The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-02
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


[ ington Post man. You haven't an 1deas
One hundred million. Pretty big contract,
isn't itf-so big that no one envelope manu-
/ facturer wants to take 1t alone, and II IS
divided among four or five concerns The
profits on envelopes have been cut all to pieces
in the last few years. Where we used TO get
for instance, 81 80 per 900 for certain grade
OF envelopes We now get IS cents. ana have TO
pay the freight ourselves The wonderful
! improvement in the machinery used in their
manufacture in measure compensates Ior
/ this reduction. In our factory we have ma
| chinery that turns out 10000 envelopes day.
But competition is exceedingly close, and we
must have enormous orders to justify our con-
ttnuance in the business.
M. Baudereau, French scientist, has been
making an investigation OF the well known
fact that the whole Of the Scandinavian pc
ninsula is slowly rising above the sea level,
| and has arrived at the conclusion that the
| movement is due to the gradual warming up
| OF that country. He says that that whole
/ part OF the earth was in recent geologic times
/ buried under great masses of ice, and as the
rock now gradually rises in temperature
there is a CORES bonding di lation Of the crust
Allowing rise IN temper ature OF y cent?
| grade from zero to the present tempera-
| ture). and taking the co-effcient Of dilation
OF granite as basis, he calculates the cor
! in the central parts, which
agrees with observations made at
the coast Recent observations at Santiago
have bearing on this question. For many
| years dlurnal movements Of the ground there
have been observed and ascriLed to the &C
tion OF the solar heat. From observations
made by DR. Obrecht on a plain to the south
OF the city, the ground to the northeast / es
| from noon until p m, and then sinAs mud Z
| the next morning. Moreover, from July 20
| september IL is on the whole, continuously
| raised, while from September to November
the ground to the east Of the observatory Is
! raised
That the degree Of NJ. D. should ever have
been conferred upon man or men solely on
ccount Of his or their proficiency in cutting
OF human heads sounds highly improbable,
but it is an historic fact that such an honor
| was once actually accorded to two execution
| ers at Stuttgart. A sword kept at the mu-
| scum at that place has this queer legend or
inscription engraved upon the blade DO
no wrong and no harm will betide thee" This
is the implement of death that was success
fully used by four brothers. Marcus. JakCb
Andreas and Johann Bicknel. four harder ed
villains who occupied the chair as chief
executioners at Stuttgart, the old royal resi-
dence and metropolis Of Wurtem burg, be-
tween the years 1860 and 1891. The instru-
ment, which is clumsy but horrid looking
affair, is said to have done death to no
fewer than 35 criminals during the
reign OF the brothers Bieknel alone. In the
| year 1850 the Emperor Ferdinand happened
to arrive in Stuttgart at the moment when
two culprits were being led to the block,
which stood upon what was known as the
| Cheese, a circular Enclosure of boards filed
in with earth. The emperor watched every
detail OF the execution, which was performed
by the two oldest OF the Bicknel brothers,
Marcus and Jakob, and is said to have been
highly pleased" In fact. he must have been
really delighted with the artistic manner with
which the duty was discharged, for we are
told that he then and there conferred upon
the brothers the title OF doctor, and from that
moment they were authorized and empowered
to practice as physicians and surgeons to the
best OF their abilities"
The investigating party which was sent out
nearly month ago by the department Of
archaeology OF the University OF Pennsylva-
mia recently returned, says the Philadelphia
| Ledger, bringing with it a valuable collec-
| t.oa OF relics which make an important addi-
| ton TO the information concerning,the former
| inhabitants Of this continent TO make a
| start in a systematic search Of this kind, the
| party went to the chalk bluffs OF the San Di
| ego river (Duval county, Texas, where
mammoth tusks and bones have been found
/ here seemed no warrant for the rumors
| that the flint chips and Clipped axes found
| in the gorge proved that man had been there
| with these animals, for places we're found
| where the Indian remains had fallen down
| from the loan surface OF the blufr tops and
| had mingled with the remains Of an earlier
age Important discoveries were made in the
Lookout and Nickajack caves, near Knox
! Vile Tenn. Here in the undIsturbed mass
Of human and animal refuse on the floors of
| the caves. there was no question OF the asso-
| citation, as the bones in the museum have
| been positively identified by Prof. e. d.
| Cope, the eminent pateontologist of the uni
| versity. Man had there lived with the deer
| tortoise, elk, rabbit, raceoon, soft shelled
turtle, opOSSum, Spade-footed toad, wild cat
| wild turkey squirrel and otter, for he had
| generally killed and eaten these creatures
| whose remains, very rarely gnawed by ami
mails, lay scattered above and below his fire
places The most important discovery was
| that OF bones Of the extinct peccary, found
| also at Hartmanns cave, and of two teeth of
| the tapir (Taplrus Americanus). The char
| acter of the human remains proved the cave
| to have been Inhabited by the Indian. and as
| there was only one layer he evidently had no
predecessor in this region. The tapir adds
| one to the list Of extinct animals found in
| past association with man in eastern North
| America.
In series Of articles describing the plant
ing, cultivation, preparation for market
and transportation of licorice root, appear
| ing in the Pharmaceutical Era. there is the
/ following interesting descriptive bit: In dig
| ging licorice root in Syria the usual Way is to
| start trench the length of the place to be
| dug over, about two feet in length, and work
| from that, each man placing in pile the
| root he has dug, and at the end OF the day or
| longer time it is taken to the scales. weighed
| and paid for at specified rate per pound.
| An allowance is always made for the dirt
| that chngs to the roots The root is then
| spread out for a few days to slightly dry
| and piled in stacks about three feet wide and
| four or Ave feet high, rounded off at the tor
| in order to shed rain, and the piles are mar
| row enough to prevent heating. At the end
| Of the rainy season the root is spread out to
1 dry for about two months being turned over
1 from time to time during which process, all
| the adhering earth dries and falls on leaving
| ii clean and ready for transport to the point
| Of shipment 1t is then put INTO canvas sacks
each containing from 200 to go pounds, two
sacks being load for a camel or a mule For
| the transportation of the root from the place
| where dug to the port of shipment varying
| from two to five days journey, a contract is
| usually made with some Arab or Beaoufn
| shelk for a certain amount OF cantars (of
about 800 pounds EACH at certain price, he
| to furnish camels and men and the owner to
| furnish and fill the sacks. About fifty comels
go in one caravan or drove, for which five
men are sufficient. Sometimes. if 100 camels
are used, the caravan goes in sections; one
man riding donkey leads the first camel and
| the rest follow the leader. while the other
| men walk, keeping any camel from straying or
| tagging too far behind They usually start
/ early in the morning and go ten or fifteen
miles, when a halt is made the loads are
| taken on and the cames are allowed to
browse on the thorn or other bushes for three
or four hours then loaded again and about
the same distance travelled. when they are
again unloaded and the night is spent in the
open air and an early start made the next
morning. And so on until the seaboard is
reached. where they are unloaded, the root
is weighed, the sacks emptied and returned
TO be again reilled in the fields for another
trip. On the Euphrates and Tigris the root
is obtained near the banks Of the rivers and
after teing properly dried, is loaded in bulk
on native boats called bugalows, CARRYING
from 80 to 100 tons which float down the river