The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-08-15

AHV GhSHSh POst OllltS SdNiubo Dduk COLI
tinues TO be most successful institution.
A quarter of million additional depositors
opened accounts in the bank during the year
1882. The total number of deposltors at the
end of the year was thus nearly 100000,
the amount of their deposits being over
e39, 900, ,000-an increase Of nearly three
millions during the year, the largest annual
increase yet recorded.
The officials charged with the manage
ment Of the hospitals of Paris are at logger
heads with the attending physicians about
the value of beer as medicine or an article
of nutriment. The doctors insist that beer
shall be retained in The list of articles fur
nished to the hospitals, and are sustained in
this by the entire medical fraternity of the
French capital. The managers of the hos
pitals, however, have the disposal of the
funds, and for the present beer is not among
the things which they supply.
No English fortunes have ever been accu,
mulated by individuals in England equal to
those of Stewart and Vanderbilt. The larg-
est personality was that of Mr.. Brassey, the
great railroad contractor, $50, 100000 The
next largest was that of Mr. Morrison, dry
goods, S20,000,000, with real estate equal to
some $2,500,000. The Duke of Westmin-
ster's realty can fall little short of 100000.
600, but his father only left $4,000, 900 per-
sonalty and this included famous collection
of pictures.
1t is denied by Virginia clergyman that
the public opinion of that State approves of
duelling, and the only reason why it seems
to the uninformed to do so is that the senti-
ment in favor of it has been of late blatant,
while the anti-duelling sentiment has been
latent. He says that Virginia decency has
demanded rigid laws against the practice;
that State officials are required to take an
oath that they have never been engaged in
duel, either as principal or second, and that
the last Legislature passed still more rigid
law, though 1t was vetoed by the Governor.
A Montana paper tells an amusing story
of the first scalp-taking A young brave
wished to marry an old chiefs daughter.
The old chief required him as a condition
precedent to kill hostile chief of another
tribe, and prove his death. The deed was
done, and the young brave cut off the entire
head to prove the death. Being closely pur-
sued, however, he was compelled to tighten
his load, so circlng the head with his knife
be tore away the hair and escaped. The old
chief recognized the trophy, accepted the
suitor and made him his successor.
The new crematory in the Campo Verano
at Rome. the fourth in the world at present,
burned s first body recently. In Rome the
body, enveloped in a specially-made shroud,
rests on an iron frame above fire of wood
and coal, and it is believed that no other
method of cremation is so simple, and al the
same time so cheap and unobjectionable.
The new crematory is handsome building
in the Egyptian style, and consists of three
chambers, two of which are above ground.
In one of these latter the actual incneration
takes place, and in the other is kept a regis
ter for the preservation of full particulars of
every corpse that is burned. Beneath these
rooms is spacious vault, in which ON
shelves are ranged ornamental urns of por-
celain, bronze and silver, to contain the ash
es of the dead.
The steamship City of Rome, of the An
chor line, arrived in New York, Thursday,
having made the fastest time on record COM
ing from Queenstown to New York Her
time was six days, twenty hours and thirty
minutes. The fastest previous westbound
trip was made by the Alaska of the Guion
line in last May in six days, twenty-three
hours and forty-six minutes. The Alaska
still retains the championship for speed in
going from New York to Queenstown, hav
ing made the trip last year in six days, eigh-
eighteen hours and thirty-seyen minutes
The City of Rome broke piston rod on
Wednesday, disabling one of her engines
and reducing her speed about two knots an
hour. But for this accident the time would
have been reduced.
A band of genuinely savage Apaches have
been shown at the Santa Fe fair. 1t was a
hard matter to get them to go there. They
had seen few white faces except behind
raised musket. When the wagons were
ready to start, several of the foremost braves
who had been almost persuaded to make the
trip, refused to go along. The sight of a
railroad train awed the Indians into excla-
nations of 'De-sa-ra-ta-ra' (wonderfull,
many times repeated with whispered breath.
These barrel breasted fellows, who would
face bear empty-handed, were afraid to
step into the cars, and the squaws cringed
behind their trembling lords. At last they
suffered themselves to be led falteringly
aboard, and, as the train moved off, they
covered themselves with their blankets, and
dropped panic-stricken between the seats.
The Vicksburg, (Miss.l Herald records a
remarkable death by lightning, at Point
Coupee. Mr.. George Claiborne, postmaster
at that place, started the other evening for
steamboat at the landing, followed at short
distance behind by two negro men on mules
carrying the mails. When nearly to the
boat he was seen to fall to the ground sud-
denly beneath white blaze Of light that
lowered around him for an instant, and the
two negro men at the same time we're hurled
off their mules to the ground. Those on the
boat who witnessed the phenomenon rushed
ashore, and almost at the same moment the
two negroes recovered their feet and came
up to where Mr.. Claiborne had fallen. They
found him a corpse, black as ink all over.
An examination of the body disclosed the
fact that the electric fluid had penetrated
the body in two currents, penetrating his
right. and left breasts respectively, and max
ing two apertures where they entered, as
bullets would have made. A lot of silver
coins in one of his pockets we're melted and
fused together. The sun was shining in an
unclouded sky at the time. Some weeks ago
two men were similarly killed under tree
at Bay ST. Louis, being struck dead by light
ming while the sun was shining.