Los Angeles daily herald., 1874-02-17
Our Imports from Great Britain.

One of the most hopeful signs of an
improving financial condition in the
country il the decline Of imported lux
uries. According to the report of the
Bureau of Statistics there was con-
siderable falling off in the importa-
ton Of the principal articles of British
manufacture for the year 1873 as COM
pared with the previous year, and par
ticularly during the last months of
1873. Take cotton piece goods, for ex-
ample, and we find that in 1872, 49,
Gl7 1886 yards were imported, while in
1873 the number of yards was 100, $780,
345. So we might go through the list
of imported articles and find a cores
pOnding reduction. Iron, however, is
especially worthy of mention. In 1872
there were 467 1904 tons of railroad iron,
1858 tons of bar, angle, bolt and rod
iron, and 1875, Isl tons of pig iron i'm
ported, while in 1873 the amount was:
railroad iron, 1870 tons; pig iron,
102,624 tons, and bar and other kinds
of iron, 23,006 tons. This is a differ
ence of over 500, 100000 in iron alone.
II we can continue to reduce our inn
ports and increase our exports the eX-
changes will be more in our favor, and
this would do more to bring down the
premium on gold and carry us to a
specie basis than all the proposed leg
islation of Congress.-[N. Y. Herald.
A Mr.. Prideaux claims Lord Lytton
as believer in astrology. He says:
"In the review of Lord Lytton's
Parisians in your number for Deem
Der 9th find the passage 'on the one
hand, he loved to be talked about at
any cost, and counted cheap reputa-
ton by the .fanfart made of vices to
which he had no real claim, and by a
feigned dabbling in occult sciences in
which he had no real belief From
my point of view the last clause in the
sentence does injustice to the breadth
and many-sidedness of his lordship's
mind; ut any rate, venture to say
the statement is incorrect, and will be
recognized to be so by all those who
knew him intimately; in proof of
which l may mention that possess o
letter from him in which he unequivos
cally avows his belief in genethliacal
astrology."
"a oiiCi ouG ihVClSotiuS dCCOuuI vi u
discovery in Egypt is published in the
proceedings" of the Society of Anti
quaries. An Englishman travelling
on the skirts of Sinai noticed small,
blue stones lying in the beds of dried
up torrents, aud brought few of them
to England, where he learned that
they were torquoises of good quality.
He went back to Egypt and made fur
Their researches, built house at the
junction of three valleys, and, aided by
friendly natives whom he took into his
service, he discovered the torquois
mines formerly worked by the ancient
Egyptians, together with their tools
and the places where they ground and
polished the stones. So now torquoises
are dug from those old rocks and sent
TO England. Ancient iron works have
also been discovered, with huge heaps
of Stag piled around them. A speci-
men of this Stag, on being tested, was
found to contain fifty three per cent.
OF iron, which favors the supposition
that it would pay to smelt the whole
mass over again. To protect these
valuable deposits, the Pharos built
Notifications and barrack and temple
for the troops, relics of which still re-
main.