The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-04
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


One OF the sights" at the Amster-
dam Exhibition, SAYS the London Era Is
a large lift similar to those used in hotels.
but much larger. in which visitors are
induced 10 seat themselves. in order. they
are told, TO be lowered to the great
cavern" below. When they are on board
the lift rocks to and fro, and they see
through window in it the sides Of the
smart ny pass them as they seem to de-
at last IL begins TO slacken, and the lift
comes TO dead stop. After a short pause
" again rises at great speed. and finally
the passengers alight on terra firma. They
then discover that they have not moved
from their first position. The illusion Of
the descent has been created by means
OF vertical blind running on two roll
ers, ike panorama, and the motion Civ
en- to the lift has assisted in the decep-
tlon. Ihls harmless and amusing sell
has diverted hundreds of visitors TO the
Amsterdam Exhibition, which, as a whole,
however, is very dull and -disappOint-
"A most remarkable affection. and one
of nature calculated TO make ones flesh
creep, has long been endured by an old
lady of the WILDLY neighborhood. near
columbia, ); c, says the St. Louis Re
public. The lady's name is Phoebe Brown.
and for more than one-third Of a century
she mas carried live snake under the
SKIN or one OF her arms, How the reptile
found Judgment in such a peculiar place
IS as much or mystery to Mrs. Brown
as II Is to the hundreds of people who an
nually visit her for the purpose Of viewing
the spot where the unwelcome ledger
lies encysted. When the lady first noticed
the bOW-shaped welt on her arm IL was
not more than two inches long. or larger
IN diameter than pin. But during the
years that 1t has safety nestled in her
L o9I ae e Ding tne woman blood, II mas
grown from mere thread to be a snake
more than a foot in length and as large as
lead pencil. The eyes of the hideous
creature are plainly visible through the
WOm1nS he
lily felt by rubbing the fingers along the
ridge formed by the serpent's body. Ply
sicians pronounce II most remarkable
freak, and have endeayored, without sue
cess. TO prevail upon the old lady to have
ii cut out.
There were no stage furnishings of
any kind and no costumes until 1916, the
year OF Shakespeare's death, so that he
never Witnessed one of his own plays prop
erly presented: The first scenery consist
ed of drops" rolled up and down on
pulleys, as We now handle awnings. Next
came flats and wings made by starch
ing canvas on frames and setting them in
make their entrance or exits phantom
like through the walls. 1t was not until
1870 that Augustin DAILY introduced into
New York what is now called the "box
scene;' that is, an enclosed room, with
ceiling doors and windows giving it a
natural appearance. In former days thun-
der was produced by piece of sheet iron,
lightning by Lacapodian and the sound of
rain by the shaking of long, narrow box
driven full of pegs, and filled with beans
and peas. Nowadays the actor who res
cues the heroine from a watery grave
must be swimmer as he punges into a
sea OF real water. amid the driving of a
storm storm or real water and is blinded by the
naShes OF electricity, real lightning. In
olden times even the pump was a piece
OF painted canvas, while now in such plays
as Blue Jeans" a real saw mill is erected
on the stage and the saw cuts through
a real board and would cut through the
nero, bound to a plank. were he not res
cued in the nick of time from the teeth of
the saw.
BARRIERS signs are going to be a puzzle
to the people of the next two or three gen.
erations, says the New York Sun, for their
| form is undergoing as great a change al
| most as took place when the BARRIERS pole
ceased to be spelled poll" The fact Is that
| the BARRIERS sign was originally a human
head or poll Then gradually il became a
| pole with red stripe on a white ground,
to Indicate the BARRIERS aVocation of blood
letting and tooth puller. When the civil
war came on in this country, red, white
and red being an unpopular combination
in the north a blue stripe was inserted
Out of that grew the pole representing a
furled United States flag with a bit of blue
! held showing up near the top of the pole
! The end of the pole was then ornamented
| in such fashion as to simulate a flagstaff
| Some times the Dinial of the staff was a
! ball, sometimes a liberty cap some times
an arrow head, some times eagle
! The symbolical representation of the flag
mas been very popular with New York
every conceivable fashion. 1t has been
obScured in some places by elegant bar
bers, who have substituted alternate black
and gilt stripes for the white and red
Some have cOntented themselves with al
ternate red and white stripes on the door
lntels. The Italian BARRIERS being lovers
of color, have unfurled the flag, and place
| 1T on doors and shutters. They some times
| place the United States and the italian
flags side by side. The variety of modifi-
| cations seen IN the BARRIERS signs of this
town is very large, and in many cases the
form of the pole has entirely been lost
sight of. So, too, has the idea of the flag
and the original colors have in many
cases, given place to others having no sig
nifcance. The idea Of alternate stripes of
! different colors however still remains.
The man that clings TO the tradition of
pole with alternate red and white stripes,
might easily look long in vain for bar
Der shop.
The most powerful floating der
was tested at Hell Gate says
the New York World of recent date
1t was built for the Chapman Wrecking
! Company by the Morse Iron Works, at
the foot of TWenty-Sixth street, South
| Brooklyn. The lifting power of this huge
structure s estimated at 800 tons. The
| great travelling cranes at the navy yard
are only constructed to lift forty tons
and they stand on solid earth. This big
| derrick is named the Hellgate, and its
hull is 145 feet in length, so feet in beam,
and % feet deep. AS the lifting will be
chiefly done on the port side, the star
! board is fitted with thirteen iron tanks
which, filed with water, will form a. coun-
| terbalancing weight. The A frame stands
| 112 feet above deck and supports boom
| IS feet long, about % feet of which is out
/ board. The main legs of the former are
of wrought dron, and are feet, inches
! by feet at THE base. The auxiliary legs
| back of these are 2 feet, inches by feet
! the whole weighing over 20 tons. In the
center the boom measures 6 feet by feet
| inches, and weighs 3512 tons. Some idea
of the size of the block carrying the main
purchase may be formed from the fact
that TT weighs So tons. The block through
which the topping lift runs weighs tons
! Both carry Six-fold purchases. Besides
these two. a pair of smaller auxiliary
| blocks, each with a four-fold purchase.
are on the end of the boom. The main
| cable is of 15s-inch steel wire, almost as
| soft cotton rope. These lifts are op-
Grated by ten drums. There are three
| double engines, one pair horizontal and
| two pairs vertical, fed by two large up-
| right boilers. The big A frame is sup
ported by twenty back-stays of Pinch
steel wire, fastened by turn buckle to the
chain plates on the after ends of the
stern and hull. The anchor cables are
also of steel rope each 800 feet long ANDY
Edwards is to be captain, and he will
have a crew of about fifty men. The COM
,olaf e6 CT Will