The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-01-30
NATURAL FRUIT FlENoRS.
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

SAMUEL Bennett of Gilmore county is per
haps the father Of the largest family in West
Virginia Mrs Bennett is only "a years old but
she has borne twenty seven children, sixteen Of
whom still reside with their parents both Of
whom are in the prime of life.
HERoDoTUs gives remarkable description of
the manner in which the Ethiopians were &C.
customed to preserve their dead According to
his account. having dried the body, they Mas
tered it over with gypsum and painted it so as
10 make 1t resemble life as nearly as possible
Ihen they put it in hollow column made OF
crystal which material they dug up in abund-
ance. Thus inclOsed, the corpse was kept in the
house OF rs nearest surviving relations for a
year. after which it was buried.
A MOST extraordinary guard takes up its
quarters inside the Bank of England every
evening at O'Clock all the year round, remain.
lcg there until o'clock the next morning It
is an officers guard, and consists of adrummer
two serReants and thirty men, all well armed.
Each man receives shilling from the bank au-
thorities i'm mediately upon his arrival, a ser
geant's share being shilllngs The officer is
allowed a supper for two and three bottles of
wine, and is permitted to invite friend if he
sees fit to do so.
RAMEsEs H., during the earlier years Of his
reign, was always escorted by female dog,
which was called Anaitiennaktou or brave as
eleventh dynasty, about $500 b. c., had five
dogs, which he so loved that he carved their
names and engraved their portraits on his tomb.
They were, indeed. blooded animals, whose
names revealed their foreign origin. The finest
of them!was called Abalkarou, a faithful tran.
scriptiOn of the word abalkarou, by which the
hunting dog is designated in many of the Ber-
Der districts.
AS AN article Of industrial use, the fbrous
covering of the cocoanut is much in demand
under the term OF coir, for making ropes, mats
etc. Coir is now we | known to be one of the
best materials for cables. on account of its
elasticity and strength. They are made in large
quantities in the Lacadive islands. entirely by
manu- ana chehy by women, without the aid Of
machinery Of any kind. Cocoanut husks are
now also imported by Britain for the manufact-
ure OF mats-known as coir and cocoanut fiber
mats-whlch give employment to the inmates Of
| prisons and industrial and ragged schools
In COUNTRIES where flocks of turkeys are
raised one can learn very quickly from their
| gobblngs when they have captured hare If
| they meet him standing still or lying down.
they form in a circle around him, and, putting
their heads down, repeat continually their
peculiar cries. The hare remains quiet, and it
IS sometimes possible 10 take him up, terrOrized
as he s in the midst of the black circle of COB
bling beaks and heads. The language of the
turkeys is at that time incOntestably significant
1t is war like, and SINH ar to that OF the males
when they are fighting In the present in
stance, they have joined for war, and they
make 1t on the frightened hare.
AVERY singular bet was once made in reIa-
tionto the master of the revels to George II.
named Heidegger, who was declared to be the
ugliest person IN the world One of the kings
cOurtlers wagered that he would produce a
person whom the judges would pronounce
uglier than Heidegger. The courtier was
allowed three days in which to unearth his
champion. These three days he spent in per
sonally ransacking Whitechape ST Giles and
other quarters of London most freduented by
toe lowest of the sumS. Somewhere In St
Giles he found an old woman whose features
hiah p kax
Heidegger. When the two were brought face
TO face, the judges declared that it was impossi.
Ole to decide which was worthy OF the title of
"Ugliest Person in London" A friend OF
Heidegger suggested that that worthy put on
the old woman's bonnet. This he did and the
additional ugliness it gave him was such that he
was unanimously declared the winner
THE following cat story was translated from
the Revue ScientifQtte for the Popular Science
Monthly; The mewing of the cat is ALWAYS the
same; but what @ number of mental conditions
1t expresses! / had kitten whose gambols and
livehness entertained me greatly. Understood
well, when it came up to me mewing what the
sound meant Sometimes the kitten wanted 10
come up and sleep in my lap; at other times it
was asking me to play with it. When, at NV
meals it jumped on my knees, turned round
looked at me and spoke in a coaxing and fiat
ter!ng way, II was asking for something to eat
When its mother came up with q mouse In her
jaws her muified and low-toned NEW informed
the little one from a distance, and caused it to
spring ana run up TO the game that was brought
TO 1t. The cry is always the same but varied In
the strength of the infections and In its pro-
traction, so as to represent the various states of
mind with which my young animal is moved
Just as 1t was with the drunken man In the
mimcry scene These facts are probably well
known TO all observers OF animals"
The composition of the "Philosopher's Stoneu
was the prime problem OF medieval alchemy
and although many practitioners of the holy
art declared that they had discovered the in
| gradients necessary to its production, nothing
is now certainly known in regard to the compo.
sition OF this secret OF secrets " By way of
explanation it may be well to mention that the
| '.Philosophers Stone was a substance which
| the ancient alchemstS thought would change
all haser metals to pure gold. Legendary his
tory saws that Noah tool, the true and origi-
nal Philosophers Stone" with him in the ark
aud that he hanged it up in the center Of the
| great boat that all of the living creatures
| gathered therein might be lighted by it's pres
ence. From the time the PHILOSOPHERS
alchemists, etc, began to make sheir celebrated
| experiments there was bot controversy as to
| whether the stone" had corporal or merely
| an ethereal existence One adept declared that
| 1t was composed simply Of common mercury.
another maintained that it was not q stone at
| all. but that IL was at one and the same time
| mineral. vegetable and animal matter Queer
| ly blended the three together" A third not To
| be out-done by his brother aIchemsts declared
| that the stone" was mineral fire. continual
equal and non evaporatingi AS to the color Of
| the phiosophical.matter, there was & Q usual
| diversity CT opinion. Florus, in La Tourh,
des PHILOSOPHERS" says that it was black; TO
Zenon it was red, to Rosinus it was white on the
| surface and red inside. Others were not want
ing to declare that it had AL the coiors of the
| rainbow, besides several intermediates colors
| not yet named" DR.. Brewer, In his famous
Dictionary of Phrase aud Fable" work which
have often quoted in Notes for the Curious"
| says: 1t was, in fact red powder or ANAL
| gam TO drive off the impurities of the baser
| metals" The doctor has the SUPPORT OF
| Morienus, who says that it was red and soft to
| the touch. but Raymond Lulli declares that r.
was harder than the diamond or sapDhire -