The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-09-17

sell oil Of an inferior quality. heavy fine q
long Imprisonment should be made to hang over
dealers who traffic in explosive oils of this sort.
Such a movement has already begun in the Legis-
latures Of some States. 1t ought to be extended
to all.
Not long ago, a laborer went into a bank in
New York and asked if they would keep hun
dred dollars for him year. The reply waS5es,
and upon inquiry to interest he told that
five per cent. would be allowed. When the year
was up the laborer made his appearance in the
bank with lot of postal currency tied up in a
handkerchief and asked the cashier to look it over
and see if there was S5. Upon being told there
was, the turned TO leave the bank, called
back and asked what the money was for, he said,
:" The year that you have been keeping my hun
dred dollars is up to-day, and / want to pay you
for it." Upon being told that the five dollars went
the other way, the astonishmen of the laborer was
great. and it so when a new and bright
looking V. was handed out to him. He went of
shaking bis head and lost in astOnishment at the
idea of paying him for being allowed to
take care Of bis property whole year.
That wonderful instrument, the speetroscope,
continues to enlarge our acquaintance with the
composition of solar system, and even of the
fixed stars and the comets. Father Secchi has
made the astonishing discovery of the vapor of
water in the vicinity of the sun-spots and we now
know that our luminary contains also in its atmos-
phere hydrogen, sodium, iron, magnesium, calcium,
copper, cobalt, barium, and nickel. The same OBJ
server has recently ascertained that the planet
Uranus has an atmosphere of considerable extent,
and generally transparent The spectrum of
comet corresponds exactly with that given by
ignited carbon vapor, so that comet is little more
than a barrelful of petroleum on FIRE; and the
variable star Gemini is found to be surrounded by
envelope of burning gas. AS regards some of
them, at least, no longer, therefore, doubt
that the stars are fire."
The marvellous character of Dr. Livingstone's
discoveries in Africa is about to be swallowed up
in undertaking much more marvellous than any
of his. Sir Samuel Baker has started from Egypt
with an expedition fitted out by the Khedive for
the purpose OF capturing and taking possession of
this same mysterious country whose discovery has
been 80 long the dream of explorers. Baker takes
with him some 1000 men and several steel vessels
the latter to be put together and launched on the
large lakes at the of the Nile. The country
to be captured is one of the most fertile in the
world, and the Khedive expects to derive an i'm
mense revenue from its products. Considering the
difficulties that have surrounded the discovery of
this country, this undertaking of the Khedives is
certainly bold one.
How touching is this tribute Of the late Hon. T.
II. Benton to his mothers influence - Ny mother
asked never to use tobacco; 1 have never
touched it from that time to the present day. She
asked me not to gamble, and have never gam |
bled- L cannot tell who is losing in games that |
are being played. She admonshed me, too, against
liquor drinking. aud whatever capacity for eIdur-
ance have at present, and whatever usefulness 1 |
may have attained through life, have attributed |
to having complied with her pious and correct |
me not to drink, and then made resolution of |
total abstinence; and that l have adhered to it |
through all time, / owe to my mother"
An Eastern exchange gets off the annexed
Gyms W. Field is the most irrepressbe Ameri- |
can in existence, save, PERHAPS George Francis |
Train though we beg Fields pardon for coupling
the two names. Train is all gas and Field is all |
electricity. The former evaporates in nothing |
the latter works, and works, and works until the
impossible becomes possible, and all uncertainty is
swallowed up in victory. His thin, spare body is |
reservoir of exhaustless energies, and in the heat
of action he never smokes, but goes ahead with as
little visible excitement as a eating his meals.
His last ambition is to complete electric grdle |
round the globe, and for that purpose he is boring
auger holes through the skulls of Congressman |
and filling their heads with useful knowledge. The |
country urges him to keep right turning neither
to the right hand, the left, until he has tre-
Panned every Congressional caput and accom-
plished his grand aim.''