*

_War._--Were the disputes between great and rival nations to be settled by
single combat, by those, through whose ambition, pride, or other cause,
they were occasioned, millions of lives might have been saved.

* * * * *

_Curious Custom._--There is held in Italy, a kind of feast, or ceremony,
in the courts of certain princes, on St. Nicholas's Day, in which people
hide presents in the shoes or slippers of those they would do honour to;
in such a manner as to surprise them on the morrow, when they come to
dress. It is done in imitation of the practice of St. Nicholas; who used,
in the night time, to throw purses of money in at the windows, for
portions to poor maidens on their marriage. P.T.W.

* * * * *

_Experience._--It often happens that the more we see into a man, the less
we admire him.--_Pliny._

* * * * *

The Romans were so anxious to encourage marriage, that they punished
unmarried persons by rendering them incapable of receiving any legacy, or
inheritance by will, except from near relatives. And those who were
married, and had not any children, could take no more than half the estate.

* * * * *

_Etruscan Vases._--The art of making earthenware was transported from
Etruria into Greece. The Romans also borrowed this invention from the
Etruscans, to whom also Greece was indebted for many of its ceremonies and
religious institutions, as well as for its mechanics and artificers.

* * * * *

It is customary in the canton Wallis, Switzerland, for those who have
found anything lost, even money, to affix it to a large crucifix in the
churchyard, and there is not an example on record, of any object being
taken away except by the rightful owner. W.G.C.

* * * * *

_Cumberland Titles._--The honorary titles arising from the different
degrees of allowed consequence or property in Cumberland, appear (says
Britton) singular when compared with their usual acceptation in society.
The mistress of the house is a _Dame_; every owner of a little landed
property is a _'Statesman_; his eldest son is the _Laird_; and where there
is no son, the eldest daughter is born to the title of _Leady_. Thus we
may see a '_Statesman_ driving the plough, a _Lord_ attending the market
with vegetables, and a _Leady_ labouring at the churn. P.T.