rrespondents. Its advantages are, freedom from error, as the
messages transmitted are fac-similes of the originals: authentication of
the communications by the transmission of copies of the handwriting;
increased rapidity, to such an extent that a single wire may be as
effective as ten with the needle telegraph, and consequent economy in
the construction of telegraphic lines of communication. The secrecy of
correspondence would also be maintained in a greater degree by the
copying telegraph, as it would afford peculiar facility for transmitting
messages in cipher, and the telegraph clerks, instead of being compelled
by their duties to read all the messages transmitted, might be forbidden
from perusing any portion but the address. As an additional means of
secrecy, the messages may be transmitted invisibly, by moistening the
paper with diluted muriatic acid alone, the writing being rendered
legible by a solution of prussiate of potass.

* * * * *

The "original Mrs. Partington" was a respectable old lady (says _Notes
and Queries_), living at Sidmouth, in Devonshire. Her cottage was on the
beach, and during an awful storm (November, 1824, when some fifty or
sixty ships were wrecked at Plymouth) the sea rose to such a height as
every now and then to invade the old lady's place of domicile; in fact,
almost every wave dashed in at the door. Mrs. Partington, with such help
as she could command, with mops and brooms, as fast as the water entered
the house, mopped it out again; until at length the waves had the
mastery, and the dame was compelled to retire to an upper story of the
house. The first allusion to the circumstance was made by Lord Brougham
in his celebrated speech in the House of Commons on the Reform Bill, in
which he compared the Conservative opposition to the bill to be like the
opposition of "Dame Partington, who endeavored to mop out the waves of
the Atlantic."

* * * * *

It is stated that the Neapolitan Government has granted a sum of twenty
thousand ducats for continuing the excavations at Pompeii.

FOOTNOTES:

[29] JEREMY TAYLOR--_Of Christian Prudence_.

Ladies' Fashions for January.

[Illustration]

The evening costumes of the present season are characterized by profuse
trimming. The skirts of the newest dresses, excepting those composed of
very rich materials, are all very fully trimmed. Corsages, whether high
or low, are or