Rigoletto, Lucia, Traviatathe bel cantothat sort of thing; there's nothing like it for showing off the voice.

A very valuable musical manuscript, by Guillaume de Machault, who was valet de chambre to Phillippe-le-Bel, in 1307, has been discovered in the royal library at Paris.

Baal was the sun-god among the polytheistic Canaanites, as Bel was among the Assyrians.

Philippe le Bel issued several prohibitory enactments also in the interest of home commerce and local industry, which Louis X. confirmed.

Organization of Finances by Louis IX.Extortions of Philip le Bel.

down to that of Philippe le Bel, who was the most extravagant of kings, and at the same time the most ingenious in raising funds for the State treasury, the financial movement of Europe took root, and eventually became centralised in Italy.

Philippe le Bel, owing to his interminable wars against the King of Castille, and against England, Germany, and Flanders, was frequently so embarrassed as to be obliged to resort to extraordinary subsidies in order to carry them on.

In 1303, the aide au leur, which was afterwards called the aide de l'ost, or the army tax, was invented by Philippe le Bel for raising an army without opening his purse.

Philippe le Bel died, after having yielded to the opposition of his indignant subjects, and in his last moments he recommended his son to exercise moderation in taxing and honesty in coining.

Taxes giving commercial franchise and of exchange were levied, which were paid by the Jews, Lombards, Tuscans, and other Italians; judiciary offices were sold by auction; the trading class purchased letters of nobility, as they had already done under Philippe le Bel; and, more than this, the enfranchisement of serfs, which had commenced in 1298, was continued on the payment of a tax, which varied according to the means of each individual.

The establishment of a central mint for the whole kingdom, the expulsion of the money-dealers, who were mostly of Italian origin, and the confiscation of their goods if it was discovered that they had acted falsely, signalised the accession of Charles le Bel in 1332.

The salt tax, which Philippe le Bel had established, and which his successor, Louis X., immediately abolished at the unanimous wish of the people, was again levied by Philip VI., and this king, having caused the salt produced in his domains to be sold, "gave great offence to all classes of the community."

" Philippe le Bel went still further, for, in 1287, he invited "all those who possess temporal authority in the kingdom of France to appoint, for the purpose of exercising civil jurisdiction, a bailiff, a provost, and some serjeants, who were to be laymen, and not ecclesiastics, and if there should be ecclesiastics in the said offices, to remove them."

"We order that they shall be eight in number," says an edict of Philippe le Bel, of February, 1324, "four of them being ecclesiastics and four laymen, and that they shall assemble at the Châtelet two days in the week, to take into consideration the suits and causes in concert with our provost...."

In the time of Philippe le Bel there existed in reality but one Parliament, and that was the King's Court.

Philippe le Bel made it exclusively a judicial court, defined the territorial limit of its power, and gave it as a judicial body privileges tending to strengthen its independence and to raise its dignity.

But Philippe le Bel and his successors, while incessantly quarrelling either with the aristocracy or with the clergy, wanted the great judicial bodies which issued the edicts, and the urban or municipal magistrateswhich, being subject to re-election, were principally recruited from among the bourgeoisto be a common centre of opposition to any attempt at usurpation of power, whether on the part of the Church, the nobility, or the crown.

The Great Days of Troyes (dies magni Trecenses), the assizes of the ancient counts of Champagne, and the exchequer of Normandy, were also organized by Philipe le Bel; and, further, he authorised the maintenance of a Parliament at Toulouse, a court which he solemnly opened in person on the 10th of January, 1302.

" In the midst of the changes of the Middle Ages, especially after the communes became free, all those kings who felt the importance of a strict system of justice, particularly St. Louis, Philippe le Bel, and Charles VIII., had seen the necessity of compiling a record of local customs.

He was preserving the scene at its bel momento.

The word "Belfry" is derived from the French bel, "beautiful, becoming, meet," and from the German frei, "free unfettered, secure, safe."

The Pope, whose life was so obnoxious to the ambition of Philip le Bel that his timely death aroused suspicion of poison, lies asleep upon his marble bier with hands crossed in an attitude of peaceful expectation.

I look on the name as only a corruption or romantic alteration of the word Baal or Bel; and, as we have every reason to suppose he was worshipped by part of the aborigines of this country, I deem it not improbable that on or near this spot might once have existed a temple for his worship, which afterwards gave a name to the place.

d' Aminta Iscolorite in sì leggiadri modi, Che viola non è che impallidisca Si dolcemente, e lui languir sì fatto, Che parea già negli ultimi sospiri Esalar l'alma; in guisa di Baccante Gridando, e percotendosi il bel petto, Lasciò cadersi in sul giacente corpo, E giunse viso a viso, e bocca a bocca.

All' ombra d' un bel faggio Silvia e Filli Sedean un giorno, ed io con loro insieme; Quando un' ape ingegnosa, che cogliendo Sen giva il mel per que' prati fioriti, Alle guance di Fillide volando, Alle guance vermiglie come rosa, Le morse e le rimorse avidamente; Ch' alla similitudine ingannata Forse un fior le credette.

There is no denying that in the estimation of a large number of the groups we are considering, the question of neat and orderly service, the capped and aproned maid, the liveried bell-boy and butler, expresslike the smoothly shaven lawna certain social convention; and because it means expense, the house in working order means more than shelter: it sets forth pecuniary standing in the community.

It is the story of great menMorse, Thomson, Bell, Marconi, and othersand how, with the aid of men like Field, Vail, Catty, Pupin, the scientist, and others in both the technical and commercial fields, they succeeded in flashing both messages and speech around the world, with wires and without wires.

The early life of Alexander Graham Bell was full of color, and I have told the story of his patient investigations of human speech and hearing, which, finally culminated in a practical telephone.

Through a well in the center of the ship they suspended an eight-hundred-pound bell twenty feet beneath the surface of the sea.

He also invented a sound telegraph by which signals were transmitted by the strokes of a bell operated by the current at the receiving end of the circuit.

His receiving apparatus was an electro-magnet, the armature of which struck a bell.

The grandfather, the father, and the uncle of Alexander Graham Bell were all elocutionists of note.

Although Bell did not know it, many others were struggling with the same problem, the answer to which proved most elusive.

Sir Charles Wheatstone was then England's leading man of science, and so Bell sought his counsel.

Mr. Sanders sought Bell's tutelage for his son, and it was agreed that Bell should give Georgie private lessons for the sum of three hundred and fifty dollars a year.

Hubbard first became aware of Bell's inventive genius when the latter was calling one evening at the Hubbard home in Cambridge.

" From that time forward Hubbard took every occasion to encourage Bell to carry forward his experiments in musical telegraphy.

Bell had a great horror that his ideas might be stolen and was very nervous over any possible intrusion into his precious workshop.

Hubbard went even further, and insisted that if Bell did not abandon his foolish notions he could not marry his daughter.

Now he was destined to aid Bell, as he had aided Morse a generation earlier.

This proved just the stimulus Bell needed, and he returned to Boston with a new determination to perfect his great idea.

He had also secured the services of an assistant, one Thomas Watson, who received nine dollars a week for his services in Bell's behalf.

But these were the years when Bell and Watson were "going to school," learning how to apply electricity to this new use, striving to make their apparatus talk.

By June of 1875 Bell had completed a new Instrument.

Bell and Watson had been working upon their crude apparatus for months, and finally, on June 2d, sounds were actually transmitted.

Bell was afire with enthusiasm; the first great step had been taken.

The patent issued to Bell has been described as "the most valuable single patent ever issued."

Bell showed him how to place his ear to the receiver, and he then went to the transmitter which had been placed at the other end of the wire strung along the room.

Bell, at a distance, spoke into the transmitter.

Hubbard, however, had faith in the invention, and as Bell was not a business man, he took upon himself the work of promotionthe necessary, valuable work which must be accomplished before any big idea or invention may be put at the service of the public.