The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-10
ITEMS oF INTEREST.

The Car OF RUSSIA has HACoDAs~N
Monastery Panteleimon. on Mount Athos.
e,reat hell weighing about 10000 pounds The
Inscription saws that the bell Is 10 comm mo.
rate the saving OF the imperial family at
BorI on Oct. H. 1855.
The poisoning Of the century plant IS an
ardently expected sensation at the Royal
Botanic Society's gardens in LONDON. Two
plants are now beginning TO snow thelt
flower spikes. The agave in its glory mas noS
been seen il London since 1859. when one tnaU
was said to he over eighty wears old threw up
a flowerstalk thirty feet high There is re
markable interest in the English capital over
such matters as this.
In October, 1887, the sacred Bo tree, at that
time supposed TO be the Oldest living vegeta
bic monument on the earth's surface, was up
rooted and destroyed By a cyclone which
swept over the Island OF Ceylon, says the 81
Louis Republic. The Oldest written descrlp-
tion of the Sacred 30 tree now IN existence
Is that by the celebrated Chinese historian.
Ia Han, who visited the Island ana the
sacred tree in the year Ala A. D. According
to this learned Chinaman,. the tree was az
that time 702 years old. having Ceen planted
in the year 2SS, before our era.by King DeVln-
ipiatissa. AS soon as it was known through
out the island that the tree had been
DESTROYED by the fury OF the elements
great crowds of mournerS gathered around
its sacred remains and held regular
funeral services for two or three weeks
After the season Of mourning was over, the
tree was cut into proper lengths, each piece
wrapped separately in white cloth and ere
mated with the same funeral rites whicn
would have been given member OF the royal
family So persisted the sacred 30 tree, one
Of the most wonderful natural growths known
TO the world-a tres which had been wor-
shipped daily, one might almost say hodrly,
! for . rs wears and under the shadows OF its
branches perhaps. heathenishly rites had
| been enacted, exceeding in solemnity any
| thing known to the tree worshlppers OF ether
ancient or modern times.
Whole volumes have been filed with Curl
Gus fads and fancies respecting the mooa and
| its influence upon things terrestrial, man
| himself being set down as one of the earthly
objects" most affected. Moon blindness
| is one OF the conditions brought about by the
| direct influence of the moon, but exactly how,
/ the most learned astronomer will not attempt
| to say. 1uthlll, in his book With the Army
| in Crlmea. SAYS: "One of the great bug bears
/ of the soldiers was the idea of moon blind
/ ness some of them more greatly fearing a
/ moonlight night than they did the enemy or
! the darkness Of Egypt John Carne In his
! Letters From the East London edition,
! page n, says THE effect of moonlight upon
! the eyes in this country EGYPT, is slngularly
| Injurious. The natives tell you, as l found
! they afterward did in Arabia, always to cover
/ your eyes when you eep in the open air
! The moonshine really strikes and anects
! the sight when you sleep exposed TO 1t,
much more than sunlight does Again
| find a similar notion mentioned in Grlmms
Teutonic Mythology vol IL, page 7l5'
]
! mock takes care not to face the full moon,
lest he be struck with blindness" The au-
] thor of "Ahoat on Man of-War' gives the
| following curious points on moon blindness
- 1t gets its name, not because a man
! who has it cannot see by moonlight. but on
| account Of being caused by the moon shin
/ ing in the face during the period in which the
! eyes are fixed in sleep. In the China sea and
| the Indian ocean it is well known. The Las
| cars frequently have it, and when paSsen-
! ger steamer remains for night at port in
! If fhn 4 ha~ lNrra h1 lion al
! ways takes care to warn all those who sleep
on deck to keep under the awning. I never
! knew a case of moon blindness which was not
| eventually cured and l never heard OF a wo-
man being afflicted with 1t
From the fruit of the banana tree bever-
age is being made in Africa, which is drank
/ as wine or beer. Banana beer is chiefly used
| by the natives of Uganda Dr. Felkin, an
! English physician. who formerly lived there,
| describes the different kinds Of the banana
/ beverage. he makes distinction between
! banana beer and banana wine According TO
! his description "mubsi cooling banana
wine, is manufactured in the following man
ner big hoe is dug in the ground,
| lined with banana leaves, filled by mats
/ and earth until the fruit has become com
| pletely ripe. Then the bananas are slit. mixed
! with fine hay. and placed into a large boat
like trough which at one end has an emptying
! pipe After the addition OF some water the
| whole is thoroughly mixed by the hand, or by
short wooden sticks Thereupon the trough
! is covered with banana leaves, and the mix
| ture is left standing for about one or two
| hours. After the expiration OF that time, IL IS
! taken out and poured through sleeves into large
| Gala bashes. 1t is then ready for use, and rep
resents sweet, agreeable. and not
| intoxicating beverage. But if the mu-
| bisi is lett standing for three days,
| it undergoes a fermentation, and be-
| comes slightly acid, refreshing beverage,
| which IS strongly intoxicating. This wine, or
! beverage, is called ''muenze.' II it is poured
| into bottles, and they are kept well corked IN
| a cool place for several months, one obtains
| a sparkling wine strongly resembling cham
| payne. Mubisi, the principal beverage made
! from bananas, can be changed in yet another
| way. II larger or smaller quantity of boiled
millet is added to 1t, and the mixture is left
! standing IN large earthen pots for two or
| three days. and stirred from time to time, il
| becomes beer which, according to the
| amount of mtllet added, is more or less in
tOXlcating. The beverages made from ba-
nanas.are not stored away for a long time.
The wonderful war comet" OF 1861 sprang
so suddenly into view and blazed with such
unexampled brilliancy as to astonish the
astronomers and brighten those unlearned in
| cometary lore half out of their wits. saws the
! st. Louis Republic. The unlearned declared
that the civil war. which was Just getting We'll
| under Roadway, must have something to do
! with it. However this may be. il burst forth
unheralded and unlimited. shining with
! greater orllliancy and magnitude than any
phenomena OF similar nature which that
! July of that year, it exhibited a most won
/ derful spectacle. In the evening the nucleus
did not appear to be larger than a star of the
first or second magnitude. AS the small hours
! OF the morning approached, however the
nucleus vlSiOly increased in both magnitude
| and brllllancy. The tail waved back and
! forth over our little world in a most
| threatening manner at ltimes sending
rays almost to the zenith. On the
morning of July D, the astronomers announ-
ced through the daily papers that the head of
| the great comet was only separated from the
earth by distance Of l2.00O0O0 miles Ac-
| cording 10 report sent out from the Cam
| bridge Observatory the comet appears to
have passed its ascending node between
June 2 and 20, in longitude 279 degrees
! the longitude OF the earth being 277 degrees
| at the same time. On Oct. 10, Us tail extern
ded over space of 5000 900 miles and at
| several points was not less than 10. 900 600
| miles in width. At first it was generally con-
coded that ii was the famous comet OF 1856
| the one which caused the Emperor Charles
! V. OF France to resign his imperial throne
| he taking II to be warning from God All
| surmises were subsequently set at rest bv
| the discovery that it was the famous
| Thatcher comet, discovered by Prof. A. r.
Thatcher at the Rutherford Observatory in
| New York City. r. .-|t
1t is one Of the most dificult undertakings
imaginable to even approximately estimate
the hight Of kite above the earth, says the
st. Louis Republic. This is on account Of
the fact that objects floating in the air seern
! to he farther aWaV than tbav reo1l-,