The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1889-08-19
STATE TOPICS OF INTEREST.


There are 400 summer visitors at Castine,
and Castine is hardly medium-sized Maine
resort.
Lewiston has an immense French Cana
dian population. In 1887 it was 7,246. A
correspondent of the Boston Herald esti-
mates that now it is upwards Of 1900.
1t is said that never in the history of Bath
from early colonial times to the present day,
period Of 281 years, have been on the stocks
at one time so many vessels as are now seen.
These vessels range all the way from 300
ton schooner to 3000-ton ship, and in all
there are some 20.
Franklin Simmons, the Maine sculptor,
who made the Longfellow statue, and Is
making the monument for Market Square,
has Just sent to the family Of the Hon. Han
nibal Hamlin, very fine llfe-sized marble
bust of the only living ex-Vice President
The bust is much admired by Mr.. Hamiin's
friends.
The cottagers of Northport have long had
the habit of blowing horns at passing steam
ers. they saluted the steamer Penobsc0t OF
the Boston and Bangor line to such an ex-
tent Saturday morning that signals were
misunderstood in the pilot house and she
went ashore She was floated without dam
age, however.
Wniib ATLUuT OtWdu HAS DCc1 RNttiuR III a
word for Bath, Major Michaelis Is doing a
little quiet work for Augusta, endeavoring to
secure the establishment of a station at Ken
nebec Arsenal for the determination Of the,
standards in weights and measures and ell
parts of the machinery used in war. Moth ;,ng
cost is estimated at 100000. The Augusta
board of trade is interested in the meter.
A casino is talked of for Squiy rel Island
loAt thro Qta
Island, are at work at 1t, and b.ave secured q
fourth of the necessary Money already
For the first time this year. too. a lady
shareholder has taken pay.t in the meeting
Of the Squirrel Island As s'sociation, and it K
SAID tnat Two iadies, onsJ from Lewiston and
one from Gardiner, WI al be put on the board
of directors.
The Maine Central is rushing work on its
mountain construction and Saturday night
completed work to Twin Mountain House.
over 1000 men have been continuously at
work since MAJ 10. In some Of the cuts day
and night gangs of workmen alternate with
each other, illumination being secured by
locomotive headlights. At the Twin Noun
tain House TIE most difficult piece of rail-
road building along the whole line is found
II consists OF cat ], 200 feet long which is
filled with Doulders solidly interlocked and
as diincuit to remove as ledge.
~ - -ost NOTORIOUS llar III maine, young
Charlefs Francis Stain, son Of the Barron
suspef 4 and convict, has made another con-
fessi'5n duplicating his father, David l..
Sta n and Oliver Cromwell in the daring and
successful robbery of the jewelry store Of
Iewis Il. Wade in Pennington, in December
1884. Stain and Cromwell were at that time,
I also according to the young hopefups story.
travelling over Maine, probably with a
tall, rangy" horse, seeking whom they
might deyOur. Sheriff Sylvester, of Farm
ington- who Is judge of fables, does not
think this one worth noticing.
The discovery of the use of wood pulp In
paper making has been of great advantage
to Maine and 1t Is proper for Maine man to
have the credit Of suggesting it. 1t is said
that about 40 years ago when the venerable
DR.: ii. III. Hill Of Augusta was young ply
slcian. he visited paper mill in Vassalboro.
He remarked to one Of the proprietors /:
They are making excelsior in Augusta.
Why don't you get a few bales of it into
paper? "IG can't be done," was the reply.
swell guess it can" was the reply. "Hav-
emit you as much gumpti0n as the hornet
whose nest is made out of wood paper Try
it," The firm did try, it, and their paper
was so much improved in quality that the
Boston agents noted the Improvement with
satisfaction and largely increased their Or
ders.
The little town of Beddington, about 40
| miles below Bangor. thinks she has bonan-
"a in large lot of silica in the bottom of a
pond. The uses of silica are almost innumer-
| able, and new uses to which it can be put
| are being discovered almost every day. 1t is
| principally used for boiler covering, pipe
covering, for adulterating rubber goods, for
the lining OF furnaces, insulating pipes and
| for all purposes where there is intense heat
| 1t is especially used for the protection OF
steam boilers and steam pipes, and 1t is a
| non conductor and absolutely fre-proof. Ii
| will stand heat of 3000o, which will be rec
| ogniZed as most intense heat. At present
| large portion of the silica used In this
| country is imported from Germany. There
are several deposits of silica in this state,
but none of them have ever been worked a
great deal, and none of them are of as pure
quality as the Beddington deposit. Mr.
Chas. f. Mitchell Of Bangor has interested
Boston and Fall River capitalists and the
mine is to be worked.
DR.. Randall d. Bibber of Bath Is con-
noiseur Of relics but he has one that puzzles
himself and everyone else. It Is apparently
| bust OF Jupiter, carved from wood and
stands about three feet high. 1t was found
| In the winter of 1887 by fisherman on the
west bank Of the Kennebec, frozen In the ice
and the finder knowing DIR. Bibber's interest
| In such oddities sent word to him, and II
now. stands in the physicians office. The
head shows the flowing curls, touching upon
the shoulders and the crown in front. but
| decay has almost obliterated the features.
| and much of the wood will crumble to the
| touch. The shoulders show mantle thrown
| about them. and the lines of the whole work
| indicate that it must have been a striking
piece of carving when 1t was complete. An
expert who examined it shortly after its dis
covery. declared that the style of work
/ showed that 1t could not be less than zoo
years Of age. Curiously enough none have
been able to name the kind of wood o. which
this image Is made. 1t probably is not the
ngurehead of a vessel at least of n modern
one, for all the old sea captains are as much
puzzled as anyone else.
Clrcumstantial evidence is not always
| satisfactory; but there is a case of a Lewis
ton murderer where it worked out an emin-
emily satisfactory result. About 1878 the
wife of James M. Lowell, Of Lewiston, dis
appeared one summer day. 1t was thought
that she had gone off with circus that was
| In town about that time. About year later
| portion of the body of a woman and part
| Of the clothing were found by. the roadside
in the midst of woOd-lot not far from Lew