The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-11
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

the twenty-hfth anniversary of its grad
uation this year by presenting a $500
clock for the tower of Memorial hall. The
gift is especially appropriate as practi-
cally all college men know the value of
time" in making their purchases.
Interesting results of an investigation
of the effect produced by a railroad train
on the air through which it moves were
presented at a recent meeting of the ST.
Louis Acanedy of Science by Prof. F. e.
Niper. 1t appears that motion is commu-
nicated TO the atmosphere many feet
away, so that a large amount of air is
dragged along with the train. A peculiar
danger arises near a swift-running train
from the tendency of the moving air to
topple person over, and at the same time
to communicate a motion of rotation to
the body, which may cause it to roll under
the train.
The department Of agriculture, through
the division of entomology, has investi-
gated the rumor that spider raising is
quite an industry in certain districts of
France and in Pennsylvania, and reports
that this is actually the case, says the Phil
adelphia Record The chief use of the
spiders is to produce cobwebs, and the
principal use of the cobwebs is to begrime
wine bottles and defraud the buyer into
believing that the cobwebs are an indica-
ton of the age of the wine. The species
raised are epeira Vulgaris and nephila plu-
mipes. They retail for $40 per hundred
and are used to stock wine cellars where
they are introduced.
English investors have had a sorry ex-
perience with f1ashy "Kaffir" speculations,
says the Philadelphia American. An Off
cial statement has been made showing
the shrinkage of gold mine share values
during the past eighteen months in forty
one of the leading companies. AT the pc
riOd of greatest imitation these companies
shares had a maximum market valuation
in round numbers of 500, 900 900, but to-day
they are only worth $2l5,000,O00 a loss of
about % per cent Turning now to eXplo-
ration and finance companies, the decline
is even more marked The shares of the
four principal companies were worth in
1895 $1S3 100000, and this year only $4S 500 0O0
The political outlook is dead against. any
substantial improvement for a year to
come, al least. We have not by any
means arrived at the end of Transvaal
complications, nor even at the halfway
house.
-Apropos of the recent talk about an
airship, Arthur T. Nettleton of New Mil
ford. Conn, writes to the Newtown
Comm Bee. saying that history of Con-
necticut, published in London in 1881
Connecticut in 1916. The people of New
Haven had sent a ship to England that
year to procure patent for the colony
and a charter for the city. Some time
after the vessel sailed a storm arose, and
a day of prayer and fasting was observed
in the hope that the safety of the ship
would thereby be insured. At the close
of the day the people looked up in the
sky and saw their ship under full SAIL
and the sailors steering her from west to
east. She came over the meeting where
they had tasted and prayed, and then was
met by a Euroclydon, which rent the sails
and overset the ship; in few moments
she fell down near the weathercock on the
steeple and instantly vanished. The peo-
pie all returned TO the meeting, where the
minister gave thanks to God for answer
ing the desires of his servants, and for
giving them an infallible token of the
loss of their ship and charter.
The bicycle hand is again heard of. this
time in Connecticut, says the New York
Sun. Miss Mary Mccarthy, an expert
wheelwoman of Seymour, is reported to
have suffered severely from the malady
one hand being greatly swollen and the
| fingers doubled under. The trouble be-
came so bad that a doctor was called. He
| found it necessary to sever a muscle be-
tween the thumb and fore finger in order
to restore the hands usefulness. Last
| year the bicycle hand caused a good deal
| of inquiry among New York wheelmen.
| Riders were found who complained of
numbness of their fingers, and pain at
| times The affection usually lasted only
| a few hours, but, in some instances it
! was of several days duration. A professor
| of nervous diseases attributed the unnatu-
| raj condition of the hands to the improper
| methods of holding the handle bar. 1T is
| possible" said the specialist, "to produce
| true paralysis by gripping the handle bar
| of a bicycle unduly for a long time; and by
! doing so any ones fingers are liable to
| become insensible to the touch. Numb
| ness, however, is the only disorder of the
| hands / have ever heard of as resulting
! from the wheel" 1t should be said that
| the worst cases of bicycle hand" that
| have come to light do not seem to belong
to new riders, who are naturally ignorant
! concerning the details of wheeling. The
| most serious example of the sort heard
| of last year was afforded by a wheelman
| of five years experience. If cyclists will
remember that the handle bar should be
! held lightly, and not gripped like grim
| death, the case in Seymour may be made
| the last. as well as the first, of the year.
| The bicycle hand is not a necessary con-
| sequence of cycling.
Grant Allen enlarges on the modern
discovery that the soil itself-the layer Of
soft mold which clothes the surface of
the earth in all cultivable districts, and
| from which vegetation springs-is actually
in great part a living layer a confused
| mass of tiny plants and animals says the
| New York Commercial Advertiser. In
| short while the air Is an ocean of floating
| germs, each inch of soil Is a teeming col
| ony of microscopic organisms. We think
| of the soil as dead, as mere mineral mat
| ter; and, of course. 1t is true that it's sub
| stratum is composed of the worn debris
| of rocks, and that many grains of sand,
which, under lens, look like miniature
rocks and powders, are freely scattered
through its vital portion Still, the truth
remains that the soil. as a whole, and es-
pecially that part of 1t which is of impor-
lance to agriculture and to plant life In
| general, consists of a vast completely of
| living organisms huge anthea43 so to
| speak; subterranean forest Of molds and
mildews. 1t is made up for the most part
| OF matter which has once been alive and
| Is now more or less dead. yet infinitely in
| terramihed and devoured by countless
| myriads of small carrion-eating plants and
| tiny animals Earthworms may nlav an