The morning news., 1894-04-14
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

SoIHe LlIus i've 10 an extreme Olu age Inc
raven has been known to live 16e years and
the swan 115.
The clerk OF Queen victoria's kitchen. who
always clrves receives salary of $500
year. The chief receives the same salary and
the two confectioners, who attend to the
making OF pastry. Jelly, etc, receive annual
salaries of sl.5OO each.
The wife Of the Car of Russia has the most
valuable collection IF jewels Of any of the
queens or expresses of Europe The Russian
crown jewels are something simply fabulous
in value. The pearls alone of the Czarina's
crown are valued at $1,000 routles.
The. greatest swarm of locusts ever known.
invaded South Africa in 1897, says the Irish
Times. They weredriven into the sea by
north wind, and, the waves throwing them
back, bank OF dead locusts from three to
SIX feet thick was formed for fifty miles
along the coast.
Pearls are quite hobby with some foreign
potentates; The Empress of Austria's pearls
are black and are consi iered very rare orna-
ments. The Russian Princess Yousounoff
owns pearl weighing fourteen arats, which
is valued at ,00J, coo francs. Pope Leo Mis-
tiara is adorned with pink pearl worth S6O,-
An Indiana man who successfully courted a
Chicago widow now declines to marry her on
the ground that she is older than he thought
-that she is over %, and is a grandmother.
great concession by promising to marry a
gold
The best tobacco bags are made not of
leather or rubber. but of the pouch of a peli-
can. The monstrous membrane which fills
out the lower bill OF the pelican is soft and
thin, OF very tne texture easily tanned, and
When dressed makes a beautiful article of
leather: possessing the quality of telng as
| imperVious to water as india rubber. Tobacco
! Kept IN II Will hacOma dry
serves its sweetness and aroma even longer
than when preserved in tin foil.
/ Careful weighing, says the Agriculturist,
shows that an ordinary bee. not loaded,
weighs the one FIVE -thousandth part of a
| pound so that it takes 5000 bees. not loaded,
to make pound. But the loaded Uee when
| he comes in fresh ON the fields and flowers,
| loaded with honey or bee bread, weighs
nearly three times more-that is to say, he
carries nearly twice his own weight. OF
loaded bees there are only about 800 in the
| pound. An ordinary hive of bees contains
from 1our TO tve POUNDS of bees. or between
10000 and $1,000 individuals; but some swarms
have doubled this weight and number of
| bees.
1t is most interesting sight to watch an
o1rang outang make its way through the
| jungle, writes an African traveller 1t walks
| slowly along the larger branches in semi
| erect attitude, this being apparently caused
| by the length of its arms and the shortness of
! its legs. 1t invariably selects those branches
which intermingle with those of a nelghbor-
| ing tree, on approa hing which it stretches
| out Its long arm, and, grasping the boughs op
| poslte, seems first to shake them, as il to test
| their strength, and then deliberately swings
| llseH across to the next branch, which 1t
| walks along as before. 1t does not jump or
| spring as monkeys usually do and never ap-
pears to hurry itself unless some real dan
ger presents. Yet, in spite OF its apparently
| slow movements, 1t gets along far quicker
| than person running through the forest be-
| meath,
| Perfect copies of the first folio Shakespeare
| 1923, have become so rare that they may be
almost described as unattainable. says the
| Pail Mall Budget. The Ioovey copy sold last
| week at SotheDy for 91C9 was not at all a
| dear one as such things go, for both the title
| and Ben Jonson's verses were in fac simile
| BY far the finest copy which has come into
| the market for several years was sold in the
| Ives collection at New York-in March 1891
| and realized "a 100; but even that COPY though
| quite perfect, was not what is known as tall
| copy. The example which formed the cor
| ner stone of the earl of Aylesford's library
| sold in March, 1885, for f20, but il was not
perfect; neither was the Perkins COPY which
in July, 1888, sold for 94l5, although its only
| fl 1t was that both the title and Ben
| johnson verses were mounted. Another ex-
| ample fetched &3l0 in December, 1889 but it
| had one leaf from smaller copy, and another
| leaf mended, very slight defects which make
| a wonderful difference when it comes to sell
| ing. Only one copy appeared in the market
| last year, and that was poor one-so imper
|
| original price of the first folio was about fl
and, although the number printed must have
| been considerable, it is astonishing how few
| have come down to us in a perfect condition.
| The Baroness Burdett-C Coutts possesses the
| finest copy in existence
| One of the remarkable features of the new
| aquarium down on the Battery wall is the
| glass which forms the front of the tanks saws
| the New York World. On ordinary inspec-
| tlon, when the tanks are filed, it appears
| indeed n a o,, Sr,a1,
| in thickness. To person unacquainted with
| the reflective tendency of glass this NAV not
| seem strange, but even the uninitiated will
open their eyes when told that the test which
! proved this glass satisfactory was to place
| twenty slabs. each one inch thick. on top of
each other and try to read ordinary newspa-
| per print through them all. Certainly the
fishes cannot escape the inspection Of the
| multitude through such crystal as this The
| glass Is made in England 1t was found
| impossible to make it in this coun-
| try, owing to influence of climate and tenn
| perature Neither the French or American
| article was able TO stand the test Of strength
| to which each slab was put before it could be
| trusted to hold the water in the tank WHY
| this should be so, the makers do not explain;
| they are Handicapped by nature, they saw
and cannot help themselves. H. II. Wood
man, who has charge of the installation of
| the aquarium, has been endeavoring to obtain
| some slabs of glass one and a half inches
| thick. So far he has not been able to do so
| though he had cabled to dozen factories in
| Europe. They all reply that it is impossi le
| to make such large slabs of that thickness
| Mr.. Woodman, however, who knows about
| glass for aquarium tanks says it can be
made, and hopes yet to be able to obtain it,
The following is copy of speech deliv-
cred by Francis Raymond at one of the
Shakespearean anniversaries at Stratford-on-
| Avon in the last century: Mr., Mayor and
Gentlemen The Tempest" Of applause
| which followed the ammo Jncement of a name
so unworthy OF my own.'has left me bank.
rupt in thanks like the Merchant of Venice.A
You cannot expect me to philosophize like
Hamlet" nor mediate like Macbeth vet
l am as grateful as Pericles,'' But, were
to talk myself black in the face like
"othello," my efforts would prove Loves
| Latour Lost" our worthy President and his
supporters. like the Two Gentlemen of We.
roma have wed with each other to pass the
chronicles Of England from Lear; to "CIm.
| beline." and up to king John" and through
the "Henrys and Richards to the reign
of Henry VIII were but Com
edy of Errors" but the events of
this night will serve to enliYen many "a Win
ter Tale when life has passed away like
! "A Midsummer Nights Dream" Were |
TQs.N1ra ne,A la,1 1fnNr