The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-30
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

-hltherto gutta-percha has generally
been obtained by cutting down tree, but
it has been discovered that less ruinous
| method may be used by taking the pre-
clous nuid from the leaves instead of from
| the tree trunk.
/ The hottest city in the world is Calcut-
| ia, where the mean annual temperature is
S24, says an exchange. The coolest inhab-
| tied place in the world is Tobolsl, Russia
| Wnere there is a mean annual temperature
| OF 81. The average temperature of St Pc
| tersburg is 1916, and of Moscow 49,
The Prince of Monaco, on a recent tour
on his yacht, discovered at the Azores a
submarine bank or reef thirty-fve miles in
circumference with depth of water above
| it not exceeding 600 feet. The reef is situat-
ed about seventy-five miles south Of the
| islands. The Azores are generally sur
rounded by great ocean depths from 5000 to
5000 feet. The islanders expect to use the
reef extensively as a profitable fishing
ground.
The Burlington Railway Company has
begun the publication of daily newspaper
upon its passenger trains, says the Phila-
delphla Record. Copies of the paper are
distributed through the entire territory
traversed by the company's trains. The
primary object of this new venture in the
| publishing business 1t to advertise the
road and the country through which it
| passes. 1t will also contain brief tele-
grams from one of the press associations,
giving the principal events of each day in
| outline
-Militarism in Austria keeps dueling
alive, inspite of the fact that as far back
| as 1870 Emperor Josef II. denounced in
writing the Austrian system of duelling as
a barbarous practice, suited only for the
| days of Tamerlane," says an exchange.
| Nevertheless, the war minister himself
| supports the custom and from Hungary
| came the tale a short time ago of a re-
serve military officer being deprived of his
| commission because he arranged with his
| antagonist, with whom he had already
made peace, to place no bullets in the pis-
| tots with which public sentiment made
| them fight. In the minds of the continental
| military men offended honor can be aveng-
| ed only by the duel, and such a widespread
| sentiment frequently drives men who have
| previously settled their difficulty to meet
| on the field of honor. Even cadets and vol
unteers,' in their teens, are sometimes
| driven to arrange their schoolboy uuarrels
| by fight to the death.
"A new way of constructing solid foun-
dations for tall building has been tried
with success in Berlin, says New Ideas
| 1t was necessary to find a solid base suf-
| iciently strong to carry building weigh
| ing more than 10000 tons The plot of
ground upon which the building was to
stand was adjoined on both sides by high
! buildings which rendered unsafe the dig
! ging to any depth for foundation. The
only way out of the difficulty was the
sinking of a caisson in the center of the
plot, upon the cemented top of which
hollow form of cement was built. Into
this form molten iron was poured, filling
up the space, and upon this cast iron foun-
dalton plate the understructure of the
building now rests, while the side walls
are supported by a cantilever structure.
The full weight of the load upon the cast
iron foundation is estimated at more than
10000 tons.
Shoppers are curious at best. says the
Chicago. Post. State and Washington
| streets were crowded to-day, when a boy
| passed Marshall Fields, store carrying a
jug filled with muriatic acid When he
reached a point on the sidewalk in front
OF the Washington street entrance he
dropped the jug and the burning acid
spread over the stone sidewalk. The boy
stopped but a second to contemplate the
damage he had DONE and then. fearful of
the consequences took to his heels The
sidewalk was covered with the acid, and
it took the united efforts of two policemen
and half dozen floor walkers TO keep the
curious women who passed from putting
their feet into the puddle of burning acid
just to see what it would do. Finally sew
eral porters from the store covered the
place with dirt and then swept the stuff
into the gutter, where it was covered with
water until the acid had lost it's burning
tendencies.
The announcement that arsenic is en-
ployed in the colored wrappers in which
| cigarettes are sold will hardly be received
with feelings of satisfaction by those who
are in the habit of indulging in this par
ticular form of smoking, says the British
Medical Journal. That arsenic is con-
tanned in wall papers, in the bindings of
our books, in advertisement cards, and in
many articles of daily domestic use is Well
known, but that it should contaminate our
cigarettes is much more serious matter
We have long been accustomed to receive
colored photograph or some similar in
considerable trifie with our purchases, but
that in addition we should be presented
with an appreciable quantity of an active
poison certainly exceeds our expectations
1t is true that the arsenic is confined TO
the case or colored wrapper but if has
been found, eXperimentally, that it read
lily rubs off on the fingers especially when
moist, and that from them it is equally
readily conveyed to the cigarettes them
selves. Arsenic, when inhaled in even
small quantities, gives rise to chronic
cough, splitting of blood, progressive loss
Of flesh, and other symptoms which we
are accustomed to associate with the early
stages of consumption. DIR. MurreU as
the result of the examina tion of a large
number OF specimens both of cigarettes
and tobacco, reports that arsenic is pres
ent in more than third of the brands in
common use. 1t is by no means confined
TO the cheaper specimens, but is met WITH
even in high-class cigarettes. In Germany
and other countries the use of arsenic Nv
paper manufacturers is prohibited, ana il
seems desirable that some restriction
should be placed on it's employment Nv
British and American. ~
The largest market in the world is in
the city of Kano, and it is attended bv 25
600 to $4,000 persons daily says the New
who never heard of Kano, which Is he |
principal town in the Land of the Hausa
IN case there should be anybody so igno- |
ranl as nor TO know where Hausaland is. I |
VIII explain further that it is the vast re-
glon south of the Great Sahara and north |
OF the equator and stretching from tha