The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-04
ITEMS OF INTEREST,".

Mile. Conedon, the Paris young wo-
man who is in communication with the
angel Gabriel, has moved into Belgium
where the Bishop of Liege has given her
his benediction.
The gas which smothered four people
in Minnesota potato pit was not fire
damp" as the dispatch called it, says the
Philadelphia Ledger. but choke damp"
the deadly after-effect of fire-damp ex-
plosion in coal mines. A coal fire had
been built in the pit and it generated car
bonic acid gas, which the miners call
choke damp. This gas is heavier than
common air and would naturally collect
at the bottom of the pit, there being no
draft to carry it off. A person falling
into it has far less chance of life than
If he fell into the water, for the gas acts
almost instantaneously, and many in
stances are on record in which men who
knew their danger and merely stopped
from position of safety to raise a fallen
comrade were stricken down before they
could raise their heads again. 1t is in
visible and inodorous and cannot be de-
tected by observation; but had the Min
nesota farmer known as much as he
should about the effect of coal fire he
would have lowered candle into his po-
tato pit before venturing down himself.
The candle would have been extinguished
against
a death-trap.
Sir Francis Cation has worked out,
for an English magazine an ingenious
signal code by which communication can
be established between ourselves and our
neighboring planet providing that the
reported signals from Mars prove to have
any existence. Sir Francis does not vouch
for this, but he is quoted as authority for
the report that in one of the European
obserVatorieS an apparatus has been de
Vised for recording the Marian flashes
and that the record shows that three sig
mails and no more are made, and that they
differ, as all fiash-light signals do, in the
length of the flashes and of the intervals
between, so that if we had the key they
might be read like Geographic messages.
OF course this, comments Harper's Week
ly, is not a yarn to be swallowed whole,
but the association of the name of Sir
Francis Cation with it is enough to enti-
tie it to consideration. There seems to be
no intrinsic impossibility of our having
relations with people in Mars. 1t sounds
preposterous, of course, but, like other
marvels, it seems preposterous chiefly be-
cause it is unusual We have to nudge
ourselves from time to time in this age of
swift surprise, and remind ourselves that
nothing that is new to us can possibly be
more marvellous than many things that
Here is a little domestic science di-
rected toward the care of lamps from a
Boston paper. Burners should be boiled
in soda and water every few weeks and
dried before the fire. The wicks of lamps
will absorb more oil if they are thorough
ly dried before putting them in the burn
ers. To prevent the lamp from smoking
soak the wick in vinegar and then dry
thoroughly. Occasionally washing and
boiling wicks in soap and water, rims
ing and drying thoroughly, is also a good
plan. Every day the charred portion
should be rubbed off with a piece of pa
per or cloth and once a week the edge
of the wick should be trimmed with a pair
of sharp scissors. The wick will burn
with an even flame if it be cut straight
across and slightly rounded at the sides
The reservoir of a lamp should be kept
well filled, but when not in use the wick
should be turned down to keep the oil
from oozing up between burner and col
lar, greasing the outside and causing a
disagreeable odor. When a lamp is light
ed, however, it is best to keep the wick
turned up to it's fun extent to prevent
smoking. To render lamp chimneys less
likely to crack they should be put in cold
water, which must be brought to the boil
ing point, after which they should be al
lowed to cool slowly without removing
from the water. Wash the chimneys in
ammonia water and wipe dry on soft tow
els that are free from lint; polish with
tissue or newspaper. Rub brown spots
with salt or whiting.
The behavior of our common evening
primrose at he opening of the flowers,
says the New York Independent, has been
a puzzle for century. Toward evening
the petals expand with suddenness that
is surprising, and the exterior envelop,
the Calyx, not only expands, but recurves
on the capsule and flower stalk. 1t has
hitherto been referred to the generation
of heat within the inclosed petals. 1t has
been demonstrated that in many flowers
there is rapid rise in the temperature
just before expansion. This has been a
matter of actual experiment in
the case of the arum fam
lily and among palms. Their
mometers have been INSERTED in the
unopened spathes, and the facts well as
certained. There are no recorded expert
ments on the evening primrose; but it is
assumed that the increased temperature
is here as well as in the other case. But
the careful scientific man has been 10th
to accept mere assumption, and NJ. RoZe
has been again over the matter and has
recently given his conclusion in the Bull
letin of the Botanical Society of France
He ignores now the theory of expansion
ton of moisture expanding within the in
closed petals proportionate to the amount
of heat the plant was under during the
day. There does not seem TO be much diff
ference between the two notions, except
that the extra dry heat is supposed to be
absorbed from the outside instead of be-
ing generated within. So far as the act
itself is concerned, the internal heat would
undoubtedly tend to vaporiZe whatever
might be inside the enclosure and it would
take a nice experiment to decide in this
case whether the heat or the moisture
was the leading factor. But neither spec
ulation accounts for the recurring of the
sepais.
-Iconoclastic Boston has decided, says
the New York Times, that, if there ever
was a Mother Goose with poetical talents
which isn't likely-she was not the
Mother Goose buried in that city and
whose grave has for years been haunted
by sentimental, patriotic and more or less
literary visitors from all parts of The
country. 1t seems that the respectable
Mrs. Elizabeth Goose, whom legend cred
its with the composition of all those
Sprightly lyrics in which for no very