CLIPPINGS FOR THE CURIOUS.' Tho butcher biril is said to imjiale its victims on thorns and devour them at leisure. In Homo bankrupts wore condemned to wear in public black lion nets of a sugar-loaf form. The short est verso i n't ho ltiblo is the thirty-llfth verso of tho eleventh chap ter of St. John. The microseopo shows the hair to be like a coarse, round rasp, but with the teeth extremely irregular and ragged. At a recent execution in Japan thir teen strokes of a sword wore found necessary to decapitation. Tho edge of the instrument had been blunted pur posely that the agony of the doomed might be as great as possible. In the eighth century it was a com mon thing lor the peasants anil needy persons living in the city to sell their children. In Great Britain the evil of this practice bo nne so great that a special mission to aboiish it was sent from Rome. Among the Chinese no relics are ruore valuable than the boots that have been worn bv a magistrate. If he re signs and loaves the city a crowd ae companies him from his residence to the gates, where his boots are drawn off with great eereinonv, to tie pre served in the hall of justice. There is in Turin a tiny boat formed of a single pearl, which form it assumes ia swell and concavity. Its sail is of beaten gold, studded with diamonds, and the binnacle light at its prow is a perfect ruby. An emerald serves as Its rudder, and its stand is a slab of ivory. It weighs less than half an ounce; its price is #5,000. There is a watch in a Swiss museum only three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter inserted in the top of a pencil case. Its little dial not only indicates hours, minutes and seconds, hut also (lays of the month. It is a relic of the times when watches were inserted in snuff IMIXPS. shirt studs and linger rings. Some were fantastic oval, octangular, cruciform, or in the shape •of pearls, tulips, etc. t'hincso Temple* and Pagodas. There are more than a hundred torn- i pies of heathen worship in Canton, i Among them we will mention four: 1. 1 The "Temple of the Five Hundred] Gods," fminibsl in A. I.. .">2'k and r<* built in 175.5. In this temple are .500 ' life-sired images, seated in long rows.! and representing that number of noted 1 disciples of Buddha, now deified. Karh i image is finely carved and richly gildisl with gold. Some of these gods are in i rich garments and some in rags. Some are wearing shoes, others are shoeless. Some are laughing and some are weep •ng. 2. "Temple of the Five Genii." According to Chinese tradition, away lock 300 years Itefore Christ, one day five genii came riding through the air on five ranis. They stopped on the spit where Canton now stands, and said to some people who stood there: i "May famine never visit your markets." ; After delivering this Iwnedietion. the live genu departed, hut the live rams ! were turned to stone. This temple j contains the images of the five genii, and preserves the five stone rams. The old name for Canton is "City of Bams." I 3. "Temple of Horrors," so named from ' the fact that there are ten rooms in ; which the torments of the Buddhist hell are represented hv life-sized, eluni-, y, horrid-looking figures. In one room j men and women are !>eing transformed into animals, a"cording to the Buddhist doctrine of transmigration. In another room the devil* arc grinding a man in | a mill, while tho blood is (lowing out' between the stones. And so on, from room to room, some are lieing IK-- j headed, others thrown into caldrons j of boiling oil, with devils to stir them , round in the burning hath. Here a man is being U aten terribly with ! bamboos, and there a man is lieing j sawn assunder lengthwise. In one room a man is pounded in a mortar, j in another one is silting under a great \ nsd-hot bell. 4. "Temple of Ilnnain," grandest and most famous of all, with its magnificent gateways, its grand shaded avenues, its colossal Buddhas, its vast monastery with fifty monks, its beautiful gardens with dwarf trees and rare flowers, and finally its cremation furnare, where the dead monks aro reduced to ashes. It is a doctrine of the Buddhist faith that every ono should do what he. ran to prevent the Caking of any life, human or animal. I Lace the monks have places on these grounds w here they have for years pre served sacred pigs, hens, ducks, fish, aod goats, until they die a natural drat h. There are several pagodas in Canton, til which two are quite noted. The —FiTp-atory Pagoda" on tho city wall give* a line view of the city and conn itry. Ap its name indicates it is five ■sUffics high. These pagodas are always aa odd number of stories in height, rarely lens than five and seldom more than el *vcn. Tho "Flowery Pagoda," in the Tartar sections of the city, is i nine stories high, giving it a great ele vation. It ha* windows and balconies in each story, and a winding stairway inside leads t he top. The pagoda is a thing of >• ..xiity," hence its name. It was erected in the sixth century of the Christian era, and was thoroughly re paired about st)o years ago. The Chinese have a tradition that if ever this pagoda falls, evil will befall the city; hence they expend large sums of money in keeping it in repair. Pagodas are not erected from religious considera tions only, but they are built to give good lock. Where a pagoda stands, the Chinese say business will prosper and crops be more abundant. PK tins OF Tuonan', An obstinate man docs not bold opinions; t hey hold liiin. Time is Immeasurably long to him who knows how to value and use it. Labor is the divine law of our ex istence; repose i* dcM fi ion and suicide. t nder all earth runs water, if we dig deep enough; under all life runs grief. The causes which start men npor tlo ir careers are often seemingly the most slight and casual. There is fellowship among the vir tues by which one great, generous passion stimulates another. ' Good breeding consist in having no particular mark of any profession, hut a general elegance of manners. Be courage .us and noble-minded; our own heart, and no other men's opinions of us, forms our tnn- honor. He who can prevent a moment's anger may suppress many day's sorrow . Speak of men's virtues as if tlo-y were your own, ami of their vices as if you wi re liable to their punishment. Beere.it ion is a see, iid| i reat ion, w lien wearim -shath almost annihilated one's spirits. It is the breathing of the soul, which otherwise would be stiued with • "litinual bu.sim *. The true gentleman is courteous and affable to h s neightiors. As the sword of the best temp! red metal is most flexible, so the truly general* are most i pliant and courteous in their 1 ehavior ' to their inferior*. The 'turtle Industry. Few people have any adequate jib a I of the quantity of turtles which are i consumed in this country. New York 1 furnishes the chief market and they ! come into that port every year from I I'HHM ito l*o, pounds. Philadelphia ! cornea n< vt after New York, and Balti more stands third on the list, these tw o ' cities, taking t gcthcr probably ">•.- i**'pounds, while Boston has never developed any great fondness for this article of foul, and is satisfied with atmut J,'** 1 pound* a year. Turtles are most plentiful during the summer, and not seldom are drought to New York in larger quantities than the market demands, in which ease they are placed in floating ears in the slip tietund | Fulton market and f*l until they are I wanted. While thus confined they are ! given cabbages, lettuce, celery-tops and wati rmeloti-rinds. this latter article of diet lieing the turtle's special weak i nesa. They can only lie kept in the ' river, however, during the summer j months and Neptendier, as a tempera- I tore Irt-low forty degrees kills them. I Turtles vary in s./e from a few pounds to over a quarter of a ton. the largest ' ever brought to the New York market ■ having weighed SMI [Miunds. The sizes most in demand, however, are from fifty to sew-nty-five pounds, and the customers are almost invariably hotel ! and restaurant keepers. In Philadel phia there is ncre demand for small turtles, weighing from six to twelve ] pounds. for family use. The price I varies from twenty cent* in winter to as low as ten cents iti summer. The turtles sold in New York route i for the most part from Key West, j Another source of supply is the Ba hama Islands, the turtles from which j region are rather small but toothsome, seldom weighing aliove 100 pounds, and averaging about twenty-five. The largest turtles are found in the Spanish Main, hut their flesh is apt to lie coarse, and they are, therefore, not usually con sidered so desirable as those from the Bahamas or Key West. A party of Philndelphians recently male a practical test of rat llesh as an article of diet. The rodents had lieen caught and caged while young, and fxl carefully upon grain and green food. At the meal in question they had leen carefully prepared, and were serves! with an appetizing sauce in company with other viands. The flesh, after eooking, was found to lie quite light in color, much more so than either the rabbit or the squirrel, and possessing a delicacy of flavor entirely unknown to either of the last mentioned animals, i The experiment proved entirely sue* i cessful, and a diet of rats, prepared under proper conditions, was voted to be both practicable and economical. I Indian .Itiio?l<'r)' # * 1 A man is now in Calcutta, huiling . j from Delhi, of tin; nnini; of Hurah ~ Klian, wlio bus intuitu*! a simply won , derful excellence in tin- magical art. * Wo ourselves )ia heard .'*om the veranda above. This performance •ook place in the om|Hiund of the family residence of our friends, the Putts, and the veranda is in the lofty i second-story, forming a part of tin* female apartments. She was there J j found res|M>nding t > the call of llurah | Khan, to the surprise of everylssly present. The woman did not and could I ten mow the topography of tin* house. e.\i* t, mv s j lo extricated bers.ii and made her way high above to the ver anda from within the cover, surprises us to sm ha degree that we cannot account for the feat on any natural grounds. Kven if she was furnished with wings, it is inexplicable how she got out of the cover, ÜBtHM'tl and iin. perceived, except on die supprdtion that soinesupcri.atur.il agency had bis*n employ .si. Hut slu* h< r• !i as sorted that she worked the feat by Imm. W• • .j*- *ur< that if Ilnrali Kban gives a few p> rformatici sat the town hall in < 'ab lilt a, ti<* w ill draw bump, r houses, and astonish the whole C.d eu'ta public, especially tin* liurojs in coiiimuriity. llut tl.csi pi-.q Vdo not, unfortunately, know b**v\ to make iic iiey, "in \bow to make tbeiu si iv i*s .11.1'ptable to tin* Kurojs* m • un iiiutiity thecity. llurah Kaim holds very valuable cert bleats from tin* Prm Wales, Karl d<* tiny, tin* islit*.r of the I'i ifr. and many Kur >- ; pean noblemen and gentlemen who have wit to dbis feat* in different parts of India. —lndian Mirror. London Swindler*. An Ingenious mud has lately liecn practical in l.ondon. A tall, woil dr. ssi*i| man. apparently a < ity iner • hunt on his way home from business, is sis-n talkiiigoti the street t*. a man in workmgmaii's dress, who carries a basket and some tools. The "mer chant" accosts sunc wcll-dressisl pas senger. and tells him the "mechanic's" talc of want and employment and family distress. He adds that he has satisfied himself of the truth of the story, and is alniut to give a trifle; will the gentlemen join in giving a small sum to relieve deserving necessity? The apparent r**|w*otability of the voucher often sueceesls where a com mon lagging petition would fall, and the |M*rson accosted generally gives something. A gentleman who had given a small sum saw l>th swindlers issue from a public-house some time after, of course on seeing him they dccailijtcd. A clever dodge has lately come to light, which shows how thoroughly the swindler undcrstiHsl those on whom he was to operate, and forms a curious cuntnentary on the relations l>ctwi**n servant* and tradesmen. A man hav ing the appearance of a gentleman's servant called on several tradesmen in a fashionable part of London, asking them to pome to a certain house for orders for different classes of goods, at i the -ame tin** tiirow ing out a sugges tion that a small gratiitltv for himself would le acceptable, and might ni>t le lost by the tradesman in a distribution of further onlers. In a numlier of instances small sum* were given ; but when the shop-men attended at the place named they found their service* were not required, and that the fees had flowed into the pocket of some i other rascal. In Humboldt county, Cab, the whole area of the redwood forest ha* been inAp|>ed and plotted. There are some thing over 500,000 acres of that timlier 1 in that county alone. Disinterested ex|H>rts estimate 100,000 feet of lnmlier ' | per acre a* an average. If not a small 1 yield. At $lB per 1,000 feet, the red ' wood of Humboldt county alone would 1 just alsuit pay the present national 1 debt. One vessel was lost at sea every ' four hour* during 1881, according to ' the Kngiish Nautical (kuett*. In * 1870-80 there were 400 steatnlmnt collisions in the North Atlantic Ocean. COSTI.V f'ANKM. I'lDcriwU r lliiuillra for I iiim'm rifiel I ttibrt lifie Hamr ilurrr I iihn, A paragraph has lieen going the rounds of the press to the effect that a Georgia lawyer lias a cane, the head of which is curved to represent the head of a duck, holding a ♦<• so sapphire in its hill, and with two diamonds worth ♦7,100 each for its eyes. "It may be true," the affable young man having charge of the cane department in a large jewelry house said; "but the figures are pretty steep. It is not an infrequent tiling for men to come in here and order canes that cost ♦s<*i or ♦tMK), gold heads with jewel settings, you understand; but a ♦ 14,750 cane is ratio r beyond our experience. For ordinary sale tin* cuuch we keep in stock do not run over SI2O. We al ways liav-on band a cord or soot' cane-, that run from ♦•in to ♦ljo. **(• old headed presentation earn* Y'-, we soli a many of tliein, but hardly ever to the out-of-town buyers. t i.ir more expensive cam s ar<* those in which artidie fancy . nban ■ t! * value of tin* gold. lb re i* one, a ni**di liol shepherd's crook of l.aiiimcr.sl and "haoil Human gol.l, tb<* gr. it- t pi u liarity of which is its prio ♦lls. Tills hammered crutch head of blended red and yellow gold i* worth fl J". Here are a lot of new d> signs, Indian and I'ersian fancies, unique, I atul some of them pn-ttv, that run from ♦•'si to ♦lls. They arc mad.* of gold, the beauty of which is that it was put through certain chemical treatments that brought it out looking hh>- almost anything but gold. This one, for in stance, that looks like i- gold, and so Ls that one resembling a r.-d enamel. Some of those, light ones, w .-re mad.* up as cheap a ♦".<, but w have none so low-prieisl on band now. Thus.*\i-ry dainty little quar. rr.ok gold-headi*l ca.'ie.s, or switches rather. We I1!as . heap a- ist .♦;■ I. From tin eb t us pass to the silver a. ids. (if them we have a great vari ety, from ♦'.< for a plain hatiiiiupxl ■ -ih. r ball up t" f..r a large ..ne ..f j the new est fashion, which is a close j imitation f an old fashioned buck ; horn handle, or ?75 f-.r one like this, which is. as you can see, a combination of silver, gold and cop|w*r that looks lik< a -"rt of marble metal. Tb r>- i- a wide diversity of stvb* in silver leads, some of them, as von will notice, the I tl.i ities' jm. -it.le a "door knob" or simple ball and others full of fancy nd exquisite workmanship. There is ; a novel and pretty thing, a jicrfectly round I all of r>>' k • rystal held in place ly silver clasps, that we sell for ♦J"., \ inn i unc in here the other day offering f>>r -ab* a couple of < uric- that he had made, I beliew. They were I romj~*sl of small, thin pieces of agate, cornelian, and other stone*. in alternate layers, set on astn them. Whatever the stick may 1\ ti value is nothingcouipapsl with the head we | .lit on it in most cases of that sort. Diamonds, sapphires and other precious stones are very often set in them to order, tif course we keep no such jew eled to ads in stock. We don't have so niueh call for fancy carved ivory and solid imitation silver heads, monkeys'and dogs' heals, and birds and such things as we used to do. People seem to go in now for rare and tine sticks, lasting and relia ble ones, nnd the rane dealer who wants to keep up with the times must have an almost infinite variety of sticks from all parts of the globe. I've men one, a plain rough stick, without a fer rule, and only a tent crook at the top, that was said to have leen worth ♦17,- when it une into the country. It was hollow*, and had diamonds packed in it. That was several years ago. I guess tho custom-house chaps have dropped on that dislge. Anyway. 1 never hear of its l>eing played now. I have seen a German cane with a flute in it. ami another that would hold a good drink of schnapps, and one that was a pipe when you took oft the fer rule and a cap on the head; but all those things were mere eccentricities. We are never called on to make such things. There have tieen 24,000 divorces de creed in Maine during five years, make ing a ratio of one separation in ten marriages. The leant or Lantern*. , The annual festival called the feast of lanterns is one of the most peculiar I* of the Huddhist cfi-finonlal*among the i Japanese, belonging more particularly f among the working than among the I official classes. Huddhism in Japan is remarkable for tin* extraordinary ven eration of the memory of the dead which it inculcates. Gravi - arc ha bitually kept clean and decked with flowers, mid nearly every grave in that faith bus a cup of rice and a jar of tea I water standing by for the us.* ..f the departed spirit on ii- up|H>sfd frequent , visits to tliis world. These graves, among groves of ornamental tree* and flowering plants, beautify tin- hillsides about Naga.-aki. Heinle* this ordinary • are, Buddhism also incnb ales the cel ebration by the relatives of deceased persons o| distinct • omincmorativc *ntitiuing tbi < ereinony well into the night. Hy tb< next day all the sjijrils are sup|s>sed t* have armed, and a -mall cabinet apart merit found in every Huddbi-t dwelling (called the household teinpb mid set apart for tin use of the deal) is de. *-r.it• <1 with flowers and set out with r.' e, fruits, wme . and s *on. a.i ting in the adjoining man. the living ineinls-rs h<>ld their own a -comjiatiyinu feast, which is kept up through the -eeond the graves, which they d *!orsl lanterns, lighting up the lsitcr as the day f.eles, so that the dej.arting visitors tnny liave their last hours as , pleasant as jtossjlde. As midnight aj>- proai h-s the ruabw form into procesr slons, e\cry memlwr carrying aloft a !ight pole aHuit t*n fs*t long, and thus they carry down the hillside* to the sea the l#oats I in which the spirit* are to depart. These I>ats. varydng from two to ten and even thirty f<*ct in length, are dee jointed with tlags and streamers, pr>s vided with a sttyx, not omitting a lantern or two t< how the way. are then launch<*l and thrust f'irth together, carrying tbi spirits to the far West, where go"* 1 Hiuldhists are l*lievi*| to pass their time in happy oblivion. This a '• or not, hut I ■ ledieve they must have one whin their ; lir.-t hahy is h rn. II you live at 'il'jG 15 street, and y u movt to dT'.t.'i A street, you must g . to the city hall and get a yellow tiia-t. II a rvant girl haves Mr-. X, and goes to work for | Mr.-. XX, -he mn-t also go to the edi, which took fire through careless ness of one of the monks, and, in the absence of any appliance for extin guishing the flames, was spefdily burned to the ground. Several thousand Dvrantinc manuscripts were consumed in this Are. To prevent surh irreparable losses in the future, the Greek government has sent two Athenian professors, Kindiklis and • Kalogeras, who are experts in decipher old manuscripts, to examine the libraries and archives of the monas teries, and to send such manuscripts as they And of value to the natioual library in Athens. These gentlemen report that they have already (ks * covered a great store of |>archment a treasures in the monastery or Dusiko, r among them some of unexmt Greek I authorship. It is said that they have J found an unquestionable tnuledv by .Kschyluf and one by Sophocles,