SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS. Tho polar regions of Mars, like those of tho oarth, appear to bo covered with ieo or snow. Looking through yellow glass in a fog is said to render objects moro dis tinctly visible. By tho new mode of tanning mineral ■alts take tho place of tannic acid in preserving hides Tho weight of tho cranium varies, in a general way, with tho weight of the skeleton, bnt not proportionately, like the weight of the brain. Various kinds of foul water, which are sure to kill when injected nndor tho ■kins of rabbits, become harmless OR soon as th ey are shaken np with com mon sand. Tho moon is gradually increasing tho length of our day, by enlarging its own orbit, so that we may reasonably look forward to a day of 1.400 hours, instead of twenty-four. Tho two coldest spots on tho earth aro not its poles. One of thorn is in Northeastern Siberia, the other in tho archipelago north of the North Ameri can coast line, northwest of the Parry islands. , It is generally supposed that a thick covering of snow affords the best pro tection from the severe frosts of winter to the soil beneath. Experiments by Deherain and Kayser provo that grass turf is much more effectual. The fact that color is nothing but a function of the eye has been distinctly shown only within a few decades, al though Schopenhauer announced it on theoretical grounds. This discovery must exert a marked influence on art theories. Professor Fadicirio, of Montpelier, thinks he has discovered a direct method of destroying the phylloxera. He nses prnssic acid. Tho destrnction of valuable vineyards in Enrope by this insect within ten years is estimated at three thousand million francs. CLIPPINttS FOR TIIE (XRIOCH. The word alderman is derived from the Saxon "ealdorman." used by the early Romans as mediCTne, never as food. Abont thirty-four millions in silver dollars are now in circulation. The cachalot, or sperm whale, has an enormous head and no sense of smell. After man the whale's worst enemy is the grampas, which attacks it sav agely. i rows have been known to go to roost with the barnyard fowls daring a eold storm. Twelve million five hMdred thousand acres are devoted in the Southern States. A narrow-gauge road of three feet eosts in construction abont five-eights as mnch as a broad gange. It is said that watermelons may be preserved for an indefinite time by giving them three or fonr coats of var nish. In the late sale of the library of Mr, George Brinley, a copy of the first book printed in New York brongbt $1,500. The Ojibways pulled down the honse in which any one had died, and chose another place to live in as far off as possible. In Oreat Britain there aro three sheep on every four acres of cultivated land ; iu the United States there is but one sheep on thirty-four acres. Military Terms Explained. Fatigue duty means details made from companies for dnty, work of all kinds, such as loading and unloading quartermaster and commissary wagons, repairing roads, ditches, etc. Police dnty is the keeping of the camp in order, sweeping, etc , and is generally performed by the old guard, though sometimes a special detail is made for the purpose. A field work is a work of dirt thrown np for the purpose of giv ing protection from the enemy's fire. The best order for firing with the breechloading rifles is in open order or ss skirmishers. If a call sounds to fire, a soldier fires only when ho sees something to shoot at. File closers are non-commissioned officers or men march iog in rear of com ray and their duties aro to oheok ..I disorders, keep the ranks well closed up, aod to o ration men who are firing too high. Fileoloaers nevi take part in firing unless the oommand is hsrd pressed, at close quarters and when every available mnsket is needed. Teotics is the art of moving troops in the presence of an enemy. Strategy is the science of oonduotiug the opera tions of war onght of sight of the enemy. An aligment is the line upon which droops are formed or dressed. A point of sppni is the point of rest or toward which com panics are dressrd. A pivot is the fixed or movable point upon which a change of direetion is made. A deploym* nt is the forming of a column of twos or foars into line a ploy men t is the forming from line it. to oolumn. llnrtal Customs in Europe. In France, an most people are aware, no one meeting a fnneral on the stroets omits to raise the hat or cap in token of reapoct; bnt in Bpain the nßago does not exist. When tho " Viatique " is carried through tho streets, every ono is bareheaded and knoeling, bnt a fnneral passing along receives no mark of respect as in France. Moreover, while in the latter country a deceased person is followed to tho c?metory by oil his relatives, friends, acquaintances, and even by many who are only ac quaintances of his acquaintances; in Spain it is tho habit for persona to abstain from accompanying tho coflln to tho grave. If the defunct belongs to the better classes, his friends send their carriages to follow, but they them selves remain at home. The Hpanish cemeteries differ also materially from those in Franco. " They aro," said M. Ernile Maison, who has resided many years at Madrid, "but walls provided with drawers, only a few monuments being seen in the inclosare, erected to tho memory of the wealthy or dis tinguished." To leave Spain and its customs and halt on Italy's classic soil, there are one or two things worth mentioning iu reference to the burial of tho dead, which is performod with a different ceremonial in different parts of the country. One remark which applies to the whole of Italy may bo made, how ever, namely, that the hearse is entirely unknown. Apropos of the hearse, its introduction into Franco only dates from Louis XlV.'s time; and when it was first used to carry tho dead to the cemetery tho innovation was loudly condemned by the public. At Turin the interment of tho higher classes takes place generally at dusk; tho fol lowers aro numerous, but are mostly composed of valets or servants of the friends or relatives of tho deceased, clad in rich liveries for the occasion. At Naples funeral ' ceremonies are conducted with a certain pal ado and pomp. The dead man, woman or child is exhibited, richly dressed, on the bed; sometimes, indeed, tho l>ody is thus ex posed to view under tho porch of the house, surrounded with lighted tapers and flowers. When the moment arrives for placing it on the bier the duty is discharged by a religious community, excepting in tho oaio of the poor, whose remains, as in Fra co, aro consigned to the "fosse commune," which is, in fact, nothing bm a deep well. In the mag nificent Neapolitan cemetery, which forms an amphitheater, there are 365 of those wells, one for every day in tba year. Every day ono of them is opened to receive the dead, a quantity of quick lime is emptied into it, a few pails of water are poured k on, and the rtone is replaced, to be removed again only at the expiration of a twelvemonth. This is how tho remains of the poorer classes aro disposed of. With regard to the wealthier portion of tho community, they are interred in a monument rosem bling a chapel. The coffin is not low ered into a vault, for the reason that there are none, but is placed in the chapel itself, and covered with a slight layer of prepared earth, which has the property of reducing the body to a skeleton within a year from the date of interment. The family of tho deceased person then proceed with another funeral ceremony. Tho bones are col lected, pnt into a fresh coffin of pocnliar shape, and walled up, the name and quality of the defunct being inscribed on the stono which shuts in the coffin. At Palermo the ilea 1 aro placed in a bier richly covered with red gilt em broidered velvot, or in a kind of sedan chair equally red, and conveyed to the convent. On its arrival the body, after the fnneral service has been performed, is lowered into a large " souterrain," which extends under the convent gar dens. Hero tho unconflned remains are placed in a vanlt, the ground of which is formed of extremely fine sand. Each receptacle is mado to hold six or eight corpses. It is called tho Roo latojo," and when filled is walled npfor a year.— Churchman'* Shilling Mugruine. Moles. Who is there among dwellers in (he country who has not seen dead moles hanging on sticks in the fields or has not heard of farmers paying money for their capture f A correspondent, how ever, suggests that farmers may have been making a serious and cruel mis take. •• I have had," he says, a field of wheat full of moles sll the year without doing it the least possible in jury; but, on the contrary, I verily be lieve that up to harvest they crop good. Again, it is said moles eat seed corn, but this is a great mistake, for I have examined the stomachs of soores, but never found a single grain of ooru in one of them. I believe fIO.OOb bushels of seed corn are annu ally destroyed by wirnworma." The mole, of course, is a great enemy to this subterranean p<-st. Graphic. Thre ia every indication of an *nor toona travel to Enropo ni>il unmrtiT, and nearly all the teamay not only for tho crude feathers, hut for the work of proparing thorn for tho market and tho heavy du ties exacted upon them in their finished form, thoy became almost un attainable. At that time tho arts of bleaching and dyeing feathers wero hardly known in this country. A German, Isidor Oohnfeldt, was tho first to establish tho new industry here, and already New York has tho largest establishment for feather manufacture in the world, and is en abled to maintain a lively competition in this lino of products with the prin cipal European cities. This principal establishment employs in its busiest season—tho spring and summer months —525 girls und thirty-six men, and all tho year round finds work for from 435 to 400 person?; turning out 81,250,000 worth of goods per annum. Few peo ple have any idea of tho amonnt of ruugh treatment nn ostrich feather will stand aud has to go through to make it the beautiful thing which eventually adorns some lady's Gainsborough hat or a Knight Templar's chapcau. As it comos from Africa in its crude state, it is plain, rough, discolored and dirty. In that condition it may he worth anyhero from 85 to 8250 per pound, acoording to its length, fineness, absence of color and thickness. First, after being counted and tied together by their quills, with long strings, the feathers aro vigorously brushed, ono by one, to frco thorn from dirt. Tho workman trys them on ono brush and works them with tho other, touzling, hackling and mnssing them in such a way that their destruction seems inev itable. Thoy are then soused in great tubs of soapsuds, rubbed with brown soap, and washed more vigorously than laundresses wash clothes. After that they aro bleached by a process which tnrns even black feathers t> snowy white. From the bleaching tubs they go to the dye vats. Wo now excel in this country the European bather dyers in the delicacy and durability of all our colors, except the coral tint, in which the old world is still ahead- Howevcr, that tint lias not yet been much in demand by fashion. " When it is," our dyers say, "we shall of course beat them in that too." When thor oughly dried, beaten, redried, combed and sorted tho feathers pass into the hands of girls. Tho thick, unsightly stem of each feather is pared down thin on tho under aido, and in place of its stiff and ugly quill a tapering substitute of wire, covered with cotton and paper, is firmly fastened on. By careful sort ing, clipping, selecting out and mat- h ing pieces from different feathers, a composite second feather is made, to | underlie tho long and perfect one which constitutes the top of each completed plume, and those various piece* aro se curely sewed together, so that it re quires a sharp eye (o detect that tho flno construction, of doable thickness, is not a single feather. In exceptionally valuable plumes, tho lower as w.dl as tho upper foatbor is whole and not made up of pieces, but in all cases the completed pluma is dauble. If the stem of the tipper feather is disoolored it is carefully scrapsl. After steaming, to soften the feathers, they a-e next curled and "laid." In tho first process a girl, by passing tho fillers between her thumb andsdall knifeblsde, gives them a regular curl all along both sides of the feather, and the second consists in giving them a series of dexterous little twists which throw the curled ends upon the upper side of the plume. All this work adds an average of ten per cent, to tho value of the feathers. A pound of fine tnee, suitable for plumes, will contain about 150 feathers, sufficient for seventy-five plumes, and oosta, say, $250. The fin ished plumes command from $4 to sls each, according to length and quality, hut the general average is lowered by the small comparative value of the lower grades.— Net York Sum. On* Wrong Brick. Rome workmen were la'ely building a large brick tower, which was to be carried np very high. In laying a cor ner, ono brick, either by accident or carelessness, wo* set a very little ont of line. The work went on without it* being noticed, bnt as each course of brioks was kept in line with those al ready laid, the tower was not pnt up exactly straight, and the higher they bnilt the more insecure it became. One day, when the tower had been carried np about fifty feet, there was a tre mendous crash. The building had fallen, hnrying the men in tbe ruins All tbo previous work wss lost, the ma terials wasted, and, worse still, value'do lives were sacrificed—and all from one brick laid wrong at the start. The workman at fault in this matter little thought how much mischief he wss making for tbe future. Do we ever think what may come of one bad habit, one brick laid wrong? Young people are now building a eharso'er for lire. How important to see that all ie kept straight.— Oiere v. , ■ORAL Alll> RKLIfJIOFH. The Three llturdest Wurri*. A very learned man once said, "The threo hardest words in the English lan gunge are, ' I was mistaken.' " Frederick fho Great once wroto to tho senate: " I have lost a great battle and it was entirely my own fault," Goldsmith says, "This confession displayed moro greatness than all his victories." Do not be afraid to acknowledge your mistakes, else yon will rever correct them; and you are really showing how much wiser yon are than when you went astray. ■trillion* Krwi Hint Voir*. Kansas has 299 Proshyterian churches with 12,044 members. Leipaio, in Germany, has only seven churches, all poorly attended, and no such thing as u Habbath-school. Tho people uro indifferent to religion, and look upon a religions person with curi' osity, Tho revival movement whieh origi nated in Ht. Paul's Methodist Episco|>al church, Cincinnati, under the ministra tions of Mr. Harrison, has extended to nearly all tho churches in that city and its suburbs. The Bishop of Honolulu has gone to England for the purpose of soliciting aid for building the Episcopal cathedral in tho capital of tho Hawaiian king dom. The church will be 125 feet long, and cost 850,000. The Centennial Methodist mission at Lncknow, India, is reported to be in a prosperous condition. The present number of pupils is 115, comprising fifty-eight Christians, forty-four Hin doos and fourteen Mohammedan*. The Itev. George C. Mi In has de cided, after all. not to give up the pul pit of the Unity church, Chicago (Unitarian j for the bar, his congrega tion having voted him perfect liberty to say in his sermons whatever he wishes. New Hampshire has eighty-one Bap tist churches, with a total membership 1 of 8,915. The total amount contributed in all the churches for the support of tho gospel and for benevolent and miscellaneous objects the past year was j $78,105.4*. Archdeacon Macdouald, of the Canada Protestant Episcopal church, has a field of work on tho confines of the Arctic circle, and extending over alwut twenty degrees of longitude. About 1,500 na tives have been baptised and m< re than 100 aro communicant*. There are 874 Baptist churches in New York, with a total membership of 114,491; and 802 Mindaj-aebool*, with 11,993 officers and teachers and 101,272 scholars. The total valrutii n of the church property is $8,447,251; the total indebtedness $441,372 and tko total ex penses of the | all other preoiona atonea much of iu beauty waa . rove led anil available without any labor. The atrange popnlar belief of modern daya that opal ia an unlncky atone to tke wearer, appeara to be directly traoeable to Sir Walter Roott'a romance of • Vine of Oaieretein." In ! it* nana! occurrence in acarna or veins iu porphyry and igneon* rocka, it ia plainly an infiltration of gelatinona ail ica (ailiea in the colloid state), ofhn mixed with oona'derable cyratalioid ail ica, and retaining more or Ices of the rriginal oombiaed water. Indeed, pre cioaa opal proper seems, aa a rule, to contain more water than the other vari etiee. Until within the past few years the greater part of the material for commerce haa been of Hungarian and Mcxioan origin, but a new source of supply has been discovered in Queensland. In the variety from thia locality, which may in some reapecta be considered unique, the usual fiery re Action* sre displaced pert IT or eren entirely by tbe most splendent metallic hnes—greens end bines of orery con ceivable shade—the individual color* in some instances being arranged in more or leas distinctly defined bands or sonea, or again imperceptibly melting into each other and vying with the pin nago of hamming birds in magnifi ceioe. Clearly the old deaoriptiona Will need enlarging to oover this lateat sd lition to the nnmerona forms of silica.-* W. Ao(W. (JUITFAIJ'H PRKSFfITH. Aritilr* It **•! veopu]ar reprobation of the assas sin's crime in still manifested in differ ent ways. The oo mm on mode of ex pressing the feeling against the assassin, says a correspondent, in to send a rope suggestively noosed. These ropes l>ogan to como hy express and mail ! before tho trial, and are still coming in They have been sent to tho district at torney, to Mr. Hcoville, to the warden of tho jail and to the assassin himself. A little room at the jail is strewn with ropes received from various parts of the country. Homo of them are ropes such as are generally used in executions, with the conventional hangman's noose skillfully made. Many other littlo re minders of tho fate that awaits Liol come in the mail to the assassin, but the warden, as a rule, keeps them from his eyes. Cheap comic pictures representing the gallows with a dangling victim are also sent to the assassin. In every nook in tho district attorney's ouice can be found some testimonial of popular fueling respecting tho assassin. Many of tho things received have been de stroyed. In one corner of Mr. f'-ork hill's private office is a little heap of ropes. A bundle of switches was sent to the scoundrel from Florida A citi zen of Osceola, lowa, in order to testify to his feelings in a unique way, invested 80.50 in a pair of white kids and a fine white satin tic, tho tips of which he dyed blood red. He sent these with a request that they l>e worn by the cul prit on tho scaffold, the red marks to testify the innocent blood of his vic tim. They now form a part of the dis -1 trict attorney's museum. From Ohio came a little wooden l>ox, opined on one side. 11 contained a miniature scaffold, on which a paper image of a mau was hanging, while a score of paper women were hauling on | the rope. These were, according to i tho inscription on the box, "Ihe women I of Ohio " Among other curiosities saved by the diet rift attorney in a miniature scaffold and coffin, rery neatly cinstructed, and a gallows-tree, with an effigy nix or wren inches long suspended upon it. There is also a little coffin, the open lid of Which exposes a death's head. The coffin is inscribed " Htrangulstus pro diabolo, 1H82." All sorts of pictures, cartoons and letter* hare been receired and de stroyed. Dnring the early part of the trial a great many gags of various pat terns. the oommon form being a corn cob with strings tied at each end, were receired, with a request that they t>e applied to the prisoner. Home of thoe hare been preserved. In the same con nection may be mentioned various pots of glne and mucilage, sent with the suggestion that the villain's mouth be glued up. Many j>atcnt mi dicine firms, doubtless with an eye to an advertise ment, sent the district attorney sam ples of their wares, proponing that he dr e himself with the mixtures so that his h<*altb should not fail him until he had convicted the prisoner. The district attorney has also received s large amonntof Confederate monev to bo turned over to the prisoner. Ore imposing testimonial letter, signed " Citizens," contained one copper penny to be given to Mr. Msoville to aid in the defense. A letter received from New Wsterford, Conn., from a rope-maker, proposed to make for the assassin s red, white and blue rope otlt of silk or any other material the district attorney might select. One of the most ghastly cariosities in the museum is s black cap sent by an unknown friend of jus tice. A letter that came from Chicago rag ! geated aa the proper mode of execution that the aaaaaain be fastened to a rope 300 feet long, the other end being at tached to a balloon, which wonid give him a veritable " flight to glory." The demon, according to Warden Crocker, haa 1* oome aa docile aa a lamb; doesn't insist upon having his own way as he did during tho trial, and does what he is ordered to do withont a murmur. He has lost much of his accustomed bravado, and does not be come so excited when in conversation. Oeneral Cioeker states that be does not believe any man under sentence of death ever more fully appreciated the awful situation than the condemned. He has become very much depressed in spirits and shows it. He behaves with perfect deoorum, and there is not a sign of insanity in his conversation or actions He is denied the privilege of seeing visitors now altogether, and this seems to worry him. Jacob Wilaon, ihe town orier of Bir mingham, England, who has held the oflics fifty-two years, ia the sixth Jacob Wilson who has held ihs place daring the last 300 years, eaoh being the youngest eon of liis parents, and snc eeeding without question to a place that had come to be rec ignlsed as he reditary. This Jacob Wtlsrn, however, end# the line, as tha office has been abolished. Tbe output of b ill cm from the Utah mines for lIWI was 510,000,00* In the flnfrbe* of an Octopus. A Fulton market (New Tork) flab dealer pare a reporter aome interesting information about that uncouth marine monster, the octopus, or devil-flab. He .aid: "I'd rather meet half a doseu shams than one octopus. In al most an j market in Ban Francisco you will find them from ten to twelve feet long. They are aold by the pound to the Chinese and sometimes to Frenchmen und Italians. I kept a stall there once, and I have sold hun dreds of them. The CLinese call them Chang Kwei Yn, and they are very fond of them. Italians and Frenchmen always wanted them cleaned, bat Chinamen wouldn't bay them nnless they were whole. I didn't nnderstand this until one day when I aold about fifty of them to an old Chinaman, who was so particular about tbeir having hills and suckers on that 1 sent a boy to follow him. He traced him to a Chinese doctor, who paid the old chap more for the suckers and bills than he had paid me for the entire lot It seems that these parts were very valu able to them as medicine; so after that I made just double on my sales. They taste something like frogs, but are too soft and jcliy-like to suit me. Angel Island is a great place for them, and any pleasant day you can see Chinamen hunting among the rocks at low tide or hauling long nets for them. • " The largest one I ever saw alivs bad a spread of about twenty-two feet It was a good many years ago. I was knocking about 'Frisco, where 1 met a friend who had got togethc r a party to go up the coast somewhere near Van couver's Island, and hunt for rich wreck, and I shipped. We discovered the old hulk in about four fathoms. In the crew were two halfbreods from Mexico, who oould stay under water, it seemed to me, about ten minutes. They were jtearl divers from the Panama coast, and when they went down they carried a heavy stone to sink them and a rope : to make fast to anything they could And. When the oldest diver slipped over we could follow him on the bottom by the air bubbles. His mate held a small life line that he signaled by. In about four minutes the signal came, and we hauled away. He came aboard with a jump and said that he had hooked on to a cask or a box, and that as soon as he moved it a cloud of mud or sand rooe, as if some big fish had moved, and thinking of aharka, he had j come np for his knife, which he generally took down at first. He j seemed somewhat winded, and ! the other man said he would go. Taking aaharp knife in his mouth, j he was lowered down, and was soon I out of sight. After he had been down ' a)out five minntes there came a pull on the life line that nearly jerked the skipper overboard. W pulled and : pulled, until it was evident something was wrong and we all gave way hard, and by the waj It came we tbonght the whole wreck was afoul. In half a minute *v had Pedro's bead out of water, but the sight of it almost made ns drop the line. The poor fellow seemed almost covered with a mass of j snake*, that were twisted all over him. The arms and legs cf the animal writhed i about, some around his neck, others around his arms and body, while fast, ened to his breast was a big bag-like ! body with a pair of eyes like s cat's, with the me green light you see in them in the dark. The skipper and the other diver knew what ft was. snd sung out for knives. We eouldn't get it on deck, because three or four of its arms were slang around the low cable. The diver lowered him self, and putting his knife in ander the animal, he alit it in two. The skipper in the meantime was at work in the fore chains, and he out off the arms. Then with a jerk we had the man on deck. He was half dead, and we had to cat the octopua from him piece by piece, and even after it was cut np tba two jaws clnng to his chest and had to be cut out. It took us half an hour to clear him, as each sncker—and there were hundreds of tbom—brought blood when it was torn off. We filled wo bsrrels with the pieces that ws took from him, and the whole animal must hsre weighed 250 pounds, and probably more. We put it ttgetbsr afterward on the deck, and it measured from the tip of one arm to the tip of the opposite one twenty-two feet "It seems that the first man down started the thing, and when the next one reached the bottom he sros tied up in a knot For a minute hs couldn't use his knife, and when hs did make n cut at the animal it let go its hold aa the bottom snd sprang at him, and in that way we healed him up." Clwrica to tho Fran oh mwtmol office* are not a© veil paid ai