The Albany register. (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, November 13, 1874, Image 2

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COLL. CLEVE.
ALBANY,
OREGON.
SNUFF-DIPPING.
The New York Times gives some
figures about the increase of the habit
of snuff-dipping among women. It '
says : "It has been generally consid- i
ered that the practioe belongs alto
gether to the extreme Southern and
Southwestern States, but it is not so ; it
extends to a certain degree throughout
the entire length and breadth of the
land. Snuff-dipping is so called, per
haps, from the reason that it is used in
small quantities obtained from the
bottle or box, as he case may, by dip
ping it out with a stick or small spoon.
The practice prevails to a slight extent
in the State of New York, and to a much
greater extent in the cities than in the
country. Two kinds of snuff are used by
the dippers, both of which, however,
are known as Scotch. The difference
between them is that one has a certain
amount of common table salt mixed
with it, and the other has none. They
are known as salt Scotch and fresh
Scotch. Fresh Scotch is prepared more
in this city than in any other part of
the State. The following is the man
ner of dipping in New York : The dipper
is provided with a small spoon, about
half the size of a common teapoon, with
which she dip1: a sufficient quantity of
snuff from the bottle. Then seizing her
lower hp with the thumb and forefinger
of her left hand, she draws it weH for
ward and fills the cavity with the bonne
bouchc contained in the spoon. There
Bhe lets it remain until it is gradually
diffused through her mouth, expectorat
ing the while, in a manner that would
do credit to a veteran. Sometimes the
delicacy is daintily enveloped in a fine
piece of tissue paper and deposited in
the same place. In the Eastern States
the salt Scotch is preferred, but it is
not used the same way as in New York.
There the dippers use a small stick of
some very fibrous wood, the end of
which is chewed until it assumes a mop
like appearance, owing to the separa
tion of the fibers. This is dipped into
the snuff and then rubbed on the gums
and teeth. A large quantity of snuff is
used by the factory girls in all the East
ern States, and it may readily be im
agined how easily a habit of that kind
may extend among a people. Dipping
is apparently very beneficial to the
teeth, and it may be that the habit is
often acquired from using snuff as a
dentrifice. The writer of this article
has traveled extensively through the
South and Southwest, and his experi
ence has been that wherever the prac
tice prevailed, the teeth of the women
were beautifully white and singularly
free from decay. Tobacco possesses
high antiseptic and detergent proper
ties, and must exercise a beneficial in
fluence in purifying the mouth. In
order to show to what an extent the
habit 'has obtained, it will only be
necessary to say that in the year 1873,
one New York firm alone, Messrs. P.
Loriliard & Co. , sold in round numbers
161,000 pounds of snuff, all of which
was of the kind used for dipping, be
sides more than 150,000 pounds of the
regular mixture for the old-fashioned
sniffers. Add to this enormous quan
tity the large amounts manufactured in
the other cities, and some idea may be
formed of the extent to which dipping
is carried in the United States."
J. X. PECKS UTILES AND REGVLA
TIONS. Fob the Cojtvesience of Merchants,
Bankers and Others.
L Upon entering this office you are
particularly requested not to use the
door-mat, as we wish to accumulate soil
inside for a potato crop.
II. Please leave the door wide open,
or, should you forget yourself and close
it, slam it like thunder. Winter ar
rangement. III. If the proprietor is engaged in
conversation and it is your turn next,
please lean your chair against the wall
and whistle " Mulligan Guards ;" if
you can't whistle, sing.
IV. Never neglect an opportunity to
improve your mind ; if we are tempo
rarily absent, Bit on the desk, pick your
teeth with the gold pen and read the
letters. More may be found in the
right-hand drawer.
V. Smoking is particularly agree
able ; if you are out of poor cigars we
will lend you a pipe.
VL If yon see any spittoons please
expectorate on the floor, as the former
are only for ornament.
VIL Our office hours for listening to
solicitors of church subscriptions are
from 11 to 1 j for book agents 1 to 3 ;
advertising men all day. We attend to
our own business at night.
VIII. We need about one million
dollars more of life insurance. If you
are acquainted with any agent, please
send him in ; he hasn't been here since
yesterday.
IX. Don't hesitate to ask for a loan,
the larger the better; but talk about
something else half an hour before
hand time isn't worth a cent a year
to us.
X. Persons having no especial busi
ness with us will please call as often as
their health will permit, or send doc
tor's certificate in case of absence.
XI Parties leaving date calendars
will oblige us by placing them for the
present in a basket under the desk, or
until we can get a room with more com
modious walls.
XH. Bill collectors will haag state
ments on the file and call on Saturday
at 4 p. m.
XIII. This store closes at 3 p. m. on
Saturday. St. Louis Republican,
SOME FACTS ABOUT THE EAR.
Never pick or scratch the canals of
the ear with pins, pencils or scoops. It
will eventually cause troublesome
inflammation and subsequent deafness.
Do not try to wash the canals of the
ears with so-called aurilaves or end of
the towel, or even with the fingers.
Such treatment produces impaction of
the wax and is not necessary to cleanli
ness. Do not try to remove the wax with
the ear-scoop. There is danger of in
juring the drumheads or of causing in
fiamation. Have some competent per
son inspect the parts with the ear mir
ror and remove the wax ' with the syr
inge charged with warm water. This is
the best way to remove any foreign
body from the external auditory canal.
Only occasionally other means are re
quired. The parts are always under
inspection.
A discharge from the ear is always
fraught with danger. It should never
be neglected. Occasionally it stops
itself, but frequently leads to danger
I ous complications, such as inflammation
! of the brain, disease of the surround
: ing bone, and may set up inflammation
; in other parts of the body, as the lungs,
i bowels, etc.
i The middle ear, from which the dis
charge generally comes, is small, but
: exceedingly vulnerable. It is surround-
i ed on all sides by vital organs, the
: partition walls being very thin. Syr
inging with warm water in such cases is
! absolutely essential and unaccompa
nied by any danger whatever.
1 Under proper treatment there is no
danger of " driving in " the discharge,
which is neither a " healthy sign" nor
a " safety-valve."
N ever keep the canal blocked up with
1 cotton or anything else while discharge
is present.
The ear requires fresh air, and is not
likely to become more inflamed by its
admittance, unless exposed to direct
draugut, which should be avoided.
Black sheep's wool has no healing
virtue.
Wetting the hair, especially when it
is long, and allowing it to dry sJowly
often produces deafness and aggravates
it when already present. Medical In
iratigator. CREMATION VERSUS BURIAL.
We do not hear so much about crema
tion as we did. The old Anglo-Saxon
feeling in favor of coffins seems to be
too strong for the Urn party, if there
, ever was one ; and the fixed habit of a
I race is not so lightly surrendered. In
England the proposed change is unpop
ular, as proposed changes usually are.
In the town of West Hartlepool there is
a Board of Improvement Commission
ers. The chairman, Mr. Edward Turn
bull, had given notice that he would
take the sense of the board upon the
question of cremation, it having been
proposed to purchase land for the en
largement of the present cemetery.
Upon this a mob of 200 women, mostly
belonging to the working classes, forced
their way into the room, and when poor
Mr. Turnbull made his appearance they
began to shout "Burn him!" "Stick
him in a tar barrel !" " Give us Chris
tian burial !" Then the leader of the
Amazons handed in a petition against
cremation, as being "revolting to the
ideas of modern civilization. " Tne
chairman appeased the crowd by the
assurance that the Commissioners
" had no power to cremate," and so the
intruders withdrew with further cries of
" Burn Turnbull ! Put him inafurnace !"
This didn't prevent him, when order
was restored, from advocating his plan
"on sanitary, economical, and senti
mental grounds." He mentioned,
among other things, that " cremation
was being rapidly adopted in the United
States," which will be news to most of
us. On going out Mr. Turnbull was
received with a tremendous uproar by
the crowd, which had increased to about
2,000 persons.
THE SUN'S CRUST.
Prof. Young has put forth a very
novel theory as regards the construc
tion of the sun. He says there can be
but little doubt that Faye, Secchi, and
others, who hold that the sun is mainly
gaseous, are correct ; while, at the
same time, the phenomena of eruption
which are always occurring on the sur
face, as seen with a telescope, estab
lish the idea that there is a crust of
some kind which restrains the impris
oned ga.-,es. Prof. Young states that
this crust may consist of a more or less
continuous sheet of descending rain
not water, of course, but of the mate
rials whose vapors are known to exist
in the solar atmosphere. As this tre
mendous rain descends, the velocity
of all the falling drops would be re
tarded by the resistance of the denser
gases underneath, and the drops would
eventually coalesce until a continuous
sheet would result, and several of these
sheets uniting, would form a sort of
bottomless ocean, resting upon the
compressed vapors below, and pierced
by innumerable jets and bubbles.
" SALT.
A well-known physician advances it
as his opinion that many patients die
from deprivation of common salt dur
ing a protracted illness. He says: "It
is a common impression that the food
for the sick should not be seasoned,
and, whatever slop may be given, it is
almost innecent of this essential of life.
In the milk diet that I recommend in
sickness common salt is used freely,
the milk being boiled and given hot.
And if the patient cannot take the
usual quantity in his food, I have it
given in his drink. This matter is so
important that it cannot be repeated
too often. The most marked example
of this want of common salt I have ever
noticed has been in surgical diseases,
especially in open wounds. Without a
supply of salt the tongue would become
broad, pallid, puffy, with a tenacious,
pasty coat, the secretions arrested, the
circulation feeble, the fusion at the
point of injury serious, with an un
pleasant, watery pus, which at laat bo
comes a mere sanies or ichor. A few
days of free allowance of salt would
change all this, and the patient get
along well."
THE SKOOL BOY.
The skool boy iz the viktim of cirkum
stansiss. If he lives in the country he haz got
to git up early enuff to puntch the
chickens off from the roost, then start
the fire in the kitchen stove, then put
on the tea-kittle, and then go for the
cows.
After the cows hav been milkt, he
hurry s down hiz hash and buckwheat
kakes, and thrashes beans two hours
with the old man out in the korn krib.
Now he walks three miles in a sno
path to the distrikt skool-hous and gits
thare just in time to help split up sum
wood for the day fire.
Skool opens and he takes hiz seat on
the flat side ov a slab bench, and bends
double over a Webster's spelling book,
without enny cover.
For variety he stands up in a ro, and
spells and skratches a greasy slate, with
the figgurss in a long sum ov addishun.
Noon cums at last, and he eats up in
one corner hiz two slices ov rhi bread
and hiz piece ov pi krust, and drowns
the dri dinner with a pint ov lukewarm
water out ov the pine pail behind the
stove.
The only fun he haz iz to slide down
hill on a board, back ov the skool-hous,
and git kicked when he goes home if he
happens to wear the sole ov hiz boots
enny, or tare the base ov hiz britches.
NighJ cums, and he haz had a day's
skooling, and plods back home to saw
wooA enuff to last next day before he
eats hiz puddin-and-milk supper and
slinks off up into the wood-hous cham
ber, to bed, without even the ray ov a
tallo handle.
This waz skool-boy life in the coun
try 40 years ago.
If the boys now daze had to skool it
in this way, they would sue the old man
for damages, and enny kind ov a jury
would bring in a verdik. too, in their
favour.
But Daniel Webster dun it in this
way, and bekum the most learned states
man we ever raized, and so did Josh
Billings, but he didn't never amount to
mutch. Josh Billings never could git
the rite hang ov a country skool-hous ;
Viiy. spelling allwus8 had, and allwuss
will hav, an impediment in it. Josh
Billings.
A NEW SORT OF TRADES- UK I OA'.
A number of plasterers in Brooklyn
have formed a trades-union on a novel
plan. The men are divided by the offi
cers they elect into three classes. The
basis of division is skill. Each man re
ceives a card bearing his name and
class. If he is in the first class, he is
to get $3.50 a day ; in the second, S3 ;
and in the third, $2.50. This standard
of wages is to last until Oct. 1, 1875.
The classification, if it can be fairly
done, and if the men placed in the lower
classes do not revolt, will produce good
results. An employer can tell by a
glance at a man's card what kind of a
worker the applicant is. He ban afford
to do common jobs more cheaply, be
cause he need not pay first-rate wages
for third-rate work. The new society
pledges itself to give three months' no
tice of a demand for increased wages,
and to discountenance all strikes, " ex
cept where an employer fails to pay his
men for lawful time worked, or where
the eight-hour law is about to be in
fringed upon."
T BON NETS TO BE REVIVED.
A Paris correspondent writes : " The
idea is to have real bonnets once more
bonnets with brims, crowns, strings,
and perhaps curtains. It sounds strange
enough. No woman who had any pre
tensions to youth has worn strings for
three seasons past, and curtains have
been for long consigned to oblivion.
Yet we are promised both for next
winter. This bonnet, which will be de
cidedly large, will, however, not shade
the face at all fashion nowadays only
goes gradually from one extreme to an
other but will be perched up on the
back of the head somewhat
as the first bonnets were un
der the Directoire, before they be
came the beauty-concealing cottage
bonnets of our grandmothers ; this ex
tensive headgear to be attached under
the chin by short strings that form bows
with cravat-like ends.
SPECIE RESUMPTION.
Mr. Charles Nordhoff, in the New
York Tribune, suggests a plan of re
sumption which is new in several of its
features, and is at the same time in
harmony with the soundest views ex
pressed during the currency debate of
last winter. Mr. Nordhoffs proposition
is that Congress shall order the cancel
lation of one-quarter of the greenback
circulation every year, substituting na
tional bank bills, secured as now by
pledge of bonds. These bills should
all bear a promise to pay specie at some
reasonably remote date say ten years
hence. In this way we should easily
be rid within four years of the irre
deemable part of our currency.
Our Hbaith. If we view the human
body in regard to its maladies and the
season of the year, says an English ob
server, we shall find that summer is di
vided from winter by a line drawn some
where about the third button of the
waistcoat. As the mercury in the ther
mometer goes up, our ailments go
down. In cola weather the respiratory
organs, in hot weather the digestive or
gans, are severally the places in which
we go wrong.
MINT STATISTICS.
Dr. Linderman, Director of the Mint,
has submitted to the Secretary of the
Treasury his report of the operations
of the mints and assay offices for the
fiscal year ending June 30 of the pres
ent year, from which it appears that the
gold deposits were $68,861,565 ; silver
deposits and purchases, $15,122,151.
Deducting the re-deposits f bars made
and issued by one institution and de
posited at another, the deposits were :
Gold, $49,142,511; silver, $11,482,678.
The amount in bars transmitted from
the New York assay office to the mint at
Philadelphia for coinage during the
fiscal year was : Gold, $18,704,101 ;
silver, $2,613,636; total, $21,317,737.
Compared with the previous year, there
was an increase of $8,924,165 in the
amount of gold operated upon ; $2,880,
761 in silver were received a.d oper
ated ; $15,193,352 in gold coinage ; $3,
037,085 in silver coinage, and $10,815,
086 in bars prepared at the mints and
assay offices. The coinage of trade
dollars during the fiscal year amounted
to $3,588,900, the greater portion of
which were exported to China, where
they found a ready market, and con
tinue to grow in favor for trade and ex
change purposes. Owing to the limited
capacity of the mints on the Pacific
coast, the Treasury Department has
not been able to meet the demand for
these coins. The increased capacity of
the new mint in San Francisco, to which
operations will soon be transferred, and
the addition of new machinery and ap
pliances at the Carson mint, will enable
the Treasury Department to meet the
demand for all coin, both gold and sil
ver, which may be required on that
coast for circulation and export. The
total issue of silver dollars from the
organization of the mint to the 1st of
April, 1873, at which time their coinage
under the provisions of the coinage act
was discontinued, amounted to a little
over $8,000,000. Adding the amount
of trade dollars coined during the first
quarter of the present fiscal year to the
coinage for the year ending June 30,
1874, gives the i.suevOf trade dollars as
more than half of the total issue of the
old silver dollar during a period of
nearly eighty years. A bill authorizing
the coinage of a twelve cent silver piece
passed the Senate at the last session of
Congress. The issue of coin of that
denomination will not only be in ac
cordance with a decimal system of mon
ey, but will remove a difficulty of mak
ing change, which now exists upon the
Pacific coast and in Texas, where the
five cent nickel copper coins do not cir
culate, and where it was formerly the
practice to apply the term " bit," " two
bits " and " four bits," respectively, to
the fractions of the Spanish dollar which
circulated there. The custom appears
to continue, notwithstanding the dis
appearance of those coins from circula
tion. Accordingly, if a payment of one
" bit " is to be made, and a twenty
five cent coin be used for the purpose
of a ten-cent coin, one bit is returned
as the proper change, five cents being
lost in the transaction by the purchaser.
The issue of a twenty cent coin will, no
doubt, remove the difficulty. The Di
rector further on in his report speaks of
monetary standards, annual assay and
test coins, spectroscopic assaying, and
other interesting subjects. The amount
of specie in this country on the 30th of
June last is stated to be $167,000,000.
The estimate shows a gain in specie and
bullion in the last two years of $38,
500,000. HOW MUCH WE TALK.
It is well that all we say is not writ
ten down, not only because some of it
might be rather against us, but because
there would not be room for it. (John
xxi. 25.)
A curious Frenchman has lately been
making a calculation, which is that a
man talks on an average three hours a
day at the rate of about . twenty-nine
octavo pages an hour. This would
make eighty-seven pages a day, about
six hundred a week, which would
amount to fifty-two good-sized volumes
every year ! And then, multiplying
this by the number of years in a man's
life, what a library he would have if it
should be all printed ! And, too, how
very little of the whole would be worth
preserving, and of how much he would
be glad if it had been left unsaid !
It seems that M. de Lesseps' scheme
for making an inland sea in Algeria is
meeting with serious opposition from
certain of the French journals. The
cause of this appears to be the fear less
the evaporation from such a wide ex
panse of shallow water should bring
about disastrous climatic changes, the
influence of which would be felt across
the Mediterranean, extending over
France itself. One writer ventures to
predict a return of the glacial epoch.
In spite of these dismal forebodings,
M. de Lesseps has entered upon the
work in earnest, and with the prestige
of his former success as a canal-builder,
will doubtless soon settle the question
by actual experiment, arguing doubt
less that, if the inland sea proves to be
a nuisance to France, a dam across the
canal will soon restore to Algeria her
sandy plains, and to France her vina
clad hills. Appletons' Journal.
Advantages of Law. A farmer cut
down a tree which stood so near the
boundary line of his farm that it was
doubtful whether it belonged to him or
to his neighbor. The neighbor, how
ever, claimed the tree, and prosecuted
the man who cut it for damages. The
case was continued from court to court.
Time and money were wasted, temper
soured and temper lost, but the case
was gained by the prosecutor. The
last of the transaction was, the man who
gained the cause came to a lawyer to
execute a deed of his whole farm,
which he had been compelled to sell to
pay his costs ! Then, houseless and
homeless, he could thrust his hands
into his pockets and triumphantly ex
claim, " I've beat him ! "
MARK TWAIN'S HINTS ABOUT WORK.
The days are getting longer, and the
sun does not set as soon as it did in
January, therefore the farmers have
ample opportunity to put in the seed for
an early crop of clothes-pins.
Turnips should never be pulled it
injures them. It is much better to
send a boy up, and let him shake the
tree.
Cows in wet and slushy weather
should not be allowed to leave their
rooms, otherwise a sudden attack of in
fluenza may dry up the milk. Be care
ful also not to give them vinegar with
their pickles. It is certain to make the
milk sour. A simple diet of soup, plain
roast beef and potatoes and rice pud
ding is the proper thing to make cows
thrive.
It is evident that we are to have a
backward season for grain. Therefore,
it will be well for the farmer to begin
setting out his cornstalks and planting
his buckwheat cake in May instead of
August.
With hogs this is a laying season, and
you should give them plenty of lime
and egg-shells mixed in their feed.
Broken glass is good for the same pur
pose, though it is apt to make the
shells brittle. Care is to be taken in
picking the hogs before putting them in
the oven.
The guano is a fine bird, but great
care is necessary in raising it. It
should not be imported earlier than
May nor later than September. In the
winter it should be kept in a warm place
where it can hatch out its young.
Chickens, during the early spring,
cannot be expected to catch many
worms, since the latter hibernate in the
tops of tall trees. Keep your chickens
in a warm stable, and see that there is
always plenty of hay in their racks.
Let their halters be long enough to
permit them to lie down comfortably,
otherwise you may find them choked to
death in the course of the night.
The pumpkin is a favorite berry with
the natives of the interior of New En
gland, who prefer it to the gooseberry
for the making of fruit-cake, and who
likewise give it the preference over the
raspberry for feeding cows, as being
more filling and fully as satisfying.
The pumpkin is the only esculent of
the orange family that will thrive in the
North, except the gourd and one or
two varieties of the squash. But the
custom of planting it in the front yard
with the shrubbery is fast going out of
vogue, for it is now generally conceded
that the pumpkin, as a shade tree, is a
failure.
MONEY IN IT.
It is nothing uncommon for an
English beggar to amass property.
The police of London arrested lately a
man who had been known as a beggar
for the last thirty years. Being a blind
man, he paid a boy four shillings a
week to lead him in the streets. The
beggar was shown to be possessed of
houses and property ; still the English
Judge did not remand him to jail, but
discharged him with a caution as to
his future behavior. The old man said
he would retire from business, as he
had enough to live upon. Unfortu
nately for the wiseacres who desire to
draw a moral from this story, we have
similar beggars on this side of the wa
ter ; in Detroit, recently, an old man,
limping as if very lame, and wearing
green glasses, entered a saloon on the
river road and asked for money, saying
that his wife was very ill and he too old
, and lame to work, but his story was so
confused that the half-dozen men pres
ent determined to see how he was made
up. He shouted " police." as they
approached him, but the men seized
and thrjeW him down. The green
glasses covered as good a pair of eyes
as were in the room, and no cause for
his limping could be found. He had
his left hand tied up, but they jerked
the rags off and found no hurt or wound.
Lastly they fished out of his pockets
thirty-eight dollars and forty-five cents
in small money, as he had begged it,
and discovered that he had a bank
book' on a Chicago savings bank with
four hundred and eighty dollars and
fifty cents credited to him. He claims
to have begged most of the money in
Toledo. One of the men accompanied
the old knave to the Central depot and
remained there until he saw him move
away on the train.
GARIBALDI.
Garibaldi still resides on the little
island of Caprera, lives in his usual
modest, frugal style, and is content
with an annual income of six hundred
dollars derived from his farm. About
ten steamers a month touch at the island
and each one bring deputations more or
less numerous, of admirers from all civ
ilized lands, to pay their respects to. the
old soldier and patriot. Since 1871, he
has received five thousand formal ad
dresses of homage and devotion ; pres
ents valued at over three thousand dol
lars in agricultural instruments, chiefly
from the United States, which he ac
cepts ; others, in money and other ob
jects of value, worth twenty thousand
dollars, which he rejected. Four Nea
politan ships bear his name ; he is the
possessor of twenty-one swords of
honor, eleven of which came from
foreign lands ; he is an honorary citi
zen of ninety cities, boroughs and vil
lages, and honorary president of one
hundred and twenty societies. Whether
he is happy or no. is not stated. The old
lion is caged by sickness and age ; the
age of chivalry is passed.
Norman Taylor, of Woodstock, Vt.,
is claimed to be the champion runner
of "the State. He makes his mile in
5:22.
A WONDERFUL TRICK.
An exhibition is now being given in
London which will do much to under
mine the belief of credulous people in
so-called spiritual manifestations. The
conductors of the exhibition, Messrs.
Maskelyne and Cook, are sending all
the clergy cards of admission. ' ' The
object of this invitation," says the En
glish Churchman, "is declared to be
the wish of the performers to make
known as widely as possible the facts
that they effect all the marvels per
formed at a seance of the Spiritualists,
and yet assert that all their feats are
done by the aid of human apDliances,
and have nothing superhuman about
them. And most marvelous are those
feats ! The attendant asked for the
loan of a coat, and within ten seconds it
was turned inside out on the back of
Maskelyne, who had his arms through
the sleeves, although both his hands
were fastened to the seats with cords,
fastened with a sea, the impression of
which had not been broken or defaced.
The lender, on this occasion, doubted
the truth of his coat having been really
put on by Mr. Maskelyne, and asked
him to put on a second coat which he
knew to be marked with the singularity
of having the sleeves lined with scarlet
flannel, when to his infinite surprise,
within a few seconds, the door of the
cupboard was opened, and the operator
was discovered with his bands appar
ently still tied down as before in the
tight grasp of the sealed hempen cord.
It is a comfort to be assured by Maske
lyne's own authority that he is neither
witch, wizard nor necromancer, and has
no familiar spirit to aid him in his
tricks."
STATISTICS OF WATCH MANUFAC
TURE. According to the census of 1870, the
following numbers of persons were em
ployed in the manufacture of watches
in the four Cantons where it forms the
chief industry ; in Neufchatel, 11,081
men and 5,383 women ; in Berne, 9,392
men, 4,743 women ; in Vaud, 2,439
men, 1,313 women ; and in Geneva,
2,330 men, 1,288 women ; forming a
total of 37,968. The Canton of Berne
manufactures about 500,000 watches
per annum ; but they are almost ex
clusively of ordinary quality ; at the
average price of 40 francs each, they
yield to the Canton about 20 millions of
francs annually. In Geneva the num
ber is estimated at 150,000 per annum ;
but as many of them are of gold, and
watches of precision, and are, more
over, highly ornamented, their value
will probably reach twenty millions of
francs. The Canton of Vaud also turns
out about 150,000 watches annually, but
the greater portion are exported in the
form of the interior mechanism only ;
at an average value of 35 francs, the
sale price will amount to 5,250,000
francs. The Canton of Neufchatel
manufactures about 35 per cent, of the
whole value of watches fabricated in
the confederacy. The following is a
comparative table of the extent of man
ufacture of watches and chronometers
in the four principal watch-making na
tions : Switzerland turns out 1,600,000
per annum, of the estimated value of
88 millions of francs ; France, 300,000,
valued at 16?r millions ; England, 200,
000, value 16 millions ; and the United
States, 100,000, valued at 7i millions of
ancs.
A FUNERAL EXTRAORDINARY.
The rail Mall Gazette says : "A
most successful funeral in which
woman played an important part took
place at Padua in 1518, and, indeed, in
some respects, the arrangements of the
funeral were in all ways less depressing
than the run of ordinary burials. An
eminent lawyer, by name Lodovich
Cartusius, who died in July of that
year, before his death strictly forbade
his relations to shed any tears at his
funeral, and enforced this order on his
heir by a heavy penalty in case of diso
bedience. He further directed that
fiddlers should take the place of mourn
ers on the sad occasion, and that twelve
maids in green habits should carry his
remains to the Church of St. Sophia,
where he was buried, the ceremony to
be enlivened by songs from these ladies,
who were to be recompensed for the
service by a handsome sum of money
allotted for their marriage portions.
The monks of the convent at Padua,
who were invited to the funeral, were
on no account to wear black habits, lest
they should throw a gloom over the
cheerfulness of the procession. If
funerals were conducted in this fashion,
there would perhaps be a fainter call
for cremation, and woman would have
no necessity for repressing her natural
delight at the obsequies of man."
MYSTERY OF THE CANADIAN
LAKES.
Lake Eiie is only sixty or seventy
feet deep, but Lake Ontario, which is
592 feet deep, is 230 feet below the tide
level of the ocean, or as low as most
parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; and
the bottom of Lakes Huron, Michigan,
and Superior, although the surface is
so much higher, are all from their vast
depth on a level with the bottom of On
tario. Now, as the discharge t hroug
the River Detroit, after allowing for the
probable portion carried off by evapora
tion, does not appear by any means
equal to the quantity of water which
the three upper lakes receive, it has
been conjectured that a subterranean
river may run from Lake Superior by
the Huron to Lake Ontario. This con
jecture is not improbable, and accounts
for the singular fact that salmon and
herring are caught in all the lakes com
municating with the St. Lawrence, but
in no other. As the Falls of Niagara
must have always existed, it would
puzzle the naturalist to say how these
fish got into the upper lakes without
some such subterranean river; more
over, any periodical obstruction of the
river would furnish a not improbable
solution of the mysterious flux and re
flux of the lakes.
PLANTS.
It is well known that plants sleep at
night ; but their hours of sleeping are
a matter of habit, and may be disturbed
artificially, just as a Cock may bewtJke
up and crow at untimely hours , by the
light of a lantern. De Candolle sub
jected a sensitive plant to an exceeding
ly trying course of discipline, by com
pletely changing its hours ; exposing it
to a bright light all night, so as to pre
vent sleep, and putting it in a dark
room during the day. The plant ap
peared to be much puzzled and dis
turbed at first ; it opened and closed its
leaves irregularly, sometimes uedding
in spite of the artificial sun that shed
its beams at midnight, and sometimes
waking up from the force of habit) to
find the chamber dark in spite of the
time of day. Such are the trammels of
use and wont! But after an obvi
ous struggle the plant submitted to the
change, and turned day into night with
out any apparent ill eflects.
WOMEN IX ENGLAND.
Kate Field, in her " Republican
Notes on England," in the St. Louis
Republican, hurts out witli : "Though
the highest office in the loud may be
held by a woman, every other is closed
to her, saving that occasionally women
are governors of prisons for women,
overseers of the poor, and parish clerks.
A woman may be ranger of a park, and
it has been held that women are eligible
to the offices of High Chamberlain,
High Constable, Common Constable,
Sexton and Returning Officer at an elec
tion to Parliament, but the eligibility
is more honored in the breach than in
the observance. A woman duly quali
fied can vote upon parish questions and
for officers, overseers, surveyors, vestry
clerks, etc. Does Queen Victoria give
aid and comfort to reform ? NS. She
has been known to make a gift of 20
to the writer of a pamphlet deuvetmcing
any change in the legal and political
condition of her sex."
GRASSHOPPER RA VAOSS.
The St. Paul Press draws the follow
ing conclusions with respect to the
grasshopper invasion of Minnesota: It
is safe to estimate the tilled area in the
ravaged district at 275,000 acres, and of
the area of wheat in that district at
200,000 acres. Of this area, probably
not less than 150,000 acres have been
destroyed. This represents not less
than 2.500,000 bushels of wheat de
voured in the germ by the grasshop
pers, or about one-twelfth of the wheat
crop of the State. Add to this area
40,000 acres of oats, at 33 bushels per
acre, or 1,320,000 bushels in all, or
oe-twelfth of the oat crop of the State ;
20,000 e cres of corn, at 32 buBhels per
acre, or 340,000 bushels, or one twelfth
of the corn crop of the State, and per
haps 20,000 acres more in rye, buck
wheat, barley, potatoes and other crops
and the full extent of the grasshopper
havoc can be easily estimated.
Foji THE PUBLIC GOOD:
It is rather unfortunate for the public
generally that many newspapers retail
gossip rather than news, and thus throw
to the greedy seeker for information
crumbs which cannot well be spared
from "the master's table." Illustra
tive of this reprehensible practice an
incident comes under notice. Recently
a French newspaper published that a
banker's country house had been rob
bed in the night ; " but unfortunately
the thieves, in their hurry, had failed
to open the second drawer on the right
hand side of the escretoire, in which
was a large sum of money in bank
notes." Two or three days latter the
editor received the following note :
"Mr. Editor: I cannot sufficiently thank
you for the information given in your-excellent
paper. It was in every respect exact, a
I found on going last night, for the Second
time, to the honse of Mr. Z .
" No signature. You will understand my
scruples."
OLD TIME BONNETS AGAIN.
A correspondent of the Chicago Jour
nal says : " A startling announcement
from Paris will interest your lady, read
ers. The new style of head-gear is to
be the old-fashioned bonnet, with brims,
crowns, strings, and perhaps, curtains.
It appears that the conclusion has been
reached that the prevalence of neuralgia
and kindred diseases, unknown" com
paratively a few years ago, has been due
to the fashion of leaving the head,neck,
ears, and throat without any protection.
The large number of weak eyes is also
attributed to the want of shade afforded
by the fall or curtain. I am afraid,
however, that the argument will not
hold good, for neuralgia is almost as
common a complaint with men a with
women, and we certainly have made no
change in the chimney-pot construc
tions we call hats."
TRUE HOSPITALITY
And touching the guiding of thy
house, let thy hospitality be moderate,
and according to the means of thy es
tate, rather plentiful than sparing, but
not costly. For I never knew any
man grow poor by keeping an orderly
table. But some consume themselves
through secret vices, and their hospi
tality bears the blame. But banish swin
ish drunkards out of thine house, which
is a vice impairing health, consuming
much, and making no show. I never
heard praise ascribed to the drunkard,
but for the well-bearing of his drink ;
which is a better commendation for a
brewer's horse or a drayman than for
either a gentleman or a serving man.
Lord Burleigh.
What is the difference between a belle
and a burglar ? One wears false locks
and the other false keys.
It takes 1-150 of a second to photo
graph the sun.