The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-05-26
PERSONAL AND PECULIAR.

Senator John W. Daniel has accepted an
invitation to deliver the Grafton at the un-
yelling, on the 18th of June. of the monu-
ment at Charlottesville, Va, which will
mark the spot where Stonewail Jackson re-
celyed his mortal wound
The French astronomer Perrotin, of the
Nice observatory, states that he has discov-
cred. by the aid Of powerful glasses, that the
planet Mars, beside being Inhabited, has a
number of gigantic canals connecting her
seas. some of which canals are still in course
of construction.
Ex-Governor Berry, now residing at Bris-
toll. n. H., and in his ninety year,
organized in 1926 the first temperance society
in the State. 1t was formed at Hebron,
where he was a manufacturer of leather, and
was known as the Tanners Temperance
Society"
The efforts of the American war depart
ment to fit the army with better field glass
have brought to light he fact that the eyes
of the Americans are nearer together than
are the eyes of other nations. Foreign field
glasses. especially those of Germany, the
best now in use, were tried, but the glasses
were too far apart to lit American eyes.
George Francis Train is coming back from
Nova Scotia. 1t will be remembered that
when the Chicago Anarchists were hanged
he shook the dust of his country from off his
feet and declared he would never enter its
borders more. But short residence in Nova
Scotia has convinced him that his country is
pretty good sort of place after all.
The oldest strike yet on record is reported
from the Argentine Republic. The govern
ment thought the people were paying too
high tax for priestly services in the matter
of masses, marriages, burials and other eccle-
siastcal functions, and issued an order low
ering these rates. The priests appear to
have Jointly determined to resist this en-
croacRment upon their prerogatives; have
closed the churches, and even discontinued
the ringing of church bells.
Women are competing more and more with
men in the mechanic arts There are now
probably a thousand women in Pittsburg
who work in iron mills making bolts. nuts,
hinges and barbed wire. Three years ago
the men who had been working in the bolt
works gave such dissatis faction that the pro-
prietors decided to try girls at the same
work. The venture was such success that
nothing would induce them to go back to the
bows and men. A similar experiment in the
wire works resulted as favorably.
Letters have been received from Mr..
Blaine's party in Europe, indicating that the
ladies win not take the.coaching trip in Scot
land with the Carnegies Mrs. Blaine ex-
poets to sail for home by the French line on
June 16. She will be accompanied by her
daughter, by Miss Abigail Dodge Gail Ham
| ilton) and by Misses Eikins and Davis. The
| two young women last named have been
making tour covering period OF nearly 9
| year, and extending to Turkey. They joined
the Blaine party in Rome.
Two famous costumes, preserved at the
Smithsonian Institution, were carefully
photographed, recently, that their form may
be preserved when the material shall have
rotted away. They were the suits worn
respectively by Washington when he re-
signed his commission. and by Jackson at
the battle of New Orleans. A clerk in the
Smithsonian were the clothes for the photo
graphing, and the result in the first case is
said to be a striking picture OF Washington,
the gentleman resembling him very strongly
in figure and feature.
Our minister to Siam has been floored by a
little task which the State department as
signed to him. He begs leave to report that
he has nothing to say about the Siamese
budget for the reason that he knows nothing
about it and has sought in vain for enlight
eminent. According to Minister Child the
King of Siam pockets all the government
cash, disburses it as he pleases. and is the
only man in the country who knows any
thing about its financial affairs. As his
Majesty did not choose to take Mr.. Child in.
to his confidence, that gentleman,s report
has the merit of great brevity. In few
graphic lines he wildly depicts his own
dense ignorance of the subject, pictures the
the King as the watch dog and sole custo-
dian of tie treasury. and assures us that the
Siamese will give you no information, but
reply with the politest of eyasives."