The Portland daily press., 1877-10-24
News and Other Items.

Among the convicts in the Kentucky peni.
Tertiary are five preachers.
A proposal to oanonize Christopher Column
bus has been made to and seriously considered
by the Papal congregation. After lengthy
and anxious elaboration of the claims of the
deceased to the honor, the congregation have
decided against the proposal.
The school superintendent of the Northeas-
tern Ohio Teachers Association dlsapprove of
teaching arithmetic to children of six years, es-
pecally in numbers above ten
Madame Theirs is negotiatingIfor the house in
Marseiles in which her husband was born, and
will make it a free museum. Among its con-
tents will be many objects of art which used to
belong to the dead statesman.
At Springfield. Ohio, last Monday, Maud
Granger, the actress, accidentally found and rec
ognized brother named A. E. Granger, of
whom she had heard nothing for II years. He
has been 10 that city about year, and was
painter.
A Cincinnati Newspaper carrier hung him
self last week on account of the defeat of the
Werkingmen's ticket in the recent election in
that state.
John o. Hopkins, Professor of Greek at the
Irvington University in India, last Tuesday,
while attending meeting of the faculty, sud-
denly remarked, 81 going Blind and before
medical assistance came he was dead. 1t is
supposed he died of apoplexy.
Mr.. Hoadley, the State Librarian of Con-
necticut, has biography in manuscript of Gen.
Grant by his father, Jesse r. Grant, who fur
nished it to Richard A. Wheeler, of North
Stonngton, Conn.,, when that gentleman was
publishing in a newspaper the genealogy of the
Grant family.
The Deringer pistol which the afterwards
Confederate General j. B. Msgruder carried
during the Mexican war, has been deposited
IN the Baltimore Library by Major Latrobe, to
whom it was lately presented by Col. M. s..
Hess.
When man now boasts to you that he rises
with the lark you are not bound to bestow
much praise upon him, for jealous French
ornithologst has studied the early rising habits
of birds rather to that feathered bugbear's dis
advantage. The earliest riser is, he says, the
greenfnch, which pipes at half-past one in the
morning. the black-sap joining in at two, the
quail at three, blackbird at four, and the robin
and wren but little later. All this time the
lark is snoozing and does not bestir himself till
long after sunrise.
The greatest cat race ever held in Belgium
came off at Balcele the other day, there being
20 entries for the prize. The animals were all
carried four miles out of town in baskets and
simultaneously released, whereupon they all
ran home swiftly. Minette, pretty white cat
with pensive eye, reached the town first and
won the first prze-a silver coffee-pot. Lolo, a
big tortoise-shell, which had been made the
favorite in the betting, jumped the course and
has not since been heard of.
The Legislature of Queensland, Australia,
has been INDUCING in some anti-Chinese legis-
lation, owing to alleged lawlessness by the
Chinese on the gold fields. The mining licences
hitherto issued to them for ten shllings will
hereafter cost three pounds, while business Ii
Fences have been increased from four pounds to
ten pounds.
The coming winter promises to be the most
fearful known in England for many years.
Everybody is cutting down expenses. and in
London alone there are $4,000 fewer male SER
wants on the tax list than two years ago. The
Coal trade is paralyzed, many of the great iron
,nills have closed, and strikes are frequent and
general. Crime has already alarmingly in
creased and much apprehension is felt in all
parts of the kingdom.
A curious affair, which may lead to either
serious or ridiculous complications, is reported
from Jamaica. The government of that island
recently leased several small islands near by to
d man named. Utter, for the purpose of fishing
and taking turtles. Soon after an American
schooner appeared, took possession of the is
lands and ousted Utter and his men. The lat
Ter has reported the matter at Kingston, and
1t will be made subject for correspondence be-
tween the Jamaican government and Mr..
Evarts.
A woman medical student with the Russian
army is thus described: The gentlemen with
her were surgeons on their way to Join some
ambulance. The lady wore her hair short and
parted on one side; spectacles with gold rims;
black tunic, belted in round the waist. and
Snort, black skirt. She smoked cigars and
seemed hale fellow well met with all her COM
panions
a special despatch to the New York World
rays That Fred Bridges and Mrs. Mckenzie
were married in Boston on Friday last Our
readers Will recall the circumstance of the
elopement OF these two people from Montreal a
little over year ago, and the tremendous
scandal which followed their arrest in New
York, Mr.. Bridges is the son of G. j. Bridges
late managing director of the Grand Trunk
railway, now Canadian railroad commissioner.
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