The Press., 1883-05-10

oOAA less than cost. Visit their closing up sale.
 New goods at Congdon's. Something new in plaques. Call and see them.
 sTAFFORD.
 The semi-annual parade of Torrent Engine Company, to take place tomorrow afternoon, will have some new features, be- ing the first public appearance since the reorganization of the department. The fremen will appear in their new uniforms. The engine and other apparatus will be decorated with flowers and otherwise, un- der the directions of MT. Bissett. Contri- buttons of flowers for use will be gratefully received by the decorating committee, and may be left at Medberys store until 10 &. m. Friday. The procession will start about D. m. A banquet at the Springs House will close the exercises. The war den and burgesses will be provided with carriages and invited to accompany and re- view the procession. 'S
 John T. Raymond's new character, ssMaior Bob, sah, !" is said to be fully the equal of that of ssCol. Sellers" The title of the play is s'In Paradise" Paradise is western mining town, and Raymond per sonates 8 chivalrous son of the south, who appears successively as country editor, mining speculator, and Chicago lawyer, ir the most ludicrous situations, in all cases "a sly dog, sah,'' carrying his audiences away with all the enthusiasm that attend ed the presentations of ''The Gilded Age. ]" To enable Stafford people to see Ray mond, ssIn Paradise" at Willimantic, OH Saturday evening, an extra train will leave Stafford Springs at 6:45, and return at the close of the performance. Tickets for the round trip 75 cents. Reserved seats at the opera house Furnished by Butterield or Squier) $1. ..--....
 Names of scholars in the primary de- partment, Dist. No. 2, east village, who were neither absent nor tardy during the month commencing April 9th: Nettie Smith, Allie Green, Ida Lemire, Kittie Smith, Gertie Smith, Grace Comins, Clar- ence Banford, Eddy Pierson, Willie Tuthill Georgie Butler.
 The Corinnes company had about 200 at their entertainment last Monday even- ing, but those present were well pleased with the performance. It was one of those effervescent variety shows that please for the hour, sending the average auditor home in 8 satisfied frame of mind, yet all the time conscious that it is more foam thai cider. Good singing, comic situations, and local hits abounded, and the company will get 8 good audience when next 1t comes this way.
 -Oapt. Johnson next week begins work on the new H. R. Kibbe mansion in East 'Somers, which was raised and enclosed last fall. It will take year or more to complete it, and it is said that it will then probably be the finest residence in Holland county. It is to be built entirely by day s works, and will be perfect as possible in all details of finish, including every appi- ance to promote comfort and health to its occupants. z...-... .-..
 -''Mark Twain's Life on the Mississip- pi'' is being sold in Stafford and vicinity by Geo. Ball. All the works of this great hu- morist get good welcome, and Twain is right at home on the Mississippi, and in this new book serves up facts in such shape that fiction is nowhere in point of interest. Though every thing is presented with the funny side out, none the less it is good reflex of every day life among and on the steamboats. The opening chapters sum up the geographical record of the river and it's basin following, as the author quaint ly says, with its fshistorical history" it's discovery. the fortunes of early explorers and travellers down to the beginning of the present era Then he graphically pictures the times preceding steamboating, his own early aspirations towards circus riding, negro minstrelsy, OF piracy, to the grand climax of pilohng. With, inn4merable stories, adventures, "reminiscences, anec- dotes and jokes of steamboat and river peo- pie; the country and the people of those days; who ran the boats, who travelled on them, who stayed at home, and what they all said, did, and resembled. All are drawn to the life. It will be weeks after you have read the book before you can sew on your vest buttons again with confidence that they can withstand sudden recall of some incidents that you have read in it's pages It contains 800 pages, with 300 drawings, and is nicely gotten np in all respects.
 -J. Danford Ruby, author, antiquari- an, and composer, and locally the best known man in the vicinity, has made a new bid for immortality by the compost tion of ssThe Poets Crave" tribute to the memory of John Howard Payne, and designed particularly with reference to use the poet .Ms.. Ruby considers this to be the crownink work 6f his life, even supe- rior to the, widely famed Moun1ng g Ranger" Warned by the fate of MT. Payne, who got no money, and only post hrmols fame from his work, MT. Ruby has had his great productions copyrighted, and so secure from piracy. '"The Poets Grave" has been heard by but few, and to these few the effect of its rendering is, in one word, overpowering, affecting beyond the power of pen to express, 8 tender trib- ute of poet to poet. Stafford has proved an ungrateful town to its laureate son, and hence no public performance of ''The Pc. cts Grave" will be given here. Probably Webster, Mass, will be the scene of its first production, and with 1t will be given