The Savannah morning news., 1901-01-12


Johnston, millionaire Laird of the Fife
Isle estate near Dundee, vowed that
no man should ever see his face again
He kept his vow. Now he is dead. Never
once in all that time did he set foot
across the threshold of the dilapidated
manor house. A maid who cooked his
scanty meals never saw him. She would
ring a bell and withdraw. Only then
would Johnston come out of his den. He
was never married and his fortune, com
puted at five millions, is said to go to his
nephew, Lieut.. Mackgill Crichton, of the
Seaforth Highlanders, now serving in the
Soudan.
What has become of that once familiar
figure in English rural life, the mole
catcher? He may still exist, but one does
not see or hear of him as one did twenty
years or so since, says a London newspa-
per. Many a man of odd jobs is ready
to catch moles nowadays, but of old the
professional mole-catcher was a distinct
personality; he caught moles and nothing
else, except a stoat or weasel sometimes
by accident. But he did not, in certain
parts of the south of England at any
rate, call them moles; they were always
wants. " Indeed, a mole is still a want
in many districts. 1t is pure Anglo
Saxon word like wren" which has come
down almost untouched through ten CEN
turtles. Vantage, the birthplace of Alfred
the Great, takes its name from the little
animal
II think the average female shopper
has hard cheek" growled a young man
who was buying neckties in one of the
big department stores yesterday morn
ing, says the Philadelphia Rec
ord. He had been jostled and pushed and
showed until his patience was exhausted.
"Figuratively, yes; but not literally" said
| the salesman behind the counter. "A
woman's cheek is much more sensitive
than her fingers. Haven't you ever seen
them applying materials to their faces to
feel of the texture? A woman across the
aisle was looking a dress goods the other
day, and although she was told they
were all wool she was not quite convinced
until she had applied the crucial test by
rubbing the goods over her cheek. They
! tell me that the presence of cotton can
| be detected in that way when no amount
of feeling with the fingers would betray
it,
"A minor mystery of Hamlet appears
| to have been cleared up by a discovery
just made at Elsinore, in Denmark, the
| scene of the play. An old document has
been found in the archives of this an
cient town, stating that in 1885 wooden
fence, which had been erected by the
| burgomaSter, had been destroyed by
company of English actors. The names of
| the actors include some who are known
| to have belonged later to Shakespeares
| company. The Frankfurter Zetung, which
| announces the discovery, points out that
| Shakespeare "shows a curiously exact
| knowledge of the local conditions of that
little seaport" Among the several touches
| of what should now call local color
| is the reference to the "beetling cliffs,
| a striking characteristic of Elsinore. 1t is
| universally agreed that Hamlet was writ
| ten about the year 1901. The London Acad-
envy suggests that Shakepeares arbitra-
| ry preference for Elsinore mot mention
ed in the old play on which Hamlet was
founded may have been due to what he
heard of the place from his fellow players
in later years.
Glass jars, which have been used for
years by preference and general consent
as measures in the milk business, have
| just obtained status in the Massachu-
| sets laws governing weights and meas
ures and this imposes upon the glass
manufacturer the necessity of still greater
| precision. About 10 per cent of the jars
| in use are of short measurement, and con-
sequently condemned for further use
| while others have an excessive capacity,
| which makes them unacceptable to the
dealers Thus the glass-makers range of
| variation is reduced to the small allow
| ance between the exact capacity and the
| excess to which milk dealers will consent
| For a quart milk jar, the unavoidable
| variation in weight allowed to the work
| man in the past is set at about ~ ounces
| either way from the standard, or 8 ounces
| total variation from minimum to maxi
| mum, and the resulting variation in ia
| pacity would be half an ounce either way
ar Of RI Ind he
| law no underestimate will be permitted
| In order to obtain quart milk jar to
| hold not less than 80 ounces, or a quart
| it will be necessary to allow for the va
riations in such manner that they are
| wholly in excess of the standard capacity
and if that excess makes any material
| difference the milk dealer will decline to
accept it from the manufacturer. For
pints and half pints the variations, of
course. must be correspondingly smaller.
Dentists have long recognized that the
use of flesh food is a prolific cause of
| decay of the teeth. Carries of the teeth is
| due to destruction of their texture by the
growth of microbes. These microbes feed
on the proteid substances which are found
in meat or other animal substances. When
flesh is used for TO d the small fibers WIFI n
| become fixed between the teeth makes a
| splendid culture ground for teeth-destroy-
ing microbes. This is why dentists are
50 careful ito instruct their patients 10
| clean their teeth by drawing threads
through them. The teeth of the Hindoo
| natives are remarkably free from decay.
| and case of loss of teeth from carries
| is extremely rare in India. This re-
| markable immunity from a disease which
| is coming to be almost universal among
American and English people, is attrib-
uted in part to the Clearly habits of the
! Hindoos, who carefully cleanse their teeth
with primitive but efficient brush every
day, not only as a matter of hygiene. but
| in obedience to the DAVIS of their reu.
| gion. Dr. Egbert, who has made care
| full study of the teeth of the natives of
| India, calls attention to another and still
more important factor-the absence Of
| flesh food from the dietary of the Hindoo.
| 1t is now recognized that the prophecy
| which has been made that the people of
| the United States will be a, toothess race
| within century is based largely on The
rapid growth Of flesh eating in this coun-
| try.
Capt. Zalinski refers to the pom-pom
as most appreciable new element in
warfare. The pom-pom is a one-pounder,
| automatic gun. 1t uses metallic car
tridges similar to those used in small
| arms, but of calber of one and a
half inches, throwing a shell weighing
one pound. The cartridges are placed in
Il