The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-10-08
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The silk industry was introduced
into France from Italy at the begin
ming of the fourteenth century, when
disconnected Italian weavers establish
ed themselves at Lyons. In the six
teenth century the industry was intro
duced on an extended scale, and in 1850
France surpassed Italy, and has since
kept the position of leader.
The horse meat butcher shops in
Paris, of which there are now no less
than 1876, present a clean and attrac-
tive appearance and are in no way dis
ttnguishable from shops where the usu-
al kinds of meat are sold, save by the
sign announcing their speciality. Res
taurant keepers who serve horse meat
must designate this fact in a special
column on the bill of fare offered to
patrons.
In cold countries. where snow pre-
walls, during a long winter, many of
the animals change the hue of their
coats to a white tint. The Arctic bear
and fox are white throughout the year
The Northern hare is brown in sum-
mer and white in winter The weasel
IS especially curious; it retains it's
brown coat until the first snow APP
pears, and then whitens in a few
hours.
There was an explosion at the rail-
way station at Santa Cruz one day
recently which badly frightened the
people waiting for the train. The en-
tire bottom of a valise was blown out
The owner who feared that he would
be suspected as an Anarchist, ex-
planned that two years ago he had
placed dynamite caps in the valise
while pruning trees and had neglected
to take them out.
Nearly half a century ago. the ex-
perience of putting horse meat on the
market was made for the first time
in Austria. A government decree of
April 90 1854, gave legal permission to
cut up and sell horse meat as an ar.
ticle Of food. During the rest of that
year and in 1885, 943 horses were
slaughtered for food in Vienna; the
number rose in 1S99--the last year for
which statistics are obtainable-to 25,-
$40 head.
When Para rubber trees are tap
ped, after the gum is run into recep,
tacles and stiffened, a species of large
black ant is accustomed to cut out
pieces of the rubber and carry them
away. Bees also find uses for India
rubber, and some species in South
America actually cut the bark of trees
that produce resinous substances in
order to cause a flow of sap. The gum
is employed by the bees as a ready
made wax for their nests.
1t was in 1743 that the Dublin So
ciety offered premiums for competition
by lacemakers. But there does not
seem to have been a combined effort
to place the industry on a commercial
basis until 1929 when a Mr. Walker,
having married the daughter of a lace
manufacturer in Nottingham, brought
over to Ireland some twenty girls to
teach the peasant women about Linn
erick the art of lacemaking, and from
this small beginning arose the great
Limerick lace industry.
Far up in the e-bound North the
Eskimos, five centuries behind the
rest of humanity, have no clocks, yet
they manage to tell time with a fair
degree of accuracy. The passage of
days is measured by what they call
sleeps" The Eskimo is very regular
in his habits. He works and travels
during the time apportioned to the day.
but as soon as the hour for sleep comes
he seeks repose and never arouses from
his heavy slumber until nine hours
have passed. One day is therefore one
sleep a week seven sleeps" and a
IIOHll Thirty Sleeps. "A Keen ODSeE-
walton of the sun and the stars enables
the Eskimo to tell the time of day.
During his expeditions, whenever Lieut..
Peary wished to tell a native that he
wanted him at a certain hour he
would do it by pointing to the sun or
a particular star and showing just
where in the heavens it would be at
the particular time. The Eskimo
would comprehend instantly, and never
| fas I'D 70 he >f,,4, Of he
time stipulated.
Some of the English war CORE
| spondents who were in the field dur
! ing the earlier and most disastrous
days of the South African war, says the
New York Post, were witnesses of the
| recent army maneuvers in Germany
and have seized the opportunity to re-
pay in kind some of the sharp criti-
cism to which the British strategy
was subjected by German experts.
Among other points made by these Eng
fish critics are the following: They
say that the German scouts exhibited
no ability for that kind of work, and
habitually exposed themselves in a way
that would have insured their speedy
destruction by Boer sharpshooters.
The German artillerymen, again, they
declare, were not as quick or as cool
in practice as the British artillervmaa
under a heavy fire. Moreover, the
German cavalry leaders are charged
with recklessness, and with firing their
horses out before they had got them
fairly into action. In one case the de-
Tending cavalry were led, by a feigned
retreat, into a position where they
were exposed to a whitening fire of ar
tillery and Maxims, without being able
either to retreat or advance. Nothing,
says one reporter, could have saved the
whole force from surrender or immola-
ton. Large numbers of the infantry
it is declared, fell by the wayside,
utterly broken down by the burden i'm
POSED upon them by the heavy march
ing order. The Emperor, it is added,
condemned the mismanagement of the
cavalry in very bitter terms.
The most healthful place in the
United States to live in is Marion, Ia,
according to reports received by the
Marine Hospital Service from 1,190
citiees and towns having a population
of 1000 or more, says the New York
Sun. There may have been a more
healthful place than Marion but if So
no official returns were received from
it, Marion has a population of ATOP,
and there were only six deaths in 1900,
making the death rate the phenome-
nally low figure of 1.46 per 900 The
average death rate in all the cities and
towns was 17.47. 1t appears from the
compilation of the Marine Hospital
service that the state having the best
record of health last year was North
Dakota, with a death rate of only & AZ