The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-26
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

cided TO sell her fine collection OF pictures,
which includes seven important works OF Sir
Joshua Reynolds some GaInsboroughs and
[ Romneys. and some choice examples OF Sir
F. Leighton, Landseer and Morland-
1t is almost incredible, says the Wall
Street News, that the water works
| supplying the cities and towns OF
/ the. United States should represent an
I investment of S430,OCOGO0, or nearly one
teenth as much as is invested IN railroads.
| The miles of water mains in New England
| are nearly equal to the miles OF railways.
] TheTe are only sixty-e1ght water works IN
eight southern states, while the total number
OF cities and towns in the whole country sup
/ piled with water works is about loo. Proba-
bly, two-thlrds of the supply is furnished by
! the municipalities and the balance relies on
| corporate enterprise. The daily consump-
ton per head in London is only thirty-one
| gallons; Paris. thlrty-six ard Ham burg,
! torty-siX. Cons IInp tion of water is con-
stantly increasing in American cities.
| Brooklyn and Washington in twenty years
increased more than so per cent. Buffalo,
Chicago and Detroit measured the increase
at almost three-fold in the same time.
One eminent scientist has been amusing
himself Of late by making imitation spider
webs out of quartz hbers, says a Washington
letter in the Boston Transcript. 1t is well
known that copper wire can be drawn to
! hneneSs much less than the thickness OF
hair-in fact, to the diameter of a one -JhoG-
| sandth part of an inch. But glass nav be
| spun finer than copper, while even the nnest
The latter. however, is coarse compared with
the threads that can be obtained by melting
quartz under blowpipe and pulling 1t out
such threads may be reduced to the thick
ness of one-millionth of an. inch. Drawn to
such tenuity, they are invisible under a mi
croscope Of the highest power. Yet they are
stronger in proportion TO their thickness than
the best quality OF bar steel Enough thread
like this could be made from a single cubic
inch of quartz to go around the world t53
enough to be visible to the naked eye
would YIELD 1000 miles Of thread,
Obviously, no practical use can be made
OF threads so extremely tine. Comparatively
coarse ones were woven into cobweOs by the
scientist aforesaid. They would not catch
hles, because they were too slippery; having
no gluten on them like real cobwebs. This
dlmculty was got over by moistening straw
In castor oil and gently stroklng the threads
with it. Then the webs captured hles fairly
well. But a cobweb is incomplete without
spider. So it occurred to the experlmenter to
attract an arachnid to his web by the buZZlng
of fly. 1t was ditficult to make fly buzz to
order but satisfactory imitation was pro
duced by permitting tunlng-fork to vibrate
against the quartz hters. This fetched the
spider right away. The scientist also amused
himself with blowing bubbles of quartz,
which looked exactly like the most beautiful
soap-bubbles.
, One of the most curious things about the
black bear land the grizzly and cinnamon
ALSO, says writer in st, Nicholas, is the
way he goes into snug winter quarters when
winter has fairly set in. and lies dormant in
his den without either eating or drinking
untll the next spring This is called hiber-
nation: and during this period the ordinary
processes of digestion seem to be entirely
: suspended. In our semi-tropics bears do
not hibernate but nature undoubtedly
planted this instinct in the brain of the bear
of the north to enable him to survive the Sc
we're winter period when the SHOWS lie deep,
and all food is so scarce that otherwise he
: would be in danger of starvation. This pc
riod of Information is from about the middle
n o mid nj has
been stated that If bears have plenty
! OF food they will not hibernate,
, even in the north, but this is mistake i
l know Of at least two instances wherein bears
in captivity have "holed up" in December
and remained dormant until March, in spite
! OF all temptations of offered food. I he nat
ural instinct was 80 strong that it refused to
be overcome by appetite only. There is an
other very curious thing about the hiberna-
; ton OF the black bear His den is usually
hole dug under the roots of either a standing
tree or an uprooted tree, but it may be in a
hollow tree, hollow log, or more frequently
l miniature cave In rocky hill tide Some
times he makes a bed of leaves and moss
for himself, but often he does not
in ''holing up under the roots of q tree
? he is frequently completely showed in, and
, under such condition, the warmth of his
l breath keeps the snow melted Immediately
around him. This moisture freezes on the in
side OF his den, and presently he is incased in
. dome of snow, lined with ice, the hard
lining of which ever grows thicker from the
frozen moisture OF his breath. AS result, he
Oll6u WdhtS early IN hdrCn TO ma himself
: prisoner IN hollow dome of snow and ice
from which he cannot escape for DAYS and
where he is often found elftrapped and shot
without the privilege of even striking a blow
at his assailants. And there is where nature
! serves poor bruin a mean trick I have
never seen bear in such an ice cage of his
own building, but DR.. Merriam has, in the
| Adlrondacks, and this information is Dor
rowed from him
= The fact that two people who live long to.
gether tend to grow alike is accounted for by
unconscious mimlcry reacting upon the mus
, Giles of expression in the same way that rul-
ing passion does, says Blackwood s Magazine
This tendency to facial imitation is very gen.
= eral-in fact, almost universal-and may be
so marked as to be easily noticed; so that
? when TWO people are engaged in animated
conversation the expression of the listener
may often e seen TO echo that of the speaker
How infectious is a smile or laugh. even
when the idea which gave rise to it in the
first case is not transferred Several times.
Y when talking TO young people, have sud
denly and purposely adopted some change OF
5 | expression, such as the raising of the eve
brows, and this, although not the least
| apropos to the words spoken at the time
has instantly evoked a like movement on
the faces before me. The response was
/ quite involuntary, and was a pure piece
OF instructive reheX action. Why does a yawn
t spread like pestilence through the room when
conversation flags: l know of those who
have started such an epidemic by little
piece of acting, and not mouth in the com
pany ,save the ugly one) knew why it gaped
Have not we ali noticed that man of marked
! individuality becomes centre of physical in
huence to those who wait on his words so
that his gestures tones of voice and turns of
phrase are reproduced know tutor whose
peculiarties OF speech and carriage have
been adopted more or less by every one of his
pupils during the last six years, and several
OF them have come to resemble him in feat
ure. This unconscious imitation of ex.
preston is very noticeable in chill
dren. Has IL occurred to many careful
parents that the good looks of their daugh-
, ters may depend IN no slight degree upon
their choice of nurse girls and goVernesses9
+ or some reason which we cannot fathom
the initiative faculty is so ngralned in us
, that what the eye perceives the train makes
haste to reproduce without stopping to ASK
our permission; and where two people live
, long together the facial muscles Of each are
constantly receiving stimuli prompting them
10 mlmtcry. AS in the case of the emotions
these Influences may be infnitesmal at anv
given moment, and may give rise to no vlsi-
, BILE change Of expression. Yet in the course
OF time they tend to mold the whole counte-
nance. feature for feature, into an almost ex-
act fac smile of another
Her Accurate Guess.
ct witnessed an event an n st,oo. - A.