The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-08-20 00:00:00

VARIETIES.

Lord Eldon's first journey from Newcastle to London
was in a fly, which was considered a miracle of velocity,
as it only took four days and four nights to accomplish
the distance
It is stated that on the occasion of the last visit of
Queen Victoria to the Ancient Concerts, at the Hanover
Square Rooms, when the King of Saxony was present, the
room was ventilated by air passed through trays of ice. It
is said that ventilation may be effected by means of the
Archimedian screw, without the slightest perceptible
draught.
CLEANING SILK.—The following directions for clean-
ing silks are by one of the first Parisian dyers :—Half a
pound of soft soap, a teaspoonful of brandy, and a pint of
gin ; mix all well together ; with a sponge or flannel
spread the mixture on each side of the silk without
creasing it ; wash it in two or three waters, and iron it on
the wrong side—it will then look as good as new.
CRIMINAL LUNATICS.—The number of criminal luna-
tics at present immured within the gaols of Great Bri-
tain, amounts to 117, the crimes committed by whom,
while labouring under " morbid delusions," comprise all
sorts of offences both against person and property. One
man, named David Davis, is confined in consequence of
having fired at Viscount Palmerston, M.P. in the year
1818. _

OVERWORKED CHANCELLORS.—ThurIow, on being
asked how he got through all his business as a chancellor,
answered, " Just as a pickpocket gets through a horse-
pond—he must get through." Dunning, when a similar
question was put to him, answered in much the same spi-
rit, though in a more professional style : " I divide my
business into three parts ; one part I do ; another does
itself; and the third goes undone."
REMARKABLE REPEATING WATCH.—In the Academy
of Sciences at St. Petersburgb, in Russia, is a repeating
watch about the size of an egg. Within is presented the
Redeemer's tomb, with the stone at the entrance, and the
sentinels ; and, while a spectator is admiring this curious
piece of mechanism, the stone is suddenly removed, the
sentinels drop down, the angels appear, the women enter
the sepulchre, and the same chant is heard which is per-
formed in the Greek church on Easter eve.
MANUFACTURE OF WATCHES AT GENEVA.—The
manufacture of watches, musical boxes, and jewellery, is
that to which Geneva owes its present prosperity. Up-
wards of fifty workshops devoted to watchmaking, and
seventy to the jeweller's trade, are kept in constant em-
ployment ; and it has been calculated that in good years
seventy-five thousand ounces of gold, five thousand marks
of silver, and precious stones to the value of a million of
francs, are used in them. One hundred thousand watches
are said to be now annually manufactured in Geneva.

AMERICANISMS.

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES.

The following morceaux head the political appeals of
the respective parties in the newspapers, &c.:—

" Look here, ye supporters of Polk, Texas, and Free
Trade!

Here's a booming gun from the old Pennsylvania line!!!"
" Get out of the way, you James K. Polk,
You wont go down with the Tariff Folk !"

Renunciations by wholesale—twenty-one screws loose
in old Northumberland—are there no changes ? eh ?"

` They come ! they come!! clear the way !!! make

room for more !!!!

" Thirty-two straight-outs."
" Make way for the free voters of Northumberland and
Point Clear the track for the unterrified come
outers' of the Forks! Here they come, with Truth
for a Sword, and Conscience for their Buckler, in the
name of the greatest political Revolution that this little
neighbourhood has ever witnessed."

HARD RUN FOR HUSBANDS.-All exchange paper says
—" The girls in some parts of Pennsylvania are so hard
run for husbands that they sometimes take up with law-
yers and tailors."
A large lot of American oysters being carried to Lon-
don by one of the late packets, the papers made them-
selves very funny over them, saying that of course they
would not " shell out," coming as they did from the
United States.