The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-19
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Z impossible, the wind chooses its course
The bird-ballOOn, as light as the wind and
as strong as iron, is a Pigment Of the mag
nation
Every bee carries his market basket
round MS hind legs. Any one examining
the body OF a bee through a microscope
will observe that on the hind legs Of the
creature there is a fringe OF stiff hairs on
the surface, the hairs approaching each
other at the tips so as TO form a sort
Of cage. This is the bees basket, and into
il, after successful journey. he will cram
enough pollen 70 last him for two or three
days.
"A curious defect has been discovered in
Budapest's underground railway. There
is not enough ventilating apertures in
the tunnel, and the trains rushing through
IL compress the air in il like that in the
tube Of a pneumatic gun. on some occa-
sions the cars have been lifted from the
track, and the passengers have been al
most suffocated. One stretch Of tunnel
two miles long. has only a single ventilat-
ing aperture, making it almost an air
tight compartment.
Collecting thimbles which have been
| the property Of female celebrities has
/ become the latest range. The cream Of
/ Mrs. Nanderbilt's collection is the thin
| bic Of that excellent needlewoman Queen
| Elizabeth; she also possesses one which
| belonged to the queen when a girl Of A.
| This is a solid and useful-loOking silver
/ thimble. but very small A thimble. much
worn, once belonged to the Princess Alice,
/ and is rather large; one, whose owner was
| the Princess of Wales, is extremely dain-
ty, of gold and enamel.
! -Fireproof paper is being manufactured
for commercial purposes, and will soon be-
come a necessity of ordinary life. The
| recipe of one fireproof paper manufac-
! turer runs as follows: Ninety-five parts
| of asbestos fiber of the best quality are
| washed into solution of permanganate
! of calcium and then treated with sui
| phuric acid. whereby the fiber is bleached.
| After this five parts of ground wood
| pulp, as used in paper factories, are add
ed, and the entire mass is placed in the
| agitating box, with an addition of some
lime water and borax. After thorough
mixing. the material is pumped into reg
| ulating box and allowed to flow out OF a
gate to an endless papercloth. where 1t
enters the usual paper-making machinery.
! Paper thus produced will resist even the
direct influence of fame and can be plac-
ed into a white heat with impunity.
"A lean and hungry cat, which was
old enough to know better, furnished
no end of amusement to select crowd
of messenger boys and late pedestrians
who happened to be at Tenth and Chest
nut streets about 2:30 o'clock yesterday
morning. says the Philadelphia Record.
A lunch cafe on Tenth street is furnish
ed with a huge arc lamp. which burns all
night, and is a Mecca for all the bugs
and moths in the vicinity. They fly around
inside the globe, and as the powerful
light casts shadows out on Tenth street
the bugs are magnihed until their NOV
ing shadows are as large as rats. The
cat stroIed out of a nearby alley and
Immediately caught sight of the shad-
ows. She crouched for an instant and
sprang on her unsuspecting prey. She
was fooled, and the spectators laughed,
but she tried again and again, turning
somersaults in her efforts, but failing to
realize supper on any of her ghostly
| tormentors. At last, wearied with the
chase, the disappointed cat crawled back
to the alley. glancing suspiciously at
the crowd, which laughed once more and
dispersed
Some criminals, it would appear en-
terrain the horrible creed that the use Of
a candle made of a murdered mans fat
will protect them from discovery during
their depredations, says Notes and Quer.
les. Actuated by this hideous and insane
superstition, it is averred that two burg
lars in the district of Ostrogojsk (Voro>
neje government recently murdered a
handsome, stalwart young fellow-villager
of IS for the sake of his tallow. The
story goes on to state that, having butch
cred their victim, these fiends ripped
open the body and tore out the epiploon,
which they put in a tin box and carried
home. Next came the melting-down pro-
cess. The mems strange operations
aroused the suspicious of their landlady-
the more so as ugly rumors of the poor
young fellows disappearance began to
circulate-and she gave information in the
proper quarter. In conclusion, 1t is men,
toned that the tin box and its contents
have been handed to two well-known pro-
fessors for examination. The above cir
cumstantial account is from the ST. Pet
ersburg Novosti and Bourse Gazette of
June to q, which refers to the Khar-
koff Government Gazette as its authority
True or not true, the charge is noteworthy
as bearing upon very gruesome piece OF
thieves folklore or black art.
Several large cod are kept in one Of
the tanks OF the Amsterdam aquarium.
necessarily near to the surface. and,
therefore, exposed to a strong light from
above. Now the cod, though not deep
sea- fish, is not a surface swimmer, and
lives at depths where the sunlight must
be very much modified by passage through
the water 1t lives in what to us would
be semt-darkness. Every one of these
cod exposed to the strong light is suf-
tering from an extraordinary hyper
trophy of the eye. The whole organ has
become overgrown as if in the effort to
adjust itself to the use of more light
rays 1t had become overequipped and then
useless. The cod, in fact, are blind,
says writer in the Philadelphia Press.
The most interesting feature in this
change is the extraordinary rapiditv
, with which increased supply of light rays
has overdeveloped the organ for it's use.
1t has taken place, not by slow degrees.
from individual to Individual but in a
course of time to be measured by months
and in every individual in the tank. II
this example is measure of the rapfdity
with which such changes take place
among fish the adaptation of those creat
ures which have migrated from the
shallow waters to the deep seas, shown
by the total loss or enormous develon-
ment of their eyes, and the growth of
Illuminating organs to light the abvss
may have been as rapid as it is marvel
Gus.