Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

W. E. HARP, Publisher. VOLUME I. NEWS GLEANINGS. There are 1,100 blacks and 115 whites n the Georgia penitentiary. The Mississippi State Grange favors the repeal of the agricultural lien law. The Atlanta City Council has voted sls 000 for the purchase of a site for a city park. Centenary Methndist church, at Rich mond, Va., will have a chime of bells to cost $7,000. A company, with a capital of SIOO,- 000, has been organized to introduce the electric light at Columbus, Ga. Commissioner Hawkins of Tennessee is making arrangements for experimen tal tests in the effect of commercial fer tilizers on the crops in every county in the State. Some Chicago capitalists are negoti ating for the purchase 13,000 acres of land in Sequachee county, Tenn., as an investment. It is well timbered and rich in coal. The marble quarry near Calhoun, Tenn., has been leased, .tuid 100 steam drills will be operated there. A railroad will be built and other preparations made for extensive quarrying. The Atlanta Constitution discovers in the fact that the Eagle and Phoenix mills of Columbus, Ga., last year earned 25 per cent, on their capital stock, one of the most overwhelming political tri umphs for the South. The Georgia railroad has compromised with Henry Hill, whom the passenger conductor put off near Madison last summer for not wearing his coat in the ladies’ car. Ttlie road paid $5,000 for this treatise on etiquette. Sturgeon fishing in the waters around Georgetown, S. C., has become a large and profitable industry. About 100 men are employed in the business, and large quantities of sturgeon meat are shipped to Charleston in kegs every week. A short time since a bar-room was found hid in a pen of cotton seed near Athens, Ga. It seems the proprietor kept a barrel secreted in this pen, with rubber tube leading therefrom, and when a customer wanted his jug filled it was easily drawn. It was reported to a rev* enue officer and broken up. Atlanta Constitution: Columbus is about to turn her attention to building a canal, to all accounts it won’t be a difficult job. With canals in Augusta, Columbus, Macon and At lanta, Georgia will have sufficient im proved water power to run all the cotton mill in the United States. But, really, we don’t want all. We will be satisfied with just half. Columbus (Ga.) Times: There were four bales of cotton brought to market yesterday from the plantation of Col. F. Terry, who lives near Waverly Hall, Harris county, that was grown and gathered in the year 1860, baled with ropes, and have been reposing in his gin house ever since. He was offered 47| cents for it in 1865, but would not sell because he thought the revenue tax o ? 8 cents per pound was unjust, and he said he had rather burn the cotton than sub mit to such injustice by the government. He had at the close of the war upward of 100 bales of cotton, and still has a few more left. An English Robber at Home. A gentleman was standing in one of the shadowy arcades of the Coliseum at Rome, where he was somewhat brusqely hustled by a passing figure. With a quick instinct lie clapped his hand to his watch pocket. His watch was gone ! He darted after the thief, who turned sharply round, at the same time clutch ing a watch. ‘'Give me that watch! A dash !—the stolen property was re covered. The startled robber disap peared, and the gentleman went home to boast of his adventure and his pv>w ess. Wliat was bis consternation, pn entering his bedroom, to find his owu watch, which he had forgotten to put on, staring him in the face from the mantelpiece! He had been the thief and the other wretched man bad stum bled over him iu the dark, and when overtaken and btopped was merely clutching his own watch, which he had not the nerve to rescue from the tourist. That tourist is now known to a wide and admiring circle of friends as the “Ban dit of the Coliseum. ” —London Truth. Too Troo, Too Troo. Man that is married to woman is of many days and full of trouble. In the morning he draws his salary, and in the evening behold it is all gone. It is a tale that is told, it vanislietb, and no one knowetli whither it goeth. He riseth up clothed in the chilly garments of the night and seeketh the somnolent pare goric wherewith to heal the colicky bowels of his offspring. He imitateth the horse or ox, and draweth the chariot of his posterity. He spendeth his shekels in the purchase of fine linen and purple, to cover the bosom of bis family, yet he himself is seen at the gates of the city with one suspender. He cometh forth as a flower, and is cut down. There is hope of a tree when it is cut down that the tender roots thereof will sprout again, but man goeth to his home, and wliat is he then ? Yea, he is altogether wretched. Since 1865 Tennessee has acquired nearly 400,000 additional population, and lias made crops every year of an average annual net profit of $27,500,000. Since 1860 Memphis, in spite of the war and three epidemics, has grown from 23,000 to 47,000, while Nashville has crept up from 17,000 population to 75,000. The growth of Chattanooga, Knoxville, and other towns, has beep at propor tionate rates. THE JACKSON NEWS. TOPICS OF TIIE DAY. Thurman is said to be building his fences for 1884. Patti —Cincinnati Music Hall—twc nights—sl6,ooo. For military reasons England will op pose the Channel tunnel. The Pope recommends that the pro posed Spanish pilgrimage be abandoned. Gen. Sheridan favors the compulsory retirement of all officers siity-two years of age. Cotton returns indicate for 1881 the loss of 300,000 bales by ravages of the caterpillar. The English exports to America for 1881 were 20 per cent. lesß than those ol previous years. Since Sullivan pounded Ryan he is said to have had three offers of marriage. He’s a great masher. The appointment of policewomen on the New York force is now asked for by the woman suffragists. Mrs. Garfield will not reply to Mrs. Sc*ville’s letter, appealing in behalf of the assassin of tho President. The address to the throne in the House of Common has been adopted, thus sustaining the government’s Irish policy. ♦ Thomas Nast, the well-known carica turist, has a plethora of money, so we are informed, and purposes retiring to private life. The Fire Commissioners of Boston iiawe ordered fire-escapes to be supplied by all manufacturers employing five or more hands. The Prussian Budget is made to a sur plus of $9,000,000. This is chiefly due to the working of the railroads bought by the State. Potatoes are being imported from Europe, and New York dealers are some what disgusted. Such invasions inter fere with “corners.” 1 Cuba, just now, is undergoing a severe drouth, to the great injury of the sugar cane. We might spare her any quantity of water and not suffer either. Belle Boyd, tho Confederate corres respondent, spy, and blockade runner, lives now in Corsicana, Texas, and fre quently delivers a lecture or two. The insurance on Bamum’s baby ele phant is $300,000. Tho insurance on the average Congressman is $5,000. Differ ence in favor of the babe, $295,000. Great distress exists among the peo ple of Sweden, the mildness of the weatiier preventing the transportation of produce by means of sleighs, as usual. General Carr, against whom Gen eral Wilcox preferred charges of a se rious character, has been released from custody, the President refusing to en tertain the charges. Fr.vncb seems not inclined to recon vene the Monetary Conference April 1, owing to a desire to avoid another fail ure in her efforts to secure a uniformity of views on the part of the Powers. The Government Printing Office, in spite of the scarcity of money and the agitation about the change of manage ment, is at work at a tremendous rato turning out books, pamphlets, and other printed stuff by the ton. Senator Him, of Georgia, who has submitted to a third operation for can cer in the mouth, reports that his con dition is now most favorable, and ex presses great confidence that a perma nent cure has been effected. If appears that, after all, the portrait the temperance ladies had painted ol Mrs. Hayes to hang up iu the White House, will not be used for that purpose, President Arthur feeling inclined to do as he pleases about the matter. • The State of Pennsylvania has begun suit aginst seventeen railroads because of their failure to return to the Auditor their annual report within thirty days after the expiration of the financial year. The penalty for each road is $5,000. Mr. Scovtlle proposes to lecture in various localities on the subject Mod ern Politics.” In these lectures he will refer incidentally to the Guiteau trial. However, it is generally believed the public have had enough of the Guiteau trial. It seems that Egypt is advancing somewhat in civilization. The present Khedive spends but $500,000 a year, whereas his predecessor spent $10,000,- 000 He has but one wife, and grants eonsessiona to all religions denomina tion*. _ Patti *nd Minnie Hank both got ' laryngitis during the Opera Festival at : Cincinnati, and that’s why things got so | terribly mixed up. All prima-donna* | get laryngitis once in a while, and those 1 who do not hereafter complain of laryn- I gitis occasionally are not what you might call great warbler*. Cereal estimates of tho Department of Agriculture of crops of 1881, as com pared with those of 1880, shows a reduc tion of 31 per cent, in corn, 22 per cent, in wheat, 21 per oent in rye, and 9 per cent, in barley. The total value of crops in 1881 is $1,465,000,000, against. $1,361,- 000 in 1880. The late Lord Beaconfield paid £4,- 000,000 for England’s 177,000 shares in the Suez Canal. Owing to the recent wild speculative mania in France, tho price of the shares was forced up to £l4O, and if Her Majesty’s Government had cleared out at that figure, it would have realized £24,780,000, or a profit of £20,- 780,000. _ The Memphis Appeil says anew day has dawned for the South, and that in its light prejudices are vanishing, and wiui them the hatreds and tho narrow ideas of the past, and that intelligence, reason and common sense aro ready to make available the resources which science and experience have brought within reach. About two-thirds of the counties in Indiana have been authorized to take observations of the weather, and as soon as the instruments and supplies nre for warded by the General Government the service will be inaugurated. Indiana will be the first State to make these observations by counties, although other States are moving in tho matter. All persons, including officers of the law, are opposed to the brutality of prize fighting, and the newspapers of the land have a great deal to say against it, but all nowspapers take the pains to publish detailed accounts of such affairs, and with hardly a Biugle exception, readers aro not satisfied until they know just how each round camo out, and who was finally whipped. Prof. Henry S. Vennor has published a card in the Cincinnati Commercial declaring that lie is a success as a weather prophet. However, instead of predict ing weather a year in advance, he will hereafter print a monthly paper at Mon treal which shall contain predictions, weather maps, etc., for the ensuing month. Thus you seo when a man gets so he can’t tell tho truth, ho turn* to editing a newspaper. A brute, by name John Wilson, ol Taunton, Mass., has been in the habit ol tying a heavy rope around tho neck ol his grown-up daughter and dragging her around after him. For this he was fined ten dollars, and the girl paid it with her own money. She is one of tlie Chris tians who returns good for evil, although when it comes right down to carrying out tho doctrine, it don’t seem to be just the tiling according to the common vray of thinking. Illustrative of the destitute condition of people in Southern Illinois, a cor respondent writing from Saline County says: “In this county nothing was raised, not even grass. There are farm ers who are as near stavation as they well can come without actually starving. They are living on anything they can con vert into food to keep soul and body to gether. Their situation might he im agined, hut one would have to see it to fully understand it.” At Lafayette, Indiana, an old soldier named John Baker was married to Mrs. Anna Smith, who had been nursing him for some time past, and to whom he owed considerable of a board bill. Baker knew his death was but a few days dis tant, and he wished to reward his kind benefactress by leaving her the pension which be had for several years been re ceiving from the government. He died the day following the ceremony, and the widow, it is said, has, besides the monthly pension, a claim for $2,000 back pension. Charley Wrioht, the colored boot black, who saved two men at the recent New York fire by climbing a telegraph pole and cutting a wire rope, has re ceived a medal from the American Hu mane Society which makes him a col onel in tho life-saving brigade. Another gold medal will be shortly given to him. He has received in money SB9 and the Humane Society will present Mm with a purse. Ho has saved eight persons in the surf at Cape May, for three sum mers past. His father is an Afrioan, his mother a Sioux Indian. Rev. Talmage’s charge that the father of Robt. J. Ingersoll, in life, fed and clothed his family sparingly aDd “never spoke a kind word to his wife,” has re ceived the attention of Mr. John F. In gersoll, of Waukesha County, Wiscon sin, wko has printed a most scathing re ply. He says that his father was a min ister on SSOO a year, and had to iive sparingly, that he was kind to his fam ily, and as to Robert, while he did not believe the doctrines the father taught, was “as good and obedient boy os he ever knew.” Mr. Ingersoll endeavors to shame the Rev. Talmage for going to the grave as a ghoul, to tear up the ashes of the white-haired dead, Speculators in Cincinnati Opera Festival tickets were gloriously stuck— some to the extent of $1,500, and others for less amounts, hut all lost more or less in their speculation. This is as it bhould be. When * lot of men buy up Devoted to tlie Interest ol Jackson and IJutts Oountv. JACKSON, GEORGIA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 1882. with a view to seeming a “ corner ” at the expense of the masses—extorting money from those who can least afford it—it is but justice that they should lose, and thnt Heavily. One Hebrew citizen, who had bought reserved seats koavily at n big advance, stood about tho door, late at night, offering his tiokets at 95 cents apiece, and not one of them had cost him under $7, and some of them as high as $24. People, rather than pat ronize him, shoved him asi o and paid $1 for general admission, went ifi and stood up, so outraged wore their feelings over the affair. We nsver like to see persons losing money, but sometimes it is a good thing for the general publio for would-be oppressors to suffer se verely the fruits of indiscrotion. A touching incident occurred at ths Midlothian mines in Viiginia, tho other night. Superintendent Dodds mounted a coal car, and addressing the wailing throng of women and children around him, said: “My poor friends, it grieves mo to state to you that for the present our search for the bodies of those you kuow and loved will have to be aban doned. You know what fire in a coal mine means, and it may take months of watching to subdue it. We will close the pit now.” The speaker’s voice quiv ered with emotion. When he finished a beautiful little girl of fourteon years, Annie Crowder, tho only daughter of one of the victims, uttered a piercing scream and nislied to the mouth of the pit, crying: ‘‘Oh, do not leave my dead papa to burn down there. Let me get into tho eago and go down after him. Let mo save him.” The strong arms of the miners held her back as the fragile thing tried to make her way to the cage, and more than one blackened face was made blacker as the hand went up to wipe away the tears. Men sobbed aloud and turned away to conceal tlioir emotion. The little girl, finding her progress hatred, swooned at the mouth of the pit. Roller in Witelicrnrt. Ludicrous as the powers appear to us at the present day with which witchcraft in former times was credited, such pow ers seem never to have boen denied or disputed by the great minds of the past. A witch was all that was abominable, and to bo held in the strongest loathing; yet few find the wisdom or the courage to contradict the possibility of her exer cising the arts nlio pretended to. The Judge, as lie passed sentence on the condemned woman, trembled lest her fell gaze should bring I. ~' him and bis household sorrow or death. The yelling crowd, as it half stripped her to undergo the water-ordeal, shuddered as it saw upon her exposed bosom the marks which, it was supposed, proved that she allowed her “familiar” to draw upon her life’s blood. The villagers who went miles out of their way to avoid her haunts, never for one moment believed that the object of their fear was power less to work them evil, and was eitlief a lialf-mad woman, the victim of a hideous delusion, or else the actress of a knavish part to servo her own vile ends. To all the old crone, with her tall hat, crutch stick, and black cat nestling on her shoulders, was one who had dealings with the devil, and who, through the might of Satanic aid, could scathe- the seeds of misery broadcast wherever she listed. She had sold herself to hell, and, until death claimed her, her power to effect evil, it was alleged, was unlim ited. The great man is he who rises superior to the prejudices of his age; but before the end of the seventeenth century—with the exception of Bcdiu, Erastus, Reginald Scot, John Wagstaffe, and Dr. Webster—there were none who had the boldness or knowledge to brand witchcraft as a base and palpable super stition. We find Lord Bacon gravely prescribing “henbane, hemlock, man drake, moonshade, tolmcco, opium, and other soporiforous medicines” as the best ingredients for a witch’# ointment. From the pages of his “History of the World,” we see that the gifted and practical Sir Walter Raleigh was a firm believer iu this childish form of superstition. The learned Selden, in his “Table Talk,” while pleasantly discoursing on the sub ject of witches, shows that ho also held the same faith. Sir Thomas Browne, the kindliest of physicians; Sir Matthew Hale, the most acute and spotless of Judges; Hobbies, the skeptic; “the em inent Dr. More, of Cambridge,” and tlio patient and thoughtful Boyle, all were of opinion that witchcraft was an evil capable of solid proof, and that its dis ciples merited sharp and quick punish ment. It was not until (Ire dawn of tho eighteenth century tint men came to the conclusion that tho devices of “witches and witch-mnigors” were only so many trieks and hides, and utterly unworthy of credence. The last judicial execution in England took place in tho year 1710, when a wonan end her little daughter were hanged at Huntingdon “for selling their souls to Satan.” Since that date, however, rarious cases have occurred of women, accused as witches, being drowned whib undergoing the ordeal by water at the hands of their in timidated, yet iiiftiriited neighbors.— Fraser'* Muoazine. A young member of the liar thought he would ail opt a raotti for himself, and, after much reflection, wrote in large let ters, and posted up agiinst the wall, the following, “Swim C'itj/ue," which may be translated. “ Let eierv one have his own.” A country client, coming in, ex pressed himself much gratified with tho maxim, but added, “ fou don’t spell it right.” “ Indeed ! "hen how ought it to be spelt V” The viiitor replied, “Suo ’em (prick.” TnERE is an incorripble little darky down in Washington, (a. He is 9 years old, and is known as a home-thief, as well as being willingx> steal anything else. His mother ho tried to reform him by whipping lrin for the first half of tho day, and hangiig him up in a bag and smoking him tbeother half, hut the inhabitants of Wash iigton despair of hir being a trustworthy sitizen. THE BLACK DEATH. ( aiur of tho Atluiml Outbreak of the Plague. It is generally supposed, says the Chicago Tribune, that the inundation of the low lands of the Euphrates river is tho only cause of tho outbreak of the plague, or black death. They are a con tributing, but not the only cause. The real cause of the pestilence has been known for years to the Persian aud Turkish Governments, but they have done nothing toward its prevention. The black death is not an uncommon disease in that part of Mesopotamia lying south west from Bagdad, between the right shore of the Euphrates and the Syrian desert. It lias made its regular appear ance there ever since the year 1872, be tween the months of December and June. In Nedieff, or Medsohei’ Ali, is the grave of All, the sou-in-la* >f the Prophet Mahomet. From there leads a desert road, marked out by the bleached bones of camels and human beings, to the so-called Lake Euphrates, which re ceives its water through the Hintich canal. To the northwest of this lake is situated the city of Kerbeln, where is to be found the golden mosque and the gravo of Hussein, the son of Caliph Ali and the daughter of the Prophet. These two cities are the real breeding-places of the dreadful disease. To Nedjeff and Kerbela the Shiites, or religious follow ers of Ali and Hussein, chiefly Persians, send the dead bodies of their friends and relatives, because they believe that to be buried near Hussein’s or Ali’s grave will assure their souls certain admission to paradise. Caravan after caravan, each camel loaded with two felt-covered coffins on each side, arrive there daily and deposit their ghastly freight for in terment, which, during months of travel from the Persian highlands, has been decomposing and is tilling the air with its pestilential odor. The coffins are placed in shallow trenches and covered with about an inch or two of earth. But this is not all. Tho whole country around Nedjeff lias become ono vast graveyard, and, in consequence of tile frequent floods occurring in the Eu phrates, all tho lands on both sides of the river are inundated, the light cover ing of earth is swept from tho coffins, which, being made of light material, fall to pieces, and thousands upon thousands of corpses are left rotting under the rays of an Oriental sun. Tho waters final ly recede, or are gradually absorbed by the soil, poisoning all the wells in that coun try. From 12,000 to 16,000 corpses are sent there annually for interment by the Shiites. The Jews send annually sev eral thousands of their dead to he buried near the gravo of their prophet Ezekiel, which is also near Kerbela. Beside tlicso caravans there arrive flotillas of pilgrim boats loaded with corpses on tho Eu phrates by way of the Somawut branch nml the Bar x-Nedjcff. Not only are they filled with this pestiferous freight, but tile coffins are even hung outside of the boats, loading them down to the wa ter’s edge. Tho constant arrival of these caravans and flotillas with their freight of decaying human corpses, and added to this the careless burial, must be regarded as tlio cause of the outbreak of tlie plague, and the fatalistic negli gence of the Persian and Turkish Gov ernments, which do not interfere until the disease has become epidemic, ex plains why it lias not been suppressed during tho last ten years. For a long time a special treaty lias been in exist- between these two Governments relative to tlie transportation of these corpses, but ho far it lias been a treaty on paper only. Tho people of Amsnm are in as much danger as tlie rest of the world. It is about time that the civil ized nations of the earth should make this question of the transportation of corpses under an Oriental sun an inter national question, and force tho two Governments directly interested to exe cute the provisions of their treaty in good faith. “Don’t You Relieve Him. The Arabs tell a story to show how a mean man’s philosophy overshoots itself. Under the reign of the first Calip there was a merchant in Bagdad equally rich and avaricious. One day he had bar gained with a porter to carry homo for him a basket of porcelain vases for ten paras: As they went along he said to the man: “ My friend, you are young and I am old ; you can still earn plenty ; strike a para from your hire.” “ Willingly!” replied the porter. This request was repeated again and again, until, when they reach the house, the porter had only a single para to re ceive. A they weHt up stairs the mer chant said: “If you will resign the last para, I will give you three pieces of advice.” “Be it so,” said the porter. “ Well, then,” said the merchant, “ if any one tells you it is better to Vie fast ing than feasting, do not believe him. If any one tells you it is better to be poor than rich, do not believe him. If any one tells you it is better to walk than ride, do not believe him.” “ My dear sir,” replied the astonished porter, “I knew these things before; but if you will listen to me, I will givo yon such advice as you never heard.” The merchant turned round, and the porter, throwing the basket down the staircase, said to him: “ If any one tells you that one of your vases is unbroken, do not believe him. ” Before the merchant could reply the porter made his escape, thus punishing his employer for his miserly greediness. India’s Black Holes of Jails. The amount of sickness and mortality in some of the jails of India is stated, with good reason, in the official reports to be very deplorable. This Ls particu larly applicable to the Punjab. In the year 1879 more than ono-third of the average strength of the unfortunate in mates of the Rawal Pindi Jail are stated to have died, being at the rato of nearly 360 J per 1,000. At Umballah the death rate was nearly a* high, though in this jail there was no case of cholera. In the jail at Belgium, in the Bombay Presidency, nearly half tho average strength was swept off in 1878. In 1879 the rate had diminished, though it still reached tho fearful proportion of 200 pei I.ooo.— London Few*. WHAT IS MAN! A Kpnrk of t a Drop of Wicr-Som InlercßtlnK Olncrntlluiia About the Hu man Anatomy. [New Tork News.| Whilo tho gastric juieo has a mild, bland, sweetish taste, it possesses the power of dissolving the hardest food that can be swallowed. It has no influ ence whatever on tho soft aud delicate fibers of the living stomach, nor upon the living hand, but at the moment of death it begins to eat them away with the powor of tlie strongest acids. There is dust on sea, on land, in tlie valley, and oil tho mountain ; there is dust always and everywhere ; the atmos phere is full of it; it penetrates the noisome dungeon, and visits the deepest, darkest caves of the earth; no palace door can shut it out, no drawer so secret as to escape its presence ; every brentli of wind dashes it upon the .open eye, yet that eye is not blinded, because under tho eyelid there is incessantly empting itself a fountain of blandest fluid in nature, which spreads itself over tlie surface of the eye at every winking, and washes every atom of dust away. But this liquid is mild and so well adapted to tho eye, itself lias somo acridity, which, under some circum stances, becomes so decided as to bo scalding to tlie skin, and would rot away the eyelids, wero it not that along tho edges of them nre littlo oil manufac tories, which spread over their surface a coating ns impervious to tho liquid necessary for keeping the eyelids washed clean ns the best varnish is impervious to water. Tlie breath which leaves the lungs has been so perfectly divested of its lifo giving properties, that to rebrentho it iinmixed with other air tho moment it escapes from tho mouth, would cause immediate deatli by suffocation ; whilo if it hover about us, more or less de structive influence over health and life would ho occasioned. But it is mado of a nature so much lighter than tho com mon air, that, the instant that it escapes the lips and nostrils it ascends to the higher regions above tho breathing point, there to bo rectified, renovated, and sent back again, roploto with purity and life. llow rapidly it ascends is fully exhibited on frosty mornings. But, foul and deadly as tlie expired air is, nature, wisely economical in* all her works and ways, turns it to good account in its outward passage through tho or gans of tlie voice, making of it tho whispers of love, the soft words of affec tion, the sweetest strains ef ravishing music, tho porsuasivo eloquence of tho finished orator. If a well-made man bo extended on the ground, his arms at right angles with the body, a cirelo making tho navel its center will just tako in his head, the fingers ends, and tlie fee*. Tho distance from top to too is precisely tho same as that between tho tips of tho fingers when tho arms nre extended. Tho length of tho body is just six times that of the foot, while tho distance from the edge of tlie hair on tho forehead to the edge of the chin is one-tenth tho length of tho whole stature. Of tho sixty-two primary elements known in nature, onlyeigliteeu are known to the human body, ana of those seven are metallic. Iron is found in the blood, phosphorus in the brain, limestono ill the bile, lime in tlie bones, mid dust and ashes in all. Not only theso oightoen human de ments, Imt tho whole sixty-two of which the universe is made, have their essen tial basis in the four substances of oxy gen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon, representing tlie more familiar names of fire, water, saltpeter, and charcoal. And such is man, tlie lord of tho earth ! —a spark of fire, a drop of water, a grain of powder, an atom of charcoal. Carlyle a .Mathematician. Among Carlyle's Edinburgh connec tions in thoso Kirkcaldy days, one comes to ns iu a book form. It was iu 1817 that Professor Leslie, not yet Hir John Leslie, brought out, the third edi tion of his “Elements of Geometry and l’luno Trigonometry,” being an improve ment and enlargement of the two pre vious editions of 1809 and 1811. Tho geometrical portion of the volume con sists of six books, intended to supersede the traditional first six books of Euclid, and containing many propositions not to he found there. The seventeenth prop osition of the sixth book is the problem: “To divido a straight, lino, whether internally or externally, so that tho rectangle under its segments shall he equivalent to a given rectangle.” Tho solution, with diagrams, occupies a page, and there is an additional page of “scholium,” pointing out in what cir cumstances tho problem is limpossible, and calling attention to the value of the proposition iu the construction of quadratic equations. So much for tho text of the proposition at pages 176-177, lmt when we torn to the “Notes anil Illustrations” appended to tho volume we find at page 340 this note by Leslie: “The solution of this important problem now inserted in the text, was suggested to me by Thomas Carlyle, an ingenious young mathematician, formerly my pupil. But I hero subjoin likewise tho original construction given of Pappus, which, though rather more complex, has yet some peculiar advantages.” Leslie then proceeds to givo the solution of Pappus in about two pages, arid to add about three pages of further remarks on tho application of tho problem to the construction of quadratics. The mention of Carlyle by Leslie in this volume of 1817 is, 1 believe, the first, mention of Curlylo by name in print, and it was no small compliment to prefer for text pur poses young Carlyle's solution of an im portant problem to the old one that had come down from the famous Greek geometrician. Evidently Cm lvle’s mathe matical reputation was still kept up about the Edinburgh University, and Leslie*was anxious to do his favorite pupil a good turn. — Macmillan's. A Fixture. “ You seem to have become a fixture here,” said the young man, as lie dropped in to tho old tailor’s to have some re pairing done. “Well, perhaps so,” was tho reply, “ for I have fixed your old pants for you every spring and fail for the past ten yearn.” TERMS: $1.50 per Annum. NUMBER 26. POPULAR SCIENCE. B otter glolmles in milk may be seen under a microscope. Gaseous ammonia is exceedingly im pervious to radiant boat. If a galvanic current pass through any conductor it evolves heat. TnE seeds containing the richest oils belong to tho genus cruciferas. Intensity of color in flowers of tho same species increases with the altitude. The human body is composed of four teen or more of tho common chemical elements. Vemullton is manufactured from red sulpburet of mercury, commonly known as cinnabar. Of reptiles possessing tho snake-like form wo liavo throo species indigenous to this country. It is estimated that a drop of human blood contans 1,000,000 corpuscles in a cubic millimeter. It is said that tho formation of fogs and clouds arises from the presence of dust in tho ntmosphore. Anew celluloid is said to lie obtained from well peeled potatoes, treated with a solution of sulphuric acid. The raw materials of which dynamite is made aro sulphurio acid, saltpeter, glycerino, and infusorial earth. Grape sugar possess tlie property of fermenting or breaking up into aloohol and carbonic acid, on the addition of yeast. It has been suggested that noxione insects mgy be driven away by cultivat ing tho fungi that are destructive to them. The raising of pyretlirum, from which insect powder is mado, is carried on ia California and various other parts of tho country. From tho peats of Brittany have been obtained, by means of reagents, benzine, resinous matters, acetio acid, and other suhstauccs. A man can live on seven meals a week, but his supply of gaseous nourishment has to ho renewed at least 14,000 times in twenty-four hours. In detf.rminino the illuminating powor of gas it should not be conducted through a rubber tube, sinco this dimin ishes the illuminating powor. The vaccinntion of sheep against splenic fover, according to l’astent’s new method, is very successful, and is being practised with groat vigor in France. Explorations in Spain and North Africa by Kobelt, of Frankfort, an au thority on living and fossil shell-fish, have convinced him that the two conti nents wore formerly connected not only at Gibraltar, but as far east as Oran and Cartlingcna. A newly described mineral, white and friable with a bitter astringent tosto and readily soluble in cold water, has been named llosito after a gentleman of Load villo. It was discovered in Park County, Colorado, and contains manganese, iron, zinc, and sulphur. A memoib of much interest and im portance upon tho use of anaesthetics has boon communicated to tho Paris Academy of Scionco by Mens. Paul Bert. By experiment witli different anaestlietio agents upon animals he has been abl6 to ascertain in tho case of each substance what ia tho quantity just suf ficient to ciiuso insensibility anil liow much suffices to produce death. Ho finds tho fatal dose of ehlorform, ether, atnylono, bromide of ethyl and chloride of ethyl to bo always exactly double tho anaosthotic doso. The rango between these oxtromes Mons. Bert terms the working zone, and ho says that a mixture about tho middle of this working zone, properly administered, will produce a safe statu of insensibility, which may bo maintained long enough for any surgical operation. Trailing. Ouo of tho most remarkable features of uncivilized life is tho power savages show of tracking men and beasts over immense distances. Many travelers have spoken of this as something almost miraculous, yet it is only tho result of careful observation of certain well-known signs ; and wo have here before us a col lection of very-cornmon-sense hints on tho subject. In countries like ours every trace or foot-print or wheel-track on roads or paths is soon obliterated or hopelessly confused ; hut it is otherwise in the wilderness, where neither man nor beast can conceal liis track. In CufTreland, when cattle are stolen, if their foot prints are traced to a village, the head man is responsible for them, nnlcss ho can show tho same track going out. A wagon track in a now country is practically indelible. “ More especially,” say tho authors of “Shifts and Expedi ents of Gamp Life,” “ is this the case if a fire sweeps over tiio plain immediately after, or if a wagon passes during or after a prairie firo. Wo have known a fellow traveler iu this manner recognize the tracks his wagon haxl made seven years before, tho lines of charred stumps crushed short down remaining to indi cate tho pannage of tho wheels, though all other impressions had been obliter ated by the rank annual growth fully twelve feet high. Sometimes, the origi nal soil being disturbed, ane w vegeta tion will spring up along the wagon track, and thus mark out the road for miles. Even on hard rock a man’s bare foot will leave the dust caked together by perspiration, so that a practiced eye will see it; and even if thero is no track, a stono will bo disturbed here and there, tho side of tho pebble which has long lain next to tho ground being turned up. If it is still damp, the man or beast that turned it has passed very ecentiy. If a shower of rain lias fallen, tho track will tell whether it was made before, during or after tho shower ; similar iudications can be obtained from tho dew; and other iudications of tho time that has elapsed since a man passed by is furnished by the state of tho crushed grass, which will be more or less withered as the time is longer or shorter. Other indications are drawn from the direction in which the grass lies ; this tells how the wind was flowing at tho time tho grass was crushed ; and by noting previous of the wind, one learns' the time at which caoh part of the track was mad§,