The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-12-14
ITErlS OF INTEREST.

Some of the famous feasis of Lucullus
+! cost $1,000 each.
About 2o0O daily and weekly journals are
| printed in Paris.
] Great Britain has eighty miles of tunnels,
| their cost exceeding $50, SOC, GEO.
| Old manuscripts and autographs are not
| bringing the prices they used to.
Oysters feed on monads, one of the min
| utest and simplest forms of marine lite.
| The profits from the sale of the works of
| Charles Dickens still amount to $4,000
| year.
Pet dogs are now furnished with shoes
| tor the purpose OF protecting the polished
floors.
Cuban BARRIERS Iather their patrons with
their hands from q bowl made to fit under
the chin.
a mahogany tree In Honduras was re-
Gently cut into boards which, when sold in
thd European market. real lied nearly 9220e.
The newest, fad in autograph. books is
one of the cooking recipes. Each formula
written in the book has the signature of the
contributing friend under it.
An inmate OF an Armenian convent has
recently died. after being there ninety
eight years, without once going outside the
convent walls. Her recorded age was lis
years.
1t does not seem to be generally known
that the turkey was domesticated by the
Indians long before the discovery of this
continent by white men, but such is the
case.
A swimming-tank is said to be cure. for
lamene5s In horses. In swimming the horse
exercises the same muscles as in trottDg,
but with no injury TO his feet or legs.
The Statue of Liberty in New York har-
Dor now wears a blazing diadem of fifty
four electric lamps liz vari-cOiored giObes.
and the radiance from it Is equal to that
from 10000 candles.
On view in one OF the early London ex-
hibitions was a Chinese bed ornamented
with all sorts Of curious and elaborate eabi-
net work, the greater part of which con-
sisted OF inlaid mother-of-pearL E.
Another use has been found for cleo
| tricity. In Ceylen experiments have shown
| that it is more economical to dry tea leaves
| by its agency than by the old method, and
| extensive plants have been erected for that
| purposs.
To such an extent does religion prevail at
Gonoatoa. In the South Seas, that every
man. woman or child on that island who
does not go to church at least three times "A
week is liable to be arrested and fined, the
fine going to the King
Many of the houses in Madrid have long
palm branch twisted along The ratings Of
one of the upper balconies. This was blessed
In one of the churches at Palm Sunday, and
Is Kept until another is substituted the fol-
lowing year.
In making railroad tunnels and in sink
a.
Utah, salt strata are said TO be often struck
at varying depths. 1t is further stated that
hundreds of fish. perfectly preserved. are
found In blocks of this pure rock salt. =
In London, as in every other capital of
Europe, there are foreign officers mingling
with the ordinary police, but who take
their orders from the Consus or Ministerial
representatives OF their respective nations
They are watching criminals who have
escaped from the jurisdiction of their own
country.
1t is estimated that the MississIppi River
annually discharges in the Gulf of Mexico
Is, SOC. 000, coo, 600 cubic feet of water. OF
this prodigious quantity the 1890 part will
be sediment. Thus the Mississippi annually
deposits alone into the Gulf OF Mexico
sufficient mud to cover a square mile of sur.
face to height of $40 feet.
The Vienna Academy of Sciences is about
to publish tho EtruScan ritual book which
was discovered in the wrappings of a
mummy last year by Professor Krai. This
Dook Is the only survivor of the famous
Etrusean literature of divination and ritual
OF which we hear so much in the Latin
classics. especially in Cicero and Livy.
Fishing was favorits pastime of the
Egyptian gentleman. both in the Nile and
in the spacious sluices and ponds ean-
structed within his grounds. This fayorite
occupation was not confined to Young per-
sons, nor thought unworthy of men of SER
ious habits, and an Egyptian of rank is fire.
quentiy represented IN the sculptures catch.
ing fish with rod and line.
In many parts of England the supersti-
tion still survives that il is folly or madness
to save drowning man. as he will, sooner
or later. do an injury to the rescuer. The
superstition comes down from ancestors.
yet traces Of it exist among the Sioux anu
other Indians, who seem to have inherited
1t from aboriginal sources. The belief is
most prevalent in Cornwall and various
parts of Scotland.