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Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1820, 2 November 1874, Page 3

Velocity op "Wijtds. Horolow has enabled us to discover that when the wind passes one mile per hour, it is scarcely perceptible ; while at the rate of one hundred miles per hour it acquires sufficient force to tear up trees and destroy the produce of the earth. Without the aid- of a second clock it would have been scarcely possible to ascertain that a cannon ball flies at the rate of 600 feet in a second.

Chabity.—Mark Twain says that he went to Mormondom with the Idea of exterminating polygamy. "But," he adds, "My heart was wiser than my head. It warmed towards the poor, ungainly, and pathetically homely creatures ; and as I turned to hide the generous moisture in my eyes, I said, ' No—the man that marries one of them has done a Christian charity which entitles him to the kindly applause of mankind, not their harsh censure ; and the man that marries sixty of them has done a deed of open-handed generoiity that is indeed sublime.'" Quite a Natutal Blunder.— Twenty or 30 years ago, when missionary enterprise was in its infancy among the islands of the South Seas, Captain Summers, of the American navy, anchored his sloop-of-war off one of the Marquesas. The next morning he saw an American flag floating from the beach, Union down. This excited him fearfully, and he sent off a boat at once to inquire into the matter. Presently the boat returned, and brought a grave-looking missionary. The captain's anxiety ran high. " What's the trouble out there ? " asked he—" quick!" " Well, I am grieved to say, sir," replied the missionary, " that the natives have been interrupting our spiritual exercises." " "What—-what was it you said they'd been doing?" "It pains me, sir, to say that they have been interrupting our spiritual excercises." " Man them starboard guns ! Standby, now, to give 'em the whole battery ! " exclaimed the captain. The astonished missionary hastened to protest against such rigorous messure,s, and finally succeeded in making the old tar understand that the natives had only been breaking up a prayer meeting. " Oh, is that all ? " said he ; " I thought you meant they'd stopped your grog! "