The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-07-11 00:00:00

VARIETIES.

Many persons seem to be literally and practically of
Franklin's opinion, that " time is money," they take so
much of it to pay their debts.
At the time the church of the Vatican was built, niches
were left for statues of the popes. All these have been
filled except one ; it is possible from the signs of the
times, that this one niche will be all that will be required.
An inhabitant of Stourbridge possesses a canary, which
having been kept in a cage hung in a yard, mingles with
its natural notes the call of young chickens, the clucking
of hens, and the chirping of sparrows.
Mr. Devon has just met with a muster roll for part of
Warwickshire, made in the reign of Henry VIII. and
containing the names of William and four other Shak-
spere's, three Hatheways, and other relatives of Shakspere.
It is related of Charles James Fox, that when a trades-
man called upon him with a bill, and found money before
him, he congratulated himself that he should be paid, but
was told by the gambling statesman that the whole' was
bespoken by debts of honour. "Then," said the trades-
man, throwing his securities into the fire, " I make mine
a debt of honour." " I thank you for your confidence,"
was Fox's reply, "and here is your money."
FIREEXTINGUISHER.—The Builder describes a machine
called a fire annihilator, of the size of a common pail,
containing several iron encasements, and in the middle
of nitre, carbon, and gypsum, in the proportions of
six, two, and two, with one quart of water. By a touch of
the finger on a small piston, charged with a small quan-
tity of chlorate of potass and sugar, the compound is con-
verted into steam, equalling the quantity produced by
a five-horse boiler.

The diary kept by Henry Machyn, a citizen of London,
during the reign of Queen Mary, mentions some curious
uses of the pillory. A man who sold measley pork was
exhibited there with the piece of pork hanging round his
neck; a woman who sold roast meat in Lent bore the
forbidden dainty on her head ; a man who purchased fish
at an under price had them tied " collar-wise" round his
neck ; while another who sold bad smelts had both head
and neck adorned with them.

STRAWBERRIES.—A gentleman, who is said to be a
very successful grower of strawberries, told me his plan
was the following :—He makes the substratum of his
strawberry beds of stones or rubbish, and does not put
more, at most, than six inches of earth over this. He at-
taches great importance to this, as he says when the
plants can throw their roots into a deep soil they produce
leaves not fruit ; secondly, in winter he covers them
lightly with straw, pea haulm, &c. ; and thirdly, he top-
dresses with leaf mould.—Correspondent of Gardener's
Chronicle.

IMPORTANT DISCOVERY.—It is not perhaps generally
known, that if a ray of light, of a violet colour, enter
through a window in the neighbourhood of a telegraph
needle, magnetism is immediately imparted. We under-
stand that the scientific world is indebted to Mrs. Somer-
ville for the discovery of the fact that a magnet may be
made by the agency of a ray of violet, she having suc-
ceeded in converting a common sewing needle, by a sim-
ple process, into a magnet by the agency of a ray of violet.
Professor Morse has also given attention to the subject.
Finding that his telegraph needles were frequently out of
order, from the effect of particular rays of light, he
placed before them, in order to neutralise it, a sheet of
yellow glass in front of the apparatus, which does not
permit the violet rays to pass ; and this he has found to
have the desired effect.—London Anecdotes.
A REASON FOR A LEGACY.—One of his odd stories
was about a Miss Hussey, to whom her father bequeathed
£l5O per annum, in consideration of her having an ugly
nose. "He had made a will," said O'Connell, "dispos-
ing of the bulk of his fortune to public charities. When
he was upon his death-bed, his housekeeper asked him
how much he had left Miss Mary ? He replied that he
had left her £l,OOO, which would do for her very well, if
she made off any sort of a good husband. ' Heaven bless
your honour !' cried the housekeeper, and what decent
man would ever take her with the nose she has got ?'
Why, that is really very true,' replied the dying father;
I never thought of her nose ;' and he lost no time in
adding a codicil, that gave Miss Mary an addition of £l5O
a-year, as a set-off against her ugliness."—Daunt's Re-
collections of O'Connell.
During the hottest months, when the thermometer is
often at the height of 120 degrees Fahrenheit, the ladies
of Bagdad wear a silken garment or chemise, and
" babouches," or slippers, but no stockings. At night it
is the custom to sleep on the terrace, at the top of the
house, in the open air; the ladies, the men, the children,
and the domestics having each their separate terraces.
Strange as it may sound to European ears ; it is by no
means an uncommon practice with the ladies in Bagdad,
in the months of July and August, to steep their night-
cloths in cold water, (which is slung up, for this pur-
pose, in skins, in order to keep it as cool as possible.)
Having done this they put them on, wringing wet, and
again retire to their beds of palm-branches, to enjoy re-
freshing slumbers. Notwithstanding this practice, rheu-
matism, so prevalent in England, is rarely heard of in that
country.-11femoirs of a Wylonian Princess,