574: 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



spection saw that his first glance had been cor- 

 rect. The picture was labeled " Hagar and her 

 Son Ishmael dying of Thirst," and the subject 

 was treated in a new and powerful manner. Lan- 

 franco looked for the name of the painter, and de- 

 tecting the word Salvatoriello modestly set in a 

 corneivof the picture, he gave instructions to his 

 pupils to buy up every work of Salvatoriello they 

 could find in Naples. To this accident Salvator 

 owed the sudden demand for his pictures, which 

 changed his poverty and depression into compar- 

 ative ease and satisfaction. 



More than one famous singer might probably 

 never have been heard of but for some discrimi- 

 nating patron chancing to hear a beautiful voice, 

 perhaps exercised in the streets for the pence of 

 the compassionate. Some happy stage-hits have 

 resulted from or originated in accidents. The odd 

 hop skip and jump so effective in the delineation 

 of Dundreary, says an American interviewer of 

 Mr. Sothern, was brought about in this way. In 

 the words of the actor : " It was a mere acci- 

 dent. I have naturally an elastic disposition, and 

 during a rehearsal one cold morning I was hopping 

 at the back of the stage, when Miss Keene sarcas- 

 tically inquired if I was going to introduce that 

 into Dundreary. The actors and actresses stand- 

 ing around laughed ; and taking the cue, I re- 

 plied : ' Yes, Miss Keene ; that's my view of the 

 character.' Having said this, I was bound to 

 stick to it ; and as I progressed with the rehearsal, 



I found that the whole company, including scene- 

 shifters and property - men, were roaring with 

 laughter at my infernal nonsense. When I saw 

 that the public accepted the satire, I toned down 

 what was a broad caricature to what can be seen 

 at the present day by any one who has a quick 

 sense of the absurd." 



An excellent landscape of Salvator Rosa's ex- 

 hibited at the British Institution in 1823 came to 

 be painted in a curious way. The painter hap- 

 pened one day to be amusing himself tuning an 

 old harpsichord ; some one observed that he was 

 surprised he could take so much trouble with an 

 instrument that was not worth a crown. " I bet 

 you I make it 'worth a thousand before I have 

 done with it ! " cried Rosa. The bet was taken ; 

 and Salvator painted on the harpsichord a land- 

 scape that not only sold for a thousand crowns, 

 but was esteemed a first-rate painting. Chem- 

 istry and pathology are indebted to what has 

 often seemed the merest chance for many an im- 

 portant discovery. A French paper says it has 

 been accidentally discovered that in cases of epi- 

 leptic fits, a black-silk handkerchief thrown over 

 the afflicted persons will restore them immediate- 

 ly. Advances in science and art, and sudden 

 success in professions, have often more to do with 

 the romance of accident than most people im- 

 agine ; but, as we may have occasion again to 

 take up the subject, we quit it for the present. — 

 Chambers's Journal. 



WASTE SUBSTANCES. 



CIGAR-ENDS. 



PROBABLY few people in this country are 

 aware that that usually wasted substance, a 

 cigar-end, is utilized in Germany to a large extent, 

 and with even beneficent results. 



We can imagine many of our readers wonder- 

 ing what can be the object of collecting these 

 small ends ; and we will therefore briefly explain 

 that they are sold for the purpose of being made 

 into snuff, and that the proceeds of such sales are 

 devoted to charitable purposes. There is in Ber- 

 lin a society called the " Verein der Sammler von 

 Cigarren-Abschnitten," or the Society of Collect- 

 ors of Cigar-Cuttings," w y hich has been in exist- 

 ence some ten years, and has done much good. 



Every Christmas the proceeds of the cigar ends 

 collected by this society and its friends are ap- 

 plied to the purchase of clothes for some poor 

 orphan children. In 1876 about thirty children 

 were clothed by this society, each child being 

 provided with a shirt, a pair of good leather 

 boots, a pair of woolen stockings, a warm dress, 

 and a pocket-handkerchief. In addition to this, 

 a large, well-decorated Christmas-tree is given for 

 their entertainment, and each child is sent home 

 with a good supply of fruit and sweetmeats. Al- 

 together more than two hundred poor orphan chil- 

 dren have been clothed by this society simply by 

 the proceeds of such small things as cigar-ends. 



The success of the society at Berlin has in- 

 duced further enterprise in the same direction, 



