The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-12
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

meters about fOrty-fiVe inches) in diam
meter. but the length Of the instrument
I will be but fve and one-half meters.
| The lenses, therefor. viii be larger,
Z but the telescope shorter. than the errles
| telescope. Steinheil, in Munich. viii shape
/ the lenses.
All along the California coast great
beds Of a remarkable seaweed exist This
I weed is commonly known as the giant
kelp. 1t has an uncommon economic
value. Its growth Is peculiar A full-
( grown specimen has stem measurins
800 to 400 feet in length. clutching the
bottom Of the ocean, while II bears al us
summit on the surface Of the water an
air bulb. from which a TUT upward or
fifty feet long of streamerlike leaves eX-
tend, each leaf being thirty or forty
feet long, The stem which anchors this
floating mass. though no thicker than q
common window cord. is of great strength
and feXibility and has for age been used
by the Indians for fishing lines, which
is where the stem begins 10 expand into
the hollow tube, and varies from ten 10
fifteen fathoms.
Mr.. Orr and his wife of New York
cannot agree as to whether the rapid re-
coVery OF their l2-year-old son was duC
to the skill of the doctor or the efficacy
Of holy water. The boy disappeared from
home some time ago and few days later
came back, frozen, paralyzed, nearly
! Speechless and subsequently blind. The
doctor was called in, but the mother
supplemented his remedies by bringing
some holy water from church. some ce-
ment from the holy church at Knock, in
ireland, and some holy water from Lourdes
with a bit of consecrated paper in IL.
/ This water she sprinkled on the. boy, and
/ from that moment, she contends, he be
4 gan to recover his sight ard strength
/ The father thinks that the doctor dis
/ played extraordinary skill in saving from
/ amputation his sons frozen legs.
One day a well known lion tanner
i says To-day, wishing to test the affec-
\ ton popularity supposed to exist between
/ lion and mouse, put mouse IN me
lion saw the mouse before he was fairly
/ through the bars. and was after him in
stantly. Away Went the niue de Low,
in fright. When he had gone about ten
/ feet the lion sprang again, lighting ut
| tie in front of him. The mouse turned,
and the lion sprang again. This was re-
peated several times. the mouse traVers-
ing a shorter distance after each spring
/ of the lion. 1t was demonstrated that a
| lion is too quick for a mouse, at least IN
| a large cage Finally, the mouse stood
still, squealing and trembling: the lion
! stood over, studying him with interest;
/ Presently he shot out his big paw ana
| brought it down directly on the mouse,
| but so gently that the mouse was not IN
/ iured in the least though held fast between
/ the claws. The lion played with MIN IN
/ the most extraordinary way now nItlng
/ his paw and letting the mouse run a rev
| inches. and then stopping him again as
/ before. Suddenly the mouse changed ms
tactics, and instead of running wnen me
! lion lifted his paw, sprans INTO the ar
| straight al the lions head. The lion, ter
| rihed, gave a great leap backward. strik-
/ ing the bars with all his weight. and shak-
| ING the whole floor Then he opend his
/ great Jaws. and roared and roated again,
while the little mouse, still squeallng, mace
| his escape. OF the two the non was the
more frightened.
The old slate and pencil have been
/ banished from many American {rubnc
schools by the school committee, says the
for this step furnished in the report OF
the committee on, hygiene and physiosI
| training are as follows: l. A slight graz
/ mark upon a slightly darker surface is
! more or less indistinct and theresore try
ing to the, eyesight. 2. The resistance OF
/ the hard pencil upon the hard slate is tir-
| ing to the muscles, and this resistance
| leads to perverted habits, which have TO
be overcome when the pupil begins tp
And last, but not least, the use of states,
| slate pencils and sponges is a very I'M
clearly custom, and leads to and estab-
lished very uncleanly habits. So the
slate, slate pencil and sponge have had
I to make way for paper, lead pencil and
/ rubber for school use A cotemporary
/ points out that there are as good grounds
for apprehending the formation of I'M
cleanly habits with paper and lead pencil
| as with slate and slate pencil. And the
microbe is quite as likely to take refuge
In dirty paper as in dirty states. Another
! source of danger is the surreptitious loan
ing and exchanging of these pencils,
which, it ia almost impossible to entirely
! prevent. There is one point of supreme
Importance in all these expurgating con-
trlVances and sanitary schemes that is
| too generally left out of consideration;
that is, that the teachers of children are
! as HuCn III Quty pound TO lnculCate clean
| ~ habits in children, and hence to enforce
sanitary rules of individual c. lduct, as to
teach reading. writing and arithmetic. 1t
naturally belongs to the morals of the
business of the teacher.
The people of every country on the
globe have their peculiar superstitions and
fancies in regard TO saving or attempting
to save drowning persons, and also con-
corning the recovery of the bodies of those
who have met death in that manner says
the St Louis Republic. In all parts of Eu-
rope, put most especially in England.
that the person who attempts to save one
that Is drowning IS either mailman or a
fool, because, so they say, the person so
saved Is sure to wreck the happiness of
his rescuer as soon after as opportunity af-
lords. This superstition has been traced
pack 10 the dark ages, and is believed 20
have been inherited from prehistoric
times. The first explorers among the In
dams Of the west Especially the Sioux), as
well as IN Australia, Alaska and Green
land, found traces of the same curious no.
lions existing. In Russia, the same super
st1tion prevails, as any one may prove
who will read Mr. Barry's book entitled
Ivan at Home" The superstitious people
of all countries also have their different
modes of recovering the bodies of those
who have been drowned. SIR James Alex
ander IN a work on the Indians of Canada,
says; The Indians imagine that in the
case of drowned body its place may he
discovered by floating a chip of cedar wood
which will stop and turn round over the
exact spot. An ms lance occurred within
my own knowledge in the case of Mr.
Lavery of Kingston Mills, who was drown
ed near Cedar Island nor could his body
be recovered until the experiment was re-
sorted to-" The Mandan Indians use two
different articles for this purpose, buffalo
chips or some article of clothing be-
longing to the deceased The half-civi-
Hzed tribe of the southwest nearly all use
little wickerwork baskets called by a name
signifying wet pans; the idea in these
last mentioned cases being neither the
buffalo chips garment nor basket will
become sufficiently water-soaked to sink
until 1t arrives at the spot exactly over
the body of the drowned. In all Euro
pean countries, and in the United States
the favorite talsman appears to be a loaf
of bread. In England the loaf is weighted
with quicksilver, and in France 1t IS start
ed on its journey in quest of the dead with
a lighted taper affixed in the top crust
Objects used for this purpose differ widely
in the different countries or even in wide
ly separated communities. In Japan they
use bundle of straw; in Java, a live
sheep in South Africa. the dried tail of a
bullock, and in Australia a snakes skin
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