The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-06-18
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

An sO-year-old man of Somervlle, Me-,
who for half his life has been pariy blind
and partly deaf, has recovered hi senses
in full, without trea tment.
Some time ago a child of Mr.. nd Mrs.
LBaker of Marion, Ind, was taken ill with
lung trouble and physicians coald not
diagnose the case. 1t nearly clicked to
death several times. but in a fit d violent
coughing, it elected from the bronchial
passage a bean. The bean had swollen
and sprouted. The child will not be in
jured.
In the Emerald saloon at Angels
Camp may be seen quite an interesting
spectacle. 1t is nothing mere nor less than
an old she cat nursing five young gray
squirrels, says the Calaveras (Cal) Pros
pect The mother of the little rodents
had been killed, so the litter was brought
in one day and placed in charge of the
above named saloon, which is situated on
the first floor of the Calaveras hotel As
luck would have 1t, William Francis, the
night clerk in the hotel, has pet she cat
which gave birth to litter of kittens the
evening before. The squirrels were placed
among the kittens, one by one, and the
latter as gradually removed, until only the
squirrels remained. The mother cat never
seemed to realize that any change had
taken place. She ticks and fondles her
new family and appears as happy and con-
tented with the young rodents as if they
were her own baby felines.
1t is not generally known, but it is a
fact nevertheless that asparagus grows
abundantly in it's wild state in portions
of the Santa Ana valley, says the Los An
geles Times. few years ago it was dis
covered that celery grew freely in the
peat lands west of the river in a wild
state, and in very short while an enter
prising fruit dealer and shipper from Kan
gate the reports he had heard
about the wild-growing celery. This
investigation resulted in the for
nation of the d. E. Smelzer Celery Com
pany and the planting of a large tract of
the peat lands in celery. The business has
proved quite proftabe-so much so that
other companies have been formed and a
much larger area of land planted to this
table delicacy. 1t would appear from the
history of the celery industry that there
is splendid opening here now for some
enterprising individual or company to de-
velop the asparagus industry. There S
money in it, and no mistake. That the
soil and climate are suitable to the produc-
ton of the vegetable is made plain in the
manner in which the wild asparagus
grows in portions of the valley.
The official Blue Book on British ship
ping casualties for 1866 shows that the
total number of sea casualties to vessels
belonging to the United Kingdom record
ed in 1885 (total losses and serious and
minor casualties) was 6,S72, or 6S4 less
than in 1S94-95, and 345 less than in 1884
The total number of sea casualties (total
losses and serious and minor casualties)
which occurred to British vessels was Z 566
During the last twenty years 5,743 wrecks
and casualties to ships belonging to the
United Kingdom have been attended with
fatal results to 1864 persons, of whom
81 ,2S4 were members of the crews and 5. 43O
were passengers, pilots or other persons
not on articles of agreement. The aver
age annual Joss during the twenty years
was 1888 persons consisting of l ,562 crew
and I'll passengers, and the loss in 1866
was 1,SOS persons, of whom ], 1874 We're crew
and 414 were passengers. The average
number of seamen lost in sailing vessels
was 1853, and of passengers SO. against $50
seamen and As passengers lost in 1866.
me average number of seamen lost in
steamships was 500, and of passengers 23,
against 4S4 seamen and 426 passengers lost
in 1896. The mast named total was
swollen by the wreck of the Drummond
Castle.
Everyone knows that Ceylon is famous
for the amount of queer and rare precious
stones found in the sands of it's dried-un
river beds, says the New York CONNER
cial Advertiser. Among these is one called
"Chlorophane, rare variety of flour
spar, which shines at night with phos-
phorescent light There has long been a
tradition among the natives that a certain
species of cobra makes use of this stone
TO attract insects in the darkness; indeed,
the name give it is "najakaller." or CO.
bra stone. A scientist recently resolved
to test this wonderful story during a STAY
in the island so offered any coolies five
rupees to point out a Stone-carrying CO.
bra. In about week an old Tomil came
in and offered to show him one. He fol-
lowed this guide and, sure enough, there
under an immense tamarind tree he saw a
little point of steady, greenish light, and
could family distinguish, behind, a cobra
cooled and slowly waving it's head from
side to side. 1t would have been desper-
ately dangerous to approach the reptile.
and the coolie begged him not to do so.
saying that next night he himself would
get the stone. He did so, and in rather
clever fashion. Before dark he climbed
INTO the tree carrying a large bag of
ashes. After nightfall the cobra turned
up as usual, and deposited It's treasure,
Wnlch u carried IN Its mouth, before it.
Thereupon the coolie emptied his bag of
ashes over the shining object. and the
frightened reptile, after wild but fruit
less search, crept back into the jungle.
The coolie, descended, searched the ashes.
found the stone, and received his promised
reward.
&C. B. Bates, rancher living at La
manda park, east of Pasadena, fell into
the embrace of a big mountain lion last
wednesday morning in Millard's canyon.
says Los Angeles dispatch to the San
Francisco Examiner. The two had a live
ly catch-as-catch-can contest for few
moments, in which the lion scored all the
points and finally escaped. much to Bates
satisfaction. Bates had been on a camp
ing trip up the canyon and had decided
to return. He rose a daylight, rolled IN
the blankets and coffee pot and started
down the trail. To save time he made a
short cut across a spur of the hills and
reached the crest safely, but In descend
ing his roll of blankets threw him off his
feet and down he rolled. The ground
was soft and rolling down the steep in
cline was more alarming than dangerous
AS he reached the bottom of the canyon
on his Involuntary journey he bounced
into heap of brush and landed fat and
60.