Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-01-03
IrEsR OF INTEREST.

By the Board of Health.
TIE Smithsonian Institution no longer gives
away IT'S publications, but Offers them for sale
at about cost price. The principal place OF
sale s Brentanon's new publication stanu III
the rotunda of the National museum
HERETOFORE ships have been permitted to
pass through the suez Canal only in daylight
but now war ships and steamers provided
with electric lights of sufficient power 10 illC-
inmate the canal l. 200 Yards ahead may 90 at
night.
DR.. HARrwELL, of Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity says that a German soldier can scale
twenty foot wall with his arms and accoutre-
ments, or jump an iron-spiked fence without
gettinc!cGught. Gymnastics are compulsory
IN the German schools
RAIN water is stored in the moss and herb
age OF the woods, to be consumed by the veg
citation during the dry season. A striking IL
lustration Of this fact is given in a forest on
the Western coast of the Caspian Sea, where
the vegetation is very luSuriant, although 1t
never rains except in the fall and winter
PARIS has - squares of an area of IL hec-
tares, while Berlin has 50 squares of an area
Of 30 hectares. The parks of London aggre-
gate ST. hectares, against Berin's Az hec-
tares, which, considering the difference IN the
population Of the two cities, is decidedly TO
the advantage Of the last named city. In the
number # trees Paris, with 1852, against
Berln's 3s,OeO is largely ahead.
AN English sportsman shooting on the north
shore OF Long Island, was invited to dinner at
a farm house, and was so astonished that he
writes to a London newspaper about 1t. ~
wonder how often in merrle Enghnd,' ne
says, "a farmer. with his family and two men
servants sits down TO Roast turkey, chicken
pie, with four or Eve vegetables, and cram
berry pie. to say nothing of both whisky and
beer to drink"
AN EXPERIMENT is being tried at Ports
mouth, in England, with the object of deter
mining the practicability of applying liquid
fuel as a steam generator to n-of-war. The
fuel consists of creosote, which IS procurable
at penny q gallon, So far the system has
proved superior to others previously tried,
and it is believed that the difficulties in the
way of the use Of liquid fuel are in a fair way
of being overcome.
OUR PRINCIPAL oBsERvATORIEs all work at
specialties. AT Harvard the relative magni-
tude of the stars is the chief object of study;
at Princeton, spectroscOpy; at Allegheny OBJ
servatory. the dark part of the solar spectrum
and the effect of he invisible heatrays on the
earth; at the National Observatory, positions
and orbits of satellites; at Cincinnati, double
stars; at Chicago, Jupiter's surface, and at
Albany and Yale, pertecting maps Of the
eavens.
THE United States government is the great
est publishing house in the world. By the side
of its resources such an establishment as the
Harpers becomes quite small. In the book OF
estimates for the next fiscal wear, Just sent to
Congress, $3.50 23l 6S is asked for for wages
alone. There are on the pay roll 400 compost
tors, beside large force of superintendent,
fOremen, etc. Fifty proof readers are steadily
employed, and IS pressmen, ll5 press feeders
and "a ruling machine feeders. The estimates
call for 100000 reams of printing paper, or
4SO00.O00 sheets, each sheet making eight or
sixteen pages.
WHEN LARGO, the quiet Scotch village
where Alexander Selkirk was born, set up
bronze statue to that ne'er- do well the other
day it almost went demented. There were
trIumphal arches and what not, and, best OF
all, "trades procession" in which the men
carried boat christened Robinson CTusOe,
while the lassles Ia their hshwife costume
baIted lines. Two of the most prominent
figures were one representing the popular
hero himself in goatskin dress and the other
a reproduction OF Friday in a costume, or
want Of costume, which seems to have shocked
the more respectable Villagers.
a SERIES of Arctic relics Of strange inter-
est has been carried home by the captain Of
an English whaler and transmitted to the
English Admiralty. These relics consist of
various documents in a cylindrical tin case
which had been deposited by several of the
Franklin search expeditions thirty wears ago,
and a statement left by Sir Allen Young
when at Beechey Island in 1875. The captain
states that he plcEed up the documents in
Prince Regents Inlet. He is Of the opinion
that the natives have cleared out, Beechey
Island depot of everything that would be Of
service to man in those regions.
HERE'S an English New Years cake which
used to go down 100 years ago: Two bushels Of
-four, twenty pounds Of butter, four geese
two turkeys, two rabbits, four wild ducks,
two WOodcOcRs, slN 5nlpes, four partridges,
two meats tongues. TWO curlews, seven black
birds and six pigeons. II is supposed a very
great curiosity; was made by Mrs. Dorothy
Patterson, hOusekeeper at Bewick. lie was
nearly nine feet in circumference at the bot
tom, weighs about twelve stone, viii take two
men 10 present II to table; 1t Is neatly fitted
with case and four small wheels, to facilI-
tate its use TO every guest that inclines to par
take OF its contents at the table.
ONCE KoBE, at Paris, the impossible has
happened. The case of Madame Menetret,
the retired French milliner, who was mystic
rously murdered at Vinemonble, but whose
assassin had long eluded the closest search Of
the police, has just evolved new feature
which is surprisingly ike that which. a gen
GRAFTON ago. at Boston, identified Prof. Web
ster as the slayer OF DIR. Parkman. An arti-
fetal tooth has been found, the dentist who
made 1t has sworn that he fitted it 10 the
mouth Of Madame Menetret, and the place
where it was discovered and the attendant
circumstances adiN, with what looks terribly
like certainty, the commission of the crime
upon a woman named Euphrasie MERCER
1his, IL will be remembered, is precisely what
occurred in the Webster-Parkman case, and
the counterpart to the incident which estab-
llshed the guilt Of Webster, who was hung for
his crime.
AN INTERESTING description of the process
of manufacture OF an Indian rug is given by
Olive Logan. You order rug OF an Indian
vilager, and y years, months and 10 DAYS
afterward sou come back for it. and, if Bhis-
sesswar Ganu has been right peart all the
time he hands YOU your rug. y on look il over
20 see II 1t Is mp 10 sample, and YOU find some
serious delinquencies IN the left hand upper
corner. You demonstrate Bhissesswal bows
20 you by pattng the front Of his turban with
the palm Of his hand. "Great Sahib,n he re-
plies, my ancestor of a century ana half
ago did that uit. Go kick him." You wend
your way down TO the middle, and find by in
curry that you are still several generations
removed 4 M this particular mar is respon-
sbie for is about the final inch. You pay him
for the WnOlt rug, and that ls hts Inheritance.
Then he starts another rug for the benefit Of
his postcrity.
TIE Office Of forests in diminishing evapo-
ramon cannot be explained by the lower TEN
erature OF the greater humidity which is
Known to exist under their shadow. The
most important factor contributing 10 the re-
suit Is the re stance opposed by woods 10 the
winds, the force OF which being greatly re.
duCed under the trees, the airs changed more
slowly. and. consequently, The moisture is less
readily carried away. Documents which have
D.