industry, and scattering luxuries even among the poorest. To the
inventor, and not to the statesman, politician, or warrior, do we owe
our present prosperity."

IMPORTANT DISCOVERY.--"Tests were recently made at Louisville of a new
and not expensive process for hardening and tempering steel, by which
hardness and elasticity are carried forward in combination. A drill
made of the new steel penetrated in forty minutes a steel safe-plate
warranted to resist any burglar drill for twelve hours. A penknife
tempered by the process cut the stem of a steel key readily, and with
the same blade the inventor shaved the hairs on his arm. The inventor
is a young blacksmith. He has also a new process for converting iron
into steel."

SACCHARINE.--This new substance said to be 200 times as sweet as sugar
is manufactured from coal tar. It was discovered about six years ago
in the laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, by
Prof. Remsen and a student named Fahlberg, who has since taken out
patents upon it. It is greatly superior to sugar, as it is free from
fermentation and decomposition. A small quantity added to starch or
glucose will make a compound equal to sugar in sweetness. It is a
valuable antiseptic and has valuable medical properties.

SUGAR has been discovered to have great value as an addition to
mortar, as it has a solvent action on lime. An English builder wrote
an important letter to the authorities of Charleston, S. C., on this
subject, after that city had suffered from the earthquake.

ARTIFICIAL IVORY.--We shall no longer need the elephant for ivory.
Compounds of a celluloid character, made from cotton waste, can now be
made hard as ivory, or flexible or soft as we wish. White and
transparent, or brilliantly colored, it can be handled like wood cut
and carved, or applied as a varnish. An artificial ivory of creamy
whiteness and great hardness is now made from good potatoes washed in
diluted sulphuric acid, and then boiled in the same solution until
they become solid and dense. They are then washed free of the acid and
slowly dried. This ivory can be dyed and turned, and made useful in
many ways.

PAPER PIANOS.--Pianos have lately been made from paper in Germany,
instead of wood, with great improvement in the tone.

SOCIAL DEGENERACY OF THE WEALTHY.--The _Boston Herald_ says: "The
spirit of the age is censorious. There is no doubt of that, or that
with every new day the tendency toward