The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-12
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

war that are so agitating our kin beyond
the sea have inspired les~ bellies Ameri-
Gaines with the idea of wearing military
buttons, which are very various and crna-
mental on the other side of the Atlantic
IS personal trinkets Some are mounted as
nat pins, others are worn in one lapel but
touhole of walking coats; they are even
let into the tops of umbrella handles and
attached to bangles. There is much fierce
competition to get the buttons of the va
rious regiments, and military lovers are
said to be presenting their hancees with
regimental buttons set with precious
stones.
From a Pennsylvania city comes an in
quiry as to whether in order to grow grass
in the shade 1t is necessary to use some
particular seed, or whether the only cure
is TO cut some of the surrounding trees,
and thus tighten the shade A park expert
says that grass can be grown in shady
places. provided good seed is used and the
soil IS not sour. To settle the last question
il is only necessary to take a piece of blue
litmus paper turn some of the soil, and
after wetting il, place 1t on the top of the
paper for ten to fifteen minutes. If the
paper turns red, the soil is sour. The rem
edy for sour soil is from one to two BUSH
els of lime per 1000 square feet, according
to the degree of redness shown on the pa
| per Dy the Jest 10 preserve a CROWN u
grass close to large trees. fertilization will
be necessary every year.A particular brand
of seeds is also desirable, and on this point
the advice of a good scotsman had better
be taken. ~.
-Starlings, which have been newly intro
duced into new Zealand, are acquiring a
taste for honey, and an entomologist
| states that he has observed the birds Kill
| inn M hi
nest to feed their young. The tut, or
| parson bird has been detected in a SINH
lar act. The case is quoted as illustrating
how new habits are acquired or family
| habits are developed in some species of
birds when certain conditions are present
AS the tut belongs to the starting family,
and is one of the native honey-suckers, it
| Is possible it was killing humble-bees to
| feed its young when it discovered the
honey sac Having thus discovered the
honey sac, and approved of its flavor and
| tut would soon make habit of feeding on
| honey. An analogous case is also present.
| ed in some recently acquired habits of the
! starting. Like the tut this bird now fire.
quents the flax-hats and sucks the honey
| from the richly mellihous flowers. The
| natural deduction is that the eating of the
| humble-bee's honey sac by the starlings IS
| developing or has developed the taste for
I honey in these birds.
! "A new mode of connecting a suspected
burglar with the crime he is believed to
have committed, has been discovered when
| an explosive has been used in committing
a robbery, says an exchange. 1t has been
found that nitro-glyceEne, which is used
| to pillow safes open, emits a gas which tants,
everything near where it is exploded. In a
recent trial some gold was found on sus-
| pected person which, under chemical test
showed that it had been exposed to the gas
emitted from a nitro-glycerine explosion
| Some paper money which had not been alb
stracted from the burglarze5nsafe showed
also the same faint as the gold, proving
conclusively that the safe had been forced
open by that explosive. A direct connection
was thereby established between the sus-
pected prisoner and some explosion of the
/ kind proved to have occurred in the safe
| he was charged with breaking into. IT,
under such circumstances, prisoner fails
| to explain how he came to be in possession
of money, which must have been exposed
TO the gas created-by nitro-glycerine ex-
plosion, the evidence is almost demonstra-
tive of his guilt, quite sufficient indeed to
secure his conviction by a jury.
Some time ago, when there seemed
probability of complications arising be-
tween America and England, Hiram Max
i'm caused many people in London some
uneasiness by the statement that he could
bui1d an airship by means of which an in
vading force could drop dynamite by the
ton over the metropolis, and turn its most
important districts into a mass of debris.
| A Pennsylvania aeronaut has evidently
taken his cue from the clever American,
| whose name is associated with one of the
most deadly guns ever invented, and has
designed a death-dealing air-ship, which
he has submitted to the United States gov
eminent. This ship, he says, will settle
| the war with Spain in short order BY
| lacking against air currents, it can stay
in the upper air regions for any length of
| time. The inventor proposes to carry 1900
| pounds of nitO-glycerine inclosed in metal
| balls each containing from so to 70 pounds.
The balls will be enclosed in cotton to pre-
vent their being exploded by friction in
falling. He will get the range by tele-
scope, and when he is quite ready will
drop some small solid metal balls as tests.
| He will follow their course through the
air with the telescope, and when quite
sure he is right as to position, win go
| ahead with his work of destruction. This
viii consist of dropping the nitro-glycer-
inc spheres from possibly a height of two
or three miles. One ball will be sufficient
to blow up the largest vessel afioat, and
entire fortihcations can be raised to the
ground with equal facility. With Maxim,
he thinks that the bombardment of a city
can be accomplished from the clouds more
surely and quickly, not to say more safely,
than by guns planted on land or on the
deck of a vessel.
There is a remarkable fact connected
with sleep which must not be overlooked,
says the ST. Louis Republic. The sleep
of human being, if we are not too busy
to attend to the matter, always evokes
certain feeling of awe. Go into a room
where a person is sleeping and 1t is diff
cult to resist the sense that one is in the
presence of the central mystery of exist
ence. People who remember how constant
ly they see old Jones asleep in the club
library will smile at this but look quietly
and alone even at old Jones and the sense
of mystery will soon develop. 1t is no
good to say that sleep is only moving"
because il looks like death The person
is breathing Sc loudly as 10 take away
all thought of death causes the sense of
awe quite easily as the silent sleeper.
who hardly seems to breathe We see
death seldom, but were it more familiar
we doubt If corpse would inspire so much