The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-09-02
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


ton of gas were known by the ancients,
and practically used by that wonderful
people, the Chinese; but 1t was not until
1892 that gasometer and an apparatus
for the manufacture were erected by the
inventor, Mr.. w. Murdoch.
The ceremonies at the creation of
knight have been various; the principal
were a box on the ear and a stroke with
sword on the shoulder. The blow with
the naked fist was in use among the an
cient Normans. It was afterward chang
ed into a blow with the fiat of the sword
on the shoulder of the knight, and this
ceremony is still in use.
1T is said that much of the compare
tive comfort of the men accompanying
Dr. Nansen on his North Pole venture
was due TO the electric current supplied
by dynamo driven by a windmill DR..
Nansen's previous experiences in the Arc
tic regions led him to expect continu-
Gus breeze in the level ice regions. and the
compact windmill outfit which he took
with him fulfilled all expectations. BY
means of the electric current thus OBJ
tanned the ship was lighted by electricity,
and it is also stated that the current was
employed for the purpose of heating.
An extraordinary story is current in
the European press to the effect that the
Arctic explorer, DIR. Nansen, is about to
he remarked to his wife, in consequence Of
the fact that prior to his departure on his
last voyage in search of the North Pole he
divorced her, in order to permit her to
marry again in case of his disappearance
or death, without going to the trouble Of
proving his decease. In order to under
stand this it must be explained that in
many countries in Europe great strictness
prevails with regard to the remarriage OF
women whose husbands deaths cannot be
legally proved, absences of seven, ten and
even fifteen years being required by law
to furnish satisfactory evidence that
missing spouse is no longer in the land
of the living.
Civilization in India is not without its.
disadvantages, if one is to judge from
the phenomenal increase in the number of
poisonings in recent years-an increase
| which is exciting the attention of the In
dia office in London. Formerly pounded
glass and opium were the favorite agents
of destruction used But education from
a European point of view has impaired to
the jewellers on Hindoostan knowledge of
a number of new and far more deadly
compounds and drugs. The majority of
| the victims are men and children. In In
dia it is a favorite way of paying off an
| old score to poison the child of ones
enemy, while according to official Stats
| tics in the majority of cases where men
have been poisoned the culprit has turn
ed out to be his mother-in-law.
AT sunset on Monday next will begin
the Hebrew New Year. With the new
moon will be ushered in the year 5657 of
| the Jewish era. The feast falls on the
first of the Jewish month Tsri, which
| came to be regarded by the ancient Isra-
| elites as the anniversary of the birth of
| the world. The old rabbis even tabled
that on this day God judges all the souls
| of men, which pass by him like the sheep
of a flock before a shepherd. The Feast
of Trumpets" it was called, owing to the
| ceremony of the blowing of trumpets
| within and without the temple. January
the first is a dreary New Years tide, says
! the Philadelphia Record. The Jews chose
| the season of sowing as the appropriate
! time, and offered up the first fruits as a
Precipitation for bountiful harvests.
Which is the most westerly of the
British isles? Most people would say Ire
land, and some, when told they were
wrong, would suggest St Kilda, which is
long way out in the Atlantic but not so
| far west as the west coast of Ireland. The
most westerly island of Britain is, how
ever. says writer in the Leisure Hour,
Rockall, which is 1874 miles west by south
of St. Kinda, and 200 miles from the Scot
| fish mainland. 1t is not of imposing di-
mension, being merely an outstanding rock
| of dark-colored granite, highly magnetic
about $50 feet in circumference, and so
| whitened by the sea birds that when seen
| from distance, it is generally taken for
| a ship in full sail. Landing is not easy
| owing to the swell being tremendous, ex-
| cept in favorable weather. Rockall is al
mos on the same meridian as the eastern
point of Iceland, and in about the same
latitude as Iverness.
"A remarkable exhibition of the power
of modern explosives occurred. recently at
Marquette, Mich, in firing an iron range
in one of the open pits. The amount of
ore brought down from the east side Of
the pit is estimated at from 100000 to 13, 900
tons. Previous to the blast proper some
| 300 pounds of giant powder" were explod-
ed to loosen the ground, doing its work so
| effectively that some of the cracks in the
! ore were two inches in width with of
| course, many smaller ones Immediately
| back of the larger crack, about forty feet
| from the end of the hanging a large hole,
| thirty-hve feet in depth, had been drilled
and in this hole over half a ton Of black
| powder was placed; when the blast went
off the ore ahead and forty feet on either
side of the hole tumbled over into the
huge pit The latter is of mammoth size.
indeed-some $50 feet in depth and more
than 500 feet long by 400 wide the entire
east side is in solid ore, as is also a portion
| of the south side.
"A physician, who has made the human
face a study insists that it is a perfect
index of its owners physical condition.
| For instance, incomplete exposure of
| the eyelids, rendering the whites of the
eyes visible during sleep, is a symptom
Of all acute and chronic diseases of a
severe type; it is also to be observed
when rest is unsound from pain. wherever
seated. rwitching of the eyelids. assn
ciated with the oscillation of the eve
lids, or squirting, heralds the visit of
commissions. Widening of the orifices of
the nose with movements of the nostrils
to and fro points to embarrassed breath
ing from disease of the lungs or their
pleural investment Contraction Of tha
brows indicates pain in the head sharn-
ness in tho nostrils. pain in the chest
and a drawn lIrlDpr lin Il, L.,