For convenience the estimate of certain other crops may be put in pounds: Pounds when all proved. 5,541,271,325 10,071,878,250 544,886,128 246,437,984,000 89,412,323 1,654,314,049 258,798,474,750 FINANCE AND COMMERCE. Of THE BUSINESS OUTLOOK.-Reports from all parts of the country indicate a more The live stock in the country in 1880 amounted to 130,969,581 head. I pro-. pose to show that the number will increase in proportion as the arable area is improved, that is to say, if with 300,000,000 improved acres there were 130,969,581 head of live stock, with 990,000,000 acres of improved land there ought to be approximately 457,293,793 head, as follows: 457,293,793 Manifestly, if we are to have full comprehension of agriculture, as a source of prosperity, we must have the small things with those of more showy proportions. Why not pumpkins and turnips, beets and melons? Why omit cabbage, poultry, chickens, ducks and turkeys and eggs? There is no good reason why. As well omit counting cents, nickels and dimes when seeking to know the profit or loss of trade ventures. I assume that the 4,000,000 farms in 1880 produced: I will assume that of the chickens—hens more properly—200,000,000 were egg producers, and that during the year they laid fifty eggs each, giving a sum total of 10,000,000,000 or 1,000,000,000 pounds, or 500,000 tons of eggs.-Col. J. B. Maynard, Indianapolis. MORTUARY STATISTICS.-At the recent meeting of the New Orleans Sanitary Association the sanitary director presented some statistics of the death rate of the white and colored races in that city for a period of six years since the official census of the United States in 1880. From these figures, made up from the records of the board of health, it is seen that the average annual death rate for the whites per thousand for the six years, as stated, was 23.47, while that for the blacks was 43.37, or over 80 per cent greater in the same time.-Baltimore Sun. A CITY WITHOUT HOMES.-New York is distinctly a city without homes. Of the total number of dwellings in New York, 10,314 contain one family, or six persons; 16,982 houses or flats contain one family on a floor, or twenty-five persons; while 18,966 tenements accommodate fifty persons each on an average—that is, about three-quarters of a million.-Jewish Messenger. RUSSIAN CONSCRIPTION OF JEWs.-An extraordinary fact in connection with the Russian conscripts drafted into the ranks in 1885 is shown by some statistics just published. The total number of conscripts accepted was 847,589, of whom no fewer than 43,830 were Jews. If we take the approximate Russian population among whom the conscription is operative at 50,000,000, and the Jewish population at 3,000,000, this remarkable disproportion is abundantly apparent.-Ibid. WHERE DO WE NOW STAND?-The highest point of the national debt was, 1865. 1885. $1 31 I 95 $0 54 86.2 IO 41.4 4 89.7 Now, to have paid the principal of the debt in 1865 as it stood then in flour, at the price flour was then, it would have required 273,156,000 barrels. To have paid the principal in 1885 as it stood then in flour at the price flour was then it would have required 383,178,000 barrels. In other words, i would take 110,000,000 more barrels of flour to pay the balance of principal of the debt now than it would to have paid it in full in 1865. It would take 1,303,000,000 bushels of corn more now to pay the balance unpaid than it would to have paid the whole in 1865. It would take over 700,000,000 more bushels of wheat to pay it now than then. Without taking the time to figure or space to publish each in detail, the figures are given from which any child at school in the mathematical class can figure out how much more of any commodity it would require to pay the balance of the debt now after paying three thousand million dollars on it than if it had been paid at once in 1865. We may add, however, that it would take at least 185,000,000 more tons of coal, 15,000,000 more tons of bar iron, 20,000,000 more bales of cotton, 6,000,000 barrels of beef to pay the balance now than it would have taken to have paid the whole debt in 1865. Are the figures not plain ?—Toledo Blade, May 15. THE SALT OF THE EARTH.-If the salt formations of Nevada were in railroad communication there would be no market in this country for the foreign article. In Lincoln county, on the Rio Virgin, there is a deposit of pure rock salt which is exposed for a length of two miles, a width of half a mile, and is of unknown depth. In places canons are cut through it to a depth of sixty feet. It is of ancient formation, being covered in some places by basaltic rock and volcanic tufa. The deposit has been traced on the surface for a distance of nine miles. It is so solid that it must be blasted like rock, and so pure and transparent that print can be read through blocks of it a foot thick. At Sand Springs, in Churchill county, there is a deposit of rock salt fourteen feet in depth, free from any particle of foreign substance, which can be quarried at the rate of five tons a day to the man. The great Humboldt salt field is about fifteen miles long by six wide. When the summer heats have evaporated the surface water, salt to the depth of several inches may be scraped up, and underneath is a stratum of pure rock salt, of unknown depth. Soda, borax and other valuable minerals also exist in large quantities near these localities, and branch railroads will sooner or later bring them into market. A considerable business in gathering borax is already established on the line of the Carson & Colorado railroad.—San Francisco Bulletin. THE CATTLE-RAISING INDUSTRY.-The inducement to engage in cattle-raising in this country several years ago was so great, says the Chicago Times, that eleven companies, with a capital of $20,000,000, were organized in Great Britain. They now own 672,013 head of cattle, and lease or own 3,319,072 acres of grazing land in the West. In 1883 one of these companies paid dividends amounting to 202 per cent., but for two years past they have paid only 10 per cent. The rate of return is now very low, and the whole business seems to have suffered a serious deterioration. Of nine of these British-American companies in 1885, one paid 7 per cent., one 6, two 5, one 4, and four paid nothing at all. Last year there were nearly 50,000,000 head of cattle in the country, and of these British companies owned only 672,013, as noted above. The reasons for decline in profits is part due to the action of the President, who obliged owners to vacate public lands and pay for their grass. Besides, in the year 1885 the yield of calves was behind that of the year before. The chief reason for the decline in dividends is the smaller selling price of steers, the falling off reaching in some cases $9 a head. The immense profits made at first invited excessive competition, which cut down prices and profits.-Bradstreet's. OUR TRADE WITH BRAZIL.-The most absurd spectacle in the commercial world is the trade we carry on with Brazil. We buy nearly all her raw products, while she spends the money we pay for them in England and France. Nearly every ton of this commerce pays a tax to English bankers and vessel owners. We removed the tax on imported coffee a few years ago, whereupon Brazil immediately put on an export duty, so the attempt of Congress to secure a cheaper breakfast for the workingman simply resulted in diverting several million dollars from the United States to the Brazilian treasury. Mexico and the countries washed by the Carribean sea produce a better quality of coffee than Brazil, and if the United States would consent to discriminate against Brazilian coffee raised by slave labor, the nations of Central America and the Spanish main would reciprocate by admitting free our flour, lumber, provisions, lard, dairy products and other articles which are now subject to an almost prohibitory tariff. Brazil is in such a condition financially and commercially that if we do not buy her coffee it would rot on the trees.—— W. E. Curtis, of the South American Commission. THE OLDEST BANK-NOTE.-The oldest banknote probably in existence in Europe is one preserved in the Asiatic museum at St. Petersburg. It dates from the year 1399 B. C., and was issued by the Chinese government. It can be proved from Chinese chroniclers that, as early as 2697 B. C., banknotes were current in China under the name of "flying money." The banknote preserved at St. Petersburg bears the name of the imperial tank, date and number of issue, signature of a mandarin, and contains even a list of the punishments inflicted for forgery of notes. This relic of four thousand years ago is probably written, for printing from wooden tablets is said to have been introduced in China only in the year 160 A. D. Christian at Work. NOTES.-There is a good deal of agitation going on in England over railroad rates. -Quebec is in better financial condition than for ten years past.-The Bank of France gained nearly $11,000,000 last week, and the Bank of England lost $6,200,000.-It is thought that the enormous deposits for the French loan said to have exceeded $64,000,000 account for the recent export of gold from this country. Furnaces in the United States are now producing iron at the rate of 5,737,000 tons yearly, or 559,000 tons more than ever before produced in a single year. -Oleomargarine is making friends in the Knights of Labor organizations; a movement is on foot to further its recognition as a legitimate article of commerce.- -The price of butter has reached lower figures than at any time since 1879. The Canadian export of cheese is so heavy as to threaten the United States export trade of that article with extinction. In 1875-76 the receipts of cheese at Montreal were only 545,679 boxes, while this year they amount to 1,220,337. The receipts of cheese have doubled in ten years at Montreal, and at New York they have decreased nearly 800,000 boxes in five years. Last year Montreal exported within 400,000 packages of the entire export of cheese from this country.-In 1884 Great Britain built some twenty times as much tonnage of steel and iron ships as the United States.—The Joliet Steel Company intend increasing their capital stock from two to three millions of dollars.- -Arrangements for the establishment of extensive iron and steel works at Fargo, Dak., have been completed. The capital stock is $350,000, which will be increased to $750, 000. -Georgia is becoming a great peach-growing State.- -California's raisin crop last year amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand boxes, and the coming crop is estimated at two hundred thousand to four hundred and fifty thousand.England proposes to experiment in tobacco culture. -Florida is supplying the North with strawberries. -Washington county, Pa., produces annually, from two million five hundred thousand to three million pounds of wool, bringing one million dollars in cash. It is said to be the largest wool growing county in the Union. -Northwestern timbermen have recently purchased 1,446,800 acres of Government timber lands in the States of Louisiana and Mississippi, upon which is now standing fifteen million feet of timber. These lands cost $1.25 per acre or about one milion eight hundred thousand dollars, or twelve cents per thousand feet. Sheep for mutton are steadily rising in price; the supply is not equal to the de mand. -The fishing schooner Ella M. Doughty, of Portland, Me., has been seized in Nova Scotia for infraction of the fishery laws.- -Bankers, merchants, and members of the Produce and Cotton Exchange, N. J., petition the New York Legislature against the Saturday legal half holiday.- -The President has vetoed the bill to establish a port of delivery at Springfield, Mass.-India is borrowing six million pounds of England.- -The Spanish Government has authorized a loan of one hundred and twenty-four million dollars, reported to be for the purpose of consolidating the floating debt of Cuba.- -At a sale of unclaimed express freight at Denver, Col., the other day, three heavy boxes were sold for $6.40. On being opened each of the boxes was found to contain a brick of solid gold worth twelve thousand dollars. Alfred Poole was the fortunate purchaser.- A mining prospector in New Mexico, with the honored name of John Quincey Adams, has very appropriately called a recent discovery of his "The Nick of Time" mine. One day his haversack caught fire, his prospector's glass having focused the sun's rays upon it, and as there were a dozen pounds of powder in the sack he threw it hastily into a crevice and rushed away. On returning to pick up the remains of his effects he found an exceeding rich vein of ore that the explosion had exposed to view. The mine is worth $50,000. RAILROADS. THE RAILROADS OF PRUSSIA.-In Prussia the railroads are owned by the state, and all the traffic is governed by the state. The annual report for the year ending March, 1885, is at the present time of peculiar interest, and is suggestive of various opinions as to the benefits of the system. The showing, while creditable to the management, discloses the fact that the state has to resort to the same methods which are here employed by private capital in the management of the roads. The government controls over 12,000 miles of road, the cost of which to the state was $109,000 per mile, and the income on the investment about 5% per cent. In the passenger business the third and fourth class traffic is developing at the expense of the first, the third class traffic being the heaviest. The average rate per passenger per mile is 1.3 cents as against 2.36 cents in this country. The average freight receipts were, in 1885, 1.3 cents per mile ton as against 1.12 cents per mile ton in this country. At the rates of the Prussian railroads the earnings of the railroads of the United States would have compared with the Prussian roads as follows: The passenger earnings would have been $92,790,000 less; the freight earnings would have been $93,400,000 more. The total result is about the same, and the system fails in point of finance to show any great improvement over the private corporation system. In the matter of freights, special rates have to be made for long-distance traffic, of which the terms made are public, and there is no method by which the tariff can be arbitrarily fixed In the roads which run near competing foreign lines it is found necessary to grade the freight and passenger traffic accordingly. About three fifths of the freight is moved at these exceptional rates. The government has found it advisable to regulate the freight traffic so as to allow for the competition with foreign freight in its own markets, and therefore is obliged in some classes to maintain a high rate. Otherwise the foreign freight coming into the country would prove ruinous to the Prussian industries. Whether there is any provision for the shipment of transit freight, not intended for sale in the Prussian dominions, at a lower rate, the report does not say. Such a provision, it would seem, could be easily made and would prove beneficial to the traffic of the country. The experience of the Prussian government, while it shows that such industries can be managed by the state, does not prove that the state is wise in taking the roads out of the hands of private capital, or is doing that which is for the best interests of its citizens.-Utica Herald. RAILROADS AND PHILANTHROPY.-Mr. George I. Seney gave $450,000 to the Wesleyan Female College and Emory College, of Georgia. Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt gave the Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tenn., more than a million dollars. John Hopkins, who gave some $8,000,000 for the cause of education and charity in Baltimore, accumulated most of it from the earnings of his railroad stock. Ex Governor Leland Stanford's gift of $20,000,000 to the University of California, on the grounds of fabulous beauty," the beautiful, sweet Palo Alto." Wm. H. Vanderbilt gave $25,000 to the Virginia University; to the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York city, $500,000; to the Museum of Patriotism, Washington, $150,000. Colonel John W. Garrett has given annuities to the "Baltimore Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor," and other charities, representing a basis of more than a million dollars. Colonel Thomas A. Scott, just before his death, gave the following amounts to the following institutions: To Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, $50,000; to the Orthopaedic Hospital, of Philadelphia, $30,000; to Children's Department of Episcopal Hospital, of Philadelphia, $20.000, to University of Pennsylvania, of Philadelphia, $50,000; to Washington and Lee University, of Virginia, $50, 000. IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO LEARN.-Some English railway magnates visited the United States not long ago to inspect our railroad system. They journeyed over several of the trunk lines, and on their return home reported that there is nothing in American methods that can be introduced into Great Britain with advantage. We learn by cable that a terrible snow storm has blockaded traffic on the English lines. In some cases trains were imbedded in the snow for forty-eight hours. As the cars were not heated, the passengers suffered severely. As there was no drinking water on the trains, they also endured the pangs of thirst. there were no snow plows in the railway equipment, they had to wait for a thaw, being all the time hungry, thirsty, and half frozen. It would seem that our recent English visitors were a little too hasty in their conclusions about the absolute perfection of their own railway system.-New York Herald. As RAILROADS AND RUM.-We urge upon all railway employes in the land to strike |—against rum. Whisky is an infinitely greater evil to them than long hours or poor pay. Vastly more money is squandered in strong drink than any advance in wages can offset. Intemperance-not capital-is the great oppressor of laborLet the Knights of Labor and all other labor organizations inaugurate a deter. mined strike against strong drink that the greatest evil of the age and of the world may be overthrown.-The Railway Age. NOTES--The cost of investigating the Broadway Railroad scandal has been $48,800, of which $40,000 was paid to Roscoe Conkling and Clarence A. Seward as counsel fees. -Metallic sleepers for railways have come into very extended use in Germany, about 5,500 miles of metallic permanent way existing there in 1884.The Union Pacific Company is again reported to be surveying a line into Oregon, one branch of which is to run to Portland and another to San Francisco.-The Boston and Albany Road will build a handsome new depot at Somerville, Mass.All the railroads in Chicago resumed operations, the strike of the freight-handlers having collapsed.- -The Baltimore and Ohio men, who did not act in concert with the other freight-handlers, but negotiated independently, were granted an eight-hour day with nine hours' wages.- -The Wabash strikers, before being taken back, agreed to quit the Freight-Handlers' Union.--One hundred of the 150 Illinois Central strikers went back under the company's notice at the old hours and pay. The places of the others are filled with new men, who will not be discharged.- -The Louisville, New Albany and Chicago and Chicago and Alton Companies refused to take back the old hands, their places having been filled.. The Lake Shore strikers were reinstated at the old wages.- -At the Chicago and Eastern Illinois freight house twelve men, who made a disturbance a few days ago, were paid off and discharged.- -The fifty men employed at the Chicago and Atlantic freight house were taken back on the conditions which existed before they struck. Some Northern capitalists will spend $600,000 in establishing car works at Norfolk, Va. SCIENTIFIC. true one, for the reason that certain microscopic characters always present in A REMARKABLE TELEGRAPH FEAT.-On the 8th of April last, the date of Gladstone's great speech on the home-rule bill, the number of words signalled from London was one million five hundred thousand, the greatest number signalled on any previous occasion being eight hundred and sixty thousand. It will be seen from these figures that very little more pressure was required to have doubled the record. The apparatus used in dealing with large quantities of news is the Wheatstone automatic, and no less than one hundred Wheatstone perforators were brought into operation on this occasion. Of these thirty were of the kind which punch six slips simultaneously, thirteen were of the kind which punch three slips simultaneously, thirty-one were of the kind which punch two slips simultaneously, and twenty-six were single slip perforators. The amount of writing performed by the reporters may be estimated from the fact that the number of sheets of "flimsy' dealt with in the Central Telegraph office on this single evening was about fifteen thousand. The figures so far are impressive enough, but they give merely the words signalled from London. In many cases one wire from London serves several offices, so that the same message which is signalled from London is read by each of these offices simultaneously. For example, there are wires from London which work simultaneously to Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. A thousand words trasmitted, therefore, upon this line are equivalent to three thousand words received—that is, a thousand each at the places named. The work on the subsequent evenings of the debate, though not so great as on this special occasion, was extremely heavy. The total number of words signalled from London on the evening of the 9th inst. was about six hundred thousand. The number signalled on the 12th was five hundred and four thousand, and the number signalled on the Igth inst. was about five hundred thousand. The English folks are proud of this achievement and claim that there is no other office in the world that would have been equal to such a demand.Electrical Review. NOVEL ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS.-Lieutenant Greely, within a fortnight, has SOUNDS FROM A RAINBOW.-One of the most wonderful discoveries in science that has been made within the last year or two is the fact that a beam of light produces sound. A beam of sunlight is thrown through a lens on a glass vessel that contains lampblack, colored silk, or worsted, or other substances. A disk having slits or openings cut in it is made to revolve swiftly in this beam of light, so as to cut it up, thus making alternate flashes of light and shadow. On putting the ear to the glass vessel, strange sounds are heard so long as the flashing beam is falling on the vessel. Recently a more wonderful discovery has been made. The beam of sunlight is made to pass through a prism, so as to produce what is called the solar spectrum, or rainbow. The disk is turned, and the colored light of the rainbow is made to break through it. Now, place the ear to the vessel containing the silk, wool, or other material. As the colored lights of the spectrum fall upon it sounds will be given by different parts of the spectrum, and there will be silence in other parts. For instance, if the vessel contains red worsted and the green light flashes upon it, loud sounds will be given. Only feeble sounds will be heard when the red and blue parts of the rainbow fall upon the vessel, and other colors make no sounds at all. Green silk gives sound best in red light. Every kind of material gives more or less sound in different colors, and utters no sound in others. The discovery is a strange one, and it is thought more wonderful things will come from it COSMIC DUST.-The most crucial test of dust is that of comparative chemical anyalysis, and its application to various of these iron particles reveals the fact that while those known to be of terrestrial origin contained neither nickel nor cobalt, both these metals are found present in the magnetic particles collected at the observatory of Saint Marie du Mont, on Mont Blanc, and a meteoric origin has, therefore, been assigned to the latter. Nor is other proof wanting to support this presumption. In addition to these particles of cosmic dust larger masses forming meteorites are not unfrequently found. Their general appearance is that of a dull black, but occasionally shining black, irregular exterior, forming a thin crust which is totally different from the main mass within. Examined microscopically, the crust, which is usually one-hundreth, but may occasionally rise to one-eightieth of an inch in thickness, is found to be a true black glass, filled with small bubbles, sharply divided from the interior-facts which indicate that the crust is due to igneous action, under conditions which have little or no influence within the mass. The interior usually consists of a stony mass formed of broken or angular particles. Here we have two alternatives-either it has been formed by aqueous deposition, or it has had an igneous origin. The latter or fiery origin is again believed to be the Christian at Work. AN ELECTRICAL CAT-O'-NINE-TAILS.-A savant named. Henri Roget, hailing from Lyons, has, it is stated, a new use for electricity. He has a patent to apply it as a substitute for the cat-o'-nine-tails in corporal punishment. The culprit, hav with one pole of a powerful battery. The other pole is connected with the whip, The inventor claims that the chastisement can be made so mild as not to injure over. NOTES.-Henry Phipps, of Pittsburgh, has donated $25,000 for the erection of a conservatory in the public park of Allegheny City.--The Lick trustees have decided to purchase from Messrs. Feil & Mautois a 36-inch crown disk. -The work of the U. S. Fish Commission shows most gratifying results in the artificial propagation of shad.An international maritime exhibition will be held in Havre May 1, 1887, of all kinds of sailing or steamships, engines, life-saving contrivances, fisheries, and products of the French colonies.- -A Japanese invention for making paper of sea-weed is announced. It is thick in texture, yet sufficiently transparent to be used as a substitute for glass in windows.- -Dr. Werner Siemans has placed at the disposal of the German Government the sum of $115,000 to establish an institute for carrying on experiments in natural science. -Science Observer circular No. 66 contains the announcement of the discovery by Dr. Luther of an eleventh magnitude asteroid. This becomes No. 258. -M. Bender, in the Moniteur Scientifique, describes a new system of lighting. He employs the fatty residues obtained from the rectification of crude mineral oils, through which he passes a current of air. The air takes up a definite quantity of this hydrocarbon, and the flame produced is very brilliant, giving off no smoke.- Fish Commission car No. I left Havre de Grace, Md., on Sunday last with a million and a half young shad for Broad and Saluda rivers, South Carolina. On its return it will take the same number of shad fry to Portland, Oregon, for stocking the Columbia river basin.The ethnological collections of the British Museum are now said to be for the first time adequately displayed. New rooms, formerly occupied for zoology, have been devoted to them, and recently thrown open to the public. The collection is now thought to be the best and most representative in the world.———Prof. Tichenor, of Hamilton, N. J., worked four years on a flying machine and was confident that he had at last caught the elusive secret of aerial transit. But last Tuesday evening, like all his predecessors in the same field of research, the professor came to grief. He attempted to sail into space from a platform one hundred feet high, and fell the entire distance. He says he knows just where his plan was lacking, and as soon as his broken arm and leg and the contusion of his spine are healed, he proposes to try the experiment again The Central court of the Edinburgh Exhibition is to be lighted by fifteen hundred incandescent lamps.- -A Frenchman has found means to restore the life-like expression to the eyes of dead persons. He places a few drops of glycerine and water in the corners of the eyes, and the effect is said to be startling, so life-like do the eyes become.- -The Norristown Herald says: "While a London chemist was testing a bottle of milk it exploded with a loud report, scattering fragments of glass all over the room. Huxley's theory is that the cow had been eating dynamite, but we think his hypothesis is wrong. A more plausible explanation is that some fiend had thrown nitro-glycerine into the well."- -Queen Victoria has decided to have Buckingham Palace lighted by electricity. -The Botanical Gardens, London, have succeeded in cultivating the curious Kermes oak (Quercus cocifera), which, when punctured by one of the coccus insects, produces the ancient blood-red dye, supposed to have been used by Moses to tint the hangings of the Tabernacle. The Kermes oak is a dwarf, bushy shrub, somewhat resembling a holly, and grows profusely in Spain.- -The U. S. Hydrographic Office has published a compilation of a considerable number of instances of the beneficial use of oil in quieting heavy seas. A thick vegetable oil is best. Lieut. G. L. Dyer is the compiler.- -The Burmese hairy family, attached as curiosities to the Court of Ava, are regarded as satisfactorily supplying the connecting link between man and animal demanded by the Darwinian theory. A New York paper thinks that they will be soon evolved from an Indian palace to an American dime museum. DRAMA. Prof. NOTES.-The Mikado, after a triumphant progress in England, North America, and Australia, will pay a visit to classical Germany. Mr. D'Oyly Carte will take his original Savoy Theatre company to Berlin and open there on the 2d of September. Sir Arthur Sullivan and Mr. Gilbert will go to Berlin to superintend personally the production of their work before the hypercritical Berliners. The Savoy company has now played the Mikado over 450 times. Two companies playing in the English provinces have given it over 700 times. In New York it has been given by Mr. Stetson, Mr. Duff, and the smaller fry over 300 times, and by the numerous companies throughout the Union about 1,200 times. In Australia and Canada it has been produced over 200 times. This makes since March, 1885, when the opera was brought out in London, over 2,800 performances, which we believe beats the record of any musical piece ever produced.-Ed. Stone, who represents a syndicate with $300,000, will sail for Europe on Saturday. He has secured Sardou's play, "Theodora," with all the original scenery, costumes, etc., and will produce the play at Niblo's Garden on September 13, for a run of six weeks.They have been having a Greek play in London that has been accompanied by quite a sensation. The chorus was made up of society girls and men, the tableaux designed by three eminent artists, at the head of whom was the president of the Royal Academy, and the Prince of Wales brought his family, and, to everybody's surprise, sat the performance through. A marked feature was the appearance and acting of a young lady whose stage name is Dorothy Dene, who appeared in London for the first time, though she has already played a season in the provinces. When she played Cassandra nobody noticed her looks, as she was made up to look haggard and terrible, but the critics were all astonished at the force and finish of her acting. Next day, however, when she appeared in another part, spoke a few words and danced a little, dressed in a white tunic and purple cloak, with only a gold fillet round her hair, everybody was astonished at her great beauty, especially when somebody recognized her as the model from which Sir Frederick Leighton, president of the Royal Academy, painted a strikingly beautiful female figure last year. -At a very successful fancy-dress reception given by Mr. George H. Boughton in London, a well-known American dramatist appeared as Purity. He was dressed in a perfectly white swallow-tail coat and perfectly white waistcoat, trousers, socks, and shoes. The people of Washington went wild over the Kirmes.- -An event of much note of the next dramatic season will be the production of "Tactics," a new play, which is the joint production of George Parsons Lathrop and Julian Hawthorne. The play is a dramatization of a story called "Pauline," by Mr. Hawthorne, which appeared some time since in Cornhill. The brothers-in-law have worked at the play for a good while, and now the production is almost complete. It is a high comedy, and will be brought out by Modjeska. The heroine is an English prima donna.- -Years ago Miss Lydia Thompson horsewhipped Mr. Wilbur F. Storey, editor of the Chicago Times, on account of a scandalous paragraph concerning her which he published in his paper. Mr. Storey has been dead for a long time, but last week, when Miss Thompson played an engagement in Chicago, her name was not allowed to be printed in the Times, either in the advertisements or the notices of the performances. -Maude Branscombe will retire from the stage.- -A San Francisco artist has been painting the heads of Mary Anderson and Faber Robertson. MUSIC. MUSIC AND SPIDERS.-While a gentleman was watching some spiders it occurred to him to try what effect a tuning-fork would have on the insects. He suspected that they would regard the sound just as they were in the habit of regarding the sound made by a fly. And sure enough they did. He selected a large, ugly spider that had been feasting on flies for two months. The spider was at one edge of its web. Sounding the fork, he touched a thread at the other side of the web, and watched the result. Mr. Spider had the buzzing sound conveyed to him over his telephone wires, but how was he to know on which particular wire the sound was traveling? He ran to the center of the web very quickly, and felt all around until he touched the thread against the other end of which the fork was sounding; then taking another thread along, just as a man would take an extra piece of rope, he ran out to the fork and sprang upon it. Then he retreated a little way and looked at the fork. He was puzzled. He had expected to find a buzzing fly. He got on the fork again and danced with delight. He had caught the sound of the fly, and it was music to him. It is said that spiders are so fond of music that they will stop their spinning to listen, and a man once said that when he retired to his room for quiet before dinner and played the flute, large spiders would come onto the table and remain quite still, "running away as fast as their legs could carry them" directly he had finished.—Electrical Review. -There is a NOTES.-There is to be inaugurated in Rome next November a new college for ecclesiastical students of philosophy and theology which will also afford a complete course of music, especially church music.The Catholic Review is of opinion that the Masses used in this country are too difficult and ambitious, and should be substituted for simpler ones.- -Maria Hawes, once admired as a concert singer and ballad writer, lately died, at an advanced age, at the Isle of Wight, England The May Festival, at Cleveland, attracted great numbers from the surrounding country. The Cincinnati Musical Festival is being held this week.- -The Olmypic Club of San Francisco has just celebrated its 26th anniversary.- Franz Liszt, is described by one of his young lady enthusiasts: He is the most interesting and striking-looking man imaginable-tall and slight, with deep-set eyes, shaggy eyebrows, and long iron-gray hair, which he wears parted in the middle. His mouth turns up at the corners, which gives him a most crafty and Mephistophelian expression when he smiles, and his whole appearance and manner have a sort of Jesuitical elegance and ease. His hands are very narrow, with long and slender fingers. Liszt looks as if he had been through everything, and has a face seamed with experience.- -The Choral Union, of Philadelphia, with a chorus of 800 voices, gave concerts this week to crowded houses, who were enthusiastic in their appreciation. "Erminie," an operatic comedy, is a decided success.wealth of musical talent and genius just now in London. Joachim and Sarasate, the greatest violinists living; Battesimi and Piatti, the finest contrabassist and 'cellist; Mme. Schumann, Pachmann, Mdlle. Klauss, besides a host of other pianists like Lamond, Stanenhagen, etc., etc.; Mme. Nillson, Albani, Sims Reeves, and a host of foremost vocalists are seen and heard almost every day, and the feasts of music enjoyed are of a really grand nature. Liszt has evidently stirred up musical matters.- -Mdlle. de Lussan, of the Boston Ideals, is gaining golden opinions for her clever acting, pleasing voice, and good singing.- -Madame Gerster is entirely restored to health; she is in Paris and is expected to sing in London during the season.. -The United Wagnerian Society of London gave Liszt a grand entertainment at the Crystal Palace, there and then presented him with a very fine address in which the good work he has done for the art of music was most emphatically set forth.-A new Historical Sketch of Music from the most Ancient to Modern Times, by H. Brown, has just been published by W. Reeves, of London, and is eliciting unusual attention in the press.- -The London memorial tablet to Sir.William Goss, in St. Paul's Cathedral, was uncovered May 10, the anniver sary of his death, after the service, which was of a special character. The chants, the canticles and the anthems were selected from among the many beautiful and famous compositions he provided for the use of the church.- -Sir Arthur Sullivan has had to leave London and retire into the country for a short time, to finish his cantata, promised for the Leeds Festival. It is impossible to work in London. --A new tenor has boarded our shores, a yet unformed tenor, the brother of Emmanuel Moore, the musical director of Fraulein Lehmann's Opera Troupe. He astonished Vienna with his marvellous voice when he sang there as a student merely. Here he astonished Fraulein Lehmann herself so much that she means to teach him herself. He is quite young.- -Rubenstein fainted while performing at a concert in Paris.- This year the King of Bavaria will not help to pay the performances at Bayreuth. The orchestra is to be paid with the receipts and the solo vocalists have foregone their payments that it may be possible to carry out the performances.- Franco Fanio, the great orchestral conductor at La Scala, Milan, directed for the 1000th time the other day at that celebrated opera house, and many tokens of esteem were offered to him by artists and friends of music.— Signor Madini is a convert to the Sol Fa system. ART. THE MADONNA DEL GRAN' DUCA.-The place it still holds in the estimation of the Florentines may be known from the cry that arose some years since when there was a possibility that it would be lost to the city. It was at the time when Florence was incorporated into the kingdom of Italy, and when the Grand Duke had to retire to Austria. The Duke claimed the picture as his personal property, and legally his claim appears to have been well founded; it was, however, vehemently opposed by the Italian minister, Sella, who declared he would vote for war rather than give up the Raphael, at the same time intimating his readiness to pay for it any sum that could be reasonably demanded. Yet, curiously enough, the picture during the last century sold for only twelve crowns; it then belonged to a poor widow, who had inherited it from Carlo Dolce, the painter, and was ignorant of its value. Afterwards it was bought by the Grand Duke, Ferdinand III, and then only for the modest sum of £132; he held it, however, in such admiration that he always carried it with him when traveling. After this chequered career it has found a resting-place where it is desirable that all works of such exceptional qualities should be housed, in a National Gallery. Fortunately there are few of the delightful series, of which the Gran' Duca Madonna may be said to be the earliest, that are not now accessible to the public in the galleries of the various capitals of Europe. The "Madonna di Casa Tempi" is at Munich, the "Madonna in Green" is at Vienna, the "Cardellino" in the Uffizi, the "Belle Jardiniere" at the Louvre, and the list might be extended. In these successive scenes in the growth and evolution of an affection, of which none other can be more pure and tender, Raphael lays aside all mystic symbolism, all pretensions to sectarian teaching; he presents us with a series of idyllic pictures as varied and full of surprises as they are graceful and engaging.-The Art Journal. 66 LITERARY. REMUNERATION OF MAGAZINE WRITERS.-Nothing apparently delights the mod- OLD MASTERS OF FICTION.-What strikes us most in these old masters of fiction, NOTES.-The Critic is of opinion that the Second Prize Fund exhibibition at the American art galleries is far better than the first.- A pictorial encyclopedia in fifteen volumes is announced.-——Said a dealer the other day: “All is absurd in the history of art. Millet lived only by loans. So did Rousseau. So did Jules Dupré, until ten years ago. Michel died at a hospital, leaving many paintings on because he was too poor to buy canvas. paper A portfolio of ten of those paintings sold for ten francs, all told. Recently one of the ten pictures sold for eight hundred dollars. The success of an artist is mostly a question of management. If two or three well-known amateurs lead, the others will follow. They do not understand, but they will buy." And again: "The most remarkable increase in the value of an oil painting appears in the case of Millet's 'Angelus '—two French peasants bowing their heads in a potato-field at the sound of the distant churchbell. Millet sold it to a Paris art-dealer for one hundred dollars; the dealer sold it to M. Wilson, a Paris manufacturer, for seven thousand five hundred dollars; M. Wilson sold it to M. Secretan, another manufacturer, for thirty-two thousand dollars; M. Secretan sold it to a Paris art-dealer, but soon repented and bought it back for forty thousand dollars. He has since been offered fifty thousand dollars for it. The history of picture-selling has nothing to match this."- -The Decorator and Furnisher says that "a frame in old brass for a portrait in oil showing a fair or brunette skin heightens its beauty.' -Elongated wall pockets of bronze, covered with relief work, have made their appearance. -A gigantic mushroom to fill a vacant corner is one of the new conceits in majolica-Mikado fans for mantel and wall adornment are shaped like the wings of birds.- -Some of the flower paintings or mantel tiles are among the most beautiful specimens of art to to be seen.-- -Browning has been appointed for foreign secretary of the Royal Academy in place of Lord Houghton.- -Mr. Daniel Huntington declines to be a candidate for the presidency of the National Academy. Under his administration the institution has become free from debt, and has purchased a valuable piece of real estate.- -The foreign announcement that the late Lord Dudley paid $16,666 each for three Sèvres porcelains does not startle Americans, who have set the precedent of paying eighteen thousand dollars for a Chinese vase.- -Boston has gained a true work of art in the bronze statue of William Lloyd Garrison, by Olin R. Warner, which was shipped from New York a few days ago. The work weighs about three thousand pounds, and represents Mr. Garrison in collossal form, seated in an arm-chair. As a revelation of character it has many solid and noble qualities, and it deals with the commonplaces of modern costume in a classic spirit. Its vigor reminds one of the French artist's remark that sculpture is the art of the -The three latest academicians, elected last week, are Mr. Arthur young man. Quartley, Mr. J. Alden Weir and Mr. C. Y. Turner; and the three latest associates, Mr. J. Carroll Beckwith, Mr. Hamilton Hamilton and Mr. Joseph Lyman. These men are, without exception, painters of sterling merit, and their election is creditable to the judgment of the academy.- -Mr. James F. Sutton, president of the American Art Association, desires it to be understood that his institution is in no sense a rival to the academy. He expresses a willingness to contribute to the funds of the academy, if need be. His enterprise, particularly his scheme of two thousand-dollar prizes, has stimulated American artists. His idea is that public picture galleries should be arranged to look like private ones. THE esteemed Louisville Courier-Journal declares that the Democracy "must do something to regain public confidence." That's what they all say, but not a man among 'em can tell how the confidence game is to be played.-Philadelphia Press (Rep.). POLICEMEN ought to owe no allegiance to political bosses. They ought to be no of any political machine. Their sole duty ought to be to the public, and the public ought to do its full duty by them.-Wheeling Intelligencer (Rep.). part A GOVERNMENT which has an annual surplus of millions, and whose three per cent. bonds are above par, should stop paying rents and construct buildings for the accommodation of its business.-Washington Sunday Herald. ORIGIN OF "DON'T."--The "Vest Pocket" edition, just brought out by the Appletons, of Mr. O. B. Bunce's clever little work, "Don't," promises, from present sales, to add several thousands to the copies already sold since its issuance. In all 144,000 copies of the little book have been sold, 74,000 of which were disposed of in America, while the balance was sold in England and the Continent. And to these figures must still be added the sales of the German translation. The writing of the little work was suggested to its author in June, 1883, on a train while reading an editorial in the New York Evening Post treating of "Books on Deportment." In this article the writer quoted a series of directions of etiquette furnished by Mme. Patterson-Bonaparte by Lord Cholmondeley about 1835, and it was the negative character of the directions given by the titled writer that suggested to Mr. Bunce the peculiar title of “Don't" for a book and its use at the beginning of every paragraph. Upon reaching home Mr. Bunce began his odd literary task, and inside of a month the book, which has since entered into thousands of homes, was written, printed and ready for publication. The author's extreme sensitiveness to public notice prevented him from attaching his name on the fly-leaf, and for months its authorship was surrounded in mystery.—The Week, Toronto. THE ARRIVAL OF DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES IN ENGLAND.-Dr. Holmes arrived in England last Saturday and was met at Liverpool by a deputation of medical citizens who insisted upon delivering addresses of welcome, although the genial Autocrat was pretty well knocked up by the rough voyage. He stood on the deck with a Derby hat pulled well down over his head, and clad in a thick overcoat topped by a blanket shawl. Although troubled with an asthmatic cough, Dr. Holmes succeeded in making a humorous and sprightly reply to the words of welcome addressed to him; but he was unable to accept the numerous invitations to dinners and receptions that were thrust upon him, and hurried off to Chester at once. There he rested at the Grosvenor Hotel a day or two before going to London. Why Dr. Holmes, a poet, should go to a place with so high-sounding a name as the Grosvenor Hotel, when there is a delightful little inn called The Green Dragon, at Chester, is more than I can understand. The English papers say that next to Longfellow, Dr. Holmes is better known in England than any other American author, and that in anticipation of his visit the bookstalls have been well stocked with cheap editions of his works. It is not to be expected that he will reap any benefit from the sale of these editions, however.--The Critic. NOTES. A New Jewish paper, Israelitische Gemeindezeitung, has been published in Prague by Jacob Brandeis.- -One of the latest books to circulate in the Canton bazaar is a Chinese version of the "Pilgrim's Progress." The little vol |