The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-05-16
News and Other Items

Line Sea.SerpenG mas appeared OH UDo ScOtCl
coast.
The dog auction at the Bench show in New
York was a dull affair, the prices bid being ur-
usually low.
Western reports say that all accounts agree
that the prospect for small grains was never
better than now.
In Oregon every man who drinks intoxicat-
ing liquors is compelled to take out license
costing SIS annually. 1t is penal offence for
liquor seller to sell drink to an unlicensed
person.
The Figaro affirms the truth of the rumor
that ex-Marshal Bazaine has been offered the
chief command of the Turkish army in Europe
by the Sultan. The idea is fayorably enter.
tanned by Bazaine.
The House of Commons recently divided
upon the question whether the maximum num-
Der of lashes in the British navy should be
fifty or twenty-five, and by majority of % in
one case and SO in another the maximum was
fixed at fifty lashes.
A Philadelphia court was busy all of last
week trying case brought by Mile. Roseri, a
ballet dancer, against the Kiralfy Brothers.
The chief point in dispute seemed to the coun-
sci to be (which dancer had the right to dance
last in the ballet and whose name should ap-
pear first on the bill posters
For the first time in the history of China, the
government Of that empire has issued decree
which is published In the Pekin Gazette which
not only favors religious federation, but makes
special reference to Christian proselytism, and
enioins upon the provincial governments to
favor that line of niseinnaru 1ohor
There is funny rivalry between the towns
of st. Peter and LIE Sueur, MIMI, a circular
having been issued by business men of the
former place to the farmers in the vicinity
advising them to avoid LIE Sueur in marketing
their produce, because an anti-liquor-selliug
ordinance has been adopted there, while at
st. Peter there is no such oppression Of the
honest husbandman. LIE Sueur retorts that the
publishers of the statement falsify knowingly;
that liquor licenses are issued, and every facility
afforded farmers to fill themselves with bug
juice, ad lib.
A curious phenomenon occurred at Aspin-
wall on the Isthmus lately. The beach at that
point was found one morning covered, for a
mile or more, with deposit of deep-vivid-
Notwithstanding resembling broad
ribbon stretched along the limits of high tide.
A close examination revealed the fact that this
blue deposit consisted of millions of a peculiar.
fiat, shapeless sort of jelly-fsh, smaller than
the hand, rounded in contour, with d slightly
raised ridge running what would seem to be
fore and aft over the back. The next day all
the bright color had faded out, and the gela-
tinous deposit, although giving out strong,
unpleasant odor, dried up and soon disappeared.
The Chinese quarter of San Francisco has its
Theodore Thomas in the person of Lee Tom,
who is organizing mammoth orchestra. The
instruments used are the Chinese fiddle, the
DEVILS banjo. the tabor, the tom-tom and the
gong A reporter of the Chronicle, who was
invited to attend one of the preliminary re-
hearsals, states that the iddles and banios first
struck in with wild, voluptuous swell, which
suddenly broke off in mad staccato on the
fortissimo grade. resembling the most gigantic
cat'fght that ever took place on earth. Pres
emily the professor signalled the bass 10 turn
itself loose upon passage illustrating how the
devil flies awny with junkload of Chinese
pirates. The reporter adds that the swell of
the tom.toms was simply terrific, COMPARED
with which the widest passages of Wagne,'s
"Lohengrin" would have been as an infants
lullaby.