Ready made houses is an important branch of manufacturing in some parts of the country. “A correspondent of the _Old Colony Memorial_ paid a visit not long ago to Fairfield, Maine, where a large establishment is located for the production of these knock down houses, and he says that few have any idea to what extent this business has been carried in Waterville and its neighborhood, or to what perfection it has been brought. In the establishment to which we refer dwelling houses are made, like boots and shoes, in any quantity, and of any size or style, and for any market in the wide world. Not long since this concern received a single order for fifty houses for Cape May, to be delivered speedily and in complete finish. These houses were to be, not sheds nor shanties, but regularly ordered dwellings; and they were made accordingly and so delivered, and contain hundreds of occupants at this moment. An order will be received for a $50,000 hotel, or an ornate, French-roof, cottage for a fine country estate, and these as easily and expeditiously furnished as an ordinary boarding house for a country village, or a barn for a ranch in Kansas or Colorado.” This would be a good plan for persons to adopt who contemplate building cottages at Chautauqua. Try it. * * * * * “The first railroad in Palestine is being laid out, and the preliminary survey has been completed as far as the Jordan. It is to run between Acre and Damascus, and is called the Hamidié line, because it is named after his present Majesty, the Sultan Abdul Hamid. Probably one reason why the firman has been granted so easily lies in the fact that it passes through a great extent of property which he has recently acquired, to the east of the plain of Esdraelon. The concession is held by ten or twelve gentlemen, some of whom are Moslems and some Christians, but all are Ottoman subjects resident in Syria. Among the most influential are the Messrs. Sursock, bankers, who own the greater part of the plain of Esdraelon, and who have, therefore, a large interest in the success of the line.” * * * * * Several eminent Englishmen have visited this country during the past month. Lord Coleridge, representing the law, Henry Irving the stage, Matthew Arnold, literature, and Père Hyacinthe, theology. The reception of these gentlemen in our eastern cities indicates that the world has a peculiar fondness for its own. Henry Irving was received by more people, entertained more elegantly, and eulogized with more applause, than any one in the list. Yet he has not done a tithe as much for the elevation of his fellow men across the waters as any one of the others. Is it not still true, “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light?” * * * * *