The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-10-24
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Most people imagine that pneumatic
tires are novelties Of recent invention,
and yet they We're actually used on Eng
lish roads fifty years ago. We read that
at the Bath and West of England Agri-
cultural show held at Guilford a couple
OF carriage wheels were shown fitted with
pneumatic tires" These were made for
the Duke of Northumberland forty-seven
years ago, but the carriage proving too
heavy for the horse, they were disused-
The tires were constructed on almost
exactly the same principle as those used
on the cycles to-day-an inner air-cham-
Der with a stronger outer cover: When
punctured they were repaired BY the same
means as now adopted
The superstition of the ill-luck of look
ing backward or returning is a very an
Gent one, originating doubtless from Lots
WE VINO looked back from behind him
when he was led by an angel outside the
doomed city Of the plain. In Roberts
oriental Illustrations" it is stated TO be
considered extremely unfortunate in Hin
dostan for men or women to look back
when they leave their house According
~, II a man goes out and leaves some
thlng behind him which his wife knows
ne VIII want, she does not call him to
turn or look back but takes or sends ii
after MIN and If some great emergency
obhSes him TO look back he will not then
transact"
Enterprise in advertising has almost
become a fine art in the present day. A
Birmingham chemist recently with his
family, attended a picnic. and after the
knife and fork and tea which formed
port OF the programme, he distributed
Among ts the company number of sweet
meats, all of which bore his advertise
ment referring to his specialties and
iater, during the concert which followed
nls daughter sung a song, the words of
Whlch set forth the advantages which
could be derived from the use of certain
pms, the frequent application of a we'll
hnoW plaster or daily dose of some ones
Tonic such enterprise, if somewhat
snoopy certainly merits reward for
its ingenuity.
.-Iersla does not occupy a very prom
nfent position among the naval powers
OF the world, says the New York Tri-
pune IN faot, 1t will be news to most
people that she possesses a navy at all
oie mas, no@ever fleet. which consists
Of one solitary ship, called the Persepo-
is, ana IS now lying at anchor in the
pert OF Bombay proudly flying the flag
OF the Snah. For many years the Perse-
pOlls was tramp steamer famed for the
extraordinary number of mishaps which
she had encountered. But since the Per-
sian government has acquired her and
htted her with guns and with a ram,
winch, being only insecurely fixed to her
pow mas a knack OF slipping its Moor
lLlgs ana ewing downward, she has be
COME q very powerful and magnificent
man-of-War-that is to say, in the eyes
of patriotic Persians
A custom Of the Abyssinian braves is
described by well-known traveller. The
girls themselves play an active part
there. When young people are gathered
for amusement one of them will begin
peeling a straw of green millet which is
full of pith. Her lovers blood runs cold
probably, but he must smile or own him
self a craven. When she has cut the
pith into bits an inch long he stretches
out his bare arm. The example set, ev
cry girl who respects herself and has a
lover follows it. The young men form
circle with arms extended. Blithely.
then, with many a jest, doubtless, the
maidens arrange their bits of pith up
right in scme fanciful design on the bare
He.crh Oh
nearly an inch thick, and they burn very
slowly, but the hapless youth must stand
and smile as well as he can till the blood
of the scared flesh eXtinguishes them.
"A man in New Orleans, Harris by
name has a dog which he is training to
write on a typewriter. 1t is pretty tedi-
Gus business, and will, il is supposed, re-
suit in nothing but little trickery. Har-
ris says the dog has learned to strike the
keys with considerable correctness, but
the process of teaching him to distinguish
course, Harris has to dictate to the dog,
as il would be impossible to teach the dog
to read copy, and this he does by cali
ing off one letter at time, patiently train
ing the dog to associate the picture of
the letter with its sound. so far says the
Philadelphia Times, the dog has learned
to spell his own name, Carlo. Harris call
ing off the letter slowly and distinctly
one by one. Harris appreciates the fact
that the dogs deXterity can never be put
to any practical use, and says his first in
tention was to sell Carlo 10 some museum,
but that he has become SO much attached
to him in the course of the training that
him.
tross has returned from the north with
a pop-eyed deniZen of the deep that may
become the wonder Of naturalists the
world over, says a San Francisco dis
patch. 1t Is fish unlike anything ever
caught before and in no way resembles
ordinary fishes 1t was scooped in by
a fr1n oil two
along the bottom of the ocean a mile
and half deep. Prof. Townsend is of
the opinion that the fish would not have
been able to live much higher up in the
water than where it was found. Such is
the makeup of the fish that the professor
imagines il must have felt sharp pains
whenever it came anywhere within a
mile of the surface of the sea. Certain II
IS that the very fact of bringing this FISH
near the surface of the sea seems to have
killed it, When the enormous pressure
was taken off its vital organs, its heart
and everything else within it apparently
t7Can to puH up. Its bladder seems
to have been forced partly out through
it's mouth, and its eyes were driven for
ward out of their sockets. The nsh VIII
be forwarded to the Smithsonian Insti-
tuition.
One of the most curious natural phe
nomena, and one which has never yet been
explained by the philosophers, says the St
Louis Republic. is that in reference to the
expansion of freezing water. The case
of water is singular exception to all
natural laws of expansion by heat and
contraction by cold which apply in cases
of all other known liquids. When water
is freezing It contracts in bulk down to
the point where the mercury reaches the
reading of S9la degrees or ~ degrees
above freezing, from which point it slow
~ expands according to the intensity
of cold No other liquid is known to pos
sess this remarkable property, except that
certain metals expand slightly in passing
from solid to liquid state. But if heat
be applied to water after it has cooled
down to temperature of 39lh degrees
0he point where it is ready to begin ex-
panding, should a greater degree of cold
be applied it will Immediately expand
by the universal law. But should we
lower the temperature to 80 degrees it will
expand by it's own special law. Another
curious point to be noticed here is this.
That the amount of expansion is as great
in water lowered from 1872 degrees down
to 81 degrees as it is in water that has
been heated so that the temperature rms
up from S91a to AZ degrees. These points
are certainly odd and curious and Worfhv
of attention and experiment.
"A friend ran across squib recently
to the effect that Tennyson never smoked
4I-,