Year: 1875

A traveller in the Leoant gives the follow


ing account of man in the monastery o


Xeropotamo who had never seen woman


ga man had arrived from one of thu


outlying farms who could speak little


Italian. He was deputed to do the honor,


of the house, and accordingly dined with


me. He was magnificent-looking man Of


thirty or thirty five years of age, with large


eyes and long black hair and beard. AS
; we sat together in the evening in the an


cient room by the light of one dim, brazen


lamp, with deep shades thrown across his


face and figure, thought he would have
an admirable study for Titan or Sebastian
del Piomio. In the course of conversation


found that he had learned Italian from
another monk, having never been out of the
peninsula of Mount Athos. His parents,
and most of the other inhabitants of the
village where he was born, somewhere in
Romeila-but its name or exact position he
did not know-had been massacred during
some revolt or disturbance, SO he had been
told, but he remembered nothing about it.


He had been educated at school in this or
one Of the other monasteries, and his whole
life had been passed on the Holy Mountain;
and this, he said was the case with very
many other monks. He did not remember
his mother, and did not seem quite sure
that he ever had one. He had never seen
woman, nor had he any idea what sort Of
things women were, nor what they looked
like. He asked me whether they resembled
the pictures of the Panagia (Holy Virgin)
winch hung in every church. Now, those
who are conversant with the conventional
representations of the Blessed Virgin of
Greek churchs, which are all exactly alike
stiff, hard, and dry, without any appear
anee of life Or emotion-will agree with me
that they do not afford very favorable
| idea of the grace or beauty of the fair sex,
and that there was a difference of appear
ance between black women, Circassians,
and those of other nations, which was,
moreover, difficult to describe to any one
| who had never seen lady of any race. He
listened with great interest when told him
| that all women were not exactly like the
pictures he had seen, and that they differed
considerably one from another in appear
ance, manners and understanding. But
did not think it charitable to carry ON the
conversation further, although the poor
monk seemed to have a strong inclination
to know more of that interesting race of
beings from whose society he been so en-
tirely debarred.


If often thought afterward Of the singular
lot of this manly and noble-looking monk
whether he is still a recluse, either in the
monastery or ON his mountain farm, with
his little moss-grown chapel, as ancient as
the days of Constantine, or whether he has
gone out into the world and mingled in its
pleasure and cares.
The Trial Trip Of the Bessemer Steam


ship.


The Bessemer steamship, which was to !
abolish the horrors Of the Channel, has been
tried, and is, fear, only half success
for the present. She steamed this week |
from Hull to Gravesend in gale of wind |
and proved AN excellent sea boat and fast. |
Her two faults appear to be an excess Of |
draft, and the unsteadiness of her movea-
Bile saloon. The former is partly accounted |
for by an extra supply of coal, and may be |
got rid of in one way or anotlier-must be |
got rid Of before she can enter Calais on an |
ordinary tide. AS to the saloon, it appears |
that the machinery intended to control it,
and to neutralize so far as it is concerned, |
the movement of the ship is in some way |
defective. The saloon can be handled with |
ease, bu5 cannot be kept still; in other |
words shares the motion of the ship. |
What we know about it is mostly from a |
letter written to the Times by Lord Henry |
Lennox. who came in the ship, and who ex-
plains that the present trouble arises partly !
from some wrong arrangement of the levers,
and partly from the inexperience of the
man who works them. He and Mr.. Reed /
believe, or at least hope that all may be
right but the public is just little incredu- |
Gus. But whether the saloon proves per-
fectly stable or not, the ship will be vast !
over those now in use.-Lon-
don Corr. Neo York Tribune.