The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-11-14 00:00:00

VARIETIES.

The mahogany tree is full grown in 200 years. Cyprus
trees are known to be 800 or 900 years old.

The Sherborne Journal says, there are now living in
Axminster sixty-two unmarried ladies, and only seventeen
bachelors.

Glass scratches an iron hammer, proving that it is
harder than iron ; yet glass is the very type of fragility,
yielding to the stroke of soft wood, or, indeed, of almost
any thing.

" IN DEATH NOT DIVIDED."—A man living at Su-
resne, having descended a few days back into a wine vat,
was overcome with the g,s generated therein, and was
unable to ascend. His wife, in her anxiety to succour
him, was also overpowered, and both perished.
A PORTRAIT !—When a certain lady, who had been
charmed by his writings, but had never seen his person,
wrote to Mirabeau, saying how much she longed to see
him, and begging that he would describe himself to her,
he complied with the wish of the fair enthusiast, in these
brief and self-adulatory terms : " Figure to yourself a
tiger that has had the small-pox."

THE ART OF SHOPPING.—" What's the price of this
article?" inquired a deaf old lady. " Seven shillings,"
said the draper. " Seventeen shillings I" she exclaimed ;
" I'll give you thirteen." " Seven shillings," replied the
honest tradesman, "is the price of the article." "Oh !
seven shillings," the lady sharply replied ; " I'll give you
five !"

A REMARKABLE FACT.—A Baptist clergyman and his
wife, who reside in the vicinity of Boston, have the plea-
sure of daily gathering round their fireside four daughters,
who were born in four different quarters of the globe—
viz. one in Europe, one in Asia, one in Africa, and one in
America--a fact probably unparalleled in the histery of
any other family in New England.—Boston (America)
Journal.

RELIEF FOR AN EDITOR.—We were apprehensive of
an almost newsless summary foi' September, when the
arrival of the intelligence of troubles in the Punjant re-
lieved us. There Singh, the Sikh sovereign, has, along
with his sons, been murdered by his all powerful minister
Ohgan Singh, the regicide himself having, on the day
after the murder, fallen a victim to the dagger of the as-
sassin. There is no chief now strong enough to secure
the sceptre without a long and bloody contest, and such
turmoil is likely immediately to spring up in the country
as to demand our instant interference.—Bombay Times.
—[We congratulate the editor on his complete relief from
atrophy.]

CHALK HOUSES !—We have heard, often enough, of
wooden houses, iron houses, log huts, and the like ; but
it is something new and curious to hear of chalk houses !
Yet the latter abound in the south of Russia, where the
peasants use large blocks of it to construct their cot-
tages, barns, stables, &c. These erections last much
longer than might have been supposed ; and they are
warm in winter, and impervious in the damps. The go-
vernment have lately caused four boarding schools and
six stables to be erected of this odd material for building,
in the military settlements in the district of Kharko.
DON'T JOKE WITH ELEPHANTS.—At the Statutes at
Barnsley, on Saturday last, a country bumpkin went to
look at Hilton's Collection of Wild Beasts. On enter-
ing the place he began to amuse himself by giving the
elephant gingerbread and fruit ; but, soon growing tired
of that, he thought he would try what a joke would do,
and accordingly he pricked the elephant's trunk with a
penknife. No sooner was this done, than out of his den
rushed the animal amongst the visitors, forcing the chain
and the large post to which he had been fastened along
with him. The elephant caught the delinquent by the
collar, and threw him with great force on the ground. Up
he got again quickly, and made his escape outside, but
the elephant struck the temporary ceiling which the man
had just passed with such force as to shiver it to pieces .
The scene at the moment was truly ludicrous; men, wo-
men and children were laid in all directions. Fortunately ,
no one was hurt, except the elephant-pricker, who coin -
plained of his collar-bone, but who may thank his star s
that he did not lose his life.