The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-03-26

no information from books or observation which
pnneible under the circumstances. The nature of
was ofe~cupation, probably, induced q taste for geolog-
n1 researches, to which of late years he has almost
insiveIy devoted himself; but his first literary /
@!omnts were In another direction. Having received I
~ position of accountant ain a bank established in i
rs native town, he found more leisure for reading +
NJ IA study, and published in 1886 his first work.
MSeenes and Legends in the North of Scotland
ubich has been extensively read in this country as
vail rs in England. A letter published in 1889, after
tbe decision of the House of Lords in the Auchterar-
Jar case, in which the schism in the Church of Scot
land was involved, drew toward him the attention of
tbe Evangelical party, and he was appointed editor of
the WitnesS newspaper, the principal metropolitan
orcan of the Free Church.
It was as a geologist, however, that Hugh Miller
gained a permanent fame, and contributed most sue
Sessfully to human knowledge. In his first scientific
work, sThe Old Red Sandstone, or New Walks in an
Old Field,'' published in 1914, he was the first to
disclose the important fact that the formation, known
to biologists as the cold red sandstone and general
" supposed to be unfossilferous was, in fact, FOSSIL
ferrous. While working the stone, as q quarryman,
his attention had been attracted to the appearance of
minute fossils in it, and these observation, prosecuted
subsequently with great care, We're given to the
world In 8 digested form, and at once raised the
author to q prominent place among men of science.
"The Footprints of the Creator is devoted more
exclusively to geological subjects, which, however,
are always treated In a manner to prove attractive to
the unscientiic reader. His latest researches in
geology were confined to the reconciliation of the
geological theory of the age and formation of the world
with the Mosaic account subject to which he
devoted profound attention, and on which he lectured
and wrote much during the last few years.-Har-
per'S- Weekly.
The Rev. G. H. Spurgeon is still drawing immense
crowds to hear him. It is said his audiences number
often $4,000 persons. The following extract will give
some idea of his preaching.
EsThere is a place. he says, &c as much beneath
Imagination as heaven is above it; a place of murky
darkness, where only lurid flames make darkness
~~Visible; a place where beds of flame are the fearful
touches upon which spirits groan; a place where God
Almighty from his mouth pours a stream of birthstone,
kindling that pile of wood and of much smoke which
God has prepared of old as a Tophet for the lost and
ruined. There is q spot, whose only sights are scenes
of fearful woe; there is a place, [ do not know where
it is, 1T Is somewhere, not in the bowels of this earth
1 trust-for that were a sad thing for this world to
have hell within its bowels; but somewhere, in q far
off world, there is a place where the only music is the
mournful symphony of damned spirits; whose how
ling, grooming, moaning, wailing, and gnashing of
teeth make up the horrid concert. There is q place,
where demons fly, swift as air, with whips of knotted
burning wire, tortur1ng poor souls, whose tongues,
on FIRE with agony, burn the roofs of mouths that
shrieks for drops of water-that water all denied.
Ihere Is a place, where soul and body endure as much
of Infinite wrath as the finite can bear; where the
infections of justice crush the soul, where the con-
tinual Negotiations of vengeance beat the flesh; where
the perpetual pourings-out of the Walls of eternal
wrath scald the spirit, and where the cuttings.of the
sword strike deep into the inner man. All sirs, |
cannot picture this; within an hour some of you may
know it."
IS Large petticsats are the subjects of a great deal
of paragraphing lately. tsPunch'' gives the follow
ing Accident in High Life -
son Tuesday last, a Lady of Title, whose name
has hitherto been kept a profound secret, whilst pro-
ceeding up the grand. staircase of Sutherland House,
to pay the amiable Duchess u visit, neglected, we are
sorry to state, to take the customary precaution of
lessness (Which, it is to be hoped, will act as q warm
ing to other ladies) was, that her dress, which, scion
la mode, was fully twice as broad as it was long,
became so completely wedged in between the banfsters
and the wall, that it was impossible for her to move
either one way or the. other. Finding, at last, her
efforts to release herself from her ridiculous immune
ment perfectly Intellectual, the question naturally
arose as to what had best to be done. Were the ban
listers to be sawn away, or was a hole to be excavated
in the wall, sufficiently large to describe a circle IL
which her ladyship could with safety turn rounC
and side off? No: out of respect to the Duchess, i
was resolved by q council of elderly ladies, held or
the landing, that it was better that the dress should
be cut away.
Accordingly, half-a-dozen young miliners were
fetched from Madame de Jupon's establishment in the
neighborhood; and, with the help of large scissors
and garden shears, they set to work in good earnest
in& order to clear the thoroughfare. During thu
operation, which was witnessed in the most breathles
silence by q large crowd of European nobility, that
owing to the passing impediment, had gathered
behind, her ladyship was supported by burnt feather
being applied under her aquiline nose, and Jumps O
sugar dipped in eau de cologne being dropped int
her mouth. However, owing to the distance caused
by the circumference of her dress, these had to b
inserted between a pair of tongs (of the brightes
STEEL and it was only by extending the tongs a
arms length, that the restoratiyes could be Introduce
near enough to reach her exhausted person. Afte
severe labor, and the sacrifice of several yards of tn
most expensive MORE antique, Madame de Jupon'
assistants (who, If they had been female navigators
could not have worked with greater zeal or hardi
hood,) succeeded in extricating the unfortunate lad.
from her distressing dilemma of solitary confinement
The difficulties they encountered in cutting throug
the inumerable strata of silk, whalebone, gutmpure
foundation, muslin, gauze, ~stiffening, calico, flannel
caoutchouc, and c~rin0Liae, would, We are told,
infinitely related. send a thrill through the bosom G
the stoutest engineer! The lady, considerably cur
tailed of her fair proportions, was carried home, NOR
dead than alive, in q sedan-chair. The ruins of tn
dress were removed in a cart. The staircase Is to b
enlarged
A runaway couple from Waterville, Maine. no
long since, went to Pennington, and were mar
ried. Their enjoyment of the honeymoon was inter
rupted after a day or two by the arrival of the youn
lady's father, who took forcible possession of tn
daughter, and was about to carry her home. Tn
affair getting noised about, however, the villagers as
sembled about the hotel, and insisted that the maj
should have his wife, giving the father five minute
to surrender her. or they would take her out of hi
hands. The old gentleman was obliged to give in
and the runaway couple were restored to each other
arms in the presence and amidst the huzzas of tn