The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-20
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Half Of the 125.0O0 Scandinavians Ia
the United States live in Chicago.
A body weighing 10000 pounds at the
equator would weigh 1O,o31 pounds in Lon
don.
Stanley states that between III and
1907. 100000 African slaves were sold
in the East Indies alone.
Aluminium is found combined with 1875
other minerals, and hence constitutes a
large part Of the crust Of the earth.
The thinnest tissue paper runs 300
sheets to the inch. Iron can be rolled so
thin that it will take 1880 sheets to make
an inch.
"A statistician has estimated that an
average man of 80 years old has worked
$500 days has slept 5000. has amused
himself 1000, has walked 12o0O miles has
been i'll 500 days. has partaken of 5000
meals, eaten 1000 pounds of meat and
1900 pounds of fish, eggs and vegetables,
and drank 1000 gallons of fluid
The practice of cleaning machinery by
means of blotting paper has been estab-
lished in German workshops, says Hide
and Leather. The German workman for
merry received on an average $50 grams of
cotton waste, one new sponge cloth, and
one or two renovated ones per week; now
he is supplied with $50 grams of cotton
waste, and eight to ten sheets of blotting
paper lat a cost of 212 cents, instead of
as formerly, ga cents. The paper is not
only cheaper, but it cannot soil the engine
with fbers and dust like
sponge cloth and wooden refuse,
and it is far preferable to cotton
waste. Beyond this, it is not so COM
bustable as other cleaning materials, and
if it should get caught while parts of en-
gines in motion are being cleaned, it tears
easily and runs no risk of drawing the
hand of the workman into the machine
ry.
With all its superiority in distance the
Telegraph is too uncertain for sole reli-
ance says George J. Varney, in Lippin-
colts. A passing cloud is sufficient to in
terrupt the clearest signals, perhaps in the
critical moment of a battle; or sun haze
may render invisible the rays from the
largest mirror; so that, at any time, with
out clear atmosphere The system Is use
less. 1t is not known that the hello
graphic system has ever been in use on
shlpboard; and the sea service has moth
ing for daylight signaling that approaches
its accomplishment in dry atmosphere.
For night service at sea the flash-light APP
pears to be the best system of signaling
in all weather; though, on rare occasions.
the long beam of the electric searchlight
thrown up on the sky has proved effectove
for communication when it was possible
by no other means. An instance of such
use was reported a few years ago by two
British ships, which while on opposite
sides of high promontory nine miles In
width, opened communication with each
other by means of dot and dash flashes
on the sky from the searchhghts.
ID. Norris Haines of Burlington, N. j.,
has a pigeon which recently showed a ma
ternal instinct, but not having any eggs
of her own, was supplied with a hens
egg, says the New York Mail and Ex-
press. MIR. Haines was curious to see
what she would do with it. The old pig
con was tickled to death. She took the
egg, carefully covered it, and Immediately
began the process of incubation. At the
end of three weeks the inevitable hap
pened, and little chicken hoped out of
the shell. The old pigeon surveyed the
result of the job in amazement. She had
expected little blue squad, and 10! lit
tie yellow chick appeared. She seemed
puzzled for a while, but finally went about
her maternal duties. Everything was all
right as long as the chick remained in
the nest, but as soon as 1t got out on the
ground there was trouble. Occasionally
the mother, remembering that she was
a pigeon, would get up and fly, thinking
the youngster would follow her; but he
remained on the ground as hard and fast
as though he was anchored there. The
only thing he could do was to stand still,
watch his mother fly and yell for her in
his own peculiar way. Then he tried to
initiate her, but up to now his best effort
has been six-inch jump, a flap of the
wings and a squawk. The little mother
is persevering, but she is nearly dis
couraged
"A hot water geyser, in the upper gey-
ser basin of Yellowstone Park, has been
turned to practical use by building hot
house over 1t and thereby enabling several
crops to be raised yearly, where otherwise
such thing would be impossible, because
of the almost daily frosts in this region,
says the Scientific American. The struc-
ture was built by w. p. Howe. 1t is
roughly made, and is % by so feet. A
stream of hot water flows from five
inch hole in the southern end of the build
ing, passing out the other end. The tenn
perature of the water lacks only eight de-
grees of the boiling point, and the house
is kept at q tropical heat constantly. The
rich SOIL the suns light and the con-
densation of steam from the hot water
make an ideal combination for the growth
of vegetation. Lettuce, ii is said, comes
up from the dry seed in two days, and
good sized heads of lettuce were gathered
in from fifteen to eighteen days after
planting. In twenty-eight days a head of
lettuce measured twenty-five inches
across and the condensation of the stream
would even break down the larger leaves
with the weight of water upon them Gu
cumber vines grow from twenty-five to
thirty-fiVe feet in length in less than six
ty days, without being watered, except
for the moisture in the air. On some of
the cucumber vines five full sized Gu
cumbers were gathered from a single
joint. Three pals of water have been
sufficient for watering the plants in the
green house on even the hottest day.
Marriage by capture, says the Specta-
tor, is symbolized more or less in ceremo-
MES all the world over, except in such
places where it is still the habit TO secure
a wife by knocking her down first, as the
Australian does with his 'waddy," or his
'nuilanulla." The Chinaman, if the par
ents of his intended are obstinate, carries
her off; the Abyssinian carries his wife