The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-26
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


Wesleyan conference the official min
utes"-a portly volume of nearly 100 pages
lis in print, and ready for circulation in
the circuits. The returns give the follow
ing totals of Methodisrp at home and
abroad under the direction of the British
conference: Church members, 612, 426; on
trial, 71,2S5; ministers S112.
in proportion to its size, Switzerland
has more inns than any other country in
the world The entertainment Of tourists
has become the chief industry of the land
No less than l 200 hostelries, stationed for
the most part on mountain tops or near
glaciers, are on the list and the receipts
of the hotel keepers amount to $25 1000 u
year, so it cannot be such a bad business.
The highest mountain railway in Eu-
rope leading to the top of the Corner
Graf in Switzerland, situated between the
Matterhorn and Monte Rosa, is about
completed. II was begun in 1896 A train
can take 100 passengers two miles above
sea level. The power is furnished by the
water which flows from glacier, and is
therefore. most abundant in summer, when
most needed
A tramway runs through the Cathe-
dral of Utrecht, which was built in the
thirteenth century upon the site of an
older one founded by ST. Willebrodus Al
ter severe storm in 1914 the nave fell,
leaving a large space between the tower
and the cnancel. The tower is $50 feet
high and very beautiful A new nave
was built, but between it and the tower
moderately wide street runs. This
still considered consecrated ground and
the ultilitarian municipality has shocked
the faithful by the noisy innovation of "a
tramway.
The Chicago postoffice is to have a
new permanent employe in the person of
a physician at a salary of 81, 700 per year.
He will be stationed at the main office
for the purpose of examining employees
who report themselves as being sick; and
it is expected that he will make a large
saving to the government in salaries, az
some of the employees report themselves
as being incapacitated when they are able
to perform their duties. On the other
hand, the employees of the postoffice may
be spared severe cases of illness by re-
| ceiving prompt treatment
"A French writer notes that though a
| few great musicians have died young
to wit, Mozart, at S5; Schubert, at 81; Bel
| linn, at 33; Mendelssohn, at 50, and Weber
when he was but 40-a large number have
! lived to be very old men. Those who died
| between 60 and 20 years of age include
Bach, Won Billow and Rubenstein. Liv-
| ing beyond 70 years came Gluck, Gounod.
| Handel, Liszt, Meyerbeer, Rossini Spon-
! tint and Wagner, while the great age of 50
was attained by Auber and others. Dy-
ing at more than 80 were Cherubini, Cra-
mer, Lachner, Palestrina, Rameap,
| Schultz and Taubert The average age
of musical celebrities is about 81 years.
Not long ago, says the New York Tri-
bune, the Suez canal commissioners were
shocked by an audacious application from
| the representatives of three firms whose
| products were biscuits, chocolate and soap
| respectively, for permission to advertise
| these on the banks of the canal, a yearly
rental of $1,000 being offered for the
| privilege. The application was promptly
! refused. According to an Egyptian paper,
| the Imparziale, there was recently found
| painted in oil, in enormous characters,
| over the entrance slab of the Pyramid of
| Cheops, at Ghizeh, the legend, BLANK s
| Dundee Whiskey." The advertisers had
| gone one better than the Suez canal appli-
can't for they had dispensed with the for
malty of asking any ones permission. How
! the trick was done the Imparziale cannot
understand for the pyramids are supposed
| to be watched by Beduoins day and night.
| But alas! the advertisers labor has been
lost. A hardhearted and unsympathetic di-
rection archaelogique of Cairo gave or
ders for the erasure of the inspiriting le-
/ gend.
! Cocaine for anesthetic purposes may
soon be abandoned by dentists because of
its too powerful effect on the patient,
says the Chicago Times-Herald. Cases
where patients have been paralyZed or
even worse by the use of this deadly drug
have alarmed the profession. A new drug,
supposed to be much safer is already re-
| placing it to some extent. Its name is
eulxane. 1t is slower in its action than
! cocaine, and not so satisfactory from the
anesthetic standpoint. Safety is the great
! quality claimed for it by some, though
others say it is a question whether it is
any safer than that which it seeks to
supplant. The alarm felt concerning the
effects of cocaine has at least greatly re-
| stricted it's use. Where a 10 per cent. So
| luton was thought necessary a few years
ago a 2 per cent solution is now consid-
cred strong enough, and even then it IS
used With great caution. Injection into
the tissues of the gums has been aban-
doned altogether. Every safeguard is
now observed that the patient may not
contract the cocaine habit.
One of the best evidences of the value
of lightning rods up to dale has been af-
forded by the Washington monument,
says the Boston Transcript II is capped
by a small four-sided pyramid of alumni
mum, which metal, so cheap to-day, was
the greatest obelisk that the world has
ever known This aluminium tip is con-
nected with the ground by four copper
rods, which go down deep into the earth.
| On April s, 1855, five immense bolts of
electricity were seen to flash between the
monument and a thunder cloud overhang-
ing in the course of twenty minutes. In
| other words the monument was struck
| fiercely five times, but IL suffered no dam
| age whatever. On June 10 of the same
/ year a more tremendous assault was made
upon the monument from the heavens, and
the result was fracture of one of the
topmost stones. The crack still remains to
show what nature can do in the way of
an electrical shock, but the slightness of
the damage is evidence of mans power to
protect himself from such attacks. The
obel,sk is ideally located for attracting
electrical assaults from The skies. and yet,
while many times hit, 1t has suffered only
once and that time to a trihing extent.