Mortality among Masons.—Masons are continually surrounded with an atmosphere of fine impalpable dust. By the ordinary act of breathing, this dust is received into the air passages and the lungs, whore it slowly accumulates, lnflamatioa supeivanes—slight at first, it is ultimately acute. A wasting then begins, accompanied by spitting. In a short number of years, a mason dare not walk sharply up a hill. The breathing is impeded, the circulation is interrupted, the blood M imperfectly supplied with oxygen. General debility is then felt—rapid consumption occurs and at length the disease, which originated in his apprenticeship, terminates with his prematu:e death. This is the disease known among the men as the " mason's trouble." It is teimed phthisis in medical phraseology Dr. Alison has said, that " there is hardly an inwtaDce of a m; son regularly employed in hewing stones in Edinburgh, living free from phthisical symptoms to the age of fifty. We can go lower than that: we can state, from pretty extensive observation, that there are none but suffer from it at forty. We do not, in truth, know ten lieweis (working) in Edinburgh above fifty, aud only two above sixty. It is to be observed, however, that the celebrated Craigleith stone, of which the N" w Town of Edinburgh wis built, contr.bu'ed more largely to this characteristic disease than the softer stones at present in use. An old Craigleith man was done at thirty, and died at thirty five Out of twenty-seven apprentices—fine, young, healthy men—who began with Forsyth at the erection of Oamond bridge, twenty-six years ago, only two survive. Out oi 150 hewers who worked at the High School in '27, we know of only 10 survivers. In a squad of thirty stout hewer* who began the Edinburgh and Glasgow Bank, twelve years ago, only one-half lived to see it finished. The stone cutting and carving of the Scott Monument killed twenty-tbree of the finest men in Edinburgh.. ..The stones, let us humbly suggest might be worked damp, and, we are informed, worked better. The sheds, too, might be better ventilated. The men bad better endure the wind and rain, the storm and tempest in their greatest fury, than endure for a Stogie week the atmosphere of a shed. Another corrective has been pointed out by Dr. Alison, who recommends the Edinburgh hewers to wear moustaches and boards. It is a notorious fact that cavalry regiments sutler less than regiments of the line from consumption. Their beards and moustaches act like a respirator; and the same line of reasoning applies with greater force to stone-masons. In the south of Germany—in Bavaria and Wurtembergb, for example—where freestone is extensively worked, and where masons are fine-looking muscular fellows with large beards, such a disease as phthisis is never heard of.—Abridged from a series of articles on Oie Condition of the Working Classes, in the Edinburgh News.
A Dinner in a Gfrman Principality.—Let me transcribe the dinner provided at balf-ao-hour's notice under tbe sign of " tbe United Germany" for our party of four. We had a clear (strained) soup of exquisite flavour, accompanied by powdered cheese for those fond of strong stimulants. Then crawfish and black bread and butter. Then a fillet of beef (pique) with a sauce of truffles and Madeira. Then some red cabbages, stewed apples, and mashed potatoes ; some cutlets of fresh pork, and some cold tongue •, some eels in asparagus jelly ; some hashed venison, garnished with rice ; some young chickens with Perigord sauce; preserves and salad ; a plum pudding; dessert and fruit ices. This dinner cost us just 3s. a-head. We had moreover, napkins, a spotless tablecloth, and fiugerglasses. I am not at all vaunting the choice ofHerr von Schmidt's dinner, but only the number, quality, and price of the dishes. Let the country solicitor who paid 10s. for his dinner yesterday in a dingy room in Bishopgate-street ask himself if he dined anything like so well as we did for 3s. ? and let any one of the unlucky diners-out in London condemned to a three-shilling dinner compare their bill of fare with this. Why it is, or how it is. that everything should be dearer in England than in the whole world over, it is not at present our province to inquire; hut tbe fact, as it undoubtedly exists, is extremely unreasonable since every article we consumed in the dominions of his Serene Highness tbe Prince of the Towering Taxes, with the sole exception of tbe truffles, can, with proper management, be obtained cheaper in London, from the cheese (Chester, by the way,) to the ice ; —and the fuel with which our dinner was cooked is beyond all comparison dearer than in England. The simple secret was in the judicious division of the contents of the various dishes into proper portions, just enough for the consumption of tbe people for whom they were provided, and no more, instead of giving them an equal quantity of one thing ; the cunning of the cook and the number of diners-out having brought the art of providing small dinners into the state of great perfection.— Dickens's Household Words.
Tributes to Genius. —Moore, in his memoirs, says —"Received from one of my female correspondents (the lady who loved the Irish giant) a Christmas present consisting of a goose, a pot of pickles, another of clouted cream, and some apples. This, indeed, is a tribute of admiration more solid than I generally receive from these fair admirers of my poetry. The young Bristol lady who enclosed me three pounds after reading Latin Rookh had also very laudable ideas on the subject; and if every reader of Lalla Rookh had done the same, I need never have written again. Read the Heart of Midlothian to Bessy in the evening. Have get a wet-nurse for Little Tommy, a woman in the neighbourhood, to come three times a day, which is better than nothing. Poor little thing! with a mother that can give him no milk, and a father that can give him no money, what business has he in this world."
Tit for Tat.—A chimney-sweeper's boy went into a baker's shop for a twopenny loaf, and conceiving it to be diminutive in size, remarked to the baker that he did not think it was weight. " Never mind that," said the man of dough, " you will have thp less to carry." '• True," replied the lad, and throwing halfpence on the counter, be left the shop. The baker called after him that he had not left money enough. " iS'ev.r mind that," said the young booty, "you will have the less to count."
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New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 798, 7 December 1853, Page 3
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1,098Page 3 Advertisements Column 2 New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 798, 7 December 1853, Page 3
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