The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-10
ITEMS of INTEREST.

strOying sewer gas consists of drawing
it from the sewer and driving it into a
furnace by a revolving fan. The heat of
its combustion suffices to generate steam
to propel the fan.
The largest oak wine vat in the world
is being set up by the California Wine
Association. at the Lachman cellar, in
Brannan street. in San Francisco. The
famous Heidelberg casket is a baby by
the side of the newcomer, which has the
proportions of a two-story cottage and
on the bottom of which four quadrille
sets could be danced with ease. The
Heidelberg wonder has a capacity of 50,-
COO while this San Francisco monster is
to hold $4,000 gallons. The huge oak is
ovaLshaped on the ground, and measures
27la by 30 feet in each direction while
the great slaves rise to a hight of twenty
feet and are from two and half to three
inches in thickness. The wood used will
weigh twenty tons, and the iron hoops
would turn the scales a six tons or over.
The shapes Of fishes have often been
studied with a view of determining the
best shape for boats with regard to speed,
says the New York Sun. There are many
fishes whose fins, or a part of them, at
least, shut down into cutters, so that
when closed and not in use they make no
projection beyond the body, but fold down
face, and Offering no obstruction what
ever to the rapid passage of the fish
through the water when swimming a
speed, driven by its tail fin used as pro-
peller. The slime with which every lsh
is coated which is in various ways essen
tial to its comfort and existence, helps
the fish also to slide more easily and
rapidly through Tho water. In fact, the
fish, studied by men for ideas in modelling,
is not only speed, but it is, as one might
say, always black-leaded and ready for
racing.
The American Field grves a list of the
largest packs of hounds In Great Britain
and Ireland. The largest pack of al con-
tains ninety coup!es-1S0 dogs-and is main
tanned by the Blackmore Vale. This pack
is run four days a week, but, of course,
not all the dogs are used each day. John
Watson, master of the Meath, an Irish
pack, has sixty-four couples, running five
days a week, making 1t one of the hardest
working packs in the kingdom. The Bad
minton. owned by the Duke of Beaufort,
has in 1t seventy-five coup.es, which are
hunted on Ave days of the week. Another
pack that hunts five days a week is the
Belvoir. and it has sixty-four couples. The
four-days- pack requires from fifty
to sixty couples. The Duke of Buccieuch
and the Earl Of Eglinton keep the largest
| packs in Scotland, the duke maintaining
| tfty-seven couples and the earl fifty
| couples.
"A surprising experiment demonstrating
| the lasting qualities of snake poison was
recently made by Prof. Maisonneuve,
! which showed that dead snake Is almost
| as dangerous as a live one, says a Paris
| letter The professor took an unusually
! large specimen of the common viper of
| Southern France, which for more than
! twenty years had been exhibited in the
! Geological Museum at Anglers, France,
| preserved in alcohol. The first expert
/ ment with one of the poisonous fangs of
this snake seemed 10 show that the TWEEN
/ ty years contact with the alcohol had
! robbed the poison of its Virulence, for
! sparrow wounded with one of its teeth
did not develop any symptoms of being
/ poisoned. The cause of the non-action
/ of the poison at first was speedily found,
| however, in the thickening of the poison
| at the entrance of the canal into the tooth
which prevented the poison from flowing
| When Prof. Maissonneuve extracted some
| of the poisonous substance with fine nee
| die and injected a minimal portion of it
| into the sparrow, the latter showed all the
| symptoms of poisoning inside of half an
| hour, which gradually increased until it
| died in commissions in two and one-half
! hours after the Injection of the poison. AS
it was heretofore believed that snake
| poison loses its dangerous and virulent
/ qualities with the death of the reptile, great
care in handling dead snakes will be a
matter of common sense precaution.
THE place OF a watchdog on the farm
or country place." said States Attorney
Mcclure the other day to a Baltimore Sun
| man, in making some observations about
mad dogs, might be very well taken by
peacocks and guinea fowls. 1
long since adopted peacocks alone
to guard my place. and moth
ing can come around the premises
night or day without causing an alarm
from them. They are more watchful than
any dog ever owned. My exper ence with
| guineas has not been so extensive, but
believe they are also good to give an
alarm, or rather a good many alarms, if
any strange man or beast should venture
near them by day or night. Perhaps the
days of the watchdog would be numbered
If it were not generally known how well
| peacocks and guinea fowls woIld take his
! place Then, certainly, with fewer dogs
there would not be so many cases of hy-
| drophobia." The statement of MIR. Nc
| CURE as to the watchfulness of peacocks
| was borne out by numerous Howard coun-
! ty farmers, among the number being
County Commissioners Hess, Dorsey and
! Smith, and Mr., James L. Hobbc, who su-
| perintends the farming operations of Sen
ator German. Mr. Hobbs stated that he
] long ago discovered what excellent prOtec-
| ton peacocks afford about a place. and
| down on the senator's farm he always
| keeps six or eight of them to guard the
premises. So it appears that peacocks
are useful as well as ornamental
The sign letterer who is putting a gold
sign on a window paints the letters upon
the outside first but these letters are only
for guide-the gold is put upon the Inside
| of the glass, says the New York Sun. rhs
gold leaf is so thin and light that the
faintest breath would be enough to blow
q awaV-lt is carried in the familiar little
books The letterer brushes the inner
side Of the glass, back of the lettering
painted upon the outside, with a brush
dipped in water containing a trace OF
mucilage. Then with a wide and very
thin camers hair brush, which he first
! brushes lightly back and forth once or
twice upon the back of his head, or per-
haps upon his coat, to dry 1t if it needs
drying, and slightly TO electrify it, he lifts
from the book a section of gold leaf suffi-
| cent to cover a section of the letter and
places 1t on the glass He repeats these
operations until the glass back of the