Rev. O.D. Kimball, formerly pastor of the Baptist church in Leominster, Mass., and now of the West Newton Baptist church, has left the latter place after putting a letter of resignation in the hands of church officers. He admits that he was guilty of gross immorality with five members of his church in Leominster, who were some time ago expelled from that church for making the charges.
Alvin Hunnewell of Norridgewock, Me., is held for trial on a charge of poisoning his wife with “rough on rats.” Hunnewell’s son, aged eighteen years, and a young man named Chace, also partook of the poisoned food. All will recover.
[Former Minister of War] Gen. [Georges Ernest] Boulanger, the French political quack, and M. [Charles] Floquet, prime minister of France, fought a duel with swords at Paris on the 13th, and Boulanger was seriously wounded in the throat.
A dollar a bushel is being paid for grasshoppers around St. Paul, Minn.
It is noted that the famous White Lady of the house of Hohenzollern* has failed to appear and give warning of the deaths of the two emperors lately. It is suggested that a new ghost had better be secured, unless the White Lady make some explanation for her neglect of duty.
“Can you help me a trifle, sir?” said the tramp; “I fought like a hero for the preservation of our noble Union.” “Can’t do it,” was the reply; “I sympathized with the south all through the war.” “Why, so did I,” responded the tramp, heartily; “but what’s a man going to do when he’s drafted?”
James E. Cutter of Malden, Mass., who attempted to murder his brother-in-law in an unoccupied house, has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. He deserved hanging.
Charles Doane, who while drunk knoked [sic] under the wheels of a train a flagman who attempted to stop him at Wickford, R.I., July 6th, has been arrested for manslaughter.
It costs $25,000 a year [$845,960 today] to keep in order Greystone, the Hudson river place of the late Mr. [Samuel J.] Tilden [the Democratic Presidential candidate in 1876]. The gentleman who yearns for the privilege of making this annual disbursement has not yet appeared as a purchaser of the estate.
A lady in Portland, Me., lately went out fishing with her husband, and caught a forty-two pound salmon, which she landed after an hour’s fight. This is believed to be the largest salmon ever caught by a woman.
The house has decided to put wool on the free list, only three democrats, all northern men, voting against it. Rice and sugar, which are raised solely in the south, will continue to be heavily protected. The south is in the saddle again, unquestionably.
At Chica, [sic; Chicago?] Ill., July 14th, Fred Nelson, a drummer, fired five shots into his body and then tried to hang himself. The doctors say he will live.
Mrs. J.B. Harris, wife of a Baptist minister at Gratz, Ky., cowhided Rev. Banda West, Methodist, for alleged slander. She was arrested, but afterward discharged.
Thomas Longley, an inkeeper of Dover, England, is said to be the heaviest man in the world, being 560 pounds in weight. He is a little over six feet in height, and measures eighty inches around the waist. He is unable to walk much, and does not trust himself in a carriage for fear of breaking the springs. He is very intemperate in eating and drinking.
Gen. Albert Pike never uses any but quill pens, and he carefully preserves them when they are worn out. He has probably 10,000 old pens stored away in his cupboard.
The other day the guests at the Pavillion hotel, Gloucester, Mass., were treated to a novel scene. A large horse mackerel appeared among the bathers. A boat was manned, and, with a harpoon, he was soon captured and killed. He measured fifteen feet, and weighed about 2000 pounds.
Capt. William M. Randall, of Elvin Newton’s company at Lunging island, Isles of Shoals, came in on Thursday, and reported that the island was nowhere near being washed away during the blow of the previous night.
The body of Luther Bryant, a little boy who was drowned in the river at Biddeford, was found floating on the 10th inst., after being in the water forty days.
Mrs. Eunice Joy, mother of murderer Albert Joy, has been insane for years but has lately turned violent, so they locked her up.
New Hampshire Gazette, July 19, 1888
The eviction of 114 families, numbering 1000 persons, commenced on the Vandeleur estate in Ireland on the 18th inst.; the evicting force consists of 500 dragoons and infantry, besides the constabulary. The evicted people will come to this country and vote for British free trade, probably.
Mrs. P.J. Tully of Macon, Georgia, twenty-two years old, went sailing on the Niagara river on the 19th inst., with W.H. Barber. The boat capsized, and Mrs. Tully was carried over the falls, the man being rescued by another boat. Mrs. Tully was the handsomest brunette at Niagara.
Mary Flynn, aged eighty-five years, being unable to wait any longer, hung herself in New York on the 20th.
Joseph Quinn, aged twenty-two years, went to sleep under a freight car on a side track in Manchester on the night of the 23rd, and was run over and ground up during the night.
Fourteen lumbermen attempted while drunk to run the rapids of the Matawan river, Ontario, and all were drowned.
The following item of startling information we find going the rounds of the press:
The Norwegians are breaking up worn-out wooden ships in a singular way. They take the vessel to some dangerous point on the coast and anchor it there, leaving it to be broken into bits by the sea in the first heavy gale. The fragments are carried ashore, and are collected and sold at good rates for firewood.
This is absurd. The Norwegians do nothing of the kind. When a ship is worn out they carry it up on a mountain and throw it down a cliff two thousand feet high. This not only smashes the timbers into firewood and makes the spikes into ten-penny nails, but makes a big cavity in the ground which is cut up and sold for cellars and post-holes.
New Hampshire Gazette, July 26, 1888
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Our thanks to the Portsmouth Athenaeum, holder of the newspapers from which the items above were excerpted. – The Ed.