The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-08
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

mas neen little sale Tor IT, ana N most
cases the shippers and dealers have lost
money on il.
French papers announce the offer for
sale OF the library OF Renan. The library
is divided into two parts, the first in
clucing the oriental library, to whose
collection Renan paid great attention, and
containing books on the philOlOgy and his
tory OF the oriental languages. The second
part contains books on philology classi-
cal studies, the middle ages, etc Renan
himself expressed q desire that the IL
brary. in case ii should be sold, should
be disposed of in a block or al least that
the books in the oriental part be kept to-
gether; but unless an offer IS received by
jan /, 1886, the books viii be sold sepa-
rately.
Persons struck by lightning have had
small holes drilled in the skull. but other
wise they were not marked. Victims have
been horribly burned and even dismem-
bered, says Public Opinion. A stroke of
lightning has cut or mans ear, or
shaved his hair and beard clean. and not
hurt him IN any other way. the mark
lngs are OFTEN curious Blue is the COM
mon color, but they have been red, green
and black, and occasionally the whole
body turns black. Negroes who have been
struck by lightning have had their skin
bleached in spots to absolute whiteness.
One negro struck by lightning found, af-
ter he had recovered consciousness, that
he had one completely white arm, the
rest of his body being as black as usual.
Blindness, deafness and either total or
partial paralysis are frequent conse-
quences OF lightning strokes. sometimes
the lightning selects a single object on a
mans person, and aSsails that without
apparently touching the man himself
Coins have been melted until they stuck
together in a mans pocket, while he SUI
fered TO i'll consequences. Keys, watches
and watch chains. metal cartridges and
eye-glass frames have been more or less
damaged while the persons wearing them
were almost uninjured. Clothing, too, has
been almost demolished without injury TO
tie IrftV hn .
out of shoes, and rubber boots destroyed
frequently. The brass eyelets were once
torn out of a mans shoes, but he hardly
felt the shock
1t is generally supposed, says the
Westminster Budget, that ratskins are
used in gloye-making, but the skin is
too thin and fragile; the thing has been
done once or twice. as in making SILK from
spiders webs, but more as curiosity
than an article OF trade. In an old news
paper we read that IAN ingenious indl-
vidual of Lskeard, Cornwall has Tor
some time past been exhibiting himself
in a dress composed from top to toe of
ratskins; ii consists of hat, neckerchief,
coat, waistcoat, trousers, tippet, CATERS
and shoes. The number of rats required
to complete the suit was $40, and the indf-
vidual, when thus dressed, appears exact
ly like one of the Esqumaux described in
the travels of Parry and Ross. The tip
pet or boa is composed of the pieces OF
skin Immediately round the tails of the
rats, and is a very curious part or the
dress, containing about 900 tails, and those
none of the shortest" Several thousand
ratskins We're at one time imported from
France, but our manufacturers found
them too small and too fine in texture. 1t
is not to be supposed, however, that rats
are useless; though they look so clean and
sleek, they destroy for us an immense
quantity of offal which would otherwise
be very dangerous to health. Yet there
are few animals so generally unpopular as
the rat. The dislike is not reciprOcated, for
wherever man settles there appears
There thousands
in the, camp before Sepastopol, and a rat
hunt in the trenches was one of the few
| diversions the campaign afforded.
The difference in the formation of Arc
tic and Antarctic ice, as is well known is
very great, says writer in the Century.
| While the northern bergs mostly consist
| of large ice-mass running up into num-
| berless towers and arches resembling the
mountain peaks which surround the gla-
| ciers from which they are torn, the Ant
| arctic bergs are solid masses Of floating
| ice, with perpendicular walls, and an I'M
! broken plateau on the top. All showed
| distinctly whether they were broken from
| the glaciers of Victoria Land. All the bar
rler bergS had very distinct blue lines
across their walls, indicating the annual
| growth OF SNOWFALL. These lines were, of
! course, not to be found on the glacier
| ice. The latter also showed more like
| ness to the northern ice than did the
| former. The peaks and towers Of the
| Arctic 1cebergs are supposed to be formed
| by the influence of the ocean currents
| wearing away the softer part of the ice
| mass under water until the natural law
! of graVitation forces it to upset But
| why have the Antarctic icebergs a diff
| terent appearance? 1t is certain that in
| the Antarctic waters there are also cur
| rents. Yet even icebergs that have gone
| as far north as the south of New Zealand
nave az maintained the marks of their
| Antarctic origin l cannot see any other
| reason for this dissimilarity between the
| bergs of the north and those of the south
| but that the Arctic icebergs as a rUle
| must pass through climes which in tenn,
| perature rapidly change from one ex-
| IRENE to another, and the ieebergs take
| much longer time in floating southwark
| than do the Antarctic icebergs in advance
! ing northward, and thus as a rule the
northern icebergs exist much longer than
| those of the Antarctic.
The general public knows little or
nothing about the details of the labora-
tory of an encyclopedia writer. the seem
| ingly infinite minutiae that must be kent
| perfectly in hand and instantly accessi-
| BILE, says Current Literature A visit to
the, home of George J. Hagar of Forest
| Workroom is treasure house of classi-
| ned informations. 1t contains over 800
600 clippings from books, newspapers.
ana magazines going back a quarter of
| a century, probably the largest of its
| kind IN the United States. From day to
| day Mr.. Hagar has faithfully marked,
dated ana clipped from all sources items
/ OF men of the times, political questions
| statistics, notes of new inVenfiOnszin
formation on every possible subject. No
| shred OF matter can be so insignificant
as to escape him. All this material is
! classified and put into envelopes mark
| ed on the outside and arranged in al
| phabetic order in boxes. At a moments
| notice Mr.. Hagar can get from his treas
| ures the record of any subject in which
| he is interested. If it be the life of some
man who suddenly comes before the eve
of the public, the envelope will reveal
| clippings from papers years before. when
| his work attracted but feeble recognj-
! uon-an account of one of his speeches
! his change of residence, some promotion
| links that, carefully put together from
a complete chain of his life history. Thou
| sands of portraits, equally well arranged.
| are supplemented by files of records re,
ports from foreign, federal, state and
! consular, sets of encyclopedias, year
| books and other valuable reference books
brief article of two or three hundred
| words, in an encyclopaedia, NAV reDre
sent twenty threads of fact from as many
different sources woven into a complete
fabric.
Awarded