The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-27


there will be gathering of the de-
scendants of John Eliot himself, WHO
have scattered into widely separated
parts of the country, and who call
themselves indifferently Eliot, Elliot
or Elliott. This will be the second re-
union of the members of the Eliot fam
lily. The first, held in 1875 at Gulford,
Conn.,was attended by nearly two hum
dred persons.
1t is a fact not sufficiently ap-
preciated even by electrical men, says
the Electrical World, that it is possible
by electrical means to throw around a
vault or safe a protection from bur-
glary more absolute than can be OBJ
tanned in any other way. A vault,
however fiimsy it may be mechanically,
if protected by an electrical lining, the
least disturbance of which is absolutely
certain to give an alarm, either at a
central office or to the general public,
is for all practical purposes burglar
proof. If some such system had been
in operation on the vault at the Chi
cago postoffice its recent comparatively
easy looting would have been impos-
sible. This branch of electrical work
has suffered much from commercial
encouragement in the past, and there
is probably a greater need for the fool
killer among inventors of electrical
burglar alarms than in any other
branch of the business. 1t is, however,
a legitimate branch of electrical in
dustry.
In the homes of the Balkan peas
ants nothing is priced so highly as the
fire on the hearth, for it is regarded as
sacred, and is never allowed to go out,
says the New York Herald. Tradition
says that if it is extinguished misfor-
tune will surely come, and that in
many cases the death of the fire is a
sure token that some member of the
family will speedily Another time
honored tradition says that the sacred
hre is able to cure many maladieS, and
this is supposed to be the main reason
why 1T is guarded so carefully through
out the Carpathians and the Balkan
peninsular. Sometimes it becomes
necessary to produce this sacred fire,
and various methods are adopted for
this purpose. Among the Servians of
western Macedonia the following
method has long been in vogue. Two
oak posts, in the upper ends of which
two round holes have been bored, are
driven into the ground, and in the holes
a piece of linden wood is then placed
in such manner that it can be rota-
ted at any speed that may be desired.
To prevent the oak posts from getting
out of position a strong cord is tight
ly tied around them, and finally a
clumsy but effective violin bow is
fashioned, and it's string is twisted
once around the linden wood The fire
is then generated by moving the bow
over the linden wood, for the effect of
such motion is to make the linden
wood rotate at great speed, and the
heart which is thus produced through
friction very soon ignites a bit of tin
der, which has been previously placed
IN one of the holes in the oak posts
They say" said an observant man.
according to the New York Sun, that
there's nothing new under the sun, and
l sometimes wonder if any of the old
things that, from time to time, seem
TO pass out of use do really do that or
only disappear in one form or reap
pear in another, so that, as there is
nothing new, so also does no old GUS
tom cease absolutely to exist Now
you take for instance the doorplate,
once thing of common, familiar use
We used to have all sorts and sizes
and shapes of doorplates, with all sorts
of letters: gothic and Roman, and
script and italic, and l don't know
what not. And l must say that as far
40 an COHCCIU6u always GdLner
liked to see a nice doorplate, and. any,
how, there was a time when no home
was considered complete without one
And then doorplates began to disap-
pear. Once imperatively in demand.
they next ceased to be fashionable; and
the doorplate has apparently gone alb
solutely out of use. But as the poet
says, we have another think; and ex-
ercising this right we realize that the
doorplate has not ceased to exist; that
it has simply undergone transforma-
ton; and that what once was consid-
cred a thing for the outside of a door
only has now been adapted to indoor
use and is in reality, in one and an
other form, far more commonly used |
than ever; it is now the doorplate of |
the fiat jewellers. There are thousands |
and thousands of these strictly modern |
doorplates now in use, and these might |
be said to be really indispensable: far |
more so than the old time doorplates !
ever were. The old doorplate which |
you could see from the sidewalk was |
a picturesque part of the landscape,
but you could have done without it,
as in fact we do now. We can with |
out difficulty go to one door and in |
quire, but these modern doorplates that |
are quite invisible from the street are |
really essential; for in the apartment |
house we should be lost without them. |
Here. to be able to read the name On
the door is truly a great convenience,
and on thousands and thousands of
these doors are these modern door,
plates now to be found, and old door
plates revived in new form and used
in far greater numbers than ever"
An admirable sketch of the Tsar
of Russia appears in the January num-
Der of Pearson's Magazine, and among |
other things the writer describes how |
the festival of Christmas affords one
an opportunity of seeing a very favor |
able side of the imperial character. At |
Tsarskoe Selo a large tree is arranged |
at the top of a grand staircase, and |
beautifully decked with lights and |
ornaments. On each side of the steps |
leading up to the tree are draped |
stands, containing presents for all the |
officers and men on duty at the palace |
and grounds Cossacks on sentry in the |
various corridors; sailors who act as |
keepers of the lakes; and soldiers who, |
from different parts of the country, are |
drafted to form the palace guard, for |
ii is feature of this branch of the |
army service that not more than two |
men shall come from the same regl- |
ment. But no matter who they are, |
or whence they come. every one on |
duty in the palace is given a Christ |
mas present of a silver article, such as |
match box, a snuff-box, besides 9TH
er gifts Of different nature. Each |
lady Of the household receives from |
the Empress three presents-one OF
linen, a second OF silver, while the
third Is usually iewelled gold brooch