The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-05
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

=
journer's comfort. but il is said that one
Of the most fashionable hotels in New
York city now furnishes its patrons with
new tOOthbrushes free Of charge. The
name OF the hotel is marked upon each
brush. and a card is attached requesting
that the brush be taken away by the pa
iron.
Some months ago. says the London
Globe. We alluded in this column 10 the
johannesburg water famine, and the use
Of soda water at five shillings per bottle
Ior Washing purposes lady who has
just returned from the Rand relates a
somewhat EruesOme experience which &C.
CURED to her in one of the leading johann
nesburg hotels during the scarcity. She
happend one day to see two cans Of water
standing outside a bathroom door, and
strong TO be resisted. While enjoying the
luxury so long denied her, the lady was
startled by clamor at the door, and a
voice which implOred her in broken Eng
fish not TO pull up the plug DO not use
too moOch zOap, madame. / want re water
Tor re gonsOmmei' Our informant did not
dine at the table dhote that evening.
Prof. Boys of London recently deIiv-
cred an illustrated lecture in which he
showed photographs of the Lee-AIetford
bullet as il passed through a quarter-inch
sheet OF glass. Just before the bullet
touched the sheet the air wave cut a
disk or glass about half an inch in diam
eter clean out. At the same time the glass
around the hole was crushed into pow
der and driven back at an extremely rapid
rate. The glass stuck to the bullet for
a short time after it had passed through,
the disk being driven out in front of the
bow wave" In this experiment the waves
caused by the vibrations of the glass were
plainly shown. A photograph of the bull
let after il had cleared the glass by nine
inches showed the remainder of the glass
intact, but when the bullet had proceeded
another sixteen inches the sheet of glass
was seen TO break and fall in fragments.
Having lived next door to the pastoral
residence Of the Rev. Father Martin Car
roll. and not many feet from St. Vincent
de Paul church, in North Sixth street VIII
namSburg, n. Y. for several years, James
Browns green parrot acquired a consider
able knowledge of Latin. says the st.
Louis Globe Democrat. 1t was this know
ledge which enabled the bird to scan
dalize number of church-goers yester-
open for a few minutes while mass was
being said in the church The voices of
the priest and the choir could be plainly
heard outside, and so could the loud sing
ing of Polly. Its Latin words kept fairly
in unison to the melody, 70 the great
establishment of passers-by. As soon as
the birds care-taker realized that it's
harsh singing was attracting attention,
the window was shut, but the parrot
could be heard anathematizing it's keep
er. The bird was bought by Mr.. Brown
in New Orleans at the time of the Cor
bett-SulliVan fight, and has proved re-
markedly easy to teach.
Spain probably has the most elab-
orately decorated national flag. OF it's
four main quarterings, the first, begin
ming at the top left-hand corner, is di-
vided into four quarters, two of which
contain lions RAMPANT in red or a white
ground. and the other two, castles in
gold on a red ground. The top right
hand quarter is divided into halves; the
first composed of red and yellow perpen-
dicular stripes; the second, two half dia-
monds in white, bearing eagles, and be-
tween these the background is compos-
ed of red and yellow stripes, narrower
than those in the other half. The lower
right-hand quarter is divided longitu-
dinally into two unequal portions; the
upper consisting of red and white VerUi-
stripe, the lower half flied by yellow
lion rampant on a black ground. The
lower left-hand quarter is divided into
two portions; the upper filled by two
broad red stripes with one white one
running horizontally, the lower by a half
SHE'D of blue and white diagonal stripes
on a red ground; the corner left by the
half shield filled by a black lion ram
pant on a white ground.
The first circulating library in Lon
don was established in 174O at No. 1923
Strand This library was afterwards
carried on by bookseller named
Previous to this, however, Alan Ramsay,
wigmaker and poet, of Edinburg, start
ed circulating library about the year
1725 at the shop which he opened in that
city just after the success attending the
publication of his poem, THE Gentle
Shepherd" This was probably the first
of its kind in the world. Samuel Fan
court. a dissenting minister and tutor
at Salisbury, established one of the ear
lest circulating Libraries in London. A
library conducted by him, in which the
subscription was guinea. per annum,
was dissolved at Michaelmas, 1745 and he
tRe9 eaTFsd Spt the neN RRab1 Ths plan
logue of Books and Pamphlets belonging
to the Circulating Library in Crane
1746 and 174S Anyone might become a
subscriber by an initial payment of a
guinea and a quarterly payment of Shill-
ing. Each subscriber was allowed to take
out one volume and one pamphlet at a
time. The library contained two or three
thousand bound volumes and about as
consisted Of theology, ecclesiastical his
tory and controversy, and only about a
tenth of it was light literature.
professional jurors are well known in
America, and everybody has heard of
professional mourners in other parts of
the world but professional witnesses to
marriages are quite novel additions to the
social system. 1t appears that they are
well known in England, and that their
services are often in demand, says an
exchange. A prominent London clergy
man writes on this subject: Ask any
old cab driver and he will probably tell
you how often he has earned an extra fee
by acting as one of the witnesses to the
marriage of some couple he has driven
to church. l have had two such cases
within the last twelve months One
tradesman near, a corn factor. is gen
orally at the service of the clerk when
a witness is required, and 1 should think
that he has so acted in quite score of
cases during the past few years, a pres
ent sometimes being offered him for his
services, while in others he has not even
been thanked: "A South London clergy
man l know usually sends for a photog-
rapher, his church warden who has a
place just opposite, to act as witness,
and this individual declines to act I'M
less-he uses no pressure of course-he
is allowed to take a compound portrait
of the bride and bridegroom to keep as a
record, and he simply asks mat small
subscription be put in the poor box of
the church as a return, and if the bride
and bridegroom choose to give an order
for a number of the portraits he gives the
profits to the church expenses. He has
several times been asked for their por-
traits some considerable time after they
were taken, and in one case produced such
a photograph at Manchester assiZes In
several cases 1 could tell you of the
parties being married have, for reasons
known to themselves and not on account
of want of time, absolutely refused to
he photographed, and, of course another
witness has been found"