The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-08
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Probably Mr.. Robert Reid the rail-
way contractor of Montreal, is the owner
of more land than any other private per-
son in the world. 1t is estimated that
he owns some 5000 square miles of land
in Newfoundland. This property was
granted to him in fee simple by the gov
eminent in return for Mr.. Reds operat-
ing the railway that is fast approaching
completion, at the rate of 5000 acres of
land for each one mile of main or branch
line constructed throughout the whole
length of the projected line.
The thread and needle tree of Mexico
is one of the wonders of that country. 1t
is a plant resembling somewhat a giant
asparagus. 1t has large fieshy leaves.
Along the edges are set the wonderful
needles" To secure one of these ready
for use it is but necessary to push the
thorn or needle gently backward into
its f1eshy sheath, this to loosen it from the
tough outside covering, and then pull it
from the socket. AS it is Withdrawn it
will be seen TO have a hundred fine fibres
adhering to it. If the needle is twisted
in this process the fiber can be drawn out
to an almost indefinite length. and the
thread thus formed will be about three
times the strength of common "sixcord"
thread, though not a bit thicker.
"A young uptown matron owns a pet
canary, which until recently she thought
was the smartest, cutest bird in town,
says the Philadelphia Record. The little
feathered songster is very tame and has
been allowed to leave its cage and fly
wherever it pleased about the house. But
it is now kept in close confinement. A
few evenings ago the young woman en-
tertained small party of friends at din
ner. The guests were seated about ta-
BILE, upon the decorations of which much
care had been expended, and which dis
played the hostess finest linen, china and
silver. The bird, which had been setting
on the back of a chair, the subject of ad-
miring conversation, suddenly flew upon
the table. 1t gave few hops and delib-
erately landed in the cream pitcher pro-
ceeding to take a BATH The splashing of
cream from its wings not only spoiled the
table decorations, but also the costumes of
two or three of the guests. Since that
eventful occurrence the bird has been in
disrepute.
LAS many as 800 letters in one day are
received at the white house, but COM
paratively few of these, only the most i'm
portant ones, reach the President, for if
he dealt personally with all his cores
pondents he could do nothing else" writes
ex-President Harrison, telling, in the
March Ladies' Home Journal, of "A Day
With the President at His Desk the first
of his series of articles on life in the white
house. VERY many of the letters ad-
dressed to the President" he adds, ARE
trivial, not few of them impertinent, and
some of them angry and threatening.
These, if the private secretary is a judi
cious man, the President never hears of,
and the malicious intent of the writer is
thwarted The requests for autographs
are scarcely Vulnerable. Patches for bed
quilts and lunch cloths add to the burden.
| I 80
second place in the Presidents mail. They
come from every part of the land. and re-
late to every possible subject. Some are
appeals to aid the writer to get an educa-
ton, or to pay off a mortgage, or to buy
a piano or a pony; and no form of public
appeal is absent to aid the building of
churches, to endow schools, to build mon
uments. and to aid every other good pur-
pose for which men or women on children
associate themselves. On one day the re-
quests for specific sums aggregated SO. 900.
These appeals are unavailing in the nature
of things, and self-respect ought to re-
strain the practice"
"A factory near Philadelphia has a
smokestack 12S feet high, which has long
needed painting, says the New York
Times. Recently the structure showed so
| evidently that it was suffering injury
from this state of affairs that the mana
| ger of the factory appealed to the employ
| ers to devise some means of performing
! the job They do not seem to have been
more ingenious than wise, for it was only
after efforts extending over several days
| that they contrived to get a rope UP
| through the pipes interior and down on
the outside so that an apparatus could
| be rugged to hoist the painter. The first
scheme suggested was to loose a pigeon
| to fly to the top, carrying along a string
attached to it's foot. This plan was aban-
| doned, for the reason that, while the pig
con might ascend the big tube, there was
no easy method of persuadisg it to de-
| scend to the ground outside. Then the
| head foreman attempted to solve the diff
| ficulty by using rocket to which a cord
| had been fastened. The rocket went up
| all right, but the cord burned off before
reaching the chimney's top. A younger
| foreman tried his hand next, using a kite,
| with two strings, one of which went
| through a pulley attached near the kite,
| and had small iron weight fastened at
| it's upper end, the intention being to fly
| the kite until it was directly over the
| smokestack, and then lower the weight
| down into the interior. The kite worked
| beautifully until it was time for It to be
useful, when it turned a somersault,
| tangling itself in the pulley tackle, and
| the whole thing came to grief. Finally
an ancient carpenter went TO the top of
/
| into the mouth of the chimney a stone
| to which he had fastened a cord. That
solved the difficulty. and every one won
deTed why they hadn't thought of it in
! the first place.
The new 100000 federal building in
! Chicago will stand on a series of points
instead of resting on foundation extend
| ing evenly along the entire wall line, says
| the Chicago Post The weight will be so
| adjusted that it will rest on cement col
umns thirty-two feet apart these col
| umns going down to bedrock seventy-two
feet below the surface of the earth. This
| is the plan adopted in modern bridge-build-
| ing, and represents the most advanced
progress in that field of construction. The
| mode of excavating for the foundation is
very interesting and simplicity itself. A
section of a wrought-iron tube of the de-
| sired diameter is set upon the ground on
its rim, and as the earth within the cir
| Gle is removed the tube sinks. When the
| top of the first section settles down to the
| level of the earths surface, a second Sec
ton IS placed above it. and the digging
process is continued. One section after