The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-24
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

freight and half from passengers. In 1885
passenger trafic was less than In lssi,
while freight traffic was more
in Saxony no one is permitted TO shoe
horses unless he has passed a public ex-
animation and is properly qualified. A
from all parts Of the world studying far
rlery- This includes not only shOeing
horses, but their care and treatment-a
provision that saves great deal OF money
Tor farmers and others owning horses.
"A German. Felix Moral. has secured
the concession from the Shah Of Persia
to construct a roadway from Bagdad to
Ieheran. the concession TO last Is years.
Moral has the privilege of charging tolls
and OF erecting any kind Of a transport
service. steam or electricity. He has also
the right 10 build a steam or electric
road 10 the northern suburbs OF the Per
sian capital II is believed he will make
a large fortune.
According TO the Buddhist form of
religion a man lives twelve times on earth,
his soul returning after each demise to
some animal, beginning with one of the
lower varieties, like a. reptile. a crOcO-
Ollie. or a wolf, and then each time he
GlcS afterwards returning TO some ami
nal OF higher type. In this way there
Is a general progression OF the soul I'M
I'll il reaches the animal representing the
highest type or all, which Is the white
elephant.
1t is a common notion that when sea
gulls are seen many miles inland they
are driven thus far from the sea-shOre
by stress or weather and force of the
wind This, however, Is not the case;
from their usual home is that in search
Tor food they migrate from the south
10 the east coast, and vice versa; for
Wherever the sprat. pilchard, ana her
ring are found in large quantities these
birds are most seen.
Thomas Stumps was one of the great
est clothiers in England. He lived in the
reign of Henry VIII, and is said to have
maintained 50 many in his trade that.
when the aforementioned king-who had
been hunting in BredOn fOrest-came
with his train of cOurtiers and servants
to dine with him, he was not surprised,
| but, commanding his workmen to alb
stain one meal till night, did with the
same provisions give the king and his
court such a plentiful entertainment of
| wholesome, though not dainty food. that
| they went away well satisfied.
Few things are impossible to the post
office, says an exchange. A letter recently
posted at St. Martins lie Grand, London
was intended for house agent in a small
| midland town. The sender had forgotten
both the name of Sis correspondent and
/ the street and his residence; but, having
| an excellent typographical memory, he
! supplemented his scanty information by
drawing map in the corner of the en-
| VeIope and putting a star" where the let
| ter was to be delivered. AS posted the
envelope bore only the name of the town
| ana this sketch. It was, nevertheless, de-
lvered at It's correct destination without
| missing post.
The sacred books of the Buddhists are
| perfectly appalling in their bulk. SAYS the
| Philadelphia Press. They are called the
| "Trlpitaka,' The Three Baskets" and
| We're originally written in Pail. a Vernac-
ular form of Sanskrit. They have been
| translated into many languages, such as
| Chinese, Thibetan and Mandshu. They
| have also been written and published in
| various alphabets, not only in Devaugari
| but in SinghaleSe, Burmese and Siamese
| letters. The copy in nineteen volumes late
| ~ presented to the University Of Oxford
| by the King of Siam contains the Pail
| text written in Siamese letters, but the
| language is always the same; it is the
! Pail. or vulgar tongue as it was supposed
| to have been spoken by Buddha himself
| about 800 b. c. After having been preserv-
| ed for centuries by an oral tradition it
/ was reduced for the first time to writing
| under King Nattagamani. in 1915 r. c..
| the time when the truly literary period of
+ India may be said to begin. But besides
+ this Pail canon there is another in Sanskrit
! canon which are not to be found in the
/ Pail canon, and vice versa. According to
! a stradition current among the southern
/ as well as the Northern Buddhists, the
| original canon consisted of $4,000 books,
| 5000 being ascribed to Buddha himself,
I and 1000 to his disciples. Book, however.
| seems to have meant here no more than
! treatise or topic. But, as a matter of fact,
|
| Rev. r. Spence Hardy, of 275,000 stanzas,
| and its commentary of Sol $50 stanzas, each
stanza reclIoned at thirty-two syllables.
| This would give us $4,000 syllables for
! the text and II, $50, coo sylables for the COM
| mentary. This is, of course, an enormous
| amount; the question is only whether the
! Rev. Spence Hardy and his assistants,
| who are responsible for these statements,
| counted rightly.
"A st. Louis exchange calls attention to
the singularity of our custom of placing
! the dollar mark before the figures, in
| stead of after, without giving the real
explanation, says the Bankers Encyclo-
| pedia Monthly. A high authority says
| that the explanation is found in the fact
| that in the colonial times, when the word
| dollar was Americanized, it's equivalent
| was the Spanish price of eight" or eight
| reals" later known as the York shill-
| ing" At first the abbreviation for dol
| lar was the figure eight between two
| straight line 81, and then the two lines
| were drawn through the 8. After a while
| the eight itself was changed just a little,
| making the sign stand as now in use.
| This is a highly probable explanation.
| In all civilized countries money marks
| are in use, and our St. Louis exchange
| throws some interesting light on the Gus
| tom when it says: In every country which
| has a written language and a system of
| coinage the abbreviation for the unit of
| value precedes the figures. In England
| the pound mark 90 is used in the same
| manner that the dollar mark is used in
| this country. while the same popularity
| is noticeable in Germany where the an
| breviation m. (for mark appears preced-
| ing the number, just as the French alb
breviation FIR. (for france is used in France.
| If the authorizations are not used the
legend is more apt to be correct. We
| find that in Mexico they have "2h pc
Sos" instead of p. 21h." as one might ex-
| pect. and in Newfoundland they have a
| plain twO-dollar piece. So, too, in France.
| where the abbreviation is not used. we
| find such pieces as 10 francs, - 40 francs''
a piece marked * thaier,' which is all
very plain, but the moment a clerk,
| bookkeeper or other person makes an en-.
| try or jots down a memorandum he tells
| you that it is 9TH. X" The English
| pound sign, which is believed to be the
| Oldest monetary abbreviaton now in use,
is the old initial letter by which the Ro.
mans expressed pounds" just as we use
| the Tbs" 1t has been suggested thar
we use our money abbreYiation backward
| because the Romans, in expressin !.
pounds" always said libra deem in
| stead of "decem libra" the first being
| pounds ten and the latter ''ten pounds =
| When their initial letter or character wa g
/ used it always preceded the figures Tins
"f10," instead of the reverse. Thus the
| whole world have gotten in the habit OF
| doing these things backward
|