The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-07-14 00:00:00

MISCELLANEOUS.

• EXTRAORDINARY CATCH OF SALMON.—On Monday
morning no fewer than 663 salmon were brought up from the
nets at Culmore, the take of two tides. This is the largest
catch that is within the recollection of those engaged in the
Culmore fishery.—Derry Sentinel.

The Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, which
numbers upwards of 1,200 members, proposes to hold its
eighth anniversary meeting at Southampton, on Wednesday
tha 22d, and Thursday the 23d, of July next.

A Lit.—" A great lie," says the poet Crabbe, " is like a
great fish on dry land ; it may fret and fling, and make a
frightful bother, but it cannot hurt you. You have only to
keep still, and it will die of itself."

RATHER FAT !—There is a man in Shrewsbury so stout,
that when his physician ordered him to take exercise, he had
only to run round himself!

PRICE of A WIFE !—On Sunday week, James Hatton,
residing in what is called the bottom building, New Radford,
disposed of his wife to his neighbour, Banjamin Hickton,
for Is. and a gallon of ale ! the amiable fair one appearing
quite delighted with the transfer. We presume she was war-
ranted, one of the conditions of sale being, that if the pur-
chaser did not approve of his bargain, she should be
returned.—Nottingham Review.

SIMPLE CURE FOR RHEUMATISM.—BoII a small pot full
of potatoes, and bathe the parts affected with the water in
which the potatoes were boiled, as hot as it can be applied,
immediately before getting into bed. The pains will be re-
moved, or at least greatly alleviated, by the next morning.
Some of the most obstinate rheumatic pains have lately been
cured by one application of this novel and simple remedy.
Those who are subject to this really distressing complaint,
such as travellers, and all persons exposed to the weather,
will, it is hoped, experience the above to be an invaluable
specific.—Courier.

MASONRY.—A very important regulation is announced as
having been adopted by the three Grand Lodges of Eng-
land, Scotland, and Ireland, the abolition of " refresh-
ments" upon all ordinary lodge nights. The only occasir
in whicY

,n the brethren are to meet at such a table, are the
anniversary festivals of St. John.
KEAN'S STUDY.-.-Kean sat up all night in a room oppo-
site the Debtors' Door, in the Old Bailey, to catch a full view
of the deaths of the Cato-street conspirators ; and as he was
going on the stage in the evening, he said to me, " I mean
to die like Thistlewood to-night : I'll imitate every muscle of
that man's countenance."—Bunn's the Stage.
It is curious to investigate the effect of vegetables on dif-
ferent animals. Horses have so great a repugnance to cruci-
ferous plants that they will not touch them, but will feed on
reed grasses, among an abundance of which goats have been
known to starve, though they often feed on other vegetables,
and will even become fat on water hemlock, which is rank
poison to other quadrupeds. In like manner swine will de-
vour henbane, while they are destroyed by common pepper:

an the horse which avoids the mild turnip will get into flesh
by feeding on rhubarb. It is a curious fact, that man if he
takes the scrapings of the rind of alder, scraped one way, it
will act as a purgative ; but scraped the contrary way, it will
act as an emetic.

AN ACTOR AND A PAGE.—On the occasion of this visit,
Mr. Liston and myself were conversing in the ante-room of
the royal box, with a nobleman attached to the household,
when one of the pages, passing by and not seeing his lord-
ship, slapped the comedian on the back, ejaculating, " D'ye
think you'll make him laugh to-night ?he was horribly stupid
at dinner." I cannot now determine which

tacurea
greatest roar, the face of Mr. Liston or that of the lacquey
on perceiving the noble lord before whom he had so com-
mitted himself respecting his illustrious master. If the
reader never saw the face of a dignified performer, when re-
minded than he was nothing more than a performer, he has a
treat to come.—The Stage, by Mr. Bunn..

STRATAGEM OF THE CAPTAIN OF A SLAVER.—Coming
over from the African coast with his usual cargo, (slaves)
a British man-of-war bore down on him, till darkness inter-
vened, which he took the benefit of, by putting a water cask
over the side, and attaching a weight to the bottom, to keep
it from rolling over. He then placed a signal lanthorn on
the top, partly obscured, so as to make the light appear ac-
cidental. After setting this decoy adrift, he up helm, and
off in a different direction, finding next day that the ruse de
guerre had taken, leaving him to work his passage with a
little more comfort than that of the previous day, when his
intended acquaintance had sent him five shots by way of in-
troducing himself.

THE SNUFF-TAKING STATUE.—We have often heard of
persons mistaking the shadow for the substance ; in the pre-
sent instance we have to describe the case inverted_ An

•••• s.a • Ul 1..11.
English officer in Venice, walking one day from the Doge's
Palace, thought he observed one of the figures on the clock-
tower of St. Mark's stoop down and take up something !
He looked again, and he positively saw the figure take a pinch
of snuff! The officer confessed that he was apprehensive he
was losing his senses, or that his vision wma .

• - w.. uerangea ; when
an old woman, observing his consternation, soon explained
the seeming miracle, by telling him that one of the figures
that struck the hour being out of repair, her nephew,
Jacopo, was engaged as a substitute till the machinery was
put into order.—Bentley's Miscellany.

RAVAGES OF THE PLAGUE IN CONSTANTINOPLE.—Its
fatality is greater at some seasons than at others. Generally,
both at its commencement and its decline, the proportion of
deaths is less than when it is at its height • no accurate esti-
mate, therefore, can be made of the number of deaths in a
hundred cases. Certain it is, however, there are times when
hardly any who are seized recover. About the middle of
October, 1836, the number of deaths during one week, as
given in an official report, was about 1200. In November
the disease was its height. There were currently reported to
be nearly 2000 deaths daily ; and the whole number of victims
which fell, during the autumn and winter, was believed by
many to be not less than 100,000. For the truth of these
popular estimates I cannot vouch. The scenes which daily
met my eyes proved, however, that the havock was immense.
Cemeteries of several acres in extent were SO completely
turned up, to receive new dead in the very graves where
thousands were before reposing, as to assume the appearance
of freshly-ploughed fields. I have seen, in one of the bury-
ing-grounds, a body of men engaged in digging graves, while
the confined dead were accumulating around them faster than
they could inter them. I have watched by the gate of
Selyvria, which opens upon the great road to Adrianople, for
many minutes together, and have seen an almost unbroken
procession of coffins, borne upon the shoulders of porters,
pass out to the cemetery on that side of the city ; and so it
continued from morning till night, and day after day.—South-
gales Travels in Turkey and Persia, just published.
THE PLAGUE.—PRECAUTIONS TO PREVENT INFECTION.
—Among the respectable classes of the Franks, it seldom if
ever becomes prevalent. For safety's sake, they subject
themselves to the most annoying precautions. A wooden
structure, in form resembling a sentry-box, and sufficiently
capacious to admit one person standing upright, is placed
close by the entrance to the house. Elevated a few inches
from the bottom is a wooden grate. Before any one is
admitted to the house, he must enter the box, and take his
stand upon the grate. A pan of coals, with a few sprigs of
cypress or some other odoriferous wood, is placed beneath.
The door is shut, and the sufferer, to save himself from
suffocation, thrusts his head through a hole made in the door
for the purpose. For half a minute be undergoes the fumi-
gation of the smoking cypress, and is then admitted into the
house. ut still he is not supposed to be free from suspicion
off r
itehnedi
he finds he
u,eitai rtpheet st
windowstaken upo,f
their divested
wont to meet him with a cordial shake of the har
teTdhe
coverings, •o
wi nags s
aisndbotwalekds
owoitthio ht him
sameabo u t
ctehr
ee
inplague
s/
mann
receives him at a cold distance, points to a chair in the mi
Phofeerrthehatepirsreo,sokinhae'n intimate friend, he is invited to dine. These
is no cloth upon the table, or, if there be, the part bweiftohrehihnilm
is carefully rolled back. No one sits in' contact
no napkin is laid before him; and he is saved from the
ne•;-
cessity of serving himself with his fingers,only because steel,
silver, and crockery, are not supposed to be contagious. A
friend once called upon me, and, during our coniersation,
drew from his pocket a newspaper, which he wished me to
read. For this purpose he spread it upon a table, where I
might read without touching it. Unfortunately, however, I
forgot myself so far as to turn one of the leaves with my
thumb and forefinger. The paper was instantly mine ;it was
suspicious ; my friend would not receive it again.—South-
gate's Travels in Turkey and Persia.
PERSIAN IDEA OF DOMESTIC COMFORT.—we came out
from among the hills upon an extensive slope, passed seve-
ral villages, and entered one, whose orthography, according
to its inhabitants, is Rahvarran, and its orthoepy Novarran.
A. villager met us at the entrance, and, informing us that
there was no house for us on that side of the village, offered
to conduct us to one where we could obtain lodgings. It
proved, when we reached it, to be his own habitation. The
room which he opened for us having no hole for the egress of
smoke, we went in search of another, while our host had
gone out to bring water. On opening a door we came sud-
denly into tbefamily apartment, where two or three women
and six children in the full enjoyment of domestic comfort.
In order to understand what domestic comfort means in
Persia, a little explanation is necessary. The most common
fire-place in
_a Persian apartment is a circular hole in the
ground, two or three feet deep, called a tandour. A fire is
lighted at the bottom, and when this has burned out, a fine
glow of heat remains. A low wooden frame, somewhat re-
sembling a table with its legs reduced to the length of a foot,
is placed over the tandour, and upon this is spread a large
coverlet, which extends several feet beyond the table on
every sideng
bodies formi
centre. Thus disposed they draw the coverlet up to their
the radii from the tandour, which is the
chins, and the beholder sees nothing but a circle of heads
emerging from beneath it. Our sudden entrance produced
some confusion among the inmates, and the master appear-
ing at that moment ordered the family to retire to another
apartment, and invited us to take their places under the
coverlet. We had had so many lessons, however, upon the
imprudence of occupying family quarters in a Persian village,
that we were content to spread our carpets in the farthest
corners of the room, and repose upon them.—Soviligatfe's
Trawls in Turkey and Perna, just published.

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