The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-07-11
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

RAvACHoL made'a long speech at his trial at
Montbrison, justlfying anarchy and his own
deeds by various arguments. this being one:
''Does not an employer, for instance, desire to
see the disappearance of a rival and do not
tradesmec in general wish alone 10 enjoy the
advantages which this kind of occupation can
bring? Does not the unemployed workman
wish, In order that he may obtain work, that
for some reason the man employed may be
turned out OF the workshop? Now, in a society
where such things happen there is no reason
for surprise at the acts laid to my charge,
which are only the logical consequences OF the
struggle for existence which forces men. in
order to live to employ variety of means"
THE revenue department has made a ruling
on DR.. Kelley OF gold cure fame, who furnishes
whisky to mis- patients by the dram and by the
bottle, says the St. Louis Globe Democrat. He
Is considered by the United States government
as a retail dealer In liquor and liable to the
regular government tax. The Kansas City col
lector notified the St. Joseph Kelley institute of
this fact and they referred the matter to their
headquarters at Dwight, ILL., The Kelley COM
pany at once made vigorous protest to the
department at Washington against being
classed with saloonkeepers. Uncle Sans rules,
however, are intiexible and the protest referred
to brought letter from Commissioner Mason,
in which he explains that matter very plainly.
The Kelley people objected TO the declaration
under oath that they are retail liquor dealers.
Commissioner Mason says that every druggist
who sells whisky or other spirits, not combined
with drugs, though he furnishes the spirits on a
pnS 5ISlGA pEeeSt1piAOn huu LOT uleulClnhl use
only, is required to pay special tax as a retail
liquor dealer.
THE amount of lime salts IN water which
drains from districts made up of GRANTEES and
basalts is found by comparison of different
analyses to be on an average of about 3.7S parts
in 100000 parts OF water. 1t is further assumed
by those who take this mode OF reckoning the
age OF the world that the excess areas of igneous
rocks, taken on an average throughout all
geological time, will bear to the exposures of
sedimentary rocks a ratio of one to nine. From
these and other more complicated data it has
been inferred that the elimination of the cal
careous matter now found 10 all the sedimentary
strata must have been going on through a
period of 5000 900 years. This, therefore,
represents the minimum age of the world.
Biologists also conclude that the formation OF
the Laurentan, Cambrian and silurian strata
occupied period of about 200 600, 600 years; the
red sandstone. the carboniferous and the
pOecllitic systems another 200 900 900 years. the
remaining POO, O00, 900 years being TAKEN with the
formation of all other stratas. Thus we are led
to believe that geological time has been enor-
mously in excess of the limits urged by certain
well-known physicists. and that it has been
| ample to allow for all the changes which, on the
hypothesis of evolution, have occurred in the
organic world.
THERE is not a little piece of humor In the
way in which both sharpers and those whose
business it is to cirounlvent them have recourse
to electrical methods for the attaining OF their
ends, says the Pittsburg dispatch. A large
consignment IN GOlQ eagles was sent TO @ New
| York bank from California which on examina-
| ton was found % contain twenty light weight
| coins bearing the date OF 1871. These were ap-
| pare entity new and bright, but they were rejected
Or being passed into the electric light com ds-
| tector. On being examined with a leus their
surfaces were found to be covered with inflai-
tesmal pores. About 81 worth of gold had seen
| extracted from each eagle by electrolySis which
| is process now in high favor among profess
| sional coin sweaters" of whom the American
| Chinaman has the reputation OF being by far
he, adr on5H In l,fO AaN0.,
| tor the coins are pushed in succession from the
balance pan on to a knife edge, and according
as this knife edge is at the right hand limit of
| its range or the left hand limit the coin, when
pushed on it tllts off the Eight" channel or the
"full weight" channel, as the case may DO. The
right or left position of this shifting knife
edge is determined by an electric contact made
by the balance beam, and thus an electro mag
net is brought into action. The coins run
through the nachue at the rate Of about sixty
per minute by the turning of handle.
The temples Of Baalbec, Syria, stood upon an
artificial platform raised about thirty feet above
the Level of the surrounding plain. In many re-
spects the foundation reminds one Of Solomen's
temple and this and other facts have led some
to ascribe the work to David Even to this
day the ruins are grand in their immensty. At
one place in the foundation, at height Of some
twenty feet. there are three stones each of
| which is IS feet long, IS feet wide and Is feet
thick. How such immense stones were quarried,
transported and put in place is one OF the mys-
Lerl6S WHICH 6QRlu6eTS nave nOU as YET solved.
On top Of this gigantic raised platform of
masonry stood the Temples of Baalbec, three in
number-the Temple of the Sun the Temple OF
Jupiter and the Great Circular Temple The
first was 300 feet long, 100 wide and was sur
rounded by Corinthian columns rs feet high and
feet inches each in diameter at the base The
|. stones which capped these columns, and reached
| from one to the other, were each IS feet square
| These stones were fastened together by wrough
iron clasps each foot in thickness. Six Of
| these columns are still standing. The Temple
| r@r,A hH,,I1,.
stands (for 1t is one of the most perfect of all
ancient ruinsr on platform of its own, some
ten feet lower than that of the Temple of the
Sun. 1t is most magnificent and imposing
structure its outside dimensions being $50 by
100 feet
THERE is more or less clearly defined thread
Of superstition running through the minds OF
most people, and not few who have at various
times been involuntary listeners to the sound OF
unfamiliar tickings, especially during the hours
of darkness, have been unable TO prevent their
Imagination leading them back to the stories
told them in childhood Of the dreaded omen of
the tick of the death watch, which precedes a
death in the family. 1t is now well known that
the ticking is produced by an insect, and
Partisan chemist has not only taken the trouble
to investigate the subject thoroughly. but has
sent to q Paris paper two insects actually
caught in the act of producing the sounds
alluded TO- They were on the same sheet OF
packing paper strong tarred paperb but on the
opposite sides aud at distance of about four
inches apart. One struck forcibly with its
head at the rata Of six blows per second, and
the insect on the lower side answered
as soon as the other had finished.
The Insect is tiny beetle, barely q
quarter OF an inch long. 1t is generally during
the night that it produces the ticking sounds,
and in order to do so draws in the antennas and
intermediate legs, and, resting principally upon
the median legs strikes its head against its sup
port by a sort of a rocking motion. 1t is
through this noise that the male calls the
female The larva OF the insect lives in wood
work framework, old furniture, eto), which it
gnaws in the Interior without anything outside
betraying its presence. A few weeks after 1t
has been transformed to the chrysalis state the
perfect insect comes forth, and makes its exit
from the wood by boring perfectly cylindrical
hole in il, which thereafter shows that the
wood has been attacked, and 1t is often mutt
lated to such degree that It is virtually de-
stroyed A smaller species of the same genus
works equal havoc not ouly with wood. but
books. herbaria, natural history collections
cork, dry bread. crackers etc. The death
watch beetle has the Nnvarisble habit of feign-
I a.