Savannah morning news., 1886-03-20
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

land Is SAID to have refused to appear IN cour
dress. Mr.. Bright met the difficulty by olack
velvet.
DAKOTA FARMERS are making plans to grow
fax for fuel this summer. 1t is said that a
ton of fax straw is worth more to burn than
ton of soft coal.
AS AN EVIDENCE Of the wane of roller skat-
ing it is noted that the lockwood Of which
the rollers are made has dropped helow what
it was at this time last year, ana is still falling.
A PATENT has been granted in Russia for a
luclfer match that can be used an indefinite
number of times, the wood being impregnated
with special chemical solution chat Will al
low OF such reuse.
For purposes of cremation natural gas is a
medium whose advantages are many. Incln-
GRAFTON took place in less than an hour at an
experimental trial Of a acrematory establis he'd
Ia Pittsburg IN which natura gas is the fuel.
A missionary reports that the river Eu-
pirates bids fair to disappear altogether in
the spreading marshes just below Babylon.
which have ruined the steamboat channel
and are now obliterating navigation for row.
boats.
The Nineteenth Hussars have taken their
fox hounds to Egypt. In the first run an old
cow buffalo charged one of the huntsmen, and
ne barely escaped with his life, after chase
almost as arduous as the fox was called upon
to undergo.
A WOMAN named Kuenze had been support
ed by public charity in Silesian village for
thirty years. The other day, having fallen
heir to $4,000, she gave $1,000 to the village
with which to build gravel road to neigh
boring town.
THE Austrian government has offered a
premium OF 1000 ducats (about s2,6O0) for an
invention which is either to take the place of
the explosives now in use in mines exposed to
hredamps. or which does away with their dan
gerous character.
A DIscovERYof OF Importance to science has
lately been made by Prof. Winkler, Of the
Mining Academy at Freiberg in Saxony. He
has found new chemical element, which he
calls Germanium. The report does not state
whether it belongs to the metalloidsor metals.
THREE sPoRTsMEN of Portland, Oregon,
hunted ducks an entire day and only secured
single bird. On their way home. just before
nightfall, they saw flock of twenty widgeon.
One OF the hunters crept up and discharged
the two barrels of his gun IN rapid succession,
killing the entire twenty
JOHN BURROUGHS finds that since he gave
up the use of meat his health has been ma
terially improved. 81 find need less physi-
cal exercise, that my nerves are much steadier
and that | have far fewer dull, blank, de-
pressing days; in fact, all the functions of my
UOuy arc luuCD D6bttT By ADSIdll-
ing from meat"
Mr.. SFURTEvENT usually takes to exhibi-
lions in Boston, Philadelphia and New York
some choice selections from his wealth of
water plants. At the exhibition in New
York last week he sent over from Borden
town water lily-nymph@a Zanzibarensis-
resembling our white pond lily in form, but
much larger and OF a deep purple color.
A MEMBER OF the Staten Island Natural Sci
ence Association reports that a dozen years
ago an immense colony of night heroas estab-
lished itself on Staten Island. but is now al
most eXterminated. The italian laborers of
the neighborhood regularly robbed the herony
to get the eggs for food. and some of the farm
ers sought the eggs to mix, beaten up, with
fodder for their COWS.
OF the thirty three and a fifth miles of the
new Croton tunnel, eight and haIf miles
have been opened. and the present weekly
rate OF advance is one third of a mile. Over
1000 men are at work and 80 900 pounds of ex-
5000, 900 pounds Of explosives win have been
consumed in the entire work of shatteTing
$4,000, 900 cubic feet Of rock.
NEAR the headwaters of the Little Colorado,
called by Coronado the Rio de Limo, is one of
the most remarkable natural curiosities of
the United States. tits petriied forest ex-
tending over many miles The trees are
slliciied conifera Of gigantic size. One has
been discovered which measures more than 20
feet at the base. aud at a break 100 feet from
the base 1t was 70 feet in diameter.
IN the western portion of Arizona, where
the desert runs northward to the parallel of
"a degrees. lies the remarkable region known
as the "Painted Desert" It is a wlld, sOlita-
ry, level PLAN, the entire surface covered
with lofty colHmns and isolated buttes, com
posed OF sandstone and worn into fantastic
ghaDaa hV the atOT-nna of This Wa ird daa
ert is veritable Fata Morgana presenting
the most marvellous mirages.
DIR. ALoNzo CLARK, of New York, has lust
entered his S0th year. New York." says he,
''ls as desirable place of residence for a pbv-
siciau as any city in Europe, although no ply
sician has over made S250, goo in a single wear.
as Sir Ashley Cooper did. Perhaps $50, 900 or
$4,000 is as much as any physician makes
here. The principal characteristics of medi
cal practice to-day, as distinguished from that
OF 30 years ago" he adds, "are conservatism
and hopefulness.
PREVIOUS to the war a colored man, now
living in Norfolk, and then slave, purchased
his freedom from his owner, agreeing to give
81 300 for the chattel property. When Presl-
dent Lincoln's emancipation proclamation
was issued the former slave had paid $500 of
his indebtedness, and since that time, by his
daily labor, he has accumulated, dollar by
dollar, and paid over to his former owner the
remaining $500. and now is a freeman indeed
The sense OF honor was stronger in his mind
than the law of the United states by which he
was manumitted, and he set an example fol-
lowed by few. His name, which deserves to
be recorded everywhere, is John BIllups.
GEN. II. M NAGLEE, whose will has been
probated at San Jose, CAL, leaves to his sister.
Mrs. Mary n. Burke, OF Philadelphia, 81 900 a
year during her life; to hissister- in law. Mrs.
John Naglee, Of Virginia, SIS a month during
herlife; to his brother, Joseph M. Naglee. $50
a month during his life; to his. nephew, John
Naglee Burke. all interest in cattle on Pesca-
dero ranch. The remainder of his propertv
IS bequeathed to his daughters Marie and
AntOlnette, share and share alike not fo he
partitioned until Antoinette is 30 years of age.
The daughters are requested not 10 marry
until they are 25. The estima ated value of the
estate is Sl.000000, and il consists Of realestata
in California, horses, cattle and 100. 600 gallons
Of brandy.
THE island Of Juan Fernandez, upon which
Alexander Selkirk, the prototype of Robinson
Crusoe, spent his four solitary years, has
never since been inhabited until y years ago.
when the present Gov. Rodt settled upon #
with small colony. Rodt is a Switzer. In
1866 he tonght Tor Austria against the Prus-
siane, and In 1870 for France. After the de-
feat Of the French he emgrated 10 Chill and
made himself useful TO the government al
whose invitation he undertook the colonjza-
tion OF Robinson Crus0e's lonely island Here
he has resided for toe last u years As Cover
nor ana Judge. Most OF the settlers over
whom he presIdes are German and Swiss
Nearly all the veget alton OF the temperate
zone thrives upon Juan Fernandez.
DIR, WITTMAcE, professor Of botany al Ber-
lin. gives most striking instance OF the lon
a..I. - 4.