THE PORTLAND TRANSCRIPT, FEBRUARY 15, 1868

                                                       MAINE MATTERS

          We regret to learn that the busy village of Skowhegan was visited with another
     destructive fire on Friday night of last week-one of the coldest nights of the season,
     when the mercury was fifteen degrees below zero. It broke out in the Excelsior
     Factory, occupied by the following firms; Alva Abbot, planning mill; loss $3000;
     M. Willis, loss $3000; N. C. Houghton & Co., millwrights, loss $1500; J. F. Turner
     bedstead manufactory, loss $1000; C. F. Douglass, builder, loss $700; Brown &
     Barber, carving knife makers, loss $500; the building entirely destroyed, owned by
     M. Willis, loss $5000, no insurance on any of the above. The fire crossed the street
     and destroyed the large machine shop and foundry of S. L. Gould & Co., whose
     total loss is $1500-insured for $5000. Half the bridge crossing the river was burned.
          On the 5th inst., the engine and tender of a passenger train on the Portland &
     Kennebec Road, was thrown down an embankment of thirty or forty feet, near
     Richmond upon the ice of the Kennebec River. The baggage car was thrown from the
     track on the opposite side, while the passengers cars kept on running for an eighth of
     a mile. The fireman Charles Evans, was thrown from the tender, but escaped with severe
     bruises. It was fortunate the coupling broke, or the whole train would have been dragged
     down the embankment, with frightful consequences to life and limb.
          The Calais Advertiser relates a leap year freak which had a rather disastrous ending.
      A young lady named Ellen M. Shaw, daughter of a Baptist Minister at Brewer, procured
      a horse and sleigh on pretense of attending a funeral, but took in a man named J. D.
     Rhodes and drove to Calais where the two were married, when Rhodes was immediately
     arrested for horse stealing, and the bride was left sick at a hotel. The girl is only
     seventeen years of age, and her folks say they will take her back if she will have nothing
     to do with the fellow, but not otherwise.
         In Saco on Monday week, a fire destroyed a building owned by Dr. Berry and John
      Adams, and occupied by an apothecary, a shoe store and a fish market. Loss from
      $3000 to $5000. In Biddeford, on Thursday week a fire broke out in the Adams block,
      and Sargent's Writing Academy, Good Templar's Hall, a billiard room and offices in the
      second floor were destroyed, while the stores in the basement were badly damaged by
     water. The property destroyed was insured.
          The liquor seized on the premises of Charles Ingalls of Auburn, proved to be
     nothing stronger than ginger beer with cayenne pepper in it, and the liquid which he
     poured into it at the time of the seizure, and which came so near poisoning the constable
     and the doctor, was a solution of potash, instead of Prussic Acid. So Mr. Ingalls was
     discharged with flying colors.
          The Saco Courier states that Mr. James Nickerson, overseer of the Laconia
    Corporation, had one of his legs broken just below the hip, and his head severely bruised,
    by falling through a scuttle some seventy feet, on Tuesday week.
          The masked ball at Gardiner, on Tuesday week, seems to have been a brilliant success.
     More than one hundred couples joined in the dance, and all sorts of characters and
     nationalities were represented while many of the costumes were elegant and unique.
     We learn from the Journal that our old correspondent, Ethan Spike was represented,
     and that a gentleman from Boston appeared in the character of an immense champagne
     bottle.
          Colonel John W. Jameson of South Windsor, gave notice to his neighbors that he
     would give all the wood they could and draw it to the door of a certain widow lady.
     Accordingly on Monday last, men and teams started for the Colonels' woods, he with
     the rest. At night the widow's heart was made glad the sight of ten cords of good wood
    the door.
          The house of Mr. Joseph Hall at Shapleigh Corner, was robbed on the night of the
     3rd inst., of $1,200. The rogue administered chloroform, so that Mr. Hall and his wife
     did not awake until late in the morning. A reward of $300 is offered for the arrest of the
     burglars, or the recovery of the money.
          In Belfast, 7th inst., the store of Martin P. White, and a small house in the rear were
     destroyed by fire. A woman named Jipson, 80 years old, perished in the house where the
     fire originated. Store insured for $700; no insurance on stock, which was saved in a
     damaged condition.
          As a hunting party were about leaving Eastport on a hunting expedition to Grand Lake,
     one of their horses fell with a broken leg, having received a kick from the leader, and it
     was found necessary to shoot him. He was owned by Mr. Enoch Bishop, and was a heavy
     and powerful animal.
          Mr. L. C. Hodgman of South Paris, a conductor on the Grand Truck Railroad, died
     last week from the effects of a splinter which was accidently forced into one of his
     fingers. The whole arm and shoulder were swollen and a large abscess gathered in the
     arm pit.
          Honorable Toppan Robie of Gorham, has offered the citizens of that town a handsome
     clock to be placed in the tower of the Congregational Church in that village, provided
    the citizens will put the clock into its proper place.
          A man named Vose belonging in Charlestown, Mass., died in the stage between
     Calais and Eastport, on Wednesday week, from congestion of the lungs.
          The Methodist Church of Oxford, of which Rev. Samuel Paine is pastor, has been
     enjoying a season of deep religious interest, in which there have been about twenty
     conversations.
          The case of Davis, who has so many times torn up the track of the Somerset and
     Kennebec Railroad, in Waterville, Me., has been settled by the company paying the
     family $2140 in accordance with the decision of referees.
          Mr. John E. Currier, clerk in the Naval Store at the Kittery Navy Yard, died suddenly
      on Monday week, while sitting in his chair. He had been sick with consumption for some
     time.  
          Verrill who was charged with being engaged in the West Auburn murder, has been
     very sick since his release. He seems to be completely exhausted, and some think he can
     never rally. 
          The Farmington Chronicle says Mr. Hiram Butterfield, of that village, while
     chopping in the woods, accidently cut a deep gash in his foot, which will disable him for
     some weeks.
          A little daughter of  Mr. Rufus Hamlin of Harrison, was so severely burned on
     Saturday week, by her clothes catching fire from an open stove that she died the next
     day.
          At East Great Works on Saturday week, Mr. Walton had one of his feet so badly cut
     by an axe, that amputation of a part of the foot was necessary.
          The tannery of A. S. Riggs, in Lewiston, was destroyed by fire on Wednesday week.
     Loss $2,800; insured for $1,600.
          In Bangor on Monday week, Michael Donohue died from the effects of burns received
     from setting his clothes on fire by a lamp while intoxicated.
          A correspondent informs us that Deacon John Morgan and wife of New Gloucester,
     celebrated their Golden Wedding on the 6th inst. A large company was present, including
     a brother and a sister of the bridegroom who were present at the wedding fifty year ago.
     All the children of the aged couple were present except Rev. J. F. Morgan, of  Lawrence,
     Kansas, from whom a excellent letter was read. The venerable couple were in excellent
     spirits, and the occasion was one of great interest to all present.
          The Houlton Times says Collector Vandine recently seized a horse and pung (sled)
     owned by Joseph Kearney of Woodstock, New Brunswick, the latter of which was very
     ingeniously fitted up for smuggling purposes. It had a false bottom, a tin lined tank under
     the seat, that held a barrel of liquor, and a "trap," in the dasher that contained a half dozen
     bottles.
          On Wednesday evening of last week Miss Julia Whitehouse of West Falmouth, was
     knocked down and run over by a horse and sleigh, which dislocated the hip joint and
     inflicted other serious injuries. Dr. Hall of Cumberland reduced the dislocation, and the
     unfortunate young lady is as comfortable as could be expected.
           As Jedediah Perkins of Ogunquit was fishing off that place lately in a small wherry,
     he succeeded in capturing a shark, about ten feet long, and taking off the monster's tail
     tail up to where it was 32 inches in width. It contained hooks from four different trawls.
          The Lewiston Journal says the physicians of Androscoggin County, have been
     discussing abortions, and Mr. Oakes estimates that 400 murders by abortion are
     procured annually. Horrible!