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The Flitch of Bacon.
*
The custom of the flitch of bacon at
Dunmow i-i not the least curious among
these which rural parishes present.
Far back in the old days when there
was a priory at Dun now, in E-sex,
the monks made a promise of a flitch
of bacon to any married couple who
could take oath that they had never
quarreled nor regretted their union.
Whether tire bachelor monks only in
tended to encourage conjuiral har
mony, or whether they strictly be
lieved that married folks never do live
together twelve months without dis
cord, we can guess as best we may.
At any rate the successful applicants
for the flitch were few and far between.
The priory was suppressed at the
Reformation, but the old custom sur
vived, the flitch being given by the
lord of the manor. In the last century
the ceremony was conducted with
much parade. The couple appeared at
a court baron, a jury of unmarried per
sons heard the averments, and if the
results were sa'iPactory, a verdict was
given to the effect that the couple had
been lftarr.ed at least one year, that
they had lived quietly and lovingly
together, and that they were deserv
ing of the promised prize.
The verdict being delivered, the
happy couple, standing near the
church door, made a declaration, re
ceived the flitch, and were chaired in
procession through the town. The
lords of the manor by degrees declined
to olfer the tempting bonus, and the
clergy viewed unfavorably some of the
incidents accompanying the proceed
ings. Twenty or thirty years ago a
few literary men revived the ceremony
at their ovvn expense, more as a whim
sical joke for that one occasion than as
a permanent custom. From time to
time the local journals record an ob
servance of the ceremony. There is
reason to believe, however, that specu
lative trade is mainly concerned here,
the flitch being provided by some tav
ern interested in bringing together a
large assemblage of thirsty souls.
Indian Tea and Chinese.
What chance has India in the race
with Cuina? Indian teas have always
sold at higher prices than Chinese,
and one reason is that Indian goes
further. Very little tea is now sold in
the United Kingdom of which one-
quarter at least is not Indian. Were
the Indian supply to cease to-morrow,
the public would quickly perceive how
weak their teas had become. By the
said mixture with China teas the peo
ple have, little by little, been educated
to appreciate the Indian flavor. In
Ireland, for example, it has gone fur
ther—there Indian teas to a great ex
tent are drank pure. The advocates
of the Indian produce say that many
discard Chinese for our Eastern teas,
but never the reverse. Anyhow, it is
a fact that the consumption has in
creased enormously (as shown in spile
of the yearly largely increased imports
by the small stock now on band).
There is another point in favor of
Indian teas—they are known to be
pure and unadulterated, and so much
cannot always be said for Chinese.
Some teas are yearly officially con
demned, but we believe this has never
once occurred in the case of Indian
teas. As the imports of Indian teas
have increased yearly since 1850 (they
. were merely nominal then) to 52,000,-
000 pounds this year, (that was the
estimate; the amount available, due
partly to weather, paitly to the ’argely
increased exports to Australia, will
not exceed 48,000,000 pounds,) and as
the stock, now near the end of the
year, is f&r less than usual, it is evi
dent that the statistical position is
satisfactory. Machinery is now largely
used in the manulactu e of tea in In
dia. A well-appointed India tea fac
tory shows a steam engine of perhaps
twenty horse power, working rollers,
driers, equalizers, shifters, and what
not. The Cninese have been making
tea for a thousand years, and yet the
lie there is hand-made lea. In India
le industry dates back some forty
ears, and all is done by machinery,
gives the Indian planter a great
vantage in his race with China. As
all industries, so with tea; the
is done more regularly, better,
ra aore cleanly way, and far more
Bonor« ca iiy by machines than by
ind. j India ever vies with China
the &£kegateof her t^a exports, it
fill be d u Saalnly to the use of ma-
hinery In manufacture, lor labor
fail nowise.
file! i
cineer Seely, aged sixty
Juh
while ou '“aogjne at Otlsvilie
Jrom P\ Jervis to Jersey
^stricken wi a p 0 pi eX y au( j
kway
A Simple Barometer.
A correspondent of The English
Mechanic thus describes a simple
barometer: Take a glass tube about
7 inches long and about 2 3 inches in
ternal diameter, and draw out one end
before the blowpipe to a point, leaving
a very small orifice about 1-100 to 1 60
of an inch diameter. This end of the
tube should not be quite sharp, but
somewhat rounded. A cork is pre
pared to lit tightly the wide end of the
ube, and if the cork is male of cork
ts sides and upper ends sho iId be
Teased or coated with paraffin, the
tower end being left uncoated A
rubber cork would answer better. The
tube should now be about half filled
iwith distilled water, although the
exact height is of no consequence, and
the cork firmly inserted. The tube
should be suspended with the point
downward near the window, and it
should never be shaken. When the
barometric pressure is low, indicating
rain, a drop of ivater will appear at
the orifice, and liaug at the lower end
of the tube. When the barometric
pressure rises, the drop will disappear,
and a b abble of air may sometimes be
seen in the act of entering by the nar
row opening. If more than one drop
is extruded, of course they will fall,
but one drop will always remain sus
pended.
I have had a tube of this discription
hanging in my laboratory,” says the
writer, “ for two years, and I find its
indications for rain and dry weather
most unerring. The only error arises
from extremely sudden rise of tem
perature, which will sometimes force
a drop of water out by expansion, al
though the barometric pressure is
high ; but in that case the drop soon
dries up; in the other case it hangs
persistently, and will in many in
stances indicate the approach of rain
thirty hours before the af pearauce of
the storm. Before rain the drop does
not dry up, because then the atmos
phere is saturated with moisture. The
sensitiveness of this weatherglass
depends upon the difference of tension
between the surrounding atmosphere
and the air within the tube, the latter
expanding or contracting according
as the barometric pressure is high or
low.”
Genius and Solitude.
j men of genius the thoughts behave
more like pas-dons than thoughts, and
yet arc-, to all intents and purposes,
thoughts still; while with ordinary
men, thoughts mould and modify
passions, but never live the life of
passion.
Doubtless the reason why solitude is
so necessary to give great thoughts the
sway of grea! passions, is precisely the
same as the reason why a tree which
is lopped of its redundant foliage sends
out roots only the deeper and stronger
for the pruning. Hardy minds which
cannot find outward distractions, grow
inward; and this very often, even
though if they had outward distrac
tions, they would expend themselves
in those distractions. It takes, how
ever, some exceptional affinity for the
life of thought, to render it possible at
all that thought should grow into a
passion. Isolate some men with their
thoughts, and their thoughts simply
dry up altogether. Isolate others with
their thoughts, and the thoughts take
living forms, with which their whole
being gradually becomes identical.
This is only another way of saying
that solitude tends in every consider
able thinker to turn the life of thought
into the life of real action; to him,
thought becomes action, and therefore
also passion, for effective action breeds
pas-ion quite as truly as passion breeds
action -indeed, no passions are higher
than those which spring out of a man’s
knowledge that his thoughts are giv
ing him a new hold over the life
within and outside him, aud are sub
stituting for a dim and hesitating
tradition, the talisman of a new vision,
and the sptll of a new clew to the
ways either of nature or of man.
Ready Reply.
That which for the average roan is
the dull, and, perhapa, even the stupe
fying life of seclusion, is the very con
dition under which great genius is
nursed into its highest intensity. To
be really dominated by great thoughts,
you must have lived in them, and
lived in ibem till they assumed a hun
dred different aspects which they are
only capable of assuming for one who
has applied them to alt those circum
stances of his life and his reading to
which they are really applicable.
Thought never becomes a passion
until you have brooded over it, till it
flashes new light for you on a hundred
half-familiar things which, familiar as
they were, you never really under
stood till you regarded them by the
light of this thought. And till thought
bejomesa passion, it hardly ever be
comes a power. The true reason why
the thoughts of men influence them so
little, is that they just pass over the
mind like wind over the grass aud
never really saturate it. It takes soli
tude to get yourself saturated by any
thought, and to the great majority of
men even so’itude will not effect it,
but only lower their thinking power
to the congealing point. Nevertheless,
as Mr. Darwin saw in relation to the
growth and decay of species, the very
condition which kills out a weak
thinking power, feeds and elevates to
the glowing point a strong thinking
power. Lord Beacons field always said,
and said truly enough, that men were
ruled not by their interests, bfit »*y
passion and imagination. Till the life
of a thought becomes identical with
the life of an emotion, it will never
really dominate the minds of men,
And so far as we can Judge by history,
this result is nevar attained for
thought, without long, solitary brood
ing over it, till it becomes the master-
key of the mind which conceived it.
“The passions of a man,” says a strik
ing preacher of the day (Mr. Scott
Holland), “are themselves intelligent
they move under the motives of rea
son.” That, no doubt, is moreor less
true of all men ; but of men of genius,
it Is also true that their ideas are
themselves passions, that they move
with the tidal strength of passion, and,
therefore, carry all hi fore them. And
we could hardly deflue better what
we conceive to be the difference be
tween a man of genius aud a man of
no genius, than by saying that with
Even a severe criticism may be dis
armed of ils severity by a happy an
swer that changes its meaning ; and it
is often no less fortunate to be able to
turn a good-natured one. Sir John
Watson Gordon, who ultimately be
came President of the Royal Scottish
Academy used to tell this story of
Lord Palmerston :
I had exhibited for several years,
but without any particular success.
One year, however, Lord Palmerston
took a sudden fancy to my picture
called “Summer in the Lowlands,”
and bought it at a hign price. His
lordship at the same time made in
quiries after the artist, and invited me
to call upon him. I waited upon him
accordingly. He complimented me
the picture ; but there was one thing
about it he could not understand.
“What is that, my lord?” I asked.
“That there should be such long
grass in a field where there are so
many sheep,” said his lordship,
promptly, and with a merry twinkle
of the eye. It was a decided hit; and
having bought the picture and paid
for it, he was entitled to the joke.
“How do you account for it?” he
went on, smiling and looking first at
the picture aud then at me.
“Those sheep, my loid,” I replied,
“were only turned into that field the
night before I finished that picture.”
H s lordship laughed heartily and
said, “bravo !” at my reply, gave me
a commission for two more pictures ;
and I have cashed since then some
very notable checks of his, dear old
boy.
Her Sole Mission.
A great many pretty girls think it
is their sole mission in life to look
lovely ; they do not consider that they
are bound to talk or display anything
like Intelligence; so long as they dress
in a manner to show their beauty off
to the best advantage, they are quite
satisfied with themselves. But my
dear girls, that’s where you are mis
taken. You may be very pretty to be
seen, and may look just “too charm
ingly lovely” for any use, as you lie
languidly in your easy chair and
never make the least effort to enter
tain your friends. But what the
world wants is a living girl! They
liko to look at you, of course. Rut
bless your sweet heart, the boys can go
down town and buy the prettiest wax
doll you ever looked at for a dollar
and a half, one that can open and shut
its eyes quite as languidly, if not as
bewitchlngly, as jou do yours. Do
you see the point girls? You must
know how to talk if you desire to win
really regard and friendship.
A Compromise Case.
A Rhode Island man called a neigh
bor a “lantern-jawed cockroach.” A
suit for slander resulted, and the jury
returned as follows : “Not guilty on
lantern Jawed, but way off on cock
roach and we find damages in the sum
of ten oents.”
Improving Pianos.
M. Kene, a piano manufacturer in
S:ettin, who a short time ago improved
the durability of pianos fur tropical
regions, by preparing the wood with
ozone, has lately devised a “cell reso
nance arrangemeut” for pianos,
which is said to be highly appreciated.
Inferior pianos acquire thereby the
fulness and strength of a grand. In
place of the usual sounding-board M.
Rene uses a sound-chest, over which
the strings are stretched, and which,
like the resounding body in many
stringed instruments, consists of two
arched resonance-plates; the vibra
tions of the upper are communicated
to the lower through bell-mouths.
The two plates are bordered with hol
low walls ; the bell-mouths stand on a
bridge on the lower plate, and are
firmly pressed against the upper plate,
The sounding-tubes are further con
nected by a membrane and small reso
nance lods with upper plate.
Another recent invention is the
electrical piano of Boudet. An ordi
nary instrument is provided with two
sets of hammers. The upper, electri
cal series comes into action when cer
tain keys are pressed, aud the corre
sponding hammers go on striking the
wire at a quick rate, so long as pres
sure continues, giving an organ-like
effect.
fol
The Home of Michelet.
Last summer we spent some time in
the neighborhood of Vaseoeuil, and
often wandered in its direction. Our
way led through a woodland path, at
whose base the Crevon flows, spark
ling and swift, across fat meadows,
where cattle and man alike doze, by a
curious water-mill, through which the
stream comes pouring in great cas
cades, and through an ancient farm
yard and magnificent avenue into the
high load, whence we caught sight of
the tower and roofs of Vaseoeuil, with
its sylvan background stretching
acro?s the whole mouth of the valley.
Arrived at its great gates we pass
through a side door into a cool, old-
fashioned garden, and there among
the laden fruit trees, the red grays of
the terrace and the ivy-covered walls
for a background, great patches of
blue phlox and red fuchsia for a mid
distance, and the tall grass with its
poppies fora foreground, we see a fig
ure clad au paysan—bluecotton clothes
sabots, and a great broad-brimmed
hat. It is the chatelain himself, and
with the serious graje of a friend of
Bernard Palhsy and a companion of
the Admiral, he welcomes us to the
scene of his great horticultural
achievements
His tyes beam with gentleness, love,
humor on the children who accom
pany us, and they are all happy as
with one they wholly trust. How cool,
after our hot walk, is this great din
ing-room, with its roof almost lost in
obscurity ! How charming this inte
rior, with its enormous chimney-piece
and its smoke-dried walls ! Ascending
a winding stair-case we are in an oc
tagon room, at the top of the tower,
from whose windows we look out on
#U points of the compass. How vast
and how sweet the scene 1 We should
not be surprised to learn that it was
here Michelet conceived the idea of
writing his book, “L’Oiseau,”
The Church Temporal—Home
and Abroad.
Missionary Ni on,
Canon Scott Robertson has com
pleted the annual summary of British
contributions to missionary societies,
by which it appears that the total
amouut contributed during the past
financial year was $5 310,951). This
was divided as follows: Church of
England Foreign Missions, $2,329,080 ;
Churchmen and Non-conformist Soil
eties, $885,370; English and Welsh
Non-conformist, $1 521,505; Scotch
and Irish Presbyterians, $654,875.
A new missionary agency for the
central provinces of India has been
suggested. It is recommended that a
missionary community, including
men aud women, should buy a village
and develop native industries. Na
tive customs should be respected, aud
the appearance of a European colony
should be avoided. The missionaries
should identify themselves with the
people and exercise a moral influence.
Mr. John E. Case, who is under ap
pointment by the Baptist Missionary
Union, was ordained at Newton,
Mass, May 18.
M. Schlewe-a Baptist missionary, Is
having gre^fticcess in St. Petersburg,
baptising n b|^^ly aud
daring tq^^^^^KlencialVhatiefi
in behi
General Notes.
j The Congregational Year Book
1S82 contains the following su/ntnar,
of statistics, namely : Total Cungreg
t’nnal churches, 3804; with pastors,'
877; with acting pastors, 1981; sup
plied by licentiates, etc., 157 ; umup ;
plied, 7S9. Total of Congregation *
ministers, 3713; pastors, 856; actin'^
pastors, 1594; not in pastoral work,
1263. Total of church members, 381,.
697; males, 128,060; females, 251,8 i *
absent, 64,122. Added last year, by
confession, 11,311; by letter, 11,2351
total, 22,546. Lost last year, by death,
5664; by dismission, 9154; by disci
pline, 2060; total, 17,178. Arkansas is
added to th9 list of States having Con
gregational churches. The year shows
a net gain of fifty nine churches, a net
loss in membership of 2635, a net gain
in Sabbath schools of 2785; net in
crease of reported benevolence, $194,-
835 92; total reported, $1,227,108 24.
The apparent Dss in church member
ship is due to dropping out an old esti
mate of unreported Welsh churches.
\
The Free Religious Index says it is
reliably informed that a Congrega
tional minister lately admitted to
membership in his church a well-
educated young man, who disavowed
all belief in supernaturalism, even to
a denial of the rerurrection of Christ,
bat who felt that in the Christian
Church he found the best organized
system of ethics and the most desira
ble association. He slates that he
frankly explained his views to the
minister.
Chaplain Van Meter of the United
States Navy has resigned, and in con-
s quence there will be a vacancy in
the list of Chaplains. Mr. Van Meter
is a Methodist, but, as the Congrega-
tionalists have only one Chaplain in
the navy, the Boston organ of that
denomination asks that the vacancy
be filled by an appointment from the
ranks of its clergy. It takes occasion
at the same time to protest, “in the
interests of common fairue-s, against
the appointment of any more Episco
palians at present.”
Since the American Sunday School
Union was established it has organized
69,846 schools, with 447,380 teaches
and 2,969,037 scholars. More than two
and a half million dollars have been
expended in direct missionary effort,
and more than seven millions have
been circulated by means of grants.
The Illustrated Christian Weekly
says: “A friend in Florida write* us
that in that land of flowers, though
largely new as to its cultivation and
improvements, there is perhaps as
much to protect the seeping of the
Sabbath as in any other State of the
Union. And what may seem surpris
ing, a Jew, elected Mayor of Jackson
ville, has done more to suppress the
violation of that holy day than has
been attempted by any other in pre
ceding days.
The London City Mission employ
447 missionaries, who paid ^48.801 # #
visits last year, aud induced 6741 per
sons to attend worship.
An Odd Will.
An eccentric man died in San Fran
cisco recently, leaving some $25,000 im
bank, and it was thought for a while
that he had made no will. Caieful
search of his effects, howtver, discov
ered a holographic will in an old boot.
It omitted all mention of his heirs-at-
law, and reatfc \ ^
My last will. To whom it b ay con
cern. This is to certify that I, Henry
Voigt, at the writing of this, btingof
sound miud, make herewith ray last
will. I herewith bequeath to my
friend, Peter Andes, of San Fian< isco,
$590; the new proprietor of Hackmei-
er’s Hotel, on Bush street, $590 ; to the
Hamburger room fellow, $590, and as
I intend to go to the GenharvJHjospJ taL
if I should die there, $1,000. The baft”
ance I give to my friend, Charles'
Trautner, of Han Francisco, Cal., with
the request to pay $290 to his singing
club to sing a few songs on my grave.
My watch aud chain I give to the eon
of Peter Andes. So written down
Saturday, Jan. 28,1882.
Henry Voigt,
Expert testimony is being taken t>
test the genuineness of the will pre
vious to its admission to probate. Tie
“Hamburger room fellow” is a Mr.
Stamner, who was kind to Voigt dar
ing his illness. Tim obJaf
Charles Trautner, is an old fr/end, and
ho will receive about $20,000 should
the will be admitted to probkte.
Aunt: “Has any one been at those
perserves?” Dead silence. “Have
you touohed them, Jimmie?” Jimmie,
h the utmost deliberation: “Pa
kr ’loi
le to tf
it dinner.”