The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-22
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


India rubber has been generally consid-
cred absolutely water-tight but expert
ments with Theoretically sealed rubber
bottle Of water show that it is not
Divorce is easily accomplished in Co
chin China. The man and wife who are
eager to separate assemble a few friends.
and in their presence break a couple Of
chopsticks, and the divorce IS secured.
The distinction among animals OF re-
quiring least sleep belong to the elephant.
In spite Of its capacity for hard work. the
elephant seldom. if ever. sleeps more than
four, or occasionally FIVE. hours. For two
hours before midnight, and again for two
hours after o'clock. these mis-born noun
tains sleep.
The production of coal in India is stead
lily increasing. says the New York Sun
In 1885 there were mined ,295.OO0 tons, while
last year the figures were increased to
3, 167, 900 tons. The Bengal cOllieries are
responsible for about two and a half mill
ions of the total. Much attention has also
been paid Of late years to the discovery
of mineral oil wells, but the success at
tanned has not been very encouraging so
far though some 5000 gallons of oil were
obtained from the Digboi field in 1895. The
oil bed. though it has been carried to
depth of 100 feet and is to be sunk 200
feet further before being abandoned
"A we'll known New York woman has
for several years made a hobby of collect
ing teapots. and her collection is now
valued at $4,000. She spent some years in
Japan, and managed while there to accum-
ulate more than a thousand teapOts, Of
which no two had the same pattern. One
was like an old man, whose head formed
the lid and could be set at any angle. 9th
ers we're in the shape of birds, beasts and
fowls. not to mention fish, frogs, a beetle
or two. an a fat. squirmy eel Buddha,
even. was pressed into service as model.
There were lotus-bud pots, and other pots
in semblance of a tea-house. One huge
cauldron-like affair held three gallons, and
at least dozen specimens would not have
contained a thimbleful each. As to mater
ial, there were inlaid silver, hammered
copper, iron-most eXquisitely wrought
sIver-gilt alloys. and all the myriad sorts
of japanese pottery. Several specimens
/ cost as much as $50 each; yet, such is the
| cheapness of artistic handicraft in the far
east, that many Of the others had been
| bought for few pence.
Ever since steel began to come into
use for boiler-making, there has been more
4 or less conflict of opinion among boiler
/ users as TO the relative merits of iron
/ and steel for boiler making. In fact says
! Locomotive Engineering. there appears to
1 be no department of industry in which
/ steel has taken the place of iron, where
! there are not disputes about the merits of
steel. This has been found in bridge
/ building and railroad rolling stock, and
now we find that a dispute is going on in
! England on the merits of steel for ship
| building In some instances steel has cor
! roded so rapidly that ship-builders are
| now specifying large portion of the work
| to be done in iron, such as the upper decks,
| floors, tank tops, etc. Some steel-makers
have been experimenting to determine
! whether it is really the case that steel cor
| rodes more quickly than iron. Experiments
were carried out by immersing steel and
! iron plates in salt water. and watching
| the degree of corrosion which resulted.
| At first it seemed that steel corroded faster
than iron, but as the experiments were
| continued steel proved to have the adj
vantage In spite of all the experiments
| that have been made with iron and steel,
there is still a good deal to be learned
about the relative merits of the two
metals.
The klipspringer is a kind of antelope
found in Africa, being abundant in the
| mountainous regions as far north as
| Abyssinia, and if South African sports
| men are to be believed, he furnishes the
finest kind of venison, says the London
| Field. These animals are about AZ inches
| long and % inches high and the males
| have sharp spike horns, sometimes five
inches long. These animals are remarka-
BILE climbers, running on the tips of their
hoofs, and going up rock faces apparently
as steep as the side of a house. The
hoofs are made on the pneumatic princi-
pie, being nearly cylindrical, and cup
( 1yr1Ia y -,
| fall by COMPRISING the air. This same
| plan gives an extra firm hold on the
! rocks. They are the most remarkably
| built antelopes, with a hip DEVELOPMENT
| equaled by no animal in America save the
! rabbit which they resemble so very much
| that sportsman seeing them going up a
| hill or in rapid locomotion might easily
| think they were the biggest rabbits he
had ever heard tell Of let alone seen. 1t
is not asserted that they sit upon their
hind legs like the rabbit or hares, al
though it is possible that they do. iudg-
ing from the hind legs, which, if the ami
| mails were to stratghten them out would
give them the appearance Of a kangaroo
| on all tours. Capital sport is to be had
| hunting these animals, the proper weapon
| being a 1856 rifle, or a larger weapon. The
! hunting is, of course, among the rocky
nils, and man who has hunted the
| mountain sheep successfully would find
little trouble in killing them. The shots
are taken when the animal stands on
some lookout rock. If missed he bounds
from ledge to ledge on which the human
eye can mark no footing, balancing at
one moment upon the giddy verge of a
precipice where barely sufficient space
exists for the hoof to rest-all four boof
points would go on an English penny
| piece, according to one writer-and at the
next moment casting himself reckIessly
INTO the bottomless chasm, and pitching
as If by miracle, upon some PROTECTING
peak. AN of which would make the
sportsman think he was having lots of fun
in spite of his efforts to keen from sIidino
into one of the bottomless canons. The
animaPs fur, or hair, varies somewhat
with the regions, being coarse, almost
like quilts, in Somaliland, and somewhat
inner in other part. The mounted heads
would make excellent trophies, while the
yellow skin would make a neat wall or,,
| ament. as q hackern11nd fnr -. = -