WHITE PEPPER.
The relative value of black and white pepper is but imperfectly understood. The former is decidedly the best. It grows in long, small clusters of from 20 to 50 grains. When ripe, it is of a bright red colour. After being gathered, it is spread on mats in the sun, when it loses its red colour, and becomes black and shrivelled as we see it. White pepper is of two sorts, common and genuine. The former is made by blanching the grains of the common black pepper, by steeping them for a while in water, and then gently rubbing them, so as to remove the dark outer coat. It is milder than the other, and much prized by the Chinese, but very little is imported into England. Genuine white pepper is merely the blighted or imperfect grains picked from among the heaps of black pepper. It is, of course, very inferior.
From the Singapore Chronicle we learn, that the average annual quantity of pepper obtained from different countries is 46,066,666 lbs, avoirdupois.
THE GATHERER.
How to acquire Knowledge.—Edmund Stone, the celebrated mathematician, was a native of Scotland, and the son of the Duke of Argyle's gardener. Before he attained the age of eighteen years, he had acquired a knowledge of geometry, &c., without a master. When he was asked by the Duke of Argyle how he had gained this knowledge, he replied, "I first learned to read; and the masons being at work on your house, I saw that the architect used a rule and compasses, and that he made calculations. Upon inquiring into the uses of these things, I was informed there was a science named arithmetic. I purchased a book of arithmetic, and I learned it. I was told there was another science called geometry, and I learned that also. Finding that there were good books on these two sciences in Latin, I bought a dictionary, and learned Latin. I also understood there were good books of the same kind in French, and I learned French. This, my lord, is what I have done; and it seems to me that we may learn anything when we know the twenty-four letters of the alphabet." The Duke, pleased with this simple answer, drew Stone out of obscurity, and provided for him an employment which allowed of his favourite pursuit.
P.T.W.
Duelling.—The students of the Berlin University lately introduced a new mode of duelling. In order that chances might be equal on both sides, the combatants went to the bed of a man attacked with cholera, and kissed him. Neither of the parties having experienced the least symptom of the epidemic during the next twenty-four hours, the seconds declared that the two adversaries had satisfied the laws of honour, and the affair was consequently settled.—SWAINE. (We take this piece of irony to be well applied.)