The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-16
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Bounty has been paid on more than
/ 1000 spaTrows in Gratiot county, Mich.
/ during the past year and yet the birds
1 seem to be as numerous as ever.
A bear met its death in a curious fash
ion on Gallo brook in PENNSYLVANIA a few
! days ago, says an exchange. John Bax-
! ter had been cutting stove wood in a log
! up on Yellow Pine knoll and one of the
| trees had fallen against another tree, in
| stead of clear to the ground. On his re-
/ turn in the morning he found that the
/ tree had Slowed around and then had fall
| len to the ground, killing a bear. There
| had been three bears, as tracks in the
| snow showed; an old one, a yearling and
| cub. 1t was the yearling that got killed
/ The cub had climbed the leaning trunk
| cub fashion, while the older ones were
| paving in the snow beneath for beech
nuts. The weight of the cub and its move
ments had been sufficient to break the
trigger branch on which the tree leaned
| and down the tree had come, catching the
| yearling on the back
ANY citizen who is tired of mundane
concerns, and wants to fix his mind on
something higher, is invited to consider
the allegation of Sir Francis Gallon, made
in the London Fortnightly Review, that
some one on Mars is signalling to earth,
| says Harper's Weekly The information
| seems not as yet to be very generally con-
| firmed by astronomical observers, but Sir
Francis is quoted as authority for the re-
| port that in one of the European observa-
tories an apparatus has been devised for
| recording the Marian flashes, and that
| the record shows that three signals and no
more are made, and that they differ, as
| all flash-light signals do, in the length of
the flashes and of the intervals between,
so that if we had the key they might be
1 4 1Ts-- -.
| this is not a yarn to be swallowed whole
but the association of the name of Sir
Francis Cation with it is enough to entitle
| it to consideration. There seems to be no
intrinsic impoSsibility of our having rela-
tons with people in Mars. 1t sounds pre-
! posterous, of course, but, like other mar
wells, it seems preposterous chiefly because
1t is unusual. We have to nudge our
selves from time to time in this age of
| swift surprises, and remind ourselves
that nothing that is new to us can posi-
bly, be more marvellous than many things
that have grown familiar.
Motor vehicles ("automotives" is the
name recommended for them) have begun
to be matter for serious reflection in Eng
land, says Harpers Weekly. Maj. Flood
Page, who lectured about them the other
day before the London Chamber of Com
merce, speculated a s to the results of their
dustries that would be affected petrol
cum, secondary battery manufacturers
mechanical engineers and allied trades :
agriculture in many branches, railway
companies, and, last but by no means
least, the war department of every coun-
try in the world" He expects them as
they grow common to interfere more or
less with trades connected with omnibuses
cabs and horses, but to provide work for
more men than they displace, just as rail-
ways did when they drove out coaches.
He believes that in the country districts
of England they will do what canals have
done IN Holland and make communica-
ton so easy that the rush of perishable
produce to market will be greatly quick
ened and increased. They will change the
whole face of war, he thinks and be used
to move guns and do all transport work.
In Paris automotives are in use; in Lon
don they are in sight; in New York they
are still only in prospect An automotiVe
fire-truck, to be run by a compreSsed-air
gas-engine, has been devised by Brook
| Ign man, and has come so near real ex-
istence as to have its picture in the news
papers. 1t is a ter~ific-looking creation,
and as an engine of destruction seems fit
to make a cable-car on a curve seem like
childs toy.
Programme tassels are sold more eX-
tensively for ball programmes than for
any other use, says the New York Sun, but
they are used for other purposes as well
sometimes for theater programmes, and
for the programmes of lodge and club cele-
| brations; often for the tally cards used in
card parties, in progressive euchre, for in
| stance, or for any other games in which
a tally card would be used. Some of the
very cheapest of programme tassels have
cotton cord, but even of these the tas-
sci is of silk; and the great bulk of the
y11rf MN Toe 1- oil L
gramme tassels are made in fifty or more
| styles of different lengths, and of cord of
different sizes, and of various colors, and
! they are made to order in special colors,
or combinations Of colors, for clubs or So
cieties having club colors. which they wish
to match If the tassel is to be used for
ball programme or tally card, a tiny
pencil is attached to it. The pencils are
made in a great variety of colors to match
the taSSelS. The ball programme is often
est made in two parts, folded in the CEN
ter, making little booklet of eight pages.
| This is usually not stitched or otherwise
bound, the programme tassel looped
around it serving as a binder. Programme
| tassels are used all over the country and
great numbers of them are sold. OF one
kind alone one New York manufacturer
makes between eight and ten millions
yearly of another grade between two and
three millions yearly, and of the various
millions more. Manufacturers of pro-
gramme tassels sell them in thousands to
the wholesale paper dealer, who sells them
in thousands or in hundreds to the sta
toner and the printer, who in turn sell
them in such numbers as their customers
may require. Light colors arc most in
demand. The most popular of all color
is pink. The next is white and the next
blue.
importers of crockery usually figure
on breakage at per cent, says the New
York Sun. Not very much stuff is brok-
en- after it has been actually received.
Men become expert in handling samples
and stock, and they don't very often drop
things. The bulk of the breakage is in
transportation. Crockery is shipped
chiefly in crates. casks and cases. The
familiar crockery crate is a package pc
culiar to England and the United States
Crockery from ContinentaI Europe comes
mostly in casks and cases, though lit
tie of it comes in Slated boxes something
like crates. The crockery crates used In