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r > 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.”