_ Treasures of the Cathedral ¢ Mexico. The largest, most elegant, most costly, and in every way the finest church building on the American continent is the Cathedral of M«xico. itis three hundred years :ince this immense building was begun, and more thau two hundred years since it was finished ; yet itdoes not bear thé appearance of old age, although near ly all the material in it, except the imported metals and precious stones, were centuries old when Columbus first sailed across the Atlantic, for it was largely built of the stones of the Astec temple that stood upon pre clsely the same site, and which was destroyed by Cortes, : Bixty-two life size statues serve as chandeliers, and everything eise is in the same grand style. The choir is surrounded by a balustrade of gold, which was manufactured in China, and weighs more than twenty tons not all gold). In the middle of the high altar is placed the tabernacle, suppcrted by eight ranges of stucco ecolonnades, in the first two ranges of which stand the Apostles, Evangelists and principal Saints, and in the third rank a group of angels, among whom appears the Holy Virgin, There are six chandeliers, and a cross, whose body and pedestal are in- laid with precious stones; a cross of gold filigree ; six bouquats of precious stones ; four more chandellers, twenty chalices; six gold oruets and stands ; a pyx weighing 104 ounces of gold, covered with 1879 large diamonds, 182 rubles, 148 emeralds, the whole mounted on eighty-four ounces of gold ; two golden censers, the prinei- pal one a yard high, ornamentéd with 5882 diamonds, snd the othér with 2,658,1(8 amethysts, 45 rubles and 8 sapphires, and containing 704 ounces of gold ; 11 lustres of 24 branches each; 2 pairs of large chandeliers; 5 per- famery pans, six feet high; 3 statues and a large number of gold and silver bouquets, The statue of the Assumption, dat- ing from 1510, and the most valuable plece in the Cathedral is now mise. ing (without doubt 1t went to pert of the expenses of some eof the count less Mexican wars). It was made of gold, and the ounce value of the gold, containing nothing for the wood workmanship, was $1,086 504 ; it was covered from head to foot with precious stones. The large censer, and a large portion of the jewels were given to it. The Cathedral was damaged by an earthquake in 1526, and a great gold lamp 23 feet high was sold to pay for the repairs. The lamp was 9 feet in diameter, had 54 branches, ard cost $71 342, One of the builders of the Cathedral sald to the architect: “Bulld us a church which will make posterity be lleve we were mad,’ and hedid; but we prefer the higher and truer Catho-~ lie spirit in which they worked who put up our Old World sanctuaries of Jvhom it is written : “They dreamed not of a perishable home who thus oould build.” — The Lamp. a Matches, Few people who use half a box of matches a day are disposed to think much on the subject of their origin, and rest content with the fact that they exist. Fifty years have not yet passed since the most elementary match in its present form was invent- od, and in Vienna, the other day, they celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their invention by three Austrians to whom, of course, that honor is as signed. In England, in 1832, matches had not reached their present shape, but had only reached the stage of * Jucifers.”” The modern generation has lost sight of all these gradnal evo- lutions, and they are only known to those who have the misfortune to be survivors of those benighted and un- enlightened days. In the time of Fox and Burke, and up to the beginning of the present century, the flint and steel and tinder stage had not been passed, though it is probable that Dr, Johnson and other scientists were more skillful than we moderns are at this intricate operation. About the beginning of the century, however, brimstone matches came into use to supply the place of the tinder. These were pieces of wood about six Inches long, tipped with sulphur, and esught fire easily from the spark of the flint. It would be a difficult task to obtain a specimen of them nowadays. No museum seewis to interest itself in these little social curi- osities ; and it Is only some fifty years ' hence that they will be looked upon nioal exhibition of the mateh. trade. It was not, however, till 1824 that matters began to improve, when an elaborate called the “Euapy~ rion’ came into use, This consisted of an open containing sulphuric no acld, soaked in fibrous asbestos, and ‘othe matches, which were about two anches long and sold at one shilling a box, were tipped with a chemical com bination, of which chlorate of potash him ting the match into the bottle and rapidly withdrawing it a flame was produced, but as the acid was incen- venient and the matches liable to be- spoiled by damp, the Eupysion, being shown not to be the. fittest, did not urvive, Many inventions more in- genious than useful were successively tried, — the ‘‘pyrophus,” the pneu matic tinder box, and the hydrogen lamp of Doberelmer, but it was not tiil 1832 that the fir-t sign of a friction matoh was evolved, and was called a “jucifer’ by the joking gencration, Lucifers were substantinlly the present match of to-day pulled through & piece of sand-paper. The remembraroce of such a con- trivance is calculated to make us think less than we do of that dull time, But the country was waking up, and the congreve, which is the match of to. day, soon followed the Reform bill Whether the congreve was called after the rocket of that name is a doubtful point. There 1s a story of its inventor whieh shows, if true, the value ef at- tention on the part of schoolboys, and might be put up in all board schools. The real inventor, it is said—a village schoolmaster—explained it to his boys at school, and one more intelligent talked of it to his still more intelligent parent, who was a chemist, and who turned it to material advantage. Be that as it say, this was the same as the match of today ; and it has since undergone few Improvements, except one changing it from a silent to a noisy match, The silent match, which is so «flected by burglars, and is neces. sary accompaniment to list slippers, consists in the omission of chlorate of potash in the composition which tips it, and which is the cause of the crack. ling noise which is liable to awake the intended victim. The last great in- vention was a safely match, which was patented by Bryant & May, in 1556. —————— A——— ——— The Law of Extradition, A vexed question in lvternational law of many years standing has jost received learned discussion Irom Judge Hoffman, of California. It is: Whether a fugitive from justice brought back upon a charge of one grime ean resist being tried on any other. One view has been that, al. though criminals ought not to be ex. tradited except upon specific charges, and ought not to be pul on trial on any other charge than the one men- tioned in the proceedings, yct the cul- prit had no right to object. The ques- tion was only a diplomatic one be- tween the two nations. When Win. glow was demsnded from Great Britain by the United States, Lord Derby, under an act of Parliament later than the treaty, claimed from Secretary Fish a stipulation that he should be tried only on the charge named ; but our sdminisirstion re fused to give it, and there was long disagreement between the two nations over the question. In the noted case «f Lagrave the New York Courts held that until some law or treaty limited the prosecution of returned offenders to the very crime specified, the Courts could not refuse to entertain any regu larly made charges. Other jurists of high standing have thought it proper for a Court to entertain a prisoner's objection that Le had been brought back unfairly ; and of this opinion is Judge Holman. He argues that specifying In a treaty certain crimes as grounds of extradition implies that no others shall be allowed ; and, fur. ther, that the tresty is a part of the law of the land, of which the prisoner is personally entitled to the benefit, An Insect Carpet-Bagger. An experimenter in Southern agri- culture told the following histeriette of Northern bees in the Bouth. He took a colony of the little gratuitous honeymak«rs down to Florida, The first year they reveled, throve and stored honey near’y all the unvaried summer time. But the second year s few of the more reflective bees evi. dently tured the thing over in their minds thus: “This country has uo winter to provide agmnst; what is the use of laying up honty where the flowers blossom all the year round?” These bees exerted enough influence among their friends to keep a good many bees from laying ly any sweet merchandise the second year of their exile. But the prudential instinct, se strong in the little insect, prevailed with the mesjority. They evidently said to themselves: “Perhaps this has been an exceptional year, Next sea son may bring cold and snow and dearth of flowers,” Bo there was quite a stock of honey laid by on the second year in spite of a few strikers. But by the third year the convietion had evident'y thoroughly penetrated the bee mind that it was foolish to lay up in a land of eternal blossom, They made Just enough to last from day to day, sbandoning themselves to living from hand to mouth as recklessly as ‘oes any trople-born butterfly. H————— A backwoods shoemaker puts blue glass windows in the box toes of his client's boots to cure corns, A Standing Army. mts Ore Bide of a Question. The bete noire of the eorservative mind in national politics is a standing army. They arein constant dread of the military encroachments upon the otherarms of the government. The interference of the military in eivil affairs is constantly harped upon, and they argue that this formidable ele- ment under the control of ambition, could be used as an effective engine in the prostration,if needs be, of the civil power in the Btate, This from a liberal view is but the veriest of twaddle. There is no high- er grade of discipline than that fur- nished by a military school, and as discipline underlies the entire political strala, it is quite plain that military discipline would advance the general discipline of the country if it should become, what it is in all well regulat- ed nationalities, a complete social and educational eirele in itself, Btanding aloof from the noise of politics, inde- pendent of favor or hope ef promotion, except for gallantry or other forms of meritorious service, there could not be found a wider or more elevated school for our advanced youlh than the army. When we say army, we mean an organization of from one hundred to two hundred thousand officers and men ; regulsrs, whose efficiency in promptness and knowledge would command the respect of the world, and be recognized ss a magieal pro moter of inter-state tranquility ; not a few thousand troops scattered over thousands of miles of territory having no experience in brigade or division movements, But the most practical view of the to absorb a large amount of our sur- plus physical force. Men out of work on the one hand, or dissipated on the other, could be transformed frem con- sumers solely, to the more useful char- aciers of assistant producers, inssmuch as they would be well fed and clothed, thus furnishing employment for the manufacturer and helping the pro. ducer to dispose of his surplus st remunerative prices, Increasing as the strength of the great moral engine sugmented, Thousands of berated creatures who roam our thoroughfares, chronie tramps, whose visages alarm our domestic circles from one end of the country to the other, could be changed to useful custodians of the law, rather than disturbers and breakers of the same, It ia rarely we hear of grave offenses being perpetrated by an old soldier; his years of devotion to the commands of discipline have educated him to the yalue of subordination to military law, and the sequence is a natural, seem. ingly, conformation to the demsnds of the civil law. He is easily resolved into good eitizenship, snd through the rigid and inflexible scheoling of the camp and field, he Is an example of subordination lo the powers thai be, and exercises a salutary influence upon the disturbed elements of society, in tesching by precept as well as practice the value of discipline, which is the only remedy for the disorders of so- clety., As a social element, the army has a peculiar value in presenting a wide fleld for the amenities of life, hedged in by a code of honor, manly bearing and courteous demeanor; as we find that good soldiers, as a rule, are gentlemen, gentle as well as brave. As a whole, we believe a standing army of fir proportions, would be a national beneflcence.— Phila, Thor mama A Mn New Method of Bleaching. The Textile Manufacturer describes a new method of bleaching manufac. tured cottons especially cotton on bob. bins. The plan nonsists In placing the cotton in a closed reservoir lined with lead, this reservoir being some 10 feet long, 7 feet broad and 5 feet deep, and capable of holding 800 pounds of cotton, A rubber tube connects the reservoir with an apparatus ic which about three cubic ya:ds of chloroform vapor are set free by using sulphuric acid in a mixture consisting of one part quicklime, one part chloride of lime, one part spirits of wine or acetic acid and four parts water. The vapor is conducted into the reservoir, where for about two hours a pressure of two atmospheres is put on the cotton, after which the bleaching ls accomplished, Afterward a wixtare of hydrogen car bonio and rulpburiec ether, produced in a Wolff bottle, is passed over the cotton,and in the space of about fifteen minutes all smell is found to have left the bobbins, This process is found to possess some valuable advantages over the ordinary method, Rs MAS For day weddings or receptions the frock or cutaway coat and light trous- ers are the oerrect thing for gentle. men. Gloves are again In vogue, and no gentleman will appear ‘‘Bare fisted.” —— A i Sorghum seed of the smber.cane variety is sold readily at 65 cenis per bushel, and st this price it will pay all expenses of the orop. It weighs near ¥ior quite s'xty pounds per bushiei, Popular Science. In June, 1783, Btephen and Joseph Montgolfier sent up the first balloon. An experiment Is soon to be msde in New Orleans to adapt mo quito wood, a native of Texas, very durable and nearly as hard asiron, for street paving purposes, Good yeast may be kept in excellent condition if it is twice well washed with ice cold hard spring water and then dried and well-pressed, This mass Is afterward to be well mixed with malt dust and stored in closed Jars in ice cellars. Four German expeditions are now prosecuting their researches in Africa, two from the east and two from the west side of that continent, Very in- teresting and accurate reports of the several journeys are looked for after the explorers have revised their jour- nals, A French chemist has analyzed the juice of the so-called milk tree of Cen- tral America—to the nutritive gqaali- ties of which attention was first drawn by Humboldt—and has found that the vegetable product really possesses many of the characteristics of cow's milk, Professor Bruns, of Tubingen, hax made some experiments on dogs which he regards as proving that bone mar. row, completely sepsrated from the bone, may be transplanted under the skin of the same animal at a remote pait of the body, with the result of giving riseto the formation of boae and cartilage. Among recent boller euriosities was the discovery of a piece of a plate covering a space of about six inches square, ful' of fine cracks. These cracks had evidently come from defect in th» iron in the first instance, but the boller had been run for two years at from eighty to ninety pounds pres- sure, and the boiler inspectors had just pronounced it perfectly safe for one bundred pounds.—Jron, These are the conclusions of Profes sor E. Wollny on the physical proper- ties of the soll in a dense and a lose state. When it is desired to Increase the proportion of water in a soil dens ity i= to be aimed at, but a loose condi- tion should be msintained when the contrary state is foand needful. The more densely the particles of the soil are packed together the more such soil will vary In temperatare, Dull gold may be cleaned in this way : Take 80 grams ealcium hypoch lorite, B80 sodium bicsrbonate and 20 sodium chloride, and treat the mix. ture with 8 litres of distilled water It must be kept for use in well corked bottles, Gooda to be cleansed are pul in & basin and covered with the mix. ture, After some time they sre taked out, washed, rinsed in alcohol anp dried in sawdust. The articles then have the same appearance as if new. wne American Naturalist: Mammalia, which have been so long looked for in wvaln in Laramie beds, heve at length been found. Mr. J. L. Wortman, who was sent to explore this formation of the past season, was instructed to look especially for mam- malian remains. He now states that he has found them in place and min- gled with the remains of sinosaurians in such a manner as to ieave no doubt that they were of the same period. The American Miller gives the fol- lowing rule for computing the con. tents of a hopper, the rule apparently relating to the lower square or reo- tangular conical portion only : Multi- ply the length by the breadth in inches, and thid produet by one third of the depth, measuring to the point. Divide the last product by 2150--the number of cuble inches in a bushel and the quotient thus obtained will be the contents of the hopper in bush- els, When the supply of coal gets short elsewhere, the world ean turn to China fcr “black diamonds.” Baron Rich- thofen shows that in that country the supply of anthracite coal is not less than 630,000,000,000 of tons, and the bituminous coal area is just as large. The Baron thinks that, taking what is left in other paris o the world with the Chinese coal ares we need not fear a fuel famine, He thinks that the supply in the Oni. nese province of Shansl alone will last the world about 4200 years. Dr. H, P. SBharus, of the Har! ford {Ct.) Retreat for the Insane, accounts for the increased amount of disease of the nervous system observed of late years by reference to the larger part of the twenty-four hours which the masses of the people spend within doors. A far greater part of the popu. Istion than used to be employed in wry and contaminating atmosphers, the effect of which upon the delicate structure of the brain cannot but be most unfavorable, Mr. F. A. Rollo Russell, an Engtish sanitary engineer, has come to the conclusion that the upper parts of buildings are by far the most healthy, and that even second stories possess decided advantages over ground floors. He finds that the climate undergoes less variation on hills and on the tops of lofty bulldings, belong eeoler in the summer and warmer in the winter than on the surface of the earth. It has been observed that frost strikes the valleys first and that In eold weather the thermometer on the hill tops does not fall as low as in the val leys. It is contended by M. P. de Tchih- ateheff that the great deserts of Asia and Africa are pot sea beds recently made dry, but that they had been raised at remote geological ‘epochs, and that thelr sand is not of marine origin but is the product of rock dis integrated by the winds, changes of temperature and other similar sub- serial causes. Ho says that the Ba bara is much mere modern than the deserts of Asia, He makes the state ment that on May 16h a temperatare af 22° Fahrenheit and snow twe yards in depth had been found in tae Gobi at & point having the same latitude as Palermo, It is estimated that nearly 2,000,000, 000 pounds of paper are produced =sn- nually, one-half of which is for print ing, a sixth for writing and the re. mainder coarse paper for packing and other purposes. The United Biates alone produce yearly 200,000 toms of aper, averaging seventeen pounds per head ; the educated German takes eight pounds, the Frenchman seven pounds, the Italian, Spaniard and Russian takes, respectively, three pounds, one snd a half pounds and one pound annuaily, the consumption of paper being roughly in proportion to the education and intellectual ac- tivity of the people, i > Value of Asses’ Milk for Chil- dren. In the Paris Academy of Medicive, M. Parrott recently called attention to some remarkable results obtained in the Hospital des Enfants Assistees, of Paris, In feeding delicate infants with seses’ milk. Many of the infants brought to that hospital have diseases which forbid their being suckled by nurses, whom they would soon infect. Hence the feeding-bottle was formerly used for them. But, in spite of great care, the effort to foster the small vital forces of these children was of little avail. Directapplication to the udder of an snimal was then tried, At first the Infants were thus fed with geats’ milk, but it was soon found that asses’ milk was greatly preferable, and all sre now fed with that—one, two, sometimes even three infants being held te the animal’s udders at once. The nurses do this with ease. The results of the treatment appear well from the figures cited. During six months elghty-six infants having con genital and contagi>us diseases have bein treated in the bospital nursery. Of the first six fed with cows’ milk in feeding-bottles only one was cured, Of forty-two fed at the goal's udder eight were cured, while thirty-four died. Of thirty-eight fed at the as’ udder twenty eight bave been cured, while gix have died. The virtues of asses’ milk have been appreciated some time in France, For many years Paris and the large towns have been visited every morning with troops of she asses’ brought in to sup- ply their milk for invalids. It is said that the use of the milk was mtro- duced by Francis I, who, reduced to & very weak state and a despair to physicians, was induced by a Jew from Constantinople to tke asses’ milk, and thereby got well again, This milk has much less of plastic matters and butter than goat's or cow's milk, and is easily digested. M. Parrot notices the practical advantage in the case of suckling from the ass in that the anima! is so easily fed ; it is content with the poorest fodder, The The goat suffers from a diet that lacks variety, and in the city ita milk is not what It fs inthe country. The asses kept at the hospital referred to are in stables adjoining a field, in which they generally pass part of the day. It may be mentioned, in fine, that weekly statistios for Paris have ately presented the unwonted fact of an excess of 200 and 240 births over the deaths, ——- Idaho Meanness, “Don’t yer go there!’ he said, as he turned around on the passenger who announced that he was going through to Idaho. “They are the most selfish people you ever saw.” “How I" “Well, take my case, I ran a wildest under & school-house and discovered a rich mine, and yet they wouldn’t let me do any blasting under there during school hours for fear of disturbing the children. I had to work at nights altogether, and they even charged ie thirty oceots for breaking the win dows.” “Indeed!” "And in another case, where I staked out a claim and three men jumped it, the Governor re- fused to issue ammunition or let the Sheriff move ; and do you know wha I had to do? I had to dig a canal from the river, three miles away, and let the water in to drive the jumpers out, and even shen the Coroner who sat on the bodies made me pay for the coffing and charged me twelve dollars for a funeral sermon only seven min utes long! Don’t go beyond Colorado if you want to be well used.” ~ The Virtues ot Coffee. Its Exhllarating Effscts Upon the Sysiecns and Benefiis in a Medicinal Way. It is getting to be the fashion now for people to say that coffee is injurious to the health and many persons are giving it up regretfully. Perhaps coffee is very ir jurious in some cases, but of all beverages it is contended that it Is the lesst irjurious, Coffes. drinkers are generally cheerful, strong persevering, The eminent Dr, Book, of Leipsic, says: “The nervousness and peeyvishness of the times are chiefly atiributable to tea and coffee.’ He says thet “the digestive organs of confirmed coffee-drinkers are in a state of ehronle derangement, which reccts on the brain, produces fretful and lachrymose moods,” “I enn agree,” says Dr. Henry Begur of Parle, “that the n: rvousnese and peevishness of the present times sre to be atbribu- ted to the use of coffee. If people are more nei vous or in worse humor than formerly, we may find other causes arising from the customs and habits of sockety much more likely to produce such a state of things than the use of this particular article of diet.” Let us examine the effects of coflee on the economy. Taken in modera~ tion it is & mental and bodily stimulant of a most agreeable nature, and fol- lowed by no harmful reaction, itpro- duces contentment of mind, aliays hunger and bodily weakness, increases the incentive and capacity for work, makes man forget his miisforiunes, and enables those who use i! to rervain a long time without food or sleep, to endare unusasl fatigue snd preserve their cheerfulness and contentment, Jomand says: “An infusion made with ten ounces of coffee enables me to live without other food for five con- secutive days without lessening my ordinary occupations and to use more and more prolonged muscular exercise than I was accustomed to without any other physical injary than a slight degree of fatigue and a little loss ef flesh.” The mental exhilaration, physieal activity and wakefulness it causes ex- plains the fondness for it which has been shown by so many men of sci- ence, poets, scholars and others de- voted to thinking. It has, indeed, been called the intellectual beverage. It supported the old age of Voltaire aud enabled Fontenella to pass his hundred years, The action of coffee is directed chief- ly to the nervous system. It produces as warming, cordial impression on the stomach, quickly followed hy a dif fused asreeable and nervous excite- ment, which extends it:sif to the cere ral functions, giving rise to in. cressed vigor of imasginstion snd intellect, without any subsequent oon. fasion or stupor, such 88 are charac. teristic of narcotics. Coffee contains essential principles of nutrition far exceeding In Importance its exhila- riting properties and is one of the most deeirous articles for sustaining the system in certain prostrating dis. eases. As compared with the nutri. tion to be derived from the best of soups, coffee has decidedly the sdvan- tage, and is to be preferred in many nstances. The medicinal effects of coffee are very great. In intermittent fever, it has been used by eminent physicians, with the happiest effect, in cutting short the attack, and if properly managed is better in many cases than the sulphate of quinine, In that low state of intermittent as found on the banks of the Mississip, § river and other malarial districts, ao- companied with enlarged spleen and torpid liver, when judiciously sami istered itis one of the su: est remedies. In yellow fever it has been used by physicians, and with some it is their main relinnce after other NECLLEATY Tee medies have been administered ; it re- tains tissue change, and thus becomes a conservator of force in that state in which the nervous system tends to collapse, because the blood has become impure ; it sustains the nervous power until the duration and reorganization of the blood are accomplished, and has the advantage over other stimulants in inducing no injurious secondary effects. In spasmodic asthma ite - ity is well established, as in ue ing cough, stupor, lethargy and such utbles, In hysterioal attacks, for many oases a physician can Joti no diagnosis, coffee is a great pe Coffee is opposed to malaria, to all noxious vapors. As a disinfectant it taneous deodoriser it has no equal for the sick room, ss all exhalations are immediately neutralized by simply passing a chafing dish with burning ooffee grains through the room. It may be urged that an article possess. ing such powers and eapacity for such energetio action must be injaxi ous as an article of diet of habitual
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers