THE DISCOVERIES AT POMPEII.--A Naples correspondent says--"The waxed tablets found, together with silver vases, &c., at Pompeii, all belong to one woman, Decidia Margaris, and are contracts precisely similar to those found twelve years ago belonging to one Lucio Cecilio Giocondo; but unlike those, which were enclosed in a strong iron box, and had undergone a process of carbonization which preserved their legibility for eighteen centuries, the present ones were only folded, together with the vases, in a thick cloth, which the rain-water had penetrated, reducing the wood to pulp, and wearing away the wax on which the characters are impressed, so that only some fragments preserved the writing; and a few days after the discovery these too were lost, the wax separating from the wooden tablets and breaking up into minute particles. There remains now only one tablet, which has been naturally preserved by being impregnated with oxide of copper. It is the contract for the sale of young slaves to Decidia Margaris."--_Daily News._ A GENUINE FAST OF TWENTY DAYS.--An extraordinary case of prolonged fasting is reported in connection with the severe weather. On December 22nd, 1887, a peasant woman from Opergrabern, near Vienna, went to receive some money that was owing to her at a small village a few miles distant. The amount was not paid, and the woman had only four kreutzers in her pocket, with which she bought two rolls of bread. On the way home she was caught in a heavy snow-storm, and took shelter in a small hut in a vineyard. The storm continuing, she decided to spend the night where she was, and divested herself of some of her upper garments to wrap up her feet. The next morning, when she awoke, she could not rise, being partially paralyzed by the cold. Her cries for help were unheard, and it was only on the 11th of January she was found by a woodcutter's wife, having been twenty days without food. She was in a precarious condition, but there is some hope of her recovery.