The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-04
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


ant the company may be, viii consent 10
supply cigars. Cigarettes are much cheap
er, and the stage villain who defes all
traditions and smokes cigars always does
so at his own expense. And this IS rather
expensive, inasmuch as the villain Of
the drama usually wears a dress suit, is
supposed 10 be plentifuily supplied with
il-gOtten gains, and only takes two or
three pums at whatever he Is smoking
before throwing IL away Until the prop
ertyman volunteers to furnish cigars we
must be content with the cigarette-smOk-
ing stage villain
Among the carefully preserved docu-
ments in the state house, bearing the
imposing autograph Of Gov. John Han
cock, says the Boston Transcript, is an
order TO Sheriff Joseph Henderson. dated
Oct. s, l7S9. to hang Rachel Wall. The
woman, so the court records show, was
walking on the highway on the evening
Of March Is of that year, when with
bodily force she assailed Margaret
Bender, and tore from her head her bon
net, valued at seven shillings. which
she did carry away against the public
peace OF the commonwealth" There are
also hints Of "sundry other thefts." and
the sentence of execution was carried
out Oct. ~, 1I69, few DAYS before WASH
ington paid his memorable visit TO Bos-
ton.
Some interesting facts" says DR.. D.
G. BrintOn in Science. were developed
by Prof. Ranke at the last meeting OF
the German Anthropological Society. IN
relation TO the relative weights of the
brain and spinal cord in man. II is well
known that man has not the heaviest
brain OF any animal; the whale and the
elephant have heavier. Nor has he the
heaviest in proportion to his weight; some
singing birds, various small apes and the
mole have propOrtionately heavier brains
What Ranke brings out is that the weight
Of the Imam brain is greater in proper
ton to the weight Of the spinal cord than
in any other vertebrate; and this, there
fore. constitutes an anatomical distinction
of man. strongly contrasting him with all
other animal forms"
The most invulnerable and curious Of
all the forts erected in this part of Cuba
says a letter in the Philadelphia Times.
are made of old steam boilers. At every
factory of any age there We're a number
of worn-Out boilers, which had been
thrown aside. Each was about thirty feet
long and six feet in diameter, and made of
steel "a to q of an inch thick. These were
taken in hand at the machine shops, the
braces ana heads were knocked out and
"A door way and loophOles cut in them.
They were then carted to the tops Of
knobs and set up on end and braced in
place with railroad iron. Three floors were
put in each. and a ladder was hung against
the inside of the shell as means of com
municatiOn from top to bottom. These
novel forts are so secure when the steel
door is once closed upon the garrison that
some of the planters have lost confidence
IN them for outposts. They believe that
the men of their garrisOns feel such con-
fidence that they go TO sleep as soon as
they get inside
The city of Leipsic is situated in a
plain. which is rather uninteresting on
account of It's monotony says an ex-
change. In order to bring a little change
into the landscape, the city council has.
for a long time past. ordered the deposit
of ashes and refuse from the city at one
certain point, which, in the course of
time, has risen some 100 feet or more
above the surrounding country This ash
pile, which in the mouth of the people
has received the euphonious names Of
ash mountain" or after the name of
the burgomaster, Monte GeOrgi," is sit
uated outside the city limits proper, in "A
suburb called Rosenthal, or VALLEY of
Roses, PROBABLY because onions and
other vegetables are raised there in guam
tity by truck farmers. This ash hill will
now be covered with vegetation at the
expense of Leipsic, the city council hav-
ing appropriated 1000 marks for that
purpose. They are so proud of the
mountain, which they have built with
ashes and patience that they will erect
on the top tower, the view from which
is even now being spoken of as the great
coming attraction of Leipsic.
"A marriage epidemic has broken out
among the ancient paupers of Hampstead,
one of the parishes of London. and the
guardians OF the poor are at their wit S
end, says a cable in the New York Sun.
1t seems that they unwittingly put a
premium upon matrimony by erecting
couples. These are far nicer than the gen
eral workhouse. The English law for
bids the separation of husband and wife
when past co. There are about $50 pau
pers of both sexes who are above that
age in the Hampstead workhouse. When
they saw the homelike, well-furnished
rooms in the married couples building
they grew enviOus and took counsel among
themselves. Finally Mr.. Pigeon Hill, q
hoary- headed pauper, and a female in
mate equally antique got married on their
afternoon out They returned and applied
for married quartersN The guardian re-
fused at first, but We're advised that they
cared that they would rather break the
law than be jOckeyed in such a fashion
and have lodged an appeal with the local
government board. Meantime more than
a score of additional matches have been
arranged pending the decision of the au-
thorities on the fate of the first couple.
In the Transvaal the zebra is being
trained to do the work of the horse, says
the New York Press. 1t is an almost
incorrgible little beast, and up to now
all attempts to put IL in the harness of
labor have had small success. When the
Portuguese owned South Africa they cap
tured four of these wild asses and sent
them to their king, who sent them to draw
the royal carriage Prince Stakeholder of
the Netherlands is said to have driven a
span of zebras in 1883, but this often has
been disputed. Not many years ago one
of the ROthschilds made a day of sensa-
ton in London by driving a zebra to his
trap. They are hard to catch, and vicious
when caught, and extremely difficult to
tame. The zebra, or wild ass, inhabits ex-
clusively South Africa, northward to Alb
yssinia. They We're first seen in Europe
by the enterprise of the Roman Emperor
Caracalla, and at their exhibition in the
arena he himself killed them. In the mid
die ages they remained practically un-
known, and it was not until the middle
of the seventeenth century, through the
European travellers that they were brought
again into familiarity. The Beers persis
tent and methodical, have conquered the
zebra at last, and put the hitherto unruiy
animal into the traces of their mail
coaches. Together the zebras show an in
clination to bite but when harnessed with
mules they are easier to manage This
utilization of the zebra is of the greatest
importance to South Africans. Horses are
likely to be killed by hyenas. Zebras are
match, with teeth and hoofs for any
hyena: 1t is one of the fercest of all an
imal fights when a zebra and a hyena
come upon each other. Beers find that
the zebra is capable of greater movement
than the horse and less susceptible to dis
ease Strange to say, the little striped
beast is also stronger than the horse.
| though its weight is less than half of that
of the older draught animal