The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-30
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

that village. Sne doesn't occupy the house
now because the spiders have made it I'M
inhabitable. No methods yet tried have
succeeded in materially reducing the num-
| bers of The pests, though thousands OF
them have been destroyed.
According to the latest official Stats
tics there is an increasing dissemination
every year among the young men of Ger
| many to serve in the army. OF the con-
tingent of 214,6 men, for instance, mus
| tered in last year to serve in the active
| army 1850 were punished in absentia Tor
unauthorized emigration. OF course, this
| does not by any means signify that this
! large number deserted, but that they left
| the country without complying with any
| or all of the regulations drawn up to
| guard against evadng military service. On
| the lists of the German army just now are
| carried 1,624,3S5 persons-720, 400 of the age
of 20, 4S1, 400 of p, 1886, 1874 of p, and SJ75l
of a higher age.
1t Is reported that the preparations for
| the Paris exhibition of 1900 are so back
ward that it will tsfe vigorous work 70
| get things ready. American artists have
| been far from enthusiastic at the pros
poets for the exhibition of pictures, and
are not likely TO make an effort in this
direction. They will nevertheless do as
much justice to themselves as the French
artists did to the art of France at Chicago.
One of the features of the exhibition will
be an enormous telescope but what use
| it will be put to seems uncertain. The
public is supposed to sit in a dark room
and see only an image of stars thrown on
| a screen. OF course any magic lantern
| Slide would answer equally well, and one
expert who has seen the great spy-glass
says that the lens Is full of flaws and
the whole thing a fake.
The first woman who lived by her pen
in England according to the Cornhil
| Magazine, was the notorious Aphra Behn.
About Aphra or Aphrara Behn's early
| history there is some uncertainty. Cam
terbury was the town usually given as her
| birthplace; but quite recently her baptis-
mai register was discovered at Wye, which
| gives the date of her baptism as July 10,
| 1910, and the names of her parents Amy
| and John Johnson. Charles II, who was
| gifted with a keen insight into character,
! had perceived her ability and zeal, and re-
! solved to send her as female spy to Hol-
| land Well pleased with the commission,
she settled herself at Antwerp. She owns
that she was of a passionate and suscepti-
BILE temperament, and she soon attracted
the attention of two admirers, one man
| of 81, Albert or Van der Aaibert of
| Utrecht, the other a stout elephantine ell
Derby Dutchman, called Van Bruin. AL
bert, In a monument of indiscretion, con-
fided to Aphra Behn an important state
secret-that Cornelius de Witt was in
| tending TO send a Dutch fleet up the
Thames, under the command of De Ruy-
ter. This secret was Immediately commu-
nicated by Aphra Benin to the authorities
in England, who treated 1t with scorn and
ridicufe. Her satisfaction was great when
the information she had given turned out
to be absolutely correct
Vast deposits of iron ore have recently
been found in the north of Sweden. The
iron mines of Gellivare have been worked
for some time, and a line of state rail-
roads was some time ago extended to that
| place-probably nearer the North Pole
than any other railroad in the world, as
it crosses the 9th degree north latitude.
Rich iron mines having been located also
at Kirunavara, Luossavara and other
places, where it has been decided to ex-
tend the railroad to the Norwegian from
tier, and thence to Ofoten, on the north
west coast of Norway, with branch lines
from the different mines. This railroad
win probably not be completed before the
year 1903 Up to that time the ore will
be shipped as heretofore from Lulea, but
when the Ofoten railroad is finished, ore
win be sent to Ofoten-especially in win
ter time, when the harbor at Lulea is
closed by ice-and thence by steamship to
England. The iron mines in England were
long ago found TO be inadequate to supply
the growing demand for cheap and high
grade ore, and the English iron works have
bought large quantities of ore from Spain.
The Spanish iron mines are said to be on
the decline, however, and the United States
has grown TO be a competitor of England
that must be reckoned with in the mar
kets of the world. This is evidently one
of the reasons why the English iron mas
ters have turned to Sweden for a supply
of raw material
One hears from time to time such wild
shots as to the incomes of different mem
bers of the English royal family that a
few reliable figures from the Chicago
News are never without interest The
Duke of Edinburgh, for instance, whose
financial affairs have so often been made
the subject of gossip, had an allowance
of $4,000 a year on attaining his major
ity, and another $4,000 a year on his
marriage, but he voluntarily ceded this
latter item on succeeding to the duchy of
SaXe-C oburg-Gotha. The Duchess of Ed
inburgh brought her husband a dowry of
81 100000 and an annuity of $50, 250 which
goes to her children at her DEATH The
Duke of Connaught has $125O00 a year
and his pay as general is nearly $4,000
The Duchess brought a dowry of SIS, 600
and the Duke settled $3.50 a year upon
her g her marriage. The Queens daugh-
ters, Princess Christian, Princess Louise
and Princess Beatrice, all have $780, 900 a
year and each had a dotage of $50, 600
y
er of Windsor Park and the Marquis of
Lorne $1,000 a year as governor of Wind
sor Castle. The Duke of Cambridge has
$4,000 a year and Gloucester House rent
free, which is equal to another 5000 a
year, and. although the rangerShips Of
the Green Park, St. James, Hyde and
Richard Parks are altogether worth only
$3.50 year, the residences which go with
them are worth a couple of thousand
pounds year. While the Duke was COM
mander-in-chief, as well as colonel, of the
Grenadiers, he drew about $325OO year
from the war Office as well.
1t is generally supposed that the mug
gets which are found in the river gravels
Of Klondike and other aurferous regions
have been brought down by the rivers
direct from the reefs in which the gold
originally lay. The London Mail says that
many practical miners and scientific men,
however, have long been Of opinion that
this cannot be the case. for no masses of