The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-11-04
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

erai OF tails species units ia constructing
bower or playground, apparently for
ne other pUrpess than amusement.
One article OF the laws Of the ancient
pln-makers OF Paris, says darpers
Young People, was that no maker should
open more than one shop for the sale Of
ms wares, except On New Years eve ana
New ears Gag; then the court ladies'
Obtained money from their husbands and
Hocked TO the shops for their yearly sup
ply Of pins; hence the term -'pIn-mOney,"
winch, when pms became more easily OBJ
tanned, ladies' spent in otner Injuries
put the term ''pin-money" is still in use
SO long ago as the year 1347 a royal
( princess had 1900 pins delivered from the
royal wardrobe for her use, and in 400
the Duchesse d'Orleans purchased Of
Jehan de Breconnier, pln-maker of Paris,
| several thousand long and short pins, be
SideS 5uO pms OF English make; thus we
nnd Ions ago pins We're made, and were in
use IN Sredt quantities, both in England
ana France. so we can wei understand
now, when this country was young, pins
were to the cOlOnist a very essential part
OF their outfit and when sending to the
/ mother countries for different articles OF
nOuSehOld use pins were never omitted
from the lists. We find in an old Boston
newspaper an advertisement, dated May
II; I1oi, setting forth that John and
other commodities, pins and needles.
Many of the finest woods in existence
are yet unknown, or only slightly known,
70 the manufacturers of wood in the civil
lzed world, says the Lumber World. The
| woods of Central and South America are
perhaps the most remarkable as well as
the best known. In the yet untouched
forests of those parts of this continent
are many woods far finer than any now
IN use: These woods range from pure
Whlte TO Jet black in COI'r, and many of
them are most beautifully marked and
! Nened. Some OF them are so hard that
they turn the edges of axes, chisels, and
olner toois, while the handsaWS cut them
! only slowly. In the Columbian exposition
| there were many displays of little known
! woods, and the finest of them were those
Argentine EAn1lhllp =
| South American countries. Some of these
| southern woods yielded to the teeth of the
/ bandsaw not the ordinary sawdust, but
! me powder, line as the finest flour, so
| hard were the woods. Some of them
| burned but slowly. Others possess quail
/ ties that keep them free from insects.
! Some of them seem to be practically in
! desuructible by air and water. All along
! the eastern slopes of the Andes, up to the
! throughout all the great river valleys, and
/ in some of the wide areas of level COun-
/ try In South America are great forests
/ or me WooGS that are specially tit for the
! nnesu cabinet and furniture work, and
/ also for shipbuilding, carpentry, and
/ other Industrial arts in which wood is the
| raw material These great forests are
| now an unknown quantity in the CONNER
| cial world, but they will come rapidly
/ into the knowledge of men and into indus
| trial use Wnen once the railroad has
/ reached them. Before many years. it is
| safe to predict, the South American and
( Central American republics will be thread
! cd by railroads, and then those wonderful
| woods will be drawn upon to- supply the
| demand for new and fine woods in all
/ the civilized countries.
/ The California sea-elephant is en- ami
/ mai with tearfully long Latin name,
/ but very short stay on this earth, writes
/ w. T. Hornaday in the November num-
| Der of St Nicholas. It is the LARGEST of
! all the seals, its average length when fully
! grown being from twelve to fourteen feet,
| while 1t sometimes reaches the astonsh-
! ing length OF twenty-five feet including
! the hind flippers. 1t is still an open ques-
! ton whether this animal is of the same
! spCcises as those found in the Antarctic
| ocean. Our animal, Ike the other. de-
| riVeS its popular name from the length
| ened, tapir-like prObosCs, or snout of
/ the old males, which sometimes projects
| SIX inches or more beyond the muzzle
! The hair is exceedingly short, very stiff
! and harsh, and when clean and dry Is
/ Of a duSky yellowiSh color. This species
! once Inhabited a bout 200 miles of the coast
/ of California, from Point REYES south,
| but it has been practically exterminated
! send visited Santa Barbaba Island for the
/ express purpose of preserving for the Ma
| tion2l museum the skins and skeletons of
| what We're supposed to be the last sur
/ ViVOrS Of the species, then about to be
/ Killed by a seal hunter for their oil. The
/ result was that at the eleventh hour a
/ number Of very valuable skins and skeI-
/ etoEs We're saved for the geological mu-
/ seumS OF the world. About the same
/ captured five young specimens alive, and
| shipped them to New York Baltimore.
| Philadelphia and CinCnnati-which was
1 the first and only time the species was
! ever seen alive in the eastern T-nltad
/ States, and will doubtless be the last
/ But am glad to be able to state that
/ these seals are not absolutely extinct, for
/ short time ago Townsend assured ne
/ a few individuals are yet somewhere south
/ OF San Francisco in a place that seal hun
/ tiers know not Of; and, in the language
/ Of Jefferson's Rip Van Wrinkle: MAY
! they live long and prosper"
1t used to be the popular belief that spir-
its walked abroad on All Saints eve,
! although why that night and the eve of
! midsummer day, of all the nights in the
/ year, only the spirits themselves might
/ know, says Harper's Bazaar. 1t was even
/ understood that those who CHANGED to be
! born on that night could actually
see the said spirits. But what was once
! q. ceremony of belief in regard to them
has now become thing of sport, of vel
come sport in q day of such serious
/ thought and work and sense of respon-
/ sibiuty that any excuse for sport should
/ be laid hold of; so that now its obser-
Vances are all jest which young people
I play upon themselves, not insthe least be-
I ms there may be something in it, and saw
/ ing to themselves stranger things have
( happened. So they practice matrimonial
! Yattclnation with the roasting nuts the
nut that leaps away in the heat being
/ a lover not to be Compelled-the time once
/ being known as Nutcrack Njeht. and tLa,y
dip their heads into tubs of water to catch
/ between the teeth reluctant apples swim
! ming there, and named for this lover or
J lbI lIGls OF all dlOne Iney eat aDDiG
before a mirror, feeling creepy as thew
/ look over The shoulder in the glass for
the face of sweetheart or spouse to he.
or they 60 down the cellar stairs, with a
candle in one hand and a mirror in the
/ other, for the same expected vision, Or
/ they winnow in the darl, three measures
of nothing, simply with empty mimIcrl,
Of winnowing, whereupon the face is to
appear; or they pull the dead stalk from
/ the garden and judge by the earth cling
ing TO the roots whether or not the lover
has gold and gear or they drop the yoII-
indications concerning a lovers trade ana
] tools, be they pen OF be they spade, The
singular thing about all these incantations
! is that II is never the departed spirit thai
! is invoked and desired, but always the
| apparition the wrath, the astral BODY
/ to adopt a modern shibboleth-of the jiv
| Ing. And II October, with its Halloween
| rites, claims the most power OF seeing
/ spirits of any month in the wear II iS
/ mt the ENLARGED Snirifs that ite 1900. -