The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-09-24 00:00:00

SELECTIONS.

FIRST INTRODUCTION OF PERCUSSION CAPS. A
clergyman, lately deceased, submitted the first percussion
caps to the Ordnance Board, as far back as the year 1806
—before the Peninsular war, therefore; and having been
allowed to make several trials and experiments at his own
expense, was told, very politely no doubt, that the inven-
tion was not applicable to military purposes. Thirty
years afterwards, and about twenty years after every
sportsman in the empire was provided with percussion
caps, the military authorities deigned, at last, to turn their
attention to the subject, and are now adopting an inven-
tion that, introduced during the war, might, by rendering
fire-arms more efficient, have saved the lives of a vast
number of British soldiers.—Fraser's Mayanne.
The motive power of the cataract of Niagara exceeds by
nearly forty fold all the mechanical force of water and
steam-power rendered available in Great Britain, for the
Purpose of imparting motion to the machinery that suffic,:s
to perform the manufacturing labours for a large portion
of the inhabitants of the world ; including also the power
applied for transporting tho,Fe products by steam-boats
and steam-cars, and their steam-ships of war to the re-
motest seas. Indeed it appears probable that the law of
gravity, as established by the Creator, puts forth, in this
single waterfall, more intense and effective energy than
is necessary to move all the artificial machinery of the
habitable world. Yet at Niagara the river does not fall
more than 140 feet. Be it recollected, however, that it is
here a quarter of a mile wide, and deep enough, both
above and below the fall, to float a frigate. " All thy
works praise thee, 0 Lord. They show the glory of thy
kingdom, and talk of thy power."—Journal of science.

SCHOOLBOYS.—" Of all the painful things connected
with my employment (said the late Dr. Arnold,) nothing
is equal to the grief of seeing a boy come to school inno-
cent and promising, and tracing the corruption of his cha-
racter from the influence of the temptations around him,
in the very place, which ought to have strengthened and
improved it. But in most cases those who come with a
character of positive good are benefitted ; it is the neutral
and undecisive charactei s which are apt to be decided for
evil by schools, as they would be, in fact, by any other
temptation.—l would be as patient as I possibly could
with irresolution, unsteadiness, and fits of idleness ; but
if a pupil has set his mind to do nothing, but considers all
the work as so much fudge, which he will evade if he can,
I have made up my resolution that I will send him away
without scruple ; for not to speak of the heartless trouble
that such an animal would give to myself, he is a living
principle of mischief in the house, being ready at all times
to pervert his companions.
THE DEAD SEA.—From the convent of Mar Saba to
the Dead Sea is a journey of six hours, over and be-
tween endless mountainous undulations of singularly wild
and desolate appearance. After about two hours we com-
manded from an elevated spot a very interesting view of
parts of the Dead Sea, with the rose-tinted mountains of
Moab in the east, showing the mouth of the river Jordan,
where it empties itself into that awful reservoir. Though
we were then at least four hours distant from the Dead
Sea, yet such was the extreme clearness of the atmo-
sphere, it seemed as if by descending another valley and
topping another hill, we could step down upon its shores.
Its waters were of deep purple, and their surface appeared
as smooth as glass; while immediately above there hung a
shadowy mist, which gave me the idea of sulphurous
exhalation. It was a lovely picture to gaze upon ; but
bow awful in the association connected with it! One
could but look upward to the placid and clear sky, and
think of the dread moment when " the Lord rained upon
Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire, from the Lord
out of heaven." Perhaps it was upon a firmament as
lovely and glowing as that on which we gazed that the dark
clouds of God's fearful indignation gathered. The divine
fury has subsided : the liquid monument of it remains.—
Library of Travel.
THE GOVERNESS.—Triste and trite are the annals of
" the governess." Weary, monotonous days, months,
and years. The shadow of life, without its sunshine. And
yet it is a life of sei vices for which, if justly considered,
and they are justly performed, no gold can pay ; but when
will she earn in a life what an opera dancer receives in a
year? Acquirements, too, are demanded from her, aye,
and are possessed, too, which would put to shame the
learned members of many learned bodies who tack half
the alphabet as incomprehensible initials to their undis-
tinguished names. But she is poor; on her has descended
that curse of Adam which the rich can never comprehend.
It is hers to toil ; to struggle in the crowd for some grains
from the harvest--which is so strangely divided, that while
garner-houses are full, men starve. She is too right-
minded to beg while she has head or hand to work ; she is
too pure to sell herself for a home, and call it marriage.
And so she undertakes the holiest duty a parent could ful-
fil ; and she receives, instead of honour, and praise, and
love—too often contempt, insult, and indifference. She
is used like a machine so long as wanted ; and just on the
same principle as a steam-engine must be suplied with
fuel, is she fed and clad. No more. And then
Oh ! when will public opinion be roused and righted ; it
is the only lever which can move the " world. '—//lu-
In inated Magazine.

UNIFORMS OF NEW ORLEANS.—I remarked bow
closely those whom I met or passed resembled each other.
It is difficult to mistake a Yankee for the inhabitant or
native of any other country. They are all most closely
shaven—not a vestige of beard or whiskers is left ; and
then their garments are all so precisely the same, I felt I
should never be able to distinguish one man from another.
I could not at first comprehend why all the male inhabi-
tants looked so precisely like figures made on the same
model; but my lengthened drive through the streets en-
lightened me. Outside a great many of the " notion"
stores I saw just such figures hanging up—coat, pantalon
a sous pied—in short, the whole outward man. There
was this difference—and be it remarked, it is an essential
one—the latter were men of straw. Such cannot be said
of the wealthy merchant of New Orleans. The fact is
this—there are no working-tailors at New Orleans, and
every article of dress comes ready-made from the Northern
States. There are merchant tailors in plenty ; and if the
traveller in New Orleans is in want of a suit of clothes, he
must, if of the masculine sex, betake himself to one of
these gentleman, and he will be forthwith fitted with any-
thing he may happen to want. "Pants" are daily an-
nounced, as a cargo just arrived " by the from New
York ;" the latter city evidently has the responsibility of
setting the fashions to the elegants of the other cities of
the Union. These garments being all of the same colour
and fashion, fully accounts for the similarity of the appear-
ance of the inhabitants.—Mrs. Houston's Texas and New
Orleans.

OBLATION IN THE RIVER JORDAN.—The sun was
rising over the tops of Abarim, and the river bank pre-
sented one of the most unprejudiced scenes which it has
ever been my lot to witness. The main body of the pil-
grims had arrived, and a general undressing commenced.
There were men of all sizes and seasons, from the totter-
ing octogenarian to the crawling bambino, who, being im-
mersed with its head back and its mouth open, filled and
bubbled like a bottle : ladies of all ages and angles, colours
and calibres, from the Caireen Copt to the fair-skinned,
Russian. Of the men, come crept cautiously in, and re-
flected a moment before they went under ; others leaped,
spinning in like wheels, and, returning to the land, re-
peated again and again the same performance. Of the
lovelier creatures some bounced dauntless in, and holding
fast between two men, were well ducked, and came smil-
ing out again ; others went delicately, and, standing ankle-
deep in mud upon the brink, were baptised with basins
full of the sacred stream. Nor was it enough that their
bodies were consecrated—all their clothes were plunged,
and they drank the unconscious element, not each out or
her own hands, but out of those of a fellow-pilgrim, the
two palms being joined together to form a cavity for the
liquid ; while bottles of every form and material were filled
for distant markets.—Library of Travel.
MOUNT PLEASANT.—This street was originally called
" Martindale's Hill," and has been highly eulogised by
William Roscoe. Here stood a famous bowling-green,
in 1759 called " Martindale's Green." In 1766 Thomas
Richardson advertised that he was about removing to the
" Old Bowling Green on Martindale's Hill, a very
healthy, pleasant, and agreeable situation ; an easy walk
from the town, and a good road kept at all times of the
year." At this period, and within, comparatively speak-
ing, a few yea s, this spacious street was entirely gardens,
fields and orchards.
In a small house which stood at the
top of Mount Pleasant, at the corner of Hope-street,
William Roscoe was born. The following lines were
written to accompany a sketch of a chair constructed from
the beam of this house, now in the possession of J.
Mayer, Esq.
This Chair, that the hand of skill, science, and taste,
Hath laboured with sculpture so fair to adorn,
Was once a broad timber, which strongly embraced
was house where a poet most hallowed as born
Beneath it lie gambolled in life's early morning,.
And frolicked the time of his childhood away ;
Then heedless of knowledge, all discipline scorning,
He dwelt—till his talent burst forth into day.
'Tomas there that the soul caught some glimpses of glory ;
Perchance the first touch to his harp the hard gave;
And the wi,h was engendered of living in story,
As waking the world to the wrongs otfrtheceesslsacvs,e.
Then little he thought, from its deepes
His genius was destined to drag to the lig
The learning that Italy richly possesses,
Where fiction and fact both in beauty unite.
Then take not this Chair ! let no mortal profane it,
Who friendship with art or song cannot claim;
Oh I worthy alone is that man to retain it,
Who Roscoz can cherish, in memory and name.
—Laccy's Pictorial Handbook.

THE MODERN JERUSALEM.—If the traveller can for-
get that he is treading on the grave of a people from whom
his religion has sprung, on the dust of her kings, prophets,
and holy men, there is certainly no city in the world that
he will sooner wish to leave than Jerusalem. Nothing
can be more void of interest than her gloomy, half-ruinous
streets and poverty-stricken bazaars, which, except at the
period of the pilgrimage at Easter, present no signs of life
or study of character to the observer. We have wandered
for hours among the other great cities of the East—Cairo,
Constantinople, or Damascus, watching the brilliant
crowds that pour through the narrow bazaars,
" Like the gay motes that people the sunbeam,"
and seen the aristocratic Tuek, slowly prancing by on his
splendid Arabian, gay and proud with orient:,l trappings;
the quiet, portly Armenian, grave in dress, pushing by
with business haste, on his sleek, well-conditioned mule;
the Bedouia from the desert, half startled at the un-
wonted disp'ay, but not without a proud air among the
sons of teethe ; the elegant Persian ; the quick, subtle
Greek ; the Jew, whether rich or poor, sordid in exterior
and abject in mien ; the haggard, half-naked Dervish, pale
with fanaticism, mingling and jostling on the narrow tho-
roughfare ; long trains of camels laden with merchandise
and fruit ; and the bumble ass of the water-carrier, push-
ing steadily through the throng ; with hundreds of women,
their dark eyes flashing forth from their muslin envelopes,
attended by negro slaves, chaffering with the vendors of
shawls and slippers ; while the thousand cries of a great
city, and the noise of artificers, echoed through the end-
less passages of the vaulted bazaars ; but Jerusalem, once
like these, " full of stir, the tumultuous city, the joyous
city," no longer the capital of a nation, and remote from
the centre of traffic, is destitute of any interest but that
connected with the past; and the traveller gladly hastens
from the dulness and misery within her walls, to the
lonely hilts around, where there is nothing to disturb the
picture of the momentous past brought before him by his
imagination. Jerusalem has been described as " the tomb
of a people, but a tomb without inscription, without mo-
numents, of which the stones are broken, and whose ashes
seem to cover the earth which surrounds it with mourn-
ing, silence, and sterility. Conqueror after conqueror
has patched up the wreck, which his arms have spared, in
the style of the architecture of his age, till the confusion
is inextricable. * * * * We have briefly noticed the
Jews, Christians, and Turks, who occupy the different
quarters of Jerusalem, Zion, Acra, and Bt-zetha. We
may say that their petty political intrigues constitute the
only life in the Holy City. Each sect hates and despises
the others, and would willingly expel them from its walls,
except so far as they may be made a source of profit. The
devices of the Turkish governors, for raising money, are
equally tyrannical aid ingenious. The Christian sects do
not scruple at outbuying one another, when any paltry
privilege is disputed ; and a pleasant game is played by the
Musselman ruler, who pockets both their bribes, and re-
pays them with unmeasured contempt. The richer Jews
hare generally a good understanding with the pasha, mu-
tual interest outweighing mutual hate. A detail of " Life
in Jerusalem" might be amusing, if amusement could be
gathered from the anatomy of all the baser qualities of hu-
man nature; but it is sad to think, that the spot whence
the divine doctrines of mutual love and goodwill went
forth to mankind, has ever been the chosen seat of strife
and contention ; and that the real influence of Christianity
is less felt in Jerusalem, than in regions unheard of at the
time of its promulgation from her holy soil.—Bartlett's
Walks about Jerusalem.

THE INDIA RUBBER TREE.—A correspondent of an
American paper, writing from the Brazils, gives the fol.
lowing interesting particulars of the process of tapping
the India rubber, or caoutchouc tree, and of manufactur-

ing the gum into shoes and other things :—" The caoutch-
ouc tree grows, in general to the height of forty or fifty
feet without branches, then branching, rung up fifteen feet
higher. The leaf is about six inches long, thin, and shaped
likes that of a peach tree. The trees show their working
by the number of knots, or bunches, made by tapping ;
and a singular fact is, that, like a cow, when most tapped,
they give most milk or sap. As the time of operating
is early day, before sunrise we were at hand. The blacks
are first sent through the forest, armed with a quantity of
soft clay, and a small pick-axe. On coming to one of the
trees, a portion of the soft clay is formed into a cup and
stuck to the trunk. The black then striking his pick
over the cup, the sap oozes out slowly, a tree giving daily
about a gill. The tapper continues in this way, tapping
perhaps fifty trees, when he returns, and with a jar, pass-
ing over the same ground, empties his cups, So by seven
o'clock the blacks came in with their jars, ready for work-
ing. The sap at this stage resembles milk in appelr-
ance and somewhat in taste. It it also frequently drank
with perfect safety. If left standing now, it will curdle
like milk, disengaging a watery substance like whey.
Shoemakers now arrange themselves to form the gum.
Seated in the shade, with a large pan of milk on one side,
and on the other a flagon, in which is burned a nut pecu-
liar to this country, emitting a dense smoke, the operator
having his last, or form held by a long stick or handle,
previously besmeared with soft clay (in order to slip off
the shoe when finished) holes it over the pan, and pouring
on the milk until it is covered, sets the coating in the
smoke, then giving it a second coal, repeats the smoking ;
and so on with a third and fourth, until the shoe is of the
required thickness, averaging from six to twelve coats.
When finished, the shoes on the forms are placed in the
sun the remainder of the day to drip. The next day, if
required, they may be figured, being so soft that any im-
pression will be indelibly received. Tne natives are very
dexterous in this work. With a quill and a sharp-pointed
stick they will produce finely lined leaves and flowers,
such as you may have seen on shoes, in an increiibly
short space of time. After remaining on the forms two
or three days, the shoes are cut open on the top, allowing
the last to slip out. They are then tied together and
slung on poles, ready for the market. There, pedlars and
Jews trade for them with the country people ; and in lots
of a thousand or more they are again sold to the mer-
chants who have them stuffed with straw, and packed in
boxes to export, in which state they are received in the
United States. In the same manner any shape may be
manufactured. Thus toys are made of clay forms.
After drying, the clay is broken and extracted. Bottles,
&c., in the same way. According as the gum grows older
it becomes darker in colour, and more tough. The num-
ber of caoutchouc trees in the province is countless. In
some parts whole forests exist, and they are frequently
cut down for firewood. Although the trees exist in Mex-
ico and the East Indies, there appears to be no importa-
tion into the United States from these places. The rea-
son, I suppose, must be the want of that prolificness
found in them here. The caoutchouc tree may be worked
all the year ; but generally in the wet season they have
rest, owing to the flooded state of the woods ; and the
milk being watery, requires more to manufacture the same
article than in the dry season.