The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-05-10
News and Other Items,


The French Canadian pilgrims have arrived
at Rome.
The newest and most expensive dress trim
ming in England is made from parrots feath-
erS
Last year there were 252 divorces granted in
San Francisco, about one to ten of the mar
riages.
Several more suits of clothes made up in
England for fashionable New York gentlemen,
have been seized while being smuggled by a
steamship purser.
Ten large GA pound guns and quantity of
munitions of war have arrived at Quebec The
guns will be Immediately placed in position on
the citadel.
The graduating class at West Point this year
has 76 members, and will probably be larger
than any class bich has been graduated from
that institution.
Gov. Williams of Indiana will take part in
''an od-'ashioned log-rolling" near Danville iu
that state in few weeks. He will be dressed
as teamster and will drive yoke of steers
Schenectady is suffering from an epidemic of
typhoid fever, and the death of several promi-
nent young men from this cause has OCCASION
ed much excitement. The city has popula-
tion of $4,000 and there is not a. sewer in the
place.
The French settlers of Dakota offered up
their supplications last week for deliverance
from the grasshopper pest. They erected a
high staff, upon the top of which was fastened
a cross, and to and from and around this cross
they marched in solemn procession, offering
prayers, incantations etc.
A native custom house officer at Toxic, jap
an, recently referring to Queen Victoria, called
her M O-the female King This grievous
offence was made known to the English min
lister who insisted that the poor man should be
sentenced to 30 days in the chain gang, but the
matter was finally compromised by the pay
ment of fine.
Bergh, the head of the long-named society,
has cheerful headquarters. There may be seen
there stuffed bulldog, which was killed in
a canine dispute and which is preserved in all
his ugliness of broken leg, SCARED under lip and
blood-stained head; while pictures of garbage
fed cows, dilapidated 6ghting-cocks, etc., add
to the attractions of the apartment
DR.. Derby of Boston has just distributed
among the officers of Harvard College his re-
port of results of an examination of the eyes of
the freshman class which he conducted last
January. Out of 122 men, 80 per ceutum were
found to be near-sighted, aud % per centam
of this number did not before the examination
know of their short sight.
Henry Clay Dean, in public speech, once
challenged any of his hearers to name an in
stance where the Democratic party had squan-
dered the public funds. An old farmer arose
and informed the speaker that he could give
one. "Name it," said Dean. ''Gve the time
and place." ut was when the United States
paid the salary of Henry Clay Dean as Chap
lain of the Senate" said the farmer
The Japanese appear to have become thor :
oughly aroused to the Importance of the con-
struction of railroads in that country, and the
island of Niphon promises to be shortly as thor
oughly traversed by steel rails as the most civ
ilized country. Osaka. a large inland iown, is
now connected by rail with Kobe, an enter
prising seaport. The road has been carefully
built and the termini are spacious, the one at
Osaka covering Ga acres, with five miles of side
track, and that at Kobe 40 acres, with pier
45O feet in length.
A singular phenomenon: recently occurred in
Virginia City, Nevada. At first it had the ap.
pearance of sparks of fire coming up through
the pools of water in the streets, which seemed
to explode as they reached the air, in many in
stances producing report which could be heard
across the street and being accompanied by
puff of smoke which emitted sulphurous
smell. 1t was finally noticed that these ap-
pearances were only noticed under telegraph
wires, and that the sparks were caused by
water dropping from them, though there was
no solution offered of the immediate occasion
of the phenomena.
The late Senator VIM. T.. Brownlow, it is
said. did not allow politics to enter into busi-
ness affairs, and since tbe war more than half
the printers in his employ were ex-Confederate
soldiers. 'During the hotly-contested Stokes
Senter canvass for Governor, in 1869" writes
Knoxville correspondent, 'his present partner,
Capt VIM. Rule. who was then local editor of
the Wing, refused to act in any capacity on
paper that supported Mr.. Seuter, and his place
was filed by the selection IF an ex-rebel SOL
dier from South Carolina, when dozens of men
of his own political sentiments could have
been easily obtained.
Old Sojourner Truth is still on the lecture
path, and her utterances are said to be more
quaint, if less forcible, than iu her younger
days. She narrated her experiences to Mchi
gan audience few days ago, and sang two or
three of her old songs In voice which, al
| though somewhat weak with age, showed that
it had possessed much.power once. After the
lecture lady in the audience asked her to tell
about her name. She sad her surname had
| always been the same as her Masters. Her
given name was Belle After she was free this
name came to her-Sojourner Truth-and she
found OUT that it was the same as that of God,
her Master now, and He is Truth.