The Mosque of St. Sophia, in Constantinople, is one of the most magnificent edifices in the world. It was begun by Justinian in A.D. 532 and was completed in five years. Originally it was named the Church of St. Sophia. Its walls were decorated with beautiful mosaics, which have been partly effaced or partly covered with inscriptions from the Koran. It was converted into a mosque by Mohammed II, in 1453, and four minarets were added, while the golden cross was replaced by the crescent. Its dome is one hundred and five feet in diameter and one hundred and eighty-four feet high inside.
IRON IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES.
Original Find Was in North Carolina, While the First Attempt to Manufacture It Was Made in Virginia in 1619.
Iron is, fortunately, the most abundant of metals as well as the most useful, and is to be found in almost all parts of the world.
The first recorded find was in North Carolina in 1585, while the first effort to manufacture it was made in Virginia in 1619.
The works were destroyed by Indians in 1622. The next attempt was at Lynn, Massachusetts, where a blast furnace was started in 1643, which produced some “sow” iron in 1645, and where a forge was built in 1648. Bog-ore was generally used in New England in colonial days.
The first export of iron (bar) to England was made in 1717, and the first pig-iron in 1728. Up to 1720, Massachusetts was the chief seat of the iron industry in the colonies. In the year 1750, Pennsylvania became the leading iron-producing colony.
The Harp of a Thousand Strings.
A Quaint Specimen of the Sermons Preached by Itinerant Exhorters in the South in the Middle of the Last Century—Now Almost Forgotten, It Had the Whole Country Laughing Fifty Years Ago.
The droll little sketch entitled “The Harp of a Thousand Strings” appeared many years ago in a New Orleans newspaper. While Joshua S. Morris is generally credited with the authorship, the claims of others have been advanced from time to time, and the authorship appears to be almost as cloudy as the identity of the writers of “Laugh and the World Laughs With You,” “Casey at the Bat,” and “If I Should Die To-Night.”