MISCELLANEOUS FACTS AND FIGURES. 



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the Roman army had suffered severe defeat at 

 Lake Thrasymene, he perceived that his dis- 

 heartened troops and bands of raw recruits 

 could not oppose successfully a trained army 

 flushed with victory and led by their great 

 commander Hannibal. He therefore avoided 

 pitched battles, moved his camp from highland 

 to highland, and tired out the enemy with 

 marches and counter-marches. This he con- 

 tinued until thwarted in his calculations by 

 the impatience of the Roman Senate. 



Character by the Month. Here is an 

 old astrological prediction, said to indicate, 

 with tolerable certainty, the character of the 

 girl according to the month she happens to be 

 born in. 



If a girl is born in January, she will be a 

 prudent housewife, given to melancholy, but 

 good-tempered. 



If in February, a humane and affectionate 

 wife and tender mother. 



If in March, a frivolous chatterbox, some- 

 what given to quarreling. 



If in April, inconstant, not intelligent, but 

 likely to be good-looking. 



If in May, handsome and likely to be happy. 



If in June, impetuous, will marry early, and 

 be frivolous. 



If in July, passably handsome, but with a 

 sulky temper. 



If in August, amiable and practical, and 

 likely to marry rich. 



If in September, discreet, affable, and much 

 liked. 



If in October, pretty and coquettish, and 

 likely to be unhappy. 



If in November, liberal, kind, of a mild dis- 

 position. 



If in December, well proportioned, fond of 

 novelty, and extravagant. 



The World's Principal Tin Mines. 

 Pure tin is an elementary metal, as much so 

 as lead, iron, silver, or gold. The principal 

 tin-producing country is England. The Phreni- 

 cians traded with England for tin 1,100 years 

 before the Christian era. There is reason to 

 believe that they got tin from Spain also ; but 

 England was depended on for nearly all the 

 tin used in Europe until this ore was discovered 

 in Germany in 1240. It was discovered in 

 Northern Africa in the Barbary States in 

 1640, in India in 1740, in New Spain in 1782. 

 Tin was mined in Mexico before the Spanish 

 conquest, and used in T shaped pieces for 

 money, and in a bronze composition for sharp 

 tools, the principal mines being at Tasco. 

 Peru has valuable mines of this metal, so have 

 New South Wales, Australia, and Banca, and 

 Malacca in the Malay peninsula. Tin has been 

 discovered in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Califor- 



nia, Dakota, and other states of the Union, but 

 not in quantities to tempt capital to engage ki 

 mining it, with the exception of Dakota, where 

 the Illinois Steel Mill Company has large in- 

 terests. The chief tin-producing countries are 

 the following, arranged in the order of im- 

 portance : England, about 10,000 tons a year ; 

 Malacca, about 8,500 tons ; Australia, about 

 6,000 tons; Banca, about 4,000 tons; and 

 Billiton, about 3,000 tons. Both of these last 

 named places are islands of the Dutch East 

 Indies. 



St. Valentine's Day. The custom of 

 sending valentines can, without doubt, be 

 traced, in origin, to a practice among the an- 

 cient Romans. At the feast of the Lupercalia, 

 which was held on the 15th of February, in 

 honor of the great god Pan, the names of all 

 the virgin daughters of Rome were put in a 

 box and drawn therefrom by the young men, 

 and each youth was bound to offer a gift to the 

 maiden who fell to his lot, and to make her 

 his partner during the time of the feast. This 

 custom became allied to the name of St. Val- 

 entine, probably, only through a coincidence 

 in dates. St. Valentine was a bishop of Rome 

 during the third century. He was of most 

 amiable nature, and possessed remarkable gifts 

 of eloquence, and was so very successful in con- 

 verting the pagan Romans to Christianity that 

 he incurred the displeasure of the Emperor, 

 and was martyred by his order February 14, 

 A. D. 270. When the saint came to be placed 

 in the calendar, his name was given to the day 

 of his death, and this was made a festival, to 

 offset that of the Lupercalia, and an effort was 

 made to substitute the names of saints for those 

 of girls in the lottery, but naturally without 

 success. Many other customs of mediaeval and 

 later times, which have become allied in name 

 to a holy saint of the church, are unquestion- 

 ably of purely secular, even pagan, origin. 



Royal Household. In all mediaeval 

 monarchies of western Europe the general 

 system of government sprang from, and cen- 

 tered in, the royal household. The sovereign's 

 domestics were his officers of state, and the 

 leading dignitaries of the palace were the 

 principal administrators of the kingdom. The 

 royal household itself had, in its turn, grown 

 out of an earlier and more primitive institu- 

 tion. It took its rise in the comitatus, described 

 by Tacitus, the chosen band of comites or com- 

 panions who, when the Roman historian wrote, 

 constituted the personal following, in peace as 

 well as in war, of the Teutonic princeps or 

 chieftain. In England before the conquest the 

 comites were called thegns. After the conquest 

 the most powerful of the king's thegns became 

 officers of the royal household by heredity. 



