Rhode Island:
Dec. 17.—The committee appointed by the Providence City Council to consider what action should be taken by the city government for the proper observance of its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, submitted its report. The committee is of the opinion that the celebration should consist of a festival lasting two days. It is recommended that the first day be devoted to literary and historical exercises in the First Baptist Meeting-House, with an historical address giving a complete history of the city, together with appropriate odes, poems, and music. The committee recommends that on the second day there be a grand trades procession representative of the past and present industries of Providence; also an elaborate military and civic parade; that, in the afternoon, balloon ascensions, band concerts, and other amusements be provided for the people, and that the celebration be brought to a termination by a grand display of fireworks in the evening. As the best historical authorities name the date of the founding of Providence as between the 20th and 25th of June, the committee is of the opinion that the 23d and 24th should be selected. This suggestion is made also in view of the fact that the 24th of June will be observed as a festival day by the French residents, and the Masonic Fraternity. It is proposed that the city appropriate $10,000 for the observance, and that the State legislature be requested to make a further appropriation of $5,000.
Connecticut:
Jan. 6.—The Legislature organized by electing Stiles T. Stanton, President pro tem. of the Senate, and John T. Tibbets, of New London, as Speaker of the House.
The article on the Wayte family, in the January number of the New England Magazine, has provoked much pleasant comment in Lyme, the birthplace and summer home of Chief Justice Waite, and New London, the residence of Hon. John T. Wait.
The History of Hartford County in two splendid volumes, press of Ticknor & Co., of Boston, is now being printed, and will be ready for delivery in a few weeks.
Vermont:
Six young men, playing Spanish mandolins, guitars, and harps, says the Chicago Herald, Jan. 18, sat in the balcony of one of the banquet halls at Kinsley's last evening. Below the musicians, and seated at an E-shaped table were two hundred and fifty elderly gentlemen, members of the Illinois Association of the Sons of Vermont, who were destroying their ninth annual banquet. Pots filled with pork and beans, huge pumpkin pies, and large blocks of brown bread were spread before the banqueters. Glass fruit-dishes piled high with ruddy winter apples and little dishes overflowing with cracked hickory nuts came later, and then all these good things were washed down with cider and claret. The toasts were: "Vermont," H. N. Hibbard; "Clergymen of Vermont," Rev. G. N. Boardman; "Stumps of Vermont," E. B. Sherman; "The Star that never sets," W. W. Chandler. After the speech-making, Jules Lombard, robed in black and wearing a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles upon the breast of his Prince Albert coat, sang "America" and a pretty Scottish serenade. Among those present were E. G. Keith, II, P. Kellogg, O. S. A. Sprague, R. S. Smith, Gen. H. H. Thomas, H. N. Hibbard, George Chandler, Harvey Edgerton, Dr. C. N. Fitch, E. A. Jewett, Col. Arba N. Waterman, E. B. Sherman, John M. Thatcher, A. W. Butler, Frank Deinson, H. N. Nash, John M. Southworth, George W. Newcombe, and S. W. Burnham.