The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-16
ITEMS or INTEREST.

Greater New York. a typographical
statist-cian points OUT viii cover an area
OF 5lf square miles, three times the size OF
London, and twelve times that Of Paris.
Rome, Babylon and Memphis are not 10
be mentioned IN the comparison.
Nearly all the plants that have thOrns
in their Wild state lose them after genera
tons Of cultivation. 1t is as If plants
brought under the protection Of man grad
ually lay down their arms and trust them
selves entirely to his protection
The singing in Russia-that is, in the
russian church-is confined entirely 10
men. All the monks are singers. For
thousand years Russia has been searched
for the best voices among the monks.
ana they are brought TO the most import
ant centers- As no one can be come priest
in Russia who is not the son of a priest
tthe parish priests being marriedl. in
nearly all the training has gone on from
age TO age.
A novel drinking glass has been in
vented, the special feature Of the inven-
ton being, we are told, that bottled beers
may be poured into it without the three
parts frOth, fro which you have patiently
10 await subsistence before drinking. With
the corrugations inside instead of outside
the glass. the foam is said to be so distri-
buted that ii resolves itself into a thin
layer at the top. no matter how fresh
the liquor may be.
Statistics give the mileage Of all the
railways on the globe at the end of 1892
at 1854 miles, or one mile 10 every
3,5l6 inhabitants. Puerto Rico is the state
containing the shortest length of rail-
way, numbering eleven miles, and the
United states have by far the greatest
ll4lS4 miles. Next, but long way be-
hind, comes Germany. with q 455 miles,
then France, with 24,0lS miles. The United
kingdom is fourth with 20325 miles, and
Russia nfths with 10, 656 miles.
-"Flitting" is the term used by the
pennsylvania Germans for a family NOV
ing This is also a Scotch usage, and it IS
nearer the original meaning of the word
than is the more modern acceptation.
Philologists conjecture that the word has
reached its present common meaning
through fancied relation to the word
fleet" A fitting in the colloquial usage
of the Pennsylvania Germans does not
mean nasty removal, nor has it any
half-humorOus intent, such as sometimes
marks the word.
Frances parliament stands in danger
of accommodation, which, if carried in
to effect, will be without precedent in his
tory. 1t seems that one of the abbes VINO
sits in the Chamber of Deputies for a
rural constituency, has introduced a bill
to punish and prohibit duelling. and I'M
der a papal bull now in existence any
one who opposes the bill must be excon-
munlcated as encouraging this particular
form OF murder. That is to say, if the
Chambers reject the bill, the clergy, ac-
cording to the terms of the papal edict
in question, have no alterna tive but TO
place them under the ban of the church.
Says the Philadelphia Record: "A full
case of handouts, straight jackets and
iron chains is among the possessions of
the state board of lunacy, and is care
fully treasured as a relic of the old treat
ment of the insane, which has now hap
PLY passed almost entirely out of use 1t
seems incredible that such cruel contri-
Ndnces should have only few years ago
been used and authorized by eminent
physicians as necessary to curb the out
breaks OF unfortunate patients The case
IS now IN the Office of the insane depart
ment of the Pennsylvania hospital at
Forty-ninth and Market streets, and in
view of the absolute freedom given the
FnaaWafa 4 Fl.sar Al
eVokes great curiosity. Hanging to one
pair of heavy and unwieldly handouts is
a chain of wooden beads, which an insane
man succeeded in forming and decorating
with curious carvings while his move
iron"
1t is well known here says the Wash
mgton correspondent of the Chicago
Times-Herald, that Mrs. Cleveland is very
tired of being the wife of the President
and that she looks forward with great
JOY to the time when she can once more
be plain Mrs. Cleveland. As the wife of
the President Mrs Cleveland leads life
wren Is 9IeadIully HOMOGENEOUS. She is
debarred from general society and can
accept no hospitality, except from the
members of the cabinet, and cabinet din
ners are pretty dreary affairs because
all the members know one another so
thoroughly before the first season is half
over that they get tired of the same So
me wives Of the members of the cabinet
have a much better time of II socially:
out shopping at the theater or In any
public place Mrs. Cleveland's every move
inent IS watched, so that her whole life
Is more or less artificial and subjects her
10 constant cOnstraint. Mrs Cleveland
would no doubt be glad to leave the white
mouse behind her. She is fully convinced
1hat IL IS not place for happiness.
some of the old continental families
literally did date their pedigrees from the
Hnood, says the London Standard The
hrehch FAMILY of Croy possessed at one
time fine picture representing Noah
with one foot in the ark, exclaiming
SauVez les papiers de la maison de Grow ,
Inc pedigree of a Welsh family the Mos
tyns. of Mostyn is equally renarkabie II
mas been preserved among their papers
LOT more tnan three centuries, is inscribed
on Illuminated parchment and measures
over twenty feet long by about a foot
broad 1t begins with Noah and as
hayward remarks, after passing through
most of the Drincely houses mentioned
IN the old Testament. is made to f1ow
through sundry royal and imperial chan
nels III 1t reaches Edward III. where ii
stops; so mat I would fit any family
claiming descent from the Plantagenets
Bur IN spite OF absurdities of this kind
proD9bly. no Croy or MOstyn ever de-
seconded to the depth of Stiffness of sun
posing his or her blood was literally blue
The fact was that the Moorish invasion
grove the mobiles into every kind of ex-
tremity: Many families in their dis
tress allied themselves with those of Afri-
can, Indian or Jewish blood. In this man
ner their descendants gain what is COM
monty called a dash of tar brush -
When the Moorish yoke was eventually
thrown off. the old families who dated
from a time previous to the Moorish in
vasion were particularly anxious to main
tain the purity of their descent The bare
idea of the slightest faint of African or
Jewish blood filled them with horror Yet
nearly everybody's blood was so tainted
when the Moors were overthrow and the
Jews expelled at the end of the fifteenth
century. Those. however, who were con-
scious of their pure descent were natur-
ally proud of it. There was no trace of
the loathed. dark-faced Moor in their
veins; they had never intermarried with
the despised Jew. But all around them
were men who were partly Jewish, and
who, whatever they might say, bore the
signs OF their mixed origin in their faces
Perhaps, therefore. it was not altogether
astonishing, absurd as It now seems to
us, that the SDaniard of pure descent
should come to imagine that the blood of
quadroon, as well as his complexion was
dark in color, though how they came to fix
on blue as the color of their own blood
must still remain a mystery. If they really
thought It was blue they must have shed
It far less often in their country's cause
than history would lead us to believe
Nor could they have been very keen oh
servers in other respects. Presumably the
cheeks Of their children were not blue
nor did the highborn Spanish maiden blush
blne when some SDanfeb ord TorT-1Il-.