The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-07-17 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANIAR&

PILGRIMS BATHING IN THE JORDAN.—In all the wild
haste of a disorderly rout, Copts and Russians, Poles,
Armenians, Greeks, and Syrians, from all parts of Asia,
from Europe, from Africa, and from far-distant America,
on they came ; men, women, and children, of every age
and hue, and in every variety of costume; talking, scream-
ing, shouting, in almost every known language under the
sun. Mounted as variously as those who had preceded
them, many of the women and children were suspended
in baskets or confined in cages; and, with their eves
strained towards the river, heedless of all intervening
obstacles, they hurried eagerly forward, and all dis-
mounted in haste, and disrobing with precipitation, rushed
down the bank and threw themselves into the stream.
They seemed to be absorbed by one impulsive feeling,
and perfectly regardless of the observations of others.
Each one plunged himself, or was dipped by another,
three times below the surface, in honour of the Trinity;
and then filled a bottle, or some other utensil, from the
river. The bathing-dress of many of the pilgrims was a
white gown with a black cross upon it. Most of them,
as soon as they were dressed, cut branches of the agnus
castue, or willow; and, dipping them into the consecrated
stream, bore them away as memorials of their visit. In
an hour they began to disappear ; and in less than three
hours the trodden surface of the lately crowded bank
reflected no shadow. The pageant disappeared as rapidly
as it had approached, and left to us once more the silence
and the solitude of the wilderness. It was like a dream.
An immense crowd of human beings, said to be B,OOG,
but I thought not so many, had passed and repassed
before our tents, and left not a vestice behind them.—
Lynch's American Expeaition to the Dead Sea.
THE ATHENIAN MODE OF CHECKING LAWYERS' PRO-
LIXITY.—In some trials the time during which a party
might address the court was unlimited; but in others it
was regulated by a clepsydra, or water clock. The former
class of cases comprised actions, brought by children
against their parents for ill treatment ; by heiresses
against their husbands; and wards against their guardi-
ans. In the latter, a certain quantity of water was
measured out to each speaker, which ran something in
the manner of sand in modern hour-glasses, and when it
was exhausted he was obliged to stop. But while wit-
nesses were under examination, or legal documents were
read (which, by what seems to have been a most incon-
venient practice, took place at different parts of the
speaker's address, and interrupted its continuous thread);
the water was stopped, and the time thus occupied was
not taken into account. The pleader might if he thought
fit, give up a portion of his allotted water to another
party interested in the cause, and thus enable him to
speak at greater lenath. This water-system gave rise to
a number of curious expressions which occur in the Attic
orators, and it is necessary to be familiar with the usage,
in order to understand them. It was a frequent cause of
complaint with them, that the time, within which they
were thus circumscribed, was not sufficient, and the great-
est of them more than once laments that he is compelled
to omit heavy charges against his opponents, because he
is short of water. We might almost fancy he was speak-
ing of a locomotive. Auger, the French translator of
Demosthenes, seems to think that this circumstance may
have given to the forensic speeches at Athens their terse
and business like character. The time, he says, was
somewhat limited in private cases ; the clepsydra, or
water-clock, afforded but little, and the advocate had
none to lose."—Forsyth's Hortensius. _

WARNING TO CURIOUS LADIES.—A few doors further
on, a China woman, apparently of the same class, appeared
at the entrance of the house, surrounded by her atten-
dants, evidently drawn thither to gaze upon the strange
being of their own sex wh'.) had come amongst them.
The China lady bowed her head, and, beckoning with her
finger, stood aside to allow the visitor to pass, endeavour-
ing by smiles and signs to induce our companion to enter
the dwelling. Female curiosity, combined with a lauda-
ble desire to gain information connected with the domestic
arrangement within, might possibly have induced the
English lady to have accepted the invitation ; but this we
would not consent to, knowing full well that we should
not be allowed to accompany her, and having the fate of
a fair countrywoman of ours too vividly impressed upon
our memory. This lady had a great desire to inspect the
interior economy of a Begurn's residence in India; after
some preliminary objections and arrangements, she suc-
ceeded in causing herself to be invited, and fully resolved
upon obtaining a personal and minute inspection of the
faces, forms, and wardrobes of the Begum and her ladies.
At the appointed hour, away went our fair friend, in the
highest fever of feminine excitement and curiosity, and
was received with great state and marked kindness by the
Begum, who introduced her visitor to the various mem-
bers of her household. Upon entering the ladies' apart-
ment, the visitor, to her horror and amazement, too late
discovered that female curiosity was as strongly implanted
in the heads and hearts of the Begum ladies as in her
own, and with the advantage of numbers on their side ;
in fact, the inspection was theirs, and not hers, for they
literally undressed her ; and, not contented with this vic-
tory, pinched her skin to ascertain if the colour was
natural, and produced by cosmetics. The poor miserably
pulled-about visitor was at length allowed to depart, being
too happy to make her escape with her various furbelows
and adornments not either so carefully or becomingly
arranged as they were when she entered the Begum's
abode.—Sirr's China and the Chinese.
BISHOP WATSON GEOLOGISING NEAR KENDAL.—After
the bishop's marriage into the Dallam Tower family, he
was a constant visitor there, especially during the univer-
sary long vaca'ion. Whilst there he used to ramble about
the hills and dales with a hammer in his pocket, as the
Sedgwicks and Bucklands do now-a-days, chipping any
little pebble he stumbled over; probably to see whether
it was the philosopher's stone, or contained any of that
precious metal which has been recently discovered in such
quantities in California. In one of these rambles it
chanced that he got to the top.of Helm Crag, not many
miles from Kendal, and picked up a substance, which he
at once pronounced to be thrown from 'Etna or Vesuvius, i
or some volcanic crater. On his way home he came,
naturally enough, to the conclusion (naturally we say,
for what we wish we readily believe), that Helm Crag it-
self was an extinct volcano. At the dinner table he
produced this piece of lava as proof conclusive of his
amazing discovery. The authority of a professor fresh from
his laboratory and still fresher from the university of
Cambridge, could not be gainsayed ; the gentlemen too
well bred, the ladies too gallant to attempt it. There
was one man, however, within hearing on whom all this
excited but pity and a smile—the old family butler. Of
course he said nothing then, and Watson's discovery was
all in all ; but on the following morning, finding the
doctor in the library poring over the lava and taking notes,
thinking probably that the honours of Dallam Tower
were now at stake, and with the privilege of his order. he
administered to him this salutary information :—" Dr.
Watson, excuse me, but I thought I heard you say at the
table yesterday that Helm Crag was an extinct volcano.
I don't know what an extinct volcano is, as I never saw
one, but I do know that when I was a lad, my father
and I had a blast furnace on Helm Crag, and that's a
piece of the cinder from the very spot." Facts are stub-
born things : the doctor looked aghast over his spectacles,
put up his note-book, and with a gold guinea silenced, at
least until the doctor's departure, the discovery of the
doctor's ignorance.—The Worthies of Westmorland.
THE FIRST BALLOON .ASCENT.—The scientific men in
Paris were not long in testing Montgolfier's experiment.

They succeeded admirably, and it was now determined to
attempt a personal ascent. But before making the essay,
three aerial voyagers were sent up in the form of a sheep,
a cock, and a duck, all of which came down safely. Thus
encouraged, preparations were made for an ascent. Mont-
golfier constructed a new balloon expressly for the pur-
pose. It was of an elliptical form, 74 feet in height, 48
feet in diameter, and was elegantly painted and orna-
mented. A gallery was carried round the aperture at the
bottom, communicating with a grate which enabled the
aeronaut to supply the fire with fuel, and thus to keep
up the machine as long as the fuel lasted. The weight
of the balloon and accompanying apparatus was estimated
at about 16001bs. On the 15th October, 1783, M. Pilatre
de Rozier made an ascent in this machine, and contrived
to keep it suspended in the air, at a height of about 200
feet, for several minutes, by feeding the fire. But in
this experiment the balloon was held captive by cords.
The success of the experiment determined M. Rozier to
undertake a free aerial voyage. In this he was accompa-
nied by the Marquis d'Arlandes, a major of an infantry
regiment, whose valour seems, however, to have evapo-
rated in a very unmilitary manner. The ascent was made
at La Muette, a royal palace in the Bois de Boulogne, in
a balloon similar to that already described. Ail being
ready on the 21st of November, 1783, the voyagers took
their places in the gallery. After repairing some trifling
damage which the balloon sustained in a first essay, it
was, at fifty-four minutes past one, absolutely abandoned
to the dominion of the air, and soon ascended with great
rapidity. When the adventurers were about 250 feethigh,
they waived their hats to the astonished multitude, and
quickly rose to a height at which they could no longer be
distinguished. The history of this voyage is that, in a
great measure, of the terror of the Marquis d'Arlandes.
When he found himself so high that he could no longer
distinguish objects upon earth, both his curiosity and am-
bition were amply satisfied, and he insisted upon his com-
panion ceasing to throw straw upon the fire, that they
might descend. M. de Rozier, however, deaf to the mar-
quis's remonstrances, continued his operations. At
length, having attained an elevation of about 3000 feet,
the marquis perceived some holes which had been burned
in the lower part of the balloon, and at the same time
beard cracks which seemed to proceed from the top of
the machine, and which appeared to him to menace its
instant and entire destruction. He now became perfectly
frantic with terror, ancr, hastening to clap wet sponges to
the burnt holes, he vowed, that if his companion did not
immediately take steps to descend, he would throw him
overboard ; at the same time he promised faithfully to
to take upon himself the entire blame of shortening their
voyage. M. de Rozier at length listened to the marquis's
urgent solicitations; but on approaching the earth, the
marquis, seeing the great danger they incurred of being
spitted on the weathercock of the Invalides, hastily threw
a fresh bundle of straw upon the fire, and even spread it,
in order to raise a fiercer blaze. This carried them ove?
a great part of Paris, at a sufficient elevation to clear the
steeples, and passing the Boulevards, they landed safely
in a field near the Bieetre, without having experienced the
slightest physical inconvenience. The distance traversed
was between six and seven miles, and they were in the air
twenty-five minutes. The weight of the whole apparatus
including the two aernauts, was between 16001bs. and
17001b5., and when they descended two-thirds of their
fuel was unconsumed. Such was the prosperous issue of
the first aerial voyage ever achieved by man. It was a
conquest of science which all the world could understand ;
and it flattered extremely the vanity of that ingenious
people, who enjoyed the honour of its triumph in defiance
of the doubts raised by English philosophers. The
Montgolfiers had the annual prize of 600 livres adjudged
to them by the Academy of Sciences ; the elder brother
was invited to court, decorated with the badge of St.
Michael,, and received a patent of nobility ; and on
Joseph a. pension was bestowed, with a sum of 40,000
livres to enable him to prosecute. his. experiments with.
balloons.—Fraser's Mag..