Thus having propitiated the aesthetic feeling as well as the benevolent

heart of the householder, the circular proceeds to business by

declaring that "the bearers are a party of unemployed tradesmen, who,"

etc. There is, of course, no resisting the appeal to buy the poem and

the benediction; only, when Dora the doormaid is afterward questioned

how many unemployed tradesmen formed the party, and she answers, "Only

one, ma'am, and he's no tradesman," we look at each other as we do when

"The Blind Man's Prayer" is given to us in the street car by some

bright-eyed little girl, or some boy who meanwhile munches an apple.

"It's my uncle," says the lad, if asked whether he is perhaps, the

person alluded to in the lines, "You see before you a poor, blind man,"

etc.; and I fancy that the literature of mendicancy has now become

important enough to furnish a large variety of printed forms, so that

the regular customer can choose for himself whether in any particular

season he will be a poor blind man, or a lady that has seen better

days, or a party of poetical mechanics.

PHILIP QUILIBET.

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

THE SURVEY IN CALIFORNIA.

In Lieutenant Wheeler's report of operations on the geographical and

geological survey of the Territories west of the 100th meridian during

1876, we find the first explanation of the origin of the name

California. The mountainous country of Mexico has three climates

through which the traveller passes in going from the sea to the high

country, the hot, the temperate, and the cold zones. The Mexicans call

them _tierra caliente_, _tierra templada_, and _tierra fria_. They

entered the present region of California from Sonora or New Mexico, and

on their way passed a lake now called Lake Elizabeth, on the border of

the California desert. There a violent west wind blows night and day.

It is a real _sirocco_, dry, and so hot as to remind one of a blast

from a furnace. The Mexicans accordingly made the country beyond it the

fourth in their series of ascending temperatures, and named it _tierra

california_, the country hot as a furnace.

This report is one of the most valuable produced by the survey. During

the year the great area in California which lies below the level of the

sea was examined to ascertain whether it could be filled and maintained

as a lake by a canal from the Colorado river, and the decision is in

the negative. The depressed area covers about 1,600 square miles in

California, and the difference between the rainfall and the evaporation

is so small that if the whole Colorado river were poured into the

basin, it would cover only 556 square miles of surface, or little more

than one-third the basin. Filling would cease at that level for the

reason that the whole supply of the river would disappear in vapor. The

slope of the Colorado river is extraordinary, 2.13 feet per mile at

Stone's Ferry, and 1.21 feet at Camp Mohave, which may be compared with

eight inches, the average fall of the Mississippi per mile. At Stone's

Ferry the velocity is 3.217 feet per second and the discharge 18,410

cubic feet. Great difficulties stand in the way of the proposed canal,

and the engineers do not think the lake, if it could be formed, would

have an appreciable effect upon the climate of the surrounding region.

The primary object of this survey is to carry the grand triangulation

of the continent across the country under its jurisdiction, and to map

the surface so as to enable the Government to put the ground properly

in market. In addition to these objects a great amount of valuable work

is done in geology and natural history.

Prof. Jules Marcou, geologist attached to the survey, points out that

the valleys of Santa Clara and Santa Barbara in California may become

the site of _true_ artesian oil wells. The ordinary flowing oil well is

supposed to obtain the force which lifts its oil above the surface

level from confined gases in the earth, but in California the lift will

be obtained in precisely the same manner as in the case of artesian

wells for water. There are strata of sandstone impregnated with the

petroleum, and these strata are lifted up on the mountain sides, so

that a well bored at a low point in the valley would be supplied from a

reservoir some thousands of feet high. The wells will have to be about

three thousand feet deep.

The naturalists of the survey noted many singular phenomena of animal

life. On the islands off the coast there is a race of liliputian foxes

which is supposed to have been derived from the Gray fox, its small

size and perfect fearlessness, together with its insect diet, being due

to its confinement to the islands. This animal is so small that even

the sheep breeders do not fear it. It lies under the cactus plants for

its noonday nap, and to this fact must be due the remarkable

circumstance noticed in skinning a number of them. In every instance

the interior surface of the hide was perforated by cactus spines, and

in one individual the hide was fairly coated within by these spines,

some of which had become soft with age. There were so many that a knife

could not have pierced the hide without touching the spines!

Another fact developed was that the great dread of the grizzly bear is

resulting in his rapid extinction. Strychnine is considered

indispensable to the outfit of a California shepherd, and the grizzlies

have been killed or forced to the mountains, where they still linger in

considerable numbers in the chapparal. It is noticeable that the Rocky

mountain grizzly is a tame creature compared with his brother of the

Sierra Nevada, who does not hesitate to take the initiative in a combat

with man.

* * * * *

A GERMAN SAVANT AMONG THE SIOUX.

Prof. Virchow lately informed the Berlin Anthropological Society that

an intrepid young German traveller, Herr von Horn von der Horck, is now

(January, 1877) living among the Sioux Indians busily engaged in taking

plaster casts for craniological studies. Von der Horck made a journey

to the Polar sea last summer, returning by way of Lapland, where he

made enormous collections of bones, skulls, and casts. Prof. Virchow

says these collections are more complete in Scandinavian ethnology than

all that European museums outside of Scandinavia contain. One result of

this journey was the discovery of a continuous water way between the

Gulf of Bothnia and the Polar sea, though not one that is capable of

navigation. A lake, called Wawalo Lampi, lies on the divide between

these two bodies of water, and sends a river to each. The northward

flowing one is the Ivallo and the southward the Kititui. We are glad to

welcome so enthusiastic and thorough a student to this country. It is

precisely work like his that is needed in America, and the time for

accomplishing it is rapidly passing away. We have too much theory and

too little real investigation in American ethnology, and while the men

of hypotheses are talking about the origin of the Indians, and

endeavoring to trace them to Asiatic stocks through the medium of

language, the race is fast losing its purity by intermarriage, as it

has already lost the most distinctive of its peculiarities by

intercourse with the whites.

* * * * *

BALLOONING FOR AIR CURRENTS.

It is well known to meteorologists that the wind vanes as ordinarily

placed near the surface do not give a true indication of the wind. Even

when the vane is not over a city or town where the air currents near

the earth are affected by the direction of the streets, the varying

character of the surface in respect to radiation and absorption of heat

will modify them. It is therefore for good reasons that vanes are

perched up on high flagstaffs fixed on the roofs of buildings. Some of

these are more than a hundred feet above the ground, but recent

observations in Paris show that this is not enough. Small India-rubber

balloons a foot in diameter and with an ascensional force of about one

ounce were sent up, and as they rose slowly, at the rate of twelve feet

per second, the effect of the air currents upon them could be easily

marked. This was found to be very variable at heights of less than one

or two hundred metres (300 to 600 feet). The conclusion was that no

observations at lower levels were trustworthy.

* * * * *

THE GREATEST OF RIFLES.

In spite of the familiarity with great cannon which the advances in gun

construction of late years have produced, the experiments with the

100-ton gun of the Italian government have not failed to awaken general

interest and wonder. It fires a 2,000-pound shell, and a charge of 240

pounds of powder is but a portion of what the gun will bear. These

light charges have to be used if the penetrative effects of the gun

under unfavorable conditions are to be studied, for with its full

charge the weapon simply destroys anything that is put before it.

Comparative results cannot be obtained when the only effect is complete

ruin. It is somewhat remarkable that an over confident iron founder

should have chosen this weapon to test once more the value of _cast_

iron for defensive armor. His idea was that armor could be made so hard

by chilling the surface that the shot would be broken to pieces upon

it, and experiments with a good iron and guns of small calibre had

encouraged the hope. But a 2,000-pound shell and 400 pounds of powder

in the 100-ton gun proved anew the unfitness of this material for armor

plating. The shot had a velocity of 1,494 feet per second, and it

smashed through an 8-inch plate of wrought iron, a wood layer, and a

14-inch plate of chilled cast iron. The ruin produced was greater than

in any other experiment, the cast iron breaking into fragments. The

power of this gun, the greatest rifle ever made, is such that a solid

22-inch plate of the best English wrought iron is completely penetrated

by its shot.

* * * * *

VIENNA BREAD.

A "Vienna bakery" has been one of the most prominent objects at each of

the last three international exhibitions, and probably there are many

housekeepers who would be glad to know how this delicious bread is

made. Unfortunately success does not always follow imitation, and

several attempts to introduce the manufacture of this bread have

failed, even when Vienna bakers were employed in the work; and yet

there is absolutely no secret in the process. One of the American

commissioners to the Vienna exhibition, Prof. E. N. Horsford, gave an

elaborate report on this bread, and since he came to the conclusion

that it _can_ be made elsewhere, we will recount some of the causes

upon which in his opinion its excellence depends. These are the mode of

baking, the mode of making, the use of fresh "compressed yeast" which

produces no acetic acid in fermentation, the use of selected flour, the

mode of milling, and the kind of wheat.

_The Baking._--The loaf should be so small that fifteen or twenty

minutes will be sufficient to cook it through in an oven which is

heated to a temperature of about 500 deg., or the melting point of

bismuth. The rolls should not touch each other.

_The Mixing._--The proportions are:

8 pounds of flour,

3 quarts of milk and water, in equal proportions,

3-1-2 ounces of pressed yeast,

1 ounce of salt,

which should make about 380 rolls of the ordinary "Kaiser semmel"

size. The milk and water in equal parts are first mixed and allowed

to come to the usual temperature of a kitchen, and a small amount of

flour is then mixed in it so as to make a thin emulsion. The yeast is

added and well mixed in, first crumbling it in the hand, and the pan

is left covered for three-quarters of an hour. Then the rest of the

flour is slowly mixed in, with thorough kneading. The dough is left

for two hours and a half, "at the end of which time it presents a

smooth, tenacious, puffed, homogeneous mass, of slightly yellowish

color." It is weighed into pound masses (all bread must be sold by

weight in Europe), each of which is cut into twelve rolls. The

proportions for twelve rolls should therefore be about as follows:

1-4 pound of flour, 1-5 pints milk and water, 1-10 ounce pressed

yeast, and 1-32 ounce of salt. The small masses of dough have a

thickness of three-quarters of an inch, and the workman, laying the

back of his left forefinger in the centre of one, pulls out and folds

up the corners of the irregular mass, and pinches them together. The

little lump of dough is then reversed upon a smooth board, and after

remaining there long enough to finish "rising," they are placed in

the hot oven by means of a wooden shovel.

_The Yeast._--Pressed yeast, which is now made in America, is

obtained by skimming the froth from mash while it is in active

fermentation. The yeast is repeatedly washed with cold water until

it settles pure and white in the water. It forms a tenacious mass

which is pressed in a bag. It will keep about eight days in summer,

and indefinitely if put on ice.

_The Flour._--Only a selected part of the flour is used in Vienna

for the manufacture of white bread and rolls, amounting to about

forty-five per cent. of the wheat. Precisely the same grades are

not produced in the American process of milling, but Dr. Horsford

thinks that good, fresh middlings flour will compare favorably with

the average Hungarian flour.

_The Milling._--A peculiar mode of milling wheat has grown up in

Austria and Hungary, which is almost the antipodes of the old and

crude methods of grinding. It is called "high milling," and

consists in cracking the wheat by successive operations down to the

required size. First the wheat is run through a coarse mill, which

takes off the beard at one end and the germ at the other. The

resulting powder is then sifted, to separate the grits from the

dross and flour, and the central part is again cracked, and the

products sifted. Some flour is produced in each of these steps, but

the best of the wheat kernel is still in the condition of grits,

and the bran and outer coat of the kernel having been separated by

the sifting, the pure grits are now cracked once more, and number

one flour is produced. All the other flour from these three

operations is purified from bran, mixed and ground, making number

two flour. In short, the essential characteristic of the Austrian

system of milling lies in a gradual process of reducing the wheat,

with careful separation of the products, or cleaning, at each step.

These products are quite numerous, as the following list shows:

_Class._ _Percentage._

A. { Lady groats.

B. 4.25 { Table groats, fine.

C. { Table groats, coarse.

0. { Extra imperial flour.

1. 5.53 Extra fine flour.

2. 5.76 Ordinary fine flour.

3. 5.51 _Extra roll or semmel flour._

4. 6.48 _Common roll or semmel flour._

5. 7.12 First pollen flour.

6. 13.30 Second pollen flour.

7. 11.85 First dust flour.

8. 9.95 Second dust flour.

9. 4.36 Brown pollen flour.

10. 6.32 Fort flour.

F. 8.94 Fine bran.

G. 6.87 Coarse bran.

H. 3.76 Chicken feed, loss, and dirt.

----

100

This chicken feed consists of the foreign seeds, the tares, which

grow up with the wheat, and which are separated before milling. In

the above list only 39 to 40 per cent. of the flour is fit for white

bread making.

_The Wheat._--Last of all, in following back the processes of

Vienna bread making, we come to one of the essential requirements,

a proper kind of wheat. "The virtues of this bread," says Dr.

Horsford, "had their origin principally in the Hungarian wheat.

These are not due to any particular variety of wheat, or to any

marked peculiarity of soil or mode of fertilizing, or to a mean

annual temperature characterizing the climate of Hungary as a

whole, but to _a peculiarity of climate_, uniting especial dryness

of the air during the hot season, from the time of the development

of the milk of the berry, through the period of its segregation of

the various constituents of the grain, down to its being housed for

thrashing." The Hungarian wheat is red, shrivelled, and hard, and

it is this hardness that fits it so well to the successive

crackings which constitute the process of "high milling."

Vienna bread is white, fine grained, perfectly sweet, aromatic,

agreeable without butter, thoroughly baked, and has a tender crust, and

Dr. Horsford shows dearly that this combination of excellences is not

the result of an art, but of the joint operation of many arts. Its

introduction may be made an economical act, for its peculiar succulence

makes butter or other condiment unnecessary. It is, however,

essentially a _baker's_ bread, for it should be eaten on the day it is

made, and is at its best immediately after becoming cold. There is

little room for expecting it to replace the kind of bread in vogue in

American homes, for that is just as much the result of peculiar

circumstances as the product of the Hungarian farm, the Austrian mill,

and the Vienna oven. Economy in labor is just as much a consideration

in most American families as it is in our workshops, and the

semi-weekly or weekly baking is the means by which it is obtained. But

American housewives can improve their bread by adopting from the

Austrian system the whitening of the yeast by washing, the small loaf,

and the rapid baking. The use of selected flour can hardly be obtained

unless the millers are offered a market for the darker flour that

remains. In Europe that is at hand in the nutritious "black" bread

which is everywhere _the_ staff of life, white bread being a luxury

taken only with coffee. In fact it is American cake that the Vienna

roll comes in competition with, and the habit of making cake almost

daily, which obtains in so many American homes, shows that there is

time and labor which can be turned to the production of the Vienna

bread if desired.

* * * * *

MODERN LOSS IN WARFARE.

The German government has just published the official statistics of the

losses in the war with France. The total killed and wounded was 3,919

officers and 60,978 men. The killed and dead of wounds were 1,374

officers and 16,877 men, the proportion being 1 killed to 3.44 wounded

among the officers, and 1 to 5 among the men. The infantry lost 57,943,

artillery 4,266, and cavalry 2,236. Fighting in line, and at such a

distance as modern weapons command, have made the loss by artillery a

minimum; 5,084 of the casualties being due to artillery and 55,862 to

rifle practice. One noteworthy item is the proportion--12,717 out of

the whole number--that were struck about the head and shoulders. This

is held to show that the French troops fired high, but it may also be

due to the attention now paid to field defences. It is quite possible

also that all modern rifles are sighted a trifle too high.

* * * * *

A NEW TREASURY RULE.

The Secretary of the Treasury has lately issued a circular which

affects rather uncomfortably the interests of educational, scientific,

and literary institutions. They are allowed by law to import books,

instruments, and illustrative collections free of duty, and the

Secretary now says that the sale or distribution of articles imported

in this way will not be allowed. They must be retained in the

institutions that bring them into the country. It is quite probable

that advantage has sometimes been taken of the law's liberality in this

respect, but we fear this circular will really defeat the purpose of

the law. Collections of all kinds in colleges and schools are kept up

by a system of exchange, which is very necessary to them on account of

the small sums of money at their disposal. To break up this system in

the case of European specimens would be especially hard, for each

institution would then be forced to import single specimens at much

greater cost and trouble; or what is more likely, it would be found

cheaper to pay the duty; that is, purchase through a dealer. So long as

the exchange is confined to the circle of institutions which the law

was designed to benefit, we cannot see that its provisions are unduly

taken advantage of.

* * * * *

A HYGIENIC SCHOOL.

Dr. Agnew, the celebrated oculist of New York, has indicated his idea

of a school for little children, in which health should be a first

consideration, as follows: "If we could effect some alterations in the

style of school architecture in our school houses, especially the

primary departments, it would be a great desideratum. One of the

greatest evils at present existing is the method of constructing the

school room and of conducting the same. I never could understand why

children of the primary age are kept sitting on benches for a large

number of hours at a time. School houses ought to be built like the

hospital building at the corner of Lexington avenue and Forty-second

street, used for cripples, where there is in the upper story a large

room, called the solarium, which is in fact a large play room, exposed

to the sun, where these little ones are kept the greater part of the

time. The upper story of the school houses should be so constructed;

and children should be encouraged to bring their toys and playthings

with them; and then, instead of changing the age of admission from four

years, it might be kept as it is; and instead of shortening the hours

of attendance, lengthen them. Of course it should be taken for granted

that the school house is constructed for the accommodation of the poor

children, and in this light it would be better that such children

should spend most of the day in school houses having good sanitary

conditions, rather than, as they now do, in tenement houses. Thus you

would have these primary schools with plenty of air and light, which

you can get in the upper story, and children would be glad to come

early, and remain until three or four o'clock, or even later in the

afternoon."

* * * * *

MICROSCOPIC COMPARISON OF BLOOD CORPUSCLES.

Dr. J. G. Richardson of Philadelphia, whose views upon the subject of

proving blood stains by the use of the microscope have been described

in this Miscellany, has lately prepared slides for the microscope so as

to show blood corpuscles from two different animals on the same field.

He did this by flowing two drops of blood down the slide, and nearly in

contact. Dr. C. L. Mees has modified this proceeding. He spreads the

blood by Johnston's method, which is to touch a drop of blood to the

accurately ground edge of a slide, and then draw it gently over the

face of the other slide, leaving a beautifully spread film. In this way

one kind of blood is spread upon the slide, and another on the cover.

When dry, one half of each is carefully scraped off with a smoothly

sharpened knife, and the cover inverted upon the slide in such position

as to bring the remaining portions of the film into apposition. When

thus prepared the magnified image can be photographed.

* * * * *

THE SUMMER SCIENTIFIC SCHOOLS.

The Peabody Academy of Science at Salem, Massachusetts, will open the

second session of its summer school of biology July 6, the course to

continue for six weeks. Four days in each week will be given to

lectures and laboratory work, and one day to a dredging expedition.

Entomology, together with spiders, crustacea, and vertebrate anatomy,

will be the especial subjects of study this year, and as usual the

advantages enjoyed by this institution for studying marine zoology will

be fully utilized. Dr. A. S. Packard, assisted by Messrs. Emerton and

Kingsley, will have charge of zoology, Mr. Robinson of botany, Rev. Mr.

Bolles of microscopy, and Mr. Cooke of the dredging parties. Fees, $15,

or for lectures only, $5. Board $5 to $7 weekly. Application should be

made to Dr. Packard.

A four weeks' school will be opened at the State normal school, West

Chester, Pennsylvania, beginning July 11. Zoology and botany will be

taught by Prof. M. W. Harrington, geology and physiological chemistry

by Mr. V. C. Vaughan, and mineralogy by George G. Groff, all these

gentlemen being connected with the University of Michigan. Elocution

and industrial drawing will also be taught. Fees are for board and

tuition $30, and tuition alone $12. Apply to Mr. George L. Maris,

principal.

Scientific excursions seem to be the order of the day. Mr. Woodruff of

Detroit has planned one to make the tour of the world; and Mr. J. B.

Steere of Michigan university, who spent several years in a journey of

scientific character, says: "The expedition will probably leave New

York in October or November next, going directly to the mouth of the

Amazon, where some time will be spent in making collections in natural

history. The island of Marajo will be the principal field for this

work. Rio Janeiro will probably be called in at, on the way to the

Straits of Magellan, which will be reached in January or February (the

summer season there), and a stay will be made for the purpose of

collecting. The expedition will then make its way northwest, cruising

among several of the rarely visited groups of islands in the central

Pacific, where there is every opportunity for making large and valuable

collections of sea shells and corals as well as of the myriads of other

and rarer things brought up by the dredge. Some stay will probably be

made in New Guinea; but the next great object of interest will be the

island of Borneo. It is supposed that the northeast and central part of

this great island, which are the parts still unknown, can be best

reached through the assistance of the Dutch traders at Macassar on the

island of Celebes, where the expedition will touch on its way. It seems

probable that entering from the east side, with the proper guides and

interpreters, the interior of the island can be reached and explored,

and perhaps a party may be able to reach the west coast. Borneo is less

known than Central Africa, and there is a grand opportunity here for

Americans to solve the great problem of its interior lakes and

plateaus. A journey through an unexplored country like this cannot fail

also to give opportunity for collecting many new species of animals and

plants. From Borneo the expedition will make its way to the Philippine

islands, where there is great room still for discovery, not only in

natural history, but also in fixing the geographical knowledge of the

islands, which is at present very faulty. Several of the larger islands

of the group are entirely unknown in respect to their animal and

vegetable life. From the Philippines the expedition will go to the

island of Formosa, off the coast of China. This island is rich in

objects of interest to the naturalist, and the east and central parts

of the island are unknown. There are Chinese traders who visit the west

coast for the purpose of trade with the natives, and through their help

there is no doubt that much new work can be done in that locality. The

expedition will then visit Canton, and some others of the coast towns

of China, and begin its return voyage by way of Singapore, which is a

depot for all that is rare and curious in the East. Ceylon will then be

touched at, and the expedition will pass through the Red sea and Suez

canal. It is intended to spend some time in the Mediterranean in

visiting various places of interest, and to return home by way of

England. The voyage is expected to occupy two years' time, and to cost

students $2,500 per year, this sum paying costs of expeditions inland

and everything except personal expenses, clothing, etc. All the

collections made will belong to those who make them." This plan seems

to follow about the same line as Mr. Steere's own journey, and it would

certainly be a great advantage to the excursionists to be under the

guidance of an explorer who has so lately been over the ground. We

believe the company is nearly completed.

A similar trip is proposed in France, where a society supported by the

liberality of M. Bischofsheim, the well known banker, has been formed

for the purpose of encouraging periodical voyages. The travellers will

be scientific men, Dwuyn l'Lhuys being at their head, and as in the

American expedition, the vessel will be commanded by a naval officer.

The first voyage will be from Marseilles, and will occupy less than a

year, the line of travel being to America and India.

* * * * *

THE WAGES VALUE OF STEAM POWER.

Prof. Leone Levi, in a lecture to workingmen on "Work and Wages,"

estimated the amount of capital required to carry on some of the

industries in Great Britain. There are 20,000,000 acres of land

cultivated, which at L8 is L160,000,000. The cotton trade requires

L80,000,000, wool trade L30,000,000, iron trade L30,000,000, merchant

marine L70,000,000; railways have L600,000,000 invested in them, and

the waterworks, gasworks, docks, and other undertakings all call for

similar vast sums. Construction may be considered as the fixation of

work, and here we have about a thousand million pounds worth of fixed

labor. Labor in use deals with figures and values that are quite as

large. The annual industrial production of France is L480,000,000, and

of this L200,000,000 is labor, the remainder being _called_ material,

though if the items of its cost were ascertained, current labor would

be found to make up a great portion of that sum also.

But taking French manufactures as they are reported, we can obtain from

them an estimate of the value of machines. The first steam engine was

introduced into that country by the city of Paris in 1789, the year of

revolution. At that time the cost of labor in manufactures was 60 per

cent. and of material 40 per cent. of the whole cost. On this basis the

L280,000,000 worth of material used now would require L420,000,000 of

labor to work it up. The present industrial population of France is

8,400,000, though all are not fully effective, and on the old basis

this would have to be increased to 17,640,000 persons. The other

divisions of population, tradesmen, etc., would also increase, and the

result is finally apparent that France is not large enough to contain

and raise food for the people that would be needed to carry on the

modern business on the old methods. The _man_ power of the steam

machinery introduced into the industries is estimated at 31,500,000,

and as it replaces L220,000,000 worth of labor, we may reckon the wages

of a steam man power at L7, or $35, per year, exclusive of food (fuel)

and lodging.

* * * * *

THE NEGRO'S COLOR.

The chemical character of the coloring matter in the negro's skin has

been investigated by Dr. F. P. Floyd, in the laboratory of the

University of Virginia. Strips of skin were well washed with water and

alcohol, in order to remove fatty matter, and then cautiously scraped

with a blunt scalpel, to loosen up the pigment granules. This must be

carefully done, for an examination of the scraped skin shows that the

whole substance of the cuticular tissue may easily be broken up and

mingled with the pigment, which cannot then be obtained pure. But by

selecting the most strongly colored parts and treating them carefully,

the following points were established: The coloring matter is insoluble

in water, alcohol, and ether. It is also unaffected by dilute acids or

dilute solutions of alkali. The strong acids, even concentrated nitric

acid, attack it but slowly. Chlorine destroys it especially in presence

of alkali. Heated for some time with a strong solution of sodium

hydrate, it is gradually dissolved, and from the diluted solution it

may be partially precipitated on neutralization with an acid. The ash

of the negro skin gave twice as much ash as the white skin, or 2.4 per

cent. against 1.15 per cent. Analyses of the ash for iron showed 2.28

per cent. of metallic iron in the black and 1.21 per cent. in the white

skin. These facts confirm the general impression that the color of the

negro's skin is nearly allied to the "melanin," or black pigment of the

choroid coat in the eye. Both seem to be products of alteration of the

blood.

This pigment appears to be similar to or identical with the black

coloring matter of feathers. When perfectly white hair or feathers are

heated gently with dilute sulphuric acid, they dissolve completely,

though slowly. Black or brown feathers leave an insoluble residue. This

subject was lately presented to the London Chemical Society by Messrs.

W. R. Hodgkinson and H. C. Sorby. They took feathers of the English

rook, which contain one per cent. of pigment, and having cut the vanes

from the central rib, cleaned them from fat by treatment with alcoholic

ammonia. Warm dilute sulphuric acid was then applied, until it was no

longer colored, and the residue was treated with dilute hydrochloric

acid and boiling alcohol and ether. Black pigment is usually found in

black, brown, and dark red hair, but in the latter it is associated

with a brown pigment that is soluble in dilute sulphuric acid.

Experiments were made by Dr. Floyd to determine the position of the

pigment in the negro's skin. Many Southern physicians are under the

impression that a blister upon the black skin is white, or nearly so.

But this was disproved by experiment, and the microscope showed that

the granules were dispersed through the whole of the cuticle, though

less dense at the surface than in the deeper tissues. In fact Dr. Floyd

thinks that the pigment originates in the outer layer of true skin,

"its production being probably connected with the loss of vitality of

the cells, and that it accompanies those cells all the way to the

surface, where it is mechanically removed by desquamation." The

alteration of the red blood corpuscles to black pigment may be due to

feeble circulation in the superficial capillaries. The diseases of

negroes, and their extreme sensitiveness to low temperatures, sustain

this view.

* * * * *

The jurisdiction of London extends over 756 square miles; its area

embraces 78,000 acres. It contains 4,000,000 of inhabitants, increasing

at the rate of 75,000 a year, of various nationalities.

The rapidity of sewing machine work, even when not working beyond an

ordinary manufacturing speed, is seen in the manufacture of 110

three-bushel sacks per hour, containing 35,640 stitches, or close on

600 per minute.

The pine woods of Michigan are said to contain in standing trees--

In Eastern Michigan 13,500,000,000 feet.

In Western Michigan 11,500,000,000 "

In Upper Peninsular 19,500,000,000 "

--------------

Total 44,500,000,000

A manufacturer lately sued the city of Paris for about $15,000 on the

ground that the water supplied by the new works was so good that he

could not make gelatine, and his business was therefore ruined! The

suit was dismissed with costs.

A paste made of fifty-one parts of finely shaved stearine, melted in

seventy-two parts of previously warmed oil of turpentine, will restore

the polish to furniture. When cool rub on with a woollen rag, and when

dry rub thoroughly with a clean dry cloth.

This winter is said to have been the coldest known in Russia for 153

years! In St. Petersburg the thermometer has been -32 deg. Reaumur, or

40 deg. below zero, Fahrenheit. Drivers have frozen in their seats, and

the police kept large fires burning in the streets at night.

The difference between exploding powder under water and above ground is

shown in the relative effect of 50,000 pounds of giant powder fired in

the great Hell Gate blast, and the small quantity of 370 pounds of

black powder which is the service charge of the 80-ton cannon at

Shoebury, England. The former made but little shock or sound. The

latter has shaken houses to pieces by the force of the concussion wave

produced in the air. The first blood shed by the gun was that of a half

dozen sea gulls. A canister shot, containing 2,170 balls, burst just in

front of a large flock of them.

The United States issued 15,911 patents in 1876, and received 22,408

applications.

Important works in construction and other branches of engineering are

now sometimes continued at night by means of the electric light. The

buildings for the French international exhibition are pushed in this

way, and the method is used at the Taybridge Works and others in

England.

Among the interesting facts which have been developed by the careful

study of ants is the existence of piracy among them. Mr. McCook has

noticed that ants descending from trees with abdomens full of honey dew

were waited for by workers from the hill, seeking food, and compelled

to disgorge their accumulations. If this was not done willingly, force

was used.

The walrus has a singular mode of adapting his attack upon enemies to

the circumstances in which he is placed. They can shiver ice from four

to six inches thick by rising from below and striking it with their

huge heads. An exploring party near Novaya Zemla, while walking over a

field of new ice, noticed a herd of walruses following them under the

ice. They presently began operations, and broke the field in pieces on

all sides of the party, which barely escaped by running for the main

pack ice near by.

Oxford university, England, has a revenue of about $2,000,000 yearly,

43 professors, 160 lecturers and tutors, 2,400 undergraduates (1875),

of whom 24 per cent. hold scholarships worth from $150 to $500 yearly.

Seventy-five per cent. of these read for honors as follows: 33 per

cent. for the school of Literae Humaniores (philosophy, classical

history, and philology), 20 per cent. for the school of modern history,

17 per cent. theology, 15 per cent. law, 7 per cent. mathematics, and

6.5 per cent. physical science. There are 360 fellows, of whom 140 are

resident and engaged in teaching. The average endowment of a fellowship

is $1,250. The average number of pupils to one professor or teacher is

in Literae Humaniores 5 1-2; in mathematics 6, in physical science 7, in

modern history 5, in law 15 1-2.

Prof. von Zech lately mingled politics and science in a paper read

before the Wurtemburg Anthropological Society. He compared the returns

of a recent election with the known ethnological characteristics of the

kingdom of Wurtemburg, and found that in districts where light hair and

eyes predominated the government won the election. The black-haired and

black-eyed portions of the population seemed to favor democracy and

social reform, and the Ultramontanes form a medium class so far as

complexion is concerned.

The misfortunes of the deaf and dumb are greatly lessened by the

substitution of lip-reading for other modes of conversation. The words

are read from the movement of the lips so that the deaf can join in an

ordinary conversation. In beginning the instruction the lips must be

moved slowly, but in time the pupil gains such facility that the words

of a public speaker can be taken as well by a deaf person in the

audience as by any other. Deaf mutes are frequently very intelligent,

and it may be that the "kindergarten" system, which is a necessity in

their case, has something to do with their proficiency. In the Clark

Institute children are received at the age of five years, and the first

year's instruction consists in laying sticks and rings in designs

imitated from the teacher. Weaving, card pricking, and drawing are also

taught. From this beginning the pupil's development goes on through

physical studies, such as zoology, botany, physiology, and geography.

After these come higher mathematics, geology, chemistry, history,

psychology, etc.

CURRENT LITERATURE.

It would seem, or rather it would have seemed, almost impossible to

present Shakespeare in any new light, so much has been written by the

wise and the foolish, the learned and the ignorant, the bright and the

dull, the competent and the incompetent, upon that marvellous man. But

Mr. George Wilkes has managed to write a goodly octavo which, while it

contains nothing absolutely new upon this subject, presents it as a

whole in a fresh aspect.[8] Mr. Wilkes says, in his brief preface, a

few words which seem to be candid and truly modest. Rigorous criticism,

he tells us, will not be unwelcome, not because he has any vain

confidence in his own views, but "because they are put forward in good

faith in order to elicit truth concerning a genius who is the richest

inheritance of the intellectual world." He adds that he presents his

book rather as a series of inquiries than as dogmatic doctrine, and

that even if his views are controverted, he must be a gainer, "for it

can never be a true source of mortification to relinquish opinions in

favor of those which are shown to be better." This is indeed the

fairest, best spirit of literary candor, and it is expressed with manly

ingenuousness. If the author really feels what he utters so well, and

we are both bound and willing to believe that he does so, he has set an

example of a virtue which should be very much commoner than it is.

[8] "_Shakespeare, from an American Point of View_: Including an

Inquiry as to his Religious Faith and his Knowledge of Law. With

the Baconian Theory Considered." By GEORGE WILKES. 8vo, pp. 471.

New York: D. Appleton & Co.

In giving to Mr. Wilkes's book the consideration which is due to its

careful and intelligent preparation, we are, however, somewhat puzzled

at the outset. What is an American point of view in regard to a

literary subject, and above all a subject the historical position of

which is previous, not only to the Declaration of Independence, but to

the settlement of New England? We can apprehend what an "American"

point of view might be as to a question of politics, or of society, or

even of morals, in the present day; but what such a _distinctive_

view could be even on those subjects, considered as they present

themselves at a time when our forefathers, just like the forefathers of

the present British people, were in England or in Scotland, we can

hardly divine. And as to literature, the difficulty seems still

greater. For, in the first place, literature and art are of no country

and no time, except historically, and moreover the literature of a

language and a race belong to that race and the speakers of that

language wherever they may be. A man of English blood and speech loses

no right in Shakespeare, he loses no right in any English author,

because he happens to be born in New England instead of Old England, or

in Australia instead of the Isle of Wight or of Man. Political

divisions have nothing to do with literature. We hear nothing of

Prussian literature or of Austrian literature; it is all

German--"Deutsch." And the eminent German philologist Mentzner, in his

great English grammar, that awful book in three octavo volumes, draws

for his countless illustrations quite as freely upon Bryant, Irving,

Longfellow, Hawthorne, Prescott, and their countrymen, as upon

Tennyson, Browning, Macaulay, and theirs. English literature is the

literature of the English race wherever it may be. It has nothing to do

with the distinctions British and American. They are political only.

This is true of all literature, even that of the day; but especially

and absolutely is it true of all English literature that was produced

before there was any New England. Shakespeare belongs to the people now

in England because when he wrote he and their forefathers lived

together in England and spoke the same tongue; and exactly for that

reason he belongs to all of us here who are of his race and tongue.

There is not the slightest difference between the relations of the two

people to the one man. This consideration applies, without

qualification, to all English literature before 1620; with slight

external, unessential modification, to that between 1620 and 1776; and

with somewhat greater external, but still unessential modification, to

all that has been produced since.

Mr. Wilkes, however, may reasonably reply that while he may or may not

agree with this view of English literature, there is in either case an

American point of view as to every subject--a view taken from the

position in which Americans stand politically and socially; a position

which affects their vision and their judgment of all subjects,

including literature, even in the form of dramatic poetry, the most

absolute form in which it can exist. He is to a certain extent right;

and waiving the question as to whether such a view is likely to have

any peculiar value, particularly in regard to dramatic poems produced

in the other hemisphere nearly three hundred years ago, let us see what

in this guise Mr. Wilkes has to present to us.

He opens his book with a reference to the "Baconian theory," as it is

called; that is, the notion that the plays published in 1623 as "Mr.

William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies," were

actually written by the great Bacon, incorrectly called Lord Bacon.

This notion, which may in a certain sense be called "American," because

of its setting forth by Miss Delia Bacon, a New England woman, some

twenty years ago, is not and never was worth five minutes' serious

consideration by any sane human being. It is too foolish to be talked

about. No man who really knows anything about the subject has ever

given this fancy a moment's entertainment; and we regret to see that

Mr. Wilkes is at the pains of examining it carefully all through his

book. It is not worthy of refutation. We therefore set small store by

the probabilities which he accumulates against it. There is no more

ground for reasonable doubt that William Shakespeare did and Francis

Bacon did not write the plays attributed to the former than there is

for doubt that Horace Greeley did and William Henry Seward did not edit

the "Tribune" between the years 1845 and 1865. That Bacon was their

author is indeed an American point of view, it having been taken not

only by Miss Bacon, but by Judge Holmes of Missouri, and by an unknown

American writer in "Frazer's Magazine" for August, 1874. But we are

inclined to think that Miss Bacon's book is unknown to Mr. Wilkes

except at second hand, else he would not speak of that tremendous

octavo tome as a "pamphlet," which he does twice. It was as heavy

metaphorically as it was in avoirdupois. It fell dead from the press.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote the introduction to it, says in his "Old

Home" that he believes that it never had but one reader, a young man of

his acquaintance. He probably had not seen Mr. Grant White's statement,

made in some of his Shakespearian books or writings, that "for his

sins" he had read every word of it. And we must say from our knowledge

of it, that the reading ought to go largely to his credit in his

account with purgatory. Judge Holmes's book is very able and ingenious;

so much so that it is to be regretted that he did not give his learning

and his reasoning powers to better business. In Mr. Wilkes's book we

probably have heard the last of this American view of Shakespeare.

Our author also gives much attention to the questions of Shakespeare's

religious faith and his knowledge of the law. He is of the opinion that

Shakespeare was a Roman Catholic, and that he had not studied law. In

both cases we think Mr. Wilkes wrong. Such evidence as Shakespeare's

works afford goes, we think, decidedly in favor of their writer's

having been a Protestant of unusually "broad church" views for his

time, and of his having made some study at least of the attorney's part

of law. After considering all that Mr. Wilkes urges, we find nothing in

his ingeniously extracted evidence to shake our faith in these

probabilities. But in any case all this is of small importance. Suppose

Shakespeare to have been a Romanist, and never to have entered an

attorney's office: of what moment are these conclusions to the reader

of his plays? The facts were important to Shakespeare himself, but are

of only the slightest interest to any one else.

Mr. Wilkes's American point of view is finally and chiefly that which

he takes of Shakespeare's social feeling, according to his--Mr.

Wilkes's--conception of it. He says of him that it seems strange that

"unlike all the great geniuses of the world who had come before or

[have] come after him, he should be the only one so deficient in that

beneficent tenderness toward his race, so vacant of those sympathies

which usually accompany intellectual power, as never to have been

betrayed into one generous aspiration in favor of popular liberty. Nay,

worse than this, worse than his servility to royalty and rank, we never

find him speaking of the poor with respect, or alluding to the working

classes without detestation or contempt." This view of the great

poet-dramatist is repeated over and over again, all through Mr.

Wilkes's book. The point is not a new one. It has been considered by

one or two of Mr. Wilkes's predecessors, and has been set aside as of

no significance by those who have brought it up for consideration. We

cannot congratulate Mr. Wilkes upon his success in establishing his

position. The subject is of some interest, and for example we take Mr.

Wilkes's remarks in his twenty-third chapter, which is entirely devoted

to the support he finds for it in the first part of "Henry VI." He

quotes passages in which La Pucelle (Joan of Arc) calls herself "a

shepherd's daughter," speaks of her "contemptible estate," and her

"base vocation"; in which Talbot expresses his insulted feeling at a

proposal that he, when a prisoner, should have been proposed in

exchange for a "baser man of arms," and in which he and other noblemen

speak with contempt of peasants. And then he exclaims, "Lords, lords,

lords; nothing but princes and lords, and The People never alluded to

except as _worthless peasants_, or to be scorned as _scabs_, and

_hedge-born_ swains." The reply to all this is much like the famous one

as to the stealing of the kettle; which was first, that the defendant

did not take the kettle; next that he returned it; and finally that the

plaintiff never had any kettle. First these sentiments are not put

forth as those of the writer of the play, but as those of the

personages who figured in the historical incidents therein dramatized;

next it is undeniable that such were the feelings which noblemen and

gentlemen of Henry VI.'s time, and of the time when this play was

written, had and expressed toward peasants; and finally, whether or no

it makes no difference as to Shakespeare's sentiments in regard to his

humbler fellow men; for _Shakespeare did not write this play_. No

editor or competent critic of Shakespeare believes that Shakespeare

wrote one single scene of the first part of "King Henry VI." True the

same feeling is expressed by noblemen and gentlemen in plays which

Shakespeare did write; and we notice this particular passage chiefly

because of its evidence that Mr. Wilkes, although an intelligent and

careful reader of Shakespeare, is not sufficiently acquainted with the

history and the literature of his time, or with dramatic literature

generally, to undertake to pass judgment upon Shakespeare from the

higher points of view, however he may be so to judge him from "an

American point of view." For the assertion that Shakespeare was in this

respect "unlike all the great geniuses of the world" is absolutely

untrue. If Mr. Wilkes will carefully examine the works of the

playwrights contemporary with Shakespeare, he will find their _dramatis

personae_ equally made up of "lords, lords, lords," and he will find the

lords speaking in just such a way of the common people. If they did not

do so, the portraiture would be unfaithful; it would not "hold the

mirror up to nature." And if he will look through the plays of Moliere,

who stands next to Shakespeare as a dramatist, and who was like him a

player and a man of the people, he will find all the lords and

gentlemen who ruffle through his delightful pages speaking with

contempt and ridicule of the lower classes. Moreover, it is absolutely

untrue that Shakespeare was even thus indirectly a sycophant to kings

and nobles, and a maintainer of their essential superiority. On fitting

occasions he puts into their own mouths satires against themselves,

their rank, and their pretensions; and he shows, when opportunity

offers, a warm sympathy with and tenderness for the lowly and the

oppressed. Whoever chooses to do so may find this shown in a few pages

of Mr. Grant White's essay on Shakespeare's genius. ("Life and Genius

of Shakespeare," pp. 298-302.) If we are to have a peculiarly American

view of Shakespeare, pray let us have one founded upon thorough

knowledge and taken in a fair spirit. Not that we mean that Mr. Wilkes

is intentionally unfair, but that his judgment has been perverted by

his strong democratic feeling, and that he seems not to have been able

to investigate his subject with the research which it properly demands.

We are sorry to observe also a reckless tone of disparagement running

through Mr. Wilkes's book. True, Shakespeare's reputation may be able

to bear it; but for the very reason of Shakespeare's preeminence the

world--the thoughtful part of it at least--would welcome a close,

careful, and competent examination of his claims, even in an adverse

spirit. Such an examination Mr. Wilkes, notwithstanding the

voluminousness and the method of his book, has not been able to give

them. It is not--for example, in his chapter on the "Merchant of

Venice"--by calling Antonio a "blackguard" and a "ruffian," and

Bassanio "an unprincipled, penniless adventurer, a mere tavern

spendthrift and carouser, who borrows money that he may cheat a wealthy

maiden of her dower," by calling Gratiano and Lorenzo "poodles and

parasites," the first of whom "is willing to put up with Portia's

waiting maid Nerissa," that Mr. Wilkes can hope to win respect for an

American view of Shakespeare. If Mr. Wilkes had informed himself more

thoroughly in regard to the manners of Antonio's time, he would have

found that in those days men, otherwise kind-hearted and generous,

treated Jews as he treated Shylock; that Nerissa was probably, if not

surely, as well born and as well bred as her mistress was; and that

Bassanio's desire to marry an heiress, beautiful, loving, and by him

beloved, was not peculiar to the hero of the "Merchant of Venice."

Indeed, very estimable men have not been found averse to such a

proceeding in these days, and even in America. And what is strange the

beautiful heiresses have forgiven them, and if they behaved kindly and

lovingly as husbands, have been very happy, strange as it may seem. Why

should Mr. Wilkes speak of Bassanio's going to Belmont "to swindle

Portia"? He does no such thing. Such criticism of Shakespeare, if it

were truly and representatively American, would justly hold America up

to the world's ridicule.

Scattered through Mr. Wilkes's book, making us regret the more such

passages as we have noticed, are others which show fine insight and

robust common sense. In this very chapter on the "Merchant of Venice"

there are two or three pages of sound criticism of the dull and pompous

platitudes of the sham-profound German critics, for which we thank the

author. They are well and heartily written, and they do not overstep

the bounds of literary decorum. In many parts, Mr. Wilkes's book,

although it is a very unsafe guide, contains stimulating suggestions to

reflection.

* * * * *

Lord Amberly, the recently deceased son and heir of Earl Russel, left

an elaborate work behind him upon the religions of the world, which has

just been republished here.[9] Apart from its teachings, or rather its

tendencies, which would be stamped as "infidel" by all orthodox

Christians, the book is valuable. For it is the result of very

profound, painstaking research. It contains nothing particularly new,

but it presents, in a tolerably compact form, a critical view of the

whole subject of religious beliefs and ceremonies, in all time and in

all countries. Its author evidently means to be fair; and from his

point of view he is so. The book is full of information upon a subject

which is now attracting unusual attention from a class of minds which,

twenty-five or thirty years ago, would have shrunk in horror from any

such examination; and its value in this respect is enhanced by an

index, which makes it a useful book of reference.

[9] "_An Analysis of Religious Belief._" By Viscount AMBERLY.

8vo, pp. 745. New York: D. M. Bennett.

--Mr. Frothingham, who has rapidly taken the place of leader in a new

school of morals and religion, but whose followers are yet few, has

added another book to those which have been recently noticed in our

pages.[10] It is composed of some of those discourses--for they cannot

be called sermons, in the ordinary sense of the word--which he delivers

to his disciples on Sunday; delivering them on that day because it is

convenient for the purpose. It must be admitted that they teach a very

high and pure morality. But we confess that the title of the book, "The

Spirit of the New Faith," seems to us a misnomer; for we seek in it in

vain for the evidences of any faith. Indeed, its principal object seems

to be the inculcation of morality without faith; the teaching that, to

an upright life--truly Christian, that is, in spirit--(for Mr.

Frothingham would probably spurn the name) no faith of any sort is

necessary. In the sermon--not the first in order--which gives the

volume its name, we remark a strange perversion or misconception of the

chiefest Christian virtue. Mr. Frothingham writes in a kindly, generous

spirit which excludes scorn; but he approaches scorn in his remarks

upon charity, at which he almost scoffs. He says of it: "Charity is not

equivalent to brotherhood; it is not synonymous with brotherhood, or

even with appreciation. Charity can be unjust: it is unjust in its

pity. Pity, indeed, is its essence." Were this a true definition of

charity, Mr. Frothingham might be justified in the tone he takes toward

it. But the very spirit of charity is at war not only with injustice,

but with arrogance, and with phariseeism of all kinds. Its very essence

is the assumption of good motives, even on the part of those who differ

radically from us in conduct and belief. It is the great moral

equalizer of the world. We are surprised that a thinker of Mr.

Frothingham's clearness and subtlety of mind should have so failed in

appreciating a quality which does not inculcate, but which _is_ love

and respect for others.

[10] "_The Spirit of the New Faith._ A Series of Sermons." By

OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 16mo, pp. 272. New York: G. P.

Putnam's Sons.

* * * * *

Few persons are aware of the vast and varied range of duties which are

connected with what is called, "for short," a geological and

geographical survey of the Territories.[11] The second edition of the

catalogue of publications made in connection with the survey, of which

Dr. F. V. Hayden is director, enumerates forty-one publications issued

within ten years, among which are annual reports of the work done since

1867, bulletins, the issue of which began in 1874, and important

monographs on ancient and modern fauna and flora of the region

examined. Dr. Hayden's own geological work is necessarily limited by

his heavy duties as director of the whole survey, but his long study of

the West gives him unusual qualifications for assembling and discussing

the work of others. He has a minute description with map of the Upper

Arkansas valley and its glaciation, and of the old lake system of the

West. During the early portion of the Tertiary the whole country, "from

the Arctic circle to the Isthmus of Darien," was occupied with lakes,

some of which were immense in size. In after times thousands of small

lakes took their place, and these have finally disappeared. Many of

these were expansions of the rivers, like most modern lakes. The old

valleys are now occupied by a diluvial deposit, the counterpart of the

Loess of the Rhine, and almost the same in composition. The

agricultural future of all that valley region is very promising, for

from some mysterious cause, the rainfall seems to be increasing over

the whole area. Buried trees of great size prove that Nebraska has not

always been the grassy waste it now is, and the revolutions of nature

may restore its forests. Mr. Aughey figures some arrow-heads which he

found in this deposit fifteen and twenty feet from the top, and in such

a position as to assure him of their true age. Leaving the admirable

geological study of Dr. Peale, we come to Mr. Eudlich's examination of

the San Juan mines. This is a kind of work which government explorers

should do more of, though until the mines are worked deeper, the

information obtained is not very full. The veins are reported to be

probably of Cretaceous age, or they may date from the beginning of the

Tertiary. Dr. Hayden reports that when the coming season's work is

finished "the most rugged and mountainous portion of our continent"

will have been surveyed. It is his intention to map it in an atlas of

six sheets, each covering about 11,500 square miles. The cartographical

work of the survey is excellent. This volume contains eighty-eight maps

and views, executed in a most creditable manner.

[11] "_United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the

Territories._" F. V. HAYDEN, United States Geologist in charge.

Annual Report, 1877. Colorado and adjacent Territories.

Government Printing Office.

--We have also received two of the "Miscellaneous Publications"[12] of

the survey, one being the last and crowning work of America's great

invertebrate palaeontologist, Dr. F. B. Meek.[13] The names "Meek and

Hayden" have an association in American scientific work that is

historic, and in the "Report on Invertebrate, Cretaceous, and Tertiary

Fossils of the Upper Missouri Country" are assembled the results of

painstaking labors extending through many years. The volume is worthy

to stand as a monument to such an author. The introduction contains a

description, in the author's characteristically concise style, of the

formations in which the fossils were found. The fossils described

include all the invertebrates from the prescribed region, and it is

indicative of the author's position in regard to palaeontological work

in America, that nearly all the species were originally described by

him. This profound knowledge of the subject and the painstaking

attention to the discussion of types, and of their synonomy, make the

work, as Dr. Hayden truly says, "one of the most important

contributions ever made to the science of palaeontology in any portion

of the world." Forty-five lithographic plates, by Meek and Swinton, and

numerous woodcuts, illustrate the book.

[12] _The Same._ Catalogue of Publications. Second edition,

Revised to December 31, 1876.

[13] _The Same._ Report on Invertebrate Palaeontology. F. B. MEEK.

--Dr. Packard's "Monograph of the Geometrid Moths"[14] is the next

important publication of this survey. It is the first complete treatise

on the American species of these moths. The author describes between

three and four hundred species, and thinks it not unlikely that nearly

a thousand will be ultimately found on the continent. The collections

have been made by many travellers, and at points extending from Polaris

bay to Texas. Great attention is paid to generic and specific

description, and to synonomy, besides which a complete bibliography of

the subject is added. Dr. Packard's work is therefore well suited to

serve for immediate instruction, as well as a standard for reference.

The admirably executed plates increase its value for both uses.

[14] _The Same._ Monograph of the Geometrid Moths or Phalaenidae.

By A. S. PACKARD, Jr., M.D.

--Captain Ludlow's report of his visit to the Yellowstone Park in 1875

is one of the most interesting books the Government has published.[15]

He found that the army of American vandals has turned its footsteps

toward this national museum of wonders, and every year they go to it in

hundreds and thousands to admire and destroy the delicate lace work

which nature has spent centuries in weaving. The Park contains the most

remarkable glaciers on this continent, and the constantly flowing and

splashing water has built up a basin of opal around each fountain.

These basins are curiously convoluted and fretted, and are composed

almost entirely of quartz deposited from the water, their light gray

color contrasting beautifully with the deeply tinted water. Wherever

they are solid the idiotic visitor writes his name, and thousands of

these unimprisoned lunatics have been there. Wherever the basins are

most delicate and wonderful, the savage white man strikes them with an

axe and carries home "a specimen." Captain Ludlow found two women

climbing around one geyser called the Castle, from the numerous little

pinnacles and towers it has built up, "with tucked up skirts and rubber

shoes, armed one with an axe, the other with a spade." When he first

saw the Beehive, the most remarkable of the geysers in point of height,

throwing its stream two hundred feet high from a small aperture, he had

a pang in anticipation of the destruction that he felt sure would come

upon it. And with good reason. The next day he returned to camp just in

time to run in and save the Beehive, the pride of the Park, from the

uplifted axe of _a woman_! He urges the Government to spend $10,000 or

thereabouts in protecting this beautiful place from the assaults of

these iconoclasts, who break down ten times as much as they carry off.

We regret to see that his recommendation is unheeded. A governor is

appointed for the Park, but he has no salary, and probably does not

remain on the ground. Captain Ludlow very truly says that the presence

of a small party there to open roads, preserve the Park, and keep a

careful record of the geysers would well repay its cost in the increase

of knowledge and pleasurable travel it would bring to our people.

[15] "_Report of a Reconnaissance to the Yellowstone National

Park in the Summer of 1875._" By WILLIAM LUDLOW, Captain of

Engineers. War Department, Washington.

* * * * *

Mr. David A. Wells has made a good choice in presenting Bastiat's

writings on political economy,[16] for his essays are as sound in

principle as they are homely in method. He tried to make people see the

true meaning of the phrases and theories which are the common staple of

conversation among the industrial classes. For instance, he meets the

assertion that a country gains wealth when the government employs a

great number of people by pointing out that the personal expenditures

of the people are reduced by just the amount of the taxes. When the

government takes a dollar from a citizen to pay a laborer, the citizen

has just one dollar less to hire the laborer for his own use. The

country gains no wealth by such a transaction, but merely makes an

exchange of employers. This proposition, which M. Bastiat insists upon

through many arguments, is of more vital interest to France than to us.

It refers to a form of folly that is chronic there, but sporadic here,

and its most threatening outbreak (during the "ring rule" in New York)

was violently cured by the panic of 1873. But the importance of

inculcating sound views on this subject is just as necessary here as

there. Probably the larger part of Tweed's stealings ultimately found

their way to laboring men, but who shall say that New York has gained

wealth by his career? M. Bastiat's views on interest, capital, taxes,

encouragement of fine arts by the State, public works, the spendthrift,

government, etc., are excellent, and expressed in an ingenious and

taking way. It is hard to give to dissertations on such subjects that

"blood-curdling interest" which Mark Twain promised in his agricultural

memoranda; but M. Bastiat certainly unites an unusual interest of style

to sensible and simple views. Mr. Wells may count the reproduction of

these essays as one of the many valuable public services he has done

his countrymen.

[16] "_Essays on Political Economy._" By FREDERICK BASTIAT.

Translation revised by David A. Wells. New York: G. P. Putnam's

Sons.

* * * * *

A hundred and four years have passed since John Howard paid that visit

to Bedford jail which first directed his attention to the improvement

of the prisoners' condition. The work began with the study of prisons;

a hundred years has turned it into the study of the prisoner. Mr.

Dugdale[17] discovered in 1874 the criminal family which has become

notorious as containing Margaret, "the mother of criminals." She was

one of six sisters, of whom one is not traceable; four gave rise to

mixed criminal and pauper lines, and Margaret to a distinctively

criminal line. To these sisters Mr. Dugdale gives the name _Jukes_, and

he has followed up seven generations, containing 540 known persons of

Juke blood, and 169 known persons of other blood who became allied to

the Jukes in one way or another. All told, this criminal family

contains 709 known persons, and probably 500 undiscovered members,

forming the most numerous criminal lineage ever studied. Mr. Dugdale's

pamphlet is a profoundly interesting analysis of the history of this

family, and the tendencies that have governed it. The remarkable fact

is developed that the strongest criminal tendencies are on the female

side, and pauper tendencies on the male side. Crime and pauperism are

psychologically one and the same, one or the other being manifested as

the individual's character is strong or weak. A life may exhibit an

innocent childhood, a criminal maturity, and a pauper old age. The same

phases may be developed more slowly, and appear in successive

generations, or even in alternate generations. Intemperance is no doubt

frequently the immediate cause of crime, as seen in so many murders.

But Mr. Dugdale shows that the common belief that criminal tendencies

are the result of intemperance is not true, while the reverse is true,

that these tendencies produce physical degeneration, which craves the

stimulus of drink. These investigations show that the pauper is almost

irreclaimable. His mental weakness neutralizes every effort made for

his welfare, but the active criminal has strength enough to do better

if he will. As to women, it is shown that their immorality is the

precise counterpart of crime in the man, and it is to this fact that we

owe the steady development of our criminal population. Illegitimacy is

not in itself a cause of crime, but the environment of neglect in which

the illegitimate live is a fruitful cause. We cannot detail all the

conclusions of this close and exhaustive study of criminal character.

They are as numerous as they are disagreeable to read and contemplate.

[17] "_The Jukes._ A Study In Crime, Pauperism, Disease, and

Heredity." By R. L. DUGDALE. With an Introduction by Elisha

Harris, M.D. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.

--Dr. Bowen's pamphlet on "Dyspepsia," published by Loring, is so good,

so comforting, and so plain to persons who do not know any more of

medicine than is necessary to have the various diseases, that we are

glad to point it out to our readers. He says there is no case of

dyspepsia that cannot be cured, except such as are complicated with

other troubles that are necessarily fatal. He opposes the starvation

treatment, but does not give general directions for cure, saying that

each case must be studied and treated for itself.

* * * * *

Dr. Stillman's "Seeking the Golden Fleece"[18] is worth reading for its

faithful picture of a long sea voyage in the olden time. Nearly a

hundred passengers left New York in the Pacific, the captain and owner

being obliged to slink on board, to avoid attachments sued out against

them by other passengers who were dissatisfied and left behind. The

voyage consumed 194 days, and the narrative of its incidents is much

the most interesting part of the book. As to the author's experience in

California, we can sum it up in the common phrase, "The old story." He

was one of the first argonauts. He saw Sacramento when it had

half-a-dozen shanties, San Francisco when millions of dollars worth of

goods lay on the hillsides, for lack of sufficient warehouses, when the

mines were yielding well, and cooks were cheap at $300 a month. Dr.

Stillman's narrative is one of the best that has appeared of California

in the days of the pioneers.

[18] "_Seeking the Golden Fleece._ A Record of Pioneer Life in

California." By J. D. B. STILLMAN. A. Roman & Co.

* * * * *

Mr. Habberton shows how fit he is to be the editor of selections from

standard authors by publishing the Roger de Coverly papers[19] without a

note or emendation. We have these celebrated numbers of the "Spectator"

in all the grace and humor of the originals, and with the quaint flavor

which age has necessarily added to them unimpaired. The editor informs

us that after a careful hunt through the book market, he finds the

previous editions of Sir Roger out of print, and for that reason he

publishes this one, though his first plan for the "Select British

Essayists" did not include it. He thinks the publication peculiarly

timely now, when "the standard of letters threatens to become vastly

different from that under which English literature has gained whatever

it possesses of real value." We do not agree with him in anticipating

the complete shelving of Sir Roger in case this threatened change

really takes place. In all times the really great authors will be read

by the few, and talked about by the many. But however that may be, Mr.

Habberton's handsome and convenient collection of these papers will be

welcomed by the many who are glad to learn how famous authors wrote,

and yet have not taste enough for classical reading to attack the whole

"Spectator" itself.

[19] "_Sir Roger de Coverly:_ Consisting of the Papers Relating

to Sir Roger, which were Originally Published in the 'Spectator.'"

With an Introductory Essay by JOHN HABBERTON. New York: G. P.

Putnam's Sons. $1.25.

* * * * *

The disciples of Swedenborg will read with interest a little book of a

mildly controversial character by B. F. Barrett, which endeavors to

show what the New Church really is.[20] The controversy is not with the

unbelievers in Swedenborg, but with some prominent persons among his

disciples. Its object is to show that the New Jerusalem, or New Church,

is not an organized and visible body of people united by a creed and a

form of worship more or less uniform. This view, although, as the

writer says, it has prevailed among the students of Swedenborg for

nearly a hundred years and is probably held by a large majority of them

at the present day, he regards as an utterly mistaken conception. He,

on the contrary, regards the theory of separation as false and vicious.

The function of Swedenborgianism, if so it must be called, he believes

to be to uproot and destroy the mischievous spirit of sect, to exalt

charity above faith, life above doctrine, both inside and outside of

all the churches. This he regards as that second coming of the Lord

which Swedenborg taught; and this he sees in the signs of the times.

Few of us know really what Swedenborgianism is; and some of us have

tried in vain to discover what there is in it which captivates some

clear-headed as well as true-hearted men. But if this be

Swedenborgianism, who of us is there that will not bid it God speed?

[20] "_The New Church:_ Its Nature and Whereabout. Being a

Critical Examination of the Popular Theory, with some

Illustrations of its Tendency and Legitimate Fruits." By B. F.

BARRETT. 16mo, pp. 213. Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen &

Haffelfinger.

--"The Library of Swedenborg,"[21] edited by Mr. Barrett, is to consist

of twelve handy volumes, giving a complete summary of Swedenborg's

system in a series of extracts from his writings, grouped together

under appropriate headings, indicating the special doctrine they

illustrate. These volumes are of the most convenient size and neatly

printed and bound. They are, in short, in every respect in contrast

with the bulky tomes in which Swedenborg's system is usually and so

repulsively presented. Three volumes of the series have thus far been

published.

[21] "_Volume Third The Swedenborg Library._" Edited by B. F.

BARRETT. Freedom, Rationality, and Catholicity. From the Writings

of Emanuel Swendenborg. Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen &

Haffelfinger.

* * * * *

A book the author of which publishes his own portrait as a frontispiece

is opened with prejudice by most sensible men, we believe, and

phrenology is not regarded with great favor by the majority of such

readers. But here is a book which is able to stand up against both

these prejudices.[22] Whatever we may think of phrenology, we cannot

withhold our hearty approval of the methods of teaching which are

recommended by Mr. Sizer. He would have the teacher study his pupil,

watch the action of his mind, detect his propensities, and then direct

his efforts accordingly. The author does not content himself with

generalities; he goes into particulars; he indicates temperaments,

describes mental traits and modes of action, and gives good counsel as

to their direction. His views of training include the moral as well as

the mental side of the pupil, and also his physical nature. Children

trained according to the system here recommended and set forth would

have the most made of them that their organizations permit. We commend

the book to all teachers and parents. It will interest them, and if

they study it and follow its counsels, it will profit their children.

As to the phrenology of it, they may let that go. Like the allegory of

"The Faerie Queene," it won't bite them.

[22] "_How to Teach according to Temperament and Mental

Development_; or, Phrenology in the School Room and the Family."

By NELSON SIZER. 16mo, pp. 331. New York: Wells & Co.

* * * * *

In poetry we have before us this month only a sacred tragedy, the

writer of which we fear has been misled into verse-writing by an

ambition to justify his parents' choice of a name.[23] The incidents of

his tragedy are of course derived from the Old Testament, and in every

case in which they are in any way modified it is for the worse. His

poetry reminds us of that dreary stuff that was written before the

appearance of Marlowe and the other Elizabethan dramatists. We wonder

that the writer undertook a subject which had been so ably handled by

others before him, and particularly by Charles Heavysege, to whose

vigorous and highly picturesque dramatic poem[24] we direct the

attention of our poetry-loving readers.

[23] "_King Saul:_ A Tragedy." By BYRON A. BROOKS. 16mo, pp. 144.

New York: Nelson & Phillips.

[24] Published by Osgood & Company.

NEBULAE.

--The result of months of agitation and negotiation is that to Russia

is left the task of driving the Turks out of Europe single-handed.

Well, Russia is content, and not only content, but pleased. She does

not object to being left to seek her own ends by her own means, and

would like nothing better than to have all the other powers take the

position of disinterested bystanders while she whops poor little Johnny

Turk, and takes as much as she likes of his territory by way of

indemnity. She meant this all along, and it has been amusing to see how

she has with a combination of tact and persistency attained her end. Of

course as to her motives there can be no doubt; they are purely

philanthropic and religious. It is for the Christians in the Turkish

provinces, about whom England began the disturbance, the result of

which promises to be Russia's success and her own discomfiture. The

attitude of Turkey wins respect and sympathy. It has been manly in

tone, and in diplomacy not unskilful. The Turks have always shown a

combination of stubbornness and craft which have made them, except in

the field, more than a match for their Christian enemies. Without

approving Turkish faith or life, we may yet admire the firmness and

dignity with which they have refused to submit to a dictation which

would exclude them from the rank of independent nations. They made the

mistake of not putting the Czar palpably in the wrong, which they would

have done by sending the embassy to St. Petersburg to treat of

disarmament. But he would have probably wriggled but of this position

in some way; and of this they may have felt sure. Plainly the Turks

feel that they are in a crisis of their national existence, and they

are desperate. They know of course that between Great Britain and

Russia there is a determination to drive them out of Europe, and that

their only safety thus far has been in the rivalry and jealousy of

those two powers. Since the effort is to be made, they feel that they

are in as good a condition to resist it now as they ever will be; and

with the desperation of their character they have gone into the unequal

fight. What will be the end, no one can foresee; but of one thing we

may be sure, that the British Government will not fight for the Turks,

and as certainly they will not fight with Russia against them. Neither

Germany nor Austria is likely to spend blood and treasure for the

aggrandizement of Russia. Therefore, although some publicists look for

a great change in the map of Europe, it seems rather that the result of

the war, even if it be unfavorable to Turkey, will be little more than

the liberation and autonomy of one or two of the provinces.

--The personal nature of our politics was never more apparent than it

is at present. On all sides, and in regard to all questions, we meet

with evidence of it. Whether it be in regard to great questions of

national importance, the formation of parties, or some little State or

county matter, the point generally first raised is how Mr. ---- or Mr.

---- will be likely to feel about it. The subject is not discussed upon

broad grounds of right, of law, or of policy, but with regard to the

effect that it will have upon such or such an "interest," which is

represented by Mr. ----, the said interest being sometimes that of a

railway, or a "ring," but generally that of a knot of professional

politicians. This seems strange in a country where the government is

"of the people, by the people, and for the people." Our democracy has

subjected us to the condition of the old Roman clients. We do not have

leaders in politics, but users; men who use us for their own advantage.

--China and Japan are turning the tables upon us bravely. We have been

sending missionaries to them for two hundred years and more, and now a

young disciple of Buddha comes among us to criticise our religion and

to tell us that the moral principles and the conduct of Christians are

of a lower standard than those taught by Confucius; and a Japanese

publicist criticises our politics in our leading review, and tells us

that we are the slowest people on the face of the earth, and are tied

hand and foot by our paper constitutions. There will probably not be

many converts to Buddhism; and as probably the Constitution of the

United States will not be set aside as a worthless piece of paper in

this generation. None the less, however, are these return-missionary

efforts of our extremely Oriental friends very significant signs of the

times. They show two things: first, the little real effect which, after

all, the West has produced upon the East; and last, the freedom of

thought and discussion which is now pervading the world. It is safe to

say that our Chinese and Japanese critics will be listened to with

respect; and that not in a mere spirit of tolerance and politeness. The

world has changed its position greatly in such respects within the last

thirty or fifty years. The petition in the English prayer-book in favor

of "Jews, Turks, heretics, and infidels," which found its counterpart

in the extemporaneous prayers of other orthodox religious sects, is

beginning to sound rather antiquated. The idea of holding up Dr.

Gottheil, for instance, as a proper subject for especial prayer, is to

most sensible people rather ridiculous, however good Christians they

may be. Investigation has found the principles of a high morality in

other religious creeds than those of Western Europe and America; and

charity, that chiefest of Christian virtues, has taught us to judge

others, if we judge them at all, by standards of general application

with allowance for peculiar conditions. We have discovered that

political sagacity was not confined to the founders of the political

systems of modern Europe. It is found that the human mind is much the

same under like conditions in all countries and in all times; and we

are approaching gradually to Tennyson's "parliament of man" and

"federation of the world."

--A sadder story has not been told for a long while than that of the

mother and daughter who were excluded from the Shaker settlement at

Whitewater, where they had been for fourteen years, and after leaving

which, and seeking in vain the means of livelihood, they, in despair,

took poison, and died in each other's arms. The sadness is not so much

in their death; for to that they were at any time liable; and loving

each other fondly, as they manifestly did, in their voluntary death

they were not divided. But the mother was at first driven to the Shaker

community fourteen years ago, with her little girl, because she had

been deserted by the father of her child, to whom she had not been

married. She had weakly yielded to the impulse of nature without

fortifying herself by a legal claim upon the father of her child, and

the world, instead of treating her tenderly and helping her, turned its

back upon her and told her that she and the child that she had borne

were fit only to starve or to live in a county poor house. After

fourteen years of the cold, colorless, and unnatural life of the

Shakers, the daughter showed that she was not an abstraction or a

forked radish, and behaved like a woman, perhaps not a prudent one, to

the young men of the community. She was told that such behavior was

only fit for the world's people, and that she and her daughter must go.

But the world's people had driven out the mother herself upon something

such grounds years before; and now when she came back she was met by

the same stony front. Let us not be misunderstood; we are not

justifying or even palliating the mother's conduct. We pass that point

by without consideration. But the point remains that for an error,

which, however great, was in the course of nature, the mother became an

outcast, and that for indiscretion, also in the course of nature, on

the daughter's part, both afterward were turned away from the Shaker

community; and then they found the world so hard, and life in it so

bitter, that, although one was still in the prime of life and the other

in its early morning, they chose rather death together. They might have

been base and unnatural, hard-hearted, malicious, slanderous,

revengeful, covetous, grasping, utterly regardless of the happiness

and, within the law, of the rights of others, the mother might not have

loved her child, the child might not have loved her mother, and yet the

world would not have driven them to the Shakers and the Shakers would

not have driven them out again into the world to die. It is an old

story, we do not hesitate to say an old wrong, of which every man and

woman with an unperverted heart admits the cruelty in the abstract, but

of which the collective world is always ready to be guilty. A woman who

"gets a husband," no matter by what base arts or design, is "received";

a woman who gives the world a child otherwise than according to law is

cast out, often by those who are not worthy to touch the hem of her

garment. It is not necessary to justify women who err in this way

before condemning the pharisaic righteousness which stones them into

despair. "Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more."

--Compare the wrong done in such a case with the conduct of a

"respectable" young woman whose sudden disappearance from her home near

Waterford, New York, caused much excitement. She reappeared after a

week's absence, and accused three young men of the place of abducting

her. They were rather wild fellows, and they were arrested. But upon

investigation the story was found to be a pure fabrication. The girl

had gone suddenly off to visit some of her relatives; and to gratify

some feeling, whatever it might have been, she trumped up this

accusation. It is impossible to conceive a fouler, baser act. And yet

she will not be an outcast; she is "respectable"; no one will venture

to call her a "bad girl." But suppose that He who said "neither do I

condemn thee" were to decide between the relative fitness of the two

for a place in His kingdom--is there any doubt in whose favor He would

speak? The law cannot decide as He would decide; and the world is right

in insisting upon the chastity of woman; but is the world right in

regarding chastity as the only female virtue, or at least in regarding

a lapse from continence as the only wrong which should exclude woman

from the pale of decent society, and deprive her of a right to earn her

living among other women? Is it right in asking only one question in

regard to a woman's conduct and in "receiving" a married woman, merely

because she is married, although she may make her home a little hell

for her husband and her children? We are not advocating looseness upon

the former point, but only comparing the world's treatment of natural

error with its treatment of essential and malicious wrong-doing. If the

one should be condemned--and it should be--what should be done in case

of the other? Motive gives every act its true character; and if we

teach women that a life filled with acts the motives of which are mean

and malicious may be "respectable," are we not subjecting them to a

daily discipline of moral degradation?

--And with it all there is such a foolish, deplorable, ruinous neglect

of the proper instruction of young women. They are taught heaps of

things that are of no possible use to them, and they are not taught

those which concern them most nearly. Here is this miserable

"Throop-Price" affair, as it is called, in which a young lady belonging

to a family of some culture and social position is actually taken

before a clergyman and half married before she knows it; but suspecting

that something is wrong, and being assured by the clergyman that the

ceremony he is performing solemnizes a real, binding marriage, she

flies off, but is immediately induced to go before the Mayor, and is

there married out of hand when she meant to do no such thing. It seems

incredible; but it is actually true. We make, as we should do, an awful

fuss about marriage, and a good marriage is, as it should be, the

desire of a young woman's heart, and yet in regard to all the

essentials of marriage as well as the duties and personal relations of

married life, we leave them in ignorance. There would seem to be but

two ways about this matter: one, the French way of keeping young girls

in seclusion and absolute ignorance, and then marrying them off as a

sort of business transaction--an arrangement that does not suit our

social life, and which, it must be confessed, does not tend to produce

the best state of morals in France; the other to give young girls

reasonable liberty, under the general supervision of their parents and

family, but in this case to arm them with knowledge, to let them know

what marriage is legally, ceremonially, socially, and physiologically.

This is a safe way, and the only safe one. Let this be done, and then

if a girl "goes wrong" in any way, it is merely one of those

unavoidable misfortunes which some of us have to encounter.

--Was there ever anything so amazing as this blue-glass craze that has

taken possession of about two-thirds of those who are included in the

term "everybody"? It would seem as if there were no limit to man's

credulity, particularly upon those subjects which concern him most

nearly, religion and the preservation of bodily health. In both he is

ready to listen to any plausible person who will tell him to "do some

great thing." Tell him that he must live a life morally pure and

physically clean and sober, that he must not sin against his own

consciousness of right, and that he must wash himself and eat simple,

wholesome food, conform himself to the indications of his physical

structure, and he will assent in a careless way, and immediately

violate every rule of sound morals and physiology. But tell him that he

must make a pilgrimage to Rome, or that he must lift six or seven

hundred pounds daily, swallow pills and bitters, or live in a blue

conservatory, and he will prick up his long ears, and do it if he can.

What wonder that quacks all make money, and that the "patent medicine

interest" should have a representative in Congress! But quacks and

patent medicines usually must have the benefit of a few years of

copious advertising before they effect their purpose; whereas blue

glass was written into popular favor with the dash of a pen. It trebled

in price in less than so many weeks. The notion that light should be

filtered of every ray but the blue one to produce the best effect upon

the human body and brain is certainly one of the most fantastic that

has been broached since the days of the medical mountebanks. The best

use to which this glass can be put is to the making of hot-beds. Let

our early lettuce and pease by all means be brought forward under

sashes glazed in blue. What cauliflowers we shall have, and what

cabbages! At present the crop of cabbage heads, to be sure, promises to

be very large through the intervention of blue glass; but much the

greater number of them appear to be growing upon human shoulders.

--Science, or self-styled science, however, insists on playing its

tricks with colors as with other matter--if color be matter. There is

now a budding theory that the eye is and always has been in a state of

development, and that we are yet to discover new colors of which we

have at present no idea. In support of this it is urged that in early

literature we find only the strong primary colors mentioned--red, blue,

black; black, however, being the absence of true color. It is supposed

that the other colors were not seen; and in support of this it is urged

that Aristotle assigns only four colors to the rainbow. But surely this

is scientific trifling. It is natural that early writers upon any

subject should notice only the strongest and most salient points

connected with it. Its finer gradations become the subject of

subsequent discussion. Particularly might this be expected to be the

case in the ruder states of society. It is not that the senses cannot

perceive; for the savage senses are very keen, as is well known, but

that language, perhaps even the mind, does not discriminate. It is

content with broad and marked distinctions. So with regard to the eye

and color. We may be very sure that a perfect eye sees, and has always

seen, all possible color. But unless led thereto by science or art, or

love of beauty in dress or ornamentation, the observer is content with

noticing the strong tints, red, blue, yellow, black, white--and green

also, which is so widely spread over nature. But as to a new color,

that is quite impossible, unless some new gradation or combination of

color may have a new name given to it. For in the spectrum we have a

perfect gradation of colors, all that are in the ray; and after we pass

the primaries, the others are but combinations and gradations. To get a

new color we must wait for a new eye and a new sun.

--Where will the desire for championship not lead some one of us, and

where will it end? We have champion walkers and skaters, champion

boot-blacks and bill-posters; and out at the West the other day a lad

employed in a newspaper office to wrap papers for the mails announced

himself as the champion paper-wrapper, and challenged anybody to wrap

with him--the most in so many hours. The last champion performance is

that of a "professor of dancing" (Anglece, a dancing master), who

waltzed for five consecutive hours. It was an occasion. We are told

how, after waltzing some half-a-dozen persons, male and female, out of

breath, the "intrepid professor" kept on; how he changed partners

without stopping his regular steps; how he drank a glass of wine now

and then, while stepping in time to the music; and how, when after

waltzing steadily for four hours and a half, he showed some signs of

faltering, slices of lemon were put into his mouth, ten minutes after

swallowing which "the professor revived." Then he became dizzy, and

peppermint lozenges were given him. On he went, and in the last five

minutes of his stint showed his pluck by "putting in fancy steps"; and

his wife, who was now his partner--a sort of nursing partner, it would

seem--occasionally whispered "nods of encouragement," a performance

which beats the professor's all hollow. "Nods and becks and wreathed

smiles" are very natural and very charming on appropriate occasions;

but whispered nods are something quite inconceivable. The professor

held out, and at half-past twelve "a grand huzza rang out." Is not this

rather a pitiful spectacle? If a man dances, let him dance well. If to

teach dancing is his vocation, let him get, and let him prize, a

reputation for teaching it well. That is reasonable and respectable.

But that a man should spend five whole consecutive hours, nearly a

quarter of a day, in dancing for the mere sake of showing that he could

keep it up and dance ever so many people down, is rather a sad

exhibition of smallness. All these exhibitions spring, not from the

desire to do well, which is always and in all things honorable, but

from that of doing something that other people cannot do, which is not

very admirable. Some other "professor," not to be bluffed, will now

challenge this professor; and we shall have a dance for the

championship. Then some other professor in Europe will be fired with

ambition, and we shall have a grand International Dancing Contest for

the Championship of the World. Well, it will be a little better, but

not much, than the eating and drinking matches which sometimes take

place in England, in which two half-beastly creatures gorge and guzzle

in a contest wherein the victor would probably be beaten by almost any

four-legged swine. Emulation is a spur to exertion the moral excellence

of which is at least questionable; and when it leads to dancing five

hours on a stretch or eating five pounds of bacon at a sitting, we see

a little what its essence is.

--The curiosities of advertising come out strongly at the far West.

Here is the "Denver Rocky Mountain News" all ablaze with displayed

announcements, some of which are of an extraordinary and whimsical

character. One man cries out in enormous type, "Deadwood on getting

rich if you only save your money; no need of going to the Black Hills

if you can buy Groceries at these figures"; another exclaims in very

big black letters, "Store your Stoves! and avoid trouble, dirt, rust,

hard work, and _profanity_"--the latter a piece of advice very

pertinent, it would seem, to the region; another insinuates in a sort

of colossal pica that although "Bragg and Stick'em may have a larger

stock of men's furnishing goods than all the other houses in the United

States put together," the right place to get things cheap and elegant

is his establishment (who are the loudly advertising rivals that he

pillories as Bragg and Stick'em does not appear); another firm of

traders announce themselves as the "Chicago Square-Dealing House";

another, a jeweller, informs the Western world that in consequence of

the "great failure of the Milton Gold jewelry company in London, their

entire stock has been consigned to us to raise money as soon as

possible"--the idea of a consignment from London to Denver does not

seem to strike the Western mind as it does us who are somewhat nearer

London; two undertakers announce their business by enormous prints of

black-plumed hearses; and the paper itself publishes a "black list" of

debts for sale, ingeniously adding that a dollar a week will be

credited to the debtors during the publication; one advertisement is

headed, "Drunkard, Stop!" an appeal which seems quite in place; for the

most important and interesting announcement of all, headed, "Don't you

forget it!" is that a certain man has "the best stock of Straight

Kentucky Sour-mash Bourbon and Rye _Whiskey_ in the Far West." He may

be sure that the Denver people will not forget that.