The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-23
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

WIN green cross was its companion.
Some years after Columbus landed at
San Salvador the Cabots planted the ban
ner of England and of st. Marks of Ven
Ice on the eastern shore of North Amer
lea. In the 400 years that have interviewed
since variety of national flags have
waved where now only the Stars and
Stripes is the accepted emblem Over
Texas have hoated the French, Spanish
English, American and confederate in
Louisiana, the Lilies of France, the Span
ish flag, the Tricolor, the American and
confederate flags; in California, Spanish,
Mexican, Russian and American.
In England there is a cellar full of
wines of the choicest vintages, which bid
fair to spoil for temperance sake Years
ago, by the will of Sir Walter Trevelyan
| of northumberland, England, that
knights famous wine cellar became the
| property of Sir Benjamin Richardson, the
| head of the Temperance hospital, in Lon
| don. But the will enjoined Sir BENJAMIN
| from using the wine for other than "sci-
| entitic purposes" Convinced that none of
the wine in all the sixty dozen famous
| vintages in the cellar could be used for
| the purpose specified, Sir Benjamin did
not draw the cork of a single bottle At
| his death recently his widow became the
| possessor of the valuable cellar but she,
| too, is forbidden to use it except in the
| interest of science. She cannot, under the
| will, sell the now famous wines, even to
| donate the proceeds to the cause of tenn
| perance. To store the many bottles year
| after year is expensive, and yet there
| seems to be but one other course-to de-
| stroyi
One of the most important branches in
the study of anthropoogy and ethnog-
| raphy, says an exchange is doubtlessly
| the measuring of skulls, and while 1t is
| To chr or da a.
Is by no means a simple matter to obtain
| the exact inside cubic measurement of
| skull. The methods usually resorted to
| before this were the filing of the skull
| with leaden shot or whole peas, the con-
| tents being afterwards weighed to fur
nish comparative estimates. In the De-
cember meeting of the Berlin Anthropo-
| logical Society, Prof. w. Krause intro
| duced new system for measuring the
| contents of skulls, invented by a medi-
cal student of the Berlin University, NJ.
| Poll which is easier, quicker and withal
more reliable than the older methods.
| Poll introduces into the skull a rubber
bag of very fine material, which he fills
with water. OF course this rubber bag
| fills out every nook and crevice of the
| skull, and it is an easy matter to measure
| the cubic dimensions afterward by with
! drawing the filled bag from the skull, in
| sorting it into a graduated vessel and read
cult finding of the skull capacity is there
| by converted into an operation which can
be performed by anybody,
Some time ago the Pittsburg Post had
a story about railroad man who jumped
into the frebox of dead engine to es-
! cape the dangers of a collision and came
| out of the wreck without a scratch, says
the Boston Herald. iAs sequel to that
story the fact that Travelling Engineer
| Dunbar of the Baldwin locomotive works
| used the fireboXes of new engines to sleep
in has recently been made known. In his
recent trip over the Baltimore and Ohio
| with number of new engines for the
| Louisville and Nashville, Mr.. Dunbar had
with him small couch and plenty of
blankets, and when night came he first
| tried all the journals to see that they were
| not running hot and then placed his cot
in the capacious firebox of one of the
| big engines, and, covering himself I'D,
| slept with as much, if not more, security
than he would have in a Pullman car. In
| case of a derailment or collision, beyond
a severe shaking up, he could not be very
badly hurt, because the frebox and the
boiler would protect him, even if fifty
cars should be dumped over his resting
| place, and only a conflagration could cause
his death. Mr.. Dunbar is one of the old
est and most reliable travelling engineers
in the employ of the Baldwin locomotive
| all parts of the world.
The Brussels correspondent of the
| Pail Mall Gazette writes: "a startling
case of somnambulism, which might have
been attended with the most horrible re-
| suit, has just occurred at a religious ed
| ucational establishment in this city. 1t
| IS the custom of the establishment for
the fathers to make the rounds of the
dormitores at intervals during the night.
Toward l o'clock in the morning, after
| holiday and festivities, one of the older
pupils was noticed walking about clad only
in his undershirt. Following him, the
| father on duty discovered that he had in
his mouth long, very sharp kitchen
| knife, while he was occupied in passing
his hand across the throat of one of the
| sleeping pupils. From his manner it was
| evident that he was fast asleep. The
| father woke the lad and called his col
| leagues, who witnessed the walking of
| the somnambulist, who was put to bed
| in a high fever. From inquiries made it
| appears that the youth, who is 10 years old,
| is the son of a butcher at Bruges. He
| says he dreamed that he entered into his
| fathers business and that he went into
| the kitchen, which was long way from
| the dormitory, for a knife with which
| he wanted to kill the pigs. The proceed
| ings have created the greatest excitement
among the boys. who SO nearly lost their
hNCSs hG DuNSuEI SOU mas DeGn sent
home, and some of the parents of other
pupils have been so frightened that they
have declared they will never send their
children to boarding school of any de-
scription again"
One of the most valuable interesting
pieces of furniture in Philadelphia is
owned by DR.. Roland G.. Curtin, and has
place of honor in his Office at % South
Eighteenth street. says the Philadelphia
| Times. 1t is Benjamin Frankln's desk.
the very one he used for twenty or more
years and at which he did most of his
writing, and in which he kept most Of his
papers. 1t is big and broad, with a Hat
top and two tiers of ample English oak
drawers and two drawers in the middle.
| There are two fronts, making both sides
alike. The wood is the finest solid mahog-
any, the brass work is hand made and the
desk was evidently intended to last for
generations. A great stack Of letters oni
old newspaper clippings tell the story of
the desk After the death of Dr. Franklin
it came into the possession of the well
known Philadelphia exchange brokers.
One letter is very curious. 1t is from Rev.