The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-14
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


world fair will be the mammoth snake ex-
| hibit den that will be placed in the Natural
| History building. The den will be filed with
| crawling reptiles from the four quarters of
| the globe. In round numbers there will be
| more than 1900 snakes of all sizes and shapes
| eleven specimens of boa 1876 specimens of
! viper 26 specimens of rattlesnalSe, species
Of double-headed anghis bohena, and species
| OF harmless reptiles. More than fifty speci-
! mems are in readiness, and agents are busy in
| every quarter of the earth collecting and
studying the serpents of the world They
| will crawl and bask in the sunshine in a nam
moth glass cage which has been prepared for
| their reception.
| Of1cial figures just issued Of the working OF
| the zone system" on the railways OF Hun
| gary show excellent results. The system was
| introduced some three years ago. The coun-
Try Is divided INTO circles or zones, within
which stated fares are charged, the principle
| being that the greater this distance from the
| capital the less the proportionate rate
per uIie travelled The system has
| greatly increased the amount of travel.
For some years previous to its in
PRODUCTION the number of travellers averaged
100000 year. In the first year of the zone
tariff system the number rose to 16, 900 600 the
second year to 100000 while last year the
number of travellers on the railways was 28,-
O0OOOO. The receipts have increased from
9.7O5,000 gulden during the last year of the old
system to Is, 300,0 900 gulden in 1892.
One of the princes of the italian royal house
said to be the kings nephew, Duke des
Abruzzes, recently paid a visit to Monte Carlo
with disastrous results. He lost at the tables
every cent in his royal pockets and failing to
take warning by that run of hard luck played
on until he had drawn checks on his private
banking account in Rome to the amount of
10000 francs, which represented all his
liquid assets" Then he decided that he
was not destined to be a bank breaker and
went home and confessed his folly. King
Humbert, who Is a pattern of frugality, for
gave the young man and helped him out OF
the privy purse but as the head of the family
his Majesty has strictly forbidden any mem
Der Of the royal house to visit the Casino at
Monte Carlo or any other gambling house
under pain Of being sent to military duty in
Africa.
The queen has large hand, says the Edin-
burg Scotsman. She takes No. ~ gloves
Her fingers are extremely short and out of
proportion to the size of her hands. The
queen will wear nothing but black gloves
She commenced to wear one button gloves at
the beginning Of her reign. To-day. when no
shop girl thinks anybody real lady without
siX-button gloves. the queen has only two to
four. She refuses altogether TO conform to
fashion She wears only about two dozen
pairs of gloves year. Each pair costs SIS Cd;
in fact the Queen of Great Britain and Ire
land and Empress of India is decidedly econ
omlcal in her glove bill. There are q great
many fashionable women who think nothing
OF glove oil II 1t only comes to 800 year.
Many women will spend $50 on gloves during
the six weeks of the season by wearing two
or three pairs day.
The North Carolina Press Association has
taken steps to end the infection of free notices
which has come near making the life of the
rural editor intOlerable. 7 he country MINER
is expected to give its valuable space for All
sorts Of cards OF thanks" resolutions of re-
SpGct, obituary poetry" and such. to satisfy
the itch Tor notorlety which atlitcts their sub
scri3ers, If mans chicken house caught
fire and a hole was burned in the roof he
ruSheS into print to thank the fire depart-
ment II somebody's baby died, the editor
was overwhelmed with verse. bad in senti-
ment and worse in meter. If he didn't print D.
this stuff he was threatened with the loss of a
subscription or wood, eggs, bacon, or vege-
tables, as the case mipht be. At a meeting of
the state press association at Raleich a few
days ago the delegates dared to adont resoIu-
tons declaring that hereafter all such notices
must ne pad for at the rate of cents u line.
The supreme court of New York has rather
curious case before it. 1t is suit for $35 600
damages for libel brought by one Chinaman
against another. It seems that the plaintiff
went into business in New York as the agent
of large commercial house in Yokohama and
Hong Kong. In short time he found that
his business was seriously embarrassed in
some ineXplicable manner. His importations
were seized and unwarrantably detained at
the custom house. his credit in China was i'm
pa1rd and finally he lost ,his foreign CORE
Spondence altogether He claims to have dis
covered that all his difficulties were due TO
the Vaccinations of the defendant who wrote
defamatOry letters aboub him to parties in
China, a1d also to the custom house authori-
ties Some of these letters he has managed
to get hold OF, and makes them basis of his
suit. He says that if he can get judgment he
can readily recover the damages for though
the defendant is worth nothing his father in
, China is wealthy man, and Chinese law
makes father liable for his son S debts.
The manufacture of artificial gems has be-
come an important industry. The making of
artificial diamonds especially involves ex-
IRENE care and nicely A paste is made of
about 80 per cent. of rock crystal - per cent
of carbonate of soda and due proportions of
calc1ned borax saltpeter and red lead These
after being reduced to the finest powder are
mixed fused together by heat in a crucible
and cooled slowly. The density transpar-
ency and beauty Of the plate depend upon the
care taken In these processes. Thus made it
is ready to be cut into diamonds and prepared
for market. II rubies are wanted a small
quantity of peroxide Of manganese and a
trace OF Cassius purple are fused in
proper pp color pq Fore omerad give iron the
incorporated and for sapphires, oxide of CO.
bait. Topaz is formed in the crucible byInix-
ing 1000 parts of paste, 40 parts of glass of
antimony and part of Cassius purple. and
other gems are made by methods equally
simple. The elements of which the various
gems are composed are we'll known to chem
| lists, and in the manufacture Of artificial pre-
clous stones the attempt is made to initiate
nature us nearly as possible by COMBINING
the ingredients and effecting erystallization in
the laboratory. The result, however is not
by any means satisfactory. The Imitation
stones have not the chemical construction.
hardness, specific gravity nor optical proper
ties OF real gems, and their spurious charac.
ter Is readily perceived by an expert.