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Show SCIENCE AND ART. A METEORITE sword is a novelty. General Ord, of Texas, sent a piece of this celestial iron and steel mixed to Colonel Benton, at the Springfield Armory, to be made into a weapon. The material was found very brittle, but all difficulties have been overcome and a blade has been finished. On it is an inscription in Spanish setting forth that the sword is made from iron fallen from the skies of Mexico, and is presented to G. Trevino, Mexican general of division, by his friend General Ord, U. S. A. AMONG all the sun pictures taken since Daguerre first secured his marvellous concessions from that luminary, none have surpassed the daguerreotype itself. Fashion has long since ruled them out, so that probably there are multitudes among our younger readers who have never seen a daguerreotype. All the more is the pity. Taken long ago, when presumably neither the camera nor the chemicals were so perfect as now, the daguerreotypes that are still existent show a clearness of definition, a richness of tone, and a perfection in all their details that quite surpasses the best of their more modern and more pretentious rivals.-Del. Co. Advocate. TELL'S CHAPEL.-The historic spot on which Tell's Chapel stood, at the foot of the Axenstrasse on the Veirwaldstatter See, is now, says The Academy, "a scene of desolation." Of this building, which probably has been more frequently painted and engraved than other in Switzerland, every vestige is now gone. The foundation for the new chapel has been laid and the painter is at work on his designs for the frescoes which are to decorate it. He has spent some time in the Forrest cantons, making studies of types of character for his pictures, and the results of his studies are now on exhibition at Berne. Of these portraits there are 33, all of which are said to be artistically and ethnographically conscientious. FINDING OF A CITY IN ITALY.-A correspondent at Rome, writing to The Pilot, at Boston, records the discovery in Southern Italy, near Manfredoma, of a ruined city of very ancient date. Its location is in a marsh which occupies the site of Sipontum, one of the cities founded, according to tradition, by Diomed, after Achilles, the bravest of the Greeks who fought at Troy. In the fourth century the city was tolerably perfect. It came to ruin during the Gothic invasion. An earthquake followed the invasion and swallowed up what remained, so that the city has not only passed from the sight of man but almost from human recollection. The Pilot correspondent says a magnificent Temple of Diann, adorned with a portico of over sixty feet in length, and an immense necropolis or cemetery, have been brought to light. Valuable remains which have been found in the excavations already undertaken have been added to the Museum of Naples. YELLOW FEVER A NAUTICAL DISEASE.-John Gamgee makes an important contribution to the literature of yellow fever in the summary of authorities which he has incorporated into his essay, since not only the old writers, but the most recent, are included in his sketch. Andouard established a distinction between nautical typhus, or yellow fever, and paludal typhus, or malarial fever. Chervin established that yellow fever was not contagious, but overlooked the fact that a foul city nourishes the infection imported in ships. Dr. Vanderpool observed that steamers are less liable to the disease than sailing vessels. [unreadable] and cleanliness is not observed and such vessels are exposed to tropical heat for longer periods. Yellow fever is always an exotic. Mr. Gamgee's main point is that it should be studied on the ocean, not on land, since it is originally a product of foul ships. He pays special compliments to Dr. J. C. Faget, of New Orleans and cites his words on the most important points.-N. Y. Times. ART AND COURTESY.-How far an International Exhibition ought to consider national prejudices is an old question now revived at the Art Exhibition taking place in Munich. French newspapers are complaining that the Exhibition contains too many German pictures representing scenes in the war of 1870-‘71, in all of which the Germans are shown as the victors over the French. An Austrian paper reminds its French contemporaries that in the Paris Exposition of 1867 its own countrymen were greeted with countless representations of the defeats of their armies by Napoleon III in the war of 1839, and quietly advises them to follow the Austrian example of swallowing their vexation and holding their tongues. The proportion of German battle pieces in the Munich Exhibition is not at all large there being only seven pictures which could possibly offend Frenchmen out of a total in the grand hall of about 800. News comes that on August 22d a terrible storm prevailed at Munich by which the Glass Palace in which the exhibition is held narrowly escaped destruction. Water in large quantities leaked into the building, and several panes of the roof breaking it poured down in cataracts. None of the pictures, fortunately, were injured seriously, but another hour of the storm would have caused, it is believed, irreparable damage. LUDWIG VOGEL'S DEATH-The death of Vogel, which occurred at Zurich on August 21st, probably takes away from the earth the last of that famous group of artists who early in the century and under the leadership of Peter Cornelius, founded the modern school of German art. When a young man his father had sent him to the Art Academy, at Vienna, but his sharp criticisms of the artificial and pedantic methods then in vogue there got him into trouble with the professors and ended in his summary expulsion from the academy. From Vienna he went to Rome, and there he made the acquaintance of Cornelius, with whom he soon found himself in complete sympathy. Along with other artists whom Cornelius had gathered around him, Vogel went to the ancient and fallen convent of St. Isidore to live. There the artists worked joyfully together, reading Dante and the Nibelungen Lied, and studying the ancient masters of art, especially Raphael. These artists soon fixed upon themselves the attention of contemporary painters, and men like Goethe, Schliegel, and Niebuhr gave them their sympathy. There in Rome the real foundations of the German School were laid, and the friendship which was formed between Cornelius and Vogel lasted until Cornelius died in 1867. Vogel executed in Rome his first important painting, "Return of Swiss from the Battle of Morgarten," which Goethe in his "Kunst und Alterthum" warmly praised. The most of his subjects were drawn from the heroic period of Swiss history, and a peculiarity of them is that they look as if painted 300 years ago. Among his best know works are "William Tell Embracing his Son after the Successful Shot" "Putting the Stone on the Rigi," "Karl der Kilhne," and "Zwingli parting from his Family before the Battle of Kappel" but the most famous of all is "Tell Before Gessler ut Altorf," showing Tell in the act of holding up before Gessler the second arrow with which he intended to kill Gessler if he had hit his son. Vogel died at the age of ninety one.-N. Y. Tribune. JOHN CHINAMAN does nothing without a reason. The mantle of his costume must have five buttons neither more nor less. This number was not fixed upon capriciously, nor because of fashion. He says we Chinese wear it solely that we may keep in sight something to remind us of the five principal moral virtues which Confucius recommended to us so earnestly. These are jen, y, tche, and sin; that is to say: jen, humanity, y, justice; ly, order; tche, prudence, and sin, rectitude, uprightness. You will perceive that humanity stands before all the other virtues. When one has humanity, he knows and feels that the unfortunate are to be respected, he does not add trouble to trouble, sorrow to sorrow, or misfortune to misfortune. |
