Interesting Items.
The National Sunday League lament a deficit of £110 as a result of the band performances in the three parks.
The oldest and biggest tree in the world is at Mascoli, near Mount Etna. The trunk is seventy yards round, and a flock of sheep can take refuge in it.
Jerusalem is rapidly becoming again a veritable city of the Jews. In 1880 there were probably not more than 5,000 Jews there; now there are more than 30,000.
The "threepenny-bit" may well be regarded as the "church coin." At the collection at Dr. Parker's Sunday evening meeting in Queen Anne Street Church, Dunfermline, there were no fewer than 1,400 threepenny pieces.
Phonography, as a system of shorthand, is the best, simplest, soundest, and most scientific of any in existence. Ninety-nine out of every hundred shorthand writers use it, and none other should be learned.
The buttercup blooms in unwonted places. A horse belonging to a farmer near Belford was having an old shoe removed, when a buttercup was found to have taken root between the hoof and the shoe, near the toe. It was in full bloom.
This is the day of rapid travelling. A through railway service has been organised to run from Charing Cross to Constantinople in seventy-six hours. Thus, in three days and a half, one will pass from the city of the Queen to the city of the Sultan.
In England and Wales the receipts for first-class railway season tickets last year amounted to £720,862, for second-class season tickets the receipts amounted to £665,203, and for those of the third-class (including workmen's weekly tickets) the amount was £358,142.
Among the rarities in Dr. Williams' library in Grafton Street, London, is a tiny shorthand Bible, exquisitely written, which is said to have belonged to an apprentice, who, suspicious of James II.'s intentions regarding Protestantism, wrote the whole for himself, fearing that he might be deprived of his printed copy.
Drs. Chauvel and Nimier now announce that, in future warfare with the Lebel rifle, the surgeons will not be perplexed by having to extract balls from wounded soldiers. These projectiles pass through the body, bones, and all, even when fired at a distance of from 1,800 to 2,000 metres (1,980 to 2,200 yards).
A Fortunate Cobbler.—It is announced that a Blackburn cobbler has just come in for a windfall in the shape of property valued at £40,000. He saw an advertisement some time ago with regard to some property in America, to which he has proved himself sole heir. He has left for the New World to take possession of his unexpected wealth.
One day last August a boy, nine years old, went to a school treat, and ran in several races. On returning home he complained of headache, and next morning was seized with pains and became insensible, dying an hour afterwards. The post-mortem examination showed that death was the result of syncope, brought on by fatigue and excitement.
A statement was made at the Spanish Armada Convention at Exeter Hall, recently, to the effect that, during 1878, "in the poor country of Ireland there had been bequeathed to the Roman Catholic Church no less than £750,000 for masses for the souls of the departed." Doubtless Mr. Isaacs had proof of this, for he referred to it as "an ascertained fact."
A papyrus of extraordinary beauty and completeness, of the fourteenth century before our era, has been added to the British Museum. It contains certain chapters of the "Book of Death," carefully copied out by a scribe of Thebes. Its remarkable feature are the illustrations. The colouring of these is as vivid as if the work had been done yesterday, instead of more than thirty centuries ago.
An interesting discovery has just been made by Dr. Tschakort, Professor of Church History in the University of Konigsberg, who has found in the library there numerous manuscript sermons and commentaries by Luther, hitherto absolutely unknown. They were written in the years 1519 to 1521—that is, at the very culminating period of Luther's work as a Church Reformer, after the burning of the Papal bull, and before the Diet of Worms.
Strange stories occasionally come from the Black Country, but few are stranger than that which is related of a man living at Bilston. A collier lost his eyesight in December through the explosion of a blasting cartridge, and the other week, as he was being led home from a neighbouring village by a brother, a terrific thunderstorm commenced. Simultaneously with a flash of lightning, he experienced a piercing sensation from the eye to the back of the head and his sight was instantly restored.
Mildewed linen may be restored by soaping the spots, and while wet covering them with powdered chalk.
The Dead Sea, at its northern end, is but thirteen feet in depth, but at the southern end it is thirteen hundred.
Chiswick Cemetery.—The Home Secretary has ordered that a large tract of ground which has been recently acquired and added to the Chiswick Cemetery should be set aside for the use of the Roman Catholics of the district.
A Catholic total abstinence society has been brought into court in Philadelphia under the laws against gambling. They pleaded that a benevolent enterprise such as theirs, though using lotteries, could not be regarded as a swindling speculation. "If such things are allowed to be carried on by professedly good people," said Judge Biddle, "it is inconsistent to call upon us to convict other people." The relation between the grab-bag and the gaming-table is not inconceivable.
On June 8th last, a correspondent at Shepherd's Bush despatched a post-card from London, viâ the Brindisi and Suez Canal route, to Hong Kong, with the request that it might be forwarded to the addressee viâ San Francisco and New York. The card was duly received by the original sender a short time ago, the time taken in its transit round the world being exactly seventy days, which is about forty days less than the time taken ten years ago. The card was franked for 3½d.
A Thanksgiving Day.—Dr. Franklin says that, in a time of great despondency among the first settlers of New England, it was proposed in one of their public assemblies to proclaim a fast. An old farmer arose, spoke of their provoking Heaven with their complaints, reviewed their mercies, showed that they had much to be thankful for, and moved that, instead of appointing a day of fasting, they should appoint a day of thanksgiving. This was accordingly done, and the custom has continued ever since.
Diphtheria.—An American medical journal gives the following remedy for diphtheria, and says that where it has been applied promptly, it has never been known to fail. It is simply as follows:—"At the first indication of diphtheria in the throat of the child, make the room clean. Then take a tin cup and pour into it a quantity of tar and turpentine, equal parts. Then hold the cup over a fire so as to fill the room with the fumes. The patient, on inhaling the fumes, will fall asleep, and, when it awakes, it will cough up and spit out all the membranous matter, and diphtheria will pass off. The fumes of the tar and turpentine loose the matter in the throat, thus affording the relief that has baffled the skill of physicians." As the remedy is so simple, parents would do well to cut this out and preserve it.
An extraordinary affray took place at Manchester on Sunday, July 8th. The members of several prominent Orange lodges in the city were proceeding to a church, where special services were to be held, when they encountered in a narrow thoroughfare, inhabited chiefly by Irish Roman Catholics, a band of men and women, who rushed upon them with hatchets, knives, pokers, and bottles. Two men were seriously injured, and, but for the timely arrival of thirty policemen, the affray would probably have had a fatal termination.
How the Collie Reached his Home.—The following is a true story about a collie who took a hansom. He was lost in Oxford Street, London, so, after having spent some time in looking for him, his mistress went home, and what was her surprise, when she arrived, to see him in the hall. The butler told her the story, and it was this. After the dog had been lost, he saw an empty hansom, which he got into; and the cabby could not get him out, for he showed his teeth. He called a policeman, who could not move him either, but with some difficulty they read the name and address on his collar, and settled that it would be best to drive him to his home. They shut the doors, and drove him home. When he arrived, the cabby rang the bell, and asked for his fare (which he of course got), and then the butler opened the doors, and the dog jumped out as if nothing had happened.—From Little Folks' Magazine for August.
Walking from Edinburgh to London.—Mr. Ross Fraser, who, accompanied by a collie dog, started from Edinburgh on August 15th to walk to London in eight days, an average of about fifty miles per day, arrived in London on Sunday evening about eight o'clock. The pedestrian was awaited by a large concourse of people at Shoreditch Church, and heartily greeted. The route taken was from Edinburgh viâ Berwick, Newcastle, Durham, Darlington, Northallerton, Boroughbridge, Wetherby, Doncaster, Retford, Newark, Grantham, Stamford, Huntingdon, Royston, Ware, and Edmonton. Mr. Fraser seemed somewhat footsore on his arrival, but the dog appeared in no way the worse for the journey. The walk has not been accomplished in the time originally laid down, as Mr. Fraser's feet gave way owing to the unsuitability of his boots for the task he had taken upon himself. After a rest on this side of Berwick he resumed his walk, and finished the journey in excellent health.
WILLIAM, PRINCE OF ORANGE.