The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-04
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


is continually falling from space, and
which IS the dust or remains of worlds
which have been destroyed. Some of
these worlds. he says, may have been so
far away that the dust or remains of
them which is now raining down on the
world in the shape of fine powder has been
million years in traversing the space
between us and what was once that de-
stroyed worlds orbit.
The highest villages of Europe having
a permanent population are situated in
Switzerland, Italy and France. In the
order of their altitude they are: Rery. an
Italian village, south of the Monte Rosa,
at an altitude of 6, $50 feet above sea level;
its 120 inhabitants live there summer and
winter. Their only connection with the
outside world leads through the Beta
Gorca mountain pass, which Is sometimes
closed up by snow for several weeks at
a time; Inf, in the valley of Ayers, in
Switzerland at an elevation Of $3.50 feet
above sea level, is the second; the third
highest village in Europe is Trepalle, in
the Livigno valley, also in Italy, 6.615 feet
above sea level; next comes Averol in the
French department of Savoy, 6,615 feet
above sea level, and Veran, not far
from the former, at an altitude of $3.50
feet.
The Overland Telegraph line which
connects England with her great Indian
empire, passes through Persia, and has
recently been subjected to an interruption
of a quite serious character, due to the
fanatcism of the populace. 1t seems that
there has been a terrible drouth, which the
subjects of the Shah, instead of attribut-
ing to providence, ascribed on the con-
trary to the telegraph poles, and above all,
to Sthe posts and signs of the survey de-
partment of the company Accordingly
all the obnoxious poles, wires and survey
signs were destroyed by priest-led mob.
Strangely enough, heavy rain fell imme-
diately afterward and now, in spite of the
severe punishment inflicted by the Teher-
an government upon the ring-leaders, the
masses of the population throughout Per-
STA are firmly convinced that telegraph
and survey posts are productive of drouth
and inventions of the devil.
The recent flood of the Seine, which
played great havoc on the banks of that
river below Paris, has provoked quite an
unusual migration of rats, which, forced
out Of their ordinary hiding places, have
overrun the surrounding country, says an
exchange. AT Rueil, Bougival and Poissy
the inhabitants of houses situated near the
river have had regular battles with the
scared rats, who have taken possession
of several of these houses from the cellars
to the roofs. In one house alone more than
800 rats we're killed by a terrier after the
cellar door had been shut. On an island
near Poissy, which in ordinary times is
quite large, tut from which during the
flood only the trunk of a large willow was
seen, it was found that five rabbits and
some twenty rats were perched on that
tree 1t seems that fear had been stronger
than hunger and the terrified rats had not
even attempted to devour their compan-
ions in distress.
Lieut.. John NJ. Ellicott, U. S. N, con-
tributes to the April st. Nicholas an ar
ticle about lighthouses, which he calls
The Lights that Guide in the Night"
Lieut.. Ellicott says: One seldom thinks,
when he watches the brightly cheering
and safely guiding light of a lighthouse
what ceaseless watching and patient
heroism it takes to keep the light burn
ing year in and year out through all
weathers. Generally there is for each
light only a keeper with two assistants
and often the keeper is assisted only by
his wife, sons, or daughters. Even the
most comfortably situated lighthouses are
generally on lonely headlands with no hu-
man dwelling near Others are on outly-
ing rocks, or islands swept by the sea-
and wholly cut off from the land except in
fair weather There are even a few
which, built upon sunken reefs, seem to
rise from the very bed of the ocean, and
against which storm-driven seas break
with shocks which shake them to their
foundations. Such are the Eddystone
lighthouse off the coast of England at
the entrance to the English channel and
our own Minot's Ledge light, near the en-
trance to Boston harbor. These two are
the most isolated and exposed lighthouses
in the world. They We're built at the ut
most peril to human life. Each was
raY.f axyaW hrr CT Of Lott
and had to be rebuilt.
The moving of a painting from a pa
vilion of the city of Paris in the Champs
Elysees to the Auteuil gallery afforded a
very difficult problem to the Paris city
authorities the other day. The painting
by NJ. Roll, representing the celebra.
ton of July IA, is thirty-two feet long by
twenty-three feet high, and with the mas
sive frame weighs over 900 pounds. 1t
was impossible to move the painting in
the ordinary way by taking the canvas
off the frame and rolling it, for the paint
ing being vanished 1t would probably
have cracked in several places. 1t was
therefore, decided to move the canvas and
frame as a whole After much delibera-
ton a special chariot was constructed
over two of the floats which were used
in the recent Mardi Gras procession.
The city engineer. with eight laborers
proceeded to the pavilion and the paint
ing was carried by eight men, eight others
bracing the upper part of the picture to
keep it in an upright position until it
was deposited in the chariot. 1t was
finally gotten out without accident and
slid on creased planks upon the chariot
Arrived at the Galerie d'Auteuil, the pic
ture and frame were similarly carried to
its new quarters The painting is one of
the largest in existence, and was painted
by order of the French government in
1880 to perpetuate the memory of the first
national holiday of the third republic.
You see this necktie which 1 am
wearing" said a prominent New York
physician to a friend in that city a few
days ago. what do you suppose it is?"
why, silk, Of course" was the answer.
Yes, it Is silk, but not made from
the cocoon of a silk worm" what is ii,
then?" This necktie was made from
spruce tree, and leave il to you II it be
not the equal of anything of similar TEX
ture you ever saw" The tie was appar-
emily black silk, with the softness of that
fabric and with body as heavy as any
silk from the Lyons looms. 1t had a
sheen TO il which made It especially lus-
trous. Its cost was cents Eighteen
months ago a French eXperimenter suc-