The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-05
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

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Fifty dollars seems an extravagant
price TO pay for one black beetle. Yet
Kansas was once inhabited by these in
seets, and they sold readily for that much
and sometimes more. The beetle know n
as the amblichila, was supposed to have
become extinct. But two specimens of it
were known, one of which was in The
University of Bonn. Two young men trav-
cling through Kansas some years ago
found numbers of the beetles. They were
alive, and readily sold for $50 In all they
made $4,000 in supplying the beetles to
scientists.
"A horse tramway bridge across the
Radotin river, Austria is composed of
round tubes. The top and bottom chord
| tubes are AS inches in diameter and from
0.197 to 0.276 inch thick the verticals 270
| inches in diameter and 0197 inch thick
and the diagonal tubes decrease from 27O
| inches in diameter. The cross girder, or
floor beam, supporting the track is
3-inch tube, which carries the longitudinal
| wooden track stringers, and the trusseA
| are braced by inside bent tubes. 1t stood
the test of the passage of two three and
one-half ton trucks.
Even the blacklist negro, according to
the Chicago Chronicle, is not always
| black. DR.. Colngnon. an eminent French
psychologist. after helping to usher into
the world several infants of undoubted
| African parentage, declares the new born
babies to be of a delicate fawn and pink
! complexion. Though the pigment cells
begin to change in hue very speedily, the
skin does not assume the color of powder
ed cocoa for ten days and some weeks
elapse before it turns to a decided choco-
late tinge. Exposure to sunlight hastens
this change, and in some cases a couple
OF hours viii suffice to convert the Whitley
brown painting into an unimpeachab.e
darby. The hair moreover of the new
born pickaninny is soft and silky, with
out any of the crisp curlness that char
acterizes the race. By rearing negroes in
the dark it is just possible that after sew
eraf generations we might make them as
fair as the lily.
Two accounts are given of the origin
Of the terms "sixpenny," "eightpenny,"
"tenpenny" and SO on as applied to the
various sizes of nails says Tit-Bits. Ac-
cording to one statement, when nails were
made by hand, the penny was taken as
standard of weight, and six were made to
equal the weight of a copper penny This
explanation is open to criticism on account
OF the very small size of the nails, of
which six were needed to balance even the
large-sized old-fashioned copper penny.
Others are much more probable One ex-
PLANTATION holds that tenpennv nails orig
manly 9Oih AOA lGllPStltG a HunUGGu. ana SO
on, the smaller nails selling for the lower
price. Another explanation is that 1000
nails of the tenpenny size used to weigh
ten pounds, 1,C00 Of the sixpenny size six
pounds, and so on for otner sizes. OF the
ordinary sixpenuy nails there are eighty
to the pound; of the eightpenny there are
fifty; tenpenny, thirty-four; twelvepenny
Twenty-Five.
Dempsey Waggy, a farmer of Madison
county, Ind. has raised corn. this year
from seeds which he says, were taken out
of a mOund-buliders tomb in Arkansas
estimated to be 1900 years old says the
New York Tribune The stalks of the corn
are from ten TO twelve feet in height ac-
cording to a correspondent of the Chicago
Record, and are somewhat on the order of
a tree being as thick at the ground as a
mans wrist Three feet from the ground
they shoot out three long, palmike leaves.
The leaves are heavy and very solid re-
sembling a cactus leaf. Some of them are
five feet long from tip to tip. These are
the only leaves on the stalk. About two
feet further up are the ears of corn. Many
stalks bear six ears. and none has fewer
than four ears. At this rate it is figured
that the average yield to the acre would
be about two hundred and fifty bushels.
Above the ears the stalk continues three
or four feet and is topped with an elabor-
ate tassel. The husks surrounding the ears
are heavy, and as the corn natures they
break and curl back, revealing firm, yell
low-grained ear. The grains are solid and
are exceptionally good for feeding.
OF the elephants marvellous mathemat-
ical precision and ability to count, no
doubt can exist in the mind of anyone
who has ever visited Mandalay, in Upper
Burmah, says st. Nicholas. There large
forests of teak are cultivated by the gov
eminent, for building purposes; and the
| cpPTlTpA
one above another, till a raft is formed
to float down the Irrawaddy, Tor convey
ance to various other stations. Elephants
do the whole work. They convey the
enormous logs down to the waters edge
and pile them one above another, both
lengthwise and across, till a perfect cube
is formed. They show an intelligence and
interest in their work that seems human,
as any eye witness can affirm who has
watched an elephant at his loading, and
then has seen him move a few PAGES to
one eide, in order to judge of the effect
of his work. If the appearance of the
heap is not quite symmetrical, two ele-
plants force the logs one way or the
other with their trunks till they get the
desired result; and the perfect evenness
and symmetry of the finished cube is as
tonishing. They never miscalculate the
number required for each cube and never
overweight il.
From Idaho comes a report, says the
New York Times, that the Indians there
are bitterly opposed to the education of
women-of Indian women, that Island are
making desperate efforts to prevent it, go
ing so far as to rob the schools of femi-
nine pupils by asserting that even the
members of the infant classes are already
wives, more or less happy This distaste
on the part of the braves for the mutual
elevation of their spouses, in esse or in
posse, is not less reasonable than natural
and the feeling is shared by savages, both
those who are civilized and those who are
not in all parts of the word. In wig
wan or a palace, the master of the prem
ises can maintain his authority with diff
Guilty or not at all if his views on what
ever topic comes up for discussion are to
be subjected to the criticism, possibly de-
rlslVe, OF a marital partner better posted
than himself. The only effective answer
to criticism in such cases is to demon
strate physical superiority with such
weapons as are convenient, and that is
a process sure to result in expense and
fatigue Obviously unless the Indians