The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-08-15

authoritative statements. saw with my
own eyes almost everything that l have
described, and have responsible witness
for all the rest. / have not accepted
any rumors; but as was fortunately
on the spot" I'm able to give you
the facts. rf E. P. B..
For the Standard.
MEssRs. EDrroRs Having just returned
from cool bath in the atmosphere OF New
York and New England, you may be inter
ested to hear little of my experience and
observations. Things are not perfect there.
The want of good house servants and the
high wages of unskilled labor were widely
bewailed. In a house where was stopping
there was vacancy in the kitchen and all
Irish woman came to negotiate for the place.
"Do We do your own work Mondaysg"
said Bridget mo" "Then don't hire
out in this place!" and off marched the
proud foreigner. In vain had my friend
given assurance at the Intelligence Office
that if his family were considered too nu-
merous he would bewilling to kill off one or
two. He didn't conciliate enough. The
poorest servant girl asks ut least two dollars
week at
You have doubtless heard of the Rev. Jo-
mas King, who has lived in Syria and Greece
as missionary for more than forty years.
l met him and his Greek wife on their re-
and our conversation turned incidentally on
the preserving of figs, in which Mrs. King
became quite experienced during her resi-
dence in Smyrna, the greatest fig market of
the world The fruit dried in the sun on
mats. In one or two hot days it is sufficient
ly cured, and then the packer dipping his
fingers into bowl of sea-water works over
the fig moment, just dampening the skin,
and lays it down in layers in the drum with
the occasional addition of bitter aromatic
leaf between the layers. The sugar which is
found with the imported fig is the simple
juice of the fruit which dries around it
Nothing more than what we have described
is ever done with the exported fruit. For
home consumption the fig is sometimes
| pierced and strung ON slender piece of cane
or palm leaf about eighteen inches long, the
ends Of which are tied together and the fes
toon hung up to dry. Sometimes, too, the
| fig is cut open, a piece of an English walnut
| put between the halves, and the whole dried
| in an oven. 1t then tastes more like candy
| and keeps good long while. The Eastern
| fruit grows rather larger than our North Car
! DINA fg, hut that is probably due to cult
walton. If there be difference in variety,
the Bureau of Agriculture might do a good
work by importing some slips from the East
But it was something else that took up my
pen to write about
The Atlantic cable has at last proved a
success. l saw in New York, piece of the
large cable manufactured for the shore-end
to be used for the first thirty miles at each
extremity. 1t is as large as mans arm and
contains eight halfinch wires. The cable
laid in the deep sea is not one fourth of the
size, but like the shore-end, has seven copper
wires in the center twisted together and en-
closed in several lay ers of water proof COM
position. This forms the core, so-called. a
piece of which is now on exhibition in this
city in the Field and Fireside Bookstore
Around the core the rope part is woven and
the outside literally smeared with tar The
advantage of having seven small wires in
the center instead of one larger, is that if the
inner part should be subjected to strain so as
to break the copper wires, they would not he
likely all to part at one place. and so even if
they should slide over each other some dis
lance, the connection would be kept up. A
History of the Cable, prepared by Rev. Henry
NJ. Field. a brother of the cable-man, is ex-
pected from the press this week. But this is
not what was going to tell you about
Aphysician residing in Syria lately secured
a number of ancient coins, the ownership OF
which in the United States would he desir-
| ol, bo to1 -
me for sale, and although every one knows
how impoverished this section is, the first
offer of them will be made here in Raleigh,
SO that any person interested in Historical
Studies may have the chance of obtaining
these souvenirs of the past One is tetra-
drachm of silver struck in Syria about
hundred years before Christ. The head of
the King Antiochus VIII, appears in high re-
lief, while on the reverse is his title T" Money!
of King Antiochus Epiphanes Tor the Illus
trious.) GIL" The date is in Greek letters,
and is to be reckoned from 312 B. c., the
year from which the people of Syria, even
now some of them still reckon time. The
coin is worth by weight about 20 cents in
silver. 1t is of tue size generally called in
the New Testament "a piece of silver" This
identical coin was in existence in the time of
our Saviour, and may have been paid out by
him or by one Of his apostles, or may have
been one of the thirty pieces given to Judas
for his treachery. 1t can be bought for $40
at the Bookstore of VIM. B. Smith & Co.
At the same place will be offered some coins
of the Roman Emperor Probus, twenty OF
them for five dollars. All have the head of
the Emperor with his titles on one side, but
on the reverse they have different device.
and inscriptions no two being exactly alike.
Now, you think that you see what my OBJ
| ject was in this letter, to advertise these
coins in such way as to save the printers
bill. Great mistake! But l have not time
now to tell what l was going to write about
except word or two of the remarks that
heard on what we may call Southern topics
There was very little said of President
johnson, in my hearing, either by those who
disliked him, or by his friends. Little in.
terest was shown in Southern matters com.
pared with Western or European. The first
question Of almost all those who knew where
hailed from, was, We'll. how are they
treating the blacks down there 2" and gen
eral satisfaction and some surprise were ex.
pressed at the progress which the facts of
the past season had enabled me to report
There seemed to be prevailing desire that
the lately rebel States should be 'restored
to their practical relations to the govern
, ment," and general vexation at somebody
/; for hindering it. Sometimes it was directed
! at the President, sometimes at Congress
and sometimes at the leading men here
The passage of the Howard amendment wa
generally spoken of as certain, and the onl,
person that objected to it, was one wh(