The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-03-20
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The standard colors Of the Postal
BY the United states government. These
cOlors are green for 1-cent stamps, red
for 2-cent stamps and blue for scent
stamps. Most OF the postal union eoun-
tries have adopted them.
1t has taken two years to partly re-
build a bridge at Rome which, II is stated,
dates from the time of Emperor Adrian.
The structure as IL now stands has five
elegant and symmetrical arches of equal
span. In fact, If 10 were not for the differ
ence in tint Of the old and new masonry,
II would be almost impossible 10 distsn-
guish the handiwork Of today from that
OF nearly 1.s00 years ago.
The worst climate for persons affected
with a nervous dread OF lightning IS
the east coast Of san Domingo. where
the sky at the beginning of the rainy
season is often Illuminated for weeks
by nearly continuous electric wrinkles
and flashes In Western California, on
the other hand. the equilibrium of at
mospheric electricity is so rarely dis
turbed that many old residents Of San
Francisco have never heard a good thun-
der peal Of the traditional Notwithstanding
kind.
Few people realize the enormous waste
of fuel involved in record-brealSing steam
ship passages. The Bismarck for exam
pie, consumes ninety tons of coal a day
by going twelve knots an hour. With
just twice as much coal. $50 tons. she gains
one-third in speed. making sixteen knots
an hour. But by burning 900 tons she gains
but four knots more, her speed then be-
ing twenty knots. To double the present
horsepower of the steamer would shorten
her time across the Atlantic only half
day. So il will be seen that recOrd-break-
ing is chiefly matter of outlay. The
practical limits for ordinary travel have
already apparently been reached.
"A writer in the PittshurE Dispatch
SAYS that no one outside OF a city rail-
road ticket office can have any idea of
the number of mental travellers" that
there are, Of the mental trips that ones
friends and neighbors are constantly
taking in one direction or another by
means of time tables and free guides.
The collecting of railroad literature be-
comes mania with some, and they
study the pamphlets, excursion books.
and so on with detail that gives them
as complete and perfect a knowledge Of
the places they visit only in their minds
as though they had actually been there.
They can discourse huently upon the
hotels and principal sights of the city,
even tell you of the trains and the con-
nections they make, or describe the small
stations through which they pass in
going there"
-whatever romance and poetry were
in olden times associated with pilgrim
ages to places reputed sacred are rapidly
being destroyed by the prosaic spirit of
this very progressive and matter-of-fact
age. Thus those who with pious inten-
lions now visit the holy land, are trans
ported by rail from Jaffa to Jerusalem,
where a funicular line conveys them TO
the summit of the Mount Of Olives while
comfortable hotels on the American plan
are to be found at Bethlehem and on
the site of the Garden of Gethsemane.
And now a hydraulic elevator has just
been established at Marseilles for the
purpose of hosting pilgrims to the much
visited shrine of NOtre Dame de la
Garde perched on the summit of the
highest rock overlooking the city and bay
and to whicR sailors and travellers on
starting out or upon returning from sea
voyages nave from Ine lIlInelIorIS ~ peen
wont to ascend by the thousands OF steep
steps, usually on their knees.
-shimonoseki, which has been selected
as the spot where the negotiations are
to take place between the Chinese plen-
ipotentiary. Ii Hung Chang, and the
MikadoEs3 prime minister Ito, with
view to the termination of the war now
raging between their respective countries,
is a city the past associations Of which
are quite the reverse OF peacetul, says
the New York Tribune. For it was there
that the final stand was made some
thirty-two years ago by the Japanese
against the invasion Of that western civ
iliztion by which they have now been
enabled to achieve such a rapid success
sion of brilliant victories in China. Shin
onoseki was the last stronghold OF the
old feudal and anti-foreign party, and IT
was not until it had been twice bonn
barded, once in 1863 and again about
twelve months afterward, by COM
bined English, French and American ma
val squadron as a punishment for its
force having fired on defenseless foreign
shipping, that Japan may be said to have
finalIy abandoned that disastrous policy
of secmsion from the outer world which
has been one of the principal causes of
the ignominious defeat Of China.
in an interview in st. Louis on Tues
day, says the New Orleans Times-Demo-
crat, DR.. Marks of the city hospital,
among other things, said: The psyche
logical condition of patients afflicted with
tuberculosis has a great effect in retard-
ing or advancing the inroads of the dis
ease. For instance ii has not been long
since a patient was turned out cured who
received but little or no medicine. A wafer
of my own preparation was given MIN
and the scales doctored each time he was
weighed. His case was not Virulent
one and his spirits were greatly de-
pressed. l never saw a man who, looked
upon the slowly consuming disease with
so much horror and terror. He wasted
away to lis pounds. Wen, he took the
wafer and diet very readily and shortly
after he was weighed. The scales were
doctored so as to make him weigh l20
pounds. Such a broad, hopeful smile as
fiehted his wan features as he gazed at
the scales has seldom been seen on any
patients face snatched from the brink Of
the grave back to life. Immediately he
commenced to gain flesh in earnest 1t
was not necessary to change the scales
after the second time. In few months he
weighed 100 pounds, the cough disap-
peared, and with a cheerful face he left
the hospital cured. Thus, there is some
thing, even a great deal, in the psyche
| logical condition of patients"
"A fight of birds. coupled with a sail
OF SuDGISlll4OIls IODDtu 0OfuillDuS VI the
honor of discovering the continent, says
Current Literature 1t is a curious, but
historical fact. When Columbus sailed
westward over the unknown Atlantic he
expected TO reach Zipangu (Japan). After
several days sail from Gomera, one of
the Canary Islands, he became uneasy
at not discovering Zipangu, which, accord
ing to his reckoning, should have been
PIG nautical miles more to the east. At
ter a long discussion he yielded to the
opinion of Martin Alonzo Pinzon, the
commander of the Pinta, and steered to
the southwest Pinzon was guided in his
opinion solely by a flight of parrots.
! which took wing in that direction. 1t
was good luck to follow in the wake of
a fight if birds when engaged upon a
voyage of discovery-a widespread super
stition among Spanish seamen of that
day; and this change in the great nayi-
gators course ,curiously exemplifies the
Influences of small and apparently trivial
events in the worlds history. If Column
bus had held to his course he would have
entered the Gulf stream, have reached
Florida and then probably have been
carried to Cape Hatteras and Virginia.
The result would probably have given
the present United States a Roman Cath
Ollie Spanish population, instead of a
Protestant English one, a circums lance
of immeasurable Importance. Never"
sha1 ha Rcrof Of i'd