The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-03-28
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Poor relations have rarely had such a
Windfall as that reported from Bordeaux.
II is stated that merchant IN the said
town died intestate and without any d.
! rect descendants. His fortune, amounting
I 10 10000 francs OF fSso,090 sterling. Is
accordingly TO be divided among Ger
tain Humter OF humble families, the mem
bers Of which live in Cosnac and Jarnac.
Among those entitled 10 shares in The
estate are two BARRIERS. a cooper. a shoe
maker and several labOrers. all Of whom
were distantly related to the rich mer-
chant OF Bordeaux
A philosopher has been saying that
the main discovery OF modern times Is
that man was made for the mscrObe. The
two elementary principles in connection
with 1t appear 10 be. first, those things
that ale wholesome communicate disease
secondly. those things that are unwhole-
I some cause disease. So air. water, milk.
butter, oysters. mussels, watercresS, Tor
eign frIit and even the harmless, pleas
| ing kiss, are all capable of conveying in
| lection. Moreover, cabs. dogs cushions
! in railway carriages, shaving al barber
| shops, clothes from the tailors, washing
from the laundry, bank notes. books.
I glasses at restaurants. mud on one 3
clothes, are other medium for the distr-bu-
I ton Of disease. Civilized men, then, may
l only expect TO live an average term Of life
I by continuous immersion in boiling water,
I accompanied by absOluteIsolatiOn. Beyond
[ that whatever he eats drinks, wears nr
/ touches should be boiled before he comes
I in close contact with thcru. II IS remark
I able that our predecessors thrfved, despite
/ the eternal though, at the time, unaScer-
| tanned, laws of science. Is civilization
/ failure? asks the New Orleans Picayune
/ Perhaps not; but the good die young, and
/ the tough citizen lives to commit crimes
and bring to civilization disgrace.
Suit and service for the desirable prop
critics known as THE Forge" in St
/ Clement Danes, and The Moors.' in the
county of Salop, were duly paid by the
city Of London to the crown, says the
4 London Telegraph, the rent consisting of
| six hOrseshoes. sixty-one nails and two
/ bundles Of fagots, one Of which has to be
l cut with an AK and the other with a oil
4 hook. Mr.. Crawford, the city solicitor,
acted as wood-cutter, the queen s remem-
4 brancer Officiated as referee, and the in
\ teresting ceremony took place at the
/ law courts in the presence of a number OF
/ ladies' and gentlemen. For 800 years and
/ more the rent has neither been raised nor
/ lowered. but has always consisted OF the
/ same number Of horseshoes, the same
I number of nails and the same number
/ of cut fagots. The queens remembrance,
| Master Pollock, explained to the company
4 that. though now the idea of rent was
something paid in hard cash, originally II
/ was some service or thing rendered, and
/ in former days, when lands were granted
/ by great lords and knights to tenants, 1t
4 was on the promise to furnish horses, men
! and so on. In process OF time these ser
/ vices come to be exceedingly irksome and
/ troublesome. and were committed into a
/ money payment. An ancestor OF Sir walter
| Scott held certain lands by payment OF
one red rose per annum; Inc rent PAD T Py
| for the properties mentioned had never
/ been committed.
| Cats are the most obstinately capri
cious in their fancies about their beds
Of any domestic creature, says the Scot
| fish American. They will follow partic-
| ular rug or shawl from room to room, If
! il be removed, in order to sleep on it, or
/ insist on the use of one chair, until they
| get their way. and then, for some rea-
son, take a fancy to another. The clean
| lest of all animals, anything newly
! washed or very fresh and bright, strikes
| them as just the thing for bed. A nicely
aired newspaper lying on the floor or on
chair, or linen fresh from the wash,
| is almost irresistible. outdoor cats seek
warm as well as a tidy bed The writer
| was once much surprised when passing
| through a large shipbulding yard to see
a cat fast asleep, lying, it seemed on
! muddy path. But the spot which the cat
had selected for its couch was one at
road. and the mud was there baked into
| a warm. dry cake, which made not only
a clean, but an artifcially heated sleeping
| place. The oldest tastes in beds deVel
oped by cat was that entertained by
| very highly bred gray Angora, which
family in which it lived For some
months it would only sleep upon a hat,
il such could be found, ladies' hats pre-
| ferred. If il could have discovered one
with the inside uppermost, it would lie
4 inside 1t. If not, such was its love for
this form of couch, 1t would curl itself
around the brim, and with its long, furry
tail and plant body made a fine winter
trimming for a summer hat. By some
accident a drawer in which all the sum
mer hats had been disposed for the win
ter was left open for some days, after
! which 1t was discovered that all the hats
had been tried in turn, the cat having
| finally selected one adorned with white
laburnum flowers which never recovered
from the ironing" to which it had been
subjected.
"A French professor has been making
experiments which prove that of ali
animals little bunny can bear the great
est cold. He shut rabbit up all night
in a block of ice and the next morning
the animal seemed to be very comfort
able and not to know that anything IN
usual had been going on Next to the
rabbit in being able to bear great cold
come, in order, the sheep, the goat anu
the pig, all domestic animals The car
was completely outclassed. One would
think that the wild creatures would be the
hardest, and as matter of fact some
of them do show almost miraculous ten
acity of life, as all old trappers can testify.
A Canadian trapper found not long ago
that one of mis- traps had IGss pp;-tl =.
month afterwards the people of Green
Lake, ninety miles distant from the place
where the trap had been set, killed a wolf
with that very trap attached to his leg.
The animal was reduced almost to skel-
eton. That he should have been able to
drag the trap about for a month through
a hundred miles of forest shows how
hard 1t is to kill a wolf, and doubtless his
relatives, the fox and the jackal, as well
as other wild animals not SO nearly con-
nected, could furnish material for equally
wonderful tales. Gong down lower in the
DIulS NlSdtiOI the power OF cllnBinR TO
life seems to increase. Every one knows
how hard 1t is to kill snake. and the old
superstition about the pieces living till
sunset seems to have been quite justified
Other reptiles show even more wonder
full powers. 1t is sometimes very hard to
XIII common tortoise. An English writer,
Shaw, tells of one that lived SIX months
after its brain was taken out, moving its
limbs and walking as before. Another lived
tWenty-three- days after its head was cut
off, and the head itself opened and closed
its jaws a quarter of an hour after it was
separated from the body. Next lower in
the scale of creation come the fishes. and
no fisherman need be told that they will
flop about in the l!vehest way hours after
they have been pulled out of their natural
habitat But the champion of all fish in
thls respect IS the shark. 1t Is so hard TO
Kill sharks that they often live when life
would seem impossible. A shark was once
caught by the sailors on the French shin
Rossignol, and was split open and cleaned
as one would clean fish, his heart and all
MS other internal organs being taken out.
The body was then thrown overheard
| when. to the astOnis hnent of AL n 80. :.