The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-31
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


days of Queen victoria's long reign or
threescore years have been spent by her
in the Emerald Isle. This is a standing
grievance among her Irish subjects, and
accounts for their failure TO participate
In the expression of ELUSIVE loyalty
which have been called forth in the Uni
ted Kingdom by the fact that Victoria
has beaten the reigning record of all other
sovereigns of the old world.
The discovery that the little lamp of
the FREELY emits the humanity invisible
x-rays has led the naturalists into
new query as to the possibility of the
Roentgen light being directly adapted to
the eyes Of a number of insects, says the
Philadelphia Record. What animals see,
and what they do not see, is by no means
easily discovered. The compound eyes of
insects present an image pieced together
like mosaic each portion being conveyed
by a separate facet of the eye. Some of
these facets may possess the exclusive
sense of recognition of the X-rays II
so, a study of these insect eyes may aid
in the development of a skiagraphic in
strument by which mankind might yet be
enabled to use the rays directly.
The old idea that iron rusted or oxida-
ted by uniting with the oxygen OF water
and setting free the hydrogen is now ex-
ploded, says the st. Louis Republic. In
the first place, it has been noticed that
iron will not rust in dry air or chemically
pure water. Thus, for instance, in Are
quipa, in southern Peru, not only will iron
not rust in the open air, but rusty iron
brought up from the coast will become
clear again. 1t now seems certain that
carbonic acid is necessary to. the rustins
of iron, the reaction seeming to be as fol-
lows: First, ferrous carbonate is formed.
This is dissolved in the slightly calculated
water and becomes ferrous bicarbonate.
This in turn decomposes in presence of air
into magnetic oxide and this last makes
with the water, the hydrated ferric-oxide,
or reddish brown powder, which is known
as iron rust. Electricity. again.. seems to
have something to do with it. If of two
metals soldered together one be electro
positive to the other. the oxidation or rust
ing will be slower in the positive and
more rapid in the negative.
The craze for rabbits feet, some of
the best known jewelers. say, is not con-
fined to the poor, says a New York letter
in the Pittsburg Dispatch. A diamond
setter and jeweler in Maiden Lane says
that since the craze came in he had had
the most remarkable line of orders in his
experience. Most of them came from
women, l think" he said, because even
if man wanted to carry a rabbits foot
he wouldn't be apt to have diamonds
and other stones in the mountings l
don't get my orders direct, or I'd know
more about it. 1 do work for a number
of Broadway retail jewellers, and they
get the orders while l do the work. !
put a gold top and three gold bands on a
foot last week and set three diamonds
in the top 1t was 500 job A peculiar
thing about the superstitious fad is that
TAI
it is the gold men who are buying the
feet. Brass-tipped feet sell faster here
than tin-tipped ones, according to the
tradesmen who are making some money
out of this odd feature of most pc
culiar campaign.
Game killed in full fight has momen-
tum that carries it long way sometimes.
The London Field relates several instances
where the birds have hit the sportsmen. In
one case George Monners was shooting in
the woods of Long Island when a grouse,
driven by beaters, came flying along fast
and high up. He shot at 1t and then, with
the other barrel, fired at another bird. Just
as he was about lowering his gun, after
the second shot, he received a blow on the
head that knocked him senseless. The
| grouse first hit had tumbled against his
head. That same afternoon a wheelman,
miring the scenery, did not observe a big
black cock till its feathers brushed his
head. The black cock had been killed and
had nearly hit him in falling. The Bad
minton volume on shooting tells how the
late Charles Leslie was knocked out of
the battery by a grouse he had shot. A
strong hat probably saved him from Sc
| rious injury American hunters have had
| similar experiences. A man was riding
along in a wagon some time ago, accord
| ing to Forest and Stream when some
! thing hit him on the head with enough
force to make him dizzy. An unwounded
partridge flying through the woods had hit
| him fair. Why the bird did not turn aside
| is as much mystery as the fact that
cartridges sometimes fly against house
| sides and are killed in so doing.
The largest marine plant, and proba-
bly, one of the highest plants known on
! this globe, is a gigantic sea-weed, the
nereocystis, the stem of which has been
| found to grow as mucn as 300 feet long.
| 1t was first discovered not far from the
! Alaskan coast but has since been found
| floating in various parts of the Pacific
| Ocean along the American and Asiatic
| shores. This seaweed grows in very
| curious manner. Large quantities of 1t
are found at little distance from shore.
and at depths not exceeding 300 feet. On
| loamy bottom large thickets of this plant
take root, and stem of the thickness of
| ordinary cord grows upward. At it's top
| there is pear-shaped balloon, which
| grows with the stem, and when it reaches
the surface of the water it often meas
| ures six feet and more in length with a
diameter of four and one-half feet. This
balloon has, Of course, an upward tenden-
| cy, and keeps the stem growing until it
| floats on the surface of the water. From
the top of this balloon a large tuft of
strong, thick, spade-like leaves grow out.
| which originally are not more than two
feet long, and which grow and split until
| from the balloon rose-like growth of
| from fifty to sixty-fiive feet in diameter
| covers the water. This gigantic weed
| grows in such quantities that near the
| shore large meadow-like Islands are form
| ed. which impede navigation. The natives
of the Aleutian Islands make manifold
usage of this plant From their strone
dried stems they make ropes $50 feet and
| more long, while balloons of this weed
| furnish them with large vessels after
they are dried, the smaller ones being
used in their boats to bail out water. The
| long leaves, after being dried, are chi
into narrow strips and used for wicker
work, the making of baskets and similar
| furniture.