The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-01
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

III Wen 70 do, the ceremony comes off in
the early part OF the morning.
of the locomotives on the railways in
the United Kingdom. 9s1a per cent. are
fitted with automatic brakes; and 80 per
cent of the carriage and other vehicles at
tached TO passenger trains are similarly
equipped
-Impaling was used as a punishment in
Turkey up to 1850 The last men so ex-
ecuted were four Arab sheikhs who had re-
Deiled. They We're impaled at the four cor
ners of the Bagdad bridge. One of them
lived for nine days
Among the multifarious duties which
demand the attention of the Calcutta po-
lice, the capture of sharks in the Hooghly
finds place. During the past wenty years
rewards have been paid for the destruc-
ton OF those marine man-eaters.
The largest gasometer in the world is
at East Greenwich When full it con-
tains 100000 cubic feet of gas. 1t weighs
200 tons, is $50 feet high, 800 feet in di-
ameter, requires 1900 tons of coal to fill
1t with gas, and cost nearly 100000.
TO encourage the removal of old build
ings' the authorities of Vienna have de-
creed that if the owners of ! ,2SS specified
lures, they will be guaranteed a release
from the payment of taxes for eighteen
years.
-Statisticians claim that the earth will
not support more than about 5,994 1900
people. The present population is esti-
mated at 1.467 100000, and the increase be-
ing per cent. each decade. At that ra tie
the utmost limit will be reached in the
year 2,072.
-Earthenware sleepers, the invention of
a japanese, were recently experimental
on at Shmbasti station. Japan. Fairly
good results were obtained. 1t is claimed
that the increased cost of earthenware
sleepers is amply compensated by their
freedom from decay.
Among the Siamese the curious Gus
tom obtains of reversing the elbow JOINT
of the left arm as a sign of superiority.
The children of both sexes are trained to
reserve their elbow in this painful posi-
ton at an early age, if their parents are
persons of high grades.
The last instance of boiling to death
took place in Persia in 1890. The offender,
guilty of stealing state revenues. was put
into caldron of cold water which was
slowly heated to the boiling point. His
bones were distributed as a warning
among the provisional tax collectors.
Oregon has an inventor who evidently
came from genuine Yankee stock. He
has invented certain musical instruments
of aluminium. The strings are detacha-
bic so that the mandolin can be used for
a stewpan, the guitar for a ham broiler or
fish frier and the banjo for the browning
of flapjacks.
in England during the sixteenth CEN
fury above the value of y pence. burn.
ing haystack, killing or stealing a sheep,
breaking dyke or bridge, breaking a bank
Of fishpond, cutting down a tree in an
orchard, and the malicious tearing or de-
facing the garments of a person in the
street were all capital offenses.
The shooting fish is a native of the
East Indies. 1t has a hollow cylindrical
beak. When it spies a fly setting on the
plants that grow in shallow water, with
remarkable dexterity it elects out of a
tubular mouth single drop of water,
which seldom misses its aim, and striking
the fly into the water, the fish makes it
its prey.
James Glover of Quitman, Kan, is
one of those practical jokers of whom too
many have been born. He pulled chair
from beneath Frederic Bird as the latter
was about to sit down and Birds leg was
broken by his fall Now Bird is suing
Glover for $500 damages. 1t is doubt
full if Glover got 5000 worth of fun out
of the joke. Bird certainly did not.
About 1920 the Irish usquebagh began
to acquire reputation in England. Before
1901 brand wine had begun to be dis
titled in the low countries from apples
pears and malt; and in that year an or
dinance was passed at Tournay forbid
ding the sale of liquor. except by apothe-
carries, partly because of the dearness Of
corn, and partly because of the drunken
ness.
of course, it is natural that things
should be topsy-turvy on the under side
of the globe. In China the men wear
skirts, and the women trousers. The men
wear their hair long and the women wear
their hair short. The men carry on dress
making, and the women carry burdens.
People dress in white at funerals, in
mourning al weddings and it is old wo-
men always who act as bridesmaids.
In the seventeenth century canaries in
Great Britain were chiefly imported from
Germany, and were OF a green color They
are now bred in Norwich Coventry. Der
by, Northampton, Nottingham, Glasgow,
and some of the manufacturing towns Of
Lancashire and Yorkshire. In many gar
rets, in which sedentary employment is
pursued, the clear notes of the canary bird
rise above the click of the shuttle or the
Whirr of the sewing machine.
"A red granite sarcophagus for the
widow of the late Ulysses S. Grant has
been placed in the tomb on Riverside
Drive. 1t weighs eight tons, and is the
exact counterpart of the one in which
the dead soldier reposes. 1t was cut at
the quarres at Monticello, Wis. and has
all its exposed faces highly polished. The
color is dark red, variegated in spots
On the sarcophagus intended for Mrs
Grant there is the name in bronze, "Julfa
ID. Grant" The sarcophagus of the Cen
eral merely has his name Ulysses S.
Grant" The gas radiators to heat the
tomb and prevent the walls from sweat
ing are in successful operation
In scientific road construction in Mass
achusetts the highway commissioners find
that the most important Of the work is
in the reduction of the hills. as the draft
over any road is, of course, measured Inv
the power necessary to surmount the
grades. This explains in part. the policy
OF the commission in doing its work i'm
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