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.