The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-09-27
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The flying machine of Civil Engineer
Otto Lilienthal, who met his death while
experimenting with his machine has
been taken to pieces by order of his
family, in order to prevent others from
suffering similar fate. The several parts
or the machine will remain for the pres
ent at the shops of the late inventor, but
nothing will be done towards completing
or improving it.
The reason why ships are not struck
by lightning is attributed to the general
use which is now made of wire rope for
rigging purposes, as well as to the fact
that the hulls of ships are usually con-
stTucted of iron or steel, says the Gin
cinnau Enquirer Thus the whole ship
forms an excellent and continuous CON
ductor, by means of which the electricity
is LED away into the ocean before it has
time to do any serious damage.
"A rubber oyster is the discovery an
nounccd in Paris, says the New York
Journal. The invention is one that de-
serves to rank with the telephone, the
submarine cable, or any other of the
many ingenious devices of man to anne
llorate the conditions of his fellow-man.
1t consists of a guttapercha oyster to be
placed in the restaurant oyster soup. so
as to remove the accepted idea that the
decoction contains nothing of a solid ma
ture.
The appetite for alcohol can be dissi-
pated by eating apples at every meal,
says physician, according to the Gin
cfnnau Enquirer. Apples, if eaten in
large quantities. possess properties which
entirely do away with the craving that
all confirmed drunkards have for drink.
The doctor says that in many bad cases
which have come under his notice he has
been able to effect a cure by this means,
the patient gradually losing all desire for
alcohol.
Sir John Lubbock, the naturalist, has
been experimenting to find out how long
the common ant would live If kept out
of harms way. On Aug. s, 1883, an ant
which had been thus kept and tenderly
cared for died at the age of Is years,
which is the greatest age any species of
insect has yet been known to attain. An
other individual of the same species of
the formica fusca) lived to the advanced
age Oh IL years, and the queen of another
kind Qasius niger laid fertile eggs after
she had passed the age of years.
In his book bearing the title of Mrs.
Albert Grundy," Harold Frederic gives the
following pungent summary of the mo
dus vivendi' in Maine Il spent a summer
IN the state of Maine once some years
ago." said Uncle Dudley That's the state
you know, where they've had a prohibition
law now for nearly 40 years. The excess
OF females over males is larger there, l
believe, than it is anywhere else in the
world-owing to the fact that all the young
men who are worth their salt emigrate to
some other state as soon as they've saved
n co.
that you do see lounging around there, in
the small villages, are all minding the
baby or sitting on the doorsteps Smelling
peas, or out in the backyard, with their
mouths full of clothespins, hanging up
sheets and pillow-cases on the line to
dry"
Spanish soldiers are betraying an in
surmountable aversion to a campaign in
Cuba, and desertions have been very fire.
quent of late. This has led to the adop-
ton of an extremely strict surveillance
along the Pyrenean frontier, and all
trains running to France are carefully
scrutinized by the Spanish gendarmes, to
the annoyance and discomfort of many of
the passengers, says the London Tele-
graph. Young men are subjected to a
severe examination, and those who are
unable to establish their identity or give
satisfactory explanation of the motives
or their journey are compelled to alight
and are conducted to the gendarmerie,
where they are again piled with aues-
lions, all the deserters detected in this
way being handed over to the military au-
thorities. This often entails considerable
delay, and, in spite of the watchfulness
of the officials, many young soldiers still
succeed in making their way into France
An elephant on a champagne jag is the
unique and highly hilarious spectacle
which is now being witnessed nightly at
a cafe, just off Chestnut street, saws the
Philadelphia Record 1t is a young baby
elephant, and he is a regular customer.
He insists on being waited upon promptly
and guzZles down two bottles of the
sparkling fig" with pachydermic glee
For time he feels as gay as any royal
white elephant of the King of Siam But
as the champagne gets in it's work, this
burly high-roller feels that tired feeling
run from the tips of his palm-leaf ears
down to the end of hfs trunk, and his
comical little eyes leer for all the world
like those of a tipsy rounder. He finally
lays his head upon the hard floor and tries
to sing In elephantine trumpetings Just
tell them that you saw me-" 'Boney''
also rides a bike" and stands on his
head Philadelphia theater-goers have sell
dom, if ever, seen such an astonishing ex-
Hipll VI dultIldl luleIliSence, reaching llS
climax in the mimetic performance de-
scrbed.
Japanese merchants at Chemulpo, in
the Kingdom of Korea, were very much
surprised the other day when the King
ordered 10000 bottles of beer in one lot.
The entire Japanese colony was not pre-
pared for such a sudden and extensive or
der of beer, and they put their heads to-
gether, wondering whether it was the
court or the bodyguard of the king who
had so suddenly developed such a gigantic
thirst. A cable was Immediately dispatch
ed to Japan and the beer was ordered to
be shipped at once, so that 1t might be de-
livered to the royal master of the house
in due time. says the Philadelphia Record
The beer arrived promptly and at the
same time the explanation of the conun-
drum was given to the Japanese, for al
most on the same day a Russian man-of-
war arrived there; the entire crew was in
vited TO be the guests of the King of Ko-
rea, who thus showed his gratitude to the
Russians for the shelter accorded him at
the Russian embassy during the recent
revolutionary disturbances. The three
hundred marines on board were very
agreeably surprised when his royal high