The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-15
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

hSltS, udilCiHS girls, railway trains, anu
scenes from popular plays no longer sat
isfy the searchers for material for cine
photographic reproduction. and one of
them had the bright idea of turning his
agile camera on a solar eclipse. So he
took his instruments to India, when the
scientists went there last year, and while
they took a few photographs he took them
by the rod. The precious films were care
fully packed for transportation to Eng
land, but when the photographer opened
his baggage on the London dock he found
that one box had been opened and the very
best film removed! 1t is thought that the
larceny was committed by the photogra-
piers Indian servant. who, perhaps, had
been commissioned by some enterprising
scoundrel to rob him of the one film thai
above all others he was anxious to show in
that country. Perhaps even at this very
minute his animated pictures of the eclipse
may be on view in Calcutta or elsewhere.
One of the places in our neighborhood
which is Stunned alike by saint and Gin
ner, says the Auburn (Ky) News, is the
old spring near our town, in Logan coun-
ty, known as the Blue Hole Though
legendary the story l shall relate of this
spring is true, for 1t has been corrobor-
ated by the former generation, by the
older men of the present century Ac-
cording to this story, when the Shaker
village at South Union was first estab-
lished by few venturesome though hardy
pioneers, member of the seAt was dis
patched on horseback one day to Russell
vile with bag of gold to put the money
in safe in the county's capital When
the treasure-bearer reached the spring he
rode the horse in to give it water, but
rider and animal were swallowed up
never to rise again. 1t is said that the
Shakers friends used as much as 500 feet
OF rope in an attempt to
recover the body and coin, but
never struck bottom. 1 myself have heard
old men say that they have, tried to find
the bottom of the spring by using hun
dreds of feet of cord and lead sinker, but
without success.
A climb to the top of big Craggy,"
along the banks Of Bee Tee creek, af-
fords many bits of picturesque scenery as
well as a view of surprising grandeur
| from the summit, says the Asheville IN
| c. Citizen. A party of gentlemen from
Asheville recently visited this majestic old
| mountain that rears it's head more than
| 5000 feet above sea level, report an unus-
| ual manifestation of the pranks of cleo
| tricity. Along the top of the ridge for a
| distance of perhaps seyenty-five or eighty
yards there was deep furrow, as if made
| by a large pow AS the current passed
along large pieces of turf We're thrown
| aside, tough rhododendron bushes were
| torn up by the roots and hurled TO one side
while huge boulders that lay in the path
way were split in twain and in some in
| stances shivered to atoms.- After the cur
| rent had passed along the surface of the
mountain, or topmost ridges, for fifty or
| sixty yards, it appears to have divided
one fork going down the mountain side
| and the other continuing on the ridge for
some fifteen or twenty feet and then dis
appear entirely. The strange feature of
| this electrical phenomenon is that the
| charge did not at once disappear by taking
downward direction into the earth in
stead of remaining for so great a distance
on the surface.
Even in Russia, it seems, despotism
does not go the length of forcing a woman
to tell her age or of furnishing her for stat
ing it inaccurately, says the New York
| Times. A certain Princess Eugalytcheff
| was recently tried at Moscow and sentenc-
ed to lifelong interment in the province of
Olonetz for embezzling 10000 rubles After
| the proceedings in court had come to an
end, and after the noble lady had retired
to the country for her somewhat prolong-
ed rest from urban gayeties and tempta-
| tons, a too-careful official discovered that
| among the papers jim the case was the
Princess certificate of baptism, and that
| she had changed the date of it from 1S47
to 1867. Instantly this grave crime was
| brought to the notice of the authorities
| and the convicted embezzler was summon
ed to meet the charge of falsifying an Off
| cia1 document Then curious fact was
disclosed, and a surprising amount of light
was thrown on Russian society. The
| Prince Eugalytcheff, who was cited as a
| witness by the procurator, said that
| whether his bride was twenty years older
| or younger than her certified age was a
| matter of absolute indifference TO him. All
he could say was that he received the sum
of 5000 rubles for giving the lady his name.
| that Immediately after the marriage cere-
| money he procured for her a separate pass
port, and that since then he had known
nothing more of his wife or her private
affairs. The jury calamity declined to
| convict the accused Princess on the
trivial charge about a woman's age" and
she was sent back to her provincial exile.
| Princes evidently come cheap in Russia
and this is perhaps the most interesting
bit of news in the whole story.
A recent accident in London has called
attention to hitherto little suspected
source of danger-that attending friction
| - VI oliy hAlQ III the neighbour
hood of an inhammable vapor. saws Cas-
slers Magazine. Rubbing often generates
electricity, and the minutest electric
sparks, too small 40 be seen or even to
betray itself by the slightest swapping or
cracking, may set fire to vapor. In the
case alluded to, spark from the friction
OF a hairdresser's hand on his patron (
head set fire to the vapors of a hair-wash
containing kerosene. Lord Kelvin. refer
ring to the subject shortly after the ac-
cident, spoke warningly of the readiness
with which combustible gas and air mix
lures are ignited by even very
talnt electric sparks. He said /.
This readiness to ignite is illustrated
in elementary lectures on electricity hv
| Nolta's cannon-a little vanished brass
gun, mounted on glass pillar, and having
a wide touch-hole plugged with sealing
| wax in the center of which is mounted a
BRASS wire carrying a little brass knob out
side, and projecting inside to within one
| twentieth of an inch of the end of another
brass wire fixed to the metal of the gun
The gun is filled with an explosive mixture
of oxygen and hydrogen, and its muzzle
is plugged with cork The vanished out