The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-12-28
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

SOMEBODY once paid Congressman Cannon
the doubtful compliment Of saying he looked
enough like Lincoln to be mistaken for Senator
| Cullom.
A MARRIAGE NOTICE in the Union7ilis (Mo)
| Leader closes as follows: MAY the mystic
hand OF fortune gently lead the happy couple
INTO sunny paths. and long may It be until the
sun OF their lives shall cast lengthy shadow on
the Hesperian shore"
some Of the Columbian souvenir half dollars
are in the bands of the government assayer at
the treasury department in Washington. saws
the Fhiledelphia Record. Each Of them is about
ak inches long. of a narrow oval shape and
perforated with little round holes. This is the
form in which they appear, after being rolled
out very thin and punched with machine
These are specimens sent from the Philadelphia
mint for tie purpose of finding out whether the
pieces are OF the weight and f1neness required
by law. They are rolled out thin. TO begin with
because when the coin is made the silver in IL
mas tendency TO go toward the middle, so that
the metal on the outside is not so fine as that
WITHIN. But the expert must discover the aver
| age hneness, in order to ascertain how much
SILVER there Is altogether. and he does this in a
metal into which the half dollar has been rolled
through small machine operated with a crank
turned by hand. 1t comes out punched as full
OF holes as II can be, while hundreds OF small
circular disks about the size OF q gold Quarter
dollar fail out of the holes thus made into
tiny box beneath. NEXT the disks are taken out
a
picked at random from the lot and they repre-
senting the average of silver in the coin are
subjected to chemical analysis.
81 NEVER REALIZED" said Samuel Walters to
a GIobe-DemocrGt writer, "just how many
swallows could live in one chimney until few
country town. They are rather neighborly
birds, take them all in ALL and like to see them
return. One evening in July some years back
sat on the lawn in front of a friends house ont
Iowa WatChAd n har Of
skimming and circling about over the great
chimney OF public school close by Nv host
SAID IN spring there had been but few swal-
lows inhablting the chimney; that they had
multiplied rapidly, and that before fall the SKY
over the chimney would be black of evenings
with the oircling birds, watched them with
enjoy to look at it is to see birds Of graceful
| flight, like buzzards or cranes or swallows
When the shadows fell the birds gathered
closer above the school house, and one by one
they described swift circle above the chimney
| and then dropped like an arrow down into the
opening ! counted fully 100 before the last
| one descended. / wondered then how so many
| birds could inhhbit one chimney. Later on in
! the season, few days before the opening Of
the first school term, | met the jsnitor of the
| school and we talked birds. Then l inquired
| about the chimney and the swallows He said
that the chimney would shortly be cleaned for
winter service, and that fully 100 vacant nests
| would be swept down. The birds glue their
| hard nest of twigs to the chimney sides one
above the other in tiers. They live in regular
| colonies"
| A COW AND sTEER-the latter to 8 years
old-were the only occupants of the barnyard
where an occurrence sscribed by the Popular
| Science Monthly took place. A batting of hay
was put out to them, the COW taking possession
| The steer wished TO share it, but the COW, ike
some higher animals. was selfish and was bent
| upon taking the whole OF it, and as often as he
| would maneuver around from side to side TO ger
| a bite she would drive him off at the point of
her horns. The steer was so persistent that at
| last the old cows patience gave wav and max
| ing determined and vicious charge on him,
punished him severely. though be was her own
| offspring. The steer felt badly hurt, not only
| IN body but in mind as well. and Immediately
started out Of the yard and Off down
the lane toward the pasture, where
we're the rest of the stock, believing
| vengence at every step in LANGUAGE
| which was unmistakable TO the bystander and
| which the mother well understood as she ceased
| eating and listened intently to the threatening
| OF what was TO come. When these died away
| in the distance she resumed her ration but with
| evident apprehension. In due time the steer
was seen retuFning, bringing with him a com
panion larger aud stronger than himself. AS
| they approached the mbings Of rage and re-
| venge could be heard again, which grew louder
as they came nearer. The COW took in the situs-
| ton at once and was now terror-stricken AS
her sssailants rushed into the yard she DO ged
| them and rushed at life and-death speed and
away toward the rest of the stock in the field
| with her pursuers close In her tracks
The New Zealand Official Handbook for
1892 gives some particulars respecting the trade
| in Kauri gum, OF which S,3sS tons, valued at
&437, O56 were imported into London during
| 1891. The gum Is formed of the turpentine that
has exuded from the kaurt tree says the Lon
| don Times, species Of pine which is the finest,
and, for general purposes, the most useful
| forest tree IN New Zealand. Thirty years ayo
| the Maoris were the only people who employed
| themselves in searching for this gum. which at
| that time was TO be found on, or cropping out
Of, the surface of the ground. where, perhaps
| ages before, forests OF kauri had stood After
| O. few years exports the Maors began tn DIS,
for the gum few inches below the snrfacs AS
| the uses for il increased its market value rose
and presently Europeans betook themselves To
digging for it, until, at the present time there
| are probably 1900 whites and 1000 Maoris en-
| gagged in the work In the Auckland provincial
district, where alone the gum is TO be found
/ Hence the output has steadily increased
| during the last thirty years, notwithstand-
ing that the gum Is not being reproducad
| except to q very inappreciabe extent. in
the existing forests, and these are being RAPIDLY
| cut down because OF the commercial value Of
| the timber. Within a measurable period OF
| time tue production of the gum must cease al
though it is expected that at the present rate il
| will take fifty years to exhaust the deposits in
| the Auckland district In some places gum
bearing land has been purchased from tha
/ crown for settlement purposes. and the pun nm.
earthed in blowing it has been sold for enough
| to pay the purchase money for the land and
! for blowing, fencing and sowing it as we'll The
ordinary method of searching for the gum ia by
first feeling for 1t little below the surface
with a steel pointed piece OF iron called '9um
spear" and then digging IL out with spade
A skillful and industrious digger can clear as
much as 90 to "a per week at the work and
even children can earn few shillings q CAV:
but the gum fields offer a refuge for all sorts
and conditions OF men n any who are old and
iuf1rm resort to them. and so the average earn
ings are reduced to 81 l5s. or 81 a week. The
gum is used principally in the manufacture Of
varnish, but IL is also found useful for many
other purposes. such as dressing glazed"