The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-07-24
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

ITEMS OF INTEREST.
/ Isaac Buchanan. Now York's famous horti-
ticulturist who was Jaw Gould floral agent,
I died last week lie had retired from business
Z six years ago
John Fay, an Ohio veteran. whose widow"
[ has been drawing his pension for years has
/ just entered the Soldiers Home at Dayton.
/ Comra&e Fay IS al old bachelor, too.
| A nice question is agitatiug the city Of
! Odessa. Il is whether a jew. who has for
/ saken his religion and become a Christian. is
still legally Jew. The Jews OF the city are
/ by law entitled TO five mem bers Of the city
I council one OF these, a prominent citizen hy
/ the name Of SchOrsteln, renowned his ances-
| tral faith a short time ago. and with elaborate
ceremonial was baptized into the orthodox
! church in the cathedral OF Odessa. The He
! brew community, backed by their lawyers,
hold that by this act he ceased TO be "a jew
within the meaning Of the law. and that his
seat in the council is ipso factO vacant. Schor-
/ stein. however, resolutely holds to the contra
~, and refuses to give uphis seat, and the
principal papers Of the city applaud his course.
/ The matter viii be carried to the higher au-
! thOrities.
The janissaries or janezaries were a hody
! Of Turkish soldiers first organized about 1880
| A. d. by Sultan Dream from the young Chris
| tian prisoners. The name is from the Turk
| ish yeni askari, new soldiers. The janissa-
| Europe. They were at first highly priv
| LEGGED and soon attained great power both in
| war and politics. In 1912 they raised Selim to
| the throne, and caused the death of the ia
nous BajaZet: in 1903 they objected to the or
| ganlzation of any other army than their own
! body and massacred all the new troops they
| could. In 1925 Mahomet IL, suppressed them.
| HIS new troops, remembering the massacre
| eighteen years before slaughtered 20 600 OF
| the obnoxious troops This put an end to the
| body. The massacre lasted three days, June
/ IA 10 and l6 When IL ended M9hOmet
organized his new armies in comparative
! peace.
Philadelphia war veteran has patented
| device for protecting soldiers to a considera-
| BILE extent from an enemy's fire 1t is a fold
| ing shield Of bullet-prOof material circular in
| form, which can be fixed to the barrel of
! rifle; its diameter is eighteen inches and the
/ surface is corrugated for the purpose of de-
! detecting bullets The inventor does not
| pretend that ii furnishes a complete prOteC-
! ton, but he believes that ii would be found
| indispensable by Skirmishers and in aayeneral
| engagement would be the means of greatly
| reducing the casualties. When not in use it
can be folded into portable compass and worn
at the side like bayOnet. When expanded
and fastened to the rifle b ariel an aperture
| on the line OF sight IS shown which enables
| the soldier to take aim and use his piece
effectively. The idea of the invention is al
ready applied to large rifed guns on vessels
OF war. The inventor has brought his device
to the attention Of military experts and they
| have Endorsed it as practicable in operation.
In no quarter of the world, says Good Words,
are the partly-buried ocean wonders more
lavishly displayed in all their endless varie-
ty than of this northeastern coast of Terra
AuStraliS, within the great barrier reef in the
Coral sea- AS the boat is launched to take
us ashore the wonders commence at once. 1t
is surely some fairy forest, where elfn kings
court princeSssS in hShly guise, or water Ia
bteS sit and pout on some coral boulder. Or
is it a submarine flower garden where the
mermaids dwell? Deep down in clear, bright
water wondrOus shapes and colors are seen,
at first indistinctly. like tinted photograph
out of focus; then, as the water gets
shallower, and shalower, more
and more distinctly q flash the Jewel fires,
and the picture is complete Large fiat
bowls OF milk-white coral first at
tract the eye. Then others with branching
antiers like fallen deer, only the fairy herd
there are lying buried in q huge, confused
mass. Some are covered with ten thousand
sharp pinnancles OF light purply color, each
pinnacle having bright blue eye-or what
looks like an eye-at the extremity.
All in sea of emerald, this dream of en-
chantment. We fear before we see half the
glory of 1t we might awake, and alas forget
too soon. There light and feathery branches
Of fern-liSe coral are blushing a soft pink or
pale nasturtium yellow, Here large, solid
masses Of brain coral round, white, the sur
face encrusted or engraved with the most deli
cate lace tracings; and others, green and
shaped like coarse moss.
OF late years there has been a constant di-
minutlon of the area under tobacco cultiva-
tion in Germany, and the industry seems to be
threatened with extinction The British CON
sui at Mannheim in n report on the subject
says that the public taste demands a better
quality Of tobacco than can be produced in
the country, which is, therefore, becoming
more and more dependent upon foreign
growthS. Tobacco, moreover, is an expensive
plant to graW, requiring not only heavy ma
nuring, but much skill and labor 1t is very
likely to suffer from the weather, and even
when harvested, and after the leaves have
been hung up in the barns to dry, the herb still
remains dependent upon the temperature and
upon proper treatment. In short its value
depends upon a variety of factors, and to lie
remneratlVe its cultivation must be reward
ed by a good price. Whatever the market
price there is always the excise duty to be
paid. and then there is the competition of the
foreign tobacco, which, although often not
very good in quality, is generally very cheap
in spite OF the duty upon 1t. For the cheapest
description of cigars, and for the peasant and
workman German tobacco would always lind
a market if it could be prohtablyiraised but
this seems to be almost impossible without
reducing the excise duty or raising the i'm
port duty. In 1892 only 14.735 hectares were
planted with tobacco, as against 1888 hec-
tareS in 1891 and 22,262 hectares the average
of 1S71-79, while the number of planters has
sunk from 5000 in 1890 and 1G28i3 in 1891 to
/ IS 05S in 1892. of course, a crop so costly and
precarious as tobacco is cultivated by the
peasants only in small plots.
In reply to inquiries as to the method of
determining the gold value OF q silver dollar
as based on the price of bar silver the New
Orleans Picayune gives the following simple
rule An ounce troy weight contains 1870
grains The silver dollar contains 3714
grains of pure silver. The price of bar silver
was quoted in New York yesterday at 70l9
cents per ounce. Then, if 480 grains of silver
are worth 7Oz cents, what are 81 grains
worth? Putting the figures in decimal form,
make a simple proportion as follows: $50
grains are to 81 25 grains as 1850 cents are to
the result. Multiplying the second and third
terms together, and dividing the product by
the first the result obtained is 5452 or two
tenths of a mill more than 54h cents. There
fore. when fine silver bars are selling at 7013
cents an ounce, silver dollars are worth
54I$ cents each. When the silver dollar was
ordered by act of Feb. %, 1878 an ounce of
fine silver was estimated to be worth 81 % 2G,
at which rate dollar would be worth 100
cents. But at that time silver was worth
only 81 1872 per ounce, and so the new dollar
was actually worth 691 cents 1t was ex-
pected that the coinage law would bring the
price of silver up to the standard fixed by the
law, but il did not. 1t tuctuated somewhat
at times, but the general course was steadily
downward, until to-day silver dollar is only
intrnscally worth 54Ja cents On the other
hand, the mint value of an ounce of fine gold
was established at $2067 per ounce and it is
worth that, or It's equivalent in every coun-
try in the world. A gold dollar must contain
1892 grains Of fine gold and 2.5S grains of al
10y, and this dollar is worth 100 cents.