The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-24
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

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own all that remains of the ancient towr
of Babylon.
The slowest breeders of all known an
imals. pair of elephants, would becom,
the progenitors of 100000 elephants il
$50 years, if death did not interfere.
"A 26-pound fish was recently captured
in the Golfer dam at Pittsburg, Pa. and
on cleaning it, there was found in the
| stomach a small German silver spooT
| with the name Vienna" on it. This wa.
souvenir spoon of the Vienna Club, thai
gave boat excursion three years ago
and it is supposed one of the spoons fell
overheard and was swallowed by the fish
-Shad are of different families which
| come from the ocean to the rivers along
| the Atlantic coast to spawn. The shad OF
| Florida are not the same as those of the
| Hudson, OF the Connecticut, or the Sus-
| quehanna. The same fish come each year
to the particular river where they were
born, and in their appearance are slightly
| different. Each river is the home of a
| separate colony
In the long coastal desert of Peru
which is 1000 miles in length, but only
100 miles broad at its widest part, the
! rivers disappear in the dry season and De-
! Sll 10 HOW again III HGDT VI -IcAOAif
when rain falls in the Cordilleras one OF
the most important of these rivers is the
| Piura, the return of whose waters is well
coined with great rejoicings by the in
| habitants of its banks.
| 1t is a curious fact that, with the eX-
| ception of the French royal lines (now
| practically without a country. the Por-
| tuguese and the italian princes, all OF
| the reigning families of Europe are Ger
mans or descendants of Germans. The
| kings of Austria, Denmark and the
| princes of the former Turkish provinces
| Servia, Bulgaria, Greece and Roumania-
and the Spanish princes are all German.
| The present royal house of England is OF
| German origin, and, though the King of
| Sweden is of French ancestry, the recent
| ancestors of the family have been Ger
| mans.
| Among the advantages of the genera
| ton of electric power by means of water
power in the far west, instead of by burn
| ing wood for fuel, coal being unobtain-
| able in the mountain regions, is one
which has hitherto attracted very little
attention, although of great Importance.
| This is the preservation of the forest
! areas, which were rapidly being denuded
| through their consumption for fuel. The
| Science of Forestry has shown how dis
| astrous are the results of the denudation
Of any portion of the country of its for
| ests, and it is curious that their preserVa-
| ton, thereby preserving the water courses
intact, in reality affords, in the long run,
| the best means of utilizing them as far as
power development is concerned.
Many people have a haunting fear OF
being buried alive, and its existence is at
| tested by the oft-noted legacy to local
| hospital, or medical practitioner which
| has been left under the proviso that the
| head of the deceased shall be separated
from the body before burial. Another
| form that this feeling has taken is the ar
| rangement in burial vaults of an electri-
cal annunciator, which is Immediately ex-
| cited to give an alarm, should there be
| the slightest movement inside the coffin.
| The latest means of making assured the
| fact that death has taken place is the
| use of the Roentgen ray. Hands of the
| living and the dead. taken on the same
plate by the X-ray, show a decided differ
| ence. The bones of both are about equally
| we'll defined, but the soft parts of the
| dead hand are noticeably darker. If the
| picture be taken within a few hours after
| death, it is sometimes not easy to differen-
tate between the living and the dead
4 hands; but as the change in the tissue be-
| gins to take place, the X-rays show a
decided difference in penetration.
The ethical philosopher would find
| fresh ground for a discussion of the old,
old questions as to the moral RESPONSE
| bility and justification for suicide in the
| history Of a family whose record has just
| been given to the world by Prof. BrOuar-
del of Paris, says the st. Louis Republic
| A farmer hanged himself without appar-
| ent cause, leaving family of seven sons
and four daughters. Ten of the children
followed the fathers example, but not I'M
| til they had married and begotten chill
| dren, all of whom, likewise, hanged them
| selves. The only survivor is son who Is
| now 6S years old. Here is a case which
| would tend to prove that the desire for
| self-destruction is as hereditary as any
other taste or habit, good or bad 1t goes
| long way to prove that suicide is due
| to insanity. The very idea of a man los,
| ing the primary instinct of self-preserva.
| ton is sufficient TO give proof of mentaf
| lapse, but when the loss of that instinct
| is exhibited by generation after genera
| ton, 1t is clear that it is the result of dis
| eased brain. The tendency of men is TO
| look upon suicide as an evidence of mere
| cowardice and folly. The history of each
case, however, would show that the folly
is OF that order whose growth no phys,-
clan has yet learned to prevent
in some bosoms the desire to possess
a larger dog than the next man burns
| WIN HluCtl dIuOf, reading 10 the dOmeSti-
| cation of animals which ought never IN
| appear outside the cages of menagerie
says the New York Tribune. Every now
and then one of them breaks loose dis
| playing his real character, and puts whole
| neighborhoods in mourning Sandow's
dog, brought into court the other day.
| charged with killing cat, against fine
| dignity and peace of the commonwealth
| evidently belongs in this class of brutes
and, although strong man may consid-
| er himself entitled to possess a robust
dog to match, it is possible to overworlS
the privilege. Such animals are really
! more dangerous than the boar of Calvdon
or the Nemean lion, and would down Alta
lanta and Hercules both in a twinkling.
| They deserve a much more rigid statutory
| muzzle than is commonly offered to them
On the benches of the dog show they no
doubt present a fine spectacle, but some
! or the biggest ones possess, under irreg-
lar and delusive restraints, the destroy
ing powers of the rugged Russian bear
the armed rhinoceros or the Hyrcan ii.