The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-12
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

A large number of women, says the
London Lancet, sweeps the streets with
skirts of their gowns and other garments
and bear with them wherever they go
abominabie filth. Attempts are indeed Of
ten made by women to keep their dresses
from dragging. The management of
long gown is too difficult matter for the
majority of women. The habit has arisen
of seizing the upper part of the skirt and
holding IL in a bunch at a place called by
women 1.-THE broad part of the back below
the waist and among anatomists by the
less cumbrous term "gluteal region" This
practice can be commended neither from
a physiological nor from an artistic point
of view. We strongly protest from
sanitary point of view against the mpor-
tation into private houses of skirts reek-
ing with ordure, urine and pathogenc mi
crobes. For walking in the street a
short skirt should be worn, and we COM
mend the sensible walking gown now
adopted by the best-dressed women to
those whose business it is TO write on the
fashions in dress.
The eastern and western shores of
the Atlantic ocean afford a very striking
illustration of the variations of tempera-
ture from the line which theoretically
should prevail. On the American CONT
nent the effects of isolation and radia-
ton have free play, and as result great
diversities of climate are experienced
within a comparatively short length of
country; places only few hundred miles
apart exhibiting great difference between
their mean annual temperatures. No
such diversity exists on the eastern side
of the Atlantic, there being only about
one-half the variety of mean annual tenn
peratures in an equal line of coast line
that exists on the opposite side of the
ocean. The Gulf stream is responsible
for the stability of the climate Of the
British Isle. but there are other instances
where an ocean reduces the temperature
in accordance with its latitude, the de-
crease of temperature from the equator
to the poles being more rapid than under
existing conditions. Not only does the
heat equator not include the geographical
equator, but the heat equator changes its
position and migrates from one place to
another.
"A statement which was made at the
Worlds Women's Christian Temperance
Union Meeting at Edinburgh that there was
much need for temperance work among
the women of France has aroused much
hostility among the leaders of women in
France. They retort that there is not
nearly so much need OF reform among
French women as there is in England.
Quite a considerable number Of prominent
French women interviewed on the subject
Indignantly repudiate the suggestions
made by their English-speaking sisters at
Edinburgh. Nine. Marguerite Durand. the
directress of La Fronde the Partisan H9o-
mans journal. said. 1T would be great
eXaggeration to say that French women
generally drink to excess. but unfortu-
nately il must be admitted that alcoholism
has commenced to make progress among
women in France. In Paris itself there is
very little alcoholic excess among women.
On the other hand, in Normandy and
Brittany drink is causing considerable in
jury to the female population" Another
well-known French lady said: my own
experience is in accordance with the state
nent of Nine. Durand. A drunken wo-
man is no uncommon sight in the great
towns of England, but have never seen
drunken woman in Paris"
A correspondent of the London Spec
tator thinks that with regard to color
both cats and dogs have little aesthetic
perception. Cats seem to show a definite
perception of texture-aesthetics; for it is
not ordinary bodily comfort which
prompts them TO prefer one texture to an
other They may like to sleep on velvet,
but they revel, waking, in the feeling of
cracking paper or of stiff silk, and there
is Well-authenticated case of cat
which goes into the garden to lick the
under sides of foxglove leaves, and can
not be kept from trying with her tongue
the texture of fiannelette. But the keenest
aesthetic pleasure for cat lies in the
region of smell. The dog uses smell mere
ly as medium of information, but the
cat 1evels in it. She will linger near a
tree trunk, smelling each separate arc
| matte leaf, for the pure pleasure of it
not like dog, to trace friend, foe or
prey. If the window of a close room is
opened the cat leans out smelling the air:
new dresses are smelled, partly, perhaps,
for future recognition, but also apparent
ly for pleasure. A strong smell, above all
a spirtuous smell, is not only disagree
able, but absolutely painful Lavender
water may pl ase tiger, but it will put
a cat to fright The writer also refers to
the case of dog who prefers scarlet to
blue color
The remarkable success of American
jockeys in recent English races has caused
no little jealousy among their British col
leagues. The Field to explain matters and
as word of solace for the wounded feel
ings of the latter, gives room to the OBJ
servation that upon a number of occasions
the Americans had the pick Of the mounts
because of their preceding winnings I'VE
still think" it adds. that in a close finish
the best of our English horsemen are bet
ter than the best of the Americans, but in
their Judgment with regard to pace the
latter are far ahead of our Jockeys. and
they ride with a determination and vigor
which, until quite lately, was unknown
among even the top rank of our horsemen
Occasionally they lose their heads and
then everything goes by the board. but on
the whole Sloan, the two Reiffs and Rigby
seldom ride bad race and this is proved
by the fact that they have fully secured
the confidence of owners. trainers and of
the vast general public who take a pecuni-
airy interest in the sport. The Younger
Reim. barely Is years old, is a veritahla
wonder and whether he makes running or
waits he can be relied upon to do more
with his mount than any English light
weight of the day. A noticeable circum
stance, too Is that several English Jockeys
nave copied the American seat on the
horses withers. and now in some races il
is quite possible to see more horsemen in
the 'scorching' attitude than sitting up
straight in the old style, with their toes
stuck out and their horses hard held"
A striking phenomenon of our time is
the increasing use of iron and steel. saws
the Baltimore Sun. In ship-buildng ana
bodybuilding the large use Of steel has
been familiar for years. but its large use
in the construction OF public buildings