The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-16
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

veyed close to the Chaolin mausoleums.
the resting place of the ancestors of the
present line of Emperors. The Tartar gen.
eral of Feng Ten, f k'o Tang, declares
that this is sacrilege, and has asked the
Russians to change the line, but has re-
ceived no reply as yet.
1t is said in Ireland that rocks will not
build on Sunday. A parsons coachman
was declaring this to be an indisputable
fact. At the time he was driving his mas
ter past a rookery one fine Sunday in
spring. But one is building now" OBJ
jected the clergyman, who disapproved of
all superstitiOns. There are bad crows
as well as bad Christians was the crush
ing reply.
"A new way to get battle pictures was
put into operation a few days ago at
Chickamauga. Gen. A. P. Stewart Con-
federate, is writing a history of the great
battle at that place, and in order to secure
a realistic illustration of the celebrated
charge on Snodgrass hill he obtained the
temporary loan of the Second Kentucky
Volunteers. Six companies, wearing blue,
held the HILL while six other companies,
uniformed in brown, charged up the hill
All the Incidents of the battle were repro
duced, while the snapshot machine was
worked industriously for the benefit of The
soldier-author.
Notwithstanding the rapid destruction
of the forests on this continent the worlds
supply of timber is not likely to be ex-
hausted very soon, says an exchange. In
the province of Archangel, in Russia. there
are forests belonging to the government
which cover SSO79, 400 acres in which the
ring of the woodlands ak has hardly been
heard and in other provinces of that vast
country there is still an abundance of
timber. Iron and steel are supplantinS
wood as structural materials to SUCH an
extent that the consumption of timber
does not keep pace with the growth of
civilized population. jh nr
The cost of sandpapering' car prepar-
atory to painting has been reduced to
about half its former amount. 1t is said
that $50 square feet of surface can be fin
ished in TWO and one-haif hours. The ma
chine by which this is done is a small
air motor carrying on the outer end of
its shaft a wooden disk, to which the
sandpaper is clamped by a light brass
ring. 1t is suspended from an overhead
track parallel to the side of the car by
means of an air cylinder four or five feet
long and so small in diameter that the air
pressure on The piston is just sufficient
to balance the weight of the machine.
One man raises and lowers the whole out
fit with ease.
"A calendar that is entirely original has
been designed by Miss NJ. H. Stella Law
son of Baltimore, and finely colored. 1.-THE
work" says the Sun of that city. lis not
only artistic, but valuable, from the fact
that it Is appropriately patriotic and gives
Information nowhere else obtainable. The
full-page illustrations are of the seals and
flags of the states of the Union. Some
of the states have no flag. These flags
are not published anywhere but collective
ly in Commodore Preble's book, and the
colored crests of the states are nowhere
to be obtained in cheap, accessible and
grouped form, but only in plain black and
white. The pictures are officially correct
and Miss Lawson has been four years in
collecting and verifying them and having
them accurately printed Throughout
products of a group of states are also
illustrated, except where the state seal
furnishes them"
The Holy See is entirely out of debt,
the indebtedness that existed at the death
of Plus TX having been paid by the pres
ent Pope. The vatican budget shows every
year slight surplus. Il is not certain how
much has been received by Leo XIII for
his private benefit, but the value of the
presents made to MIN during his reign is
believed to be quite 100000 Plus TX may
have received more, but this is difficult TO
! judge, as he gave away his presents as
freely as he received them Leo Kill on
| the contrary, has kept them all, and they
are placed in a museum. He has received,
| for instance, twenty-eight tiaras adorned
| with precious stones, 3l9 crosses of gold
set with diamonds and other gems, 200
| chalices in gold and silver, eighty-one
! rings, of which one given by the Sultan
| is worth f20 coo, sixteen pastoral slaves of
I vii ST
| soria in gold and silver, seven statues in
| gold and silver, nearly LOCO objects art,
| aud very large diamond, presented by
President Kruger, and worth 100000.
Explosions caused by paints containing
petroleum ether have repeatedly occurred
abroad Of late, according to German
technical journal. 1t seems that the ether
is added for the purpose of quicker dry
| ing but the volatile vapors emitted by
| these paints have caused no end of trouble,
! particularly when the paints are applied in
closed rooms. Thus a man lost his life by
an explosion of the deadly vapors while
he was painting the water tanks on the
Cunard steamship Servia. On the steamer
! Scotia a tin flask containing such paint
became leaky during a storm, the con-
tents flowing out on the floor. When a
sailor entered that compartment of the
| hold where the paint had been spilled, an
explosion occurred of such violence that
some of the plates in the side of the ship
were rent apart and that there was act
| ually danger of the ship sinking in conse-
| quence of the damage. An Investigation
followed, and it was found chat these
quick-dryng paints contained petroleum
| ether to about one-quarter of their weight.
| Similar explosions have taken place else
! where, for instance, in Germany and
France, and even on warships; thus on the
| Deterel, where 151 lives were lost. Such
quick-drying paints should, therefore, be
used with the greatest of care in the open
air, but in closed rooms it would be best
to avoid them altogether.
German doctors say that the fashion of
using glazed paper is producing incalcul-
able injury to the eyesight of civilized ma
tons. In the early part of the century
the Old rag papers then used for both
writing and printing were mostly
| of duh gray or blue color, and were
| inc I,J 10