The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-26
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

English brickmakers are not alarmed
by the fear that paper bricks are to revo-
lutionize the briek-maklng industry,
although considering them well adapted
for lining walls as a sort of Lincrusta
Walton decoration, and for trimmings and
facinSs.
"A fact which has attracted no little at
tention in astronomical circles is the supe-
riority exhibited by the 24-inch telescope
lens of the Lowell observatory at Flag
staff, Ariz., as compared with the greater
Yerkes and Lick lenses. About 800 new
double stars have been discovered with
this instrument many of the new stellar
systems being large and brilliant, and
therefore of the highest interest. Some
of these new stars are very close and are
barely separated in the great
telescope, while others are very
unequal in brightness and re-
quire the best atmosphere for effecting
a good separation of the images. Curious
ly enough, it is proved that the two inner
planets, Mercury and Venus, rotate on
their axes in the same time in which they
revolve In their orbits.
There is a man in New York, promo
ter, who makes 1t his business to deal
with women investors only, says an ex-
change. All his schemes are presented to
them, and he has had considerable sue
cess in floating stocks and bonds which
a capitalist of the male persuasion could
not be induced to notice. Numerous I'M
dertakings of Importance have been start
ed by women to be afterward taken up
and carried to a safe and profitable com
pletion by men who hesitated to assume
the initiative. Among the subscribers to
Klondike schemes are widows by the
score. Their judgment of an enterprise
is instructive and intuitive They have
faith, and once believers their courage
sticks to the last. New York has a hun
bred rich widows, who are as independent
as Semirams, the beauteous and wise
Queen of Assyria. Semiramis never show
ed any genius or brains until she became
a widow.
1t is a fact of comparatively recent
discovery in chemical metallurgy says
the New York Sun, that metals lose their
vitality from repetitions of shocks and
strains, and may be said as the express
sion is, to suffer from fatigue-that is
they may be worked till their molecules
fail to hold together, and then they are in
a state of exhaustion. AS is Familiarity
known, bars of tin, rods of brass, and
wires of any metal will separate owing
to fatigue, if bent backward and forward
continuously. But by careful expert
ments however. the fact is made to ap-
pear that a remedy exists for this condi-
ton of metals, If the overstrain does not
border on rupture, and this remedy is
very much like that which is applied in
the case of an overworked human frame
namely, rest. Feather-edged tools recov-
er their vitality better than any other
| OF course, the length of time required for
| this rest varies with different metals and
| the amount of strain to which they have
been subjected. Hard metals, such as
iron and steel, use up one and two years
time in the process; on the other hand
soft metals, like lead, retain their cohe-
sive force longer and also require less
rest.
Quite list of materials have been used
for telegraph poles but the idea of stone
for this purpose Will be new, even to most
| linemen 1t is nevertheless a fact that
| the messages between Milan and Switzer-
land, by way of the Simplon Pass, pass
over a telegraph line with stone poles
This line runs along the fine military road
which skirts the west side of Lake Mag
| giore. The poles are of gray granite, and
| average about ten inches square and TWEEN
| ty-five feet high The American traveller
| who came across this engineering curlos-
| ity was told by a telegraph officer that
! these poles were in use for a distance of
| thirty to forty miles, and that their cost
| in position was about 50 each. The quar-
| ries from which the poles were cut are
situated just above the town of Stresa
Here and there along the line, however, is
! seen wooden pole, and the wooden pole
| is usually new, while the stone poles are
| invariably old On seeking for an expla-
| nation of this suggestive fact, the traveller
was informed that the renewals are now
made in wood, the principal cause OF dis
! satisfaction with the stone poles being that
they did not stand well against any tran
verse strain due to the pull exerted when
tightening the wires.
The toad does not take dead or motion
less food says the Popular Science Month
ly. Only living and moving insects, cen
| tipeds, etc., are devoured while worms or
other larvae disturbed by their hopping
are safe so long as they remain curled up;
! but as soon as they move they are captur-
ed. The toad's tongue, its. only organ
for Selling food, is soft, extensile. attached
| in front, but free behind, and is covered
with a glutinous substance that adheres
firmly to the food seized Sosrapid is the
motion of this weapon that a careful watch
| is necessary in order to see the animal
| feed. AT night, soon after sunset or even
! before on cool evenings, the toad energies
from it's shelter and Apwly hops about in
search of food. Something of a regular
beat is covered by these animals, whose
sense of locality is strong AT Amherst
A. II. Kirkland, from whose paper we de-
| rive these observations, once counted eight
! large, well-fed toads seated under an arc
light and actively engaged in devourng
| the insects which, deprived of wings, fell
| from the lamp above AT Maiden, a col
only of about half dozen toads sally forth
on summer evenings from under the piazza
OF a citizens house, go down. the walk.
! cross the street, and take up their sta
tons under the arc lamp, where they feed
upon the fallen insects till the current is
turned off, when they return to their ac-
customed shelter.
"A reminder of one of the most painful
! episodes in our naval history, says the
! New York Times, comes from Louisville
in the shape of a statement made by Miss
Theresa Wales, member of a religious or.
der which has an establishment in that
city. Miss Wales says that her father. w
j. Wales, was in 1912 purser of the United
States brig Somers, and that, on informa-
| ton furnished nv him the cantair A.