Items Of Interest

At the American Centennial Exhibition, Krupp, of Essen, will exhibit a mammoth 1,000 pounder gun. A young lady who had no'time to sew for the hospitals spent three weeks einbroidering a blanket for her poodle. - Brigham Young has been dub'ned Brig. Gen. from having been called' "Briggy, dear," bo often by bis numerous wives. - While pursuing an old working at the iron mines at Dean Forest, Engliind, an oak shovel of Danish origin, and t least 740 years old, was f oimd in excellent preservation. -The Crown Princa of Germany promises to be a pacific Emperor. For the present he amuses himself by attending schools and putting hia showy piokelhaube on the noddle of all the best boys fond of play. Inhabitants of the planet Mars can make the tour of the world there dry shod or in f orty days if they have accomplished rapid transit. The land is not divided off in islands as with us, the amount of water being barely enough to form lakes. - All the engineers of the Germán army are taught swimming in their ñrst year, and are required to swim half an hour without resting or swimimnpr on the back, but, contrary to a necant roport, they are not obliged to take this bathiiiEf with their clothing on. - A Westerly, R. I., clergyman married a couple the other night, received hia fee and sent them away, apparently satisfied, but, a day or two after, the bridegroom returned and said that he had come to pay more, as the woman had turned out much better than he expected. - Bismarok is cultivating a sicldy syeamore in his garden, back of the Foreïgn Office, sent him by American Germans in 1872 for a birthday present. His gardener thinks him a great man, chiefly because he occasionally asks him, "Well, Franz, how is the syeamore getting along ?" The following method is used in Germany for the preservation of wood : Mix forty parts chalks, flfty resin, four linseed oil, melting them together in an iron pot ; then add one part of nativo oxide of copper and afterward one part of sulphuric acid. Apply with a brush. When dry, this varnish is as hard as stone. - A remarkable article called fish flour has been brought forward in the last few years. It is not as yet manufactured in any quantity, as the article is still new in the market, and consequently there is no great demand for it. The flour is prepared from dried fish of the flrst quaUty ; it is thoroughly desiccated, and then ground in a mili. -Mr. Bussel Gurney, M. P., has promised to introduce in the British House of Commons a bilí to secure to a married woman her own property, and make her liable for her ïvn contracts as if she were a single woman. Mr. Forsythe has also pledged himself to reüitroduce the Women's disabüities bill that was defeated last winter. - By a recent decisión of the British Board of Admiralty the brigs attached to the training ships for boys are to bd formed into a separate squadron, mannea by ordinary seamen from the receiving ships, and sent to cruise the Spanish coast. It has been the custom heretofore to lay these vessels up in harbors during winter seasons. - The Messager Officiel of the Bussian empire publishes a note recommending the use of mineral fuel for locomotives and steamboats instead of wood, the great demand on thé forests f nel having already had a very disastrous effect. Our own railways are rapidly destroying our forests, the wood for ties alone requiring the levelling of 250,000 acres of forest annually. - Another hard glass, to which the name of metal glass has been given, has been produced at Count Solm's works, near Buntziau, Germany. The tests withstood appear to be about the same as those to which the Bastie glass was subjected, with the exception, however, that the metal glass is indifferent to cold water when highly heated. The Bastie glass breaks under similar conditions. The treatment to which the glass is subjected in the new process is not made public ; but it is, probably, lik e the Bastie method, a systern of annealing. - The condition of the female iron workers in England has lately been shown by an inspector's report to be distressing. Terrible social chaos prevails - Corn cobs are extensively used in Europe for fire lighters. They are first steeped in hot water containing 2 per cent. of saltpetre, and after being dried at a high temperature, are saturated with 50 per cent, of resinous matter. I hese lighters, -which are sold at from $3 to $4 the thousand, are employed with advantage and eoonomy in private houses and íor lighting furnaces. The Prince of Wales has takeh -nith him to India eight fire engines, all of which have been made expressly to stand the Indian climate, the works being entirely of gun metal and copper, and the wood-work of well seasoned teak. They are flnished in a superior manner, having the Garter and Collar of the Prince of Wales and the Star of India emblazoned on each. The Supreme Court of Wisconsm has decided that a railroad company of that State shall pay $1,000 to Miss Helen Oraker, a school teacher -whom one of their onductors forcibly kissed while she -was on her way to a meeting oï teachers. The Court gracefnlly remarks: "A railroad company is bouad to protect femala passengers on the trains from all indeoent approach or assault ; and ■where a conductor on the company's train makes such an assault on a female passenger, the compauy is liable for compensatory damages."