The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-04-11
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

man. A specimen has IL Is stated, been
s SUD- ;I to a severe test-that Of expo
nours, ana came out without injury.
The difference in the length of the ca
bies in the East river Bridge. Brooklyn,
when the thermometer registers zero and
Mhen II registers 100 degrees above. is
teet I inches The difference in the rope
"hlcn nauls the cars is Z feet inches.
1t is announced that in British Guiana
has been discovered a bird with four legs.
It inhabits the most secluded forests ana
It's net IS principally arum leaves. the
result being that its flesh is unpalatabie.
II IS almost as large as q peacock and
though seldom seen its waiHng cry Is
OIten heard When II is Matched il pos
sesSes four legs, the front pair being or
repulian character. The young birds
leave the nest and climb about the trees
like monkeys, looking and acting more like
tree toads than birds. After while the
lore limbs begin to fiatten and change
until they develop into wings. Then feath-
efS DeSln 10 grow and in a short time
no Vestige of their former ridiculous ap-
pearance remains. The birds possess ac-
quatic powers and can dive to surprising
depths.
Naples celebrates in a curious manner
Lent and the end of the Passion week.
Ropes are stretched from house to house
across the streets in the ancient districts
on the day Of the carnival, and dolls made
or rags, wearing the traditional Neapoli-
tan costume, and carrying a distaff and
Dobbin, are suspended from these ropes
AT the feet of the sUinner is attached an
orange containing seven feathers, corre-
spending TO the seven weeks of Lent Each
week one feather is plucked so that only
one remains at Holy Saturday. Then, as
soon as the cannon of Fort Saint Elmo
and the church bells announce the noon
hour and the resurrection of Christ fire.
crackers. which have been tied in long
strings to the orange at the dolls feet are
lighted, and the Quaresima figure eXplodes
amid the cries of the crowd wherein picus
formulae and profane phrases alternate.
The discovery of diamonds in South
Africa led indirectly to deceit by deal
ers, says the Hartford Times. Many of
the South African diamonds have a straw
tint, which has an unfavorable effect
on their price; especially as experts be-
lieve that it will become more decided the
longer the stones are exposed to the air
Some of the dealers discovered that by
subJecting the straw-tinted diamonds to
path of certain acids, the Objectionable
color was removed and the gems became
a pure white. A number of diamonds so
treated were sold in Paris and Berlin, and
brought higher prices than they would
II they had retained their original color.
After exposure to the action of the air
for certain time the original color re-
turns, but by that time they have passed
out OF the dealers hands. The fraud was
soon found out by the trade, and they
now guard against imposition of such
character by means of various tests. OF
these the most generally used are the
hot water bath and friction. If a dyed
stone be left in hot water for a few min
utes, it reassumes its original hue, or if
even on the coat sleeve, its normal color
can be detected. These tests are simple
and efficacious, and are in daily use.
1t has hitherto been the custom OF the
children attending the public schools in
Austria and Hungary to kiss the hands
of the teacher on arrival and departure,
says the New Orleans Picayune. This
has now been forbidden by an order from
the imperial board of education, which
bases its action on the fact that sanitary
investigation has shown that kissing is
unhealthful and should not be practiced,
except when absolutely necessary. This
brings uD very nice point of law to
taollsh When KISSING is absolutely neces-
sary. If the public school teachers of
Austria and Hungary are old and ugly,
it is likely that the scholars will acquiesce
in the new ruling without a murmur. If,
on the other hand, the schoolmarms are
pretty young women, like most of the
New Orleans teachers, then the big boys
IN Austrian schools may keep up the good
old custom of kissing the teacher, and
plead that it was a case when kissing was
absolutely necessary. Science is going too
far anyway, when it finds microbes in
kisses and tries to establish a quarantine
against them. Kissing goes by favor, and
not by law. When the kisser is in love
and the kissee is pretty, it is always a
case of absolute necessity, not amenable
to Austrian or any other kind of laws.
The cochineal is first collected about
the middle of December. The insects are re
moved from the tree with a knife, the edge
of which has been blunted or are careful
ly brushed off with a squirrel tail This la
Dor is performed by the women, who often
sit for hours together beside a single plant.
The insects are usually killed by the appli-
cation of heat; by baking in ovens or by
the heat of the sun When the cochineal
arrives in the market it is in the form of
a small grain having convex and a con-
cave side, but with very little resem-
blance TO the body of an insect. 1t is used
for dyeing crimson and scarlet and for
making carmfne. Cochineal alone yields
purple color, which, when mixed with
solution of tin IN nitro-muriatic acid may
be changed to most beautiful scarlet.
The discovery is said to have been made
in this wise: A man who was making
thermometer placed in his window an ex-
tract of cochineal made with boiling wa
ter and in some way a vial containing nj
tro-muriatic acid was broken over it, This
acid changed the purple dye to a most
beautiful dark red, and by experiments
this man soon found that the tin dissolv-
ed in the acid caused the change of color.
An ingenious dyer at Leyden, Holland,
brought the discovery to perfection. The
secret afterward became known, and a
large dyeing establishment was erected in
Paris. This accident occurred 800 years
ago.
In Burmah, says Langman's Magazine,
there are two ceremonies which mark the
important passage of the borderland be-
tween childhood and womanhood or man
hood. In girls it is the boring of the
ears, and in boys the tattooing of the legs
above the knees. To the ceremony of the
boring of the ears friends and relatives
are invited, and it is made the occasion
of house festival. With the prick of the
needle the little maid of IA is promoted
to the privilege of flirting and love-mak-
ing, and the serious business of life then
begins. A succession of straWs is gradu-
ally inserted into the hole bored till it Is
large enough to admit the tip of the fin
ger, or even larger. In these ugly holes
glass, silver, gold, or jeweled tubes, or
short rods, are worn. In the ears of the
women of the Kachin hills have seen
rods of silver worn six inches long and
an inch in diameter; and it is not I'M
usual to see a woman when travelling place
her cheroot or railway ticket into the
gaping hole in the lobe of the ear. Every
Burmese man is tattooed from the waist
to just below the knee. The colors are
indigo blue and dark red and the SUP
jects lions. tigers, etc. The operation Is
very painful, so that these ornamentai
skin brooches are tattooed gradually, the
boy being at the time placed under the
influence of opium. A Burman would con-
slider it to be a sign of unmanliness nos