The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-31
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Even the great piles Of buffalo skulls
horns and bones that used TO be such a
feature along the railroad tracks on the
Northwestern plains are disappearing
The sale of these bones by farmers and
ranchmen finding them had been for years
the source Of a small return in ready mon
ey. Most of The bones are shipped to the
east to be converted into hone charcoal,
which is used for Offering by the sugar
refneries. III
According to the British and Colonial
Druggist Russian chemist has discovered
a most powerful anaesthetic 1t is several
thousand times more powerful than chic
reform, voiatilizes most readily and acts,
when freely mixed with air, at great dis
tances. Experiments are being made at
st. Petersburg TO see if It cannot be in
closed in bombs, which would have the ex-
traordinary effect of notwithstanding in
stead OF wounding the enemy.
As bearing on the probable fate of the
cataract at Niagara, the following is an
estimate of what the falls, if utilized could
earn, or in other words, of what the fail
ure to utilize them costs. Assuming" it
says, the total power of Niagara to be
100000 horsepower, and putting the value
of this at the low figure of SO per horse
power year. the annual waste amounts
to the enormous total OF 0,0O3 0O0-enough
to pay interest on s., 900, 900, 0O0."
is 1t safe to let even an expert boat
woman and swimmer go out alone upon
the water? The friends of an English girl
Miss Johnston, are inclined to think not
She was crossing little lake in the north
of England the other day when her boat
sWamped. She knew how to swim and she
did swim. But when she reached shore her
mind was temporarily unbalanced by the
shock and she remained In a dazed state
while her family wildly dragged the lake
and mourned.
"A natural element by which the city of
Boise, Idaho. derives a great benefit, is
great volume of hot water that gushes
out of several deep artesian wells The
water possesses no medicinal value but
six-inch pipe has been laid from the
springs into the city, and the last the
writer knew of the matter it was pro-
posed to conduct the water into nearly
every residence and business house in the
city. The cost of heating with hot water
is estimated to be so per cent. less than
coal.
1T is popular idea that the heavier
the brain is the higher are the intellectual
possibilities of its possessor. Sir William
Turner now says that a heavy brain is
no indication of Intellectual eminence The
average weight of the European brain is
from forty-nine to fifty ounces yet five
out of thirty-one male lunatics, taken
without selection from post norton re-
cords, had brains ranging from fifty to
fifty-six ounces. The brains of three fe-
male lunatics out of twenty-five exceeded
fifty ounces. 1t is, moreover, a we'll
known fact that epileptics have unusually
large brains
"A new envelope-sealing machine is be-
ing tried in government Office, says the
Pittsburg Dispatch. The machine works
something like a printing press The en-
velopes are fed into rollers, one of which
is moistened from a small trough of water
through which it revolves. A folder closes
the envelope, which then passes through
two other rollers, pressed and dropped
into a receptacle. The machine is run
either by electric motor or by pedal 1t is
claimed that it will seal $50 envelopes a
minute when the operator becomes ex-
pert. In a recent test a batch of 1900
circulars is said to have been easily sealed
by one machine in something over three
hours.
"A correspondent of the Bardstown
(Ky0 Record writes from Welchburg to
tell an original snake story. He saws:
1 saw three snakes as white as snow
last week on the West Fork 1 told nv
family when I returned home that I
wouldn't be believed by everybody. but
can swear to the story. The snakes were
summing on rock near the fork. and 7
stopped to throw a rock at the reptiles
They moved sluggishly and I got a good
look at them. They were about 80 feet
long, and their heads were fiattened like
spreading adder. They were perfectly
white, except around their eyes which
were pinkish looking. L never saw any
thing like them before, and wish could
have caught them for science"
There are more 1enient with assassins
nowadays than they were $40 wears ago.
When Damiens was convicted of irving to
kill Louis XIV. he was taken to a lonely
chamber where he was subjected to Sc
RES OF fortunes that seem to have origi-
mated in the brain of a demon. SO terrible
were they. His legs were first compressed
in wedges; then the hand which had struck
at the king was burned off; flesh was torn
from his bones with red-hot plncers, and
molten lead and rosin poured into the
wounds. Then they tried TO tear him apart
between four horses, in which, not being
at first successful, they cut the muscles AT
the joints, so that they would give way
When both legs and an arm had been torn
off the man died. Were the executioners
human?
A new water cooling system, while spe-
cially intended for the artificial cooling of
condensing, is applicable to water for re-
frigerating plants, or for any other pur-
pose, and is frequently placed in combina-
ton with a surface condenser, the whole
being in the same closed circuit In this
system there is a tower which may be
placed on the roof, or in any other conyen-
lent place. 1t is preferably constructed of
steel plate, and filled with a series of steel
wire mats galvanized after. weaving. Wa
ter percolates doWnwards through the
mesh of the wires, receiving a constant
change of surface. and escapes into a
chamber at the base of the tower. An cleo
trio fan blows air into the base, and the air
ascends the tower, meeting the descending
water and producing the maximum cooling
effect.
Electric railway companies have struck
out new line of economy, says the St.
Louis Globe-Democrat. 1t has been
found that some motormen use a great
deal more current in propeling the car
over given distance than others. and the
aggregate loss to the company from the
excess consumption has on sop,a Iipos