The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-20
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The first muffs were made for the use
Of doctors 10 keep their fingers soft ana
warm that they might carefully feel the
pulse Of their patients.
1t Is estimated that the total length Of
the worlds telegraph lines has now reach
ed 4.S)s. SO miles. exclusive Of Isl, 40 miles
of submarine cable. This mileage Is di-
v!ded as follows America, 2,516, SIS miles;
Europe, 1.7e4,7s0 miles; Asia, 80. SIS miles;
Australia, 217, 499 miles; Africa, SO, 419
miles. According 10 these figures, Amer
lea almost doubles Europe
-Kepler. the famous astronomer, an ex-
act scholar and brilliant mathematician,
was obliged by the pinch Of hunger TO
take UP with prophecy, after the manner
Of Nostradamus, the physician and seer
to Catherine de Medicis. In a letter 10
a friend Kepler admitted that his peeps
into futurity were nothing but worthless
conjectures." Yet he was forced to ap
peal to the level of his age, otherwise he
must have starved. THE scanty rewards
of an astronomer" said he would no;
provide me with bread, if men did not
entertain hopes of reading the future in
the heavens" Since the bad old days,
however, astronomy has succeeded in OBJ
tanning divorce from astrology and prac-
deal philosophers no longer advertise
themselves as OWNERS Of dreams.
John Bull never wearies of the taste
of game In addition to the carefully
preserved home product the world is ram
sacked for birds to ticket the British
palate. American broiers, Asiatic pleas
ant, Austrian turkeys and Russian part
ridges are all devoured and still the lion
roars for more. Pheasants from Afghan.
istan have sold as high as $50 each, and
10000 larks alone are sold at one Lon
Ion bot a,vlrr dc Of hon
sands of frozen rabbits are imported
from Australia, and Russian game is
now transported from St. Petersburg to
Leadenhall marked at a cheaper rate per
ton than English fowls can be brought
from Horsham TO London. Another enOr
nous game area will be opened up by the
completion of the Siberian railway, and
| its products viii compete with the frozen
phea SAINTS and other game which are reg
| ularly brought to London from Picking.
The practice of the economies in the
fruit-raising sections of the west has de-
veloped a new article OF export, says the
| St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Until recent
! ly the orchard owners and the evaporat-
or managers did not think of utilizing the
/ cores and parings of apples. They oc-
casionaNy sold them to the jelly-makers
! or fed them to the hogs, but more gener-
| ally allowed them to accumulate as refuse
/ IN great heaps which slowly fermented
and decayed. This year, in many places,
| the parings and the cores are being saved.
| They are spread out in the hot sun and
| dried, after which they are packed in
| large sacks and held for buyers who
! gather them up and send away in car
! lots The destination of the dried par
| ings and cores in these large quantities
! is France. 1t is no secret that the refuse
| of the orchards of the Missouri valley and
/ the Ozark country is now largely en-
| ployed in the manufacture of champagne
| by the thrifty wine-makers of the Yineclad
slopes of France.
Another method of rendering wood fire
proof has been developed in England. For
purposes Of test, two buildings about elev-
| en- feet square and thirty feet in hight
| were set up, similar in all respects, ex-
| cept that one was of Urea ted timber.
| and the other of ordinary timber, each
being also furnished with chimney for
| the purpose of creating a strong draft and
| facilitating combustion. Outside of these
| houses on the windward firewood and
| shavings were piled, which were set on
| fire simultaneously; in five. minutes the
| building, composed of ordinary timber,
| was Completely on fire, and in about half
| an hour was reduced to ashes while the
| other structure remained intact, save for
the charring of the woodwork on the side
| exposed to the direct action of the flames.
| A further test had meanwhile been APP
! piled by lighting a pile of shavings and
fagots inside but again the effect was
merely to char the wood. which did not
break into flame; box made of the treat
ed wood, and which had been placed in
the midst of the ignited material was aft
erward drawn out, practically uninjured.
There is a novel little convenience in
most of the German railway stations
rx-ht 10, oh he odn hsr tba
of the United states, says a Berlin letter
in the Chicago Record. Passengers for
suburban stations, instead of going TO the
regular ticket Office and standing in line
for several minutes. sometimes so long
that they miss their train can go to an
automatic box, and by dropping a nickel
in the slot or a coin equivalent to the
amount of the fare, can supply themselves
with a ticket in an instant. There are
rows of these boxes erected against the
wall in convenient locations The name
of the town is painted i'm large letters,
and underneath the price of the ticket.
If it happens to be a mark, you slip the
coin into the slot and press the button,
and a cardboard ticket falls into the re-
| ceiver, which the passenger picks up,
passing on without the slightest delay
The whole transaction does not occupy
half a minute, ard the automatic machine
never makes a mistake in the ticket or
the change. There is similar arrange
ment for securing tickets to the platform.
II you go to see a friend off you must
leave him al the gate or pay a few cents
for the privilege of accompanying him
TO the train. You get a platform ticket
from one of these Observation-Disclosures ma
chimes. The government is said to derive
a revenue of several million marks an
nually from this source alone.
The discovery of the Rosetta stone is
one of the romances of archaeology, says
the St. Louis Globe-Democrat The stu
dents of Egyptian history had long been
aware that a literature lay locked up in
the heroglyphics which abounded in every
part of Egypt, but were unable to find a
key to open the mystery. Many shrewd at
tempts had been made,a and the conjectures
of scholars, as to the probable meaning of
certain characters, proved to be very near
the truth, but the fact that the conjec-
lures were only probabilities rendered all
attempts at translation vague and unre-
liable. The first definite clew that was
given to the significance of the Egyptian
hierogiyphics was by the discovery of the
Rosetta stone, so called because 1t was