Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-05-01
PACIFIC COAST ITEMS.


Bert Goodyear, the boy who was run
over by the cars near Martinez, died at his
| mothers residence in Oakland Wednesday
night.
There is pressing and crying need of a
brickmaker and mason at Bakersfield. Some
large structures are contemplated and there
are plenty of small jobs almost daily.
A girl, apparently about IA years old,
was seen driving a six horse team through
Main street, Red Bluff, on Wednesday.
She handled the reins and whip equal to an
old 40 Jehu.
A fine specimen of a shad, such as used
to be caught in the Hudson, was ON exhi-
bition at an Oakland fish market Thursday.
1t was captured in the bay, and weighed
about pound and half.
In the Territory of Arizona, with pop
lation of $4,000, there are only five
Protestant ministers and four Protestant
churches The churches have total seat
ing capacity that does not exceed 200.
They are excited in Carson, says the
Bodie Free Press, over picture on exhi-
bitiOn representing winter scene IN the
Sierras. We have picture of that sort up
here, on large scale, too. What is most
discouraging, it looks as though it was CO.
ing to remain on exhibition all summer.
John NJ. McPike, of Napa, has just
made purchase of 10000 acres of land in
San joaquin valley, and receives with his
purchase q large amount of grain and live
stock He paid for the property $500, 600,
and expects to realize one-haH of the pur-
chase money from his grain and live stock
this season.
Benicia is evidently on the high road to
prosperity. The recent advent OF the rail
road has awakened the dormant energies
of the property owners, and they are I'M
proving their homes and surrounding
grounds. Several new and cosy little
houses are noted as already built and
others are in process Of construction. Be-
sides these, there are large buildings, and
more valuable improvements, all Of which
make grand contrast to the Benlcla of
one year ago.
Nearly two years ago, says the Alameda
Argus, man living in the western part OF
town named Frederick Thomson was ar
rested ON charge of arson, the circum-
stances attending the burning OF his house,
it was alleged, warranting the arrest.
Thomson was kept in the County Jail six
months before he was tried, and was then
acquitted by jury. He has now sued the
Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance
Company for sd $50 damages for false i'm
prisonment and attendant loss Of work aud
illness.
The Tucson Record of a late date states
that the engineers of the Texas Pacific
Railroad and also of the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe, and Southern Pacific Rail-
IL, l. D. !
near Fort Bliss The Southern Pacific
have surveyed their line to within ten miles
of Ell Paso. The Atchison company have
seized upon the Ell Paso canyon, and are
/ grading it for the purpose of holding it
against the other two. The Texas Pacific
has purchased two tracts of land next to
old Fort Bliss for the sum of 81, 500.
The town is full of strangers, and the rail-
road boom is at fever heat. There is great
excitement IN that section.
A party of gentlemen who yesterday as
cended Mount Davidson-going straight
up the face of the mountain from the city
observed a somewhat singular phenomenon.
| They say that all the ground ON the slope
| of the mountain where bare Of snow was
completely covered with bugs somewhat
resembling the Colorado beetle. A bright
/ beetles, and they were present in such vast
numbers that it was at first supposed that
/ the ground was covered with a bright
/ colored moss. The beetles came mp out Of
/ the ground. and their only business seemed
to be to absorb the warmth OF the sun.
/ On the eastern face Of the mountain the
/ snow banks are not very deep, but on the
northern slope drifts appear to have formed
p, t,aN,
April Doth.
Los Angeles farmers are interested in
new mode of destroying squirrels and
gophers, which has been tried with great
| success in Texas. 1t consists of portable
| furnace for burning charcoal and sulphur,
closed at the top but with pipe leading
to the ground to convey the fumes into the
squirrel-holes. Connected with the fur
mace is an air pump of cheap construction
to force the fumes down. The bottom of
the furnace has sharp fange, which cuts
into the ground around a squirrel-hole,
forming a tight joint. All the holes in the
neighborhood are to be filed with dirt, and
when smoke is seen coming through the
same care to be taken, and the machine
moved from point to point until the whole
district is passed over. Thousands Of
dN44ACAS PSA Ns'J may NC hAAACb ny bAilo
cheap and simple method.
A colony of bees that had been domi-
ciled in the town hall at Bakersfield for sew
eral years had grown too numerous for
strict comfort to the occupants of the
lodge rooms up stairs. 1t became neces-
sary to remove them, says the Californian,
and L B. Rumford undertook the job.
The engagement opened about noon and
lasted till the shades of night, and by that
time about half the inhabitants Of the
town were besieging the drugstores for
spirits of ammonia, and the bees, though
suffering a severe loss of honey stores,
remained masters of the field For sew
eral days thereafter the eminently respect
able citizen went about disguised as a pug
nacious sheepherder, while others who had
never laid claim to distinction announced
themselves as prominent citizens, and ex-
hibited the numerous prominences on their
heads and faces in vindication of the claim.