The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-21
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

ed soldiers in the Transvaal.
The American hospital ship Maine,
now on its way to the Cape, bears two
hogsheads of fine old Madeira wine, pre-
sented by some ladies of Spain.
Nearly eight thousand cats were re-
ceived last year at the London Institution
for Lost and Starving Cats. The number
of unhappy felines increases annually.
Women are now street car conductors
in Santiago, Chile. They wear neat uni
form for their duties, and when any trou-
bleswith obstreperous men passengers
comes up, they blow whistle for the po-
lice.
Chicago now has an automobile fire
wagon. Chemical tanks, hose, etc, are
carried in the new wagon, and there
are seats along the side for the firemen.
The vehicle is run by electricity and
makes ten miles an hour.
The London society papers are compli
menting the appearance this season of the
Duchess of Marlborough. According to
them she has grown extremely smart
and pretty" and at a recent function is
described as extremely pretty wrapped
in a sapphire velvet cloak with sables and
a turquoise ribbon twisted in her hair"
In Waukegan, Wis, is an old church
which has no. steeple, because of a court
mandate forbidding such a construction.
In 1862 a severe storm swept over the
town, hurting the original spire against
the house next door and wrecking it. The
owner of the house got out an injunction
restraining the trustees of the church
from building another spire, and this or
der has held for thirty eight years.
j. c. Shaffer of Evanston, Ill, re-
Gently became the possessor of very in
teresting relic of slavery-the original bill
of sale which conveyed Frederick Doug
lass from one master 10 another. The
consideration named in the bin is 800. The
document was written eleven years after
Douglass escaped from slavery, and in
reality represents a penalty eXacted by
Thomas Aud who had owned the slave.
from his brother Hugh Aud, from whose
custody Douglass had run away.
Upward of 5000 in Decent subscriptions
has been raised in Cleveland O., for the
purpose of identifying the grave of Moses
Cleaveland, the founder of the city. The
plan is TO buy the property in which the
Cleaveand family is buried, and to place
an iron railing around it and plant flow
ers in the plot. The grave is in an aban
doned cemetery in Canterbury, Conn.,
which is neglected to such extent tnat
sheep Craze among the tombstones and
cattle wander about the place unmoles ted.
If the British army officers know as
little about Inc lay of the land in South
Africa as some of the London newspaper
writer's seem to know about the geography
of America it is no wonder that the cam
paign against the Dutch republics has
been marked by so many serious reverses
week or so ago the London Daily Mail
.fC. 81, 81
car in the postal service, alluded to "a
long route to New York eight miles be-
yond Boston!"
The American Society of Civil Engi-
neers has been discussing the advisability
of the general adoption OF the twenty-four-
hour clock and Charles H. Mixer, a men,
Der of the society, who is a manufacturer
in Maine, said in a recent speech that he
had been using the twenty-four-hour sys-
TEN for some time and alf his workmen
like it and understand it. What seems
really needed for both social and business
purposes in these days of rushing prosper
lty, however, is a clock with about TWEEN
ty-six hours on 1t.
A wonderful old Bible has just been
discovered in Venice, the fortunate finder
being Leo S. Olschki, a we'll known anti
quarry of Florence, says the Boston Tran
script. 1t is in five large volumes and
was printed in Rome in The printing house
of Don Pietro MassimO in 14n and 1472
Soon after it came from the press it was
purchased by a patrican family of Venice
and it was in the archives of this family
that Olschki discovered it. The edition
of which it forms a part is exceedingly
rare and very large sums have been paid
for imperfect copies of this Bible. Olschki
paid 5,4OO lire ten years ago for a copy of
which two volumes are missing, and a il
brary in Berlin recently asked 1900 lire
for mutilated copy. The copy just dis
covered is probably me finest in the world,
and $4,000 lire was readily paid for it by
buyer who Is supposed to represent
wealthy American.
Librarian Putnam, who startled Con-
gress by asking that body to give him an
automobile, explains that it is not for the
personal use of the librarian, but really to
serve the interests of the members of Con-
gress, says the Washington letter of the
New York Mail and Express. At present
the librarian is allowed a horse and wa
gon to collect and deliver mail and books
belonging to the library, and especially to
deliver at the residences of the members
of Congress the books requested by them.
The Librarian contends that the expense
of maintaining the horse is about a third
which would cost almost nothing to op5r-
ate as the library has its own electric
plant, and the storage batteries could be
charged as often as necessary. With such
a machine he could give much better serv-
ice to the congressman in delivering books
at their homes than with a horse and
wagon. This statement puts a different
light upon the Librarians request
-Moldy straw is The cause of no end of
troubles in milk preservation, as the mold
spores on the straw bedding attach them
selves to the hair of the cows and are
brushed into the pail while milking. and
two or moro germs, both of which make
milk bitter or give ii a bad flavor, have
their origin in old straw or musty hay,
says the New York Tribune. Feeding COWS
hay Immediately before milking is another
notable cause Of milk becoming bitter. The
throwing and tossing of the hay in feed
ing the cows fills the air of a stable with
spores and germs having hay as a home;