Miscellaneous Back Matter [pp. 124-128]

APPLETONS' JO URNAL OF POPULAR
Researches on the solar atmosphere have been carried on by Frankland and Lockyer, of London. They have lately forwarded a letter to
the French Academy on the " Constitution of the Sun," in which they
admit of but a single solar atmosphere, and believe that its density is
inferior to that of the terrestrial atmosphere. They explain this by the
pressure being less. What else was contained in the communication,
M. Dumas was unable say, as he could not make out Professor Frankland's handwriting. It is to be feared that Frankland has gone so
deeply into the new chemical symbolism, that it has demoralized his
chirography.
HE ingenuity of private enterprise in baffling governmental taxa tion upon trade is inexhaustible. At one period a great deal of lace
was smuggled into France, from Belgium, by means of dogs trained for
the purpose. A dog was caressed and petted at home, fed on the fat of
the land, thence, after a season, sent across the frontier, where he was
tied up, half starved, and ill treated. The skin of a bigger dog was
then fitted to his body, and the intervening space filled with lace. The
dog was then allowed to escape, and make his way home, where he was
kindly welcomed with his contraband charge. The custom-house officials, at length getting scent of the practice, made an exterminating war
upon the dogs; and, by offering a bounty of three francs apiece for
their destruction, they got rid of 49,278 dogs from 1820 to 1836.
Perhaps one of the most delicious pieces of diplomatic affectation on
record is the letter of introduction given by the Spanish sovereigns to
Columbus, to be delivered to the potentates of the world he was going
to discover. It runs as follows:
FERDINAND and ISABELLA to KING:
The sovereigns have heard that he and his subjects entertain great
love for them and for Spain. They are, moreover, informed that he
and his subjects very much wish to hear news from Spain, and send,
therefore, their admiral, Ch. Columbus, who will tell them that they are
in good health and perfect prosperity.
GRANADA, APErN 30, 1492.
The persecution of Quakers was not confined to New England; the
old Virginia tobacco-planters were equally hostile to them. In a law of
1663 we find it enacted: "Every master of a ship, or vessel, that shall
bring in any Quakers to reside here, after the first of July next, shall
be fined five thousand pounds of tobacco." Again: " Any person inhabiting this country, and entertaining any Quaker in or near his house,
to preach or teach, shall, for every time of such entertainment, be fined
five thousand pounds of tobacco."
A singular custom prevails among the ancient families of Bretagne:
a bride wears her lace-adorned dress but twice, once on her weddingday, and only again at her death, when the corpse lies in state for a few
hours before it is placed in the coffin. After the marriage ceremony the
bride carefully folds away her dress in linen of the finest homespun, intended for her winding-sheet, and each year, on the anniversary of the
wedding-day, fresh sprigs of lavender and rosemary are laid upon it
until the day of mourning comes, when the white marriage-garment
GORHAM MANUFACTURING Co.,
PROVIDENCE, R. I.,
STERLING SILVER WARE
AND
FINE ELECTRO-PLATED WARE.
This Company, having the most extensive and complete Silver-Ware Factory in
the world, and employing the best talent in designing, modelling, and finishing, are,
with the aid of ingenious and labor-saving machinery, enabled to produce in large
quantities, and at the lowest prices, goods beautiful in design and unsurpassed in
finish, the fineness of which they guarantee to be of sterling purity, U. S. Mint assay.
A certificate is issued with all articles in silver, for the purpose of protecting pur
chasers from imitations of their designs.
They also continue to manufacture their well-known and unrivalled Nickel-Silver
Electro-Plated Ware, which will last twenty-five years with fair every-day usage.
Orders received from the Trade only, but these goods may be obtained from
responsible dealers everywhere.
['i'L ~Trade Mark
STERLING. Silver.
STERLING. Silver.
Trade Mark
for
Elect ro Plate. *W f00
leaves its resting-place, once more to deck the lifeless form of her who
wore it in the hour of joy and hope.
Three hundred and twenty-five years have now elapsed since one of
the earliest introductions to botany upon record was published in four
pages, folio, by Leonhart Fuchs, a learned physician of Tubingen. At
that period botany was nothing more than the art of distinguishing one
plant from another, and of remembering the medical qualities, sometinmes
real, but more frequently imaginary, which experience, or error, or superstition, had ascribed to them. Little was known of vegetable physiology, nothing of vegetable anatomy, and even the art of arranging
species systematically was still to be discovered. Botany was merely
the gathering of herbs.-Dr. LZindley.
In Japan the bridegroom purchases his wife of the bride's parents,
and is supposed not to have seen her till they meet at the hymeneal
altar. The religious ceremony of marriage takes place in a temple.
The pair, after listening to a lengthy harangue from one of the attendant
priests, approach the holy altar, where large tapers are presented to
them. The bride, instructed by the priest, lights her taper at the sacred
censer, and the bridegroom, igniting his from hers, allows the two
flames to combine and burn steadily together, thus symbolizing the perfect unity of the marriage state, and this completes the ceremony.
The art of starching, though known to the manufacturers of Flanders, did not reach England till 1564, when Queen Elizabeth first set up
a coach. Her coachman, named Baernan, was a Dutchman; his wife
understood the art of starching, a secret she seems exclusively to have
possessed, and of which the queen availed herself.
APPLETONS' JOURNAL
OF LITERATURE, S.CIENCE, AND ART.
Price 10 cents per number; $4.00 per annum, in advance.
CONTENTS OF NO. 4, APRIL 24, 1869.
THE MAN WHO LAUGHS; OR, BY THE KING'S COMMAND. By Victor
Hugo....................................................... 97
SPRING FLOWERs............................................... 106
GRACE DAWSON. By Henry Cleaveland......................... 106
No HOPE. By Alice Cary.................... I.................. 112
THE POWER OF THE MIND TO RESIST KNOWLEDGE. (Saturday Re view.)...................................................... 113
BEE-HUNTERS OF TIMOid. (Wallace's " Travels in the Malay Archi pelago.")................................................... 114
FRENCH MORALS AND MANNER S.................................. 114
THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE....................................... 117
CHILDHOOD IN MODERN LITERATURE. By Eugene Benson........ 118
THE OTTER THE FISHERMAN's ALLY. By M. L. Edgeworth....... 119
TABLE-TALK.................................................... 121
LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC NOTES................................ 123
THE MUSEUM................................................... 124
ART SUPPLEMENT.............................. New York Illustrated.
EDITIONS IN BOTH FRENCH AND ENGLISH
WILL BE PUBLISZII.D APRIL 20/Z,
SEA AND NIGHT;
BEING PART FIRST OF
VICTOR HUGO'S NEW NOVEL,
THE MAN WHO LAUGHS;
OR, BY THE KINC'S COMMAND.
VICTOR HUGO'S remarkable novel will appear in several parts. The first, under
the sub-title of "SEA AND NIGHT," will be issued on the day announced above.
One Volume. 8vo. Paper cover. Price, 50 cents.
ON APRIL 35th, IN FRENCH,
L'HOMME QUI RIT,
PAR VICTOR HUGO;
PREMItRE PARTIE, LA MER ET LA NUIT.
Un Volume. Broch6. Prix, 50 cents.
Either Volume mailed, post-free, on receipt of price.
D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, 90, 92 & 94 Grand St., N. Y.
124
[APRIL 24,