The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-30
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Says the San Francisco Argonaut: The
administrators of the estate of the late
James g. Fair found it necessary a few
days ago TO bring from New York to
this city some four million dollars In
bonds. As the charges demanded by
Wells, Fargo & Co. for performing this
service amounted TO nearly 5000, the
executors thought they could get the
NaIuaDleS here more safely : them
selves. Accordingly they had the bonds
packed in. three dress-suit cases, Is inches
long, IA inches wide and inches thick, a
size admitting the bonds being packed in
them without folding When filed they
weighed about 40 pounds each, and, Sc
curely locked and strapped, they We're
brought overland by the agent of Senator
Fairs children and an enploye of the eX-
ecutors A rule of the Wagner Car Com
pany permitting only small hand baggage
TO be allowed IN the draWlng-room cars
of the New York Central, had to be bro
ken in favor of the precious dress-suit
cases.
DIR. John S. Billings, in regard to an in
vestigaton made in Iowa as to the infec-
ton carried by books, says it was found
that six cases of scarlet fever were un-
doubtedly communicated through circulate
ing library books Other diseases may be
transmitted in the same way In order to
prevent the possibility of infection, the
bacteria investing a large number of vol
umeS must be destroyed. Two hundred end
ten degrees of dry heat would suffice for
this. but ii would curl the leaves and dry
up the bindings. Much less should the same
temperature of moist heat be employed A
solution of corrosive sublimate or zinc
chloride is Objectionable, and the fumes of
burning sulphur are both inadequate and
undesirable. DIR. Billings recommends for
maine, which is an active destroyer of
bacteria. This can be purchased in a drug
store, or made by burning methyl alcohol.
saucer of formaline, a book which had
been infected with the bacteria of diph-
liberia, another with scarlet fever, and an
other with erysipelas, were placed under
a bell jar. The experiment showed what
one cubic centimeter of formaline to 300
CUBIC centimeterS of space would thor
oughly disinfect any book in fifteen min
utes.
In 1872 Mr.. w. Bancroft Espent import
! ed four pairs of the Indian mongoose from
Calcutta into Jamaica for the purpose of
destroying the "cane-piece rat" Ten
years later, says Nature, it was estimated
mat the saving to the colony through the
work of this animal amounted to 100000
annually. Then came sudden change in
the aspect of affairs 1t was found that
the mongooSe destroyed all ground nesting
birds and that the poultry, as we'll as the
InSectiVorouS reptiles and ba trachianS of
the island were being eXterminated by
II. luxurious insects increased IN cohse-
quence thousand fold; the temporary
benefits of the Introduction were speedily
wiped away and the mOngOoSe became a
pest. Domestic animals, including young
pigs, kids, lambs, newly-dropped calves
puppies and kittens, were destroyed by
1t, while it also ate ripe bananas, pine
apples, young corn, AVOCADO pears, sweet
potatoes cocoas, vans, peas, sugar cane
meat and salt provisions and fish. Now
we are told, nature has made another
effort to restore the balance. With the in
crease of insects, due to the destruction
by the mongoose of their destroyers has
come an increase of ticks, which are de-
stroying the mongoose, and all ia
maicans rejoice.
An active campaign is being carried on,
says the st. Louis Globe-Democrat, by a
A.
use of the feathers of any birds for orna-
mentatiOn, except those of the ostrich and
domestic fowls Gncluding game birds), to
discourage the destruction of birds and
their eggs; and the influencing of Iegisla-
ton to have one day set apart in the year
as Bird day" which, in many cases. it
may be deemed expedient to combine with
ArbOr day. The snowy heron, egret,
has almost entirely disappeared from the
southern states because of the war Waged
on it by the plume hunters. This bird fur
nlShed the 'aigretteS," so much used in
opera hats, bonnets, and in wedding dress.
The heron wears this plumage only in the
nesting season, and his destruction means
the certain determination of the entire
brood through starvation. w. butcher does
not hesitate to put the entire blame on wo-
men. He notes the curious and inconsist-
ent experience in visiting a church or a
| lecture room where a philanthropic subject
| is being expounded, that the most sympa-
thetic part of the audience consists of
women, while at the same time their hats
are decorated with plumes and feathers
that could only have been obtained by acts
| of the greatest cruelty. Mr.. butcher says:
The salvation of the widl birds of beauti-
full plumage rests solely in womans
hands" School influence also. might be
most effectually invoked against the ex-
| termination of birds.
The achievement has often been refer
red to of the carrying of steamboats, on
| the backs of men, says Harper's Round
| Table. The expression is not quite accu-
ia o q or f~asy nd
from infancy to carry burdens on their
heads. When a European on the lower
Congo sent his black boy to a store to buy
some cigarettes, he was surprised to see
the servant return with the tiny package
on his head. When a Congo woman has
smoked her much-loved pipe, the treasure
| is likely to repose on her head until she
again requires 1t, and If her husband, I'M
| fortunately, has been able to procure
bottle of rum, he walks home with it
nicely balanced on his head, throwing
stones at the stray dogs and cats in his
way without the slightest idea that he is
really an expert equilibrist Most of the
many thousands of pieces of steamboats,
We're carried on the heads and not on the
backs of the men. The $4,000 natives of
the Lower Congo who have been carrying
these steamboats, and all other freight
around the cataracts are the very men
who could not be induced, eighteen years
ago, to give a helping hand to Mr. Stanley
He wished to carry 1880 man loads and
he had only 1870 Zanzibar and Loango por-
tiers for the work. Some of the natives
WOulu sell MIN a niue OF their Time but
they would not carry his goods more than
two or three miles beyond their homes
Stanley's failure to secure the carriers he
needed along the river delayed his work
on the Upper Congo for more than year.
and the labor question was the most per-
picking problem with which he had to
deal. He brought his carriers thousands
of miles from Zanzibar and other coasts
of Africa.
DIR. r. E. Tomlin, life Insurance ex-
aminer of long experience, according to
the st. Louis Globe-Democrat, has called
attention to a new class of risks which is
giving life insurance companies some anx-
iety, viz, riders of the wheel What he
| has to say on this subject is valuable as a
note of warning against the abuse of a
healthful exercise. Bicycling i'm modera-
ton is a splendid exercise, beneficial to
people of every vocation; but excessive in
diligence in the use of the wheel is con
| duciVe to heart and lung diseases and
shortens the span of life. Young men aud
men of middle age Immediately after bicy-
Gle exercise show a great increase in the
pulse, an irregularity in its rhythm a ire
mendous condition of the whole body and
murmur of the heart, which continues for
considerable period. A chronic dilatation
may be the result of too much wheeling
There is also danger, in case of tuberculo-
aa