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Show FE5RUARY. Facts and I anclt jilie-aitliiiB .lie Slimiest Slimi-est Mont in t lie Year. February, like January, claims Xunta Ponipilius for fathjr, since Hie month was called iutu'beiugJLi' that mobarcii 10 com plete the twelve !e licsign.-d die year to hold. -t To February he'.tave only twenty-nine-flays, excepting iu. di'ap year, when it. was to have thirty; but'the fimperor Augustus, nnwilling that his own mouth, August., should not liHveas.jiuiny days as any oilier (it then poscsst only thiny), took one away Troi:i alreatly shorn I-'eijriiaiy and tacked it oil to August, leaving February with only twenty-eight, "Kxcept in leap year, then's I, he time February's days are twenty-nine." The name Febrihtry is said to be derived from Februare, tr? purify, to expiate, and is taken from the act of the purification undergone by thi Romans nt this time. The signs of the zjtdiac for this month are Aquarius Pisces, ippi-optiate iu so fur as the month is popularly supposed to be v? wettest of the yeaf but incorrect statistically, statistic-ally, since two orthree others frequently show a greater rainfall titan does February, ft is possible, however, that the signs bore reference to what 'February ought to be. All old distiches connected with the month agree that plenty of raiu should fall in it for agricultural reasons" too obvious to mention. "A' the mouths of the year,'' says one, "curse a fair Februeer." And an other mentions that snow is more welcome than rain. ' February fill the dyko Either with the black or white; If it be while, it's the better to like. Thus writes Spenser about the month: Then came old February, sitting In an old waetn; lor he could not ride. Drawn of two Ashes, for Ihe season lilting. Candlemas Day, Feb. 5, otherwise known as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, has climatic traditions associated with it. Thus says an old Scotch rhyme: If Candlemass llay bo dry and fair. The half o' winter's lo come and mair: If Caiidlemass Day be wet and foul The half o' winter's gane at Yule. This is the time to take down Christmas decorations, reserving a hit of the yule lo to light the next Christmas log, and to preserve the house from ill luck during the year. If the decorations be kept up a day longer they will prove a source of disaster dis-aster to the family, as Herrick remarks: For look, how many leaves there be Neglected their maids: trust to me. So many goblins you shall see. Largest Libraries In the World. In Thomas Greenwood's book on public-libraries public-libraries occurs the following: "The largest library in the wor'd is that at Paris, which contains upward of 2,000,000 printed books and 100,00(1 manuscripts. Between the Imperial Im-perial library at -"t. Petersburg and the British museum tliere is not much diirer ence. In the llr;tis!i museum there are about !,W0MvV.Res, The Royal library, at Munich has no.v something over OOo.Otitl, but this includes many pamphlets; the Royal library at lieriin contains Soo.otO vofumes; the library at Copenhagen, olO, 000; the library at Dresden, WKUIOO; the University library at Cottingen. Germany. 600,000. The Royal library at Vienna has 400,000 volumes, and the University library, in the same city, S70,iK) volumes; at Buda-Pesth the University library has 3110,000 liooks, the corresponding library at Cracow nearly the same number, and at Prague 205,000." The 1 irst Oxroi'd-Cauiliiidgo Iloat Itaro. In 1S29 the Cambridge University Boating Boat-ing club challenged the club of Oxford university to a race on the Thames. This was the first contest of the kind between the rival universities and created great ex citement. The course from I Iamble-.lon Lock to the bridge at Henley was a little more than two miles long, and the race w.-ts rowed on the 10th of June. Kvery one knows that the colors now worn are light j blue for Cambridge and dark blue for Oxford, Ox-ford, but in 1621 the former were distinguished dis-tinguished by pink, the latter by blue. Although the Cambridge boys were the favorites, the Oxford crew-came in winners by several boat lengths. Literary Women Who Hied Last Year. In the list of literary women deceased during the past year will be fc.und the names of Mine. Bodichon (better known in literature as Bessie Rayner I'arkes). one of the founders of Girton college; Jessie Fothergill, author of "The First Violin," and Mrs. Anne Moasley, editor of thu "Correspondence of Cardinal Newman.'' The death of the widow of Canon Kings-ley, Kings-ley, the well known author, is fresh in tint memory of our readers. In the vast amount of work which Canon Kingsley did be was greatly assisted by the deceased lady John Ruskill's Early Achievements. At the age of seven years John Rusk in wrote in blank verse a singular essay on "Time." The next year he wrote an invo cation to the sun to shine on his garden, which is an amusing, almost pathetic, mixture of poetry and pathos. At the age of twenty he gained the Xewdigate priya for poetry, and soon after abandoned the muse because, as be said, he could not express ex-press his ideas in verse. The "Marseillaise." The centennial of the "Marseillaise" wi!i be celebrated on April 2o in the little French town of Choisy-le-Roy, the home for twenty years of Rouget de 1. isle, the author of the hymu. On the monument that marks his grave is the inscription. "While the French Revolution in WM was fighting kings, he gave her, that she might triumph, the Marseillaise hymn." Interesting Statistics. La Nature says that there are about 1,500,000,000 people in the world, with very nearly an equal division of sex. One-fourth dies before the fifteenth year, and the average aver-age duration of life is about thirty-three years; 33,0.ks,000 people die each year, making mak-ing a total of 91,501 each day, 3,770 ea;li hour, 63 each minute, and about 1 cacU seconth I Remember, I Remember-. It was Thomas Hood who wrote: J remember, I remember. The tir trees dark and high; I used to think their slender tops Were close against the sky: It was a childish ignorance. But now 'tis little joy To know I'mJarlher off from heaven Than when 1 was a boy. Grose says if the nose-bleeds one drop only it forebodes sickness; if three drops, the omen is still worse. But Melton sayn, "If a man's nose bleeds one drop at the lelt nostril it is thu sign of good luck, anil vice versa." |
