The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1859-01-06
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From Dickens Hou sehold W ords.
London Catch Pennies.


The edges of certain pavements in
London have become regular markets
for catch pennies,
These catch pennies arc often so in
gcuious and cheap as to deserve bet
ter generic name There is n man who
sometimes stands in Leicester Square
who sells microscopes at penny each
They are made of a common pill-bOX;
the bottom taken out, and a piece of
window glass substituted. A small eye
hole is bored in the lid, and thereon is
placed the lens, the whole apparatus be-
ing painted black. Upon looking
through one of these microscopes l was
surprised to find hundreds of creatures
apparently the size of earth-worms
swimming about in all directions; yet on
the object glass nothing could be seen
but a small spcck of -four and water,
conveyed there on the end of a lucifer-
match from u common inkstand, which
was nearly full of this vivifed paste
Another microscope exhibited single
representative of the animal kingdom
showing his impatience Of imprisonment
by kicking vigorously. Though 1 must
confess to a shudder, I could not help
adniring the beauties of construction
in this little monster, which, if at lib
erty, would have excited murderous feel
ings, unfavorable to the prolongation of
its existence. The sharp pointed mouth,
with which he works his diggings; his
side-claws, wherewith to hold on while
at work; and his little heart, pulsating
slowly but tforcibIy, and sending stream
of blood down the large vessel in the
centre Of his white and transparent
body, could also be seen and wondered
at. When the stock of this sort of
game runs short, a common carrot-seed
Is substituted; which, when looked at
through a magnifer, is marvellously like
an animal having q thick body and nu-
meroue legs projecting from the sides
so like an animal that it has been mis-
taken by an enthusiastic philosopher for
ak animal created in, or by, q chemical
mixture in conjunction with electricity.
bought several of these microscopes,
determined to find out how all this could
be done for penny An eminent mi
eroscopist examined them, and found
that the magnifying power was twenty
diameters. The cost Of a lens made Of
glass, of such a power, would be from
three to four shillings. How, then,
could the whole apparatus be made for
a single penny? A penknife revealed
the mystery. The pill-box was cut in
two, and then it appeared that the lens
was made of Canada balsam, trans
parent gum The balsam had been
heated, and carefully dropped into the
eye-hole Of the pill-box. 1t then as
sumed the proper size, shape, transpar-
ency, and polish, of very well ground
glass lens. Our ingenious lens-maker
Informed mo that he had been selling
these microscopes for fifteen years, aud
that he aud his family conformity made
them. One child cut out The pill boxes,
another the gap, another put them to-
gether, his wife painted them black, and
be made the lenses,
Not long Afterwards, IN another part
Of tho town, j came across another mi
oroscopist He did not sell anything
but merely charged a halfpeuny for q
peep His apparatus consisted of a tin
box, about tho size Of a common tea