The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-19
ITEMS OF interest.

About o. per cent. Of the copper produced
/ in this country comes from the Lake SUPERB
/ or region.
The average duration OF tho reigns Of the
! English sovereigns has been twenty-three and
a half years.
In Moscow the winter cold IS so intense
| that Il freezes quicksilver. while the summer
/ temperature is as high as that Of Naples.
Local kilograms are now transmitted
! through pneumatic tubes in most Of the prn-
! cipal cities Of Great Britain. AT present
| about fifty miles of such tubes are in opera
| ton, recurring an aggregate OF 400 horse
| power and transmitting daily average OF
| fu9OJO messages, or &c., 900 annually
The laying OF the telegraph cable between
| Queensland and New Caledonia, which is in
| tended to form the first section Of a trans
! Pacific cable between Australia and Canada,
! Will be begun very shortly. and is expected to
! be finished by the end OF this month. II is
stated in Sydney that the cable will be com
pleted to Vancouver within two years
prominent legal journal of London makes
the startling proposition that the wig be
abolished as part of the English judicial sys-
tenn Its abomination in every sense. prac-
teal and Ornamental, is admitted, says this
journal 1t is relic of bygOne age, and
| spoils the looks of most men with any pre-
tens; ons to beauty, while ugly men it makes
grotesque. 1t probably condhces to somno-
lence"
Japanese gardens are the most fairy-lilxe of
places. You see in them tiny trees and flow
ering plants, ponds, bridges, summer houses,
ianterns-herO dwarf pines, six or eight
inches high, but l25 years old; there are
others one foot high, but 500 years old. In the
garden of Yeiju-in-within the temple
! grounds-there are many peOny plants,
mostly old but one is 100 years old and is
eight feet high-quitea tree.
new naval port has been established at
Libau, Russia. The place selected is spe-
| cially suitable. The sea is nearly always
| open; there is at a distance of barely two
miles from the sea lake which forms port,
! ana which will be connected with the port
! proper. Quite small town has sprung up in
| connection with the port now in course of
| construction, at which 10000 men are en-
| ployed during the summer months.
One of the most famous and fatal poisons
used in Japan and Java is obtained from the
! bamboo. The young shoots of the cane when
| they first push through the ground are COW
| cred with fine, brownish hairs, which under
| the microscope appear to be bayonet-like
! spikes of crystals of slick, infinitely sharp
and hollow Small quantities of these hairs
| administered daily in the food bring on ulcer
| alton OF the whole alimentary canal stimu-
| lating malignant dysentery. The action must
| be of a mechanical rather than chemical ma
| ture, just as the spores Of the common puff
| ball act upon the eyes.
An Antarctic whaling and sealing company
| designed to operate on large scale is being
| formed in Dundee. The promoters propose
| TO fit up depot on the Falkland Islands,
| where sealskins could be sailed so that the
| ships could make several trips from there to
| the grounds, large steamers being employed
| to bring home the catches The experts who
went with the recent Dundee expedition aver
| that not only are whales and seals found in
much greater numbers in the south than in
the north, but that an Antarctic sealskin
| of the second class is at least as good as an
arctic skin Of the first grade.
There is great natural curiosity at Gar
field cottage, just a mile away says Bethle-
hem IN. H correspondent of the New Haven
Palladium. In the side yard is an enormous
bowlder which must weigh eight tons or
more. 1t has been split by a live white birch
tree which started life in tiny cleft OF this
immense rock, sent down its roots into the
earth, little by little widened the cleft until
nearly thirty years ago came the split, and
one-third of the bowlder was pushed of by the
tree, now of good size, but strangely twisted
as to limbs and trunk. In the same yard are
four smaller trees In various stages of
growth, some already having started cracks
in their rocky homes.
A sculptor in town, says the New York Sun
has had the horses of several fashionable
private stables at his disposal for models this
summer. One day some of the sculptor S
friends had some whisky to drink in his
I studio. They gave the horse a little. The
next day the grooms wondered why that horse
| tugged at his halter so when he was being led
to the studio. He seemed to be very anxious
to get there. He was restless, and whined
coaxingly, and was entirely useless as a
model, until the sculptor thought of the
whisky. The horse got another drink and
| thereupon became model model. Now he
demands a drink every day before he will
pose, and occasionally he demands drink
| between drinks.
cunningly constructed prison cavern. con-
! sisting of large chamber connected with
one OF smaller dimensions, situated near
| Syracuse, Italy, has gone into Legendary
| history with the title of the Ear of Diony-
| sfus, says the St. Louis Republic. The
| smaller chamber was unknown to the
prisoners kept in this underground dungeon
and the tyrant by whose name 1t is known
had habit OF secreting him
| self there to listen to the conversation of the
| convtcts, who were mostly political offenders
An ingenious device constructed at the
| smaller end of the larger chamber transmit
| ted the sounds through the partition, thus en-
| abling the suspicious ruler to hear even the
whispered conversations of his suspects"
A curious serpent has been seen on Mount
Hamilton, says the San Jose (Cal) Record
1t is represented to be twelve or thirteen feet
| long, with large red eyes that shine like stars
| IN the night out OF head as long as a man S
| fist. This curious reptile was seen by a stock
| ranger named Jack Wandall the other day
| when he was out after some cattle. Wandall
| He was on horse and when the beast saw
the reptile it stopped and snOrted and refused
| to proceed that way. The snake was living al
most in the trail, apparently asleep. Wan
dali backed his Steed, swung the rope. and let
go at the monster hitting 1t upon the head
whereupon the reptile rolled down into a deep
gully at the bottom Of the mountain where
| the chase ended.
When Emperor William tasted the food of
his sailors on board of his yacht at Cowes he
did only what is prescribed in the United
States navy and probably every navy in the
world, says the New York Sun. When the
Italian man of-war. the Giovanni Bausan law
at the Brooklyn navy yard, the young gentle
man acting as officer of the deck on a certain
day excused himself to a visitor and turned
aside to taste with due solemnity portion of
the sailors noon day meal, held up to him on
deck The same thing occurs at early morn
ing, when coffee is served, and at night when
the sailors have supper. The officer of the
deck is the representative of the commander
and when the former tastes the sailors food
rOr William merely did for himself what the
the officer Of the deck.
Birds bave very acute vision, says Cham
bers' Journal; perhaps the most acute of any
creature, and the sense is also more widely
diffused over the retina than is the case with
man; consequently bird can see sideways
as well as objects in front of it, A bird sees
showing great uneastness In consequence
hawk long before it is visible to man; so
too, fowls and pigeons find minute scraps of
food, distinguishing them from what aDnear