The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-02 00:00:00

IPETHOLZUM.

This unsavoury production of the prolific earth is now
imparting a taste of its quality to everything wearable,
eatable, and drinkable, throughout whole sections of the. Union, from the eggs and muffins you devour at breakfast„
to the sheets in which you lie at night, the soap-and-water
with which you wash your face, the towels with which you would gladly cleanse the oleaginous particles from your
skin, and the railway carriage in which you vainly seek to
escape your persecutor. The whole Atlantic and Greet
Western Railway smells like a leaky parafine lamp ; and
unlE ss some means can be discovered of overcoming the
it is a serious draw-
miasma, an American and a Canadian will be detected in
society by his scent, as easily as a musk deer, or a civet
cat, In spite of the important advantages which the inha-
bitants of the petroleum districts are deriving, and must
a ship, which has once
continue to derive, from the springs,
back that their produce in a crude state emits so
fetid an odour that everything which comes within its
influence is rendered so noisome as to be all but unendur-
'veayiwnagggpoentr,o l cum ,
been em
enaApltorynendk,ina ccaornt
is thereby ren-
dered for ever unfit to carry wine, flour, bacon cheese or coteuseef iron,hbuumildainnefooord.furni Coe or timber may,
it in such 1.:
it is assumed, be con. ®hips or Carriages 2
with-
out
but it may well be
detriment; doubted whether wood
intendedan y
for
article t ih"
ure ould'. not be' so
deeply impregnated by the offensive miasma as to b
dered completely worthless. Meanwhile .
the flowin e rem-
which whie
• h both in the States and Canada ar© daily multiplying,
throw forth oil in quantities
so vast as to appear altogether
fabulous. On spring, if •
is said, yields at the rate of 150,000
gallons a- day© and fie
im the wells in the States alone up-
wards of five millions o gallons are estimated to have been
produced ; the whole I
o e earth in the district is saturated, and
the surface of the Delaware is covered with petroleum. It
is impossible to contemplate without uneasiness, the immi-
nent damger of such
oh,„_)ua state of things ; for should any !nis-
i. v( s person apply a torch, a candle, or oven a lighted
cigar to '
the Oily pellicle, the whole expanse of the Delaware
would be instantly in a blaze, and all the shi s in the river
DTI tt,wns on its banks would ,P
' •
probably be consumes, since
water, instead of
extinguishing the fire of petroleum, only
causes it to burn inure fiercely.

Ainsworth's New Story.
We are precluded by want of room from taking
More than the merest momentary glance to-da'y at
the new instalment oft hat capital tale of a hundred
years ago, now adorning every month, the pages of
Bentley's Miscellany--F1 rrison Ainsworth's ro-
tnantic narrative of "The Lord Mayor of London."
Here is one small fragment from the June
number, descriptive of the famous gambling-house
in the City in the middle of the last century, the
ruinous den known then familiarly to all the flash
men about town as—.

1;
,Seated g ahettahpe table " PICATID S.
with a pile of rouleaux of gold and
of crown•pieces before him, constituting
the bank, was a tailleur, or dealer—a young man, rather
showily dressed, with a perfectly impas,-ive countenance.
No turn of fortune, it was evident, was likely to move him.
On 4is right stood the croupier, likewise a young man, but; rently of a very different temperament from his phleg..
matte companion, his eyes being bright and quick, and his
fe ,tures extremely mobile. For the convenience of the
punters, a little book containing 13 cards was placed on the