The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-09-06
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

powerful locomotive headlight to attract
the unwary catfish.
"A remarkable suggestion has been
made by a member of the New York
branch of the national council of Jewish
women, says the New York Sun. 1t is to
the effect that each member shall pledge
herself to keep one family from poverty,
not by indiscriminate giving. but by help
ing each person in the family to practice
self-helping. Many of the members gave
their pledge in writing.
There is conclusive evidence within
the past half century that several of our
great mountains in the northwestern part
of the country, formed as they We're by
the piling up of volcanic matter, cannot
be numbered yet among the wholly ex-
tinct volcanoes. North of Mount Hood
in the state of Washington, are the great
peaks of Baker, Rainier and St. Helens
all of them very mildly active.
Many well-educated people fail to
grasp the difference in size between Eng
land and the United States. No one
thinks of going to a map to get exact
figures. Cyclists can comprehend the diff
ference when told that the record from
John O'Groats to Lands End is but a
little over three days while the record
from San Francisco to New York is over
forty-three days.
The water in the Columbia river, Ore
gon, is so cold that it is dangerous to
swim in it. Frank Thornberg was swim
ming in about fifteen feet of water when
cramps suddenly seized him and he sank
Reaching the bottom, by vigorous move
ment, he kicked himself to the surface
again, but being powerless to move his
IL -. s,raI-
and rose in this manner before a boat
reached him and drew him in.
Some years ago a rich man was SEN
fenced in England for some crime to a
term of penal servitude. SO enamored did
he become with prison life and with his
surroundings during the period of his in
generation that, since his release, so the
London Graphic AYERS, he has built for
himself miniature prison. with cells, ex-
ercise ground and tread-mill. Upon the
latter, it is said, he daily works just as he
did whilst he was undergoing his sentence!
An Englishman has just been robbed
by an ingenious trick in a Paris cafe. He
entered into conversation with a we'll
dressed stranger who began playing with
the lever of a settler water siphon on the
table. Suddenly he turned the stream on
apologizing profusely and wiping off the
water with his handkerchief. Then he
left the cafe, and the Englishman found
that his pocketbook with $500 in bank
notes had gone with the stranger.
-Hendon, north of London, has a tav-
ern in a churchyard, with tombstones all
around it, which has been kept there for
many hundred years and is the only Ii
CanGnd house in Supb a TNlapn THE Oripi-
nal building was burned down 200 years
ago, the present house having been built
soon after the restoration of Charles IL
1t is believed that it was once a church
house, as by the terms of the lease a
room must be set aside for parish meet
ings and for the preservation of the par
ish records.
LAS rule, says an exchange, lightning
stroke is most common in the open air,
generally under the tree to which the vic
tim has resorted for shelter, and this cir
cumstance makes death more likely as
the measures for relieving the shock and
restoring the vital energies cannot be put
in practice till too late. But this year the
majority of fatalities from lightning have
occurred in dwelling houses. There is no
doubt that for this greater frequency of
latter years the steady tree telling, unbal-
anced by tree planting, is directly respon-
sible.
The use Of pampas grass for political
plumes in campaigns came about in 1892
Mrs. H. w. R. Strong, who owns ranch
in the San Gabriel valley, presented a de-
sign to the republicans and later to the
democrats. The republican emblem con-
sisted of three plumes, red, white and blue
arranged in the shape of a fan, while
the democratic emblem was three plumes
in their natural color, mounted on a red
stick and tied with a blue ribbon The
woman's object was not so much patri-
otto as to create market for the plumes
at home, their European sale having fall
en- off.
Photography is killing more ducks
than are hunters, is an alarming claim
made by an enthusiastic sportsman, who
goes on to explain that the universal
practice of photography is creating an
immense demand for an albumen in fin
ishing the pictures, and that albumen can
be produced only from eggs. The eggs
from the ordinary domestic hen are too
valuable for food to be sacrificed to art.
and as consequence the breeding
grounds of wild birds are CLEANED for the
desired fluid. The Hebrides Islands of
Scotland, Lofoden of Norway, Labrador.
Greenland, South America and all other
extensive haunts of large birds are rob-
bed constantly by the natives or men
from sailing expedition, and the result is
especially hard on the ducks. Labrador
is particularly unfortunate land in this
connection, for the miles of crowded nests
offer an irresistible temptation to the
egg hunters.
Reports from Minnesota state that
with the present rate of destruction the
days of the white pine are numbered. No
other wood equals white pine in value and
variety of purposes for which ii is used
and its extinction would be a serious loss
to the country. Estimates just complied
by the state forest warden of Minnesota
show that there are in Minnesota 10 so. 000
acres of forest land, and that on this there
stand, in addition to other woods 1900o
100000 feet of live white and Norway nino
and spruce, of which the white pine ag-
gregates 145G0,0OO,0O0 feet. This is vast
total, but 1t is being cut down at no
rate of about 100000 year besides fear
ful losses by fire. In from ten to fifteen
years the last white pine forests in The
United States will have disappeared for
pine does not succeed as second growth
timber, or at least has not done So via,
all the experiments carried on In a. :,