IT will be of interest to know who are among the greatest living astronomers. The list would certainly include Professor Simon Newcomb, of Johns Hopkins University; Professor Asaph Hall, of the U. S. Naval Observatory; Professor Otto Struve, of Pulkowa Observatory; Professor G. V. Schiaparelli, of Milan, Italy; Professor S. W. Burnham, of the Kenwood, Chicago, Observatory; and Professor E. E. Barnard, late of the Lick Observatory, and who is to have the Yerkes telescope. It was

the latter who discovered Jupiter's fifth satellite. Professor Wm. Huggins, of the Tulse Hill Observatory, London, England, and Professor H. C. Vogel, of the Potsdam, Germany, Observatory, are also famous astronomers.

MAY and June are most favorable months for the study of the planets. Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus are now in excellent position for evening observation. Saturn had on May 13 reached his greatest apparent angular diameter for this period, and beautifully shows his rings.

THE six largest telescopes of the world, mentioned in the order of size, are: 1. Chicago University's Yerkes telescope, with a 40-inch objective lens, and mounted near Lake Geneva, Wis.: 2. The Lick telescope, of California, a 36-inch lens: 3. The Pulkowa telescope, of the Pulkowa Observatory, near St. Petersburg, Russia, a 30-inch refractor; 4. The Nice telescope, a 294-inch objective, in the Nice Observatory, of France; 5. The Vienna refractor, 27-inch, in the new Vienna, Austria, Observatory; 6. Washington telescope, a 26-inch lens, in the National Naval Observatory. The venerable and famous Alvan G. Clark, of Massachusetts, was the maker of the lenses of the first three, the largest in the world, and the last, a distinction of which American astronomers are justly proud.

VIENNA, Austria, has no less than four observatories the Josephstadt, Otta-Kung, Old Observatory, and New Observatory.

PROFESSOR E. E. BARNARD is called the "comet seeker," having discovered more than twenty, while in the nebular system his discoveries reach more than one hundred. On Nov. 1, 1889, he announced the remarkable discovery that Saturn's crape ring was transparent, following, in 1892, by the discovery of Jupiter's fifth satellite, a body about one hundred miles in diameter. His photographs of the moon and of the entire heavens are unexcelled in all the world.

THE longest day at New York is fifteen hours; London, sixteen: Hamburg, seventeen; Stockholm, eighteen and a half; St. Petersburg, nineteen; Torneå, Finland, twentyfour Wardbury, Norway, from May 21 to July 22; and at Spitzbergen, for three and a half months it is uninterrupted daylight.

AT the Lowell Observatory of Harvard College, the special work of measuring the orbits of the double stars is about to be undertaken, requiring two years in its completion. This observatory has a new 24-inch refracting telescope. Many large observatories limit their investigation-this one almost entirely- to the planet Mars.

THE sun's period of spot-producing activity is about eleven years, the last maximum was in 1892. Since then spots have gradually disappeared from the face of the sun, and during the past two months they have been invisible. Professor Clement E. Rood, of the Albion College Observatory, announced, May 23, the first discovery of their reappearance.

To the average eye, not more than five thousand stars are visible; some persons having extraordinarily strong eyes can see about eight thousand stars. Through the Lick telescope and other powerful instruments, about fifty million stars are visible. There are believed to be stars in existence beyond the reach of any telescope yet constructed.

APPALLING DEPTHS OF SPACE.-- In a recent lecture, Sir Robert Ball said that a telegraphic message would go seven times round the earth in a second, and if a telegraphic message could be sent to the moon, it would reach its destination in a little more than a second. It would take something like eight minutes to arrive at the sun; but how long did they think it would take to get to Alpha Centauri, traveling thither one hundred and eighty thousand miles a second? Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, would not be long enough; it would take no less than three years, traveling all the time at that tremendous pace, before it would reach its destination. If that was the case with respect to the nearest of the stars, what must be said of those which were farther off? There were stars so remote that if the news of the victory of Wellington at Waterloo had been flashed to them in 1815 on that celestial telegraph system, it would not have reached them yet, even if the message had sped at the pace which he had indicated, and had been traveling all the time. There were stars so remote that if when William the Conqueror landed here in 1066, the news of his conquest had been despatched to them, and if the signals flew over the wire at a pace which would carry them seven times round the earth in a single second of time, that news would not have reached them yet. Nay, more, if the glad tidings of that first Christmas in Bethlehem nineteen centuries ago had thus been disseminated through the universe, there were yet stars of which astronomers could tell them, plunged into space in depths so appalling that even the 1892 years that had elapsed since that event, would not have been long enough for the news to reach them.

THE deep affection with which Sir Walter

Scott is held in the hearts of all Englishmen, is evidenced by the fact that through generations, in spite of the absence of the male line, his name has been perpetuated to the present day by court degrees, permitting the daughters of his descendants to hold the name of their great ancestor on their own marriage. The only living descendant is Mrs. Mary Maxwell-Scott, who by her sweet and unaffected nature is a great favorite in England.

BARRETT BROWNING, son of the great poets, lives in Venice in a beautiful palace.

BIRMINGHAM has a new school building that cost nearly half a million dollars.

IT is said five sixths of the Oxford and Cambridge students are now teetotalers.

THE British Isles comprise no fewer than one thousand separate islands.

QUEEN VICTORIA is only four feet ten inches high.

WHEN the Prince of Wales alludes to his mother, he always uses the words, "My mother, the Queen."

FIVE hundred vessels daily leave the Thames for all parts of the world.

AUSTRALIA, after spending five million dollars, fails in abating the rabbit plague. In New South Wales the plague has caused the abandonment of seven million acres.

IN the highway from Leamington to Warwick stands an ancient oak, twelve feet around, which is said to be the geographical center of England.

AN eminent Englishman says Shakespeare's name was originally pronounced "Shakespair," with the a the sound of a in "father."

DICKENS called Robinson Crusoe, "the most popular story in the world, and yet one which never drew a smile or tear."

POPULARITY of outdoor athletics in England is fairly shown by the application of nearly fourteen hundred London cricket clubs for use of grounds.

RECENTLY a memorial drinking fountain to the memory of William and Dorothy Wordsworth was unveiled in the park at Cockermouth, their birthplace.

ENGLISH law forbids one marrying his deceased wife's sister.

THE Woman's club feature of American life is just beginning in England.

SHAKESPEARE's birth, generally placed on April 21, is celebrated throughout England.

Alexander Smith.

At the Birmingham celebration this year Bret Harte, George F. Parker, and Ambassador Taylor participated, and Mary Anderson and President Cleveland sent letters.

ONE of Robert Browning's lines should be at the beginning of every poet's creed: "Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure.”

WHEN Wordsworth was made poet laureate he had to borrow Samuel Rogers's dress coat to go to court in, and strangely enough, when laureate honors fell to Tennyson, he, too, borrowed Rogers's very coat for the same purpose.

An Irish lecturer at a big meeting gave utterance to the following: "All along the untrodden paths of the future we can see the footprints of an unseen hand."

LORD ERSKINE said, "Burke was of all writers the most eloquent, and of all speakers the most tedious." He proceeded: “One evening in the House of Commons, when Burke was delivering one of his interminable harangues, became anxious, like many others, to get away, but, being close under his eye, I could not easily escape unobserved. At last, however, unable any longer to endure his drawling, I ducked down behind the benches and crawled out on all fours. Next morning I found the speech reported in the newspapers. What a splendid composition! No longer marred by his wearisome manner and Irish accent, it riveted my attention. I read it through again and again, carried the paper with me into the country, and kept it in my pocket till it was worn out.'

A NOBLE example of Sabbath observance is set by Queen Victoria. She has, from the beginning of her reign, laid aside all secular duties on that day. Some one has told the following: One of her ministers arrived late one Saturday night at Windsor Castle with important matters, as he said, which he would not ask her to look over that night, but on the