The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-16
Batch of Ashestos stories.

An elderly man, with a gray mustacae
says the New York Times. looked up
from a plate of spaghetti which ne was
eating in a restaurant. and spoke to three
others:
Say" he said. what do you people
know about asbestos?"
Two Of his companions preserved mod
est silence, but the third, who was a little
man. spoke up:
I know al about asbestos he said.
DO, eh?" queried the man with the
spaghetti on his plate. Then how longs
it been in use?"
We'll" Said the little man, hesitatingly.
"praps thirty years"
You're away off. OF course, you didn't
know that 7Charlemagne had an asbestos
tablecloth?"
Who's CharIemagne?"
"Wel," said the elderly man, "Charle-
magne was King of the Franks and En-
peror of the Romans about / 100 years ago
He was great fighter, and owned an as
bestos tablec.oth."
Don't believe it said the little man. Il
never heard of asbestos until the centen-
NAL"
Well, Charlemagne had the cloth all
right" said the elderly man. He used
to astonish his friends from the interior
by throwing the tablecloth into the fire
after dinner, and, of course, 1t didn't burn.
Asbestos became quite fashionable after
that for towe.s and napkins 1t saved
laundry bills. All mans wife had to do
was to throw the weeks wash into the
stove and it came out as clean as chalk
Say" said the little man, incredulously,
do you think you can string me like
tbat?"
"Ifs So declared the elderly man. "But
of course you never heard that Benjamin
Franklin had an asbestos purse?''
mo; had he?" asked the little man,
with a sneer.
of course he had. He took it over TO
England with him, and sold it to man
in Bloomsbury, London, for big sum.
Il suppose" said the little man. with a
wink, "that The Engiishman was a friend
of yours, and you know his name"
No" replied the first man, Il never
saw him but he was called Sir Hans
Sloane, and he had a museum"
Dime museum" grinned the little man.
Not a bit of IT," smiled the elderly
man, good-natured!y; 1T was a sure
| enough museum, and as matter of fact
il constituted the nucleus OF the British
Museum. 1 dare say that Benjamin
Frankliu's asbestos purse is there yet"
The little man looked a little crestfallen
but the elderly man consoled him.
Don't worry" he said, There are lots of
people besides yourself who are shy on
| knowledge regarding asbestos 1t wasn't
much used during recent centuries In 1876
an asbestos handkerchief was shown tc
| the Royal Society as a great curiosity by
| DR.. Plot, who had bought ii from a tray
eler on his return from China. They called
| 1t salamander's wool. DR.. Plot saturated
| the handkerchief with oil and threw it into
a fierce charcoal fire. The oil burned off
| but the handkerchief remained intact. The
| fellows of the society were much inter,
! ested and were not greatly surprised when
the price of asbestos in Chinese Tartary
was quoted at $500 a Chinese ell. which
| isn't much more than an English yard
| It's likely that the price had risen since
! the days of the ancients, for those OLD
| fellows had big sheets of asbestos, which
they wound around corpses before ere
mating them"
That's long time ago." said the little
! man sententiously. ,-es
"Wen," continued the elderly man, 'it
| you want to come down TO later years
there was book published in London, for.
| ty years ago, giving accounts among 9th
er things, of remarkable experiments pre-.
viously made at Milan in Italy, by the
! Chevalier Aldini who had used asbestos in
the construction of a suit of fire-prool
armor. The coverings for arms legs and
! body were of heavy cloth which had beer
soaked in a strong solution of alum The
| helmet, gauntets and stockings We're OF
! asbestos. Then there was an overdress
covering the body, thighs and feet, Of
| gauze twenty meshes to the inch. With
this armor on men stood on a big gridiror
| over blazing fire for ten minutes, and
buried their heads in piles of burning hay
and shavings, but, nevertheless, they came
out unframed. They also handled bars OF
white-hot iron, and did other things which
seemed quite miraculous. That was ovel
! forty years ago.
We'll" said the little man, cts hard Il
believe that for several hundreds of thou
sands of years the world was so full o.
chumps that there wasn't room for a mar
smart enough TO utilize asbestos. On The
whole. I guess, III go on doubling"
"All right" returned the elderly man
'Ive got 5000 that says I'm right. Per
haps your doubts are strong enough t.
uphold a bet of $40 against it,"
But the little man wouldn't bet.
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