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Variety

Variety image
Parent Issue
Day
14
Month
November
Year
1846
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The Speaking Automaton. - Various attempts have been made by mechanical agency to ínflate the human voice, but hilherto, we behevo, with very partial success. Tlie praise of overcoming the diíficulty has been reserved for a Germán artlst. VViih the ingenuity for which his country is farnous, he has constructed a speaking machine, which utters every sound of which the human organs are capable, with surprising distinctness ; which whispers, speaks loud, laughs, sings, talks in every Jlanguage, and repeats any form of vvorda that any vister may require. Prof. Faber is the inventor of this new marvel. He has brought it from Vienna, whcre it was exhibited with g-eat applause ; and has, during the early part of the week,exhibited t in a room in the Egyptian hall, to assemblages distinguished for rank and scientific atlainments. The result has been highly satisfactory. Latest Description of a Moustache. - Oh, mother ! mother ! said a little girl, running into the house in great amazement : what a funny man I saw ; the top of his head was down on his chin - and he had'nt got no mouth ! Ibrahim Pacha hasgiven theirfreedom to all his white slaves, with permission to leave Egypt if they think it better for their interests to do so, or to remain with him if they prefer.To Mend Stoves. - Mr. Editor : - I happened to see a paragraph in your paper on mending stovea. Permit me to add on that subject, from personal oxperience, that the white of egg substituted for water, more efFeclually accomplíshes the object - giving a hardness and adhesiveness to the composition, rendering it almost as enduring as the iron itself. Recipk - Salt Dnd ashes ín equal proportions, and so much of egg as to make the consistency that of puity. - Bangor Courier. It is snid that the resultof cerlainexperimonts at Portsmouth, England, has been to show that a cannon ball will go clear through an iron vesse], and orders have been given by the Admiralty to suspend tha building of all such vessels for the Navy. There have been fifty kings, two protectors, andsix queensof England: and the regular snccession to the throne has been changed ten times since the kingdom was founded by Egbert, 1018 years ago. Wages in Europe. - In England the ïverago rate of agricultural wages foran able man with a family, is 9 shilling??, or $1 98 cents per week. From this is lobededucted cottage rent at 33 cents per week, leaving Si 65 cents per week to provide himself with the necessaries of life. In France, a laborer in the same situation, receives Si 04 per week ; in Prussia, 66 cents ; in Germany, $1 02 per week ; in Holland and Belgium, 81 20 ; in Italy and Austrian states, $1 15. [t will be remembered that these averages are those of the common laborer, shepherds, carmen, and mechanics receive rather more. Tho number of persons who visited the fair of the American Instituto this year is estimated at 250,000 ; the sum of money received is $15,000 ; the number of exhibitors was 2,000, and the number of articles exhibited is estimated at about 25,000. A Poor Woman's Eloquence. - The otherday we heard a poor Irish woman describe her love of children. She was never tired of tending them, she said, and whenever she heard one cry, K her HEART CRIED WITH IT." LondoTl Times.New Mode op Pen-Making. - We are informed that some Yankee bas invented a machine whereby common quills are cut up into Iwenty pens each, which are put in a pen holder in ihe mahner of metallic pens. We think it not unlikely that the plan will succeed. By advertising, thousands aro informed at once, and all at the same time, of that which it would be impossible to communicate personally, in proper season. The following rich scène recently occurred in one of our courtsof juslice, between the Judge and a Dutch witness all the way from Rotterdam : Judge - " What's your nativo language V Witness - '-1 peno native, I's a Dootchman." Judge - What's your mother tongue!" Witness - "O, fader say she pe all tongue !" Judge - (in an irritable tone.) " What language do you speak in the eradle ? " Witness- aI tid not sppak no language in the eradle at all ; I only cried in Dooch." Then there was a general laugh, in which the judge, jury, and audience joined. The witness was interrogated no fur'her about his native language. The great Zimmcrman justly observes, "that there is always something great and noble in that person against whom the world exclaims ; at whom every one throws a stone, and on whose character allattempt to fix a thousand crimes without being able to prove one." A Coach Under Sail. - The New Orleans Bulletin gives the following description of a novel vehiclein use on Galveston Beach, Texas : "A coach propelled by wind. The vehicle is consiructed with four wheels, the front ones being much wider apart than thoso behind, and on them rests a body like an omnibus. In front is the mast, on which the mainsail is placed,and where the tongue of an ordinary carriage is, a bowsprit forthe jib. It is steered by an apparatus which directs the hind wheels. The beach on Galveston Island is as level as a floor, and as hard al most as a stone, and when there is a fair wind, the carEiage runs at railroad speed. When the trade winds pievail, the wind blow ing then from the Southcast, it runs from one end of the Island to the other ana back with tho utmost facility." Unfortunately there are few tracts of country which present a natural surface smooth enough to admit of the use of this species of motive power, unless it be covered with water. - Adv. A model of Jerusalem, as it appeared in tho time of the Saviour, has been constructed by an ingenious gentleman of Dublin, who has spent yeara in perfecting it and bringing it to its present state of accuracy.Short Sjermons. - Whitefield ia re portod to have said that a man with the eloquence oí' an angel, oughi no to exceed over forty minutes in the length of a sermón, and it is well known ihat Wesley seldom exceeded thiny. "I have almost ahvays found," says another eminent preacher, " that the last fifteen minutes of a sermón an hour in length, was worse thnn Jost.both upon the preacher and the congregation." Material for New States. - California will make forty-five States, each the size of New Jersey ; and New Mexico js equal to twenty-five New Jerseys. The Chinese pay annually 8360,000,300 for incensé loburn befora theiridols. God speed the day when this immense sum shall be devoted to worthier objects. - Ex. Paper. So mote t be ! But let us remember that the nalions of christendom, containng in the aggregale a population about equal to that of China, pay annually a sum at least twice as great as this for the service of their God Moloch ; and as much more s annually expended to susiain he worship of their gods Belial and Bacchus ! Gold. - It is said that gold has been discovered in such quantities in Siberia, asto endanger té present value. 11,000 miners are at work there, and 23,000 nore could find employment. ! A cataract has been discovered on the river St. Louis, where it falls into the western extremity of Lake Superior, which has never been described by any geographer. It is said to be second only to Niágara. The volume of water is very great, and the perpendicular of the fall one hundred and fifty feet. A Sunday School in Boonsborough, Ky. was recently disturbed by the keeper of a neighboring grogshop, who rushed in and shamefully abused the superintendent. He was tried before a justice's jury and acquitted on the ground that a Sunday School is not a religious meeting.The Progress ofFree Trade. - The Czar of Russia has already relaxed his tariff, and to show his appreciation of the free trade rr.ovement in England, he has caused the great speech made hy Sir Robert Peel in the House of Commons, n favor of commercial liberty, to be translated into the Russian language, for the purpose of dissemination and enlightenment. What ever may be said of the Czar in his capacity as a ruler, the world has long since awarded him the credit of being a shrewd clear-headed observer, anxious to introduce into his empire the mechanical and fiscal improvements which more enlightened countries adopt. The only living brother of Napoleon is now the Prince de Montfort, ex-King of Westphalia, who is iü his sixty-second year.