The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-06
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

mato. If one knows where to find the
spring, one can open the fruit and dis
close, packed snugly together, a set of
tiny dominos, with which their owner can
while away the weary hours. Some of
them may contain poker decks.
The following. says the Pekin Gazette,
is the text of the imperial decree dismiss
ing Weng Tung-ho from Office: THE as
sistant grand secretary and president of
the board of revenues, Weng Tung-ho, ap-
pears to have attended to his duties of
late in such an unsatisfactory manner as
to raise the ire of every one against him,
which has resulted in repeated denuncia-
tionS being made TO the throne. More
over, even when in private audience with
us, he has acted in a most unseemly man
ner, following the bent of his own wishes
and thereby revealing to us that he is
trying to encroaeh on our prerogatives
in his lust for power. The accused is
therefore clearly unfit for his post as a
member of the Grand Council. In fact
he would have his conduct investigated
and severe punishment meted out to him.
but remembering that he was for many
years our tutor in the Yuching Palace we
cannot bear to give him the severe pun
ishment he deserves, and we therefore
command the accused, Weng Tung-ho, to
resign his post at once and return to his
native town, in order to save himself from
As a protection against the action of
torpedoes, says Chambers Journal, war
ships were provided with wire netting
shields, OF crinolines which can be ex-
tended by spars so as TO form a wall
around the vessels sides. Upon which
some ingenious inventor gave the travel
ing fish-shaped destroyer a cutting imple-
ment at its head which could penetrate
the wire screen. A new form of crinolne
has now been introduced which possesses
a mesh of such construction that 1t cannot
be pierced. But the invention probably
comes too late; for if any lesson is to be
learned from recent events it is that the
torpedo in naval warfare is of such sec
ondary Importance that 1t may be almost
neglected altogether. We have learned
lately that fighting ships armed with mod
ern guns need not get to close quarters
to work terrible destruction upon one an
other. A couple of miles separating the
attacking vessel and that with which, she
is engaged Is regarded as a near range;
and no torpedo is effective at a quarter
of that distance Quick-firing guns and
accurate craftsmanship are the far more
| important items to attend to, and Ameri-
can perfection in both these respects has
really determined the issue in the present
war.
To Presbyterians, says the New Or
| leans Picayune, belongs the credit of not
only erecting one of the finest buildings
in the world devoted to religious uses,
but of placing upon that building, in or
namentation, the finest series of architect
ural statutes Of heroic size ever placed
on any structure anywhere, says an ex-
| change. The Witherspoon building in
Philadelphia, which cost $1,000 900, is now
| being enriched with statutes of famous
! Presbyterian leaders, with Bible Old
| Testament characters, and forty hstori-
| cal tablets. Among the statues chosen are
| John Witherspoon, moderator of the first
| Presbyterian general assembly, president
! of Princeton and signer of the declaration
of independence; Marcus Whitman, who
made the famous winter ride from Oregon
| to Washington; the Rev. John Mckenzie,
! the founder of Presby terianlsm in Amer
lea, and the prophets and Old Testament
characters, Moses Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah,
| Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Deborah and
| Huldah, and John the Baptist of the New
| Testament. The figures are in terra Gotta
and life-size. The sculptor was A Ster-
! ling Caldor, who modelled the heroic figure
| of William Penn, which surmounts the
great tower of the city building in Phila-
delohia.
-Duelling between men has long gone
out of fashion in England, and 1t is left to
nations and lower animals to settle their
differences by an appeal to arms, says the
! London Telegraph. In Kew Gardens in
| the presence of a considerable number of
! spectators, an affair of honor was settled
| between a pelican and a duck. The birds
1 had had words together so to speak and
| the pelican determined that the next best
thing to making the duck eat his words
was to eat the duck. So, after a little
! thruss and parry on the water he made
for the smaller bird, and snapped it into
! his pouch. Then a battle royal began in
side the pouch of the pelican. The duck
struggled kicked, quacked, and OCCASION
| ally managed to get a leg or a wing out
side, while his captor threw his beak high
in the air, then dipped it into the water
and kept it there, as If trying to suffocate
or drown it's enemy. From the look of the
agftated pouch, it seemed as if the contest
was by no means one-sided, but that the
pelican was having rather rough time.
| At last the duck got his head and one wing
| out, and then, with a magnificent effort,
! managed to get entirely free. Once again
| on the water the duck declined further
| combat and fed, while the pelican re-
manned looking as if honor We're thorough
! ly satisfied.
"A Pennsylvania inventor makes the
rather startling proposition of introduce
| ing porcelain tombstones; but upon re-
| Election this appears more radical than
Impractical. If you have ever visited any
of the old burying grounds, dating from
the seventeen hundreds, you must have
! been struck with the perishable nature of
! the ubiquitous white marble. There is
| hardly a single specimen of such a tomb
| stone the inscription of which is legible
after 100 years of exposure to the ele-
ments The Swedes introduced slate tomb
| stones and these, while not so striking
when new, have proved themselves the
! best fitted for this particular use, as
| many of these may be found to-day in
| New England cemeteries, dating back to
| the early years of the past century, that
are quite as readable as the day they
were erected. Porcelain can be handled
on a large scale nowadays, an instance of
which is the house now building for the
! japanese exhibit at Paris in 1900 This
| house will be heXagonal in shape each
side measuring several yards, and com
| posed entirely of porcelain. The sugges-
| ton above referred TO of using DOrcelain