The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-29
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

,. .Ths largest ..igg gold coin in f *,
gold ingot. or ..Ioof'' of AMMAN. nat.
round piece. worth about s325. the value
being written on II IN India ink
The very interesting and valuable exper
iments which DR.. A. NJ. Belle Of the Ohio
state university has been making with re-
gard 10 the effects of electric shocks upon
animal organism. have reached stage
where working theory can be predicated
upon the results obtained. says the Cleve-
land Leader This theory is a complete
departure from that most commonly &C
cepted. It has been supposed that the
cause OF death in cases of electrocution
was the breaking down OF the tissues. But
the elaborate experiments which Prof
Belle has made during the last month or
more leave no doubt in his mind that death
results from a very different cause. he
has found by experimenting with a large
number of dogs that an electric shock of
sufficient intensity TO cause death results
in a contraction of the articles so that
they refuse to perform their functions.
This throws the blood from the veins upon
the heart and virtually browns the opera
ton of that organ.
1t goes without saying that man has
two parents. four grandparents, eight
great grandparents and so on. so that IL
at each step. we have 204S ancestors, says
the st. Louis Globe Democrat. This sort
genealogists to show that at the time OF
William the ConQueror each of us had
more ancestors than the total population
of England: hence we must each be de-
scended from every Englishman of that
day, including the immortal William him
self. The absurdity of this sort of reason
ing has been pointed out by Prof. Brooks
of Johns Hopkins. While IL is true that
we have four grandparents, they need not
be four separate and distinct persons.
First cousins have no more than three
separate grandparents; If they are doubly
cousins they have but two. So in the tenth
generation ones 2.04S ancestors are never
2,0B separate persons. They abound in
duplicate so to speak Besides this. the
lines from a given pair of ancestors tend
to become extinct sooner or later. 30,
instead of having all Englishmen of the
year 1000 for our ancestors, the probability
is that we are descended from compare
lively few of them. This Is what Prof
Brooks calls the conveyance of ances-
try"
The most wonderful cannons on record
are those which are described by Brydone
whose travels in Sicily and Malta won
well-deserved renown toward the end Of
the last century. Many facts and stories
he recounts that seem strangely old-world
to us, though the date is little more than
100 years ago, so grandly did the French
revolution transform Europe. Malta was
full OF wonders more or less droll while
the knights held it, but nothing equaled
the stone guns. Everybody knows that
the fortifications were cut out of solid
rock, but Brydone was right in saying
that kind of ordnance used to defend
them was unknown to all the world be-
sides AS We understood his description.
the knights left great block OF stone
where they followed out an embrasure
in the cliff, which afterward they shaped
and bored in the form of gigantic NOR
tar. These engines contained a whole bar
rel of gun powder. That shoveled in,
they plugged it with a great piece Of
wood, fitted exactly with cannon balls.
shells and other deadly materials. About
fifty of these remarkable guns command
ed the spots which hostile ship was most
likely to approach. THE mouths of some
civ a. -
throw 10000 pounds weight of balls or
stone" The range is not stated, but the
falling projectiles covered an area of
over 800 square yards.
IT see going the rounds of the press
an item about the Prince of Wales ci-
CARS" said the old tobacconist who for
full generation has dispensed nicotine to
the patrons of an uptown hotel, says the
story they are made of the finest four
year stock by the most expert cigarmaker
in Cuba, and after being wrapped in gold
leaf and oil paper stamped with the
Princes crest and packed in mahogany
boxes, they cost II. R. H. just $3.50 apiece
THAT'S very pretty cigar story but
American lovers of the weed can dis
count 1t. There IS prominent import
ing firm of New York now having made
a lot of the very finest Havana cigars
winch viii cost, when the duty is p"id
tended as presents in packages of ten
Tor the firms principal patrons who will
then be able to boast of smoking the
eostliest cigars ever made. The highest
priced cigars l ever sold in Washington
were 81 apiece, and they cost me $500 a,
thousand. Most OF them were sold sin
ely, but the last box of fifty was taken
oy man who intended them for a. pres
emit to friend in the treasury DEPART
ment, who had done him some especiaI
service, That was during the war, when
almost duplicate for 5 cents. What ef
rect the present troubles in Cuba will
nave on the price of imported cigars
ve1laInS Ii,I 70 De seen but many smokers
the United States simply for the tobacco
Talking about steady smokers. I have n
b6oStImefi who. for fourteen years, has
$4,000 ''1 ~ mat 'iine ne mas paid me over
Among the Danish peasants. saws the
Plttsburg Dispatch, the primitive instrTI-
nent known as the lure is used for the
calling them together in the evening rre
clsely as the cowboy does on the plains
az night. He rides in a circle, gradually
narrowing into a 'round-llD - Tho cattia
lie down, and drop off into rest and SLIM
per under the witchery OF a human voice
known 70 them-the voice serving the pllr-
pose or the lure. The cattle are collected
together in two or three small herds the
property of so many different families
ana IN June they are sent llp into the
ScdnulnaVlan Alpine meadows, which are
~ hours sunshine and the "a hours tIaT-
light cover every single square foot he
low the glaciers with the most nqItricious
ana juicy grass Sward. Here thew thrive
Wei, and grow rapidly fat They are in
charge of the oldest peasant girls of the
Families that own the cattle but thew do
not herd them: They go loose very large
ly. The Danish pauvrette is there to milk
The cows, and to convent the dairy produce
into butter and cheese. It is in the even
ing when the herd is recalled from the sur
rounding pastures, that the lure comes
into play. Many of the girls become ouon-
dunn aut5stes in its use, and manage 10
evoke a good deal of music from the T3rinn
tive instrument. 1t has, however. also a
purely romantic use, more especiaIIv
among the high-spirited peasants of the
Terendheim districts of Northern Norway
When peasant girl has an engaged
swain at work on lthe home farm he is
supposed to be on the lookout for lure
signal from his prospective bride at any
time, but more especially so on the sabbafh
morning. Selecting the most commanding
peak above the valley in sight of the hone
farm, she seats herself on its summit al
sunrise, sending down over the beetline
crags and canyons the choicest lure selec,
ttons she can conjure with. 1t is a chaI-
lenge to her lovers devotion and pRincfIIaI-
ity, and woe to him If a. prompt and meIo-
dfous reply on the home lure is not at