The morning news., 1894-11-23
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

~ DN III a AdA way LONdlu ltAilOFdAr VI
at least degree of modification that
will rob accidents Of most of their ter
ror, says the Philadelphia Press. Since
1t has been proven that death
from suffocation is not due, as has been
supposed, to the presence of carbonic
acid gas but to the absence of oxygen,
II stands to reason that if a supply of
oxygen can be furnished the immediate
danger is averted. Oxygen, compressed
into almost inconcetvahel small space,
IS stored IN strong bottles ntted with in
halers, tubes and regulating valves. Each
miner may carry one of these bottles
slung at his belt. ready to use in case
of accident. 1t has been suggested that
large casks or other suitable vessels with
compressed oxygen be stored along the
ways and on various levels of the mine
ready 10 open IN time of need. on the
same principle oxygen might be forced
into wells, vaults or other places where
bad air Is menace to health or life.
The half-yearly meeting of the share
holders of the Casino Company, which
owns the gambling tables at Monte Carlo
has Just been held and proved rather
lUgubrious. The report presented on the
working Of the gaming tables was far
from satisfactory, says the New York
Post AS was the case last summer
there has been decided falling off in the
receipts; At the end of the financial year.
concluding on March 81, the receipts
We're t6OOO less than in the previous year
and this deficiency has been further in
creased in the past six months by the
sum of 10000. Various reasons are given
for this falling off-the continuous scarcity
"
Carlo with by far the largest number of
its patrons during the hot season. being
the CHIEF. The opposition now offered by
AlX-les- Bains, Spa, OStend and Dinant,
which are more accessible to the English
and American gamblers, and cooler and
more amusing resorts than Monte Carlo
IN summer, is also much keener than
formerly. The decline in the receipts,
therefore, seems likely to continue, and
the anxious directors are trying to devise
new attractiOn and new economies Last
year the subsidy for the press was reduced
from 100000 to f32, GOO and there is
chance that the corruption fund will be
cut down again, though unfortunately
it is not likely to be stopped altogether.
There are several well authenticated
cases where fright was the cause of
death, says the London Million. An Eng
lish surgeon tells of a drummer in India
across whose legs a harmless lizard
craWled while he was half asleep. He was
sure that a cobra had bitten him, and it
was too much for his nerves, and he
died. Frederick I. of Prussia was killed by
fear. His Wife was insane, and one day
she escaped from her keeper. and dabbling
her clothes with blood, rushed upon her
husband while he was doing in his chair.
King Frederick imagined her to be the
! White Lady. whose ghC t was believed
to invariably appear whenever the death
of a member of the royal family was to
occur, and he was thrown into a fever
and died in six weeks. But perhaps the
most remarkable death from fear was
that OF the Dutch painter Pentman, who
lived in the nth century one day he went
into a room fun of anatomical subjects
to sketch some skulls and bones for pic
ture he intended to paint. The weather
was very sultry, and while Sketching
he feel asleep. He was aroused by bones
dancing around him and the skeletons
suspended from the ceiling Clashing to-
gether In a fit of horror he threw him
self out of the window Though he Sus-
tanned no serious injury. and was in
formed that a slight earthquake had
caused the commotion among the ghostly
surroundings, he died of nervous
tremoT.
The reason that the government built
its bug factory was that it wanted 10
raise insects, see how they lived, what
they ate. how they changed in form and
find out what would finally destroy them,
says Harper'S Young People. You can see
how important all this information would
be to a man who had every year been
bothered by insects he could hardly see,
and whose potatoes and straw berries were
being eaten by a. hungry army which paid
nothing for the feast. The men who watch
these little creatures find lots of things to
( interest them, and it takes away the Wea-
riness of their waiting. They find that
marvellous changes often take place in
the insects. Some Of them alter their
form so that you would not recognize
them for the same insect. one will at first
| be a short thick fly with sharp eyes,
wings, and Il minute feeler like an ele-
plants trunk, and he viii next he a worm
! without legs and no eyes 1t is always
an easy matter to find out what the bug
| is doing and what will drive il away, but
comes from or how he happened to appear
in certain places. The day | was in the
/ insectary | saw bug which had been
found in California by boy while eating
boiled potatoes, and later his father found
more potatoes in the cellar, which had
been dug a short time before. also inhab-
tied by the same worm ] was told that this
worm came all the way from China prob
ably nobody knew how. Anyway, a mem
/ Der of the unwelcome tribe had reached
the insectary and was a guest there. He
was a famous bug, did he but know it,
for he was to be carefully wa tched and
his every action was to be noted in a book
each day. He would receive as much at
tention as any great maJ-prob2bly more
attention, Tor hardly any man has been
closely watched every day of his life as
this Chinese bug will be.
Skating is a business with the China
man, rather than q sport, for he contrives
TO turn frozen canals into convenient
highways for his merchandise as thew
do in Holland and Denmark SAYS the
| Pittsburg Dispatch. Passengers are car
ried in sledge-chairs, propelled by an
active Celestial on skates, and there is
no more enjoyable way of making tour
round the seventeen miles of wall which
encircles the ancient city of Pekin. than in
sledge OF this description. The canals
afford facilities for IoComotion which are
not to be found in the dirty streets
crowded as they are with oVerworked
humanity. 1t is not likely that the CeIes-
rival TO our Smarts or Sees, for they do
not aim at great speed of progression;
but they are, nevertheless, fairly duali-
fed adeDts in their way, and there have
been some efforts made to introduce ice
yachts out there, which would. indeed, be
grand thing not only for sport but for
the transport of goods at a time when all
traihce is practically at a standstill owing
10 impossible condition of the wretched
! causeways, which do duty in China for
high roads. There are over seventy miles
of the Peiho annually covered with ice
| several feet thick, the Port of Pekin. to
/ the mouth of the river at Taku, IN the
/ Gult of Pechili What noble race course
thls would form for our fen skaters, It
is not commonly known that the capitaI
OF China is ice-bound for five months out
OF the twelve, or that the stolid-lookinr
Chinese could ever be graceful skaters
/ yet both these facts are well established
/ The Chinese use a very inferior stvle of
skate, Of their own manufacturer mere
chunk of wood arranged to tie on the
shoe and shod with a rather broad strin
Of IRON. There is no attempt a. elegance
OF deslsn or anything approaching a spring
fastening. pair of "Acmes" i" when
shown by the writer to some native
students in the Chinese capital prodncej
undounded astonishment ana admirgtion
by their neatness ana strength. on tba
no zfaFt oh,