The Portland daily press., 1893-08-29
PERSONAL AND PECULIAR.

John E. Russell, of Massachusetts,, is
said to have wife who keeps well post
ed upon political matters and has been
a great strength to him in all his public
career.
An old lady who arrived in Boston
from Nova Scotia the other day and was
sent back by the immigration inspectors.
intended to walk from Boston to Haver-
hill to see her son and then walk back to
Boston, in spite of the fact that she was
ninety years old She was not allowed
to land because she might become a pub
lie charge.
When Napoleon was on St. Helena we
had 100000 tons of shipping in the
Eastern Atlantic; now, of the 3,646 yes
sells which entered Funchal during the
past five years, only eight were Ameri-
can. The returns show that about IL
per cent (s15, sos. 55) of the whole export
is to the United States
At one stroke the Cornell University
library has been endowed by Prof. Viii
lard Finske with a Dante collection
which almost any library might envy,
consisting of upwards of 1900 yolumessand
pamphlets A fair copy of the first edi-
tion of the Divine Comdy" (Foligny,
1472) is among them. 1t contains a
great number of inedited annotations
by Luca Pulci.
Some mutual ..aid societies have been
recently formed in the city of Mexico and
other large towns composed of men fol-
lowing the same trade, and admitting
those of all races. They appear to be the
outcome Of old recollections of the Aztec
civilization, in which trade corporations
existed. They are already a political
force which Porfirio Diaz utilities.
The CigarmaKers' union of Chi cago
has periodically withdrawn it's surplus of
200 from safety deposit vaults and
placed it in banks where it will go into
circulation The Typograph ical union
has done the same with is surplus of $27,-
900, and other unions will deposit $87, 600
next week. The Inter-Ocean says: 1t
is quite probable that the surplus held in
vaults by the various trades unions ex-
coed $500, 200.
Mr.. John Wallace, c. E., in..his work on
Sanitary Engineering lin india" says
that Damascus possesses, in all proba-
bility, the oldest waterworks in the
world. The city itself is the mostsancient
of existing cities, having seen the rise
and fall Of the Greek and Roman en-
pirest of Babylon, Nineveh, Palmyra and
Jerusalem. When taken by the Saracens
from the Romans the water works al
ready existed, and it is probable that the
latter constructed the works which still
exist and supply the town.
The name of iron silver" has been
given to an alloy of iron with other met
ais generally, and particularly with cop
per and zinc, the idea of French inven-
tor, according to Money and Trade. Cast
iron in the form of turnings, filings or
powder, is immersed in bath Of hydro
chloric acid, through which is passed a
current of carbonic acid. Currents of
air and steam are afterward passed
through the bath, and the liquid is
drained through the residue, which is
then driedsand alloyed with other met
ais The bestsproportions are: Iron, 55.per
cent. zinc "a per cent. copper 40 per
cent The color of the new alloy is a
silvery white
The use of lenses has been traced
to the Chinese moralist, Confucus, 74S
BIC. A glass case in the Assyrian Sec
ton of the British Museum contains a
piece of rock crystal formed into the
shape of plano-convex lens, 10 inches
in diamter and 9-1O inch thick. This
was discovered in the ruin called MINI
roud. 1t gives focus of 4 10 inches.
A ccording to Sir David Brewster this
lens was designed for magnifying pur-
poses. The date is about 700 B. G. Bap-
tista Porta 1880 the inventor of the
camera obscura states: eff you know
how to ombine q convex and concave
glass, one OF each sort, you will see far
and near objects larger and clearer"
A minor feature of the recent German
elections has been the increase in the
Danish vote in Schleswig. While as
hitherto but one Danish member was
returned, his majority was considerably
greater, and the minority votes of the
other Danish candidates were without
exception increased In spite of the de-
termined efforts of 80 years, the Germans
are no further advanced in their plan of
Germanizing the conquered Danish terri
tory than when they began. Danish
is still spoken in the homes, Danish
papers are still read, and Denmark is
still regarded as thespeople's real father
land.
A Scottish paper says: Following the
example of the New York Central and
the Pennsylvania railroad companies.
the Atchison is trying to borrow here
half million sterling. The Atchison
has not credit like the other two great
companies but it is thought that it will
good bonds to offer as security. Several