The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-03-28
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Il pIoHi44eHt part Ia tIle forthcoming morse
show in that city, and will compete for
cash prizes amounting to $40 for the best
displays of horsemanship. They will also
give an exhibition Illustrative of the stop
ping of a runaway horse. and will show
how proficient three months training has
made them in the mounted drill.
According to paper communicated to
the Academic des Sciences, the cathode
ray, which, in striking on the walls of the
vacuum tube, gives rise to fiuorescence
and Rontgen rays, is of a material nature,
since it coats the insire of the tube with
the metal forming the anode, or dischar-
ing point, opposite 20 the cathode. The
effect is like what one sees in the ordin-
airy electric arc lamp, where particles of
the carbon point forming the anode, or
positive pole of the arc, are torn off by the
electric discharge and carried over to the
cathode or negative point. Il seems prob
able, therefore, that an electric arc might
produce Rontgen rays.
Railroad men at Bloomington, Ill, are
marveling over a phenomenal occurrence
on the Chicago and Alton recently, says
the st. Louis Globe-Democrat. A freight
train was going west on the Kansas City
division. When near Prentice, Ill. one of
the cars were thrown from the track into
the ditch, nearly fifteen feet from the
rail. The track was not injured The
couplings at both ends of the car were
automatic, and the car slipped out with
out breaking those on the two cars next
to the derailed car. The two sections of
the disunited train soon came together
again and coupled automatically. The air
connection was broken, but, although the
train stopped and the air was again con-
nected, the trainmen did not miss the
car, and il was not missed until the con-
ductor looked over his train at Rood
house. The car was found in the ditch
next morning by the roadmaster.
Emery comes from the Island of Naxos,
in the Eastern Mediterranean, whence it
has been exported for the last two CEN
turies or more. The beds are in the north
east of the island, the deposits descending
into some of the neighboring islands, the
emery being found in lenticular masses
resting on layers of schist in limestone,
almost identical with Parian marble, the
finest marble known, which comes from
the Island of Paros, close by. There are
about 300 men engaged in the trade, all of
whom have to be married before they are
admitted to the fraternity. The material
is much too hard to be dug out or even
blasted. Great fires are lighted around the
blocks till the natural cracks expand with
the heat, and levers are then inserted to
pry them apart. This system is continued
until the blocks are reduced in size 10
masses of a cubic foot or less, and they
are then shipped as if they were coal.
There are said to be 100000 tons yet
available at Naxos, and the last reported
years export was $3.50 tons. 1t is one OF
the hardest substances known.
Some experiments were made recently
in France on the penerative power of bull
let's through snow, says the Rochester
Democrat. The results were astonishing.
The Lebel rife was used, and at dis
lance of 100 feet the bullet penetrated only
five feet into the snow target. A bullet
from a Lebel rifle has been known, it is
said to go through a tree of three and
and one-half feet in diameter-presumaD IDLY
through the full length of the diameter;
that it should penetrate only eighteen
inches farther into such soft stuff as snow
seems altogether startling. The explana-
tion suggested by the eXperim entalsts is
that the rotating bullet picks UP particles
of snow as it goes in and so gets ball
ed or blocked up The result is curious
| enough to encourage further experiment
One would like to know, for instance
whether a non-rotating ball from a smooth
bore would show better penetration, as it
should be on the theory advanced. These
are not experiments without a practical
value. A knowledge of the defensive re-
sistance of a snow wall to the impact of
| rifle bullets might be of the greatest value.
Perhaps the most daring exploit ever
recorded in the history of Italian brigan-
| dage promises to have very interesting
sequel shortly, says the London Dealer In
1854 the whole district of the Romagna
was terrorized by famous outlaw, II
Passa tore, and his band On the last day
of the carnival a gala performance was
taking place in the theater Of Forlimpopoli,
a town of 1900 inhabitants, and all the
nobility and gentry of the district assem-
| bled there. When, after a long delay, the
curtain at last rose the stage was found
| to be occupied by II Passatore and his men,
who pointed an ominous-looking row of
gun-barrelS at the aStonished audience
| The head brigand, bowling politely, ex-
planned that it was useless to attempt TO
| escape, as all the doors were guarded, and
that he and his friends would go round
the boxes and stalls and collect all the
money and Valuables, which he sincerely
hQhed would be delivered without any re
sistance in order to avoid bloodshed In
| this manner II Passatore netted nearly $50
900 at one stroke, and got away with his
men unmolested. This daring outrage, how
| ever, led to his capture, for the authorizes
were reused to action, and the celebrated
! trial of the 100 brigands at Bologna is still
remembered in Italy But it appears that
before being caught, II Passatore sue
ceeded in hiding his share of the booty,
amounting to 10000, in little wood near
| Bologna, and that while in prison. where
he died ten years ago, he confided the Sc
cret to fellow-convict, In some manner
the brigand's secret has party leaked out
| and the police authorities have inst an,
thorized two gentlemen of Bologna to ex-
cavate in certain locality with view to
! discovering the treasure
| The gases present in minute quantities
In the atmosphere around us have, since
the discovery of argon some four years
back by Lord Rayleigh and Prof Ram
say, added quite a new interest to the
realms of inorganic chemistry Argon he
hum, krypton metargon and neon. and
| probably one or two other gases, are now
known to be present in the atmosphere
in addition to the oxygen and nitrogen
which only five years ago were supposed