Current Items

-A butcher's horse in Montreal trotted fii'ty inücs on a race-course, in four hours ana fifty minutes. - The Sultan has so much fear oí assassination that he has the locks of his doors changed once a wenk. -John liright says tlnvt for every heathen ooprertfid in África there is a chance to convert uve in England. - Mineteen léátting Afgliffffs are prioners in India, four of them baftg soca and live grandsons of Dost Mohammed. - Wool has been so cheap in Ëniland that the Duke oL Riehmoml eould get no buyers at CUUihester for the fleeces of his fatnous (lock of Southdowns, wliile at hewesnot a single sale was made. -The New Englsmd Granite Con pany at Haitford. Oonn., is making a statue in white Wesierly gr.utite"of Alexander Hamilton, to Ijb riv(ui bv his son, John C. Hamilton, to New York. Cfty for Central Park. The statue ia eight f eet high. . - The brilliancy of the planet Jupiter will be greater in October thau it has been for mauy ears past. The largo red spot on his di.sk vvhieh made its appearance in 1878, and whieh is a puzzle to astronomers, is still visilile, and a host of telesoppes throughout the country are directed to this object of interest. - A bell in tho chime in the tower of the ProtestantEpiscopal Chureh at Lowell, Mass., bears an inscription which shows thatit was a gift of the late Ole Buil in 1857, when he appcared in a concert there to raíse fnnds for its purehase. It was tolled half an when the news of his death was received. - Says a writer in the rárisian " I do not know which is the more exasperating, an American wonian Uiting to and fro in aroeking-ch:iir, or a Gei man woman knitting, knittiug, knitting, until the kneedles seem so many restless, shining imps. I fancy that it requires very high degrees of- of - breeding to enable a wonian to sit still, quite still, not to rock, or do faney work, or even sway a fan to and fro." - The first coins of the United States were struck with the portrait of Martha Washington, Mr. Spencer, who cut the first die, copying her features in his medallion. When General Washington sa.v the coins he was verv wroth, and before any more were struck off the features of his wifo were altercd somewhat and a cr.p placed on her head, this being the original of the present Goddess of Liberty. - It is calculated by the advocates of a reformed system of spelling that, by the adoption of the phonet:c rule, there would be a saving to a writer of one hour and twenty minutes in a day of eight hours, or 400 hour3 in a year of 300 days. A saving of twenty per cent. would be effeoted on the same amount of literary matter in the London Times, and an equal saving in the cost of new books. Over all departments of Engüsh literature it is calculateil that there would be a saving of L10,000,000 annually. -The New York Tribune takes up the old cry and savs, "Tlie best private houses would weïcome an intelligent, modest, expert American girl as honsekeeper, cook, or waüress, would give her a secluded home, high wages, luvurious table, and, most valuable of all, protection. lint tliey invariably prefer to enter milis, to runsewing machines, or take places as unskilled shop girls on wages that range from two to four dollars per week; to lodge in garrets and live od starvution fare." - A number of the Chinese student BOw in the United States will goon be sent back to China on account of offenáes wiiich tbey have committed. Among thera is ï. C. Chung, an excellent young man, who was graduated in the class of 187;) at the Norwich (Conn.) Free Academy, and who is dishouored for havingcut ott'his cpiene, Woo, the new Commissioner at Hartford, is very slriei. and is conducting the Chinese schools under the rigia discipline of the Empire. - "Goto the ant, thourh slnggard, and be wise," bids fair before long to ga'n a new and extended meaning. Sir John Lubbock long Biüoe made knowa that the rival oL the thrifüesa and frivoloas grasshopper not, only has a polity and laws, not only lives in a highly organiïed society, having slaves and milch cows (aphides); butthat itboasts what men and grasslioppers alike seem to liave learned to do without, namelv, a religión, worshipping a eer! ft In blind beetle with great reverence and zeal. Now comes another observer and insista that ants have liso a language, the signs of which are various raotions of the autennw. 1 he new dialect, it is averred, can be interpretad and formu, lated with verylittle trouble.