The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-20
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Mount Terrible, is a small village called
Montavon. The government of the place
IS conducted by a president vice presi-
dent, three councillors or aldermen, COM
munal steward. communal clerk and com
munal sergeant The presidents name is
Joseph Montavon, the vice president, Vic
tor Montavon; the steward, George Monta-
Won; the clerk, Joseph Montavon; the SER
geant, Karl Montavou, and the three coun-
cilors, Peter, Julius and Ernst Montavon,
respectively. This curious circumstance
arises from the fact that everybody in the
place bears the name of Montavon. It is
the name of a family so large that it has
been vested with town rights by the Swiss
government.
The Eskimo doctor is given his fee in
advance. If,he cures his patient he keeps
it, if not he returns it. The Andes is the
longest range of mountains in the world.
1t was German ana tomist who failing
to find a soul in a manShe had dissected,
refused to believe he ever had one. India
is the home of about 1900 Kinds of plants.
A canvas-back duck In a hurry can fly
at the rate of 100 miles an hour, the red
head can maintains a rate of 80 miles IN
hour the whole day long. Human life is
lengthening. The average life in Rome
1900 years ago was is years, in England
il is now Al years. In Brittany a field
mouse is a~sure cure for smallpox. An
astrologer is the authority for the state
ment that a woman born in April is in
constant and uniutelligent, though liable
to be good-looklng. If you allowed them
to grow, your finger nails would be an
inch and half long this time next year.
The most extraordinary case of suicide
was that of Seneca, the celebrated Roman
philosopher. II was not exactly a case of
suicide either, as he had been ordered to
take his own life. When Seneca had been
warned of approaching trouble he believ-
ed that the fact of his being at one time
Nero's tutor might be in his favor. Never
theless he offered to surrender his wealth
to the state and retire to private life. But
the tyrant had neither mercy nor men,
DRY in his heart. He must have Seneca's
life. The only favor shown was in allow
ing the philosopher the privilege of dis
posing of it in his own way. Seneca ex-
pected to carry out his sentence by open
ing his veins. This failing to act speedily.
he took draught of poison. He was then
put in hot bath. but death still refusing
TO end his sufferings, at his own request
he was put in an oven and suffocated.
-Spitzbergen is not an unbroken
ice-sheet, as many persons sup
posed it to be. says Chambers
Journal. Glaciers there are in
plenty, but there Is much open ground and
fine mountain scenery. Fogs are preva-
lent, and Mr.. Garwood described a pecu-
liar effect due to this condition of the at
mosphere, which does not seem to have
been ever noted by Alpine climbers. He has
seen the face of mountain covered with
spicules of ce-a kind of exaggerated boar
frost-some of the icicles standing out
horizontally from the wall of rock and
measuring as much as eighteen inches in
length. They are evidently generated by
the action of fog-and grow by the con-
slant addition of moist particles. Fogs
will often continue for many days togeth-
er, and they are so dense that one cannot
see companion who is more than two or
three yards away.
Some interesting statistics of the pop
ulation of Russia are reported by Con-
sui Smith, stationed at Moscow, says the
Philadelphia Ledger According to the
census taken a year ago the total popu-
lation of the Empire is 126, All, 900, almost
equally divided between the sexes. there
being but $4,000 more males than females.
Russia has not done much lighting in re-
cent years, and her men are not wander
ers; when they emigrate they usually take
their families with them hence the num-
erical relation between the sexes in that
country is pretty nearly the normal one.
1t is also shown TO be a rural population
to an extent that should please the es-
sayists who deplore the tendency of the
people of this and other countries to
flock into the towns. Only 13 per cent.
of the Russian population lives in towns
and cities, yet we do not read that the
nation is richer, wiser or happier on
that account. The student of political
economy will find much to interest him
in the details of the Russian sensus.
The Philadelphia Bulletin disfigures
the great Morgan case by speaking of
the excitement that occurred in the land
when 'Morgans murdered body was
found" and which eliminated in the anti
Masonic political movement that threat
ened to capture all the offices at one time,
says the Nebraska State Journal Nor
gans body never turned up, and the only
explanation of his case that really covers
the ground is that contained in the ro>
nance, recently published by a Cincin-
natl savant, called "Etidorpha." Accord
ing to this story, the inner circles of Ma
sorry, who are something like the adopts
of India in their mystic character. had
Morgan kidnapped and conveyed to the
famous region of Kentucky, where sink
holes abound in the limestone formation
in the vicinity of the Mammoth cave
whence ne was taken down into the bowels
of the earth by an eyeiess gnome. and
properly educated. He was after long
season of instruction brought back to
earth and lived to a green old age. Just
before he passed away he communicated
his story to the author of the book with
an injunction that il should not be pub
lished until he was dead. Until we have
some evidence to the contrary, this his,
tory of Morgan and his fate ought to be
credited e.,t ~
Unique in many ways was an operation
performed at the city hospital recently. re-
lates the Cincinnati Enquirer and It is
questionable whether in all medical history
there is any record of the peculiar make |
shift as employed on this occasion. The |
operation was in reality simply a conun- |
uation of one begun the day before upon |
John Heuschan. Heuschan, it will be re- |
membered, is the empioye of the Buckeve |
Arc Light Company who sustained severe |
burns about The back, chest and right arm.
the latter member being reduced to a niece |
of raw flesh from the shoulder to the wrist |
On Monday the greater rE.i OF the arm |
was skin-grafted, from the, shoulder down.
large pieces of the epldermis of the mans
cha u ..fr