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A6ULTAN\S HOUSEKEEPING
tVHAT IT COSTS TO RUN THE TURK
ISH RULERS PALACE
An Army of Servants and Officers—
Over Six Thousand Persons Fed
Three Times a Day.
There are over six thousand persons
fed three times a day at IJolma-Bacchee
Palace while the sultan of Turkey is
there, which makes housekeeping rather
a serious affair, particularly as these
deals are served iu nearly half as many
places, there being no regular dining
room nor place which could ren ler the
labor a little lighter. Though there are
.tables in some of the apartments, says the
New York Herald , the majority prefer to
eat from their knees, and thus their
meals are handed around, which makes
an enormous amount of unnecessary
work.
Aside from the serving of three regu
lar meals in courses, cotfee aud sweet
meats are always ready, aud at every iti
etiut slaves are seen going aud coming
•with trays of the tiny cups of thatsubli- j
mated essence of coffee the Turks drink,
and in the harem the women and childten \
eat candies, nuts aud fruits all the time,
while not smoking or taking their regu
iar meals.
That there is good executive ability in
the ipanagement of this enormous house
hold is cl ear, for there is scarcely ever a
jar or a hitch, even under the impulse
of the most untimely demands. Every
different department is under the con
trol of a person who is directly responsi
ble for that, and he has a corps of ser
vants and slaves under his order who obey
him only, aud he is subject to the
Treasurer of the Household. Women
have no voice whatever in the manage
ment of anything in any department.
Their sole occupation is to wait upon
their tespective mistresses or to serve the
Sultan in some specified capacity, and
the labor is so subdivided that no one
about the whole palace works very hard
except the Lord High Chamberlain and
Treasurer of the Household.
J t>ne man is charged with the duty of
Supplying all the fish, aud as to furnish
fish for certainly six thousand persons is
no light undertaking in a place wllere
there are no great markets, as there are
in all other large cities, he has to have
about twenty men to scour the various
•mall markets and buy of the fishermen,
and each of these men has two others to
carry the fish they buy. It requires
about ten tons of ti-h a week.
There are nearly eighteen thousand
pounds of bread eaten daily, for the
Turks are large bread eaters, and this is
all baked in the enormous ovens situated
at some distance from the palace. The
kitchens are detached from all the palaces 1
and kiosks. It requires a large force of
bakers to make the bread and another to
bring it to the palace and another force
of buyers who purchase the Hour and
fuel. The bringing of the most of the
wood and charcoal is done by the un
happy camels, who carry it on their backs.
The rest comes in large caiques. The
Turkish bread is baked in large loaves,
&na is light, moist and sweet, delicious
bread in e.ery way, particularly that
Which is made of rye.
There is a cook for each separate
course, and he has his assistants and j
scullions, so that theie are in all nearly
four hundred men working in the kitch
ens. In addition to the aids each chief
cook lias a body servant.
. The Lord High Chamberlain chooses
his corps of buyers smd the chiefs of
different departments to suit himself,
Usually making such choice more from
some occult reasoning than fitness for
the position. He then trusts the de
partments to those persons and transmits
Ills imperative orders through the
second Chamberlain. The Lord High
Chamberlain is called Mambinge in
Turkish. After him iu .importance is
the Treasurer of the Household, who re
ceives all the bills, looks them over and
then forwards them to the Sublime
Porte, where they are paid—in time.
The providing for the material wants
»f all these persons, then, really falls
upon the Chamberlain. He appoints a
Chibouk-kiassi who provides all the
pipes used in and about the palace, both
for the men and the women, including
the narghiles. Then there is a Tutun
kiassi, who sees that the whole palace
is liberally supplied with tobacco. The
fispap-kiassi furnishes the clothes for
the Sultan’s wear—that is, he buys
them. Another buys the Sultan’s shoes
and slippers. Those who buy the per
sonal eltects of the Sultan have by no
means a sinecure, as he never wears the
tame garment or pair of shoes twice, nor
does lie ever sleep iu the same sheets or
bedding a second time. It is supposed
that ad clothing and bedding which
have touched the sacred person of the
Sultan are destroyed immediately he has
discarded them. The quilts are always
of satin quilted with eiderdown and the
sheets of white Brotiasa silk with woven
brown border.
The food for the Sultan is cookecftby
one man and his aids, and none others
touch it. It is cooked in silver vessels,
and when done each kettle is sealed by
a slip of paper and a stamp, and this is
broken iu the presence of the Sultan by
Ihe High Chamberlain, who takes one
spoonful of each separate kettle before
the Sultan tastes it. This is to prevent
the Sultan’s being poisoned. The food
is almost always served up to the Sultan
in the same vessels in which it was
cooked, and the-e are often of gold, but
when of baser metal the kettle is set
into a rich golden bell-shaped holder,
the handle of which is held by a slave
“while the Sultan eats, j ach kettle is a
course, and is served with bread and a '
kind of pancake, which is held on a
golden tray by another slave.
The food being cooked outside of the |
palace makes it necessary to have bell
shaped felt covers to clap down tightly
over each kettle, which lias been placed
on a tray. For the Sultan and royal
family there are magnificent velvet cov
ers which go over the outside of these,
embroidered with gold and silver
threads and pearl, coral or turquoise*
beads. Those for others are not so
handsome.
The .Sultan is served first, and he ai
rways eats entirely alone, never under
any circumstance deigning to eat with
any one, and as soon as he has begun to'
eat the harem is served. The Sultan
never uses a plate. He takes all his lood
direct from the li' :le kettles, and never
uses a table, and rarely a knife or fork.
A spoon, his bread or pancake or fingers
are far handier. The whole household
Ja art liberty to take meals where it suits
I him or her best, and thus every one la
served with a small tray, with a spoon,
' a great chunk of bread, and the higher
ones only get the pancakes. After the
j harem the o.ticers of the imperial body
i guard, the eunuchs, the chamberlains
| and other high functionaries are fed,
! they usually being seated around a table,
I and the kettles are offered each one, who
j helps himself to two 6r three spoonfuls
jof the contents of /ea'h. it is not eti
i quette to take more, no matter how nice
the dish, nor how hungry, but as the
number of dishes is always so great no
one need go hungry.
After all the officers and others of high
degree are fed the soldiers ana servants
get their food, and at the same time all
the men employed in the imperial stables
have theirs, and during the progress of
the meals any stranger, whoever it may
be, is at liberty to cojne in and seat him
self and eat. As a general rule three
hundred persons are fed every day who
have no earthly right, except, what the
laws of hospitality give. It is a sort of
perpetual free lunch, and beggars as well
as rich men avail themselves of this royal
bounty.
The estimate is that it costs per year
to supply the Sultan’s household, horses
and animals, aside from the value of the
product of the vast farms:
Food £5,000,000
Cost of furniture, bedding and
carpets 3,000,000
Drugs, women’s clothes, .jewels,
cosmetics 111,000,000
Caprices of all kinds 15,000,000
Sultan's clothes an l lied ling ‘d,000,000
Sundries, presents and servants’
wages 4,000,000
Plate, gold and silver dishes k',500,000
Carriages, 474 of them 474,000
Total £41,474,000
WISE WOUDS.
Denying a fault doubles it.
Boasters are cousins to bars.
Knavery is the worst of trades.
Foolish fear doubles one’s danger.
He has hard work who has noth'ng to
do.
Fnvy shooteth at others and woundeth
herself.
Confession of a fault makes half
amends.
Learning makes a man fit company for
himself.
A grain of produce is worth a pound
of craft.
It costs more to revenge wrongs than
to bear them.
Contentment does not demand condi
tions, it makes them.
Now is always the very best time if
we will only make it so.
Whistling don’t make the locomotive
go, it is the silent steam.
The ups and downs of life are better
than being down all the time.
To be really yourself you must be dif
ferent from those aronnd you.
A little knowledge wisely used is bet
ter than all knowledge disused.
Man may growl, grumble and fight,
but it has no effect upon natural right.
The lightning is vivid against a dark
cloud, so the bravest lives sometimes are
amid trials.
We build barriers agaiust the fiood
tide, we should place some restraints to
all prosperity.
Flags, brass bands and fireworks may
influence weak minds, but they are not
real arguments.
The nearer we get to the ocean the
grander and greater it appears! The
same is true of truth.
Don’t, depend on borrowed ideas any
more than you would be
second-hand clothes.
A Bankrupt Who Kept His Vow.
J. H. Swoyer, who recently died in
Wilkesbarre, Penn., was in his way
quite a remarkable man. He went to
that city in 1857 and accumulMed a large
fortune iu the coal business, which was
all swept away iu a stiike. He borrowed
s2ol\ooo from a banking firm, which
caused the institution in the end to close
its doors. Jlany poor depositors lost all
they had. Swoyer came out iu a card
and said if God would spare his health
he would pay every dollar back to the
bank and the depositors would lose
nothing. Accordingly, after the strike
ended, he went to work. lie sold his
horses and carriages and dismissed his
servants. Ilfs palatial mansion was va
cated, and he went to live in a small
house on aback street. He also labored
himself daily in the mines. In live years
he paid every dollar back to the bank
and the depositors got all their money
back with interest. When Swoyer made
the last payment the'depositors in mass
meeting eulogized him. Swoyer con
tinued to prosper, and died worth $500,-
000. l'Lues-Democrat.
A Village Destroyed by lee.
Advices from the fishing village of
Kerschkaranza, in Kola, a peninsula on
the White Sea, describe a wonderful
phenomenon, new m Arctic annals. At
4 o’cloc x in the morning the inhabitants
were awakened by a series of heavy,
dull detou itions, like heavy artillery.
Shortly afterward a great ice wall to the
north west, several hundred feet high,
was seen to be moving toward the village,
doubtless in consequence of the pressure
of the ocean of ice outside. The ice
hills came slowly but irresistibly onward,
and passed over the village, which it
completely erased, and kept onward for
a mile inland. The ice traveled a mile
and a half in four hours. The villagers
saved their lives, but little else. — Phila
delph in Dress.
Opening a Senatorial Session,
Captain Bassett, the venerable door
keeper of the United States Senate, al
ways goes through a ceremony at the
opening of the session which few visit
ors are fortunate enough to see. Trimly
accoutred, he proceeds at precisely five
minutes before the hour of meeting to
the room of the presiding officer. He
halts in the doorway with military
abruptness, makes a very stiff but defer
ential bow, and says: “Sir, the hour of
the meeting of the Senate has arrived.”
Then he bows again, escorts the presid
! mg officer into the chamber, delivers the
gavel head into his hands, and retires to
his post at the ieft of the President’s
desk.
Alfred H. Love, of Philadelphia, has
again refused to run for Vice-President
with Belva A. Lockwood.
HOUSEHOLD AFFAIRS.
A Pineapple Purlfllng.
Cut a fine ripe pineapple in slices and
boil it iortjen minutes in a pint of white
sugar syrup, then remove the fruit and
press it through a sieve. Add to the
syrup in which the pineapple was boiled
an ounce of gelatine which has been
soaked In cold water for twenty minutes,
and stir over the fire until the gelatine
is entirely dissolved, then strain the
syrup through a piece of muslin, and
when rather cool stir it into the fruit
pulp. Y’ou can decorate the iuside of a
mold with fruit if you desire. The fruit
used for decoration should be dipped
into melted gelatine, then it will adhere
firmly to the mold. Pour in the pine -
apple, etc., and imbed the mold in ice
until required, if the decorating is
done tastefully the pudding will form
pm elegant-looking dish. When more
convenient, canned pineapple may 1 e
Used instead of fresh, and will answer
the purpose very nicely.—iYe:o York
Neics.
Sauer Kraut.
If our readers, says the Prairie Farmer
will follow these dire tions they will
have excellent kraut: Select good solid
heads, trim off the outside leaves, get a
sharp cutter, with the knives set fine.
Cut, and fill a washtub, sprinkle over the
cabbage just enough salt to season for
cooking; with the hand’s work the salt
through the mass, until all is salted.
Have a barrel ready aud when a tubfull
is salted, turn in; with a fiat pounder,
pound carefully until the juice rises
over the top. .Make a depression in the
center and with a cup dip out all the
juice. It is this juice that emits the
odor so offensive to many persons:
Proceed in this way until the barrel is
full. Cover the top with large cabbage
leaves and set in the cellar. It will be
necessary to put a light stoue weight on
top of the leaves. In a week it will fer
ment, then remove the leaves, spread
a cloth over the cabbage under the
weight, which should be removed once
i week, washed and replaced. This
will keep mould from collecting. The
brine must always cover the cabbage; if
it any time it does not, water ruuot be
added.
The Perils of Damp Reds.
A respectable proportion of the death*
that occur during the winter season are
cither directly or indirectly due to
sleeping in damp beds. As a matter of
fact, this peril is of thegreatest, and it is
ever present with us. The experienced
traveler rarely hazards the risk of sleep
ing between sheets which are nearly
sure to be damp, until they have been
lired under liis personal supervision at a
fire in his bedroom. If this be impracti
cable, he wraps his cloak around him, or
pulls out the sheets and sleeps between
the blankets, a disagreeable, but often
prudent, expedient. The direct mis
chief may result from the contact of an
imperfectly boated body with* sheets
which retain moisture. The body heat is
not sufficient to raise the temperature of
the sheets to a sale point, and the result
must be disastrous in the extreme, if, as
is sure to happen, the skin is cooled by
contact with a surface colder than itself,
and steadily abstracting heat all the
night through. Country people in
particular are specially culpable in this
matter. A “spare” room is reserved for
guests. For weeks it may remain un
occupied, unaired and unwarmed. A visi
tor arrives. Unconscious of the fate that
awaits him he calmly passes the evening
in social enjoyment. Later he is shown
to the “spare” room for the night. The
atmosphere of the apartment has the
chill and damp of the tomb, and the
sheets of the bed are veritable winding
sheets—shrouds, Jg, fact. He is fortunate
if he escapes wm nothing more than a
“cold.” There is no excuse for the
neglect of prqper precaution to insure
dry beds. Culticator.
Recipes.
Muffins.—One egg, one cup of sugar,
one-third cup butter, one-half cup milk,
salt, spices, one teaspoonful baking
powder aud Hour to make batter. Bake
in a hot oven.
Bread Pudding. Take one pint of
bread crumbs soaked in one quart of
sweet milk, one-half cup white sugar,
two eggs beaten thoroughly, one cup of
raisins, heaping teaspooniul of butter,
salt to suit the taste, stir well together
aud bake.
Indian Pr.irxr Pudding.—Three-quar
ters of a pound of bread crumbs, six
ounces of Indian meal, three or four
apples (chopped small), hair pound of
raisins, quarter pound of sugar, three
ounces of candied peel, a little nutmeg
(gratedq and finely shred lemon peel;
mix with just enough water to keep it
together. Boil three or four hours.
Codfish with Eggs.—Put one cup of
picked fDh into one quart of cold water,
heat slowly, when hot (not boiling)
pour off water, remo. e fish to another
dish, put into skillet one pint of rich
milk, thicken with one tablespoon ful of
flour, add fish, piece of butter size of a
walnut, when gravy again boils add one
or two eggs, stir briskly, and serve at
once.
SriruD Beef.—For a round weighing
twenty pounds rub with a dessertspoon
ful of saltpeter ou both sides and let it
remain over night. Then take a soup
plateful of salt, a t»blespoon#ul of ground
cloves, one of allspice and one of cayenne
pepper. Hub the beef every day with a
tablespoonful of it until it is used, and
turn it each day. Boil in nearly enough
water to cover it.
Parsnip Fritters.—Three large
nips, boiled till soft, which will require
about two hours; scrape and mash fine,
picking out all strings aud lumps; add
two beaten eggs two tablespoonfuls of
new milk and two of sifted flour, an
even teaspoonful of salt and quarter of a
teaspoonful of pepper; mix thoroughly;
make into small cakes, flour them and fry
brown in butter or oil; eat with butter.
Potato Gems.—A good way to make
potato gems is to work one cup of cold
mashed potato smooth into one cupful
of sweet milk. Stir in one cupful of
corn meal, or enough to make a batter
which will drop easily from a spoon,
with a pinch of salt, and add one well
beaten egg. Beat briskly three or four
minutes, then put into well buttered
gem pans and bake twenty minutes to
half an hour with a steady but not too
hot fire. ,
Mme. E. Gerard, the author, is a Scotch
woman born of French parents, and is
married to an Austrian officer.
ALL KINDS OF COURTING.
QUAINT CUSTOMS OF SOME AN
CIENT AND MODERN PEOPLE.
Sold at Auction —The Esquimaux
and Native Australian Way—A
Battle for a Bride.
Among the native Assyrians all mar
riageable young girls were assembled at
one place, and the public crier put them
up for sale one after the other. The
money which was received for those
who were handsome, and consequently
sold well, was bestowed as a wedding
portion on those who were plain. When
the most beautiful had been disposed of
the more ordinary-looking ones were
offered for a certain sum, and allotted to
those willing to take them.
In ancient Greece the lover was seldom
favored with an opportunity of telling
his passion to his mistress, and he used
to publish it by inscribing her name on
the walls, on the bark of the trees in the
public walks and upon the leaves of
books. He would decorate the door of
her house with garlands, and make liba
tions of wine before it, in the manner
that was practised in the Temple of
Cupid.
According to Dr. Hayes, courtship
'among the Esquimaux has not much
tenderness about it. The match is made
by the parents of the couple. The lover
must go out and capture a Polar bear as
an evidence of his courage and strength.
That accomplished, he sneaks behind
the door of his sweetheart’s house, and
when she comes out he pounces upon
her and tries to carry her to his dog
sledge, She screams, bites, kicks and
breaks away from him. He gives chase,
whereupon all the old women of the
settlement rush out and beat her with
frozen strips of sealskin. She falls down
exhausted, the lover lashes her to his
sledge, whips up his dogs, dashes swiftly
over the frosen snow, and the wedding
is consummated.
The Australian lover is still more lack
ing in tenderness, if the statement made
by Myers Deley is true. The
makes up his mind as to which woman
shall be his bride, and then hides in the
bushes in the vicinity of her dwelling.
As soon as she comes near the spot wherp
he is concealed he knocks her with
a club, and carries her off before she
comes to. If lie does not get her to his
hut before she recovers there is likely to
be a lively fight in the bush, for the
Australian damsel is generally a vigorous
one, and may have reasons of her own
for objecting to his attentions. The
lover may then be obliged to club her
again, and as that is considered to be
somewhat of a re lection on the ardor
with which his earlier effort was made,
he is apt to put as much soul and muscle
into his first love tap as he can summon.
In some parts of Asia the question of
a man’s title to a bride must be settled
by a fierce fight between the friends of
the contracting parties. If his forces
are victorious his sweetheart becomes his
trophy. If her friends are victorious he
must pay such price as the victors
demand. All over that country some
ceremony of violence or exhibition of
physical power must precede a wedding.
Some native tribes insist upon a foot
race between the bride and bridegroom
to decide the question of marriage, and
others require a long chase on horseback.
In some sections of Asia the lover must
carry off his bride on his back. If he
reaches his hut with her there can be no
protest against the marriage. Failing
in that, he must pay her parents for her
in cattle. The willing bride makes no
outcry; the unwilling bride arouses the
whole* village, the residents of which try
to rescue her.
Iu the Isthmus of Darien either sex
can do the courting, while in the Ur
kraine the girl generally attends to it.
When she falls in love with a man, she
goes to his house and declares her pas
sion. If he declines to accept her, she
remains there, and his case becomes
rather distressing. To turn her out
would provoke her kindred to avenge
the insult, The young fellow has no re
sort left him but to run away from home
until the damsel is otherwise disposed of.
A curious custom prevails in Oud
Beierland, Holland. October is the aus
picious month, and on the first Sunday
(known as review day) the lads and
lasses, attired in their best, promenade
the village separately, stare each other
out of countenance, and then retire to
make up their minds on the second
Sunday, which is called decision day.
The yourtg men go up and pay their
compliments to the fair ones of their
choice, to learn if* they are regarded
with favor. On the third Sunday, or
day of purchase, the swain is expected to
snatch the pocket handkerchief of his
adored one, and if she submits to it with
good grace he undeestands that his
chances of winning her are flattering.
The captured pledge is restored to the
fair owner on the fourth Suuday, -the
“Sunday of Taking Possession,” and it
rarely happens that the damsel refuses
the lover for whom she has indicated a
preference. On the Sunday following,
the suitor, according t© custom, calls at
the house of his inamorata, where he is
asked to tea. If a piece of the crust of
a gingerbread loaf is handed to him,
there is nothing left for him but to retire.
If, on the other hand, the parents offer
the young man a piece of the crumb, lie
is allowed to come again and is admitted
into the family.
On the Island of Himla, opposite
Rhodes, a girl is not allowed to have a
lover until she has brought up a certain
number of sponges and given proof of
her ability to take them from a certain
depth. On the Island of Nicarus the
girl is not consulted. Her father gives
her to the best diver among her suitors.
He who can stay longest under the water
and gather the most sponges marries the
maid. — Epoch. *
Mistletoe on Telegraph Wires.
A traveller in Braz.il writes to a horti
cultural paper telling of the crop of mis
tletoe that he found growing on tele
graph wires near Rio Janeiro. When he
first saw it he thought that floods had !
left weeds hanging to the wires, but a
nearer inspection and the height of the
wires convinced him that the apparent
weeds were thousands of little mistletoes
firmly fixed to the wires. Many species
of this plant grow in Brazil, and some,
called “bird weeds,” bear berries which
are eaten by birds. The seeds are de
posited on the telograph wires, and take
root. They are short lived, of course,
but the constant deposit of seed clothes
the wires with this curious fringe.
SELECT SIFTINGS.
The first steel pen was made in 1830.
The first air pump was made in 1654.
Paper car wheels were first made in
186!'.
The first lucifer match was made in
1798.
Bagdad, in Turkey, is the City of
Caliphs.
Decimal arithmetic was invented at
Bruges in 1602.
Calcutta, India,and Versailles, France,
are called the cities of palaces.
Eighteen yards of gros grain silk go
make Chief .Pfistice fuller’s new robe.
Philip Beaubien, who was the first
white child born in Chicago, lately died
there.
A New York publishing house dis
plays the sign: “Literature 10 cents a
pound.”
It is stated that over 103 hand organs
are ruined every year in New York city,
by sudden changes of temperature.
Cariara in Italy may tie called the
White Stone City. It has the largest,
purest and whitest marble in the world.
A Chicago man advertises an auto
matic dresser—“A mnehine that puts
your coat on for you and saves you no
end of trouble.”
The kitchen and dining room of the
new Midland Hotel at Kansas City, are
located on the eighth floor and reached
by six elevators.
A standard dictionary of the Chinese
language, containing about 40,000 char
acters, was perfected by Pa-out-she, who
lived about 1100 B. C.
The coldest town in the world is Mer
chojansk, in Siberia, where the mercury
has sometimes recorded a temperature of
eighty-nine degrees below zero.
The Indian mutiny began with the
disbandonmeut of several Bengal regi
ments in March, 1857. Pacification
celebrated in England, May 1, 1859.
In Guiana, in South America, it rains
for months without cessation. Darwin
says at Chiloe it rains for six days of the
week, and is cloudy on the seventh.
Charlie Cliatt, of Columbia county,
Ga., killed a bald eagle several days ago,
near the twelve-mile post on the Georgia
railroad. He was a monster, measuring
seven feet eight inches from tip to tip.
Richard Fielding, a blacksmith of
Ramsgate, England, is in jail charged
with murder on his own confession,that,
twenty-four years ago, he had a quarrel
in a boat with a woman named Hannah
White, and pushed her overboard.
During the hard times of the Confed
eracy, in 1964, Southern people had to
pay $230 for the material alone of a coat
and vest of homespun. A dress that
would ordinarily cost $lO could not be
bought at that time for less than SBOO.
A woman deaf mute who goes among
down town offices in New York selling
deaf and dumb alphabets has printed on
her cards this peculiar request: “If any
person thinks I am not what I represent
to be, please have me arrested at once.”
A man who died at Flint, Mich., a few
days ago, wrote his own funeral sermon,
the hymns to be sung at his funeral, the
words of consolation to his friends, and
the epitaph for his tombstone. He be
lieved that if a man wanted a thing done
well he should do it himself.
The disappearance Of the white moss
rose is noticed in England. One florist
claims that a rose which for more than
thirty years has blossomed white in his
garden has suddenly put out red roses.
The only cause of this surprising change
was enrichment of the earth.
A little girl named Sallie McAdams
has been astonishing the people of Craw
ford, Neb., by the plucky manner in
which she tames vicious horses. No mat
ter how wild the horse may be, she sticks
to him until he is conquered, and the
most expert cowboys in the region ac
knowledge that they cannot beat her.
Dr. J. W. Porter, of Kansas City, Mo.,
claims to be the originator of the stand
ard time system. He says the subject
was first brought to his mind in 1878,
when he was in the coast survey, by
noting the variation of clocks * and
watches. He finally marked off a standard
time map, and his system was adopted.
Method of Painting Cyclornmas.
The popular idea of how the war cy
cloramas, like the Battle of Gettysburg,
Battie of Shiloh, Battle of Chickamauga,
&c., are painted, said an artist to a
Globe-Demo rat reporter, appears very
laughable to a person who knows bow
the work is accomplished. The Battle
of Gettysburg and the Siege of Paris
have been shown for several years on
opposite sides of Hubbard court, iu
Chicago, and the stock paid large divi
dends, Each was advertised as the work
of French artists, father and son, and
the popular idea is that these gentlemen
painted them. The fact is that, beyond
a general outlining of the work, which
was probably faithfully biade after maps
procured from authentic sources, and a
general direction of the plan of the work,
the artist-in chief had very little to do
with it. No man engaged in a battle sees
it, and an accurate painting of two armies
in combat - is impossible. The general
features only are known.
For instance, in the Gettysburg paint
ing there are accurately defined the roads,
Crown Hill, little Crown llill, the wheat
field in which a memorable charge was
made; one or two buildings, which were
headquarters of the leading generals,
and with reasonable aepuracy the topog
raphy of the country is depipted with
excellentqierspective. But the details of
the battle, the actual clash of arms be
tween this and that division or brigade, is
left a good deal to the imagination. The
artist-in-chief hires some men to put in
the sky, other men to put in the trees
and foliage, other men to put in the men
in action.
Attention is paid to developing this or
that memorable incident, as in the Get
tysburg painting the death of the can
noneer, the amputation of the soldier’s
limb beside the haystack. Take it all
together it makes up a picture that is
thrilling enough to arouse the most in
tense siuterest, on the part of the old
soldier. I remember standing by the
side of a veteran at the Chicago picture
of Gettysburg. He was explaining to a
companion the details of the fight, in
which he had borne an honorable part.
“Say, Bill,” said lie, “at that stone wall
there I lost my hat; and, by gosh! if
there ain’t the old hat lying there yet!”
In painting pictures of battles shrewd
artists never fail to bestrew the field with
lost hats, muskets aud canteens.
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL. '
Luminous paint is a compound of
lime and sulphur.
’E Pittsburgh man has made a steel
water tower in Memphis, Penn., 165 leet
high and 16 feet in diameter.
A company has been formed in Chili
for manufacturing soap out of a peculiar
kind of earth found near Chilian.
Statistics show that there is a larger
per cent, of farmers’ wives go insane
yearly than any other class of people.
Pyrethrum is a preparation of the
flower heads of a well known plant. It
may be applied as a powder or in solu
tion.
It might be used as an argument for
vegetariauism that where custom has not
hardened him man feels a deep repug
nance to animal food.
An “inch of rain” means a gallon of
water spread over a surface of nearly two
square feet, or a fall of about one hun
dred tons on an acre of ground.
Omaha expects t(* be supplied with
oil from the Wyoming field before two
years, just as the stuff is now being piped
from Lima, Ohio, to Chicago nearly 600
miles.
Eighteen years ago, when the air brake
was tried, it required eighteen seconds
to apply it to a train kOOO feet long.
Four years later the time was reduced to
four seconds.
A Frenchman claims to have invented
a thermometer so sensitive that its index
needle will deflect two inches upon the
entrance of ajrersou into the room where
it has been placed.
It has been computed that during a
life-time of three score years and ten the
blood of a human being travels 4,292,-
400 miles, that bis heart beats 2,538,-
848,000 times.
According to Mr. Keldyche, who has
just published the results of a series of
experiments on the air drawn from hos
pital wards, air which has been saturated
with eucalyptol will no longer permit
the propagation of colonies of bacilli.
Attention lias lately been called to an
acid extracted nem Gymnemasylvestris,
a climbing plant from India. This acid
deprives the tongue for the time being
of distinguishing sweet from bitter sub
stances. It does not interfere with the
taste of saline substances.
After experiments on the relative
merits of castor oil and of olive oil as
lubricants, the Italian Admiralty has
ordered that the exposed parts of ships’
machinery be lubricated exclusively with
castor oil,-and that mineral oils be used
for cylinder and similar lubrication.
An electro-magnet with a carrying
capacity of 800 pounds is attached to a
crano in the Cleveland (Ohio) Steel
Works, which readily picks up billets
and other masses of iron without the aid
of any other device. A boy is thus en
abled to do the work of a dozen mfen.
There are between 40,000,000 and 50,-
000,000 stars of which the inhabitants of
this world are able to gain some knowl
edge with the aid of optical instruments
now in existence. Of these only about
6000 are visible to the naked eye—3ooo
in the northern hemisphere and an
equal number in the southern.
A dealer in watches says that Amer
ican watches only arc called for nowa
days, and that he sells a great many
watches, but don't sell six foreign-made
watches in a year. Our watches are so
simple in construction that they are
easily repaired; they keep excellent time,
und are cheaper than the European
watch.
Tobacco blindness, it is said, is be
coming a common affliction. At present
there are several persons under treat
ment for it at one London hospital. It
first takes the form of color blindness,
the sufferers, who have smoked them
selves into this condition, being quite un
able to distinguish the color of a piece
of red cloth held up before them. Some
times the victim loses his eyesight alto
gether.
“Oil on Troubled Waters.”
The origin of the phrase “Pouring
oil on troubled waters,” is thus de
scribed: The old legend says that the
Priest Utta, who was sent to Kent to
fetch Faudede, King Edwin’s daughter,
to be married to King Oswin, besought
the blessing of Bishop Aida. The Bishop
blessed him, anl gave him hallowed oil,
directing him, ’in case of a storm, to
pour it on the waves, which would be at
once stilled. Thi he did with complete
success. The expression is also used by
Erasmus, and in our owu day Captain
Wilkes noticed the efficacy of oil, which
had leaked from a whaling vessel during
a storm off .< ape Horn, in smoothing
tfie waters. Since his time it has come
into common use, and saved hundreds of
vessels from foundering. Bags of oil
are suspended from the vessels side, and
the oil is permitted to leak out slowly.
A few gallons will prevent the wave 3
from breaking.
For Life.
Little Bobby, whose mother believes
in cautioning her children against the
consequences of foolish acts, has often
said to him:
“If you get before the train, or fall
into the water, you may be killed; and
when one is dead it is fora lontj time.
One day Bobby, while wyilking with
his uncle, took pains to keep at a safe
distance from tho river.
“If I should fall in, I should be
droxvned,” he exclaimed; “and when
you drowned you’re dead; and when
you’re dead, it’s for life!”
A New Reform.
In this error of endeavor,
To apply the social lever,
For the elevation of the human race,
We should work a reformatien
In our themes for conversation
And some antiquated “chestnuts'’ soon efface.
I
There’s the talk about the weather,
If ’twill soon clear off, or whether
It will thunder, lightning:, rain or snow or
shine.
If the atmospheric pressure
Will with ultra-fiendish pleasure
Cause the mercury to suddenly decline.
There’s the chat of politicians,
Of all classes and conditions,
Who most positively know who will win,
Who make sure prognostications
On results of machinations
Of the candidate whom they are getting in.
But the bore who makes us wildest,
To speak in language mildest.
Is the man who talks of nothing but himselt
He appears to be too far gone
To repress his senseless jargon,
Till he's laid away forever on the shelf.
— Manden, in tha liostrum.