The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-03-15
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


the Philadelphia Press the fact that the
first martyr to tobacco was royal per-
sonage, though, in his case, court ETH
quette was almost as much to blame as in
that of the Spanish king who sat too near
the fire This proto-martyr of the Prin-
cess Nicotine was Nicholas Stanislaus Lee
znski, father-in-law to Louis XIV, and
occasionally King of Poland. We read
that at Nancy in 1866, being alone in an
undress while endeaVoring 10 knock the
ashes from his pipe, he set fire to his
gown, when his valet de chambre, who
alone had the privilege of entering his
apartment, had just gone into the town
of Luneville." Consequently 1.-The fire."
as the reports Of such things say, had
made considerable Roadway before 1t was
discovered. Moreover this royal tramp"
wore, for purposes of penance, a sharp
pointed girdle of silver next his skin The
fire heated the points and these, pressed
into the flesh by the rescuers, produced
poisonous sores which resulted fatally.
There is an old French book on THE Fiji
teen joys of Marriage" but the luxury
of smoking in bed is not included.
The largest irrigation experiment ever
undertaken in Kansas is nearly ready for
a practical test The water has been turn
ed into the Koen ditch, which leaves the
Arkansas river here and runs to the Chey-
enne bottoms, about thirty miles For
two years work has been going on, and
it seems likely that the coming spring will
see its completion. In the search for
practicable method of handling the wa
ters going to waste down the broad val
ley of the Arkansas, the land was inves-
tigated for miles in every direction, with
the result that the engineers found back
10 =
conformation that gave possibilities for
vast inland lake. A tract of heavily grass
ed prairie fourteen miles long and three
to five miles wide lies near Hoisington. 1t
is the bed of an ancient lake, and the en-
tire surface is depressed six to forty feet
below the level of the surrounding coun-
try. The land has been of no value as
farming land and has been practically
unused for that purpose, grazing being
the only good that could be secured from
it. 1t is a curious fact that the first
thought of converting this piece of prai-
RE into a 4000O-acre lake came from
cloudburst. For two years the water was
still visible, showing that the soil at the
bottom is water tight. Then 1t was pro-
posed to make a permanent lake by bring
ing water from the Arkansas river, thir-
teen miles away.
The world-famed cordial Chartreuse is
not distilled at the monastery whose name
it bears. but at place some miles distant,
and instead of being made by monks, as
generally supposed, its manufacture Is in
trusted to the men, women and children
OF the village although the president OF
the undertaking is at the same time prior
of the monastery. The income thus Sc
cured by the monastery Is not boarded, but
expended as soon as received in works OF
public utility, in charity and in subscrip-
tons to various missionary undertakings.
Upon this fact H. r. Gillett, who writes
philosophically on the subject OF Ilqueurs,
bases the comforting assurance that any
one who drinks glass of Chartreuse may
Justly feel that he is helping indirectly
in a constant work of humanity and hu-
man brotherhood. When the Asiatic chol-
era ragged in France its ravages were ma
terially checked by the use of Chartreuse
which is also a valuable antidote to fe-
vers. It's composition is kept a profound
secret for which, it is said, $1,0O0,000 has
been refused, but it is known that in the
manufacture of this liQueur carnations,
absinthium and the young buds OF the
pine tree enter largely. OF the several
grades of the liqueur, which differ in color
and naturally the most popular, is the kind
most used by the monks themselves. The
green CndTITeuSS Is CllSLliCdihy StLOhSSi
than the yellow. Its proper place is before
meals as an appetizer. On the other hand.
the only place for yellow Chartreuse is at
the close of the dinner.
Some interesting speculations concern
ing the age of the Niagara gorge are re-
ported by nature says the Marine Record
This was the subject of a paper by Prof
G. Frederick Wright, read at the Boston
meeting of the American Association. The
late DIR. James Hall early noted the sig
nificant fact that "the outlet of the chasm
below Niagara Fails is scarcely wider
than elsewhere along it's course" This
is important evidence of the late date of
it's origin and it has been used in sup
port of the short estimates which have
been made concerning the length of time
separating us from the glacial period. A
close examination made by Prof Wright
.ast summer greatly strengthens the force
of the argument since he found that the
disintegrating forces tending to enlarge
the outlines and give il V shape are
more rapid than has been supposed. As
a result of his investigation he concludes
that a conservative estimate of the rate
of disntegration for the seventy feet of
Niagara shales supporting the Niagara
limestone would be one inch a. year, with
d pIODdDie IdtC vi lWO lAiCueS a year IOul
at the lowest estimate no more than 1900
years would be required for the enlarge
ment of the upper part of the mouth of
the gorge, 600 feet on each side, which
is very largely in excess of the actual
amount of enlargement Some of the re
cent estimate, therefore, which would
make the gorge from 10000 to 10000 years
old, are regarded as extravagant. Ac-
cording to Prof. Wright the age of the
gorge cannot be much more than 10000
years, and is probably considerable less.
One doesn't have to be very Old, says
the New York Times, to recall time when
the word million" was in much less COM
mon usage than it is to-day, and when it
had little more defniteness of meaning
than the word aeon" has now Not so
long ago there frequently appeared in
| print laborious computations of the num-
Der of weeks 1t would take a man, work
ing so many hours day, to count mill