Show in 1 cp ito tio 1 OF the accounts of this great battle now re rc elved give a ver very vers distinct and doubtless a tole toie tolerably raby accurate conception of its main features since waterloo so grand and important a battle has not been fought oil on european soil soll the english and other E european journals louril als ais seem too dazzled and ov overwhelmed er by it tp make a calm caim and clear elear lesti leAti primate mate of its yeal real character and import ort americans can however study this battle dispassionately and without any controlling bias or gr prejudice 0 taking the tho accounts of each side sido we ire cau can even now make out a new few salient features first finot we ean can see that the austrian ander auder failed either cither in the nerve or ulle lire ability to handle large masses of mei mel eb his position was certainly a favorable one for great greit tactical movements tenfold more so than with two exceptions any any of the graat great battle battie battlefields fields of our war the tho task imposed upon IS irant frant with his army of one hundred dd aid ard forty thousand men meb ill in the hills and thickets of virginia was far more difficult than that devolved upon bene uck bek at i secondly the austrian ic general unmindful of the repeated lessons taught by our war neglected 0 to improve as lie lia should have do done ne the natural strength of his position had lee been equally negligent in this regard the dash dashing lilg charge of hancock at pott sylvania would lle lif have elve resulted not merely in the capture of a division but in the destruction truc tion tf the rebel army temporary T ampora r y defences defenses de fences are so easil easily yand and rapidly thrown up ups I 1 and present such a barrier to the most vigorous onset that it seems tile the hight bl lit of folly fora for a general attempting tohaid a commanding position not to avail wail himself of them to the fullest extent thirdly after all that has beell been said sald fi of f the immense advantages to the laus iaus lans of their needle needie g guns uns the victory appears to have been mainly due to the causes that have in all times tims given it le greater greaten r eater eaten dash and persistence and better readership ader ship these alone explain the Trus drus prussian sian victory etory however much the ilce lace needle needie dle die gun un and its moral effect may have added added to its extent and complete hs ness the prussians fairly proved i themselves the better men fourthly it seems a singular use ube or of language to speak of this battle as a sanguinary one especially in view of many I 1 of the desperate battles of our en own war the largest estimate of the Auit austrian rian rinn losses in killed and wounded Is not over oyer ten thousand the best estimates lil lii iii ates of the prussian losses in killed dind and wounded do not range over five thousand these are arc the results of an all days fight between at least four hundred thousand men ilion in the later years of our war such a proportion of casualties would have been regarded as indicating a moderate and comparatively bloodless battle at the battle of shiloh it is th the e opinion of some of the ablest officers present that of grants force of thirty eight thousand between six and seven thousand were killed and wounded before the tho capture of a portion of prentisse Prentis ss division and after but a few hours fighting at the first battle of cold harbor out of engaged were killed and wounded at fredericksburg our losses in killed and wounded were officially reported at at chickamauga ga our los ios loss svere were still more severe and they were at least no less proportionately at chancellorsville anT and gettysburg grants losses in the campal campaign campain n from the tile rapidan to the james was still till heavier by this comparison of what wellin wellington called the butchers bill we can form some notion of the comparative significance of the term sanguinary battle in this country and in europe while we have frequently suffered casualties in luthe inthe the proportion of from one to ten to one to four of the men engaged we find the them total casualties in killed killea and wounded in this great battle are absolutely less that one to twenty of the men engaged such fighting may eem seem desperate to Europ europeans cals cais but it is trifling when compared with the terrible conflicts in which american manhood vindicated itself at such fearful cost ry Y E evering evening pos post THE PRUSSIAN NEEDLE GUN the trie t needle gun in use in prussia i is a fol foi trul dable daule weapon described by the london times as a converted en field on the snyder system with improved roved ammunition devised by tile the dolwich woolwich laboratory this ritie pos esses essec the advantage 0 of being simple safe cheap non capping and little liable to get out of order moreover it does not require such a reduction reductio il of the stock as to destroy the emmi effi efficiency clency of a weapon which for military pur purposes poses is required to act as a pike as well asa firearm fire arm A portion of the upper side of the breech end of the barrel is cutout cut for tile the admission of the cartridge this vacant place is closed after loading by a lump of steel the breach stopper or breech piece which hinges upon one side of the barrel and forms a false breech against which the back end of the cartridge rests the barrel is in fact shortened to this extent A plunger or piston transmits the blow of the hammer through the stopper to tile the cap of tile the cartridge which is withdrawn after birin by a little instrument which forms part of f the stok stopper per the cartridge is on the central fire system the chief novelties being the case and bullet As regards the foy former iner luer the object has been to provide a case which shall shail uncoil or unwind toa to a certain extent on discharge the bullet is a combination of various constructions none of them original but producing together a projectile of sufficiently distinctive tine tive ch character arAter it has the general form and appearance of the enfield rinne rifle bullet with its hollow base and baked elay lay clay plug it has the cannel eures which originally characterized the Ta and the minie bullets and the wood plug in the head to which mr metford and anz ant mr whitworth may jay some claim the cartridge is Is perfectly impervious to moisture it is safe not pervious liable able abie to lead or foul it admits of about fourteen rounds being fired in a minute and it shoots from twenty to twenty nive five per cent better than the service enfield ammunition A COSTLY VICE vien according to the internal revenue statistics there is now annually consumed in states about forty five million gallons 0 of f spirituous liquors equal to one and a half gallons to every man woman and child chud the wholesale price of the commonest article of whiskey is now in the neighborhood of per gallon the retailers admit that they realize a profit of one hundred per cent on dil their sales and admitting that they tell tile the whole truth which is not probable the I 1 sum paid by customers must be at least per gallon but it is really much more than that for it is only the tile poorest class of drinkers who indulge iu in itle itie ur dupus c Z but riuo allowing that eol sol per gallon 0 is th the e average which consumers pay for spirituous liquors liquor sa a sum probably too low by half that would give as the annual sum devoted to such liquors by the people of this country two hundred million dollars but thatis not all the expenditure for ale 9 la iager lager 1 ger beer por per porter t bitters and other liquors that do n not ert 0 belong to the first class must be added to the tite said two hundred hundred millions it would be difficult to reach a satisfactory estimate upon the latter class of liquors but it is quite probable that they bring brin the tile aggregate expenditure up I 1 very iery nearly to three hundred millions and what do the consumers get in return for this vast expenditure it leads them to dissipation debauchery and financial ruin it brings want and suffering upon their families it induces depravity vice and crime and it leads through mental moral and physical prostration to untimely death P Y sun suit LARGE photographs OF THE MOON 1100 ac among the numerous applications of photography hy none is more interesting or more useful than these which are arc dedicated to the purposes of astronomy when arage detailed to the academy of sciences the progress of daguerre he lie predicted that it would snoday be the handmaid of astronomy his prediction has been completely fulfilled and astronomers have largely availed themselves of the resources reso resources urcel which it has placed in their hands but none has been een so successful in this thin direction as mcwarren mr warren de la R rue ue with his teen inch telescope lie has obtained photographs of tile the moon so perfect that they bear being enlarged to a diameter of aft and they are found so exact when submitted to examination that they furnish correct data for the measurement of the vibration of the moon they serve also as a foundation for the lunar map oft in diameter diali leter ieter undertaken under tile the auspices of tile tiie the british association photography has enabled us determine codetermine to tb the relative vo heights and depressions of the mountains and ravines with which the surface of the moon is corrugated nor have the labors of the photographer been confined to our sl satellite lite excellent pictures of several of the planets also have been obtained scientific review |