The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-13
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


TO the city of Mobile is soon to be lighted by
electricity The plant will be the largest so
Tar used for similar purpose. The channel
is thirty miles long and the alternating cur
rent system has been adopted
! Some OF the catmen OF the New York Cab
| Company wear in stormy weather waterproof
high hats made of PAPER imported from Paris.
They are black and of the same style as an
| ordinary silk hat, but very much lighter A
silk hat with a rubber cover weighs wet
ABOUT hVe pounds; paper hat about one
| pound.
There is movement in Chicago to have
Sunday Services in the various theaters, es
pecially lectures with a stereopticon on the
life OF Christ, and prominent persons are con
sldering topics along this line. A special list
OF slides is 10 be prepared by the st. Andrew
brotherhood. The object of this is to gather
the large number of people who on Sunday
Will not go TO church, but are ready to enter a
theater.
To the lovers of strange goods, says God
| Words the bazaa-s of ! a nascus are far
more alluring than those of Cairo or Con-
stantinople; the capacious chests of the mer-
chants contain much that we would buy were
our purses longer. Old embroids ries OF
wonderful colors, delicate china, silks of
many hues swords of cunnin workmanship,
all these lie led beside us on the floor. 1t is
out seldom that really goo1 specimen OF
the Damascus sword can be obtained for
the art OF working and engraving steel is
dead. These swords were made of alternate
lay ers OF iron and steel, so finely emIe-ed
that the blade would bend to the hit without
breaking. with an edge so keen that no coat
OF mail could resist 1t. and surfuce so highly
polished that when a Moslem wished to rear
range his turban he usei his sword for look
ing glass.
1t is quite common in Fiji and Samoa, says
the Globe Democrat, for a man to bear upon
his arm or body a certificate of his body
which is practically indelible. Tattooing is
tarried on in these islands TO an absurd ex-
tent, ana it is the practice to tattoo on the
hand of mother tho date of her children
births Sometimes, also an enthusiastic
father will tattoo the date of the birth on the
child itself, and no matter how long it lives
the certificate Will remain easily decipher-
able. In some ad Joining islands every child
is tattOOed almost from head TO foot on its
completing It's twelfth year The result is
very remarkable, especially il the child is
growing rapidly. so that the spaces between
the tattoo marks increase in size year by
year. l remember one an who Joined our
crew when we were shOrthanded, who had
every available space on his anatomy tat
tooed year after year unit he appeared to be
nothing but walking collection OF groteSlue
signs and symbols In Japan tattoOing is
now prohibited by law, but il is still practiced
by supersttlouS subjects of the m .kado very
freely.
"A few years ago" said Charles j. Patter-
son, of Philadelphia. to the St. Louis Globe
Democrat Il learned the secret of the life of
man who had passed more than quarter of
a physician and surgeon and on one occasion
had to remove an injured eye in order to save
the other eve and prevent total blindness
he night before the operation he had teen
drinking heavily with some friends and al
though the following morning he was sober
his hand was unsteady and his nerves
urstrung. After administering chlorotorm
he made fatal and horri lie blunder remov-
ing the well eve by mistake and thus consign-
ing his patient to perpetual blindness. i ne
MON ent he discovered his error he turned the
everything he possessed to him and hurried
from the neighborhood like a convicted thief
The remainder of hs life was one constant
round OF rumOrse. and he rapidly developed
into confirmed misanthrope. The secret of
his life was known to a numDer Of people, but
when IT was finally revealed to me it ex-
planned mystery and made me respect the
man, for however grave his original Dlunder
which in some respects was. of course worse
than crime his repentance was Of the most
genuine character.
Mr.: Frank Riggs, of Washington. is quoted
as saying that Mr.. Pickett, who sold the
archives of the confederate government to
the United States, and has been heartily
anathemized in the south for doing so, did
not make dollar by the transaction. The
facts have never been told, :" said Mr., Riggs.
for Mr.. Pickett eXacted the strictest pledges
of secrecy from my father in regarl to the
disposition of the money But both of them
are dead now, and there is no reason why the
truth should not be known. Mr. Pickett
never had the benefit of one penny of
the money he received from the
government for those records. He de-
posted the entire amount as soon as he re-
celyed II In our bank to the credit of George
w. Riggs, trustee for, and it was distributed
in small amounts among the widows of con
tederate officers Mr. Pickett made out the
list Of the people to whom he wished it sent
The checks were all signed by my father.
Each one was accompanied by letter whiCh
he prepared ana which my father signed saw
ing that the inclosure was. forwarded at the
request OF gentleman who felt an interest
in their welfare, but for reasons of his own
desired that his identity should not be dis
closed. The account was carried for several
years. and all the checks and vouchers are
now packed away in our bank"
The theory of the inevitable drying I'D Of
oceans, says the New York Sun. as lately
propounded by Transchold a Russian geolo-
gist, claims that IN prop ortion as certain
parts of the earth crust rise from the bot
tom of the sea above its level the latter
must be lowered-in fact, the surfaces of
nearly all the continents and islands have
at one time formed portions of the oceans
floor and have risen from the waters partly
because OF the retreat OF the latter; and as
continents are formed. one part Of the waters
OF the seas is transported to them in the char
a ter Of lakes, rivers. eternal SHOWS glaciers
and organized substances. and owing TO this
action the waters of the oceans have been con
stantly diminishing and their Levels lowered
spOndingly. Again, in proportion as the
earth cools down, ice accumulates near the
poles and on the tops OF mountains and water
is taken more deeply into the surface of the
terrestrial crust, the formation of hydrated
minerals being everywhere manifested IN
view OF all this, the conclusion is regarded as
inevitable that, since all the water which has
ever existed may still exist in the form of
perpetual ice, snow, hydrated minerals. etc
the waters of all oceans have consequently
been gradually disappearing, and that the
lowering OF the oceans is going on even at
the present time, faster, perhaps, than ever
before