The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-08-11

habitation for years upon the bill file
of the tradesman to whom 1t was sent,
says the New York Tribune. 1t tells
its own tale: "Mr. Charles Dickens is
much obliged to Mr.. Claridge for the
offer of Lord Byron's flute. But, as
Mr.. Dickens cannot play that fnstru-
ment himself, and has nobody in his
house who can, he begs to decline the
purchase, with thanks. DevonShire
Terrace, twentieth June, 1S4S." There
is no visible mark of a smile upon the
paper, says Mr.. Fem, but there seems
to be one playing among the words,
and one cannot help thinking that
when Dickens wrote that he could not
play the flute he must have recalled
a certain flute serenade played at Mrs.
Todger's Commercial Boarding House"
written by him in 1S44.
AN old colored woman selling
snails." says the Philadelphia Record,
occasionally makes her appearance in
South street, and sometimes she may
also be found along Front street or
Second street, up in the district that
used to be known as the Northern
Liberties. She carries an old basket,
in which the snai1s repose on freshly
sprinkled leaves. These are not sold as
food, but for cleaning the outside of
window panes-an old practice still in
vogue in Kensington. The snail is
dampened and placed upon the glass,
where it at once moves around and de-
vous all insects and foreign matter,
leaving the pane as bright and clear as
crystal. There are old established
business places in Kensington where
the upper windows, when cleaned at all
are always cleaned by snails. There
is also fine market for snails among
the owners of aquariums, as they keep
the glass clean and bright
"A miner may be superstitious, but
he is as plucky man as breathes. One
creature, however, most of them shy
at the sight Of This is the great, bloat-
ed, white spider, which rustles along
the walls of the shaft and disappears
in some cleft in the rock. NaturaliSts
for long time would not believe that
these spiders were really cave dwell
ers. They declared that they were
merely ordinary spiders that had fallen
or crept into the mines. But at last
one was brought to a famous natur-
alist and found by him to be absolutely
without eyes. This proved beyond
doubt that for centuries the creatures
ancestors had lived beyond the reach
of sunlight, says the Cincinnati En-
quirer. A spider, even if he does live
in the depths of the earth, must eat.
and more recently his prey has been
discovered. II is a sort of small beetle.
Another scorpion-like insect, called the
blothrus, also takes his blind way over
the rocks and stalks by sound and
touch the same prey. 1t is a wonderful
thing to watch one of these creatures
hunting a beetle, and almost iInpossi-
BILE to realize it's absolute blindness
when one sees how perfectly its move
ments correspond with those of it's in
tended victim.
Imagine whole freight train load
ed with nothing but flowers, says an
exchange. Such a train recently came
rolling into London from Penzance
| The Scilly Islands, lying to the west
ward of Lands End, are the flower gar
dens of the British metropolis. There
| is hardly any other industry on these
islands except the raising of flowers
| for the London market. The Gull
stream hobs up serenely from below
| on the shores of the Scillys in it's last
| expiring effort and brings to them a
| faint remembrance of warmth of the
| trcpic seas from whence it comes, thus
making the islands of a mild climate
| where flowers bloom in March. The
cargo for this special trainload OF
flowers was brought from the island
! flower farms in steamship to Pen.
| zance, where the train was in waiting
| The flowers were in packages, and as
each package weighed but a few ounces
some idea of the enormous bulk of the
cargo may be gained from the fact
that it weighed q tons. The flower.
were picked in the morning and loaded
on the ship, which got them to Pen
! zance in the early evening. Then the
] 03e~I,k
| don, and the next morning they were
for sale in the flower market of the
great city.
In the Times Mr.. Percy Fitzgerald
tells US how Besant and Rice collabo.
rated. Rice and Besant consulted, Be.
SAINT write, Rice criticised, Besant re.
wrote, says a London newspaper. That
we are told, was the order of proceed
ings; and 1T may partly account for the
fact that the earlier novels of lBesant
alone are more like the books the tive
men wrote together than the later ones
The echoes of the voice of the critic
were still heard for awhile after the
voice itself was silent, and then gradu
| ally ceased to be heard or attended to
1t is probably the best method of col
| laborating, but 1t is not the only on,
known to literary history. In 9TH,
Green Bay Tree" which had a success:
de scandale a few years ago, the tive
authors-Messrs. Wilkins and Vivial
| signed their names to their respectiv,
chapters, and the result was tolerabl,
harmonious; but the most interesting
idea of the functions of coIlaborato
was that of Dumas the elder, who of
! fered the appointment of his son. ="
will give you a thousand a year." h,
! said, land you will have nothing to d,
but raise objections" The offer wa,
refused-possibly because the author O
La Dame aux Camelias" knew tina
his father was not the man to listen Il
objections meekly. The collaboration
who were found by Dumas, pere, wer,
practically little more than the grea
mans amanuenses. At any rate, the,
! never did any tolerable work of thei
own.
There is little likelihood that tn,
members of the several legislative as
semblies of Europe will becom
wealthy upon the salaries they receive
says an exchange. The most expensive
Parliament in Europe is that of France
which costs $1,500,000 a year. TIL
| French people are very well represent
ed. There are 800 senators. and 5S4 dep
uties, a total in excess Of 800. Eacl
receives a salary of $500 year. Il
the United States the ninety senator
and $50 congressman are paid $4,000, 90
in salaries. The members of the Brit