The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-05
EMS OF INTEREST.

sIlaer Tree IL grows on windy PLANS
its stem attaining a diameter OF four feet,
although II does not exceed one foot In
night II puts out two leave. each SIX or
eight feet in length, and these are split
by the whipping Of the wind into a num-
Der OF stin, narrow ribbons. bearing 10
little resemblance TO the legs Of a gigantic
spider. This resemblance becomes start
Jung When strong breeze puts the leg
ike leaves into rapid motion. and the ne
groes shiveringly exclaim that the great
SPIDER Is struggling TO get loose.
A French scientist Of note maintains
mat large number OF the nervous mala-
dles from which girls suffer are 10 be
attributed TO playing the piano. He shows
~ statistics that of 1000 girls who study
this instrument before the age Of r. no
less than 600 suffer from nervous disOr-
ders, while Of those who do not begin
TIL later there are only 200 per Loo. and
only 100 per LOO Gmong those who have
never worked AT it. The violin. he says,
IS equally injurious. AS a remedy he
suggests that children should not be
permitted TO study either instrument be-
lore the age of j. at least and, in the
case OF those possessing delicate consti-
tutions, not till still later age.
No better picture of the cowboys pc
culiar traits and manners could be had
than that indicated in outline by a little
incident at Tucson, A. T., a few days
ago, says the New York sun. A cowboy
was brought into Tucson from range
in the st. Simon Valley to be treated for
a wounded instep, which had been shat
tered by a pistol bullet of big caliber
during roundup. There was no quar-
rel between the injured man and the
man who shot him, but one morning,
when they got out the air was rather
crispy, and they began shooting at each
other to increase the circulation of the
blood"
The fact that Chicago has an enor-
nous population carries with it the belief
that the English newspapers of that city
nave an enormous constituency to draw
on The latest census statistics, however,
n nWnN he etc d. aa~u~ aG Mi.
behef, since large proportion of the pop
ulatlon is foreign born, and so not inclin-
ed or able to read English. 1t is shown
that the German population there num-
bers 10000; that there are 125,OO0 Poles,
about 100000 Swedes 1900 Bohemians. Co.
gW Norwegians, 10000 Russians, 5000
Danes, 10000 French Canadians, 5000
Dutch, 10000 French and Welsh, 5000
Swiss, 5000 Hungarans and about 4SC0
S fPeaa OF other sro tongues In addition
uvity and parentage.
An Australian agriculturist Mr.. Kir-
chauff, has called attention to the fact
that the potato will celebrate the 3OOth
anniversary of its introduction into Eng
land next year. 1t was in 1896 that Sir
Walter Raleigh returned to England from
America with the first tobacco and DO
tatoes, which originally grew in Peru
Although the potato IL is estimated now
furnishes one-sixth of the nourishment
OF the human race, for a long time it was
a delicacy for the rich alone. Even at
century
noDlemen paid shillings a pound for
potatoes and seasoned them with sherry
People often visited the gardens of the
botanist Gerard at Holborn to see the
bration in honor of the anniversary.
The most powerful sun-gIass ever
constructed in France, says the st. Louis
republic, was made under the supervision
OF the sayant, NJ. de Villette. This glass
generated heat sufficient to melt a copper
coin of the size of our 25-cent piece in
seven and half seconds. George Park
er, of Fleet street. London made a glass
much more powerful than that which re-
suited from the Frenchman's efforts
Parkers was three feet in diameter and
SO powerful that 1t was actually used to
melt substances which were too refrac-
| tory for the furnaces. The best author-
| ties on heat say that it had a power of
166,362 degrees Fahrenheit This is the
best understood when it is known that
1t only takes a temperature of 2.7S7 de-
grees to melt cast iron so that it will flow
like water.
The bicycle does not go into complete
retirement even upon the arrival of winter
zee ana snow, says the St. Louis Dis
patch. In fact, the bicycle will be one
of the big thing on ice during the coming
season. From the suggestion thrown out
by boy who has dashed an ordinary
skate to the front wheel of his safety and
was able to make good time over the sur
| lace OF frozen lake. two enterprislng
young men in Chicago have invented and
patented an ice bicycle, and formed a
company for its manufacture With the
first perfected model one of the inventors
made a mile in one minute and twenty
seconds, and this can be improved upon
| the skill of the rider being the only limit
to the possibilities in the line of records
Inc change from the normal bicycle to
the ice machine can be made in five min
uteS. The rear tire is Debated and tile
Ioothed band of steel tire slipped over it,
The tire IS then inflated until the tension
is sufficient to hold the band firmly in
place. The blade is hollow ground, rem
derlng lateral slipping impossible. The
weight of the machine remains unaltcred
me device is quite cheap, costing less
than $40, and for that reason cycling on
ice is sure to become popular, if not the
relgning fad of the winter.
Some eight or nine miles from shoii
Japan, in the woods, is the entrance to
the great ice cave, writes a correspondent
natural circular depression or basin in
the ground in the middle of the forest,
some thirty yards across and about forty
feet deep. At the foot of one of the sides
IS dark opening in the lava, few feet
down which may be. seen the top of
wooden ladder This is about twenty feet
long, and at the foot Of it are a heap of
blocks Of lava, down which we scrambled
Tor some thirty or forty feet more, till
floor of solid ice, more or less fiat, was
reached. Very careful progress along this
mad TO be made to avoid slipping down
and extnguishing the torches. For the
flrSt nifty yards frequent blocks of lava
rise through the ice of the floor, while fur
Their on there is nothing but ice The
lava ROOT is sometimes thirty or forty feet
above ones head, sometimes only four or
five feet from the floor. The light of the
torches glanced continually on icicIes
many feet long pendant from the roof.
Presently we passed some large blocks of
ice, which had been cut by the country
people for sale at Kofu, some miles off.
At nearly 400 yards from the entrance
about twenty wonderful ice staIagmites,
from two to five feet in hight, rose from
the floor close to a lava wall forming an
parently the end of the cave, to meet
icicles hanging from the roof, from which
water at this time of the year continually
drops on to them. The tops of these
stalagmites form hollow, bell-shaned
cylinders, giving out a faint note like a
gong when struck; they are partly filled
with the water which drips on to them
from the icicles above. Soon by the side
of them, on the left, a low arch in the
lava on the level of the floor, about three
feet high, may be seen. The ice has nroh1
ably remained frozen in the cave from
the winter months the action of the hieh-
er summer temperature being insufficient
to do more than affect the surface of the
ice floor, form a few pools of water and
melt part of the ice stalactites and stall
agmiteS.