open side door, there darted forth a huge tiger, certainly from ten to eleven feet in length and four feet in height. Without much hesitation he sprang with a single long bound right amidst the buffaloes, and winding his body out of the reach of their formidable horns, he seized one of them by the neck with both of his claws and teeth at once. The weight of the tiger almost overthrew the buffalo. A hideous combat now took place. Groaning and bellowing the buffalo dragged his powerful assailant up and down the arena; while the others, with their heavy, pointed horns, dealt the tiger fearful gashes to liberate their fellow-beast. A deep stillness reigned amongst the public; all the spectators awaited with eager suspense the issue of the contest between the tiger and the buffaloes, as well as the fate of some unfortunate asses; which latter, to increase the sport, being made per force witnesses of the sanguinary action, at first looking down upon it from their poles with inexpressible horror, and afterwards, when their supports were shaken by the butting of the buffaloes, fell to the ground as if dead, and, with outstretched limbs, lay expecting their fate with the greatest resignation, without making a single effort to save themselves. Two other tigers of somewhat less stature, were now, with great difficulty driven in, while the main struggle was still going forward. But no efforts could induce them to attempt an attack of any kind; they shrank down like cats, crouching as closely as possible to the walls of the enclosure, whenever the buffaloes, which still continued, however, to butt at their enemy with the utmost desperation, approached them. The great tiger had at last received a push in the ribs which lifted him from his seat. He came tumbling down and crawled like a craven into a corner, whither he was pursued by the buffalo, maddened by the pain of his lacerated neck, and there had to endure many thrusts with the horns, at each of which he only drew up his mouth with a grimace of pain, without making the smallest motion to ward off the attack.-Hoffmeister's Letters from the East Indies.

INTRODUCTION OF FORKS.

As any well authenticated account of the invention or introduction of any of our present customs, or modes of living, cannot but be both instructive and amusing, we insert the following account of the first introduction of the table-fork into England, as related by Thomas Corgate, in his book of travels through a part of Europe, A. D. 1608. "Here I will mention what might have been spoken of before in discourse of the first Italian towne. I observed a custom in all those Italian cities and towns through which I passed, that is not used in any other country that I saw in my travels, neither doe I thinke that any other nation of Christendom doth use it, but only Italy. The Italian,

and also most strangers that are commorant in Italy, doe alwaies at their meales use a little forke when they cut their meate. For while with their knife, which they hold in one hand, they cut the meate out of the dish, they fasten the fork, which they hold in the other hand, upon the same dish; so that whatsever he be that, setting in companie with any others at meale, should unadvisedly touch the dish of meate with his fingers, from which all the table doe cut, he will give occasion of offence to the companie, as having transgressed the laws of good manners, insomuch that for his error he shall be at least brow-beaten, if not reprehended in wordes. This forme of feeding I understand is generally used in all places of Italy; their forkes being for the most part made of yron or steele and some of silver, but these are only used by gentlemen. The reason of this their curiosity is, because the Italian cannot by any meanes indure to have his dish touched with fingers, seeing all men's fingers are not alike cleane. Hereupon I myself thought good to imitate the Italian fashion, by this forked manner of cutting meate, not only while I was in Italy, but also in Germany, and oftentimes in England, since I came home, being once equipped for that frequent using of my forke, and by a certaine learned gentleman, a familiar friend of mine, one Mr. Lawrence Whitaker, who in his merry humour doubted not to call me at table furcifer, only for using a forke at feeding, and for no other cause."

FIRST NEWSPAPER.

The first printed newspaper was published in England, in 1588, called "The English Mercury, imprinted by her Majesty's printer." This paper was not regularly published.

In 1624, the "Public Intelligencer and London Gazette" was established. Soon afterwards various papers had "their entrances and their exits," in London, among which were " The Scots' Dove," "The Parliament Kite," "The Secret Owl," &c.

"The Spectator" was the first purely literary periodical. It appeared in 1711. This publication, as is known, owes its immortality to Addison. "The Tattler," conducted by Sir Richard Steele, though published a short time previous, was not exclusively literary.

The first French newspaper was established at Paris, in 1631, by Ronandot, a physician.

The first "Literary Journal and Review" ever published, was " The Journal des Savans," commenced in 1565, in France.

There are now published in France seven hundred and fifty journals, of which three hundred and ten are political.

The first American paper was the "Boston News Letter," which appeared on the 24th of April, 1704, by James Campbell. In 1719, "The Boston Gazette" was started.

The third American newspaper was the "American Weekly Mercury," which appeared in Philadelphia, on the 22d of December, 1719. The fourth American newspaper was the "New England Courant," established at Boston, August 17, 1721, by James Franklin, elder brother to him who rendered the name illustrious.

The oldest living paper in America is the New Hampshire Gazette. It was the first paper printed in New Hampshire, and was established by Daniel Fowle, at Portsmouth, in August, 1756. It was originally printed on half a sheet of foolscap, quarto, as were all the papers of that day; but was soon enlarged to half a sheet crown, folio, and sometimes appeared on a whole sheet of crown. It is now in its 93d year, and is a well conducted paper of goodly dimensions.

The oldest living newspaper in England is the Lincoln Mercury, first published in 1695. The oldest in London is the St. James' Chronicle, of 1761. The oldest paper in Scotland is the Edinburgh Evening Courant, of 1705. The oldest in Ireland, the Belfast News Letter, of 1787.

MAN-HIS MENTAL POWER.

EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH BY HORACE MANN.

"Now, a man is weak in his muscles; he is strong only in his faculties. In physical strength how much superior is an ox or a horse to a man-in fleetness, the dromedary or the eagle! It is through mental strength only that man becomes the superior and governor of all animals. But it was not the design of Providence that the work of the world should be performed by muscular strength. God has filled the earth and imbued the elements with energies of greater power than all the inhabitants of a thousand planets like ours. Whence come our necessaries and our luxuries? those comforts and appliances that make the difference between a houseless, wandering tribe of Indians in the far west, and a New England village? They do not come wholly or principally from the original, unassisted strength of the human arm, but from the employment, through intelligence and skill, of those great natural forces with which the bountiful Creator has filled every part of the material universe. Caloric, gravitation, expansibility, comprehensibility, electricity, chemical affinities and repulsions, spontaneous velocities-these are the mighty agents which the intellect of man harnesses to the car of improvement. The water, wind and steam to the propulsion of machinery, and to the transportation of men and merchandise from place to place, has added ten thousandfold to the actual products of human industry. How small the wheel which the stoutest. labourer can turn, and how soon will he be weary! Compare this with a wheel driving a thousand spindles or looms, which a stream of

water can turn, and never tire. A locomotive will take five hundred men, and bear them on their journey hundreds of miles a day. Look at these same five hundred men starting from the same post, and attempting the same distance, with all the equestrian toil and tardiness.

"The cotton mills of Massachusetts will turn out more cloth in one day than could have been manufactured by all the inhabitants of the Eastern continent during the tenth century. On an element, which in ancient times was supposed to be exclusively within the control of the gods, and where it was deemed impious for human power to intrude, even there the gigantic forces of nature, which human science and skill have enlisted in their service, confront and overcome the raging of the elements-breasting tempests and tides, escaping reefs and lea shores, and careering, triumphantly, around the globe. The velocity of winds, the weight of waters, and the rage of steam, are powers; each one of which is infinitely stronger than all the strength of all the nations and races of mankind, were it all gathered into a single arm. And all these energies are given us on one condition-the condition of intelligence-that is, of education. Had God intended that the work of the world should be done by human bones and sinews, He would have given us an arm as solid and as strong as the shaft of a steam engine, and enabled us to stand, day and night, and turn the crank of a steamship, while sailing to Liverpool and Calcutta. Had God designed the human muscles to do the work of the world, then, instead of the ingredients of gun-powder, or gun-cotton, and the expansive force of heat, He would have given us hands which could take a granite quarry and break its solid acres into suitable symmetrical blocks, as easily as we now open an orange. Had he intended us for bearing burdens, he would have given us Atlantean shoulders, by which we could carry the vast freights of rail-car and steamship as a porter carries his pack. He would have given us lungs by which we could blow fleets before us, and wings to

sweep over ocean wastes.

"But, instead of iron arms, and Atlantean shoulders, and the lungs of Boreas, He has given us a mind, a soul, a capacity of knowledge, and thus a power of appropriating all these energies of nature to our own use. Instead of a telegraphic and microscopic eye, he has given us power to invent the telescope and microscope. Instead of ten thousand fingers, he has given us genius inventive of the power-loom and the printing-press. Without a cultivated intellect, man is the weakest of all the dynamical forces of nature; with a cultivated intellect he commands them all. A thousand slaves may stand by a river, and to them it is only an object of fear and superstition. An intelligent man surpasses the ancient idea of a river god; he stands by the Penobscot, the Kennebec, the Merrimac, or the Connecticut; he commands each to do more work than could be performed by a hundred thousand men-to saw timber, to make cloth, to grind corn-and they obey. Ignorant slaves stand upon a coal mine, and to them it is only a

An intelligent man uses the

worthless part of the inanimate earth. same mine to print a million of books. "Slaves will seek to obtain the same crop from the same field year

year, though the pabulum of that crop is exhausted; the intelligent man, with his chemist's eye, sees not only the minutest atoms of the earth, but the imponderable gases that permeate it, and he is rewarded with a luxuriant harvest. Nor are these advantages confined to those departments of nature where her mightiest forces are brought into requisition. In accomplishing whatever requires delicacy and precision, nature is as much more perfect than man, as she is more powerful in whatever requires strength. Whether in great or in small operations, all the improvement in the mechanical and the useful arts comes as directly from intelligence as a bird comes out of a shell, or the beautiful colours of a flower out of the sunshine. The slave-worker is for ever prying at the short end of nature's lever, and using the back, instead of the edge, of her finest instruments."

THE FRIENDLESS.

At the recent dedication of the Home for the Friendless, in the city of New York, the Rev. Dr. Tyng, with his usual felicity of expression, concluded an eloquent discourse in these words:

"Little do many of you know the toil and distress of mind and spirit through which this great work has been carried on. We have seen Christian ladies willing to encounter every difficulty, and even contumely, in pursuit of the means wherewith to erect an institution for the reception of the poor and friendless, and with a spirit that nothing could discourage or repress. They have endured their burdens and toils with an inextinguishable ardour; and if a cruel and careless world will undervalue them, hundreds of souls which they will have redeemed from misery and destitution will invoke upon them a blessing. God will estimate them by the good they have done; while the world, regardless of their moral worth, looks only to their station in life as the means of estimating their value. Too much praise cannot be accorded to those who, in the midst of every discouragement, were determined to prosecute, with every energy, the work which they had so generously engaged in. Some have been the sympathizing witnesses of the perils through which they have passed, and the amount of suffering which they have relieved. They have not been actuated, as represented, by a proselytizing spirit, but rather by a true and sincere desire of doing good to their fellow mortals, whose fortune has not been so favourable, and who have been subjected to privations and hardship. Their deeds are recorded in heaven, and the sighs of the