The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-08-20
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


The Christian.zed Esquimaux north Of
Hudson bay built church, and as there
was no wood available they used whale
ribs for rafters and covered them with the
tan hides of the walrus, says an excha nge
The edifiice would seat about 100 people
and was used Sunday after Sunday for di-
vine worship. Photographs were even
taken of the church and sent to mission
airy publications in London, showing the
ingenious device of building a church
without wood. All went well until the
advent of the intensely cold winter. and
then hosts of famished dogs promtly at
tackled the church and ate it ID.
j. E. Brown, conservator of forests in
Western Australia, describes a kari tree
300 feet high with a circumference at the
base of between twenty and thirty feet,
says the Chicago Inter-Ocean. This wood
is hard, heavy, and durable. He recon-
mends its use for wharves and 1etties on
account of its resistance to the ravages of
the sea worm. In London it is consider
ed invaluable for railway sleepers and por-
lions of bridges. 1t is much preferred to
pine for road paving, both on account of
its toughness and on sanitary grounds, be-
ing non-absorbent. Although it's first cost
is greater, its life is three times that of
softwood.
The municipalities of New South
Wales claim to be the most solvent cor
porations in the whole world An Aus
tralian paper says their united liabilities,
consisting of loans, bank overdrafts and
accounts due to the state, contractors and
others, aud charges of every description,
amount to f2,743987, while their cash as
SETS lands, buildings, public works and
val NJ 6 TO
which may be added the estimated value
of the roads and streets, excluding that
of the land covered by them, a. 10000,
forming a total of f7,S00,70S, or an excess
of f5,056,721 over liabilities. OF the %, 49,
987 liabilities. f1.369659 represent loans
raised in London and &, 215,576 loans raised
in Sydney, the balance f158,752, represent
ing local liabilities The moneys raised
by loans have been expended chiefly, with
other funds. in the construction of public
works, the present estimated value of
which is f2,351 OPS.
The London City Press is responsible
for story which shows how the confiden-
tial clerk of a rich distiller in London
quite unexpectedly found himself in pos
session Of a large fortune equal to sew
eral millions of dollars. The rich distil.
Ter who was in failing health, made his
will, and estimating his fortune at not
much more than a quarter of a million
sterling, as a matter of business, left the
whole Of his property to his confidential
clerk on the terms that quarter of a
million sterling should be paid to the exec
utors The confidential clerk fell i'll, and
another young man was engaged, and the
distilIer simply changed the name of the
clerk in his will, so that the deed pre-.
pared for the one did service for the
other. But when the employer died the
49, 81 .T-,1
ty had been altogether underestimate.
After he had paid the executors a quar-
ter of a million there was about mil
lion sterling, or $5,0O0,000, left.
The smallest elephant is, according TO
a contemporary, one from sumatra. which
was recently exhibited in Berlin, says
London Tit-Bits. Three years old, it
stands only thirty-six inches from the
ground. 1t is a little over one yard in
length and weighs 16S pounds The nor
NAL elephant weighs at the same age a
least three tons. pigmy race of cam
els exists in Persia, which are only TWEEN
ty-fve inches in hight and weight but
fifty pounds, while an ordinary camel is
larger than most English horses. The
smallest birds egg is that of the tiny
Mexican humming bird. which is scarce
ly larger than a pins head The smallest
tree in Britain is the dwarf willow, which
grows on one of its highest mountains
Ben Lomond-and which at maturity only
attains a hight of two inches. Ben Lo-
mond is 1892 feet in hight. The smallest
newspaper in the world is published in
Guadalajara, in Mexico. The "E Tele-
grafo," a weekly publication, is printed
in eight columns, each rs inches in length
and ~ inches wide, on thick MANILA pa
per.
The ability of the camera to see
things beyond the ability Of the human
eye was strikingly illustrated recently by
this incident. which came under the no
tice of the Swiss postal authorities. saws
the Philadelphia Record. A peasant wo-
man living near Lausanne Switzerland.
had saved up little money, and, leaving
her house to go into town, hid a little box
with her savings in the oven of her
kitchen stove. Her son, who arrived dur
ing her absence, without knowing of the
precious package in the oven, built a hot
fire to cook a meal, and when his mother
returned, seeing the fire lit in the stove
she rushed to withdraw her precious box
but found her bank bills reduced to ashes
and perfectly black In her trouble she
hurried with the ashes back into the
town, requesting a friend to help her re-
deem the bank notes. Upon opening the
bundle II was found that If the remains
OF the notes were in the least disturbed
they would crumble TO pieces. A photog-
rapher was called in to try and do the
best he could in putting together what
seemed a lot of ashes. After considerable
trouble, the remains were carefully ar
ranged on a pane of glass and the pieces
laid together were photographed This
process brought out the names of the
banks upon which the notes were drawn
and the amounts were equally plainly
shown. The woman, who had feared she
would have to suffer the total loss of her
savings, was delighted when she received
the sum OF $50 francs which she knew she
had, without, however, knowing the name
or the banks nor the numbers Of the
notes, which were plainly identified on the
photograph.
A Colorado photographer by the aid
Of powerful flash lights. has taken photo
graphs Of ono of the most remarkable cav
ems yet discovered. says the Chicago Re
cord. This cave was found by some pros
pectors who We're doing their assessment
oil