
has lately received letter from one of his con-
verts to the following effect: "a statement Is
now in circulation among the French Roman
| Catholics here that your two children are de-
formed-one with one eye in the forehead the
| 0tn6r with nOruS. IloaS6 s6uu me Tue likeness
of yourself, lady and two children, with certif-
cate from the photographer that the likenesses
are genuine"
For scarf pins and finger rings the cats eye
has become one of the most fashionable stones
used. 1t is species of the sapphire, and the
most desirable color is of yellow-green tint.
1t has threads of white asbestos within il, and
the light is reflected from these in an intense
and peculiar manner. When the stone is prop
erly cut white band of light is seen floating
in its interior, that changes position as the gem
Is lmoved before the eye, which pecularity
probably suggested the name by which it is
generally known.
In Jersey country school certain boy was
observed, whenever studying or reciting, to
hold his chin up at an angle of forty-fve, and
his book high up in the air before him. Not
with; landing the ridicule of his fellow schol-
ars, be persisted in this singular habit, aud for
a long time refused to explain. at last, one
day, however, under the redoubled sneers oi
the other boys and the tiresome queries of the
schoolmarm, he solved the mystery by blub-
bering out: ''Well, guess you'd hold your