Various

“ Decency was thrown to the winds; poor human nature stood out in startling nudity from under the conventional trappings of woe. There was a perfect storm of ejaculations and threats; the women cried, the men raved; one reverend gentleman of hitherto irreproachable behaviour actually shook his fist in Mr Blackford’s face.
‘It is a fraud, a forgery!’ cried Dr Franklin, a younger brother of the deceased. ”

“ Those were days of anxious reflection for Mr Blackford. Business was more than commonly ‘slack’ with him, so that he was able to give his undivided attention to his little scheme. Even Willoughby had failed to renew his visits, a circumstance which almost escaped the lawyer’s notice, so preoccupied was he with things of greater moment.
What course should he now adopt? How should he best use his advantage? Nobody save himself knew of the hiding-place, or even of the existence of the later will, unless the testator should have altered his mind. ”

“ The Frenchman had no sinister intentions when he commenced his little flirtation—a mere recreation pour passer le temps on his side; but alas for good intentions; the moth may not approach too near the flame without scorching its wings. Begun in playfulness, almost sport, the thing gradually ripened into love—love such as most women never know, love encountered by keen wit and a knowledge of the evil side of life. When the story opens, Genevieve had known Le Gautier for six months—had known him, loved him, and trusted him. ”

“ Mr Blackford seemed much annoyed. ‘Very careless of him. The lock has always gone well enough before. However, it can’t be helped.—Mind, you don’t come up here to disturb me, do you hear? My letters are important, and I want to be very quiet while I write them.’
‘I’ll take care, sir,’ answered the housekeeper humbly; and the door closed once more.
The old woman set down her candle and put her head out into the street. A sudden desire had come over her to solace her loneliness with the luxury of a bloater for supper. There was a dried-fish shop just round the corner. ”

“ Mr Blackford, sir, I couldn’t think who it could be at this time o’ night,’ said the woman, as she peered into his face by the light of her flaring and guttering candle. ‘Are you goin’ to your rooms? I’m afraid the fire’s out, some time. Shall I light it up again, sir?’
‘No, thank you, Mrs Smith,’ returned the solicitor. ‘I shall not be very long; I have a few letters to write, that’s all. Give me two or three matches to light the gas; I shall want nothing else.’
‘There’s been a gentleman here for you, about half an hour ago, sir,’ said Mrs Smith, as she lighted him up the stairs. ”

“ Another man, at the same time, was prowling about London streets, not through the broad and blazing main thoroughfares, but by gloomy byways, half lit by the feeble glimmer of thinly scattered lamps, where only an occasional footstep sounded upon the flags—a man who shrank from the presence of his kind, whom he insanely imagined were all leagued in a cruel and inexplicable conspiracy against his reputation and his life—a man accompanied wherever he went by mocking persecutors, who dinned into his ears, themselves unseen, furious denouncings, hideous blasphemies, fiendish jests ”

“ It was the morning after Nora’s wedding, and Mr Dupuy was feeling naturally somewhat dull and lonely in that great unsympathetic world of London. His attention, however, was suddenly attracted by two young men at a neighbouring table, one of whom distinctly mentioned in an audible tone his new son-in-law’s name, ‘Harry Noel.’ The master of Orange Grove drew himself up stiffly and listened with much curiosity to such scraps as he could manage to catch of their flippant conversation. ”

“ Then he gets cut down, it seems, with an ugly cutlass wound: she falls fainting upon his body, for all the world like a Surrey melodrama; Hawthorn rushes in with drawn pistol and strikes an attitude; and the curtain falls: tableau. At last, Hawthorn manages to disperse the niggers; and my young lady has the agreeable task of nursing Noel at her father’s house, through a slow convalescence. Deuced clever, of course: makes him save her life first, and then she helps to save his. ”

“ Corn from infested fields should on no account be used for seed. Where manure is obtained from the cow-sheds and stables of London and other cities and towns, it should be ‘mixened’ for some time, as it is very probable that the pupæ of the insect might be imported in packing-cases and with straw crates from America and Canada. Wheat-plants and barley-plants that show yellowness and other signs of disorder in the autumn or spring should be closely examined for larvæ or pupæ of the Hessian fly. ”

“ Silently they passed down the stairs, and out into the night-air, along the path to Rome, walking on till they were lost in the darkness of the night; Genevieve’s face stern and set; the little one’s, bright and hopeful.
Gradually the east flushed with the golden splendour of the coming dawn; the birds awoke to welcome up the sun; and after them, the laggard morn. The orb of day saw strange things as he rose in the vault of heaven: he saw two tired wayfarers sleeping on the roadside; and then, later, the anxious faces of a{617} party gathered at a pretty villa by the Tiber. ”

“ Steel sleepers for railways, in lieu of the rough wooden ones formerly employed, are now coming into greatly extended use, and there are few railways where they are not being tried either experimentally or adopted permanently. In the underground workings of collieries, the maintenance of wooden sleepers forms an important item of expense, and there is every hope that steel sleepers will take their place. Mr Colquhoun, the general manager of the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company, has invented a form of steel sleeper for this particular purpose. ”

“ No wonder that Mr Blackford exulted in the impregnability of his position, and indulged in castle-building to a considerable extent. He could not bring himself to return at present to{622} his dull and dingy office, gloomy with the recollections of failure and poverty. In a very short time he would leave it for ever; he would continue his career in more cheerful quarters and under very different conditions. A professional man with plenty of money has no need to run after patients or clients; they, on the contrary, will run after him. ”

“ The action of the apparatus is as follows: The retorts are charged with slack, which by the heat of the fire is gradually coked, while the gas evolved from it is carried to the fire beneath. When all the gas has been driven off, the sliding bottom of the retort is withdrawn, and the coke falls into the furnace, to form fresh fuel. Two retorts are employed, so that one can always remain at work while the other is being recharged. ”

“ Le Gautier noted this in his turn, and it did not tend to increase his equanimity. It is not easy for a man, when he is going to commit a base action, to preserve his equanimity when met with perfect confidence by the victim. For a moment she stood there, looking at him, neither speaking for a brief space.
‘How ridiculously happy you look, Genevieve,’ Le Gautier said irritably. ”

“ Mr Siemens’ apparatus for compassing this end consists of a small wagon, upon which are mounted a fan and a movable pipe like a fire-hose, which can be made to direct a blast in any required direction. The nozzle attached to the pipe is introduced into the furnace-doors, and the sand is blown against the particular part of the furnace-lining which may require reparation.
The tricycle is being gradually applied to so many different purposes, that it can no longer be regarded as a means merely of healthy exercise. Traders use it largely for the delivery of small parcels ”

“ The Hessian fly is terribly destructive to corn crops in the United States, Canada, and parts of Germany. In some years it has almost entirely destroyed the wheat crops in large districts in these countries. In the upper counties of Georgia Packard States ‘the fly has committed such ravages upon the wheat as scarcely to leave enough seed for another year.’ It had not been found in Great Britain until this present year, though in 1800 fears were entertained that it had been introduced. ”

“ Tom was beyond measure astonished, and confessed to his wife’s superior acumen.
They lost no time in putting themselves in competent professional hands; and the will which constituted Lucy sole legatee was established without much difficulty. There was a little trouble at first with the dead man’s relations; but they were fairly respectable people, and when the hopelessness of their case was made apparent to them, they withdrew their opposition to the document which bore the clear impress of the testator’s real intentions. ”

“ Crops of wheat and barley in whose straw the ‘flax-seeds’ have been found should be cut above the second joint, either by setting the reaping-machines high, or by reaping them by hand, so as to leave a long stubble. Where barley is short and must be cut with scythes, the mowers should be instructed to keep them as high as possible. Land upon which the crops have been infested should be cultivated or broad-shared immediately after harvest. The stubble and rubbish should be collected most carefully and burnt ”

“ A dusty road would try its powers to the utmost.
A somewhat elaborate plan for keeping railway foot-warmers hot has been devised by M. Tommasi, a French electrician. He proposes that after the foot-warmers have been charged with their hot solution of acetate of soda—as is commonly done on the French railways, and on some few lines in Britain—the heat should be kept up by electricity. ”

“ Mr F. Siemens has invented a new method of repairing furnace-linings while at a white-heat, which will be found very useful in steel and glass furnaces where high temperatures are necessarily employed. Under such temperatures, the sides of furnaces become softened, and quartz powder or sand projected against the soft places will readily adhere. ”

“ As a body, the little party downstairs were all agreed that when a man like our friend Dupuy here was positively driven out of the island by coloured agitators, Trinidad was no longer a place fit for any gentleman with the slightest self-respect to live in. ”

“ So far, the experiment has been a success, and this in spite of very unfavourable weather, and the presence of unusual quantities of destructive pests in the shape of insects. We are told that earwigs have done a great amount of damage to the plants, for they have been chewing tobacco ever since the leaves came to maturity. According to the opinion of experts, Kent is the most suitable place in this country for the culture of tobacco. ”

“ A cart-wheel without axle, axle-boxes, grease-boxes, and journals, seems to be something akin to an impossibility; but such a thing has been produced and exhibited at the Palace of Industry, Paris, by M. Suc. Its principle is this: Suppose that we have two grooved rails, and that we place one on the ground with its groove uppermost. In this groove we then place a number of steel balls, and above them we place the other rail with its groove downwards. ”

“ An American inventor, Mr A. Hardt, has patented an arrangement for using very small slack coal as fuel for boiler-firing. The apparatus consists of two fireclay retorts—very much after the pattern of the retorts used in gas factories—which are placed immediately above the ordinary firebox. ”

“ The current to maintain this heat would be obtained from a dynamo driven off an axle of the carriage-wheels, and would be carried to all the foot-warmers throughout the train. We should think that it would be a far easier and less expensive plan to utilise some of the waste heat from the locomotive, which might be applied to the carriages by means of pipes. Has this plan ever been tried?
The cultivation of tobacco in Kent is an experiment which many agriculturists are observing with keen interest. ”

“ In 1788 the importation of wheat from America was prohibited by the British government until it was ascertained that it was not likely that the insect could be brought over in this way. Now, however, without any doubt it has appeared here, and all effort must be made, and at once made, to stamp out this dangerous intruder. ”

“ The number of letters delivered in the United Kingdom alone reaches the astounding total of 1,403,547,900, this being an increase of 3.2 per cent., and giving an average to each person of 38.6. If we add to this the post-cards, book-packets, circulars, newspapers, and parcels transmitted by the postal authorities, we have a grand total of 2,091,183,822, an increase of 4.2 per cent.; and an average to each person of 57.5. ”

“ Lucy said in her letter that Mr Franklin had stated that his solicitor would know how to act with reference to his affairs; and that both she and her husband felt that it would be more seemly to defer any such action until the dead man had been laid in his grave. But on reflection, Mr Blackford was less dissatisfied than at first with this arrangement. ”

“ In addition to these there are, it is estimated, about 45,000 persons of private occupations, who are employed to assist in carrying on the operations of the department during a portion of the day. An increase of business brings a decrease in charge, this again inducing a fresh increase; thus, it has become possible to reduce the rate of postage on letters exceeding twelve ounces in weight, from one penny per ounce to a halfpenny per two ounces ”

“ It is elastic like horsehair, and is beautifully clean in use. The wood used by preference is Riga fir; and the machine will produce, without any necessity for skilled labour, more than fifteen hundred pounds of ‘wool’ per day of ten hours. ”

“ Two men can run the tricycle at full speed, and the pedal action can afterwards be applied to pumping. The apparatus has been introduced by Mr Glenister, chief of the volunteer fire brigade of Hastings, in conjunction with Mr J. C. Merryweather of London.
The French scientific journal La Nature describes and illustrates a machine for making a product which is coming into favour in various different employments under the name of wood-wool. ”

“ Its chief object is to protect birds not used for food from destruction for mercantile purposes, and it will also endeavour to secure and publish information relative to the present enormous destruction of birds for the purposes of dress, decoration, and general adaptation to fancy articles. ”