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.