The Museum [pp. 475-476]

LITEBRATUJRE, SCIENCE, ANYD ART
Cultivating the Cinchona in the East Indies.
The efforts made during the last thirty years to introduce the culture
of the cinch,na, or Peruvian-bark tree, in the East Indies, have been
crowned with signal success. Large forests of this tree, possessing such
valuable properties, now cover certain parts of India, and guarantee its
preservation, even supposing it were to die out in Peru and Chili, where
it was originally found. In the Himalayan ranges, and in the islands
of Ceylon, Java, Mauritius, and Reunion, at altitudes varying from
three thousand to four thousand feet above the sea-level, the quinquinatree has thrivenu admirably, and is now a source of wealth and happiness to the hill-tribes in those countries.
HE story of " Bill Stumps, his mark," in Pickwick, has an historical
basis. A countryman from Colmar, France, once puzzled all the
antiquarian societies of the empire with the singular inscription on a
vase, whlich he dug up. The mysterious letters were as follows:
T.E.iRR.D. F.O.I....GR..AV.TRVF.. S.
Floods of ink were poured out, and the question was still unsettled, when
one day the proprietor of a restaurant of the city visited Baron S to
take his orders for a dinner to be given shortly. The baron had purchased the precious relic at an enormous price, and it was placed upon
the table of his library together with other treasures. " Ah!" said the
restaurateur, " what do you keep that old jar upon your table for? I
have a dozen like it in mry cellar." "A dozen like that?" said the
baron. smiling ironically; " are you quite sure?" " Certainly; just read
what is upon the outside:' Terrine defoie gras auxr truffes.'
Of the four thousand, two hundred and twenty-nine ministers of the
reunited Presbyterian Church, only one thousand, five hundred and
eighty, or thirty-seven per cent., are pastors; one thousand and fortyeight, or nearly one-fourth, are stated supplies, and eight hundred and
seventy-four, or one-fifth, are without stated employment; while nine
hundred and forty-one churches, more than one-fifth of the whole, are
vacant. The average salaries of ministers are less than nine hundred
dollars a year. Deducting the large salaries, there must be a large number with four hundred dollars or less. At least one thousand of the
churches raised less than five hundred dollars each.
Miss Mitford, in one of her letters, relates the following anecdote of
Lord Byron, which we have not met with before: " A gentleman was
with him on a visit to an old house in the country, which had the reputation of being haunted. They had been telling ghost-stories all the
evening, and in the middle of the night he was awakened by Lord B.,
with his hair on end and his teeth chattering, who declared his room
was full of strange shapes and strange sounds; that he could not return to it; and begged his friend to allow him to sit by the side of his
bedside till daylight, which he did. I have always thought he would
end by being a Methodist."
At Trieste, on the 1st of March, about twenty minutes past twelve
A. m., a violent shock of earthquake occurred, the oscillatory movements
of which, from east to west, lasted three seconds. A rumbling sound,
like the noise of many carriages rolling in the distance, was heard before and after the shock. A few walls were rent and shaken, while indoors the furniture was violently displaced by the commotion. The inhabitants, in a state of great excitement, rushed out of their houses into
the streets, and remained there until the danger was over. At Ancona,
on the 28th of February, a similar shock of earthquake occurred, which
lasted ten seconds.
The culture of the pineapple is profitable in Florida. A local paper
reports that one man in Key West has sold his crop of pineapples this
year for nearly seven thousand dollars. The crop was gathered from
less than an acre and a half of ground. The same man has one hundred
and fifteen thousand plants, which will be in bearing next year. These
cover less than seven acres of ground, and, if sold at the same rate as
this year's crop, will net him sixty thousand dollars. The pineapple
crop of next year, it is supposed, will exceed two hundred thousand
dollars.
The term "putting your foot in it" is of legitimate origin. According to the " Asiatic Researches," a very curious mode of trying the
title to land is practised in Hindostan. Two holes are dug in the disputed spot, in each of which the lawyers on either side put one of their
legs, and remain there till one of them is tired, or, being stung by the
insects, is compelled to yield, in which case his client is defeated. In
this nountry it is too generally the client, and not the lawyer, who " puts
his foot in it! "
A Parisian countess lately lost two valuable diamonds from her necklace. They were found in the street by a gamin who traded them to one
of his fellows for a pocket-knife; the second boy played at marbles with
them, lost one in a gutter, and gave the other to a servant who showed
it to her mistress, a jeweller's wife, who recognized it as belonging to
the countess, who was one of her husband's customers. Afterward the
other diamond was discovered in the conductor leading to the sewer, the
boy indicating the spot where he had lost it.
Prof Bourlot, of Colmar, in Alsace, France, from a comparison of
ancient records of the time of year at which the storks arrived, and
similar data, concludes that the climate of his province was milder in the
middle ages than it is now. At the end of the thirteenth century, the
storks used to arrive in the middle or at the beginning of January. They
now rarely appear before the beginning of February.
John Bright was lately dining with a citizen of Manchester, who is
an enthusiastic admirer of the United States. " I would like," said the
host, "to come back fifty years after my death to see what a fine country
American had become." "I believe you would be glad of any excuse to
come back," said MAr. Bright, with a grim smile upon his face.
The British Admiral Ramsey says that on the coast of Africa he
once saw a regiment of rifle-women, and, black as they were, he must
say he never saw a finer regiment. All the officers were women, andcl
there was not a single man in the whole regiment. They were most
courageous, and fought bravely.
French medical statistics recently published affirm that the mortality
among Frenchwomen had decreased by eighteen and one-half per cent.
since the general loosening of corsets; but that since the introduction
of chignons, cerebral fevers have increased by more than seventy per
cent.
A young gentleman in Fifth Avenue, about five years old, of an inquiring turn of mind, lately astonished his mother by asking her where
he was born; and, on being told, he gravely added: "Were you there,
mamma, when I was born? "
In the French Cabinet there are two devoted musical amateurs-M.
Richard, who is a great admirer of Meyerbeer; and M. Ollivier, who, besides playing the violin, has written for that instrument several concertos.
Episcopalians are more numerous in New York than in any other
State in the Union. Pennsylvania comes next, with twenty-three thousand communicants, and Connecticut next, with sixteen thousand.
In " City Articles" the newspapers frequently observe that " money
is tight." When that is so we may suppose that Plutus has been hobnobbing with Bacchus.
The new classes for girls at Cambridge, Eigland, have proved a de
cided success, upward of fifty daughters of local tradesmen having
availed themselves of the new scheme.
A San Francisco judge tempered justice with mercy by fining a
starved girl twenty-five cents for stealing a can of milk, and then raising
twenty dollars for her on the spot from sympathizing spectators.
Serious objection is made to woman suffrage in England, on the
ground that if women voted a majority of them would be entirely influenced in their opinions by the clergy.
At the recent examination of the students of the Agricultural College,
at Manhattan, Kansas, the ladies did quite as well as the young men in
the higher mathematics and Greek.
Over one hundred young women are at present studying law in this
country-many in the universities, but more in lawyer's offices, where
they pay their tuition fees by writing.
Education is compulsory in the Russian army. The instrn etion is
carried on by the officers of the regiment.
It is proposed to hold an International Congress of Geographers at
Antwerp. Many eminent French sacants have promised to take part.
How do people manage to sleep on a spring mattress all through the
winter?
Tippling in Oshkosh is called " holding communication with disembottled spirits."
A fashion-writer says that the blue coat and brass buttons will be all
the rage for full dress next winter.
HE architecture of birds is one of the most wonderful problems en countered by the naturalist in the course of his studies, and as he
examines the beautifully-constructed nests of the humming-birds, the
orioles, the titmice, and others noted for the grace and delicacy with
which their nests are constructed, his wonder continually increases. In
the accompanying illustrations two striking instances of nest-building
are shown. One is the nest of the pendulinetitmouse. Suspended from
the branches of trees, it has exactly the form of a chemist's retort, but,
1870.]
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