The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-07-14
rrEms OF INTEREST.

A family NJ four Indians ln Dl1tuWn Me- ls
said to have iaid aside sloo last ar. after
paving aII fhoir household expenses from the
profits oi basket masking. An .n4r tive WIS.,
it0r likewise reports that This fsmi y has Do
| It's home % tfnl piano. Brussels car
petIug. lace curtains. plush iurultllti
pictures "a set of COOpcrs novels. and an Owl
and peacock. the last two both stuffed.
A man who has q horne on the Hudson. a
few miles above the city, says the New York
sun. numbers among his live stock properties
I a large. TAT toad. Every evening IN warm
weather tins animal energies from hole
under the walk before his front door lvsi as
the gas i~ lighted. and hops about the lawn,
apparently an night. prcvng on insects In
the morning he retires to his hole beneath the
hagstones for John" is fellow OF regular
habits. The man occasionally picks hum mp,
10 the establishment OF the servants. who be
lieve the skin Of the toad TO be poisonous.
common belief in rural neighhorhoods Is
that 10 causes warts to appear on the hands of
those who touch it-a le!ief that probably
arises from the similarity of warts to the
roughnesscs on the toad's skin.
Boy choirs, trained as such singers are
trained in Great Britain and in Germany,
were almost unknown in this country ten
years ago ana are not common now, though
there are several admirably trained boy cholrs
in New York, says the Sun. When the time
comes for the choir boys voice to change, the
conscientious choir master bids him rest, in
order that his natural male voice may not be
NDDllGQ IOT Singing. Inc TASK OF lCtGUllk LIS
lads to sing in the artificial manner required
is most lahOriOus and the earnings OF learn
erS are trifing. Later welltraincd chOrts-
ter may earn from $500 to $500 per year by his
Sunday work. The choir boy of the rural
parish Is usually an uuschOOled imp, chosen
| Tor his golden hair and cherubic face.
Kings river canon is situated south of the
Yosemite forty-tive miles from Visalia, and
is the valley Of the south fork of Kings river
says the Californian 1t is ten miles long,
one half a mile wide. with walls that tower 10
a hight of from $500 to 5000 feet. The depth
OF the valley is more than a mile, while the
| floor is comparatively level with groves and
parks of willow, poplar fir and pine, rising
| from carpet Of exquisite flowers. The
| abrupt walls rear themselves almost perpen-
dicularly, and the changing river flows down
| through its dazzling canon, now gliding
| gently, and then leaping and daSh1ng over
| huge rocks and boulders through a narrow
gorge into deep clear pools below. Numer-
Gus streams from the surrounding mountains
find their way down the slopes seeking at
last this mighty river, where they mtngle in
the soft ripple, or in the furious roar of the
cascades Great masses of rock, curiOusly
fashioned, Jut out from the ponderous walls
in artistic architectural forms, like forts and
buttresses built upon high precipice,
noticed an item in the press stating that
the City of Picking in her recent trip sailed
1,240 miles without meeting a single sail
and this fact is cited as showingthe loneliness
VI Jllb dGllC OCGdu. says Il WIlltI III INC
Washington Star. In the summer of 1850 I
left san Francisco on a sail vessel formerly
from BaltimOre) for Panama, distance OO0
miles. and on the entire route, which lasted for
ty three days, we never saw a sail Loneliness
Is no word for 1t, especially when we lay be
Gained in the tropics, with our vessel float
ing as helplesSly about as chip on a mill
pond the ground SwellS keeping up the mo-
nOtonous roll of the vessel from side to side
all day and night and day after day, each roll
being accompanied by a. flap of the sails and
a creaking Of the rigging that might have
passed for the flap of the wings and the wall
of lost spirits When we read about Noah
and his ark we are apt to think that he must
have had rather lonely time but then he
was out only forty days and besides. with
all the animals, etc, on board, he had plenty
to occupy his time and attention, and if ne
wanted amusement to while away the time
he had only to start a sparring match be
tween his monkeys and parrots True, there
is no report of any such proceeding on his
part, but that is doubtless because there
was no modern newspaper reporter on
board. tell you, man can't realize what
loneliness or comfort is until he has made
some such trip, and if he wants to complete
his education in that line he should preface
1t with tramp of 1000 miles over the noun
tafnS and across the deserts amid wolves and
wild Indians, as thousands OF '49-ers did.
AS the cultivation of tobacco is prohibited
in England, except under a special license
from the excise authorities, so the cultiva-
ton of the poppy in British India is forbidden
unless license has been taken out. says Pear
sons Weekly. When a cultivatOr takes out a
permit from the opium department to Guilt
Vate certain area usually twO-thirdS of an
acre OF his land) he receives an advance in
money to secure his allegiance. and he binds
himself to deliver to the opium agent at
liked price, ordinarily shillingS a pound.
Whatever opium may be produced upon his
/ land. When official supervision is efficient it
IS certainly very difficult for man to cult
Vate poppy on larger area than is covered
] DIV MS license without detection Il he Guilt
walton cannot be concealed. 1t is a sort of
garden cultivation, the poppy plants being
grown IN little squares or beds, intersected
by tiny water channels for irrigation when
ever this is possible. Inc growth of the plant
| is carefully tended, and at length the
| time comes when they burst out into flower,
and the fields look like a sheet of silver as the
white petals Of the flowers glisten in the
morning dew. These beautiful petals are the
first product Of the crop, for the women and
children of the CultiVatOrS families come
forth and pick them off one by one and care
fully dry them so that they may serve after
ward as the covering of the manufactured
cakes OF opium. Then the peoples, with their
care capsule heads, remain standing in the
open held until it is considered that they are
ripe for l0nCing. The cultvators then come
forth IN the evening and, with an implement
not unlike the knives Of a cupping Instrument
they clarity the capsule on its side with deep
lnclstOns, so that the juice may eXude. In the
early morning the cultivatOrS reappear with a
ScraDlng knife and their earthenWare pots
and they sCrape off the exuded Juice ana col
lect 1t in their pots And this is crude opium
a few years ago the person who might give
utterance to the idea that any but human be-
ings possessed reasoning powers would have
been considered guilty of rank heresy, says
the Philadelphia Ledger. But with advanced
enlightenment there ere thousands who have
been driven to the belief that the divine
light has not been bestowed upon man alone
but upon animals as well, even insects coming
IN for share OF that force which is a grade
higher than instinct. Close observers are
continually making public examples which
show that that class of animal life which has
been designated as the lower orders" when
compared with human kind accomplish re-
suits the working out of which can scarcely
be ascribed to instinct alone. This reasoning
faculty is especially noticeable among dogs
while many other animals evince a power of
thought, of ability to reason, really remarlza-
able. In communication to the Academy of
Natural Sciences, some time ago Pro
fessor Mehan related an incident
that came under his own obserya-
ton which while not conclusive evi-
dence -Of reasoning power in insects. vet is
strongly indicative of it. During a light
spring shower the professor took shelter
under large linden tree in full bloom
While there he noticed an unusual number of