A FLOATING PALACE.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 166, 22 October 1880, Page 1 (Supplement)

A FLOATING PALACE.

The new Russian Imperial yacht called Lividia, which has been for some time building by Messrs. John Elder & (Jo., Govan, near Glasgow, has just been launched, and it i? acknowledged on all hands to be the most sumptuous yacht in the world. The builders have constructed the vessel on a hull shaped after the form of a turbot. Considering how adapted all fish are for passage through water, there is nothing extravagant, though there is much that is new, in taking a Hat fish as the model of a vessel that has to satisfy very exceptional requirements. Speaking roughly, the Lividia must be imagined as a broad and shallow oval, half submerged, and carrying on its surface extensive, lofty and sumptuous saloons and other apartments. It resembles a vessel of the ordinary kind, reposing upon a white air cushion. Its principal dimensions are - Length, 2GO feet; breadth, 150 feet; depth, 50 feet; tonnage, 11, (>O9 ; and displacement, 4,000. The advantages of the mode of its construction are thoroughly evident. In the lirat place the hull is capable of carrying on its back a great palace that would sink any other vessel. In the second place, the peculiar shape of the hull has a double merit; its enormous beam certain to render the ship as steady as any vessel can ,possibly be, and its lower lines insure a very (Considerable rate of speed. The only quesifciou is how far that speed will be diminished U>y the action of the wind. Her engines, however, aro very powerful. The propelling power consists of three sets of engines, each having three cylinders, the diameters of whichare, for the high pressure, GO inches, and for the low pressure, 7S inches, with a stroke of three feet three inches. The propellers themselves are of manganese bronze, thus securing strength and lightness ; and, with the view of obtaining the greatest possible power, steel has been largely used in ihc construction of the engines and boilers, which will be the most powerful in the world for their weight. The indicated horsepower ja 10,500, and the vessel is expected io make li kuots an hour.

A bumble bee can fly at the rate of twenty miles an hour, if he wants, but there is no cause for him to lly faster than a boy can run. He sometimes lives to be three years old, and is sometimes stricken down before he has travelled at all. His life is a precarious one. He may run a farmer out of a hayfield to-day, and be the big tree in the nest, and to-morrow a country school ma’am may knock his head off with her umbrella. Nothing in natural history weighs more for hiß size than the bee, and nothing in science works easier without cog-wheels or rubberrollers than his sting. It is always ready, never out of repair, and satisfaction (to the bee) is guaranteed in every ease,

All There.—Milliner (with little account owing) : is your mamma at home, dear ? Intelligent Little Girl: N-n-no, she is not. — Milliner : )Vhen will she be at home ? 1.L.G.; I don’t know but I’ll go and ask her.

A minister was questioning his Sunday School concerning the story of Eutyehus—the young man who, listening to the preaching of the Apostle Paul, fell asleep, and, falling down, was taken up dead. ‘ What,’ he said, ‘ do we learn from this very solemn event, when the reply from a little girl came pat and prompt, ‘ Please, sir, ministers should learn not to preach too long sermons.