The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-22
ITEMS OE INTEREST.


Jacob HoIgate Of Corvallis, Ore, start
ed out TO capture a sea Hon a few days
ago. and found in a very brief period
that IL was an elephant that he had on
his hands, says the New York sun. The
sea lion was lying on the beach, along
which Alr. HOlgate was driving in his
/ buggy drawn by a healthy young horse.
Mr.. Holgate lassoed the lion, and, tying
the rope TO the buggy axle. whipped up
his horse with the intention Of hauling
the lion back to town After being
dragged along a few yards. the lion &c
c1ded 10 go home 10 sea, and started to-
ward the breakers. Despite all the er-
forts of Mr.. Holgate and his horse, the
lion got the better of the tug or war,
| and in few minutes the hind wheels
Of the wagon were in the surf. Then Nj
HOlgate cut the rope, and was glad 10
get home alone and alive.
There can be little doubt, says Cham
bers Journal, that the OK was the earli-
est beast employed for the plOw. A
white bull and white COW were yOked to-
gether TO draw the furrow for making the
walls Of Rome. Greeks and Romans en-
ployed oxen in blowing; asses only for
sandy soils When the plowman had I'm
ished his days labor he turned his instru-
ment upside down and the oxen went
home dragging its tail and handle over
the surface of the grOund-a scene de-
scribed by Horace. The yoking together
of OK and ass was expressly forbidden by
me me law OF Moses and Is made the ground
Tor ludicrOus comparison by Plautus.
Ulysses, when he feigned madness in or
der to avoid going on the Trojan eXpedi-
ton, plOwed with an OK and q horse to-
gether. In the west of England the Gus
tom OF yoking oxen to the pillow went out
at the beginning of this century; a very
few old men can remember how, as boys,
they were employed with the goad to urge
on the oxen: hardly any recall having
held the Dlow to them.
The largest freight wagons in the
world are now, it is asserted, made in San
| Leandro. Cal. for steam freighting in
connection with traction engines, the ca
pacity of these wagons being sixteen tons
| each, and with sufheient wheel surface
| to sustain that amount without injury
/ to the roads, says the New York Sun.
! The dimensions and details show the size
/ of aNles to be four inches in diameter,
| front wheels four feet ten inches high
and sixteen inches width of tire, rea-
/ wheels six feet high and tires sixteen
| inches wide; length of bed 1919 feet. width
! Az feet six inches high. These are
made wholly of iron and steel except The
| bed, which is of wood. The front wheels
| track somewhat wider than the rear
/ ones, due to the fact that the contin-
ual hauling over the road, and the wagons
1 running in the same tracks, naturally
| cut down the road into ruts to a certain
/ extent, rendering it uneven. To overcome
| this the engine wheels are twenty-siX
| inches wide and the front wheels of the
| wagons so designed that the tire tracks
| viii lap one-half the width of the engine
wheels on the inside.
within a week a curious change has
/ taken place in the color of the larger frogs
/ In the observant Jerseyman's little ponds,
/ says the New York Sun These frogs are
now about six inches in length of body,
and when their hind legs are extended
1 they are at least a foot long. They were
| Drought TO the ponds three years ago,
| When they We're only about two inches
! long. From that time up 10 about week
| ago all but one were of a dark muddy
/ green, and some of them were almost
/ black. The exception was of a light gras-
/ sy green, and he had come to be consider
/ ed as a distinguished member of the frog
/ colony by the Jerseyman's younger son,
/ who takes more interest in the study of
| bugs and birds and reptiles than he does
/ in books. He knows each of the frogs indi-
| Vidually, and feeds them for amusement,
/ and knows each ones particular parents
| and habits. Within a week he says that
| every one of the big frogs has turned
| lighter in color. He says he can account
/ for this only upon the theory that they
have adjusted themselves to a change in
| their surroundings The bottom of the
| ponds is of dark. soft and exceedingly
light mud. The edges are covered with a
| growth OF grass and wild flowers. which
| is very much thicker this year than ever
! before. The grass lies out upon the water
/ in thick mat for a foot in width all
| around the ponds. The frogs lie basking
| within this border of grass during almost
! the whole OF each day, and their changed
/ served.
More men pay 50 and upward for a
| pocketknfe than less" says the New York
1 Press. That may not be the experience
| of all cutlery dealers, but that's the kind
/ of trade we cater to-" said a knife eX-
| pert from behind the counter of a store
/ on one of the most frequented of down
! town streets. "Spaniards spend the most
1 money for knives" he continued. Span
/ iards who come here are very fastidious
/ In the matter Of cutlery anyway. Where
/ an American family in the same cir
] cumstances will be content with the or
/ binary plated tableware. costing 81 or $i.J0
/ a dozen, Spaniard will have nothing but
i the finest steel with ivory handles, at SIS
1 and over. The average business man
/ spends usually about So for a four bladed
[ = nf ~
many men do, he comes down to 81, then
! to 81. Most expensive knives are bought
LOT presents. Four dollars buys an eX-
| cellent gift. Last season many knives
! We're given for prizes at euchre parties.
| Such knives are usually the fancy ones,
| with half a dozen blades or attachments.
| That big finch knife there is a hunters
| knife. II costs 81. A man who buys that
! will take 1t to the Adirondacls, and when
/ he leaves there present 1t 10 his guide.
! We have one customer who buys three of
! those knives every year. He gives them to
his guides, he says. We sell nearly $50 of
! them every year. This heavy one here
| with a big steel hook is a horseman's
/ knife 1t costs ST. The hook is used for
! digging out a stone from the horses hoof.
| such as a cOrkscrew, screwdriver, nut
| cracker, awl, gimlet and a score of things
for other useful or useless purposes, ac-
cording to the point of view. We sell many
! of them, probably more than any other ore
/ kind. Sailors usually buy pretty good
| knives. They and Italians go in for big
I
| of defense. Pretty nearly every trade has
| a peculiar knife. That's one reason why
a well equipped cutlery shop makes such
/ formidable display. Knives cost all the
way from so cents to SIS. We don't sell
/ many at the latter price"
| -Yokon, which is the present Mecca of
| placer miners in Alaska, is a land not
| only of gold, but of wonders also, says
| the New York Sun. Some of the miners
| who have returned bring strange ac-
| counts of curiositi ties in nature A miner
on Sixty Mile creek found the tusk of a
mammoth that projected seven feet OUT
| OF sand bank, and another found
| single tusk so heavy that he could scarce
| ly lift it, Nearly the whole of the Yu-
| kon basin furnishes fossils, and some Of
! the miners believe that the unexplored
country toward the head of the Cope r
! river contains living specimens, as tales
! are told by Indians of that region of
! huge woolly beasts with horns like the
! trunk of q birch tree. They say that IN
! winter puffs of steam issue from the
nostrils of these monsters as from the
| escape pipe of a steamboat During the
I Oh