The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-11-14
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The origin of "dog- days" is accounted
for as follows: The great heat of July
led to superstition among the Ro-
mans; they conceived that this pre-em-
inent warmth, and the diseases and
other calamities flowing from it, were
somehow connected with the rising and
and the setting of the star Canicula-
the Little Dog-in coincidence with the
sun. They accordingly conferred the
name dog-days upon the period between
the Sd of July and the 18th of August.
MAJoLICA.-The name is derived from
the island Majorca, where the Saracens
established manufactures of the ware
Afterward the ware was imported into
Italy, where it borrowed the classic
forms and myths of ancient Greece and
Rome. Hence it is at once domestic
and refined in character, Oriental and
classic; with the harmony of color of
Chinese faience, the grace of ornament
alton of the Persian and the Grecian
classic simplicity and symmetry of form.
1t was famous for it's luster, but modern
lusters are inferior in beauty to the old
methods, especially the secret one which
produced the golden luster-a yellow
color Overland with mother-of-pearl.
THE year 1881 will be mathematical
curiosity. From left to right and right
to left it reads the same; Is divided by
2 gives 8 as quotient; 81 divided by
8 and 8 is the quotient. If 1881 is di-
vided by 200, 8 is the quotient; if di-
vided by 9 the quotient contains 8;
if multiplied by 8, the product contains
two 9's. One and are 9, 8 and are 8.
If the Is be placed under the 81 and
added, the sum is 80. If the figures be
added thus, i, 8, s, /, it will be Is.
Reading from left to right is 10, and IL
is two-ninths of 81. By adding, divid-
ing and multiplying, nineteen 9s are
produced, being one 8 for each year re-
CURED to complete the century.
How OLD Is CAUSE.-THE oldest
specimen of pure glass bearing any
thing like date is little nodded lions
head, bearing the name of an Egyptian
King of the eleventh dynasty, in the
Slade collection at the British Museum.
That is to say, at period which may
be moderately placed as more than 1000
years B. c., glass was not only made,
but made with skill which shows that
the art was nothing new. The inven-
ton of glazing pottery with a film or
varnish of glass is so old that among
the fragments which bear inscriptions
of the early Egyptian monarchy are
beads possibly of the first dynasty. Of
later glass there are numerous exam
pies, such as bead found at Thebes,
which has the name of Queen Hatasoo
or Hashep, of the eighteenth dynasty.
OF the same period are vases and COB
let's and many fragments. 1t cannot be
doubted that the story prepared by
Plny, which assigns the credit of the
invention to the Ph9nicians, is SO far
true that these adventurous merchants
brought specimens to other countries
from Egypt. DR.. Schliemann found
disks of glass in the excavations at
Mycene, though Homer does not men
ton it as a substance known to him.
That the modern art of the glass
blower was known long before is certain
from representations among the pict-
ures on the walls of tomb at Benz
Hassan, of the twelfth Egyptian dynas-
ty; but much older picture, which
probably represented the same manu-
facture, is among the half-obliterated
scenes in chamber of the tomb of Thy,
at Sakkara, and dates from the time of
the fifth dynasty, time so remote that
it is not possible, in spite of the assid,
nous researches of many Egyptologers,
to give it date in years.-SataIrday
ReuieU.