in a dark apartment it gives light enough to take
a good photograph. It will do the same if flashed out of a pistol; so
that a citizen may have his revolver with a small camera on the barrel
and by flashing the gun-cotton out of his pistol he can make a
photograph of any burglar or robber in the dark before he fires a
bullet.

WOODEN CLOTH.--An Austrian has patented a process for boiling wood and
cleaving it into fibres that may be spun into threads which may be
woven.

THE PHYLLOXERA pest, which has wrought such havoc among vineyards
throughout Europe, has invaded California also. France has lost many
millions, and has offered a reward of 300,000 francs for the discovery
of a remedy. A Turkish farmer is said to have discovered accidentally
that the remedy is to plant Sorghum or sugar-cane between the vines,
which draws the phylloxera from the grapevines. It is said to have
been successfully adopted already in Turkey, Croatia, Dalmatia and
Eastern Italy.

FALLING RENTS, in England.--While landlords are battling for rents
foreign rivalry is destroying rent, and it is still going down. Large
estates have a difficulty in getting either tenants or purchasers. The
fall in prices and rents extends all over England. On a farm of 2,700
acres, in Lancashire, the tenant had been paying five dollars an acre,
but he refused to take it for 1887 at two dollars and a half. Lands in
1876 were commonly valued at $260 per acre; but they would not bring
over $150 to-day. The Court Journal says:

The depreciation in the value of English land is witnessed by one or
two statements published last week. We are, in the first place, told
that within a radius of twelve miles around Louth, in Lincolnshire,
there are now 22,400 acres of land without tenants. In the same shire
the largest farm in England has been thrown on the owner's hands. It
is 2,700 acres in extent and the tenant paid L1 per acre. This year a
reduction of 50 per cent was made to him, but finding that although an
experienced and energetic farmer, that even at this reduction he could
not make two ends meet, he has thrown up his farm.

BOSTON CIVILIZATION.--During the four years ending Sept. 30, 1884,
there were 971 liquor sellers condemned for violating the law, who
appealed to the superior court. Of the entire number, only 19 were
fined, and 729 were allowed to escape by dropping the prosecution. But
the law against preaching on the Boston Common is enforced with