Notes and Events.

Manawatu Herald, 22 March 1892, Page 2

Notes and Events.

The Supreme Court of Massachusetts has decided that the use of the word " damn " is not profanity. There is a story in the New York Tribune about a Connecticut clergyman who, in a sermon upon profanity, said the word " damn " might be rightfully used by respectable people as an emphatic expression. The next day he changed his mind on the subject when he met one of the feminine members of his flock, who saluted him thus— " Good morning, Mr That was a damn good sermon of yours yesterday !"

The Paris correspondent of the Daily News says that there would pretty certainly be a cinnamon boom if the experiment made with that spice by M. Chamberland in M. Pasteur's laboratory were generally known. Our ancestors, it appears hit upon the best preservative from the infectious miorobe when they used to drink mulled wines and other beverages in which strong doses of cinnamon were infused. M. Chamberland now says that no living disease-germ can resist for more than a few hours the antiseptic power of essence of cinnamon. He looks upon it as not less effective in destroying microbes than corrosive sublimate. Even its scent kills them, and it does no harm to human beings. A decoction of cinnamon is often good to drink in localities where typhoid fever or cholera is rife.

For some time past the little town of Poix, in the north of France, has been the scene, at frequent intervals, of serious fires. That they were the work of an incendiary war suspected, but the culprit escaped . detection owing to the fact that no motive could be assigned for his crimes. The secret is out at last. It seems that in Poix, as in many other small towns in France, the drink shops are allowed to remain open all night whenever an alarm of fire occurrs, the theory being that tlie firemen and others who help to put it out need refreshment. . This being so, a fireman named Leon Bremont, 82 years of age, deliberately set fire to houses in order that he might have the privilege of carousing in prohibited hours. Incredible as it may seem- that this was his motive, there can be little doubt upon the point, Bremont having confessed.

At Quebec the winter markets are very curious. Everything is frozen. Large pigs, killed perhaps, months before, may be seen standing in the butcher's shop. Frozen masses of beef, mutton, deer, fowl, cod, and haddock, and eels, long and stiff like walking sticks, abound on the stalls.' Milk also is kept frozen and is sold by the pound, in masses which look, like lumps of marble.

The Queen of Italy recently wore a dress of extraordinary splendour. The dress was of the richest white brocade, profusely embroidered with gold, with an immense train of green velvet which also was nearly covered with gold. .

Thus Mr Jerome K. Jerome greyed American women in? the New Year. "May your lovers become your . husbands, and your husbands remain your lovers."

The British Museum authorities have just issued the second volume of a remarkable catalogue. Stored in the drawers and cases of the museum ate. some 50,000 inscribed pieces of terra cotta or clay tablets, forming the rescued portions of the great libraries of Assyria and Baby*

lon. The great impetus given to ounilorm studies during the last few years in Germany and America, where they form part of the ourriculum for a degree in Semitic languages, has made it necessary that the treasures of the British Museum, the centre of Assyrian studies, should be catalogued, and the trustees have now issued these volumes, containing a descriptive catalogue of some 8090 inscribed tablets. The inscriptions in question come from the Kouyouryik Mound, on the site of ancient Nineveh, which marked the ruins of the great palace and library founded by Assurbanipal lor Sardanapalus, in b.o. 650. The tablets embrace every olass of literal ture, historical documents, hymns' prayers and educational works, such, as syllabaries, or spelling books and dictionaries. One of the most interesting sections is that* of the omen tablets, produced by the court augurs and diviners. They saw omens in all things—the flight of birds, swallows, pigeons, the coiling of snakes, the movements of scorpions, the* winds, the clouds, and, above all the stars. The catalogues have been prepared by Dr Carl Bezold, are beautifully arranged and will tend to make the collections more accessible to students, and in time better known to the general public, who depend on specialities for the unravelling of the learning and wisdom of Chaldea.

It is not generally known (says the London Star) that under an old statute a princess betrothed to an English royal prince in the direct line of succession to the throne, in the event of the death of her affianced husband, is incapacitated from contracting another marriage within five years of his demise.