THE PORTLAND TRANSCRIPT, February 29, 1868

                                                        MATTERS IN MAINE

          The House, last week after a long discussion, refused a passage to the bill
     establishing a Board of Education by a vote of 83 to 53. A reconsideration was moved
     for the purpose of securing one feature upon which all parties seemed agreed--
     a uniformity in text books.
          The Senate discussed the bill for the equalization of War debts. Mr. Farley offered an
     amendment increasing the amount to be refunded to the municipalities to $200 in place
     of $100 per man.
          The order relative to the removal of the capital to Portland has been referred to the
     next legislature. In the discussion, in the Senate on the bill for the assumption of
     municipal War debts, Mr. Robie, of Cumberland showed that the equalization of the
     debt will fall very heavily on Cumberland County. Nine towns lose $355,766;
     fourteen towns gain $29,338, and Cumberland County pays in to the State Treasury
     $366,428 to equalize the town debts of other sections of the State. The amendment
     reimbursing $200 to each town passed the Senate by a vote of 19 to 12. The amount
     to be reimbursed is $6,532,000, to be raised on the State valuation, provided it passes
     the House. The House on Friday amused itself with a discussion of political creeds. Mr.
     Hubbard, defending the war record of the Democracy, and Mr. Hale replying at length;
     a great deal of breath was expended on both sides to little purpose. The political
     discussion in the House was continued on Saturday, when Mr. Bradley spoke on the
     Democratic side, and was followed by Messrs. Billings, Dingley, Hubbard, Fessenden,
     Read and others. After the blow-out, as Mr. Hale called it, the House adjourned amid
     general good feeling.
          The Machias Union says, that  an affray occurred on board of the brig S. Strout,
      of Machias with a sad termination. The mate learned that there was money on board
     for the purchasing a cargo at Turk's Island, and after being out a few days from
     St. Thomas, he conceived the idea of murdering the crew and securing the money.
     When the second mate's watch was on deck, the mate went forward where he found
     Henry Parker, a young man of Millbridge, whom he killed with an axe and threw
     the body overboard! He then returned aft and attacked the man at the wheel, who
     knocked him down. The noise aroused the crew, and after a severe struggle, he was
     over powered and confined. It is said that Captain Strout and one other man was
     considerably injured in the affray.
          At the Insane Asylum, in Augusta, on Sunday morning last, Mrs. Mary Peaslee
     was murdered by Miss Catharine Hurley. When discovered Miss Hurley had hold
     of her victim's head, and was beating it against the floor. She was placed in close
     confinement and was unconscious of the horrible deed. She had been insane only
     six weeks, and had previously exhibited no signs of violence. Mrs. Peaslee was 54
     years old, came from Westbrook and was also insane..
          The Kennebec Journal says a Mr. Garland of Winslow, a short time since purchased
     a very nice sleigh-so nicely painted and varnished that the back of it reflected like
     a mirror. It was put into a building in which was an aristocratic independent gent
     turkey, who in passing the back of the sleigh thought he had found an intruder,where
     upon he up and showed fight, and did not give up the contest until he had fairly ruined
     the back of a costly sleigh.
          Mr. William F. Hall of Windham, gave us the other day a statement of his success
     in beekeeping. From two  swarms fed two and half months on honey, he obtained 448
     pounds of honey. The youngest swarm made 35 pounds of honey in three  weeks in
     September. This is a remarkable production.  It is difficult to see what the bees could
     find to make honey of at (as written) that season.
          Professor C. D. Robinson gave one of his readings in the new school house at
     Woodford's Corner, Westbrook, on Friday evening of last week, and a rare
     intellectual treat it was. His voice is admirably trained, and he reads not only with
     force but with taste and feeling. His rendering of Poe's "Bells" we have never heard
     equaled.
          The Methodist meeting house at Methodist Corner, West Durham, having been
     remodeled was dedicated on the 5th inst. Rev. A. Sanderson, the Presiding Elder,
     preached the sermon, and it was in the old house that he preached the sermon, and it
     was in the old house that he preached his first sermon, forty-five years ago. For his
     first year's work he received his board and $37.33 in cash.
          Our lumbermen in the woods are liable to serious accidents, and this winter a
     large number of men have been killed or injured by falling trees or blows of the axe.
     John Martugh was killed on the 8th inst., while at work in the woods of Thorndike
     Plantation, by a falling limb striking him on the head.
          The Farmer say that while three men of J. Clark's crew near Kennebec, went out
     on a gunning expedition, they started (sic) up a bear and followed him two miles
     until he took refuge under a windfall, where he was soon dispatched with an axe, and
     and just before dark the victors returned to camp, carrying a huge bear-skin as a
     trophy.