The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-05-15
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Chicago Record says: THE famous tuf-
quoise mine at Cerrillos. about thirty miles
south of Santa Fe, is now the property Of
the Tiffanys, the New York jewelers., who
are working it on scientific methods, and
last year took out about twice as many
jewels as IT ever yielded before. There
are about sixty turquoise mines in the ter
rltory, the product of which amounted to
$3.50 600 last year. and is entirely controlled
in the United States. The largest piece
of turquoise ever discovered here was
taken from the Tiffany mine and was val
ued at $4,000 The high prices of copper
and zinc during the last year have led to
a revival of interest in those minerals in
New Mexiso, and several important dis
coveries have been made. Copper is now
more sought after than gold. and great
deal of money is being invested in the de-
velopment of old mines that were aban-
doned years ago"
An egg forger has been recently ex-
posed in Paris, says the Scientific Ameri-
can. Eggs are about the last thing that
one would expect to be forged, but it
should be remembered that there are many
collectors of birds eggs who are willing
70 pay a high price for rare birds eggs.
visitor saw this clever forger make
a penguin egg which could not be distin-
guished from the real one that served
him for a model. He made the egg or
plaster of paris of parts which he burnt
and glazed. The egg was intended for
man who furnished eggs for foreign sci
entifc collection. 1t is not very difficult
to impose on even experienced scientists,
for among the real eggs of most species
there are so many varieties that even
the most practical expert could not read
lily distinguish all of them. The eggs of
the common fly catcher are very cheap
and by chemical treatment they acquire
a blush, green, shiny color and are then
sold at high price, as the eggs of the silk
Gail. From common ducks eggs are fabri-
Gated eggs of a falcon, being given silver
green color for the purpose. The pigeon
and wood pigeon eggs are also transform
ed into rarer products of birds. Nightin-
gales eggs are difficult 10 procure and are
therefore rare. They are successfully i'm
itated by coloring larks' eggs brown. For
a long time the egg forger was an assist
ant in a natural history musuem in the
provinces. There have been other cases
of forgery of very rare birds eggs, but
these were only made of excessively rare
eggs, and their manufacture did not con-
stitute a permanent means of livelihood
Korea has little timber, but excellent
deposits of bituminous and anthracite
coal, especially the later. SO far all re-
quests for concessions to mine these coal
deposits have been positively refused by
the Korean government, says the scien-
tific American. Natives dig out the sur
face coal in the crudest and most eXpen-
sive manner allowing the debris and wa
ter from the heavy rains to fill up the
shaft or hole and damage the coal TO be
gol out the following year. The result is
that the coal finally offered for sale is so
rotten from exposure to wet and cold that,
after it has been frequently handed and
packed on pony back. it arrives in Seoul
mostly in the condition of fine dust which
has to be mixed with wet, red clay and
made into balls by hand. These balls,
when dry. are used by the foreigners in
their stoves. This poor stuff is exceeding
ly expensive. costing this year Is yen $50
per ton, from which must be taken the
included weight of some fourteen or six
teen heavy straw bags i'll which the coal
arrives. The few hundred Foreigners in
Korea americans and Europeans) use
stoves as the paper floors used by the
natives with warmed flues beneath do not
answer for foreign use, owing to the fact
that the rooms are too large and shoes and
furniture soon ruin the floors. Stoves at
one time were quite in favor, and a few
Koreans have begun to employ them
steadily now. Owing to the high price Of
coal, numbers of kerosene stoves are now
being used, and these seem 10 appeal to
the Koreans. as they are neat and handy,
and furnish light as well as heat.
To be quite fair says the New York
Times, the papers that have made so much
of soldier letters bewailing the hardships
of war and signing for the comforts of
home, should select passages from SOL
der letters of another kind-letters from
men. There are such and many of them
appearing in print all over the country,
and they make good reading For in
stance, the st. Paul Globe finds space for
a long communication in which John f.
Pew ers, private of Company G, Thir-
tenth Minnesota Regiment, tells about
the taking of Malabon, and how after
fighting all day he worked all night help
ing bullocks to drag through the Jungle
to the front heavy carts loaded with
grub and cartridges And for all this
he found sufficient reward in the thought
of duty done and a few words of commend
alton from his colonel Best of the let
ter is its close, which runs thus: Don't
worry about me. 1 am well, and if 1
should be among the wounded or -
dropped for my country as thousands have
done Defore. EVERY one must die, and if
it's Gods will that 1 die in battle, so be
it. l notice all kinds of stories about us
in the papers from home. and half Of
them are lies. We are all right and Will
go home when this war is over and not
before. AT least l won't go home until 1
go with my regiment, We are veterans
now, and can stand anything that comes
along. 1 have written different kind of
a letter in tone to mother, at least not so
much war news in it, so don't show her
this" This is one of the tools of despot-
ism that are, it is said, numbering prison.
ers and robbing houses.
The Aztecs worshipped fire. and Mon
tezumas principal occupation when he
grew to manhood was to keep the flames
alive on the altar of an ancient estufa,
or temple, which stood in his native viii
lage of Pecos, a few miles south of a clus-
ter of shanties that now surround a wa
ter tank and railroad house that bears
the Israelitish name of Levy, writes w.
E. Curtis from New Mexico to the Chi
cago Record. One day II great white
eagle came, and carried Montezuma away
on its back. Everywhere the bird alight-
I'D ft.