In consequence of the increasing number of grave-yard desecrations, the genius of the inventor has been incited to devise means for their defeat. Among the most recent patents is one for a coffin torpedo, which consists of a canister containing powder, balls and a firing trigger, so arranged that, on placing the torpedo within the coffin, and finally closing the lid, should any attempt be made to open the coffin the torpedo will be instantly exploded, a noise like thunder ensue, and deadly balls will fly in all directions. Had the remains of the late millionaire, Mr. Steward, been protected by means of this invention, the neighborhood in that part of the city where his body rested would have been alarmed while the robbers themselves would doubtless have suffered sudden death as the penalty of the sacrilegious attempt.–Scientific American

Mr. Palmer, in his “Anecdotes of Elephants,” relates the following: “A troop of elephants were accustomed to pass a green-stall on their way to water. The woman who kept the stall took a fancy to one of the elephants, and frequently regaled her favorite with greens and fruits, which produced a corresponding attachment on the part of the elephant toward the woman. One day, the group of elephants unfortunately overturned the poor woman’s stall, and in her haste to preserve her goods she forgot her little son, who was in danger of being trampled to death. The favorite elephant perceived the child’s danger, and taking him up gently with his trunk, carefully placing him on the roof of a shed close at hand.”

An amusing anecdote is given by Captain Williamson of an elephant, named ‘Pangal,’ which showed remarkable sagacity. This animal, when on a march, refused to carry on his back a larger load than he thought was right and proper. He would pull down as much of the burden as reduced it to the weight which he conceived it was fair for him to bear. One day the quarter-master of the brigade became enraged at the apparent obstinacy of the animal, and very cruelly threw a tent pin at his head. A few days afterwards, as the elephant was on his way from camp to water he overtook the quarter-master, and, seizing him in his trunk, lifted him into a large tamarind tree, which overhung the road, and left him to cling to the branches, and get down in the best way that he could.

Porus, a king of India, in a battle with Alexander the Great, being severely wounded, fell from the back of his elephant. The Macedonian soldiers, supposing him to be dead, pushed forward in order to despoil of his rich clothes an accoutrements. The noble and faithful elephant, however, standing over the body of its master, boldly repelled every one who dared to approach. And, while the enemy was at bay, took the bleeding monarch up with his trunk, and gently placed him again on his back. The troops of Porus came by this time to his relief, and the king was saved; but the faithful elephant died of the wounds which he received in the heroic defence of his master.

Ludolph says that an elephant was one day ordered to launch a ship. The animal attempted to pull the vessel into the water, but it was beyond its strength. “Take away that lazy beast, and put another in his stead,” cried the angry keeper. The noble animal on hearing this redoubled his efforts, fractured his skull, and fell dead on the spot!

Apropos of the recent metoric [sic] showers and the explosion of steam boilers in every part of the country, Professor Loomis suggests an uncomfortable theory in regard to the safety of the earth itself. He thinks it is not impossible that sufficient steam might be generated in the burning centre of the world to blow the world to pieces. A volcanic eruption under the sea, or near it, like that of Vesuvius now in progress, may at any moment convert the earth into a huge steam-boiler by letting the water in upon the central fires, to be followed for ought we know, by an explosion that shall rend it apart and send the fragments careening through space as small planets or meteors, each bearing off some distracted member or members of the human family, to make, perchance, new discoveries and acquaintances in other parts of the planetary system now revolving with us. So that the final catastrophe may, after all, be only a boiler explosion on a magnificent scale of grandeur and destruction.

This Oil has become so celebrated in the treatment of diseases of the horse, and as a consequence the demand becoming great throughout the country–that the cupidity of designing men has induced them to palm off upon unsuspecting persons, an imitation article for the Genuine Gargling Oil; designing thus to ride their base mixture into market upon the popularity of the only true article, which now sustains an enviable reputation, which it has acquired by more than fourteen years’ use in the United States and Canada.

It is allowed by farriers and all who have used it, to be decidedly the best application for horses and other domestic animals, of any now in use, and may be used as an internal remedy in some cases, with surprising results.

A faithful trial of this remedy will satisfy any person that the many cures it proposes to perform are neither magnified nor misrepresented.

The following among many others, in the cure of which this Oil has been completely successful, and in which other pretended remedies had entirely failed:–

Spavins, Sweeney, Ringbone, Windgalls, Poll Evil, Callous, Cracked Heels, Galls of all kinds, Fresh wounds, Sprains, Bruises, Fistula, Sitfast, Sand Cracks, Strains, Lameness, Foundered Feet, Scratches or Grease, Mange, Rheumatism, Bites of Animals, External Poisons, Painful Nervous Affections, Frost Bites, Boils, Corns, Whitlows, Burns and Scalds, Chilblains, Chapped Hands, Cramps, Contraction of the Muscles, Swellings, Weakness of the Joints, Caked Breast, &c.

Extract of a letter, dated Sunbury, Pa., Aug. 2, 1850.

Dr. G. W. Merchant–SIR–I must relate a new case in which your Gargling Oil has done great things.

I heard a man telling to-day that his little girl had a sore knee that had had a thick scab on for a long time. He had a Doctor attending it, but he could do nothing with it. What it was I do no know, but the scab was from a half, to one inch thick, and covered the whole knee-pan. He said he had the Gargling Oil in the house, and it struck him that it might cure. He put it on, and in two days, half the scab came of[f]. He then applied it the second time, and in a day or two the other half came off, and he found a new skin coming on it, with the exception of a few places. He applied it the third time and now she is perfectly well of it.

P. B. MASSER.

Extract of a letter ordering a new supply of Gargling Oil, dated, North Bergen, N. Y., Aug. 20, 1850.

Dr. G. W. Merchant–SIR–I have sold all but one bottle of the Gargling Oil you sent me. It gives most excellent satisfaction to every one to whom I have sold, whether they use it as a common Liniment in their families or on their horses.

Please send me two dozen of each size bottles, as I think I shall sell it in about that proportion.

Respectfully,
D. F. MERRILL

All orders addressed to the Proprietor will be promptly responded to.

Get a Pamphlet of the Agent, and see what wonders are accomplished by the use of this medicine.

Sold by respectable dealers generally in the United States and Canada.

The following are wholesale and retail agents, viz:–A. McClure & Co., Albany; M. Ward & Co., and C. V. Cleckner & Co., New-York; P. D. Orvis & Co., and C. Heimstreet, Troy; L. M. Rexford, Binghamton; R. Steel, Auburn; W. M. P. Mooers, Plattsburgh; Rossman & McKinstry, Hudson; J. W. Williams & Co., and R. Hollister & Co., Buffalo; T. H. Camp, Watertown; Wm. Pitkin, and Post & Willis, Rochester; Lampman & Williams, Syracuse; Greenman & Smith, Utica; A. D. Platt, Geneva; C. Canfield & Son, Oswego; Jenner, Sprage & Co., Ogdensburgh; G. W. Schuyler, Ithaca.

On Wednesday evening a wager was laid between William Laduke, of Vergennes, and Messrs. Forton & La Bombord, as follows: Laduke was to eat in ten hours two pounds of pork-steak, four large potatoes, one-half of a pie, two slices of wheat bread, each one and one-quarter inches thick, one-quarter pound of butter, half a bushel of apples, and to drink two cups of tea. At seven o’clock on Thursday morning the gourmand began his task by eating five apples. He then ate one pound of pork-steak, two large potatoes, one slice of bread, one-quarter of a pie, one-eighth of a pound of butter, and drank one cup of tea. The remainder of the forenoon he spent walking about and eating apples, of which he had devoured twenty-three at twelve o’clock. At noon he ate one pound of pork-steak, two large potatoes, one quarter of a pie, one slice of bread, one-eighth pound of butter, and drank two cups of tea. He was then weighed, and found to have gained seven and one-half pounds. For the next three hours he averaged about two apples per hour. At 5:30 p. m. he ate the the last apple and won the bet with half an hour to spare. His weight when he began was 145 pounds, and at the close 153 pounds, showing a gain of eight pounds in nine and one-half hours. Seven and one-half pounds of this he acquired in the first five hours, the last five hours adding only one-half pound to his weight. The half-bushel of apples was “heaping” measure, and numbered just sixty-five apples. Laduke is twenty-six years old, five feet seven inches in height, and has never experienced a sick day in his life. He is a thin, spare man, and has always worked out for his living, usually among the farmers. He experienced no unusual difficulty from his square meal, and offered to bet five dollars that he could eat another peck of apples the same evening.–Vergennes (Vt.) Cor. N. Y. Sun.

A fair young girl was to the altar led
By him she loved, the chosen of her heart;
And words of solemn import there were said,
And mutual vows were pledged till death should part.

But life was young, and death a great way off,
At least it seemed so then, on that bright morn;
And they no doubt, expected years of bliss,
And in their path the rose without a thorn.

Cherished from infancy with tenderest care,
A precious only daughter was the bride;
And when that young protector’s arm she took,
She for the first time left her parents’ side.

Continue reading →

An American recently solved a mystery which had confused and amazed a wedding party in Rome. The bride was the daughter of one of the most noble Marquises of old or modern Rome, and the groom was the scion of another noble house. When the wedding contract had been signed, the groom took the hand of his young wife in his own and kissed its fingers. She smiled at this, and allowed her hand to rest where he had placed it. But in a moment, to the dismay of the company, a voice was heard, as from her lips, saying: “Impertinent! how dare you touch my hand? Be off, fool.” Still she smiled as before, and her lover gazed upon her face in dismay. Suddenly she seemed to laugh, and it was a dry and ironical laugh that startled people more than the words they had heard before. “Has the girl gone mad?” some one asked. She fainted, and her friends gathered closely around the sofa on which she had fallen. At this moment a young American, described as “of great learning, but generally very taciturn and almost timid in manner,” offered to examine into the cause of the strange occurrences, and approached the sofa. Casting his eyes on and around the sofa, and then about the room, he proceeded to crawl along the floor on his hands and knees until he came to a large ottoman. Behind this he found a young servant who had been dismissed from the house that morning, and went away declaring that she would be revenged. By some means she had found her way into the parlor and concealed herself behind the ottoman. Being a ventriloquist, she was able there to speak in a tone of voice which was naturally attributed to the bride.–N.Y. Tribune.

A fiddle improves by age and use; a piano does not, neither does a bell. There is, perhaps a slight improvement for the first few years, but afterwards the quality deteriorates. Metal, we know, is altered, by repeated and long continued hammering. Thump a piece of iron, and you change the quality of its magnetism; the shock of the waves modifies the magnetism of an iron ship; and some of the music is knocked out of a bell by long continued use of the clapper. A peculiar effect is noticed in the bell of Cripplegate Church when it strikes twelve. The first two or three strokes are distinct and clear, then a discord begins, which accumulates with every stroke, until with the eleventh and twelfth a complete double sound is produced.–Chambers’ Journal.