The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1873-02-28

VI Wuioi 1ON oiO NAt"hihS 70 ~
years DID," SWELL" said the thirsty
traveller, contemplating its diminu-
tive proportions. 81 think it is the
smallest thing of its age lever saw"
Renewed laughter.] That story
as told is given as story Of Athens
375 years before Christ was born.
Whyl all these Irish bulls are
Greek-every one ofthem. Great
merriment. Take the Irishmau
who carried around a brick as a
specimen of the house he had to
sell laughter; take the Irishman
who shut his eyes and looked into
the glass to see how he would look
when he was dead renewed laugh
ter; take the Irishman that bought
q crow, alleging the crows were re-
ported to live 200 years, and he
meant to set out and try it. Laugh
ter. Take the Irishman who met
a friend who said to him, "Why,
sir, | heard you were dead !"
"Well," says the man, Il suppose
You see I'm not \ "Oh no." says
he: 81 would believe the man who
told me a good deal quicker than |
would you" Great merriment. I
Well! those are all Greek. A
score or more Of them, Of a par
allel character, come from Athens.
Our old Boston patriots felt that
tarring and featheriDg Tory was
a genuine patent Yankee frebrand
-Yankeeism. They little imagip-
ed that when Richard Cpur de
Leon set out on one of his Crusades,
among the orders he issued to his
camp of soldiers was that any one
who robbed a hen-roost should be
tarred and feathered. Many a man
who lived in Connecticut has re-
peated the story OF taking children
to the limits of the town and giving
them a sound thrashing to enforce
their memory Of the spot. But the
Burgundians in France, in a law
now 100 years old, attributed val
or to the east of France because it
had a law that the children should
be taken to the limits Of the dis
trict, and there soundly whipped, in
order that they might forever re-
member where the limits came.
So we have very few new things
in that line. Laughter. But |
said | would take the subject, for
instance, Of this very material
very SubStance-glass 1t is the
very best expression Of mans self
concelt.
TEACHINGS FROM GLASS.
I had heard that nothing had
been observed in ancient times
which could be called by the name
OF glass; that there had been mere
ly attempts to initiate it. ! thought
they had proved the proposition;
they certainly had elaborated it.
In Pompeii, a dozen miles south Of
Naples, which was covered with
ashes by l'esuvius 1900 years ago,
they broke into a room full Of glass;
there YVES ground glass, window
glass, cut glass aud colored glass of
every variety. 1t was undoubtedly
glass-maker's factory. So the lie
and the refntation came face to face.
1t was like a pamphlet printed in
London in 1896 by nr. T.ardner,
which proved that a steamboat
could not cross the ocean, and the
book came to this country in the
first steamboat that came across the
Atlantic.
The chemistry Of the most an
cient period had reached a point
which we hayenever even approach
ed and which we in vain struggle
to reach to-day. Indeed, the whole
management Of the effect Of light
on glass is still a matter Of pro-
found study. The first two stories
which | have to offer you are simp-
ly stories from history.
The first is from the letters Of the
Catholic priests who broke into
China, which were published ii
France just 200 years ago. They
were shown a g'ass, transparent aud