The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-04-30
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

| A treasury agent who has been looking into
affairs along the upper Rio Grande, reports
! that a.number of cattle thieves and smng-
| glers in that section have sharp trick with
| which to cover their operations. Some two
| years ago d number of men went into that
| country and secured ranches on the Texas
| side of the river. They proceeded to ascer-
| tain the marks and brands of the principal
| cattle owners on the Mexican side of the
| border and registered the same, or very sim
| liar ones, in the Texas counties as theirs.
| They were then ready for business, and, it Is
| alleged have stolen thousands of cattle from
| the Mexican stockmen, driving them across
| the border and putting them on their ranches.
| AS the brands are the same, il is impossible
| for the owner to claim and prove his prop
| erty. The agent reports that the daring
! thieves have become so bold and overbearing
| that cattle inspectors are afraid to do their
| duty.
A considerable amount of anxiety has re-
| Gently been caused, especially among corpora
! tions controlling water works by the discov-
cry that the passage of electric cars has ten
dency to seriously injure the water pipes of a
city by causing electrolysis At a meeting of
"A water works association an electrical engi-
neer stated that in some cases under his OBJ
| servation lead pipe had entirely disappeared
by the action of the electric current, and like
result had attended the use of iron, galvanized
iron, brass and ''ruStleSs'' pipes. The corro-
sive action takes place where the current
leaves the pipe, and not where it enters it,
and the phenomena mentioned were uGdoubt-
eddy owing to the operation of electric cars
1t is satisfactory to know that should the cleo
trolysis of water pipes become so serious a
question as it is thought by some 1t may,
certain remedy, although it would increase
the cost of water installations, would be the
insulation of the conduits.
One of the most remarkable legal papers on
file in the archives of the world, according TO
the Philadelphia Press, is one now in the
National Museum of Paris. labeled Sentence
on hog, executed by justice, in the copyhold
| of ClarmOnt-AVtn, and Strangled upon a glib
bet at that place" 1t is sealed with red wax,
| kept under glass. bears date of June H.
! 1894 and reads as follows ~ We, the
| jury in detestation and horror of this crime.
| and in order to make an example, and to sat
| isfy justice, have declared, judged, sentenced,
! pronounced and appointed, that the said hog,
now detained in the abbey as a prisoner,
| shall by the executioner, be hanged and
| strangled on a gihbet near the gallows which
now stands within the jurisdiction of the
monk are hereto appended. being near the
! cOpyhOld OF Alvin In witness Of which we
! have sealed this present with our SEALS Fol
| lowing the above are the signatures of the
| jurors and the project of the department de
lie Aisne,
Moses the sacred opera which has for so
| many years occupied the time of NJ Rubin
! stein, is shortly to he placed on the stage at
| Brunn, the capital of Mora via. 1t reminds one
more of the Passion Play than an opera. as
| 1t has eight acts which occupy two evenings,
! and depicts the whole life of Moses. The com
/ poser has even placed one of his scenes on
Mount Sinai. and Intends 10 select a special
| company for the production. He some time
! ago furthered plan for the establishment of
! a sacred theater." as he pleaded that sacred
| subjet Is. though banished from the theater
| are. nevertheless, freely delineated by paint
! erS on canvas. and he was particularly severe
upon OratOrio. in which gentlemen in dress
! coats, white cravats and yellow gloves and
! ladies in OutrageOuslY eXtravagant toilets i'm
| perSOnate the grand, imposing figures of the
! Old and New Iestaments.' Ruhinstein was
! only prevented from giving biblical opera in
! tnEland by the appropriate discussion OF the
/ late pGan Stanley. who feared London audi
! cnce would not show due reverence. The com
! poser Is now engaged upon similar work en-
| titled ''Chrstus"
! One Of the most curious facts connected
( with madness. says a writer in the Million, is
the utter absence Of tears amid the insane
/ Whatever the form Of madness tears are con
/ SpiCUOus ty their absence. aS much in the de-
( preston of melancholy or excitement of
mania rs in the utter apathy of dementia. If
! patient IN a lunatic asylum be discovered in
! tears 1t will he found that it is one beginning
| to recover, or an emotional outbreak in an
| epileptic who is scarcely truly insane: whilst
! actual insane persons appear to have lost the
| power of weeping, it is only returning reason
/ which can once more UnloCse the fountains of
| their tears Even when a lunatic is telling in
| fervid language how she has been deprived of
| her children, or the OutragcS that have been
| perpetrated on herself, her eye is never even
! moist. The ready gush of tears which ac-
| companies the plant of the sane woman CON
/
| the laxative lunatic. 1t would, indeed. seem
! that tears give relief to feelings which when
| pent up. lead to madness. 1t is one of the
| privileges of reason to ne able to weep. Amid
| all the misery of the insane they find no relief
J in tears
Several of the early writer's. Plutarch and
| PLny among the others. mention periods Of
| greater or lesser length when the sun was SUI
| pernaturally darkened or made paler than
| usual. says the Philadelphia Press. Forty
! four B. c.. aCOut the time of the death of
| Caesar. Plutarch and DiO Cassius, both tell us
| that even the sun was pale for something
| like whole year" in the year 800 A. D., in
| the provinces of the Roman empire. occurred
! q celebrated dark day a day so dark that
| the stars were visible at noontme." From
| further descriptions given in old works one
| might be led to consider the phenomena due
| to an eclipse, but astronomers tell us that
| neither the eclipse of March 4, 500 nor that OF
| Aug. %, same year, were visible in the coun-
+, tries mentioned During Aries siege of
| Rome 400 and 40, A. D., there were several
days as dark as the nights which preceded
| them In $50, 567, 626 and ISL we find mention
of long periods of diminished sunlight
! Schnurrer says that the sun darkened alarm
| ingly on Aug. 10, 1913, without any possibility
| of it being the result of an eclipse" The
| Portuguese historians tell of diminished sun
| light for several months in the year 934 which
| finally terminated by an opening in the sky
| from which loud sounds issued. In 1895 on
| Sept 20 mot 81, as given in some translations
| of Humboldt's Cosmos. the sun turned
| suddenly black and remained so for three
| hours. Several dark days are recorded as
| having occurred in February 1905 the darkest
being the 4th, 9Th and 18th. On the 9Th bright
! star was seen shining only a foot from the
| blackened remains of the sun" Accounts of
| phenomena of this kind are scattered all
| through history and will be more extensively
| st.