The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-10
INTERkSTIAG ITEMs.


much more pleasure to small men than to the
big man. They are placed in an unusually
fine and exalted position. They become the
patrons, aud therefore the more than eauals
Of the here Of their evening. The deep graft.
tude winch is always so ostentatiously paraded
4 by the guest is by them taken quite in earnest.
n They humbly persuade themselves that they
have somehow placed the great author under
u an obligation; that they deserve very we'll OF
him; that, If he has written delightful novels
they, in turn, have provided for him delight
ful treat of food and oratory. 1t is curious to
think how many worthy men there are to
whom TO come into contact with persons Of
eminence even in this remote way is crafty
ing and elevating beyond description--to
whom 1t is really thing to be much thought
Of that they should have come under
the bodily eye of Lord Lytton or Mr.. Dickens,
and perhaps, in the expansion of the hour of
parting, should have seized the hand that
wrote "Pickwick" or "Pelham." This makes
them actual friends, or at least acquaintance,
'pf the great man-after a fashion. The con-
tagion Of glory is wonderful force in all these
hffairs. For some very plain man, with a
hame absolutely and forever unknown beyond
fhe limits of very narrow private circle, to
ind that name blazoned in the public prints
IN company with peers and judges and poets,
Is to cease to be obscure. A ray or two from
The divine halo which glitters around the
head of the chairman and the illustrious
Z. kuest lights up even the humblest and most
obscure of the stewards. To pay ones shot
or dining with eminent literary personages is
& 10 receive some breath or two of the divine
= literary afllatus. Who dimes with literary
4nen must needs himself be literary; and to
Z bave reputation for being this, especially in
i very rural and very commercial circles, is to
- bave right to lay down critical laws to ones
heighbors.
LACE MAKNe.-The origin Of the art of
baking lace by hand is lost in the early twi-
ight OF history. This delicate and graceful
tyle OF ornament may be traced upon the
Irnged borders of Egyptian dresses and in
Ihe costume of Greek females. Its name
Fhether we refer it to laciniG or IaqueuS, points
4 10 its use among the Roman beauties. In the
books Of Numbers and Deuteronomy "knotted
finges' have even religious import The
cultivation of this exquisite branch of industry
as raised 1t almost to a place among the
ne arts. The demand for handmade lace,
% far from yielding to the invasion of ma
hineTy, seems to be but stimulated by the
pur of rivalry. The fact is that no mecha-
y ioal product can compare in artistic excel
bnce with the direct issue OF the human
rain and hand. For old lace in particular,
bbulous and ever-increasing prices are given.
ven the tombs we are told, in certain special
z ONES of this highly priced industry, have
een rifled for the rich bridal wells and robes
which it has been the custom to invest the
brms of the dead. The sumptuous and care
billy got-up work of Mrs. Bury Pallser may be
bferred to as the most exhaustive account of
be history, together with the artistic and eco
omical bearings of the manufacture of hand
= hade lace. 1t is Mr. Felkin's task, in the
Rcond portion of his book, to trace the me-
banical processes whereby the productions of
r bis most intricate of the manual arts have
een successfully initiated. Nearly every
y nown mesh, certainly every useful one, has
In OH md
Rsteful designs have been introduced, so that,
4 regards at least all but the most rare and
elicate patterns, the articles made in the ma
hine can with difficulty be distinguished from
bose made by hand.
HYPoCHoNDRIAcAL HUMBUGs.-A writer in the
ondon Cosmopolitan observes:-"There are
ypochondriacal humbugs of mental kind,
bmewhat of the Byronic order, who, though
+ ature has given them the faculty of enjoy
hent and enough to make them cheerful, yet
pt of sheer perversity court melancholy, and
ways look on the shady side of things. They
link it interesting" to appear morose, cyni-
|sshl, and Respondent. And, strange to say,
hey are not generally those who have seen
i huch of life, or have bitter experience of
hany years to allege as reason for their
- loomy views. Indeed, they are oftenest only
lst at the entrance of their real lite work.
Young ladies who, like one of Mr.. Dickens
Characters, at two-and-twenty, declare the
world to be a desert of Sahara, who profess to
ind nothing enjoyable in existence, who per-
sist in cherishing some disappointment OF their
/. early teens, and protest that on account Of
hblighted affections and withered hopes they
re quite unable to take any interest in the
heasures or the duties of life-these are hypo-
chondriacal humbugs of the mental sort /
Young men who rail at the frailty of women,
4, snarl at mAtrimony, sneer at the pursuits
which please their comrades, are bitterly de-
nunciative of everything which men call hap
piness, and with gloomy satisfaction tell you
4 that the world is mere muddle of misery and
wrong, while they assume to surrender
emselves with the resignation Of despair to
he dreary lot which destiny has assigned
bem-these also are bypoohondriacalh humbugs
of the mental sort, whose melancholy and in
sipid sentimentalism is all sham, put ON to
cover the most commonplace feelings.
FoRGIEe SoREws.-Screws are now made by
the novel mode of forging. The thread is
formed between two swedges the screw being
turned round till the swedges meet, under the
blows Of the hammer. Screws thus manu-
factured, says the Scientific Revieto, will answer
well for coarse uses; and there seems no
reason why, if finished up by dies, they should
not be fitted for any purpose. The thread
must be stronger, not having been strained
during its formation.
PENAL SERvITUDE.-Tnere were n convicts
under sentence of penal servitude or transpor-
tation for life in the Government prisons in
England at the end of last year. OF this mum
ber 38 were aged cripples or permanent inva
lids II treasOn-felony convicts, soldiers SEN
na1 fo, ,,,s1f off 0nnUipfg