The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-02
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

i
ambitious in trade, and the greater part
of the small retail establishments and va
! rious kinds of shops are in the hands of
the Chinese. The latter also furnish the
labor of the country.
The birds that live to see the greatest
age are the eagle. the swan, and the
raven, which sometimes attain more than
a hundred years. The average life of the
wren is three years; the heron the parrot
the goose, and the pelican, sixty years;
! the peacock and the linnet twenty-five
| years; the canary, twenty-four years; the
pigeon and the crane, twenty years. the
goldtineh and the pheasant, fifteen years;
the Lark, fifteen years; the blackbird ana
the robin redbreast. twelve years; the
thrush, ten years.
Questioned about the use of bread and
butter plates, says a New York Times
writer. Sherry raised his hand in signifi-
cant protest. Absolutely never. I do not
own butter plate. 1 never, this is ire
| VocaDle, serve butter at any dinner or
supper, which l stand sponsor for Why
should IL Everything is accompanied by
| It's own sauce or RELISH always sufficient
! ly rich, and butter is as unnecessary as
the traditional fifth cartwheel. 1t is never
| used at the private tables of those New
YORK families who live correctly. Occa-
sionaliy l have a protest 1 did not long
! ago, after dinner on which l pride my
self each year. One of the guests, a man,
came to me to give an order, saying at
| the same time that he had recently dined
| here and was much disappointed OF
| course, urged an explicit statement, and
| he finally told me that first there was no
! butter-to which pleaded guilty, but eA-
| planned that my rule in that particular
was invariable"
! The existence of nyctalops, man
that is blind in daylight but can see at
| night, has always been denied by sober
! realists, but a society man of this city
| declares he saw a genuine nyctalops at
! Connellsville, where he ushered at we'd
! ding few days ago, says the Philadel-
| phia Record. The freak in question was
| boy about 10 years of age, and although
| born OF colored parents, is himself almost
| white. His eyes are formed like a cats
and in the daytime the pupils contract un-
! til they are almost invisible. Then the
| boy has difficulty in seeing his way and
| goes about with his eyes half closed,
| squirting at everything and everybody.
If he were a good boy his condition would
| awaken pity, but he is pest to the whole
nelghDorhood. Although lacking as vet
| the requisite nerve for good burglar he
has developed sneak-thieving propensi-
ties and works with ease and alacrity
| after dark. He can go through a house
| make false step and can always escape
| if surprised. An extraordinary criminal
| future is before him.
We live in an age of buttons The
| people of the British Isles unbutton 400, =
100000 buttons every night, when they
| prepare for bed, and next morning rebuff
| ton the same number, unless a few mill
| Ions have been lost in the struggle says
| an English writer. The world has become
! So -fr.v,. r,rIk
gotten that there was ever a time when
/ buttons were unknown. II is safe to say
| that ninety-nine out of 100, if asked to
| name the date of the first button would
| anticipate the actual date by several CEN
| turtles. In the fourteenth century there
were buttons-but no button holes 1t was
| purely ornamental, lacking a buttonhole
and the question voluntarily arises how
our ancestors managed to keep respecta-
| bly, covered. Two hundred years ago
| there were not as many buttons in the
world as could be found in a small old
! clothes shop to-day, and even those were
/ made by hand 1t was not until 1745 that
! any considerable mandatory was estab-
! lished. In that year the famous Soho
| works were opened at Birmingham where
| steel buttons were made of such beauty
| and finish as to command a price of 40
| pounds a gross, or l pound apiece. In
! these modern days we are apt to boast
| the same time to paper wheels, paper
boots, paper carpets. Ind the thousand
| and one novel uses made of this material,
! as proof of our assertion. 1t is a curious
fact that as far back as 1884 we find men
| ton of paper buttons
The town of Northwch, England, is
slowly sinking, and it is apparently only
a question of time before it will have en-
tlrely disappeared. The principal indus
try of the town is the. salt mines, ana
| the result of the constant tunneling has
| been such as to cause depressions in var
ious parts of the town, which clearly
betoken an impending collapse, says the
New York Journal. At a depth of 200 or
300 feet are immense submarine lakes or
| brine, which are continually being pump
ed out, and the upper crust of the eartn
| is thereby correspondingly weakened. AS
| the salt rock has been cut away large
| pillars have been left standing to SUP.
| port the surface, but a intervals the
mines have been flooded and the pi,lars
| of salt have been dissolved by the water
| Luckily, the most extreme cases of sun.
sldence have happened in the sparsev
| settled portions of the town and for this
reason no lives have been lost. But the
depressions have affected the buildings
! and 1t is not an uncommon thing to see
| buildings leaning over at a dangerous
angle. The roads in the vicinity are dan.
gerous TO travel in the night time, owing
to the fact that new depressions are La
| Die TO appear at any time and as tba
water rises as fast as the earth disappears
fall into any of the pits thus formed
mean sudden and sure death The prop-
| erty-oWners have accepted the situation
and concede that the town is due to en-.
tire destruction in course of time.
The power of rapid action differs enor-
mousiy in different individuals-more es-
| pecially in sudden danger. with Gonna
men, remarks a writer in one of CasselI,s
publications, imminent peail seems 10
brighten the intellect, quicken the mower
OF decision, and increase the obedience Of
| hand or limb, to eye and ear. In others
the sharp shock of sudden danger relaxes
the will power, stupefies rather than slim
ulates, and changes a capable and ener-
getic man into a monument of incanacitv
and surprise. In the Red Sea- one burn
ing hot morning, / was reading quietly on
the taffrail of an outbound p. and O.
boat. One of the smart young cavalry
officers on the way out to join his regi-
ment was playing with little girl of six.
She running