The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1864-11-19
FOREIGN News.

y waterspOut al Whampoa recently drowned 200
Chinamen.
\ man IL astonishing the Parisiaus by lifting q
barrel Of wine with his teeth. Many 4 man has put
more than that quantity down his throat.
Us. Rlry, Of Ohio, owns the smallest pony in the
rOrld-a Sherlaud-only twenty inches high and
weighing but twenty-oue pounds.
4 curious custom. says the London Builder, is
very prevalent 10 Vienna. Cartes de visite and
other photographs representation Of the deceased
are inserted in their tombstone. covered with glazs.
An intercepted Richmond letter says -President
Dsvi. seems discouraged. and | fear is falling rapidly.
The responsibilities, disappOiniments and fault find
ings Of his friends have broken him down, and it il
hardly probable tina, he will live to see the end Of
the war.
The DONE OF THE C~APIToL-The finishing touches
u the exterior Of the magnificent dome Of the Wash
lugton Capitol we're given recently. IL Is now COM
p!eted. and stands a proud monument TO American
skill aud mechanism. The height Of the dome from
the ground, On the east front. 10 287 feet, and about
$40 feet from Pennsylvania Avenue.
The London Times has at last come to the very
sensible conclusion THAT the best service England
can render to the cause Of peace il to let events run
their course. and not to interfere in American politics
by word or deed"
At RossviIlc. Ga, recently, q whole regiment Of
troops vas stunned and blinded by q tremendous
boil, Of lightning. which killed ami wounded fifteen
Of them. 1t also discharged eight guns, which were
standing BY a tree, without injury to the guns.
A gunmaker IN Paris, named Gevelot. has just e1-
ecuted several models OF "A new nre arm. IL consists
OF . musket with q revolver attached 10 the stock in
such manner that II may be fired off by the soldier
with his left hand while defending himself with the
bayOnet.
A Mormon missionary, Mr.. Bertrand, gives the
following statistics OF the state Of polygamy among
the Mormons; Husbands with seven or more wives,
3S7; husbands with five wives, $50; husbands with
four wives, II 900; husbands with more than one
and less than four wives, 1,4O0-so that about three
may be taken as 4 correct average per man.
REVOLUTION IL A PRISTISG OPPICE-On the 9TH
Sept, the entire force Of competitors employed on the
Chicago Tines IVES dismissed and forty young NO.
men were instituted. The proprietors of the Times
had been preparing for this course several months,
ever since the strike, and had these girls under in
struction ia private rooms about the city. a dis
patch FROM Chicago say the movement caused a great
sensation among the printers, sc il vas understood
that the TiufE had resolved TO break NJ the printers
association. The association took advantage Of the
proprietors Of the Times and sought 10 control or
destroy their business. In turn the publishers have
thus attacked the association.
Rail Car Posi- OFPIcrs.-One OF The new post
office cars for this purpose has been completed and
placed on the through route between New York and
Washington, as an experiment, and Is under the
direct management of the post-ofhce department. In
the sides OF this Car are the spertures usually seen
at p0st-ofices, through which letters may be convent
emily droFpsd, and in the inside are lead cases, con-
tanning two hundred pigeon holes Of rather more than
the ordinary size, and forty boxes, each one foot
square, 20 arranged that the mail matter in them
cannot be jCstlei out by the motion Of the car. There
are also the usual shelves and hooks on which TO
hang the mail bags, and on one side q large table
for stamping purposes. Letters can be mailed 1T any
part OF the route by slipping them into the car.
Nothing IL so common rs TO suppose that wheB q
sick man gets we'll, it must be owing to some drug or
other medicinal agent, whereas in many cases, if not
in most, unaided Nature accomplished the work.
Quilp, who had been long an invalid, was congratu-
lated on his recovery. 81 sm glad 10 see you well
again. said a hundred friends = It seems marvel
lous-wha, did you take ," - took time said
Quilp, &" the only medicine in the pharmacopia
which l found Of the slightest service"
A German staiistician has recently shown that the
invention OF the sewing machine enables one woma an
TO make one hundred times "a many garments as
she could have made a century ago. 10 which a
cynic replies that the average gain to mankind ID
nothing at all, since one woman now wears one hun
dred times as many garments as she would have
worn a hundred years ago. Our first mother was
content with a fg leaf, which, according to the Tai
mud, measured about three inches by six the ne
leaf OFFS fashionable lady today measures about fifteen
wards in circumference. Between these extremes q
contemporary thinks there must surely be n mean
which would make the se8ing-machine a really pro-
htable invention.
The electric telegraph is rapidly putting q girdle
around the earth. In 1851 there were but seven
thousand miles Of telegraph line in existence. and in
1868 there were one hundred and sixty thousand.
Already n merchant in New York can know of his
own ships arri al IN San Francisco on the same day
that she enters the Golden Gate. Bagdad, the home
Of Siubsd the sailor, is a telegraph station, and %
French merchant orders cashmere shawisb by light
ming Mr.. Collins line overland TO Russia will soon
put Us IN communication with Europe and Asia, and
ten years hence a merchant in New York may, when
he comes down TO business in the morning, find n dis
patch on his table announcing the prices Of teas and
silks 10 Canton or Shsnghae the day before. Bust
ness will then he done by lightning all over the world,
and the art Of letter writing will tall into decay.
Prices, ETC.-The arrangement of the currency
has caused a great variety of prices to be asked for
the same article a state o.. things only equaled by
San Francisco IN lS49. Every dealer has his own
ideas upon the subject Of profit, and even as TO what
would be n safe charge. for calculations must be made
for replncing the article sold. and everything has
been rising with gold and sometimes faster. Ii is a
common circumstance to find a variation Of twenty
to fifty per cent. in the prices Of some goods within
two or three blocks. 1t has paid wonderfully for the
ladies TO pass from store TO store and price the srti-
Giles. Prices here are as high or higher than in CAL
ifornia, but then payment rs made In greenbacks.
\ pair OF boots or a hist sells at the same price as IN
your State, but here you can pay in paper. The
wages OF mechanics have been raised, it is true, but
not enough TO meet the increase Of prices. Two
dollars and half per day is low no better than one
dollar and n quarter formerly was when their pay
was one dollar and a half. Rents are no higher, and
persons who depend upon that source for an income
are reduced TO short commons. Real estate has not
risen materially. in many places not At all, though
building material aud labor has raised with gold. 4
Californian who three years ago could buy a ( 1000
house with his gold, can now buy two OF that cost
with the same money and have g thousand or over in
greenbacks left
EXPLAINING A LIVE MAS.-A miraculous escape
from the horrors of actually being buried alive has
lust taken place IN New Orleans. y person by the
name Of Martain was supposed TO have died from dis
ease of the heart, and TO every outward appearance
was dead. The attending physician bad given his
certificate Of burial, certifying TO the cause OF death,
and the supposed corpse had been prepared. shrodded