The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-06
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Date vinegar has been made by the
Arabs for ages. 1t has recently been put
on the English market, and the English
say it is far superior to any other vine
gar.
Experts have come to the conclusion
that what kills trees in London is not
the SCOT fakes nor the want of air, nor
the drought, but the sewer gas, which at
tacks the root, so that the tree soon
withers and dies.
"A Parsee sacred fire, which had burn
ed uninterruptedly for twelve centuries
in the temple at Leigule, Persia, went
out recently. Its worshippers interpre-
ted the event as an omen of the plague
which is destroying so many of their CO.
religionists in Bombay
"A millinery house which was establish
ed in Paris in 1881, with capital of $4O,-
coo, is now being converted into a stock
concern, and its stock, to the amount of
s., 500 900, is offered to London investors
Although the profits of the first twelve
months showed but 50, 600, in the five or
six years of its existence the concern
cleared over $500, 00O In the newly-organ-
lied company the original proprietors are
to receive half a million dollars in cash.
more than 81, 900 in preferred shares, or
money, at the option of the company, $780,
wv III NOIlUlOH SHARES, ana are employed as
managers of the concern for five years, at
$4,000 per annum.
"A writer in critical review says that
onehalf of the book buying public does
not know what the other half buys All
the books that are published are by no
means to be found in the book stores.
The most beautiful and costly books
never find their way into the shops at
all, are not sent out for review and are
known to very limited number of peo-
pie. Immense sums are yearly spent on
the making of such books, which bring
from 800 to $1,000 each. These expensive
volumes are not sold in the ordinary way,
but entirely by subscription, and the bus
mess of selling them in the United States
is in the hands of about half dozen men,
who neither sell nor attempt to sell any
thing else. Their season is short but the
profits are large and they live at the
most expensive hotels and drive about
luXuriously in broughamS with a man
servant in attendance to carry the books.
A very remarkable high-priced book is
now in course of publication and is called
The Book of Wealth." 1t is a record of
what has been accomplished by wealth
| from the earliest times to the present day.
and is printed in ten sections, four of
which are concerned with America. Mr..
Hubert Howe Bancroft, the historian of
the Pacific coast, is both author and pub
book is said to be now collecting statis-
tics for the American sections. Portraits
of distinguished Americans living and
dead will be gwen, especially of those
who have used their wealth for the COM
mon good. There will be two editions OF
the work, one at 81, COO and the other, of
only $50 copies, at 81, 500. Some of the COW
ers are of hand embroidered silk, others
have original water-color drawings by
well known artists set into the ordinary
binding.
The working of elaborate devices in
human hair is said to be almost a lost
art, but one which may be revived, as
embroidery in hair has become once more
fashionable. One of the first workers In
! hair was a Swiss shepherd named An
, tonic Forrer, whose artistic tendencies
? took shape in curious devices in hair ano
wool In 1850 he was brought over tc
England by an Englishwoman who acct
} | dentaly saw him at work one day while
l | tending his sheep. Forrer was set up II
= business in Regent street, and must have
5 had a good deal of natural sagacity, fol
c | as his trade grew he foresaw craze; ano
a imported a lot of poor crippled girls from
Switzerland, whom he taught. He made
& | a great deal of money and lived, while
the fad was at it's hight, in princely style
Although Forrers establishment KEPT
the first place, no less than hundred
| other halr-WOrklnS houses uOuIiSlSo II
London. Large prices were paid fol
| mourning brooches, rings and so on, ano
| special artists prepared the designs. Pen
ell and cigarette cases were covered VIII
r. | hair, and even waist-belts made IRON
long strands. Elaborate pictures were
. | arrived at, villages, brooks, trees, houses
even the names over the shops being
wrought in hair. One man had land
scape after Corot manufactured from hi:
dead wife's hair, the frame being after
wards covered with hair from the mead o.
his second consort. Another ostentatious
~ mourning gentleman actually went Sc
far as to have an "evening-dress tie
made from the snow-white locks of his
= dead wife Queen Victoria was victim
Of the fad, and after the prince consort
death, gave orders to have a bracelet
made from some of his hair A strict
4 but rather unreasonable stipulation ac
companied the order-that there were tC
be no Jennings. This was impossible, the
princes hair being too short, but moth
:, ing was said and the bracelet was deliV
cred at the appointed time. Some time
afterward her majesty, when playing
with the bracelet, drew out a hair three
, I times the length of any that could have
belonged to the prince Trouble OF course
ensued The bracelet was inspected anc
a large part of it found not to be the
princes hair.
There is a popular belief that the violin
makers of to-day cannot rival the famous
old instruments made by Amat Stradi
. varius, Guarnerius and other Italian mas
( tiers. 1t has been supposed that these mel
p possessed some special secrets not only
\ about the kind of wood which should b'
T used but also concerning the methods o.
7 preparing it. They were said TO have haf
? mysterious chemical processes for drying
: the wood and adding in its power of vi
+ bratiou According to a modern authori
< ty. however, il would seem that all thes'
z beliefs must be added to the list of ex
ploded supersttions and the tiddles made
a by American manufacturers to-day arr
o every bit as sweet-toned as any Amau Of
o Stradivarius of them all. Parts of beams
7 taken from old houses, broken and useless
T furniture and old chests are transformed
into instruments the tones of which ever
virtuosi are unable TO distinguish from
7 those of old "Strads" and Amatis. Th'
woods used, however though old, mus
: be of the best quality and the creates
care must be exercised in cutting to thu