The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-07-06
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

I
him a collar. Recently he prevented "a
castle being robbed and was poisoned, il
| is supposed, by those who attempted the
robbery.
A Minnesota man captured a kingfsher
when the bird was quite young and made
pet of him and trained the bird to cap
ture fish and lay them at his n1asters
feet In summer the bird is taken to the
river where Ash are known 10 abound
| and set at liberty. The bird poises high
in the air and suddenly dropping, grasps
his victim and promptly delivers the fish
to his master.
One Of the Oldest bridges in Europe is
soon to disappear under the demand for
better navigation of the river il spans
This is the stone bridge, with fifteen
arches and total length of 1874 feet. built
across the Danube at Regensburg (Ratis-
bonn, in Bavaria, by Duke Henry the Su-
perb, in 1886. The piers rest on piles
protected by stone riprap and heavy ice
breakers; the roadway IS very narrow and
the foot-ways allow the passage of only
one person at time. Hans Sachs, the
poet-shoemaker of Nuremberg, sang its
praises IS one of the wonders of the build
ers art and the strongest bridge in Ger
many. So far as its stability is concerned,
il would probably stand for another $50
years but it interferes with the passage
of steamboats,.
A prefect in certain French town
issued declaration ordering severe meas
ures to be taken against divers malicious
persons who amused themselves by strip
ping bark from the plane-trees bordering
the public promenade. The trees thus
mutilated' so ran the affiche, present
most pitiable appearance" However, as.
in spite of the projects declaration, the
''mutlation" continued unabated, the wor-
thy functionary summoned his head
clerk TO consult with him on the matter.
Thereupon the clerk informed him that
as the plane-trees themselves shed their
bark every year, il would be futile 90 in
stitute proceedings against such incorrigj-
HE offenders. The clerk seemed amused;
the project did not; anyhow. the notices
were removed with more than official dis
patch.
"A series of experiments by DR. Loosen
er on the buried bodies of animals tends 10
show that the permanence of disease
germs in the soil and in the coffin after
burial varies greatly with different kinds
OF bacteria but seldom constitutes a very
serious evil. Out of Is cases in which the
animal was affected with typhoid before
burial there was only one in which the
disease could be traced after subsequent
eXhumatiOn. -Four out Of seven cholera
| cases gave positive results, the interment
lasting from seven to q days OF 20 tuber-
culOus cases three showed the infection
after periods varying from 90 to 50 days.
Tetanus bacilu have been shown in one
| case to survive underground as long a. 23f
| days and upward The germs, however,
| even when traceable in the coffin, were
scarcely ever to be found in the' adjacent
| soil.
"A hawk had been troublesome to the
| being wa tched to its nest, was shot and
! the nest taken when ii was noticed that
! a piece of paper had been woven into the
! nest. The nest was pulled to pieces and
| a letter was found, closed but without
| stamp. 1t had been written by the guard
| of a train TO a friend on the railway and
| had probably been blown out OF a pass
| ing train, but how the hawk came to make
| use of it cannot be explained as the near
| est railway line is three miles away. In
! quiries were made for the man 10 whom
| the note was directed and it was found
| that he was dead. a strange coincidence
| being that his name was Hawke. Kites
| always carry odds and ends of what they
| consider ornament to their nests. Among
| other things pages of Bradshaw nave
! been found in them.
The Hamburg-American steamship
| company, since putting into commission
its new vessels, Is now the largest in the
word. says the Chicago Record 1t has
! seventy-four ocean steamers, with a total
! tonnage Of 500, 10, an average of about A.
/ 800 tons, and a fleet of river steamers,
/ lighters, etc, of l3,7j6 tons. Until recently
! the Hamburg-American company had not
! received a subsidy from the government
! but had usually paid a dividend of per
| cent, upon its capital of 100000 marks.
! Last year the gross earnings We're IA. 745-
| $50 marks, and the expenses 10,OS2, 1888
! marks. The Hamburg company is now
! building a steamer named the Deutschland
with a displacement of 5000 tons and a
speed of twenty-five knots, which will be
/ the largest and fastest passenger vessei
ahoat, and will be completed in time to
catch the traffic for the Paris exposition.
The earth on which we stand is no
doubt a mighty globe, measuring as it
does 5000 miles in diameter, yet, says
| Pe2rson's Weekly, what are its dimensions
/ in comparison with those of the sun? IL
the earth be represented by a grain Of
mustard seed, then on the same scale the
| sun should be represented by a cocoanut.
| Perhaps, however, a more impressive con-
/ ceptiOn of the dimensions of the great orb
! of day may be obtained in this way: Think
| of the moon, the queen of the night, which
circles monthly around our heavens pure
! suing as she does a majestic track, a an
distance of 10000 miles form the earth
| Yet the sun is so vast that if it were a
| hollow ball the moon could revolve in the
orbit which it now follows and still be
| entirely enclosed within the suns inter-
or For every acre on the surface of our
| globe there are more than 10, 900 acres on
the surface of the great uminary. Every
portion of this ilHmtable desert of flame
! is pouring forth torrents of heat. 1t has,
| indeed, been estimated that if the heat
which is necessarily flowing through
| any single square foot of the suns exte-
rior could be collected and applied beneath
| the boilers of an Atlantic liner it would
suffice to produce steam enough to sus-
! tain in continuous movement those engines
| of sc, 600 horse power which enable superb
ship to break the record between Ireland
and America.
"A dispatch from Falls City, Neb., says
the community is stirred to the point of
taking radical measures to prevent the
| further practice of alleged divine heaters
/