The Portland daily press., 1886-04-30
PERSONAL AND PECULIAR.

Here are few of Mr.. Conkling's pictur-
esque phrases used in his recent address up
on the Broadway affair THE testimony Of
the witnesses, whose eloquent flashes of ST.
lence." Crusaders of the sepulchre of the
States good faith "Sovereignty's. sleep
ing sword of repeal" ga fricassee Of
frauds" LESS weight than pebble at the
bottom of a beggar's grave"
Boycotting recalls the circumstance that
after the coup d'etat the Republican deputies
proposed to boycott Napoleon III. In one
of their conferences deputy suggested that
trade and commerce isolate the despot. ''Let
not the baker bake, nor the brewer brew,
nor the carpenter build, nor the butcher slay,
for fortnight; then the dictator will be
starved out" Such was the programme. 1t
was about to be adopted when country dep
uty rose in corner of the apartment and
suggested, to complete the isolation that no
body eat for fortnight. The programme
was abandoned
If the current story be true, Bismarck has
been greatly cheered by the receipt of fiat
tering letter from fair Parisienne, who
writes in affectionate terms, asking news Of
his health, and explaining that she is too
young to hate him for the events of 1870,
and too sensible to refuse the admiration due
to his genius. The Chancellor appears to
have sent her an autograph reply, thanking
his pretty correspondent for her solicitude
and regretting that his rheumatism is giving
him bad time of it. This should encouf-
age other autograph hunters.
The common and most serious error in the
North about Florida is the assumption that
with the loss Of half the orange crop, the
state is robbed of its chief product and reve-
nue.. We of the North so naturally associate
Florida with oranges and early vegetables
that we are, as rule, ignorant of the fact
that oranges are only very inconsiderable
part of the products of her industry. The
cotton crop is worth thrice the orange crop;
the lumber product is double the orange
CROP the corn crop doubles the orange crop.
and the other fruits, vegetables and fish
trade is largely in excess of the orange trade
with the best orange product.-Col. Mcclure
in Philadelphia Press.
When the railroad was first opened from
Waterville to Danville thirty-six or thirty
seven years ago, Mr.. w. c. Pitman of Ban
gor was conductor of the first train one
rainy morning. He started at Waterville,
and on arriving at North Belgrade,
flag station, not seeing any flag run
by the station. just as the train had
passed the red flag was run out for some
passengers to get on. Mr.. Pitman stopped
his train and asked Mr.. Stephen Richardson,
the station agent, why he did not display
the flag before. Mr. Richardson repled,
"Be you a-goin' to run your train IN rainy
weather? didn't think you would.
The bill for the enlargement of the White
House proposes to duplicate the present
building, and connect the new structure and
the old by means of broad corridor. The
present White House has been occupied
since 1900. As it was begun in 1892 it has
quite respectable antiquity for pnblic
building of the United States. The site for
the duplicate is Immediately south of the
present building. The bill may not pass the
present Congress, but there is evident need
of enlarging the Presidents mansion, as ex-
ecutive offices have crowded the Presidential
family into half dozen rooms thay can call
their own.
The variously related story of how Gen.
Butler charged the government $50 for a
hand-organ and monkey, purchased while he
was at New Orleans, is truly told for the first
time in a Washington letter to the Cleveland
Leader, which gives the tale in Buffers own
language; 1t was the hottest time of my cam
paign about Baltimore. The rebels were very
close-mouthed, and l could get no inside news
OF the doings of the rebels. One day saw a
great crowd gathering round man with
hand-organ, who had very large monkey.
As drew nearer / noticed that the man
playing the organ looked very much ike
smart Irishman whom l had among my sol
Giers. 1 said nothing, but went back to my
headquarters and, calling up the lrlshman,
in whom 1 had perfect confidence, gave
him some money and told him to go and buy
out the musician. He did so. He bought
the hand-organ, the monkey, and the nusi-
clans clothes, and paid S50fo them; Dressed
in these, sent him out as spy. He, trav-
eled all the surrounding country ana gave ;s
information was worth thousands of dollars
to the United States government and you
can thus see why it paid the United States
to pay $50 for hand-organ and monkey.