The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-07
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

ing a shock from touching the plate.
"A Welshman. with plenty of consOnants
in his name, proposes to build a ship that
will have a speed OF sixty miles an hour.
The-bOa will be so feet long and 80 feet
wide with a fiat bottom and wedge-shaped
bow and stern, of 1000 tons displacement,
and with eight paddle-wheels on each side,
each making seventeen revolutions min
ute.
For years" said a Maine manufac-
turer to the New York World, "shOes of
a cheap grade have been made of what
is known as leather board 1t Is a COM
pressed paste. There is a factory in my
state which turns out tons of 1t every
month. Many of these shoes are sent 10
Central and South America, and, as mat
ter of fact, thousands are sold here. As
long as the weather is dry, they wear first
rate, but when you strike a rain you're
gone almost surely. Two wettings and
you want to look out When you invest in
your summer shoes, be sure they are what
you want Leather is expensive, and you
can't cover your foot with il for trife."
According 10 the religious census re-
port just issued the total communicates of
all denominations is 20,612, s06 who be-
tons. These congregations have 142, 81
edifces, which have sittings for 43, 564, S63
persons. The value of all church property
used exclusively for purposes of worship
is S679, $50. l39- There are 171,036 regular
ministers. not including lay preachers.
There are five bodies which have more
more than five hundred thousand The
leading denominations have communi-
cants in round numbers as follows: Cath
Ollie, 6,2JOOOO; Methodist. 100000: Baptist,
3,l25,O0; Presbyterian, 1,2S0, 1872; Lutheran,
l,25O,OOO; Protestant Episcopal, $4,000.
The Washington Post says that only
two government seals are correct from the
heraldic point of view, namely, the great
seal of the United States and the new
seal of the department of agriculture. All
the executive departments have seals of
their own. designed with more or less re-
gard for the laws unusually controlling
such devices; but not one of them satisfies
the requirements of heraldry. For exam
pie, some of the eagles have their heads
turned to the right, and the mounted cou-
rler on the seal of the postofice depart
ment is galloDing to the right. This is
horribly wrong. inasmuch as the regula-
tons of the heralds demand that all ami
mails OF whatever description shall face to
the left. Then again, the parallel lines
on some of the shields represented are
traced in Incorrect directions. In heraldry
horizontal lines indicate blue, which is
the proper color for the background of a
shield, whereas. if they go other ways
they mean other colOrs.
There Is little to suggest a snowstorm
IN the appearance of the aerial curls and
logistis cirrus Clouds says the Youths
Companion. But DR.. A. Benson, during his
recent lofty balloon voyage in Germany,
passed through cirrus cloud at a hight
that 1t consisted of small but perfectly
formed flakes of snow. It was a little
snowstorms floating high in the sky. If
IL had descended earthWard IL would have
been turned into mist or rain. During this
voyage, which was one of the most extra
ordinary balloon trips on record, Dr. Ben
son attained hight of nearly six miles.
lie would undoubtedly have lost conscious
ness-as Mr.. Glaisher did in his still loftier
ascent many years ago-if he had not re-
sorted to an expedient which reminds one
OF the ingenious devices of some of Jules
Verne's extraordinary heroes DR.. Benson
carried with him bags of oxygen and
eathed this gas, mingled with air, after
he had attained hight where the atmos-
phere was too light for comfortable respi-
ration. He found that above $4,000 feet
ne could not dispense with the use of oxy-
gen from the bags The temperature at
the highest point that he attained, 81 496
feet, was about "a degrees Fahrenheit be-
low zero. If at this time he had fioated
over the worlds lOftiest mountain, Mount
Everest in the Himalayas. he would have
been nearly $500 feet above the highest
point of that tremendous peak
The officers of the Pacific mail steam
snlps, writes Yokohama correspondent
of the Chicago Record, say that China
men make the best sailors and servants
on board ship of any race in the world.
They never strike. they never complain,
and If any of them wants day off he
always supplies a substitute at his own
expense Most of the crews have been
on the steamer continuously ever since
they started, some of them for twenty
years. They are honest and careful and
save their money, which they send to their
families in San Francisco or China as
often as they are paid. Some of them
also have business ashore and are worth
considerable money. An Mon, one of
the dining room boys on the steamer
City of Rio de Janeiro. has a ranch near
San Francisco, where his wife raises veg
etables for market. Chez Sigh has a little
shop in Hong Kong. An Pat has a wife
at Feechau, two days journey from Cam
ton, to whom he sends all his wages
An Ting, the engineers boy. has frozen
smlle-a face like those upon the statues
of Buddha-and a wife near Canton, whom
he hasn't seen for five years, but he sends
her his wages every payday and she is
keeping the money for his old age Ting
has been with the ship ever since il has
been running and has not missed voyage
once the company decided to dispense
with Chinese servants and substitute Japs
All the China boys were discharged, but
ring would not 60 They drove him off
twice and thought they had got rid of him
but the next morning after sailing the
steward found him in the pantry washing
dishes and he has been there ever since.
Among the natural wonders Of the
southwestern States of America are the
Supersutious Mountains, which loom up
from the arid desert to the east of the
Salt River valley, says the Pittsburg Dis
patch. These mountains are so curious
that as long as Arizona has been settled
me indians would have nothing to do with
deer, ibeX, bear and other big game. The
SuperstitiOus Mountains rise out of the
level surface of the desert like the pyra-
mids of Egypt. On the crest of this unique
range and in full view in the rarified at
mosphere for an immense distance from
the plain, are hundreds of queer figures
representing men in all attitudes When
you look first you are sure they are men.
and when you turn your gaze again to
them you are as absolutely certain of il
as you can be of anything They repre-
sent ball throwers, outlooks, mere viewers
of the country round about. men recum-
bent and contemplative, others starting on
foot race, and in every conceivable nos
ture and position. They are not real flesh
and blood men, howeVer,-nothing but
stone syenite-yet nothing can convince
the Indians and some white men that
they are not genuine They say-they are
real mortals turned to stone, petrified Nv
the peculiar condition of the air on the
mountains. This belief has grown ont Of
an Apache legend handed down for hun
dreds of years. They have ii that an an
cient chief, who had learned of the curious
character of the Superstitious Mountains
forbade any of his people to go there. a
large band, however, one day discovered
a way TO get in by a precipitous ronte
and finally reached the top. 1t resulted a.
the chief had said, and they never GOT