The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1885-08-03
PERSONAL AND PECULIAR.

Vanderbilt's annual income, if paid in gold
would weigh ten tons.
A Bristol, Penn, farmer offers reward of
twelve cents for runaway farm hand
A Lockport, N. Y, saloOn-keeper took the
vest of cripple for ten cents the other day.
South Carolina is the only State which al
lows no divorce.
The Oriental emplorer. Captain Burton,
still refuses to believe that Gordon is dead
The average length of life in Russia is only
twenty-six years.
Cyrus w. Field has literary daughter
who is writing novel.
The class at West Point which will gradu-
ate next year numbers eighty-three, the lar
gest known in the history of the academy.
Paulding county, Ca, has a sixteen-year
old youth who measures seven feet in height
and weighs but ninety pounds.
A bottle of purple ink was mistakenly
opened for port wine at Detroit supper,
and fourteen guests filed their mouths with
the liquid in pledging the host
The oldest living Democrat, Michael Pot
ter, of Cumberland county, Pa, has just
celebrated his 1O1st birthday and manifests
no present pr0cliyities to go the potter's
field.
No speech or set of resolutions on Gen,
Grant have eXcelled in fitness those passed
by the Americans in Berlin: "Able in war,
he knew how to bring victory to the Unions
cause Moderate and self-cOntained in the
supreme hour of triumph, he knew how TO
rob defeat OF half its pangs to his vanquished
countrymen."
A Massachusetts court has Just decided in
a case where several people were killed on
railway crossing that the driver was reponsi-
61o 60. l.
ed the fiagman's warning; but as the other
occupants of the wagon were helpless the
railway Is to be taxed with their death,
through its neglect to provide gates at the
crossing.
The original letter of General Grant to
Gen. Buckner at Fort Donelson-the famous
unconditional surrender" letter, has been
purchased by G. L. Webster, publisher Of
Grants book, for $500 This letter was Civ
en- to DR.. j. K. Wallace of Bantam, near Wa
terbury, Ct, by Gen. Rawlns, a cousin of
whose wife the doctor married. How Raw
Inns got the letter that was sent to Buekner is
not stated.
A new departure in college commencements
is reported from Milwaukee. At the gradu-
ating exercises of a convent school, local
paper says, "Oil stoves were used, and the
curtain rose upon very pretty young lady
in the act of taking a loaf of bread from the
tin where it had just been baked. Another.
equally pretty and expert, put newly knead-
ed rusks In the oven to bake, while third
turned her attention to preparing fricasseed
chicken"
Uncle Alfred, who was a slave of Presi-
dent jackson and is now custodian of The
Hermitage, relates that Old Hickory was a
kind master. ''Some peoples" he says,
"thinks kase he had a hot tempah dat he was
hahd mastah. But dats all mistake. His
slaves was well treated, an If dey behaved
well dey was almost made like membahs of
de family Massa Jackson was posed to
slavery. Mon once I've heerd i'm say as he
was Tidin' up an down de cotton fePs on
hossback: Boys, you'se all gwine to be free
some day.. 1t won't be in my time-it won't
be in my time. But some day you'se gwine
to be free, suah.' "
The New Orleans Democrat Times has Just
collected an advertising bill for 81 from the
Treasury Department The process took
several weeks and the expenditure of fifty
cents for an affidavit, to say nothing Of clerk
hire and postage, as when the bill was for
warded to Washington it had to pass through
half a dozen hands the authority for the ex-
pense had to be given; duplicate vouchers
had to be prepared and sent to New Orleans;
the vouchers had to be receipted by the treas
urer of the company; and as evidence that
he was authorized to receipt, the character
OF the company ndQ 10 De dIllXeQ TO the vOucr-
er and sworn to before notary public.
Sir Moses Montefore's appearance is thus
described in a London paper: Few men
bore the weight of years so well as the jew
| ish baronet. Gifted by nature with tall
and massive frame, he preserved health and
| vigor far beyond the allotted term of human
| life. His forehead and white hair vividly
| recalled the appearance of Talleyrand, were
not the fathomleSs eyes and the marble brow
replaced by hearty and genial expression.
| I he huge white neckcloth and high collared
coat, the vast gills, and the ample jabot are
of period now passed into history, but these
remarkable vestmentS well became their
owner"
Jimmy Holden, counterfeiter, just dis
charged from Auburn prison, says that
James ID. Fish, ex-President of the Marine
Bank, is the gamest and most uncomplaining
| convict in the prison. His wants are very
| few and he executes whatever orders the
| keepers give him without a murmur. The
| first night of his confinement he asked that
| he might have bread and milk and tea for
| supper He got instead the regular prison
| diet of bread and mOlasseS, and tea without
l milk or sugar. He ate it, and seemed to rel
1 ish it. The convict suit he wears is far too
| small for him. He has been made clerk in
| the shoe department. and Jim Brady, the
| king of the bank burglars, is his nearest
| neighbor.