The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-30
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The traditions of tapestry weaving
descended from. mother to daughter since
the days of the Vikings In Norway, says
the Chicago News. In all the mountain
farm houses of the present day in Nor
way weaving is still carried on as part
of the regular housework, and girls are
employed to do nothing else. In the early
days it was the work of the Vikings
wives and daughters to make large tapes
tries telling the story OF the cOnquests
made by their family heroes. These We're
hung in the great hall of every home, to-
gether with the war weapons of the nus
band and the sons, and the tapestries are
said to have been very beautiful Only
vegetable dyes were used, and. while they
lacked brilliancy they made up for 1t in
durability. A castle in Denmark contained
a few of these rare specimens till few
years ago, when it was burned down. The
weavers of Norwegian tapestries usually
work out from memory any pattern de-
sired. The main body is of some geomet-
rical design, with border of zigzag
lines of blocks. Certain characteristics of
these rugs and tapestries remind one of
those made by the Navajo Indians.
The Shetland ponies are not so common,
It seems to me, as they used to be in the
states says a writer In Our Animal
Friends. Perhaps this is because the Can
adam ponies are so cheap, and are brought
here in great numbers. The best place to
see the Shetland pony is on his own native
ground. AS one sees them there coming
into town on market days they are so well
broken that no bride is needed, and
string around the neck serves the purpose
of rein. Upon their backs they have pack
saddles, which are often so well filled
with peat and grass that the load seems
too big and heavy for the little fellows. 1t
is pleasant to see the pride which the
al in wi he
their part seem to show genuine affection
for their masters. "Give him his bit of
feed every day." the owner VIII tell you,
pointing to his meek-looking friends, land
he'll go along all day" In Iceland there
are plenty of ponies. They have fiourished
there for many generations, and form
special breed. They are used for many
kinds of work, and, being strong and hardy
they are very serviceable to the inhabi-
tants of the island. The country is rough
and hily, but the ponies are sure-footed
and have great endurance. The Island of
Oesel, one of the largest in the Baltic sea,
has its own special breed of ponies; tough,
sturdy little fellows they are, and highly
priced for their beauty and other more
valuable qualities.
Glass has been employed, we know,
both for decorative and domestic purpos-
es, since the dawn of civilization, says the
Womans Home Journal. The earliest re-
mains date from Egypt 3064 B. c., and are
preserved in the British museum. 1t is
an amulet in the form of a lions head,
of opaque blue color, with hieroglyphics
that determine its date. On the rock-cut
tombs of the metropolis of Memphis glass
blowers were depicted as early as $500 b.
c. Stories are told by Pliny, Josephus
and other writer's to account for its dis
covery, but these are very doubtful, so
that we have only to rely upon facts at
tested by actual remains. The discovery
was doubtless fortuitous; such lucky finds
are often the work of chance. When it
occurred we cannot determine but so far
as we know Egypt, as she was the germ
of all civilizations, was also the mother
OF this art, which she applied TO a multi
tude of purposes, strangely excepting
that which we deem most necessary;
namely, to admit light into buildings The
dwellers by the Nile handed down the art
to the Phoenicians. who in like manner
bequeathed 1t to the Assyrians; then it
was passed along to the Persans and the
Creeks then to the Romans and the BY
zantines who in turn communicated it 10
the Venetlans; the monks of the middle
ages appropriated it to beautify their
Gothic temples, and so it came down the
centuries in modern times.
Statistics show, says Pearson's Weekly,
that the medical profession is more prone
three years the number of suicides occur
ring among physicians in the United
Kingdom has been, respectively, As 49 and
AZ per annum, an average of nearly one to
| 2 900; or, as the death rate among the ply
sicians is about % to 1000, nearly one
fftieth of all the deaths in the profession
| have been by suicide. It has been sug-
! gested that an explanation of this ten
dency may be found In the development of
| morbid fancies in the mind of a doctor on
| account of his constant association with
| the sick and dying, or because he has the
requisite knowledge of how to die pain
| lessly and conveniently. medical jour
nal dissents from all these views, and
| holds that the leading factor Is the access
| sibihty of the poison drugs, which are al
most invariably used. Suicide is largely a
matter of insane impulse. Imagine a man
| fatigued in body and depressed in spirits
| as a doctor very often is-swayed by an
| overwhelming conviction of the utter
WEAKNESS of life to the impulse of sui
| eide. If he had to put on his hat and walk
| to the chemists and tax his ingenuity for
| a lie with which to explain his desire for
| poison, he might postpone the fatal act
| from mere inertia, or he MAY meet friend
| or have his interest in life aroused by one
| of a multitude of everyday occurrences,
| or physical exercise may bring him to his
| senses. If, however, as is the case with
almost every doctor, he has simply to feel
| in his pockets, or walk across his room to
! get a deadly poison, the impulse may be
carried into execution before anything can
! happen TO supplant it in the brain.
Ottawa has "witchs stone" as well as
devils seat" says the st. Louis Globe
| Democrat II Is one of the least known
| though greatest natural curiosties of that
| city, and is to be found i'm Rockliffe Park.
! 1t is the figure, lndelibly grained in the
solid rock. of a gaunt, haggard witch as
| tride a broomstick, flying through the air
with a tangled mess of hair flowing be-
hind her. The figure is ten feet HIGH and
is a striking likeness Of a woman. 1t is
on an immense bowider, and the strange
part of il Is that while the bowIder is of a
dark brown color, the figure and the
| broomsuck are of a light and marble-like
| substance. This curiosity is situated with
in 100 yards of the electric car tracks For
| years it has been known as the witch S
! stone" The figure of the woman Is seen