ITEMS OF INTEREST March 13, 1909 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

National.

In restitution for the alleged seizure of the sloop Townsend on the high seas in October, 1798, by the French privateer Le Pelletier, Miss Jennie E. McFarland of Searsport, Me., has just been awarded the sum of $483.96, in an amendment to the claim bill recently passed by the United States Senate. Miss McFarland is administratrix of the estate of Ephraim McFarland, who with Joseph Cobb and William Campbell owned the vessel. The estates of the other two owners have also been paid claims aggregating $5,605.18. The Townsend sailed from Boothbay, then in the state of Massachusetts, on Aug. 28, 1798, with a cargo of lumber and fish, bound for the English island of Antigua. In October she was seized by the Le Pelletier as a prize of war. After more than one hundred years had elapsed, the Court of Claims, in a decision filed Feb. 18, 1908, decreed that the condemnation of the sloop was illegal.

Three thousand souvenir medals for the Taft inauguration were struck off at Philadelphia. Three of the number were of solid gold, and were given to President Taft, Vice-President Sherman, and Chairman Stellwagon of the inaugural committee. Fifty of the medals were silver and were distributed among the members of the cabined and other statesmen. The remaining medals were of bronze. On one side of the medals are the bust in relief of President Taft and Vice-President Sherman, while on the other side are the names of the two men.

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