The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-29
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Henry V. ordered that the geese OF the
empire be counted and that the. sheriff
furnish the government six feathers
from each goose.
in 1881, when Prof. Zimmerman was en-
gagged in exploring the ruins of an ancient
temple Of Isis on the banks of the Nile.
IS miles below Najar Djfard, he opened
row of tombs in which some prehistoric
race Of giants had been buried. The
smallest skeleton out of some 50 odd,
which were examined during the time
Zimmerman was excavating at Na1ar
Djfard measured seven feet and eight
inches in length, and the largest IL feet
and on inch Memorial tablets were dis
covered in great numbers, but there was
no record that even limited that they was
in memory of men Of extraordinary size.
1t is believed that the ,tombs date back
to the year 1913 b. c.
The latest big log raft experiment on
the Pacific coast has proved big sue
cess, the first entire success In the hts
tory of such attempts. The raft was
built on the Columbia river, and con-
tanned between six and seven million feet
of lumber. 1t was made of piles so close
ly bound together that not a timber IN
the whole great bulk was movable. The
raft was started from Oregon late in
July, in tow of the steamer Mineola, ana
arrived in San Francisco on Aug. 2, after
as smooth trip as though ii had hoated
down placid river instead of over a con-
siderable stretch of the Pacific ocean. 1t
would have taken several score of ships
to transport the lumber, and the owners
OF the raft have cleared something over
$4,000 by the success of the experiment.
An electrician has expressed his belief
that telephoning to the moon is within
the bounds of possibility. says the Boston
Transcript. He argues that the ether
which binds the plantes together with an
iron hand is, while firm and solid, infin-
itely elastic, and an ideal medium for the
transmission Of vibrations. The vibra-
tons which constitute light come TO us
from the sun in eight minutes, travelling
at the rate of 192. 900 miles a second. 1t
is possible TO produce waves moving at
this enormous velocity by electrical
means. A pulsation of electricity causes
an ether wave. and in the telephone the
movement of infinitely small waves pro-
duces speech. The waves produced by
ether disturbance spread out into space,
radiating farther and farther in gigantic
circles until swallowed up in its immens-
ity, like riDples on the ocean. If an iron
mass be in the vicinity of these pulsatiOns,
Ii will give out a buzz OF hum, as shown in
the passage of current through some sys-
TENS of street-lightning apparatus for the
transformation of high to low pressure.
The moon undoubtedly contains its proper
Tomato amount of iron, and therefore the
theory is advanced, If we can send cleo
trical pulsations to the moon, we can
make things hum on it's rugged surface.
Such an experiment would involve the
use of a gigantic coil, mounted vertically
with its axis in line with the MOON"
Queen Victoria's household is a large
one, consisting of just under a thousand
persons, for the maintenance of whom the
nation sets apart the sum of 81, 100000 every
year, says the 81. Louis ttepuDllc. MOSL OF
the offices are sinecures or fixtures for
life. Some of the posts are entirely orna-
mental, and others have very little duty
attached to them. Probably the only addi-
lions to the household since the time of
Henry VIII, are two steam apparatus men.
Although there is no longer a royal barge,
nor any pageantry on the Thames, there
are still bargemaster and a waterman,
with a salary each of $1,000 a year. There
are four table deckers. whose sole duty
is to lay the dinner cloth and see that the
dishes and
forth. There is also a wax filter, who sees
the candles properly disposed, and a first
a year. Then there is the keeper of the
swans" who annually pocket $3.50 for
| looking after the sacred birds on the royal
waters. Lastly, there is the Queen rat
| catcher" who Is especially attached TO
| Buckingham Palace. His office is by no
| means a sinecure. His salary S75 is pro-
the House Of Commons. in committee of
| supply considers this vote specially, and
gravely agrees to the charge.
"A feature of every dead cars funeral
| is the appearance of two men in medi-
aeval armor, one mounted and the other
on foot says the Youths Companion. The
mounted knight wears an armor of burn
ished gold and visor up. He symbolizes
| life. The knight on foot wears an armor
| OF coal-black steel. His visor is closed
and he bears a drawn sword, two-handed
and shrouded in Grape He symbolizes
| Death. The weight of these suits may be
| imagined when it is remembered that a
| fallen knight had usually to wait to be
| lifted, II being impossible to raise the
| weight of his own armor. The most pow
| erful men of the Imperial Guard are Sc
| lected to wear the symbolic suits, there
! fore. but on every occasion the burden of
| the knight on foot has proved beyond hui
man endurance. The soldier who served
| at the obsequies of Nicholas 1 fell dead
Of exhaustion on reaching the church of
/ SITS. Peter and Paul. where the royal
| mauSoleum is. At the funeral of his sue
| cessor, Alexander II, the unfortunate
| black knight tainted during the march
| from the Winter palace, and died that
| night at the hospital whittier he was
| borne. During the progress of the funeral
| procession of the late czar, 1t was noticed
! that the black knight dragged himself
along with ever increasing difficulty and
on reaching the fortress he sank to the
| ground unconscious and died soon after.
| Perhaps the new car will be content to
/ die without exacting a spectacular vic
| tim when his time shall come.
| 1t is hard to think of anything else than
| tobacco in connection with pipes, says the
| New York World. Certainly hardly any
| grant weed is now in general use, in civil
| lied countries, at least: but it is a fact
| wei worth pasting IN every smokers hat
dawning to the present time, tobacco, as
| 1t is known to-day, has been the least IA
| vored substance of all for filling the pine
| bowl. Innumerable are the substances that
| have been adopted at various times by
| nations on the boundaries of civilization
/ VI IdIdWdy paris OF the RlOf4 Tor 'lD1De
filings" Here, however. is a partial list,
and one that has a good deal of novelty
| about 1t. The bark of the willow tree the
leaves of roses, wild thyme, lavendar, tea,
| beet roots, maize, the roots of the walnut
| tree, rush, wood dust, hemp and opium.
And when 1t comes to pipes the variety
| of these consoling articles would make a
| list too long to be printed. Bamboo is used
| for almost everything in China, and the
| Chinese pipe stems are naturally of bam-
boo. In India leather takes the place of
| bamboo. Jasmine is used for pipe stems
! in Persia. and in Asia Minor cherry wood
| is favorite material Russian pipes are
| generally enveloped with metallic tissue
| to guard against fire, and nearly all have
covers, these being precautions that are
advisable in a country where so large a
proportion of the houses are built of wood.
| Perhaps the most curious pipe bowls In
| the world are to be found in the PhiIIin-
| pine Islands, where, gold being the only
| metal handy, the Inhabitants hollow ont
| the nuggets and make use of them for
| their pipes. The pipes of old Rome, as am
| tiquarians know, were made of bronze and
| iron, and the American Indians 1t is need
| less to say, used stone.
| Awarded