Lightning-Prints.
Lightning-prints are appearances sometimes found on the skin of men or animals that are struck by lightning, and are currently believed to be photographic representations of surrounding objects or scenery.
At Candelaria, in Cuba, in 1828, a young man was struck dead by lightning near a house, on one of the windows of which was nailed a horse-shoe; and the image of the horse-shoe was said to be distinctly printed upon the neck of the young man. On the 14th of November, 1830, lightning struck the Chateau Benatonière, in Lavendèe. At the time a lady happened to be seated on a chair in the salon, and on the back of her dress were printed minutely the ornaments on the back of the chair. In September, 1857, a peasant-girl, while herding a cow in the department of Seine-et-Marne, was overtaken by a thunder-storm. She took refuge under a tree, and the tree, the cow and herself were struck with lightning. The cow was killed, but she recovered, and on loosening her dress for the sake of respiring freely, she saw a picture of the cow upon her breast.
No Buttons but Brass Buttons.
There is a curious law extant in England in regard to brass buttons. It is, by Acts of Parliament passed in three reigns, (William III., Anne and George I.), illegal for a tailor to make, or mortal to wear, clothes with any other buttons appended thereto but buttons of brass. The law was put in force for the benefit of the button-makers of Birmingham; and it further enacts, not only that he who makes or sells garments with any but brass buttons thereto affixed, shall pay a penalty of forty shillings for every dozen, but that he shall not be able to recover the price he claims, if the wearer thinks proper to resist payment. The Act is not a dead letter. Not more than thirty years ago a Mr. Shirley sued a Mr. King for nine pounds sterling due for a suit of clothes. King pleaded non-liability on the ground of an illegal transaction, the buttons on the garments supplied being made of cloth, or bone covered with cloth, instead of glittering brass, as the law directs. The judge allowed the plea; and the defendant having thus gained a double suit without cost, immediately proceeded against the plaintiff to recover his share of the forty shillings for every dozen buttons which the poor tailor had unwittingly supplied. A remarkable feature in the case was, that the judge who admitted the plea, the barrister who set it up, and the client who profited by it, were themselves all buttoned contrary to law!
Curious Signs in New York.
One may see in the shop-windows of a Fourth avenue confectioner, "Pies Open All Night." An undertaker in the same thoroughfare advertises, "Everything Requisite for a First-class Funeral." A Bowery placard reads, "Home-made Dining Rooms, Family Oysters." A West Broadway restaurateur sells "Home-made Pies, Pastry and Oysters." A Third avenue "dive" offers for sale "Coffee and Cakes off the Griddle," and an East Broadway caterer retails "Fresh Salt Oysters" and "Larger Beer." A Fulton street tobacconist calls himself a "Speculator in Smoke," and a purveyor of summer drinks has invented a new draught, which he calls by the colicky name of "Æolian Spray." A Sixth avenue barber hangs out a sign reading "Boots Polished Inside," and on Varick street, near Carmine, there are "Lessons Given on the Piano, with use for Practice.", "Cloth Cutt and Bastd" is the cabalistic legend on the front of a millinery shop on Spring street; on another street the following catches the eye: "Washin Ironin and Goin Out by the Day Done Here."
Recipes from Albertus Magnus.
"If thou wylt see that other men cannot see: Take the gall of a male cat, and the fat of a hen all whyte, and mixe them together, and anoint thy eyes, and thou shalt see it that others cannot see.
"If the hart, eye or brayne of a lapwyng or blacke plover be hanged upon a man's neck, it is profitable agaynste forgetfulnesse, and sharpeth man's understanding."—Black letter copy—very old.