the wedding and its accompaniments has been a warm sympathy in the happiness LIFE RAKERS.—Many occasions have arisen in which the American newspaper has shown how extensive are its resources for prying into the lives of persons whom accident has raised into transient prominence, and for bringing into visibility all that respect for privacy would be contented to leave in the shade. Upon no occasion, however, has this tendency been more flagrantly shown than in the case of the lady who three days ago became President Cleveland's wife. The amount of impertinent news-hunting, or life-raking, as we have preferred to name it, that was The President himdone for weeks previous to that event, transcends calculation. self was all but button-holed. His fiancé's grandfather was possibly hastened to the grave by hounding reporters. A stewardess on the ship which brought the lady hither was assiduously questioned. Every little country paper contributed its quota of truth and falsehood, suspicion, conjecture, hearsay, or imagination. One of the most sacred of the ties of human life was made more public than the pillory and more notorious than a bribed alderman. It might have been supposed (by those unacquainted with American newspaper methods) that the brush of the caricaturist would be stayed on approaching such a subject. On the contrary, The Morning Scum here found its choicest chance, and the illustrations published therein put decorum to the blush and laughed at decency. Comic journalism screeched and somersaulted, and, in fact, scarcely anything was omitted that could bring discredit on the means whereby the public is presented with its daily and weekly pabulum. Do the people desire this kind of thing? We think not. The journals that do the most of this disgusting business in the most disgusting way are not, as a rule, those of established respectable position, but those which are trying to secure success by creating a hubbub. Brazen freebooters, who have dug their way up from a noisome obscurity to a more noisome publicity, are the leaders in enterprises of this kind. It would be useless to inform this type of vagrant that even were the road he adopts the road to wealth, it is one which no one having a proper sense of decency would tread. But however contradictory may be the views taken on this subject, one thing remains true for all sensible decorous persons, that the life-raking newspaper publicity given to accidental celebrities is the most shameful feature of our journalism to-day.-The Hour, June 5. INDELICACIES Of the Press.—Exactly how far a newpaper should go in discussing, at columns' length, the private affairs of a man or woman placed in high position, is a question of considerable latitude. Nevertheless, the indelicate manner in which the private affections of the President of the United States has been treated by the newspapers during the past month must have suggested to hundreds of respectable people the query, Have individuals, even though of distinction, no rights that the American press are bound to respect? Likewise the familiarity, at times coarse and vulgar, with which the name of Miss Frances Folsom has been handled by the newspapers, must have grated harshly upon the lovers of refined, decent newspaper literature. That a portion of the blame for the newspaper comment and stories that have been circulated must be placed at the door of President Cleveland himself is true, since it was a duty which he owed to his fiancee and himself to make an authoritative denial or statement concerning a matter that he must have been aware would naturally awaken certain curiosity on the part of his constituents. To this extent is the President to blame; but no reticence on his part can be construed into a plausible excuse for the silly and idle talk which has been indulged in concerning the young lady's courtship, her wedding trousseau, and kindred topics. Of her antecedents, since she is to be the first lady in the land, the country has a right, to a certain extent to know; but further than this is an invasion upon her private life that can not be considered If the treatment other than a blot upon respectable American journalism. accorded Miss Folsom is due to a spirit of maliciousness, it should be made punishable by law; if due to a spirit of frivolity, it betrays an absence of decency in the character of him who indulges in it. There is far too much of this careless handling of the private affairs of respectable ladies by the newspapers, and the flagrant nature of the case under consideration should make it very clear that the American press is burdened with a set of men whose whose years, although many in some instances, have not been of sufficient number to teach them the first essentials of the conduct of gentlemen.-The Brooklyn Magazine for June. PAUL PRY IN THE PRESS.-No self-respecting American has followed the course of a part of the press in its treatment of the President's engagement and marriage without feeling a deep sense of shame. It has seemed incredible that educated men should so disgrace the great profession of journalism, and so completely ignore and disregard the commonest laws of social life. It is the editor, and not the reporter, who is at fault. The latter is only an instrument in the hands of his superior in the office. Why should the editor be allowed to print in his news paper, for wide circulation, that which, if uttered in private life, would shut every door in his face, and exclude him permanently from the society of gentlemen? If the tables were turned for a little while, there would be an immediate reformation in these matters. One morning last week the New York Sun devoted nearly half its first page to an account of the "White House Family," in which it spread before its readers matters which, if true, they had no right to know. How would the very able editor of the Sun enjoy such a disclosure of his own private affairs in the pages of a contemporary? We venture to say that he would denounce it as a flagrant breach of the commonest decencies. The Judge last week treated its constituency to a page of illustrations without a ray of wit, a line of good drawing, or a single recognizable feature of effective caricature-a page of brutality unrelieved by a gleam of humor or a glimpse of art. This disgusting business has gone so far that it must soon cure itself by inevitable reaction. Paul Pry may amuse for the moment, but he is a contemptible fellow, and soon sinks to his own level. The President is a private person as well as a public official, and he is the Chief Magistrate of the United States as well as the leader of a political party. Criticism of his policy, or even of his character under certain circumstances, is proper and salutary; but there is a hard and fast line between such criticism and revelations of his private, family affairs. In an age of bitterest controversy Sir Thomas Browne declared that, as the Pope was a temporal prince, the courtesy of good language was due him. Are our newspapers behind the seventeenth cen. tury standards of decency?-Christian Union, June 3. JENKINS' WORK.-So far as we have seen there is but one paper which objects to the work done by the Jenkinses of the press in the Presidential wedding. That paper is the New York Evening Post, the incarnation of mugwumpism. The Post reminds one of an old fellow with corns, tramping around in a crowd, and wondering why people can't walk somewhere else than upon his feet. The Post doesn't relish weddings, and especially such a one as that in Washington on Wednesday, and it cannot see how it is that others do. It would have every newspaper cut out its work and service to the pattern of the Post. But when a wedding takes place which enlists the interest of the whole country-yea, of the entire civilized world— then it is that Jenkins is called upon to do his utmost, and though the Post may regard his effort one of balderdash, every reader of a newspaper will read it with satisfaction. What are "silly," "trival" and "vulgar" in the estimation of the Post are just what the people most enjoy in such a case, because they see, as it were, the event just as it transpired. And here is where Jenkins' work is at its best. A photographic view reproduces imperfections as well as perfections, and thus is truthful. It would have been better had the ceremony and all its surroundings been thrown open to the press; but for want of accommodation it was necessary to draw the line somewhere. To have admitted any reporters would have necessitated providing for all, and this would mean more than one hundred. The next best thing was done that of furnishing a plain statement of the proceedings. But this statement was far too meagre for the occasion-it did not cover it by a great deal, and so Jenkins' supplemental work had to be called in. This was all right and proper, despite the Post's cynical sneering at what it is pleased, in its mugwumpian disposition, to term “ silly," ‚”“trival” and “vulgar.”—Albany Press and Knickerbocker, June 5. DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW.-It seems rather amusing to find two classes of prevailing opinion concerning the President's marriage. One is that held by the large number of respectable people who expressed disgust at the manner in which the reporters have invaded the delicacies of the subject, and, having put themselves on record, sit down and eagerly devour the details furnished by those inquisitive and enterprising gentry. There is a little about that sentiment that is honorable and a good deal that is finical. The wedding of the President was nothing to be ashamed of, so far as the public knows, and the reporters have not sought to unearth or invent any scandals. No doubt there is a good deal of Jenkinsism in the reports, and probably some correspondents who mistake boorishness for enterprise might have made themselves intrusive if proper precautions had not been taken. But so far as the general curiosity concerning the White House event is concerned, it was a kindly curiosity, exhibiting itself crudely perhaps, but with a sort of public friendliness and congratulation. That the press should meet the desires of the public, with full accounts of how the White House gained it mistress, may not show the most exalted side of the great American institution, but it certainly shows the necessity it is under of meeting public demands. On the other hand, it is interesting to learn that those idols of Washington society, the diplomatic ducks, are stunned and shocked that the wedding was not invested with greater parade and publicity, at least to the extent of notifying them and inviting them to the wedding. The darlings before whom all Washington bows down are very much discomposed by the idea that the President can be married without their official countenance, and do not know what to make of it.-Pittsburgh Dispatch, June 6. JOURNALISTIC IMPERTINENCE.-There has not for some time been such a disgusting exhibition of journalistic impertinence as has been displayed during the past few months in relation to the marriage of citizen Grover Cleveland to Miss Folsom. Newspapers have seemed to vie with each other as to which would wallow deepest in the mire of Jenkinsism, which should ask the most impertinent questions and which should defile its columns with the greatest amount of inconsequent gossip which would disgrace an old woman's tea party. Hackmen, shoemakers, waiters, tailors and servants have been interviewed, and their expressions of fact or opinion have been spread before the public as news. It would seem as if Mr. Cleveland's official position should have entitled him to some respect, but it has been made the excuse for an impertinent intrusion in o his private affairs which is without parallel in the history of journalism. It seems as if the President of the United States has no rights as a private citizen which the press is bound to respect. His clothing has been overhauled, his shirt monograms inspected, his trunk photographed, and his socks minutely described. There has been no means too un dignified, no action too ungentlemanly to be taken full advantage of by newspaper The newspapers have certainly shown themselves in a very bad light, and men. there is no doubt but they have lost influence and respect among decent people by their action. A lot of gabbling old women retailing gossip and lies is not an elevating spectacle, nor do their opinions carry any degree of weight. Newspapers which mistake gossip for news, and resort to the most unmanly and undignified methods to obtain that gossip, are not entitled to any respect. Impertinent papers, like impertinent men, should be kicked.—The Journalist, June 5. INDECENT ENTERPRISE. It is a fact to be reprehended, and not to be accredited to enterprise or any other praiseworthy motive, that thirty newspaper correspondents should have followed the President to Deer Park, where he proposed to spend a few days in absolute quiet and relief from his exacting official duties. The correspondents are not, however, to blame. They would not have become flunkeys or detectives if they had not been urged or commanded to it by their employers. In order that the readers of a few so called "metropolitan newspapers may know at just what moment of recorded time the President made his appearance on the piazza of the little cottage which he occupies, thirty or more educated newspaper reporters are despatched in hot haste to a deserted summer resort, and made to dilate thereon to the extent of a column a day. We are even gravely told that at one o'clock and ten minutes ex-Senator Davis said that the President would lunch early in the afternoon. This blissful or baleful news, whichever it may be considered to be, is gravely dispatched to a hushed and expectant world as though it were worth a sensible man's or woman's serious attention. Are we so rapidly running to rot and indecency as all this would denote? Is it not possible for the President of the United States to obtain from the Fouches of the press respite from offensive scrutiny and publicity for a single week, or must he, like queens and princes, travel incognito, or place himself, like a state prisoner, under the control and protection of the police or constabulary?—Washington Post, June 5. PRESIDENT CLEVELAND shrinks from having more of his private and personal affairs laid before the public than he chooses. He knows that it is impossible, as the newspaper business is now conducted, to get the simple facts of either his engagement or his marriage given to the people. He knows on' what trifles columns of silly, flippant, ruffianly fiction are built up by some of our esteemed contemporaries, and with what disregard of the decencies of civilized life, with what contempt for the feelings for the living or for the memory of the dead, the work is done, if it is at all likely to be marketable. Moreover, his domestic affairs have no sort of resemblance to those of a European sovereign, though the reporters work them up as if they had. His place is not an hereditary one. He and his wife will in all probability be, a few years hence, plain citizens of Buffalo. But none the less his marriage is a matter of some interest to the people of the United States. It does concern them to know what manner of woman the mistress of the White House is, or is to be, but they ought to get their knowledge about her in a sober, respectable way, like civilized men, and not like savages. The President would doubtless have been glad to gratify the legitimate curiosity about his marriage; but, knowing the agents by whom all knowledge on such subjects reaches the public, he probably endeavored to protect himself by precautions which looked like secrecy, whereas he was simply trying to keep something back, be it never so little, and felt that he should never accomplish even this except by trying to keep everything back.-The Nation, June 3. IT must be confessed that the American press has not done itself very proud in its reports of the Presidential wedding. There has been more triviality, bogus de. tail and bad English than were at all necessary. The main idea seems to have been to get as much as possible without any regard to its value as interesting matter or reliability as news. Most of the stuff which was printed did not even reach the plane of clever invention. It was simply puerile inanity of the feeblest sort. We are ashamed of our esteemed contemporaries. With two or three exceptions, they brought neither virility nor ability to the work of making what might have been a historical picture. Instead of being artists, working with light palette and brushes, they were as awkward as a witewasher slopping over his first job.-The Hatchet, Washingtou, D. C., June 6. It NAUSEOUS JOURNALISM.-It is to be hoped, now that the wedding is over, that the President and his wife will be relieved from the espionage over their daily lives which has been kept up for the last few weeks, and that the public will be spared the minute details of trifling matters with which it has no business. shows a condition of journalism which is not pleasant to contemplate when large and influential journals will devote columns to such twaddle as has filled some of them for the last week. The high position occupied by Mr. Cleveland renders his marriage a matter of public interest, but it does not make it right or decent for every action or movement of the young girl who has been made his wife, to be watched and made the subject of newspaper comment and criticism.-Toledo Blade, June 4 Low GRADE JOURNALISM.—The lack of consideration and dignity in the press in the matter of the President's marriage reaches its climax since the newly-married pair arrived at the little mountain resort of Deer Park. There was no occasion whatever for the correspondents following them thither, but the full pack are ap. parently encamped on the hills around the cottage, watching for movements within, and recording them by telegraph so far as they can make them out by the lights and window curtains in the different rooms. We do not remember when the low grade of character presiding over many of our "great dailies" was more signally illustrated.-Boston Transcript. ALTOGETHER it is a trying, if not a dangerous thing, to be both a President and a bridegroom, and Mr. Cleveland is to be congratulated on having made the gauntlet he was to run so very short. But his experience will go a long ways to confirm the bad opinion he is supposed to hold of prying newspapers.-Springfield Republican, June 5. SCIENTIFIC. * HOW THE OYSTER MAKES HIS SHELL." Canst thou tell how an oyster makes his shell?" He starts with the hinge-end, at the spot known to conchologists as the umbo. "A small plate, or single scale, now represents each valve, and that is the first season's growth. The next season a new growth, or plate, shoots out from underneath the first one, just as shingles do. The oystermen call these laps or plates, shoots,' and they claim that the number of shoots indicates the years of the oyster. They certainly do contain a record of the seasons, showing the slow-growing and the fast-growing seasons. * * I have likened these shoots to shingles. Now, at the gable of a house the shingles may be seen edgewise. So on the side of an oyster-shell is a series of lines. This is the edgewise view of the shoo's, or season growths. Another factor is the purple spot, or scar, in the interior of the shell. It is the place of attachment of the adductor muscle. Its first place of attachment was close up to the hinge. Had it stayed there until the shell had become adult, how difficult would be the task of pulling the valves together-the leverage to be overcome would be so great; for we must bear in mind the fact that at the hinge-end the valves are held by this black ligament, which is, in life, elastic, swelling when the shell opens, and being compressed when the animal draws the valves together. So with every year's growth, or elongation of the shell, the mollusk moves the place of attachment of the muscle onward-that is, in advance further from the hinge. As it does so, it covers up with white nacre all the scars that are back of the one in actual use as the point of attachment of the muscle." To make the similitude of the oyster's shoots, or season-growths, with the shingles on a roof complete, "it would be necessary for the bottom shingle on the roof to underlie the whole series and reach even to the roof-tree, or ridge-pole. Then the second shingle from the gutter must in like manner underlie all the rest of the series; so of the third, and so on with the rest. In this way lie the shoots or laps of the oyster's shell. The last one deposited underlies them all, and every one terminates at the channel in the bill-so that this groove in the bill contains a series of transverse lines, each one marking a season or a year. Thus we get really four factors for the solution of the question, How old is the oyster?' all of which are the outcome of the method or way of making the shell.”—Prof. Lockwood, before the New York Microscopic Society. FACSIMILE TELEGRAPHY.-Most of the facsimile processes come under the head of chemical telegraphs, and are based upon the decomposition of a solution, usually of iodine, by the passage of a current. They all require special apparatus of a more or less complex nature, and hence are not adapted for every day roughand-ready work. Recently, however, Lieutenant Glen and Lieutenant-Golonel Melville, of the English army, have independently hit upon an ingenious system by which the ordinary operation of telegraphing may be made to serve the purpose of reproducing sketches and plans. Strickly speaking, the system is not a facsimile in the true sense of the word; but by its means very fair reproductions can be obtained, and its value in some situations and circumstances may be considerable. The method consists of either drawing the design to be transmitted on ruled paper, divided into little squares of vertical and horizontal lines, or laying a transparent paper, tracing cloth, or other transparent sheet, which must be so divided by lines into squares, over the drawing. The squares in each compartment are denoted, respectively, by pairs of letters, the alphabet running down the outer side for the horizontal rows of squares, and along the top for the squares in vertical series. A corresponding paper, which may be of a different scale if convenient, is kept at the receiving station. The operator at the transmitting station can thus indicate by alphabetical letters to the receiving station any point on the paper falling in the center of any of the squares; the person at the receiving station will apply his pencil to that point, and will then be directed to the next point, drawing a line with the pencil, and so on to form a complete outline drawing.— Scientific American Supplement, June 5. THE WONDERS OF AN EGG.-Mr. Matthieu Williams, in one of his lectures, says: Every one who eats his matutinal egg, eats a sermon and a miracle. Inside of that smooth, symmetrical, beautiful shell lurks a question which has been the Troy town for all the philosophers and scientists since Adam. Armed with the engines of war-the microscope, the scales, the offensive weapons of chemistry and reasonthey have probed and weighed and experimented; and still the question is unsolved, the citadel unsacked. Professor Bokorny can tell you that albumen is composed of so many molecules of carbon and nitrogen and hydrogen, and can persuade you of the difference between active and passive albumen, and can show by wonderfully delicate experiments what the aldehydes have to do in the separation of gold from his complicated solutions; but he can't tell you why from one egg comes a little rid hin,' and from another a bantam. You leave your little silver spoon an hour in your egg-cup, and it is coated with a compound of sulphur. Why is that sulphur there? Wonderful, that evolution should provide for the bones of the future hen! There is phosphorus also in that little microcosm; and the oxygen of the air, passing through the shell, unites with it, and the acid dissolves the shell, thus making good strong bones for the chick, and at the same time thinning the prison walls. Chemists know a good deal now about albumen, and if they cannot tell us why life differentiates itself therein and thereby, they can tell you how not to spoil your breakfast.”—Popular Science News. New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, June 3 [Translated expressly for PUBLIC OPINION.] A NEW WAR BALLOON.-People have lately been talking a good deal in France about a new, manageable balloon, adapted chiefly to military purposes, which its inventor, Godard, has named the "Dynamiteuse." The latter has made to the editor of Voltaire the following communication respecting his invention: "I am firmly convinced," said he, "that my balloon will render most important services to the army. Its inflation is rapid, and the cost but little; it can be perforated by bullets without bursting or falling to the ground, and it can be made to ascend at pleasure, and remain aloft for an indefinite space of time. It costs only 40 francs per 5,000 tons to inflate it, while the same balloon filled with gas will cost 1,500 francs. Mine is ready for ascension in less than an hour; for others twelve hours are required. Rifle balls cannot harm it, for the warm air does not explode; neither can it be set fire to. With my balloon, in fact, one can reach a splendid point of observation for a survey of the field maneuvers of an entire army; and in case of necessity the Dynamiteuse ' can play an aggressive role, projecting a hailstorm of missiles upon the enemy's reserves.' A HOT PEN.-By means of the new and ingenious little instrument known as the hyalolyphotype, or hot pen, drawings can be made on glass or glassy substances, with a waxy composition, which is solid and somewhat hard at ordinary temperatures. The pen is so contrived that it can be heated by either gas or an electric current, and the waxy material flows easily from the heated pen, setting so quickly on the glass that cross-hatching can be done more rapidly than with ordinary pen and ink, without risk of blocking np the angles; corrections, too, can be made with the greatest ease by means of a penknife, which leaves the surface afterward intact. After the drawing has been made the plate is etched by fluoric acid, and when complete it can be either electrotyped, stereotyped, used direct, or applied to any purpose for which engraved surfaces are required.—London Paper. AUTOMATIC CONTROL OF TEMPERATURE OF ROOMS.-A novel device for controlling the temperature of rooms heated by natural gas has lately been invented by Mr. Westinghouse, and has been patented. It consists of a brass tube filled with alcohol, fastened to the wall of the room. This tube connects with the gas pipe leading to the grate, where it is attached to an automatic valve. Attached to a tube of alcohol is a check-cock arrangement which can be set at any desired temperature. If the temperature rises above this, the alcohol thermometer records the fact and communicates it by an electric wire to the valve, which is closed. As soon as the temperature commences to fall below the desired degree, the valve is opened by the same method. Should the weather grow warmer, the instrument gradually shuts off the gas sufficiently to maintain the proper temperature.-Invention. A NEW STEERABLE BALLOON of colossal size is being constructed in Berlin by its inventor, Herr Hermann Ganswindt. The object is to secure, by means of the great size of the balloon, a swiftness of its own, which will be so great as to exceed that of the strongest winds. After long observation at various meteorological stations, it has been found that the speed of the wind near the surface of the earth is not 12 metres per second, while Ganswindt's balloon is calculated for a speed of 14 to 15 metres. With this speed it is held to be quite practicable to steer the balloon. The project is thought well of, and it is stated that already an offer of 200,000 marks (£10,000) has been made for the patent.-London Paper. NOTES. A member of Congress is reported to have said to some of his constituents who were sight-seeing in Washington: "Go first to the Smithsonian Institution, where you will see all that God ever made; go thence to the Patent-office where you will see all that man ever made.". -The great Mexican volcano, Popocatapetl, has been remeasured, and found to be 17,800 feet above the sea. The crater, which is completely obscured within by sulphurous vapor, is about 21⁄2 miles in circuit and 1,000 feet deep. The entire centre of the top of the mountain seems to be solid sulphur, which is deposited at the rate of a ton a day.The discovery has been made in Switzerland of a bright green moss growing on calcareous rocks 200 feet below the surface of Lake Leman. No other moss has been known so far under water, and how chlorophyl, the green coloring matter, could have been so richly developed in a place so remote from the light is a problem.The new French gun, weighing thirty-seven tons, has thrown a projectile weighing 1,000 pounds over eight miles. The English 43-ton gun has a maximum range nearly as great. The English 63-ton gun is credited with the theoretical range of over ten miles. It is true that these extreme ranges are attained with elevations which may not be secured in the turret ports of a vessel.Franklin and Marshall College, at Lancaster, Pa., is establishing an observatory of instruction. It possesses a beautiful equatorial, the object glass, thirteen inches in diameter, made by Clark, and the mounting by Repsold. It is the only large equatorial by Repsold in the country.- -Notwithstandiug the fact that at the opposition just past the planet Mars was nearly as far from the earth as possible, never approaching the earth nearer than sixty-two millions of miles, yet its two little satelites were both of them seen and observed at Washington and Princeton. They were both very accurately in the place assigned to them by the calculations of Prof. Hall from the data obtained in 1877, '79, and '81. Six comets are now visible, including -On the evening of May 22, Prof. Brooks, Encke's periodic heavenly wanderer.. of Phelps, N. Y., discovered another comet, having a right ascension of 11h. 51m. 15s., and a north declination of 80 55'15". The wanderer is reported as large but faint, and has a slow motion to the southeast. Its discovery secures to Prof. Brooks the first, second, and third Warner prizes of the year.- -Fabry's and Barnard's comets, the two that have been with us since last December, have now disappeared from view in the northern hemisphere. Very few astronomers appear to have seen them.- -A valuable collection of bird skins, formed by the late Sir William Jardine, of Scotland, is announced for sale by auction in London. They number between eight and nine thousand, are in a fine state of preservation and are said to be exceedingly valuable.- -Successful trials have recently been conducted in Germany of shells containing exploding charges of gun-cotton. L'Avenir Militaire, which watches German progress with a most jealous eye, says very extraordinary results have been obtained. These results have at any rate proven so satisfactory that the War office has ordered 65,000 of these projectiles to be made. -Dr. C. A. Bell, of this city, claims to have made a wonderful discovery by means of which sound waves which cause revibration in a fluid jet can be photo-graphed and accurately reproduced by the aid of a microphone. A curious flower was recently discovered on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico. It has a faculty of changing its color during the day. It grows on a tree. Another peculiarity of this floral chameleon is that it only gives out perfume at noontime. One of the strangest things about this flower, however, is that it should be found in Mexico, when its colors are those of the United States flag. In the morning it is white, at noon it changes to red, and at night it adopts a soft blue color. -There is said to be in the Indian Ocean a floating bed of pumice-stone, which, according to some recent observations, has traveled during the past twelve months a distance of 1,676 miles; a daily average of nearly five miles.. -The Saw Mill Gazette relates that an oak tree was recently cut that measured seven feet in diameter, from which were cut 9,200 pieces for 30-inch staves. From the top of the tree were cut 500 pieces of heading and 15% cords of stove wood. The counting of the grain indicated that the tree was 684 years old.- -The prevention of decay in wood is said to be effectively accomplished by exhausting the air from the pores and filling them with a gutta-percha solution, a substance which preserves the wood alike from moisture, water, and the action of the sun. The solution is made by mixing two-thirds of gutta percha to one-third paraffine, this mixture being then heated to liquefy the gutta percha, when it is readily introduced into the pores of the wood, the effect of the gutta percha being, when it becomes cool, to harden the pores.- -Dr. Charles Upham Shepard, well-known for his collections in mineralogy, died at Charleston, May 1. For a considerable portion of his life he was identified with the South Carolina medical college, and aided greatly in giving that institution an honorable standing. He was also connected with Amherst college; and to this college he gave his vast collection of minerals, which was unfortunately destroyed in 1880.- -A note from Dr. Hyde of Honolulu, reports that "news has just come that on March 6 the bottom fell out of the volcano, and that Kilauea is now only a black hole in the ground; no lava, no fire, to be seen. There were forty-nine earthquakes on the island of Hawaii at the time, and probably some new vent opened for the subterranean fires." The excess of exports over imports, it will be here seen, was only $1,809,966 for the month, as against $5,744,267 for April, 1885, while for the four months ended April 30, the excess was only $20,187,085, a decrease of $36,320,949, as compared with the corresponding period of last year.--The Stockholder, June 5. IN Germany the hours of labor average per week, in textile factories, 72; in machine factories, 60. In France, in textile factories, 72; in machine factories, 60. In Austria, 66 in each. In Russia, in textile factories, from 72 to 84; in machine factories, 72. In Switzerland, 66 hours in each. In Belgium, in textile factories, 72; in machine factories, 62. In Italy, in textile factories, 69 to 90; in machine factories, 72. In Holland, in textile factories, 72; in machine factories, 64. In the United States, 60 in each. In Great Britain, in textile factories, 56; in ma chine factories, 52. In England factories generally close at 5:30 o'clock in the and at one on Saturday afternoon; while in the silk factories of Northern Italy the factories are open from 5 a. m. to 10 p. m., the hands working 941⁄2 hours per week, or 154 hours per day, exclusive of meal hours.-F. S. Jeans, in England's Supremacy. SOUTH AMERICAN MEAT EXPORTS.-The Buenos Ayres Standard asserts that the custom-house returns show a large increase in the shipments of preserved and frozen meat from that city. The increase is as follows: THE BUSINESS OUTLOOK. TRADE AND CROPS.-No June has seen a better prospect for a prosperous trade in the near future for years past than June, 1886. Crops promise better than in any year for four, and on many products the largest. yield on record per acre and in total is probable. Stocks of manufactured articles have not been smaller since the boom of 1879 drove mills night and day in 1880 to keep up with the demand. The aggregate consumption of the great staples of manufacture-iron, cotton, and wool has been larger in the first six months of 1886 than in any recent years. During the past half year the output of manufactured articles has been so large that it is within bounds to say that the aggregate of wages paid out in the manu. facturing industries has never been larger in spite of the interruptions of strikes. This is a difficult thing to prove, but we do not think it will be questioned by the best judges. Our cotton mills from September 1 to June 1, for instance, used 1,956,000 bales of cotton this year, 15 per cent. more than the average consumption for five years past, and the total wages paid out in spinning this cotton increased, if not in proportion, still in somewhat the same degree. At the same time, food is nearly as cheap as it was in 1878, when work was scarce; so that a much larger share of wages is left after subsistence is received than when wages and food were both higher in 1880. These are all highly prosperous conditions. We do not see how they can be interpreted to mean anything but an improvement in trade as soon as the summer months are over. The largest carpet sale in New York last week, aggregating $1,250,000, the most successful of its class ever held, told a most remarkable story of the presence of a large demand ready to absorb old stocks-the carpets were all last season's patterns the moment they are offered. Railroad returns show weak spots here and there, but, taken as a whole, they are most favorable. Law and order have asserted their control in all our labor troubles, and people with a few dollars to invest-your millionaire can generally take care of his profits-feel a good deal more secure over the future than they did. The one particular in which the statistical situation points to a decreasing demand is in sugar, coffee, and some other large imports where stocks have unaccountably increased over a year ago. Against this may fairly be balanced the fact that while our wheat promises to be bigger than a year ago, this crop abroad shows a falling off which led to a sharp advance last week. Turning to more specific indications, gold exports seem to have had a check, and May merchandise exports were sufficiently large, in cotton particularly, to give hope that no more gold will leave for some time to come. Silver fell last week again, but our own gold reserve remains large enough to still alarm. Money is easier, and this has been accompanied by an increase in New York bank loans. Beyond the rise in breadstuffs last week the price of the great staples has been stationary.-Philadelphia Press, June 7. NOTES.-The exhibition buildings at New Orleans were recently sold at auction. The main building, which cost over $500,000, brought $9,050, and the Government building brought only $4,100.The Third National Bank of Cincinnati is remarkable among the banks of the country from the fact that although the capital is $1,000,000 the most of it is owned by women.- The New England Granite Company, at Westerly, R. I., has adopted a plan which will probably secure exemption from labor troubles to them. It is to pay the workmen their wages as usual, and at the end of the year divide the profits of the business with them on this plan: First, the shareholders are to receive interest on their capital out of the profits, then all accounts are to be settled, and after this is done, the remainder is to be called the net profits, and divided in equal thirds between the workmen, the shareholders and a permanent reserve fund. The workingmen are not oversanguine that their profits will be very large, but they are going to try the scheme for a year and patiently await results.- -The wheat yield of the United States for 1886 is estimated at 475,000,000 bushels.- -Dallas, Texas, expended over $400,000 on city improvements during the past four years. -Of 5,276,334 farms in Germany, according to a recently-published volume of imperial statistics, only 391,746 use machinery at all-not much over 7 per cent.-and of these by far the larger proportion only the threshing machine. Four million German peasants use no machinery at all.- During the calendar year 1885 the United States coined $27,773,012.50 of gold, $28,962,176.20 of silver and $191,622.04 of minor coins, a total of $56,926,810.74The product of the State of Colorado for 1885 is es timated to have been $4,669,899 in gold, and $15,427,973 in silver, making a total of $20,097,872, or a decrease of $202,128 when compared with the report of 1884. -Imported corduroy is becoming more and more a fashionable article of cloth. ing for both gentlemen and ladies.- -$37,000,000 were spent for liquors last year in Mass.-There are eighty-two glue factories in the United States. The product is valued at $5,000,000 annually.- -In Wisconsion, New York and Connecticut boycotting has been adjudged a criminal offense.- -At the present price of bar silver there are only 76 cents in a Bland dollar.- -The first woolen mill in British Columbia is to be built at New Westminster. An immense vein of roofing slate has been discovered at Guilford, Me.—————Low prices abroad and the inability of American manufacturers to fill orders on time are said to have resulted in a sale of 3,000 tons of English steel rails, the purchase being made by the Southern Pacific Company. The price was $39 at New Orleans.- -The Vera Cruz, Mexico, city council has advertised for bids for the construction of water works for that city to cost $100,000.—The American Iron and Steel Association makes an appeal for greater restriction upon foreign immigration.There is a significan decline in the export of flour. A prominent member of the trade in St. Louis recently made the statement, "We cannot sell a barrel of flour in New England, New York or abroad and come out even. I have also cabeled all over Europe trying to sell flour at present prices, and have not sold a sack.". -The total overland exports for March from California amounted to 77,024,790 pounds, and filled 3,851 cars. -The war fund of the German Empire is kept at Spandau in the Juliusthurn, one of the most inaccessible towers in the world. The huge safe contains 120 million marks (thirty million dollars) in gold coin. Each million is divided among ten bags containing 100,000 marks each-two-thirds in twenty-mark pieces, one-third in ten-mark pieces. There are three other reserve funds of the Empire deposited in this tower, viz, the invalid fund, the fortress fund and the fund for the construction of the House of Parliament.- -President Clark, of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, talked in Wall street yesterday about the reports that English manufacturers were delivering steel rails for railroads at New Orleans for $39. "We have just sold steel rails," he said, "to the Southern Pacific Company at $35.50 at Hoboken. Added to this price freight charges of $3 a ton would make the net price at New Orleans $38.50. If it is true that English rails are imported into New Orleans at $39, there is a clean loss to the English maker. It is claimed in England that a good rail cannot be made there for less than $21 a ton, and freight and duties would bring the price at New Orleans to $41. We have within the past six weeks sold 24,000 tons of steel rails in different lots to railroad companies at $34 at the mill. These companies would have given English makers the preference at the same price, if it could have been done."The very choicest dairy butter sells in Wiltshire, England, for 18 cents a pound. -The issue of standard silver dollars from the mints during the week ended June 5th was $446,055. The issue during the corresponding period last year was $476,987. The shipments of fractional silver coin since June I amounted to $79,047.- -Indian Commissioner Atkins, who has returned from New York, says that this year's contracts for Indian supplies are much more favorable to the Government than for several years, and estimates the reduction, based upon the quantites required last year, at over $200,000, of which about $175,000 is on beef alone. This reduction is said to be due to the prevailing low price of beef and the active competition among bidders. RELIGIOUS. NOTES. Over one hundred works written within the past century have placed the time for the beginning of the millennium between 1886 and 1890.- -About one-fifth of the population of Philadelphia is in the Sunday-school.- A Methodist paper gives the following: "Our church festival is over. The treasury has $53.19 net gain-that is, credit side. The debit shows an appalling list of misunderstandings; several cases of dyspepsia aggravated by late suppers eaten on the supposition that church suppers are not injurious; a thin attendance at prayermeeting the evening following; a spirit of exultation because we cleared $1.79 more than our Baptist neighbors; a spirit of bitterness because some one said their singing was better than ours."- -The British and Foreign Bible Society was organized in March, 1804. From that time to March 31, 1885, it has issued 32,779,623 Bibles, 49,306,165 New Testaments, and of portions of the Scriptures, 22,111,118-making nearly 105,000,000 copies of the Word of God.- -The following bishops elected by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, on the 18th inst., were formally consecrated to their high office on Thursday last: Rev. William Wallace Duncan, of South Carolina; Rev. Charles D. Galloway, of Mississippi; Rev. Dr. Eugene Russell Hendrix and Rev. Dr. Joseph Stanton, of Kentucky.- -Between four and five thousand Chinamen, it is said, are instructed in the Sunday-schools of New York.—— Herr Adolph Osten, a Jewish merchant at Xanten-on-the-Rhine, possesses what is undoubtedly a unique collection of the Passover Evening Service. In his library he has no less than 114 different edi tions of the Hagada which have been published from the beginning of the 16th century to the present day.- -The Archbishop of Cherson, in whose diocese Odessa is situated, has published a strong protest against the late anti-Jewish riots in that city. The prelate exhorts his fellow-Christians to live in amity with the Jews.- The Papal ablegates to carry the Cardinals' Berrettas to America are Mgr. Straniero, of the Nunciature at Vienna, for the Archbishop of Baltimore, and Mgr. O'Bryen for the Archbishop of Quebec.- -The senior archbishop of the Church in the United States, Most Rev. Peter Richard Kenrick, of St. Louis, Mo., has been entrusted with the duty of representing the Holy Father in conferring the Red Berretta of the Cardinalate on Archbishop Gibbons, of Baltimore.- A Roman Catholic church is to be built at Jerusalem in which masses will be said daily for the dead and dying throughout Christendom. It is to be called the "Chapel of the Dead." -It has been definitely decided that a Unitarian chapel, to cost about $15,000, will be erected by the church at Quincy, Mass., beneath whose main edifice lie the remains of Presidents John and John Quincy Adams.- -At the reception given to the members of the Presbyterian General Convention by the citizens of St. Paul, over six hundred persons were seated in handsome carriages and driven over the city, and over eight hundred sat down to a substantial collation. Greetings from the Southern General Assembly and the Cumberland Presbyterian assemblies were received with prolonged applause.- -The entire receipts of all the Presbyterian boards for 1884-'5 were $1,729,638.01. The entire receipts for 1885-'6 have been $1,931,811.07, or an increase of $202,173.06. At the close of 1884-'5 the debts of all the boards amounted to $213,152.41; now they are $134,07453. The balances on hand then were $17,338.71; now they are $59,513.52, of which, however, the Board of Church Erection has $45,046.73. The debts of all the boards this year are less by $79,077.08 than they were last year.The Southern Presbyterian Church gave to foreign missions $73,170.27, an advance of $606.06. There is a balance of $6,861.07 in the treasury. RAILROADS. ENGLISH RAILWAY STATIONS.-Another thing in which the English railways surpass the American is the stations. The Grand Central depot in New York is as fine as any of the stations in English cities, and Byrn Mawr on the Pennsylvania line is as pretty as any country station; but these are exceptional in the United States. In England nearly every village has a comfortable and picturesque little station, with ample shelter and a tiled and graveled platform; it is set in a garden which the station-master and his wife spend much loving care upon; even the name of the place is often printed in flowers. Between the stations there are a few untidy fences. The line runs between steep embankments, green from top to bottom, or between dense hedges of hawthorn or laurel, which prevent trespassing. In entering or passing through cities it is either tunnelled or carried above the surface by viaducts; it is never in the public streets, as in the United States. The stations in cities and large towns are magnificent buildings, provided with refreshment rooms, "left luggage" offices, inquiry offices, bookstalls, and lavatories. charge of 2d, is made for the use of the latter, including clean towels, soap, hot water, and the services of an attendant. Passengers going long distances are provided with luncheon baskets like those used on the Washington limited express. Each basket contains a napkin, knife and fork, plate, glass, condiments, a portion of cold meat or poultry, bread and butter, and a bottle of claret, ale or stout. The basket and its furniture are delivered to one of the attendants at the end of the route, and the charge made for the luncheon is 35., or 75 cents.— William H. Rideing in June Brooklyn Magazine. EDUCATIONAL. A NOTES.-Thirty-six million people speak English; forty million, French; sixtytwo million, German; seventeen million, Spanish; twenty-eight million, Italian; six million, Greek; Dutch, six million; Swedish, five million; Norwegian and Danish, four million; Hungarian, six million; Polish, ten million; Romanian, seven million; various Slav languages, twenty million.- -In some of the States teachers' salaries are paid monthly according to the following table; Illinoismales, $46.86; females, $37.76. Maine-males, $37.39; females, $22.40. Massachusetts-males, $102.90; females, $34.32. Michigan-males, $41 50; females, $27.44. New York-$43,28. Ohio-males, $39.00; females, $29.00. Pennsylvania-males, $35.12; females, $28.89. Wisconsin-males, $38.91; females, $25.40.- -The average salaries paid to teachers in the different cantons of Switzerland are as follows: In Basle-masters, 128; mistresses, £61. In Zurich--masters, £89; mistresses, £72. In Geneva-masters, £87; mistresses, £49. In Berne-masters, £55; mistresses, £41. In Valais-masters, 17; mistresses, £13. -The salaries paid at Paris are as follows: Head masters-Class 1, £180 plus residence; class 2, 4,200 francs plus residence, etc.; class 3, £156; class 4, 144; and class 5, 132. Head mistresses of girls' schools-Class 1, £150; class 2, 140; class 3, 130; class 4, £120; and class 5, 110. Head mistresses of Ecoles Maternelles (infant schools)—Class 1, 3,750 fr.; class 2, 3,500 fr.; class 3, 3,250 fr.; class 4, 3,000 fr.; and class 5, 2,750.The University of Heidelberg is 500 years old the senior of the German universities.- -Out of 303 colleges in this country, 115 use the Roman, 114 the English, and 34 the continental pronunciations of Latin, -Three experienced teachers selected by Commissioner Eaton, of the National Bureau of Education, left New York City recently, having been engaged by the Corean Government to introduce our language and teaching methods in that country. -In the United States every two-hundredth man takes a college course; in England, every five hundredth; in Scotland, every six hundred and fifteenth ; and in Germany, every one hundred and thirteenth.- -It is said that at least 75,000 teachers in the United States are reading methodically and professionally.- It is said that an Eastern teacher required her pupils to write, in twenty words, the definition of "man.' One answer read as follows: "Man is an animal that stands up. He is not very big, and he has to work for a living."- -In Paris the substitutes, or teachers on supply, are paid a fixed salary-men, 1,200 francs; women, 1,000 francs, and five francs for each day of work as supply. -There are in the United States 255 normal schools, with 1,937 instructors and 60,063 students. Business colleges number 221, having 1,015 instructors and 44,074 students. There are 358 kindergartens, with 831 instructors and 17,002 pupils. -Eggart Gunnarson, administrator of the national domain of Iceland, founder of a ladies' college in the north of Iceland, is in America in the interest of his school, which, with its ten years of successful life, makes a vigorous appeal to the benevolent public.. -In 1883-4 the United States had 13.4 per cent. of its population who were unable to read and write; England and Wales, 15 per cent.; Germany, 1.32 per cent. There is no American State that can compare with any prominent German province in regularity and punctuality of attendance and thoroughness of education.- --In a clergyman's house, where there was a bright little three-year-old boy, seven lovely little kittens had been born the night before. The next morning the dear old minister, in his grace, said: "O Lord, consecrate, we pray thee, the repast set before us, and accept our thanks for the new blessings of the past night. Amen." The little fellow immediately responded: "Seven of them, papa." MEDICAL. HOUSEHOLD HYGIENE AND BUILDERS.-We find in the London Lancet the following timely suggestion regarding household hygiene: A builder at Newcastle agreed in his contract to turn over a residence, which he was building for a merchant, to the latter in a good sanitary condition. Scarcely had the house been occupied when a member of the family was severely prostrated from blood-poisoning. A house inspection revealed a "very defective condition of the house drains," to which the illness was attributed by the house physician. Thereupon the owner instituted proceedings for damages, to avoid which the builder preferred to make a payment of $2,500. "A few instances of this nature," says the Lancet, "would do much to further a correct estimate of house sanitation in the building mind.'" It seems hardly necessary to draw from this a lesson for conditions in our own country, which are, at times, outrageously bad.-Building. ASIATIC CHOLERA.-The symptoms and methods of attack of cholera, differ greatly in neighboring cases during the same epidemic. Sometimes preceded by diarrhoea, the cholera develops only after several days of such premonitory illness. Again it strikes its victim while asleep after a day of apparently perfect health. In one case it produces profuse vomitings and dejections, in another neither of these symptoms. One victim is stricken with intense chills, suppression of urine, loss of voice, and violent cramps, while another feels only a painful compression of the chest. Here a case begins with violent symptoms, which soon yields to treatment; there another which, from a mild and nearly painless beginning, proceeds irresistibly to complications which result in death.-Catholic Columbian. NOTES.-The replacement of a diseased eye by the healthy eye of an animal has now been done five times, with one success, says the Medical Record. In the four cases the cornea sloughed; in two, however, firm vascular adhesions took place. -The Association of American Physicians will hold its first annual meeting in Washington the 17th and 18th insts. Dr. Francis Delafield, of New York, will preside.The Massachusetts Medical Society is discussing "the effect of Military Drill on Poys."- -The Long Island College Hospital held its annual commencement exercises at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.- The Third District branch of the New York State Medical Association holds its second annual meeting at Binghampton.The 96th annual meeting of the New Hampshire Medical Society will be held at Concord, June 15 and 16. son. MUSIC. NOTES." Flora Mirabilis" is the title of an original 3-act opera, that is fascinating Europe, by a young Greek composer named Spira Samara. -It is stated in the current number of Le Menestrel that the series of historical concerts recently given by Rubínstein at St. Petersburg and Moscow have produced a profit of 200,000 francs ($40,000). It is added that the great virtuoso intends to devote a considerable part of this sum to the foundation of two prizes, of the value of 5,000 francs each, to be gived every five years, one for piano playing and the other for composition. The prizes are to be open to competitors of all nations, and the judges are to be appointed by the Russian Musical Society, which is to have charge of all the arrangements.The Mendelssohn Quintet Club has given 150 concerts this sea-Herren, Pollini and Maurice, managers of the Opera House at Hamburg have decided not to engage any singers that accept offers to appear in the United States. -A grandson of Von Weber has produced successfully, at Leipsic, an opera entitled "Die von Hutten.". -It is a prevailing opinion that Theodore Thomas will not be engaged to conduct the next musical festival in Cincinnati.During the thirty-eight weeks of "The Mikado" at the Fifth Avenue Theater the gross receipts were $283,000, an average of $1,051 a night for 269 nights. At the Hollis Street Theater, Boston, 169 performances of the operetta brought in more than $100,000. Mr. Stetson has also had a number of traveling companies "on the road" with "The Mikado.". -Louis Blumenburg, the great violoncello virtuoso, has just returned to New York after an absence of six months, during which time he has appeared with the greatest success in one hundred and fifty concerts throughout the United States and Canada in conjunction with the Mendelssohn Quintet Club, of Boston. Mr. Blumenberg has received a good offer to play in Europe, but has not yet decided to accept.-Liberati, the cornet virtuoso, attracted enormous crowds to the Park at San Francisco a week ago. It is said that the Market Street Railway Company, which pays for the Park concerts, pays Liberati $500 for six concerts.- -Five musical festivals have already adhered to the "No Encore" system. The Belgian brass wind instrument makers, Messrs. Mahilon, have lately introduced a new reed brass instrument for a new form of the double bassoon; the great power and facility with which it can be played upon will, doubtless, lead to its speedy popularity at least in wind bands. |