The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-06
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Berlin spent last year $3.50 900 on street
cleaning, lighting and sprinkHng; for the
police $4,000. and for the maintenance
Of the poor over $4,000.
AT recent village election in Constan-
tine. Mich, the women taxpayers were al
lowed to vote on an electric lighting bond
proposition, but only three awaited them
selves of the right.
1t is said that Australian shepherds
can foretell the weather from the condi-
ton of the wool on the backs of their
sheep. An increase in the curliness indi-
Gates better weather
"A unique suit is that which has been
begun by the state of Missouri to recover
from the estate of Arthur Duestrow, who
was recently hanged for murder, the cost
of the prosecution which led up to that
result.
An English coachman was asked to tie
up dog, and resigned on the ground that
it was the buffers duty The butler de-
clined and resigned, and after six ser
wants had left the earl tied the dog up
himself.
A copper pan, said to be the largest
ever made from one piece of metal has
been turned out at Swansea, England. IT
is twelve feet four inches in diameter,
three feet three inches deep and weighs
two tons.
For the first time in the history of Mo
rocco the sultan has prohibited the annual
pilgrimage of Moslems to Mecca, on the
ground that the prevalence of plague
along the usual lines of route would rem
der it dangerous.
Boston has had her proverbial equa-
nimity somewhat rufied by the appear
ance of dyed horse on the streets Of
the Hub" The unoffending animal has
been artifcially colored as an advertise
ment for large Boston dyeing establish
ment.
-Russia's confidence in oil fuel for war
ships larger than torpedo boats seems to
be wavering. The General Admiral Ap,
raXni, now building, is to use oil for half
its boilers and coal for the other half, but
all other. ocean-going vessels are to con-
tinue to use coal alone.
Two new telephone cables, each with
two circuits, are to be laid at once across
the English channel, making acticaIly
six lines for the London-Paris telephone
service. They will raise to thirty-four the
number of wires stretched across the
channel from Dover to Beachy Head.
France, too. is suffering from the cpl
demic of Bible plays, Sarah Bernhard
having produced a Woman of Samaria,
by NJ. Rostand during Holy Week. Diff
fering from the British and German plays
on New Testament plots, in NJ Rostan's
drama Christ appears on the stage undis~
gused.
The Connecticut Legislature has been
considering the purchase by the state of
Cochegan rock. located midway between
New London and Norwich, Conn, and
said by many persons to be the largest
boulder in the United States 1t is so
feet long, rs feet high, contains about
10000 cubic feet of stone. and is esti-
mated to weigh 10000 tons. 1t is unques>
tionably a relic of the glacial period,
and was deposited in it's present rest
ing place many centuries before the
birth of Columbus.
The stories of magnetic mountains
that exert an attraction that cannot be
withstood on all vessels that come into
their vicinity has some foundation i'm real
ity, and that, too, in the neighborhood of
Germany, says Der Stein der Weisen of
Vienna. The well known island of
Bornholm, situated in the Baltic, and be-
longing to Denmark, may be regarded as
huge magnet. Although the power of
this magnet is not so great that it can
draw the nails out of ships as was told
of the legendary magnetic hills, the mag
netism of the rocks on the island of Born
holm can cause a good deal of trouble to
ships in quite another way. For the is
land of Bornholm exerts such an influence
on the magnetic needle that itscan cause
a vessel to turn perceptibly aside from it's
course. The effect of this magnetic is
a nd i- ,1r ak
kilometers OF miles,.
The strict regulations for bicyclists
hitherto enforced in Austria have recently
been greatly relaxed by an order of Count
Kielmansegg, the official having this mat
ter in charge, says the New York Tribune
The requirements of an examination by
the police of all bicyclists have been dis
pensed with and henceforth riders can
decide for themselves whether they are
sufficiently skillful to ride in the public
streets or not. With this has also been
abolished the annual license fee Of five
fiorins about 81. Bicyclists also receive
much greater liberty as to the streets and
roads they may travel on, and the speed
they may adopt is more definitely fixed
In respect to the rules of the road, bicy-
Giles are put on the same footing as light
vehicles of all sorts. The Vienna Cycling
Association is preparing a great demon
stration in honor of Count Kie)mansegg to
express the thanks of the wheelmen. He
is member of one of the local clubs.
"A fragment of an opera begun by
Wagner in 1893 and never finished, called
IDLE Hochzelt," has been bought by an
English lady for f1O0, says the Philadel-
phia Record Wagner wrote the libretto
and composed an introduction a chorus,
and a septet, but stopped, as his sister
did not like the plot. 1t is brides we'd
ding night, and a friend of the BRIDE
groom, mad with jealousy, climbs to the
bedroom window of the lady There is a
struggle and the stalwart bride hurls the
maniac into the courtyard below, with his
head battered in. At his funeral the lady
falls dead over his corpse. This cheerful
story was Wagner's first operate libretto,
when he was barely 20. But an even still
more blood-thirsty effort. in the form of
a drama. was written when he was
schoolboy Of IA. In this extraordinary
work no fewer than forty-two of the
speaking characters were killed In the
course of the first four acts and in order
to bring the story to a conclusion at all,
some of them in the form Of ghosts had 10
be revived IN the fifth act.