The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-04-04
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


"A black noness has lately been added
to the collection of animals in the Jardin
des Plantes, in Paris Lions of this color
are found only in the interior of the Sa-
hara, and are scarce even there.
-Helmholtzs brain hos been examined
by Prof. Hansemann of Vienna. 1t
weighed l 40 grammes, above the average,
but not remarkable weight. The convOlu-
tons of the brain, however, were extra
ordinarily complex.
Interest in the assassination of the
Marquis de Mores has been revived by the
prosecution instituted by his widow, who
was Miss Won Hoffman of New York,
against NJ. NIillet, the French resident in
Tunis, whom she accuses of murder.
Mr.. Borkedal, of Norway, announces
that the sun is burning out more rapidly
than is usually believed, and that unless
something interferes our grandchildren will
see its extinction Mr.. Mohn, also of Nor
way, has checked Mr.. Borkedals calcula-
tons and finds them correct.
On Prince Schwarzenberg's game pre-
serves in Bohemia 1O6,6Oi wild animals were
killed during the last season. They includ-
ed 2,161 dear, 265 boars, 27,6l9 hares, 39'u2
grouse and pheasants, 1851 wild geese ana
ducks and q, 446 ''noxious" animals, among
them foxes, offers, badgers herons and
hawks.
An doubts as to the burial place OF
Turgot Louis XVTs great minister of
finance have been removed by the open
ing of the tomb in the chapel attached to
the Laennec hospital in Paris. His COT
fin was found, together with those of his
father and two others of the family, in eX-
cellent preservation.
in a recent lecture delivered at Liv-
erpool, Dr. William Carter pointed out
that the deaths directly attributed to in
temperance in 1896 were 81 per 100000
among male and 81 per 600 among re-
males; that the rate Is constantly increas-
ing and that the deaths are increasing
among women far more rapidly and In
far greater ratio than among men.
The Austrian government has issued
an order that hereafter no uniforms shall
appear on the stage in that country that
have any resemblance to those used in the
Austrian army and civil service. The di-
rectors of the Vienna theaters have pro-
tested against the order. In Berlin, where
militia rism is supposed to be at its high
est point, the government requires only
that uniforms worn on the stage shall be
different in any slight particular from
those actually worn in the army.
The nominal cost of a set of Congress
sional Records. from the first issue, in
1889, to date. would be $537. A full set
consists of 1853 volumes, or parts, includ-
ing indexes, and the price is estimated
TO be the cost of printing from the plates,
binding, etc. 1t would be an extremely
difficult matter however to obtain COM
plete set The superintendent of docu-
ments, government printing office. who Is
custodian of all the extra back numbers
| available. could not supply more than
about 290 of the 1853 volumes. The set
might be completed, however, from the
shelves of secondhand book dealers.
The latest news agency, detective bus
reau and protective association, all three
in one, formed, has for its purpose the
supplying of landlords with information
respecting prospective Misunderstanding the
insolvent collecting doubtful accounts
and blacklisting undesirable tenants. The
association has been incorporated under
the laws of New Jersey, and proposes to
act as a credit clearing house" for land
lOrdsf, securing information and distrib-
uting it to its subscribers, much as the
mercantile agencies do. Every effort will
be made by the new association to pre-
vent non-paying tenants from securing
new quarters.
Gen. Meigs built the Cabin John aque-
duct and highway bridge near Washing
ton forty years ago, says the Engineering
Magazine. 1t is the longest masonry arch
in the world having a span of 900 feet. The
bridge over the AIDA, near Trezzo Italy
built by order of Visconti in 1880 and de-
I i
of 251 feet, with rise of So feet and
total thickness of ring of only feet The
Romans built spans of 40 feet nearly 1000
years ago. American contractors have Of
| fered to build and guarantee coussoir spans
| as long as $50 feet, and in one case a solid
arch of masonry of 300 feet span. That an
| arch of 400 feet span is no more difficult to-
! day than the spans just mentioned were IN
their day can be demonstrated; the con-
! struction of an arch of 800 feet span is
lacking in all the elements of daring that
attended the early undertakings.
John Richards, writing in the Engi-
neering Magazine of the huge trees of
| California, says: The writer, on first Wis
iting timber yards in Northern Europe,
could not get rid of the impression that
! the round timber was all culls or waste
! A raft load of logs in the Gotha river in
| Sweden, was thought to consist of tele-
! graph poles. It happened to be a COL
! lection of small timber even for there, and
| visit to the Pacific coast of North Amer
| lea, soon after, still further emphasized
! the enormous difference in the timber
| resources of the two countries. Soon aft
er arriving in San Francisco there was
encountered in the street a square beam
| of fir more than a hundred feet in
! length being hauled to a factory in course
! of erection. Following this beam to its
destination-a WOODEN factory then being
built-it was a matter of establishment
to find all the longitudinal beams, or
"stringers," of the same length. This
astonishment was increased when the
contractor said: 1--WE never bother about
dimensions, and just order what we want i"
section eight feet in diameter, cut from
a redwood tree, completed a new impress
sion of American forest timber.
Your true Bostonian who is forced to
exist in New York has little to comfort
him in his exile says the Chicago Chron-