The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-04-16 00:00:00

JOTTINGS FOR THE CURIOUS.

CHINESE ETIQUETTE.—When a Chinese emperor
dies, the intelligence is announced by despatches to
the several provinces, written with blue ink—the
mourning colour. All persons of rank are required to
take the red silk ornaments from their caps, with the
ball or button of rank; all subjects of China, without
exception, are called upon to forbear from shaving
their heads for one hundred days, within which period
none may marry, play on musical instruments, or per-
orm any sacrifice.
WRITING MATERIALS.—The materials for writing
have varied in different ages and nations. Among
the Egyptians, slices of limestone, leather, linen, and
papyrus—especially the last—were universally em-
ployed. The Greeks used bronze and stone for public
monuments, wax for memorandums, and papyrus for
the ordinary transactions of life. The Kings of Per-
gamus adopted parchment, and the other nations of
the ancient world chiefly depended on the paper of
Egypt. But the Assyrians and Babylonians em-
ployed for their public documents, their historical
annals, and even for their title-deeds and bills of ex-
change, tablets, cylinders, and hexagonal prisms of
terra-cotta. Some of these cylinders, still extant,
contain valuable records of ancient history.
THE VAGARIES OF FASHION.—In the Memoirs of
St. Simon is to be found the following regarding the
way the women of Paris dressed their heads in the
year 1713—" At the commencement of the new year
the Duke and Duchess of Shrewsbury arrived from
London. The duchess declared the women's head-
dresses ridiculous, as indeed they were. They were
edifices of brass wire, ribbons, hair, and all sorts of
tawdry rubbish, more than two feet high, making
women's heads seem in the middle of their bodies. If
they moved ever so lightly the edifice trembled, and
the inconvenience was extreme. The King, Louis
XIV., could not endure them, but, master as he was
of everything, was unable to banish them. They lasted
ten years or more, despite all he could do and say."

JAPNNESE LILIES.—The lily trade in Japan, says a
Californian paper, is growing to be something of great
importance, and the lilies usually arrive in perfect
condition. This is owing to the method of packing.
Instead of using sand, or sawdust, or dry moss, the
bulbs are " puddled," each separately in a thick clay
mud, until each one is coated a quarter of an inch
thick. Thin paper is then wrapped round to keep the
mud from cracking off. These lily mdd-balls are next
packed in a box and some light material sifted in be-
tween.
ORIGIN OP THE BRITISH MUSEUM. —The British
Museum originated with the grant by Parliament of
.C 20,000 to the daughters of Sir Hans Sloane—he
having left his fine library, his cabinet of curiosities,
and vast collections of the productions of nature, which
he had taken so much pains to collect, on condition
that the above-named sum should be paid to his family
—which sum, though large, was not the original cost,
and scarce more-than the intrinsic value of the gold
and silver medals, the ores and precious stones that
were found in it. The library consisted of more than
50,000'volumes ; 3,566 manuscripts; and 69,352 articles
of vertu enumerated in the catalogue. Parliament
accepted his bequest, and Montague House, in Great
Russell-street, Bloomsbury, was purchased for the
reception of this collection; and thus Sir Hans Sloane
became the founder of the British Museum, one of the
noblest collections in the world.
WHAT IS A Boom ?—The current word to express a
peculiar and frequent phenomenon in Anierican
politics is "boom." It is derived from the Western
idiom describing the freshets in rivers and creeks. In.
those streams that are far'from the stable equilibrium
cf tidal waters there are very great inequglities of
volume. Some of them vary from six inches of dust in
a dry time to sixty feet of water during a seasom of
rains: and all have their times when the usually thin
and shallow stream comes pouring down in a yellow
flood, bearing fence-rails and corn-stacks and other
signs of the invasion of the riparian farms, and laden
with the vexations of the travellers delayed at the
fords. The stream is powerful while it lasts, but that
is only for a day or two; and while it is as its height
of temporary greatness it is called a " boom."

WOOD ENGRAVINGS.—Down to the end of the
fourteenth century no mention has been found of
wood engravings. Boccacio and Petrarch, and our
own Chaucer, are silent about them. Even Richard
de Bury, Bishop of Durham in the reign of Edward
111 , in his curious essay on the "Love of Books,"
says not a syllable about any other illustrations but
those painted by hand. There is not a single wood-
engraving existing which there is any reason to attri-
bute to an earlier date than the beginning of the
fifteenth century.
ANCIENT THEATRE TlCKETS.—Theatre tickets in
ancient times were in some instances of very odd
design. In Rome a visitor purchased at the office a
slender little cane that he carried in his hand and
delivered to the door-keeper. For the highest-price
seats this stick was of ivory ; for the cheapest of
bronze. Many of these bronze canes have been found in
Pompeii, and there are some in the Museum at Naples.
They are 'very slender and gracefully made, having at
the top a little (I. me on which a pigeon was perched.

OLD ENGLISH HOSPIVALITY.—When Prince Eugene
was staying in England in 1712, he dined one day with
the celebrated physician Doctor Radcliffe, who treated
his princely guest by all accounts with true old English
hospitality; instead of the ragouts and other French
dishes with which the nobility had entertained him,
the Dvtor ordered his own table to be covered with
b,arons id beef, legs of mutton, and other substantial
British viands; and the Prince on taking his leave,
made this little neat appropriate speech to the master
of the house—" Doctor, I have fed at other tables:like
a courtier, but at yours like a soldier for which I am
highly indebted to you, since I muse tell you I am
more ambitious of being called soldier than courtier.
Nor can I wonder at the bravery of the British
nation, that has such food and liquors of their own
growths as what you have given us a prof of to-day."
ALL ABOUT FANS.—Kan Si was the first lady who
carried a fan. She lived in ages which are past, and
for the most part forgotten, and she was the daughter
of a Chinese mandarin. In China and Japan to this
very day everyone has a fan; and there are fans of
all sorts for everybody. The Japanese waves his fan
at you', when he meets you, by way of greeting, and
the .beggar who solicits for arms has the exceedingly
small coin "made on purpose " for charity presented
to him on the tip of the fan. In anCient times,
amongst the Greeks and Romans fans seem to have
been enormous; they were generally made of feathers,
and carried by slaves over the heads of their masters
and mistresses to protect them from the sun, or waved
about before 'them to stir the air. Catherine de
Medici carried the first folding fan ever seen in
France ; and in the time of Louis the Fourteenth the
fan was a gorgeous thing, often covered with jewels,
and worth a small fortune. In England they were
the fashion in the time of Henry the Eighth. A fan
set in diamonds was once given to Queen Elizabeth
upon New Year's Day. The Mexican feather fans
which Cortez had from Montezuma were marvels of
beauty ; and in Spain a large black fan is the
favourite. The Japanese criminal of rank is politely
executed by means of a fan. On being sentenced to
death, he is presented with a fan, which he must re-
ceive with a low bow, and as he bows the executioner
draws his sword and cuts his head off. In fact, there
is a fan for every occasion in Japan.

THE MAELSTROM.—The vortex of Maelstrom, or
Moskiiestrom ("whirling stream ") is situated on the
coast of Norway, near the island Moskoe, which lies
between two other islands, and about three miles
distant. Through the straits on each side of it the
stream snakes its way during the flood-tide with a
boisterous rapidity ; but the roar of its impetuous ebb
to the sea is not to be described; and it is scarcely
equalled by the loudest cataracts. It is heard at the
distance of many leagues, and forms a v3rtex, or
whirlpool of great extent, having reached vessels in a
tempest at the dittance of six miles, which have by its
violent attraction been drawn irresistibly into the
whirl, and there disappears, being absorbed and
carried down to the bottom in a moment, where it is
dashed to pieces against the rocks at the bottom; and
just at the turn of the tide, when the water becomes
still for about a quarter of an hour, they rise again in
scattered fragments scarcely to be known for the parts
of a ship. Instances are recorded of whales and other
large sea-fish being found stranded on the Flagstadt
coast, they having been drawn into the vortex, and
thrown out. There is no doubt of this whirlpool beinz
formed by the accidental situation of the island of
Moskoe and the adjacent islands, with the natural
structure of their shores—the vast body of the Northern
Ocean forcing itself through these rocky passages, pro-
ducing this frightful vortex.

A SINGULAR DUEL —Two gentleman, one a Spaniard
and the other a German, who were recommended by
their birth and services to the Emperor Maximilian
IL, both courted his daughter in marriage. The Em-
peror, after a long delay and much consideration, one
day informed them that, eiteeming them equally, and
not being able to give either the preference, he should
leave it to the force and address of the claimants to
decide the question. He did not mean, however, to
risk the loss of one or the other, or perhaps of both.
He could not therefore permit them to meet with offen-
sive weapons, but had ordered a large bag to be pro-
duced. It was his decree that whichever succeeded in
putting his rival.into this bag should obtain the hand
of his daughter. This Singular encounter between the
two gentlemen took place in the presence of the whole
court. The contest lasted for more than hour.- At
length the Spaniard yielded, and the German Baron,
having placed his rival in the, bag, took it upon his
back, and very gallantly laid it at the feet of his mit•
tress, whom he espoused the next day.

S
REFLECTIONS ON EARTHQUAKES.

In noticing the earthquake at Chio, the Daily Telegraph,
In a leader, remarks :

Agram, Casamicciola, and Chio all bear witness to
the disturbed condition of the interior of our planet at
the present time and the earthquake at the last-men-
tioned place has been by far the worst. This will set
people thinking rather uncomfortably as to whether
we in England are quite safe from such awful visita-
tions. We have enjoyed immunity from serious
earthquakes so long that we have been lei
to believe that the -earth hi our quarter of the
globe is solid enough to resist all possible
pressure from beneath. Neither London' Liverpool,
nor Birmingham, neither Edinburgh nolliDoblin has
ever—so far as history records—been subjected to any-
thing more than slight terrestrial tremors. Certainly
the houses have never come toppling down on the
heads of the unfortunate inhabitants. Slight shocks
have been experienced once or twice in a century,
in various parts of Great Britain or Ireland, which
have made plates and glasses jingle for a few
moments, and caused people to wonder whether
an explosion had taken place, or an unusually
heavy cart passed, but nothing worse. Yet reason-
able as our confidence may be in the stability of
Mother Earth, as she exhibits herself in these
i§lands, there have been times when England has
been th# scene of volcanic phenomena similar to those
that hate lately appeared at Agram, 'at Ischia,' and
Ohio. Traces of eruptive , energy exist in every
quarry, in almost every mountain and kill in the
British Isles. Not only the igneous rocks, the product of
bygone fires, but "faults "and irregularities of strata
are eloquent proofs of the terrible disturbances to
which the enlist of English soil has long ago been sub-
jected. Why else should the solid granite or lime-
stone strata in many places stand tilted up towards
the sky, or lie curved in fantastic shapes? Geology,
however, tells us we have passed that critical period
when the world was settling down" into its
present comparatively/calm condition and there is
good reason to hope that the soil of 'England will
never again be agitated by violent volcanic or
eruptive disturbances. Were it likely to be other-
wise, the consequences would be terrible.- What would
it be if nearly every house from Whitechapel to Ken-
sington, and from Sydenham to Highgate were sud-
denly to be shaken to its foundations, to be cracked,
rent, and riven, while all the inhabitants were flYing
terror-stricken from a wreck of falling timbers and,
crashing walls? We will not picture the awful ,possi-
bility, for ourselves, how the parks would baiskowded
with trembling refugees, and every ship OR the
Thames would be assailed by fugitives -anxious to
escape from the fated city which was once the secure
capital of England 4; how commerce would be at a
standstill, the funds go down, and starvation stare
the people in the,face. It would be equally bad were
Paris, or Berlin Or St. Petersburg to be the scene of
such a devastating calamity; and Inasmuch as the
..Continent has more volcanoes than England ever con-
tained, and is far more subjectto subterranean convul-
sions, there is leas.im probability in this hypothesis
than in any such unlikely disaster befalling one of
our great English cities.
It was about the beginning of a bright November
day in the year 1755 that the flourishing capital city of
Portugal was laid low in I the space of about ten
minu,tes, and fifty thousand persons were overtaken
by an awful death. The first shock at Lisbon is
described as having been very slight, hardly more
than the vibration caused by a passing wagon. Then,
after an interval of two or three minutes, came
another movement which caused the houses to split and
crack, and this was followed in a minute more by the
most awful convulsion that ever occurred in any
European town. Lisbon had been .subject to earth-
quakes before that time, but they had been, for the
most part, "horizontal "wavelike motions of the earth,
which had never done more than bring down one or
two • houses. Even the previous great catastrophe
in the same city, about two centuries earlier,
though terrible in its consequences, was not so
disastrous as that of 1755. This historical Lisbon
earthquake is described as if two subterranean waves
had met in millision just beneath the beautiful city on
the Tagus, and thrown the buildings overhead into the
air. In a moment the city was a heap of ruins, and
amid a profound darkness the screams of the living
and the groans of the dying were all that could be
heard. Then a fire broke out, and, driven by a
fierce wind, completo the destruction of the Portuguese
capital. Some unfortunate people had fled in terror
to take refuge on the river banks ; but the tide sud-
denly rose and overwhelmed them, while the marble
quay of the Terreiro do Paco sank with all the persons
on it, and not one of the bodies ever rose to thesurface
again. All this it should be remembered, happened
in a part of Europe little liable, as a rule, to such
earthquake shocks as are common in tropical
countries. It was a sudden and awful revelation of
the insecure tenure on, which even the most solid
towns and cities hold their existence. The
Grecian Archipelago, especially the neighbourhood of
Ohio, has always been more subject to earthquakes
than any part of Western Europe; and we can under-
stand a natural feeling of anxiety which must now pre-
v.ail among those fair ' isles of Greece." Which of them
will be the next victim, they must be-thinking; or has
the labouring earth exhausted its restlessness for the
present? The fact that loud reports as of distant
cannon or thunder have accompanied the shocks felt
at Ohio seems to lend colour to the idea that
earthquakes may be caused by some sort of sub-
terranean explosion, either of gases or of steam.
If, however, the unhappy natives of the island are
spared further disasters there is no reason why
the effect of this convulsion, which has engulphed
a great part of the town of Chomeh on the main-
land, as well as the capital aat. all the towns and
villages of Ohio itself, should not be repaired in
course of time. Other countries and cities have
recovered from catastrophes fully as terrible as this,
the results of fire, flood, and war, as welLas of earth-
quake ; but at the best many years must elapse
before the fair isle of Ohio can lift its head again,
and in the meanwhile all Europe should unite to aid
Its unhappy people in their dire distress. ,