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