The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1879-11-15
Foreign News items.

Mr.. SERGEANT Cox. who is already proprietor Of
some balf-dozen newspapers. with such varied OBJ
jects. as the Field, the Queen, the Lac Times and
others, il said to be in treaty for the Academy,
which Mr.. Spotiiswoode gives up at midsummer.
A Russian paper, in describing the execution OF
Nihilists at Kieh, adds that a young girl, who con-
cealed her name despite the use of the lash, declared
at the foot of the gallows that she was Nathalie Gort-
schakoh, niece of the Russian Chancellor.
Choral hydrate is becoming a fashionable tipple
at Home, the craving for it ultimately becoming as
uncomfortable as that for alcohol. The explanation
of the prolonged sleep caused by choral hvdrate is
that the drug is decomposed in the blood, and a
manufacture of chloroform set up.
Ploughing by electricity, the latest novelty in the
agricultural world, is, according to a French CORES
pendent of the Mark Lane Express, now an accom-
plished fact. The motion is conveyed to a drum
from the electric machine, and thence by a coil of
wire to the plough.
DIR. Robert Ludgate, of Berlin, claims to be the
real discoverer of the micrOphone and telephone.
By his instrument the speech comes loud and clear,
so as to be best heard at a little distance. 1t is also
declared to be the best for deaf persons. The ap-
paratus has been tested at a distance of nearly 200
miles, and altogether it is to be the micro elephone
of the future.
Thomas Carlyle, in his own quaint fashion shows
the British workman who is his task-master, and the
passage is characteristic Of the Chelsea philosopher:
mo man opposes thee o free and independent
frauchiser But does not this stupid pewter pot
oppose thee? No son of Adam can bid thee come or
go, out that ABSURD pot or heaVy wet can, and does
Thou art the thrall, not of Cedric or Saxon, but Of
thy own brutal sppetites and this accursed dish Of
liquors. And thou pratest of thy : liberty, thou
entire blockhead -
The Cuban Government have hit upon an ingeni-
Gus scheme for protecting the sugar estates and
finding occupation for the soldiers in that island. 1t
is proposed to distribute about 5000 men CT the
troops In Cuba among the sugar plantations, to
work as field hands, at fixed wages per month, to be
paid by the planters, under the supervision of their
Of6aars This maaSnra II IL uroa1 will IN sha Ersk
place, secure the tranquility and protect the estates
during the period of the gradual emancipation of
the slaves. In the second place, it will afford occu-
patton to the soldiers, who, thereby becoming accus-
toned to the field work on Cuban soil, will form a
nucleus for free labor on the day when slavery shall
have entirely ceased; and lastly, it will enable the
government to reduce taxation considerably.
a Constantinople correspondent relates a tale of
the Seraglio, which may be a godsend to the chroni-
clers of the Society " journals. The beautiful
Hafza, a wife of the wealthy Kafedsbi Mahmud
Efendi, was suddenly missing, and her husband in-
structed the secret police to search for her. She
was discovered in the romantic village Keflikoi, be-
tween Therapia and Buyukdere, living as the wife
Raft Bey, the adJutant of the Sultan. The lady
escaped from the police, and her whereabouts is not
yet discovered; but Raft Bey was carried up to Con-
stantinople. The Sultan caused the husband and
the betrayer to be brought before him IA; he same
time, and is said to have addressed them as follows
81 dismiss both of you for ever from my service
You, Raft, because you have stolen that mans wife;
you, Manmuu, because you nave alIOWeu your vile
to be stolen from you. A servant who steals the
wife of another might rob me of my own, and a SER
want who cannot watch his own wife is not fit to be
trusted with the charge of a cup of cofiee.'' Nah
mud, as Kaffedshi, or coffee-bearer, had the elevated
post of serving the Padishah with his coffee.
Some samples of hardwood lumber made out
of common wheat straw have lately been exhibit
ted in Illinois, and have, it is stated. attracted
much attention among the lumbermen. The
wood has all the polish and finish of the hardest
black walnut and mOhogany. An ordinary straw
board, such as is usually made at any paper-mill,
is used for producing it. As many sheets are
taken as are required to make the thickness of
desired. These sheets are passed through
a chemical solution which thoroughly softens up
the fibre and completely saturates it. The whole
is then drawn through a succession of rollers, dried
and hardened during the process, as well as pol
ished and then comes out out Of the other end of
the machine hard dry lumber ready for use. 1t
is said that the chemical properties hardening
the fibre entirely prevent water soaking, and
render the lumber combustible only in a very
hot fire. The hardened finish on the outside also
makes it impervious to water. The samples
which have been exhibited could hardly be told
from hardwood lumber, and in saving the mate
rial the difference could not be detected.