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We give an engraving from a photograph of this new and splendid steamer which lately has taken her place on t he American line of steamers plying between New York and Southampton. The St. Paul is a sister ship of the St. Louis, launched in November last, and both are, in the words of Mr. Charles H. Cramp, American from truck to keelson. No foreign materials enter into their construction. They are of American model and design, American material and built by American skill and muscle. They are the largest vessels ever constructed in America, their principal dimensions being : Length over all. 554 feet ; length on load water line, 536 feet ; extreme breadth. 63 feet ; moulded depth, 42 feet ; tonnage, gross register, 11,000 tons. The hull has a double bottom constructed on the cellular principle, subdivided by athwartship bulkheads and a longitudinal division arranged for heeling purposes, the whole available for water ballast. It is so subdivided by transverse bulkheads that even in the event of a collision and injury to a bulkhead, whereby two com partm ents might fill with water, the ship would still float in perfect safety. It has a straight stem and elliptical stern, topgallant forecastle and poop, with close bulwarks fore and aft, and promenade, saloon, upper, main and orlop decks, the three first named to be plated from end to end. The main deck will be plated for the length of the machinery spaces, and will have stringers and tie plates beyond. Wood plan king will be laid on all decks. The promenade deck will remain unbroken the whole length of the vessel. The vessel will carry about 320 first-class and 200 second-class passengers and 900 emigrants. The engines are quadruple expansion, designed to develop 10.000 I. H. P. each. The cylinders are 36, 50, 71, and 100 inches respectively in diameter, with a piston stroke of 60 inches, two sets of engines turning twin screws, which will be sectional, with three blades. Steam for the working of the main engines will be furnished at about 200 pounds pressure by six steel double-ended boilers,.each 20 feet long and 15 feet 7Yz inches diameter. When working under ordinary seagoing conditions, the vessel is easily capable of maintaining a speed of 20 knots per hour a,t sea. The St. Paul has been especially arranged to bereadily an d quickly convertible into an armed cruiser of the United States government, in which capacity she will carry a n umber of six-inch rapid fire guns. House Numbering. Berlin is preparing to fete the hundredth birthday of the house number. In the London and Paris of a century ago ciphered houses did not exist. The coat of arms, the house name or the sign board were the only indications to guide our ancestors wandering feet by day or dark. Watchman, what of the night, and where the deuce am I? must often have been the cry of these bewildered minds. Berlin began to number houses in 1795. Starting from the Brandenburg gate, the Prussian ediles counted straight on to infinity, neither beginning afresh with fresh streets nor numbering the houses by odds and evens. Vien na adopted the latter reform in 1803 and Paris followed in 1805.
