Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

8 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

MAY AND I.

THE STRANGE CLAIMANT; OR,…

"I LOVED ONCE."

[No title]

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

A FBIKND IN NEED."—Here is another case in which a stranger at Naples was introduced in an amusing manner to the mysterious Oamorra." The stranger, a young Italian from the North, had ordered a SUIt of clothes. The tailor delayed so long in sending them, that some unfortuate alteration in the position of the customer made him fear that when at last the clothes should be brought home he would noth vetbe means of paying for them. In this embarrassment the young man confides his trouhle to a Neapolitan friend. The latter, having heard the case, says that he thinks there will be no difficulty in arranging the matter, and will see to it. An hour later he came back and said, Now all you have to do is to tell the tailor that he has made you wait so long, you can wait no more; the things must be sent within the twenty- four hours or the clothes will not be received. I know they can't be finished in the time." This counsel was acted an. The clothes were not sent. The stranger was freed from his bargain. A day or two afterwards, however, his Neapolitan friend returned. Well, it was all right about the clothes ? Oh, yes, all right! was all right about the clothes?" Ob, yea, all right' The fellow never sent them. I am so much obliged to you." "Well!" Oh! I must make my old suit lastTa lihtle longer, that's all!" But you would have had to pay a hundred and twenty francs ^es',? 8uPPose BO." Well, then, hand over my share. Your share ?" Yes, to be sure you owe me forty francs 1" And in a word, the friend in need being a capo-camorrista, the money had to be paid, and the northerner was made to understand that at Naples, at least, dans le si&cle oii nous sommes, on 118 d-onne rien pour rien This is another of the thousand modes of action of the "Oamorrtl.— The (Jtftfrffewajt'a Magazine. THE ORIGIN OF THE MODERN DRAMA.—The comedies of Plautus, with those of Terence, who was about 9 years old when Plautus died,and the tragedies of the Roman philosopher Seneca, who died by com- mand of Nero, A.D. 65, represented the old Latin dramatic literature to mediaeval scholars whe knew little of Greek; and thus Plautus and Terence for comedy, Seneca for tragedy, represented to most scholars the old classical drama down even to Shakes- peare's time. Out of the study and imitation of these plays in schools and universities the modern drama most distinctly rose. It would so have arisen if there had never been any Miracle Plays. It did not in any way arise out of the Miracle Plays. Miracle Plays did not pass into Morality Plays, nor did Morality Plays afterwards pass into true dramas. Miracle Plays are one thing; Moralities are another thing; each form of writing has its own dis- tinct beginning, aim, and end. They are two different forms of literature, one arising out of the church services, the other an offshoot from the allegorical didactic poem. When the two forms of literature were both used, they were occasionally mixed, but there never was a time at which one changed into the other. Like the drama proper, they turn to account the instinct for imitation that has, in a sense, made actors of all children born into the world, and thus they may claim cousinship with our drama that had its beginning in the sixteenth century; they are its cousins, not its parents.—CasselVs Library of English Literature. THE EFFECTS OF HUNGER. One of the most remarkable effects of hunger is that which it has on the blood. In the blood-liquor there are floating large numbers of minute discs, coloured and colourless, which act as carriers of nutrition to the tissues. There are also held in solution and suspen- sion certain substances, the products of disintegrated" structures, whi-jh are always being removed. Now, hunger diminishes the quantity of blood-discs and in- creases the quantity of waste products in the blood. Clearly. this double action, diminishing the nutritive element of the blood, and increasing the products of disintegration in it, cannot go on for ever. It must haTe a limit. This leads us to ask, When does star- vation pan the boundary-line of life? The point at which starvation becomes fatal is a shifting one. Much depends on the rate at which the tissues of the body break down. That rate, again, must vary in propor- tion with the stillness or activity of the starved body. Every movement must be made at the cost of a certain amount of destruction of substance and if the body could be kept absolutely still, abstinence from food might be prolonged for an enormous length of time. The miraculous power of fasting ascribed to hysterical devotees is thus explicable. Where these are not sheer impostors, it it usually found that the fasting person is bedridden—is kept lying in a state of profound rest, not even being able to Bpeak. It will be also found that the waste of tissue in such a case is reduced to the quanity broken down in those chemical actions which generate animal heat, and to that wasted by the scarcely perceptible pulsations of the heart, and the minimised respiration whereby, no matter to how slight an extent, the blood exchanges oxygen from the air for carbonic acid, the product of-worn-out tissue. That this minimised waste goes on and must go on as long the fasting person retains a spark of life, » self-evident fact, just as much as it is an obvious truth that if we keep a machine ,going—no matter how feebly- it must in some degree wear away, no matter how imperceptibly.—Science For AU. IMAGINATION AND FEAR. — Fear, with .the uncultured mlnrij is ordinarily a more powerful paa- sion than Cjfrher hope, imaginative love, or sense of beauty* For that reason we find the popular faith as to the demons and malignant spirits far more gene- rally prevalent than as to the messengers of heaven. The Italian peasant, male or female, is afraid to be left alone. In a chamber, in a garden, more especially near a river, the same terror fills his imagination that we find, from the legends of the Qhemara, afflicted the Jew- In Southern Italy the dreaded assailants of the lonely peasant are feared under the name of the menacelli. In Ireland the fear of spirits is firmly seated amongst the peasantry, and even in the houses of the gentry the kitchen is regularly let:- at night with certain preparations for their supernatural visitants. The constant howl of the Italian colono, when at work in the fields or gardens, is an utterance of feat. It is intended to keeo away the monacelli, as the tocco, or the noon-day sounding of the church bells was ordered, in 1455, by Pope Oalixtus III., to .8 keep sway the mischievous influences of Halley s comet. In Scotland, in Norway-in every nook and corner of Christendom, some form of fear of kelpy, sprite, troll, gnome, imp, or demon yet holds, in the opinion of the common people, much the same station that he occupied in Papan times.—Dublin University I Magazine.

LADIES' COLUMN.

USEFUL HINTS.

[No title]

VARIETIES.