The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-14
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


change of center is due TO the fact ti;at,
while all the tusks from Central Tropical
Africa were formerly carried to Zanzibar
and thence to Bombay and Liverpool,
large part of the trade has now been di-
verted down the Kongo to the Belgian
steamers, and they land the product at
Antwerp.
The famous lion carved from the rock
at Lucerne by Thorwaldsen in honor of
the defense of the Swiss Guards at the
Tuilerles in 1872 is slowly crumbling away.
Some years ago a committee of experts
made a careful examination of the mon
ument which had begun to show signs
of decay owing to the action of the water,
which constantly filters through the rock
behind. A few superficial repairs were
made, but now Thorwaldsen'S work is
threatened with complete destruction, the
stone being gradually worn away.
The literary cult at Topeka are wor-
rying over a new trouble, says the Kan
sas City Journal. The state library recent
ly received an ancient book entitled THE
Twelve Caesars" 1t contains pictures
of the Caesars and their wives, and in
every instance the woman is pictured with
an enormously long neck, while, with the
single exception of julius, the Caesars are
fat men. 1t is understood very well that
a great statesman ought to be fat, but
nowadays there are no women with such
long necks as those pictured, and it is the
fear of the Topeka literary cult that our
modern day females are deteriorating, or
telescoping, or something of that sort.
The list of candidates for sainthood at
Rome is long one, and there are 20
names standing before that of Joan Of
Arc, whose advocates push her claims I'M
remittingly. She stands chance of be-
ing let in through a side door within five
years or so, instead of waiting thirty or
more, as she would be forced to do if she
took her regular turn in the line of can
didates. The making of saints is the
slowest work the church engages in, and
many centuries often elapse between death
and canonization If the maid is ever to
wear the aureole of Qualification, it ought
not to be withheld from her much longer
one OF these days some housing iuVesti-
gator will arise, armed with proof that
that glowing and far-beaming light of an
cient France never really existed, being
only Pickering phantasm, an ignis fat
Jus leading the Imagination into proftless
regions of fog and delusion.
There is in Russia district which is
wholly administered and during most of
the time exclusively inhabited by women
says the New York Tribune. 1t is the
province of Smolensk, and comprises a
district of about fifteen square miles, from
which all the abie-bodied males emigrate
an the spring and proceed to neighboring
towns and districts In search of work, re-
naming away about nine months of the
year. In their absence the women cult
Vate the fields and manage local affairs
generally, under the presidency of a wo-
man Mayor. Before nightfall the women
assemble in a sort of club house and play
cards till 1 and in the morning. Virtue
ic
and ale, and though the hours are late
and so much time is given to amusement
the commune is prosperous, disorder is I'M
known, and it is one of the best conducted
portions of the empire. The Czarina takes
an interest in it and is proud of it, as she
has every reason to be.
"A French journal says that visiting
cards are not a recent invention, nor even
of European origin They existed in China
twelve centuries ago, but their use did not
spread to France until the last century
The Chinese cards, however, had little re-
Semblance to those in use in Europe to-
day. They contained often wonderful de-
signs expressing all sorts of good wishes
for those for whom they We're intended.
The size of the card indicated the respect
the owner had for its recipient. In the
seventeenth century the English ambassa-
dor at Picking received from the Chinese
which was carried by six men. Cards were
illustrated with designs, the work fire.
quently of artists of reputation, when first
introduced in France. NEUROLOGICAL sub
Jects were most in vogue. These were in
fashion until the first empire, and it was
not until 1915, when the use of cards be-
came universal, that the name on them
was engraved in the simple form OF to-
day.
To the painstaking researches of NJ.
MIGUEL the eminent French scientist, is
due an almost exact knowledge of the rel
ative quality of heterogeneous peculiar
to different localities In Paris, and the in
formation thus presented affords an inter-
esting study, says the Philadelphia Rec
ord. In the Park de Monsouris, in the
south of that city, he found some $50 of
such organisms In one cubic meter of air;
that Is, in a little more than one square
yard while in the Rue de RivoH there
were nearly $500 in one cubic meter: in
a room in the Rue Monge he found 49,
900 in the same space while in fifteen
grains of dust scraped up in a room there
the showing of heterogeneous reached
the figure of 2 100000. Specifically consid-
cred. therefore, the solid impurities in the
air of a large city constitute an enormous
factor, atmospherically, in addition to the
noxous gases commonly present, viz, car
carbonous oxide. The solid particles con-
sist largely of organic matter. such as
minute particles of various forms of in
sect life, especially house flies and their
larvae, together with the all-abundant ex-
creta from animals; these matters. diving
upon the streets in the sun. are reddily
ground into impalpable powder by the
horses hoofs. This, with the other pre-
vailing kinds Of dust from various sources.
is waited about by the wind and carried,
of course. into the living apartments, to
be inhaled by the people.
Engineers and railway men are await
ing with considerable anxiety the results
of the test to which the felt mats for rails
are now being put. So much has been
said in favor of this latest invention from
Germany that II seems time alone can
demonstrate whether or not the mats can
do what is claimed for them. says the Gin
cinnati Enquirer. The new mat was first
exhibited a Leipsic, Germany, last sum
mer, and at once attracted attention. IL
was at first said that the mats were made
for protecting steel rails from catching
cold, but this is not the case The more
to-be-appreciated service rendered by this
novel mat is to protect the Duhlfo from Tho