Science, Art, And The Drama.

Science , Art , and the Drama .

SOME ELECTRICAL . PHENOMENA . What would be thought of a lady who , when saluting her dearest friends , gave at the same time an electric shock from her lips ? Who , presenting a hand to her acquaintances , made their hands tingle again with electric sparks ? What would you think if the knob of your friend ' s parlour door sent a severe twinge up your arm ? or , if a similar twinge paralysed your legs on passing from the front to the back drawing room . No matter what

you would think ; such things are , and the marvels of fiction fade to insignificance before them . New York , as everyone knows , is an extraordinary city , famous for many things , with edifices of almost palatial architecture . Great pains are bestowed on the workmanship of the interior , the doors and windows being made to fit with the utmost accuracy , to keep out the fierce winter cold ; and the arrangements for heating the apartments with hot air

are such that the houses are as dry and warm as an oven during the cold season . Too warm , indeed , for health . Well , within the past years , the occupants of some of these houses have been the subjects and witnesses of unusual phenomena , something more than they bargained for in their lease . They have had to endure the visitation , if not domiciliation , of what may be called domestic electricity , exhibiting itself in vivid sparks , v / ithout apparent

cause or warning . As described by Prof . Loomes , of New York University , the shocks were at times of considerable intensity . " A stranger , " he says , on entering one of these electrical houses , in attempting to shake hands with the inmates , receives a shock , which is quite noticeable and somewhat unpleasant . Ladies in attempting to kiss each other are saluted by a spark . A spark is perceived whenever the hand is brought

near to the knob of a door , the gilded frame of a mirror , the gas pipes , or any metallic body , especially when this body communicates freely with the earth . In one house a child , in taking hold of the knob of a door , received so severe a shock that she ran off in great fright . The lidy of the house , in approaching the speaking-tube to give orders to the servant , felt a very unpleasant shock in the mouth , and was much annoyed by the electricity

until she learned first to touch the tube with her finger . In passing from one parlour to the other , if she chanced to step upon the brass plate which sejved as a slide for the folding-doors , she caught an unpleasant shock in the foot . When her finger approached the chandelier , or gaselier rather , suspended from the ceiling , there appeared a brilliant spark and a snap , as in the discharge of a Leyden jar of good s i ze . Strange as these facts

appear , they are not difficult of explanation . They are most conspicuous in the coldest weather , and in the best finished and most highly heated houses . Here are presented materials for the development of electricity ; in addition to which the floors of the rooms are covered with velvet pile carpets , and it admits of proof that electricity may be excited in a close , thick worsted carpet by the leather of the shoe in walking over it . Dryness is essential

to the phenomenon , and the American winters , as is well-known , are remarkably dry ; at any rate , the anthracite coal furnace , pouring its stream of hot air into every room of a house , effectually checks any approach to moisture . For this reason to shuffle across the carpet in such a house , or even to walk slowly , would so charge a person with electricity that sparks would be given off by touching another person or any metallic substance .

And although the cause may seem scarcsly adequate to the effect , we ought to remember that the friction is accompanied by the whole weight of the body . Let any one rub a piece of carpet with a piece of leather , and apply the electrometer ; the effect will be surprising . These electrical houses give feebler signs of electricity as warm weather comes in ; and during the summer , with its damp oppressive heat , they almost entirely disappear .

There is nothing mysterious in this . The phenomenon is easily u iderstood ; but it has the peculiarity—reversing social usages—of staying most at home in dry weather , and going abroad when damp and rainy . We have read of a natural philosopher who , persecuted by an obstinate dun , charged his knocker with a stiong shock to punish his tormentor ; the hapless savant should have lived in an electrical house . We have heard of

other houses where a spark could always be drawn from the looking glass frame above the mantle-piece , a fire burning at the time in an open grate beneath . And in many parts of America , and on board steamboats , persons sitting round the fire have drawn electric sparks by presenting their knuckles to the stove . In the scientific journals have been published a few remarkable particulars concerning an " electrical lady " at Oxford , in

l \ eiv Hampshire , -his lady , one day towards the end of January , during an appearance of the aurora , happening to pass her hand near her brother ' s face , saw sparks fly from each finger ; the pricking sensation being felt by both , to their mutual astonishment . A professor from Dartmouth College , who came in shortly afterwards , expressed his incredulity when the lady , presenting her knuckle to his nose , he was convinced of the fact by a spark

three-fourths of an inch long . This electrical condition remained in full vigour up to the end of February , after which it decreased , and was lost in May j but during this time the lady observed the effect to be greatest when her mind was tranquil and cheerful , and least when she was agitated or cold . _ She had no inward consciousness of the presence or absence of the electric power ; when it existed in intensity , while sitting at her needlework she

, was tormented by the sparks every time she touched her scissors , knitting-needle , the poker , or anything metallic ; and when quietly reading near the stove , three or four sparks a minute would pass from her to the mass of iron . Her health was delicate , and she continued subject to similar manifestations till her death , a few years after . These phenomena open views of electricity which some day will be understood and made practically useful to mankind . '

Elizabeth was avaricious with pomp—James I . lavish with meanness . A prince who patronises the arts , and can distinguish abilities , enriches the country , and is at once generous and an economist . Charles had virtues to make a nation happy ; fortunately he had not thought that he knew how to . .

ARTISTIC CHARACTER OF CHARLES I . The accession of this King , 1625 , was the first era of real taste in c-ngland . As his temper was not profuse , the expense he made in collections , and the rewards he bestowed on men of true genius and merit , are proofs of his judgmentHe knew how and when to bestowOueen

make them happy , and that he alone ought to have the power of making them so j Mr . Gilpin ( Western Tour ) has drawn the portrait of King S-narlesI . with a felicitous hand . "If Charles had acted with as much judgment as he read , and had shown as much discernment in life as

Science, Art, And The Drama.

he had taste in the arts , he might have figured among the greatest princes . Every lover of picturesque beauty , however , must respect this amiable Prince , notwithstanding his political weaknesses . We never had a Prince in England whose genius and taste were more elevated and exact . He saw the arts in a very enlarged point of view . The amusements of his Court were a model of elegance to all Europe ; and his cabinets were the

receptacles only of what was exquisite in sculpture and painting . None but men of the first merit in their profession found encouragement from him , and these abundantly . Jones was his architect , and Vandyck his painter . Charles was a scholar , a man of taste , a gentleman , and a Christian ; he was everything but a King . The art of reigning was the only art of which he was ignorant . His character is thus quaintly given

by old Lilly , the historian : " He had many excellent parts in nature , was a skilful horseman , would shoot well at a mark , had singular skill in limning , was a good judge of pictures , a clever mathematician , not unskilful in music , well read in divinity , excellent in history and law ; he spoke several languages , and writ well , in good language and style . " Perinchief is still more particular : " There was not any one gentleman of

all the three kingdoms that could compare with him in an universality of knowledge . He encouraged all parts of learning , and he delighted to talk with all kinds of artists , and with so great a facility did apprehend the mysteries of their professions , that he did sometimes say , ' He thought he could get his living , if necessitated , by any trade he knew of but making of hangings . '"

THE TWO BOSTONS—ENGLAND AND U . S . AMERICA . The famous " Old Stump , " the tower of the fine church of B ) ston , in Lincolnshire , has bsen from early times a well known landmark to ships at , sea . The town is built upon the site of the monastery of Ivanhoe , founded by St . Botolph in 654 , and being rebuilt by the Danes in 870 , was an important commercial town in the 13 th century , and was made a staple for wool by Edward III . in 1357 . The other Boston , in the United States of

America , was settled in 1630 , and to-day , Christ Church , built in 1723 , is shown to the visitor as an antiquity . These latter facts accentuate the meaning of the "Old World and the New . " St . Botolph ' s Church , in the English Boston , was founded in 1309 , and to-day , its tower , 223 feet high , is still a noble landmark by sea and land . The Boston of Massachusetts was named after this Boston of Lincolnshire in England ; and the mother city has always taken a deep interest in the progress and welfare of the

beautiful city by the Charles River . The country all round the English Boston is full of strange interest . The adjacent sea washes a coast line as flat as the fens to which St . Botolph's Tower , once upon a tims , wis as important a beacon to landsmen , as to sailors . For many a long year after the Normans had literally conquered the Saxon land , the native islander stood out in this district , often going out to meet the foe on stilts , so that , having delivered their assault , they could retreat in safety into the fastnesses of their bogs and marshes .

GENERAL NOTES . If precedent is followed , some special music will certainly be written for the Coronation next year . It is supposed that the Coronation Anthem will be composed by Dr . Creser , who is organist and composer to the Chapel Royal , and a suggestion has also been made that the " Te Daum , " written by the late Bro . Sir Arthur Sullivan for the thanksgiving service to be held in

St . Paul's on the proclamation of peace in South Africa , might be used . Another musical question mooted in reference to the Coronation is whether " a composer to the Court " should not be appointed , to do for music what the Poet Laureate does for verse . Of course , there is the Mister of Music to the Court , the appointment being held by Bro . Sir Walter Parrett ; but he does little more than conduct the King ' s private and State bandi .

The new opera , by Mr . Edward German , which is eventually to succeei " The Emerald Isle , " at the Savoy Theatre , is to be entitled " Merrie England . " •By Mr . C . Hawtrey ' sown desire , the farewell supper to have been given him by his friends , prior to his departure for the United States of America , did not lake place .

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