The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-08-18
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

n.
Me. who are both deaf, and are trying
housekeeping without servant have de-
Vised an ingenious arrangement for their
door bell. by which a caller, when he
presses the button, lights the lamps and
thus makes his presence known.
Secretary Fl. Coburn of the Kansas
State Board of Agriculture says that the
false reports sent oEt of ravages by cater
pillars are a crime against the state, and
the guilty persons ought to be punished
severely, because intending immigrants
are scared away by them Kansas. he
says, seems likely 20 suffer more at the
hands of such uutruthful persons than
from insects of any sorts.
A young civil engineer of London who
was recently sued for breach of promise
asserted in his defense that his sweet
heart grew cold and indifferent. The
plaintiff, as an offset to this charge. SET
forth with documentary evidence that
when she wrote to her fiance with as
much warmth as she was capable of he
returned her letters with faults of Or
biography and grammar corrected in red
ink. This treatment, in the judgment OF
the court was sufficient to account for
any waning of enthusiasm on the young
woman's part, and she was awarded a YER
dict of $3.50.
A steel birds nest was recently ac-
quired by the museum of Soleure, in
Switzerland Soleure has an extensive
watch and cloak making industry, and
thin metal filings are continually being
swept into the roads with the waste from
workshops. one day a workman noticed
a pair of wagtails gathering steel filings
together and carrying them to their nest.
He made an investigation, and found that
the birds had constructed a big nest al
most exclusively of steel filings. When
the brood of fedglings had flown the steel
birds nest was taken away and sent to
the museum
The village of Sainte Foy de Tarentaise
in the department of the Rhone, France,
is attracting attention on account of
curious local phenomenon. 1t is situated
on a small plateau, which for some time
has been in slow but continuous motion.
Already the bell tower of the church is
out of the perpendicular and the interiors
and the cellars of some of the houses show
enormous cracks and assures. The move
ment of the hill is caused by its base
which rests on a kind of glacial mud
being undermined by the waters of the
Isere and by floods following rain storms
Its equilibrium has peen disturbed and
the final crash may come at any time.
dairy of a kind which, though many peo-
pie would be glad to assist in solving, is
still somewhat difficult-for the bankers,
says the New York Times. While the
war with Spain was going on the Volunteer
Aid Association of Boston raised lot OF
money for the relief of our wounded sol
diers. Much of it was spent for this
purpose, but now the war which the do
nors had in mind is over, and the men
wounded in it are mostly either dead or
we'll The question therefore arises of the
proper disposition of the funds still or
hand. They amount to some $65 900. Just
why 1t cannot be used in the Philippines
is possibly more obvious in Boston than
it is anywhere else.
The increase in the number of medical
women in Great Britain is held by the
medical men to be astonishing. In Lon
don alone there are now eighty-five regis
tered and qualified medical women, al
most all of whom are in practice. Some
of these hold posts in dispensaries, hos
pitfalls, children's hospitals, infirmaries,
posts as ophthalmic surgeons, assistant
anaesthetists, medical examiners, inspect
ors and lecturers Not only has almost
every large English town a lady medico,
but even remote Orkney islands have quail
flied women as medical officers. The rap
idity with which women have spread over
the medical field can best be gagged by
remembering that the London School of
Medicine for Women was only founded in
1874.
The shrewd Old melon growers have
a secret that they guard closely for fat
tening their melons, says dispatch from
Carmi, Ill, to the Evansville Courier.
When they see an exceptionally symmetri-
cal melon of good proportions they resort
to a scheme of their own for increasing
its corpulency. They get a gOod-size0
bottle, usually an old quinine bottle, and
fiji it with sweetened water Gust as sweet
as sugar can make it,. and taking a darn
ing needle threaded with cotton string
they pierce the stem of the melon, pun
the end of the string to the middle of the
aperture, and put the other end through
a cord thence TO the sweetened water.
after having removed the needle and then
leave the melon to do the rest. In very
short time the wound heals and then the
melon viii drink" more sweetened water
than the average man drinks in a day.
1t begins 10 expand, too. and is soon the
heavyweight champion of the patch. 1t
remains in this comatose condition until
fair time. when it wins the laurel of sue
cess at easy bounds
People whose business takes them to
the stock yards delight in telling how rap
idly live hog is converted into bacon,
sausage and tooth brushes, but the most
improbable stories they tell do not equal
the exploit of the employees of a paper mill
not far from Chicago. says the Chicago
Chronicle. Quite recently three trees stand
ing near the mill were felled al 7:35 a. M,
and hurried TO the mandatory. where
they were sawn into pieces about one foot
long, which were further decorticated ana
split They were then conveyed TO the
elevator by five defbrstors to do their
worst with, and the wood pulp which re-
suited from the contact of the chips with
the defibrators was runt into a mat, mixed
with the MOI altogether harmless but nee
essary chemicals and the process finished
The liquid pulp was sent to the paper
machine which at 1874 turned out the first
complete sheet of paper. one hour and
tifty-nine minutes after the first tree was
felled. The manufacturers, accompanied
by a notary public, who timed and watch
ed the work throughout, then took
the paper to a printing establishment two
miles away and by 10 o'clock, or in two