rgely to the effect of
the spirit of terror which hung like a pall over men's minds. After
some months had passed, the practice of opening the hard boils was
adopted, with very good effect, and many lives were thus saved. But
the havoc wrought by the disease in England was terrible. It is said
that 100,000 persons died in London, nearly 60,000 in Norwich, and
proportionate numbers in other cities. These figures seem incredible,
but a recent writer, who has spent much time in the investigation of
records, asserts that at least half the population, or about 2,500,000
souls, of England perished in this outbreak. The ravages of the
pestilence over the rest of the world were no less terrible.
Germany is said to have lost 1,244,434 victims; Italy, over half the
population. On a moderate calculation, it may be assumed that there
perished in Europe during the first appearance of the Black Death,
fully 25,000,000 human beings. Concerning the Orient we have less
reliable records, but 13,000,000 are said to have died in China, and
24,000,000 in the rest of Asia and adjacent islands. The plague also
ravaged Northern Africa, but of its course there little is known.
The horrors of that dreadful time were increased by the fearful
persecutions visited on the Jews, who were accused of having caused
the pestilence by poisoning the public wells. The people rose to
exterminate the hapless race, and killed them by fire and torture
wherever found. It is impossible for us to conceive of the actual
horror of such times.

MIGHTY HAMMERS.--An authority on scientific subjects give the weights
of the great hammers used in the iron works of Europe, and their date
of manufacture, as follows: At the Terni Works, Italy, the heaviest
hammer weighs 50 tons, and was made in 1873; one at Alexandrovski,
Russia, was made the following year of like weight. In 1877, one was
finished at Creusot Works, France, weighing 80 tons; in 1885, one at
the Cockerill Works, Belgium, of 100 tons, and in 1880, at the Krupp
Works, Essen, Germany, one of 150 tons. The latter being the heaviest
hammer in the world.

ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD.--July 2, 1881, at 9:25 A.M., as
President Garfield was entering the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad depot
at Washington, preparatory to taking the cars for a two weeks' jaunt in
New England, he was fired upon and severely wounded by Charles Jules
Guitean, a native of Illinois, but of French descent. The scene of the
assassi