Prevention of Damp in Ground Floors.—

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 110, 9 November 1858, Page 4

Prevention of Damp in Ground Floors. —

A very few years back jpo provision was made to guard against the absorption of moisture in the foundation walls of a house; latterly, every working bricklayer knows that by the use of a single layer of slate (fixed in cement), ever so little above the ground range of a foundation, the rise of damp in walls is repressed. What a catalogue of evils is avoided by'this simple provision! The servants of an establishment are saved from all the penalties which damp walls are sure to entail upon the occupant of a basement story; all the aches to which human constitution is subject are at once obviated; and apartments which, built on the surface, were formerly damp some two or three feet upwards, or if sunken only four feet below the level, were damp to the ceiling, are now perfectly dry and fit for sleeping rooms.— -The Builder. The Anglo-French Tunnel— -A. commission charged by the Minister of Public Works to examine the project for cutting a submarine tunnel between England and France has pronounced in favor of! the project, arid has recommended that a sum of 500,000f. should be accorded for preliminary investigation. M. Thome, : the originator of the plan; has gone to London to solicit the sanction of the English Govemment.—<?«%want.

The March of Intellect.-^ The blowing is copied from an Irish paper, picked up dv Mr. Balfour, W.S., when on a tour through Ireland many years ago :■**■—" To the Kurius in Menticulture and Edikasion in General. Murtough O'Sullivan, Graduate of the Unevarsity of Bailanafad, and-Professor of Bell's Letters in the College of Bulruddery, Patronised by the Lord Mare and sindry other ladies of Literal Caracter, Taches Redin and Riten, Rat-cochirig, and all other pulite Accumplishmentasnins, upon the most rasonablest terms, and in the most Fundamentalist mariner, according to Rools deduced from the Grate Tree of Nollige, which he will prove in spite ofthe squabbles of Commentathers, is sartiiily Birch. Latin tach'd in Inglish, and Inglish in Irish, as rekwired. Jogriffy, arid History of all Country's, Connaught to boot. Ja}'-6logy, Crpw-ology, Groan-ology, and all other kinds.of Ologies. Mensuration, Conflagration, Consternation, Reputation, Botheration, and all sorts of AtUms. Also Uclid's Elements^ and the four Elements, being five in all. The farms are modeyrate. Puples must paper, slate, and pin themselves. Suverai of* those how on the Rite Rev. Binch have studdy'd under Mr. OS. with great suckcess and eclaw. Applicashun to be maid to Mister OS., at the Sine of the Godse and Pudding-Bag, No. 154, Pimlicko, up four stairs." A Child's Funeral. —-See that row of school-boy laddies and lassies drawn up sac orderly o' their am still accord, half curious and half wae, some o' the lassies wi' lapfu's o' primroses and gazin' wi' hushed faces as the wee coffin enters in on men's shouthers that never feel its wecht, wi' its doun-hangin' and gracefu' velvet pall, though she that is hidden therein was the poorest of the poor! Twa-three days ago, the body in that coffin was dancin' like a sunbeam ower the terra sods that are noo about to be shovelled over it! The flowers she had been gatherin'— sweet, innocent, thochtless cretur—-then moved up a,nd down on her bosom when she breathed—for she and nature were blessed and beautifu' in their spring. An auld white-headed man bent sairly doun at the head o' the grave, lettinV the white cord slip wi' a lingering reluctant tenderness through his withered hauns. It has reached the bottom. Wasna that a dreadful groan, driven out o' his heart, as if a strong haun'd man had smote it by the first fa* o' the clayey thunder on the fast disappearing blackness. He's but her grandfather—for she was an orphan. . But. her grandfather! Wae's me! wha is't that writes in some silly blin' book that auld age is insensible—safe and secure frae sorrow—-and that dim- eyes are unapproachable to tears? Friendship I That, when sincere, will sometimes saften wi' a strange sympathy merriest hearts into ac mood o' melancholy and pitch a' their voices on ac key, and gie a' their faces ac expression, and mak' them a feel mair profoundly because they a' feel the-gither, the sadness and the sanctity—different words for the same meaning-—o* this our mortal life.— Nodes Ambrosiance. A Little Dissertation on Kissing. — -The first oddity that conies into my way is aremark by some one that 'kisses are like creation, because they are made of nothing, and they are very good'—-a very sensible remark, by the way—and the next te the definition of a ' bus/ Thus—buss, to kiss; rebuss, to kiss again; pluribuss, to kiss without regard to sex; syllybuss, to kiss the hand instead of the lip; blunderbuss, to kiss the wrong person; omnibuss, to kiss all the persons in the room; erebuss, to kiss in the dark. , Coquetting YExtraordinary.— Some little time ago, a pair of turtles, seemingly anxious to become united in the silken bands of wedlock, made their appearance before one of the city clergymen in Glasgow, who finding the requisite certificates all right, proceeded with the ceremony till he came to that part of it where the question is put to the bridegroom, if he "is willing to take this woman to be his wife ?" To' this necessary query the man, after considerable hesitation, answered, "No!" "No," said the minister, with a look of surprise, "for what reason ?" " Just," said the embarrassed simpleton, looking round for the door, "because I've ta'en a scunner [disgust] at her." On this the ceremony, to the evident mortification of the fair one, was broken off, and the parties retired. A fevr days after, however, they again presented themselves before his reverence; and the fastidious bridegroom having declared, that he had got over his objections, the ceremony was again commenced, and proceeded without interruption till a question similar to the above was put to the bride, when she in her turn replied by a negative. "What is the meaning of all this ?" said the clergyman, evidently displeased at the foolish trifling of the parties. "Oh, naething aya," said the blushing damsel, tossing her head with an air of resentment, "only I've just ta'en a scunner at him!" The two again retired to their lonely pillows; and lonely it would seem they had found them, for the reverend gentleman, on coining out of his house the following morning, met the foolish couple once more on their way to solicit his services. "Its'a' made up noo," said the smiling fair one. "Oh yes," said her intended, "it's a' settled noo, and we want you to marry us as soon as possible." "I will do no such thing,*'was the grave and startling reply to the impatient request. "What for!" cried the fickle pair, speaking together in a tone of mingled. surprise and dispppointmerit. "On, nathjng ava,'said his reverence, passing on his way^ " but I've just ta'en a scunner at ye baith.^ — Scotch Paper. Inferiors is a term which we are ever ready to apply to those beneath us in station without considering whether it be' applicable in any other sense; many men may be our superiors without being our equals, and many may be our nominal inferiors to ivhom we are by no means equal.