Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-12-19
Historical.

3agdad, the famous capital of the
Caliphs, was founded in 76l, by AL
Mansor, near the site of Seleucia, or
New Babylon, on the Tigris, and about
fifty miles from Babylon the Great, on
the Euphrates. The despots of those
centuries built capitals and peopled
them at their pleasure. Old Babylon
yielded to New. New to Ctesephon.
This to Almadayen, and this to BasSo-
"a and Bsgdad, which were successive
ly built by Omar and Al Manson. Bag
lad was the capital Of the sovereign
Cilphate and the seat of science and the
arts.
An idea may be formed Of the strict
ness with which all popular amuse-
ments were prohibited when the Puri-
tans had the ascendancy, from the TACT
| that in I556-'67 Oliver Cromwell pro-
hibited all persons called tiddlers or
min,treIs from playing, fiddling or
making music In any inn, ale house or
tavern, etc. If they proffered them
selves or offered to make music they
we're to be adjudged to be rOgues, vag-
abonds and sturdy vagabOnds, aud
were to be proceeded against as such.
About the year 1907 the Jews offered
Lord Godolphin, Minister of Queen
Anne, TO pay e500, 900 (and they would
have made it 81, ,000, ,000) if the Govern
ment would allow them to purchase
the town of Brentford, with leave OF
settling there entirely, with full privi'
leges of trade, etc. Lord GodOlpkiD
did not comply with the request, and
a curions reason is assigned by Dean
| Locker, because II would provoke two
lOf the most powerful bodies in the ma
ition, the clergy and the merchants.
The Jews had better success with Oil
yer Cromwell; they offered him EGO,
loco to have a synagogue in London
He took the money and they had theil
temple.
Terrieello, a pupil of Galileo, having
discovared that no principle of suction
lexisted, and that water did not rise in
a pump owing to natures abhorrenct
lof vacuum, initiated the action of &
pump with mercury and made The
first barometer in 1913, and Descarte,
Explained the phenomena. Suction
was, however, defended all over Eu
lrOpe, and atoms were supposed to bt
: provided with hooks, by which bOtf
Isuction and attraction were effected
In 1854, Otto Guericke, of Msgdeberg
made the first air pump, which opened
a new field to science, and by the u.s.
OF which Boyle, in England, acquired
fame
The materials used for writing OIL
have varied in different ages and ma
5 jtions. Among the Egyptians, slices O
limestone, leather, linen and papyru
3 especially the last-were UNIVERSAL,
employed. The Greeks used bronz
i and stone for public monuments, wa.
for memorandums and pspyrus for tn
: ordinary transactions of life. Tn
|, Kings of Pergsmus adopted parch
ment, and the other nations OF the an
q cient world chiefly depended on SUP
ply of the paper OF Egypt. But tn
d Assy rians and BabyloniOns employs
for their public archives, their astrC
nomical computations, their religion
g ldedicatiOns, their historical annals an
! even for title deeds and bills OF eA
change, tablets, cylinders and hexa
A gonai prisms of terra Gotta. Two
these cylinders, still extant, cont6i
2 the history Of the campaign Of Ser
nacherib against the kingdom of Ju
n dab, and two others, exbumed frou
the Bir5 Nimroud, give detailed al
b count of the dedication of the gres
temple by Nebuchadnezzar to the seN
n en- planets. To this indestructible ma
terial, and to the happy idea of em
u ploying it in its manner, the presen
age is indebted for detailed histor
u of the As5yfian monarchy; while th
o productions of many other ancier
writers, confided to more perishabl
d material, have wholly or partly dissaI
peared.