The Portland daily press., 1888-03-17
PERSONAL AND PECULIAR.

A man whose office is on Broadway, writes
that the drift in front of the Astor House on
the day after the storm was seven feet high,
and the passages through it made for pedes-
TRANS look like the portfolios of casemate
Miss Braddon, the novelist, who lives in
Richmond, suburb Of London, is a middle
aged woman, who enjoys especially out of
door exercise, with preference for horse
back riding.
A ball Is to be given at indianapolis, April
10. in honor of Sim Coy, the convicted tally
sheet forger Fifteen hundred tickets. have
been bought by friends and sympathlzers,
regardless of party" Coy is seriously Ill,
and in very needy circumstances.
An interesting life insurance case is that
of II. G. Sinclair, who was recently killed
on the cars between st. Paul and Brainerd.
His insurance policy expired at II. His
death occurred five minutes after IL, central
time, but about forty minutes before the day
was actually at an end according to sun or
local time. 1t is merely question of time.
Secretary Bayard is again falling into his
old habit of monopolizing conversation.
"What wonderful man your Secretary of
State is" said young attache of the Japa-
nese legation the other day. Truly Won
derful. He seems TO know something about
Secretary had just been remarkable garru-
lous about.
Here is a description of small portrait of
Tolstoi, which an eminent Russian artist
painted "from the life" last summer. Itrep-
resents him blowing in the fields, with the
harrow hitched to the rear Of the unwieldy
pillow, which is drawn by white horse along
the slope. The counts gray beard streams
sideways across his blue blouse and half
barred breast, and his cap is pulled well
down over his face.
The library of the great historian Won
Ranke, destined for the Methodist university
at Syracuse, arrived at New York Saturday
in the steamship Calico. There are over
$4,000 volumes, mostly historical works, but
including in their number rare and valuable
volumes in other branches of literature: and
the purchase also covers several OF Won
Ranke'S manuscripts, portrait OF the old
man and several other paintings, and the
desk. chair and inkstand used by him in his
study.
Mrs. Hits luncheon at which Mr.. Cham
berlain was the only male guest recalls to
the Washington Post an entertainment given
in Count Lippe's honor by Baltimore
hostess, shortly after his arrival here He
was the sole male guest Of fashionable
luncheon with sixteen prominent bellies of
the monumental city. At his cover was q
branch of an orange tree with the golden
fruit depending, and his hostess asked him,
like Paris of old, to bestow the orange upon
the fairest present. AS he had no desire to
make enemies of at least fifteen of the
girls, he calmly took the fruit home himself.
81 will show the government in a very
few years." says Claus Spreckles, who is
burning with a zeal to invest his millions in
beet sugar manufacture, shat there is no
need of us sending that $2O,0Oo,000 In gold
out of the country every year to buy raw
sugar" Mr.. Spreekles thinks that the men
who have tried to make beet sugar in Massa-
chusetts and Iowa have failed to take ad-
vantage Of all the improvements and discov-
cries already made. 1t is simply matter OF
machinery, 500 tons of which are now on the
way from Antwerp to California. Spreckles
has been decaiming loudly against sugar
trusts. His trustin beet sugar is unbounded.
Mr. Bergh was, says the Tribune, one of
the oddest-looking men in New York.
Though his dress, from the top of his CON-
Portable silk hat to the soles Of his fashion
shoes was always faultless, yet there was
something about his makeup that struck
you as being peculiar, and impelled you to
look at him second and third time. His
scarf pin was a horse head with cameo set
ting; his gloves were tan-colored, and he al
ways carried a cane. His face was long,
thin visage, with large irregular features,
baggy eyes and heavy lines in the cheeks
and around the mouth. 1t was grave, earn
est, yet kindly; it was the face of q man
gifted with noble purpose and strong resolu-
ton; the face, too, of a dyspeptic. His fa-
miliars dubbed him knight of the Rueful
Countenance, yet with all the pathos in the
sad lines of his face there was none who
could tell funnier story or raise a laugh
more successfully than Henry Bergh.