The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-01
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


Jewelry store two relics of George Wash
ington dress sword and a scarfpin, says
a New York letter in the Baltimore Sun.
The sword was worn by the father of his
country when he was inaugurated as first
president of the United States, on April
30, 1883, and on all subsequent state occa-
slons. 1t is now the property of Miss
Virginia Taylor Lewis of Baltimore, who
inherited it from a relative of hers to
whom Washington gave it, A bill has
been introduced in congress appropriate
ing $50 900 to buy the sword for the govern
ment. The scarfpin was once worn by
Washington. At q great ball shortly after
the close of the war Of the revolution,
Gen. Washington offered to give the pin
to the woman whom he should adjudge
to be the handsomest one present, pro-
Vided he should be allowed to kiss her.
The condition was accepted. Washington
made his choice, took his kiss and gave
the pin to the proud ancestress of its
present owner.
THE Man in the Moon" saws All the
Year Round, is the name popularity given
to the dark spots and lines upon the
surface of the moon which are visible
10 the naked eye, and which when eX
amined with a powerful telescope are
discovered to be the shadow of mountains
in that luminary The best existing map
Of the moon shows %, S56 crater-shaped
projections, according TO NJ. Wilhelm
Meyer, and astronomers tells us that 100.-
OO0 are brought into view with a telescope
that these so-called craters have all been
eruptive volcanoes, for the size of some
of them is opposed to this assumption no
less than their great number The crater
Copernicus, perhaps the most beautiful
of all, is circular wall about fifty-fOur
miles in diameter, rising in one place al
most perpendicularly to 1900 feet. Its
origin has not been satisfactorily eX-
planned On the other hand, the system
of radiations about the crater Tycho, COW
ering half the moons surface NAV well
be regarded as the effect of the cooling
and contraction of the moon from a
molten state 1t is one of the most popu-
lar. ana perhaps one of the most an
ctent superstitions in the world that the
spots and lines on the moon are the figure
of man leaning on a fork, on which he
carries a bundle of thorns or brushwo0d
for stao live ,rbicb ~, c,,,,,l.,,- ~, - ~
! fined TO the moon. The Biblical account
given in the fifteenth chapter Of Numbers,
thiry-second to thirty-seventh verses, of
man who was stoned to death for gath
ering sticks upon the Sabbath day. is un-
doubtedly the origin of the belief.
Constantine erected a splendid basilica
on the supposed sight of the holy sepul-
cher and of Calvary, says the Scottish Re
view. 1t is generally agreed that the sites
in question were the same which have
ever since been shown but the question
remains whether they were correctly, or
even honestly, determined. No one who
is acquainted with the Byzantine history
of this age is likely to doubt that credulity,
fanatictsm and fraud are its distinguish
| ing characteristics. We have the testi-
| mony OF Gregory, jerome and Chrysos-
tom, who were all alike Disguised by in
/ trigues, the Venality and the unscrupu-
| lous mendacity of the Greek bishops.
whom they denounce. Constantine him
! self was a politician, rather than deyout
/ believer; his cruelty is well known; also
his difference to disputes on religious
! matters which were regarded by the
bishops as of fundamental Importance
! The chronicler states that a Temple of
Venus was destroyed by Constantine's
| orders Vita Constant, iii $3.50. and that
/ the holy tomb was most unexpectedIv
| found by the patriarch underneath the
/ mound; but Eusebius does not tell us nv
what means IT was recognized and the
| discovery of the cross is not noticed until
/ twenty years later. 1t is not very prob
/ able that the subject was examined nv
! the patriarch with the critical coldness Of
/ modern antiquary. and it is conceiva bile
! that the site sacred to the pagans was
reconsecrated just as pagan sites We're
recOnSecrated TO Christian worship by the
/ missionaries of Gregory the Great 1t is
! at least certain, from what Jerome tells
US, that the cave manager at Bethlehem
! was found by Helena to be a chanel in
! which the mysterious donis were ceIe-
! brated, before it was reconsecrated as the
site of the nativity, over which Con
! stantine erected the earliest known ar
| thOdoX church. There is no pretansa On
! the part of contemporary writer's tbat
any ancient Christian tradition nointed
out the lost site of the holy seD1llcber
! over which. as they tell us, a rnonnd bad
! been heaped up, supporting a pagan tenn
! pie. 1t is more probable that thew re
| lied on visions and miracles, such as tba
| later chroniclers record, to have gIiidad
/ the pious Helena in the discovery Of tba
! sacred sites. ''i0