The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-20
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Butter, which is almost Indispensable TO the
meal nowadays. was formerly used solely as
an ointment. Herodotus. a Greek historian,
is the first writer who mentions butter Is. C.
800 lhs Spartans treated IL very much the
same as we do cold cream or vaseline and
Plutarch tells how hostess was sickened at
the sight OF one Of her visitors a Spartan,
who was saturated in butter. The Scythians
introduced the article 10 the Greeks and the
Germans showed the Romans how TO make
IT, But the latter did not use IL for food.
They, like the Spartans, anointed their bod
les with 1t.
During the fourteeeth century a practice
prevailed among the wealthy Italians OF
having twelve wedding rings one tor each
month, each set with a different symbolic
stone. For January there was the garnet, for
friendship; for February the amethyst CON
stancy; March the blood stone, wisdom;
April the diamond, innocence; May the emer-
aid, happiness; June the agate, health; July
the ruby, concord; August the sardonyx, fam
| lily increase; September the sapphire to pre-
vent strife; October the carbuncle, love;
| November the topaz. obedience; December
| the turquoise, faithfulness.
During mediaval times woman who had
nothing when she was married escaped re
sponsibility for her debts. Women we're then
often married in single garment to relieve
| themselves Of indebtedness. A young and
| noble German lady OF the sixteenth century,
to make assurance doubly sure, had the mar
| rlage ceremony performed while she was
| standing in closet, entirely Invested OF
| ClOtnlIR. she put out ner nanQ through the
crack of the door and was thus married. AS
| soon as the ceremony was performed the
groom, clergyman and witnesses left the
| room, she came out, arrayed herself in clothes
| provided by her husband and took her place
| at the marriage feast.
Il often forget faces" said a prominent
minister to Wheeling News writer, but I
can place man by the way he shakes my
hand every time. In the ministry man
meets perhaps more people than in any other,
and in my time suppose 1 have met as many
as any other minister in a charge the size of
mine. Faces are soon forgotten, and, if de-
pend upon my eyes for calling again to mind
mans name would certainly fail. But the
moment take his hand know him. There
is a certain character in a hearty hand shake
that every man In every station of life pos
sesses. That hand shake is as much an indi-
vidual trait as anything about him, and by
that have never failed to recognize people.
In my twenty years in the min stry the hand
shake has been an almost fnfallible guide in
recalling acquaintanceship."
Our Berlin correspondent sends a sugges-
gestive account of the way in which German
detachment, operating in East Africa was
routed by swarm of bees. They-the sol
diers, not the bees-were reasoning with a
native chieftatn by the means of grenades,
The native levfes fed, but q swarm Of bees.
terrified or eXaSperated by the blaze of fire,
sailed out to avenge the honor of the flag.
Their sttngs drove the assailants in all direc-
| lions and nearly killed an unfortunate ser
geant who had been left behind. These in
sects would be an exceedingly cheap defense
OF African nations, If they could be made
amenable to command By proper under
standing with the locusts, the centipedes the
giant BEETLES and the giant ants OF Africa,
they might succeed in keePinga very
themselves Nothing can resist a general
| levy Of the insect world, as shown the
| other day, in a sudden rising of the wasps.
For our comfort, they usually, like the feas of
| the travellers story, want unanimity. The ants
could hardly hate one another worse, for
! slight differences of color, race or habits, if
they belonged to human kind.
The correct way to pronounce Valkyrie
is a subject Of frequent discussion among all
who take an interest in the coming interna-
tional contest says the New York Times.
! Some call it Val-kyrie, with the accent on the
! first syllable. Others say Nalky-rie accent
ing the ky" while others pronounce it as
| raven selected the name he undoubtedly had
| reference to the old Morse NEUROLOGICAL Val
kyr, the same as the German Die Walkure
made popular through Wagner'S music In
the word Valkyr or Walkure the accent is on
the first syllable, and Valkyrie is doubtless
/ a corruption of this word, and should be pro
! nounced as though spelled Vall1rie, accenting
| on the'Val" and cutting the second syllable
! so short that 1t is run into the third. The
, Valkyr, according to the Century dictionary
| Is one OF the company of hand-maidens of
| Odin, usually said to number nine. They
| serve at the banquets In Valhalla, hut are
| best known as ''choosers Of the slain being
sent forth by Odin to every battle. They ride
| through the air and with their spears desig-
nate the heroes who shall fall, whom they az
terward conduct to Valhalla. In the Morse
versions Of the Nibelungen Lied BrunhiIde |
the daughter of Odin. appears as a Vall<yr |
as also in Wagner's music drama Die Wal
kure."
1t is not easy for the mind to grasp the stu
pendous nature of this undertaking. saws a
writer in the Review of Reviews on the sub
| ject of the Ferris wheel. The wheel itself is
$50 feet in diameter; at its highest point it is
26S feet above the earth. That is to say if |
Bunker Hill monument was used as yard
stick to measure it, the towering monolith |
would fall short fifty feet. If the wheel were |
set in Broadway, by the side of Trinity spire
| it would lift the passengers of its cars to a |
! level with the apex Of that soaring Steeple |
The obclisk of Luxor or Trajans pillar at |
! Rome, would not he long enough to serve for |
rldial spoke. Then, again, as to its enor-
nous weight. The Niagara cantilever, Just |
| below the falls was looked upon as an en-
cheering wonder when it was built. Its con |
| struction required three years. The Ferris |
| wheel was built in five months and its weight |
! is four times that of the Niagara bridge The |
! St Louis bridge was another wonder and its |
weight is about equal to that of the big wheel |
! complete. The Cincinnati cantilever is an |
other huge bridge; 1t is 300 feet quarter of |
, mile long, and it would about balance the |
scale with Mr., Ferris big toy. And the one |
| Is set lmmovable, resting on two supports
while the wheel is swung upon an axle lifted |
| l40 feet in the air 1t has thrty-six cars and |
in these two regiments of soldiery could be |
seated, and swept with an almost imper-
ceptible motion high above the White Won |
der.
A correspondent of Nature, at Christiania |
gives an account of a very curious phenome- |
non witnessed from the top of Gausta mount |
ain (height 5000 Norwegian feet in Teemark- |
en-, south of Norway. We were a party, he |
says, of two ladies and three gentlemen on |
| the summit OF this mountain on August 4 |
On the morning Of that day the sky was pass |
! ably clear: at noon there was a thick fog Be
| tween and z O'Clock IN the afternoon (the |
| wind being south to southeast) the fog sud |
| denly cleared in places so that we could see |
| the surrounding country in sunshine through |
| the riffs. We mounted to the flagstaff in or |
| der to obtain better view of the scenery and |
! there we a. once observed IN the fog in an |
! easterly direction a double rainbow form |
| ing complete circle, and seeming to be 20 to /
| 30 feet distant from US. In the middle of |
| this we all appeared as black erect and |
| nearly life-size silhouettes. The outlines of |
J the silhouettes were so sharp that we could |
, easily recognize the figures Of each other and |
| every movement was reproduced. The head |
of each individual appeared to occupy the !
| centre Of the circle, and each Of US seemed 10 |
be standing on the inner periphery OF the |
rainbow. We estimated the inner radius of !
! the circle to be six feet. The phenomepoD |