The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-01-09
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

"A curious incident occurred in an
English police court recently where a
man named Travis was sentenced to
months Imprisonment for obtaining
| a postal order by false pretenses. He
| pleaded that he was Officially dead +"
and his story was that when with the
British army in South Africa he de-
serted, Obtained some clothes from
the Kaffirs, made his way to the coast
and worked his passage home. He
then discovered that he was reported
| dead, and though he subsequently
gave himself up as a deserter the war
office gave an official assurance that
he had died at the 'front.'" and would
not arrest him.
German newspapers report that an
''alum mountain" exists in China,
which is not only noted as a natural
phenomenon, but is also source of
wealth for the people of it's vicinity.
The mountain is said to have a cir
conference at the base of not less than
ten miles and is nearly 1000 feet high.
The alum is quarried in immense
blocks, is then heated in large ovens
and afterward dissolved in boiling wa
ter. From this liquid the alum crys-
talize in layers of about half foot
in thickness, which are cut up in
blocks of ten pounds each. The Chi
nese use 1t mainly for purifying wa
ter.
An extraordinary collapse of hill
side is taking place at the grounds of
the Forest Hill golf links, Honor Oak,
England. A slope known as One Tree
Hill is steadily sinking and, day by
day nearly twenty acres of earth are
slowly crushing their way forward to
the Southeastern and Chatham Rail-
way line. At the same time ridges of
grass covered clay are moving over
the putting green. Half way up the
hill stand the members pavilion and
the caddies' house and the doors of
the structures are tilted upward and
soon the front of the building will be
| facing the sky. This remarkable phe-
| nomenon is due to the extensive quar-
| rying operations on the other side of
the hill, where a reservoir is being
built.
Cases of cruelty to privates in the
| German army multiply daily. The most
| recent is that of Franszki, a non-com-
| missioned officer in the Eighty-fifth In
| fantry. who was tried on 1920 counts
| of cruelty and convicted on 100 of them.
| He got ten years. The interesting point
| of the case was that Franszki had left
| the army and was serving as a po-
liceman in Homburg when the ac-
cusations were made. Another inter
esting case is that of a private who
was tried for desertion in Konigsburg
and sentenced to nine months impris-
onment. After he had begun to serve
| his sentence the case was reopened.
| 1t was learned then that he had de-
| serted through fear of his life. Once
| non-commissioned officer had threat
ened to run him through with his
Al. Dc
quashed and the soldier restored to
duty, No less than ten 'non-coms"
of his regiment are being tried for
cruelty.
Harry de Winda, the explorer,
writes thus of Irkutsk, which he calls
the Paris of Siberia: at is an unfin-
| ished, slipshod city, a strange mix
ture of squalor and grandeur, with
| tortuous, ill-paved streets, where the
wayfarer looks instinctively for the
'no-thoroughfare' board. There is one
long struggling main street with fair
| ly good shops and buildings, but be-
| You'd this IrkutSk remains much the
| same dull, dreary- looking place that l
remember in the early '90s, before the
railway had aroused the town from
| its slumber of centuries. Even now
| the place IS absolutely primitive and
I
view and the yellow Chinese and
beady-eyed Tartars who throng the
| business quarters are quite in keeping
with the Oriental filth around, unre-
| deemed by the usual Eastern color and
| romance. On fine mornings the market
place presents a curious and interest
| ing appearance, for here you may see
the Celestial in fiowery silk elbowing
the fur-clad Yakute and Bokhara
| hands with Japan"
For many centuries the recogniz-
| ed thing for a bride has been a
wreath of orange blossoms. The
question is especially interesting
when you note the fact that
| in many countries the orange
blossom is entirely tabooed. The Ger
man bride wears myrtle; the girl of
the Black Forest takes the flower of
the hawthorn-when she can get it.
| The brides of Italy and the French
| provinces of Switzerland use white
roses. Spanish brides go in for pinks,
| carnations and red roses. In Norway,
Sweden and Servia the bridal crown
is of silver; in Bavaria and Silesia
glass, pearls and gold wire are used;
in the Islands of Greece, vine leaves;
| in Bohemia, rosemary, and so on.
! The Roman bridal wreath was of ver-
| bena. Holly wreaths were sent as
| tokens of congratulation, and wreaths
| of parsley and rue were given under
| the idea that they were the best pre-
ventiVes against the influence of evil
| spirits. Why, then, the orange bios
som wreath? asks Woman's Life.
There is widely spread notion that
| it was adopted as an embleme of fruit
fulnesS, but there is doubt as to
whether this notion is we'll founded.
The practice of wearing the orange
blossom has been derived from the
| Saracens, among whom the particu-
| lar blossom was regarded as a SYM
boil of prosperous marriage, a circum-
stance which is partly to be account
! ed for by the fact that in the East
| the orange tree bears ripe fruit, and
| blossoms at the same time. You will
| also read that the flower was intro
| duced into the wedding customs of our
| country by French milliners, having
| been selected for it's beauty, rather
than for any symbolical reason.
in book on British sports writ
| ten in the eighteenth century Joseph
Strut gives the old English terms for
groups of various beasts as follows:
when beasts went together in COM
panies there was said to be a pride of
| lions; a lepe of leopards; an herd of
| harts, of bucks and of all sorts of
| deer; a bevy of roes; a sloth of boars:
| a sownder of wild swine; a drift of
| tame swine; a route of wolves; a har-
| ras of horses; a rag of colts; a stud of
| mares: a pace of asses: a haran of