The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-12-04
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


"Old Grog," instituted the practice of wa
tering the spirit before it was served out,
and Inc mixture has gone by that name
ever since.
The Deutsche Farber Zeitung recon-
mends that iron reservoirs should be pre-
served from rust by cleaning off the paint
and rust with a steel-wire brush. The sur
face is then TO be heated by a soldering
lamp bit by bit, and cobblers' wax rubbed
into the heated parts. The wax enters
the pores and protects the iron.
"A Christmas entertainment is annual
ly given to nearly 1900 poor persons in Ber-
lin with the proceeds Of the contributions
OF cigar stubs and tip cuttings by charita-
ole smokers who are considerate enough
10 save these seemingly worthless scraps.
The annual call for the turning in of the
accumulation Of the past year has just
been issued.
In electrical matters Germany takes
the leading place among the nations of
Europe. According to Industrie Electrique,
Germany has I'll miles of electric rail-
ways and tramways, equal to those of all
the rest Of Europe together. England is
credited with a modest 9S miles Most of
the larger towns of Germany have electric
tramways, and the whole tram system of
Berlin will by the year 1901 be converted
into an electric one.
The Germans have always been proud
of Leibnitz as one of the greatest philos-
ophers, resenting the various attempts that
have been made In France and elsewhere
to prove that he was of Slavic descent.
Kuno Fischer felt inclined to admit that
his name was of Slavic POLISH origin. Not
long ago. however DR.. Croker discovered
In the Leipsic library a genealogical table
of the Leibnitz family, which enabled him
trace it back as far as 145O in Central Ger
many.
1t has been observed that there is
great family resemblance among the Eng
lish Christmas weeklies. On the front
cover there are always three willoWy
young ladies putting up holly in the par
sonage, and on the back cover soap ad-
vertisement Inside one invariably finds
silverware and cheap jewelry announce
ments, with more soap literature; cou-
ple of Dickenesque stories and the time
honored comic fox hunt in two pages OF
small colored pictures
n. M. Quigley, a st. Louis contractor
SAYS that there has not been a time since
1887 when labor was so hard to get as 1t
! is to-day. Every contractor in the coun-
! trv.,' he saws lis complaining about the
inability to get laborers. They are not 60
he had in any section. Many are already
| employed l have been up and down the
| Mississippi river a good deal in the last
| few weeks and 1 know that 5000 men
could right now be placed to work on the
river levee construction between New Or
| leans and Memphis.
Rock Island, in the Straits of Mack
mac, was recently sod 10 the register and
receiver of the Marquette (Mich) land Of
fee for cents. 1t was put up at auc-
ton in a bunch with Foose, Eagle and
Haven Islands, and was sold to the high
est bidder, who happened to be William
st. James of st. Ignaee. St. James bid
ST. % per acre for the Islands, and as Rock
Island contains just one-twenty-hfth of an
acre. its purchase price was cents. Green
| Island, another tiny bit of land, which was
put up at the same sale, brought the same
price.
Kansas City grain merchants have
made many complaints of late about short
ages in the shipments of wheat to that
city. and a committee of the Kansas City
Grain Dealers Association was appointed
to investigate the matter. 1t has been
found that 26,@ per cent. of the cars in
for that purpose, some of them having
leaks through which many bushels Of
grain are lost between the initial point of
shipment and the Kansas City elevators.
Many cars had also been bored into by
thieves in the freight yards and tapped.
-Trave.ers who have been up the Colo
RADIO river bring back stories OF a curious
ape that lives in the forests along the
is in bicrht
and is supposed to be something more than
20 years old. He is strong and fearless.
When a vessel comes near the territory
over which he ranges he dropped on board
from an overhanging tree. Then he makes
for the pantry, and by his actions shows
that he wants liquor. If INDUCED in this
wish he is good-humored; if not, he is
ready for a fight and sailors dread him.
Usually he is given repeated drinks of
liquor, and as soon as intoxcation begins
to overcome him the ape goes ashore and
stays in the woods At the appearance OF
the next vessel he is on deck again. II
has been going on this way for three
years, or more and the ape is democrat
lied.
An animal with a skin much tougher
than that of the alligator and so far as is
known actually builet-proof has been dis
covered in South America. In these war
like times this animal should be domesti-
Gated. This would be difficult, however
as it is a survivor of the old ground sloths
and wanders about only in the night II
was first seen and shot at several years
ago in the interior Of Santa Cruz, by the
late Ramon Lista, who heard of the ami
NAL frequently from the Indians. 1t was
described by that naturalist as a pangolin
without scales and covered with reddish
hair, but ii was impossible either to kill
or capture a specimen, and by many il
was believed that the observer had been
deceived. Now, however, DIR. F'lorentinc
Ameghino has received from South Pata-
gonia some bony ossicles and a partly de-
stroyed skin which bear out completely
Lista's observations. The skin is slightly
less than an inch in thickness and Sc
tough as only to be broken with a Ratchet
Its surface was covered with coarse hair
about two inches in length and of a red.
dish gray shade.