MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 86, 19 December 1874, Page 11

MISCELLANEOUS.

How to Multiply Quicklt.— Perhaps some boys and girls find it hard to do multiplication. Some problems in multiplication can be done by short division ; this will Bhorten work, and be of use when one is in a hurry. Let's see how it is done. 1. To multiply any number i y s— lmagine a naught (0) to be added, and divide by 2. (Adding a naught is the same as multiplying by 10, and five is the tolf of 10.) 2. To multiply any number by 25.— Imagine t mo naughts to be added, and divide by 4. (Adding the two naughts is the same as multiplying 100, and 25 is one-fourth of 100.) 3. To multiply any number by 125.— Imagined/tree naughts to be added, which would be the same as to multiply by 1,000, then divide by eight, because 125 is one-eighth of 1,000. ' b % Good Advice— lt is curious to watch the face of a man -who, instead of solid aid which he is too selfish to offer, gives in abundance " good advice," which costs him nothing. His expression is grave, and sometimes in the case of a good actor it seems troubled and slightly flushed with emotion. He would like you to believe that all his words gush straight from his heart and flow impulsively towards you as a river towards the sea. His voice is always low, and soft, insinuating, confidential and caressing. His hands, however, and his eyes are generally restless and uneasy. He dare not look at one long in the face for fear of laughing, just as the augurs a* Kome when their glances met ; and he does not know what to . V^." 18 "ands, for, like the schoolboy who recites a lesson, he is retailing maxims which he knows by heart, without f eeling them, and in such cases it requires the action of a very good comedian to mat the action to the word. As to ,the man who receives the good advice,' his countenance depends, of course, upon his character. If he be credulous he will accept your counsels with the conviction that you are a good friend to him, and that you " mean well, without being able to give him any material assistance. He will accordingly thank you for your good advice, in. the embarrassed tone of a man who receives a present with which he does not know what to do— a cart-load of pebbles, for instance; the pebbles take up a great deal of room, and are perfectly useless, but he is afraid to send them back for fear of offending you. He keeps them, therefore, but wishes from the bottom of his heart that your generosity would take a more serviceable form. If, however, he chance to be a sceptic, having often lavished upon others the spurious charity which you are bestowing upon him, it will be very easy to see by his face what he thinks of your " good aaVice." Notwithstanding all his desire to be courteous, he will look exactly like a crossing-sweeper to whom you give a bad penny. ♦Xt ASA S- AMEBICA:yr Cardinal.— An article which appeared in the JNew York Herald ' on this subject has occupied the attention of the Journal de Florence.' The question is not a new one, and, according to the Florentine journal, has been seriously considered by the Holy Father. Several years ago, when Abraham Lincoln was President, a charge d'affaires came to Rome to solicit the Holy Father' to create American Cardinals. The Secretary of State, Cardinal Antonelli, with whom the American envoy conversed, brought forward the various difficulties of such a step :— tradition, usage, distance, the nature of the Cardinalitial College, which forms the permanent council of the Sovereign Pontiff, the necessity for a speedy reunion of the Cardinals in case of a conclave being held, etc., etc. The American diplomatist dealt the objections one by one. Tradition should yield to the growing greatness and glory of the Church ; distance is annihilated, the telegraph would immediately summon the American Cardinal or Cardinals to Koine— it takes nine days from New York to Southampton, and five from Southampton to Rome. The Holy Father, on being appealed to, praised the design, and said :— " I would be happy to create American Cardinals, and if I consider I am the first upon the Chair of St. Peter who has gone to America, I say to myeelt that perhaps God will permit me to realise the wish of President Lincoln, that wish is also my own." The negotiations then opened on that subject were interrupted either through the assassination of President Lincoln or from the difficulty of choice of the persons. The ' Journal de Florence ' says then : " One of the most considerable prelates of America, the Archbishop of Baltimore, was not long before be succumbed to the labors of the Apostolate." This would seem to imply Archbishop Spalding would have been a probable recipient of the red hat, and during the time of the Council when his Grace was in Borne I heard the matter frequently spoken of as very probable. What followed these negotiations is unknown to the ' Journal de Florence,' and if they were known to it it would be silent. It is, however, " invincibly convinced that Pius IX. will create American Cardinals." Thus the question raised by the ' New York Herald ' has considerable importance, and the event which it desires will very probably bo accomplished. Nothing, however, is to be known on the subject until the Holy Father speaks. You see how the anticipations on the creation of an English Cardinal which many persons believed would take place in June or in July have not yet had their fulfilment. So is it with this idea of an American Cardinal. When the Holy Father feels that the time has come for such a step he will then take it and not till then. In the meanwhile, however wisely one may predict there is nothing but conjecture to go upon. — X llot.

A Paper Church.— The ' Journal of the Society of Arts * says there is a paper church actually existing near Bergen, which is capable of containing about 1000 people. It is circular within and octagonal without. The relievos outside, and the statues inside, the roof, the ceiling, are all of papier mache, rendered waterproof by saturation in vitriol, lime-water, whey, and white of egg. Has the Pope Lost Power ?— lu one of (his recent speeches in the House of Commons, Mr Disraeli, who has been predicting all sorts of trouble ahead from the conflict of churches and States, made a remarkable declaration. Alluding to the fact that a large majority of the population of Ireland are of the Catholic faith, he added: "I have always expressed, as I do now, my respect for their faith. I

cannot conceal from myself that the organisation of the Catholic religion is a most powerful organisation — perhaps, if I may say to, the most powerful now in existence. I will say this, that it is not the less powerful because the head of that faith has been deprived of his capital and a few provinces. I believe his poicer has increased." The following fact, which 1 have from one of the persons concerned in the transaction, will enable you to understand that the English press is not always " incorruptible and full of glory." One of the morning journals here a few months ago found itself in great pecuniary difficulties, aud its suspension was threatened. Its proprietors went to the officers of the "Roman Catholic Union," a society composed of Roman Catholic noblemen and gentlemen, and of which the Duke of Norfolk is president, and said to them in effect : "If you will pay us .£IO,OOO, we will support your views generally, and especially on the subject of Mr Newdegate's Bill for the Inspection of Convents, but in such a manner as will not show that we are not under Catholic influence ; or, for .820,000, we will sell our paper to you out and out, and then ybu can have a daily journal of your own." The proposition was taken into consideration, and tlie advice of the Archbishop of Westminster was asked; the result was that it was declined with thanks. Two weeks afterward the newspaper in question began to extol the Biemarckian policy in Germany, to advocate the introduction of a similar policy here, to argue in favor of Mr Newdegate's motion, and to lose no opportunity of assailing the Koman Church. Count Minister, the German ambassador here, may be seen to the editorial rooms of journal two or three times a week, and two of the leader writers on its staff are his intimate friends. Any one who can put two and two together can draw the right conclusion from these facts.— 'New York Tribune.' Antecedents of Great Singers. — Of certain singers • Figaro r says : — " M. Capoul was a linen-draper's assistant in Paris, Santley was a merchant's clerk in Liverpool, Campanini was simply from Italy, Sims Reeves was the son. of a parish clerk in Kent, and Mr DeviUier was a cooper in Boulogne; but they went inta music body and soul, and sung themselves into fame and fortune. - A Protestant paper of Scotland gives the following : — In Glas* gow, as elsewhere in Scotland, there has been a great Catholic Revival, and that this is in a measure owing to the unwearying labors of the Jesuits. There are in and within a short radius of the city no fewer than twenty Catholic places of worship. Connected with these there are upwards of fifty priests. Sittings are provided in these" churches for about 20,000 people, and there are nearly 20,000 children taught in the Sunday schools conducted by the adherents' of those churches. Glasgow boasts of the Catholic Cathedral of St. Andrews, a large church seating 2500, and that city is also the abode of the Most; Reverend Archbishop Eyre, Administrato* Apostolic of the Western District. Statistics show the number of Catholics throughout Scotland to be almost in the proportion of one to seven of the entire popidation. The whole number of Catholics, as lately ascertained by themselves, in that section of that Empire is 360,000. The number of priests is 227 ; of churches and stations, 222 j and of convents, 23. There are no less than 150 congregational schools, and a college at Blairs, for the education of priests, which has an average number of 58 students. Among the various Orders of Nuns in Scotlaud there are the Apostoline, the Ursuline, the Franciscan, the Nuns of Loretto, the Nuns of the Good Shepherd, the Sisters of Mercy, the "Little Sisters of the Poor," and the "Daughters of Nazareth." Among the clergy there are Jesuit Fathers, Oblate Fathers, Redemptorist Fathers, Passionist Fathers, Franciscan Fathers, and Vincentian Fathers. A most singular and unaccountable disease, says a late number of the New York ' Graphic,' commonly known as the bursting sickness, has broken out in this vicinity, and already has spread to many of the neighboring villages and cities. The people are in consternation by reason of the many deaths that have occurred. The doctors — wretched men at the best — are at a loss to deal with the trouble, and the priests have their hands full. Talenago, Bolanos, Carthagene, and even Sanceda Hac, are suffering more or less, and there is no telling where or when the disease is to stop. lam not an expert iv the description of sickness, but the trouble seems to me to be an unusual discharge of nerve force into the brain. The symptoms are sudden nausea, followed almost immediately by a severe and sharp pain along the spine, prcceeding from its lower extremity to the heart, and described as though a blunt knife were scraping upward. There is then, when the pain reaches the back of the head, a short and poignant distress there which makes the patient delirious, although it never produces unconsciousness or loss of the right use of the senses. The eyes are bloodshot and wild, with pupils greatly contracted. The sensitiveness to light is intense, so that in paroxysms of excruciating agony the patient will rise and seek a dark place. This state lasts commonly not more than from thirty to forty minutes, during which the patient feels as if his head were splitting j and when that condition has lasted about half an hour, the cranium actually bursts open at the sutures, as sometimes is the case with infauts whose heads split thus after death, from water on the brain. The sound produced, by this rending asunder of the bones of the sluul can plaiuly be heard full ten feet from the patient. It is said that in some instances the disruption is very sudden, and accompanied with a noise still louder. This occurs too, at a moment when the sufferer is in full consciousness, and it is most terrible to witness. The disease broke out at a silver-mining region at Balanos, and its cause is unknown. About three hundred persons, generally adults, have already died of it, and it is yet spreading. , Under the principalship of Monsignor Capel, a Catholic college is shortly to be opened in Kensington, in which the natural sciences will be taught without restrictions. A museum, a laboratory and lecture-rooms are in readiness ; and in the educational department; more than one appointment has already been made. Mr St. George Mivart is to lecture on zoology during tlio winter months, and on botany in summer. Mr Barfl: is to lecture on chemistry,