The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1869-09-04

of the nation. Webster always said be
got polished at Washington, and never
failed to give credit where credit was
due. Blu: this is of by-gone days.
~~~~~~~~.@N~.-~~~~~-
The oldest City i'm the World.
Damascus is the Oldest city in the
world. Tyre and Sidon have crum-
bled on the shore Baalbec is q ruin
Palmyra is buried in a desert; Nine
veh and Babylon have disappeared from
the Tigris and Euphra!es. Damascus
remains what it was before the days OF
Abraham-a center of trade and travel
AN island Of verdure on the desert
ga presidential capital,' with martial
and sacred associations extending through
thirty centuries. 1t was near Damascus
that Saul of Tarsus saw the light above
the brightness of the Sun; the street
which is called Straid, in which it was
said she prayed" still runs through
the city. The caravan comes and goes
as it did a thousand years ago; there is
still the sheik, the ass, and the water
wheel the merchants of the Euphrates
and the Mediterranean still occupy -
these with the multitude OF their
wares" The city which Mahomet sur
veyed from O neighboring height, and
was afraid to enter "because it was
given to man to have but one para
disc, and for his part, he was resolved
not to have it in this world" is to-day
what Julien called the "eye of the East, y
as it was in the time of Isaiah the
head Of Syria"
From Damascus came the damnson,
our blue plums, and the delicious april
cot of Portugal, called damasco, damask,
our beautiful fabric of cotton and silk,
with vines and flowers raised upon a
smooth, bright ground; the damask rose,
introduced into England in the time of
Henry VIII, the Damascus blade, SO
famous the world over for its keen edge
and wonderful elasticity, the secret Of
whose manufacture was lost when Ia
merlane carried off the artist into Per-
sia and that beautiful art of inlaying
wood and steel with silver and gold, a
kind of mosaic engraving and sculpture
united-called damaskening-with which
boxes, bureaus, swords and guns are Or
namented. 1t is still city of flowers
and brig ght waters the streams of Leba-
non and the silk of gold still mur.
muir and sparkle in the wilderness of the
Syrian gardens.
THE STRENGTH OF MEN, ANIMALS,
AND INsEcrs.-A man OF thirty, weigh
ing on an average a hundred and thirty
pounds, can drag, according to Regnier,
only hundred and twenty pounds. The
proportion of the weight drawn to the
eight of his body is no more than as
twelve to thirteen. A draught horse
can exert, only for a few instants, an
effort equal to about two-thirds OF his
own proper weight. The man, therefore.
is stronger than the horse. But, accord
ing to Plateau, the smaller insect drags
without difficulty five, six, ten. twenty
times its own weight. The cockchafer
draws fourteen times its own weight,
and more. Other coleoptera are able to
put themselves into equilibrium with a
force of traction reaching as high as
forty two times their own weight. In
sects, therefore, when compared with
the vertebrate which we employ as
beats of draught, have enormous muscu-
lar power. 1fa horse had the same rel
ative strength as donacia. the traction
it could exercise would be equivalent to
some sixty thousand pounds. M
Plateau has also adduced evidence Of the
fact that, in the same group OF insects
if you compare two insects, notably
differing in weight, the smaller and
lighter will manifest the greater strength
->~~~>~0>.~-~-~-~~
The DUrY OF M1N1srERs.-1 may be