The Portland daily press., 1890-06-30

PERSONAL AND PECULIAR,

The Boston Herald concludes that the ILL
nois tornado was the famous Ill. wind that
blew nobody good.
An order has been issued by the West End
Railway Company prohibiting drivers from
using chewing tobacco while on duty.
Brocolini, the well known comic opera
tenor, has returned to reporting on The
Brooklyn Eagle from whence he emerged
upon the stage.
westerner writes that he has no money
to give to the sufferers by the Ashley mine
disaster, but that he will marry one of the
widows and support her children.
Charles Dudley Warner says that the diff
ference between the faith cure" and the
mind cure" is that "the mind cure doesn't
require any faith, and the faith cure doesn't
require any mind"
A New Jersey tramp. arrested for stealing
five twenty dollar bills the other day, swal-
tude. and. on being thrashed by an irate and
disappointed constable, coolly sued for dam
ages.
Rider Haggard complains that an Ameri-
can publishing firm mutilated one of his nov
els. The nu. nln lied by two
Englishmen In ha ght was cut
down by the Ameri er from 743 to
264.
The Emperor of Russia's suite at present
consists 173 persons, of whom 70 are general
and rs extra aides. de-camp To the suite
belong 10 members of the imperial family,
~ princes OF not Imperial birth, II counts,
barons and Ill other noble men.
The British post office, which in 1910 dis
tributed 100000 of letters per annum, now
distributes 1,600,0o0,0OO exclusive of post
cards, newspapers, etc. In London alone
the number OF letters posted and distributed
annually is S50,0O0,0O0.
The Swiss watchmakers have invented a
watch for the blind. A small peg is set in
the middle of each figure. When the hour
hand Is moving towards given hour the
peg for that hour drops. The owner, when
ne wants TO know the time, finds which peg
is down and then counts back to twelve.
Pianoforte playing has its dangers. apart
from the possibility of loaded pistol in the
hands Of a listener. Recently in London
Nine. Sophie Menter threw herself, SO to
speak, into solo with such energy as to tear
finger nail. An infiamed finger prevented
ner from Milling her next public appoint
ment.
An English gentleman who died recently
left the bulk of his fortune to Rev. Mr..
oPui6Con' ao udu several relatives Ill pro-
vided for, and the trustees decided to put
their case before the preacher. The result
was that Mr.. SpurgeoL put the property in
their hands for distribution among the needy
relatives of the testator
A thief went to the hall Of Brighton
hotel ap5-fethered SSpr al inc hats. He was
ss''ses;Ie .ils way out, when visitor came in
and asked him what he was about. "Ob.' -
says the thief, ''I'm taking the gentlemen's
mats round the corner to get them blocked ;,
We'll, repiied the visitor. take my hat
too" Certainly, siri" said the accommo-
dating thief, and vanshed.-Chatter.
The Italian prime minister, Signor Girls
pi, recently gave most extraordinary evil
dence in the Chamber of Deputies OF his sup
erstition regarding the evil eye. Sgnor
lmb-iani, having alluded to Signor Crispi's
life as necessarily terminable. the latter FUN
bled in his pocket, drew out one of the horn
shaped pieces of coral used in Naples as
coulter spell against the "jettatura," and
openly pointed it at the speaker.
Nevada has what are termed travelling
stones" They are described as being per-
fectly round, about as large as walnut and
of an ivory nature. When disturbed about
on the floor, table or other level surface
within two or thee feet of each other, they at
once begin to move toward each other until
they meet in a common centre and there lie
huddled in bunch. They are largely com
posed OF magnetic iron ore.