The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-08
ITEMS OF INTEREsT.b

lurn-Iaoles ana Il can De turned IN any
direction. The table is turned by two
cranks and cross shafts. which rotate
power that makes II possible 10 raise and
lower the tower, no matter what the posi-
ton OF the truck may be. On the forward
part OF the truck is a deck pipe, which is
constructed to receive water from three
engines at the same time. The claim IS
made that the tower can throw a stream
over the tallest building in the city.
"A French chemist has obtained a new
substance, somewhat resembling ordin-
airy porcelain, BY the manipula ton Of as
bestos- The hbers of asbestos are eI-
ceedingly fine, and give an almost impaIp-
able powder. From this powder a paste
IS made by the mixture Of water, which
IS thoroughly kneaded and moulded into
the desired form. BY heating the article
IN crucible TO a temperature Of Zoo
degrees Fahrenheit porcelain is obtain
ed with translucency comparable to
that OF ordinary porcelain An electrical
expert who has employed porous cups
OF this substance says that they have
much less resistance to the electrical cur
rent than the ordinary cups in use.
The latest discovery of the sociolo-
gists Is that one cause of the decline OF
marriage IN England is traceable TO too
much noVel-reading on the part OF young
men and women, who acquire therefrom
romantic notions of life which small in
comes will not satisfy. 1t would appear
mat we are getting a very pyrotechnic
kind of science from the sociOlogists
nowadays. Max Nordau must regret that
he did not know of this theory. says the
line To judge from the numerous SER
mons preached against novel-reading
hundred years ago. our t-grandfatn-
ers had robust appetite for fiction, but
u rather stimulated than repressed their
desire to marry.
1T is peculiar fact" said Edwin w
fiske, of Mount Vernon, N. Y, who is one
Of the best-knOWn dog fanciers. especially
IN the spaniel line, in the country, that
almost invariably a man who is a dog
fancier and follows bench shows with any
0apTnn Vi i- hast
known dog men in the country have their
hearing more or less affected. 1t is caused
by the incessant barking and bowling
Which one always tnds in bench show.
A continuous noise of itself would not
necessarily cause deafness, as men in
rolling mills and factories have to stand
noise of much greater volume and of a
more shocking nature than you can find
in a dog show. But the barking and
! bowling of a dog seems to have strange
ana uneXplainable effect upon the ear
drum OF course, TO affect the hearing
IL takes a long time. so that only men
who are old in the business are affected.
You take the principal owners of dogs
eXhibited here and you VIII find my
statement verified"
In some parts of New Mexico there
grows a grass which produces a somnifer-
Gus effect on the animals that Craze upon
IL, says the Pittsburg Dispatch. Horses,
after eating the grass, in nearly all cases,
sleep standing, while cows and sheep al
most invariably lie down. 1t has OCCASION
ally happened that travellers have stopped
to allow horses to feed in places where
the grass grows pretty thiclSly, and the
animals have had time to eat a consider
able quantity before its effects mani
tested themselves. In such cases horses
have gone to sleep on the road. and it is
hard to arouse them. The effect of the
grass passes off in an hour or two, and no
bad results have ever been noticed on ac-
1 count of It. Cattle on the ranches fire.
quentIy come upon patches Of this grass,
where they feed for perhaps half an
hour, and then fall asleep for an hour or
more, when they wake uD and slant feed
ing again. The programme Is repeated per-
haps a dozen times, until thirst obliges
them to so to water. Whether, like the
poppy. the grass contains opium. or
whether its sleep-producing property is
due to some other substance, has not been
determined.
why does the judge in a criminal
court assume the black cap when pro
nounCing sentence of DEATH" is a ques-
ton frequently asked, says the Boston
4 Transcript. This is because covering the
head has from the earliest times been
regarded as a sign of mourning. Num-
! erous examples of this occur in the Scrip
] lures, in the classics and in modern lit
erature. THE ancient English" says Dud-
| ley Fosbrooke, in his monumental work on
| archaeology, drew their hoods over their
| heads at funerals" We read also in
| Peck s "Dissertata Curiosa' of 1.-THE con-
gregatiOn, very great one, sitting in the
! choir to hear the funeral sermon, all
/ covered" at the burial of Bishop Cox in
! Ely Cathedral in the year 1881. Not only
/ heads at funerals but in some countries
/ they still wear black caps at weddings, in
/ token of mourning for the destruction of
/ the temple. Another reason is that the
/ black cap forms part of the full dress
/ of the Judge, which is worn only on eX-
| tracTdinAry occasions. The black flag,
| hoisted upOn prison walls as a signal that
/ The last sentence of the law has been
/ carried out, was first employed by Tanner
/ lane. Khan of the Tartars, in the four
1 teentgr century. Whenever a beleaguered
I city refused to surrender after a certain
4 period, he displayed black flag, to pro-
/ claim that 1.-THE time for mercy is now
| past and the city is given up to destruc-
ton
! THE question, When will the horse
! cease to be a necessity for traffic and
pleasure in AmsgiG ahd is PERHAPS ne nearer
| Henry W. Fischer in the May number of
/ Munsey's Magazine. The Paris-BordeauX
/ race of automobile carriages, to be run in
! June or the beginning of July, promises
! to fcreshadow the approach of the horse
| less period. The forthcoming Paris-Bor-
! deaux races-'the competition of carriages
/ without horses'-are to demonstrate
! whether the end of the century will fulfill
the promise of the beginning; whether the
/ long delayed, oft attempted invention has
| been completed by the creation and adop-
! ton of a type of automobile carriage that
| is at once free from danger and the man
agement of which calls but for the exer
else of ordinary skill. The Paris Petit
Journal. as it did last year, will manage
the affair the race is to be international
in the broadcast sense, and unrestricted as
to the employment of motive systems. DR..
Chauncey NJ. Depew, who was asked
whether he thought the horse was doomed,
said: Il imagine that one fine morning
we shall wake up with apparatus ready
to take US to our offices by an automobile
carriage, or, perchance, through the air.
But in spite of my full belief in the cleo
trio carriage of the future, doubt whether
the services of the horse will ever be en-
tirely dispensed with. l cannot conceive
our active Americans adapting themselves
to the pursuit of pleasure in carriages
moved by electricity, or by any other kind
of motor but the horse. What has made
the bicycle so universally popular but the
one fact that it permits of action on the
part of the rider, that it affords excite
ment. For similar reasons the carriage
horse will always have friends and admir-
ers; his style. action and movement can
not be duplicated or initiated. AS to the
ordinary, every day horse he is certainly
doomed. The extent to which electricity
has dtscredited and replaced him is exen
plhed by the fact that it no longer pavs
to breed horses that command but mod
crate price"