The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-10
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

OF the game IN the WOODS
According TO a. recent lecture Of Prof
Schuster of London, the safest course
for a human being in a thunder storm Is
10 get thoroughly wet. Benjamin FRANK
lin remarked that he could kill rat when
dry by means Of an electric discharge,
but never when It was wet.
old salts down east are trying to as
certain which is the Oldest schooner AT
Polly, built in Amesbury. Mass, in lSl5.
is the oldest 50 far discovered. The Good
Intent. built in Braintree. Mass, in 1913,
is another stanch old craft still doing
good service.
-Twenty-four carat gold is all gold;
y carat gold has p parts of gold, OF sill
yer and of copper is carat gold has lS
parts Of pure gold and parts each OF sill
yer and copper in its composition; y
carat gold is half gold, the remainder be
ing made up OF 80 parts Of silver and 81
parts copper.
Acids in lubricating oils may be de-
tected by putting the samples to be tested
in a clear glass bottlel with a copper wire
running down through the cork, air
tight Stand the bottle in a sunny place
and leave for two or three weeks. If On
removal verdigris or green rust is on the
copper. there is acid in the oil.
While conducting a series of tests with
lOO-ton testing machine at the York
shire College in England. which included
the testing of steel wire rope, Prof.
Goodman stated that such ropes were not
modern invention, and that he had re-
Gently seen a wire rope one-haIf inch in
diameter and from twenty to thirty feet
long, which had been found buried in the
ruins of Pompeii and which must nave
been at least 1900 years old.
Mime. Ida Lane Ney Of Vienna, Aus
tria, has discovered new use for cigar
ribbons. For the past five years she has
collected the narrow, yellow bits OF SILK
used in tying cigars together, and to each
of these she has ''joined" a strip OF black
dress silk of equal length and width. Late
ly she found that the piece of goods was
enough q a acted
accordingly. There are 5000 cigar ribbons
in the dress.
The giant water plant of the world is
the lily called the Victoria Regia, which
was discovered By Haenke in Bolivia in
1901, but not named until 1888, when John
Indy dedicated 1t to Victoria. The leaves
of this gigantic water plant often grow to
be II feet in diameter, when in its native
South American home, but seldom attain
a greater width than seven feet when
under cultivation. Each leaf is surround
ed with a rim five or six inches in hight,
and two men have fioated on one in perfect
safety.
-"Uneda," writing from Philadelphia, in
English Notes and Queries of July 8, 1854,
says: - In Massachusetts the law
makes the Sabbath only is hours long. 1t
commences at midnight between Saturday
and Sunday and ends at p. m: on sun
day evening. In that state work may be
done or amusements or political meetings
may be attended on Sunday evening with
out breaking the law" Can any reader OF
the statute books of the old Bay State?
Most people imagine that the nectar
of flowers is pure honey, but such is not
the case. This nectar is gathered up by
the tongue of the bee and passes direct
to the so-called "honay-bag." This bag
is a laborat tory in which the nectar under
goes a wonderful chemical change-one
which could not be fully described IN Il
mote" suited to this department. After
undergoing this chemical change the nec-
tar is regurgitated by the bee on his re-
n
little waXen cell in the shape of pure
honey.
DR. Robert II. Thurston, in a recent
article discusses various materials in
which comparisons of interest are made
says the Scientific American. At the out
set he gives the following generally ac-
pounds 10 the cubic foot and ! incn
square bar will sustain a weight of 1890
pounds; bronze, weight 525 pounds, te-
nacity, $1,000; wrought iron, weight 4S0
tenacity $1,000; hard struck" steel, weight
400 pounds, tenacity 1900; aluminium,
weight, 1853, tenacity, 26,000 We are ac-
customed to think of metals being strong
er than wood, and so they are, generally
speaking, if only pieces of the same size
be tested. But let equal weights of the
two materials be compared and it will
then be found that several varieties of
wood will prove stouter than ordinary
steel. a bar of pine just as heavy as
bar of steel an inch square Will hold up
1250O pounds, the best ash $4,000 and some
bemlock 100000 pounds. Wood is bulky. 1t
occupies ten or twelve times the space of
steel.
A pathetic incident of the recent
breaking of the long drought in Kansas
is told by traveller who was in that
region at the time the rain came. There
had been insufficient rain in this par
ticular part for several seasons, the
crops had been failures or meager and
unprofita bic, and many of the farmers
heart through hope deferred But the
copious rains brought actual salvation
to very many. The traveller was drlV-
ing across a bridge over a creek that
was running bank full after being dry
for months, and noticed an old settler
sitting on the bank with his feet hang
Ing in the stream, bailing up the water
and letting it trickle back into the creek
The traveller spoke to him, but the old
continued to bail up the water as though
in a dream. When he did finally hear
and look up his face was wreathed in
a happy smile and tears were running
down his cheeks. The traveller made some
remark in the way of inquiry as to the
mans actions The old settler bailed Up
a double handful of water, and in a voice
that trembled with the intensity of his
realization of all it meant, he cried: It's
water, friend! it's water!'
A correspondent of the st. Louis Re-
public who resides near Quincy, ILL.,
writes as follows to that paper: Two or
three years ago, when | was making a
visit in and about Wilkesbarre, Pa,
heard some wonderful stories about a
queer-looking tree which stood on Frank
lin street, in the most aristocratic quar-
tiers of the city According to current re-
port, it was a Chinese tree of a species
connecting the sensitive plants with the
terrible "Cannibal Tree" 1t was not of
the true blood-sucking variety, but its
queer actions and the horrible stencil that
its leaves emitted were such that the resi-
dents of the portion of the city in which
it was situated called upon the mayor in
body, requesting that the malodorous
thing be cut down and destroyed. On per-
fectly quiet nights, when leaves were not
stirring even on cottonwood and aspens,
all that was necessary to. set the Chinese
Dragon tree as il was locally called in
violent agitation, was simply to sit down
under it, or throw club up among its
branches. The tree gave forth foul odor
at all times, but when in a state of agita-
ton it was perfectly horrible, causing
Franklin street people for blocks around
to close their doors and windows. l never
heard what the final outcome was and
send this with hope that it's publication
will cause some scientist to clear up the