MULTUM IN PARVO

HISTORY OF THE BIBLES OF THE WORLD.

The Bibles of the world are the koran of the Mohammedans, the tripitaka of the Buddhists, the five kings of the Chinese, the three vedas of the Hindoos, the zendavesta of the Parsees and the scriptures of the Christians. The koran, says the Chicago Times, is the most recent, dating from the seventh century after Christ. It is a compound of quotations from both the Old and the New Testaments and from the talmud. The tripitaka contain sublime morals and pure aspirations. Their author lived and died in the sixth century before Christ.

The sacred writings of the Chinese are called the five kings, the word "king" meaning web of cloth. From this it is presumed that they were originally written on five rolls of cloth. They contain wise sayings from the sages on the duties of life, but they can not be traced further back than the eleventh century before our era. The vedas are the most ancient books in the language of the Hindoos, but they do not, according to late commentators, antedate the twelfth before the Christian era. The zendaveata of the Parsees, next to our Bible, is reckoned among scholars as being the greatest and most learned of the sacred writings. Zoroaster, whose sayings it contains, lived and worked in the twelfth century before Christ. Moses lived and wrote the pentateuch 1,500 years before the birth of Jesus, therefore that portion of our Bible is at least 300 years older than the most ancient of other sacred writings. The eddas, a semi-sacred work of the Scandinavians, was first given to the world in the fourteen century A.D.

PRECIOUS STONES.

ARRANGED ACCORDING TO COLOR AND IN ORDER OF HARDINESS.

Limpid.—Diamond, Sapphire, Topaz, Rock-Crystal.

Blue.—Sapphire, Topaz, Indicolite, Turquoise, Spinel, Aquamarine, Kaynite.

Green.—Oriental Emerald, Chrysoberyl, Amazon Stone, Malachite, Emerald, Chrysoprase, Chrysolite.

Yellow.—Diamond, Topaz, Fire-Opal.

Red.—Sapphire-Ruby, Spinel-Ruby, Rubellite, Garnet, Brazilian-Topaz, Hyacinth, Carnelian.

Violet.—Oriental-Amethyst, Amethyst.

Black and Brown.—Diamond, Tourmaline, Hyacinth, Garnet.

HOW TO MEASURE CORN IN THE CRIB.

Rule: 1st. Measure the length, breadth and height of the crib inside the rail; multiply them together and divide by two, the result is the number of bushels of shelled corn.

2d. Level the corn so that it is of equal depth throughout, multiply the length, breath and depth together, and this product by four, and cut off one figure to the right of the product; the other will represent the number of bushels of shelled corn.

3d. Multiply length by height, and then by width, add two ciphers to the result and divide by 124; this gives the number of bushels of ear corn.

HOME DRESSMAKING.

The art of dressmaking in America has been of late years so simplified that almost anyone with a reasonable degree of executive ability can manufacture a fashionable costume by using an approved pattern and following the directions printed upon it, selecting a new pattern for each distinct style; while in Europe many ladies adhere to the old plan of cutting one model and using it for everything, trusting to personal skill or luck to gain the desired formation. However, some useful hints are given which are well worth offering after the paper pattern has been chosen.

The best dressmakers here and abroad use silk for lining, but nothing is so durable or preserves the material as well as a firm slate twill. This is sold double width and should be laid out thus folded: place the pattern upon it with the upper part towards the cut end, the selvedge for the fronts. The side pieces for the back will most probably be got out of the width, while the top of the back will fit in the intersect of the front. A yard of good stuff may be often saved by laying the pattern out and well considering how one part cuts into another. Prick the outline on to the lining; these marks serve as a guide for the tacking.

In forming the front side plaits be careful and do not allow a fold or crease to be apparent on the bodice beyond where the stitching commences. To avoid this, before beginning stick a pin through what is to be the top of the plait. The head will be on the right side, and holding the point, one can begin pinning the seam without touching the upper part of the bodice. To ascertain the size of the buttonholes put a piece of card beneath the button to be used and cut it an eighth of an inch on either side beyond. Having turned down the piece in front on the buttonhole side run a thread a sixteenth of an inch from the extreme edge, and again another the width of the card. Begin to cut the first buttonhole at the bottom of the bodice; and continue at equal distances. The other side of the bodice is left wide enough to come well under the buttonholes. The buttonholes must be laid upon it and a pin put through the center of each to mark where the button is to be placed. In sewing on the buttons put the stiches in horizontally; if perpendicularly they are likely to pucker that side of the bodice so much that it will be quite drawn up, and the buttons will not match the buttonholes.

A WOMAN'S SKIRTS.

Observe the extra fatigue which is insured to every woman in merely carrying a tray upstairs, from the skirts of the dress. Ask any young women who are studying to pass examinations whether they do not find loose clothes a sine qua non while poring over their books, and then realize the harm we are doing ourselves and the race by habitually lowering our powers of life and energy in such a manner. As a matter of fact it is doubtful whether any persons have ever been found who would say that their stays were at all tight; and, indeed, by a muscular contraction they can apparently prove that they are not so by moving them about on themselves, and thus probably believe what they say. That they are in error all the same they can easily assure themselves by first measuring round the waist outside the stays; then take them off, let them measure while they take a deep breath, with the tape merely laid on the body as if measuring for the quantity of braid to go round a dress, and mark the result. The injury done by stays is so entirely internal that it is not strange that the maladies caused by wearing them should be attributed to every reason under the sun except the true one, which is, briefly, that all the internal organs, being by them displaced, are doing their work imperfectly and under the least advantageous conditions: and are, therefore, exactly in the state most favorable to the development of disease, whether hereditary or otherwise.—Macmillan's Magazine.

TO MAKE THE SLEEVES.

As to sleeves. Measure from the shoulder to the elbow and again from elbow to the wrist. Lay these measurements on any sleeve patterns you may have, and lengthen and shorten accordingly. The sleeve is cut in two pieces, the top of the arm and the under part, which is about an inch narrower than the outside. In joining the two together, if the sleeve is at all tight, the upper part is slightly fulled to the lower at the elbow. The sleeve is sewn to the armhole with no cordings now, and the front seam should be about two inches in front of the bodice.

Bodices are now worn very tight-fitting, and the French stretch the material well on the cross before beginning to cut out, and in cutting allow the lining to be slightly pulled, so that when on, the outside stretches to it and insures a better fit. An experienced eye can tell a French-cut bodice at once, the front side pieces being always on the cross. In dress cutting and fitting, as in everything else, there are failures and discouragements, but practice overrules these little matters, and "trying again" brings a sure reward in success.

A sensible suggestion is made in regard to the finish in necks of dresses for morning wear. Plain colors have rather a stiff appearance, tulle or crepe lisse frilling are expensive and frail, so it is a good idea to purchase a few yards of really good washing lace, about an inch and a half in depth; quill or plait and cut into suitable lengths to tack around the necks of dresses. This can be easily removed and cleaned when soiled. A piece of soft black Spanish lace, folded loosely around the throat close to the frillings, but below it, looks very pretty; or you may get three yards of scarf lace, trim the ends with frillings, place it around the neck, leaving nearly all the length in the right hand, the end lying upon the left shoulder being about half a yard long. Wind the larger piece twice around the throat, in loose, soft folds, and festoon the other yard and a half, and fasten with brooch or flower at the side.—Philadelphia Times.

DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA.

It was on the 19th day of January, 1848, that James W. Marshall, while engaged in digging a race for a saw-mill at Coloma, about thirty-five miles eastward from Sutter's Fort, found some pieces of yellow metal, which he and the half-dozen men working with him at the mill supposed to be gold. He felt confident that he had made a discovery of great importance, but he knew nothing of either chemistry or gold-mining, so he could not prove the nature of the metal nor tell how to obtain it in paying quantities. Every morning he went down to the race to look for the bits of metal; but the other men at the mill thought Marshall was very wild in his ideas, and they continued their labors in building the mill, and in sowing wheat and planting vegetables. The swift current of the mill-race washed away a considerable body of earthy matter, leaving the coarse particles of gold behind; so Marshall's collection of specimens continued to accumulate, and his associates began to think there might be something in his gold mines after all. About the middle of February, a Mr. Bennett, one of the party employed at the mill, went to San Francisco for the purpose of learning whether this metal was precious, and there he was introduced to Isaac Humphrey, who had washed for gold in Georgia. The experienced miner saw at a glance that he had the true stuff before him, and, after a few inquiries, he was satisfied that the diggings must be rich. He made immediate preparation to visit the mill, and tried to persuade some of his friends to go with him; but they thought it would be only a waste of time and money, so he went with Bennett for his sole companion.

He arrived at Coloma on the 7th of March, and found the work at the mill going on as if no gold existed in the neighborhood. The next day he took a pan and spade, and washed some of the dirt in the bottom of the mill-race in places where Marshall had found his specimens, and, in a few hours, Humphrey declared that these mines were far richer than any in Georgia. He now made a rocker and went to work washing gold industriously, and every day yielded to him an ounce or two of metal. The men at the mill made rockers for themselves, and all were soon busy in search of the yellow metal. Everything else was abandoned; the rumor of the discovery spread slowly. In the middle of March Pearson B. Reading, the owner of a large ranch at the head of the Sacramento valley, happened to visit Sutter's Fort, and hearing of the mining at Coloma, he went thither to see it. He said that if similarity of formation could be taken as a proof, there must be gold mines near his ranch; so, after observing the method of washing, he posted off, and in a few weeks he was at work on the bars of Clear Creek, nearly two hundred miles northwestward from Coloma. A few days after Reading had left, John Bidwell, now representative of the northern district of the State in the lower House of Congress, came to Coloma, and the result of his visit was that, in less than a month, he had a party of Indians from his ranch washing gold on the bars of Feather River, twenty-five miles northwestward from Coloma. Thus the mines were opened at far distant points.

The first printed notice of the discovery of gold was given in the California newspaper published in San Francisco on the 10th of March. On the 29th of May the same paper, announcing that its publication would be suspended, says: "The whole country, from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and from the seashore to the base of the Sierra Nevada, resound the sordid cry of gold! gold! gold! while the field is left half planted, the house half built and everything neglected but the manufacture of pick and shovels, and the means of transportation to the spot where one man obtained one hundred and twenty-eight dollars' worth of the real stuff in one day's washing; and the average for all concerned, is twenty dollars per diem. The first to commence quartz mining in California were Capt. Win. Jackson and Mr. Eliason, both Virginians, and the first machine used was a Chilian mill.

The Reid Mine, in North Carolina, was the first gold mine discovered and worked in the United States, and the only one in North America from which, up to 1825, gold was sent to the Mint.

HOW TO MAKE ARTIFICIAL GOLD.

The following oroid or imitation gold is sometimes sold for the genuine article which it closely resembles. Pure copper, 100 parts by weight, is melted in a crucible, and then 6 parts of magnesia, 3.6 of sal-ammoniac, 1.8 of quicklime and 9. of tartar are added separately and gradually in the form of powder. The whole is then stirred for about half an hour, and 17 parts of zinc or tin in small grains are thrown in and thoroughly mixed. The crucible is now covered and the mixture kept melted for half an hour longer, when it is skimmed and poured out.

Any imitation of gold may be detected by its weight, which is not one-half of what it should be, and by its dissolving in nitric acid while pure gold is untouched.

HOW TO TELL ANY PERSON'S AGE.

There is a good deal of amusement in the following magical table of figures. It will enable you to tell how old the young ladies are. Just hand this table to a young lady, and request her to tell you in which column or columns her age is contained, and add together the figures at the top of the columns in which her age is found, and you have the great secret. Thus, suppose her age to be 17, you will find that number in the first and fifth columns; add the first figures of these two columns.

Here is the magic table:

 1   2   4   8 16 32
 3   3   5   9 17 33
 5   6   6 10 18 34
 7   7   7 11 19 35
 9 10  12 12 20 36
11 11 13 13 21 37
13 14 14 14 22 38
15 15 15 15 23 39
17 18 20 24 24 40
19 19 21 25 25 41
21 22 22 26 26 42
23 23 23 27 27 43
25 26 28 28 28 44
27 27 29 29 29 45
29 30 30 30 30 46
31 31 31 31 31 47
33 34 36 40 48 48
35 35 37 41 49 49
37 38 38 42 50 50
39 39 39 43 51 51
41 42 44 44 52 52
43 43 45 45 53 53
45 46 46 46 54 54
47 47 47 47 55 55
49 50 52 56 56 56
51 51 53 57 57 57
53 54 54 58 58 58
55 55 55 59 59 59
57 58 60 60 60 60
59 59 61 61 61 61
61 62 62 62 62 62
63 63 63 63 63 63

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE COSTS.

Salary of President, $50,000; additional appropriations are about $75,000. A total of $125,000. The President has the following corps of assistants: Private Secretary, $3,250; Assistant Private Secretary, $2,250; Stenographer, $1,800; five Messengers, $1,200 each, $6,000; Steward—; two Doorkeepers, $1,200 each, $2,400; two Ushers, $1,200, $1,400, $2,600; Night Usher, $1,200; Watchman, $900, and a few other minor clerks and telegraph operators.

SUNDRIES.—Incidental expenses, $8,000; White House repairs—carpets and refurnishing, $12,500; fuel, $2,500; green-house, $4,000; gas, matches and stable, $15,000.

These amounts, with others of minor importance, consume the entire appropriations.

BUSINESS LAW.

Ignorance of the law excuses no one. It is a fraud to conceal a fraud. The law compels no one to do impossibilities. An agreement without consideration is void. Signatures made with a lead pencil are good in law. A receipt for money paid is not legally conclusive. The acts of one partner bind all the others. Contracts made on Sunday cannot be enforced. A contract made with a minor is void. A contract made with a lunatic is void. Principals are responsible for the acts of their agents.

Agents are responsible to their principals for errors. Each individual in a partnership is responsible for the whole amount of the debts of the firm. A note given by a minor is void. Notes bear interest only when so stated. It is legally necessary to say on a note "for value received." A note drawn on Sunday is void. A note obtained by fraud, or from a person in a state of intoxication, cannot be collected. If a note be lost or stolen, it does not release the maker; he must pay it. An endorser of a note is exempt from liability if not served with notice of its dishonor within twenty-four hours of its non-payment.

ITEMS WORTH REMEMBERING.

A sun bath is of more worth than much warming by the fire.

Books exposed to the atmosphere keep in better condition than if confined in a book-case. Pictures are both for use and ornament. They serve to recall pleasant memories and scenes; they harmonize with the furnishing of the rooms. If they serve neither of these purposes they are worse than useless; they only help fill space which would look better empty, or gather dust and make work to keep them clean.

A room filled with quantities of trifling ornaments has the look of a bazaar and displays neither good taste nor good sense. Artistic excellence aims to have all the furnishings of a high order of workmanship combined with simplicity, while good sense understands the folly of dusting a lot of rubbish.

A poor book had best be burned to give place to a better, or even to an empty shelf, for the fire destroys its poison, and puts it out of the way of doing harm.

Better economize in the purchasing of furniture or carpets than scrimp in buying good books or papers.

Our sitting-rooms need never be empty of guests or our libraries of society if the company of good books is admitted to them.

REMARKABLE CALCULATIONS REGARDING THE SUN.

The sun's average distance from the earth is about 91,500,000 miles. Since the orbit of the earth is elliptical, and the sun is situated at one of its foci, the earth is nearly 3,000,000 miles further from the sun in aphelion than in perihelion. As we attempt to locate the heavenly bodies in space, we are immediately startled by the enormous figures employed. The first number, 91,500,000 miles, is far beyond our grasp. Let us try to comprehend it. If there were air to convey a sound from the sun to the earth, and a noise could be made loud enough to pass that distance it would require over fourteen years for it to come to us. Suppose a railroad could be built to the sun. An express train traveling day and night at the rate of thirty miles an hour, would require 341 years to reach its destination. Ten generations would be born and would die; the young men would become gray haired, and their great-grandchildren would forget the story of the beginning of that wonderful journey, and could find it only in history, as we now read of Queen Elizabeth or of Shakespeare; the eleventh generation would see the solar depot at the end of the route. Yet this enormous distance of 91,500,000 miles is used as the unit for expressing celestial distances—as the foot-rule for measuring space; and astronomers speak of so many times the sun's distance as we speak of so many feet or inches.

SIGNS OF STORMS APPROACHING.—A ring around the sun or moon stands for an approaching storm, its near or distant approach being indicated by its larger or smaller circumference. When the sun rises brightly and immediately afterward becomes veiled with clouds, the farmer distrusts the day. Rains which begin early in the morning often stop by nine in place of "eleven," the hour specified in the old saw, "If it rains before seven."

On a still, quiet day, with scarcely the least wind afloat, the ranchman or farmer can tell the direction of impending storm by cattle sniffing the air in the direction whence it is coming. Lack of dew in summer is a rain sign. Sharp white frosts in autumn and winter precede damp weather, and we will stake our reputation as a prophet that three successive white frosts are an infallible sign of rain. Spiders do not spin their webs out of doors before rain. Previous to rain flies sting sharper, bees remain in their hives or fly but short distances, and almost all animals appear uneasy.

HOW TO DISTINGUISH GOOD MEAT FROM BAD MEAT.

1st. It is neither of a pale pink color nor of a deep purple tint, for the former is a sign of disease, and the latter indicates that the animal has not been slaughtered, but has died with the blood in it, or has suffered from acute fever.

2d. It has a marked appearance from the ramifications of little veins of fat among the muscles.

3d. It should be firm and elastic to the touch and should scarcely moisten the fingers—bad meat being wet and sodden and flabby with the fat looking like jelly or wet parchment.

4th. It should have little or no odor, and the odor should not be disagreeable, for diseased meat has a sickly cadaverous smell, and sometimes a smell of physic. This is very discoverable when the meat is chopped up and drenched with warm water.

5th. It should not shrink or waste much in cooking.

6th. It should not run to water or become very wet on standing for a day or two, but should, on the contrary, dry upon the surface.

7th. When dried at a temperature of 212 deg., or thereabouts, it should not lose more than from 70 to 74 per cent. of its weight, whereas bad meat will often lose as much as 80 per cent. The juice of the flesh is alkaline or neutral to test paper.

RAILROADS IN FINLAND.

People who think of Finland as a sub-arctic country of bleak and forbidding aspect maybe surprised to hear that several railroads have already made a large part of the region accessible. A new line, 160 miles long, has just been opened to the heart of the country in the midst of great forests and perhaps the most wonderful lake region in the world. Sportsmen are now within less than a day's journey from St. Petersburg of central Finland, where there is the best of hunting and fishing and twenty hours of sunlight every summer day. The most unique of railroads, however, is still the little line in Norway, north of the arctic circle, carrying the product of far northern mines to the sea, and famous as the only railroad that has yet invaded the polar regions.

COMPARATIVE SIZE OF THE ARK AND THE GREAT EASTERN.

The following comparison between the size of Noah's ark and the Great Eastern, both being considered in point of tonnage, after the old law for calculating the tonnage of a vessel, exhibits a remarkable similarity. The cubit of the Bible, according to Sir Isaac Newton, is 20-1/2 inches, or, to be exact, 20.625 inches. Bishop Wilkins makes the cubit 20.88 inches. According to Newton the dimensions of the ark were: Length between perpendiculars, 515.62 feet; breadth, 84.94 feet; depth, 51.56 feet; keel, or length for tonnage, 464.08 feet. Tonnage, according to old law, 18,231 58-94. The measurements of the ark, according to Wilkins' calculations were: Length, 54700 feet; breadth, 91.16 feet; depth, 54.70 feet; keel, 492.31 feet. Tonnage, 21,761. Notice how surprisingly near the Great Eastern came to being constructed after the same plan: Length, 680 feet; breadth, 83 feet; depth, 60 feet; keel, 630 feet. Tonnage, 23,092.

FINGER NAILS AS AN INDICATION OF CHARACTER.

A white mark on the nail bespeaks misfortune.

Pale or lead-colored nails indicate melancholy people.

Broad nails indicate a gentle, timid, and bashful nature.

Lovers of knowledge and liberal sentiments have round nails.

People with narrow nails are ambitious and quarrelsome.

Small nails indicate littleness of mind, obstinacy and conceit.

Choleric, martial men, delighting in war, have red and spotted nails.

Nails growing into the flesh at the points or sides indicate luxurious tastes.

People with very pale nails are subject to much infirmity of the flesh and persecution by neighbors and friends.

DANGERS OF CELLULOID.

A curious accident, which happened recently in Paris, points out a possible danger in the wearing of combs and bracelets of celluloid. A little girl sat down before the fire to prepare her lessons. Her hair was kept back by a semi-circle comb of celluloid. As her head was bent forward to the fire this became warm, and suddenly burst into flames. The child's hair was partly burned off, and the skin of the head was so injured that several months after, though the burn was healed, the cicatrix formed a white patch on which no hair would grow. The burning point of celluloid is about 180 degrees, and the comb worn by the girl had attained that heat as it was held before the fire.

ODD FACTS ABOUT SHOES.

Grecian shoes were peculiar in reaching to the middle of the legs.

The present fashion of shoes was introduced into England in 1633.

In the ninth and tenth centuries the greatest princes of Europe wore wooden shoes.

Slippers were in use before Shakespeare's time, and were originally made "rights" and "lefts."

Shoes among the Jews were made of leather, linen, rush or wood; soldiers' shoes were sometimes made of brass or iron.

In the reign of William Rufus of England, in the eleventh century, a great beau, "Robert, the Horned," used shoes with sharp points, stuffed with tow, and twisted like rams' horns.

The Romans made use of two kinds of shoes—the solea, or sandal, which covered the sole of the foot, and was worn at home and in company, and the calceus, which covered the whole foot and was always worn with the toga when a person went abroad.

In the reign of Richard II., shoes were of such absurd length as to require to be supported by being tied to the knees with chains, sometimes of gold and silver. In 1463 the English parliament took the matter in hand and passed an act forbidding shoes with spikes more than two inches in length being worn and manufactured.

TABLE SHOWING THE AVERAGE VELOCITIES OF VARIOUS BODIES.

A man walks 3 miles per hour or 4 feet per second.
A horse trots 7 miles per hour or 10 feet per second.
A horse runs 20 miles per hour or 29 feet per second.
Steamboat runs 20 miles per hour or 26 feet per second.
Sailing vessel runs 10 miles per hour or 14 feet per second.
Rapid rivers flow 3 miles per hour or 4 feet per second.
A moderate wind blows 7 miles per hour or 10 feet per second.
A storm moves 36 miles per hour or 52 feet per second.
A hurricane moves 80 miles per hour or 117 feet per second.
A rifle ball 1000 miles per hour or 1466 feet per second.
Sound 743 miles per hour or 1142 feet per second.
Light, 192,000 miles per second.
Electricity, 288,000 miles per second.

QUANTITY OF OIL REQUIRED FOR DIFFERENT COLORS.

Heath & Miligan quote the following figures. They are color manufacturers:

100 parts (weight) White Lead require 12 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Zinc White require 14 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Green Chrome require 15 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Chrome Yellow require 19 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Vermilion require 25 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Light Red require 31 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Madder Lake require 62 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Yellow Ochre require 66 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Light Ochre require 72 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Camels Brown require 75 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Brown Manganese require 87 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Terre Verte require 100 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Parisian Blue require 106 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Burnt Terreverte require 112 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Berlin Blue require 112 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Ivory Black require 112 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Cobalt require 125 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Florentine Brown require 150 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Burnt Terra Sienna require 181 parts of oil.
100 parts (weight) Raw Terra Sienna require 140 parts of oil.

According to this table, a hundred parts of the quick drying white lead are ground with 12 parts of oil, and on the other hand slow drying ivory black requires 112 parts of oil.

PAINTING.

1 gallon Priming Color will cover 50 superficial yards.
1 gallon White Zinc will cover 50 superficial yards.
1 gallon White Paint will cover 44 superficial yards.
1 gallon Lead Color will cover 50 superficial yards.
1 gallon Black Paint will cover 50 superficial yards.
1 gallon Stone Color will cover 44 superficial yards.
1 gallon Yellow Paint will cover 44 superficial yards.
1 gallon Blue Color will cover 45 superficial yards.
1 gallon Green Paint will cover 45 superficial yards.
1 gallon Bright Emerald Green will cover 25 superficial yards.
1 gallon Bronze Green will cover 45 superficial yards.

One pound of paint will cover about four superficial yards the first coat, and about six yards each additional coat.

RAPID PROCESS OF MARKING GOODS AT ANY DESIRED PER CENT. PROFIT.

Retail merchants, in buying goods by wholesale, buy a great many articles by the dozen, such as boots and shoes, hats and caps, and notions of various kinds; now the merchant, in buying, for instance, a dozen hats, knows exactly what one of these hats will retail for in the market where he deals; and unless he is a good accountant, it will often take him some time to determine whether he can afford to purchase the dozen hats and make a living profit by selling them by the single hat; and in buying his goods by auction, as the merchant often does, he has not time to make the calculation before the goods are bid off. He therefore loses the chance of making good bargains by being afraid to bid at random, or if he bids, and the goods are cried off, he may have made a poor bargain by bidding thus at a venture. It then becomes a useful and practical problem to determine instantly what per cent. he would gain if he retailed the hat at a certain price, to tell what an article should retail for to make a profit of 20 per cent.

Rule.—Divide what the articles cost per dozen by 10. which is done by removing the decimal point one place to the left.

For instance, if hats cost $17.50 per dozen, remove the decimal point one place to the left, making $1.75, what they should be sold for apiece to gain 20 per cent, on the cost. If they cost $31.00 per dozen, they should be sold at $3.10 apiece, etc.

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD.

Pyramids of Egypt.

Tower, Walls and Terrace Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Statue of Jupiter Olympus, on the Capitoline Hill, at Rome.

Temple of Diana, at Ephesus.

Pharos, or watch-tower, at Alexandria, Egypt.

Colossus of Rhodes, a statue 105 feet high; overthrown by an earthquake 224 B.C.

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, a Grecian-Persian city in Asia Minor.

HEAT AND COLD.

Degrees of heat above zero at which substances melt:—Wrought iron, 3,980 degrees; cast iron, 3,479; platinum, 3,080; gold, 2,590; copper, 2,548; steel, 2,500; glass, 2,377; brass, 1,900; silver, 1,250; antimony, 951; zinc, 740; lead, 594; tin, 421; arsenic, 365; sulphur, 226; beeswax, 151; gutta percha, 145; tallow, 97; lard, 95; pitch, 91; ice, 33. Degrees of heat above zero at which substances boil:—Ether, 98 degrees; alcohol, 173; water, 212; petroleum, 306; linseed oil, 640; blood heat, 98; eggs hatch, 104.

QUANTITY OF SEED TO AN ACRE.

Wheat, 1-1/2 to 2 bu.; rye, 1-1/2 to 2 bu.; oats, 3 bu.; barley, 2 bu.; buckwheat, 1/2 bu.; corn, broadcast, 4 bu.; corn, in drills, 2 to 3 bu.; corn, in hills, 4 to 8 qts.; broom corn, 1/2 bu.; potatoes, 10 to 15 bu.; rutabagas, 3/4 lbs.; millet, 1/4 bu.; clover, white, 4 qts.; clover, red, 8 qts.; timothy, 6 qts.; orchard grass, 2 qts.; red top, 1 to 2 pks.: blue grass, 2 bu,; mixed lawn grass, 1/2 bu.; tobacco, 2 ozs.

SOLUBLE GLASS FOR FLOORS.

Instead of the old-fashioned method of using wax for polishing floors, etc., soluble glass is now employed to great advantage. For this purpose the floor is first well cleaned, and then the cracks well filled up with a cement of water-glass and powdered chalk or gypsum. Afterward, a water-glass of 60° to 65°, of the thickness of syrup, is applied by means of a stiff brush. Any desired color may be imparted to the floor in a second coat of the water-glass, and additional coats are to be given until the requisite polish is obtained. A still higher finish may be given by pummicing off the last layer, and then putting on a coating of oil.

DURABILITY OF A HORSE.

A horse will travel 400 yards in 4-1/2 minutes at a walk, 400 yards in 2 minutes at a trot, and 400 yards in minute at a gallop. The usual work of a horse is taken at 22,500 lbs. raised 1 foot per minute, for 8 hours per day. A horse will carry 250 lbs. 25 miles per day of 8 hours. An average draught-horse will draw 1600 lbs. 23 miles per day on a level road, weight of wagon included. The average weight of a horse is 1000 lbs.; his strength is equal to that of 5 men. In a horse mill moving at 3 feet per second, track 25 feet diameter, he exerts with the machine the power of 4-1/2 horses. The greatest amount a horse can pull in a horizontal line is 900 lbs.; but he can only do this momentarily, in continued exertion, probably half of this is the limit. He attains his growth in 5 years, will live 25, average 16 years. A horse will live 25 days on water, without solid food, 17 days without eating or drinking, but only 5 days on solid food, without drinking.

A cart drawn by horses over an ordinary road will travel 1.1 miles per hour of trip. A 4-horse team will haul from 25 to 30 cubic feet of lime stone at each load. The time expended in loading, unloading, etc., including delavs, averages 35 minutes per trip. The cost of loading and unloading a cart, using a horse cram at the quarry, and unloading by hand, when labor is $1.25 per day, and a horse 75 cents, is 25 cents per perch—24.75 cubic feet. The work done by an animal is greatest when the velocity with which he moves is 1/8 of the greatest with which he can move when not impeded, and the force then exerted .45 of the utmost force the animal can exert at a dead pull.

COMPARATIVE COST OF FREIGHT BY WATER AND RAIL.

It has been proved by actual test that a single tow-boat can transport at one trip from the Ohio to New Orleans 29,000 tons of coal, loaded in barges. Estimating in this way the boat and its tow, worked by a few men, carries as much freight to its destination as 3,000 cars and 100 locomotives, manned by 600 men, could transport.

HINTS TO YOUNG HOUSEWIVES.

Glycerine does not agree with a dry skin.

If you use powder always wash it off before going to bed.

When you give your cellar its spring cleaning, add a little copperas water and salt to the whitewash.

A little ammonia and borax in the water when washing blankets keeps them soft and prevents shrinkage.

Sprinkling salt on the top and at the bottom of garden walls is said to keep snails from climbing up or down.

For relief from heartburn or dyspepsia, drink a little cold water in which has been dissolved a teaspoonful of salt.

For hoarseness, beat a fresh egg and thicken it with fine white sugar. Eat of it freely and the hoarseness will soon be relieved.

If quilts are folded or rolled tightly after washing, then beaten with a rolling pin or potato masher, it lightens up the cotton and makes them seem soft and new.

Chemists say that it takes more than twice as much sugar to sweeten preserves, sauce, etc., if put in when they begin to cook as it does to sweeten after the fruit is cooked.

Tar may be removed from the hands by rubbing with the outside of fresh, orange or lemon peel and drying immediately. The volatile oils dissolve the tar so that it can be rubbed off.

Moths or any summer flying insects may be enticed to destruction by a bright tin pan half filled with kerosene set in a dark corner of the room. Attracted by the bright pan, the moth will meet his death in the kerosene.

It may be worth knowing that water in which three or four onions have been boiled, applied with a gilding brush to the frames of pictures and chimney glasses, will prevent flies from lighting on them and will not injure the frames.

SUPERSTITIONS REGARDING BABIES.

It is believed by many that if a child cries at its birth and lifts up only one hand, it is born to command. It is thought very unlucky not to weigh the baby before it is dressed. When first dressed the clothes should not be put on over the head, but drawn on over the feet, for luck. When first taken from the room in which it was born it must be carried up stairs before going down, so that it will rise in the world. In any case it must be carried up stairs or up the street, the first time it is taken out. It is also considered in England and Scotland unlucky to cut the baby's nails or hair before it is twelve months old. The saying:

Born on Monday, fair in the face;
Born on Tuesday, full of God's grace;
Born on Wednesday, the best to be had;
Born on Thursday, merry and glad;
Born on Friday, worthily given;
Born on Saturday, work hard for a living;
Born on Sunday, shall never know want,

is known with various changes all over the Christian world; one deviation from the original makes Friday's child "free in giving." Thursday has one very lucky hour just before sunrise.

The child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and good and gay,

While

He who is born on New Year's morn
Will have his own way as sure as you're born.

And

He who is born on Easter morn
Shall never know care, or want, or harm.

SECRET ART OF CATCHING FISH.

Put the oil of rhodium on the bait, when fishing with a hook, and you will always succeed.

TO CATCH FISH.

Take the juice of smallage or lovage, and mix with any kind of bait. As long as there remain any kind of fish within yards of your hook, you will find yourself busy pulling them out.

CERTAIN CURE FOR DRUNKENNESS.

Take of sulphate of iron 5 grains, magnesia 10 grains, peppermint water 11 drachms, spirits of nutmeg 1 drachm. Administer this twice a day. It acts as a tonic and stimulant and so partially supplies the place of the accustomed liquor, and prevents that absolute physical and moral prostration that follows a sudden breaking off from the use of stimulating drinks.

LADIES' STAMPING POWDER.

For use in stamping any desired pattern upon goods for needle work, embroidery, etc. Draw pattern upon heavy paper, and perforate with small holes all the lines with some sharp instrument, dust the powder through, remove the pattern and pass a warm iron over the fabric, when the pattern will become fixed. Any desired color can be used, such as Prussian blue, chrome green, yellow, vermilion, etc. Fine white rosin, 2 ounces; gum sandarach, 4 ounces; color, 2 ounces. Powder very fine, mix, and pass through a sieve.

SALARIES OF THE UNITED STATES OFFICERS, PER ANNUM.

President, Vice-President and Cabinet.—President, $50,000; Vice-President, $8,000; Cabinet Officers, $8,000 each.

United States Senators.—$5,000, with mileage.

Congress.—Members of Congress, $5,000, with mileage.

Supreme Court.—Chief Justice, $10,500; Associate Justices, $10,000.

Circuit Courts.—Justices of Circuit Courts, $6,000.

Heads of Departments.—Supt. of Bureau of Engraving and Printing, $4,500; Public Printer, $4,500; Supt. of Census, $5,000; Supt. of Naval Observatory, $5,000; Supt. of the Signal Service, $4,000; Director of Geological Surveys, $6,000; Director of the Mint, $4,500; Commissioner of General Land Office, $4,000; Commissioner of Pensions, $3,600; Commissioner of Agriculture, $3,000; Commissioner of Indian Affairs, $3,000; Commissioner of Education $3,000; Commander of Marine Corps, $3,500; Supt. of Coast and Geodetic Survey, $6,000.

United States Treasury.—Treasurer, $6,000; Register of Treasury, $4,000; Commissioner of Customs, $4,000.

Internal Revenue Agencies.—Supervising Agents, $12 per day; 34 other agents, per day, $6 to $8.

Postoffice Department, Washington.—Three Assistant Postmaster-Generals, $3,500; Chief Clerk, $2,200.

Postmasters.—Postmasters are divided into four classes. First class, $3,000 to $4,000 (excepting New York City, which is $8,000); second class, $2,000 to $3,000; third class, $1,000 to $2,000; fourth class, less than $1,000. The first three classes are appointed by the President, and confirmed by the Senate; those of fourth class are appointed by the Postmaster-General.

Diplomatic appointments.—Ministers to Germany, Great Britain, France and Russia, $17,500; Ministers to Brazil, China, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Japan and Spain, $12,000; Ministers to Chili, Peru and Central Amer., $10,000; Ministers to Argentine Confederation, Hawaiian Islands, Belgium, Hayti, Columbia, Netherlands, Sweden, Turkey and Venezuela, $7,500; Ministers to Switzerland, Denmark, Paraguay, Bolivia and Portugal, $5,000; Minister to Liberia, $4,000.

Army Officers.—General, $13,500; Lieut.-General, $11,000; Major-General, $7,500; Brigadier-General, $5,500; Colonel, $3,500; Lieutenant-Colonel, $3,000; Major, $2,500; Captain, mounted, $2,000; Captain, not mounted, $1,800; Regimental Adjutant, $1,800; Regimental Quartermaster, $1,800; 1st Lieutenant, mounted, $1,600; 1st Lieutenant, not mounted, $1,500; 2d Lieutenant, mounted, $1,500; 2d Lieutenant, not mounted, $1,400; Chaplain, $1,500.

Navy Officers.—Admiral, $13,000; Vice-Admiral, $9,000; Rear-Admirals, $6,000; Commodores, $5,000; Captains, $45,000; Commanders, $3,500; Lieut.-Commanders, $2,800; Lieutenants, $2,400; Masters, $1,800; Ensigns, $1,200; Midshipmen, $1,000; Cadet Midshipmen, $500; Mates, $900; Medical and Pay Directors and Medical and Pay Inspectors and Chief Engineers, $4,400; Fleet Surgeons, Fleet Paymasters and Fleet Engineers, $4,400; Surgeons and Paymasters, $2,800; Chaplains, $2,500.

CHRONOLOGY OF IMPORTANT EVENTS.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT OUR BODIES.

The weight of the male infant at birth is 7 lbs. avoirdupois; that of the female is not quite 6-1/2 lbs. The maximum weight (140-1/2 lbs.) of the male is attained at the age of 40; that of the female (nearly 124 lbs.) is not attained until 50; from which ages they decline afterward, the male to 127-1/4 lbs., the female to 100 lbs., nearly a stone. The full-grown adult is 20 times as heavy as a new-born infant. In the first year he triples his weight, afterwards the growth proceeds in geometrical progression, so that if 50 infants in their first year weigh 1,000 lbs., they will in the second weigh 1,210 lbs.; in the third 1,331: in the fourth 1464 lbs.; the term remaining very constant up to the ages of 11-12 in females, and 12-13 in males, where it must be nearly doubled; afterwards it may be continued, and will be found very nearly correct up to the age of 18 or 19, when the growth proceeds very slowly. At an equality of age the male is generally heavier than the female. Towards the age of 12 years only an individual of each sex has the same weight. The male attains the maximum weight at about the age of 40, and he begins to lose it very sensibly toward 60. At 80 he loses about 13.2328 lbs., and the stature is diminished 2.756 inches. Females attain their maximum weight at about 50. The mean weight of a mature man is 104 lbs., and of an average woman 94 lbs. In old age they lose about 12 or 14 lbs. Men weigh most at 40, women at 50, and begin to lose weight at 60. The mean weight of both sexes in old age is that which they had at 19.

When the male and female have assumed their complete development they weigh almost exactly 20 times as much as at birth, while the stature is about 3-1/2 times greater. Children lose weight during the first three days after birth; at the age of a week they sensibly increase; after one year they triple their weight; then they require six years to double their weight, and 13 to quadruple it.

It has been computed that nearly two years' sickness is experienced by every person before he is 70 years old, and therefore that 10 days per annum is the average sickness of human life. Till 40 it is but half, and after 50 it rapidly increases. The mixed and fanciful diet of man is considered the cause of numerous diseases from which animals are exempt. Many diseases have abated with changes of diet, and others are virulent in particular countries, arising from peculiarities.

Human Longevity.—Of 100,000 male and female children, in the first month they are reduced to 90,396, or nearly a tenth. In the second, to 87,936. In the third, to 86,175. In the fourth, to 84,720. In the fifth, to 83,571. In the sixth, to 82,526, and at the end of the first year to 77,528, the deaths being 2 to 9. The next four years reduce the 77,528 to 62,448, indicating 37,552 deaths before the completion of the fifth year.

At 25 years the 100,000 are half, or 49,995; at 52, one-third. At 58-1/2, a fourth, or 25,000; at 67, a fifth; at 76, a tenth; at 81, a twentieth, or 5,000; and ten attain 100. Children die in large proportions because their diseases cannot be explained, and because the organs are not habituated to the functions of life. The mean of life varies in different countries from 40 to 45. A generation from father to son is about 30 years; of men in general five-sixths die before 70, and fifteen-sixteenths before 80. After 80 it is rather endurance than enjoyment. The nerves are blunted, the senses fail, the muscles are rigid, the softer tubes become hard, the memory fails, the brain ossifies, the affections are buried, and hope ceases. The remaining one-sixteenth die at 80; except a one-thirty-third, at 90. The remainder die from inability to live, at or before 100.

About the age of 36 the lean man usually becomes fatter and the fat man leaner. Again, between the years of 43 and 50 his appetite fails, his complexion fades, and his tongue is apt to be furred on the least exertion of body or mind. At this period his muscles become flabby, his joints weak; his spirits droop, and his sleep is imperfect and unrefreshing. After suffering under these complaints a year, or perhaps two, he starts afresh with renewed vigor, and goes on to 61 or 62, when a similar change takes place, but with aggravated symptoms. When these grand periods have been successively passed, the gravity of incumbent years is more strongly marked, and he begins to boast of his age.

In Russia, much more than in any other country, instances of longevity are numerous, if true. In the report of the Holy Synod, in 1827, during the year 1825, and only among the Greek religion, 848 men had reached upward of 100 years of age; 32 had passed their 120th year, 4 from 130 to 135. Out of 606,818 men who died in 1826, 2,765 were above 90; 1,432 above 95, and 848 above 100 years of age. Among this last number 88 were above 115; 24 more than 120; 7 above 125, and one 130. Riley asserts that Arabs in the Desert live 200 years.

On the average, men have their first-born at 30 and women at 28. The greatest number of deliveries take place between 25 and 35. The greatest number of deliveries take place in the winter months, and in February, and the smallest in July, i.e., to February, as 4 to 5 in towns and 3 to 4 in the country. The night births are to the day as 5 to 4.

Human Strength.—In Schulze's experiments on human strength, he found that men of five feet, weighing 126 lbs., could lift vertically 156 lbs. 8 inches; 217 lbs. 1.2 inches. Others, 6.1 feet, weighing 183 lbs., 156 lbs. 13 inches, and 217 lbs. 6 inches; others 6 feet 3 inches, weighing 158 lbs., 156 lbs. 16 inches, and 217 lbs. 9 inches. By a great variety of experiments he determined the mean human strength at 30 lbs., with a velocity of 2.5 feet per second; or it is equal to the raising half a hogshead 10 feet in a minute.

RULES FOR SPELLING.

"Words ending in e drop that letter before the termination able, as in move, movable; unless ending in ce or ge, when it is retained, as in change, changeable, etc.

Words of one syllable, ending in a consonant, with a single vowel before it, double the consonants in derivatives; as, ship, shipping, etc. But if ending in a consonant with a double vowel before it, they do not double the consonant in derivatives; as, troop, trooper, etc.

Words of more than one syllable, ending in a consonant preceded by a single vowel, and accented on the last syllable, double that consonant in derivatives; as, commit, committed; but except chagrin, chagrined.

All words of one syllable ending in l, with a single vowel before it, have ll at the close; as mill, sell. All words of one syllable ending in l, with a double vowel before it, have only one l at the close; as mail, sail.

The words foretell, distill, instill and fulfill, retain the ll of their primitives. Derivatives of dull, skill, will and full also retain the ll when the accent falls on these words; as dullness, skillfull, willfull, fullness.

Words of more than one syllable ending in l have only one l at the close; as delightful, faithful; unless the accent falls on the last syllable; as befall, etc.

Words ending in l, double the letter in the termination ly.

Participles ending in ing, from verbs ending in e, lose the final e; as have, having; make, making, etc; but verbs ending in ee retain both; as see, seeing. The word dye, to color, however, must retain the e before ing. All verbs ending in ly, and nouns ending in ment, retain the e final of the primitives; as brave, bravely; refine, refinement; except words ending in dge; as, acknowledge, acknowledgment.

Nouns ending in y, preceded by a vowel, form their plural by adding s; as money, moneys; but if y is preceded by a consonant, it is changed to ies in the plural; as bounty, bounties.

Compound words whose primitives end in y, change the y into i; as beauty, beautiful.

THE USE OF CAPITALS.

Every entire sentence should begin with a capital.

Proper names, and adjectives derived from these, should begin with a capital.

All appellations of the Deity should begin with a capital. Official and honorary titles should begin with a capital.

Every line of poetry should begin with a capital.

Titles of books and the heads of their chapters and divisions are printed in capitals.

The pronoun I and the exclamation O are always capitals.

The days of the week and the months of the year begin with capitals.

Every quotation should begin with a capital letter.

Names of religious denominations begin with capitals.

In preparing accounts each item should begin with a capital.

Any word of very special importance may begin with a capital.

TWENTY CHOICE COURSE DINNER MENUS.

1. Rice Soup, Baked Pike, Mashed Potatoes, Roast of Beef, Stewed Corn, Chicken Fricassee, Celery Salad, Compote of Oranges, Plain Custard, Cheese, Wafers, Coffee.

2. Mutton Soup, Fried Oysters, Stewed Potatoes, Boiled Corn Beef, Cabbage, Turnips, Roast Pheasants, Onion Salad, Apple Pie, White Custard, Bent's Water Crackers, Cheese, Coffee.

3. Oyster Soup, Roast Mutton, Baked Potatoes, Breaded Veal Cutlets, Tomato Sauce, Baked Celery, Cabbage Salad, Apple Custard, Sponge Cake, Cheese, Coffee.

4. Macaroni Soup, Boiled Chicken, with Oysters, Mutton Chops, Creamed Potatoes, Stewed Tomatoes, Pickled Beets, Peaches and Rice, Plain Cake, Cheese, Coffee.

5. Tapioca Soup, Boiled Halibut, Duchesse Potatoes, Roast Beef Tongue, Canned Peas, Baked Macaroni, with Gravy, Fried Sweet Potatoes, Beet Salad, Cornstarch Pudding, Jelly Tarts, Cheese, Wafers, Coffee.

6. Vegetable Soup, Boiled Trout, Oyster Sauce, Roast Veal, with Dressing, Boiled Potatoes, Stewed Tomatoes, Corn, Egg Salad, Snow Cream, Peach Pie, Sultana Biscuit, Cheese, Coffee.

7. Potato Soup, Oyster Patties, Whipped Potatoes, Roast Mutton, with Spinach, Beets, Fried Parsnips, Egg Sauce, Celery Salad, Boiled Custard, Lemon Tarts, White Cake, Cheese, Coffee.

8. Veal Soup, Boiled Shad, Caper Sauce, Porterhouse Steak, with Mushrooms, Pigeon Pie, Mashed Potatoes, Pickles, Rice Sponge Cakes, Cheese, Canned Apricots with Cream, Coffee.

9. Giblet Soup, Scalloped Clams, Potato Cakes, Lamb Chops, Canned Beans, Tomatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Salmon Salad, Charlotte Rasse, Apricot Tarts, Cheese, Coffee.

10. Vermicelli Soup, Fried Small Fish, Mashed Potatoes, Roast Beef, Minced Cabbage, Chicken Croquettes, Beet Salad, Stewed Pears, Plain Sponge Cake, Cheese, Coffee.

11. Oxtail Soup, Fricasseed Chicken with Oysters, Breaded Mutton Chops, Turnips, Duchesse Potatoes, Chow-chow Salad, Chocolate Pudding, Nut Cake, Cheese, Coffee.

12. Barley Soup, Boiled Trout, Creamed Potatoes, Roast Loin of Veal, Stewed Mushrooms, Broiled Chicken, Lettuce Salad, Fig Pudding, Wafers, Cheese, Coffee.

13. Noodle Soup, Salmon, with Oyster Sauce, Fried Potatoes, Glazed Beef, Boiled Spinach, Parsnips, with Cream Sauce, Celery, Plain Rice Pudding, with Custard Sauce, Current Cake, Cheese, Coffee.

14. Lobster Soup, Baked Ribs of Beef, with Browned Potatoes, Boiled Duck, with Onion Sauce, Turnips, Stewed Tomatoes, Lettuce, Delmonico Pudding, Cheese, Sliced Oranges, Wafers, Coffee.

15. Chicken Broth, Baked Whitefish, Boiled Potatoes, Canned Peas, Mutton Chops, Tomatoes, Beets, Celery Salad, Apple Trifle, Lady Fingers, Cheese. Coffee.

10. Sago Soup, Boiled Leg of Mutton, Caper Sauce, Stewed Potatoes, Canned Corn, Scalloped Oysters, with Cream Sauce, Celery and Lettuce Salad, Marmalade Fritters, Apple Custard, Cheese Cakes, Coffee.

17. Vegetable Soup, Broiled Shad, Lyonnaise Potatoes, Pork Chops, with Sage Dressing, Parsnip Fritters, Macaroni and Gravy, Cauliflower Salad, Rhubarb Tarts, Silver Cake, Cheese, Coffee.

18. Chicken Soup, with Rice, Codfish, Boiled, with Cream Sauce, Roast Veal, Tomatoes, Oyster Salad, Boiled Potatoes, Asparagus, Orange Jelly, White Cake, Cheese, Coffee.

19. Macaroni Soup, Fried Shad, Tomato Sauce, Roast Mutton, Mashed Potatoes, Boiled Tongue, with Mayonnaise Dressing, Fried Parsnips, Canned Beans, Lemon Puffs, Cheese Cakes, Fruit, Coffee.

20. Scotch Broth, Baked Halibut, Boiled Potatoes, Breaded Mutton Chops, Tomato Sauce, Spinach, Bean Salad, Asparagus and Eggs, Peach Batter Pudding, with Sauce, Wafers, Cheese, Coffee.

TERMS USED IN MEDICINE.

Anthelmintics are medicines which have the power of destroying or expelling worms from the intestinal canal.

Antiscorbutics are medicines which prevent or cure the scurvy.

Antispasmodics are medicines given to relieve spasm, or irregular and painful action of the muscles or muscular fibers, as in Epilepsy, St. Vitus' Dance, etc.

Aromatics are medicines which have, a grateful smell and agreeable pungent taste.

Astringents are those remedies which, when applied to the body, render the solids dense and firmer.

Carminatives are those medicines which dispel flatulency of the stomach and bowels.

Cathartics are medicines which accelerate the action of the bowels, or increase the discharge by stool.

Demulcents are medicines suited to prevent the action of acrid and stimulating matters upon the mucous membranes of the throat, lungs, etc.

Diaphoretics are medicines that promote or cause perspirable discharge by the skin.

Diuretics are medicines which increase the flow of urine by their action upon the kidneys.

Emetics are those medicines which produce vomiting.

Emmenagogues are medicines which promote the menstrual discharge.

Emollients are those remedies which, when applied to the solids of the body, render them soft and flexible.

Errhines are substances which, when applied to the lining membrane of the nostrils, occasion a discharge of mucous fluid.

Epispastices are those which cause blisters when applied to the surface.

Escharotics are substances used to destroy a portion of the surface of the body, forming sloughs.

Expectorants are medicines capable of facilitating the excretion of mucous from the chest.

Narcotics are those substances having the property of diminishing the action of the nervous and vascular systems, and of inducing sleep.

Rubefacients are remedies which excite the vessels of the skin and increase its heat and redness.

Sedatives are medicines which have the power of allaying the actions of the systems generally, or of lessening the exercise of some particular function.

Sialagogues are medicines which increase the flow of the saliva.

Stimulants are medicines capable of exciting the vital energy, whether as exerted in sensation or motion.

Tonics are those medicines which increase the tone or healthy action, or strength of the living system.

RULES FOR THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH.

Pure atmospheric air is composed of nitrogen, oxygen and a very small proportion of carbonic acid gas. Air once breathed has lost the chief part of its oxygen, and acquired a proportionate increase of carbonic acid gas. Therefore, health requires that we breathe the same air once only.

The solid part of our bodies is continually wasting and requires to be repaired by fresh substances. Therefore, food, which is to repair the loss, should be taken with due regard to the exercise and waste of the body.

The fluid part of our bodies also wastes constantly; there is but one fluid in animals, which is water. Therefore, water only is necessary, and no artifice can produce a better drink.

The fluid of our bodies is to the solid in proportion as nine to one. Therefore, a like proportion should prevail in the total amount of food taken.

Light exercises an important influence upon the growth and vigor of animals and plants. Therefore, our dwellings should freely admit the sun's rays.

Decomposing animal and vegetable substances yield various noxious gases, which enter the lungs and corrupt the blood. Therefore, all impurities should be kept away from our abodes, and every precaution be observed to secure a pure atmosphere.

Warmth is essential to all the bodily functions. Therefore, an equal bodily temperature should be maintained by exercise, by clothing or by fire.

Exercise warms, invigorates and purifies the body; clothing preserves the warmth the body generates; fire imparts warmth externally. Therefore, to obtain and preserve warmth, exercise and clothing are preferable to fire.

Fire consumes the oxygen of the air, and produces noxious gases. Therefore, the air is less pure in the presence of candles, gas or coal fire, than otherwise, and the deterioration should be repaired by increased ventilation. The skin is a highly-organized membrane, full of minute pores, cells, blood-vessels, and nerves; it imbibes moisture or throws it off according to the state of the atmosphere or the temperature of the body. It also "breathes," like the lungs (though less actively). All the internal organs sympathize with the skin. Therefore, it should be repeatedly cleansed.

Late hours and anxious pursuits exhaust the nervous system and produce disease and premature death. Therefore, the hours of labor and study should be short.

Mental and bodily exercise are equally essential to the general health and happiness. Therefore, labor and study should succeed each other.

Man will live most happily upon simple solids and fluids, of which a sufficient but temperate quantity should be taken. Therefore, over-indulgence in strong drinks, tobacco, snuff, opium, and all mere indulgences, should be avoided.

Sudden alternations of heat and cold are dangerous (especially to the young and the aged). Therefore, clothing, in quantity and quality, should be adapted to the alternations of night and day, and of the seasons. And therefore, also, drinking cold water when the body is hot, and hot tea and soups when cold are productive of many evils.

Never visit a sick person (especially if the complaint be of a contagious nature) with an empty stomach, as this disposes the system more readily to receive the contagion. And in attending a sick person, place yourself where the air passes from the door or window to the bed of the diseased; not between the diseased person and any fire that is in the room, as the heat of the fire will draw the infectious vapor in that direction.

MOTHER SHIPTON'S PROPHECY .—The lines known as "Mother Shipton's Prophecy" were first published in England in 1485, before the discovery of America, and, of course, before any of the discoveries and inventions mentioned therein. All the events predicted have come to pass except that in the last two lines.

Carriages without horses shall go,
And accidents fill the world with woe
Around the world thoughts shall fly
In the twinkling of an eye.
Waters shall yet more wonders do,
Now strange, yet shall be true.
The world upside down shall be,
And gold be found at root of tree.
Through hills man shall ride,
And no horse nor ass be at his side.
Under water man shall walk,
Shall ride, shall sleep, shall talk.
In the air men shall be seen
In white, in black, in green.
Iron in the water shall float,
As easy as a wooden boat.
Gold shall be found 'mid stone,
In a land that's now unknown.
Fire and water shall wonders do,
England shall at last admit a Jew.
And this world to an end shall come
In eighteen hundred and eighty-one.

CAPTAIN KIDD, a notorious American pirate, was born about 1650. In 1696 he was entrusted by the British Government with the command of a privateer, and sailed from New York, for the purpose of suppressing the numerous pirates then infesting the seas. He went to the East Indies, where he began a career of piracy, and returned to New York in 1698 with a large amount of booty. He was soon after arrested, sent to England for trial, and executed in 1701.

VALUE OF OLD AMERICAN COINS.—1793—Half cent, 75 cents; one cent, $2. 1794—Half cent, 20 cents, one cent, 10 cents; five cents, $1.25; fifty cents, $3; one dollar, $10. 1795—Half cent, 5 cents; one cent, 5 cents; five cents, 25 cents; fifty cents, 55 cents; one dollar, $1.25. 1796—Half cent, $5; one cent, 10 cents; five cents $1; ten cents, 50 cents; twenty-five cents, $1; fifty cents, $10; one dollar, $1.50. 1797—Half cent, 5 cents; one cent, 5 cents; five cents, 50 cents; ten cents, $1; fifty cents, $10; one dollar, $1.50. 1798—One cent, 5 cents; ten cents, $1; one dollar, $1.50. 1799—One cent, $5; one dollar, $1.60. 1800—Half cent, 5 cents; one cent, 3 cents; five cents, 25 cents; ten cents, $1; one dollar, $1.10. 1801—One cent, 3 cents; five cents, $1; ten cents, $1; fifty cents, $2; one dollar, $1.25. 1802—Half cent, 50 cents; one cent, 2 cents; ten cents, $1; fifty cents, $2; one dollar, $1.25. 1803—Half cent, 2 cents; one cent, 2 cents; five cents, $10; ten cents, $1; one dollar, $1.10. 1804—Half cent, 2 cents; one cent, $2; five cents, 75 cents; ten cents, $2; twenty-five cents, 75 cents; one dollar, $100. 1805—Half cent, 2 cents; one cent, 3 cents; five cents, $1.50; ten cents, 25 cents. 1806—Half cent, 2 cents; one cent, 3 cents. 1807—Half cent, 2 cents; one cent, 3 cents; ten cents, 25 cents. 1808—Half cent, 2 cents; one cent, 5 cents. 1809—Half cent, 1 cent; one cent, 25 cents; ten cents, 50 cents. 1810—Half cent, 5 cents; one cent, 5 cents. 1811—Half cent, 25 cents; one cent, 10 cents; ten cents, 50 cents. 1812—One cent, 2 cents. 1813—One cent, 5 cents. 1815—Fifty cents, $5. 1821—One cent, 5 cents. 1822—Ten cents, $1. 1823—One cent, 5 cents; twenty-five cents, $10. 1824—Twenty-five cents, 40 cents. 1825—Half cent, 2 cents. 1826—Half cent, 2 cents; one cent, 50 cents. 1827—One cent, 3 cents; twenty-five cents, $10. 1828—Half cent, 1 cent; twenty-five cents, 30 cents. 1829—Half cent, 2 cents. 1830—Half cent, 2 cents. 1832-'33-'34—Half cent, 2 cents. 1835—Half cent, 1 cent. 1836—Fifty cents, $3; one dollar, $3. 1838—Ten cents, 25 cents. 1839—One dollar, $10. 1846 —Five cents, 50 cents. 1849-'50—Half cent, 5 cents. 1851—Half cent, 1 cent; twenty-five cents, 30 cents; one dollar, $10.90. 1852—Twenty-five cents, 30 cents; fifty cents, $2; one dollar, $10. 1853—Half cent, 1 cent; twenty cents (with no arrows), $2.50; one dollar, $1.25. 1854—Half cent, 2 cents; one dollar, $2. 1855-'57—Half cent, 5 cents; one dollar, $1.50. 1856—Half cent, 5 cents; one dollar. $1.50. 1858—One dollar, $10. 1863-'4-'5—Three cents, 95 cents. 1866—Half cent, 6 cents; three cents, 25 cents; five cents, 10 cents; twenty-five cents, 30 cents. 1867—Three cents, 25 cents; five cents, 10 cents. 1868-'9—Three cents, 25 cents. 1870—Three cents, 15 cents. 1871—Two cents, 10 cents; three cents, 25 cents. 1873—Two cents, 50 cents; three cents. 50 cents. 1877-'8—Twenty cents, $1.50. These prices are for good ordinary coins without holes. Fine specimens are worth more.

LEANING TOWER OF PISA.—The leaning tower of Pisa was commenced in 1152, and was not finished till the fourteenth century. The cathedral to which this belongs was erected to celebrate a triumph of the Pisans in the harbor of Palermo in 1063, when allied with the Normans to drive the Saracens out of Sicily. It is a circular building, one hundred feet in diameter and 179 feet in extreme height, and has fine mosaic pavements, elaborately carved columns, and numerous bas-reliefs. The building is of white marble. The tower is divided into eight stories, each having an outside gallery of seven feet projection, and the topmost story overhangs the base about sixteen feet, though, as the center of gravity is still ten feet within the base, the building is perfectly safe. It has been supposed that this inclination was intentional, but the opinion that the foundation has sunk is no doubt correct. It is most likely that the defective foundation became perceptible before the tower had reached one-half its height, as at that elevation the unequal length of the columns exhibits an endeavor to restore the perpendicular, and at about the same place the walls are strengthened with iron bars.

What causes the water to flow out of an artesian well?—The theoretical explanation of the phenomenon is easily understood. The secondary and tertiary geological formations often present the appearance of immense basins, the boundary or rim of the basin having been formed by an upheaval of adjacent strata. In these formations it often happens that a porous stratum, consisting of sand, sandstone, chalk or other calcareous matter, is included between two impermeable layers of clay, so as to form a flat porous U tube, continuous from side to side of the valley, the outcrop on the surrounding hills forming the mouth of the tube. The rain filtering down through the porous layer to the bottom of the basin forms there a subterranean pool, which, with the liquid or semi-liquid column pressing upon it, constitutes a sort of huge natural hydrostatic bellows. Sometimes the pressure on the superincumbent crust is so great as to cause an upheaval or disturbance of the valley. It is obvious, then, that when a hole is bored down through the upper impermeable layer to the surface of the lake, the water will be forced up by the natural law of water seeking its level to a height above the surface of the valley, greater or less, according to the elevation of the level in the feeding column, thus forming a natural mountain on precisely the same principle as that of most artificial fountains, where the water supply comes from a considerable height above the jet.

HOW MANY CUBIC FEET THERE ARE IN A TON OF COAL.—There is a difference between a ton of hard coal and one of soft coal. For that matter, coal from different mines, whether hard or soft, differs in weight, and consequently in cubic measure, according to quality. Then there is a difference according to size. To illustrate, careful measurements have been made of Wilkes-barre anthracite, a fine quality of hard coal, with the following results:

For soft coal the following measures may be taken as nearly correct; it is simply impossible to determine any exact rule, even for bituminous coal of the same district: Briar Hill coal, 44.8 cubic feet per ton of 2,240 pounds; Pittsburgh, 47.8; Wilmington, Ill., 47; Indiana block coal, 42 to 43 cubic feet.

The dimensions of the great wall of China and of what it is built.—It runs from a point on the Gulf of Liantung, an arm of the Gulf of Pechili in Northeastern China, westerly to the Yellow River; thence makes a great bend to the south for nearly 100 miles, and then runs to the northwest for several hundred miles to the Desert of Gobi. Its length is variously estimated to be from 1,250 to 1,500 miles. For the most of this distance it runs through a mountainous country, keeping on the ridges, and winding over many of the highest peaks. In some places it is only a formidable rampart, but most of the way it is composed of lofty walls of masonry and concrete, or impacted lime and clay, from 12 to 16 feet in thickness, and from 15 to 30 or 35 feet in height. The top of this wall is paved for hundreds of miles, and crowned with crenallated battlements, and towers 30 to 40 feet high. In numerous places the wall climbs such steep declivities that its top ascends from height to height in flights of granite steps. An army could march on the top of the wall for weeks and even months, moving in some places ten men abreast.

Limits of Natural Vision.—This question is too indefinite for a specific answer. The limits of vision vary with elevation, conditions of the atmosphere, intensity of illumination, and other modifying elements in different cases. In a clear day an object one foot above a level plain may be seen at the distance of 1.31 miles; one ten feet high, 4.15 miles; one twenty feet high, 5.86 miles; one 100 feet high, 13.1 miles; one a mile high, as the top of a mountain, 95.23 miles. This allows seven inches (or, to be exact, 6.99 inches) for the curvature of the earth, and assumes that the size and illumination of the object are sufficient to produce an image. Five miles may be taken as the extreme limit at which a man is visible on a flat plain to an observer on the same level.

THE NIAGARA SUSPENSION BRIDGE.—For seven miles below the falls, Niagara river flows through a gorge varying in width from 200 to 400 yards. Two miles below the falls the river is but 350 feet wide, and it is here that the great suspension bridge, constructed in 1855 by Mr. Roebling, crosses the gorge, 245 feet above the water. The length of the span, from tower to tower, is 821 feet, and the total length of the bridge is 2,220 feet. The length of the span, which is capable of sustaining a strain of 10,000 tons, is 821 feet from tower to tower, and the total length of the bridge is 2,220 feet. It is used both for railway and wagon traffic, the wagon-road and foot-way being directly under the railway bed. There is another suspension bridge across the Niagara river at a distance of only about fifty rods from the falls, on the American side. This is only for carriages and foot travel. It was finished in 1869. It is 1,190 feet long from cliff to cliff, 1,268 feet from tower to tower, and 190 feet above the river, which at this point is a little over 900 feet in width.

THE SPEED OF SOUND.—It has been ascertained that a full human voice, speaking in the open air, calm, can be heard at a distance of 400 feet; in an observable breeze a powerful human voice with the wind is audible at a distance of 15,840 feet; the report of a musket, 16,000 feet; a drum, 10,560 feet; music, a strong brass band, 15,840 feet; very heavy cannonading, 575,000 feet, or 90 miles. In the Arctic regions conversation has been maintained over water a distance of 6,766 feet. In gases the velocity of sound increases with the temperature; in air this increase is about two feet per second for each degree centigrade. The velocity of sound in oxygen gas at zero C. is 1,040 feet; in carbonic acid, 858 feet; in hydrogen, 4,164 feet. In 1827 Colladon and Sturm determined experimentally the velocity of sound in fresh water; the experiment was made in the Lake of Geneva, and it was found to be 4,174 feet per second at a temperature of 15 degrees C. The velocity of sound in alcohol at 20 degrees C. is 4,218 feet; in ether at zero, 3,801; in sea water at 20 degrees C., 4,768. By direct measurements, carefully made, by observing at night the interval which elapses between the flash and report of a cannon at a known distance, the velocity of sound has been about 1,090 per second at the temperature of freezing water.

DESCRIPTION OF THE YELLOWSTONE PARK.—The Yellowstone National Park extends sixty-five miles north and south, and fifty-five miles east and west, comprising 3,575 square miles, and is all 6,000 feet or more above sea-level. Yellowstone Lake, twenty miles by fifteen, has an altitude of 7,788 feet. The mountain ranges which hem in the valleys on every side rise to the height of 10,000 to 12,000 feet, and are always covered with snow. This great park contains the most striking of all the mountains, gorges, falls, rivers and lakes in the whole Yellowstone region. The springs on Gardiner's River cover an area of about one square mile, and three or four square miles thereabout are occupied by the remains of springs which have ceased to flow. The natural basins into which these springs flow are from four to six feet in diameter and from one to four feet in depth. The principal ones are located upon terraces midway up the sides of the mountain. The banks of the Yellowstone River abound with ravines and canons, which are carved out of the heart of the mountains through the hardest of rocks. The most remarkable of these is the canon of Tower Creek and Column Mountain. The latter, which extends along the eastern bank of the river for upward of two miles, is said to resemble the Giant's Causeway. The canon of Tower Creek is about ten miles in length and is so deep and gloomy that it is called "The Devil's Den." Where Tower Creek ends the Grand Canon begins. It is twenty miles in length, impassable throughout, and inaccessible at the water's edge, except at a few points. Its rugged edges are from 200 to 500 yards apart, and its depth is so profound that no sound ever reaches the ear from the bottom. The Grand Canon contains a great multitude of hot springs of sulphur, sulphate of copper, alum, etc. In the number and magnitude of its hot springs and geysers, the Yellowstone Park surpasses all the rest of the world. There are probably fifty geysers that throw a column of water to the height of from 50 to 200 feet, and it is stated that there are not fewer than 5,000 springs; there are two kinds, those depositing lime and those depositing silica. The temperature of the calcareous springs is from 160 to 170 degrees, while that of the others rises to 200 or more. The principal collections are the upper and lower geyser basins of the Madison River, and the calcareous springs on Gardiner's River. The great falls are marvels to which adventurous travelers have gone only to return and report that they are parts of the wonders of this new American wonderland.

DESIGNATIONS OF GROUPS OF ANIMALS.—The ingenuity of the sportsman is, perhaps, no better illustrated than by the use he puts the English language to in designating particular groups of animals. The following is a list of the terms which have been applied to the various classes:

A covey of patridges, A nide of pheasants, A wisp of snipe, A flight of doves or swallows, A muster of peacocks, A siege of herons, A building of rooks, A brood of grouse, A plump of wild fowl, A stand of plovers, A watch of nightingales, A clattering of choughs, A flock of geese, A herd or bunch of cattle, A bevy of quails, A cast of hawks, A trip of dottrell, A swarm of bees, A school of whales, A shoal of herrings, A herd of swine, A skulk of foxes, A pack of wolves, A drove of oxen, A sounder of hogs, A troop of monkeys, A pride of lions, A sleuth of bears, A gang of elk.

THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT.—The monument is a square shaft, built of Quincy granite, 221 feet high, 31 feet square at the base and 15 at the top. Its foundations are inclosed 12 feet under ground. Inside the shaft is a round, hollow cone, 7 feet wide at the bottom and 4 feet 2 inches at the top, encircled by a winding staircase of 224 stone steps, which leads to a chamber immediately under the apex, 11 feet in diameter. The chamber has four windows, which afford a wide view of the surrounding country, and contains two cannons, named respectively Hancock and Adams, which were used in many engagements during the war. The corner-stone of the monument was laid on the fiftieth anniversary of the battle, June 17, 1825, by Lafayette, who was then visiting America, when Webster pronounced the oration. The monument was completed, and June 17, 1843, was dedicated, Webster again delivering the oration.

THE SEVEN WISE MEN OF GREECE.—The names generally given are Solon, Chilo, Pittacus, Bias, Periander (in place of whom some give Epimenides), Cleobulus, and Thales. They were the authors of the celebrated mottoes inscribed in later days in the Delphian Temple. These mottoes were as follows:

"Know thyself."—Solon.

"Consider the end."—Chilo.

"Know thy opportunity."—Pittacus.

"Most men are bad."—Bias.

"Nothing is impossible to industry."—Periander.

"Avoid excesses."—Cleobulus.

"Suretyship is the precursor of ruin."—Thales.

FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE MISSISSIPPI.—Nicholas J. Roosevelt was the first to take a steamboat down the great river. His boat was built at Pittsburgh, in the year 1811, under an arrangement with Fulton and Livingston, from Fulton's plans. It was called the "New Orleans," was about 200 tons burden, and was propelled by a stern-wheel, assisted, when the wind was favorable, by sails carried on two masts. The hull was 138 feet long, 30 feet beam, and the cost of the whole, including engines, was about $40,000. The builder, with his family, an engineer, a pilot, and six "deck hands," left Pittsburgh in October, 1811, reaching Louisville in about seventy hours (steaming about ten miles an hour), and New Orleans in fourteen days, steaming from Natchez.

THE EXPLORATIONS OF FREMONT.—- Among the earliest efforts of Fremont, after he had tried and been sickened by the sea, were his experiences as a surveyor and engineer on railroad lines from Charleston to Augusta, Ga., and Charleston to Cincinnati. Then he accompanied an army detachment on a military reconnoissance of the mountainous Cherokee country in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, made in the depth of winter. In 1838-9 he accompanied M. Nicollet in explorations of the country between the Missouri and the British line, and his first detail of any importance, after he had been commissioned by President Van Buren, was to make an examination of the river Des Moines, then on the Western frontier. In 1841 he projected his first trans-continental expedition, and left Washington May 2, 1842, and accomplished the object of his trip, examined the South Pass, explored the Wind River mountains, ascended in August, the highest peak of that range, now known as Fremont's Peak, and returned, after an absence of four months. His report of the expedition attracted great attention in the United States and abroad. Fremont began to plan another and a second expedition. He determined to extend his explorations across the continent; and in May, 1843, commenced his journey with thirty-nine men, and September 6, after traveling over 1,700 miles, arrived at the Great Salt Lake; there made some important discoveries, and then pushed the upper Columbia, down whose valley he proceeded to Fort Vancouver, near its mouth. On Nov. 10, he set out to return East, selecting a southeasterly course, leading from the lower part of the Columbia to the upper Colorado, through an almost unknown region, crossed by high and rugged mountains. He and his party suffered incredible hardships in crossing from the Great Basin to Sutter's Fort on the Sacramento; started from there March 24, proceeded southward, skirted the western base of the Sierra Nevada, crossed that range through a gap, entered the Great Basin; again visited the Great Salt Lake, from which they returned through the South Pass to Kansas, in July, 1844, after an absence of fourteen months. In the spring of 1845 Fremont set out on a third expedition to explore the Great Basin and the maritime region of Oregon and California; spent the summer examining the headwaters of the rivers whose springs are in the grand divide of the continent; in October camped on the shores of the Great Salt Lake: proceeded to explore the Sierra Nevada, which he again crossed in the dead of winter; made his way into the Valley of the San Joaquin; obtained permission, at Monterey, from the Mexican authorities there, to proceed with his expedition, which permission was almost immediately revoked, and Fremont peremptorily ordered to leave the country without delay, but he refused, and a collision was imminent, but was averted, and Fremont proceeded toward San Joaquin. Near Tlamath Lake, Fremont met, May 9, 1846, a party in search of him, with dispatches from Washington, ordering him to watch over the interests of the United States in California, as there was reason to believe that province would be transferred to Great Britain. He at once returned to California; General Castro was already marching against our settlements; the settlers rose in arms, flocked to Fremont's camp, and, with him as leader, in less than a month, all Northern California was freed from Mexican authority; and on July 4 Fremont was elected Governor of California by the American settlers. Later came the conflict between Commodore Stockton and General Kearney; and Fremont resigned his commission as Lieutenant-Colonel, to which he had been promoted. In October, 1848, he started across the continent on a fourth expedition, outfitted at his own expense, to find a practicable route to California. In attempting to cross the great Sierra, covered with snow, his guide lost his way, and the party encountered horrible suffering from cold and hunger, a portion of them being driven to cannibalism; he lost all his animals (he had 120 mules when he started), and one-third of his men (he had thirty-three) perished, and he had to retrace his steps to Santa Fe. He again set out, with thirty men, and, after a long search, discovered a secure route, which led to the Sacramento, where he arrived in the spring of 1840. He led a fifth expedition across the continent in 1853, at his own expense, and found passes through the mountains in the line of latitude 38 deg., 39 min., and reached California after enduring great hardships; for fifty days his party lived on horse-flesh, and for forty-eight hours at a time without food of any kind. These are the barest outlines of five expeditions of which many volumes have been written, but will hint at Fremont's work in the West which entitled him to the name of the "Pathfinder."

CHINESE PROVERBS.—The Chinese are indeed remarkably fond of proverbs. They not only employ them in conversation—and even to a greater degree than the Spaniards, who are noted among Europeans for the number and excellence of their proverbial sayings—but they have a practice of adorning their reception rooms with these sententious bits of wisdom, inscribed on decorated scrolls or embroidered on rich crapes and brocades. They carve them on door-posts and pillars, and emblazon them on the walls and ceilings in gilt letters. The following are a few specimens of this sort of literature: As a sneer at the use of unnecessary force to crush a contemptible enemy, they say: "He rides a fierce dog to catch a lame rabbit." Similar to this is another, "To use a battle-ax to cut off a hen's head." They say of wicked associates: "To cherish a bad man is like nourishing a tiger; if not well-fed he will devour you." Here are several others mingling wit with wisdom: "To instigate a villain to do wrong is like teaching a monkey to climb trees;" "To catch fish and throw away the net," which recalls our saying, "Using the cat's paw to pull the chestnuts out of the fire;" "To climb a tree to catch a fish" is to talk much to no purpose; "A superficial scholar is a sheep dressed in a tiger's skin;" "A cuckoo in a magpie's nest," equivalent to saying, "he is enjoying another's labor without compensation;" "If the blind lead the blind they will both fall into the pit;" "A fair wind raises no storm;" "Vast chasms can be filled, but the heart of man is never satisfied;" "The body may be healed, but the mind is incurable;" "He seeks the ass, and lo! he sits upon him;" "He who looks at the sun is dazzled; he who hears the thunder is deafened." i. e., do not come too near the powerful; "Prevention is better than cure;" "Wine and good dinners make abundance of friends, but in adversity not one of them is to be found." "Let every man sweep the snow from before his own door, and not trouble himself about the frost on his neighbor's tiles." The following one is a gem of moral wisdom: "Only correct yourself on the same principle that you correct others, and excuse others on the same principles on which you excuse yourself." "Better not be, than be nothing." "One thread does not make a rope; one swallow does not make a summer." "Sensuality is the chief of sins, filial duty the best of acts." "The horse's back is not so safe us the buffalo's"—the former is used by the politician, the latter by the farmer. "Too much lenity multiplies crime." "If you love your son give him plenty of the rod; if you hate him cram him with dainties." "He is my teacher who tells me my faults, he my enemy who speaks my virtues." Having a wholesome dread of litigation, they say of one who goes to law, "He sues a flea to catch a bite." Their equivalent for our "coming out at the little end of the horn" is, "The farther the rat creeps up (or into) the cow's horn, the narrower it grows." The truth of their saying that "The fame of good deeds does not leave a man's door, but his evil acts are known a thousand miles off," is illustrated in our own daily papers every morning. Finally, we close this list with a Chinese proverb which should be inscribed on the lintel of every door in Christendom: "The happy-hearted man carries joy for all the household."

MASON AND DIXON'S LINE.—Mason and Dixon's line is the concurrent State line of Maryland and Pennsylvania. It is named after two eminent astronomers and mathematicians, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who were sent out from England to run it. They completed the survey between 1703 and 1707, excepting thirty-six miles surveyed in 1782 by Colonel Alex. McLean and Joseph Neville. It is in the latitude of 39 deg. 43 min. 26.3 sec.

GREAT FIRES OF HISTORY.—The loss of life and property in the willful destruction by fire and sword of the principal cities of ancient history—Nineveh, Babylon, Persepolis, Carthage, Palmyra, and many others—is largely a matter of conjecture. The following is a memorandum of the chief conflagrations of the current era:

In 64, A. D., during the reign of Nero, a terrible fire raged in Rome for eight days, destroying ten of the fourteen wards. The loss of life and destruction of property is not known.

A. D., Jerusalem was taken by the Romans and a large part of it given to the torch, entailing an enormous destruction of life and property.

In 1106 Venice, then a city of immense opulence, was almost, wholly consumed by a fire, originating in accident or incendiarism.

In 1212 the greater part of London was burned.

In 1606 what is known as the Great Fire of London raged in the city from September 2 to 6, consuming 13,200 houses, with St. Paul's Church, 86 parish churches, 6 chapels, the Guild Hall, the Royal Exchange, the Custom House, 52 companies halls, many hospitals, libraries and other public edifices. The total destruction of property was estimated at $53,652,500. Six lives were lost, and 436 acres burnt over.

In 1679 a fire in Boston burned all the warehouses, eighty dwellings, and vessels in the dock-yards; loss estimated at $1,000,000.

In 1700 a large part of Edinburgh was burned; loss unknown. In 1728 Copenhagen was nearly destroyed; 1,650 houses burned.

In 1736 a fire in St. Petersburg burned 2,000 houses.

In 1729 a fire in Constantinople destroyed 12,000 houses, and 7,000 people perished. The same city suffered a conflagration in 1745, lasting five days; and in 1750 a series of three appalling fires: one in January, consuming 10,000 houses; another in April destroying property to the value of $5,000,000, according to one historian, and according to another, $15,000,000; and in the latter part of the year another, sweeping fully 10,000 houses more out of existence. It seemed as if Constantinople was doomed to utter annihilation.

In 1751 a fire in Stockholm destroyed 1,000 houses and another fire in the same city in 1759 burned 250 houses with a loss of $2,420,000.

In 1752 a fire in Moscow swept away 18,000 houses, involving an immense loss.

In 1758 Christiania suffered a loss of $1,250,000 by conflagration. In 1760 the Portsmouth (England) dock yards were burned, with a loss of $2,000,000.

In 1764 a fire in Konigsburg, Prussia, consumed the public buildings, with a loss of $3,000,000; and in 1769 the city was almost totally destroyed.

In 1763 a fire in Smyrna destroyed 2,600 houses, with a loss of $1,000,000; in 1772 a fire in the same city carried off 3,000 dwellings and 3,000 to 4,000 shops, entailing a loss of $20,000,000; and in 1796 there were 4,000 shops, mosques, magazines, etc., burned.

In 1776, six days after the British seized the city, a fire swept off all the west side of New York city, from Broadway to the river.

In 1771 a fire in Constantinople burned 2,500 houses; another in 1778 burned 2,000 houses; in 1782 there were 600 houses burned in February, 7,000 in June, and on August 12 during a conflagration that lasted three days, 10,000 houses, 50 mosques, and 100 corn-mills, with a loss of 100 lives. Two years later a fire, on March 13, destroyed two-thirds of Pera, the loveliest suburb of Constantinople, and on August 5 a fire in the main city, lasting twenty-six hours, burned 10,000 houses. In this same fire-scourged city, in 1791, between March and July, there were 32,000 houses burned, and about as many more in 1795; and in 1799 Pera was again swept with fire, with a loss of 13,000 houses, including many buildings of great magnificence.

In 1784 a fire and explosion in the dock yards, Brest, caused a loss of $5,000,000.

But the greatest destruction of life and property by conflagration, of which the world has anything like accurate records, must be looked for within the current century. Of these the following is a partial list of instances in which the loss of property amounted to $3,000,000 and upward:

From the above it appears that the five greatest fires on record, reckoned by destruction of property, are:

Taking into account, with the fires of Paris and Chicago, the great Wisconsin and Michigan forest fires of 1871, in which it is estimated that 1,000 human beings perished and property to the amount of over $3,000,000 was consumed, it is plain that in the annals of conflagrations that year stands forth in gloomy pre-eminence.

WEALTH OF THE UNITED STATES PER CAPITA.—The following statistics represent the amount of taxable property, real and personal, in each State and Territory, and also the amount per capita:

TABLE FOR MEASURING AN ACRE.—To measure an acre in rectangular form is a simple question in arithmetic. One has only to divide the total number of square yards in an acre, 4,840, by the number of yards in the known side or breadth to find the unknown side in yards. By this process it appears that a rectangular strip of ground—

  5 yards wide by 968 yards long is 1 acre.
10 yards wide by 484 yards long is 1 acre.
20 yards wide by 242 yards long is 1 acre.
40 yards wide by 121 yards long is 1 acre.

80 yards wide by 60-1/2 yards long is 1 acre.
70 yards wide by 69-1/2 yards long is 1 acre.
60 yards wide by 80-3/8 yards long is 1 acre.

THE LANGUAGE OF GEMS.—The language of the various precious stones is as follows:

Moss Agate—Health, prosperity and long life.
Amethyst—Prevents violent passions.
Bloodstone—Courage, wisdom and firmness in affection.
Chrysolite—Frees from evil passions and sadness.
Emerald—Insures true love, discovers false.
Diamonds—Innocence, faith and virgin purity, friends.
Garnet—Constancy and fidelity in every engagement.
Opal—Sharpens the sight and faith of the possessor.
Pearl—Purity; gives clearness to physical and mental sight.
Ruby—Corrects evils resulting from mistaken friendship.
Sapphire—Repentance; frees from enchantment.
Sardonyx—Insures conjugal felicity.
Topaz—Fidelity and friendship; prevents bad dreams.
Turquoise—Insures prosperity in love.

GREAT SALT LAKE AND THE DEAD SEA.—Great Salt Lake is a shallow body of water, its average depth being but a little more than three feet, while in many parts it is much less. The water is transparent, but excessively salt; it contains about 22 per cent of common salt, slightly mixed with other salts, and forming one of the purest and most concentrated brines in the world. Its specific gravity is 1.17. The water is so buoyant that a man may float in it at full length upon his back, having his head and neck, his legs to the knee, and both arms to the elbow, entirely out of water. If he assumes a sitting posture, with his arms extended, his shoulders will rise above the water. Swimming, however, is difficult as the lower limbs tend to rise above the surface, and the brine is so strong that to swallow even a very little of it will cause strangulation. The waters of the Dead Sea, on the other hand, are nearly black, and contain much sulphur and bitumen, as well as salt. It is also very deep, varying from thirteen feet near the south end of the lake to more than 1,300 feet in the northern part. Its buoyancy is quite equal to that of Great Salt Lake, for travelers say that a man can float prone upon the surface for hours without danger of sinking, and in a sitting position is held breast-high above the water.

SOME FAMOUS WAR SONGS.—The slavery war developed several Union song-writers whose stirring verses have kept on singing themselves since the close of that great struggle. Two among them are best remembered nowadays, both men who wrote the words and composed the music to their own verses. Chicago lays claim to one, Dr. George F. Root, and Boston to the other, Henry C. Work. The song "Marching Through Georgia," as every one knows, was written in memory of Sherman's famous march from Atlanta to the sea, and words and music were the composition of Henry C. Work, who died not many months ago (in 1884). The first stanza is as follows:

Bring the good old bugle, boys, we'll sing another song—
Sing it with spirit that will start the world along—
Sing it as we used to sing it, fifty thousand strong,
While we were marching through Georgia.

Chorus—

"Hurrah! hurrah! we bring the jubilee!
Hurrah! hurrah! the flag that makes you free!"
So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the sea,
While we were marching through Georgia.

Among the other songs of Work the following are best known: "Kingdom Coming," or "Say, Darkey, Hab You Seen de Massa?" "Babylon is Fallen," "Grafted into Army" and "Corporal Schnapps." This record would be incomplete were we to fail to mention some of the many ringing songs of George F. Root, songs which have made the name of Root famous in thousands upon thousands of households in the West. Some of these songs are: "Battle Cry of Freedom," "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp," "On, on, on, the Boys Came Marching," "Just Before the Battle, Mother," "Just After the Battle," "Lay Me Down and Save the Flag," "Stand Up for Uncle Sam, My Boys." The well known song, "Wrap the Flag Around Me, Boys," was composed by R. Stewart Taylor, and "When Johnny Cones Marching Home" by Louis Lambert.

THE COST OF ROYALTY IN ENGLAND.—Her Majesty:

SOME GREAT RIVERS.—From Haswell's little work for engineers and mechanics the following figures are taken, showing the lengths of the largest rivers on the various continents:

The figures as to the length of the Nile are estimated. The Amazon, with its tributaries (including the Rio Negro and Madeira), drains an area of 2,330,000 square miles; the Mississippi and Missouri, 1,726,000 square miles; the Yeneisy (or Yenisei, as it is often written) drains about 1,000,000 square miles; the Volga, about 500,000. In this group of great rivers the St. Lawrence is the most remarkable. It constitutes by far the largest body of fresh water in the world. Including the lakes and streams, which it comprises in its widest acceptation, the St. Lawrence covers about 73,000 square miles; the aggregate, it is estimated, represents not less than 9,000 solid miles—a mass of water which would have taken upward of forty years to pour over Niagara at the computed rate of 1,000,000 cubic feet in a second. As the entire basin of this water system falls short of 300,000 square miles, the surface of the land is only three times that of the water.

HOW THE UNITED STATES GOT ITS LANDS.—The United States bought Louisiana, the vast region between the Mississippi River, the eastern and northern boundary of Texas (then belonging to Spain), and the dividing ridge of the Rocky Mountains, together with what is now Oregon, Washington Territory, and the western parts of Montana and Idaho, from France for $11,250,000. This was in 1803. Before the principal, interest, and claims of one sort and another assumed by the United States were settled, the total cost of this "Louisiana purchase," comprising, according to French construction and our understanding, 1,171,931 square miles, swelled to $23,500,000, or almost $25 per section—a fact not stated in cyclopedias and school histories, and therefore not generally understood. Spain still held Florida and claimed a part of what we understood to be included in the Louisiana purchase—a strip up to north latitude 31—and disputed our boundary along the south and west, and even claimed Oregon. We bought Florida and all the disputed land east of the Mississippi and her claim to Oregon, and settled our southwestern boundary dispute for the sum of $6,500,000. Texas smilingly proposed annexation to the United States, and this great government was "taken in" December 29, 1845, Texas keeping her public lands and giving us all her State debts and a three-year war (costing us $66,000,000) with Mexico, who claimed her for a runaway from Mexican jurisdiction. This was a bargain that out-yankeed the Yankees, but the South insisted on it and the North submitted. After conquering all the territory now embraced in New Mexico, a part of Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California, we paid Mexico $25,000,000 for it—$15,000,000 for the greater part of it and $10,000,000 for another slice, known as the "Gadsden purchase." In 1867 we bought Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000. All the several amounts above named were paid long ago. As for all the rest of our landed possessions, we took them with us when we cut loose from mother Britain's apron string, but did not get a clear title until we had fought ten years for it—first in the Revolutionary War, costing us in killed 7,343 reported—besides the unreported killed—and over 15,000 wounded, and $135,193,103 in money; afterward in the War of 1812-15, costing us in killed 1,877, in wounded 3,737, in money $107,159,003. We have paid everybody but the Indians, the only real owners, and, thanks to gunpowder, sword, bayonet, bad whisky, small-pox, cholera and other weapons of civilization, there are not many of them left to complain. Besides all the beads, earrings, blankets, pots, kettles, brass buttons, etc., given them for land titles in the olden times, we paid them, or the Indian agents, in one way and another, in the ninety years from 1791 to 1881, inclusive, $193,672,697.31, to say nothing of the thousands of lives sacrificed and many millions spent in Indian wars, from the war of King Philip to the last fight with the Apaches.

ILLUSTRIOUS MEN AND WOMEN.—It is not likely that any two persons would agree as to who are entitled to the first fifty places on the roll of great men and great women. Using "great" in the sense of eminence in their professions, of great military commanders the following are among the chief: Sesostris, the Egyptian conqueror, who is represented as having subdued all Asia to the Oxus and the Ganges, Ethiopia, and a part of Europe; Cyrus the Great; Alexander the Great; Hannibal; Che-Hwanti, who reduced all the kingdoms of China and Indo-China to one empire, and constructed the Great Wall; Cæsar; Genghis Khan, the Tartar chief, who overran all Asia and a part of Europe; Napoleon Bonaparte; Ulysses S. Grant, and General Von Moltke. Among the most illustrious benefactors of mankind, as statesmen, lawgivers and patriots, stand Moses, David, Solon, Numa Pompilius, Zoroaster, Confucius, Justinian, Charlemagne, Cromwell, Washington and Lincoln. Eminent among the philosophers, rhetoricians and logicians stand Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, the two Catos, and Lord Bacon; among orators, Pericles, Demosthenes, Cicero, Mirabeau, Burke, Webster and Clay; among poets, Homer, Virgil, Dante, Milton, and Shakespeare; among painters and sculptors, Phidias, Parrhasius, Zenxis, Praxiteles, Scopas, Michael Angelo, Raphael and Rubens; among philanthropists, John Howard; among inventors, Archimedes, Watt, Fulton, Arkwright, Whitney and Morse; among astronomers, Copernicus, Galileo, Tycho Brahe, Newton, La Place and the elder Herschel. Here are sixty names of distinguished men, and yet the great religious leaders, excepting Moses and Zoroaster, have not been named. Among these stand Siddhartha or Buddha, Mahomet, Martin Luther, John Knox and John Wesley. Then the great explorers and geographers of the world have not been noticed, among whom Herodotus, Strabo, Pliny, Vasco de Gama, Columbus and Humboldt barely lead the van.

Of eminent women there are Seling, wife of the Emperor Hwang-ti, B. C. 2637, who taught her people the art of silk-raising and weaving; Semiramis, the Assyrian Queen; Deborah, the heroic warrior prophetess of the Israelites; Queen Esther, who, with the counsel of her cousin, Mordecai, not only saved the Jews from extermination, but lifted them from a condition of slavery into prosperity and power; Dido, the founder of Carthage; Sappho, the eminent Grecian poetess; Hypatia, the eloquent philosopher; Mary, the mother of Christ; Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra; the mother of St. Augustine; Elizabeth of Hungary; Queen Elizabeth of England; Queen Isabella of Spain; the Empress Maria Theresa; Margaret the Great of Denmark; Catherine the Great of Russia, Queen Victoria; Florence Nightingale; Mme. de Stael: Mrs. Fry, the philanthropist; among authoresses, Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Sigourney, Mrs. Browning, "George Sand," "George Eliot," and Mrs. Stowe; and among artists, Rosa Bonheur, and our own Harriet Hosmer.

THE SUEZ CANAL.—The Suez Canal was begun in 1,858 and was formally opened in November, 1869. Its cost, including harbors, is estimated at $100,000,000. Its length is 100 miles, 75 of which were excavated; its width is generally 325 feet at the surface, and 75 feet at the bottom, and its depth 26 feet. The workmen employed were chiefly natives, and many were drafted by the Khedive. The number of laborers is estimated at 30,000. The British government virtually controls the canal as it owns most of the stock.

SENDING VESSELS OVER NIAGARA FALLS.—There have been three such instances. The first was in 1827. Some men got an old ship—the Michigan—which had been used on lake Erie, and had been pronounced unseaworthy. For mere wantonness they put aboard a bear, a fox, a buffalo, a dog and some geese and sent it over the cataract. The bear jumped from the vessel before it reached the rapids, swam toward the shore, and was rescued by some humane persons. The geese went over the falls, and came to the shore below alive, and, therefore, became objects of great interest, and were sold at high prices to visitors at the Falls. The dog, fox, and buffalo were not heard of or seen again. Another condemned vessel, the Detroit, that had belonged to Commodore Perry's victorious fleet, was started over the cataract in the winter of 1841, but grounded about midway in the rapids, and lay there till knocked to pieces by the ice. A somewhat more picturesque instance was the sending over the Canada side of a ship on fire. This occurred in 1837. The vessel was the Caroline, which had been run in the interest of the insurgents in the Canadian rebellion. It was captured by Colonel McNabb, an officer of the Canada militia, and by his orders it was set on fire then cut loose from its moorings. All in flames, it went glaring and hissing down the rapids and over the precipice, and smothered its ruddy blaze in the boiling chasm below. Thia was witnessed by large crowds on both sides of the falls, and was described as a most magnificent sight. Of course there was no one on board the vessel.

OLD TIME WAGES IN ENGLAND.—The following rates of daily wages "determined" by the Justices of Somerset, in 1685, answer this question very fairly. Somerset; being one of the average shires of England. The orthography is conformed to original record:

The shilling is about 24 cents and the penny 2 cents.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE SIGNERS.—The following is the list of names appended to that famous document, with the colony which each represented in Congress:

New Hampshire—Josiah Bartlett; William Whipple, Matthew Thornton.

Massachusetts—John Hancock, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Robert Treat Paine.

Rhode Island—Elbridge Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery.

Connecticut—Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott.

New York—William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris.

New Jersey—Richard Hockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark.

Pennsylvania—Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross.

Delaware—Caesar Rodney, George Reed, Thomas McKean.

Maryland—Samuel Chase, Thomas Stone, William Paca, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.

Virginia—George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.

North Carolina—William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.

South Carolina—Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton.

Georgia—Button Gwinntet, Lyman Hall, George Walton.

LIFE OF ETHAN ALLEN.—Colonel Ethan Allan was captured in an attack upon Montreal, September 25, 1775. He was sent as prisoner to Great Britain, ostensibly for trial, but in a few months was sent back to America, and in prison ships and jails at Halifax and New York till May 3, 1778, when he was exchanged. During most of his captivity he was treated as a felon and kept heavily ironed, but during 1777 was allowed restricted liberty on parole. After his exchange he again offered his services to the patriot army, but because of trouble in Vermont was put in command of the militia in that State. The British authorities were at that time making especial efforts to secure the allegiance of the Vermonters, and it was owing to Allen's skillful negotiations that the question was kept open until the theater of war was changed, thus keeping the colony on the American side, but avoiding the attacks from the British that would certainly have followed an open avowal of their political preferences. Allen died at Burlington, Vt., February 13, 1789.

BURIAL CUSTOMS.—Among the early Christians the dead were buried with the face upward and the feet toward the east, in token of the resurrection at the coming again of the Sun of Righteousness. It cannot be said, however, that the custom was first used by the Christians. It was in practice among early pagan nations also, and is regarded as a survival of the ideas of the fire-worshipers. The sun, which was the impersonation of deity to many primitive races, had his home in their mythology in the east, and out of respect for him the dead were placed facing this quarter, among certain tribes always in a sitting posture. It may also be remarked that among other races the position was reversed, the dead body being placed with its feet toward the west, because the region of sunset was the home of the departed spirits.

THE SURRENDER OF LEE TO GRANT.—The surrender of General Lee was made at the house of a farmer named McLean, in Appomattox village, that house having been selected by General Lee himself at General Grant's request for the interview. General Grant went thither, and was met by General Lee on the threshold. The two went into the parlor of the house, a small room, containing little furnishing but a table and several chairs. About twenty Union officers besides General Grant were present, among them the members of the General's staff. The only Confederate officer with General Lee was Colonel Marshall, who acted as his secretary. General Lee, as well as his aid, was in full uniform, and wore a burnished sword which was given him by the State of Virginia; General Grant was in plain uniform, without a sword. After a brief conversation, relative to the meeting of the two generals while soldiers in Mexico, General Lee adverted at once to the object of the interview by asking on what terms the surrender of his army would be received. General Grant replied that officers and men must become prisoners of war, giving up of course all munitions, weapons and supplies, but that a parole would be accepted. General Lee then requested that the terms should be put in writing, that he might sign them. General Badeau says that while General Grant was writing the conditions of surrender he chanced to look up and his eye caught the glitter of General Lee's sword, and that this sight induced him to insert the provision that the "officers should be allowed to retain their side-arms, horses and personal property." This historian thinks that General Lee fully expected to give up his sword, and that General Grant omitted this from the terms of surrender out of consideration for the feelings of a soldier. Badeau says that General Lee was evidently much touched by the clemency of his adversary in this regard. The Confederate chief now wrote his acceptance of the terms offered and signed them. lie further requested that the cavalry and artillery soldiers might be allowed to retain their horses as well as the officers, to which General Grant consented, and asked that a supply train left at Danville might be allowed to pass on, as his soldiers were without food. The reply of General Grant to this was an order that 25,000 rations should be immediately issued from the commissariat of the National army to the Army of Northern Virginia. The formal papers were now drawn up and signed, and the interview which ended one of the greatest wars of modern times was over.

COLORED POPULATION AT EACH CENSUS.—The following will show the white and colored population of the United States, from 1790 to 1880, inclusive:

ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS.—From 1496 to 1857 there were 134 voyages and land journeys undertaken by governments and explorers of Europe and America to investigate the unknown region around the North Pole. Of these, sixty-three went to the northwest, twenty-nine via Behring Straits, and the rest to the northeast or due north. Since 1857 there have been the notable expeditions of Dr. Hayes, of Captain Hall, those of Nordenskjold, and others sent by Germany, Russia and Denmark; three voyages made by James Lament, of the Royal Geographical Society, England, at his own expense; the expeditions of Sir George Nares, of Leigh Smith, and that of the ill-fated Jeannette; the search expeditions of the Tigress, the Juniata, and those sent to rescue Lieutenant Greely; further, all the expeditions fitted out under the auspices of the Polar Commission—in which the Greely expedition was included—and a number of minor voyages, making a sum total of some sixty exploring journeys in these twenty-seven years.

THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO.—The battle of Waterloo was fought June 18, 1815, between the allied British, Netherland and German troops under Wellington and the French under Napoleon. On June 16 Napoleon had attacked the Prussians under Blucher at Ligny and forced them to retreat toward Wavre, and Marshal Noy at the same time attacked the British and Dutch forces at Quatre Bras, but was forced to retire after an engagement of five hours. Napoleon's object, however, which was to prevent a union of the Prussians with Wellington's main army, was partially gained. The latter commander, having learned the next morning of Blucher's repulse, moved on to Waterloo expecting that the Prussian commander, according to previous arrangement, would join him there as speedily as possible. On June 17 Napoleon also moved toward Waterloo with the main body of his army, having directed Marshal Grouchy with 34,000 men and ninety-six guns to pursue Blucher's command toward Wavre. Both armies bivouacked on the field of Waterloo, and the next morning Napoleon, confident that Grouchy would prevent the arrival of the Prussians, delayed attack until the ground should become dry, a heavy shower having fallen on the day previous. The forces under Wellington occupied a semi-circular ridge a mile and a half in length, and the French were on an opposite ridge, the two being separated by a valley about 500 yards wide. The plan of Napoleon was to turn the allied left, force it back upon center, and gain possession of the enemy's line of retreat. To draw off Wellington's attention to his right, French troops were sent about 11 o'clock to attack the chateau of Houguemont, which the English had fortified. After a more than two hours this was still in the possession of its defenders. About 1 o'clock a Prussian corps under Bulow was seen approaching on the French right, and Napoleon, finding it necessary to send 10,000 men to check their advance, was obliged to change the plan of battle. He therefore ordered a fierce attack upon the allied center. Wellington massed his troops there, and the battle was obstinately maintained for five hours, with varying success to the participants, both commanders hourly expecting re-enforcements. Wellington was waiting for Blucher and Napoleon for Grouchy. The French at last were gaining ground; the allied troops in the center were wavering under Ney's impetuous onslaughts, General Durutte had forced back the left, and Bulow's troops on the right had been forced to yield the position they had taken. Now, however, there were rumors that Blucher's army was approaching and the allies again rallied. At 7 o'clock Napoleon, despairing of the approach of Grouchy, determined to decide the day by a charge of the Old Guard, which had been held in reserve. At this stage the advance of Prussian horse on the allied left forced back General Durutte's troops, and the Old Guard formed in squares to cover this retreat. Ney's division surrounded, made a gallant struggle—their brave leader still unwounded, though five horses had been shot under him, heading them on foot, sword in hand—but were forced to give way. The Old Guard held their ground against overwhelming numbers. Finally, when five squares were broken, the Emperor gave the order to "fall back." The cry "The Guard is repulsed" spread consternation through the French army and threatened to turn retreat into precipitate flight. Napoleon, seeing this, reformed the Guard in order to give a rallying point for the fugitives. Failing in this, he declared that he would die within the square, but Marshal Soult hurried him away. The heroic band, surrounded, was bidden to surrender. "The Old Guard dies, but never surrenders" is the reply popularly attributed to General Cambronne, and with the cry of "Vive l'Empereur!" the remnant of the Guard made a last charge upon the enemy and perished almost to a man. The forces of Blucher being now upon the field, the rout of the French was complete, and the Prussians pursued the fleeing troops, capturing guns and men. There is no doubt that the failure of Grouchy to come upon the field caused Napoleon to lose his last great battle. It was subsequently asserted that this marshal was bribed, but there seems to be no real foundation for so base a charge. The trouble was that he had been ordered by Napoleon to follow the Prussians toward Wavre and thought it necessary to follow the strict letter of his instructions. Before he reached the village the main body of the Prussian force was on its way to Waterloo, but one division had been left there to occupy his attention. Engaged in skirmishing with this, he paid no attention to the advice of his subordinate generals who, hearing the terrible cannonading at Waterloo, besought him to go to the aid of the army there. Napoleon believing that he was either holding back Blucher's forces or was hotly pursuing them, did not recall him to the main army, and the decisive battle was lost. Grouchy was summoned before a council of war, but the court declared itself incompetent to decide his case, and nothing further came of it.

OUR NATIONAL CEMETERIES.—National Cemeteries for soldiers and sailors may be said to have originated in 1850, the army appropriation bill of that year appropriating money for a cemetery near the City of Mexico, for the interment of the remains of soldiers who fell in the Mexican War. The remains of Federal soldiers and sailors who fell in the war for the Union have been buried in seventy-eight cemeteries exclusive of those interred elsewhere, a far greater number.

In the subjoined list are given the names and locations of the National Cemeteries with the number therein buried, known and unknown. We have no means of knowing what cemeteries also contain the bodies of Southern soldiers:

THE CATACOMBS OF PARIS.—The so-called catacombs of Paris were never catacombs in the ancient sense of the word, and were not devoted to purposes of sepulture until 1784. In that year the Council of State issued a decree for clearing the Cemetery of the Innocents, and for removing its contents, as well as those of other graveyards, into the quarries which had existed from the earlier times under the city of Paris and completely undermined the southern part of the city. Engineers and workmen were sent to examine the quarries and to prop up their roofs lest the weight of buildings above should break them in. April 7, 1786, the consecration of the catacombs was performed with great solemnity, and the work of removal from the cemeteries was immediately begun. This work was all performed by night; the bones were brought in funeral cars, covered with a pall, and followed by priests chanting the service of the dead, and when they reached the catacombs the bones were shot down the shaft. As the cemeteries were cleared by order of the government, their contents were removed to this place of general deposit, and these catacombs further served as convenient receptacles for those who perished in the revolution. At first the bones were heaped up without any kind of order except that those from each cemetery were kept separate, but in 1810 a regular system of arranging them was commenced, and the skulls and bones were built up along the wall. From the main entrance to the catacombs, which is near the barriers d'Enfer, a flight of ninety steps descends, at whose foot galleries are seen branching in various directions. Some yards distant is a vestibule of octagonal form, which opens into a long gallery lined with bones from floor to roof. The arm, leg and thigh bones are in front, closely and regularly piled, and their uniformity is relieved by three rows of skulls at equal distances. Behind these are thrown the smaller bones. This gallery conducts to several rooms resembling chapels, lined with bones variously arranged. One is called the "Tomb of the Revolution." another the "Tomb of Victims," the latter containing the relics of those who perished in the early period of the revolution and in the "Massacre of September." It is estimated that the remains of 3,000,000 human beings lie in this receptacle. Admission to these catacombs has for years been strictly forbidden on account of the unsafe condition of the roof. They are said to comprise an extent of about 3,250,000 square yards.

HISTORY OF THE TELEPHONE.—The principle of the telephone, that sounds could be conveyed to a distance by a distended wire, was demonstrated by Robert Hook in 1667, but no practical application was made of the discovery until 1821, when Professor Wheatstone exhibited his "Enchanted Lyre," in which the sounds of a music-box were conveyed from a cellar to upper rooms. The first true discoverer of the speaking telephone, however, was Johaun Philipp Reis, a German scientist and professor in the institute at Friedrichsdorf. April 25, 1861, Reis exhibited his telephone at Frankfort. This contained all the essential features of the modern telephone, but as its commercial value was not at all comprehended, little attention was paid to it. Reis, after trying in vain to arouse the interest of scientists in his discovery, died in 1874, without having reaped any advantage from it, and there is no doubt that his death was hastened by the distress of mind caused by his continual rebuffs. Meanwhile, the idea was being worked into more practical shape by other persons, Professor Elisha Gray and Professor A.G. Bell, and later by Edison. There is little doubt that Professor Gray's successful experiments considerably antedated those of the others, but Professor Bell was the first to perfect his patent. February 12, 1877, Bell's articulating telephone was tested by experiments at Boston and Salem, Mass., and was found to convey sounds distinctly from one place to the other, a distance of eighteen miles. This telephone was exhibited widely in this country and in Europe during that year, and telephone companies were established to bring it into general use. Edison's carbon "loud-speaking" telephone was brought out in 1878. It is not worth while to go into details of the suits on the subject of priority of invention. The examiner of patents at Washington, July 21, 1883, decided that Professor Bell was the first inventor, because he was the first to complete his invention and secure a full patent. Since 1878 there have been many improvements in the different parts of the telephone, rendering it now nearly perfect in its working.

SECESSION AND READMISSION OF REBEL STATES.—

THE EARTHQUAKE OF 1811-12.—The earthquake shocks felt on the shores of the Lower Mississippi in the years 1811-12 are recorded as among the most remarkable phenomena of their kind. Similar instances where earth disturbances have prevailed, severely and continuously, far from the vicinity of a volcano, are very rare indeed. In this instance, over an extent of country stretching for 300 miles southward from the mouth of the Ohio river, the ground rose and sank in great undulations, and lakes were formed and again drained. The shocks were attended by loud explosions, great fissures—generally traveling from northeast to southwest, and sometimes more than half a mile in length—were opened in the earth, and from these openings mud and water were thrown often to the tops of the highest trees. Islands in the Mississippi were sunk, the current of the river was driven back by the rising of its bed, and overflowed the adjacent lands. More than half of New Madrid county was permanently submerged. The inhabitants noticed that these earth movements were sometimes vertical and sometimes horizontal, the former being by far the most serious in their effects. These disturbances ceased March 26, 1812, simultaneously with the great earthquake which destroyed the city of Caracas, South America.

THE DARK DAYS IN NEW ENGLAND.—On May 19, 1780, there was a remarkable darkening of the sky and atmosphere over a large part of New England, which caused much alarm among those who witnessed it. The darkness began between ten and eleven o'clock on the day named, and continued in some places through the entire day, and was followed by an unusually intense degree of blackness during the ensuing night. This phenomenon extended from the northeastern part of New England westward as far as Albany, and southward to the coast of New Jersey. The most intense and prolonged darkness, however, was confined to Massachusetts, especially to the eastern half of the State. It came up from the southwest, and overhung the country like a pall. It was necessary to light candles in all the houses, and thousands of good people, believing that the end of all things terrestrial had come, betook themselves to religious devotions. One incident of the occasion has been woven into verse with excellent effect by the poet Whittier. The Connecticut Legislature was in session on that day, and as the darkness came on and grew more and more dense, the members became terrified, and thought that the day of judgment had come; so a motion was made to adjourn. At this, a Mr. Davenport arose and said: "Mr. Speaker, it is either the day of judgment, or it is not. If it is not, there is no need of adjourning. If it is, I desire to be found doing my duty. I move that candles be brought and that we proceed to business." Mr. Davenport's suggestion was taken, candles were brought in, and business went on as usual. As to the explanation of this phenomenon, scientists have been much puzzled. It was plain from the falling of the barometer that the air was surcharged with heavy vapor. The darkness then, it might be said, was only the result of a dense fog, but the question of the cause of so remarkable a fog was still unanswered. Omitting this unascertained primary cause, then, Professor Williams, of Harvard College, who subsequently made a thorough investigation of the matter, gave it as his opinion that this unprecedented quantity of vapor had gathered in the air in layers so as to cut off the rays of light, by repeated refraction, in a remarkable degree. He thought that the specific gravity of this vapor must have been the same as that of the air, which caused it to be held so long in suspension in the atmosphere. In this case the extent of the darkness would coincide with the area of the vapor, and it would continue until a change in the gravity of the air caused the vapors to ascend or descend. In some places when the darkness cleared it was as if the vapor was lifted and borne away by the wind like a dark pall, and in others, after a period of intense darkness the atmosphere gradually lightened again. In our day, a phenomenon of this kind would be thoroughly investigated to its most remote possible cause; but then owing to the sparse settlement of the country and the difficulties of travel, the investigation of distant causes could not be made. Large fires may have prevailed that spring in the forests of Western New York and Pennsylvania—a region then an absolute wilderness—the smoke of which was borne through the upper regions of the atmosphere, to fall when it came to a locality of less buoyant air, down to the lower strata. We say these fires may have recently preceded this day, and served as its sufficient cause, but we have only presumptive evidence that they did occur. Had Professor Williams entertained a supposition of the previous existence of such fires, he had then no means of verifying it, and long before the advent of railroads and telegraphs, or even of stage lines, the scientific theories of the dark day had passed from the general memory.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL.—In 1751 the Pennsylvania Assembly authorized a committee to procure a bell for their State House. November 1st of that year an order was sent to London for "a good bell of about 2,000 pounds weight." To this order were added the following directions: "Let the bell be cast by the best workmen and examined carefully before it is shipped, with the following words well shaped in large letters around it, viz.: 'By order of the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania, for the State House, in the city of Philadelphia, 1752.' And underneath, 'Proclaim Liberty Through All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants Thereof.—Levit. xxv. 10.'" In due time, in the following year, the bell reached Philadelphia, but when it was hung, early in 1753, as it was being first rung to test the sound, it cracked without any apparent reason, and it was necessary to have it recast. It was at first thought to be necessary to send it back to England for the purpose, but some "ingenious workmen" in Philadelphia wished to do the casting and were allowed to do so. In the first week of June, 1753, the bell was again hung in the belfry of the State House. On July 4, 1776, it was known throughout the city that the final decision on the question of declaring the colonies independent of Great Britain was to be made by the Continental Congress, in session at the State House. Accordingly the old bellman had been stationed in the belfry on that morning, with orders to ring the bell when a boy waiting at the door of the State House below should signal to him that the bill for independence had been passed. Hour after hour the old man stood at his post. At last, at 2 o'clock, when he had about concluded that the question would not be decided on that day at least, the watchman heard a shout from below, and looking down saw the boy at the door clapping his hands and calling at the top of his voice: "Ring! ring!" And he did ring, the story goes, for two whole hours, being so filled with excitement and enthusiasm that he could not stop. When the British threatened Philadelphia, in 1777, the precious bell was taken down and removed to the town of Bethlehem for safety. In 1778 it was returned to the State House and a new steeple built for it. Several years after it cracked, for some unknown reason, under a stroke of the clapper, and its tone was thus destroyed. An attempt was made to restore its tone by sawing the crack wider, but without success. This bell was sent to New Orleans during the winter to be exhibited in the World's Fair there. The Pullman Company gave one of their handsomest cars for the transit. It was in the charge of three custodians appointed by the Mayor of Philadelphia, who did not leave it night or day, and guarded it as fully as possible against accident. A pilot engine preceded the train carrying the bell over the entire route. It left Philadelphia Jan. 24, 1885, and returned in June.

THE ANTARCTIC POLAR REGIONS.—The climate of the southern polar regions is much more severe than that at the north pole, the icefields extending in degrees nearer the equator from the south than from the north. Within the arctic circle there are tribes of men living on the borders of the icy ocean on both the east and west hemispheres, but within the antarctic all is one dreary, uninhabitable waste. In the extreme north the reindeer and the musk-ox are found in numbers, but not a single land quadruped exists beyond 50 degrees of southern latitude. Flowers are seen in summer by the arctic navigator as far as 78 degrees north, but no plant of any description, not even a moss or a lichen, has been observed beyond Cockburn Island, in 64 degrees 12 minutes south latitude. In Spitzbergen, 79 degrees north, vegetation ascends the mountain slopes to a height of 3,000 feet, but on every land within or near the antarctic circle the snow-line descends to the water's edge. The highest latitude ever reached at the south is 78 degrees 10 minutes, while in the north navigators have penetrated to 84 degrees. The reason for this remarkable difference is the predominance of large tracts of land in the northern regions, while in the south is a vast expanse of ocean. In the north continental masses form an almost continuous belt around the icy sea, while in the southern hemisphere the continents taper down into a broad extent of frigid waters. In the north the plains of Siberia and of the Hudson's Bay territories, warmed by the sunbeams of summer, become at that season centers of radiating heat, while the antarctic lands, of small extent, isolated in the midst of a polar ocean and chilled by cold sea winds, act at every season as refrigerators of the atmosphere. Further in the north the cold currents of the polar sea, having but two openings of any estent through which they can convey drift ice, have their chilly influence confined to comparatively narrow limits, but the cold currents of the antarctic seas have scope to branch out freely on all sides and carry their ice even into temperate waters. Finally, at the northern hemisphere, the Gulf Stream conveys warmth even to the shores of Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, while on the opposite regions of the globe no traces of warm currents have been observed beyond 55 degrees of south latitude.

THE LANGUAGE USED BY CHRIST.—The language used by Christ was the Aramaic, the dialect of Northern Syria. The Israelites were much in contact with Aramæan populations, and some words from that tongue became incorporated into the Hebrew at a very early date. At the time of Hezekiah, Aramaic had become the official language of both Judea and Assyria: that is, the language spoken at the courts. After the fall of Samaria the Hebrew inhabitants of Northern Israel were largely carried into captivity, and their place was taken by colonists from Syria, who probably spoke Aramaic as their mother tongue. The fall of the Jewish Kingdom hastened the decay of Hebrew as a spoken language—not that the captives forgot their own language, as is generally assumed, but after the return to Judea the Jews found themselves, a people few in number, among a large number of surrounding populations using the Aramaic tongue. When the latest books of the Old Testament were written, Hebrew, though still the language of literature, had been supplanted by Aramaic as the language of common life. From that time on the former tongue was the exclusive property of scholars, and has no history save that of a merely literary language.

HOW ANCIENT TEMPLES AND PYRAMIDS WERE BUILT.—This is beyond modern conjecture, so imperfect is our understanding of the extent of the mechanical knowledge of the ancients. Their appliances are believed to have been of the simplest order, and their implements exceedingly crude, and yet they were able to convey these enormous blocks of stones for vast distances, over routes most difficult, and having accomplished this, to raise them to great height, and fit them in place without the aid of either cement or mortar to cover up the errors of the stonecutter. How all this was done is one of the enigmas of modern science. It has been generally believed that inclined planes of earth were used to enable the workmen to raise the huge stones to their places, the earth being cleared away afterward. But it is possible that the ancients had a more extended knowledge of mechanical powers than we usually give them credit for, and that they made use of machinery very like that employed by moderns for lifting great weights. Large cavities are found in some of the stones in the pyramids, which may have been worn by the foot of a derrick turning in them. That there were enormous numbers of men employed in the building of these ancient structures is well known; these results of their great aggregated strength we see, but they left no record of the means by which this strength was focused and brought most effectually to bear on their mighty tasks.

THE FIRST ATLANTIC CABLE.—As early as 1842 Professor Morse declared a submarine cable connection between America and Europe to be among the possibilities, but no attempt toward this great achievement was made until 1854, when Cyrus Field established a company, which secured the right of landing cables in Newfoundland for fifty years. In 1858 soundings between Ireland and Newfoundland were completed, showing a maximum depth of 4,400 meters. Having succeeded in laying a cable between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, Mr. Field secured the co-operation of English capitalists in his enterprise. The laying of the cable was begun August 7, 1857, from the port of Valencia, Ireland, but on the third day it broke, and the expedition had to return. Early in the following year another attempt was made. The cable was laid from both ends at the same time, was joined in mid-ocean, but in lowering it was broken. Again, in the same year, the attempt was made, and this time connection was successfully made. The first message over the line was sent August 7, 1858. The insulation of this cable, however, was defective, and by September 4th had quite failed. Some time was now spent in experiments, conducted by scientists, to secure a more perfect cable. A new company was formed, and in 1865 the work again began. The Great Eastern was employed to lay the cable, but when it was partly laid serious defects in the line were discovered and in repairing these it broke. The apparatus for recovering the wire proving insufficient the vessel returned to England. A new company, called the Anglo-American, was formed in 1865, and again the Great Eastern was equipped for the enterprise. The plan of the new expedition was not only to lay a new cable, but also to take up the end of the old one and join it to a new piece, thus obtaining a second telegraph line. The vessel sailed from Valencia July 13, 1866, and July 27 the cable was completely laid to Heart's Content, Newfoundland, and a message announcing the fact sent over the wire to Lord Stanley. Queen Victoria sent a message of congratulation to President Buchanan on the 28th. September 2d the lost cable of 1865 was recovered and its laying completed at Newfoundland September 8, 1866.

ENGRAVING ON EGGS.—The art of engraving on eggs is very puzzling to the uninitiated, but in reality it is very simple. It merely consists in writing upon the egg-shell with wax or varnish, or simply with tallow, and then immersing the egg in some weak acid, such, for example, as vinegar, dilute hydrochloric acid, or etching liquor. Wherever the varnish or wax has not protected the shell, the lime of the latter is decomposed and dissolved in the acid, and the writing or drawing remains in relief. In connection with this art a curious incident is told in history. In the month of August, 1808, at the time of the Spanish war, there was found in a church in Lisbon an egg, on which was plainly foretold the utter destruction of the French, who then had control of the city. The story of the wonderful prophecy spread through the town, causing the greatest excitement among the superstitious populace, and a general uprising was expected. This, however, the French commander cleverly thwarted by causing a counter-prophecy, directly denying the first, to be engrossed on several hundred eggs, which were then distributed in various parts of the city. The astonished Portuguese did not know what to think of this new phenomenon, but its "numerousness," if we may so call it, caused it to altogether outweigh the influence of the first prediction, and there were no further symptoms of revolt against the French.

CAYENNE PEPPER.—The name of the plant genus from which cayenne pepper is obtained is capsicum, a name also given to the product of the plant. This genus belongs to the solanaceæ, or night shade family, and has no relation to the family piperaceæ, which produces the shrub yielding black pepper. The plant which yields cayenne pepper is identical with the common red pepper of our gardens. It is an annual, a native of tropical countries, where it thrives luxuriantly even in the dryest soils, but it is also cultivated in other parts of the world. It grows to the height of two or three feet, and bears a fruit in the shape of a conical pod or seed-vessel, which is green when immature, but bright scarlet or orange when ripe. This pod, with its seeds, has a very pungent taste, and is used when green for pickling, and when ripe and dried is ground to powder to make cayenne pepper, or is used for medicine. This powder has a strongly stimulating effect, and is believed to aid digestion. It is also employed externally to excite the action of the skin.

THE BIG TREES OF CALIFORNIA.—There are several groves of Big Trees in California, the most famous of which are the Calaveras grove and the Mariposa grove. The Calaveras grove occupies what may be described as a band or belt 3,200 feet long and 700 in width. It is between two slopes, in a depression in the mountains, and has a stream winding through it, which runs dry in the summer time. In this grove the Big Trees number ninety-three, besides a great many smaller ones, which would be considered very large if it were not for the presence of these monarchs of the forest. Several of the Big Trees have fallen since the grove was discovered, one has been cut down, and one had the bark stripped from it to the height 116 feet from the ground. The highest now standing is the "Keystone State," 325 feet high and 45 feet in circumference; and the largest and finest is the "Empire State." There are four trees over 300 feet in height, and 40 to 61 feet in circumference. The tree which was cut down occupied five men twenty-two days, which would be at the rate of one man 110 days, or nearly four months' work, not counting Sundays. Pump augers were used for boring through the giant. After the trunk was severed from the stump it required five men with immense wedges for three days to topple it over. The bark was eighteen inches thick. The tree would have yielded more than 1,000 cords of four-foot wood and 100 cords of bark, or more than 1,100 cords in all. On the stump of the tree was built a house, thirty feet in diameter, which the Rev. A.H. Tevis, an observant traveler, says contains room enough in square feet, if it were the right shape, for a parlor 12x10 feet, a dining-room 10x12, a kitchen 10x12, two bed-rooms 10 feet square each, a pantry 4x8, two clothes-presses 1-1/2 feet deep and 4 feet wide, and still have a little to spare! The Mariposa grove is part of a grant made by Congress to be set apart for public use, resort and recreation forever. The area of the grant is two miles square and comprises two distinct groves about half a mile apart. The upper grove contains 365 trees, of which 154 are over fifteen feet in diameter, besides a great number of smaller ones. The average height of the Mariposa trees is less than that of the Calaveras, the highest Mariposa tree being 272 feet; but the average size of the Mariposa is greater than that of Calaveras. The "Grizzly Giant," in the lower grove, is 94 feet in circumference and 31 feet in diameter; it has been decreased by burning. Indeed, the forests at times present a somewhat unattractive appearance, as, in the past, the Indians, to help them in their hunting, burned off the chaparral and rubbish, and thus disfigured many of these splendid trees by burning off nearly all the bark. The first branch of the "Grizzly Giant" is nearly two hundred feet from the ground and is six feet in diameter. The remains of a tree, now prostrate, indicate that it had reached a diameter of about forty feet and a height of 400 feet; the trunk is hollow and will admit of the passage of three horsemen riding abreast. There are about 125 trees of over forty feet in circumference. Besides these two main groves there are the Tolumne grove, with thirty big trees; the Fresno grove, with over eight hundred spread over an area of two and a half miles long and one to two broad; and the Stanislaus grove, the Calaveras group, with from 700 to 800. There should be named in this connection the petrified forest near Calitoga, which contains portions of nearly one hundred distinct trees of great size, scattered over a tract of three or four miles in extent: the largest of this forest is eleven feet in diameter at the base and sixty feet long. It is conjectured that these prostrate giants were silicified by the eruption of the neighboring Mount St. Helena, which discharged hot alkaline waters containing silica in solution. This petrified forest is considered one of the great natural wonders of California.

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF JERUSALEM.—The earliest name of Jerusalem appears to have been Jebus, or poetically, Salem, and its king in Abraham's time was Melchizedek. When the Hebrews took possession of Canaan, the city of Salem was burned, but the fortress remained in the hands of the Jebusites till King David took it by storm and made it the capital of his kingdom. From that time it was called Jerusalem. During the reigns of David and Solomon it attained its highest degree of power. When ten of the Jewish tribes seceded under Jeroboam they made Shechem (and later Samaria) the capital of their kingdom of Israel, and Jerusalem remained the capital of the smaller but more powerful kingdom of Judah. The city was taken by Shishak, King of Egypt, in 971 B.C., was later conquered and sacked by Joash, King of Israel, and in the time of Ahaz, the King of Syria came against it with a large force, but could not take it. The city was besieged in Hezekiah's reign, by the army of Sennacherib, King of Assyria, but was saved by the sudden destruction of the invading army. After the death of Josiah, the city was tributary for some years to the King of Egypt, but was taken after repeated attempts by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C., and was left a heap of ruins. The work of rebuilding it began by order of King Cyrus about 538 B.C., who allowed the Jewish people who had been carried into captivity to return for this purpose. From this time Jerusalem enjoyed comparative peace for several hundred years and grew to be an important commercial city. When Alexander invaded Syria it submitted to him without resistance. After his death it belonged for a time to Egypt and in 198 B.C., passed with the rest of Judea under the rule of Syria. Antiochus the Great ruled it with mildness and justice, but the tyranny of his son, Antiochus Epiphanes, brought about the revolt, headed by the Maccabees, through which Jerusalem gained a brief independence. In 63 B.C., Pompey the Great took the city, demolished the walls and killed thousands of the people, but did not plunder it. However, nine years later Crassus robbed the temple of all its treasures. The walls were soon after rebuilt under Antipater, the Roman procurator, but when Herod came to rule over the city with the title of King, given him by the Roman Senate, he was resisted and only took possession after an obstinate siege, which was followed by the massacre of great numbers of the people. Herod improved and enlarged the city, and restored the temple on a more magnificent scale than in Solomon's time. Jerusalem is said at this time to have had a population of over 200,000. This period of wealth and prosperity was also rendered most, memorable for Jerusalem by the ministry and crucifixion of Christ. About A.D. 66, the Jews, goaded to desperation by the tyranny of the Romans, revolted, garrisoned Jerusalem, and defeated a Roman army sent against them. This was the beginning of the disastrous war which ended with the destruction of the city. It was taken by Titus, in the year 70, after a long siege, all the inhabitants were massacred, or made prisoners, and the entire city left a heap of ruins. The Emperor Hadrian built on the site of Jerusalem a Roman city, under the name of Elia Capitolina, with a temple of Jupiter, and Jews were forbidden to enter the city under pain of death. Under Constantine it was made a place of pilgrimage for Christians, as the Emperor's mother, Helena, had with much pains located the various sites of events in the history of Christ. The Emperor Julian, on the contrary, not only allowed the Jews to return to their city, but also made an attempt, which ended in failure, to rebuild their temple. In 614 the Persian Emperor Chosroes invaded the Roman empire. The Jews joined his army, and after conquering the northern part of Palestine, the united forces laid siege to and took Jerusalem. The Jews wreaked vengeance on the Christians for what they had been forced to endure, and 20,000 people were massacred. The Persians held rule in the city for fourteen years; it was then taken by the Romans again, but in 636 the Caliph Omar beseiged it. After four months the city capitulated. It was under the rule of the Caliphs for 400 years, until the Seljuk Turks in 1077 invaded Syria and made it a province of their empire. Christian pilgrims had for many years kept up the practice of visiting the tomb of Christ, as the Caliphs did not interfere with their devotions any further than by exacting a small tribute from each visitor. But the cruelties practiced upon the pilgrims by the Turks were many, and report of them soon roused all Europe to a pitch of indignation, and brought about that series of holy wars, which for a time restored the holy sepulcher into Christian hands. Jerusalem was stormed and taken July 15, 1099, and 50,000 Moslems were slaughtered by their wrathful Christian foes. The new sovereignty was precariously maintained until 1187, when it fell before the power of Saladin. Jerusalem, after a siege of twelve days, surrendered. Saladin, however, did not put his captives to death, but contented himself with expelling them from the city. Jerusalem passed into the hands of the Franks by treaty, in 1229, was retaken by the Moslems in 1239, once more restored in 1243, and finally conquered in 1244 by a horde of Kharesmian Turks. In 1517 Palestine was conquered by Sultan Selin I., and since then has been under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, except for a brief period—from 1832 to 1840, when it was in the hands of Mahomet Ali Pasha of Egypt, and his son Ibrahim had his seat of government in Jerusalem.

THE BLACK DEATH.—- This great plague, known as the "Black Death," was the most deadly epidemic ever known. It is believed to have been an aggravated outburst of the Oriental plague, which from the earliest records of history has periodically appeared in Asia and Northern Africa. There had been a visitation of the plague in Europe in 1342; the Black Death, in terrible virulence, appeared in 1348-9; it also came in milder form in 1361-2, and again in 1369. The prevalence and severity of the pestilence during this century is ascribed to the disturbed conditions of the elements that preceded it. For a number of years Asia and Europe had suffered from mighty earthquakes, furious tornadoes, violent floods, clouds of locusts darkening the air and poisoning it with their corrupting bodies. Whether these natural disturbances were the cause of the plague is not certainly known, but many writers on the subject regard the connection as both probable and possible. The disease was brought from the Orient to Constantinople, and early in 1347 appeared in Sicily and several coast towns of Italy. After a brief pause the pestilence broke out at Avignon in January, 1348; advanced thence to Southern France, Spain and Northern Italy. Passing through France and visiting, but not yet ravaging, Germany, it made its way to England, cutting down its first victims at Dorset, in August, 1348. Thence it traveled slowly, reaching London early in the winter. Soon it embraced the entire kingdom, penetrating to every rural hamlet, so that England became a mere pest-house. The chief symptoms of the disease are described as "spitting, in some cases actual vomiting, of blood, the breaking out of inflammatory boils in parts, or over the whole of the body, and the appearance of those dark blotches upon the skin which suggested its most startling name. Some of the victims died almost on the first attack, some in twelve hours, some in two days, almost all within the first three days." The utter powerlessness of medical skill before the disease was owing partly to the physicians' ignorance of its nature, and largely to the effect of the spirit of terror which hung like a pall over men's minds. After some months had passed, the practice of opening the hard boils was adopted, with very good effect, and many lives were thus saved. But the havoc wrought by the disease in England was terrible. It is said that 100,000 persons died in London, nearly 60,000 in Norwich, and proportionate numbers in other cities. These figures seem incredible, but a recent writer, who has spent much time in the investigation of records, asserts that at least half the population, or about 2,500,000 souls, of England perished in this outbreak. The ravages of the pestilence over the rest of the world were no less terrible. Germany is said to have lost 1,244,434 victims; Italy, over half the population. On a moderate calculation, it may be assumed that there perished in Europe during the first appearance of the Black Death, fully 25,000,000 human beings. Concerning the Orient we have less reliable records, but 13,000,000 are said to have died in China, and 24,000,000 in the rest of Asia and adjacent islands. The plague also ravaged Northern Africa, but of its course there little is known. The horrors of that dreadful time were increased by the fearful persecutions visited on the Jews, who were accused of having caused the pestilence by poisoning the public wells. The people rose to exterminate the hapless race, and killed them by fire and torture wherever found. It is impossible for us to conceive of the actual horror of such times.

MIGHTY HAMMERS.—An authority on scientific subjects give the weights of the great hammers used in the iron works of Europe, and their date of manufacture, as follows: At the Terni Works, Italy, the heaviest hammer weighs 50 tons, and was made in 1873; one at Alexandrovski, Russia, was made the following year of like weight. In 1877, one was finished at Creusot Works, France, weighing 80 tons; in 1885, one at the Cockerill Works, Belgium, of 100 tons, and in 1880, at the Krupp Works, Essen, Germany, one of 150 tons. The latter being the heaviest hammer in the world.

ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD.—July 2, 1881, at 9:25 A.M., as President Garfield was entering the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad depot at Washington, preparatory to taking the cars for a two weeks' jaunt in New England, he was fired upon and severely wounded by Charles Jules Guitean, a native of Illinois, but of French descent. The scene of the assassination was the ladies' reception-room at the station. The President and Mr. Blaine, arm in arm, were walking slowly through the aisle between two rows of benches on either side of the room; when Guitean entered by a side door on the left of the gentlemen, passed quickly around the back of the benches till directly behind the President, and fired the shot that struck his arm. Mr. Garfield walked about ten feet to the end of the aisle, and was in the act of turning to face his assailant when the second shot struck him in small of the back, and he fell. The assassin was immediately seized and taken to jail. The wounded president was conveyed in an ambulance to the White House. As he was very faint, the first fear was of internal hemorrhage, which might cause speedy death. But as he rallied in a few hours, this danger was thought to be averted and inflammation was now feared. But as symptoms of this failed to appear, the surgeons in attendance concluded that no important organ had been injured, that the bullet would become encysted and harmless, or might possibly be located and successfully removed. By the 10th of July, the reports were so favorable, that the president's recovery was regarded as certain, and public thanksgivings were offered in several of the States, by order of the governors, for his deliverance. The first check in the favorable symptoms occurred on July 18, and July 23 there was a serious relapse, attended with chills and fever. The wound had been frequently probed but without securing any favorable result. The induction balance was used to locate the ball, and was regarded as a success, though subsequently its indications were known to have been altogether erroneous. The probings, therefore, in what was assumed to be the track of the ball, only increased the unfavorable symptoms. During the entire month of August these reports were alternately hopeful and discouraging, the dangerous indications being generally on the increase. By August 25, his situation was understood to be very critical, though an apparent improvement on the 26th and 28th again aroused hope. At his own earnest desire the president was removed, September 6, to Elberon Park, near Long Branch. N.J., in the hope that the cooler air of the seaside might renew his strength more rapidly. However, the improvement hoped for did not appear. On September 16, there was a serious relapse, with well-marked symptoms of blood poisoning, and September 19, the president died. A post-mortem examination showed that the ball, after fracturing one of the ribs, had passed through the spinal column, fracturing the body of one of the vertebra, driving a number of small fragments of bone into the soft parts adjacent, and lodging below the pancreas, where it had become completely encysted. The immediate cause of death was hemorrhage from one of the small arteries in the track of the ball, but the principal cause was the poisoning of the blood from suppuration.

COINS OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES.—The following carefullv prepared summary indicates the coins in use in the various countries, taking their names in alphabetical order:

Argentine Republic—Gold coins: 20 peso piece, $19.94; 10 pesos, $9.97; 5 pesos, $4.98. Silver: 1 peso, 99 cents. The copper coin of the country is the centisimo, 100 of which make a peso or dollar.

Austria—Gold coins: 8 gulden piece, $3.86; 4 gulden, $1.93. Silver: Marie Theresa thaler, $1.02; 2 gulden, 96 cents; 1 gulden, 48 cents; 1/4 gulden, 12 cents; 20 kreutzer, 10 cents; 10 kreutzer, 5 cents. Of the small copper coin current, known as the kreutzer, 100 make a gulden.

Brazil—Gold coins: 20 milrei piece, $10.91; 10 milreis, $5.45. Silver: 2 milreis, $1.09; 1 milreis, 55 cents; 1/2 milreis, 27 cents. The Portuguese rei is used for copper money, worth about 1/8 of a cent.

Chili—Gold coin: 10 pesos (or 1 condor), $9.10; 5 pesos, $4.55: 2 pesos, $1.82. Silver: 1 peso, 91 cents; 50 centavos, 45 cents; 20 centavos, 18 cents; 10 centavos, 9 cents; 5 centavos, 4 cents. The copper coin is 1 centavo, 100th of a peso.

Colombia—Gold coins: Twenty peso piece, $19.30; 10 pesos, $9.65; 5 pesos, $4.82; 2 pesos, $1.93. Silver: 1 peso, 96 cents; 20 centavos, 19 cents; 10 centavos, 10 cents; 5 centavos, 5 cents. The copper centavo of Colombia is identical in value with our cent. (The currency of Coloumbia is also used in Venezuela.)

Denmark—Gold coins: Twenty kroner piece, $5.36; 10 kroner, $2.68. Silver: Two kroner, 53 cents; 1 krone, 27 cents; 50 ore, 13 cents; 40 ore, 10 cents; 25 ore, 6-1/2 cents; 10 ore, 2-1/2 cents. One hundred of the copper ore make one krone.

France—Gold coins: One hundred franc piece, $19.30; 50 francs. $9.65; 20 francs, $3.85; 10 francs, $1.93; 5 francs, 96 cents. Silver: Five francs, 96 cents; 2 francs, 38 cents; 1 franc, 19 cents; 50 centimes, 10 cents: 20 centimes, 4 cents. The copper coins are the sou, worth about 9-1/2 mills, and the centime, 2 mills.

Germany—Gold coins: Twenty-mark piece, $4.76; 10 marks, $2.38; 5 marks, $1.19. Silver: Five marks, $1.19; 2 marks, 48 cents; 1 mark, 24 cents; 50 pfennige, 12 cents; 20 pfennige, 5 cents. One hundred copper pfennige make one mark.

Great Britain—Gold coins: Pound or sovereign, $4.86; guinea, $5.12. Silver: Five shillings or crown, $1.25; half crown, 62-1/2 cents; shilling, 25 cents; sixpence, 12-1/2 cents. Also a three-penny piece and a four-penny piece, but the latter is being called in, and is nearly out of circulation. The copper coins of Great Britain are the penny, half-penny and farthing.

India—Gold coins: Thirty rupees or double mohur, $14.58; 15 rupees or mohur, $7.29; 10 rupees, $4.86; 5 rupees, $2.43. Silver: One rupee, 48 cents, and coins respectively of the value of one-half, one-fourth and one-eighth rupee. In copper there is the pie, one-fourth of a cent; the pice, 3/4 of a cent; the ana, 3 cents.

Japan—Gold coins: Twenty yen, $19.94; 10 yen, $9.97; 5 yen, $4.98; 2 yen, $1.99; 1 yen, 99 cents. Silver: The 50, 20, 10 and 5 sen pieces, answering respectively to 50, 20, 10 and 5 cents. In copper there is the sen, answering to 1 cent.

Mexico—Gold coins: Sixteen dollar piece, $15.74; 8 dollars, $7.87; 4 dollars, $3.93; 2 dollars, $1.96; 1 dollar, 98 cents. Silver: 1 dollar, 98 cents; 50-cent piece, 49 cents; 25 cents, 24 cents. The Mexican cent, like our own, equals one-hundreth of a dollar.

Netherlands—Gold coins: Ten-guilder piece, $4.02; 5 guilders, $2.01. Silver: 2-1/2 guilders, $1; 1 guilder, 40 cents; half-guilder, 20 cents; 25 cents, 10 cents; 10 cents, 4 cents; 5 cents, 2 cents. The Dutch copper cent is one-hundreth of the guilder.

Peru—Gold coins: Twenty-sol piece, $19.30; 10 sol, $9.65; 5 sol, $4.82; 2 sol. $1.93; 1 sol, 96 cents. Silver: 1 sol, 96 cents; 50 centesimos, 48 cents; 20, 10 and 5 centesimos, worth respectively 19, 10 and 5 cents. It will be noted that the Peruvian coinage is almost identical with that of Colombia. It is also used in Bolivia.

Portugal—Gold coin: Crown, $10.80; half-crown, $5.40; one-fifth crown, $2.16; one-tenth crown, $1.08. These gold pieces are also known respectively as 10, 5, 2 and 1 dollar pieces. The silver coins are the 500, 200, 100 and 50 reis coins, worth respectively 54, 21, 11 and 5 cents. One thousand reis are equal to one crown.

Russia—Gold coins: Imperial or 10-ruble piece, $7.72; 5 rubles, $3.86; 3 rubles, $2.31. Silver: ruble, 77 cents; half-ruble, 38 cents; quarter-ruble, 19 cents; 20 copecks, 15 cents; 10 copecks, 7 cents; 5 copecks, 4 cents; 100 copecks are worth 1 ruble.

Turkey—Gold coins: Lira or medjidie, $4.40; half-lira, $2.20; quarter-lira, $1.10. The silver unit is the piastre, worth 4 cents of our currency, and silver coins of 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 piastres are current.

The currency of Denmark is also in use in Norway and Sweden, these three countries forming the Scandinavian Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Roumania, Servia, Spain and Switzerland are united in the Latin Union, and use the French coinage. The units in the different States are, it is true, called by different names; as in France, Belgium and Switzerland, franc and centime; in Italy, lira and centesimo; in Greece, drachm and lepta; in Roumania, lei and bani: in Servia, dinar and para; in Spain, peseta and centesimo; but in all cases the value is the same.

The similarity in the coinage of different countries is worth notice. A very slight change in the percentage of silver used would render the half-guilder of Austria, the krone of the Scandinavian Union, the franc of the Latin Union, the mark of Germany, the half-guilder of Holland, the quarter-ruble of Russia, the 200-reis piece of Portugal, the 5-piastre piece of Turkey, the half-milreis of Brazil and the half-rupee of India, all interchangeable with the English shilling, and all of them about the value of the quarter-dollar of North and South American coinage. With the exception of Brazil, the other South American States, as well as Mexico and the Central American countries, are all rapidly approximating a uniform coinage, which the needs of commerce will unquestionably soon harmonize with that of the United States. Curiously enough, the great force that is assimilating the alien branches of the human race is not Christianity but trade.

A HISTORY OF THE PANIC OF 1857.—The cause of the panic of 1857 was mainly the rage for land speculation which had run through the country like an epidemic. Paper cities abounded, unproductive railroads were opened, and to help forward these projects, irresponsible banks were started, or good banks found themselves drawn into an excessive issue of notes. Every one was anxious to invest in real estate and become rich by an advance in prices. Capital was attracted into this speculation by the prospect of large gains, and so great was the demand for money that there was a remarkable advance in the rates of interest. In the West, where the speculative fever was at its highest, the common rates of interest were from 2 to 5 per cent. a month. Everything was apparently in the most prosperous condition, real estate going up steadily, the demand for money constant, and its manufacture by the banks progressing successfully, when the failure of the "Ohio Life and Trust Company," came, August 24, 1857, like a thunderbolt from a clear sky. This was followed by the portentous mutterings of a terrible coming storm. One by one small banks in Illinois, Ohio, and everywhere throughout the West and South went down. September 25-26 the banks of Philadelphia suspended payment, and thus wrecked hundreds of banks in Pennsylvania, Maryland and adjoining States. October 13-14, after a terrible run on them by thousands of depositors, the banks of New York suspended payment. October 14 all the banks of Massachusetts went down, followed by a general wreckage of credit throughout New England. The distress which followed these calamities was very great, tens of thousands of workmen being unemployed for months. The New York banks resumed payment again December 12, and were soon followed by the banks in other cities. The darkest period of the crisis now seemed past, although there was much heart rending suffering among the poor during the winter which followed. The commercial reports for the year 1857 showed 5,123 commercial failures, with liabilities amounting to $291,750,000.

THE HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH ROCK.—A flat rock near the vicinity of New Plymouth is said to have been the one on which the great, body of the Pilgrims landed from the Mayflower. The many members of the colony, who died in the winter of 1620-21, were buried near this rock. About 1738 it was proposed to build a wharf along the shore there. At this time there lived in New Plymouth an old man over 90 years of ago named Thomas Faunce, who had known some of the Mayflower's passengers when a lad, and by them had been shown the rock on which they had landed. On hearing that it was to be covered with a wharf the old man wept, and it has been said that his tears probably saved Plymouth Rock from oblivion. After the Revolution it was found that the rock was quite hidden by the sand washed upon it by the sea. The sand was cleared away, but in attempting to take up the rock it was split in two. The upper half was taken to the village and placed in the town square. In 1834 it was removed to a position in front of Pilgrim Hall and enclosed in an iron railing. In September, 1880, this half of the stone was taken back to the shore and reunited to the other portion. A handsome archway was then built over the rock, to protect it in part from the depredations of relic hunters.

GRANT'S TOUR AROUND THE WORLD.—General Grant embarked on a steamer at the Philadelphia wharf for his tour around the world May 17, 1877. He arrived at Queenstown, Ireland, May 27. Thence he went to Liverpool, Manchester, and on to London. He remained in that city several weeks, and was made the recipient of the most brilliant social honors. July 5th he went to Belgium, and thence made a tour through Germany and Switzerland, He then visited Denmark, and August 25 returned to Great Britain, and until October spent the time in visiting the various cities of Scotland and England. October 24th he started for Paris, where he remained a month, then went on to Lyons, thence to Naples, and subsequently with several friends he made a trip on the Mediterranean, visiting the islands of Sicily, Malta and others. Thence going to Egypt, the pyramids and other points of note were visited, and a journey made up the Nile as far as the first cataract. The programme of travel next included a visit to Turkey and the Holy Land, whence, in March, the party came back to Italy through Greece, revisited Naples, went to Turin and back to Paris. After a few weeks spent in the social gayeties of that city, the Netherlands was chosen as the next locality of interest, and The Hague, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam were visited in turn. June 26, 1878, the General and his party arrived in Berlin. After staying there some weeks they went to Christiana and Stockholm, then to St. Petersburg, Moscow and Warsaw, and back over German soil to Vienna. Another trip was now made through Switzerland, and, then returning to Paris, a start was made for a journey through Spain and Portugal, in which Victoria, Madrid, Lisbon, Seville and other important towns were visited. A trip was also made from Cadiz to Gibraltar by steamer. After another brief visit to Paris, General Grant went to Ireland, arriving at Dublin January 3, 1879; visited several points of interest in that country, then, by way of London and Paris, went to Marseilles, whence he set sail by way of the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal for India. He reached Bombay February 13th. Thence visited Allahabad, Agra and rode on an elephant to Amber; also went to Benares, Delhi. Calcutta and Rangoon, spent a week in Siam, then went by steamer to China. After spending some time at Canton, Pekin and other places he went to Japan for a brief visit. He went to Nagasaki, Tokio and Yokahama, and at last, September 3, 1879, set sail from Tokio on his return to the United States. September 20th he arrived in the harbor of San Francisco. After some weeks spent in visiting the points of interest in California and Oregon he returned to his home in the Eastern States.

HISTORY OF VASSAR COLLEGE.—- Vassar College is on the east bank of the Hudson, near Poughkeepsie, N.Y. It was founded in 1861. In that year Matthew Vassar, a wealthy of Poughkeepsie, gave to an incorporated board of trustees the sum of $108,000 and 200 acres of land for the endowment of a college for women. The building was constructed from plans approved by him, at a cost of about $200,000. The college was opened in September, 1865, with eight professors and twenty other instructors, and 300 students. The first president of the college was Professor Milo P. Jewett; the second Dr. John H. Raymond; the third the Rev. Samuel Caldwell. The college has a fine library, with scientific apparatus and a museum of natural history specimens.

THE ORIGINS OF CHESS.—So ancient is chess, the most purely intellectual of games, that its origin is wrapped in mystery. The Hindoos say that it wad the invention of an astronomer, who lived more than 5,000 years ago, and was possessed of supernatural knowledge and acuteness. Greek historians assert that the game was invented by Palamedes to beguile the tedium of the siege of Troy. The Arab legend is that it was devised for the instruction of a young despot, by his father, a learned Brahman, to teach the youth that a king, no matter how powerful, was dependent upon his subjects for safety. The probability is that the game was the invention of some military genius for the purpose of illustrating the art of war. There is no doubt, that it originated in India, for a game called by the Sanskrit name of Cheturanga—which in most essential points strongly resembles modern chess, and was unquestionably the parent of the latter game—is mentioned in Oriental literature as in use fully 2,000 years before the Christian area. In its gradual diffusion over the world the game has undergone many modifications and changes, but marked resemblances to the early Indian game are still to be found in it. From India, chess spread into Persia, and thence into Arabia, and the Arabs took it to Spain and the rest of Western Europe.

THE DARK AGES.—The Dark Ages is a name often applied by historians to the Middle Ages, a term comprising about 1,000 years, from the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century to the invention of printing in the fifteenth. The period is called "dark" because of the generally depraved state of European society at this time, the subservience of men's minds to priestly domination, and the general indifference to learning. The admirable civilization that Rome had developed and fostered, was swept out of existence by the barbarous invaders from Northern Europe, and there is no doubt that the first half of the medieval era, at least, from the year 500 to 1000, was one of the most brutal and ruffianly epochs in history. The principal characteristic of the middle ages were the feudal system and the papal power. By the first the common people were ground into a condition of almost hopeless slavery, by the second the evolution of just and equitable governments by the ruling clashes was rendered impossible through the intrusion of the pontifical authority into civil affairs. Learning did not wholly perish, but it betook itself to the seclusion of the cloisters. The monasteries were the resort of many earnest scholars, and there were prepared the writings of historians, metaphysicians and theologians. But during this time man lived, as the historian Symonds says, "enveloped in a cowl." The study of nature was not only ignored but barred, save only as it ministered in the forms of alchemy and astrology to the one cardinal medieval virtue—- credulity. Still the period saw many great characters and events fraught with the greatest importance to the advancement of the race.

THE GREATEST DEPTH OF THE OCEAN NEVER MEASURED.—The deepest verified soundings are those made in the Atlantic Ocean, ninety miles off the island of St. Thomas, in the West Indies, 3,875 fathoms, or 23,250 feet Deeper water has been reported south of the Grand Bank of Newfoundland, over 27,000 feet in depth, but additional soundings in that locality did not corroborate this. Some years ago, it was claimed that very deep soundings, from 45,000 to 48,000 feet, had been found off the coast of South America, but this report was altogether discredited on additional investigation in these localities. The ship Challenger, which in 1872-74 made a voyage round the globe for the express purpose of taking deep sea soundings in all the oceans, found the greatest depth touched in the Pacific Ocean less than 3,000 fathoms, and the lowest in the Atlantic 3,875 fathoms, as given above.

THE ARMY OF THE REVOLUTION.—It is not positively known how many men from the colonies served in the war. The official tabular statement indicates a total off recorded years of enlistment and not a total of the the men who served. Hence, a man who served from April 19, 1775, until the formal cessation of hostilities, April 19, 1783 counted as eight men in the aggregate. In this basis of enlisted years, the following table gives the contribution various States: New Hampshire, 12,497; Massachusetts, 69,907; Rhode Island, 5,908; Connecticut, 31,939; New York, 17,781; New Jersey, 10,726; Pennsylvania, 25,678; Delaware, 2,386; Maryland, 13,912; Virginia, 26,678; North Carolina, 7,263; South Carolina, 6,417; Georgia, 2,679; Total, 233,771.

THE WORLD'S DECISIVE BATTLES.—The fifteen decisive battles of the world from the fifth century before Christ to the beginning of the nineteenth century of the present era, are as follows:

The battle of Marathon, in which the Persian hosts were defeated by the Greeks under Miltiades, B.C. 490.

The defeat of the Athenians at Syracuse, B.C. 413.

The battle of Arhela, in which the Persians under Darius were defeated by the invading Greeks under Alexander the Great, B.C. 331.

The battle of the Metanrus, in which the Carthaginian forces under Hasdrubal were overthrown by the Romans, B.C. 207. Victory of the German tribes under Arminins over the Roman legions under Varus, A.D. 9. (The battle was fought in what is now the province of Lippe, Germany, near the source of the river Ems.)

Battle of Chalons, where Attila the terrible King of the Huns, was repulsed by the Romans under Aetius, A.D. 451

Battle of Tours, in which the Saracen Turks invading Western Europe were utterly overthrown by the Franks under Charles Martel, A.D. 732.

Battle of Hastings, by which William the Conqueror became the ruler of England, Oct. 14, 1066.

Victory of the French under Joan of Arc over the English at Orleans, April 29, 1429.

Defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English naval force, July 29 and 30, 1588.

Battle of Blenheim, in which the French and Bavarians were defeated by the allied armies of Great Britain and Holland under the Duke of Marlborough, Aug. 2, 1704.

Battle of Pultowa, the Swedish army under Charles XII, defeated by the Russians under Peter the Great, July 8, 1709. Victory of the American army under General Gates over the British under General Burgoyne at Saratoga, Oct. 17, 1777.

Battle of Valmy where the allied armies of Prussia and Austria were defeated by the French under Marshal Kellerman. Sept. 20, 1792.

Battle of Waterloo, the allied forces of the British and Prussians defeated the French under Napoleon, the final overthrow of the great commander, June 18, 1815.

These battles are selected as decisive, because of the important consequences that followed them. Few students of history, probably, would agree with Prof. Creasy, in restricting the list as he does. Many other conflicts might be noted, fraught with great importance to the human race, and unquestionably "decisive" in their nature; as, for instance, the victory of Sobieski over the Turkish army at Vienna, Sept. 12, 1683. Had the Poles and Austrians been defeated there, the Turkish general might readily have fulfilled his threat "to stable his horses in the Church of St. Peter's at Rome," and all Western Europe would, no doubt, have been devastated by the ruthless and bloodthirsty Ottomans. Of important and decisive battles since that of Waterloo we may mention in our own Civil War those of Gettysburg, by which the invasion of the North was checked, and at Chattanooga, Nov. 23 and 25, 1863, by which the power of the Confederates in the southwest received a deadly blow.

THE WANDERING JEW.—There are various versions of the story of "The Wandering Jew," the legends of whom have formed the foundation of numerous romances, poems and tragedies. One version is that this person was a servant in the house of Pilate, and gave the Master a blow as He was being dragged out of the palace to go to His death. A popular tradition makes the wanderer a member of the tribe of Naphtali, who, some seven or eight years previous to the birth of the Christ-child left his father to go with the wise men of the East whom the star led to the lowly cot in Bethlehem. It runs, also, that the cause of the killing of the children can be traced to the stories this person related when he returned to Jerusalem of the visit of the wise men, and the presentation of the gifts they brought to the Divine Infant, when He was acknowledged by them to be the king of the Jews, He was lost sight of for a time, when he appeared as a carpenter who was employed in making the cross on which the Saviour was to be lifted up into the eyes of all men. As Christ walked up the way to Calvary, He had to pass the workshop of this man, and when He reached its door, the soldiers, touched by the sufferings of the Man of Sorrows, besought the carpenter to allow Him to rest there for a little, but he refused, adding insult to a want of charity. Then it is said that Christ pronounced his doom, which was to wander over the earth until the second coming. Since that sentence was uttered, he has wandered, courting death, but finding it not, and his punishment, becoming more unbearable as the generations come and go. He is said to have appeared in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and even as recently as the eighteenth century, under the names of Cartaphilus, and Ahasuerus, by which the Wandering Jew has been known. One of the legends described him as a shoemaker of Jerusalem, at whose door Christ desired to rest on the road to Calvary, but the man refused, and the sentence to wander was pronounced.

SOME MEMORABLE DARK DAYS.—During the last hundred years there have been an unusually large number of dark days recorded. As has been suggested by several writers, this may have been the result of the careful scientific observations of modern times, as well as of the frequency of these phenomena. The dark day in the beginning of this century about which so much has been said and written occurred Oct. 21, 1816. The first day of the same month and year is also represented as "a close dark day." Mr. Thomas Robie, who took observations at Cambridge, Mass., has this to offer in regard to the phenomenon. "On Oct. 21 the day was so dark that people were forced to light candles to eat their dinners by; which could not he from an eclipse, the solar eclipse being the fourth of that month." The day is referred to by another writer as "a remarkable dark day in New England and New York," and it is noted, quaintly by a third, that "in October, 1816, a dark day occurred after a severe winter in New England." Nov. 26, 1816, was a dark day in London, and is described "in the neighborhood of Walworth and Camberwell so completely dark that some of the coachmen driving stages were obliged to get down and lead their horses with a lantern." The famous dark day in America was May 19, 1780. The phenomenon began about 10 o'clock in the forenoon. The darkness increased rapidly, and "in many places it was impossible to read ordinary print." There was widespread fear. Many thought that the Day of Judgment was at hand. At that time the Legislature of Connecticut was in session at Hartford. The House of Representatives, being unable to transact their business, adjourned. A proposal to adjourn the council was under consideration. When the opinion of Colonel Davenport was asked, he answered: "I am against an adjournment. The day of judgment is approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment: if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish, therefore, that candles may be brought." In Whittier's "Tent on the Beach" is given a beautiful poetical version of this anecdote. It is suggested by several authorities that the cause of the dark day in 1780 should be attributed simply to the presence of ordinary clouds of very unusual volume and density. These instances are, of course, grouped with phenomena of which not a great deal is known, and can in no way be classed with those occurrances occasioned by the smoke from extensive forest tires, volcanic eruptions, or fogs.

THE REMARKABLE STORY OF CHARLIE ROSS.—Charlie Ross was the son of Christian K. Ross of Germantown, Pa., and at the time of his disappearance was a little over 4 years of age. The child and a brother 6 years old were playing July 1, 1874, in the streets of Germantown, when a couple of men drove up in a buggy and persuaded the children, with promises of toys and candies, to get in and ride with them in the vehicle. After driving around the place for a little time, the older brother, Walter Ross, was put out of the conveyance, and the strangers gave him 25 cents, telling him to go to a store near at hand and buy some candy and torpedoes for himself and Charlie. Walter did as he was told, but when he came out of the store the men with Charlie and the vehicle had disappeared. It was believed at first by the relatives and friends of the missing boy that he would be returned in a short time, as they supposed he might have been taken by some drunken men. Time passed, however, but no trace of the child had been discovered. In a few weeks a letter was received by Mr. Ross to the effect that if he would pay $20,000 his son would be returned, but, that the parent need not search for Charlie, as all efforts to find the abducted boy or his captors would only be attended with failure; and it was stated that if this amount was not paid, Charlie would be killed. The father answered this and a long correspondence ensued, while the search was prosecuted in all directions. Mr. Ross wanted the child delivered at the time the money was paid, but to this the abductors refused to agree. It is stated that more than $50,000 were expended to recover the child. At one time two gentlemen were two days in Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, with the $20,000 ransom money to be given to the child-thieves, but they did not appear. The search was continued, and the officers of the law were looking up any and all evidence, until they had located the two men. These were found Dec. 4, 1874, committing a burglary in the house of Judge Van Brunt, Bay Ridge, L.I.; the burglary was discovered, the burglars seen and shot by persons residing in an adjoining residence. One of the men was killed instantly, the lived several hours, and confessed that he and his companion had abducted Charlie Ross, but that the dead thief, Mosher by name, was the one who knew where the boy was secreted. Walter Ross identified the burglars as the men who had enticed him and Charlie into the buggy. There the case rested. No new fact has been developed. The missing child has never been found. Many times have children been reported who resembled Charlie, and Mr. Ross has traveled far and near in his endless search, only to return sadly and report that his boy was still missing. No case in recent years has excited such universal sympathy as that of Charlie Ross.

THE BLUE LAWS ON SMOKING.—There were some very stringent laws in Massachusetts against the use of tobacco in public, and while the penalties were not so heavy, yet they were apparently rigidly enforced for a time. We quote from a law passed in October, 1632, as follows: "It is ordered that noe person shall take any tobacco publiquely, under paine of punishment; also that every one shall pay 1d. for every time hee is convicted of takeing tobacco in any place, and that any Assistant shall have power to receave evidence and give order for levyeing of it, as also to give order for the levyeing of the officer's charge. This order to begin the 10th of November next." In September, 1634, we discover another law on the same article: "Victualers, or keepers of an Ordinary, shall not suffer any tobacco to be taken in their howses, under the penalty of 5s. for every offence, to be payde by the victuler, and 12d. by the party that takes it. Further, it is ordered, that noe person shall take tobacco publiquely, under the penalty of 2s. 6d., nor privately, in his owne house, or in the howse of another, before strangers, and that two or more shall not take it togeather, anywhere, under the aforesaid penalty for every offence." In November, 1637, the record runs: "All former laws against tobacco are repealed, and tobacco is sett at liberty;" but in September, 1638, "the [General] Court, finding that since the repealing of the former laws against tobacco, the same is more abused then before, it hath therefore ordered, that no man shall take any tobacco in the fields, except in his journey, or at meale times, under paine of 12d. for every offence; nor shall take any tobacco in (or so near) any dwelling house, barne, corne or hay rick, as may likely indanger the fireing thereof, upon paine of 10s. for every offence; nor shall take any tobacco in any inne or common victualing house, except in a private roome there, so as neither the master of the same house nor any other guests there shall take offence thereat, which if they do, then such person is fourthwith to forbeare, upon paine of 12s. 6d. for every offence. Noe man shall kindle fyre by gunpowder, for takeing tobacco, except in his journey, upon paine of 12d. for every offence."

THE REMARKABLE CAVES—WYANDOTTE AND MAMMOTH.—Wyandotte Cave is in Jennings township, Crawford county, Ind., near the Ohio river. It is a rival of the great Mammoth Cave in grandeur and extent. Explorations have been made for many miles. It excels the Mammoth Cave in the number and variety of its stalagmites and stalactites, and in the size of several of its chambers. One of these chambers is 350 feet in length, 245 feet in height, and contains a hill 175 feet high, on which are three fine stalagmites. Epsom salts, niter and alum have been obtained from the earth of the cave. The Mammoth Cave is in Edmondson county, near Green River, about seventy-five miles from Louisville. Its entrance is reached by passing down a wild, rocky ravine through a dense forest. The cave extends some nine miles. To visit the portions already traversed, it is said, requires 150 to 200 miles of travel. The cave contains a succession of wonderful avenues, chambers, domes, abysses, grottoes, lakes, rivers, cataracts and other marvels, which are too well known to need more than a reference. One chamber—the Star—is about 500 feet long, 70 feet wide, 70 feet high, the ceiling of which is composed of black gypsum, and is studded with innumerable white points, that by a dim light resemble stars, hence the name of the chamber. There are avenues one and a half and even two miles in length, some of which are incrusted with beautiful formations, and present the appearance of enchanted palace halls. There is a natural tunnel about three-quarters of a mile long, 100 feet wide, covered with a ceiling of smooth rock 45 feet high. There is a chamber having an area of from four to five acres, and there are domes 200 and 300 feet high. Echo River is some three-fourths of a mile in length, 200 feet in width at some points, and from 10 to 30 in depth, and runs beneath an arched ceiling of smooth rock about 15 feet high, while the Styx, another river, is 450 feet long, from 15 to 40 feet wide, and from 30 to 40 feet deep, and is spanned by a natural bridge. Lake Lethe has about the same length and width as the river Styx, varies in depth from 3 to 40 feet, lies beneath a ceiling some 90 feet above its surface, and sometimes rises to a height of 60 feet. There is also a Dead Sea, quite a somber body of water. There are several interesting caves in the neighborhood, one three miles long and three each about a mile in length.

THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE.—The "South Sea Bubble," as it is generally called, was a financial scheme which occupied the attention of prominent politicians, communities, and even nations in the early part of the eighteenth century. Briefly the facts are: In 1711 Robert Hartley, Earl of Oxford, then Lord Treasurer, proposed to fund a floating debt of about £10,000,000 sterling, the interest, about $600,000, to be secured by rendering permanent the duties upon wines, tobacco, wrought silks, etc. Purchasers of this fund were to become also shareholders in the "South Sea Company," a corporation to have the monopoly of the trade with Spanish South America, a part of the capital stock of which was to be the new fund. But Spain, after the treaty of Utrecht, refused to open her commerce to England, and the privileges of the "South Sea Company" became worthless. There were many men of wealth who were stockholders, and the company continued to flourish, while the ill success of its trading operations was concealed. Even the Spanish War of 1718 did not shake the popular confidence. Then in April, 1720, Parliament, by large majorities in both Houses, accepted the company's plan for paying the national debt, and after that a frenzy of speculation seized the nation, and the stock rose to £300 a share, and by August had reached £1,000 a share. Then Sir John Blunt, one of the leaders, sold out, others followed, and the stock began to fall. By the close of September the company stopped payment and thousands were beggared. An investigation ordered by Parliament disclosed much fraud and corruption, and many prominent persons were implicated, some of the directors were imprisoned, and all of them were fined to an aggregate amount of £2,000,000 for the benefit of the stockholders. A great part of the valid assets was distributed among them, yielding a dividend of about 33 per cent.

AREA OF NORTH AMERICA.—The following figures show the extent of the United States as compared with the British possessions in North America: United States, 3,602,884 square miles. British possessions—Ontario, 121,26O; Quebec, 210,020; Nova Scotia, 18,670; New Brunswick, 27,037; British Columbia, 233,000; Manitoba, 16,000; N.W. and Hudson Bay Territories, 2,206,725; Labrador and Arctic Ocean Islands, make a total of 3,500,000.