The St. Johns herald., 1893-09-28
/ MINUTE MARVELS.
Some Microscopic Works of Art
 to Be Found Abroad.
Remarkable Feats of Dainty Penmanship Ivory Dishes Scarcely Visible to the Naked Eye-A Jewellers Won
 derfuI Little Boat.

Dr. Heylin, in his Life of King Charles records that during the reign of Queen Elizabeth ''there was one who wrote the ten commandments, the creed, the Pater Noster, the queens name and the prayer of our Lord with in the compass of a penny, and gave her majesty pair of spectacles of such an artificial making that by the help thereof she did plainly and distinctly discern every letter" says the London Bookworm. A somewhat similar feat was that rare piece of work brought to pass by Peter Bales, an Englishman, who also exhibited before her majesty the entire Bible written in book con- taining as many leaves as a full-sized edition, but fitting into walnut"
 In St. Johns college, Oxford, is pre- served portrait of Charles l., in which the engraver's lines, as they seem to be, are really microscopic writing, the face alone containing all the book of Psalms, with the creeds and several forms of prayers.
 The learned Person is known to have indulged in this species of ''curious idleness'' occasionally, and perhaps the Greek verses from the Medea of Euri- pides, with Johnson's translation of the same, for Burney's History of Music, were executed by him. Though consisting of two hundred and twenty six words, they are comprised in a cir cle half an inch in diameter, with small space in the center left blank.
 >>e microscopic penmanship was exhibited in America. It consisted of the follow ing inscription written upon glass in a circle much smaller than the head of an ordinary pin lone six hundred and twenty-ffth part of an inch in di- ameter): Lowell and Scuter, watch makers, 64 Exchange street, Portland. Written by Fermat at Paris, 1852"
 At the Dusseldorf exhibition few years ago agentleman showed a postal card upon which the whole of the first three books of the Odyssey were written, the remaining space being filled with the transcript of a long de- bate which had taken place in the German parliament short time be- fore. The whole card contained thirty three thousand words.
 Layard, in his "History of Nineveh," mentions that the national records of the Assyrian empire were written on bricks in characters so minute as to be scarcely legible without the aid of a microscope, and that, in fact, a variety of this instrument was found among the excavations.
 So much for dainty penmanship. That minute mechanical construction can lay claim to considerable antiquity is evidenced by the works of Pliny and Adrian, who relate that Myrmicides constructed out of ivory ship with all her appurtenances and a chariot with four wheels and four horses, both so small that bee could hide either of them with it's wings.
 A still more wonderful work is that of Mark Scaliot, London locl1smith, who, in 1870, manufactured lock con- sisting of eleven different pieces of steel, iron and brass, which, together with the key belonging to it, weighed only one grain. The same artist con- structed a chain of gold containing forty-three links, wlich he fastened to the lock and key, and upon these being attached to the neck of a flea the insect was able to draw them with ease.
 Hadianus Junius saw at Mechlin, in Brabant, a cherry stone carved in the form of a basket, in which were four teen pairs of dice, the spots on the lat ter visible to the naked eye. A cherry stone carved by the sculptor, Rossi, and containing glory of sixty saints, was shown at Florence for many years.
 A still more marvellous curiosity was set of one thousand six hundred ivory dishes, which were said to have been purchased by one Shad from the maker, Oswald Northingerns, and ex- hibited before Pope VI. These dainty turnings, though perfect in every re- spect, were scarcely visible to the naked eye, and could be easily inclosed in casket the size of a peppercorn. A Jesuit, Father Farrarius, made twen- ty-fve wooden cannon capable of being packed away in the same space. In 1764, on the birthday of King George ILL, matchmaker of London named Arnold presented himself be- fore the king to exhibit a curious re- beating watch of his manufacture. This watch was in diameter somewhat less than a silver two-pence, contained one hundred and twenty distinct parts and weighed altogether less than six pennyweights.
 Not very long ago a London news paper announced that jeweler of Turin had made tugboat formed of single pearl. The sail of beaten gold studded with diamonds and the bin nacle light at the prov is a perfect ruby. An emerald serves as its rudder and the stand on which it is mounted is a slab of whitest ivory. The entire weight of this marvellous specimen of the jewellers craft is less than half an ounce, but the maker values it at one thousand pounds.
 Japanese Railroads.
 The government of Japan has in