The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1885-12-24
PERSONAL AND PECULIAR.


rated about two years ago, were remarked
last week in Rutland. VT.
Adelaide Nelson kept copy of every phO-
tograph of herself which had been published,
and the number of these in the various
sizes was found ON her death to be 600.
Mr. Hendricks's will, giving his entire
property to his wife, was made nearly TWEEN
ty years ago, and was never changed or al
tered in any way.
The late Marshal Serrano, of Spain. during
his political career saw eighty-four changes
of Ministry in that country, forty rebellions,
and twelve changes in the head Of the State.
The Vanderbilts keep their bonds, stocks,
diamonds and gold and silver plate in steel
box four feet long by eighteen inches broad,
that is set in the wall of the vault in the Lin
coin National Bank, New York.
A silk necktie backed with pasteboard
saved the life of B. P. Anderson, who was
shot at Tecumseh, Mich. The ball struck
this obstruction and glanced of through the
shoulder.
The musical mistakes of novelists are with
out end. A popular English fiction writer
draws picture of the beautiful heroine sit
ting down to the harpsichord, A. D., 1715,
and playing one of Beethoven's sonatas.
Secretary Manning and some others in
Washington have formed syndicate" for
the consumption of fresh .venison, which
will be sent them regularly all the way from
Forth Worth. Texas, as long as cold weather
lasts.
Oxford graduates number eighty-nine
among the candidates at the current cleo
lions in England (sixty-four Liberal, TWEEN
ty-fve Conservative, while those from Cam
bridge number only thirty-seven (twenty-
five Liberal, twelve Conservative
Senator Evarts usually writes his speeches
out in full, and then going into room by
himself, he says them over until he is per-
feet master Of their elaborate periods. He
Is failure as five-minute, off-hand speak
er. He is ponderous or nothing.
Among the effects of one Zelt, comedian
of some repute in Austria, recently deceased,
were found some 5000 billets d0ltr, 723 me-
dallion lOckets, with as many locks Of hair,
440 portraits, 312 scarf pins, and innumerable
shirt studs, showing that the Austrian girls
are as silly as their sisters OF any other ma.
tionality.
The sheriff of Monroe, Ca, last week at
taGhed the animals in a circus for debt Of
| $4,000 An elephant monkeys, sea lion,
ETC., were quietly turned over to him, and he
has since been in a quandary. he cannot
handle or do anything with the animals, and
his discontinue.
A notable case-or group of cases-of lon
gevity is remarked in Cornwall, England.
On October 10, 171s. Stephen Hicks was ap-
pointed to be rector of Blisland. He was
succeeded in April, 1880, by William Pye,
and he in turn gave place in February, 1884,
to Francis WOolcock Pye, who is the present
incumbent Only three rectors in 167 years
is remarkable record.
Since Theebaw discovered that the British
do not mean to put him to death his spirits
have improved wonderfully, and he has even
found courage to grumble little. There
are two grievances of which he especially
complains The first is that he is represent
ed as drunkard, when he Is only moder-
ate drinker; and the second, that he was
| formerly attended by 800 maids of honor and
| now has but sixteen.
During his eight years of diplomatic ser
vice James Russell Lowell has never re-
signed his position as Professor of Bellies
Lettres in Harvard University. He has
been rated each year as absent on leave
but last September he returned to active du-
ties. He gives a course in italian on Dante
and one in Spanish on Cervantes, both OF
which were formerly under the charge Of
Charles Eliot Norton. The courses are nat
urally as popular as ever.
William E. Cramer of the Milwaukee Wis
consin, is one of the most remarkable jouTn-
alists in the Northwest He has been deaf
since boyhood and is totally blind, yet heis
one of the hardest workers and most thor
oughly posted men in the profession. He
has been in harness nearly fifty years, and
his office hours are as regular as when he
was young. He knows the city thoroughly,
and can without difficulty so alone to any
mint homcl he desire IN visit
In Georgia colored people own 100000
acres of land and pay taxes on about $1,000
600 of property. In the whole of the South
their taxable property is put down at about
| $1OO,0OO,0OO. In South Carolina sc, 400 of the
122,O9S pupils in the public schools are col
Ored. In Georgia taxes paid by the colored
are almost as much as the sum devoted to the
colored schools of that State. Everywhere in
this country the colored race is making COM
mendable progress.
| Probably the deepest boring in the world
is that being sunk by the German govern
ment near Schladebaek. The object of the
| shafts purely scientific, namely, to obtain
| some reliable data as to the ratio Of the rise
in temperature at different depths. At the
| beginning of this year the depth of 4,640 feet
haze been reached, and since then the work
| has been steadily progressing. AT that depth
i
| ing from the past, the boiling point Of water
| will be reached at about 10000 feet.
Senator Vests bill, to incorporate the At
lantic and Pacific Ship Railway Company, is
| James B. Eads's scheme, and makes him and
| his associates a corporate body. The pro-
| ject is to build and operate ship railway
across the Isthmus of Tehauntepec, with an
accessory railway, telegraph lines and water
approaches. In aid of this great undertaking
the United States is pledged by Mr.. Vests
bill to pay annually for fifteen years, after
the ship railway has been completed, such
an amount as will make two-thirds of its an
nual net revenue come up to S2,5OO,00O. To
| pay this Indebtedness to the government,
| bonds of the company are to be issued bind
| ing it to liquidate these bonds within fifteen
| years from the date thereof. The United
! States are to be represented on the board of
| directors by two-ninths of the total number
| of its members AS this measure is said to
| have an administration Endorsement, much
| interest attaches to its reception by Congress
L = he ztr.r