nce of Madrid,
with its seven towers, fifteen gateways, and 12,000 windows and doors,
and to many other vast piles. For the largest single building extant,
we must look to St. Peter's at Rome, within which our great cathedral,

St. Paul's, could easily stand. St. Peter's occupies a space of
240,000 sq. ft., its front is 400 ft. broad, rising to a height of 180
ft.; the length of the interior is 600 ft., its breadth 442 ft. It
is capable of holding 54,000 people, while its piazza, in its widest
limits, holds 624,000. It is only by degrees that one is able to
realize its vast size. St. Peter's holds 54,000 persons; Milan
Cathedral, 37,000; St. Paul's, Rome, 32,000; St. Paul's, London,
25,600; St. Petronio, Bologna, 24,400; Florence Cathedral, 24,300;
Antwerp Cathedral, 24,000; St. Sophia, Constantinople, 23,000; Notre
Dame, Paris, 21,000; Pisa Cathedral, 13,000; St. Stephen's, Vienna,
12,400; Auditorium, Chicago, 12,000; St. Mark's, Venice, 7,000.

The Biggest Bell in the World.--There is a bell in the Temple of
Clars, at Kinto, Japan, which is larger than the great bell of Moscow,
or any other. It is covered with Chinese and Sanskrit characters which
Japanese scholars have not yet succeeded in translating. There is no
record of its casting. Its height is 24 ft., and at the rim it has a
thickness of 16 in. It has no clapper, but is struck on the outside by
a kind of wooden battering-ram. We are unable to obtain any more exact
particulars as to the dimensions of this bell in order to determine
whether or no it really does excel the "Monarch" of Moscow, which
weighs about 193 tons, is 19 ft. 3 in. in height, 60 ft. 9 in. in
circumference, and 2 ft. thick. There is another huge bell at Moscow,
and those at Amazapoora, in Burmah, and at Pekin are far bigger than
any we have in this country. Our biggest bell is "Great Paul," which
was cast at Loughborough in 1881, and which weighs 17-1/2 tons. Taking
purity, volume, and correctness of note into account, it is probably
the finest bell in Europe.

The Oldest Cities in the World.--They are the following:--Argos,
Athens and Thebes, in Greece; Crotona and Rome, in Italy; Cadiz and
Saguntum, in Spain; Constantinople, in Turkey, and Marseilles, in
France, which was founded by a colony of Greeks 580 B.C. The age of
these cities varies from twenty-four to twenty-seven centuries.

How to Manufacture Oil of Apple, or Essence of Apple.--The essence of
apple is composed of aldehyde 2 p