The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-12
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


time. In West Africa the natives hiss
when they are astonished, in the New
HeDrIdes, when they see anything bea Iti-
ful. The Basutos applaud a popular ora
tor in their assemblies by kissing al him.
he Japanese, again, snow their reverence
by hiss, which has probably somewhat
the force of the hush" with which We
command silence.
The famous donkey which was brought
back from the Soudan by the Australian
Volunteers who went there in 1855, has just
died. The donkey cost the country
something like f3500O0, for that was The
cost of the expedition which resulted in
nothing bus the securing of the donkey,
says the Sydney Daily Telegraph. Most of
use have heard of the apt and philosoph-
ical rejoinder of the late SIR Henry Parkes,
when somebody alluded to the expenses
involved in securing the donkey for the
Sydney zoo. Il am sorry TO say he said
that it isn't the only donkey that has
cost us 1850, 0OO."
Fear is sometimes curative, says Tit
Bits, although vastly less so than the op-
posite emotions of joy and hopeful ex-
pectation. DIR. luke reports the case of a
man suffering from rheumatic fever who
was instantly cured by the shock and
fright of railway accident. Sharp re-
sis has been cured by sudden fright, al
though such occurrences are rarer than
is generally supposed Michea, a celebra-
ted physician, one of the most profound
in the knowledge of mental diseases, used
to write insulting anonymous letters to
some of his patients in order TO cure them,
and with good results in some hypochon-
driacal cases. Physicians have sometimes
had recourse in hysterical cases to threats
or sudden fright to check dangerous symp-
toms when all other remedies have prov
ed useless. Amann tells of a hysterical
patient who suffered from tetanics con-
vulsions and frances and whose father
treated her with blows and cured her.
Pansanicis relates that a youth recovered
his speech in the fright caused by the
sight of lion, and Herodotus, in his
history narrates that the son of Croesus
was dumb, and that at the taking of Sar
des, seeing a Persian with drawn sword
about TO XIII his father, he cried out, over
come with fright, Kill not Croesusr and
from that moment he was able to speak.
Poi" is a most peculiar food, equally
peculiar in appearance and taste, but most
nutritious and inexpensive, says a writer
on Hawaii, in an exchange. 1t is made
from the root of the taro plant. This root
resembles as nearly as anything a moldy
sweet potato-not in taste, but in appear
ance. This is pounded into a paste in
stone mortar until 1t assumes the density
of the paste that wallpaper hangers use.
In fact, they do use it for hanging wall
paper in Honolulu. Poi is uncooked and
is served in a large bowl around which
the Kanaka family gathers. 1t is eaten
exclusively with the fingers, the entire
family dipping out of the same bowl OF
course, this is in the homes of the lower
classes; in the upper circles of Hawaiian
life 1t is served in bowls or cups eaten
with forks or made into what is called q
''poi cocktail" which is much relshed by
young men as a breakfast dish to reduce
any swelling of the head resulting from
looking on the wine when it is red the
night before. Such is the nutrl-
tive power of poi that the native
sailors-and there are no better
in the world-eat little else, and work as
no white man could or would work. espe-
cially for the small pay they get, about SIS
a month. With the great sugar-raising in
duStries carried on in these islands, not
to mention coffee and rice, the shipping
business is extensive. This is carried on
by means of two lines of steamers and in
Vulnerable sailing vessels, the crews of
which are almost exclusively made up of
| Kanakas.
"A very odd character died at Caw&er
City the other day in the person of DR..
George W. Chapman, who had been a
| resident of Mitchell county for many
| years, says the Kansas City Journal. At
! the start-off he was a shoemaker by trade,
and sat at his bench from morning until
| night, but in a few years he put in a
| small stock of drugs and commenced the
study of medicine, and a little later bios
| somed out a full-hedged doctor. About this
| time he studied law, and was admitted to
| the bar and elected Justice of the Peace,
| and then, not content with all these en-
| Payments, he took up the study of geol-
| ogy, and made a splendid collection of the
| specimens to be found in Northern Kan-
| sas. Between mending shoes, practlcing
medicine serving drugs and practicing
! law he found time to deliver lectures
| against Christianity and the Bible, and he
| became noted as the most contentious in
! fidel in all his section of the country
| About ten years ago he presented to the
| Women's HeSperian Library Club of Cav
| l1er City his fine collection of mineral and
| other specimens, and became instrumental
| in building the house which is now owned
! and occupied by that club. When he came
| to die the women of the club carried his
| body down to their library rooms and held
! some public exercises in his honor, at
which a number of the prominent people
| of the town made speeches. One of the
| speakers was the Rev. Aller, the Presby-
| terrain minister, who said he came as a
| citizen and not as a gospel man, for he
felt sure that if DR.. Chapman had been
! consulted he would have stipulated very
! earnestly that no minister should be pres
| ent at his funeral All of the people said
| DR.. Chapman had his good points, and the
| preacher said so, too, not forgetting to
| express the belief that maybe he had re-
| pented before it became everlastingly too
| late The dead man had no family about
! him, and lived in his last years the life
| of hermit
"A very interesting and pleasing dis
covery is announced from Baden near
Zurich. says the Paris Messenger. The
| learned have been discussing for ages
whether anything in the way of hospitals
was known to the ancients-it is not to be
said that there have been disputing, fol
| there was not material enough hitherto
to support lively argument. One might
read the whole volume of Green and Ro-
man literature carefully, too. without no
ticing one passage that might be interpret
ed as an alusion to hospital The works
of Hippocrates could not fail to speak OF
| he, bu hing &