The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-02-16
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

last month. The storm lasted twenty minutes.
ana the hailstones are described as Jagged
| oiocks OF ice One haistone was picked up at
/ South Brisbane measuring 50 inches by 1Osl
ihcnes and weighing nearly five ounces
A PLAGUE OF RATS is raging in the east Of
England, principally in Suffolk. On one farm
| OF 80 acres 1900 rats have been killed since
| harvest, and on another of $50 acres f000 rats
nave been caught. The farmers cannot keep
| their wheat IN consequence of the numbers in
| the stacks, and have to thresh and sell out.
THE IcEMEN on the Kennebec river in Maine,
are making the most of their harvest The ice
| there is clear and thick, and they are cutting
| oO,OUO tons day, stacking immense piles out
| SIDE OF their ice-houses. which they will ship to
distant places before the summer months. AT
Augusta, Me, 500 more men could be employed
| at from S1.50 to 81 day.
| The ANNUAL FINE ART EXHIBITION at Munich
will be opened this year to the public from July
| ! to the midil Of October. The Paris art exhi-
| bition being closed in June, Munich will thus be
| the next point of attraction for American trav-
eers and art amateurs. The attractions will
| be lncrea ed by the passion play. which alter
| a long interval takes place again this year in
| the village of Oberammergau, near Munich.
AN AMATEUR ARTIST of the gentler sex sent as
a birthday present to William E. Gladstone a
pretty sketch of the G. o. NJ. sitting on the log
OF tree which he had just felled, with Ariel
| clothed as female sprite, lowering over him.
| Mr.. Gladstone sent the following acknowledg-
ment: Dear Madam-Many thanks for your
| most pleasing drawing. l had always consid-
| dered Ariel as masculine, but probably you are
| right" etc.
The WORD ''CoSCIERGERIE." which has figured
SO conspicuously in European dispatches of
late, refers to prison which is inclosed in the
| palas de justice, or court house. of Paris II is
| there where prisoners are confined who are to
be arranged before the court of assizeS or the
| court of appeals. In former years this prison
1 residence chief
| or the palace, an office Of great dignity a few
| centuries ago.
THERE are now thirty-nine crematories in
various parts of the world. Italy has twenty
| three, America has ten, while England, Ger
many, France, Switzerland, Denmark and
Sweden have one each. In Italy there were
| two cremations in 1875; the number rose to
| fifteen in 1877. and in 1888 the number was 226
Since 1876 III cremations lhave taken place in
Italy, while the combined numbers from all
| other countries bring the total only to ], 1853.
| An ENGINE driver on the Central Asian rail-
| way, who sustained conc lsson OF the brain in
| a serions accident on Gen Annenkoff's line
| some time ago. has just sued the railway
| officials for damages in a court at Samercand
ana obtained very satisfactory and somewhat
original compensation. The court decreed that
ne should be paid 1000 roubles down at once.
| and In addition should receive 30 roubes, or $15
| a month, with extra 10 roubles for every
child that might be born to him.
The professor of physical geography at the
Univers ity of Vienna, DR.. Albrecht Penck, in a
| lecture delivered some months ago. called at
tentiOn to the fact that no two official accounts
! or the erea of the Austrian empire agree, and
| the discrepancy is considerable. He has now
published the results ofa investigation carried
on for oyer six mon tbs. under his superindend-
/ ence. The difference between the highest and
| the lowest estimate of the superficial area of
| the empire amounts to 3,313.75 square kilo-
| metres.
A KERN COUNTY CCAL) FARMER states that last
June he sowed 300 acres of land with Egyptian
| corn: In October he harvested 800 acres of it.
obtaining thirty-siX sacks, or about two tons
| per acre. Into the remaining 500 acres 900 head
| of cattle wers turned. and in about a month
| they had trodden it all down so that it looked
| ground was covered almost white with the
| threshed-out kernels. Twelve hundred hogs
were then turned in, and they are said to-day to
| be the finest, largest, LATEST ana latest hogs
| in the state.
| THREE HUNDRED CHICAGO WOMEN write M. d.
after their names. and 200 are in active prac-
| tice Chief among those who have achieved
| success in the province of healing are Mrs. DIR.
| Weeks Burnett, DR.. Sarah Hackett Stevenson,
| and Mrs Julia Holmes Smith, formerly Miss
Julia Holmes Of New Orleans, the latter enjoy
| ing lucrative practice among Chicagos 400
| that many a superior young medical man en-
| vles. About 100 of these women savantS in the
| art of healing, receive incomes exceeding $1,000
| a year, and, in some cases, more than double
| that amount
| FIFTEEN WHALES were seen at Chesapeake
bay at one time by the captain of an oyster YES
| sci on Sunday evening" Some of these finny
| monsters came too near the vessel for the salts
! faction of those on board. One of these, when
| within thirty feet of the schooner began stump
| speech or, we mean, to spout, and threw up
| great streams of water high into the air The
| crew Of the vessel were too much interested in
| the proceedings to think of Swifts expedient
1 n a TN fOll CO
4 men have a custom when they meet a whale to
| fling him out an empty tub, by way of amuse-
| ment, TO divert him from laying hands upon the
| Ship"
| THE German press occasionally chides the
| French press, more in anger than in sorrow, for
| its tendency to believe absurditiss about Ger
man acts and intentions. At present the French
| press occupies the place of the censor The
story that money from the treasury of the re
| public had been sent into Germany for the pur-
pose of instigatng and maintaining strikes and
| consequently of cripp ing German industry was
much too silly to be believed or circulated by
any intelligent person. The money could be
used only to maintain workmen in ideness.
| France would thus assume the burden of paying
the wages OF German workingmen and would
lose it, while Germany would lose nothing but
the products of their labor. A more expensive
| way of iDjuring your enemy could not be
devised.
| AN AUTOGRAPH HUNTER recently received from
Mark Twain the following vigorous an peril
nent reply to a request for his autograph-the
best of the joke being that the letter was writ
ten and signed on the typewriter: II hope [
shall not offend you; shall certainly say moth
| ing with the intention to offend you. l must
explain myself, however, and | will do it a.
| kindly as can What you ask me to do am
| asked to do as often as one-half dozen times a
| week. Three hundred letters q yearl Ones
| impulse is to freely consent, but ones time and
| necessary occupations will not permit it. There
| is no way but to decline in all cases, making no
| exceptions, and l wish to call your attention to
l thing which has probably not occurred to you
| and that is this That no man takes pleasure
| in exercising his trade as pastime Writing is
1 my trade, and exercise it only when | am
| obliged to. You might make your request of a
! doctor, or a builder, sculptor, and there
1 would be no improperly in it,, but if you ASK
! either of those for specimen of his trade his
| handiwork, he would be justified in rising to a
point of order 1t would never be fair to ask a
| doctor for one Of his corpses to remember him
by"
A GREAT MANY PEOPLE will for the first time
learn of the existence of young Mr.. Astor says
the New York Sun, when they read in the news
papers the account of his quarrel with young
Borrowe. To the public at large the two elder
Astors, John Jacob and William, are we'll
| known. Their big, burly, and heavy figures are
| familiar on Wall street and Fifth avenue and
| the uniform courtesy and dignity of the two
| br~ theirs has made them host of friends No
Il