that beer originally came from the North; but that is not the country of the beverage. The first that men appear to have drunk was made in Egypt; and the Egyptians, who liked to refer to the gods useful discoveries and social victories, gave the honor of this invention to OSIRIS. Beer, then, has been from time immemorial the drink adopted in those countries where the vine refuses to grow, either through excess or deficiency of heat. The first colonies which left the East, and pierced the gloomy forests of Europe, made up for the absence of the fruit which NOAH pressed by the means old Egypt had discovered-a liquor made with barley and water. It was the favorite fluid of the Anglo-Saxons and Danes, whom we have seen descend in turn on Great Britain. Before their conversion to Christianity, they believed that one of the chief felicities the heroes admitted after death into ODIN's Paradise enjoyed, was to drink long draughts of ale from tall cups. Archæologeans have made learned and laborious researches to recover the history of beer in Great Britain. It will be sufficient for us to say that, in Wales also, even small beer was formerly regarded as a luxury, and was only seen on the tables of the great. In England, about the middle of the sixteenth century, HARRISON assures us, that when tradesmen and artisans had the good fortune to stumble on a haunch of venison and a glass of strong ale, they believed themselves as magnificently treated as the Lord Mayor. At the present day, what a change! Ale and porter flow into the pewter pots of the humblest taverns; rich and poor-the poor more frequently than the rich refresh themselves with the national beverage-as the Israelites in the desert slaked their thirst at the water leaping from the rock, to quote a minister of the English church. This abundance, compared with the old penury, rejoices the social economist from a certain point of view, for he sees in it the natural movement of science, trade and agriculture, which in time places within reach to the most numerous classes articles which, at the outset, were regard as luxuries. Not only has beer become more available to the working classes, but the quality has improved, and at the present day English beer knows no rival on the continent.-The English at Home, by M. Esquiros.

Before the year 1730, the English publicans sold to the thirsty souls of their day three sorts of beer, which they drew from different casks into the same glass, and gave to this mixture the name of half-and-half. The owner of one of these publics, (history has handed down the name,) HORWOOD, wishing to spare himself the trouble of performing this task so constantly during the day, hit upon brewing the beer which would combine the qualities of all these beers. To this compound he gave the name of "entire," which has adhered to it till this day, at least on the signboards. It was afterwards christened "porter," because principally drunk by that class.-The English at Home.

MISSOURI LEAD MINES IN THE HANDS OF REBELS.

We are very sorry to learn that the richest lead mine in Missouri, and, indeed, probably on the globe, is now in the hands of the insurgents,

though they did not succeed in obtaining any of the metal. The mine to which we refer is situated near the village of Granby, Newton County, within twenty-five miles of the southwestern border of that State. It was opened about two years ago by a party of capitalists, having their headquarters at St. Louis, and is known by the name of the BLow and KENNETT mine. Last year it yielded about seventy-five thousand pigs, or six millions of pounds. Unlike the mines in Eastern Missouri and Northwestern Illinois, this is situated in a level prairie of vast extent. The supply of ore has been pronounced inexhaustible by the State geologist, and the quality is considered the best on the globe, having scarcely any admixtures of foreign substances. The great difficulty has been transportation, there being no navigable river nearer than the Missouri, and no rail-road beyond Rolla, which is fully one hundred miles distant. The western terminus of the Pacific Rail-Road is a little further off; but this route has usually been taken on account of the superior character of the common roads in that part of Missouri. With the mines and furnaces at Granby in their possession, the rebels can supply themselves with lead to any required extent.

SHODDY.

Woollen fabrics furnished for soldiers' wear have been the means of giving the defenders of the country an idea of the thing represented by shoddy. In many instances, a whole corps have found their coats on their backs dropping to pieces after a few days wear, showing their worthlessness for ordinary use of the garments allowed to be imposed upon them by the carelessness or fraud of inspectors. These frail textures owe their rottenness to the liberal mixture in the fabric of an article called "shoddy," which is a discovery of a recent period, and may be ranked, we suppose, among the "latest modern improvements."

The raw material for shoddy is old rags. Woollen rags that were once consigned to the manure heap furnish this material. When the new demand for them first arose, the price was about $5 per ton; since then it has advanced. They are collected and assorted, and then baled for manufacture into carpets, shawls, linsey and black cloths. Selected rags, thus baled, when of the best description, are worth over $100 per ton. The assorters sell to the shoddy manufacturer. This agent, in the process of making old garments into new, takes these rags and passes them through a "rag machine," which is a cylinder, armed with teeth, that, revolving at high speed, pulls them to pieces, reducing them to wool, and freeing them from dust. It is now shoddy, and in this state is saturated with oil or milk, and frequently scoured in heaters, in combination with some chemicals. The process completed, the shoddy is ready for manufacture into cloth. For this purpose it is mixed with new wool in as large proportions as possible. White is used in blankets and light colored goods, and the dark descriptions for coarse cloths, carpets, &c. The "shoddy" is the product of soft woollens, but the hard or black cloths, when treated in a similar manner, produce "mungo," which is used extensively in superfine cloths, which have a finish that may deceive a good judge. It is used largely in felted fabrics.

The shoddy parts of a garment made of the mixed material give way very soon, rubbing out of the cloth. It accumulates between it and the

lining. Formerly it was largely imported from England. After a while, the demand for it here was found to be so good that machines were sent over for its manufacture here. In New-York there are six shoddy mills. As we have intimated, the impositions of contractors in palming shoddy uniforms on the volunteers, left the soldiers, after a few days trial of the rotton fabrics, almost naked. It is probable that the shoddy fraud was carried to a more outrageous excess in these instances than in ordinary dealings. But it is believed that a large proportion of the cloths sent to market in ordinary times is, so to speak, adulterated by this baseborn material, and that fortunes are made and pockets picked through its instrumentality to an extent of which the cheated community of shoddy-cloth wearers have no idea.

FLOCKS, SHODDY AND NOILS.

As there is a great discussion about the composition of woollen fabrics for the army, and as the terms commonly used are not familiar to the generality of people, and as many are apt to be misled through ignorance, we have thought it of sufficient interest to obtain all the facts connected therewith, and we have been kindly furnished with samples of the different materials known as "flocks, shoddy and noils," by a practical manufacturer of this city, with explanations accompanying:

SAMPLES.

No. 1.-Noils. That is, short wool combed from long wool to fit the latter for worsted, for kerseys and blankets.

No. 2.-Washed and unwashed Russian and South American wool; the first for blankets, the second for kerseys.

No. 3.-Shoddy.-Blue for kerseys and stocking yarn; black for satinets and mixed goods.

No. 4.-Flocks.-For satinets and cotton warp goods and kerseys. No. 5.-Noils.-Suited for kerseys and blankets, of finer class than No. 1.

No. 6.-Shoddy-Made of old carpets-such as is used in English blankets and, perhaps, some American. Price, 10 cents a pound; English blankets, 40 cents. This is mixed with long wool and spun into filling.

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS DONE' BY A FRENCHMAN.

An enterprising French photographer has established himself and his "machinery" on the river terrace in front of the House of Commons, with the view of inducing the members to have their portraits taken for a parliamentary album, to contain the effigies of the six hundred and fifty-four honorable gentlemen. Whenever the little Frenchman beholds. a member, he rushes up to him, takes off his (the member's) hat, places him in a position in front of his machine, and beseeches him in the worst imaginable English to stand at ease "for just one small moment !" It is pleasant to witness the genial manner in which the legislative mind unbends itself, and submits to the importunities of the artist. There is, of course, nothing to pay, which, perhaps, accounts for the success which has hitherto attended the parliamentary album.-The British Journal of Photography.

THE RATIO OF WAGES AND PROFITS.

Wages constitute the chief outgoing in several of the staple manufactures of the country. In the manufacture of fine woollen cloth the wages paid by the manufacturer amount to about 60 per cent. upon the total expenditure incurred between the purchase of the wool and the time when the cloth is in a state fit for sale; in the manufacture of woven yarn the corresponding expenditure in wages is about 48 per cent. In the manufacture of earthenware the proportion of wages is about 40 per cent.; that is to say, in the conversion of the requisite quantity of clay into goods worth £100, £40 are paid to workmen in wages. In the manufacture of pig iron the expense of the labor employed amounts to no less than 81 per cent.; and in its subsequent conversion into bar iron to 85 per cent. The expense of working collieries resolves almost wholly into labor, in some instances amounting to 90 per cent. on the current expenditure. In different branches of the steel manufacture the outgoings for labor are very considerable. For instance, in the production of the subjoined articles:

At the instant, and without more inquiry, we are not prepared to state the ratio between the cost of material and the labor in the production of the broad sheet now in course of perusal; but at a hap-hazard guess we should say that the disproportion is fully as great as that between razors meant to shave, or fine scissors, such as ladies use. Enough data, however, has been adduced to show how loosely wages enter into the prices of commodities. What proportion profits bear to wages is not easy to determine. That depends on the state of the market and the humor of buyers. But as prices are not affected by the relations between them, society has no interest in their allocution. The contest between wages and profits is simply a struggle whether a greater or less sum shall go into the pockets of the employer or the employed.-Liverpool Albion.

POISONED DRESSES.

A medical correspondent of a London cotemporary recently stated that thirteen ounces of arsenical poison had been found in one tarletan dress. Another correspondent of the same journal calls attention to the following extract from the report made by M. VAN BROEK to the Belgian government, upon the subject of poisonous colors: It is not merely the poor workwomen who have to suffer from the poisonous emanations of arsenical flowers. Those who work them up, merchants and milliners— those, above all, who wear them-often experience, without being able to account for what they feel, the pernicious effects of the poison which surrounds them. The head of one of the most important houses of business of this kind assured me, lately, that every time he presided over the arrangement of a trimming into which a luxuriant foliage enters, he experiences a more or less violent headache, vertigo, nausea and an obstinate dry cough. The workwomen whom he employs, being more exposed than himself, present these disagreeable symptoms in a still more

marked degree. Moreover, my informant assured me that it is always with extreme reluctance, and by express command, that he undertakes such a task. After such an avowal, it is not difficult to imagine what passes in the midst of those worldly vortices where, at the same time, passions and flowers are agitated and shed. Shaken, crushed and bruised, the poisonous foliage delivers to a burning atmosphere its brilliant and dangerous dust; the latter spreads everywhere and on everything; clothes, hair, the moist skin, the air we breathe, nothing escapes its assaults, which are certainly not unconnected with the frequent illnesses which follow gay and extensive reunions. Sometimes even the effects of the arsenite of copper are immediately perceptible; and more than one woman is indebted to it for the redness of the skin, and sufficiently serious cutaneous irritations.

RE-MAKING LEATHER.

Various attempts have been made to use scraps of waste leather in the manufacture of articles for which pure leather has been employed; but the new products have generally failed to be serviceable where they were exposed to much wear, because they lacked strength or tenacity. In some cases other substances have been used in connection with waste leather. A device of this sort has lately been patented in England by Mr. T. GEE, of Nottingham, who uses hemp or flax fiber. His product is designed to be used for belting, uppers of shoes, &c.

He first takes old boots and shoes, old harness, belts, &c., cuts them in small pieces, washes them thoroughly in water, and reduces them to a soft, pulpy condition by soaking. After this he rolls them out between rollers, dries and mixes them with minute quantities of hemp or flax fiber. They are now intimately united together with a strong solution of glue or gutta percha, then rolled out into bands for belts, or pressed into moulds for the uppers of shoes, or other articles designed to be manufactured from it.

LAKE SUPERIOR IRON.

In 1855 the shipments of iron from Lake Superior were 1,447 tons. The amount gradually increased until 1860, when 150,000 tons were shipped. This year the shipments will not exceed 40,000 tons. The total value of all the ore shipped, and that melted since the mines were worked, is about $1,326,000 at Marquette. The capital invested in the mines amounts to $2,286,000. The Lake Superior News, of November 2d, from which we gather the foregoing facts, says:

Of the companies now doing business here, we know of none but what, with judicious management, can realize a handsome profit upon whatever branch they are engaged in. This year, however, is a peculiarly hard one upon all doing business in the Upper Peninsula. The general stagnation caused by the war has affected us severely, and now, with a six months' winter before us, during which time there is no possibility of getting our products to market, the chance is, that all the manufacturing companies will be straitened for available means. Yet, as there is plenty of provisions in the country, if all will "bear and forbear," they can weather the point; and from all indications we have no doubt that the next year will be one of general prosperity for Lake Superior.