A MONSTER CONCERT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 198, 20 August 1872, Page 2

A MONSTER CONCERT.

The Australasian, in its' article on the news by the last Suez mail, says : — " It brings the gratifying intelligence of the settlement of the Alabama difficulty, by the rejection, oh the part of the arbitrators at Geneva of the claims of the American Government for consequential damages; that is to sa3', for losses sustained by the transfer of Americau shipping to the British flag; by enhanced insurance occasioned by the depredations of cruisers built in Britain; by the prolongation of the war resulting from the naval successes of the Confederates; and for indirect losses not admitted to be ■within the scope and intention of the arbitration. The very "bigness" of these claims, amounting to some hundreds of millions sterling constituted half their charm lo the American mind, which is now occupying itself with another big thipg — a musical festival at Boston, on a scale of colossal magnitude. The building which has been specially erected for this " Peace Jubillee," as it is to be called, will seat 100,000 persons, and there will ba 20,000 vocalists. It is said that the back end of the Coliseum, for a couple of hundred feet, is to be built in a cylindrical form, and headed in at both ends with elephant skins, bo as to form a big bass drum, which will be beaten by steam trip-ham-mers, capable of striking 15'tou blows. A Connecticut man is working up a fife out of a log 30 feet long, to be blown by nitroglycerine. Two rolling mills are KDgaged upon a great triangle, which is' to be operated upon by pile-drivers. There will be a baas-viol of 56-horse power, 300 fog-horns, and 70 siege guns; and the dome of the building will form the mouth of a large trombone, the wind for which is to be furnished by George Francis Train and Mrs. Victoria Wood hall. The mouth capacity of the chorus — mostly Germans — is estimated at 736 cubic feet. But we cannot vouch for the perfect accuracy of the whole of these statements and calculations. Time will correct them.

The fat men lately hnd a ball at BinghamptOD, N.Y. No man was admitted who weighed less than two hundred pounds. ' ■ ■' ... . Chinese Temple. —A r.ew Chinese temple has been opened at San Francisco. It has seventy-five god?, two of whom are eighty feet high and correspondingly thick. The Chinese desiro quantity. A SocusiYfor the prevention of cruelty to children in shape of exposure from the bnre arms, shoulders, and legs, which the vanity of mothers delight in, is soon to be established in Boston. Marriage licenses (the Graphic says) will soon be things of the past, to be seen only at the British Museum, for the publication of banns at the parish churches is now a matter of course in the highest circles.