The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-16
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


alysts mentions the following curious in
stance of commercial ingenuity: A certain
nrm OF confectioners abroad use large
quantity OF Walnuts in various forms OF
sweets, and found that the shells had
distinct commercial value, and. in fact.
they sold the shells for more than they
gave for the whole Walnuts- The shells
are ground 10 powder, and then used in
adulterating ground cinnamon. But the
buyer is not altogether secure in purchas-
ing cinnamon in the stick for this is some
times adulterated by the natives who
gather it with bark of other shrubs. A
heartless. If ingenious deception. too, is
that practised every spring, when large
quantities Of a common weed, the leaf OF
which. closely resembles the musk plant.
are by some means slightly scented with
musk and sold as the genuine, at so much
a root, to the great subsequent disappoint-
ment of the buyer.
Nearly everyone has noticed the dis
agreeable humping sound sometimes made
by the trolley cars. and have wondered
what caused it. The trolley company is
as much annoyed by this sound as the
public, since it means to them an outlay
Tor new pair of wheels. When a wheel
once becomes fiat at any point, however.
slight, generally caused by the skiddlhg
or sliding of the wheel along the track due
to sudden application of the brakes,
the wheel is worn fiat, and afterward,
whenever there is q tendency to skid, il
naturally takes place at the point which
Is already fiat. until at last the wheel is
worn so fiat that 1t causes the humping
sound referred to- The average life of
trolley street car wheels shows that they
travel a distance of about 22.O00 miles, or
somewhat less than once around the earth
at the equator before they are replaced.
The fiattening of the wheels is the most
frequent cause OF the renewal of car
wheels, although occasionally they are re-
placed because of broken hanges or bent
axles.
The eternal city. Rome of Caesar,
Rome of Peter" has been invaded again.
this time by the trolley car. says the Buff
falo Commercial The road connects the
main railway station with the center of
the city. II starts from the Piazza S.
Silvestro and goes up the Vic di Capo de
Case and then through the Ludovisian
quarter to the Plaza di Termini. 1t is
double track and is nearly two miles long.
The power station is located on the slope
of the Sabine hills and the electricity is
generated from turbines placed in the
water falls about eighteen miles out of
the city. Power is conveyed to the city
by four large cables that run into a
transformer house near the Porta Pia.
The cars, like all stock on European troll
ley lines, are model vehicles They are
flooded with light at night. and instead of
signalling the conductor when one wants
to stop, al he has to do is to press a
button the seat behind him. Some of the
hills on the line are so steep that special
brakes are necessary. Both hand and
feet brakes are used one acting on the
wheels directly and the other on the rails.
In addition there is an electric emergency
yards, even when going quickly down hill.
The principle of it consists in short cir
cutting the motors, which are then driven
as dynamos by the momentum of the car,
which is thus rapidly stopped An Amer
lean company strung the overhead wires
and equipped the cars.
The woman idea seems to have reached
it's extreme expression in Denmark, where
the announcement has recently been made
that a woman's theater would be opened
for the present season. says the New Or
leans Picayune. 1t is to be a theater for
women, run by women on a strictly femi-
nine basis. The plays are to be written by
women dramatiSts, and acted (eVen the
male parts) by women; there are to be
women ushers, conductors, chorus, ballet
everything is to be exclusively women
Margaret Thomson the authoress, has
Emily Cad has arranged a ballet. The
announcement does not say whether or
not men will be permitted as spectators
within the chaste temple of the drama,
or what character of plays will be pre-
sented. 1t is supposed, however, that the
plays will deal with subjects of interest
especially to women. and that such com
edieS as THE Mouse Trap" and other
dramas of a kind calculated to strike ter
ror to the stoutest heart will not be per-
mitted on that stage. This project of a
women's theater is full of interest. When
| ii becomes necessary for the ruffianly hero
to draw his gun and shoot, will the timid
| young girl who is personating him cover
| up her ears while she fires? or will the
womans theater countenance any such
unlady-like conduct on the part of the
| villain? On the whole, considering the
number of women stars, there does not
| seem any very pressing need for a wo-
mans theater. In America, at least wo-
| man has got the stage.
"A Sun reporter asked the manager of
one of the biggest safe building concerns
in the world whether safe had ever been
! built that was absolutely burglar proof.
| There never was" he replied. Most big
| safes are called burglar proof, but they
| are not. No man can build a thing that
| some other man cannot unbuild. Now,
| here's a safe" he said, leading the re-
| porter to the back of the store, that
| is as near burglar proof as any made. >
| The safe he pointed to looked like a sol
| id block of steel, with two enormous
! hinges in front and steel lever that
| ran across the block diagonally. The
| door was round. THAT safe" said the
manager, lis almost what it appears to
| be, a solid block but a properly equipped
| provided he had time 1t is this question
| of time that makes ii possible for us
! to be more or less truthful when we
| speak of the safe as burglar proof. II
| requires so much time to get one of them
| open that before the work can be done it
is almost certain that somebody will come
| around, and then the jig is up. BY the
| way, 1t is mistake to talk about blow
| ing safe OPEN Most people have an
idea that burglar comes along punches
| a hole in the safe, and throws in a lot of
| dynamite, which he touches off. What
| the burglars do is to drill a hole in the
| door near the combination, and then. by
exploding a small quantity of powder,
| or sometimes only a cartridge smash the
| combination. This enables them to work
| at ii with their fingers, and the opening
| of the safe is not so difficult a lob
though explosions of this kind have been
| known to lock safes tighter than they
We're locked before; so tight, in fact, that
| they could not be opened without a sec
| ond explosion and the use of a largely in
| creased amount of powder. Burglars will
! not as rule take chances on that for.
l don't care how nervy they are the
noise of the first explosion never fails to
frighten them half to death"
Years ago the white tie in this coun-
try was the characteristic wear of the rev.
erend clergy their monopoly, says the
| Boston Transcript. Thence it passed into
general use and disputed popularity with
| the black. The black neckcloth was early
| in this century likewise a professional
| badge Those who followed a profession
| of arms claimed the right to wear it as
| their monopoly, and sometimes enforced
that right. Cooper. in ''Wing-and-W Wing. .
makes a very dramatic use of this Gus
| tom. A French privateer captain in dis
| guise has fallen into the hands of the
English, and is brought before a coury-
| m n eli IItr - -