THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



March 



liife In Olden Engrland. 



In his youth Augustus J. C. Hare 

 lived with his adopted parents at a rec- 

 tory in Shropshire, and of the life there 

 he gives some picturesque details in the 

 story of his life: 



When there was "a wash" at Stoke, 

 ■which was about every three weeks, it 

 was a rule with granny that, summer 

 or winter, it must always begin at 1 a. 

 m. At that hour old Hannah Berry used 

 to arrive from the village, the coppers 

 were heated and the maids at work. 

 The ladies' maids, who were expected to 

 fio all the fine muslins, etc, , themselves, 

 had also always to be at the wash tubs 

 at 3 a. m. — by candlelight. If any one 

 was late, the housekeeper reported to 

 Mrs. Leycester, who was soon down 

 upon them pretty sharply. Generally, 

 however, her real practical kindness and 

 genei'osity prevented any one minding 

 Mrs. Leycester's severity. It was looked 

 upon as only "her way," for people 

 were not so tender in those days as they 

 are now, and certainly no servants would 

 have thought of giving up a place which 

 was essentially a good one because they 

 were a little roughly handled by their 

 mistress. In those days servants were as 

 liable to personal chastisement as the 

 children of the house and would as little 

 thought of resenting it. "You don't 

 suppose I'm going to hurt my hand box- 

 ing your ears," said granny when about 

 to chastise the school children she was 

 teaching, and she would take up a book 

 from the table and use it soundly, and 

 then say. "Now we mustn't let the oth- 

 er ear be jealous, " and turn the child 

 round and lay on again on the other 

 side. Granny constantly boxed hei 

 housemaids' ears, and, alas, when he 

 grew very old, she used to box dear 

 grandpapa's, though she loved him dear- 

 ly, the great source of offense being that 

 he would sometimes slyly give the serv- 

 ant's elbow a tip when his daily table- 

 spoonful of brandy was being poured 

 out. 



Where Golf Retieinbles War. 



' 'A grand joke developed itself not 

 long ago, ' ' says a Monte Video corre- 

 spondent. "A native paper published 

 alarming paragraplis to the effect that 

 the British war vessels were making 

 soundings raid taking surveys and effect- 

 ing other highly suspicious oj)eratione 



near Maldonado and that they had land- 

 ed an armed force with instruments and 

 terrible unknown engines. 



"The government was warned to pre- 

 pare for an invasion or at the very least 

 a second Trinidad affair. These revela- 

 tions were apparently confirmed by a 

 telegram from a newspaper correspond- 

 ent in Maldonado, who said that he 

 himself had seen 'those dreadful Eng- 

 lish' at their tricks. 



"Before such a denunciation the au- 

 thorities could not remain silent, and 

 accordingly an official telegram was 

 sent to tlie captain of the port at Mal- 

 donado for information. His reply was 

 to the following effect: 



' ' 'It is not true that the English have 

 been making plans of the port or meas- 

 uring lands at Punta del Este. What 

 they have done is to mark out a course 

 for an English game that they played 

 here before and which is called 'golf.' " 

 — Pearson's Weekly. 



Japanese Alloys. 



It is said that a number of Japanese 

 recipes for the making of alloys which 

 have hitherto been kept a close secret 

 have been revealed by workmen engaged 

 in making them. Among these is the 

 shadko, an alloy of copper and from 1 

 to 10 per cent of gold. This, when placed 

 in a mordant of sulphate of copper, 

 alum and verdigris assumes the cop- 

 pered or blue black hue of sword sheaths 

 and decorative articles. Gnishi-buichi 

 is a copper alloy with 30 or 50 per cent 

 of silver, of the well known gray color. 

 Mokume is a compound of several alloys. 

 About 30 plates or foils of gold, shadko 

 copper, silver and the last mentioned 

 alloy are soldered together. In this holes 

 are made, the plate is hammered out 

 and put into the mordant. The finest 

 Japanese brass, sinchu, is given as con- 

 sisting of ten parts copper and five of 

 zinc. The bell metal karakame is made 

 out of 10 parts of copper, 4 of tin, one- 

 half of iron and 1 >^ of zinc. 



De Piles mentions a blind sculptor 

 who, giiided by the sense of touch alone, 

 made a marble statue of Charles I of 

 England. It is singular, however, that 

 this sculptor is not mentioned, so far as 

 is known, by any other wrriter, and the 

 story may be apocryphal. 



