The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-05-17
NATURAL FRUIT FLloRs.
ITEMS OF INTERES T.

ITEMS OF INTEREST.
FROM the twelfth to the fifteenth Ant,ry |
small mirrors, carried In the pocket or atched |
to the girdle were regarded as in 1ispelable |
aejuncts to ladies' toilets. The pocket nrror |
was circular plaque of polished metal, fiXl in
| in shallow box and covered with a lid
HERMAN B. WALTEREcK has brought sutton
$500 damages in the United States distct
| court, New York city aga nst the owne RS If
| the portuguese steamship Olinda. Walterek
| sailed from Lisbon for New YORK Dec. 2
| 1871. He purchased first class ticket for $50
| ana he CLAIMS that he was put in a room which
was filed with foul gases, and from which bel
| caught typhoid fever, He was left at the
| Isle OF St. Michael when he was stricken down
with the fever, and was detained one month.
Two OR THREE WEEKS AGO, according to the
Gastonia IN. c. Gazette, Jack Whites boys
| brought home two baby flying SQUIRRELS Mrs
| White directed the boys to give them to the
cat. 1t so happened that the cat at the time
had nest of little kittens. The boys put the
squirrels in the nest with the kittens and they
are with them yet The squirrels boarded
right along with the kittens in peace and unity,
the old cat concurring. They have grown and
| hourshed on their diet and are shy of sur
| roundings only when frightened by unusual
| noise.
| Now that the breeding season for birds is com
ing near, it would be interesting to note if the
following sight 1 saw last spring is common to
| swans, says writer in Nature pair of swans
built on the island on the river Wey, which runs
| through our grounds, and l stood on the bank
| opposite and watched for view of the cygnets
| which were just Matched out, The male bird
| presently picked up an empty half-eggshell ly-
| ing beside the nest and carefully carried it to
| the edge of the water, some twenty feet from
| where the nest was built. proceeded TO fill it
with mud, and then pushed it into the river,
| where 1t sank TO the bottom. He then brought
| the other only remaining piece Of shell and did
| the same. On returning 60 bis nest the last
| time, he placed few sticks across the small
track he had made, as If to conceal his actions.
| Evidently the process had been done to each
| piece of shell, as no other pieces were to be
| seen, although five cygnets were Matched out.
A FESTIVAL in aid OF Russian famine fund
| was the occasion Of a curious and interesting
spectacle in Lille the other day, consisting of a
| procession of the ef1gies of the legendary
| giants of French Flanders and Belgium. No
less than nineteen of these gigantic wicker work
| figures, some of them neary forty feet high and
| clad In armor or gaudy vestments, were in the
| parade. Each of them represented some hero
| of an ancient legend. One of the most famous
| was Reuze Scandinavian pirate, who, in the
| early days of the history of Dunkirk, was the
| terror of the coast. His strength was so for
| midable that no one dared oppose him. Land
| ing one day the shore, he tripped and fell on
! his sword, wounding himself severely. The
| fishermen were the point of killing him
| when st. Eloi. the first apostle OF Christianity
| in Flanders interTened and caused him to be
| carried to his own hut, where he tended him
| anu COuNeFIeu MIN 10 Lne CurlSLld0 IalJn. After
| this, according to the old story, Reuze became
| the ruler of the villagesand defended it against
all corners, iperforming prodigies OF valor. The
| giants OF Lille, Douai, Ypres and Brussels are
! also held in high repute and had places of
| honor in the parade
| THE fact that people lost on a desert or in a
forest invariably walk in a circle is due to slight
| inequality tn the len ;th of the legs. Careful
| measurement of series skeletons
have saown that only 10 per cent. had the
L. H.
right longer than the left; while in SIS per cent
| the left leg was the longer The result of one
| hulb being longer than the other will naturally
| be that person will, unconsciously, take a
| longer step with the longer limb, and consc-
| ouently will trend to the right or to the left,
| according as the left or right leg is the longer,
| unless the tendency to deviation is corrected by
| the eye. The left leg being more frequently
| the longer, as evidenced by measurement of the
| skeleton the inclination should take place more
| frequently to the right than to the left and the
| conclusion is quite borne out by observation
| made on number of persons when walking
| blindfolded. Further, on measurement of the
| arms. it is found that in ~ per cent the right
arm is longer than the left; while in "a per cent
| the left arm is the longer showing that con.
| siderable majority of persons are right handed
| and bow-legged. The inequality in the length
of the limbs is not confined to any particular
| sex or race, but seems to b. universal In all
| respects
| The most unstable compound known to
chemistry, and, therefore. the most explosive
substance so far discovered. is chloride of nitro
| gen, which probably consists Of three parts of
| chloride united with one of nitrogen. Its ter
| rlbly explosive character, which has so far pre-
| vented It's accurate analysis, is due to the fact
thatit is combination OF one of the most a t
| i've with one of the most inert elements in nat
ure. II is volatile liquid of brownish color
| and pungent taste, discovered by the French
| chemist Dulong, who lost an eve and thr. @
| fingers in the operation. Faraday and Davy
| experimental on it few years after its dis
| nat haF a1vac p
| which were in turn shattered by explosions of
| minute quantities of the dangerous compound
| Faraday was stunned by the disintegration of a
| Few drops which he merely touched with a
| plecs OF warm cement. There is but little dan
| ger of chloride of nitrogen ever being used for
| purposes of deliberate destruction as its prepa-
| ration on a large scale is practically impossible.
| Its explosive force Is not known, for the reason
| that any attempt to determine 1t would proba-
| bly, prove fatal to the expermeuters. Accord
| ing to some authorities. the more recently dis
| covered compound OF hydrogen and nitrogen
| known azoi indie, is even more explosive
| than chloride OF nitrogen, but this substance is
still too obscure for decisive judgment to be
| formed on the subject
THE first attempts to make any marked i'm
| provement over the old method of producing
1 light by means of the flint and steel were
! made in 1885, when a German inventor per-
| fected hydrogen lamp, consisting of piece
/ OF spongy platinum treated with hydrogen
and which enjoyed long popularity A mum.
| OIL experiments DaQ Deon mace previous to
l this time, as in 1880 Godfrey Hanekinitz
made and sold large quantities of phosphorus
| preparation; but, while these were some
| improvement over the old method, they were
| stil far from perfection. Another method in
| use to quite an extent at the time OF the HYDRO
gen lamp was vial containing a composition
| Of phosphorus and sulphur, in which a wooden
splint was dipped (the friction created oy after
ward rubbing it quickly across the cork of the
| vial producing light, and this was. beyond a
| doubt, the first idea Of the manufacture of
| matches entertained during the present era
| Then came the m sthod of dipping the splnt first
| into composition Of sulphur and mixture of
| sugar and chlorate Of potash. to render it freely
comoustible, and thento in sulphuric acid to
| ignite. The promethean match consists of
| piece Of paper rolled and treated to bath In a
composition of sugar and chlorate of potash.
| A cell containing sllphuric acid was attached
| to the end of the roll, and when light was de-
| sired the cell was broken, the contact Of the
acid and composition creating ignition. The
| luciter match was placed on the market in 1884.
| 1t consists OF splint coated with plastic
| mixture of sulphate of anthony chlorate of
| potash and gumwater, and was ignited by
| drawing quickly between the rough surface Of
| piece OF folded sandpaper. In 1912 machine
| was invented for making wooden splints by