The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-29
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

intoXication was. His deposition recalls
the statement of the Duke of Argyle in
some temperance discussions before the
House of Lords, that no Scotchman would
admit another Scotchman to be drunk
while he could lie still on the floor.
There are fifteen churches in London
where the sexes are divided during di-
vine worship. In All Saints, Margaret
street, even husband and wife are not
allowed to sit together, the only London
church where the plan is enforced The
restriction has existed since the days
when DIR. Pussy laid the foundation Of
the church.
William H. Cove of Salem, Mass,
with the purchase of his ancestral home
at Seabrook, N. H., came into the pos
session of several documents, one being
a pardon of Edward Cove, who was con-
fined in the tower of London for rebellion.
1t is dated 1885, and signed Sutherland,
and across the top are the words James
r." and the royal seal.
AT the last convention of the American
Medical Association, in Philadelphia, says
the New York Tribune. DR. J. B. Learned
of Northampton, Mass, described to the
fraternity his simple method for the cure
of insomnia or sleeplessness, the whole
resort TO drugs Briefly, muscular and mem
tai eXertion in a systematic way is the
course involved; that is, a series Of post
ions of the body, lying upon the back and
side in the horizontal line, with the brain
occupied in controlling and making chang
es, is the substance of the treatment pro-
posed, the brain being occupied in devils
ing these changes and modifying the re-
spirations-this calls blood and vital en-
ergy away from the center of matter that
keeps up the automatic motion and pre-
vents sleep The doctor terms this turn
ing off the belts" The muscular motion
consists in fixing a certain group of mus
cles for a definite length of time, and then
another and another change; fatigue soon
comes to muscle and brain thus controlled,
and sleep is inevitable.
w. W. Astor has given $25O,O0O for a
fountain at Cliveden. Mr.. Astor's new
fountain is the largest private fountain of
the kind in the world. 1t is a gorgeous
fountain, of enormous expense, and the
only fountain which rivals it in size and
appearance is that of the Emperor Will
lam in Berlin, the next largest of the kind
being at Moscow. In these two fountains
the architects have developed the same
idea which dominated the plans for the
Aston fountain-a gigantic shell of stone
in a. basin on the ground level, the shell
being horizontal, and when full the sur
face of the water is about on level with
the eye. Mr.. Aston, who expects that this
fountain will astonish people when it is
exhibited, has called it "the fountain of
love" The shell alone weighs. between
sixty and seventy stone. This gigantic
shell is made of nine pieces of the finest
Sienna marble, and is light brown in
color but the huge blocks have been so
skilfully put together that it is almost i'm
possible to see the joins. The nine pieces
of Sienna marble out of which the shell
was made are the largest blocks of Sienna
marble ever taken out of Italy. Like
large cut diamonds, they represent an
enormous waste of material.
Saffron would strike an ordinary OBJ
server as decidedly expensive at 56 shil-
lings a pound. until told that is composed
of the central small portions only of the
flowers of crocus, 10000 of which it takes
to yield the material for one pound, says
the Chambers Journal Otto of roses
sells at f28 odd per pound, and it takes
10000 pounds-or nearly five tons--of roses
to obtain one pound of the oil Aconiffne,
extracted from the root of monkshood, is
said to be the very strongest poison ex-
tant, the dose being 1-6OOth of grain. 1t
is sold at the rate of Ell per ounce. Turn
ing from the vegetable to the animal
world in search of rare drugs the writer
refers to the musk of the Asiatlc deer.
which at f6 to e. an ounce must be a
prize to the willy hunter. In some of the
tropical seas a floating sweet-smelling
mass of ambergris is met with, worth at
present 70 los per ounce, or f8S per pound
in the market This ambergris is said
to be the diseased hillary product" of the
whale. Another peculiar animal product
in use as drug is a solution of the pure
venom of the rattlesnake, given occasion
ally in malignant scarlet fever; while less
strong, if perhaps hardly less repulsive,
is powdered cOckroach. which in six-grain
| doses has been prescribed with good eff
fects it is said. for dropsy.
The people of the United States do not
drink so much whlskey as they did years
| ago.says the Washington correspondence
of the Chicago Record. The annual aver
| age consumption per capita in 1860 was 2S6
gallons and not withStanding the enor-
nous increase in the use of whiskey in
manufactures the average has been re-
duCed TO IS of a gallon. During the four
years after the war, from 1854 to 1868,
when the whisky tax was 81 a gallon, the
consumption dropped to less than one-third
of a gallon per capita, but with the except
ion of those years there has been a steady
| decrease in the use of the beverage, until
the average last year reached loW-Water
mark This decrease is attributed to an
Improvement in the habits of the people
and to the increased use of beer, wines and
other lighter liquors. The increased tax
and the hard times also probobly had their
influence. While the Secretary of the Ire
assure and the Commissioner of Internal
| Revenue recommend an Increase of the tax
on beer; they favor a decrease in the tax
on whiskey a means of stimulating its
manufacture and increasing the revenues
of the Government, but the records show
that high taxes nave promoted temperance
| or at least caused a decrease in the con-
| sumption. The liquor men favor decrease
! in the tax on whiskey and the brewers
| oppose an increase in the tax on beer.
"A strange and interesting sight to the
visitor in the town of Bath, England, is
the old Roman baths, built by the Roman
invaders of England A. D., 60 which
have recently been restored by the Duke
| of Cambridge and now thrive in all their
ancestral glory, says an exchange. They
are situated on either side of the main
street, which owes it's origin to the invas-
Tor of Caesar, and are massive stone
structures. one 50 by 40, and the other 80
feet square Until the last three or four
years, they have been utterly neglected,
until the Duke of Cambridge proposed
their revival, when the work was taken
up with considerable enthusiasm The